With fall sports coming to an end, a handful of seniors have to begin to let the sport that they have grown up with go. Year after year, seniors finish off their seasons with a bang, but the end of one chapter for some means the end of an era. 

While some seniors play later on in the year, the anxiety of waiting for the end to come is a lot to take in and manage. Attempting to look past the anxiety, Charlotte Stephan is looking forward to the beginning of what will be her final softball season. Although she is excited for what she believes could be a state title run, but dreads the end.

“I have a lot of emotions going into this next softball season. I am excited to be back with all of my teammates and on the Ranger fields, but I’m also sad knowing that it is the last time I will play with this group of girls,” Charlotte said somberly. “The hardest part about being done with softball this year is knowing that I never got to have the full experience of high school softball.”

The end of this era is not only for sports teams, for this goes for drum major Ellie McDowell of the marching band as well. Ellie has been a part of the band for as long as she has had the opportunity to do so, and ending it is a bittersweet time for her.

“The fact that it feels a lot like I’m losing a family. I know I’m not, because we have concert season, but it feels like a significant part of my life coming to a close,” Ellie said. “Knowing the season is almost over and my last performance is coming up is one of the hardest parts of senior year. I’m gonna miss it so much.”

For some multi-sport athletes, it is the end of one chapter but the beginning of a new one. Some of the Rangers at FHC play two or more sports. Some of these athletes are already committed to a college or university to play one of the two sports that have shaped their high school experience but are sad to leave one of them behind. 

Playing both varsity field hockey and varsity lacrosse, Shannon Murphy is committed to play lacrosse at Marquette University, but with her senior season of field hockey coming to an end, she reflects on the memories and leaving the field hockey dream behind for lacrosse. 

“I will definitely miss playing field hockey for Forest Hills. This past season has been such a blast with an amazing team, and I’ve loved being able to grow with the same group of girls for the last seven years. No matter the conditions or score, the energy my field hockey team brought was unmatched,” Shannon said.

Even though more seasons are to come, underclassmen will miss the teams from this year, and though she is only a sophomore, she will miss both playing beside this year’s seniors, as well as the chemistry that is shown both on and off the field. 

“I am sad to see that the season is done for some of the seniors, or that this is the last time they will be on their school team. The seniors will be missed by me and other students because of the lasting impact they have had on all of us. I am sad to see them go, but I hope they understand that they have made a difference in my life including life on and off the field,” Avery said. 

Even though graduation is something that the student-athletes of the class of 2023 have been looking forward to since the minute school started in 2010, the end of an era on May 17 (graduation day) for many FHC athletes is a bittersweet ending to years of grit, hard work, and friendships created on each team.