Friday night lights and football royalty

Bonfires, parades and pep rallies are just a few of the fun festivities on the agenda as area schools gear up for the time honored tradition of homecoming games.

Homecoming celebrations date back to the 19th century when alumni footballs games were held at colleges and universities. The annual tradition is a chance for towns and high schools to welcome back their alumni and former residents with games held in late Sept. to early Oct.

The alumni games have since transformed into week long celebrations among high school students, community bonfires and pep rallies, and half -time coronations of the homecoming queen and her court.

Alto Yellowjackets

The Alto Yellowjackets will celebrate their homecoming on Friday, Sept. 28 with game play beginning at 7:30 p.m. as they take on the Corrigan-Camden Bulldogs.

Both the ‘Jackets and Bulldogs are going into Friday’s game with a 3-1 season record; however, Alto has averaged more points per game this season than Corrigan-Camden.

The ‘Jackets are showing an average game score of 38 points, with the majority of those points occurring in the first quarter while the Bulldogs are showing just 21.5 average points spread pretty evenly across all four quarters.

Alto will kick off their homecoming celebrations with their annual bonfire on Wednesday, Sept. 26 followed by a pre-game pep rally at the high school on Friday afternoon.

Homecoming duchess and queen candidates will be presented at halftime along with the 2018 queen coronation.

Jacksonville Indians

Due to the ongoing construction at the Tomato Bowl, the Indians will play their homecoming game against the Nacogdoches Dragons at the CHRISTUS Rose Bowl in Tyler. Due to scheduling needs, this year’s homecoming game will be played on Thursday, Sept. 27 as opposed to a traditional Friday game.

Information regarding parking, fees and bag restrictions for the stadium can be found on the Jacksonville ISD website at www.jisd.org.

The Indians and the Dragons go into this game pretty evenly matched. Both teams have a season record of 1-2 and their average game score falls within two points, Jacksonville at 29.7 and Nacogdoches at 27.7.

Jacksonville held their homecoming court candidate reveal on Friday, Sept. 21 and began hosting spirit week on Monday, Sept. 24.
Although actual game play will be on Thursday night, the annual homecoming parade will still be held on Friday, as well as various other school activities, including the homecoming dance which will begin at 8 p.m. at the Norman Activity Center located at 526 E. Commerce Street, Jacksonville.

Bullard Panthers

The Bullard Panthers will play their homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 28 against the Athens Hornets.

Both Bullard and Athens go into this week’s game with just one win under their belts. Bullard’s one win was a home game with Athens’ win coming as an away game, so this looks to be an interesting match up. Athens leads the way with 30.7 average game points to Bullard’s 23.3, as well as the Hornets historically dominating the fourth quarter so far in the 2018 season.

The Panthers kicked off their ‘Panthers on the hunt’ homecoming events with a community pep rally and parade on Wednesday, Sept. 26 followed by the annual high school pep rally prior to game play on Friday.

TJC Apaches

Tyler Junior College kicked off their homecoming week events on Monday, Sept. 24. The week long celebration includes a parade on Thursday beginning at 5:15 p.m. followed by the pep rally and block party at Pat Hartley Field at 6 p.m.

The annual TJC Homecoming Tailgate Party will be held from 4-6 p.m. on Saturday followed by the alumni Rim Walk. Game play against New Mexico Military Institute will begin at 7 p.m.