Briarwood’s Alumni Game

Mrs. Smith, Kelli Reichert, Abbie Seay, Alexandra Day, Sarah Jones, Katrina Day, Abby Reichert cheer for the Mustangs during the halftime break. 

Don't let Briarwood's population of only about 300 students fool you. Although our school is small, our alumni network is huge. Every year Briarwood invites former students back for the Alumni Basketball Game. Show up and you'll see Briarwood students sit on one end of the bleachers cheering for their peers while the alumni sit on the other side and cheer for their former classmates. Hosted by Middle-Upper's Student Council, the event kicks off with this year’s inventive games created by Student Council members.

This year the lucky students who won the pre-games received gift cards to local restaurants. After the festivities warmed up the crowd, the alumni-varsity basketball game started. Returning alumni make up the visitor team, coached by an alumnus who graduated several years prior in the eighties. The current high school junior varsity and varsity basketball team take turns playing against the alumni. This year’s game was quite the head turner; the score constantly changing as alumni then the students took the lead.

In the end, though, the students claimed victory. Actually, no one was worried about the scoreboard when the last basket was made. Alumni flooded the court to great former teachers and friends; they posed for pictures and talked about "way back when" as alumni tend to do. Mixed into the crowd of alumni were the current students who acknowledged alumni that they recognized from old yearbook pictures. Some senior students recall their days as freshman, passing these same alums in the hall.

We seniors realize that one day in the not so distant future, they too will come back to the school as alumni and all their experiences from high school will just be memories. Their legacy will be left behind in borrowed library books, etched in old textbooks, or shared at future alumni basketball games.