Everybody rushes to their seats, the lights dim, and the doors close. The projector reads: “Welcome to the Sammys.” As the hosts take the stage, the annual senior superlative show officially begins. 

Directed and produced by Leadership, the Sammys ceremony awards senior superlatives with categories ranging from “Best Dressed” to “Worst Driver.” The show is meant to celebrate the graduating class every year with student submissions guiding the nomination and final voting process. 

“It’s the best, most fun event of the year,” sophomore Class President Meredith Schmitt said. “We started planning in the first week of March, and it’s just satisfying when it all goes right.”

As Co-Chair of the event, Schmitt spent the past month organizing the event alongside the Sammys Chair junior Summer Hurst. 

“It was tedious and required lots of communication with seniors, which is difficult [at this time of year],” Schmitt said. 

Nevertheless, the ceremony came together, with student presenters and entertainment bringing the show to life. The Sammys encourages students to get involved, with some nominees also presenting awards and participating in intermittent entertainment. 

After the first seven awards were presented, senior Nicole Parron sang ABBA’s “I Have a Dream” as the first entertainment act, which was followed by senior Kyle Galarza’s presentation of the “Best to Take Home to your Parents” award. 

“I made the script myself, and I got to improvise a bit,” Galarza said. “The best part was being able to make people laugh with my hilarious jokes.”

The only student to take home two Sammys awards this year, Galarza won both “Best Bromance” alongside senior Brendan Beldowitz and “Most Likely to Never Leave Oviedo.”

“The ceremony [made] me realize that our time here is actually coming to an end,” Galarza said. “[It was] just last year I was watching those seniors [receive] their Sammys.”

After the second round of Sammys, student band The Agenda performed a rendition of Green Day’s “Basket Case.” Senior Mateo Guardado played bass, senior Alex Adkins was on guitar and sang vocals, and junior Colton Mohre played drums. 

Immediately after, senior Parth Goyal presented the “Worst Case of Senioritis” award to senior Kayla Rrapi. Fittingly, in her acceptance speech, she told the crowd she “actually didn’t go to school [that day].”

Creative acceptance speeches truly made the 2026 Sammys personal to the graduating class, in addition to the audience’s antics. As every time Mitchell Richmond took the stage, people would shout “Mr. President!”, and across the room echoes of “I love you, Kaden!” could be heard when senior Kaden De La Rosa went up to accept the “Biggest Glow Up” award.

“I really liked seeing everyone get involved, especially when people were clapping along” senior Samantha Orne said. “I feed off that energy as a performer. The more they give, the more I can give.”

Orne was nominated for “Most Likely to Brighten your Day” and “Performing Arts Prodigy” and she sang “Stick Season” by Noah Khan accompanied by her guitar as the final entertainment act of the ceremony.

“There was a lot of nostalgia,” Orne said. “I [felt] like ‘Wow, I just had my last show, my last performance.”

The last three awards had the auditorium bubbling with bittersweet anticipation, as one of the last senior events of the year inevitably came to a close. 

“This is the last time I’m going to be in the same school as all my friends,” Orne said. “But I’m also really excited for the journey ahead and all the self-discovery that I’m going to do.”