Dozens of girls fly across the floor and down the halls as the minutes tick closer to Homecoming and students dressed for the night start to flood the cafeteria

Ap and IB biology teacher Jennifer Talley coaches the cheerleaders, she alongside her team is deeply entangled with Homecoming.  

“As a JV Prowler coach i supervise the girls during the parade, and when we decorate for the Homecoming. Both the Cheer and Prowlers put together the homecoming,” said Talley.

Prowlers and Cheer start to plan how they are going to decorate the gym and cafeteria, and what theme they are going with a few weeks to a few months ahead of time.

“It takes a while because, Ms. Gray orders the t-shirts and the entire week is dedicated to practice for the girls and guys dance. They always do a dance during the pep rally. It takes a few weeks to get homecoming organized, and takes 3 hours to set up for the dance and that is with everyone helping,” said Talley.

Counselor Sheryl Gray is the coach of the Cheerleaders, and each year it has only been her team and the Prowlers that put together homecoming. It does not get the other programs the school has involved due to the reasoning behind their involvement.

“It is a fundraisers split between Cheerleaders and Prowlers we involved quite a bit form dance to royalty. Student senate does spirit week,” said Gray.

The Homecoming fundraiser is a big deal for the teams, for they do not have many times during the year to raise money in order to lower the amount themselves and their parents have to pay.

“It is the second biggest fundraisers the girls have,” said Talley.

Senior Chloe Alleman is one of the cheerleaders that help put together Homecoming. Her teams funds and the prowlers funds are made up of the T-shirt sales and ticket sales that are sold during the homecoming week. The prices stay the same as well.

“The money comes from the t-shirts and tickets,” said Alleman.  

Despite how big the Homecoming fundraiser is for the teams, they do not have a goal for any part of their sales.

“We usually order 500 t shirts and try to sell them all. we do not really have a overall goal,” said Gray.

Before the teams receive the money from Homecoming, there are other expenses that the coaches must take care of before the rest is sent to their financial adviser.

The money raised for homecoming does not go towards a charity or the school specifically. It goes towards the large fees that come with being part of the Cheer and Prowlers.

“The money first pays for the expenses then the royalty buying the crown and sashes, the money left over is divided between the prowlers and cheer and then used for the competition expenses,” said Gray.

Once expenses from Homecoming are paid for the money is then turned over to the coaches who then put it away in their accounts to be used later when the girls need it.

“It is divided between both organization to contribute to travel for events, regional, and national dance competition, also school events the teams would like assist with,” said Talley.

Even though it is a big fundraiser for the girls, the money raised during homecoming does not fully pay for everything that they need in order to pay off all of the competition fees that pile up throughout the year.

“Usually we raise about twenty five hundred dollars by the end of all the expenses paid, but it does not cover everything that we have to pay for, for instance the expenses rounded up to forty five thousand last year. So it’s a small chunk out of that but it helps pay it off with other fundraisers that we do,” said Gray.

Though the homecoming fundraiser does not pay everything off for the Prowlers and Cheerleaders, it definitely helps them slowly pay off the amount they need in order to keep doing what they love.