Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

After four years of hard work, Chambers Academy’s new salutatorian is celebrating a victory win. Haley Yarbrough, originally from Valley, will be graduating this month with her class as a winning team.

Yargbrough came to Chambers in ninth grade.

Though it was challenging to make the transition, she soon found a home away from home at the private school.

“I was definitely very nervous at first. But Chambers is a very, very like  welcoming school, and it’s just everybody’s a big family there,” Yarbrough recalled. “So like coming from a public school to private school, I was nervous, but, I mean, it was the best option for me.”

Once there, Yarbrough soon found teammates she could put her trust in after joining the cheer team as well as the volleyball team.

“Cheering on Friday nights. It’s definitely been one of the highlights of my senior year. And I just love how, like, the crowd is so involved with everything,” she said.

Though she was new to volleyball, Yarbrough said the sport taught her some important lessons about teamwork and trust.

One of the biggest hurdles in recent years came from an injury Yarbrough suffered this year. When she broke her foot, she was forced to sit out for some of the season.

“I broke my foot, so I was out for like, the whole middle of the season,” Yarbrough said. “So I missed some games, but I came back on senior night, and it was pretty good.”

That’s when the faith she put in her teammates really came through. She had to trust the other girls on the team on the court when she couldn’t be there, just as they had to trust her when she finally got back on her feet.

That trust also led to an unbreakable bond for Yarbough.

“Cheering and playing volleyball has also, like, brought me some of my closest friends,” she said.

Off the court, Yarbrough keeps busy with her academics as well. She is on the math team and Beta Club and serves as a Chambers Academy ambassador.

“The ambassador is probably my favorite,” Yarbrough said.

As an ambassador, she gets to represent the school at many community functions such as the Food Truck Festivals downtown.

“Then we also help out with the special needs rodeo,” she added. “And I just enjoy watching all them be there and helping out with the games and stuff for them.”

At school, her favorite subject is English. She said she enjoys writing papers and working with her teacher Ms. Hornsby.

Other teachers have been helpful in making the transition from Valley to Chambers Academy as well.

“Miss Hornsby, Coach Garrett and Miss Phillips — They all just strive for their students to be like better people in and out of the classroom,” Yarbrough said. “They try to prepare us for our future, and they really just want the best for their students, whether it be like, you know, [with] sports or in the classroom.”

As she gets ready to don her cap and gown, Yarbrough has always been interested in the medical field and is excited to attend Southern Union to study radiology and specialize in ultrasounds.

Yarbrough said she is honored to represent her class and her school as Chambers Academy’s 2025 salutatorian. Her advice for upcoming students is simple but profound:

“I would say just soak in all the moments in life, because it’ll be over in the blink of an eye obviously. And those moments, like being in the field or on the court or even in the classroom, those moments will soon turn to memories.”