What’s happened
The month of March has been quite successful for Lowell High School. This was the first month since October that Lowell has had completely in-person learning. Lowell put on its spring musical, “Aladdin,” and it was a huge success. Boys basketball came to an end, concluding winter sports. Meanwhile, spring sports including Girls and Boys Track, Girls Tennis and Golf, Baseball, and Softball all began their seasons, and academic teams began competing.
At the start of March, the Boys Basketball team advanced to the second round of sectionals after beating the Crown Point Bulldogs in a nail-biting game. In their next round of sectionals, Lowell faced Portage High School where Lowell put up a good fight but ultimately ended up losing to Portage, causing their season to come to an end. Overall, the team was extremely happy for all they accomplished this year. Although Lowell will miss the senior class of basketball stars, the team is looking forward to next year.
On the academic side of things, the academic super bowl team was finally able to compete in its first two competitions. This year, the competitions are being held virtually in hopes of stopping the spread of COVID-19. The academic super bowl’s first competition was held Thursday, March 11.
Overall, Lowell finished eighth out of 18 teams, and third in their division. Impressive performances were put on by the fine arts team and the social studies team. The fine arts team placed first overall, beating 17 other teams, and the social studies team finished second in their division.
The academic super bowl team’s second competition was held Tuesday, March 16. At the end of the night, Lowell was tied with Rensselaer, but after calculating the tiebreakers, Lowell ended up coming out on top. The academic super bowl team was very proud of its placing in both competitions, and cannot wait to continue competing this year.
Lowell was also able to induct this year's qualifying juniors into the National Honors Society. Getting accepted into this program is extremely difficult and takes a lot of hard work. The induction ceremony took place on Tuesday, March 16, and 44 new members were accepted into National Honors Society. The students are very proud of their accomplishments and cannot wait to start planning events for the end of the school year.
The Letterman’s Club (L-Club) is also starting to get things into full swing. Due to COVID-19, the L-Club could not host their normal events that they do every year. They were able to put on a modified trick-or-treat, but the Special Olympics Basketball game will not be taking place for the second year in a row. However, hopes are still high to bring together the life skills class and the Lowell community to come up with a spring event.
The newfound hope to do a spring event brought the need for more members. The L-Club decided to roll out an application to join the club, and hopes to take on a decent amount of members from freshman to juniors. The new members of the club will be decided in April.
Student spotlight: Alec McGuire
Alec McGuire is a junior at Lowell High School and participates in show choir and theater. Recently, he performed in the school musical “Aladdin,” starring as Aladdin himself. This was not McGuire’s first school play, but he regards it as his best performance thus far.
Last year, the spring musical was cancelled due to COVID-19, so the cast and crew of this year’s production was more ready than ever before.
McGuire starred in “Aladdin” for its three performances, and each time, it was completely sold out. Support from Lowell’s community was higher than ever for a musical, showing that not only did McGuire and the theater students miss performing, but the audience missed watching them. The success of “Aladdin” definitely made all of the long hours spent practicing worth it.
With all the COVID-19 protocols the theater students were facing, McGuire did admit that practicing the musical was a bit tricky. McGuire was most worried about him and his fellow castmates getting quarantined right before the big performance. However, “Aladdin” was performed with all of the cast being completely healthy.
Overall, McGuire was extremely happy with his and his castmates' performances.
“It went better than any of us had expected,” said McGuire. “‘Aladdin’ was one of those shows that had a really high bar set for it. All of us were blown away by our performance and the overwhelmingly positive response by our audience.”
This year, McGuire knew that he was going to have to work extra hard in order to put on a great show. He knew that the audience was expecting a lot, and he did not want to disappoint. With the hours of practicing, it all ended up paying off because of the overall effect “Aladdin” had on people.
“Every night that I took the stage, I could feel this energy of stress being lifted off of the audience members’ shoulders,” said McGuire. “Getting to see the kids be happy after the show and come running up to me to ask for my autograph warmed my heart because I knew I was able to help them through something.”
For the hour and a half he performed on stage, McGuire knew that he had the ability to pull the audience’s problems away, and he could not believe how amazing that felt.
This was not McGuire’s first musical, and it certainly will not be his last. He plans to continue to make an impact on people through performing.
“There is nothing I would rather do. The stage is my disconnection from the world and my connection to my own mind. I find more of myself every time I'm on stage.”