You’ve been in a room full of people for eight hours. You’ve spent another few on the phone this morning. You haven’t slept properly in days. All for a week of fun for the student body. Without the dedication of Student Senate, there wouldn’t be a homecoming to celebrate. The behind-the-scenes process stretches to the music department, the athletes, the school’s administration, and even the fire department — and Student Senate manages to handle it all.

Dress-Up Days:

You are walking through the halls. It is Tuesday, Sept. 27. You see every decade imaginable from the 20th century: there’s everything from poodle skirts and leather jackets to full-body denim get-ups. You are impressed with the outfits this year, but when you turn into the senior hallway, you are stopped dead in your tracks. Almost every person you see is wrapped in a white sheet. In every corner of the school, you can see virtually every student at Stoughton High School united with the participation of these dress-up days.
These dress up days had themes like duo/character day, throwback day, and, of course, the classic, recurring “Pride Friday.”
Dress-up days occurred Monday through Friday on the week of Sept. 26.
Student Senate rep-
resentative Ruby Royston was part of the group of Senate members who were in charge of designing and deciding the themes.
“[The process of deciding] is definitely a pretty lengthy one. It involves a lot of different people’s opinions, and a lot of administration approval,” Royston says.
Some of the ideas used to decide the themes came from their fellow members of Student Senate and friends. After the themes are decided, administration goes over them. Any themes that administrators feel go against the school’s values are revised or replaced.
“One of the [themes] that stood out was Country vs. Country Club,” SHS principal Mike Kruse, a member of the administration that looked over the themes, says.
“In many aspects, it seems innocent in nature until you break it down a little bit, is that [it’s representing] white collar vs. blue collar,” Kruse explains.
Kruse explains that he doesn’t feel the use of “or” should be present in any of the themes, as to him, homecoming represents unity within the school.
Every year, the seniors dress up differently than the rest of the grades. The senior dress-up days are usually similar through the years. This year, the seniors resurfaced themes such as career day, senior citizen day, and the infamous toga day.
“I feel like [it’s] just to kind of show a little bit of seniority,” Royston says. “[While] you’re a freshman, you get to grow up seeing that, and I remember my sister [on toga day] and that was so cool, so it’s just kind of the fun in seeing it.”
However, Kruse has different feelings towards these senior dress-up days.
“When [Student Senate] tries to do something for the school, […] it’s a little frustrating for people that have put forth energy and effort to organize that,” he says.
In the end, Senate promotes dress-up days as a way to have fun, and celebrate Stoughton High Schools’ week before the events on Friday and Saturday.

Pep Rally:

The homecoming pep rally is a way to get students and teachers excited for the upcoming homecoming events. The pep rally is particularly entertaining because it’s the first “normal” one in a long time. But such an event doesn’t come without a tremendous amount of preparation to make sure this is really the pep rally to remember.
“It was over the course of […], I’d say, two months of planning,” says senior Evan Loftus. President of Student Senate. He worked as the leader of the group of other Senate members who organized the pep rally.
“How it works is usually even before the school year starts, students sign up [for student senate] and we have our retreat. [The retreat is] a day for all senate to bond and then also get working,” Loftus says.
Loftus then talks about getting in contact with the activities organizer, Ella Hembrook, a junior at SHS. He discusses planning some events they wanted to see happen at the pep rally, such as volleyball wars.
Lots of planning was also done with Mr. Kruse, Ms. Alexander, and Mr. Pope. Kruse and Alexander helped give guidance on what should and shouldn’t be done at the pep rally, while Pope taught the planners how to use the sound system and helped provide supplies. Alexander also assisted in the set up of the rally. The Senate members then had to contact the various groups that would perform such as the cheer and dance teams. One of the dance captains, Jade Day, talks about their preparations.
“We have practices on Tuesdays, [and] Thursdays, and [recently] started morning practices on Fridays and Sundays,” Day explains. “We got our hip hop competition routine […] professionally- choreographed […] and for the guys and girls dance, it was me and Kendall Steinmetz.”
Many people put in lots of time and effort in the planning of the pep rally. Loftus reflects on everyone’s hard work and dedication.
“I’m very grateful for all the people in my group because a lot of people pick up speaking [and an- nouncing] parts, which was very helpful,” Loftus says.
“My favorite part probably was actually doing the pep rally, like going through the actual day, […] because I got to see […] all the hard work that me and my group did just come together and be one of the best pep rallies some teachers have seen in a long time,” Loftus says.

