What’s recently happened?
It’s been a busy fall at Michigan City High School (MCHS), and the Wolves are just getting started.
Matching up against the La Porte High School Slicers in its Homecoming game, the MCHS Football team was successful in defending a recent tradition of domination over its rivals.
Homecoming was also a success – it was a great opportunity to honor the individuals chosen as part of the MCHS Homecoming Court. With over 20 candidates, each representing a MCHS club, the 2024-2025 court stunned in the much anticipated Homecoming parade, and later at their Ames field debut.
Congratulations to Jaden Wilson and Paulecia Isom for being crowned as this year’s Homecoming King and Queen, respectively.
"Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle," Isom said, quoting American author, Christian D. Larson.
As fall sports wrap up their seasons, the Wolves had a couple of exciting triumphs.
Junior Madelyn Parry and Freshman Preston Messenger have advanced to the Cross Country Regional after qualifying at their October Sectional.
Sophomore MCHS Girls Soccer Player Kiara Williams and Senior Madelyn Shinn along with Senior Demond Cash from MCHS Boys Soccer have been selected to the All-Duneland Conference Team.
Wolves Volleyball also took home the trophy after winning a tournament at Gary West Side Leadership Academy while bringing attention to Breast Cancer.
In the world of music, the MCHS Wolfpack Pride Marching Band made history in early October, when they received their first gold rating in Scholastic, a division of competition, in school history.
MCHS Drama Club will be putting on “Beetlejuice Junior” in November, with showings on November 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, and 24.
What’s coming up?
Coming up for the Wolves is the winter sports season. In the winter MCHS Basketball, Wrestling, Swimming and Dive, and Gymnastics will be competing in their competitive seasons.
The MCHS Student Government is excited to be hosting their first ever Student Leadership Summit on November 9, 2024. This is a rescheduled date from September, but the Student Government is still looking to bring in a crowd of students from the area to hear from a variety of leadership speakers. Some notable speakers include Indiana Senate member Rodney Pol, La Porte Mayor Tom Dermody and President of the Michigan City Chamber of Commerce Kurt Gillins.
Staff spotlight:
Mike Tsugawa, or “Sensei,” as he’s known to his Japanese students, wants his students to learn more than the language from the Japanese culture.
“Japanese culture is often thought of as a culture of group and family, where you are always conscious of who you are representing,” Tsugawa said.
A man on the move from the very start, Tsugawa was born in Connecticut and raised in Chicago, Illinois.
In high school, Tsugawa took Spanish, making the language he now teaches, Japanese, his second foreign language.
“I like to tell my students that all of them speak more Japanese than I did at their age. Which is pretty amazing,” Tsugawa said.
Entering the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UI) as a Psychology major, Tsugawa took advantage of UI’s study abroad program, and was able to spend some time studying in Japan.
“I was very strongly attracted to the fact that Illinois had a year abroad program in Japan that included a home stay. It was my first full exposure to Japanese language and culture,” Tsugawa said.
When Tsugawa returned back to UI, he finished his degree in psychology, but his passion had shifted to the study of Japanese, so Tsugawa moved to Japan and spent three years as an assistant English teacher.
In 2016, Tsugawa was Indiana Secondary Foreign Language Teacher of the Year, and if you ask his students, he more than earns that award every day.
“Sensei is a one in a million teacher. His fun and engaging classes help us students reach our fullest potential in the rather difficult Japanese language world,” said Nate Groszek, a Japanese student.
Tsugawa is interested in teaching his students Japanese, naturally, but he’s invested in instilling his students with a broader understanding of the world, too.
“I want my students to understand that everything they do is bigger than just themselves. I get to team them at ages 14 through 17. Which developmentally, is an extremely inwardly focused time in our lives. It’s very easy to feel like everything revolves around you. You’re working on creating yourself. But bit by bit, I want them to understand how to have empathy, not just sympathy for others, and how to think about the we, before the me,” Tsugawa said.
Student spotlight:
Hannah Parker is not your average high school student- she’s much busier.
Parker is a middle blocker on the MCHS Girls Volleyball team, president and founding member of Faith Club, senior volunteer on the high school’s teen court, and much more – the list goes on. Parker is also involved with the Student Leadership Athletic Committee, National Honor Society (NHS), Student Government, Rho Kappa, Japanese Club, and more. There are not many MCHS organizations that aren’t honored to call Parker a member.
Parker has played volleyball since she was 12. She started her volleyball career on the Barker Middle School Team. Now that she’s older, Parker serves as a captain on the MCHS varsity team and is a member of Dunes Volleyball Club, the competitive travel-ball team.
Just getting finished with her last season of high school volleyball, Parker reflects on what the Lady Wolves brought this year.
“While we didn’t have a season that everyone expected, it’s important to recognize that this year our record was 11-19. For us, that’s definitely a notable improvement. We were able to overcome whatever came our way, and I think that is what was important about this season,” Parker said.
Having committed so much of her young adult life to volleyball, much like most of her senior peers, Parker is constantly being asked what her plans are in the future. Is she going to play in college? Is Parker going pro?
Parker is not yet committed to any schools, though she has talked to a couple different college coaches. She has expressed an interest in Grace College, having visited there a couple times this year. However, Parker remains open for what may come her way.
“I’m really excited for what life is going to bring to me moving into the future. For the recruitment process, we will see where the Lord takes me,” Parker said.
In October, Parker represented the NHS in the Homecoming proceedings as their Homecoming Queen Candidate escorted by NHS’s Homecoming King Candidate, John Zaknoun.
“I’m so glad I got to represent the National Honor Society. Service is such an important thing to me, and a lot of what we do in the NHS is serving our community around us. Being able to represent a club that embodies the idea of service was a great honor,” Parker said.
An avid Japanese student, Parker is also involved in the school’s Japanese Club sponsored by Tsugawa.
“Japanese Club holds such a special place in my heart. Learning about new cultures and languages is something that I’ve always been interested in. In Japanese Club, you get to do that while having fun with the people around you.”
Despite being heavily involved in her school and community, you’ll never catch Parker slacking on her academics. She is top of her class and a future distinguished graduate.
“I’m taking five Advanced Placement courses this semester,” Parker said. “I just want to press forward, making sure I put in the effort in and out of the classroom to know the material.”
Parker is preparing to step away from her high school and into her future.
“While it’s sad to be leaving my high school, I am definitely ready to move on with my life and see what’s in the next chapter, which will hopefully be college,” Parker said. “I’d like to study counseling or psychology.”