Cheers, music and candy flying through the air set the tone as Argo High School’s junior varsity cheerleaders marched with their coaches at Saturday’s Homecoming parade.
Families lined Archer Road, kids scrambled for flying packs of Haribo gummies, and alumni shouted greetings as the parade moved along its new route.
The lineup started at 8 a.m. in Bridgeview Gardens Park, with step-off at 9. Floats, cars, and teams turned on north on Archer Road, east on 63rd Street and ended in front of the high school.
“It’s nice to just have everyone together in one place,” said JV coach Rocio Lopez, at her first Argo Homecoming. She said her girls were eager to perform alongside younger students. “Today our middle schoolers will be cheering alongside us, in celebration, of course!”
Coach Courtney Serak added that the familiar and new faces of turnout stood out, she said, “You just kind of look around and you see people from different areas everywhere.”
Alumni blended into the crowd, cheering alongside families. Emily Croucher, Class of 1971, propped her lawn chair for the parade with family and friends, she said the parade has remained a highlight for her family across three generations.
“I’ve come to the parades for years, and now my kids and grandkids are part of it, too,” she said, recalling her own time working in the athletic office. Members of the Class of 1985 were also out along on the route.
Portillo’s staffers joined the celebration, handing out T-shirts, hot dog stress toys and plenty of coupons; they could have passed for the parade’s coupon kings and queens. Mayra Carrillo walked the route in a burger costume, alongside Paul Kloppmann, Jake Wilcox and alumna Nya Hereford, Class of 2020.
Hereford, once a varsity cheerleader, called it a full-circle moment to return. Kloppmann and Wilcox said they hoped the community would “relish” in the excitement. Portillo’s has long ties to Argo: founder Dick Portillo graduated in 1957, and in 2016 he and his wife Sharon donated $1 million to help build the school’s performing arts center.
Generations of the Valdez family also marched. Instructional aide Breanna Valdez walked with her parents Lisa and Nelson, and brothers Sebastian and Brody, now a junior. “It’s a community,” she said. “Growing up, this was always something we always did and now it’s something that I see kids that I know and teachers that I know taking part, and it’s awesome.”
On the sidelines, the Spuck family celebrated as 6-year-old Peyton cheered for her brother Hunter, a soccer player from Heritage Middle School.
For many, the day came down to tradition. As Breanna Valdez put it, “Growing up, Homecoming was always something we always did.”
