After several years, Rocklin and Whitney’s Homecoming dates are scheduled on the same day again for this next school year. Considering all the away football games and tight schedule next year, the dances have ended up being proposed for the same date Oct. 7.

Each school sets its dates based on the football schedule, and after the home games are determined, Activities and Athletics work together to select when Homecoming will take place.

“We want it to be later in the season because ‘Homecoming’ means college alumni coming back, coming home,” Activities Director Mr. Jesse Armas said.

Due to the tight schedule, there were fewer options of dates to choose from, making the selection process easier.

“Once we get the schedule, the admin team and I, which includes Mrs. [Penny] Shelton, the assistant principal which oversees the athletics, Mr. [Scott] Collins and Mr. [Jeff] Dietrich with these activities. We sit down and we take a look at the schedule and pick a date. With next year’s schedule it was kind of a no-brainer because the schedule just doesn’t have the flexibility that we would like,” Armas said. 

With the dance happening on Oct. 7, there will be a large decrease in guest passes, taking into account that the majority of the passes come from Rocklin. This 2022 Homecoming had a record-breaking number. 

“I’m guessing [there were] about 300 [guest passes this year], which is normally about what we have for the entire year. So, it was pretty crazy. Rocklin and Whitney [students] are going to go together anyways, so they’re going to make a choice. We might not have as many [passes], but we will still have quite a few depending on what school that they choose,” said Principal’s Secretary Mrs. Pam Cano, who coordinates the guest pass process.

With the increasing amount of guest passes throughout the years, dances can become risky and even dangerous with the number of students attending. 

“Honestly, over the course of the past couple years, our Homecoming has almost become too unsafe at times because there’s more than 1,500 kids. Last year I think there were 1,700 people who attended. With limited supervision it’s sometimes hard to manage,” Armas said. 

Since some students who have friends or significant others from Rocklin attended both dances this year, they have to change their plans and decide which school’s dance they want to attend. Making the choice between only one dance to go to was difficult for some students. 

Olivia Dewey said, “I feel like going to both Homecomings is fun because you get to take two different pictures before, and it’s [my boyfriend’s] Homecoming, so it wouldn’t be fair if he just went to mine or I just went to his.”

by JEZLYN SOTELO & KEIRA WONG