The Golden Trident

By Lila Qualteri and Lilly Phillips 

Is anyone feeling weird about Homecoming this year? You’re not alone. There have been some changes made to the long-held traditions of GHS. The most obvious and bothersome change made this year was the obvious schedule change. Traditionally, Golden Homecoming has been in late September-early October. This year the dance fell on October 17th, and Golden’s fall break. 

In an interview with Mitch, he stated that this was because the Colorado School of Mines has an increasingly busy football season and schedule. Because of this, Mines would not be able to host us until the week of the 14th. The Golden administrators wanted to make sure that we were able to accommodate the hoards of people the Homecoming game brings in, and this was the only way to do it. 

The dance being on a Thursday was a direct result of this. Because Homecoming was on fall break, our administration decided they should put the dance on Thursday, leaving the weekend free so that we could have somewhat of a fall break. 

         On top of the strange schedule, some of Golden’s favorite traditions have seemingly been lost. Notably the bonfire was canceled and replaced with “Movie Under the Stars.”. This was unfortunately under the control of our administration. The fire bans in Jeffco this year prevented us from actually being able to have a bonfire. While sometimes Golden can get a specific permit to allow them to hold the bonfire anyway, the fact that Homecoming Week was so late in the year made this hard to do. 

         Another fun tradition we love is the Homecoming parade. Every year before the football game, different sports teams, and each class make floats that we take down Washington Avenue. However, after a few years of students not putting a lot of work into the class floats, the admin has decided to only do a student body float and not one for each class. The last few years we’ve had teachers such as Sam Irving and ChristianPolo helping with class floats and they’ve been doing more work than the kids. This year the student body float is being helped by Señor Polo and he’s done almost all of the work. Hopefully in the next few years, we can put more effort into those floats and continue that tradition. 

Overall we can all agree that Homecoming was different this year. Lots of it was not under our control and the administration had to make sacrifices. There are things that both staff and students can change to make our next Homecoming better and more enjoyable. However, the effort and collaboration put into this cannot be overlooked. “Movie Under the Stars” was a great solution to an unsolvable problem and though it broke tradition, still brought students and staff together. The parade was still successful and both the dance and game had their highlights.

In the future Homecoming will hopefully go back to normal, but not without your help Demons!