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Top Ten Stories of the 2012-2013 Portage High School Year

The 2012-2013 school year was an unforgettable one for Portage High School. From receiving an “A” rating from the state of Indiana to winning the All-Department Award to being named the best Junior ROTC program in the Midwest to capturing two state championships in athletics, Portage High School thrived in all areas this year.

PortageLife.com was there to cover all the positivity every step of the way. Let’s review some of the top articles we showcase this year in chronological order.

Portage Defeats Michigan City in Homecoming Football Game

A full week of Homecoming festivities culminated on Sept. 29 at the Warpath as the Portage varsity football team defeated Michigan City 24-21.

At halftime, Bella Camacho was crowned 2012 Homecoming Queen, topping fellow nominees Courtney Groene, Bri Gibson, Mackenzie Barcelli and Nicole Thomas. Rashaan Coleman, who helped Portage to victory with two touchdown runs, was awarded Mr. Football, as voted on by the football team. The senior class swept Spirit Week, while the juniors took home the Spirit Stick.

The fans poured into the Warpath as a near capacity home-bleacher crowd cheered on the Indians. After stunning Lake Central last week 20-16, the Wolves struck first on a Ryan Washington 13 yard touchdown hurl to Logan Kaletha in the first quarter. Washington, a sophomore, finished the night with three touchdown passes to shoulder the MC load.

Click here to continue reading about the 2012 Homecoming football game! For information on the school’s Pep Rally, follow this link. For some great photos of the game, click here!

PHS Improved to ‘A’ Ranking

Portage High School’s status as one of the state’s elite schools was confirmed on Sept. 20 as the State of Indiana’s “A” grade for PHS was released. The ranking is based on English/Language Arts performance (30 percent), Math performance (30 percent), graduation rate (30 percent) and college and career readiness (ten percent). PHS scored a 3.70 out of a possible 4.0 to bump its letter grade from a “B” for the 2010-2011 school year to an “A” for 2011-2012.

“I think that it’s all of our teachers, and it’s our kids working hard too,” principal Caren Swickard said. “I think everybody in the school contributes when we do something miraculous like this. This is amazing.”

The math score is based on the percentage of tenth graders who have passed the Algebra End of Course Assessment as either an eighth, ninth or tenth grader. Portage’s passage rate of 87 percent coupled with a 0.5 point bonus earned for ECA improvement from tenth grade to graduation resulted in a perfect math score of 4.00 on the State Accountability Report Card. Portage’s ECA improvement from tenth grade to graduation was 70.5 percent because 110 of 156 students who did not pass the test by their sophomore year had passed by the time they graduated.

Jump to the rest of the story by clicking here!

Monahan Makes PHS Girls Basketball History on Senior Night

History was made on Jan. 26 at Portage High School as senior Nicki Monahan became the school’s all-time leading scorer in the storied history of girls basketball at PHS. With 5:20 remaining in the second quarter, Monahan scored her first point of the night by draining the second of two free throws to etch her name atop the all-time leaderboard.

“It was definitely exciting, I got to the free throw line, had to take a deep breath, missed the first one, but on the second one I was actually calm,” Monahan said. “I made that one and got the job done.”

Monahan overtook 1989 graduate Stacy Sheriff, who set the previous mark 25 years ago when she scored 1,075 career points. Monahan said she realized that the all-time record was obtainable at the beginning of this season, but her coach was one step ahead of her. During the ceremony to honor the new Portage scoring queen after she tallied her 1,076th career point, Athletic Director Kelly Bermes said head coach Chris Seibert told her three years ago that Monahan was a special player who had the chance to become the school’s all-time leading scorer.

For more on Monahan and the other three seniors from this year’s girls basketball team, click here.

Mesarch Named 2013 PHS Outstanding Young Man

This year, 32 of Portage High School's talented young men competed in the 2013 Outstanding Young Man Scholarship Program. It took a lot for Eric Mesarch to impress the judges and crowd in order to win the title of Outstanding Young Man.

The 31 other PHS seniors who competed with Eric Mesarch were Eric Anderson, Joe Beckham, Greg Birkmeyer, David Burr, Dakota Callender, Logan Cole, Rashaan Coleman, Ty Crawford, Collin Czilli, Ian Deperio, Patrick Derr, Kevin Elkins, Justin Givens, CJ Haupt, Tim Huber, Devin Kludt, Anthony (AJ) Laramie, Jeff McElfresh, Todd Mocabee, James Podgorski, Greg Prohl, Top Pronpudpong, Alexander Schreier, Zach Smith, Tyler Soberg, Jimmy Spence, Jake Spencer, Cody Spoolstra, Zachary Swets, Ross Williams, and Ryan Wilson.

