By: Park Li and Kassidy Kelley

In typical high schools across the nation, homecoming week is an exciting time of outrageous outfits, well-thought-out proposals and an overwhelming amount of school spirit.

Junior Audrey Sullivan, however, noticed the lack of Grady’s enthusiasm when she attended last year’s homecoming dance.

“When I walked in with my friends, there were mainly just teachers dancing,” Sullivan said. “We wanted to go just to see what the homecoming dance would be like, but we were disappointed with the outcome.”

Sullivan said there were some decorations, such as streamers and balloons. This year, there was a photo booth, assorted platters of food, cake and punch.

Junior Rose Fernkorn also experienced this. She and her friends chose to leave the dance early, despite paying for tickets.

“Honestly, the dance was terrible and boring,” Fernkorn said. “There was no good music; the DJ took no suggestions, and there were probably 10 students there in total.”

This year the Student Government Association worked hard to produce a better turnout and a more enjoyable experience.

Senior Kimi Brown, who was elected Miss Grady for the 2015–2016 school year, expected this year’s homecoming dance to be vastly improved from previous years.

“Last year, the homecoming dance just wasn’t advertised properly,” Brown said. “This year, we have a committee that’s helping us spread the word, so this way, more people should come.”

Senior Satchel Crawford, Mr. Grady, also had high hopes for the dance and said he believed it would be much more lively.

“We are trying to encourage more of the seniors to come to it,” Crawford said in the days leading up to the dance.

Some students who had never been to a Grady homecoming dance weren’t sure what to expect, and they only knew details about last year’s dance. Freshman Jordan Thomas said he was expecting some hazing for the freshmen, though that hadn’t happened at a Grady homecoming dance in the past.

Others, however, were hoping for a very memorable night, such as sophomore Emma Myers. Myers was pleased with the outcome she saw and said homecoming was much better than she had expected. She was surprised at how many people showed up.

“Everyone was dancing and laughing,” Myers said. “Grady definitely did a good job of not making it as lame as previous years. All of the grade levels were represented.”

SGA sold between 250–300 tickets to the homecoming dance, which is almost 40 times as many sales as last year.

Junior Kira Lewitt also expected homecoming to be a disappointment, but she was impressed by the turn-around.

“It was pretty amazing to see that many diverse sets of people all gathered around, dancing together,” Lewitt said. “I thought there would still be a huge rivalry between all the students, but fortunately I was wrong. I hope this much school spirit continues into the 2016–2017 school year.”

Brown said there were new efforts other than advertisements this year. The dance was given a theme, “A Night Under the Mask.”

The SGA also brought back cross-dress day during homecoming week. Along with cross-dress day, the SGA planned a pajama day, a costume day and a sports jersey day.

This was all in preparation for the homecoming football game against Chamblee on Friday, Oct. 23.

Junior Seth Wolfe, a member of the varsity football team said he had high hopes for the outcome of the game against Chamblee. With a loss against Marist at last year’s homecoming, Wolfe and the rest of the football team were hoping for a win this year.

“I definitely think that if we go into this game and just blowout the opponent, then homecoming weekend will be much better than if we had to start the weekend out with a loss,” Wolfe said.

The team’s Touchdown Club booster organization also planned Grady’s tailgate before the game.  The tailgate is expected to become an annual event.

The extra work by the football team paid off because the Grey Knights defeated Chamblee 41–13.

Christian Peterson, a senior football player, said the players and coaches were excited to get the victory.

“I was expecting a good turnout, and I think all of the students that showed up really helped the team find some extra energy,” Peterson said.

Wolfe said he feels similarly about the outcome of the homecoming game.

“Homecoming was a blast from the first snap of the game to the double zeros in the fourth quarter,” Wolfe said. “It was a lot of fun.”