The week of homecoming is full of exciting traditions like making mums, nominating classmates for the hoco court, decorating floats for the homecoming parade and going to Fire Up the Kats to meet the belles and beaus and to honor the seniors. This year things are a little different.

Due to COVID-19, there was no parade and there was no recognition for the belles and the beaus. The belles and beaus are seniors nominated by their fellow classmates to represent their club. This homecoming season, a few organizations still voted for belles and beaus to honor the seniors in their group. 

Not all clubs appointed a belle and beau representative, but the ones that did were doing their part to keep the homecoming spirit alive. 

“I think it’s really cool that some clubs still did the belles and the beaus even though they didn’t get to be inv

olved in the hoco stuff this year,” senior Jesus Santana said. “I felt really happy to be picked for the newspaper beau this year. I also think it’s important to uphold certain traditions just like this.” 

Many events and traditions have been affected by COVID, but clubs and organizations are still trying to find ways to give students the best high school experience. 

“I was really excited and happy to be the belle for cross country,” senior Juliana Garcia said. “I was just glad that we got to keep some of these traditions that all the other seniors got to do before us.” 

In years past, the belles and beaus would get to dress up and be announced and

honored in front of their friends and family at Yates Stadium. Even though that didn’t happen, students still think it’s important to have these representatives for their club. 

“Keeping the belles and beaus tradition alive is important for our school,” senior Caleb Davidson said. “We still get to have a high school experience even though we didn’t get to walk the track and I was honored to be the beau for choir.”

Sports also get to nominate seniors for the belles and beaus to help recognize all the hard work that they’ve put in over the years.

“I was excited to be the beau for cross country,” senior Braden Kurtz said. “I think its important that sports or clubs are still honoring two people who exhibit the qualities that make someone a beau or belle.” 

School traditions are a large part of going through high school, especially for seniors. It helps to make their last year as memorable as possible, but some traditions had to face the chopping block this school year. 

“I think it was a nice way to show that we still cared about keeping up with traditions despite covid and it’s scariness,” senior Sure Ibukun. “When I was picked to be the yearbook belle I was kind of surprised because I didn’t think anyone would vote for me. As someone who never did anything for my high school experiences, and saved it all for senior year, it made me happy to see our school trying to keep the senior spirit alive.”