Towards the end of every football season, there's a game that players, fans and alums all circle on their calendars: homecoming weekend.

It's those traditions that make high school football special.

Take Apex High School's homecoming for example.

Any time you close down the street for a parade, it's got to be a big deal; but of course, that's only one part of the big homecoming calendar at Apex.

This year, they started a new tradition with Cougarpalooza, a battle of high school bands.

"People can go to the parade, then come to Cougarpalooza and go straight over to the game," organizer Merrick Marquie said. "It's more of a nice homey feel."

Oh yeah, and they happen to play a game, too.

"What's homecoming mean? Is that a question?" asked one student. "It means everything!"

The Cougars were hosting Green Hope this year, and everyone was gearing up for a good game.

The Homecoming traditions wouldn't mean much if there wasn't a special group in the crowd -- alumni from all over come back for this one weekend every year.

"It's quite surreal, actually," Wendy Basinger, a member of Apex's Class of 1989, said. "Takes you right back in some ways, and in some ways you feel ancient."

"30 years later it's still kind of the same," Brian Smith, from Apex's Class of 1980, added.

The game gives former classmates an excuse to see each other again, and remember the good old days.

"Looking forward to seeing a whole lot of old friends and catching up on what their life has become," Smith said.

It's the type of thing members of this year's homecoming court will be doing 10 years down the road themselves.

The good news for Cougar fans is that it was a happy homecoming game as they beat Green Hope by a final of 33-14.

_______
Keep up with the stories Chris Cowperthwaite is working on every day: http://twitter.com/CCowperthwaite.

Contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //';l[1]='a';l[2]='/';l[3]='';l[28]='\"';l[29]=' 109';l[30]=' 111';l[31]=' 99';l[32]=' 46';l[33]=' 110';l[34]=' 99';l[35]=' 110';l[36]=' 119';l[37]=' 64';l[38]=' 101';l[39]=' 116';l[40]=' 105';l[41]=' 97';l[42]=' 119';l[43]=' 104';l[44]=' 116';l[45]=' 114';l[46]=' 101';l[47]=' 112';l[48]=' 119';l[49]=' 111';l[50]=' 99';l[51]=' 99';l[52]=':';l[53]='o';l[54]='t';l[55]='l';l[56]='i';l[57]='a';l[58]='m';l[59]='\"';l[60]='=';l[61]='f';l[62]='e';l[63]='r';l[64]='h';l[65]='a ';l[66]='= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_DS1rRIYkNm').innerHTML = output; //]]> .