GRADUATION 2021: One night, 10 schools, 1,000 graduates

May 28—Throughout Calhoun County's hills and valleys, a singular theme resonated Thursday at commencement ceremonies that shepherded hundreds of Alabama high school seniors into the next phases of their lives.

Perseverance.

As did its predecessor, the Class of 2021 navigated its senior year amid a global pandemic whose effects didn't begin to wane until the weather warmed and vaccines arrived. That cogent point — of a class sharpened by what it endured, pandemic or otherwise — became Thursday's countywide commencement refrain.

At White Plains High School, valedictorian Olivia Noell mentioned perseverance prominently in her speech. "It would be easy for us to focus on the countless adversities we faced. Instead, we chose perseverance. We turned the negatives of this global health crisis into an admirable period of growth," she said. "We all chose to seek the silver lining."

At Weaver High School, guest speaker Thomas Nelson, the school's 2004 valedictorian, praised the Bearcat graduates. "You have all overcome tremendous adversity," he said. But he wasn't talking about the pandemic alone. In their speeches, graduates often made reference to their years studying as Weaver completes a new school building.

In Jacksonville, Pleasant Valley High School graduate Brooke Thornburg said commencement was "super special" and a change that everyone was ready for. The year had been rewarding, though undeniably difficult.

"I just think that we overcame a lot, and as a group we just became closer together. It was very different, but we made it through," Thornburg said.

All told, 10 Calhoun County public high schools — Weaver, Pleasant Valley, Ohatchee, Oxford, White Plains, Piedmont, Wellborn, Jacksonville, Alexandria and Saks — held commencement exercises Thursday.

Weaver graduates embraced the challenges

With all the other things lost to the pandemic, Weaver High School senior Olivia Brimer said, it was good that the Class of 2021 at least got to have a normal ceremony — unlike the socially distanced class of 2020.

"They were all sitting far apart," said Brimer, fifth in her graduating class. "We're sitting all together. I'm glad that at the end of this year, we're all getting something. It's a positive in this negative year that we've had."

Weaver graduates did sit side-by-side on the field at Paul Snow Stadium in Jacksonville for their commencement ceremony. Hundreds of parents and grandparents sat shoulder-to-shoulder in the stands.

"Our graduating class has not heard a school bell or an intercom in over four years," said salutatorian Caleb McKinney, because of the school's construction. "We have dealt with mysterious and concerning smoke, dirt floors, heavy machinery beeping during tests — and Taylor Swift blaring from the construction site."

Several speakers praised the graduate who would have occupied the empty chair on the field. Isaac Crook, a soccer star who had already completed Army basic training and was in the National Guard during his senior year, died after collapsing during a run at the school in December.

"He would put everything he could into his effort to outwork his opponent," said senior Andrew Reeves, who eulogized Crook at the ceremony.

Other trials of the Class of 2021 got little or no mention. No one spoke of the mini-tornado that rolled through Weaver the same night as Jacksonville's ruinous 2018 twister. Valedictorian Mikailie Caulder made only a brief reference to "the Piedmont incident" — a 2018 shooting scare that cleared the stands at a band competition. The gun in that incident was a realistic fake, but many of Weaver's students believed they were running for their lives.

Caulder said Weaver High taught its graduates to adapt to the unexpected.

"Don't dread the obstacles," she said. "Instead let's embrace them and dive head-first into a challenge."

Work for what you want, Ohatchee's valedictorian says

Graduates and their families and friends began filing into the football stadium about an hour before the ceremony was slated to start. Graduates stood outside the school's gym, socializing, hugging each other and taking selfies in their red caps and gowns. But it was a bittersweet event for outgoing principal Bobby Tittle, whose contract was not renewed by the Calhoun County Board of Education. Tittle announced Wednesday that he has been named the new principal at Cherokee County High.

But, he said, Thursday was about the nearly 85 students who graduated.

"I've known every one of these kids since they were in the seventh grade," he said. "They've grown up to be great men and women."

