Senior Night is a memorable and meaningfulsenior traditionfor high school athletes and their families. It celebrates the culmination of years of hard work and commitment, and recognizes each senior’s contribution to the team and program, celebrates their athletic achievements, and acknowledges the support of their family and friends.
Senior Night is usually held at the final home game, meet or match of the season. Players are announced individually and enter the stadium, or walk onto the field or court, escorted by their family.
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The size and scope of Senior Night varies, and is probably determined by the size of the team and the budget for the event. But even with limited resources, you can plan a memorable event to celebrate Senior Night for your graduating seniors!
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Senior Night Ideas Contents
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Senior Night Set-Up
Announcer and Sound System
Once you know the date of Senior Night for your team, make sure you schedule an announcer and the photographer right away. Hopefully you can find parent or student volunteers for these two important jobs.
If you don’t have a regular announcer for your team, ask the Athletic Director, Principal or an underclassmen team parent to take on the role for Senior Night. And, if you don’t usually have a microphone and speaker or sound system at your games or matches, ask how to secure one for Senior Night.
Photographer and Location for Photos
If you have a big enough budget, consider hiring a professional photographer for Senior Night. If that’s not an option, try to find a parent volunteer with a nice camera, or reach out to the Fine Arts Department at your school and ask about photography students who might be interested in volunteering to take photos. It’s a win-win: they get experience and an item to add to their resume, and you get a free photographer!
Make sure you have a perfect location and backdrop picked out for Senior Night photos. For some sports, like football or soccer, the field and stadium offer a great backdrop for pictures on their own.
In the gym, you’ll want to designate a spot for photos. Either pick a spot with the school name or mascot in the background, or keep the focus on the athletes and their family and choose a spot with a plain background. A couple of balloon columns or bouquets are perfect to set the stage for Senior Night photos. You can order pre-made balloon bouquets or save some money with aballoon column kitand your own balloons.
Senior Photographers in the greater Triangle area of NClisted HERE
Decorations
If you’re looking for decoration ideas for Senior Night that go beyond posters and banners (see below for tons of info on posters, banners, giant head cutouts and photo collages), there are tons of ways to decorate for Senior Night.
- Helium balloon bouquets, columns and balloon arches in school colors can be used to line the entryway into the gym or on the sideline of the field. Or you can simply tie balloons to the sideline bench or chairs.
- If your Senior Night is outside at the school stadium, there’s probably a fence between the stands and field that is begging to be decorated. Usecolored solo cupsorPut-In Cupsto spell out “Seniors” or “Seniors 2024”.
- Decorate the entrance to the parking lot or school withsenior night yard signsthat say “Welcome to Senior Night” and/or feature each player.
- Decorate the locker room with streamers, signs and balloons.Paper star garlandsin school colors are inexpensive and go a LONG way when you're decorating. Or snag aninexpensive sports-themed decoration kit like this onefrom Amazon.
Get the School Community Involved
Get the cheerleaders involved even if they don’t usually cheer at your games. They can help you hype up the event and cheer each athlete onto the field or into the gym when their name is announced.
Ask the school choral program if they would consider singing the National Anthem for your game on Senior Night. The more of the school you can get involved, the more special Senior Night will be!
Senior Night Player Introductions
The introduction of the senior players can range from a short and simple introduction to a more detailed recap of their time on the team. The number of seniors on the team should guide the amount of time given to honoring each player.
Decide on a format for the introductions and stick to it for each player. For instance, their name, position and number of years on the team. Then acknowledge their escorts and share their plans for after graduation. If it’s early in the school year and specific plans aren’t yet known, you can ask them to share something about senior year they’re looking forward to.
If you have the flexibility to spend 1-2 minutes on each senior, considersending them a short questionnaireto guide the content of their introduction. You can ask things like their favorite memory, who had the biggest impact on their high school career, their funniest memory, or their least favorite drill/play, and so on. Request ourSenior Night Questionnaire templateand get a jump start on gathering details for player intros. The template is an MS Word document and the colors and text, including the questions, can be edited to fit your needs.
