Live from Coronado! It's Saturday Night Prom (for Grossmont High School)

The prom started even before they got off the bus. The party bus.  Fifty-four Grossmont High School students rode Kenny Mascheroni’s D&D Limo Bus Saturday night to Loews Coronado Bay Resort. Charging $35 per rider, the bus offered a dance hall on wheels—complete with laser lights and fog machine. By the time they debarked to the Silver Strand hotel, they had already kicked up their heels.

Limousines and other buses pulled up on the north side of the resort—the main  entrance on the south side was reserved for kids attending the Kearny High School prom. But the Komets had to trudge upstairs. The Foothillers had the better space—on the first floor—in the Commodore Ballroom. (It didn’t hurt that a Grossmont parent is a top manager of the resort.)  And it had to be big to accommodate 470 Grossmont students and 25-30 staff members working chaperone duty.

Theme of the 2011 Senior Prom was “Around the world in one night,” and students were handed lifelike U.S. passports with various regions and countries to be stamped.

Athletic director Frank Foggiano and Ellen, his wife of 41 years, watched arrivals from an outdoor terrace. (He boasted that his granddaughter Katelyn, the senior class president, was in charge of prom preparations this year.) Inside, a half-dozen female teachers and office staffers applauded every gowned and tuxedoed newcomer making an entrance. ASB adviser Jeremy Hersch and his teacher wife, Amity Ecker, also kept watch. And Principal Theresa Kemper arrived at 9:45 p.m. for the second shift.

A long line of couples waited their turn with the official photographers. But many students brought their own point-and-shoots for free digital memories.  A DJ played recorded music as a large screen displayed live text messages. (“Olivia english will you goo out with me?” “DJ can u please stop playing this wack music.”

The hip hop tunes continued.  No matter. It was all part of the journey.