It’s taking a lot to admit this--but I did not land a date to the homecoming dance my senior year of high school.

Things just didn’t work out. I was between girlfriends, had no serious prospects on the horizon and all the "friend" dates were gobbled up by other guys. I was the odd man out, and I ended up watching the World Series at home while all my friends slow-danced in the high school gymnasium.

Luckily, I went to high school in Missouri. I had another chance.

Missouri is one of a few states to finish up homecoming in October and do it all over again in January. Only it gets a new namecourtwarmingand is centered around the school’s basketball team.

Courtwarming pops up at schools all over the country, but nowhere is it more abundant than in the Show-Me State.

I figured this was the norm across the country, until out-of-state friends in college had no idea what I was talking about. But, surprisingly, my school didn’t differentiate between homecoming and courtwarming. I honestly wasn’t sure which one was considered more prestigious until years later.

The traditions of the courtwarming week mirrored homecoming week at my school—and many schools in the state of Missouri. Almost every detail was done in the fall and re-done in the winter:

•     There is a senior king and queen for both events, voted on by a silent ballot conducted during the week. The underclassmen were represented by having two female "attendants" in the lineup.

•     Dress-up days dominated the week. Hat day was the most popular, but there were countless others over the years: Wacky hair day, cowboy day and gothic day were a few. Fridays were ALWAYS school spirit day.

•     Pep rallies. A Friday afternoon staple, where that season's sports were introduced, the king and queen were crowned and the cheerleaders and dance team performed in front of the entire school. One time, our school had a fundraiser where our principal had to kiss a cow at the pep rally if we raised a certain amount. Another time, a Spanish teacher put a swim cap over her head, stretched it down to her mouth, and inflated the cap by blowing through her nose. This was normal to me.

•     A Friday night gamefootball for homecoming and basketball for courtwarmingwas the thing to do. The king and queen were recognized again at halftime even though they were announced at school earlier in the day.

•     The dance took place on Saturday in both weeks, usually in our high school gymnasium. At the dance, the king and queen had one dance together and the rest of the night was spent hanging with friends and enjoying your dates.

Both weeks were the exact same in Missouri--except for one aspect. Courtwarming was considered a girls-pay-all dance. Guys were off the hook after dropping the dough at homecoming (and eventually, prom).

As for my journey? I did end up landing a beautiful date to the courtwarming dance. Didn’t pay a dime and had a great time.

I guess it all worked out in the end, huh? Thank Missouri for that.

A great blurb by the Buffalo News about

Michael Skinner

About 35 years ago, Skinner felt that homecoming at North had more potential than just a football game and a dance. So he slowly started to make homecoming week a spectacular show. And boy, did he ever.

Among the events that now take place annually at Williamsville North under Skinner's leadership:

-- Dress-up days during the week, including the popular "Senior Dress Up, Underclassmen Grub Day" where the seniors wear tuxedos and dresses and everyone else dresses like they had no plans to leave the house.

-- A pep rally

-- An outdoor dance, complete with a huge fireworks show

-- A Thursday night bonfire, where a massive old boat is dragged into a field and set ablaze by the fire department.

-- Powder puff football games featuring female football teams in each grade.

-- A decorating contest between the classes. Instead of the traditional floats, each grade decorates a cafeteria.

Sadly, Skinner is retiring after this school year, meaning last week's festivities was the swan song for New York's godfather of homecoming. It wasn't without celebration, though: Skinner was named honorary homecoming king by the school during the pep rally.

"I never knew thirty-five years later Homecoming would be what it’s become," Skinner told the News. "This is something that makes us different from other schools. Hopefully I've left something behind that's been a gift to North students."

The Buffalo News chronicled homecoming traditions of several local schools in the well-done piece, so check it out.

Fallbrook, Calif., is known the avocado capital of the world. Tucked into a little pocket in Southern California next to Camp Pendleton, it's a beautiful rural town in a hectic part of the country.

It's even more beautiful now.

Fallbrook High School decided to use homecoming as a way to to give back. Instead of doing the traditional class floats, each class decided to take on four large community beautification projects. According to activities director Josh Way, each class had five weeks to renovate and rejuvenate a local park.

Of course, as homecomings so often are, this was a contest with several awards passed out at the Oct. 10 football game (A 21-18 Fallbrook victory over Rancho Buena Vista ).

The projects ranged from rebuilding gardens to picnic areas to a softball field. Each class ended up taking home at least one award for their efforts, but the junior class won the ultimate prize (as the seniors rained light-hearted boos when the announcement was made).

Of course, even the seniors knew: there were no losers here. After the game, a short video documentary on the projects was played on a makeshift "video board" that was rented for the night.

You couldn't help but leave the game with a smile on your face.

It's pretty crazy to be the start of something special, and have no idea how to get it going because you have no guidance.

This was the woe of my high school.

In 1995, I was a 14-year old freshman at Lee's Summit (Mo.) North High School . In an exploding suburb of Kansas City, Lee's Summit North opened its doors that fall and I was to be part of the first-ever class that would spend all four years there.

As part of the deal with the class of 1996 at the original Lee's Summit High, all the seniors that school year stayed at the old high school to graduate together.

This was great to me. The homecoming tradition of harmless senior pranks on the freshmen (like bringing gel to class and screwing up our hair) was non-existent. We had no seniors.

Of course, it also meant that with no senior class, we were probably going to have an awful football team in 1995.

Sure enough.

LSN was clobbered repeatedly by teams with far more age and experience than our young guns. It was rough. Sometimes, when we had a bye week, our entire varsity team would play a JV game (and fare a little better).

Really, we had one close call on the varsity slate -- the homecoming game.

Homecoming with no senior class was bizarre. Our king and queen were juniors that year (and they were eligible again the next year as seniors). A couple of our star athletes who lettered at the other high school before being moved to LSN had the other school's letter jacket with our school's patches (talk about school spirit). It makes you realize, during festive weeks like this, that a senior class is a crucial part of the day-to-day student life of a high school.

Anyway, after losing our first few football games by about 40 points a piece, LSN played a small private school in Kansas City for our first-ever homecoming. It was a festive night that featured a television station showing up via helicopter to shoot highlights. Of course, reminders that we were new at all this popped up everywhere. Heck, the game was played at the other high school in town because our stadium wasn't finished.

But guess what? We had a chance that night. Our Broncos led at halftime, something like 10-0, and the student section started to buzz that we might witness the first victory in school history. And on homecoming!

Yeah, it was just a tease.

We lost, 26-16, after a second-half letdown. Playing a shortened schedule as sort of a "transition" season, LSN went 0-6 in 1995. It then lost its first six games in 1996 before a 10-7 road victory finally got the monkey off our back.

Soon enough, LSN was a good team. My senior year the Broncos went 8-2 and were one of the most talented squads in the state.

It was impressive growth for a new school. But I'll always remember how awkward that first homecoming was. Seeing the celebration evolve in just four years makes me appreciate the tradition of it just a little more.

It's always a little easier when it's been done before.

I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, graduating from Booker T. Washington high school class of '91 -- home of the Hornets. On game days and homecoming in particular, 30 minutes before the end of final period a rumbling began in the halls of the school. It started at the north end of the building by shop class and the choir practice room, making its way through the building. It was the Funky Ds T-Connection Drum Core and they were in full form: two bass drums, two snares, half-bass and 4-piece toms. Man, they were loud. People rushed out of their classrooms and followed the snake dance out of the main building, then down to the field house for the pep rally. It was awesome. My school didn't just have spirit, we had soul...

I didn't shoot this video, but here's some recent footage of our drum core: