Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home High School graduated some 176 students Friday night in a ceremony at a Husky Stadium packed with family and friends of the graduates.
The high school students were joined in receiving their diplomas by Marty Lovik, a Desert Storm veteran. The school annually awards diplomas to veterans who were unable to finish school because of their service.
The program also included performances by the Concert Band, directed by Pat Johnson and graduating senior Jed Stults, and the Symphonic Choir, directed by Matthew Clark.
The celebration included frequent references to this class’s achievements, many by Valedictorians Krystal Juza and Cheryl Wilson, who recounted memories of their four years at the high school.
Juza noted that the Class of 2011 is the first ever to win the Pride Trip twice. It witnessed multiple state championships in sports and clubs across the board. It made it to graduation, which seemed like an impossibility for many.
“We knew what we wanted and were not afraid to go after it,” Wilson said. “At the end of the week, after the seniors were ahead all school year, we did not let them win, but took the prize for ourselves. Our prize? The Pride Trip. The first class in school history to win the Pride Trip as sophomores.”
At a Baccalaureate Service held at Community Chapel on Wednesday, June 8, local Pastor Pete Kauffman, whose son was among this year’s graduates, spoke about fulfilling the purpose which God had for each one.
Keynote speakers for Friday’s ceremony were Billy Snow, science teacher and track and cross country coach, and health teacher David Younger, commonly referred to as “Younger Younger.”
“When Coach (Steve) Thorpe told me that your class wanted me as one of the speakers, I hesitated because I honestly wondered what I could say that you might want to hear,” Snow said. “But I owed you, especially since I have this earring thanks to your efforts this fall,” referring to his runners winning the first girls state cross-country trophy in school history.
Snow told the graduates about a box of old photos containing photos of his mother’s family after immigrating from Greece in the early 1900s. In it were German newspapers from the mid-1930s showing Adolf Hitler addressing crowds and photos of his father during his time in the Navy in World War II.
“So why bring all this up other than to establish the fact that I am old,” Snow asked. “It reinforced to me that anyone’s life is really just an accumulation of people who enter your life and the experiences and opportunities that you have while they are there. What you do with those opportunities and experiences is really in your hands.”
Family is the obvious influence, but it can be many more people, he said. “Don’t prejudge people but welcome them in and show a sincere interest in them. They have something to share and a story to tell.”
Snow told the graduates about a teacher he met at Blue Mountain Community College in 1975. The teacher hopped all over the place, excited about all the classes he could take and all he could do at school.
“Rather than think of this guy as some idiot or freak, I wanted to know what he knew and why he was so excited about me taking a few classes to pass time till the next fire season,” Snow said. “That one single chance encounter led to a great friendship and set me on a path to becoming a teacher.”
Perhaps the single most important influence is people – “how we treat them and accept them,” Snow said. “Make the most of those opportunities with other people while they are in your lives and be open.”
Secondly, Snow urged the graduates to persevere.
“You can call it persistence if you wish, but either way, you should get a healthy dose of it. I have a poster of a guy running down a road that you can see for miles on. The caption reads, ‘The race does not always go to the swift but to the person who does not quit.’ That’s perseverance. Thomas Edison supposedly failed 10,000 times before he got the filament right in the light bulb.”
Snow got his first good-paying job pestering a man at Westinghoue who hired Snow because he was tired of seeing him.
“But perseverance with work is not enough,” Snow said. “You need to do so with relationships, with family, with all aspects of your life.”
Thirdly, he told the graduates to find their passion.
“No, that doesn’t mean some hot guy or girl,” he said. “That may be part of it, but what I am really getting at is finding what you are really passionate about doing.”
Meeting people and developing relationships opens doors and opportunities, he said. “Take advantage of it.”
It wasn’t until he got to Sweet Home that Snow found that one thing he really enjoyed doing, he said. “Forty-one years ago, when I sat where you do now, my only thought was, ‘Hurry up and get me out of here!’ But years later people I had never known were willing to take a chance on an unproven rookie and stick with me.
“Someone once said, ‘Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day.’”
Younger shared thoughts on the adversity that the graduates will likely face in life and how character counts.
“There is (a) popular, comforting notion that what does not kill us only makes us stronger,” he said. “But there comes a time in life when you want to say, ‘Enough! I can’t handle any more.’
“For those who know the feeling of enough is enough all too well, I offer these words of wisdom from Vince Lombardi, a man who is on the short list of history’s greatest coaches: ‘It’s not whether you get knocked down. It’s whether you get up.’
“My question is what will you do? Will you get up?”
That reveals true character, Younger said. Adversity doesn’t build character. It reveals it, and “our greatest weakness lies in giving up. A person is never finished when they are defeated. A person is finished when they quit.”
“Every single one of us has a dream,” said Valedictorian Caroline Amendola and Salutatorian Carissa Swanson. “There is something that you want out there. As you get ready to leave your family and go to college, think about this dream that you have. Don’t be afraid to go and get it if you really want it. You don’t have to be a celebrity or a millionaire. Just be a productive member of society.”
“Second, we must learn how to learn. In school, we learn how to memorize or be taught. Learning how to learn frees our dependency on others for knowledge.
“Third, we must learn from failure and learn to bounce back from failure. No one ever succeeded without failure.”
Wilson and Juza, recounting their memories of the Class of 2011, said there was too much to tell all.
“We all have memories of our time in high school but to recount them all would take way longer than three to five minutes,” Wilson said.
“What was your favorite?” Juza asked. “When DJ (Burns) broke Ms. Lafollette’s desk on the first day of school? Or when you made the varsity sports team for the first time?
“What we remember later on is our choice,” Wilson said. “Some chose to remember the good times. Others dwell on the bad. Let us focus on the successes we had while we were here.
“As we go on our separate ways, what can we take with us from these successes?” she asked.
“Memories. The memories of what it took to achieve those goals,” Juza said.
“We just have to figure out how to apply the qualities of dedication, perseverance and compassion to our future goals, and somehow that doesn’t seem like a difficult obstacle.”
On behalf of the Class of 2011, Juza thanked teachers, coaches, counselors and parents for giving their students the tools they needed to find success in their lives.
“Trust and support us in our journeys,” she said.