For many Jackson-Reed students, senior year is the last time they’ll play an organized sport. It’s their chance to be captains and role models for the rest of the team, and have a final hurrah at whatever it is they wanted to accomplish in their sport. As far as I know, every JR sports team has a senior night, dinner, or its own special tradition to honor its seniors one last time, and seeing as there’s only a month of school left, it’s senior night season for our spring sports!
Boys and girls lacrosse recently had their senior nights, both playing very strong games and putting on a show for parents and fans.
When asked what the team did to make seniors feel special, senior goalie Maddie Landis said her younger teammates made posters for the seniors, putting so much detail in. Senior midfielder Celia Joldersma said “the special baskets and kind posters made every senior feel valued and loved.” Many of the posters had pictures of each senior and heartfelt notes or phrases on them. Our seniors said that while this year presented a challenge, with coaches leaving and uncertainty for the future, they had a wonderful end to the season. Landis noted that her favorite moment was beating a team that they’d previously lost to, saying, “It was a phenomenal team effort and a very satisfying win.” One of their twelve seniors will be playing in college, but to the rest of the team, we hope you had a wonderful final season.
Boys lacrosse did their senior night a little differently, still spending time to honor seniors and their families before the game, but as junior Steven Most put it, “We didn’t do any posters […] We knew we were going to go out there and do what we do best: play really hard.” The game ended with the Tigers scoring 20 goals and beating their opponents by a massive margin. Samuel Bensky, one of the team’s senior captains, emphasized how the effort from everyone on the team was high, and they were extremely proud of the team’s performance. He also pointed out that this wasn’t a one-off for the boys lacrosse team, saying, “We all put a lot of hours in, and with that we’ve been able to really improve and have fun.” Despite 16 seniors graduating this year, the future continues to look bright for JR boys lacrosse, and we wish every player, whether graduating or not, good luck in their future endeavors.
Jackson Reed’s ultimate frisbee program, notorious for being nationally ranked, has not had their senior night yet, and we wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise ahead of time. However, some of the seniors spoke on how important a tradition senior night is, describing it as “a great way to honor everything our seniors have put forth the past four years on the team, and all their accomplishments.” It’s clear that this event holds a lot of significance for many of the players on the team, especially those who have been playing all four years at Jackson Reed. Senior Clara Doyle described it as “the cherry on top of our JR sports career,” and senior Maddie Woods told us that, despite how excited she is for all the festivities, it’s also sad to think that this will be the team’s last game with all of their seniors. As bittersweet as the moment may be, we hope the team has a spectacular end to the season, and the seniors continue to shine bright.
Jackson-Reed’s state champion baseball team had their senior night against Riverdale Baptist in early May, winning decisively. Some of the team members conducted interviews to ask seniors about their favorite memories and impactful moments, and younger players gave the seniors flowers and posters to recognize them. The team is very tight-knit, with each years’ seniors at the forefront of it all, and junior captain Lee Eckstein told us “the seniors were the glue of the roster […] who each led different parts of the team with their experience and leadership.” The older players on the team serve as role models for the next generation of Jackson Reed baseball, and given that many of the seniors have been playing for JR for all four years of high school, the success that they’ve had this season was a wonderful way to end a JR sports career. •