Parade:

There’s candy being thrown everywhere and people lining the sidewalks. Sounds of all kinds come from police and fire trucks, there’s music from the band, and there’s a screaming audience. But none of this could have come to play without a team of people to make sure everything ran smoothly and went as planned. There were many individuals who put in a tremendous amount of time and effort to bring the parade to life, but the person who really brought the whole thing together was senior Evan Schmidt.
“The most important thing[s] to do when setting up a parade [are] to be organized [and have] clear communication,” Schmidt says. “This year, we had 16 groups in the parade, as well as the police and fire departments. Getting all of those people there and making sure they know what’s going on isn’t going to happen if you’re not communicating clearly and frequently.”
Sergeant Chad O’Neil is a police officer at the Stoughton Police Department. The police have various responsibilities during the parade such as blocking off roads, rerouting traffic, and leading the parade, to make sure there are no issues for the parade and floats.
“We have the route that is predetermined by the school […], so we know the route that’s going to be used,” O’Neil says. “We usually partner with the street department installed here to help with barricades, cones, things like that. And then before the parade kicks off, we always have an officer to do a pre-inspection of the route.”
“Once it’s clear, we all set up at our assigned intersections or streets just to make sure traffic flow is good and shut down and then give the all clear,” O’Neil says. “We open it back up as soon as it’s safe to do so after all the floats have passed through the route.”
After all the planning is done, there are some things that are helpful on the day of the parade for all people helping and involved.
“On parade day, making sure you have a team of people to help out is key, as well as making things as clear and easy as possible for the participants,” Schmidt says. “I definitely couldn’t have done it without the help of those in Senate and the support of the rest of the Exec Board.”
These kinds of events take a lot of planning and hard work, which a lot of different people put in, but there are always parts not as fun as others.
“My least favorite part was probably the lead-up during the week of the parade. It was super stressful because all I could do was wait and hope everything went to plan. The parade is a lot of planning and not a ton of doing until the day of,” Schmidt says.
Although planning a parade can be stressful, for the most part, it was enjoyable for the crew that put it all together.
“[The best] part was seeing the parade step off on time, with everyone there. […] Everything went super smoothly, and that was just a great feeling,” Schmidt says.

Tailgate:

There’s candy being thrown everywhere and people lining the sidewalks. Sounds of all kinds come from police and fire trucks, there’s music from the band, and there’s a screaming audience. But none of this could have come to play without a team of people to make sure everything ran smoothly and went as planned. There were many individuals who put in a tremendous amount of time and effort to bring the parade to life, but the person who really brought the whole thing together was senior Evan Schmidt.
“The most important thing[s] to do when setting up a parade [are] to be organized [and have] clear communication,” Schmidt says. “This year, we had 16 groups in the parade, as well as the police and fire departments. Getting all of those people there and making sure they know what’s going on isn’t going to happen if you’re not communicating clearly and frequently.”
Sergeant Chad O’Neil is a police officer at the Stoughton Police Department. The police have various responsibilities during the parade such as blocking off roads, rerouting traffic, and leading the parade, to make sure there are no issues for the parade and floats.
“We have the route that is predetermined by the school […], so we know the route that’s going to be used,” O’Neil says. “We usually partner with the street department installed here to help with barricades, cones, things like that. And then before the parade kicks off, we always have an officer to do a pre-inspection of the route.”
“Once it’s clear, we all set up at our assigned intersections or streets just to make sure traffic flow is good and shut down and then give the all clear,” O’Neil says. “We open it back up as soon as it’s safe to do so after all the floats have passed through the route.”
After all the planning is done, there are some things that are helpful on the day of the parade for all people helping and involved.
“On parade day, making sure you have a team of people to help out is key, as well as making things as clear and easy as possible for the participants,” Schmidt says. “I definitely couldn’t have done it without the help of those in Senate and the support of the rest of the Exec Board.”
These kinds of events take a lot of planning and hard work, which a lot of different people put in, but there are always parts not as fun as others.
“My least favorite part was probably the lead-up during the week of the parade. It was super stressful because all I could do was wait and hope everything went to plan. The parade is a lot of planning and not a ton of doing until the day of,” Schmidt says.
Although planning a parade can be stressful, for the most part, it was enjoyable for the crew that put it all together.
“[The best] part was seeing the parade step off on time, with everyone there. […] Everything went super smoothly, and that was just a great feeling,” Schmidt says.

