Dons dance the Knights away
The leadership posters that decorate hallways, numerous lunch rallies, and spirit days can only mean one thing: homecoming is right around the corner. This historic game against our rival, Hillsdale High School, followed by the homecoming dance has always been an exciting time of year. Year to year, our preparations mostly stay the same. Yet just down the road, our rivals have their own way of preparing for this highly anticipated event.
As at Aragon, leadership takes charge of most of the planning for homecoming at Hillsdale. For months before the actual event, the students who take leadership brainstorm ideas for dance themes and venues, suggestions for games and presentations at the rallies and fun themes for spirit week—all of the components that make the time around homecoming memorable and exciting.
Although leadership is responsible for creating the events that mark homecoming, participation from students is key in making those events a success. “In most of my classes almost everyone dresses up [for spirit days]. The more people plan on dressing up, the more others join in. Like if I plan on dressing up, then my friends will probably do it too,” says sophomore Neil Mercado.
“A lot of people are enthusiastic and really get into it, cheering at rallies and dressing up for all of the different spirit days,” says senior Kathleen Hennesy who attends Hillsdale, “[Plus,] it’s really exciting when people starting asking each other to homecoming.”
Similar to Aragon, Hillsdale also advertises the Homecoming dance and game through posters and flyers posted around school. Unlike Aragon, however, at Hillsdale, “Student government make[s] a video that will be shown in every advisory (homeroom) explaining the homecoming events and spirit week,” says junior Hillsdale leadership student Melissa Diaz.
The actual homecoming dance will take place at the Hiller Aviation Museum on November 13 for Hillsdale, the same night as Aragon’s dance at the Marriott. “We make sure that the theme has a vast possibility of options for decorations, [and] the Marriott provides a great space for [those] decorations,” says sophomore leadership student Sam Bowman.
Though it is evident that many of the events that mark homecoming at Aragon are the same at Hillsdale, a few differing traditions also exist. At Aragon, when students buy their homecoming tickets, they are asked to vote for homecoming king, queen, prince, and princess. The students who are nominated for and eventually win these titles are seniors (king and queen) and juniors (prince and princess). Although Hillsdale students also select seniors as homecoming king and queen, princes and princesses are nominated for all other grades, not just juniors.
Furthermore, volunteers from each class participate in a “hall decorating” contest at Hillsdale. The week before spirit week, these students decorate their respective hallways based on a certain theme such as “big cities”, the theme for this year.
“The winners receive spirit points and at the end of the year the class with the most spirit points wins a barbecue,” says Hillsdale leadership student, senior Shalini Kannan.
At Aragon, the posters around school are sometimes centered on the rivalry between the two schools, possibly featuring a catchy slogan regarding the dons beating the knights. However, the posters promote friendly competition and are never discourteous.
According to Hennesy, the same is true at Hillsdale, “We usually have posters with Aragon incorporated in it, like a little don versus knight thing. But their all like humorous jokes, nothing too serious or intense.” Kannan adds, “One of the requirements of hall decorating is actually to depict the Aragon rivalry. But it’s more about or own ‘knight pride’ than anything—it’s nice to see our school ‘uknighted’ and spirited—our rivalry just sparks it.”
Other Hillsdale traditions include, “everyone go[es] to IHOP for pancakes because there is usually some type of fundraiser. There’s also the tradition of cheerleaders [toilet papering] the boy’s locker room and some of the players’ houses,” says Diaz.
Comparing the preparations Aragon goes through for homecoming versus those Hillsdale goes through, quite fascinatingly, reveals that the two processes are essentially the same.
Though a few traditions mark the slight differences between the two schools, these old rivals are more alike than it may appear.
