With the closing of the fall sports season comes a long cherished tradition across Roosevelt teams: Senior Night. Over the past four years, athletes from the Class of 2022 have anticipated their celebratory evening, featuring everything from roses and speeches to blown-up images of each senior player’s face plastered on signs made by underclassmen.
This year, the moment is a time for teams to recognize the perseverance of their seniors through a season of uncertainty, but also of renewed spirit, in their first full season in close to two years.
Senior nights are sport and activity-based, where seniors in each sport have a special night designated to celebrate their success and accomplishments, not only relative to the sport they play, but also to their academic achievements. It’s an opportunity for seniors’ families and friends to recognize each athlete’s involvement in and their positive impact on the Roosevelt community.
While the custom was able to continue over the course of online learning, it was often limited in comparison to previous years, with various teams unable to share food and drink or have full audiences as a group. Being back in the building has allowed sports teams to fully revive their traditions.
Senior Night for women’s volleyball took place Oct. 20, the evening of their final match against Franklin High School. After the game, coaches and players got together with spectators to highlight each senior and talk about their role as an integral part of the team and community, in addition to touching on the players’ plans after high school.
Pictured above, clockwise from upper left: Connor Ridenour, Georgia Boone, Booker Jay, Abby Zappone, Katie Thorson, Ayden Wagner, and Joe Davis
For seniors themselves, the night can also serve as a moment of self-reflection. In an interview with the Roosevelt News, senior Lauren Guise, the captain of the varsity women’s volleyball team, looked back on her athletic career at Roosevelt and the most memorable parts of her senior year so far– among them being spirit week.
Guise loved how students came together at school and brought that sense of pride to represent Roosevelt at sports games. In particular, Guise says that she’ll miss the team bonding, mentioning that with just nine seniors on the team, the group was able to get close and really support each other.
When asked how participating in a sport helped her become immersed into the community, Guise simply says that “Honestly, it was the best thing for me.” Beyond just forming connections, playing a sport from when she was a freshman, up until now, has allowed her to take on a leadership role.
Guise continues by saying how COVID-19 put a real damper on her team during the previous year. A shortened season, combined with the mask mandate, was a struggle.
But Guise plays more than just one sport, participating in both basketball and softball, both of which have their senior nights later in the year. In this way, she has multiple opportunities to experience the feeling of team camaraderie she’s been able to find in Roosevelt athletics.
Claire Archer is another accomplished senior, running on the women’s cross country team for Roosevelt as a captain this year. In the past, she was involved with swimming and soccer, but ventured over to running during her junior year.
Because cross country meets are so big, Archer explains that it’s hard to organize a “senior night.” Instead, captains will normally pick out a “senior practice,” where juniors will make cards to appreciate and praise the seniors on the team that year.
Among memorable experiences, Archer recalls her senior season’s first cross country meet of the year. Archer says that it was one of the largest races she had participated in, in terms of the number of people running. (Last year, health and safety measures reduced the number of teams competing per meet.)
When asked about the impact of the pandemic on her past sports seasons, Archer says that COVID-19 actually gave her time to slow down, with the time that she was running getting cut in half. It allowed her to fully make the switch from swimming and soccer to cross country and track.
Archer says that doing a sport helped her have a solid group of people she knew before starting the school year, stating that “A sport kind of provides a group of people who you get really close with.” In particular, Archer says that she is going to miss the variety of people she sees on the team and the difference in personalities and characters. “I’ll miss that open and fun atmosphere,” she says.
More than just recognition for senior athletes completing their final fall season, senior nights continue to highlight the importance of personal connection within sports – and the ability of Roosevelt athletics to come together and overcome.