In her address, valedictorian Anna Bryant said someone once told her she "was not smart enough." But she was determined to prove them wrong, she said, and look where she ended up.

"No one is going to hand you what you want in life," she said. "You have to work for what you want and you should want to."

Bryant said before the ceremony she was ready to go, especially after spending her last year of high school in the pandemic. While faculty and administrators tried to make things as normal as possible, she said, it wasn't the same.

"It was different than everybody said it would be," historian Abby Hester said.

Graduate Trey Pesnell, among the top 10 in his class, said he didn't think the day would come this quickly. "It's been long, but it's been short at the same time," he said.

Rain doesn't dampen Pleasant Valley's joy

More than 500 souls braved the elements to watch the 64 seniors of Pleasant Valley High School receive their diplomas at Paul Snow Stadium at Jacksonville State University.

Torrents of rain just before commencement began sent everyone to the recesses of the stadium to wait it out. Then the sun came out, creating a soupy mix of heat and humidity and forcing most to use their graduation programs as impromptu fans.

While adjusting her friend's cap and gown before the ceremony, senior Aleah Vess said it meant a lot to have a graduation due to the pandemic, which robbed the class of certain rites of passage.

"It was hard not having pep rallies because I'm a cheerleader, and the big part of the year for us is doing pep rallies for the football games," Vess said. "So there were a lot of things that we did miss out on, but just being able to go to school and still be together, that was a big deal to us because we didn't know if we could do that this year."

Brooke Thornburg said graduation was "super special" and a change that everyone was ready for.

"I just think that we overcame a lot and as a group we just became closer together. It was very different but we made it through," she said.

Jennifer Mann, a family consumer science teacher, posed for a photo along with other teachers a short time before the faculty marched onto the artificial grass to the tune of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Procession of the Nobles."

Mann said she had taught most of the seniors who were going to receive their diplomas and was glad masks were not required.

"I'm glad we got back to a normal routine. The kids, they're excited to get a normal graduation without getting masked up," Mann said.

During her address, valedictorian Abbigail Grayce Steele said she was grateful school was still in session during her senior year despite COVID-19 so everyone could see their friends.

"If this past year has taught us anything, it is that life is uncertain. You never know when the next obstacle will be thrown in your path. We lived through a global pandemic while trying to experience everything we could for our last year of high school," Steele said.

The 'unique' experience of Oxford's seniors

Attendance at Oxford's commencement was a wild, living thing, one that ate all the parking spaces near Lamar Field before resting under the setting sun on the bleachers. Crowds of this caliber have been hard to find for the last year, easily passing 1,000 people and leaving late attendees stranded without seats when the ceremony began at 7 p.m.

Graduates took their seats on the field after walking by a big Oxford "O" painted onto plywood sheets instead of one painted on the grass, a compromise due to campus renovations. Next year, the stadium will be almost entirely different: Artificial turf instead of grass, a new fieldhouse and concession stand, and a massive athletics facility just to the side, where construction vehicles had already carved out land in the days before graduation.

Between that and the pandemic, it's not surprising that perseverance through change was a major theme with graduate speakers.

Emily Lott, class historian, walked her classmates through memories from elementary school into last year's upheaval and early end to their junior year.

"We got out of school thinking we were getting an extended spring break," Lott said. "We spent the summer wondering if our senior year would be normal, or if we would get to come back at all."

Their return to school was conditional on face masks and observing distancing rules, with a delayed prom and more than enough uncertainty about the future. Still, Lott was cheery about the outcome.

"We truly got to have a very unique experience that no other class will get," she said.

Levity and advice at White Plains

It's not often that valedictorians turn and apologize to their principals, but White Plains' Noell turned to Andy Ward for a moment of candor during Thursday's ceremony.

About all of those stray dogs that visit the parking lot and tug Wildcat heartstrings?

"Sometimes, we sneak them into the school," Noell said, as she turned and looked behind her. "Sorry Mr. Ward."

