HEBRON — Sixty-eight seniors graduated on a rainy Saturday morning before more than 400 people and underclassmen inside the Athletic Center at Hebron Academy.

Piper J. Christopher Pinchbeck led them along the balcony walkway through gantlets of fellow students and faculty.

Ju Hee Kim of Icheon, South Korea, welcomed everyone. Then, in his graduation message, senior class president Elijah Dickson Moreshead of Auburn said commencement was a day he’d yearned to reach.

“I’ve always dreamed of this day growing up,” Moreshead said. “And as I dreamed, I became very excited. I imagined myself extremely happy to end this chapter of my life, to celebrate the successes of such a great class.”

Part of that success came on the football field, a place he said he hated to leave.

“Endings can be tough,” said the young man. “For me, it was losing to Kents Hill earlier last fall on the gridiron.”

He said his father ran to his side when the game ended and understood his emotions.

Despite Hebron Academy’s 0-8 record, Moreshead said the team scored more points than any Hebron team since 1994, a New England championship team that was led by future National Football League star Sean Morey.

Four Hebron Academy players received All-Conference honors last fall, including Moreshead, and one was named All-New England.

“It was my last game, and for the rest of my life I would have to walk around knowing that we had lost,” Moreshead said. “As a senior, a captain and a player who had lived to play football, losing the game wasn’t all that got to me. I mean, I was afraid of the fact that game might have been the last time I’d ever play the game I’ve spent 10 years of my life playing,” he said.

“Fear can keep people from doing a lot of things, such as moving on,” Moreshead said.

“This day — the last time we are all in the same place together — is an ending to a long year of triumphs, like when we all rushed to midfield to celebrate after the boys’ soccer team captured a playoff win against Berwick Academy, or when the cast of ‘Cinderella’ performed in front of consecutive sellout crowds.”

Moreshead, who keyed his speech to the “follow-through,” urged his classmates to push themselves and to work harder than ever to achieve success and not to succumb to fear.

“Things do change,” he said. “We grow older, we mature and we find ourselves. …With every ending, there is a new beginning, a follow-through that gives you the opportunity to either continue straight or veer left.”

Moreshead encouraged his classmates to “veer left” every once in a while and try something different.

The first of his family to go to college, Moreshead will attend Husson University to major in psychology.

“A wise person once told me that, ‘Success is when preparation meets opportunity,'” he said. “We’ve prepared ourselves these past four years for the opportunity to pursue our education for our careers.

“So, as I reach an end to my words to you, I’m not afraid of what tomorrow will bring,” he said. “I know that through every storm there are clear skies and for every ending there’s a new start. I love you all. Let’s graduate.”

Head of School John J. King also urged the graduates to embrace change.

“You won’t really know what your personal game-changer is, or was, until you have played much more of the game that is your life and career,” King said. “That’s the way it should be. You don’t need to know what’s different, what’s changed. You just need to know who you are and what you can do.”

Afterward, he presented the Commencement Awards, which culminated with the Hebron Academy Cup. It was won by Bradley Raymond Geismar of Minot, who will attend Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.

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