This year Manual’s Basketball Homecoming will take place this Friday, December 9, about a month before it has traditionally been scheduled.

“Basketball Homecoming is always scheduled on a Friday night in which we have home boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball games. With this year’s schedule, the two dates that fit those criteria were before the holiday break,” explained athletic director David Zuberer. The game scheduled for that night is against Manual’s well-known rival, Male High School.

While many administrators feel the early game is necessary, many students are frustrated by the move.

“We had our fall Homecoming just a few months ago, and having winter Homecoming before finals start will be kind of annoying. I will need that weekend to study for finals, and when the semester rolls around there will be nothing to look forward to,” said Oriana Ngo (12).

Many students at Manual seem to share this frustration, which may be a large contributor to the extremely low level of student spirit shown this week. Many faculty members and students have wondered if this lack of spirit will continue over to Friday’s Homecoming Dance.

Regardless, recent Manual dances have already seen a steady drop in attendance. Students have claimed that the administration’s increased supervision has led to the drop in turnout. In spite of this, Zuberer has made it clear there will be no changes in student monitoring this Friday.

While the administration has been making several recent policy and scheduling decisions that they feel are necessary and justified, their decisions may, in fact, lead to lower student turnout and participation in school-sponsored events.

Katie is a senior here at Manual and it is her second year on the RedEye staff. This year she is the assignment editor. Katie plans to attend University of Alabama next year and hopefully later become an ESPN sideline Reporter.