Students at the high school celebrated school spirit and the community through the annual  homecoming festivities: spirit week, homecoming hallways, pep rally, homecoming football game and the homecoming dance. Spirit week lasted from October 21 to October 25, the hallways and the pep rally took place on Friday, October 25 and the homecoming football game and dance followed on Saturday, October 26. Here’s a closer look at each aspect of this years spirit week. 

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Dancing for a cause-- Juniors Joey Guglielmo and John Gurrera dance together at the annual home- coming dance. The proceeds from this year’s dance will be used to either pay for varsity boys basketball coach Duane Witter’s cancer treatment or a charity of his choice.

Spirit Week:

Spirit week took place from October 21 to October 25, and for this year the council decided to focus on giving back to charity. 

Each day of the week had a different theme and a different charity that was focused on: Monday was Farmington apparel and school colors, and students donated to the Farmington Food Pantry, Tuesday was USA day and money was collected for UNICEF, Wednesday students wore One Community, One Us t-shirts and focused on Mental Health and kindness throughout the school community, Thursday was Hippie day and students collected money for the schools SpiriThon event, Friday students wore their class colors and donated toys for the Class of 2022 toy drive for Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. 

“Overall I feel that focusing on a charity each day is a great way to raise awareness and funds for some amazing organizations that many clubs [at the high school] focus on. Not only do the funds and donations directly support the cause, they also help our school remember to reach out and help others in our community,” executive internal vice president Sarah Hennig said. 

School-wide spirit days are a way to unify the school community. Usually, individual sports teams do their own spirit days, but during spirit week, the student body comes together for one cohesive spirit day.

“Spirit week is my favorite week of school. Everybody comes together, and getting to dress up with my friends across all grades is such a fun way to celebrate the spirit of the high school,” junior Caroline Connelly said. 

 Sophomore class advisor Mary Stewart particularly loved the mental health and kindness day, and enjoyed the spirit that it spread throughout the school. 

 “[During the kindness day], things felt warmer, it brings inspiration back into your teaching because it renews your confidence in your kids. It’s so nice seeing your kids be nice to one another. It was also fun seeing the kids in my student council writing sticky notes, I love working with the sophomores, they’re so kind and they lead with kindness. I’m so proud of their efforts,” Stewart said. 

 School spirit carried over into a pep rally, where each grade donned their designated class color. Freshman wore red, sophomores wore blue, juniors wore white and seniors wore black. 

Homecoming Hallways:

Per tradition, each grade decorated their designated hallway with their chosen theme and battled it out to see which grade could pull out the most stops. Seniors decorated the 900s attendance entrance with Wild West, the Juniors decorated the hallway connecting the 500s and the 900s with the Jungle, the sophomores decorated the 500s hallway leading into the 700s intersection with Winter Wonderland, and the freshman decorated the 500s hallway closest to the gym with Candy Land. 

In order to prepare for the hallway, class councils work diligently in the weeks leading up to homecoming and reach out to all members of their class for help. Senior class president Sia Goel worked closely with the other members of her council as well as the rest of her grade to prepare for the ambitious theme chosen this year. 

“The senior class council … knew what needed to get done and did it. We delegated work to everyone who came to help.  It was absolutely heartwarming to see all of our class members and friends come and donate 4-5 hours of their time to help us decorate the homecoming hallway. I am in love with all inclusive and family atmosphere the class of 2020 has created,” Goel said. 

Students were able to cast their vote following the hallway walk throughs, and the winners were announced during the pep rally later in the day. The senior class came out on top, followed by freshmen, sophomores, and then finally the juniors. 

“I feel like the hallways bring out a sense of community among councils and the entire school. It’s a lot of work but I get to work alongside amazing advisors. It’s worth it in the end because you see the faces of all of the happy students,” sophomore delegate Jessica DiTommaso. 

Pep Rally:

School spirit and excitement reached its peak at this year’s pep rally, hosted by seniors Evan Pescosolido, who was dressed as World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler The Undertaker, and Tristan Grande. This year’s pep rally had numerous class vs. class competitions, and featured new challenges as well. 

“Tristan and I have been talking about [hosting the pep rally together] for years. Everyone involved was awesome, and the atmosphere made it everything I dreamed it would be,” Pescosolido said. 

