In addition to six state championships in girls tennis, girls golf, girls swimming and diving, girls basketball, boys cross country, cheerleading, the assembly highlighted academic achievements, including national recognition for the debate team, journalism website as well as state wins for Personal Finance Challege, FFA, SKILLS USA and DEC and a second place finish for the scholar bowl team.
The tradition of setting aside time to acknowledge the accomplishments students achieve throughout the year is one of the reasons activities director David Bones enjoys the Flashback assembly most.
“This is my favorite assembly of the year,” Bones said. “We get to show off just the awesome stuff that happens at RBHS, especially with the seniors and really, it’s frustrating because we can’t get it all in there. It’s just been an awesome year with this senior class, and we love to show that stuff off.”
Several individual seniors were recognized during the assembly. Seniors Kira Lubahn, Raven Johnson, Adam Mefrakis and Jordan Cook won “Everyday Bruin” awards that recognizes students who make a large difference at RBHS. Senior Christina Wang won the Wayne Walker Outstanding Student Award for her work in the medical field in addition to her academics.
“I feel very honored, and it’s nice to be recognized for all that I’ve done in my high school career,” Wang said. “I’m going to Washington University next year to study medicine and hopefully med school after that. I don’t know what part of medicine I’m going into, but I know I want to go into medicine and help the world that way.”
Retiring teachers were also honored; Diane Bruckerhoff, Mary Dix, Sharon Hyatt-Wade, Terry Overfelt and Bill Priest each received a single yellow rose and a standing ovation during the assembly. In addition, this year’s Teacher of the Year was announced via a video message sent from Boston by Matt Webel, last year’s recipient. Latin teacher Jim Meyer, though not retiring, received the award, which he was glad, he said, to have received such feedback from students.
“Unlike other jobs, teachers don’t have a lot of people who supervise and evaluate them. Even principals and assistant principals are so often busy with students that we perhaps don’t get as much feedback as we need, so we get our feedback from students,“ Meyer said. “It’s nice to hear things here and there, but it’s so much nicer to get this. This is the greatest validation I could get as a teacher. So I’m on top of the world.”
At the end of the assembly came the emotional senior Bruin of My Life awards. Senior Landon Fitzpatrick nominated teacher Haley Brueck, numerous seniors nominated Dix and seniors of the football team nominated Coach A.J. Ofodile. Students also were nominees. Seniors of The Rock nominated Joanne Lee, and senior Alyssa Starr nominated her twin, senior Rachael Starr.
The ceremony, however, was disrupted several times by the tossing of beach balls and explosions of confetti. Bones said these actions were taken in stride, though he was disappointed.
“We like the people who are being honored and being recognized to have the full attention of the crowd,” Bones said. “In that regard it is disappointing that they might not be getting the full attention of the crowd. On the other hand, you can see your seniors, and it’s that time of year to start having some fun.”
[nggallery id=93] By Adam Schoelz
Read an opinion about the antics here.
