Leadership students at Oakdale High School are ramping up their preparations for football homecoming on Friday, Oct. 7. Students representing each class at the high school will paint windows along F Street in downtown Oakdale with the “California Adventure” theme on Saturday, Oct. 1 to help infuse some Mustang spirit into the community.
Window painting starts Saturday morning where the seniors will paint the Chase bank windows on the corner of F Street and Yosemite Avenue, juniors will showcase their art skills on the windows of the Edward Jones office, sophomores will paint the Wells Fargo bank windows, and freshmen will paint up windows at the Corner Café.
Homecoming week kicks off on campus on Monday, Oct. 3, and each day will have a special theme where students are encouraged to dress the part and participate in lunchtime activities. Monday is Beach day, students can dress up “beach-like,” but need to keep the school dress code in mind as it will be enforced. The lunch activity is a Hawaiian Luau with a limbo contest and hula hoops.
Tuesday, Oct. 4 is Agriculture day – overalls, straw hats, and other ranch attire are encouraged. The lunchtime activity is a petting zoo put on by the Oakdale FFA members.
California Jersey day is on Wednesday, Oct. 5 – students can wear California sports team jerseys. A tailgate lunch will be held in the parking lot where DJ Cameron Sluggett will play tunes and host a football toss. That night at 7 p.m., the senior girls will play the junior girls in the annual Powder Puff football game in the OHS stadium (The Corral).
Thursday, Oct. 6 is a minimum day and students will dress according to their class themes that fall under the California Adventure umbrella. Seniors will show their hearts for San Francisco as Alcatraz inmates, fisherman, business leaders, hippies and so on. Juniors will go Hollywood as movie stars ready for the red carpet, sophomores will go granola as they highlight Yosemite’s wonders as hikers, or perhaps even as trees or big rocks. Freshmen will find their happy place with the Disneyland theme, dressed as characters and tourists.
Spirit Day is Friday, Oct. 7 where students will wear red and gold. Each class is also assigned a dominant color. Seniors, black; juniors, red; 10; sophomores in white; and freshmen, yellow. A school rally during the school day will pump up the student body.
Friday afternoon the Homecoming Parade will snake its way through downtown Oakdale, starting at 1:45 p.m. The parade route will start at West J Street by the OHS soccer fields, turn left (north) on Gilbert Avenue, turn right (east) on West G Street, turn left (north) on 1st Avenue, right (east) on F Street, right (south) on 3rd Avenue, and then right (west) on G Street to continue on in front of the high school.
A Grand Marshal was selected by leadership students to lead this year’s parade – counseling office secretary Dana Hernandez will assume the role. The four classes will each have a float, the OHS marching band will perform Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” in the parade, all homecoming queen, king, princess, and prince candidates will also be in this year’s parade, along with various clubs from the high school being represented.
The junior varsity game kickoff is at 5 p.m. against the Lathrop High School Spartans at The Corral. The varsity game kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. with homecoming royalty coronations during the varsity game halftime. The OHS homecoming dance will start following the varsity game and go until midnight.