Last week, Big Sky High School honored seniors for both basketball teams, dance, cheer, and band.
On Feb. 25, Big Sky girls’ basketball played Capital at home, and the basketball seniors, dance seniors, cheer seniors and band seniors were recognized, making the total number of seniors there that night 18.
Two days later, the boys’ basketball teams played Helena High at home, and their seniors were celebrated.
For both nights, Eagle seniors had picture boards that were set up outside of the gym for everyone to look at when they walked in. The Feb. 25 night started at 5:30 when a Big Sky senior Ezra Meyer put a video together of all the seniors of the night.
The girls’ basketball team went first, and five seniors walked out onto the gym floor with their families. Kyler Latrielle was one of the seniors, and she walked with her parents and her two sisters.
She said after the game that, “It was bittersweet since we’ve been playing for so long and having our last game here, it was definitely a little bit sad.” The girls won 64-28, demolishing Capital and securing their spot in the state tournament as western conference AA champions.
Big Sky Cheer was next to walk, and they had three seniors that were celebrated with their families. Ariauna Belarde is one of the three seniors for cheer and also the cheer captain. She walked with her dad, mom and two sisters. In an interview before the ceremony, Belarde said that it felt “a little more bittersweet just because it is one of my last home games (and) because I won’t be at state.”
Eagles Dance came next, and starting the walk was Reagan Hudiburgh, a senior and Big Sky’s dance captain. Reagan said before the ceremony, ”I’m excited to graduate and dance with my people for the last few times, but only having one year on the dance team was kind of sad.” Reagan is the first dance team captain at Big Sky, as the high school has only had a cheer team up until this year. Reagan walked with her dad and her grandma.
The Big Sky pep band had six graduating seniors. They were last to walk with their families on Feb. 25. Gabriel Slater was one of the seniors that was there that night, and he walked with his mom. Gabriel says that senior night is an experience that he is going to enjoy and never have the same way again.
On Feb. 27, the senior boys’ basketball players were honored with much of the same pomp and circumstance.
The boys started their game that night against Helena High playing with all of their seniors, and they expressed being really pumped for their last home game. Tyson Tims is one of the six seniors on the boys’ basketball team. Tims walked out before the game with his parents, cousin, aunt, and grandma.
Tims said in an interview after the game that he is going to miss “all my teammates I’ve played with for the past four years, and Coach Murph.”
The boys lost their game against Helena High, 45 to 63.
Sun Journal reporters Kellen Currie, Kade Dunning, and Rudy Ochs also contributed reporting to this story.
