MATTAPOISETT — A lot has changed at Old Rochester Regional High School in 35 years — new superintendents, new teachers, and new classes — and during homecoming, some alumni can’t help but revisit their alma mater.

Old Rochester Regional High School alumni from the Class of 1988 returned on Friday, Oct. 20, during the school’s homecoming football game against Somerset-Berkley, to officially launch the Bulldog Pride Alumni Association, the first organization of its kind at Old Rochester.

“It’s like we never left,” said Bulldog Pride Alumni Association President and Class of 1988 alumni Thomas Xenopoulos Peccini.

Of course, some things have changed, he said. At one time, homecoming celebrations included floats made by students and a parade featuring the homecoming king and queen.

While the alumni association hopes to bring back some old traditions, it doesn’t shy away from creating new ones either.

Since 2019, the alumni association has given out the Bulldog Pride Award, an annual scholarship that is given to a graduating high school senior. According to a press release from the alumni association, this is the first alumni-sponsored scholarship at the school.

“Our mission is to gather the human and financial resources of alumni,” said Xenopoulos Peccini. “We want to help the students, faculty and staff of [Old Rochester Regional High School] and make sure that we can offer you our resources.”

According to Bulldog Pride Alumni Association Vice President Dana Palmer-Donnelly, the group hopes to partner with the school and offer mentorship opportunities to Old Rochester students who are applying to college.

“We would like to have alumni help current students or those who are graduating,” said Palmer-Donnelly. “Often [students] are trying to get into a school they have no connection to. If we have an alum who happened to graduate from that college, they can get to know each other [maybe] write a recommendation.”

Palmer-Donnelly added that long-term goals for the group include grant programs to assist teachers, staff and even students.

“If there’s something the school needs, you can harness the power of the alumni to help them,” she said.

For Xenopoulos Peccini, working with his fellow alumni in the Bulldog Pride Alumni Association has been “amazing.”

“It's like we're exactly right where we were 40 years ago in 1984,” he said. “It's the same kind of dynamic. And it's amazing that we can still, all these decades later, find our groove and give back to the community. And that's so exciting.”