Gearing Up for ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ at Halftime : Homecoming: High schools are welcoming back their alumni with 20-minute extravaganzas that can feature a cast of hundreds and a budget of thousands of dollars.

Jim Krembas, principal at San Clemente High School, used to give the same advice to his activity directors every year in preparing for homecoming week activities.

“I always told them, ‘If you’re planning on bringing an elephant on campus, I want to know,” Krembas said. “Otherwise, homecoming is your show . . . it’s your responsibility.”

Krembas thought he was going to an extreme instructing his staff. That is, until activities director Ed Martinez took Krembas’ advice to task.

When Krembas met with Martinez, he used his customary elephant line and Martinez could only smile. “I looked at him and remember saying, ‘Oh my God, you’re going to bring an elephant on campus.’ ”

The extreme has become the norm at homecoming halftime shows on high school campuses throughout Orange County. Hot-air balloon rides, fireworks shows, floats, shark attacks, belly dancers, Elvis impersonators and parachutists have become part of the pageantry.

Gone are the days when five girls in formals were paraded around the field in a convertible. Today, it’s a 20-minute show with a cast of hundreds and a budget ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

“At most schools, if an activities director can get through homecoming week successfully, you’ve made it through the year,” said Mike Bryan, Fountain Valley activities director. “You plan the shows for six months. Sometimes, they’re 10 times better than you anticipate. Sometimes, you bomb.”

John Veeh, activities director at Dana Hills the past two years and now a vice principal, said planning and producing a homecoming show can be stressful and frustrating or a lot of fun.

“You’re doing a 20-minute show with a cast who is not trained to do it in front of 4,000 to 5,000 people,” Veeh said. “My first year, I listened to what the students had planned and was certain it would never work.”

Dana Hills staged “Mysteries of the Orient,” based on an Indiana Jones-type theme in which the queen was announced after the opening of a giant fortune cookie.

“The only problem came when one of the convertibles broke down and we had to push it around the track,” Veeh said. “It was a great homecoming show.”

But for every great show, there are those that fizzle. Krembas’ most memorable homecoming came in 1986, when San Clemente staged “Around the World in 80 Days.”

The script called for Krembas and the previous year’s queen to be launched in a hot-air balloon and then descend on the field and announce the new queen. But sometimes the best-laid plans . . .

Members of the freshman football team held the guide wires as the balloon began its launch. Krembas joked to some, “If you guys let go, none of you will graduate.” Instead, the players allowed the balloon to drift too high and it caught the winds coming off the nearby San Diego Freeway.

“They couldn’t get us down for 20 minutes,” Krembas said.

San Clemente was penalized for delaying the start of the second half, and what seemed like a good idea was sent adrift.

Poor timing spoiled the announcement of Dana Hills’ homecoming queen one year. The students planned to have the queen announced by a plane towing a sky banner at halftime of a Saturday afternoon game.

But the plane arrived early in the second quarter, spoiling the big announcement. Undaunted, the school’s student body president went on with the show and when it came time to name the queen, he told the crowd, “And now , the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . . “

Bryan, the P.T. Barnum of the county’s activities directors, has orchestrated elephants, clowns, shark attacks, belly dancers and laser light shows in 11 years as activity director at Pacifica and Fountain Valley high schools. Bryan’s secret to a successful show?

“Pre-planning and organization,” he said. “The more kids you get involved, the easier it is to produce a show. I thrive on the fun of the kids getting involved. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding.”

But even Bryan had a show bomb at Pacifica.

The students built a float that emulated Rubik’s Cube. The float was supposed to lead a parade of cars into the stadium, but one small detail had been overlooked: No one bothered to measure the width of the float to see if it would fit through the gate leading onto the field.

The float caught in the fence and had to be destroyed. Rubik’s Cube was never solved.

“I had to tell the kids who had worked so hard to build the float to tear it apart,” Bryan said. “We finally got the cars in the stadium, but we were penalized for delaying the game.”

Every activity director has a story about a show that delayed a game. Three years ago, an Elvis impersonator cost Bishop Amat’s football team 10 yards in penalties to start the second half of a game against Servite.

Bishop Amat coaches fumed on the sideline as the impersonator sang, “Hunka, Hunka Burnin’ Love” while the referees marched off a hunk of yardage. Later, some joked that this was one time Elvis took his time leaving the arena.

Ron Huesser staged his 21st homecoming, “Ticket to Paradise,” Friday at Santiago High. The Polynesian theme featured palm trees, huts and balloon arches and two balloon releases. Santiago’s homecoming, the earliest in the county this year, presented some unique problems.

“We started planning in March by picking the theme and had the princesses selected last year,” Huesser said. “If there’s anything I’ve learned in 21 years, it’s take care of the details, and when push comes to shove, the kids will come through.

“The two biggest changes I’ve seen in recent years is that alums don’t come back and the dances are more popular than ever.”

Bryan, ever the entrepreneur, devised a novel idea to attract alumni to celebrate Pacifica’s 20th anniversary in 1985. He formed a committee of students to contact every homecoming queen and princess at the school and invited the women to a reunion.

The committee found three of the original five court members from 1965. The event drew 46 queens and princesses, including four who were pregnant.

“Ask yourself, ‘What is homecoming?’ It’s bringing back the alumni to the school for one night of memories,” Bryan said. “I figured out what better way to get some of the school’s alumni to return than to invite all the queens and princesses.

“I had people call that year for blocks of 100 tickets from different class periods. We sold out the stadium.”

Bryan is planning another big production Oct. 19 to celebrate Fountain Valley’s 25th anniversary. He has invited the original faculty members, homecoming queen and her princesses and the four principals who have served at the school to be honored at halftime.

He has received confirmation from 46 teachers and is planning a reception before the game at Sea Cliff Country Club in Huntington Beach.

As activities director Sheriene Barth approaches her first homecoming, “Fairy Tale Magic,” at Dana Hills on Oct. 12, she can be assured the school will continue to stage one of the best halftime shows in the county.

This year’s show will include floats built by the school’s four classes in either a fairy tale or Disney theme. On any given day, 30 to 50 students will work on the construction of the floats. Building materials, lumber and party supplies are donated by local merchants.

Kurt Spiedel, a faculty member, handles the lighting and sound, giving the production a professional look. The floats, which are pulled by trucks or built on the flatbeds of large trucks, are limited to 20 feet in length and height.

“It never ceases to amaze me how nice the floats turn out,” Veeh said. “It always seems that the kids’ imagination is endless.”