Horizon Honors’ homecoming is coming up on Jan. 28 from 7 p.m. – 11 p.m. at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, and the homecoming court nominees have just been announced:

Freshman:

Prince – Roman Corey, Dacotah Hyde, Giovanni Marquex

Princess – Jordan Cook, Camryn Dunn, Samantha Garcia

Sophomore:

Prince – Gabe Knippers, Joshua Lesio, Burke Wood

Princess – Gabby Castronova, Pilar Rivera, Mirjam Werther

Junior:

Prince – Max Allen, Luke Butler, Zach Lockwood

Princess – Ella Coste, Dianara Lopez, Addie Martin

Senior:

King – Loren Ferguson, Zane Greenwalt, Bryan Huffman

Queen – Giuliana Castronova, Maya Paniagua, Krista Santacruz

Prince – Spencer Brown, Kevin Kim, Aaron Tam

Princess – Macy Danner, Kelleigh Hogan, Tiana Oster

Homecoming court is an American high school and college tradition, but Horizon Honors does it a little bit differently. The nominees don’t really campaign, and it generally isn’t a popularity contest (since the school isn’t as clique-ish as some other schools). We also don’t have a football team, so our homecoming game is boys’ varsity basketball (this year it’s at 7 p.m. vs Tempe Prep). Homecoming itself dates back to the early 19th century, but it’s unknown exactly when the royalty part was added in.

Most high schools’ and colleges’ homecoming royalty are the most popular people in the school, and they take it pretty seriously. To me, it’s superficial and demeaning. For the winners, it boosts their self-confidence (sometimes in a negative way), and for the rest, it could be devastating. Sometimes, people are nominated as a joke and get made fun of for it. The court also isn’t gender neutral, excluding same-sex couples and transgender/gender-fluid students. I hope to see some changes about that within our school and other schools in future years.

So what do you think: is homecoming court ridiculous or is it just a way to get people excited for homecoming? Whatever your opinion is, hopefully, you have fun at the dance nonetheless.