Homecoming this year is different, as in special

This was Homecoming weekend for a lot of schools and this year, it’s different.

And by different, I mean special. Maybe even more special than ever before considering we really didn’t have a Homecoming last fall, at least not in the traditional sense. The novel coronavirus-2019 took care of that.

But there is that old sentiment that we don’t know what we have until it’s been taken away. And last year, we experienced that.

Certainly, we lost out on more than a Homecoming parade or two and there are more important things to consider in terms of the impact this pandemic has had on our lives.

But this fall, we’re back. And Homecoming parades, floats, games and dances are back as well.

The tradition of Homecoming is an interesting one as we celebrate the existence of our school and welcome alumni who probably have more pride in the institution today than they did while a student.

Some schools already had their Homecoming and some are yet to come but as I walked into Braves Field for Friday’s football game, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

For the first time since at least the 1940s, the Canandaigua homecoming was not at Evans Field. It wasn’t a Saturday afternoon parade followed by a 2 p.m. kickoff.

As much as I adore history and tradition, I’m not one to lament change either. Evans Field is fantastic, yes, but it was time for a new facility and judging by the consistent turnout the Braves get for Friday night football, the move was correct.

So this year, the parade route was different, the kickoff time was different and the playing surface of the football game was different.

But the sentiment remains the same in that it’s good to be “home,” even if we couldn’t tell friends to meet at the “Beat Our Foe” barn or under the scoreboard. All the geography markers are different now but we managed and we saw plenty of familiar faces that years of living have weathered and exacted a toll.

It’s a toll we all pay, pandemic or not, because the passing of time spares few if any. But to be sure, we’ve processed much since March of 2020 and what we processed is far different than all the years before us.

At times, it’s tough to tell if we can be finished with our new way of thinking and living day to day, or if we’ll be in this mode for years to come. Or even our lifetime. The optimist in us wants all of this to be finished, of course, and we want so much to be “back to normal.”

Those answers are tough to come by definitively, but it’s nearly impossible to deny our new perspective of a pronounced gratefulness these days. Circle back to the idea of not knowing what we have until it’s taken away and every one of us has examples.

I wrote last fall that this perspective was evident because as the shortened fall season was played, the attitude among student/athletes was different. They all wanted to win but it was almost as if their gratitude was centered on just having the opportunity to play, even if they lost a game.

And even this weekend, at least two football games were called off because of COVID-19. One of those games was called on Thursday afternoon, barely 24 hours before kickoff and just like that, players went from preparing for a game to sitting at home pondering a lot of what-ifs.

So maybe that’s why Homecoming this year was different than all the rest. Yes, we’re a year old and slower, but we’re also here.

And no matter how difficult it might have been to get here, that we are is all we need.

Chavez is sports editor at The Daily Messenger. Contact me at rchavez@gannett.com or follow me @MPN_bchavez