The Big Game and Activities:

Pom-poms twirl, cheerleaders lift, and chants are shouted. Smiles filled the crowd. This energy culminated during the SHS cheer team’s performance during the homecoming game’s halftime show. For decades, Cheer Team captains have planned this event, maintaining the tradition at SHS. A great amount of time and dedication must be put into the performance. This year and previous years, the cheerleading team had been preparing for their homecoming performance for months.
Senior Ella Lanoway has been on the cheer team since her freshman year, and her hard work and dedication brought her to the position of Head Captain, along with Co-Captain senior Lilyanna Kleven. One of the responsibilities of this position is to choreograph the routines.
“Just because you choreograph something doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to work. You have to keep trying different things to make it look as nice as possible,” Lanoway says.
Lanoway and co-captain Kleven choreographed the performance and taught it to the team. She also worked with Student Senate to coordinate timing as the team did two different routines. The process of putting together such a big performance goes through many stages. The first stage starting in August. One crucial and often forgotten step of this process is deciding on the music.
“It has to be clean. [The captains] make sure there’s no swear words or derogatory terms; we got ours approved by Andie Alexander [Athletic and activities director],” Lanoway says.
All of the hard work, time, and dedication is put in for a reason.
“It’s tradition. It’s kind of been a thing for a long time [….] for cheerleaders to perform, and it goes into homecoming,” Lanoway says.
This Homecoming was the first “normal” one since the COVID-19 outbreak, with COVID-19 cases going down and events that have been paused for the last two years starting back up.
These high expecatons put pressure on many shoulders to deliver, however Lanoway believes they were able to achieve them through hard work and commitment.
“I think it went really good and […] I think this year is probably the best routine we’ve had since my freshman year,” Lanoway says.

Friday night lights, big field, big game, and even bigger expectations for homecoming.
“The Homecoming game is always an opportunity for the [football] team to showcase its talents,” says Jason Becker, the head coach of the Stoughton football team in an email.
The stands were packed tight hours before the game began. Students even showed up hours before the sun set, trying to get as close to the field as they possibly could from the bleachers.
“The alumni and our amazing student section showed up in huge numbers and were great supporters in cheering us on to victory 31-19 over Portage,” Becker says.
The Stoughton football team did more than deliver a victory over Portage. It also highlighted individual athletes’ talent.
“[Junior] Cole Sarbacker rushed for 158 yards and three touchdowns, while Mason Marggi caught 11 passes for 94 yards. [senior] Quinn Bonti added seven points by making all of his extra points [as kicker] and a 27-yard field goal. The defense continued to make great strides, highlighted by a blocked punt and forcing Portage to turn it over on downs three times,” Becker says.

