Thursday, March 28, 2024

Homecoming Celebrations: Pep Rally, Parade, Football, King & Queen, Dance

Homecoming festivities returned to Coronado High School (CHS) for 2021 with a 12-person Homecoming Court, pep rally, parade, football game, and dance. Following a national tradition, Homecoming (HoCo) is planned around a home football game as a way to build spirit across the student body and community as alumni return for a fall weekend home. The CHS student government (ASB) chose the 2021 theme as outer space with the slogan, “Houston, we have a homecoming.”

HoCo activities started in late September with CHS students voting to select the six senior girls and six senior boys to serve on the homecoming court. Members of the court would lead a pep rally dance, ride in the Homecoming Parade and participate in half-time entertainment at the football game.

The 2021 Homecoming Court poses before the Homecoming Parade. Left to right: Kendall Becerra, Declan Dineen, Mary Penny, Finely Alexander, Cate Carlson, Will Shoemaker, Julie Leon, Asa Valdivia, Lana Allari-Smith, Carter Cohen, Nina Pierce, and Ryan Vo.

New for 2021, CHS students were able to submit photos of their pets to earn a place in the 1st annual “Fur Ball” Homecoming Court. Many cute cats, dogs, hamsters and more were nominated, and the student vote led to Eve, a chocolate Siamese cat, becoming queen while Otto the ferret was named king.

Student spirit was on full display during the Friday morning pep rallies. Due to forecasted rain, the pep rally was moved from Niedermeyer Field to inside the CHS gym which meant that the pep rally was held twice to ensure all students could attend in two separate smaller crowds. Six student groups, each led by two members of the Homecoming Court, performed choreographed dances to cheering student audiences.

Here’s one of the dances in this video below:

In preparation for the Friday afternoon Homecoming Parade down Orange Avenue, students from each grade had worked together after school over the previous week transforming golf carts into outer space themed parade floats. 

The Class of 2022 selected Star Wars for their space theme and designed their float to be a replica of a TIE Fighter with a Baby Yoda on board. Seniors marching with the float carried light sabers while wearing Star Wars masks and costumes.

homecoming parade
The Class of 2022’s Homecoming Parade float based off of “Star Wars.”
The Class of 2022 in the Friday afternoon Homecoming Parade.

The Class of 2023 designed their float around the movie series Guardians of the Galaxy, which is based on Marvel comic super heroes.

The Class of 2023 decorated their golf cart as “Guardians of the Galaxy” theme.
The Class of 2023 before the Homecoming Parade.

The Class of 2024 float was based on the 2008 Disney movie Wall-E which follows the tale of a robot sent to planet earth to clean up human trash. The Class of 2024 float included a replica of Wall-E along with piles of trash. 

The Class of 2024 float based off of “Wall-E.”
The Class of 2024 celebrated CHS in the Homecoming Parade.

The Class of 2025 designed their float around the movie Space Jam which features several well-known NBA basketball stars in both the 1996 original and 2021 remake. The class energetically marched down Orange Avenue, some dribbling basketballs as part of the theme.

The Class of 2025 enjoyed their first Homecoming Parade as CHS Islanders.
The Class of 2025 and their float.

The Homecoming Parade also included members of the CHS football team riding in the Coronado Fire Department’s antique fire engine, Coronado School of the Arts (CoSA) dancers, the CHS marching band, students in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), along with several teachers and administrators.

Newly crowned CHS Homecoming Queen Nina Pierce and King Declan Dineen.

At 7pm Friday night, the CHS Islander varsity football game kicked off against San Diego High School at Niedermeyer field. A large local crowd packed the stands cheering for the home team. During half-time, each member of the Homecoming Court was introduced to the crowd and the King and Queen of the court were announced as Declan Dineen and Nina Pierce.

Unfortunately for the Islander faithful, CHS lost the game to the SD Cavers with a final score of 56-14.

The final event of CHS Homecoming week is the high school dance. CHS tradition has evolved so that students and their parents gather at the Ferry Landing before the dance for photos with friends and dates with the San Diego skyline as the background.

Students enjoyed the pre-Homecoming photo session.

Due to Covid restrictions, ASB students hosted the dance in the open quad on the CHS campus. An earlier effort to hold the homecoming dance at the San Diego Library was cancelled due to changing Covid rules at the facility.

After last year’s Covid-caused cancellation of HoCo activities, the CHS community enjoyed the opportunity to come together and celebrate all CHS students throughout the many homecoming activities.



Chloe Berk
Chloe Berk
Chloe has called Coronado home since she could walk or talk and considers herself a true Islander. She is currently a student at Coronado High School and a writer for the Islander Times. After studying and writing articles, she enjoys volleyball, the beach, and her newly-adopted dogs from PAWS. Have news to share? Send tips, story ideas or letters to the editor to: [email protected]

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