Graduates beat rain delay

The drought breaks at an inopportune time for Springstead seniors, who spend much of Wednesday night waiting for their big moment.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 8, 2000

SPRING HILL -- A downpour in the middle of a drought is usually a welcome sight, but not for the more than 300 Springstead High School seniors who were waiting to graduate Wednesday night.

Long after they were supposed to line up for procession, anxious graduates, along with their worried relatives, paced the school hallways while administrators waited for clouds to clear over Booster Stadium, the outdoor arena for the ceremony.

"If we have graduation tomorrow, not all our relatives are going to be able to go," said Desiree DePetrillo, in red cap and gown, before hugging fellow graduate Melissa Kunz.

"I had plans to go to Canada; they better not cancel this," Kunz said, looking hopefully at the ceiling windows for signs of dwindling raindrops.

After calling weather forecasters, school officials decided at 9:30 p.m. to go forward with the ceremony.

The class graduated 316 seniors, including two valedictorians and a salutatorian, an arrangement senior class adviser Don Wilcox called unique.

"This is the first time in the 28 years I've been teaching at the school," he said as graduates and parents milled around.

Salutatorian Suzanne Cramer said she was surprised and happy to be making a speech but added that she was more eager to get the night over with.

"We all want to graduate," she said. "We need closure."

Graduation would close a tragic year for co-valedictorian Matthew Etrych, who tied senior Morgan Rockey with a grade point average of 4.18.

His good friend Bret "B.J." Ferguson was supposed to graduate Wednesday night, too. But Ferguson was killed in April in a motorcycle accident. Like Ferguson, who aspired to be a Hernando County sheriff's deputy after graduation, Etrych holds a deep regard for law enforcement. He plans to attend the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and major in criminal justice.

Rockey plans to attend the University of South Florida and major in mass communications and broadcast journalism. The immediate plans of her friends, though, would have been wrecked if the graduation ceremony was postponed, she said. Many planned leave today for a class trip to Cancun, Mexico.

If the ceremony had been called off Wednesday, administrators were shooting for 10 this morning as a backup, said radio-toting principal Dot Dodge, as nervous parents swarmed around her with questions. The ceremony could not be moved inside because the gymnasium is not big enough, she said.

Though she is a staple in the school system, this marks the end of Dodge's first year as principal at Springstead.

"I've known these kids since elementary (school); it's been real special," Dodge said Wednesday afternoon.

About 8 p.m., when graduation was supposed to be under way, a young male voice came over the intercom saying that rains were stopping, and graduation might move forward.

As parents started moving toward the stadium under a slight drizzle, some tried to make the best of the moment.

"We waited 18 years for my daughter to graduate. What's another couple of minutes?" said Jeff Burdett, whose daughter, Allison, was about to receive her diploma.

His wife had another view. As a nurse for Spring Hill Regional Hospital, she had just helped assess a man who passed out while waiting for the ceremony to begin.

"Isn't this horrible," she said. "It never rains in Florida until today."

Then her husband's optimism caught on.

"I guess this washes away the old and gives them a new start," she said with a laugh.

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