Students across the country missed annual homecoming dances last year. At Madison, the fall dance is beloved by students in every grade, as it is a time for students, faculty and community members to come together to celebrate our hometown high school and have fun.

“There are different parts that go into planning every Homecoming,” Ryan Halloran (’23), a representative from the Student Government Association (SGA), said. “We have Court, Pep Rally, Parade and even spirit and advertising.”

With upperclassmen being the only ones who could have attended a dance so far, the pressure is on for the SGA to inspire 9th and 10th graders to go all out and show their school spirit.

“This year’s dance will be outside, with two big tents set up,” Halloran said. “One tent will hold the dance floor and DJ, while the other is a spot for people to hangout with friends and talk to each other. There will also be no mask requirements, as it is abiding by FCPS and CDC guidelines.”

The theme, A Highway to Hoco, was pitched by this year’s senior class when they were sophomores, as an idea for the Homecoming dance in 2020. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 dance was cancelled, pushing A Highway to Hoco to 2021.

A representative from SGA, Sam Tadle (’22), was the one who inspired the original Highway to Hoco back in 2020.

“We were inspired by another school that did this theme,” Tadle said. “They posted an advertisement video on social media and we thought it was such a fun and unique idea.”

Since the theme for the dance had been anticipated for so long, there was pressure on SGA to organize the event. It had been two years since SGA planned a homecoming for the school, but students were in high spirits.

“I don’t actually think we faced any big challenges, since it was a comeback year and we were all super excited and on top of everything we needed to get done for homecoming,” Tadle said. “The biggest thing we wanted was for the entire student body to go to the dance, especially the freshmen and sophomores since they haven’t had a homecoming yet.”