As Homecoming season approaches, the Sentinel-Times looks forward to celebrating students at three of the schools we now cover — Stockton, Plainville, and Palco. Natoma does not celebrate a fall Homecoming.

With our expanded coverage area comes something we are learning along the way: not everything can be done the same at every school, at least not all at once.

For more than half a century, a Stockton Homecoming tradition has been recognizing fall student-athletes individually in the newspaper. Each student is pictured individually, along with his or her sport, class, parents, and the name of a business or individual who has sponsored that student’s recognition.

It is a tradition that generations of Stockton families have enjoyed, and one we did not feel right discontinuing.

At the same time, we want to make one thing very clear: we would like to do the same thing for Plainville and Palco.

However, these individual student features are only possible with sponsorship support from area businesses, organizations, and individuals. With the number of student-athletes in- volved, it takes considerable community support to make a project like this possible.

Rather than asking Plainville and Palco businesses to commit to something they have never seen before, we felt it would be more appropriate to continue Stockton’s long-standing tradition this year and let our neighboring communities see exactly what the Homecoming student sponsorship features involve.

Think of this year as an opportunity to show what we do in Stockton—and what we would very much like to do countywide in the future.

Once Plainville and Palco businesses, parents, and community members have seen the finished Stockton Homecoming edition, they will know in advance what to expect. Then, as we plan for next year, we can determine whether enough sponsorship interest and community support exist to offer the same individual recognition to their student- athletes. The support we have received from our neighboring communities since expanding the Sentinel-Times has been wonderful, and we are extremely grateful. We certainly do not want anyone to interpret this year’s difference in Homecoming coverage as a lack of interest in recognizing Plainville and Palco students. Quite the opposite— we hope to grow this tradition.

For this year, our Plainville and Palco Homecoming coverage will feature team photographs of the fall sports, as well as cheerleaders and dancers, along with photographs of the 2026 Homecoming candidates vying for king and queen. We will also cover the Homecoming activities and celebrations themselves.

Meanwhile, Stockton’s traditional individual student-athlete sponsorship features will continue.

After you see Stockton’s Homecoming edition, we would especially welcome input from Plainville and Palco businesses, parents, and community members. Would you like to see this same type of individual recognition offered to your students next year? Would your business, organization, or family be interested in sponsoring a student?

If support is there, we would love to see this long-standing tradition grow into something we can offer countywide.

And with that said, it is already time to begin preparing for Stockton’s Homecoming edition!

Stockton’s Homecoming coverage will appear in the October 8 issue of the Sentinel-Times, which means we are now looking for businesses and individuals interested in sponsoring a fall student- athlete.

If you would like to participate—especially if you have a particular student in mind whom you would like to sponsor— please contact the Sentinel-Times at 785425-6354 or email sentineltimesnews@ gmail. com.

Thank you to the businesses, organizations, and individuals who have supported this Homecoming tradition through the years, and to all of our communities for continuing to support the Sentinel- Times as we work to recognize and celebrate students throughout our coverage area.