Coming home
Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles marking the 50th Anniversary of Hartselle City Schools.
On Sept. 26 the Hartselle Tigers will celebrate Homecoming in a game against the Woodlawn Colonels. Hartselle has long valued its Homecoming traditions even though they have changed a bit over the years to reflect trending tastes.
For many years Hartselle has celebrated homecoming week with themed dress up days that have culminated in a Pep Rally intended to mobilize the team to victory. And for many years, those Pep Rallies were held in Petty Gym. There was a little glitch in the late 70searly 80s when that gym was being renovated.
Those “renovation pep rallies” were held outdoors on the area of the campus where the original high school structure had been torn down. At the time, the then-high school (and current junior high school) had not constructed its current library, classrooms, and suite of guidance offices, so the site of the tear-down was graveled and wide open.
On Friday game days, a flat bed truck pulled into the space and served as a make-shift stage. The team, the cheerleaders, and the band together with the throng of students excited for the big game made a pep rally happen anyway.
But after a bit, the then-newly renovated Petty Center opened its doors and pep rallies were back in session with cheerleader-led call and response cheers between the classes who proudly stood in their marked bleacher territory and vied for the ever-coveted Spirit Stick.
Parades and dances were also part of Hartselle’s Homecoming history, but today’s Tigers instead enjoy a week of events that involves altruistic and often creative fundraising drives from Homecoming King candidates, elaborate class-built yard structures that celebrate the Tigers’ big game, exciting and wellattended Powder Puff games that pit class against class in an effort to determine a school champ, and student-produced skits with varying themes and musical numbers which wow the average onlooker year after year. Classes’ performances in each of the competitions result in points, and those points are added to the Battle of the Classes points to produce a Homecoming Spirit Stick class winner.
The Battle of the Classes? Male and female students are selected by their peers to represent each of the classes in field day-esque activities that measure skill and endurance. As has always been the case, Seniors want to win their last hurrah, and freshmen want to be the ones to deny that victory.
And speaking of Seniors and Freshmen and Pep Rallies, I can recall one Pep Rally in Petty Center where the ever-confident Seniors called out to the Freshmen across the gym, “Freshmen, Freshmen don’t be blue; one day you’ll be Seniors, too!” That year’s quickthinking class of ninth-graders responded with, “Seniors, Seniors don’t be blue; next year you’ll be Freshmen, too!” And that’s really the story here. Year after year. Class after class. Students who think they will never miss those halls after they make their great escape in a cap and gown, but then find they sometimes do. And find that, long after that last high school pep rally, life remains a series of freshmen moments and senior moments.
The difference-maker is having family, friends and maybe a few fans who will rally around us with words of encouragement designed to keep us playing hard and coming home. And red and white balloons don’t hurt.
