COVID-19 has inspired many changes to the usual way of doing things this year. With that comes the addition of boys on the homecoming court. In years past, five senior girls, four junior girls, and three sophomore girls were nominated by the student body. Each girl got to pick a boy in her grade to escort her. Court was restricted to only female representation. New student council sponsor, Natalie Davey believed boys should have the chance to represent their school. 

“They had asked principals in years past and they had never had it approved and so I was like well, new sponsor, new year, new principal, I’ll see what he says,” Davey said, “and Dr. Griep was like ‘yup, do it’.”

According to Davey, when the court is restricted to only girls, half the student body is left unrepresented.

“We’d love to represent as much of the student body as we can,” Davey said. 

Not only has the addition to boys impacted the homecoming court routine, but COVID-19 has also forced the sponsors to make adjustments compatible with the pandemic protocol. For fall homecoming, the maids were escorted by their parents, given that they lived in the same household.

“Essentially, it will be the same as it was in the fall, so we’ll still have three males on sophomore, four juniors, five seniors,” Davey said. “For the assembly, they will still walk with a parent or family member like they did in the fall with COVID restriction, that way they can walk without their mask on.”

According to Davey, with the help of the fall homecoming court, it will be easier to set up knowing how to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions. 

“I feel a little better about it because the fall was so much change and so I feel like, even though we are adding a whole bunch more people on the court, we know the guidelines, we know what we had to do to figure out how to even have homecoming in the fall,” Davey said. “Granted, there’s still a lot of moving pieces and there’s things that we need to figure out, but I feel better after having done it once.”

According to Davey, the rest of the ceremony, format-wise, will be consistent to that of fall homecoming and will be live streamed during advisory, except boys will join the girls on the Promethean-board-ceremony. 

Sophomore nominee, Blake Mussino believes the addition of males was much needed. 

“I feel like boys should be more included in these sort of activities whether it be HOCO, Colors Day, or even prom,” Mussino said. “I think that it makes the whole thing more of a school experience since everyone is able to participate, not just a specific group of people.”

According to senior Noah Livingston, the addition of boys to court was more of a bonus than a long-overdue necessity.  

“I’m not sure if left out would be the way I put it, but I can generally say that most guys were not upset about being able to be selected for court,” Livingston said. “I had always felt this was something for the women of our school to enjoy and a way to highlight the awesome women of Har-Ber.”

Like Mussino, Livingston believes it makes sense and claims it will probably take a little while to normalize itself. 

“I think this tradition should continue,” Livingston said. “It makes sense and seems the most fair.”