As the aroma of stale ketchup and old lettuce was drowned out by the smell of tasty homemade dinners and desserts, athletes, parents, and coaches settled in for an evening to celebrate and honor fall sports athletes.

“I thought the banquet was pretty good,” said varsity golfer Lance Miller. “It was fun to hear about all the team’s seasons and the food was also scrumptious.”

At six o’clock athletes and their parents were invited to attend a pre-ceremony dinner in the cafeteria. Each family was encouraged to bring either a main dish, side dish, or dessert to share. The ceremony began an hour later with assistant athletic director and varsity football coach Dick Adams quieting the cafeteria. Athletic Boosters President Bill Stearns gave a few remarks about the Atomic Achievement Awards; an award that honors one athlete per team for showing outstanding character, leadership, and is a team player on and off the field.

“It was an honor to be recognized like that by coach [Cindy Hook],” said varsity field hockey recipient, junior Alley Adcock.

The coaches from each team then got up and gave a quick recap of their seasons and awarded members of their teams with the 3.5 academic achievement certificate. These athletes played a fall sport and still maintained a 3.5 grade point average or better.

“It was my first time getting the 3.5 award so it felt good,” said varsity football player Bob Stevens.

After the season summaries and academic achievement awards, the teams split up into different rooms and had individual meetings about their seasons.

“We had great slide-shows and had a lot of parents involvement [in the cross country meeting],” said senior runner Michael Ejigu. “The coaches recognized every person and made sure every person on the team got noticed.”

Most of these meetings lasted between about an hour and the athletes were free to go home.

The next sports banquet to be held will be the winter sports banquet to honor athletes from boys and girls basketball, wrestling, indoor track, swim and dive, dance, and gymnastics.