Jena High School is closing out the 2025-26 sports year with its Athletic Banquet 2026 on Thursday, May 14 at 6 p.m. at the Jena Community Center, giving the school a full night to recognize athletes from across the year’s major programs.
The banquet is being presented by the JHS Athletic Booster Club and will honor students who took part in football, basketball, baseball, softball, tennis, track, golf, powerlifting, cheer, and dance.
The setup makes this more than a simple dinner. It is one of those year-end events that pulls nearly the entire athletic side of campus into one room, with teams from different seasons sharing the same spotlight before the school year wraps up.
Instead of separating fall, winter, and spring recognition, Jena is putting all of its athletes into the same celebration, which should give the night a broader feel than a single-sport awards program.
Athletes who participated during the school year will receive free tickets to eat, while any additional ticket will cost $20.
Students have been told to see Mrs. Powell in Room 130 to get tickets, and the current deadline to claim them is Friday, May 8 at 3 p.m.
Read More: Henry County Football Opens Lift-A-Thon Fundraiser to Equip Players for 2026 Season
That deadline matters because it gives the booster club a few days to finalize attendance before the banquet opens the following Thursday night.
The event also comes at a time when Jena athletics has had plenty to talk about across the school year.
A banquet like this usually works best when it reflects more than one headline team, and that appears to be the plan here.
By including everything from traditional team sports to powerlifting, golf, tennis, cheer, and dance, the school is making the night wide enough to cover nearly every corner of its athletic department.
There is also a community angle built into it. Holding the banquet at the Jena Community Center instead of keeping it inside a school room or smaller campus venue gives the event a more public end-of-year feel, and the booster-club involvement adds another layer to that.
These nights tend to matter because they bring athletes, families, coaches, and supporters together after months of games, practices, travel, and school-week routines. Jena’s version looks set up the same way.
For the athletes, the evening will be a final shared stop before the calendar turns toward summer workouts, graduations, and whatever comes next.
For seniors, it is likely to feel like one more closing chapter.
On the other hand for younger athletes, it is the sort of night that links one season to the next.
Either way, May 14 now stands as the date Jena plans to gather its athletes in one place and officially mark the end of the 2025-26 year.
Read More: Hough Girls Soccer Raises $2,000 for Pediatric Cancer Research Through Team Bake Sale
