'But we were together as a class': MHS Class of 2022 looks back on an unprecedented experience of school
May 29—Sure, the pandemic threw everyone a curveball, Reed Bailey said.
No matter, though. He and his fellow members of the Class of 2022 at Morgantown High School still got to touch home one final time Saturday morning.
Curveballs, Reed knows.
And sliders.
And changeups.
He pitched for the Mohigans baseball team. This fall, the lanky lefthander is off to Ithaca College in New York State to take that sport, and his studies, to the next level.
He'll bring a lot Morgantown High with him, he said before the start of Saturday's ceremonies on Pony Lewis Field.
"It wasn't easy, " the senior said. "I lost my dad in the middle of the pandemic. But we were together as a class. And I had a ton of amazing opportunities at Morgantown High. Our teachers are the best."
Always keep a keen eye for opportunity, Principal Paul Mihalko told the 410 seniors as they readied to walk the stage for their diplomas.
Not that he had tell them that, he said.
Not with all those academic accolades from the classroom and championship trophies from the playing field, he said.
Not with all those PROMISE scholarships, he said.
"They were sophomores when the pandemic hit, " Mihalko said before the ceremony.
"They didn't get to have 'normal' school, but they didn't let up."
Autumn Wolfe, who will study dance at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, said COVID kept changing the key on her, which, in turn, made everything a challenge — right down to the smallest detail of attention.
Especially in March 2020, when all schools in the state were shuttered and everyone was going remote.
"The transition was rough when we first started going online, but we got locked in, " she said. "We got used to it."
Saturday, they got one more moment as Mohigans.
The skies opened with a stubborn drizzle, but a class that shouldered a pandemic wasn't going to let something as trivial as that get in the way.
One senior got an A for effort, after attempting a cartwheel during his jaunt across the stage.
And Abigail Shiflett got a huge surprise: Her brother, Isaac Shiflett, who is on active duty in the U.S. Air Force, landed, unannounced and unbeknownst, to give his sister a bouquet of flowers to go with her diploma.
"She doesn't have any idea that I'm here, " her grinning brother said, as he awaited his cue.
"She's either gonna punch me or hug me."
His little sister stopped cold when she spotted him.
Then she laughed — and went with the latter.
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