Resist the urge to focus on awards and accolades. While it’s likely that some of the seniors have had a significantly bigger impact on the team than others, Senior Night should aim to honor all of the seniors equally. Awards and external achievements and accolades are better suited for the end-of-season sports banquet.
The introduction of each athlete is their big moment! There are several fun ways to highlight the entrance of the athletes as they’re introduced:
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- In the gym, turn off the lights and use a spotlight to introduce the seniors
- Set up a colorful balloon arch at the entry to the field or gym.
- If Senior Night is inside, hang acolorful foil fringe curtain in the doorwaythat the seniors walk through to enter the gym.
- Roll out thered carpetfor your seniors! For under $20, you can order one that's 2' x 15' and great for parties and events.
Senior Night Flowers, Recognition and Gifts
Flowers
It’s traditional for the senior players to receive a small bouquet of flowers on senior night as they walk on to the field or court. Many schools also honor the family members with corsages and/or boutonnieres. Your local florist should be able to provide Senior Night flowers with tissue and ribbons in school colors. For a unique corsage idea, see "Ball Roses" below.
Buttons
Parents, friends and family often wear buttons with their seniors photo on them.Zazzle.comhas a great selection of custom buttons and offers several sports designs like the ones shown here.
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Senior Night Programs
Even if you don't usually have game programs for your sport, Senior Night is the one time it might make sense.
If you have a large team and the player introductions are limited, you can use a Senior Night program to share more information about each player, their contributions to the team and their future plans. Create a simple Senior Night Program with one of ourSenior Night Program Templatesavailable in ourEtsy shop. |  |
Photo Collages
Commemorate a high school athletic career with a custom photo collage. Photo collages could easily fall under Senior Night Posters and Banners too, since they're great for both recognition and as a gift!
You have to check out the custom photo collages byCollage and Wood. These. Are. Amazing. Trust me, I had them made for my daughter and her best friend a couple of years ago as their high school and club volleyball careers came to an end, and they're gorgeous! |  |
These collages are different than a lot of the others available because they’re mounted on wood and each one is hand made. The owner, Crystal, is very easy to work with and she offersjersey number collages as well as collages in sports shapes. Collage and Wood also offersSenior Night Postersthat are also absolutely worth checking out! Note: the protective wrap is still on the collages in this photo.
Another great option for photo collages isArtsy Einstein on Etsy. Their custom photo collages come in all types of shapes and silhouettes including several sports collages perfect for Senior Night. One of the things I really like about Artsy Einstein is that you have the option of receiving a digital file OR a printed final product. |  |
Ball RosesI love these as a gift for family members on senior night to thank them for their support!SportBudsis a Star Seller on Etsy with over 5000 sales and rave reviews. Plus, they are an NC owned and operated business which we love at TriangleSeniorYear! |  |
SportBuds offers roses for football, volleyball, soccer, softball, baseball, basketball and tennis, plus some sport bud boutonnieres and corsages as well.
Senior SashesDepending on the sport, sashes are also popular for Senior Night. There are a couple of generic options available on Amazon like this Class of 2024 Senior Sash. Or, for custom sashes try vendors like Triple O Bows and Creationz by CCon Etsy. |  |
Ribbon LeisAn alternative to sashes are ribbon leis. Different colors of ribbons, usually including one representing your sport like the wrestling one shown, are woven together to create a lei. Etsy sellers likeLinda's Leisoffer several options for size, sport, colors and personalization. Definitely click to see more pictures - they're really cool. |  |
Senior Crowns
Senior crowns are gaining popularity and are perfect for Senior Night! Have the underclassmen on the team decorate a cardboard crown for each senior. Grab a handful of crowns from Burger King and turn them inside out, or orderwhite card stock crowns in bulk from Amazon.com. Learn everything you need to know aboutSenior Crowns in this blog post!
