Hand-held cameras and smartphones pointed toward the stage and floated above the crowd in the raised hands of relatives and friends of Sobrato High School’s class of 2012 as the wind howled across the school’s athletic field and graduating seniors Coryne Turner and Vanessa Guevara sang the “Star Spangled Banner” at the beginning of Friday night’s commencement ceremony.
Momentary spans of silence in the audience were broken by bursts of air horns, cow bells, shouts and whistles emanating from the supporters of the 285 graduates throughout the ceremony, which was as brief as it was profound for the suddenly former students and their families.
For Tony Lerma, seeing his son Tyler, 18, graduate from Sobrato was more than a proud moment for the entire family. It was a fulfillment of years of community involvement and watching his oldest child grow up with his longtime football and baseball teammates and friends, as Tony admitted he was eager to see close to a dozen of Tyler’s classmates receive their diplomas as well.
“I’m excited to see their progress (after graduation), and to watch them be successful,” said Tony Lerma, who coached Morgan Hill Pop Warner football as well as Sobrato’s junior varsity team for a couple years. “I believe we’re all a part of that.”
Tyler Lerma, who played football and baseball for the Bulldogs, said he plans to attend Sonoma State University in the fall and study kinesiology, a field he hopes can keep him involved in sports with a career as a physical therapist. He said the most memorable aspect of his four years at Sobrato was “playing sports with all my buddies,” who have been his teammates for 11 years.
But immediately after the ceremony he was basking in the moment of finally being a high school graduate.
“All that hard work was worth it,” Lerma said.
Even though Sobrato lost two students – freshman Tara Romero and sophomore Sierra LaMar – to violence during the school year, the class of 2012 set “new records” for the high school that was founded in 2004, principal Deborah Padilla noted in the ceremony’s welcoming address.
Those records include CCS honors in sports, more Golden State Seal academic achievements than any previous class, first-time winners in FFA, Mock Trial and other clubs, and more than $250,000 in academic, athletic and civic scholarships, Padilla said. More than 40 percent of the class has committed to attending four-year universities.
“For the first time in Sobrato history, 100 percent of the class has declared clear goals for the next stage of their lives,” Padilla said.
The class’ keynote speaker, Sobrato economics teacher Carl Cadenasso, added that with these titled and quantifiable accolades should remain a less tangible, but perhaps equally important, desire to “be curious” all the time, and not just in pursuit of their chosen career paths.
“Learn things like how a car works, or how the weather works, or why it’s always so windy here at Sobrato,” Cadenasso said, evoking laughter from the red-robed graduates.
Fellow graduates who spoke during the ceremony reflected on the friendships formed at Sobrato that will last a lifetime, good and bad memories, the difficulties they met along the way and the hopeful times that lay ahead.
Class of 2012 co-president Zach Ankiel said the graduates should “take it a step further” than their desires to become doctors, teachers, veterinarians, scholars and other professionals.
“Let’s all become astronauts,” Ankiel said with a pause. “And if we don’t, let’s reach for the stars anyway.”
Assistant principal Kevin Miller presented diplomas to each of the graduates, calling out their names one at a time as they lined up for the honor.
When twins Ali and Jesse Govea’s names were called out, their family released a burst of applause and shouting. Their grandfather Harry Schlosser said it was “absolutely awesome” to see his oldest grandchildren graduate. The 17-year-old twins had 13 family members in the crowd. Ali plans to attend Evergreen Community College and study nursing in the fall, and Jesse wants to pursue a career raising cattle and eventually become a butcher, said their grandmother Joanne Schlosser.
Many more graduates were ecstatic after the ceremony as they received their official diplomas (they were handed only the protective leather-bound diploma covers during the ceremony) and craned their necks in search of their families in a campus courtyard.
Adrian Torres, 17, said it feels “awesome” to be a high school grad, because of all the academic obstacles he was able to overcome along the way, particularly in his last two years in high school.
“I wanted to be successful and pursue my career,” he said. Torres now plans to attend the University of Arizona and study aerospace engineering and enroll in the school’s ROTC program which he hopes will lead him into the U.S. Army as an officer. He eventually wants to work on aircraft design and construction for the military.
Jackson Short, 18, said receiving his diploma gives him a “very accomplished feeling.” He now plans to attend San Diego State University and study mechanical engineering.
His good friend Landon Creer, 18, will attend Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah in the fall, and eventually pursue a Master’s degree in business and return to Silicon Valley to work in the tech industry.
Samantha Ribeiro, 17, said she felt a mix of emotions after the ceremony.
“It’s exciting, and I’m sad I’m not going to see all these people” every day, said Ribeiro, who played softball for Sobrato and made several good friends doing so. But she’s eager to attend Cabrillo College and study zoology in the fall.
Victoria Reyes, 17, moved to Morgan Hill from San Francisco just before her senior year, the only year she attended Sobrato. It was a challenge moving to a bigger school for her final high school year, but she enjoyed meeting her new classmates.
She added it’s “sad I’m a grownup now,” but she’s looking forward to going to beauty school in the fall.
Her mother, Zenaida Hernandez, appeared to be just as excited as Victoria was. The graduate had a crew of 26 family members supporting her at the ceremony.
“She’s graduating with honors,” Hernandez beamed. “But it’s like the beginning. She’s entering this transition in life, where she’ll be going to college and living on her own.”
Graduate Anthony Villarreal, 18, said he’s “ready for college” after the ceremony. He played football and baseball at Sobrato, and is one of Tyler Lerma’s longtime teammates. Villarreal plans to attend Sacramento State University in the fall and study kinesiology.
During Padilla’s welcoming speech to start the graduation ceremony, the principal urged the graduates to “continue to honor the Sobrato way throughout your lives.”
To graduate Tyler Lerma, that means “being an all-around good person, and teaching that to others.”
