Entering high school as sophomores students have a chance to try out for as many sports as they want. Many seniors realize their attachment to a part of their high school experience they have dedicated so much time to that may soon be coming to an end.

It’s a lot easier to be involved in sports and activities in high school than in college because the competitive athletic opportunities become more difficult.

For many seniors they have been playing their sports for many years and it has become a beloved habit that they will not want to leave.

“I plan to use basketball to get myself a scholarship to college, so I definitely want to play basketball as long as I can, and once I get older I might coach,” senior Eric Watson said.

However, for many seniors, this will be the last time they are able to play their sport competitively with their team mates.

“I want to go to KU and study international business and Spanish,” senior Cale Nieder said. “I wanted to focus on something that was more realistic than football and something I could actually see my self doing in the future.”

Regardless of their future plans, seniors are getting ready to leave their beloved sports and friends.

“It’s really sad that [gymnastics] is over actually because three of the girls on the team are graduating,” senior Aly Frydman said. “We’ve been doing gymnastics since we were really little so it’s sad to finally be done with everything.”

It’s a big change for seniors because sports has been, in many cases, the highlight of their high school careers. Many seniors have enjoyed the fact that most everyday they had the chance to play a sport they loved with their best friends, while making new memorable friendships along the way.

“I will probably miss Evan Manning and Eric Watson,” senior Austin Hoag said. “They’re my closest friends on the team and then Brett Frantz and Tyler Self for the juniors.”

This is an emotional time for the seniors because they are starting to cope with the fact that next year will not be the same. They will go from seeing their best friends non stop to going to a place with a completely different atmosphere and new faces to see around the college campus.

The seniors, however, are not the only ones who are sad.

“I will miss the seniors because they led all the chants and pre-game activities, pretty much everything, and they always told us to play our hardest so that once we become seniors we could play on varsity,” sophomore Riley Buller said.

For underclassmen many seniors weren’t just people who knew more than them but also a group of students willing to help with their problems. It will be a sad time when doors open on the first day of school next year.