Gallery • 10 Photos

February 5th marks the end of the first week of our annual winter homecoming week at Saint Joe. Unlike previous years, due to extra COVID precautions, homecoming week has been spread out into two homecoming weeks. Currently, St.Joseph High School is in hybrid mode, where half the school is attending in person and half is attending online. The first week’s themes were Pajama Day and Disney day. Despite not having the entire student body together to celebrate Catholic Schools week, we are still able to show our Saint Joseph swag in full. For the first week, the halls were full of cozy pajamas and a melting pot of Disney characters and Mickey Mouse shirts. When students were asked about how they felt about the extended spirit week, their reactions were very positive.

For example, when asked about the topic, Senior Jonathan Liu said,”I like it a lot, it extends a special week and lets us keep showing school spirit!”

Along those lines, Senior Girl Boss Clare was happy to have more days to celebrate her favorite school. Senior Hunter Horan was excited about having more than one week to dress up in clothes other than his school uniform. Overall, Spirit weeks has been going well.

However there is one downside to this extended spirit week. Every year, there is a pep rally at the end of the week to celebrate teachers and students. However, due to COVID restrictions, the school was unable to gather everyone safely in the gym, which means that the annual teachers vs. court game was cancelled. In place of this event, the school made the most of it by hosting a virtual pep rally. Regardless of not having the typical Homecoming festivities, the Homecoming court remained optimistic.

When asked about the current pep rally situation, Katie Kloska, a Homecoming court member, said,”The virtual pep rally obviously is not the same as how it normally would have been like in past years without COVID, but i am still excited that we found a way to make it as normal as possible in a fun unique way!”

Another member of the Homecoming court, Manny Alaniz added,” As a freshman, one never imagines that they’ll get on the homecoming court. Now I’m here, and I am just very happy and excited to be a part of a very amazing group of people!” COVID cannot stop Saint Joe from showing their school spirit!