Principal Steve Clark shared plenty of stories and tidbits at the 29th annual commencement ceremony Thursday celebrating Sierra High’s Class of 2025.

This was the class that had the highest ELA (English Language Arts) scores at the school for the past two years.

“You’ve excelled in the classroom, community, and the athletic arena,” said Clark, who gave a shoutout to the flag football program and its 11-1 record in the Valley Oak League.

He also acknowledged Colins Schluer and his record goals in water polo – he’s the son of Manteca Unified board President Stephen Schluer, and will be attending the University of Alabama.

The Timberwolves, in all sports this year, had a collective 3.45 grade point average. “You were true student athletes,” Clark said.

Graduation displayed the musical talents at the school.

For starters, Oliver Naven performed the National Anthem to the crowd at Daniel Teicheira Memorial Stadium – on electric guitar.

Mapuana Toutai, who also plays guitar, did her song “Bloom” currently streaming on Spotify.

Music teacher Rick Hammarstrom – he along with science teacher Chris Courtney, Social Science instructor Dan Cunial (one of the originals of the school), English teacher Janet Sanders, and campus monitor Diane Silva are all retiring at the end of the school year – jammed once again with the band consisting of seniors Santiago Pachalian, Brock Felt, and Faka’osi Latu, and sophomores Gonzalo Pachalian and Cooper Mahoney, to the tune, “Pocket Change.”

Among the student speakers were valedictorian Nicole Allison, salutatorian Siddharthan Gopendran, and senior class President Alexa Jimenez Moya.

Clark noted that Allison’s “senioritis” was taking four AP classes this year. “She got all A’s,” he said.

She responded, by saying: “I didn’t set out to be valedictorian – my goal was just to apply myself.”

Allison was introspective on her high school journey in “finding brings you joy and passion.” For her, it’s art.

Clark indicated that she has 22 full sketchbooks.

Gopendran went to nine different schools prior to Sierra High. None could properly pronounce his first name, Siddharthan, he recalled.

Along the way, he learned a lot about himself, in particular, finding ways to adapt along the way,

“Adaptability is the greatest skill,” Gopendran said, for which he credits this for allowing him to be the best version of himself.

Moya praised the support she received from family and friends during her time at Sierra, basking in the moment of graduation.

“It’s a great day to be T-Wolves,” she proclaimed.