Inside, the bankers, nurses, moms, granddads and neighbors sporting team colors and screaming Wolves cheers were another dead giveaway. It's homecoming at Monterey High School.

"It's just exciting," mom Susan Clay said from inside the school's gym. "This is what they build up to all year. I would think it's the biggest event of the year."

"It's tradition," Principal Neeva Sibley said. "This is a community-wide event. There are generations here. Three, four generations that have gone to school here."

And the way MHS does things is just a little unique. The small school has no football team — not enough interested players — so homecoming is tied to basketball.

The festivities began Friday just after lunch with a pep rally, presentation of the junior high and high school court and the naming of the queens.

Friday night, the boys basketball team played first — another change — and the girls, escorted by their fathers, sat on the stage in gorgeous gowns. Then the girls on the team changed clothes and played ball.

"I came especially this time for my grandson," she said of the 12th-grader who plays basketball and was an escort in the court. "It's a pretty big event. I'm always glad to see the children in school activities."

"You just have to," he said. "Just to support our school. For our little town it's pretty special. Just about everybody is here. Down here, everyone is so close together, they know everybody."

Senior Brittany Woodruff, who was crowned queen, has been watching the homecoming ceremonies all her life but said she never expected to be the one on the stage, a stage she helped decorate.

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