For many Saint Stephen’s students, Homecoming season is an active way to kick off the new school year. With events like dance-off, face-caking, the homecoming court, Homecoming has always been the tradition that allows a break from the start of the hectic school year.

Yet, like any tradition, it changes. In accordance with the class of 2022 (who host the Hoco Dance), yesterday the administration made the announcement that they will change the dance from September 28th to September 21st, making the dance the first event of the Homecoming season, as opposed to the last.

When moving the date to the 21st of September, the administration decided to keep spirit week as the week after the dance.

“The school calendar is a very tricky thing, and as soon as you put something on the calendar, fifty other events get planned around it, and it was much easier to move one event than to move all the events during spirit week,” Academic Dean, Mrs. Anna Conn told The Gauntlet.

The scheduling issue is a result of a conflict with the national swim competition, Swim Across America 2019, hosted in Atlanta, which is the same weekend of the original dance date.  Administration, as well as the athletic department, decided to move the dance to prevent more than 30 Upper-school student-swimmers from missing the occasion.

In the past, the Hoco dance has been the main event that concluded the excitement of the week. The court was presented at the game, and the King and Queen were formally announced in the heat of the dance the following Saturday. This year, however, the Court will be presented at the dance on the 21st, and King and Queen will be announced at the game the following weekend. 

Although the week has been changed around, the highly anticipated spirit events are all scheduled to return for this 2019-2020 season.