By Michael Quirk

michael.quirk@oxfordeagle.com

Water Valley High School may just have a couple hundred students, but you wouldn’t know it from its  graduation ceremony on Thursday night.

Waves of family, friends and well-wishers filled Tad Smith Coliseum for a larger attendance than some of the basketball games that were once played there.

Unlike many schools where various elementary schools funnel into middle schools, who in turn funnel  students into a high school, the vast majority of the WVHS Class of 2016 went to kindergarden together. Class historian Austin King — who will attend Mississippi College in the fall — addressed the students, detailing their trajectory from the time they were 5 to where they are now going.

“We as a class have conquered both big and small,” King said. “The one thing we have yet to accomplish together is graduation.”

King detailed the many memories the students had from the time they were roaming the halls in elementary school, to troublemaking in middle school and finally maturing together through the high school years. He then gave way to class salutatorian Alexis Fowler. The future Mississippi College for Women student was active in percussion during her years at WVHS and finished with a cumulative average of over 100.

Fowler thanked the school board, community, administrators, past administrators and the teachers for helping the students reach the pinnacle of their adolescence. She saved her last bit of thanks for the students she called her peers for over a decade.

“Sadly, our days of being in class together at Water Valley have come to a close and we’ve moved on to the next phase of our life,” she said. “I truly believe that each and every one of you is capable of accomplishing great things.”

Water Valley graduated 83 students on Thursday night as they have closed their last books inside the halls of WVHS. It was a different book that is only just beginning, according to King, the book of life.

“Our history isn’t done yet, our story hasn’t been completed yet,” he said. “Choose to be a champion today and every day of your lives.”