South Warren High School held their commencement ceremony Saturday, June 4, 2016, at E.A. Diddle Arena. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

Students graduating from South Warren High School on Saturday are moving on to higher education with the help of more than $12 million in scholarships.

Four of those 263 students will attend prestigious military schools on full scholarships.

“We are really proud of them,” guidance counselor Angie Gage said. “We’ve been on a wait list to receive an ROTC program … we are the only county school that doesn’t have one, so that makes it even more phenomenal because we don’t have a feeder program.”

The JROTC from Warren East High School presented the colors at the graduation.

Ryan Martin, who had his choice between going to the U.S. Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy, chose the Naval Academy.

Luke Rice is going to the Air Force Academy and Brycen Lacey is headed to West Point. Hunter McGee will go to the Citadel that, while not a military academy, does prepare young people for a career in the military.

“I’ve wanted to be in the military since I was 8,” Lacey said. “My dad was in the Army, so I decided to apply to the academy.”

When he received the appointment, Lacey said he screamed, “No way!”

He leaves for school June 25 and expects to study political science or environmental engineering there.

Martin said he carefully weighed the pros and cons of each academy before making a decision.

“And I felt like the U.S. Naval Academy was for me,” he said.

When asked how rare it is to get two appointments, Martin responded, “It’s pretty rare to get an appointment to one, so I guess it could be even more rare to get appointed to two.”

Martin said his parents were ecstatic that he could choose between two fully paid educations.

“I don’t have to worry about being in debt,” he said. “So I am very relieved about that.”

Rice first wanted to be a pilot, but now he has switched his interests to the Air Force’s research and development with space systems and aeronautics.

“I felt like that was really where I wanted to go in my career,” he said.

He expects to major in either mechanical engineering or space systems engineering.

“My father was in the Air Force for a long time so that directed my attention toward the Air Force,” he said. “And like Bryson, I knew I wanted to go into the military from an early age.”

Hunter said he selected the Citadel after speaking with some of the school’s large Bowling Green alumni contingency. They piqued his interest, and the school seemed a good fit.

As for the three who will be required to perform military service after graduation, they are aware of how much the world is changing.

Martin said he isn’t bothered by what may occur in future military engagements.

“I think we are getting to a point now where war seems almost inevitable with somebody,” Rice said. “I … feel like it would be an honor to serve my country if we end up getting in a war. Of course we won’t be required to perform military service until 2022, so by that point everything could change.”

Lacey also said it would be an honor to serve.

“Whatever is going on in the world affects everybody … . We knew what we would be required to do when we signed on … so to serve our country when the time comes is an honor.”

Before the graduation ceremony Saturday, Taylor Sananikone was pumped and a bit nervous.

“My whole family came up from Texas to see this,” she said.

Sananikone plans to major in fashion merchandising and marketing at Western Kentucky University where Saturday’s graduation was held.

A two-thirds-filled E.A. Diddle Arena contained a host of family and friends, including Tom Duffy, who was there to watch daughter Tabitha graduate.

“We are very excited and proud of her,” Duffy said.

The family just moved to Warren County a year ago and the counselors at South Warren were helpful in making sure that Tabitha would be able to graduate as she had planned, he said. As for her future, Duffy said his daughter has shown interest in going to the police academy.

Logan Bartley plans to head to South America and help a Nashville-based mission group build churches.

Athlete Bryan Cummings received a full scholarship from the track and field program at Bellarmine University. He was excited about moving forward.

Whatever was in store for the graduates, senior class representative Courtney Starling encouraged them to go on and create many more “unimaginable” firsts as they already had done as Spartans. 

— Follow City Editor Robyn L. Minor on Twitter at @bowserminor or visit bgdailynews.com.