A lot accomplished

Elia Powers

The earth shook underneath Sheue Field two hours before the grounds

were filled with balloons, flowers, caps and gowns.

When a 4.9-magnitude tremor struck last Thursday afternoon,

guidance specialist Nancy Muschetto was sitting in her office at

Huntington Beach High School.

“People started calling in asking if we were going to cancel

graduation,” said Muschetto, who has worked at the school for more

than a decade.

She had no intentions of missing the ceremony.

Muschetto took her place on the grass, watching student after

student walk onto an elevated stage, greeted by handshakes and the

sweet sound of their names. And then she took her place behind a

table, distributing diplomas to some of the nearly 500 high school

graduates.

“These kids are the best,” she said, flipping through a catalog of

student names. “I miss them right when they leave.”

Greeted first by an early-afternoon jolt, family and friends of

the Huntington Beach High School class of 2005 packed the stands on

both ends of the stadium, on numerous occasions stomping their feet

in celebration and making their own rumbling noise.

“It’s an outstanding class of students,” Principal David Linzey

said in an interview. “They’ve accomplished a lot.”

In all, graduates received more than $3 million in academic

scholarships toward college, Linzey said. Six students were among 12

in the Huntington Beach Union High School District to be named

National Merit Scholar semifinalists.

All six Huntington Beach High students were also finalists,

including Ryan Field, a senior who delivered a humorous speech.

“You know, I’ve always found it somehow reassuring that our mascot

is the embodiment of the world’s most valuable resource,” Field read

in his address. “Some people might say that on this day you, you

bright young graduates, are the world’s most valuable resource. But

those people would be lying to you. It’s oil, I’m sorry.”

Once Linzey shared his final words, people poured onto the field,

trying to find their graduate among the throng of teenagers clad in

black.

Sister-in-laws Vniod and Vijah Sharda held pink roses in their

hands for their niece, graduating senior Honey Dixit.

“We are ready to give her our blessing -- and a big hug,” Vijah

Sharda said.

Rosalie Kroepil found her grandson, 17-year-old Justin Kroepil,

standing next to the main stage.

Two medals dangled from his neck. One was in honor of a “Tower

Award” given for his involvement in the school’s media arts program.

Another commemorated his involvement in the Entertainment and Tourism

Academy.

Kroepil is the latest in his family to graduate an Oiler. His

mother, Joann Kroepil, attended Huntington Beach High School in the

late 1980s. Rosalie attended decades earlier but transferred shortly

after she arrived.

“It feels good,” Justin Kroepil said of graduating. “What’s next?”

For him, it’s likely Golden West College, followed by a career

either in law enforcement or media, he said.

Delaney Llanusa, who donned a black cap with a colorful tassel,

knew exactly what her future held: more elementary school.

Delaney, 9, found the cap on the ground and pretended it was her

graduation day. She and her identical twin, Alexis Llanusa, were

there to congratulate graduate Brittany Hammond.

“I heard my cousin’s name and I was excited for her,” Delaney

said. “It makes me look forward to my graduation. She wasn’t nervous

at all, so I don’t think I will be either.”