SEBASTIAN — The Sebastian River High School Sharks proved Thursday that a tradition doesn’t have to be an oldie to be a goodie with their first-ever community homecoming parade.
The sea of royal blue, black and silver, the cheerleaders and the marching band took the school spirit present this homecoming week in the hallways, the gymnasium and the stadium and overflowed it into the streets of Sebastian.
The parade formed at Main Street near the Sebastian River Area Chamber of Commerce and flowed south down Indian River Drive, where students and Sharks fans fanned out into Riverview Park for an impromptu mini-concert from the band.
Plans for the parade began to take shape over the summer, when Sharks Athletic Director Michael Stutzke, who also served as parade chairman, approached city leaders and the business community about supporting the event. Stutzke said the event was “long overdue.”
The 30 or so parade entries, each variations on the theme, Sharks tame the Lions, were judged and a trophy presented to the winners, the school’s Career, Technical and Education Academy, for their silvery mylar-festooned float.
The Sebastian Rotary Club judged the entries and sponsored the trophy, which will pass year to year to the winner. Club president Kristie Woodward, branch manager of Oculina Bank said she thought the event was amazing.
“I wish we would have had one in 1997 when I graduated from Sebastian River High School,” she said. “It was a very good start.”
Woodward said the Rotary enjoys a close relationship with the school through the Interact Club, scholarship programs and various community service projects.
Rotary Past President Dot Judah, who has lived in Sebastian since 1950, said of the parade, “I think it’s wonderful, we love working with Michael Stutzke and the high school students.”
Principal Todd Racine took the microphone under the park’s band shell before the trophy was awarded and declared that this first parade would be a “day to remember” for the school and for the city of Sebastian.
For Viri Diane Cruz, a senior in Sebastian’s Television Production Academy and a Vero Beach resident, the parade will be a milestone in an eventful final year at the school. She rode on the float with the Spirit Club.
“It bumps up the spirit and gets everybody pumped,” she said. “It’s our senior year s we gotta make the best of it.”
For Maira Vargas of Fellsmere, also a senior, the parade represented the chance not just to follow in the footsteps of another high school, but to break the mold.
“We’re always being compared to Vero, so we decided to do this to show Vero something, to show them that we’re just the same as them,” she said. “Vero doesn’t have a homecoming parade and it’s good for us to have something they don’t have — everyone at school was hyped up today.”
The festivities continued Thursday evening with the Powder Puff football game pitting the juniors against the seniors at 7 p.m. and a bonfire at 8 p.m. on the school campus.
Friday night, the Sharks will take on the Olympic Heights Lions of Boca Raton in the homecoming football game at 7 p.m. in Shark Stadium.