For the duration of this article, click here!

PHS Gymnastics Team Knocks Off Valpo, Wins First State Championship Since 1975

For the Portage High School gymnastics team, a wild ride had the happiest of endings on Saturday as the Indians achieved the ultimate goal by securing the school’s first state championship since 1975 with a 112.6-112.1 victory over second place Valparaiso.

Portage entered the final rotation leading Valpo 85.1-84.725 with the Indians to compete on bars and the Vikings on the beam. It came down to Portage’s final two gymnasts with sophomore Madison Kurtz and senior Mackenzie Barcelli needing to average a 9.45 to give Portage a state championship. Kurtz posted a 9.5, putting Barcelli in position to seal the deal in the final routine of her gymnastics career.

“I knew I had to stay calm and be solid,” Barcelli said. “I was kind of freaking out, but really just wanted to stay calm and focus on my bars routine that I’ve hit all year.”

The rest of the story about Portage’s state title can be found by following this link!

Seniors Participate in Final Show of PHS Theatre Careers

When the dynamic Portage High School theatrical duo of Rachel Stewart and Claire Tokash comes out for Saturday night’s curtain call following the final showing of the PHS Spring Musical, “Legally Blonde,” the two will be soaking up the final moments of their PHS Theatre careers.

“It’s going to be scary and sad, yet awesome, because it’s a really fun show,” Tokash said. “We’re not going to do really sad senior speeches right before the show, because last year everyone cried.”

To read more about Stewart and Tokash, click here . Full photo galleries of the fall play and spring musical are also available!

Lichnerowicz Prevails as PHS Distinguished Young Woman

Portage High School junior Erin Lichnerowicz put her self-expressiveness, interviewing skills, speaking talent, fitness and scholastic achievement to good use on Saturday evening as she became the Class of 2014 PHS Distinguished Young Woman.

The moment was so emotional that even Lichnerowicz, whose speaking poise helped her garner the title, had difficulty formulating words to express her excitement.

“I literally can’t put it into words because I can’t speak,” Lichnerowicz said. “I guess theatre freaks can make it big too.”

To finish the story on DYW, click here!

Portage High School’s ROTC Program Stands Out From the Rest

As the school year came to a conclusion, so did the teaching career of Portage High School MCJROTC Senior Marine Instructor John Johnston. Johnston led Portage High School’s ROTC program to new heights over his 17 years of teaching at Portage.

Running the program were Major Johnston and Master Sergeant Edwin Bowers. Johnston said this program is all about building character, leadership, service to the community and citizenship.

Follow this link to view this story in its entirety!

PHS Softball Team Silences Doubters by Clinching Trip to State Finals

The Portage varsity softball team has silenced all of the doubters with a Cinderella postseason run to the state championship. The Indians punched their ticket by coming from behind to stun Huntington North 2-1 in nine innings in Saturday’s semistate championship.

The Indians’ motto all season long has been “believe,” but even the most optimistic Portage supporters began to doubt their team’s chances when Portage trailed 1-0 against undefeated Vikings’ starter Erin Rethlake with just three outs left to work with. Kaitlin Doud fouled off several pitches before lashing a single to lead-off the seventh. Doud swiped second base, but back-to-back strikeouts left Huntington North just one out away from ending Portage’s season.

Alexis Johnson singled to plate Doud and even the game at one.

To find out more on how the softball team was able to earn the school’s second state title of 2013, click here!

High School Careers Celebrated at Class of 2013 Portage High School Graduation

Graduation day is a day devoted to celebrating an important point in students' lives. It's something they've dedicated many years of hard work to achieve. For now, the exams are finally over and normal school attire is replaced with fancy clothes while parents, grandparents, and other relatives come to admire the children in their family for crossing the finish line of a thirteen year long marathon. It's now time to for the graduates to put on their classy attire and walk across the stage for one of their greatest accomplishments to date.

Class president Collin Czilli stated, "I am very sad to leave Portage High School. I am leaving behind so many things that I helped to start that it is hard to say goodbye. This ceremony is so special for our class because this school year was so successful for our school in sports and other areas. Our graduation even made national news because Prince, our comfort dog, is graduating (retiring) with our class. I am very excited for the next chapter in my life."

Czilli spoke to his classmates during the graduation, as did valedictorians Tyler Demko and Cody Spoolstra.

For more on graduation, read the full story!

Another exciting school year is just two months away, and PortageLife.com will once again have complete coverage of the many positive happenings that take place within the walls of PHS.