Teacher Spotlight: Chris Lowery
For the past 15 years, social studies teacher and debate coach Chris Lowery has been working at Chesterton High School. He began working with the debate program, of which he used to be a member, when he began working at CHS.
“When I got here, my former coach Jim Cavallo was in charge of the program,” Lowery said. “I worked with him for about 6 years as a member of his coaching staff and took over the debate program after he retired. I have been involved in the program for 24 years now. I was a student on the team from 1996-1999 and then kept track with the team as a summer institute teacher and judge for the team.”
All of the individual moments with the debate team have significance to Lowery, so it is hard to narrow down his favorite accomplishment or moment. However, he knows what he is most proud of.
“The thing that I am the most proud of is that we have maintained the level of sustained excellence that was initially established by Jim Cavallo on the debate side and by Bob Kelly and Joe Wycolf on the Speech side,” Lowery explained.
Lowery attributes the team’s success to a combination of a number of things.
“The Duneland administration deserves a ton of credit,” Lowery noted. “They allow us to have what I consider to be the best coaching staff in the state. We also have one of the largest staffs in the state. Our physical space and support from the CHS administration makes a huge difference in our preparation. Our kids also do a tremendous job in their roles as peer coaches. With five different debate events and fourteen different speech events, it is impossible for our coaches to oversee every event and give each individual student the attention that they need. Our kids fill in the gaps. Every year it seems like we are losing a really talented senior class, but each year the next group is able to step up, which allows us to effectively reload rather than rebuild.”
With the state tournament this week, Lowery has high expectations for competing for the team’s fifth consecutive title.
“Our traditional rivals, West Lafayette and Munster, have strong teams this year,” Lowery said. “After just completing the second of three district tournaments, we are excited about the team that we are assembling for the national tournament in June. Our two Congressional debaters will have attended nationals five times between them. This is one of our Lincoln-Douglas debater’s (Hannah Geiss) fourth time competing at nationals, and we have a repeat performer in both Public Forum (Katelyn Balakir) and Policy debate (Madi Simms). Experience at difficult tournaments is almost a prerequisite to success at the National tournament.”
What’s Happening?
Now that the second semester is underway, so are the activities at Chesterton High School. The annual winter homecoming dance was held on Saturday, Jan. 20, and the theme this year was Winter Wonderland. The dance was organized by the school’s Business Professionals of America. Tickets were $10 and the dance was held from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Also that day was the Milton Rock the Rock competition for Chesterton’s show choirs. The Drifters, whose set had the theme “Route 66,” earned Grand Champion honors for the first time since 2009. Senior Warda Yakub was named the outstanding performer from the Drifters. The Sandpipers had a theme of “Color,” and they earned the title of fourth runners-up with a spot in the finals.
Senior Simon Williger was named the outstanding performer from the Sandpipers, and sophomore Sandpiper Rebecca Lane earned first place in the solo competition as well as a scholarship to the Shell Lake Show Choir Camp. The back-up band, The Business, also did phenomenally. They had the third highest band score of the competition.
What’s Coming Up?
Chesterton High School is participating in the Rosie Reading Challenge this year to encourage students to read some of the books nominated for Eliot Rosewater awards.
The challenge started in early January and will end in early February. The challenge has one major rule: books must be checked out from the CHS library, but ebooks and digital audiobooks also count. Students are encouraged to read any of the 25 books on the bingo sheet, and those who get five in a row will win a small prize and have their names entered to win an even larger prize.
Participants may continue to win entries and small prizes with every “Bingo” they receive. Participants can even get bonus entries by getting their ebook or digital audiobook from duneland.lib.overdrive.com, but that can only be used once per Bingo.
Friday, Jan. 26 is the state tournament for the debate team. The team has had continued success this season and took all six qualifying spots for the NSDA National Tournament. Policy debaters Madi Simms and Sofia Winski were undefeated and took the top spot, while Matt Jewish and Ben Hoham came in second. Lincoln-Douglas debaters Hannah Geiss and Camma Duhammell took the first and second spots, respectively. Public Forum debaters Katelyn Balakir and Grace Whah took the top tournament spot for their event, while Zachary Mullins and Emily Krygoske claimed the second spot.
Student Spotlight: Ronak Shah
Senior Ronak Shah has been a member of CHS’ boys’ bowling team since he was a freshman. Most recently, the team won the IHSB Regional Championship on Jan. 20.
“My favorite part about bowling was the fact that I was able to be a part of a team where every shot was important,” Shah said, “and where everyone cheered for me and supported me regardless of what happened.”
Luckily, good things have been happening this season, and Shah has personal goals as well as team goals that he hopes to achieve.
“I was hoping to advance to state with my team,” Shah explained, “and we are on track to achieving that goal. Of course I’d like to bowl a 300 as well.”
As Shah’s senior season draws to a close, he has many accomplishments to reflect on.
“My biggest accomplishment was breaking CHS bowling history by advancing past regionals,” Shah said, “and we even topped that by winning sectionals and regionals.”