Milford’s 2022 homecoming week was an out-of-this-world experience! The annual week of festivities began on Sunday, Sep. 25. However, Homecoming planning started before the school year had even started. This year’s homecoming was much earlier in the school year than most other years. Milford Leadership students had to plan before they even began attending classes, and they did not disappoint.

This year’s theme was based around space and was officially called ‘Mission to Milford.’ Milford began the week on Sunday evening with an ‘out-of-this-world’ powderpuff football game. The seniors and sophomores or the “Top Dawgs” took on the freshmen and juniors also known as the “K9 Killers.”

It was a low-scoring affair. The final score was 13-2 in favor of the K9 Killers. The Killers MVP was split between Riley Mitchell and Allison Deep who both contributed big plays to lead The Killers to a victory. Coco Drew turned in a top performance for the Top Dawgs.

Milford’s spirit week was highlighted by different themed days, all related to space. Monday was “Space Jam day” where students all wore their favorite sports team jersey. Tuesday was called “Twosday” where students cloned with each other. Wednesday was “Out of this World” day where students dressed as their favorite superheroes. Thursday was Alien Day and students dressed in their best neon clothes. The week was capped off by Class Color day on Friday.

The Milford Pep Assembly concluded the school day on Friday and was headlined by Bruce Maverick winning a fight against the Waterford Mott Corsair by KO (knockout). The seniors were also crowned the spirit week champions, yet again, for showing the most spirit throughout the week as well as winning a few lunch and assembly games such as mat surfing. “I was part of the senior mat surfing team and that was one of the better highlights of my week,” Senior Sam Lewis said. “It was cool to be with all my friends and have our whole grade cheer us on.”

Lewis and fellow Seniors Sarah Rand and Luke Jaklic all agreed their favorite part of the week was the Homecoming Parade through downtown Milford, as did Leadership teacher David Gilbert. “Our parade is a tradition,” Gilbert said. “Themes of homecomings may change over time, and different quirks or scenarios take place, but the parade always stays the same. I think it is great to involve the community and see the community benefit from what we’ve done as a high school. It’s really cool to see all levels of school and other members of the community come together and celebrate the week.”

Directly following the parade, Milford’s first annual community tailgate took place at the High School. Burger Joint, Buenos Tacos and Kona Ice provided plenty of food and treats for everyone to enjoy before they went to cheer on the football team. “The tailgate was awesome,” Jaklic said. “I was part of the Leadership committee who organized it all and it was really cool to see it all come together and so many people from our community participate.”

The football team took on the 4-1 Waterford Mott Corsairs and they proved to be no easy matchup. Mott controlled the clock and only left Milford with 13 minutes of possession time. Milford could not score fast enough as they fell to Mott 20-7.

Despite the sour result on Friday, Milford students were able to enjoy the Homecoming Dance on Saturday.

“This homecoming was special to me because it’s my senior year, and having gone through so much between the end of freshman year and now, it was really awesome to just have a normal homecoming that I could enjoy with my friends,” Rand said. “It just made the week that much more special to me and everyone else in our class.”

As said by many, Milford’s homecoming week was indeed out of this world. With help from Leadership students and members of the community, this made the freshmen’s first homecoming memorable, and the seniors’ last unforgettable.