New Hampton announces homecoming plans for next week

New Hampton High School is gearing up for its annual homecoming celebration next week, but it’s going to look a whole lot different this year because of both COVID-19 and the relative earliness of this year’s homecoming football game.
Start with what’s the same.
New Hampton will crown homecoming royalty. Students and staff will have dress-up days — ranging from Jersey Day this Tuesday to Pink/White Out Day on Wednesday to Fancy Clothes Day on Thursday to Chickasaw Gear Day on Friday. And the Chickasaws will play that homecoming football game on Friday — against Northeast Iowa Conference and Class 2A, District 4 rival Waukon.
“Our theme is ‘We’re All in this Together’ and as different as it’s going to look, that’s the message we want to get across,” said Melissa Nelson, the advisor for the Student Senate that puts on the celebration at the school each year. “My hope is that people will understand the changes. We want this to be positive.”
The changes, though, are fairly dramatic.
There will be no pep assemblies during the week and no homecoming dance on the weekend. In the past, the king has been crowned on Thursday night after the parade, but the parade is out in 2020. And in past years, the queen has been crowned at halftime of the football game.
This year, however, both the king and queen will be crowned at a coronation ceremony that will be held at Thursday and not be open to the public.
Instead, Nelson said it will be a “ticketed event” in that family members of court members will be the only ones receiving tickets. But she added that “we’re going to live stream it and record it” so that community members can watch the ceremony either live or on the school’s social media pages.
“We’re taking guidance from Public Health and there good with what we’re doing,” she said. “Do I wish it was different? Absolutely, but I’d rather have this kind of homecoming than no homecoming at all.”