Valedictorian on varsity: Warner Robins’ Analea Harper balances athletics with academics to claim prestigious honor

Valedictorian is the highest academic honor a student can earn in high school, and it’s rarely a varsity athlete that receives it.

The course load required, paired with the time commitment of sports, often makes it an impossible task.

There are always exceptions to the rule. Analea Harper, varsity softball player at Warner Robins High School, is one of those.

Harper is the valedictorian for the Class of 2026 and has been a part of the softball program for four years, in addition to her participation in DECA.

Her academic inclination started at Hilltop Elementary school, thanks to her third grade teacher, Dara Seamans.

“She made third grade as rigorous as it could be. We had an essay a week, a project every week, and that is what instilled the internal drive that I have,” Harper said.

“But it wasn’t until I got to middle school when I realized, hey, I’m actually pretty good at this,” she said. “I started getting all these academic awards and then by eighth grade I was Student of the Year, I had the highest average … It was about seventh grade when I realized I really want to be valedictorian.”

She was an early adopter of academic excellence, but she didn’t pick up softball until she was in eighth grade.

Her seventh grade math teacher, Christopher “Blake” Edwards, planted the seed, though Harper was resistant to it at the time.

“I was running cross country and those happen at the exact same time,” Harper said. “So I was like, ‘No I gotta do cross country.’ He was like, ‘You can miss the practices just be on the team.’ They mostly just needed players.”

She finally relented in eighth grade because of her good relationship with Edwards, who was also the softball coach at Huntington Middle School. Her admiration for her mother, who played softball in her youth, was another factor.

It was easy enough to balance; she mostly ran the cross country races and attended softball practice, but high school was a different animal.

“I didn’t really know much about what I was getting myself into,” Harper said. “I was 14-years-old and I was with a bunch of 16, 17, 18-year-olds … I felt really behind, and when I finally made the team and I realized we had to play like, 52 million games the course of two months, it was kind of a shock.”

Her placement on junior varsity helped soften the blow. There are significantly less games on the schedule and they often do not require the travel of the varsity slate.

That, along with the relatively easy freshman course load, made it easy enough to handle with some better time management and less procrastination.

Her elevation to varsity in her junior year was when things really picked up.

Harper took five Advanced Placement classes that year, including chemistry and pre-calculus which are considered two of the most difficult. She also took European history, U.S. history and language.

“It was the most difficult course load … [AP chemistry] was just a behemoth of a class,” Harper said. “So it was very difficult, lots of late nights. I had to learn how to run off of not a lot of sleep and I did have to learn how to do chemistry homework on the bus.”

Her grades never suffered but she wasn’t performing to her usual standard. Her love for routines and schedules helped her sort it out.

“I’d go to school on Monday, see how my week was gonna be and I’d be like, ‘Alright, this is what I need to do for the week.’ Then I would just allot time within the week to do whatever I needed to do,” Harper said.

If something didn’t get done on the scheduled day she’d work overtime to complete it by the next. She did homework during travel to games and dedicated any time outside of softball or classes to her studies.

She slipped from her spot atop the Class of 2026 once in her freshman year, and she made sure it didn’t happen again.

“I was absolutely distraught,” Harper said. “I thought it was the end, I was done for, I was never gonna be valedictorian. … By the end of sophomore year I was back up to one, and I don’t know the exact rankings, but I was told that it was a pretty big gap between me and number two. And then I held my position all the way.”

That gap didn’t stop her from being nervous during the final stretch.

“The final stretch was manic,” she said. “I was very, very, very sacred and paranoid just because this was my life goal. … I was doing every extra credit assignment possible. I had literally perfect grades all across the board because I was just not willing to let it go.”

Harper has learned a lot from her high school journey, including just how important academics are even as a varsity athlete.

“When you call yourself a student-athlete there’s a reason why student comes first. It’s because the academics are the most important parts, sports can only get you so far,” Harper said. “You learn a lot of really important life lessons from sports and sports are fun, but really in the end your academics matter the most.”

“If it comes down to your academics and your sport, I would say prioritize your academics,” she said. “Definitely show up and give 100% to your sport, if you can’t fully commit to your sport you shouldn’t play your sport. But I think [you should] manage your time and put your grades first, those are really important.”

After high school Harper plans to attend Georgia Tech with a neuroscience major on a pre-medical track. Her fascination with the brain and firsthand experience with neurodegenerative diseases is her motivation.

“I’ve always loved the brain … and I unfortunately have seen firsthand when it fails and doesn’t work. I’ve seen dementia firsthand, I’ve seen Alzheimer’s firsthand, and so I’ve seen how that can destroy people and families,” Harper said.

“I don’t know if I have the power to find something that will cure Alzheimer’s or dementia, but I want to do my best.”