Festivities for homecoming are underway in Denair and will culminate with the Coyotes’ varsity football showdown Friday night against Le Grand High School at Jack Lytton Stadium.
This year’s theme is “Let ’em cook,” and each class at Denair High chose a fast-food chain as inspiration for its parade float.
The seniors selected In-N-Out Burger as their fast-food chain, the juniors picked McDonald’s, the sophomores went with Taco Bell, and the freshmen opted for Little Caesars.
The winning float will be announced during halftime of Friday night’s football game. Of course, the big announcement Friday will come when the homecoming king and queen are crowned.
Good luck to this year’s royal nominees: seniors Madison Gonsalves, Dakota Shaw, Daisy Rosas, Jason Araujo, Ernesto Silva, and Darren Coleman, juniors Brianna Thomas, Alizey Gonzalez, Jazmin Padilla, Bryson Salazar, Cruz Stallings, and Elias Alvarez, sophomores Emery Miranda, Angelique Quijano, Alexa Camacho, Seth Hall, Philip Brigham, and Isaac Maldonado, freshmen Abigail Brasher, Brynna Butler, Avery Andrion, Jose Avila, Nolan Peardon, and Trystyn Runnels.
To get the students revved up for the big game, a rally will be held on campus Friday at 11 a.m. in the high school gym, followed by the downtown parade, which starts at the high school at 12:15 p.m., progresses along Main Street until making a U-turn in front of the Denair Fire Department on Gratton Road, and then returns to campus.
Spectators are encouraged to view the parade from the Denair Food Center parking lot, 4330 Main St., as there will be a public address booth set up there.
The football action — always the highlight of homecoming — kicks off at 5 p.m. with the junior varsity contest. The main event — the varsity showdown for first place in the Southern League — is slated to get underway at 7:15.
The Coyotes defeated Mariposa 21-7 in their homecoming game last season.
Like DHS, each house at Denair Middle School adopted a different chain restaurant: House Amethyst was Chick-fil-A, House Diamond was Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, House Onyx was Starbucks, and House Titanium was Burger King.
In keeping with the food theme, Denair Middle School chose “Feast of Champions” as its theme for homecoming week.
Spirit was raised on both campuses with special dress-up days throughout the week. On Friday, high school students will dress head to toe in their class color — seniors in red, juniors in yellow, sophomores in purple, freshman in orange — while junior high students will go all out to represent their house.
In the run-up to homecoming, students have already enjoyed dress-up days, such as PJ Day (wear pajamas to school), Combo-Meal Day (duo/twin), Just Keep Snacking Day (Disney), and more.
The homecoming dance will be held Saturday from 8 to 11 p.m. and features a 1950s diner theme.
