Young athletes know the struggle of balancing school and sports all too well, and these struggles are intensified as the school year progresses and finals for both their season and their classes start to collide
For the GMC Prep softball team, it became even more of an issue, as the Bulldogs had to travel to Arizona over the weekend after qualifying for the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) tournament in Yuma, Arizona. While the players, friends, and family were all ecstatic about the opportunity to participate at such an event, it meant that the seniors would likely still be playing in the tournament when the Main Campus graduation takes place.
Thankfully, the school managed to schedule a lastminute special ceremony for the seniors on the team and their families, which took place Friday.
“It was very cool that we got our own ceremony before heading out to Arizona,” said Jana Shellhorse. “It just shows how much the school cares about athletics, and it was very nice how they put everything together in less than three days.”
The ceremony itself, while small, had the same kind of energy as one would expect more from one of bigger size. Both the spectators and participants understood how important these ceremonies are for new graduates and made sure to provide as much support as their voices could handle, especially as they would need it for the upcoming trip.
“It feels awesome to be able to play in Arizona again with it being my last year at GMC. We had a rough start to the season, so it was cool to see how far we came and how good the team became throughout the season,” Shellhorse explained
The trip to the national championship tournament comes off of an amazing run during the second half of the season, especially for Shellhorse in particular, as she became the program’s all-time leader in strikeouts with 344.