NATCHEZ — Motorists driving past the Natchez High School valedictorian’s house on graduation weekend could certainly see his family’s pride on display.

That’s because Regginald Good’s parents had a big banner hanging up between two signposts in the yard celebrating the family’s first valedictorian.

“I was very proud,” said Regginald’s mother, Tiffany Good. “I think he was very deserving of it. He has worked hard. Ever since he has been in school, he has always been an A student.”

“Reggie” Good, 18, also the son of Reginald Smith, found out he was going to be the valedictorian two days before graduation.

“Principal (Tony) Fields called and said congrats on being the 2016 valedictorian of Natchez High School,” he said. “It was a surprise to get that call, but it was a good surprise.

“The race for valedictorian of the class between me and the salutatorian had been neck and neck since ninth grade.”

Good volunteers with the D&J Youth Group, participates in leadership roles in many of the school’s clubs — Student Government Association, BETA, Health Occupations Students of America, National Honor Society, to name a few — works and plays soccer for Natchez High.

With all of those activities, Good said he had to have some strategies for staying on top of his grades in class.

“Planning was very important,” he said. “I’d write down what I needed to do and put it in order of importance.”

Good said he started working with Larry Holder at Wilson’s Drug Store on Franklin Street to start preparing for his future. He wants to be a pharmacist and will attend the University of Louisiana at Monroe in the fall.

“When I first started I was a little scared because it was the first job I had ever had in my entire life,” Good said. “I think it’s good getting a chance to watch my boss and learn the ins and outs of being a pharmacist.”

Having taken a health sciences class and wanting to go into the pharmacist industry, Good said Holder often offers lessons.

“It’s reassuring when you recognize some stuff, like, hey, I learned that at Natchez High School,” he said. “Every day, he’ll give me a lesson about what a drug is about and what it is used for. It’s good to build up my knowledge before I go to college.”

Good will start at ULM on Aug. 19 taking pre-requisite classes, though he was a dual enrollment student at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Natchez campus, taking English composition courses.

“The class I am most looking forward to is my chemistry class,” he said. “I like learning about the world’s make up and how everything came to be the way it is.”

Science and math have always been subjects that have come natural for Good, he said.

“I got started at an early age, my grandmother (Dianne Good) would take me to the library constantly every weekend, and we’d get books on different subjects,” he said. “They bought me a bunch of math games for the computer, and I never realized what it was doing for me until I was older — it was just a game, but it was teaching me math concepts that I would use later.”

Good said he was going to miss Natchez High School when he goes off to school.

“It was such a loving environment between teachers and students,” he said. “If they knew you wanted to learn, they would help you by any means necessary.

“The teachers had open doors and you could talk to them about anything — school work or advice on something personal.”

While he will miss Natchez High School, Good said he was looking forward to college at ULM.

“I plan on being involved in the student organizations, like student government,” he said. “The school is kind of like the story ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears,’ it’s not too small, it’s not too big, it’s just right.”