Sonoma County graduates take 'plunge into the world'

With high school over, Rancho Cotate High School co-valedictorian Daniel Grubb on Friday night described the next move in the class of 2014's young lives as not a step but a plunge.

"We stand on the edge. We are in the great transition, we won't be able to linger here long," he said. "This ceremony is simply the deep breath before the plunge into the world."

Friday night marked the deep breath before the plunge for not only the approximately 360 graduating Cougars who made up the fifth-largest graduating class of 2014 in Sonoma County, but about 1,965 other seniors across the county. Officials at Santa Rosa City Schools, as well as Technology High, Roseland University Prep, Geyserville High and Orchard View Charter School handed out diplomas Friday.

In her address to her peers, Rancho senior Gladys Lopez credited her teachers with helping her gain confidence and overcome childhood bullying.

"We spent more time with our teachers than we did with our parents," she said of her four years of high school. "They were the support system that kept me going."

Rancho's student body president Zaire Bailey likened the high school years to the process of building a house.

"This house is being built upwards because it has no roof. The sky is the limit for us," she said. "You are the contractor ... from this point on, you are the builder of your own life."

Cougar Stadium went silent at the beginning of the 6 p.m. ceremony for those who have died this year. Rancho Cotate senior Ashley Carlson died in a car crash earlier this month. Her name appeared in the program but was not called aloud.

Elsie Allen High School, too, remembered a Lobo who was lost this year. Coach and teacher Patrick Troya died in September.

Self-portraits of the 21st century kind marked the night. Elsie Allen senior Matt McCarty said "Hold on, I want to take a selfie" before taking the microphone. Across town at Maria Carrillo, principal Rand Van Dyke took a shot of himself addressing the crowd.

Maria Carrillo's Jazz Choir sang "Carry On My Wayward Son" by Kansas, while a Rancho five-piece band took on "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas.

At Montgomery High, Kat Marovich gave a passionate delivery of her "An Ode To A Teenage Waste Land."

Although it was the biggest night of the season, the pomp and circumstance did not start Friday.

Graduation season began in earnest Thursday night with Analy, El Molino and Abraxis Charter School celebrating their seniors. Ceremonies will continue Saturday at Windsor High and Windsor Oaks Academy. The festivities pick up again next week with alternative campuses Carpe Diem, San Antonio, Sonoma Mountain, Valley Oaks and Creekside handing out diplomas on Wednesday.

On Friday, the season of pomp and circumstance ends with about 950 grads from Sonoma Valley High, Northwest Prep, Casa Grande, Healdsburg and Marce Becerra Academy, Cloverdale, Johanna-Echols-Hansen and Pathways Charter School getting their diplomas. Petaluma High's ceremony for its graduates is on Saturday.

For all of the balloons and red, white and blue confetti that spilled over the ceremony in Rohnert Park, there remained a tinge of sadness for some parents who recognized the night as a beginning for their children but an end as well.

Jason Grey, who along with his wife graduated in 1989 from Rancho, watched with a self-described racing heart, as his son Auston and a handful of his buddies gathered on the school quad for some final pictures.

"To have my kid go here, it's emotional," he said.

Even better?

"There are no handshakes," he said. "It's all hugs."

(Staff Writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. She can be reached at 526-8671, kerry.benefield@press democrat.com or on Twitter @benefield.)