Huntington Homecoming 2025 is Spectacular

Huntington High School’s Homecoming Day celebration was spectacular last Saturday with a parade down Main Street and up New York Avenue, an exciting football game and a fun halftime show capped off with performances by the Blue Devil marching band and the Highsteppers dance team.

The Huntington Booster Club was behind creation of the first Homecoming Day parade in 1972. Its popularity since then has ebbed and flowed, but this year’s was one of the best ever as representatives from all eight school buildings in the district marched behind their banners.

Participation in the last Saturday’s parade appeared to be the most in at least a decade and included hundreds of students, building principals and district level administrators, school board members, parents, teachers, teams and clubs.

Special event days were held throughout the week at the high school in the run-up to Saturday’s festivities. Friday afternoon’s pep rally at Blue Devil Stadium saw varsity teams introduced to applause from the crowd. Athletes performed short skits and the Blue Devil marching band played for the crowd.

Each of the high school’s four classes built parade floats throughout Friday, finishing up after school. The floats were a big hit on Saturday as the parade winded down Main Street and up New York Avenue.

Saturday’s activities played out in warm temperatures under bright sunshine. The Blue Devil marching band performed along the parade route, drawing merchants and customers out of stores and onto sidewalks.

Unsettled weather on Thursday led to the cancellation of the bonfire and festival planned for the high school parking lot. But students were able to shake off any disappointment and enjoy Friday’s float building and the pep rally, a soccer doubleheader under the new Alumni Field lights, Saturday’s parade and a big win in the football game.

Homecoming was organized by the student government, including its school-wide executive board and faculty advisors David Moriarty and Danielle Raguzin. Individual classes and their officers, members and advisors were also heavily involved in the event, especially the construction of floats.

This year’s Royal Court included king nominees Juan Erazo Urcuos, Alvin Luna-Mancia, Jaipreet Singh and Jean Riboul and queen nominees Kiley Barch, Nyah Grigg, Mindy Najera Flores and Kymora Dorvilus.

The parade float competition was captured by the seniors with the juniors in second place, the sophomores in third and the freshmen in fourth. A panel of judges made the determinations, thoroughly inspecting and grading each of the floats prior to Saturday’s parade.

The teenagers gathered on the Blue Devil Stadium running track during the pep rally and were introduced to the crowd. Superintendent Beth McCoy and Principal Rochelle Brown crowned Mr. Luna-Mancia and Ms. Barch, king and queen, respectively.

Alumni spanning many decades attended Saturday afternoon’s football game against Centereach. The Booster Club manned the Blue Devil Stadium field house, offering an assortment of food and beverage choices, including grilled sports fare.

“What an incredible Homecoming weekend,” Mrs. McCoy said. “The energy and spirit throughout the community were absolutely inspiring. The parade was very well attended, and the floats were amazing, demonstrating a true showcase of creativity and school pride. Congratulations to our football team on a huge win against Centereach, and their phenomenal season thus far! Thank you to everyone who helped make this weekend so special. Go Blue Devils!”

Mr. Moriarty and Mrs. Raguzin spent many weeks working closely with the student government officers and individual class advisors to coordinate the week’s events. The two faculty advisors are veterans at guiding student leaders through all the organizational details associated with such a big undertaking.

The theme for the parade floats was “Mobile Games” with the freshmen producing “Candy Crush” and the sophomores creating “Among Us.” The juniors had “Minecraft” and the seniors had “Block Blast.”

“Each class worked really hard since the end of the last school year to prepare these floats,” Mr. Moriarty said.

“The float competition was an all day affair,” Mrs. Raguzin said. “Student government officers and volunteers from physical education classes and beyond helped build the floats on Friday. They all worked so hard to create floats that represent some of our favorite mobile games.”