By Zach Carter
For seniors that play spring sports or participate in spring activities, this is it. Some of these students have been doing this for years. But this is the last time they will put on their uniform and represent Delta High School. This is their last hurrah.
Senior Luke Belangee, who has been involved in baseball since he was six years old, now plays shortstop for the varsity team. His favorite moment came during his sophomore year.
“My best memory so far is sweeping Pendleton my sophomore year so that they could not win the conference,” he says.
With his high school baseball career coming to the end, Belangee has a dream for his final game.
“Most people do not get to win their final game,” he says. “‘I just want to go out with my head held high and know that I played hard and hopefully made my parents proud of me.”
Belangee describes the feeling as “bittersweet” and says he is “grateful for the times he has played.” Once the season comes to an end, Belangee imagines how it will feel.
“I think it will hurt for a while, but all good things come to an end,” he says.
Part of the experience at high school sporting events and one of the biggest activities at Delta is the band. Introduce Jadon Richey.
The senior has been in concert band for six years and jazz band for three years.
“I can play saxophone, piano, guitar, basically any instrument you give me,” he says. His favorite memory is when he was able to play his favorite song, “Sing Sang Sung.”
Richey’s biggest accomplishment came from his last year.
“I won a jazz award for playing baritone saxophone,” Richey says. Being his last year, Richey is ok with his high school band career ending.
“It feels pretty good honestly,” he says. “‘I am kind of ready to be done with the formal side of the band and just chill.”
Richey has one more concert to go with the band. He wants it to go smoothly. He will be playing a feature called “Georgia On My Mind.”
In track and field, Colten Wright is down to his final races. Wright has been doing track since he was in eighth grade.
“I used to do high jump, 400, 4×4, and 4×1, but I currently do 4×800, 400-meter dash and 4×4 relay,” Wright says.
Wright knows that this season is different from the previous four.
“It feels more serious because I realize this is my last year to accomplish things that I want to accomplish,” he says.
Wright’s final race has given him an idea of what he wants to see.
“I want everyone to be able to do their best and hopefully all seniors reach their goals if they have any,” he says.
One of the biggest spring activities is the play. Senior Emily Himes finished her high school acting career in Fools.
After having her first speaking role in third grade, Himes has now been involved with 15 plays, with eight of those being at Delta High School.
“I have good memories from every show,” she says. “‘I have made a lot of really good friends, so probably any time that I was getting to hang out with Mary (Groover) and Sara (Cardemon) or doing fun creative stuff to get ready for the show. My favorite memory that was actually during a show was probably in Clue, because we were running around and yelling all the time and it was just a lot of fun to put on.”
Going into her final play, Himes was a little shocked.
“At the beginning of the year when we chose to do it, I had every reason to believe that we would be doing another show after Fools, so it took me awhile to adjust to the fact that I was in the process of doing my last show,” she says. “‘Under all of the circumstances, I think it went as well as it could have. Sometimes I would get tired of doing the same lines all the time and think that I was sick of this show, and then someone would do something awesome that would remind me why I liked being there.”
Himes says that a lot of her best memories have been with the Delta Troupers and doing the plays. She talks about the aftermath of her final play.
“Immediately following the final performance of the show, I was definitely pretty upset,” she says. “‘I think now that a little bit of time has passed, I feel like I am ready to move on and I am excited to see what all of the underclassmen can do without me next year. I think I have kind of done everything there is to be done in the theatre and, although it is still sad, I feel like I am just happy that we were able to do a show at all this year.”
