Perhaps one of the most outstanding accomplishments in someone’s high school career is being able to participate in a school activity for all four years of high school. The sheer amount of dedication and hard work to achieve this cannot be understated, and each and every senior who manages to achieve this should and is duly recognized.

Every team/club in Sunlake as their own distinct way of celebrating their exalted upperclassmen as they transition onward to a new period of their lives. Take for instance the Girl’s Soccer Team, who had their “senior night” festivities last month.

The Sunlake girl’s soccer team is notable for being one of Sunlake’s most lauded groups, having been undefeated all season. Their Senior Night was a dazzling affair that made sure to properly honor the teammates that helped carry them so far these past four season.

For Sarah Dewey, this senior night particularly memorable as was her turn in the spotlight, being one of the many senior honored at the event. Dewey has been on the Sunlake Girl’s Soccer Team since 2021, first joining as a freshman and playing for the team all four years of her high school career.

When asked about how she first became interested in soccer, Dewey explains that she’s been playing since she was four years old, when she and her family lived in upstate New York,” My brother originally started playing and [my family] kind of just all started playing soccer all together….I really fell in love with the sport and I’ve continued playing since.”

Dewey is a bit unique among the other soccer players, as she had been home-schooled for all of high school. When her family first moved down south, she was concerned about being able to continue doing soccer due to the exorbitant private league expenses. Luckily, the Pasco County School district has a policy that allows home schooled students to join extracurriculars. When her family first found out Dewey was elated, “Sunlake is my zoned school, so I came to try out and made the team and I’ve been coming to play for Sunlake ever since. ”

The event began at 4:30 with a cozy, nourishing dinner among the team. During the dinner, seniors made very personal speeches to the team, which Dewey thought helped boost team morale, “I think that really helped show the team how much we appreciated them and our coaches how much we really do understand what they’re doing for us.”

The night then proceeded like any other regular soccer game with the JV team playing their game first while the Varsity team was getting ready for their own game in the locker room. “We were just being soccer players and warming up, listening to music and then once the JV game ended we did our senior walkout.”

The Senior Walkout is a time-honored tradition among several teams here at Sunlake High School in which all the seniors on a team walk down the football field one at a time with their close family. Dewey said close family often make heartfelt speeches during the procession, Dewey added that her mother had a notably lengthy one prepared for the occasion. “It was really cool going to walk out and just hear [from] all of our teammates and families.”

As for the game itself that night, Dewey believes that it went “really well.”

“It was a pretty tough game, but we came out victorious again. And then we went home…. We had our ups and downs, but we still worked together as a Sunlake team.”

She is particularly proud of a play where she bicycle kicked the ball to fellow teammate Maddie Perez, “It was almost a goal but I think that was really cool because I haven’t done a bicycle kick in a while.”

For Dewey, the best part about being on the team is simply the opportunity to participate in the activity she loves to do, “I stopped playing competitive soccer a few years ago because it got expensive for having four siblings” She explains, “This is my only chance to really play soccer and I really enjoy it and the opportunities it comes with.”

When asked about which iteration of the team was her favorite, Dewey was hesitant to respond.

“When I was playing for JV, I really had a fun experience my sophomore year, ” She stated, “I feel like we worked better as a team that year and I had a lot of opportunities to both score and take my team to victory but also help my other teammates score by assisting their goals or just creating plays that helped us come to our winning.”

On the other hand, Dewey is also feeling very optimistic about her final year on the team. “I feel like we’re acting more as a team this year than we did last year and I have some more people to hang out with than I did last year.” She cited a previous game against Westley Chapel, where she scored the only goal of the game. “I probably couldn’t have scored if it wasn’t for Arya (a fellow teammate)….She drew the attention to her and everyone followed her, which left me open for the goal”

“I think we worked really well as a team in that game. We all communicated and kind of worked with each other’s strengths and weaknesses to work together to the goal. So I think that that was a big accomplishment for us as a team this season.” She exclaimed.

But for the time being, Dewey is focused on doing the best she can rather that mull over the past, “As of right now, I think my senior year is going the best. I mean, it is my senior year. Usually it’s going to be, like, everyone’s favorite year.”

While her experience on the team has been excellent to say the least, being on the Soccer team does present it’s own set of unique trials, both mental and physical. However, Dewey considers these hardships to be a natural part of the sport.

“You can’t go on to seasons expecting there to not be issues, so the best part about something like soccer is that we overcome them eventually. Even if it takes a little bit, we find some way to overcome the obstacles in our path which then leads us to becoming a better team.”

For the time being, Dewey plans on either going to Cornell College in New York or to Pasco Hernando State College in Florida, depending on which one accepts her.

Dewey did disclose that she’s already a bit familiar with Pasco Hernando, seeing as she knows a few people who are currently on their soccer team and even recently even got invited to attend one of their practices, “A lot of my old teammates are assigned to Pasco Hernando so that would be interesting to play for them.”

While no matter what happens she definitely plans to continue modeling and playing soccer, she isn’t quite sure about other aspects of her future, mainly her future field of study.

“I’m not sure exactly what I want to major in right now,” Dewy admits, “I’m debating like veterinarian or like criminology to do the FBI and all of that.” But for the time being, she isn’t too concerned,” You know everything that we have planned for after college doesn’t always go how it goes…. My brother had a whole plan set out and now he’s not even at the college he planned on going to. So we’ll just kind of see how life goes.”

While this may be her last year playing for the Girl’s Soccer Team, Dewey hopes that her underclass teammates keep up the good work. She bids her teammates to persevere, even when things get tough.

“Even if it seems like it’s not always going the best or that life just kind of sucks at the moment, just kind of keep pushing through…with soccer we’ve had our ups and downs and at some point you’re kind of just like I don’t want to do this anymore,” Dewey says, stating that she’s seen many former teammates leave the team abruptly and not return, but she reaffirms her statement, adding that, “if you just stick with it and keep pushing and persevering through it, it will get better. “