Walking through campus this week one could see posters saying, “Go Green or Go Home,” the Sacramento State mascot Herky entertaining crowds of people or groups of athletes taking pictures.

The reason for all this excitement is Homecoming. This year, various student organizations participated and hosted events to show support for their school.

On Tuesday, numerous athletes and students gathered outside the library quad to take the annual Swarm Day photo. Herky entertained the crowd, and led them in chants of “One, two, three, go green.”

Swarm Day was hosted by Student Activities.

“It was just straight up school spirit. Like, lets go out and do it,” said Miranda McGoon, secretary for the student organization Circle K International, “It’s fun to take the photo, and shout with Herky, and say ‘go green.'”

Student Activities also hosted the second annual poster contest. On Monday and Tuesday, student organizations were invited to come to the University Union and make posters with supplies provided by Student Activities. Voting for the best poster took place on Wednesday in Serna Plaza. The posters were hung between two trees.

Heidi Van Beek, program adviser for student activities, sat at a table in the middle of the plaza encouraging students to vote for their favorite poster.

“This is a great turnout, 17 posters, 150 students have already voted,” said Van Beek, ” I just love to see students working to build something unique.”

Members of Circle K international and Alpha Chi Omega also gathered in the plaza to get students to vote.

“Last year we lost the chance to participate,” said McGoon, “This year we better f****** win.”

First place winners will get $300 for their organization, second place gets $200, and third place winners get $100. 17 student organizations participated in the contest. The winning posters will be displayed at the homecoming game.

The Marching Band was practicing all week to get ready for their homecoming performance on Saturday.

“We are here three days a week, and all day Saturday,” said Clay Redfield, band director for the marching band. “We’ve just been working very hard to have a nice homecoming presentation, and to support our team.”

Redfield said the bands homecoming theme is focused on Motown. They will be playing hits from the Jackson five such as “ABC” and “I Want You Back”. Former alumni will also come and join the band during their performance.

The Marching Band will play in the pre-game and half time show. The band also performed in the Golden Grads Luncheon today.

Also performing at the Homecoming game is the cheerleading and dance team, the Hornet girls. For homecoming they will have a combined routine at halftime. They will be wearing old “retro” jerseys or uniforms of the previous cheerleading and dance teams at Sac State.

“This year will be our biggest performance,” said cheerleader Jessica Becker. “We will have to put all of our skills together.”

The Hornet Girls also participated in the poster contest, and have been passing out ribbons to increase homecoming awareness.

“It’s a hectic week, but it’s definitely worth it,” said Regina Metzker, dance team captain. “It’s always worth it to see all the people at the game. The alumni come back.”

Metzker said she loves the support from fans during homecoming. Metzker says the team has a lot of supporters, even kids who come up and ask for autographs.

“All these people come up to take pictures with us,” said Metzker. “Saying that they didn’t even know we were around.”

Dance team member Amber Iacini agrees.

“It is so fun, it is the best time of my life,” said Iacini. “See all those Sac fans and feed off their energy.”

Zaki Syed can be reached at [email protected]