UPDATE: The time for the parade has been pushed back closer to 9 a.m. to allow for morning traffic to clear. Floats will need to be staged and ready at 8:30 a.m.
BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
It may seem strange to some to hear that Stanhope Elmore High School will celebrate Homecoming activities this time of year.
With COVID, so many things are strange, however. What would have traditionally been a Homecoming celebration in the Fall will now take place this Friday, with multiple, traditional activities piled into one day.
“This has just been a year,” SEHS Principal Ewell Fuller told the EAN. “Just so many things we have had to overcome, work through and deal with. We just needed something fun, but we wanted to wait until things (related to COVID) had loosened up a bit. It has, but we will still be wearing the masks and social distancing as much as possible for all of the activities planned.”
On Thursday, March 18 the SEHS Baseball Team is taking on Park Crossing at 4 p.m. on Furlough Field. Following the game, the Homecoming Court will be presented on the baseball field.
On Friday at 8:30 a.m. the Homecoming Parade will stage at SEHS. Around 9 a.m. the group will head to Main Street, make a right, then a right on Chapman Road turning into Millbrook Middle School. The community is invited to come out and cheer on the students and athletes, particularly the seniors as they near the end of their high school experience.
And what an experience it has been, sometimes not in a positive way Fuller said.
He gives credit to his staff and the students for working through an array of new rules and changes related to the pandemic. But he is determined to end this school year on a positive note.
Will the seniors jump in the Pond on Chapman Road? “Who knows,” Fuller said with a laugh. Seniors jumping in the pond became a tradition some time back, but the exact time is unclear. It has become a much-awaited tradition for graduating seniors.
Following the parade, the school will host Field Day broken up for individual classes. Following that is the Powder Puff Football Game. At 11 a.m. a Pep Rally will be held for ninth and tenth graders in the new gym. At 1 p.m. a Pep Rally will be held for 11th and 12th graders and will include the popular Slo-Mo event for graduating seniors.
“We are allowing parents into this event, but no other family due to Covid restrictions,” Fuller said.
Fuller said it has taken some creative thinking and a lot of planning, but he and the staff want to make sure the seniors have some positive memories as they prepare to graduate.
“In the Fall, when all of this would have normally happened, so much had to be canceled. For us to do anything like Field Day, which is a big fundraiser for us, would have been impossible,” Fuller said. “It would have been so limited, that it would basically have been non-existent. The parents would not have been able to participate. So, we just made this call to hold it later in the year.”
Fuller thanked Mayor Al Kelley and Police Chief P.K. Johnson for working with the school to help in the planning of events, such as the parade.
With the possibility of severe weather predicted Wednesday and Thursday morning, most of the events were moved to later in the week.
As for this year’s graduation for SEHS Seniors, it will be held at Foshee-Henderson Stadium on May 17 at 7 p.m. Tickets will be limited, and currently the exact number is still uncertain. School officials are waiting from guidance from Central Office.
