FAIRVIEW, Ala. — In this interview, I talked to Fairview softball player and band member Emma Roberts. Emma had many unique experiences and made a lot of great memories playing softball for the Aggies and playing in the Aggie band.
“Some of my favorite memories would probably be going to the beach last year during spring break for a tournament they had down there,” Roberts said. “This year during band at homecoming, our drum major was in the homecoming court, so I got to direct them while she was in homecoming. It was nerve-wrecking, but it was pretty fun. My favorite softball memory would probably be Senior Night because we played Brindlee Mountain. We played them our first game and we lost pretty bad, but during senior night, we came back. We played more as a team as opposed to at the beginning of the season. We beat them during Senior Night, so that was pretty cool. I had this pepper shaker in my car. Me and Allison Davis had this motto. It’s kind of our good luck charm. We have a motto saying, “Give them the pepper”, we kind of go by that. Davis just started saying it and it just hypes everybody up.”
Roberts added,
“My favorite memory from high school was homecoming week because we got to dress up and kind of had free days and not have to do anything,” Roberts said. “We had class Olympics where everyone just kind of got to compete against each other. We really didn’t have to do anything (laughs). I did get band member of the week during homecoming week, so that was a big plus. We went to Universal with the band my eighth-grade year. We got to march and go to Universal. I had a lot of fun because I got to be with my friends. We stayed there for five days, and it was fun.”
Emma played for Fairview Head Coach Annie King for five years and learned so much from her. She also talked about what she’ll miss the most at Fairview.
“What I learned from her is that the game’s more mental. About 90% is mental and the rest is physical. You have to think where you’re going with the ball or what you’re doing. It’s all mentality rather than your physical ability. It was fun playing for her because she likes to have fun, while also being a coach. She’s kind of close to our age, so it was fun. It was hard sometimes, but she had to be a coach at times too. I will miss the teachers and all of the younger girls that I played with. I always had to drive them around because they aren’t old enough,” Roberts laughed, “I’ll miss the feeling of playing, not being able to play anymore.”
Emma took away so much during her time as an Aggie. She talked about her band director and what she learned from him.
“Anything I do, I need to give my everything into it because I never know if that’s the last time that I’ll be able to do what I like to do,” Roberts said. “It can just be taken away from me. My band director pushes you to your limit and wants you to be the best that you can. He expresses that through his love and how he loves music. He cares about us as a person, a musician, and one of his students. If we ever needed anything like outside of school, we can talk to him about it and he won’t judge us. I learned that we can really do anything to put our minds to because he pushed me harder and made me a better musician than I ever thought I would be. He pushed me and made me better.”
Emma talked about what made Fairview a special school to go to, plus she gave some advice to the students that will start high school in August.
“What made Fairview just a special school to go to is definitely the community that supports them because at every football game, we usually bring a big crowd and they’re here supporting us, win or lose,” Roberts said. “The teachers; they let you know that you can come to them if you have anything going on. They won’t judge you or anything. They see us as more than just students.”
Emma added,
“Just be yourself and don’t try to fit in with people because you want to fit in and not stand out. If you’re worried about making friends, you’ll make friends in high school. There’s plenty of people that will be your friend. They’ll just come to you. You don’t have to fit in a crowd just to make friends.”
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