By Shayan Abbasi
The homecoming assembly was a period’s worth of theatrical productions, student participation, and just loads of fun! Consisting of a Stranger Things theme, the assembly gave students a chance to dive into the “Upside Down” and pump up for the Homecoming game occurring later that day. However, there have been mixed views on how the assembly should change next year, such as a return to an indoor venue.
The Stranger Things theme of the assembly remained hugely popular with students, with the songs making up the musical score of the show’s opening season. These songs were used as soundtracks for several dance performances, consisting of color guard performing a routine to “Should I stay or Should I go” and a pep squad routine to “Master of Puppets.” The dance team performed a routine as well, dancing to a medley of songs such as “You tell me that you need me”, “Sunglass at Night and “Seperate Ways.”
The assembly was centered around Vecna maliciously trying to take over Fountain Valley High School. As a result, students had to partake in activities to save the school, such as Simon Says (or Vecna Says) and collecting plastic balls in a bucket representing collecting souls, a reference to the widely acclaimed 4th season of Stranger Things. To top it off, the Homecoming Court performed a swing dancing routine to “Every Breath You Take”. These activities all increased student engagement in the assembly, a must for pumping up school spirit.
Several students were interviewed and asked about their thoughts on Homecoming assembly. While there were differing views on the memorability of the assembly, there was little doubt of its effectiveness in hyping up students for the homecoming dance itself.
“There is very little difference between each Hoco assembly,” junior Steve Chiu said when asked how this year’s assembly compared to previous years. “And therefore to remember anything from last year’s Hoco is a really difficult challenge.”
However, Chiu recognized ASB, the dance team and pep squad performances in the assembly, saying that they all performed exceptionally well.
Chiu also commented on how successful the assembly was in increasing morale for Homecoming.
“Apparently the unanimous consensus on [the Homecoming dance] was underwhelming, to say the least,” Chiu said. “But I guess in hyping you up for Hoco, I think [the assembly] did a good job at that. So I guess it hyped you up for it but the [Homecoming Dance] itself didn’t deliver.”
Other students like junior Princeton Nguyen and freshman Jocelyn Tran saw the assembly as a big hit.
“I thought the assembly was pretty good,” Nguyen said. “It was nice to see the final product of everyone’s hard work.”
His favorite moment of the assembly was the color guard dance routine set to “Should I stay or Should I go,” a popular 80’s tune by The Clash.
For Tran, the dance team’s performance was the peak moment of the assembly.
“I really liked the dance team performance… it was like really professional,” Tran said. “I just thought they were all synchronized and the dance and the music itself was just great.”
When asked how the Homecoming assembly can improve next year, junior Collin Choe advocated for indoor assemblies.
“I felt maybe we could switch back to more indoor assemblies,” Choe said. “I feel that ever since COVID-19, we did switch [to] outdoors and that’s understandable, but indoors [give] a lot more creative opportunities for teams.”
Overall, apart from concerns about technical aspects and memorability, the general consensus was that the assembly achieved its goal of amping up school spirit, just in time for the Homecoming game against Huntington Beach and the Dance.
Students were engaged throughout the entire assembly thanks to an amazing ASB production, the pep squad, the dance team and the color guard.