Senior Posters and Banners
Banners and posters are a must for Senior Night! Options range from DIY posters created by friends and family, to large professionally designed graphic banners for each senior athlete. And don’t forget the GIANT head cutouts and fan faces that are popular for fans to bring to Senior Night. Below are some of my favorite options for Senior Night banners, posters and signs.
Senior Night Posters
For reasonably-priced sports theme photo collage posters, check outZazzle.com. Their designs are simple, but you can easily upload your photos, customize the text and even change the background color. There are several sports available including football, soccer, volleyball, hockey, baseball, tennis and lacrosse, with tons of sizes up to 24” x 36”.
If you're comfortable working with a digital template that you edit with your own photos and text, we haveSenior Night Poster Templates in the TriangleSeniorYear Digital Shop. You buy the template and customize it with a free account at Canva.com. Your purchase includes basic instructions, links to tutorial videos and suggestions about where to have your poster printed. You can also find our Senior Night Poster Templates in theTriangleSeniorYear Etsy Shop.
If you have a little bit bigger budget, check out the designs byAnything Photos on Etsy. As a graphic designer, they’re a favorite of mine. The designs are stunning and will definitely stand out at Senior Night! Plus, they’ll endure far beyond Senior Night and likely be a keepsake your senior will treasure forever.
Senior Night Banners
There are several options for senior night banners, but they can get very expensive, sometimes as much as hundreds of dollars. If you are comfortable customizing a template (adding photos, editing text and changing colors, etc.), Oriental Trading has reasonably priced banners for senior night;Oriental Trading offers 17” x 52” bannersfor between $20 and $30.. An alternative to large vinyl banners are large cardboard cutouts. If you want an actual life-sized visitCardboard Cutout Standees. They have sizes ranging from 1 foot tall to life-size and offer three variations in materials depending on whether you'll be inside or outside. Use the code SAVE10 for 10% off atCardboard Cutout Standees. |  |
Senior Night Giant Head Cutouts and Fan Faces
Giant head cutouts have become a HUGE tradition at Senior Night. Typically the seniors’ friends and fans hold them in the stands while they cheer on the players. Your school may choose to have a lot of smaller, "fan faces", or just one or two giant cutouts. Either way, they’re a blast and make for some hilarious senior night pictures and they're awesome to reuse at grad parties or in graduation photo booths.
I also recommendCardboard Cutout Standees for big head Cutouts. Their BigHead Cutouts start at $21.99 and come in four sizes up to 47" (use the 12" size for "fan faces"). Orders placed by 10 am CDT ship the next business day and they offer free shipping to the U.S. and Canada! You can choose your cutout material based on how it will be used, and there are options for sticks and yard stakes too. You can even do a "team upload" to select the cutout options once for all of the photos you upload. Use the code SAVE10 for 10% off your order at Cardboard Cutout Standees.
**Bonus: turn your order into ateam fundraiserwith the fundraising program atCardboard Cutout Standees.**
Oriental Trading offers 2’ and 3’ giant head cutoutsincluding a weatherproof optionthat are a great idea if you’re celebrating senior night outside! Plus they have some fun and funny designs like the football helmet head below (helmet color can be customized).
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Celebrating After the Game
Hopefully, your team wins their game on Senior Night and the players and families are ready to continue the celebration.
Consider a short (30-60 minutes) after-party with a cake and refreshments, where the seniors, their families and the rest of the team can connect and celebrate each other on a more personal level.
At my daughter’s senior night after-party for volleyball, the underclassmen presented the seniors with scrapbooks full of photos, memories and notes from their years on the team. The girls laughed and cried, pouring over the memories they had created playing together, and it was a great way to wrap up their Senior Night.
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Julie Stallman is the owner and publisher of TriangleSeniorYear.com. She is a graphic designer and marketing professional with a love of all things creative and a sincere appreciation for small business owners. Julie and her family have lived in Cary for over 22 years and feel fortunate to call the Triangle home.
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