Staff Spotlight:
Mr. Lewis is new to the Tri-Creek school corporation, and has been put in charge of teaching many business classes. Something many students don’t know about him is his high success in athletics, specifically soccer. He’s a great example of the effects that competing in sports can have on your career and the rest of your life.
When Mr. Lewis was in high school, he accomplished things that other athletes can only dream about. He received titles such as First Team All-State, NWI Times Athlete of the Year, and Team MVP for multiple years. He also holds school career records at Chesterton in assists and points. He also lead his team to state in 2007.
All of this success in high school lead him to be able to compete at the Division 1 level in college. Throughout this time, he continuously bettered his skills and competed against teams from a wide range. This type of success doesn’t come easy, but rather from years of hard work and dedication, and this reveals much about the character of Mr. Lewis.
He has taken his knowledge of sports to a new domain in his life and has coached for many teams. He has previously coached soccer at Saint Joseph’s and Ancilla College. This year, he decided to become the assistant varsity coach for the Lowell Girls Basketball team. From his experience in sports, he is able to instill the value of hard work into all the players he encounters.
“I was lucky enough to be a member of a team that took the phrase ‘hard work leads to success’ to heart. The team never took a day off if they were in the weight room or on the field. Hard work led me to where I am today and the success I have been blessed with.” Lewis said when asked about the effects that sports have had on his life today.
Mr. Lewis has transitioned into also being a teacher. He has quickly become well-liked among the students at LHS. Lewis says the thing that motivated him to become a teacher is seeing a student succeed and the feeling of being one of the mentors which helped them along the way.
Student Spotlight:
Lowell’s Decathlon team is the strongest they’ve been in years, and much of this can be accredited to their powerful line-up of starters. Of the rankings available in Decathlon, sophomore Lauren Cruz is one of the three starters for the highest. Throughout her first year participating, Lauren has already had substantial success in all her competitions.
Of the nine starters, only two are female, and only two are not yet juniors in school. Lauren fits both of these criteria, and this leads people to sometimes doubt her and her abilities. She doesn’t let this bring her down, but rather uses it to motivate her to study more in order to prove people wrong.
Decathlon is something that is not for everybody by any means because of the difficulty of the competitions. A competition consists of taking 7 tests, giving a prepared and impromptu speech, giving an interview, and writing an essay all in one day.
Lauren admits, “There are plenty of times that I need to skip hanging out with friends and family to study. However, without these sacrifices I wouldn’t score as well as I do; it all makes up for itself in the end.”
Lauren finds that the most difficult part of it all is the extensive amount of content that has to be retained. Because of this, studying can sometimes become overwhelming.
“The tests we take usually ask questions on the most obscure information that they expect you to have forgotten. One question can be the difference between first or second, so I try to really push myself to absorb all of the information that I can.”
Lauren is able to overcome these challenges, and her success is evident, as she has gotten the overall 1st place in all three competitions she has been in. Additionally, she has beat Lowell’s record for composite score. The future for Lauren looks promising as she will have another two years after this one to excel in Decathlon.
As for the state competition on February 9, Lauren is hoping to get some points on the board for her team and continue her winning streak.
What’s Going On:
Girl’s swimming finished off their regular season with a 114 to 69 victory over Rensselaer. Their final dual meet record was an impressive 8-3.
Boy’s swimming also had much success throughout their season, ending with a 10-4 dual meet record. Senior Ethan Krucina had a stand-out season, dominating in all of his events. He set the new record for the 100 backstroke at 56 seconds. He broke the previous record by only 0.3 seconds, which happened to be held by his own father.
Girl’s basketball completed their regular season with a 54-39 win over Hammond Gavit. Their season officially ended after being defeated by East Chicago in sectionals. The girls had the best final record that they’ve had in the past four years.
The National Honor Society sent out recommendation letters to recruit new junior and senior members to the program. Students with a 3.5 GPA or higher were given the opportunity to complete an application. Students are still waiting to find out if they were accepted or not.
What’s Coming Up:
The boy’s swim team return to action on February 15, to compete in sectionals at Lake Central.
Five of Lowell’s varsity wrestlers will be advancing to semi-state after their regional competition. Semi-state takes place at East Chicago Central on February 10.
The highly ranked decathlon team will be competing at state at Purdue University on February 9th. They’ve been working extremely hard on increasing their overall score in order to hopefully advance on to nationals. This goal is achievable as they hold the highest score they’ve had since 2005.
Many girls have been scrambling to find a date to the upcoming turnabout dance. The dance is held from 7-10pm on February 10. Tickets will be sold until February 9th for $10.
It may be only February but everyone’s already looking ahead to next school year. Scheduling has begun for the 2018-2019 school year. There’s a few new classes in the course catalog that are available for students to take. These include welding, animal science, indiana studies, and ethnic studies. On February 7, incoming freshmen night will be held in order to provide them with essential information on their transformation into high school.