While the purpose of Senior Nights is to honor the seniors, allowing them to say goodbye to their teammates, the simple ceremony can hold a lot of meaning for players, coaches and parents. Even if it is the athlete’s first year participating in the sport, they are still honored as if they had played their whole high school career.

This year’s senior night for the girls soccer team was a double whammy. The first recognition of the two celebrations happened on Friday, March 18, 2022. It occurred during half time in their game against Allatoona, which they won 2-1.

The second recognition for the girls occurred Tuesday, Mar 22, 2022before the boys soccer team played Osborne.

Senior night was initially planned to happen on Friday, Mar 18, 2022but the boys postponed their game to Tuesday due to weather conditions. Because of this the seniors on the girls team got to be celebrated twice.

After the second senior night, I spoke to a few of the senior girls to hear the best moments of playing for wheeler.

Haden Drake, who played for Wheeler girls varsity for four years said her favorite part about playing for Wheeler was, “Creating friendships on the team and just having fun.” She plans on going to the University of Georgia to study environmental economics.

Virgina Miller played for Wheeler for one year, but she still made the most of the year. “I’ll miss the friends I made and the positive environment around the team.” Virginia plans to study Media Broadcasting in college.

Avery Halseth has played soccer for seven years, and played varsity all four years of high school. Avery says the thing she’ll miss most is having the support system of her teammates and coaches. Her favorite memory is Coach Blair “face planting at the Campbell game.”

No matter the tradition, Senior Night recognizes all the valuable people in an athlete’s competitive journey and honors the athletes too.