The first notes of the Viking Marching Band performance. The band plays a rendition of “Flight” by Gregory B. Rudgers while all move synchronously for seven minutes. The entirety of SHS’s Viking Marching band has been preparing and practicing for the seven minute under the bright field lights performance for months.
“It takes a lot of time and effort, and I probably don’t say it enough, but I’m very thankful and proud of how much effort they have been putting in,” says Emily Erdahl, an alumni at Stoughton Highschool and Stoughton’s field instructor for the marching band.
Erdahl has been the field instructor for the last five years and was a big part of the planning and preparation for the halftime show.
“I was a big part of making sure that they’re in the right spot at the right time,” Erdahl says.
Many other people are involved in the planning as well, including band teacher Dan Schmidt, Mr. Brittain, as well as SHS alumni Miles Gates and Dylan Lehman.
The band has put in a great deal of time and dedication for to prepare for this performance.
“We started band camp in July [which consisted of] eight-hour days. [Band students are] doing music, sectional rehearsals, group rehearsals, and marching […] for eight hours for five days straight.[…] After that, we have rehearsals on Mondays and Thursdays for two hours, until the school year starts, then it’s only Mondays. [It’s] over 200 hours [across] two and a half [months],” Erdahl says.
All the hard work put in has an important message far beyond Homecoming itself.
“[The field show] is a whole different vibe from like the game itself, especially during homecoming and everything, because the whole community is there. And it just really gives us an opportunity to showcase what the band program is. Especially with the younger kids being there, they think ‘I want to do that, I look up to them’,” Edrahl says.
This Homecoming band performance was not only the first “normal” performance since COVID-19 hit but also a chance for the band to show their improvement over the past two years.
“I think it went really well […] compared to other years. It was a really great show they put on and it was a different build up in [a] different atmosphere,” Edrahl says.
She was not the only one who was proud of the band’s performance.
“I am really proud of how the band did, It was a real treat to play for Homecoming again this year and it was especially cool to be marching on the new field. The students worked really hard this year. I am glad we could share some of our music with the students and community.’ Band director Dan Schmidt says.

The Homecoming Dance:

The homecoming dance is a grand finale to the introduction of the school year; behind the three hours of celebration are months of dedication from our Student Senate.
Planning
“The process of starting the dance starts the prior school year,” explains Toni Fischer, the adviser of Student Senate. The Student Senate is discussing themes and props by the time May rolls around.
Keilley Riddle, a senior at Stoughton High School and the Vice President of Student Senate, explains that they had “a basic idea of what we want [the dance] to look like” back in August.
This year’s homecoming dance had a bump in the scheduling. Fischer wasn’t hired until August, and “[Student Senate] already had the DJ booked before we got hired.” The Senate had never worked with this DJ before.
The athletic department sets the dance’s date a year in advance, as there are a limited number of home games at the start of the year with available weekends after them. One day is reserved for parents’ night, another for senior night, and the remaining weekend is for the dance.
“We’re already thinking about next year’s homecoming the week after this year’s,” Fischer says.
Of course, this school year differed from the past two years, as it was the the first indoor Homecoming since 2019. The Senate couldn’t put on a dance in 2020 due to COVID, and last year’s dance was on the football field.
“Every four years, there’s a cycle of four themes. [Last year was] a theme that we don’t normally do,” Riddle says.
Last year’s theme was Neon. “We wanted something new that none of the students had experienced before,” Riddle says. The senate returned to the standard theme rotation this year but decided to update the decorations, because Riddle says they were “super dingy,” and hadn’t been used in five or six years.
Fab Lab members and Technology Education teacher Brad Seehafer did the woodworking, while Student Senate did the painting. But before this starts, they start at base one.
Student Senate has a retreat day over the summer, between six and eight hours, half of which is dedicated to homecoming planning.
If the students already have ideas based on the theme, they start making or renovating props right away. Orders for new props happen in July or August. Because the advisers were hired late, the students were behind schedule.
“The week of homecoming, we were still painting props[…]that were going to be in the dance. It just happened that way,” Fischer says.
Setup
Student Senate set up the gymnasium for the dance right after the pep rally.
The dance committee were the first ones there, and other Student Senate members joined in once they had finished their homecoming duties.
Due to the minimal decorations this year—as the Senate had originally prepared to have the dance outside—the gymnasium was decorated in merely two-and-a-half hours.
Fischer says the team was in charge of “Getting all the decorations put up, climbing […] on top of the bleachers to put up lights and streamers, and then they inevitably fall down, because nothing sticks to the bleachers,” Fischer says.
“The hardest part […] is making sure everyone felt […] included, or wasn’t over- worked, like Mr. Pope,” Riddle says.
Mr. Pope, head cust- odian at Stoughton High School, was integral to the setup and take- down of the dance.
“He was one of the only custodians that knows how to do the dance […] there were a lot of things that I didn’t know that he did,” Riddle admits.
Although there were challenges in the process, there were upsides as well.
“The best part was seeing everyone get creative,” Riddle says.
Riddle gave her team full visionary direction with their props. The Senators got the job done, and the dance began.
The lights were dim, but a colorful glow encompassed the gym as music pulsed in the background. A large crowd was on the floor, and models of iconic geographic figures (featuring the Eiffel Tower and Great Pyramids) were set around the gym.
Some students danced in the gymnasium and took photos in the Yearbook team’s photo booth near the entrance, while others occupied the tables in the hallway to socialize.
Aftermath
When the clock finally struck 11 p.m., it was time to clean up.
“The cleanup process is even more of a pain [than the setup process] because everybody’s so tired. I mean, who wants to come back and pick up after you’ve been doing stuff all day?” says Fischer.
“That is […] the worst part of homecoming […] packing it up back into the containers, then getting back into our storage […] halfway across the school,” Fischer says.
Although the cleanup process was a pain, there are still happy memories.
“I’ve always been interested in […] giving people an experience that you don’t get every day,” Fischer says.
She reminisces about planning the dance by comparing it to her time in high school when she was also on the Student Senate.
“The fact that you can take something everybody’s used to seeing every day and change it […] and make it feel like you’re somewhere different is the coolest part about [it],” Fischer says.
Riddle adds to this, saying, “My main motivation […] is to create an atmosphere where everyone feels like they can have fun in their own way.”
After a week of celebration, the journey came to a close. Months of hard work by the Student Senate and others allowed for an enjoyable and memorable Stoughton High School Homecoming, which is sure to be the case for years to come.

