Crown Point softball takes home sectional crown and standout Elish wins Gatorade Indiana Player of the Year
Crown Point softball capped a successful 2015 season by winning both the DAC and sectional championships earlier this month.
The Bulldogs finished their season at 29-3, and 13-1 in DAC play, with their only loss being a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Portage.
Junior Miranda Elish’s three no-hitters also helped her win the Gatorade Indiana Player of the Year. Elish finished the season without a loss, and even tossed a perfect game in a 10-0 win over Michigan City earlier in the season.
Crown Point head coach Ginger Britton said Elish’s ability both on the mound and at the plate helped her take home the state’s top individual honor.
“Miranda is a dynamic player because she is successful on both sides of the field,” Britton said. “She works really hard in the offseason to improve herself both on the mound and at the plate.”
Britton also praised the verbal Oregon commit by complimenting her for always being a team player.
“She (Elish) is a competitor and leader with her teammates,” Britton said. “She pushes them to be their best, but never asks more than she is willing to do herself.”
The Dogs’ postseason run was sadly ended by Lake Central, who beat Crown Point 2-1 back in June. 2 to secure a spot in semi-state play.
The loss didn’t stop Britton from being optimistic about next season’s goals.
“Crown Point is graduating 2 seniors who carried a very important role in this year’s teams success, but that means that next year a large majority of the starting nine are returning. I think that will add to team momentum.” Britton said.
Over 500 seniors say goodbye to Crown Point High School
The Radisson Star Plaza Theatre was once again the site of Crown Point High School’s senior graduation, with the 2015 senior class saying their final goodbyes to time well spent in four years at CPHS.
Emily Dawley was one of those seniors, who said that the ceremony will help her remember fondly of her years at CPHS.
“I would say that I really enjoyed the graduation ceremony,” Dawley said. “ I was expecting to cry, but I didn’t. I think it was because I was sitting there thinking about my exciting future and all of my accomplishments in high school that have prepared me for my future.”
Dawley, who is headed to study biology at Purdue University, also said that previous graduation ceremonies had seemed long and tedious in the past, but since her class was the spotlight, the time flew by.
“When I’ve been to graduation in the past, it seemed very long,” Dawley said. “This time, since it was my own class, it seemed to go by quickly because I found myself engaged and watching each person cross the stage.”
July preview: Summer practices are seen as the start of the fall sports season For many athletes at Crown Point High School, the fall sports season has already started.
With needs like keeping in shape and conditioning of the long summer break, many teams start practices in the summer in order to keep their drive for a championship fresh into the fall,
Cross country runner Dylan Wallace commented that summer warmups were essential to his team’s success.
“Summer practices are extremely vital especially for a sport like cross country because you have to build as big of a base as you can before the season officially starts.” Wallace said. “As the season goes on the workouts get tougher, and with a bigger base from the beginning of the summer the better you will be later into the season.”
For quite a while, almost every sport that takes place in the fall season starts their real run for a title in the summer, or even long before it! Football, for example, has the summer practices, as well as conditioning time in the spring - almost half a year before they take the field for their first game.
Wallace admits these practices though they can be frustrating, are really the beginning of any team’s real season.
“I see summer practices as the pre season to the pre season,” Wallace said. “It allows you a head start on your training so when the races come around your body will be used to exerting more energy because we have been practicing all summer.”
Student shoutout of the month: Collin Raiser heads to Germany to visit family
Outgoing senior Collin Raiser is headed on his third trip to Germany over the summer to see his great-grandmother, who turns 95 this July.
Raiser said he takes great pride in family and is thrilled to head back to central Europe.
“I’m excited to return (to Germany), and to see some family members I haven’t seen in years,” Raiser said. “I’m getting back to my roots so to speak.”
Throughout his years at Crown Point High School, Raiser served as the school newspaper, Inklings’, cartoonist. Raiser said cartooning has been a hobby of his since his young childhood.
“Cartooning was a passion I was very serious about,” Raiser said. “I’ve honestly been drawing all my life.”
Although Raiser has a deep love for drawing, he realizes he may not be able to live off of what it provides. That’s why he is looking to pursue another love after high school.
“I’ve decided that cartooning would be better as an avid hobby rather than a profession, since the income is a bit scarce. The whole ‘starving artist’ deal’” Raiser said. “So I’m following my other passion by going into nursing or physical therapy. I love helping people, and I’d be happy doing that as a career.”
With Raiser’s run at being a high school student over, the 17-year old says the faculty at CPHS were the ones who he will miss the most.
“My favorite part of CPHS was the staff. The teachers and others that genuinely strive to help students.” Raiser said.
Teacher shoutout: History teacher Ray Tarnow serves as athletic director at St. Paul Elementary School in Valparaiso.
History teacher Ray Tarnow has not only taught in the Crown Point School Corporation for 15 years, but has spent much of his time giving back to his community by serving as the athletic director at St. Paul School in Valparaiso.
The athletic programs at St. Paul School have taken off since Tarnow took over at the helm three years ago. Some success stories at the K-8 grade school include some high profile victories over public schools around the region.
“We’ve (St. Paul School) have had a lot of success against some public schools. In basketball we’ve done really good pulled off a win over the Duneland Conference champion.” Tarnow said. “And our incoming eighth-grade basketball team hasn’t lost a game in three years.”
Tarnow also played football at both Anderson University and Purdue University, where he walked on in the later years of the 1980’s.
Tarnow spent fifteen years of his teaching career at alternative school, teaching a variety of subjects and being able to work with many kids one-on-one, which enabled many would-be drop-outs to graduate successfully.
“I’m really proud that we started the program (alternative school) at Crown Point with Diane Lang, and it’s been really successful. (We’ve helped) a lot of kids that would’ve dropped out and wouldn’t graduated otherwise.” Tarnow said.