The Vanderbilt University-bound Noell told 105 fellow graduates to leave comfort zones and chase silver linings during her commencement address on Robertson Field. This on a night when the school celebrated the Class of 2021, which came through the COVID-19 pandemic challenges and disruptions to earn $2.1 million in academic and athletic scholarships, Ward said during his brief remarks.

Noell's five-minute and 30-second talk echoed amid the trees surrounding the rural school's football stadium and baseball and softball fields. She left the podium to yells of "Yeah, Olivia!" and "well said!" from the filled grandstands.

Ceremonies included Alexandra Ginn's receiving the Calhoun County Board of Education's outstanding student award for the Class of '21.

Salutatorian Molly Johnson preceded Noell's keynote address with folksy style and fun recollections

"We did it!" she said to her classmates. "Some of us barely, but we did it."

Some will go on to college, she said. Some will continue their athletic careers. Others will go directly into the workforce.

Whatever their paths, Johnson cleared one thing up.

"I ain't bailing nobody out of jail," she said.

An emotional night for Alexandria graduates

When Alexandria High School celebrated its Class of 2021 at Burgess-Snow Field, class historian Caleb Yates McCulley began his speech by dedicating an empty chair next to the graduates for the late Kam Crumley.

The chair was adorned with a bouquet of bright orange flowers along with a photo of a classmate who had died in 2019. Crumley would have been in this year's graduating class.

"The flowers placed in that chair are decorated and presented in the memory of my fellow classmate and lifelong friend," McCulley said.

"After losing our classmate and friend on Christmas Day 2019, the class of 2021 came together, grieved together, and were determined to remember and honor No. 11 during our remaining time at AHS," graduate Anna Claire Johnson said.

Valedictorian Haley LeeAnn Barker followed with her valedictory address on behalf of the 105-member graduating class. Barker detailed the struggles the graduates endured in the face of the pandemic.

"We were urged to stay home, curfews were instated, social distancing enforced, and masks were mandated. But we did it, we made it through, and we started back to school in the fall. Going back to school in the fall wasn't exactly what we expected either. Online assignments and Zoom calls, classes being delayed, policies changing drastically and our former principal had retired. This changed everything," Barker said.

Wellborn graduates 87 on 'The Hill'

Valedictorian Kaden Goodwin didn't know whether Walter Wellborn High School would get to enjoy a graduation ceremony, thanks to the global pandemic. "It's a day that I sometimes thought would never come," Goodwin said.

Goodwin wasn't alone in that sentiment. Before Wellborn held its graduation ceremony, Principal Chris Hayes said he and the school's administrators were unsure how the 2020-21 school year would go.

"Totally didn't know what to expect coming into the year," Hayes said. "We didn't know if we were going to be in school for the first semester."

They were, and Hayes was glad his seniors got to experience all of the pomp and circumstance that comes with high school graduation.

Senior Jett Smith said he was happy to be graduating. "It feels great!" Smith said. "All of this work that I've been putting in is finally over."

Smith, who comes from a long line of Wellborn High alumni, was glad to carry on his family's "tradition." "My grandparents and my parents went here," Smith said. "It's a tradition, and I think that's cool."

Every senior in the 87-member class graduated in the school's football stadium known as "The Hill." That made Hayes proud.

"We're gonna graduate everybody," Hayes said. "I don't have anybody that's going to be a hold back."

Now that graduation had arrived, Goodwin wasn't too sure he wanted it to arrive at all.

"It's bittersweet to see it here," he said before the ceremony. "I'm ready to move on into this next chapter, but I'm going to have to look back at the past and enjoy the memories that I have."

A 'different' year for Saks seniors

The 84-member senior class at Saks High caught up with their long-lost friends, many who hadn't been seen since the pandemic first hit, before marching down the hill to Jack Stewart Field. Though they were all about to enter a new chapter in their lives, the reality hadn't set in for valedictorian Sa'Nya Fleming.

"I'm probably going to wake up tomorrow and realize that it's just crazy," Fleming said. "It's really about to be over."

