West Lauderdale seniors Ella Morse, from left, Anslee Mason, Cooper Cornett and Hayden Williams sign letters of intent to continue playing their sports at the collegiate level. Morse, Mason and Cornett signed with East Mississippi Community College to play soccer, while Williams signed with Meridian Community College to play tennis.

West Lauderdale High School parents, teachers and administrators celebrated their student athletes on Wednesday as nine graduating seniors signed letters of intent to continue their athletic and academic careers at the next level.

Signees from a variety of sports took part in the event including athletes in volleyball, cheerleading, E-sports, soccer, tennis and cross-country.

Jody Hurst, athletic director for West Lauderdale High School, said this year’s graduating class has seen quite a few students advance their athletic careers, and Wednesday’s signees bring the total to almost two dozen.

“This has been a great group of seniors,” he said. “We had 11 seniors sign in the fall. We had three football players sign on football signing day, and now we had nine sign in the spring. That gives us a total of 23 student athletes that are moving on to the next level.”

West Lauderdale has enjoyed several years of athletic achievement as these students have come up through the school, Hurst said, and although he wishes them nothing but the best, their absence will be felt.

“It’s going to be a hard group to replace, but we’ll just keep working hard out here and hopefully we’ll have some good talented kids come our way,” he said.