A Day to Remember

Senior Day: A fun tradition to send off the seniors after their last season of sports finishes. Every year that there is a senior or more than one senior on a sports team, the underclassmen on the team gather together to make special shirts, posters, and plan a day full of surprises for the seniors as a goodbye to top off the end of their last high-school sports season. The day to honor the seniors is a beautiful day to commemorate all the contributions the senior(s) made to the teams. 

To kick off the year, fall sports have all had their senior days, celebrating the dedication and effort the athletes of the class of 2020 have put into their teams. Girls Varsity Field Hockey had two seniors this year: Ali Gordon and Aleezah Adams. Their senior day was one to remember, starting with a team breakfast at every Cape Henry students’ favorite place, Bagel Baker. They got adorned with boas, t-shirts, and tiaras to wear all day during school. Girls Varsity Tennis’ senior day was similar, beginning with Bagel Baker and the underclassmen giving them special crowns and “royal” senior sashes for the big day. The tennis seniors being celebrated were Anne-Porter Hudgins, Caroline Dixon, Makenna DeTorres, Halle Speight, Rachel Moore, and Stephanie Strickland. Mary-Turner Shipp, (‘24), is an eighth grader on the tennis team this year and thinks senior day is “the best way to send off all of our friends”. She says; “it’s sad to realize they’re leaving us, but I loved celebrating them.” A survey over a total of 17 people marked that 100% of high-school students, when asked if they enjoy senior day, seniors and underclassmen think senior day is a fun day to honor the seniors.

The boys senior days aren’t quite as glamorous as the girls, (no tiaras and boas for them) but still honor the senior boys in a fun way. For Boys Varsity Volleyball, the underclassmen decorated the boys lockers with pictures of their faces and red and grey decorations. During the actual game, there were big print-outs “fatheads” of the boys’ faces that were almost as tall as them. Brady Old, (‘20), “loved seeing our faces so huge”, saying that the print-outs were “hilarious” and is so “thankful for the underclassmen to have thought of a concept so crazy.” For Boys Varsity Soccer, the parents wore their son on a button on their clothing and took another win for their team. Chris Clunan, (‘20), said that “senior day is just full of laughs all around. We have such a fun time playing on the field and joking around off the field.”

During each senior day, there’s also a ceremony where the seniors stand in a line and the coaches say a few words about them individually or collectively as a team. The seniors also receive a rose to give to their moms, and take pictures – courtesy of Mr. Burke – with their friends and family. The seniors shake the hands of Jeanne Short – Head Athletic Director at Cape Henry and Dr. Garran – the headmaster of Cape Henry -.

Senior day is often extremely emotional not only for the seniors, but for underclassmen who will be without the seniors in a year, and the seniors families who are watching their kids play the sport they love one last time before that season of high school ends. The day celebrating the seniors is definitely one to remember.