The Strongest Class

As I sit in my room writing my commencement speech, all I can think about is all of our class memories and I decide to run with it.  The class of 2020 has always been special, since the time we combined Litchfield, Wales, and Sabattus Schools at Carrie Ricker in the third grade.  The class of 2020 was the first class to start combining all schools, and go through every grade, in every school.  I am very glad we combined schools, I would never have met some of my closest friends that I still have today.  I’d like to take this time to go over some of my greatest memories from each year of high school.

Freshman year.  My first day in the school, with none of the other grades, was an amazing day.  I couldn’t wait to see what our class could do and accomplish in our 4 years of highschool.  The next day was a huge eye opener.  I remember walking to my first class and thinking, “I can’t wait to not be a freshman.”  As homecoming is approaching, we start working on our dance that we perform in front of the whole school, and at first I was not going to do it.  In Raider Connection I was talking with Ms. Robbins (now Mrs. Bouchard), and she told me to do it, just for the memories, so I did.  We had practiced for the whole week leading up to the day.  When that Friday came, I was trying to come up with every excuse possible to not perform the dance.  The time of the dance rolls around and we go out and we do our best, and we still come in 4th place.  The homecoming assembly was very embarrassing, we got 4th place in pretty much every competition.  The lesson I learned from this was: I am not too cool to not dress up for homecoming and winter carnival.  High School Hockey season comes around, and I am nervous.  Our Highschool team had just combined with Leavitt to make the Kings.  Our team meeting a week before practice started, the coach told us “Freshman will not get varsity time, be prepared for JV this season”.  Once I heard this, I realized how serious it was. Tryouts came around and I got out there with 18 year olds as a 14 year old and I was a little nervous to say the least.  I had known a few of the sophomores from Leavitt, I had played hockey with them when I was younger.  That made it a little bit easier.  After tryouts were over, the coach had told me I was the only freshman he let play varsity in years.  That season I scored my first varsity goal against Edward Little, and had 2 other goals and assists.  6 points all season isn’t bad for the competition we had faced.  After hockey season was over, it was time for my first year of lacrosse to start.  We had our lacrosse meeting in the old health room, and again, some big boys walked into the room and I got nervous.  Most of the guys had played football, so Liam had known all of them.  I had also played hockey with Bailey in the winter so him and I were pretty close at this point.  My first lacrosse practice was tough, out on the tar, we ran for 15 minutes straight, and did sprints to get into shape.  That day we also did some offensive work, and I was the only goalie my freshman year so I took every “shot”.  First shot I ever saw was a Steven Gilbert shot, about 85 mph, straight to family gems.  What a day.  The season prior, the lacrosse team went 1-11, this season we went 8-6, and got our first playoff win in about 20 years.  Winter Carnival had come around, and we had finished in fourth place yet again, better effort this time.  Little did the class of 2020 know, that was our last full, normal year of school. 

Sophomore year.  The first day of sophomore year was a good feeling.  I walked into school, ready for a good school year, not being at the bottom of the food chain anymore.  Homecoming sophomore year we came in second place, we had won the penny war and we thought we could take down the class of 2018, but we fell short.  Hockey season sophomore year, we had a lot of potential, we got a Sweden exchange student that was really good at hockey, and we started off the season with five straight wins.  I had a very slow start to that hockey season, and finally it took off towards the end for me, with a 3 goal game on senior night.  This pretty much wrapped up hockey season, we lost in the first round of playoffs, for the second year straight.  At Oak Hill Highschool, we had a water problem.  For about a month, we had half days at Oak Hill and it was amazing.  We would leave school around 12 everyday and it was so simple and easy.  Once this water “crisis” was fixed, we were back to normal school.  Around this time, lacrosse season was starting, and we were hopeful for a good season.  I had switched positions in lacrosse this year and decided to be out on the field.  We went 9-3, and lost the first round to Waynflete, who went on to win states.  This wraps up sophomore year at Oak Hill.  

Junior Year.  Junior year was rumored to be the hardest year of highschool, and I was nervous for SAT’s in the spring.  Homecoming came around, the Freshman class was not messing around and gave us juniors a run for our money.  We finished in 3 place, which was a real heartbreaker.  In October, we got a crazy windstorm which knocked power out in our area for almost a week.  School got cancelled for a whole week.  But it wasn’t a vacation for anyone, most of us didn’t have power for the whole time.  Junior year hockey season rolled around, and I was named captain of the team, and had high hopes for the Kings.  We got moved down the Class B hockey, which was a very competitive season.  We started off very slow, and had won 1 game, in our first 6.  After that, we only lost one game the rest of the regular season.  I had led our team in points, and even got recognized at the Class B hockey awards.  I got runner up defensive player of the year, and first team all star, as well as academics, and defensemen of the month in February.  Winter carnival turned into Spring Fling, and it was during lacrosse season this year.  We put up a pretty good fight and spring fling, but we still didn’t get the win. This season was supposed to be our season where we won states in lacrosse.  We went undefeated in the regular season, and hosted a home playoff game, where we really struggled and ended up losing by 1.  This was probably the most painful loss I have ever had in lacrosse.  This sad day wrapped up junior year.

Senior Year.  This year was terrifying.  Homecoming senior year.  We had finally won, and I couldn’t even be there for it.  I had been on a road trip with my team and missed the assembly where we actually won and I was super bummed out.  This year, I decided I wasn’t going to play high school hockey, and instead play junior hockey.  This team gave me memories that will last a lifetime, from our bus breaking down on our way to Pennsylvania, fist fights in practice, long road trips, nights at the hotel, 10pm lifting sessions after games.  I am forever grateful for the opportunity, and glad I got the chance to play.  Senior year went by really fast for me. I had morning practice pretty much everyday before school, and I would have to speed to school every morning from the ice rink in Augusta.  Once this hockey season wrapped up, everything went downhill pretty fast.  Lacrosse season was supposed to be a good year, we had our meeting and the team was looking solid.  But the Covid-19 came and lacrosse season was cancelled.  School was shut down for the rest of the year.  All professional sports were cancelled.  At first I was fine with doing school work from home, as I am writing this paper, I am realizing I should be sitting with Alex, Colby, Julia, and Max while I write this.  I should be sitting in my spot in English, with the comfy chair I battled Colby for when class started.  Graduation, which I had been looking forward to after all my year of school, will not be the same.  The class of 2020 will never be forgotten.  This year’s graduation is taking place outdoors, at an airport.  Nobody at Oak Hill will forget the class of 2020 for a long time, from the water, the wind storm, and Corona virus, we have been through it all, and I would love to turn back time and do it all again.  

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