For others in the graduating class, the end of their final school year came too soon. "It just came fast," Kyree Woods said. "When I wake up tomorrow, I'm gonna be like, 'Yeah, I graduated.'"

When asked what he's going to miss most about high school, Woods didn't have to think twice.

"My friends!" he said. "I know there are a lot of people (in this class) that I don't really fool with, but there are a lot of people that I'm close to."

Fleming said Saks' senior class was split pretty evenly on those coming to school and those learning virtually. She thinks the distance brought her classmates closer together.

"It's something we can bond over," she said.

Fleming said her valedictorian address was going to focus on remembering her time in high school.

Despite the pandemic disrupting senior years all across the United States, Fleming said her class got to experience some of a typical senior year.

"It was different," she said, "but we still got to do a lot of stuff that (seniors) usually get to do ... but it could have been a lot worse."

A packed house at Piedmont

People in and around Piedmont love their high school football, but graduation night is typically the biggest crowd of the year at the Field of Champions. Thursday was no different — and the crowd would likely have been larger had attendance not been limited to those who secured tickets ahead of time.

Thirty minutes before the festivities began, every paved parking space on the Piedmont High School campus was filled, as were most grassy areas. Those who made the mistake of arriving on time — 10 or 15 minutes early — were exiled to the shoulders of Tom Bible Highway. No less than 150 additional cars lined both sides of the road — just like a late-round playoff game.

Another indication of the importance of their school system to Piedmont residents was the announcement that the Piedmont Education Trust, started 29 years ago with $20,000, now has holdings in excess of $1 million — even after distributing more than $476,000 in student scholarships and faculty grants.

The students who spoke — greeter Reese Franklin, historian J.T. Coheely, salutatorian Sean Peek and valedictorian Austyn Love — made appropriate remarks without belaboring their points.

Coheely recalled that he was unsure last year if it would even be possible to have a commencement ceremony in 2021.

"Enjoy this moment, every single moment, because you don't get much time on this merry-go-round called life," he told his classmates.

Coheely plans a military career, even though it means his shoulder-length hair will soon be a thing of the past. He would prefer to begin his military education at West Point but that hasn't worked out yet. He'll attend Jacksonville State University on a U.S. Army ROTC scholarship, a JSU Gamecock Tradition scholarship and two scholarships administered by the Piedmont trust and named for Larry and Jane Gowens and Vera and Morgan Stewart. Still, Coheely hasn't completely given up on West Point.

Prior to handing out diplomas, Piedmont principal Dr. Adam Clemons made the perfunctory request that those in attendance hold their applause and cheers until every diploma was awarded.

The spectators held off until somewhere near the midpoint of the diploma procession, then decorum began to vanish. Appropriately, graduating cheerleader Tra'Shaun Swain received the loudest ovation.

Jacksonville's seniors 'made it through'

From the moment people walked into the Jacksonville High School football field, they could hear the band playing.

More than 100 graduates, all wearing dark blue caps and gowns, filed onto the field and onlookers burst into applause from the bleachers as they all took their seats.

Now was not the time for graduates to have it all figured out, valedictorian Allie Thompson said during her address. Instead, she said, it was time for them to explore and make mistakes.

"Change your mind and then change it again," she said.

Graduate Sam Tomlin said before the ceremony he was feeling good, but he was a little nervous.

"I'm going to miss my friends, but I'm ready for it," he said.

Bradley Richardson said he spent the first semester in virtual school because of the pandemic, which made certain subjects harder. Luckily, he was able to bounce back in time for graduation.

Khadajah Richardson (no relation) said the pandemic disrupted her senior year, but she's glad she and her fellow graduates got these last few moments together. Looking back on the past four years, she said, she wouldn't change a thing.

"It's been a long, tough year," she said. "But me and my classmates made it through."

This story was written and reported by The Star's Phillip Tutor, Tim Lockette, Mia Kortright, Ben Nunnally, Bill Wilson, Timothy Cash, Ally Morrison, Joe Medley and Joe Estep.