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Two Niceville High School softball seniors, Emma Sites and Emma Kowal, managed to attend their high school graduation on May 23 just hours after helping their team secure a spot in the FHSAA Class 5A state championship game. With help from a teammate’s mother and Legendary Aviation, the students flew from Sanford to Destin and arrived in time to walk at graduation. Less than a day later, they were back on the road for the final game of their high school careers.
It was my understanding when I wrote our Friday newsletter that the two seniors on the Niceville High School Softball Team wouldn’t be able to make it to their graduation Thursday night.
I was wrong.
Here how they made it happen:
The two seniors on this year’s NHS Softball team are Emma Sites and Emma Kowal. They’ve led the team on its quest to the mountaintop – a state championship.
“I’m excited. I think our team has a really good shot. We’ve been studying all the players, the pitchers, and we have a defense that’s really on point, and our offense is also on point. So I think we are going to put up a very good battle,” Emma Sites said as she made the return trip (via car) to play in the biggest game of her life (so far).
On May 22, the squad bested South Florida Sports Powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas 7-2 in a dominant performance to earn a spot in the state title game against the Winter Springs Bears.
But that meant the Emmas would have to miss their graduation from high school at Eagle Stadium.
Or so they thought.
That was until one of the team members moms – an employee of Legendary Aviation (a part of the Legendary group owned by Destin’s Peter Bos) – worked the phones at her job and got a plane available for the girls to use after the game so that they could attend graduation.
Immediately after the game, the girls hopped on the turboprop plane and took the hour and fifteen-minute flight from the Samford Airport back home.
“Yeah, so incredibly awesome. Absolutely would not have happened without legendary air. So very, very thankful for them, or these girls wouldn’t have been able to go their graduation,” Emma Sites mother, Jodi said.
The girls and their parents had a plan to ensure they would have their names called at graduation: they were going to sit in the back with the students who have names at the back of the alphabet.
But they got there early enough to be seated in their assigned spots.
They even got a shout-out from Niceville Principal Charlie Marello – who had them stand up for recognition by their peers.
“What an incredible story those girls will have to tell about the day they won the 5A state FHSAA semi-finals near Orlando, hopped on a private jet, landed in Destin, raced to graduation and got a shout out from Morello,” the Eagles’ principal said.
Less than 24 hours after graduation, the girls are back on the road – making the drive back to Central Florida to play in the final game of their high school careers.
An exciting moment for Emma Stiles, who will continue her playing career next year at Spring Hill College in Mobile next year. But for now – she’s just looking forward to reuniting with her team on the diamond.
“We’ve all been waking up early and going on morning walks as a team cool, and then we do a prayer like about 20 minutes before each game,” Emma sites said about their time together.
The Eagles play at 10a on Saturday, May 24.
