Ami Le

Junior Ami Le walks next to her class float during the Homecoming football game. “After finishing [construction on] the whole [float], we loaded it onto a truck that we rented, and then our sponsor, Mr. Sarmiento just drove it around,” Le said.

Students from each grade designed and constructed floats that were displayed at the Homecoming football game on Friday, Sept. 27. The float designed by Class of 2026 won the contest, followed by 2025 in second place, 2027 in third and 2028 in last.

Each class worked on the initial designs for about a week, first coming up with a concept that represented the class’s theme for this year.

“We had a couple meetings and created a sketch and a CAD of the model,” senior Jaylen Gallo said. “The class theme was Hakuna Matata, which is relaxed, and it also related to the Lion King movie, and so the float was kind of a jungle scene.” 

The float council members then had to physically construct the floats, which was often a tedious process due to the rainy weather of Homecoming week and other roadblocks.

“There were quite a few challenges,” sophomore Ami Le said. “First of all, we had to decide what materials to make the float in the first place. We were thinking of either cardboard or wood. There were a few challenges, like incorporating tech ideas into it. We ended up being able to use our Arduinos from last year and prepare to drive it around.”

Float council members also had to ensure the floats could be transported to the school after being constructed at individual houses.

“We designed everything without a truck in mind, and we were going to do the maximum [size] that we could do,” freshman Nihira Gole said. “I think it was nine by eleven or something. Then, when we got our truck, [the float] was way too big. It couldn’t fit on the truck, so we had to shrink everything down. We also didn’t know how to attach it to the truck because we were thinking about using a trailer, so we had to create our own way to attach it to the truck.”

The float-building process ended up being a rewarding experience for members of each class’s float council.

“I would say it was a really fun experience,” Gallo said.  “I learned how to use some power tools, which is really fun. It was just a great experience, with project management and working on the team.”