By: Kieondre Williams-Harris, Trinity Stringfellow, Keila Banks
On February 15th, 2018 Hazelwood East High School held their annual Senior Night for Winter related sports (excluding girls swimming and wrestling). The night began with the junior varsity basketball team playing and defeating Normandy(score not available). With the conclusion of the jv game, the varsity players began their warm ups, with layup lines, shootarounds, and dunks of all calibers. At the end of warm ups, the announcement of the boys basketball seniors began.
The seniors being Kameron Davis, DB McBride and Michael Horton, each were called one at a time and were given magnificent crowd reactions. When asked what made the night special for him DB said, “When everybody screamed my name when I walked out, taking pictures, I felt like a celebrity”.
At halftime with the game tied at 12-12, the announcement of the senior cheerleaders and the senior dancers began. One by one, each cheerleader was called, each receiving a roaring response from the crowd and gifts including balloons and shadow boxes. Understandably, emotions were running high as the girls realized that it was their last game as a cheerleader.
From two experienced cheerleaders, Alanna and Teirra Andrisse, the day itself was “remarkable” and provided a feeling of happiness. “Ever since my sophomore year when I began cheering for varsity, I couldn’t wait to have my senior night, based on the seniors from that year, so I’ve always been looking forward for that,” said Alanna
“The game was lit, for the cheerleaders at least. The boys lost, but we won the cheer battle. The game itself was cool, Michael’s dunk was lit, but it just didn’t work out,” said Teirra.
With the conclusion of halftime, the game resumed and became very intense. East had struggles with the loss of DB due to injury and Normandy took advantage, coming out at a high tempo pace. The game eventually got closer, and ended up going back in forth, with exciting moments such as a posterizing dunk by junior Javon Fultz. At the end of the game Normandy found space and pulled away, winning the game 45-38. The night was filled with positive tension and a minor heartbreak but overall, the 2018 Winter Senior Night was a success in multiple aspects.
