High school Friday night football games, a roaring crowd, and a late night homecoming dance… right? Well, Central has not had a dance for homecoming in several years. Luckily, this may not be permanent.
One major cause of the loss of the homecoming dance was Covid in 2020. However, many other events have returned since then.
Why hasn’t the dance come back as well?
“They were flops, and so groups weren’t willing to take them on. They weren’t money makers, they were money losers. That’s not good [for] fundraisers, to lose money,” principal Tim Isaacs said.
Isaacs explains that dances are funded by a group, club, or teacher(s) who take up the responsibility of setting up and running the event. The relative failure of homecoming dances in previous years has so far discouraged the planning and commitment to future ones.
Isaacs voices other concerns as well.
Since the dance would be held after the football game around or after 10 p.m., and would wind down before 12 a.m., he acknowledges that many students would not want to spend $15-20 on an event they would only spend about an hour and forty five minutes attending.
Beyond this, he explains we haven’t had a place to host the dance in recent years. For example, the Winter Formal last year took place at the old East Hardin building. Despite this, he states that he is not opposed to the idea of a homecoming dance.
“One group that approached me was interested in maybe doing a dance part, actually, on Saturday as opposed to Friday, and I thought that was an interesting thought,” Isaacs comments.
This idea, as well as the recent developments in construction at Central, may be a good alternative for a dance the night of the game. Regardless of when the event would take place, a group would be required to step up to the plate and sponsor it.
“It’s a win-win-win. Kids get what they want in the dance, a group raises some funds that they need, and it’s a one-shot deal, y’know. It builds spirit and helps out a group. I’d love to see a group step up and say ‘we’d like to try that’,” Isaacs remarks.
With talk of upcoming discussions and planning for similar anticipated events among administrators and staff, we are hopeful that if someone will step up to allow our classic homecoming dance, in all its glory, occur once more.
