New Hyde Park Memorial High School hosted its annual Homecoming celebration, a day-long school spirit event including a 1.5 mile long parade, performances from New Hyde Park’s student performing groups and the announcement of Homecoming Royalty. Homecoming is a tradition targeted towards creating a sense of community for both NHP alumni and the current student body. This year, the event took place on Saturday, October 19.
In the week leading up to Homecoming, students participated in Spirit Week. Throughout the seven days, students and staff dressed up according to a daily theme. This year, the themes included Connected through Community, Sports Around the World, White Out, Blue and White and Go NHP.
“Throughout the week the most spirited day by far had to be Blue and White day, especially since we had the pep rally on Friday,” junior Emily Lee said. “Everyone was wearing school merch, uniforms and overall the atmosphere was amazing!”
This year’s Homecoming theme was “Game On!” which was showcased through the decoration of the parade floats and the performances. The Class of 2029 created a life size version of the Operation board game and the Class of 2028 recreated Jumanji through intricate detail and planning. The Class of 2027 brought The Game of Life to the parade, the Class of 2026 executed a float version of Candy Land and the Class of 2025 created a float to mimic the board game of Monopoly.
The Class of 2029 was awarded the top prizes in the junior category, while the Class of 2025 took home the grand prize in the senior category.
“The most fun part about working on the float with my grade was probably the teamwork and creativity that came into play,” Class of 2026 President Kuriakose Jacob said. “Everyone brought different ideas to the table and seeing it all come together was really rewarding. It was also a great chance to bond with classmates outside of the usual school setting.”
“We had students dedicated every single day after school making flowers in [co-adviser] Mrs. Pincay’s classroom, and at the same time, Mrs. Pincay and I helped the directing of the students to flower the float,” Class of 2029 co-adviser Ms. Tiwari said. “We were able to walk with the final product that we worked so hard for and bring it to the community for people to see and interact with.”
The football game featured NHP playing against Mepham High School in a closely contested matchup. Both teams demonstrated strong performances, making for an exciting contest.
Led by senior Clayton Yu and junior Darsh Mirchandani, the Pep Band performed a selection of spirited songs throughout the game to encourage students to keep the energy high throughout the event. Songs played by the Pep Band included “Firework” by Katy Perry, “Fireball” by Pitbull and “Monster Mash” by Bobby Pickett.
“It was awesome being a part of our school’s football games to raise school spirit,” senior Clayton Yu said. “Darsh and I take turns conducting the Pep Band, while Ms. Bagley helps us coordinate timing. I’m really glad to see how the Pep Band has come together so well, especially since we have a larger group of freshmen and junior high members this year.”
In continuation with the “Game On!” theme, the performing groups each curated their costumes and routines to represent different sports.
The varsity Cheerleaders represented American football teams through sporting Jets and Giants jerseys. The Step Team followed a basketball theme, portraying the Knicks and Celtics.
“As a team before Homecoming, we were able to help one another out, assisting each other with hair, makeup, and our outfits as well. Preparation for a performance is never easy,” Step Team co-captain Abigail Alexander said. “We were able to prepare for Homecoming by creating choreography for each dance and making the step as well.”
The members of the Romanettes kick line wore soccer jerseys of various international soccer clubs and teams. The Twirlers took on the classic New York baseball matchup of the Mets and the Yankees.
“The half that were the Yankees playfully celebrated their ‘win,’ while the other half who were Mets were on the ground extremely disappointed in their ‘loss.’ After this short skit, we transitioned into our first song ‘I Don’t Dance,’” Twirler senior captain Janice Zhang said. “I think this skit brought some smiles to everyone’s faces and we certainly enjoyed practicing it.”
At the end of the halftime show, the Homecoming Court was announced by Principal DeGennaro, Assistant Dean Madigan and Class of 2025 Adviser Ms. Vosswinkel-Blum. The Homecoming Court consisted of 12 seniors: Deborah Aderibigbe, Gianna Bonetti, Abigail Chacko, Zury Contreras, Alexa Geigle, Destiny Gillespie, Eamon Griffin, Chris Hijar, Grace Leonard, Alexander Lugo, Andrew Notine and Marco Valle.
Deborah Aderibigbe and Marco Valle were voted by their senior peers to be named the Royal Gladiators of the Class of 2025.
“I’m honored my classmates would vote me for royalty, and I had an amazing experience both at Homecoming and during the court selection process,” Aderibigbe said. “It was exciting to hear my name called by Ms. DeGennaro and I’m so grateful for all the congrats and smiles I received afterwards.”
“It felt surreal when they announced my name as Gladiator Royalty and put the crown on my head alongside Deborah,” Valle said.
Following halftime, the Mepham football team edged out NHP with a final score of 22-18, leaving fans from both sides engaged until the last moments of the game.
“To be honest, Homecoming was nothing like I expected it to be. This being our senior year, I was looking forward to this event,” senior Jeremy Delacruz said. “I am happy though that I got to share that day with my team and friends. Although we lost the game at Homecoming, I was glad I was there to share the loss with the team.”
