Mardi Gras spirit made an out-of-season visit to Baton Rouge on Saturday as the University hosted its annual Homecoming Parade.The Homecoming Committee rounded off a week of activities Saturday morning with the traditional trek through campus.”This year was better than others,” said Deanna Ceasar, a communication studies senior who watched the parade on Tower Drive. “I don’t think enough people knew about it though.”The parade, which was led by Grand Marshal and LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri, snaked through a 3.5-mile route on campus.”We thought he would be perfect being that the baseball team won the national championship,” said Kayla Champagne, chair of the Homecoming Parade Committee. “He did such a good job representing LSU over the summer, so it’s great to have him lead the parade.”    Champagne said the main difference between this year’s parade and last year’s parade was an extended route that took the floats closer to Tiger Stadium. The parade consisted of about 40 units, similar to last year, Champagne said.Anne Murphey — who attended the University in the early ’50s — said she was especially impressed by the length of this year’s parade.”Some parades are here and over before you can blink,” Murphey said. “Things like the parade really make the homecoming weekend special.”The parade consisted of high school bands and floats from both University-affiliated groups and unaffiliated groups.The Homecoming Committee presented three of the floats with “best in show” awards based on creativity, theme, originality and the energy of the participants on the floats, Champagne said.”I remember I was in a sorority at the time, and we would work all day and through the nights on our float,” Murphey said. “Our floats always had a theme for the game and were more creative. These floats don’t really have a theme.”The parade cost about $4,300.  Organizers had to pay the high school bands about $1,000 to participate. The Alumni Association covered a lot of the costs while the Campus Life budget — which is derived from student fees — paid for the rest, said Jacob Brumfield Campus Life adviser to the Homecoming Committee.All of the Homecoming events were funded by $26,160 of student fees from the Campus Life Budget. The Homecoming Committee also received $9,395 from Student Government’s Programming, Support and Initiatives Fund along with smaller sponsorships from other organizations.Jim Rabalais, biological sciences and animal sciences senior, and Melissa Landry, finance senior, were crowned Homecoming King and Queen at halftime of the football game Saturday.—-Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]