Unfortunately, this year all spring sports and sponsored activities were cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. So, on April 24th at 8:20 p.m., which is 20:20 on a 24-hour clock, Shaler Area hosted a virtual senior night for all of its spring athletes.

The spring coaches and Athletic Director Mr. Clint Rauscher wanted to find a way to have something special for the seniors on all of the teams and the virtual senior night idea was born.

“I got player information from all the coaches for the PowerPoint, the maintenance guys set up the stadium, and Mr. Laslovic and Mr. Connelly volunteered to do the announcing,” Raushcer said.

Similar to a traditional senior night, the names of each senior along with and some tidbits about them were read over the speakers at Mt. Royal Stadium and the event was live-streamed on Facebook.

“I ran the PowerPoint and got the audio from the loudspeaker [to stream it live],” Raushcer said. “I was very pleased with the end result. My biggest concern was the technology aspect…but it generally worked out very well.”

He said he received plenty of positive feedback from both players and parents.

He also implied that the individual teams are thinking about ways to recognize their seniors in a more traditional way, but there are still obstacles in the way of anything like that happening in the near future.

“There are a lot of coaches that really want to do some things with their teams. Unfortunately, there isn’t much anyone can do right now because the PIAA is prohibiting in-person contact between players and coaches until July 1,” he said.

While it was not what any senior really wanted, the effort to recognize them did not go unnoticed.

“I thought it was a nice way  to acknowledge all the sports in the middle of all the craziness,” senior girls lacrosse player Mackenzie Romac said.