Homecoming is a spirit fueled event that often comes with competition. Homecoming elections are among the main events and it all starts with posters made by the candidates to persuade people to vote for them.

The candidates running for king include seniors Andy Gallegos, Adonnis García, Roman Carr and Isaac Serrano. The girls running for Homecoming queen are seniors Ailis De Luna, Lové Tovar and Sydney Vasquez.

“It’s a great time for people to get recognized and get out there and have people vote for them, because they support not only themselves but they support their school by getting involved,”  Student Activities director Chris Lopez said.

Some candidates ran for the experience

“It’s my senior year and I just wanted to do as many things as I could,” García said.

Other students wanted to be a symbol of inspiration.

“I wanted to represent people who don’t have the courage to run,” Serrano said.

Others have past experiences with the whole process.

“I ran for Homecoming Queen eighth grade and I won, that is when I decided that I wanted to run my senior year,” Tovar said.

Candidates take a lot of time to prepare their campaigns.

“We actually planned the campaign in the summer. It took us three weeks to make sure everything was set and to know when everything was going to come in on time,” Tovar said.

Inspiration came from many different places.

“I got (ideas) from Pinterest. Others came from my mom because she was pretty excited for me for me to run,” Vasquez said.

Other candidates were inspired from quotes.

“My theme ‘Level Up’ is from the song “Level Up”, it just clicked in my head and I performed to the song and everything,” García said.

There are rules candidates must follow.

“The most challenging rule was having to have good grades and good discipline,” García said.

Other rules involved the way the candidates promoted themselves.

“We had three main posters and a lot of flyers, but I feel like people got tired of those, I feel like I wanted I feel more posters around the school, that would’ve helped,” Tovar said.

Even though the number of posters were limited,  the candidates were still allowed to give out wristbands, shirts and food.

“I spent, about $700 because because I made posters and flyers. We bought a lot of food, pins, shirts and wristbands, but it was all worth it,” Tovar said.

All that work could not have been done without the help of the candidates friends.

“The few friends that I had helped me with the posters, go to stores and get ideas,” Vasquez said.

Along with the fun of the festivities, there are many factors that could make someone not want to run for homecoming king or queen.

“It’s not easy. It’s actually hard and through the years I’ve seen the competition has gotten stronger,” Lopez said.

Some candidates considered quitting the elections.

“I was scared because I felt like I wasn’t going to win, but I was like, ‘you know what, I’ll just do it. If I don’t win, I don’t win, and if I do I’ll be happy with the results’,” Tovar said.

Most candidates agreed.

“I would do this again, it was very exciting,” García said, “It was a good experience.”