What’s recently happened?
Over the past couple of weeks, the Griffith High School (GHS) Girls Basketball team finished its season celebrating its seniors at Senior Night. Six seniors were recognized: Clara Burkhart, Jewelia Rivera, Alex Strauch, Chloe Smith, Anneliese Streeter, and Nina Zielke.
This group is the last of the varsity team that won back-to-back sectionals in 2021 and 2022. All who were on the team last year cited those moments going to regionals as the most memorable of their high school careers.
This year's basketball team featured Sophomore Clara Burkhart who was recognized as a senior since she is a French foreign exchange student. This was both Burkhart and Streeter’s first year playing basketball, and both of them enjoyed it immensely.
“I will miss my friends and the ability to see them every night,” Burkhart said.
The veterans of the team–Rivera, Strauch, Smith, and Zielke–all reminisced on the two regional runs when asked about their favorite memories. These four also say that they will miss all the girls on the team and the memories made throughout the years.
“I’m gonna miss all the girls I had the opportunity to play with over the last four years. I’ve met some of the best people and teammates through this program,” Zielke said.
Despite the tough loss against the conference opponent of Bishop Noll Institute, the ladies made sure to enjoy and cherish their time spent on the court and had a beautiful chance to look back on their careers.
What’s coming up?
GHS offers Unified Sports. According to the head of Unified Sports at GHS Melissa Diekelmann, Unified Sports is all about bringing people together.
“Unified Sports is a program that promotes sports training and competition for teams that include people with and without intellectual disabilities,” Diekelmann said. “The focus of Unified Sports is competition and not just participation. By creating high expectations for students with intellectual disabilities, we teach a new generation of regular education students that people with intellectual disabilities can be accountable, follow rules, and be good teammates. As a result, they will be accepted as valued members of their school, community, or society in general.”
This spring sports season, GHS will be competing in Unified Bowling. Teams consist of both partners (students without an intellectual disability) and athletes (students with an intellectual disability). The athletes and partners bowl with the Baker System, a system where the first bowler rolls the first and sixth frame, second bowler rolls the second and seventh and so on.
GHS has a young yet rich history when it comes to Unified Sports. Griffith has been in Unified Sports for seven to eight years.
“We’ve been to State for Unified Bowling twice, we won first place in bocce ball in 2021, and we won sectionals for flag football in the inaugural year. Since they started having sectionals for bowling, we have made it to state every time. We won first in 2019 and second in 2021,” Diekelmann said.
Diekelmann and the Unified Bowling teams plan to have a fun and successful season.
Staff spotlight
Jim Pickett, a Lowell native, is a current teacher and coach at GHS. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana State University and a master’s of education from DePaul University.
Pickett’s influence to become a teacher and coach was due to his great coaches and teachers he had during his time in high school.
“It was through them that I was able to see how rewarding it was to help others succeed. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I had decided that I wanted to be a social studies teacher and a football coach,” Pickett said.
Pickett teaches classes that are mainly taken by seniors. He teaches economics, government, and AP Government and Politics. Due to his 31-year tenure at GHS and the classes he teaches, Pickett is the Social Studies Department Chair.
One of Pickett’s favorite parts of this title is his colleagues saying they have amazing social studies teachers that they are able to work with.
Along with teaching and being heavily involved with social studies, Pickett is the GHS social studies academic coach. He says he enjoys the dedicated and loyal students who attend and work hard at the practices.
Pickett also is a coach at GHS. He has been a coach for 20 plus years. During his time coaching, he had one moment that trumped all of his experiences at GHS.
“My best experience at GHS was being an assistant football coach on the 1997 State Championship winning football team,” Pickett said.
This is the only team in GHS history to win a state title, which makes it that much sweeter for Pickett. Despite not competing for state trophies anymore, Pickett still finds importance in every chance he gets to coach and nurture his students and athletes. He says his favorite part of coaching is the life lessons that they learned from the game.
Student spotlight
Nathan Pinkleton, a senior at GHS, is one of the most involved students in his class. Pinkleton’s activities include theatre for five years, jazz band for five years, cross country for three years, tennis for three years, Unified Track/eSports for two years, National Honor Society for one year, and student council for one year.
Out of all the various activities Pinkleton participates in, his passion lies in the music industry.
“I am very passionate about our school’s music program. For my entire time in high school, I’ve been in a band class and some form of musical extracurricular,” Pinkleton said.
Pinkleton plays in a multitude of bands, but like everyone, he has his favorite.
“I play the tenor saxophone for the symphonic band, pep band, and jazz band. I personally enjoy jazz music more because of how smooth it sounds and how fun it is to learn the music,” Pinkleton said.
Despite jazz band being his favorite, Pinkleton says that other bands and styles of music have their merits as well.
“Pep band is also great because I’m able to watch and support our school’s basketball team at the same time,” Pinkleton said.
Pinkleton also showcases his musical talents in competitions held by the Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA).
“Recently, I played a solo at ISSMA, which is an event where you play a practiced song in front of a judge, and I received a gold rating,” Pinkleton said.
Pinkleton has large dreams for his future but also realistic expectations and plans.
“My dream life would be to make a living off playing music. I’m probably going to head into a trade of some sort, and at some point start a business. I still plan to make music on the side during this time,” Pinkleton said.
Even with all of Pinkleton’s activities and endeavors in high school, he still manages to be one of the highest achieving students at GHS.
“Since my freshman year, I have done my best to maintain a high standard for my grades, keeping A’s in almost all of my classes. My hardest times academically were junior and senior year, but I managed to survive and currently hold a 4.36 GPA,” Pinkleton said.
At GHS, many different activities and extracurriculars can be life changing and give somebody great direction or inspiration in their life. Pinkleton credits theatre as his most impactful activity at GHS.
“Although it may sound corny, theatre helped me open up to people from an early age and develop the confidence to try new things and further involve myself in school activities. Theatre is also where I’ve met some of the best people I know,” Pinkleton said.
As well as activities, GHS is filled with a variety of teachers and staff who have impacted many students in many different ways. Pinkelton said his teacher, costume director, and cross country coach Shannon Scheidel is his biggest influence.
“Not only was she a great coach, but she also helped me look amazing on stage,” Pinkelton said. “Under her guidance, I became mentally tougher than I ever could be alone, which I am forever grateful for.”