The theme of Homecoming week this year is children's TV shows, with the seniors representing “Scooby Doo,” the juniors representing “Phineas and Ferb,” the sophomores representing “Spongebob Squarepants” and the freshmen representing “Dora the Explorer.” Leadership, class officers and many students in each class have prepared for months to have each day comprise of one of the class’s skits, a dress-up themes relating to the class performing that day, lunch-time rally games that students from each class compete in and food drives.
2021: 'Phineas and Ferb' make a title sequence
By Shivani Gupta
A group of juniors wearing white t-shirts ran onto the rally court stage at 10:28 a.m. and arranged themselves into a group formation, kicking off Homecoming week with their dance to “Today is Gonna be a Great Day,” the “Phineas and Ferb” theme song. Phineas and Ferb, played by juniors Alex Sanchez and Siddhant Patel, respectively, like in every other episode, began by figuring out what they were going to build that day — the Party Machine, which would “wake up [the] sleepy students and turn them from boring old Squidwards to laughing SpongeBobs,” according to Phineas. The Fireside Girls then came on stage to help Phineas and Ferb build the Party Machine and performed the first dance.
The skit consisted of the typical elements of a “Phineas and Ferb” episode, with Perry the Platypus receiving his mission to check up on Doofenshmirtz’s evil plan to evict MVHS’ school spirit; Doofenshmirtz introducing his evil Fire Alarm-inator, which had the goal to ruin social events and eventually finals week; Baljeet helping the brothers create the machine and Doofenshmirtz attempting to carry out his plan but ultimately being defeated by Perry.
The Class of 2021 incorporated different elements to the skit that made it unique to their class, including a Perry-themed boys’ dance, a co-ed dance and a performance from juniors on the Bhangra and Andaaz teams. They finished with all of the actors and dancers forming a mosh in the middle of the stage and chanting “2-0-2-1 can’t be undone!”
2023: Dora and friends explore the depths of friendship
By Alyssa Hui and Robert Liu
A remix of the theme song from “Dora the Explorer” resounded throughout the rally court as cousins Dora and Diego, played by freshmen Shreya Jayakumar and Medhansh Kashyap, walked onto the stage. Dora, visibly upset after losing a quest for her first time, burst out in anger and left the stage. Curious after witnessing Dora’s explosive exit, Dora’s friend Map, played by freshman Anika Mathur, entered the stage to ask Diego why Dora was unhappy. The subsequent conversation between Diego and Dora revealed the group’s predicament — Swiper, played by freshman Itai Lavi, had kidnapped mascots Monte and El Toro. After discussing a plan with their friend Boots, played by freshman Katelyn Yeh, the group then became determined to win back the mascots and defeat Swiper. After some convincing, they manage to regain the support of Dora on their journey.
When they reach Swiper’s den and see him with the captured mascots, Diego, Dora, Map and Boots instinctively become hostile towards him, repeatedly chanting “Swiper, no swiping!” They quickly come to realize, however, that Swiper is just like them — feeling dejected from losing quests. The group happily include him and ultimately win the quest as one team.
The Class of 2023 included lively boys’ and girls’ dances, choreographed by Jayakumar and freshman Rachel Chen, and concluded with a Tik-Tok inspired co-ed performance. The freshmen then huddled in the center of the stage, chanting, “Who you wanna be? 2023!”
2022: ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ makes his way out of Bikini Bottom
By Vivian Jiang and Anish Vasudevan
Day three of Homecoming week began with the sophomore co-ed dancers loudly cheering “Aye, aye captain” to the show’s theme song as the main characters, Spongebob, Patrick, and Sandy — played by sophomores Rayan Narayanaswamy, Shruti Sharma and Sophia Bokovikova, respectively — were introduced. The skit followed the protagonists as they battled Plankton, played by sophomore Avi Das, after he steals the secret formula for the Krabby Patty with the help of his computer sidekick Karen, played by Seo Eun Kim. The skit ends with Plankton being arrested and Sandy asking out Spongebob to the Homecoming dance.
Intricately choreographed boys’ and girls’ dances accompanied the storyline, and the sophomores ended their skit with their co-ed performance. The sophomores then gathered in a circle towards the center of the stage as confetti shot up in the air, and cheered “2-0-2-2, we’ll show you!”
2020: The Scooby gang solves their final mystery
By Leanna Sun
On the final day of Homecoming week, the Class of 2020’s Scooby gang took the stage as the main characters Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby — played by seniors Alex Yang, Spoorthi Adiga, Ellie Damozonio, Sean Fell and Ryan Burke, respectively — kicked off the senior skit. The group was determined to discover who had kidnapped the missing mascots, Monte and El Toro, and eventually solved the mystery. Initially, Shaggy and Scooby were hesitant to join the others to solve the mystery, but they were ultimately swayed when offered Scooby Snacks. Upon unraveling the mystery and capturing the villain, who was revealed to be leadership teacher Jenna Smith, the group learns that she stole Monty and El Toro to unite the school and have everyone work together to find the missing mascots.
The seniors arrived at school well before first period to practice their skit and rehearse their dances a final time. Dances included both a girls and boys dance that were performed early in the skit, an appearance from Bhangra, Raas and Andaaz, as well as a co-ed dance that concluded the skit. The music and lyrics for the co-ed dance were specifically chosen to connect back to the seniors’ final Homecoming at MVHS.