I remember watching my first De Soto football game my freshman year. I was wearing all white alongside my friends and was given a handful of baby powder to toss into the air. Even though it didn’t mean that much, it made me feel like I was part of the school even though I’d only been going there for about a month. This year, white-out was replaced by neon night as the first home game theme.

The school received complaints about the baby powder ban, and looking back at it, not having baby powder is probably a safe decision. However, I don’t think the school necessarily had to take away the white-out theme altogether.

Many alternatives were talked about, and lots of people were on board with just bringing toilet paper or another white object that isn’t as messy as baby powder. For a while that seemed to be the plan, until it was announced that the theme would be neon instead.

White out is a good theme for the first game since most freshmen may not want to buy new clothes for the game and they were all given a white shirt on their first day of high school. It is also a bonus that white is one of the school’s colors.

Neon is still a great theme, but lots of students like the tradition of the whole school wearing all white to celebrate the first game. Many people do not own neon clothes and may have to go out and buy or borrow some neon which can be hard for underclassmen who cannot drive.

White-out was a tradition at De Soto High School, and I think it is a shame that the entire tradition must end instead of just banning baby powder. It’s not too late to make white-out a theme at another game this season, and if that goes well it could go back to being the first home theme like it has in the past.