Homecoming Court talks about float building. And the winner is...

After four days of float building, painting, and bringing DreamWorks movies to life, the votes are in, and we have a 2026 Homecoming Float Winner!

Homecoming Spirit Week stretched across four days of traditions, including themed dress-up days, two pep rallies, the Powder Puff game, and the homecoming football game and dance on Saturday. Rain ultimately canceled the Friday bonfire and the highly anticipated all-district parade. Although the day was dampened, Wildcat spirit was not; students and homecoming organizers were determined to find another way to share their creative floats and skits with the community.

Their solution was the first online Homecoming Float Vote.

Before we reveal the results, let’s rewind to the start of homecoming week, when the Transportation Garage once again became one of the district's busiest places. Students in all four grades gathered there from 6:00 to 9:00 pm Tuesday through Friday, working in teams to build their class floats and turning this year’s DreamWorks theme into four mobile scenes to roll down Main Street. Their planning started even earlier, with students getting together during the first weeks of school to brainstorm and sketch designs, gather materials, and figure out how to divvy up the work.

Students choose the Homecoming Court by vote from those peers who take part in float building. This year’s king, queen, princes, and princesses were glad to share their insider look at one of Warwick Valley’s most beloved traditions.

_{See a gallery of Homecoming Court photos below this story!}

This year, the juniors were especially eager to get started. The class held weekly planning meetings all month leading up to build week. The team solicited ideas from classmates, and Fiona Sezack put them to paper, sketching mock-ups of their Trolls-themed float before building began.

Once it was time to build, students quickly found their roles. Junior Jennifer Walker said her class really delivered on the artistic side.

“We had a really good artistic group this year,” she said. “The Troll characters, the smaller details tucked throughout the float, they were all hand-drawn. I think the art was probably the thing we were most proud of.”

The sophomores found a system that worked for them, assigning leaders to specific tasks to keep things moving on their Shrek float. Lyla Brown said her peers gravitated toward the areas where they felt most confident, with one or two taking the lead on each project. Playing to their strengths, sophomore Kasen Roecker took on woodworking and spent a lot of the week framing Shrek’s outhouse and building supports for other pieces.

“[The outhouse] was one of the float’s standout features, so I was really focused on the woodworking,” Kasen said. “I was just trying to stay in my little zone.”

The freshmen brought their minds together for a Megamind-themed float in their homecoming debut. They filled the design with references to both the movie and Warwick Valley, two of the float “must-have” details for judging, along with shout-outs to football and the Spirit Trophy. Their spinning football checked off another requirement: a moving feature.

The seniors went into this year’s build determined to defend the float title they won last year. It was all hands on deck, as even more students turned out to work on the class’s Madagascar float, knowing it was their final Homecoming together.

“I feel like there were way more people this year because everyone wanted to experience it,” said team member Olivia Cupo. “There were so many people that came through for our senior class. We all took pictures, and it was just way more memorable because it was our last year.”

The seniors experimented with new materials, creating a sustainable element: a tree made from recycled plastic bottles, pool noodles, and cardboard leaves. A downed airplane with a spinning propeller was their moving element.

Some projects called for a little more horsepower. Junior Arthur “Finn” Buliung spent several days engineering the Trolls float moving feature using a linear actuator powered by a motorcycle battery. He engineered a remote-controlled system that opened a flower to reveal a football at the touch of a button. It took plenty of good old trial and error, which made it more rewarding to see it come together.

“It doesn’t look hard to make… but it was very hard to make,” Finn said. “That’s what I’m most proud about.”

Because of Saturday’s rain-out, the four classes gathered back at the bus garage with their completed floats. Each float also included a brief, accompanying skit that matched the theme and told a story. Students from WVHS teacher Dan Cecconie’s video production program joined the team at the garage to film the skits and edit their footage into a video to share with the community. So, while there may not have been the usual crowd of purple and gold lining Main Street this year, the floats still found their audience.

Watch the video right here...

For the first time, community members could watch each class’s presentation online and have a say in which float won.

“It was definitely disappointing that the parade was rained out, but with having it videoed, there was so much more exposure with the floats,” sophomore Madaline Guddemi said. “So many more people were able to watch all the different skits, all the different floats, and vote.”

Senior Anna Biondi said that Saturday morning, while different for sure, did feel more relaxed than past homecoming parade days. For one thing, the students actually got to watch the other classes perform.

“That was nice because usually we don’t get to watch our other friends do their skits because they’re either ahead or behind you,” Anna said. “We got to see everyone’s best work!”

The turnout to dismantle the floats and clean up the garage was also bigger, with more students readily available to help. WVHS Principal Georgianna Diopoulos noticed how the change in plans affected the mood at the bus garage, noting how easily the students adapted to and embraced the morning for what its uniqueness.

“They really just went with the flow and made the most of it,” she said with a smile. “Being at the bus garage on Saturday morning was so fun. The kids had a blast. They just enjoyed being together and getting to perform their skits.”

The students each had plenty to say about what they enjoyed and took away from homecoming. They said the tradition brings them closer; they love the opportunities to share talents and discover new ones, and to take on different roles and solve problems together along the way. After four years of homecoming camaraderie, Class of 2027 President and 2026 Homecoming Queen Anna Biondi has learned that something almost inevitably goes differently than planned. This year was no exception, but she said figuring it out along the way is part of the experience.

“It teaches you to roll with the punches,” she said. “Things go wrong, but if you kind of just are like, ‘OK, it’s fine,’ and you figure out a way to fix it, usually it turns out fine… maybe even better!”

So, who won the first-ever Homecoming Float Vote?

• 1st Place: Sophomores – Shrek
• 2nd Place: Seniors – Madagascar
• 3rd Place: Freshmen – Megamind
• 4th Place: Juniors – Trolls

2026 WVHS Homecoming Court Gallery