Senior Night

Everyone nation wide knows about this. Everyone in a sport has had one. I'm talking about a senior night. What is a senior night for? Well, seniors are a big part of a sports whole. This is their last year in the sport and so they deserve some recognition. It is a big night of endless turns in emotion, and for a good reason.

While the seniors are happy that their grade school years are finally at end, they also have to say good bye to a lot of their good friends as well as their coaches that they have worked with for so many years. Generally, there is a dinner before a big game or meet that the entire team or squad gets together for. This can include anywhere from just the team, to the team, coach and the teams families! As you can imagine, this can get rather large. 

Generally, the actual event then takes place with the announcement for the recognition of the seniors participating. Sometimes there is a small narration over what that senior has accomplished over the years. The parents in the audience can then shout with joy over the amount of pride they have in their child. 

There are also times where the seniors have to make boards with collages of pictures and knick knacks of things they have accumulated over the years from being in whatever sport they have participated in. Not only do friends and family of the athlete them self get to see their friend or family member and how they have transformed over the year, but the other families of other athletes get to see and learn more about the athletes their child has participated in sports with over the years. 

Another famous tradition that has happened over the years is the senior gifts and passing down of traditions. It is up to the underclassmen on the varsity team to get a gift for a certain senior on the team. After everyone is assigned they all open them around the time the board activity ends. These gifts can be anywhere from gag gifts to gifts that represent their personalities, to gifts that can get them farther in whatever they are going into after they leave this year.

It is amazing what this night can bring out in people. They can completely change perspectives on the people you have spent so long with. You can have these emotions come out that you never thought could be brought out about your friends. It also gives the athlete them self to have one last time to shine as a senior in front of all those important people.

Tears in my eyes,

-Hangin' from a clothesline