Lapeer West athletes to celebrate sports accomplishments, college scholarships

A group of outstanding Lapeer West High School athletes will be on hand to celebrate their commitments and athletic scholarships to various colleges and universities at Lapeer West High School at 6 p.m. Friday, May 14.

Austin Krehel will play at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio; Catherine Benscoter will play golf at North Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona; Lindsay Thams has agreed to play volleyball at St. Clair Community College and Josh Martinez has will play soccer at Delta Community College.

The media is invited to attend this event.

Previously, on Friday, May 7, Lapeer West varsity football quarterback Nate Smith signed his commitment to play football on scholarship at Concordia College.

Lapeer West sewing students combine learning with service in sewing projects

Lapeer West High School sewing students stitched a little love and caring into class requirements with a community service project to help children at a Flint area medical clinic and Lapeer third and fourth grade students who will be participating in a summer reading program.

Teddy bears of various designs were created by the students in Charlotte Cornell’s sewing class to be given to youngsters at McLaren Specialty Clinic located in Flint, which provides forensic exams for sexually abused children in Genesee, Lapeer and Shiawassee Counties, to help ease their apprehension.

Like the teddy bears, students in Ms. Cornell’s class picked individual designs for the backpacks, which will be presented to students in the summer reading program to carry books home.

“It’s good for the students to know that their work will be put to such a positive purpose,” said Ms. Cornell. “It’s more than just a class assignment, it is something that will comfort a child or encourage them to read.”

The backpacks will be used by students reading below grade level for a Super Summer Success Reading Program, which was an idea adopted from Oakland schools. Students will return in July for breakfast, a book talk and to swap books with other reading students. Later they will come back to return the books and celebrate their summer reading success.

“Research shows that students who continue reading over the summer will maintain, or exceed, reading levels if they read at least six books over summer,” said Lisa Houk, Supervisor of Language Arts/Social Studies. “We are very grateful to Ms. Cornell and her students for this service project.

Lapeer East, Zemmer students participate in Watershed study of area creeks and rivers

Students from Lapeer East High School and Zemmer Junior High School joined students from 21 area school districts in collecting water samples as part of a Watershed STEM Initiative to investigate the health of area streams, creeks and rivers. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

The Zemmer students took samples from Farmer’s Creek and the Lapeer East students took their samples from Hunter’s Creek. Back in the classrooms, students analyzed the data from the collections.

Students from Mrs. Karen Hale’s class at Zemmer and from the Lapeer East 8th grade classes of Mr. Chad Kenny and Mrs. Cheryl Butterfield’s 11th and 12th grade Forensic Chemistry classes took part in the river study.
Students will identify issues in the local watershed and develop a project to address it under the program.

In Genesee, Lapeer, and Oakland counties, the work done in Flint River GREEN compliments the on-going monitoring project that the Watershed Coalition has conducted for several years. It also provides information for use by the Genesee County Drain Commissioner in fulfilling responsibilities relative to storm water runoff concerns and abatement.

The Watershed Coalition currently has over 30 classrooms in a number of Genesee County school districts involved in Flint River GREEN.

The Watershed STEM Initiative (WSI), is an extension program of Earth Force’s GREEN (Global Rivers Environmental Education Network) program. Earth Force is a national nonprofit organization focused on engaging young people as active citizens to improve the environment and their communities now and in the future.

Earth Force is partnering with the Lapeer Intermediate School District, the Flint River Watershed Coaltion and the Clinton River Watershed Council to deliver the WSI in Lapeer County.

Through the WSI teachers will become skilled at combining STEM and civic education into service learning projects and using community resources in the classroom. Students will become adept at using their study of science, technology, engineering and math to investigate watershed problems and civic skills to engage community members to solve those problems.

Professional mentors from agencies across the watershed contribute to student learning and awareness. Prior mentors have come from General Motors, the Genesee County Drain Commissioner’s office, City of Flint, the Center for Applied Environmental Research at UM-Flint, TetraTech, Flint River Watershed Coalition, Sierra Club, and Delphi.

Rain forces cancellation of most athletic contests

All scheduled athletic contests, except for Lapeer East girls’ soccer and an away LaCrosse match for Lapeer West have been cancelled today. Athletic practices will be held or not held at the discretion of the coaches.

Lapeer East cancels athletic events today

Please note that these Lapeer East games/matches have been CANCELLED today, May 11, 2010:

JV Girls Softball at home

Varsity Girls Softball at Carman-Ainsworth

JV Girls Tennis at Davison

Freshman Baseball

Lapeer East senior Samantha Kazor taking academic, athletic skills to LCC

Samantha Kazor has been a strong middle hitter for the Lapeer East High School volleyball team, but Dennis Richardson thinks she has great potential as an outside hitter.

Samantha is happy to make the switch because it means she gets to continue playing volleyball and study sonography at Lansing Community College.

Samantha, an East senior, signed a commitment letter on Friday, May 7, 2010 to accept a scholarship to LCC and play for its volleyball team. Coach Richardson said he is thrilled to have her join the team.

“She’s very talented on the volleyball court with her skills of defense, hitting and blocking,” Richardson said. “With her demeanor and character, she’s the whole package. She’s the kind of kid who is going to push up to the top. We’ve been third and fourth the past several years and she’s going to help us move up.”

Dan Purvis, her coach at East, said he is happy for Samantha.

“I’m real excited to see our players move on to the college level,” he said.

East Principal Kelly Paige praised Samantha for her work on the court and in the classroom.

“Sam is the type of athlete I like to talk about because of her grades,” she said. “She’s nearly a straight-A student and my hat goes off to her.”

Samantha, who said she is studying sonography so she can one day perform diagnostic ultrasound tests, said she plans to get an apartment in the Lansing area while attending LCC.

Lapeer West's Nate Smith signs with Concordia University to study, play football

Nate Smith always dreamed of attending college on a football scholarship.

With some hard work and a little twist of fate, the Lapeer West High School senior’s dream has come true. Nate signed a commitment letter on Friday, May 7, 2010 to accept a football scholarship to Concordia University in Ann Arbor. He will play quarterback for the university.

“It’s kind of crazy,” Nate said at the signing ceremony. “Two weeks ago I thought I was going to Alma (College).”

That was before fate stepped in. Anthony Pratley, Concordia’s Offensive Coordinator, said he was watching a game tape for another team when he saw Nate quarterbacking West’s team.

“I said, ‘We have to get a hold of this kid,’ ” Pratley said. Pratley called Nate’s coach, not then knowing that West Coach Mike Smith also is Nate’s father.

Nate is happy that Pratley called. “I’m glad to be going to a good place with good people to play and study,” he said.

His dad and coach, Mike, also is happy for him. “And maybe just a little bit proud,” he said.

Nate’s mother, Lila, and sister, Maddison, a Lapeer West sophomore, also attended the signing ceremony.

In 2009, Nate was named to the Flint Metro League First Team and led West to a 9-2 record, passing for 1,612 yards and 10 touchdowns. He rushed for seven touchdowns. He also lettered in football, basketball, golf and track.

West Washington, D.C. photos are in, and up

We have received our first set of photos from the Washington, D.C. Lapeer West 8th graders in Washington, D.C. If we receive more today, they will go up later tonight.