For homecoming week every fall, there are home soccer, volleyball, and football games, but there’s also competition within the school: the class homecoming parade floats. Early on, class councils meet and discuss what they want the theme of their float to be, how they’ll build it, and who will be playing what part in the parade.

 In theory, the most creative, well designed float wins. However, students seem to think there’s more at play.

Mia Combs, senior, worked on ‘23’s float this year, as well as last year. She said, “I think it’s honestly nice to know when you are in another grade that you will eventually win as a senior, but honestly for freshman-juniors the real competition is for second place because you know seniors win every year.” 

Combs continued on her past experience, “Last year it was kind of annoying because everyone told us that we should have won, but we already knew the seniors would win.”  

While it can be frustrating to feel like the seniors are guaranteed to win, it doesn’t take away from the fun of the tradition. Eli Sievers, also a senior, spoke on losing last year, “We worked really hard on our float last year. I met a lot of new people, and honestly the experience was so great that it didn’t matter that we lost– it really is more about the experience.” He adds that he’s excited for seniors to have their time to shine this year.

The fairness of this competition will probably always be up for debate, since no one wants to lose. The losing classes will always say they should’ve won, that it was unfair, that only the seniors win. You can decide if you think it’s fair or not, but remember when you lose: there’s always senior year!