After a week of rain, a beautiful spring day welcomed seniors as they took the field at Malden Catholic's Gilbert Stadium for the 2012 Malden High School graduation Sunday.

410 graduates received their diplomas during the afternoon ceremony, which brought a full-house of well-wishers.

Class President Kiara Amos, Orator Michael Lee, Salutatorian Eddie Lee and Valedictorian Dan Holmqvist all addressed the crowd, with Holmqvist praising the class for it's strength in diversity and in the face of adversity.

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“The Malden High School soccer team...looked more like a representative body of the United Nations than a group of guys from the same city,” Holmqvist said. “There were few other teams we played that could trash talk on the field in Spanish, Portugese, French Creole and Arabic.”

“(The graduates) know what it means to get knocked down and get back up,” Principal Dana Brown said in his closing remarks. “They are a tough, resilient, compassionate and intellectual group. They know how to work when the job has to get done.

“So seniors, it is the end,” he concluded. “And it is the beginning.”