Written By: Devin Varner, Staff Writer
TEAMWORK: Poly bears participate in the annual homecoming parade by creating unique and innovative floats.
It’s that time of year again; students dress up, play some football, and dance all night. That’s right, it’s homecoming season. A time-honored homecoming tradition at Riverside Poly High School is the parade, where the homecoming court and football team are featured, but that is not the best part. In the parade, each class competes to win the best homecoming float. Poly is the only school in Riverside Unified School District that does these floats, but it’s not easy. A lot of work goes into the float building process. First, a theme is created by the poly ASB; each class is responsible for their own design and material. Then, the classes have a week to complete its float using only wood, chicken wire, and hand-made paper flowers. Finally, at the parade, the floats are judged by Poly staff members to decide the winner. All students are encouraged to participate and help their classmates come together to create a masterpiece.
This year the homecoming theme was festivals; each class was given a famous festival to inspire their floats; the Freshmen were Lollapalooza; the Sophomores were Stagecoach; the Juniors were Rolling Loud, and the Seniors were Coachella. In a not-so-shocking turn of events, the seniors won the title of best float. “Our float was the best,” confirms Poly student Sophie Galoustian (12). The seniors’ float had the most bears and displayed a great amount of detail which earned them their winning title. It was “rigged,” exclaims student Peter Krieger (11) jokingly. He then continues to explain that “the seniors had the best craftsmanship and the best bears.” When asked what advice he had for the future bears for float building, senior Mark Ybarra replied that students need to “work together, make a new friend, and have staples!”
The float building tradition creates an incredible atmosphere for the Poly Bears to become closer and bond with each other. There is nothing like staying up all night with your peers working till the last staple completes your float, then stepping back and admiring the work every single one of you helped create. “It was a great class bonding experience and a lot of fun,” reminisces Ybarra (12), whose favorite part of the float building process was “talking to people [he] had never talked to before.” This goes to show the unity a seemingly simple tradition provides to a group of young students.
Winning Senior Float