ARLEY, Ala. — In this interview, I talked to former Meek basketball and softball player, Reagan Aaron. Reagan made plenty of memories both on and off the court at Meek and took a few moments to recap some of them.
“My two favorite basketball memories were winning the Sweet 16 game at home my junior year and found out we were going to play at Wallace. The second one happened in my senior year when eighth grader Addisyn Williams hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer to beat Lynn early in the season,” Aaron said. “It was a great feeling to be able to play at Wallace. Our hard work finally paid off. It was also very humbling when everything around us was so much bigger than our small 1A school. It was a day full of very mixed emotions for all of us and we made our school proud.”
She added,
“A few things I really loved in high school were Coach Guthrie’s history classes, my Health Science classes at the tech school, and all of our senior vs. faculty sporting events through the years.”
Reagan feels lucky to have played for some great coaches during her high school career and soaked up so much from them.
“My coaches were awesome. I was blessed with a great coaching staff for both basketball and softball. They all truly loved each one of us and wanted us to grow as people even outside of the sport,” Aaron said. “They expected effort and respect at all times and in return. I knew they always had my back. I learned a lot from one coach in particular about the importance of respect going both ways between player and coach. I also learned to do my job to the best of my ability.”
Reagan learned a lot during her time at Meek and feels grateful to be a Tiger. She will definitely miss being there next year.
“What I learned most is to appreciate the people around me in every moment and to never take people for granted because tomorrow is not promised for anyone. We were all taught a very important lesson about how short life is, and I believe that put a lot of things into perspective for me,” Aaron said. “The love, support and community around, and in the school itself, is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. You truly feel at home the second you walk through the doors on your first day. I’m definitely going to miss all of my friends, coaches, and teachers that are still there.”
Reagan was one of the leaders on Meek’s basketball team and did what she could to help the younger players as well.
“Being a vocal leader was one of my biggest challenges during the season, but my coach really helped me understand the importance of leading by example more than anything,” Aaron said. “The entire team was young this year, so keeping them level-headed was really important at times. I definitely saw a lot of improvement from them during the season. I hope I taught them that more than anything, they’re playing their hardest for each other.”
Reagan gave some advice to the students that will be starting high school soon.
“My advice to them would be to develop good relationships with your teachers. They know what’s best for you and will help you in any way they can if you ask. Be kind to people,” Aaron said. “High school is hard, and you never know what someone is going through. Involve yourself in everything because it goes by way too fast, and you only get to go through high school once.”
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