Homecoming is a distinctly American tradition, born from college alumni reunions and football games in the early 1900s. The idea was pretty simple: invite former students to “come home,” reconnect with old friends and celebrate the school they once called their own. 

The tradition caught on and spread to high schools during the 1910s and 1920s. The football game became the centerpiece, giving students, alumni, families and the community a good excuse to gather. 

Somewhere along the way, however, homecoming evolved into something considerably more elaborate: teenagers decorating classrooms, dressing up, playing games, building floats, voting for royalty and generally making an otherwise ordinary school week a whole lot more interesting.

After being absent for a few years, the homecoming pep rally returned to Alberton School this year, and the students were more than ready to bring back the Panther Pride.

It was the senior class that approached Principal/Superintendent Amanda Cyr during her second year at the school and told her they missed having the homecoming pep rally. 

Cyr agreed. “I felt like we were overdue for the celebration,” she said. 

The result was a lively pep rally designed to celebrate Alberton’s volleyball and football players and bring the entire school together. 

“This Pep Rally is to celebrate our volleyball and football players with Panther Pride,” Cyr explained. 

The senior class and Cyr planned four games for the gymnasium, including two that mixed younger and older students. 

“We brought back the Little and Big Buddies, which we’re very excited about,” Cyr said.

The homecoming theme was Carnivals and Circus, and students got into the spirit by competing to see which class could decorate its classroom doors with the most enthusiasm and creativity. The gymnasium was just as lively. Students were divided into groups and assigned a color. Each group had three minutes to decide which member would become the human “cone of cotton candy.” 

That student was then wrapped in crepe paper in the group’s assigned color, and the entire school voted on the best creation. Purple took the prize. 

Another competition involved passing a hula hoop around an entire group while everyone held hands. It was a timed event, and the energy in the gym was enough to make it seem as though even the light fixtures were swaying. 

“It’s all about fun and celebrating our kids and our athletes,” Cyr said.

The rally also marked another welcome return to Alberton School: music. 

Frank Harney is the school’s new music director and has about 25 students in his class. The program had been dropped because of budget constraints but is now back, much to the delight of the students. Harney, a recent graduate of Montana State University in Bozeman, is enjoying his new role and staying firmly in the big-cat family as an Alberton Panther. 

“Our music program is going to play the Panther Fight Song, and the choir and student body will sing the lyrics,” Cyr said.

Senior Arya Ray was one of the students who helped organize the homecoming activities. 

“I helped with all of the games and rules. Set them up and how to do them and then a lot of time on the senior float where we’ll be dressing up as clowns,” she said. 

Ray plans to attend the University of Montana and study education. But even after she leaves Alberton, she hopes to find a way to give back to the school and community that helped raise her. 

“In the back of my mind, if the junior volleyball program needs help and my schedule at UM allows, I’m going to come out and help keep it going,” she said. “I want to give back to my school and community.”

That may be one of the best things about homecoming. It is about the excitement of the present, but it also has a way of connecting students with the people and places that came before them, and reminding them that someday they, too, will be the ones being invited to come home. 

Congratulations to all three Mineral County schools celebrating homecoming this season. From the St. Regis Tigers and Superior Bobcats to the Alberton Panthers, the community is proud to cheer you on. Enjoy the games, the floats, the decorations, the crazy costumes and all the Panther, Bobcat and Tiger pride. And when the years have passed and you’ve gone off to wherever life takes you, remember where you came from, because there will always be another homecoming waiting for you.

    One of the contests had students hold hands in a circle and then have a hula hoop passed around where each one had to crawl in and out while maintaining the unbroken circle. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)
  

    Team yellow took second place in the cotton candy contest. The identity of the human inside is still unknown. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)
  

    The Alberton School Homecoming Parade on Friday had older students tossing candy to the younger students on the sidelines. (Amanda Cyr photo)
  

    Alberton music is back with Frank Harney as the school’s new music director. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)