By Dallas Bordon
You can see it in their faces. Their
eyes tell the stories; stories of years of determination, dedication, hard
work, and most of all, fun and enjoyment of playing the sport. Senior night is
time for the sport, fans and coaches to bid farewell to their student-athletes.
A time for a final applause, one final pat on the back, one final tear and one
final memory of times gone by are all of the emotions and thoughts of Senior
Night. We begin to realize that it’s more than just an ending to four years of
high school sports. It’s a final goodbye to a sport(s) that they have
participated in since the early years back to a time when they could first
grasp a ball by hand. Senior night brings it all together. It’s a time of
reflection, a time to remember all of the years of memories made and a time to
say goodbye to teammates and coaches. For those fortunate enough to move to the
college level, nothing will compare to the years spent on the playing fields or
courts on the recreation department, middle school, and high school levels.
Senior night draws it all to a close. It’s time to say farewell to friendships
made between the athletes who played sports together and against each other
throughout different seasons of the year.
Entering the years of high school
sports, Senior Night is embedded in the minds of parents and players knowing
their own moment will come when it’s time to hang it up. They all live in the
moment of that night at the end of each season when they see the recognition of
teammates that have gone before them and then before we know it, their own
night approaches. Even though it’s over a span of years that they play, our
minds tend to echo thought of “what seems like yesterday” as we recall their
years growing up from playing youth sports to the night it all comes to a close
as seniors. Those years and this night come and go too quickly.
As for the athlete, these will always
be days and experiences you’ll never forget and yet they are times you can
never get back. You will look back one day as you’re dusting off that old
letterman jacket or looking at old photos from your days on the fields or
courts and you’ll come to realize that those days were the best of times. There
will come a time when you’ll tell your own children the stories of your days as
a student-athlete and your experiences playing the game and even how that game
has changed.
For the parents, it can be a brief gasp
of relief that it’s finally over. All those years of living in fast-food
restaurants, rolling those coolers around, carrying chairs to different places,
and traveling; it’s over. But despite the hard work of the parents from season
to season, for them the moment will begin to set in and they will realize how
special those times were. Then the realization that “it’s really over” sets in
and our student-athletes are no longer little leaguers, middle school, and high
school athletes.
Whether it’s walking your
student-athlete across the fifty yard line of a football field or across the
basketball court or hearing the senior speeches read while the athlete stands
on their jersey number painted in the grass behind home plate; it’s an
emotional moment for everyone because those years and memories are all replayed
in our mind on that one night. Senior night is a time we honor our student-athletes’
long careers and we share the memories; memories which will live long after
this night is over.