Scheduling

There were more controversies and difficulties to this year’s homecoming than one might expect. As you may have noticed, the flyers for the homecoming dance don’t match the location it ended up being held.
“So over the summer when we were meeting and talking about our plans for homecoming, Ms. Alexander had talked to us about ‘Well, if the weather’s nice, we’re gonna keep the dance outside again this year like we did last year,’” said Fischer.
The Student Senate, however, said that that was much too early in the planning process to determine whether the weather would be dance-appropriate, leaving the conversation open-ended.
“We had to plan for an outdoor dance because that’s what we were told,” said Fischer.
However, Student Senate was “pushing to have it inside just because that’s what most of the student body wanted,” as Riddle puts it.
In addition to the students, staff also were hesitant to attend an outdoor dance.
“We were having a very hard time getting chaperones because of how cold it was,” says Riddle.
Eventually, nine days before the dance, the administration gave Student Senate the OK to have the dance in the main gym.

Tickets

After Senate laid the groundwork for the dance, it was time to sell tickets.
“I let my super creative people make the tickets,” says Riddle.
The dance committee created a ticket design online and printed them off at school.
According to Fischer, “the hardest part about that is cutting and numbering every single ticket when you have 600 tickets. It’s a little bit of a nightmare.”
Their system for getting tickets sale-ready was to have two people cut them and then pass them down to five people who numbered the tickets.
When the tickets were prepared and ready to sell, members of the Senate signed up for times that they were available to sell them, and the Shack Shop was in business.
“It was a little confusing because the prior advisor didn’t leave us a ton of information about how the whole ticket sales thing went,” says Fischer, who led the ticket-selling process. “We talked to Ms. Mullen about how prom does it, and we modeled our sales process on the prom committees process.”
Once the Senate decided how to run the shack, sales began, and they were very successful. “We sold almost 400 tickets beforehand. And then we sold like 200 after that, at the door,” said Riddle.
With the student body totaling around 900, selling 600 tickets was a very successful turnout, and with tickets this year being $10 beforehand and $15 at the door, the Student Senate gained a lot of profits.
“Half of [the money we make from ticket sales] roughly will end up going right back into homecoming next year,” Fischer says.
“It goes into our Senate account, which helps fund trips and leadership outings and stuff like that. It also…goes back into the school as well because, like, we get to buy more props for the next time we do this theme,” Riddle says.
“Money from homecoming also goes into supplies for the shack that make apparel available and the coffee and tea and all that other stuff that we sell in the morning,” says Fischer. It also funds Teacher Appreciation days and Halloween candy handouts.
In a sense, homecoming funds are the support for lots of the comforts that SHS students enjoy.

