Close-knit and high achieving. That’s how Dawson-Bryant High School Principal Steve Easterling described the Class of 2010.

“There was a lot of academic achievement with this group as well as athletic,” Easterling said.

The school had its graduation ceremony Sunday afternoon.

Approximately 100 students graduated from the school.

Frank Delawder, the father of a graduate, agreed that the graduates are very close with one another.

“(My son) has been a part of a great class,” Delawder said. “He’s got a lot of good buddies in here. They’re just a tight-knit group and they’ve achieved a lot here at Coal Grove.”

For the graduates, the day was marked with both excitement and sadness.

Graduate Amanda Wagner said she will miss being with her friends most of all.

“It’s kind of sad,” Wagner said. “I’m not going to see everybody that I’ve seen for 13 years.”

Wagner plans to study early childhood education at Ohio University Southern this fall.

Graduate Alexandra Walker said she is excited to move on to the next part of her life.

“I’m excited to get out of here,” she said, adding that her plans are to attend cosmetology school and “hopefully move away from here to a beach. That would be nice.

“It was a long ride but we did it.”

Walker’s classmate Shelbie Brown plans to join the Navy.

“I’m probably going to miss all my friends and all the memories I have with them, because most of them took place in high school,” Brown said.

She said the class will be remembered for its mischievousness.

“We were definitely the most misbehaved class to come through Coal Grove,” she said.

Easterling had a different, more charitable take on the class.

“There’s a couple that were mischievous but it was always just in fun,” he said.