Kamiakin High graduates 'ready for battle'

The 12 valedictorians and two salutatorians for the Kamiakin High 2013 graduating class took an entertaining approach to their time at the podium Saturday.

Each spent one minute sharing high school memories near and dear to their hearts. Their speeches were lively, funny and poignant.

Cooper Atkinson, co-salutatorian, told his fellow grads that life is like a photo shoot and they should take as many shots as possible whatever they do in life. He walked his talk by taking a photo of his classmates from the podium.

Bradley Thompson, co-salutatorian, encouraged classmates to have faith in themselves and remember to breathe, believe and always be ready for battle.

Hannah Booth, co-valedictorian, carried her old ballet shoes to the podium and said surviving four years of high school was like learning ballet — the journey was arduous but worth the work.

Kyle Deatherage, co-valedictorian, pull a lucky penny out of his shoe before he began his speech as a reminder of how lucky he’s been.

Breanna Duncan, co-valedictorian, said spending 4,680 hours in high school for four years had given her so many different experiences, most importantly to remain courageous and to value family.

Co-valedictorian Michelle Fletcher, Joe Luey, Alexandria Miskho, Victoria Roberts, Joanna Sun, Sangeetha Thevuthasan, Emily Bolton and Halle Weimar each kept their comments thoughtful and touching as they shared their minute of memories.

Devin Gerboth, also a co-valedictorian, brought perhaps the biggest laugh from the audience when he said both his brother and sister were valedictorians, and a family photo of his siblings needed a change now.

He then lifted the picture toward the thousands of family and friends at the Toyota Center and said, “Dad, it’s time to update the photo” to include him.

This story was originally published June 1, 2013 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Kamiakin High graduates 'ready for battle'."