Chaperones + Photobooth

Quick to the scene were this dance’s chaperones, ready to double-check tickets and oversee ticket purchases, and then make their way into the chaos to keep the dance in check.
“I chaperoned this year because my son is a junior, and homecoming is part of what he is doing, so I wanted to come see all the kiddos and be a part of that,” says Amy Hermanson, a science teacher at SHS. She checked students in and then supervised the pool entrance at the dance. Hermanson says that students were very patient and helpful with their check-in.
“I also think the adults do a lot behind the scenes to make things go as smoothly as possible so the students have a wonderful time and can focus on just dancing and being with their friends,” added Hermanson.
Another chaperone, Adrienne Stahl, an SHS art teacher, corroborates that the event went smoothly.
“It was very well organized, everyone knew where to go and what their responsibilities were…we can’t have these kinds of events without supervision, so I would say the chaperone is an essential part of the formula for a successful and safe school event,” says Stahl.
Stahl explains that she chaperoned the dance because “somebody needed to step up and do it, and students requested that I step up.”
Other chaperones, such as Sam Raff, a Spanish teacher at SHS, simply say that they do it “because I like to do it.”
After the chaperones checked everyone in and the party started, another person worked to ensure that students got the most out of the night.
“I am taking care of the homecoming dance page for the yearbook this year and wanted a fun and easy-enough way to get content for my page…I also really don’t like dancing,” says Lily Tuttle, who ran a photo booth at this homecoming dance.
She explained that it’s often difficult to get quality homecoming pictures when the lighting is so unpredictable and most staff are partaking in the dance themselves. This was a way to make sure the homecoming portion of the yearbook was filled with quality content.
Keilley Riddle also played a part in this portion of the dance, assisting Tuttle and ensuring that the photo booth would operate smoothly.
“Running the booth went really well because of student participation; it was busy all night,” said Tuttle. “I was relieved to see people returning with more friends, and getting excited about props.”
Tuttle has always loved photography but has been investing more in her passion as of late.
“Whenever I am out and about with friends, I always have a camera in my clutches, ready to capture anything,” says Tuttle.
She also mentions that it’s her favorite part about working on the yearbook team.
“I oftentimes see people I don’t know very well and think, ‘this would be a great photo!’ That’s why I enjoyed the photo booth so much; I got to do what I love for a wide variety of people, other than just my friends.”

Music

But of course, you can’t have a dance without music, and conditions such as the DJ being hired before advisors were officially hired, and a behind-the-scenes controversy may have impacted this aspect of the dance.
“The DJ, he’s a small business owner. He has the decision and we hired him for his expertise to pick what to play.” says Riddle, who made a playlist of recommendations that was not heavily followed by the DJ.“…But I had no problem with it. I think everyone enjoyed themselves, and that was the whole point of the dance anyway.”
“In the past, other DJs…haven’t taken requests. And this year, they did…and I think everyone liked being able to pick songs,” Riddle added.
If you ask any SHS students who attended the dance, they would most likely agree with this. These elements of the dance–the scheduling, tickets, staff, and music–are often overlooked by casual dance-goers, but there could never be a dance in the absence of even one of them.