During the week of homecoming, the halls are buzzing with school spirit, excitement, and talk of outfits.  One group of students, though, are sometimes more anxious than excited: the homecoming court nominees. 

Homecoming court is not an honor that most students anticipate winning. Some are encouraged by friends and family, like senior Sneha Khandavalli. “My sister was the one who encouraged me to run,” Khandavalli said.  “I ran out not  expecting anything out of it, and was surprised to see I won homecoming queen.” Khandavalli was crowned homecoming Queen, along with senior Jack Capobianco, who won homecoming King. As the senior court was announced at the dance, Khandavalli walked out with her sister. 

Although some self-nominated hopefuls didn’t expect to win, students like freshman Jade Lewis were confident in themselves. She counted on the fact that she and her boyfriend, the other grade-level winner Dawson Boupha, would win since they were “the only couple known.” But that didn’t stop her from worrying about the results. “I started having the thoughts of, ‘Oh wow, what if Dawson wins, but I don’t,’” Lewis said. “A lot of my friends told me to not worry about it, because I was just overthinking it.” 

For some nominated students, winning came as a shock. Junior Juhi Vaidya doesn’t have Instagram, so when the results came out, she was surprised. “The results were announced on Instagram, which I don’t have, so when my friends kept on messaging me I was extremely confused,” Vaidya said. “I really didn’t believe it at first, and I was very much in a state of shock. After a while, it settled in and I was pretty excited to see what would happen next.”

Part of the reason why some students doubted that they would take home the crown was due to the limited number of  winners in each grade. The freshman get two winners, the sophomores get four winners, the juniors get six winners, and the seniors get twelve winners. “At least I know there’s not just two spots [in the nominations], there’s more,” sophomore Rodrigue Gomado said. “But that means there’s more of a chance people don’t vote for me because they’re other friends are there.” In the end, Gomado won a spot on the court.

Although running for homecoming court can be intimidating since the outcome is unknown, Khandavalli encourages her peers to put themselves on the ballot in the future. “I recommend to anyone that plans to go to future homecoming dances to run [for court],” Khandavalli said. “It’s such a wonderful experience to be able to have a handshake with a friend at the pep rally in front of the school and to walk down the football field as a senior.”