The SHS winter dance is less than a month away, and teachers and students have been planning for weeks. Snowcoming will take place on Feb. 15 from 8 to 10:30 p.m. It will be semi-formal, and the theme of the dance this year is “Cardinal Forecast,” centering around the four seasons.

“I think that what we’ve found is that no matter what we do, how we do the dance, everyone is excited to have a dance in the winter,” student council sponsor Joseph Leonard said. “Everyone seems to have a good time and look forward to it.”

The dance has been informal for the past two years, as the SHS Booster Club tried to line the date of the dance up with a basketball game the same night so students could wear what they wore to the game. This year, the schedule did not align, so the Booster Club decided to keep it semi-formal. 

“I’m excited to do semi-formal again,” senior and student council member Brynna Reynolds said. “I feel like more people get into that than they did the casual.” 

Hallway decorating competition is a tradition of the week leading up to Snowcoming. Each class is assigned specific school sports or extracurricular activities to feature, and students from the respective classes are responsible for decorating their designated hallway. Seniors have the main “fishbowl” hallway, juniors have the math hallway, sophomores have the social studies hallway, and freshman have the science hallway. 

Decorating will start after school on Friday, Feb. 7 and continue on Saturday, Feb. 8 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m, later followed by judging. 

For the second year in a row, there will also be a school spirit competition for students during spirit week. At the end of the week, each class will have one student winner who collects the most points, but the top two seniors will be named Mr. and Miss Cardinal at the dance. 

“I think it was fun last year when I did it,” junior and 2019 sophomore class winner Mariah Murillo said. “Of course it was fun winning, but I did meet a lot of new teachers doing it.”

In order to be entered to compete, teachers will nominate specific students, and those students will receive a slip of paper they have to get signed by teachers for things they do throughout the week. 

Students can earn up to as many points as they want per day, and there are three different criteria that students can earn points from: academics, spirit and service. 

“We want to empower the students, so it’s based on points,” science teacher Stacey Matlock said. “We want a well-rounded student, so it’s not just academics, it’s (also) volunteering and spirit.” 

Tickets for the dance will start being sold on Monday, Feb. 10 at $5 each. 

“I’m looking forward to students having a good time and for students to enjoy themselves during the week…,” Matlock said. “…I’m excited to see all the students get involved for Snowcoming and do service.”