t’s the time of year again when the leaves change colors, the air is crisp and football is everywhere.

It’s also time for Homecoming 2002 to begin, so get your black-and-red gear on and turn up that Northern spirit.

This year’s homecoming theme is “Huskie Power: More than meets the eye,” which officially gets underway at noon Sunday with a volleyball tournament at the Office of Campus Recreation.

“The OCR is sponsoring the entire tournament,” said Stephanie Cheehy, CAB’s homecoming co-coordinator. “We had an event called Huskie Games scheduled instead, but that was canceled and the volleyball tournament took its place.”

Also on Sunday is the talent show, which starts at 5 p.m. at the Holmes Student Center’s Duke Ellington Ballroom.

“There are about 14 or 15 acts scheduled to perform, who aren’t necessarily all Greek organizations,” Cheehy said, “because the talent show has a cash prize and isn’t based on the points [as with other greek competitions]. We have a wide array of acts performing, such as a guitar player, singers, tai-chi performers and dancers.”

After the talent show, all 10 members of the Homecoming Court will be presented and the king and queen will be crowned.

“It depends how the show flows that determines when the crowning takes place,” Cheehy said. “The king and queen will be present for Yell-Like-Hell, the parade, the barbeque and the game on Saturday.”

New this year is “Rice Mania,” which is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the King Memorial Commons. “Rice Mania” consists of putting your name on a piece of rice. Cheehy said that they had this event a couple of years ago and it was such a success that they brought it back.

Also new is Tuesday’s “surprise event,” The Feud, at 8 p.m. at the Ellington Ballroom.

“It’s pretty much just like “Family Feud,” but with teams of eight,” Cheehy said. “There’s a host and an audience and they get asked questions. We had something similar last year that went really well and we hope to get the same response this year.”

One event that nobody really goes to, but should, Cheehy said, is the parade, which is at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

“We were told this year that if we don’t get more people involved in the parade and if it doesn’t run smoothly, it will be eliminated from future years,” Cheehy said.

Homecoming Coordinator Julie Hodge is organizing the parade, which has about 30 participants as of now. Anyone interested in joining can do so until Monday by calling Hodge at 753-1580.

“We really want to get more of the community and alumni involved in the parade,” Cheehy said. “We love the Greeks and are so excited that they are in so many of the events, but we should get everyone involved, because homecoming is for everyone.”

The biggest goal that Cheehy stressed is that she wants to get more people involved in all of the week’s events.

“Everything’s free!” she said. “That should be an incentive to go to the events. Plus, a lot of students had mid-terms this week, and next week should be a great stress-reliever for them.”

Many students, alumni and community members attend the tailgating before the game on Saturday and go to the game as well, but Cheehy hopes that changes.

“We hope that people assimilate to the events all week long, before the game,” Cheehy said. “Have fun all week long.”