Traditionally, homecoming is meant for welcoming back former students and celebrating an organization’s existence.

Since more organizations exist than football, should homecoming include other sports and even other events?

What would it look like if we welcomed back our new senior class from multiple sports like basketball, baseball, and cross country to sponsor for homecoming?

Often we settle on the status quo.  However, it is 2021, and Chapman High School offers more sports than ever before yet football is the only sport for homecoming.

Did you know that girls at Chapman cannot attend homecoming unless they have a senior football player to sponsor them?

Every year, girls ask or get asked to go to homecoming while some get left out — left out because their boyfriend, or even a friend, is involved with another sport besides football.

We honor and respect the football team, so other sports deserve the same recognition. Why not let them be in the parade, be interviewed, be featured in school articles and yearbooks, be recognized by the community and so much more?

Having a boyfriend that plays basketball, I wish that he could sponsor me for the homecoming court next year. This would be a special opportunity for us, and we could spotlight his talent and success in his sport.

He spends a lot of time practicing and concentrating on his basketball skill sets. It would be so great for him to be able to be spotlighted and celebrated through a week of homecoming.

Yes, basketball is not going on typically when you are welcoming students back to school, but the students are back and lifting weights and prepping for their sport.

You might think that you run the chance of your sponsor not making the team in the upcoming season, but if they are seniors and have played and proven themselves for three years, then they deserve to be a part of the welcoming back or homecoming.

At Chapman, we have stellar athletes, so why not recognize players from other sports?