Per tradition, the seniors stormed the gym after senior Tyler Courtland came in solo and “slipped” on a banana peel. Homecoming hallway winners were announced, grades battled it out in the usual tug of war, and the cheerleaders put on a dance for the school. 

This year’s student-faculty dance was to the song “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey in honor of varsity boys basketball coach Duane Witter’s battle with leukemia. Midway through the dance, his basketball team ran into the middle and participated in the dance for their coach. 

A new event this year was the race between seniors Andrew Fiondella and Tom Gibson, something that started out as a fun joke between friends, and became an exciting part of this year’s pep rally. This was followed by a siblings race, in which senior-freshman sibling pairs raced together to claim the title of “best family”. Senior Katie Powell and freshman Sam Powell took a fall during their race, losing the chance to win but enjoyed the experience all the same. 

“Even though I took a spill it was fun to have a chance to be with my brother at my last pep rally. It would have been nice to win but the pep rally as a whole was a great time and the energy from the students was really great. It was a high note to go out on,” K. Powell said. 

The pep rally also featured a push-up contest between school principal Scott Hurwitz and vice principal Russ Crist, and senior class president Sia Goel and senior class vice president Grayson Herr. Senior Anthony Seholm had the chance to battle science teacher Alexandra Raymunt in another rock, paper, scissors tournament, senior Bianca Spinetti performed a rap, and students were called down for whipped cream eating contest in which they needed to find a gummy worm in their pie tin. 

“It was a great experience, it was a little bit humiliating but I enjoyed the contest. Since I am a freshman, it was my first pep rally, but it was a really good one to start out on,” freshman Jen Austin said. 

Homecoming Football Game:

Students carried over the Spirit Week excitement into Saturday, October 26, where they joined the rest of the town to cheer on the football team at this years homecoming game against Middletown. The team lost to to Middletown 37-21. 

Quarterback Jake Conrad ran in his own touchdown, and senior Michael Gregory contributed the other two touchdowns. This is the seniors last homecoming game, and senior Mitchell Guglielmo is thankful for the town support at his last game. 

“Seeing a big fan base at the homecoming game was huge. To see that that many people want to come out and support us means a lot especially since it’s my last homecoming game,” Guglielmo said.  

The game provides the entire town a chance to come together and celebrate school spirit and unity. High school football fan Mike Mihalek, parent to sophomore linebacker Jack Mihalek, has been attending the homecoming football game for six years, and loves the energy that the town brings for the event.

“There’s no better way to spend a beautiful Saturday in fall by supporting the high school football team. It’s great to see a big turnout for the homecoming game,” Mihalek said. 

Aside from the game festivities, the Class of 2021 hosted their annual Fun Zone, where young children could come to play games, such as ring toss and tug-of-war, during the game. During the first half, raffle tickets were sold for $1 a piece. The winner of the raffle got to pie class advisor to the Class of 2021 Patrick Mulcahy. 

The excitement carried into the dance later that evening, which had a unique twist on theme and chosen charity. 

Homecoming Dance:

This year’s homecoming dance took place in the old gym at 7:00 following the football game, and the “sweater-vest optional” theme was in honor of a pillar in the high school community. Witter was diagnosed with leukemia following the boys basketball teams historic season last year, in which they brought home the first state championship in school history. This year, the theme of the homecoming dance centered around Witter’s mantra: Believe. 

“We chose to center the dance around Witter because of his recent health issues. He is such a beloved member of our school community and we collectively decided to plan an event that would embody his “believe” statement. This powerful statement unified the school in supporting the basketball team at the state championship. We want to continue to foster a strong community by furthering the use of this statement,” executive president Sophie Giuffria said. 

 The executive council planned numerous events throughout the dance, including a raffle and a special dance to the song “Pretty Young Thing” by Michael Jackson for the new gender-neutral homecoming court. 

 Although Witter was not able to attend the dance, 400 students attended homecoming, the biggest turnout in school history. The money raised will be donated to Witter and his family, and he will ultimately decide if he will use that to pay for his treatment or donate it to a charity of his choice.

“It was awesome. It really means a lot that the school came together to support him. So many people who may not know him personally came in support which shows the great community we have here and the strength of our tribe,” junior Jacob Smith said.