Tigers celebrate Homecoming Week

Creativity will be in full force this week at Green Forest schools.

Annual homecoming activities began Tuesday, Sept. 19, and will last all week leading up to Friday’s game against Lincoln.

“The kids are always excited about homecoming,” said Tim Booth, high school principal.

Dress-up days on all campuses got underway Tuesday with “Barbie/ Ken Day.” Students will dress up as their favorite teacher on Wednesday, and Thursday will be “Jersey Day” before wrapping up the week with “Spirit Day: White-Out” on Friday.

“The students get pretty creative,” Booth said of the dress-up days. “Dress as your favorite teacher gets interesting to try to figure out who they’re dressing as.”

While students will have a little extra fun this week, it’s still business as usual when it comes to classwork, Booth said.

“The kids are used to it and we do watch what we do as far as I don’t want kids bringing kayaks in the building …,” he said. “We do try to limit the distractions as much as possible.

“Of course we have a no hat policy but for those days, if it’s part of their costume, they’re allowed to have some kind of head covering. Some students come in full costume and it’s pretty interesting.”

One of the final events of the week will be the annual homecoming parade and pep assembly, which will include all of the maids, football team and the band.

“We’ve been doing it for the last three years, since the COVID year,” Booth said. “We have done a parade in conjunction with our homecoming pep assembly and it has become a big event.”

The parade will go around all the Green Forest school campuses, the principal said.

“We parade our maids around our block, and it was primarily done because the elementary students didn’t get to come to the homecoming assembly back then,” Booth said. “Because of COVID, we couldn’t spread everyone far enough.

“So, we have paraded them around and took the football team and the band and it’s becoming a pretty good deal.”

The parade will get started around 3:20 p.m. on Friday.

“It takes about 20 minutes,” Booth said. “It goes around our block and starts in the parking lot behind the band room. It will go in front of the high school and turn and go behind the old gym and come up in front of the preschool so the preschool kids can see it and then we will turn until we get back to the band parking lot.”

Homecoming maids were recently announced and include: Yasmin Saucedo-Lemus and Ana DeLeon Ortiz as freshman maids; Shelly Ajtun Ixcoteyac and Savannah Fraga as sophomore maids; Keiry Ayala and Guadalupe Merida- Saucedo as junior maids and Presley Gordon, Virginia Gonzalez and Alexis Padilla as senior maids.

School spirit will be in full force all week, Booth said.

“The kids look forward to it and enjoy it,” he said, adding that once the week concludes students will then turn their attention to something even more exciting that will take place on campus on Nov. 3, when the Tigers host rival Berryville.

“The end of the season will be the Carroll County Super Bowl,” Booth said. “That’s probably bigger around here than homecoming.”