What’s recently happened?
The beginning of the winter sports season has begun at La Lumiere School (La Lu). The season officially kicked off on October 25 with Marsch Madness. This year was the 15th annual event, located in the Historic Marsch Gymnasium. The Marsch Gym was flooded with energy as students participated in returning and new activities, along with a star-filled dunk contest.
Marsch Madness this year hosted a plethora of activities, starting off with a cheer performance, followed by a three-point contest, dunk contest, and finally the exciting addition of the four-shot contest. The cheer and basketball dance performance is one of the coveted La Lu senior traditions and this year’s was very exciting as expected, as the seniors danced to “We’re all in this Together” from the hit Disney movie “High School Musical.”
Following the senior dance was the three-point contest, in which two students from all three varsity teams sent up two competitors, and Luca Asanaka from the Varsity Regional team pulled through with the win. The dunk contest had exciting judges, including NBA champion and Varsity National Assistant coach Jaren Jackson Sr. and 2022 La Lu alum and starting forward for the University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team Kebba Njie.
The final event of Marsch Madness was certainly a crowd pleaser. All week, students, staff, faculty, and parents had the opportunity to nominate any La Lu student to participate in the four-shot contest. Randomly drawn on the court directly before the contest started, Seniors Jack Barry, Elliott Hall, and Casey Van Eekeren, along with sophomore Baruch Avendano-Fanghanel and freshman Dung Dao, were all chosen to participate.
Senior Jack Barry went first, and with 0.3 seconds left on the clock he made the half-court shot, sending the gym into a riot. The video of Barry making the shot was posted on the La Lu athletics instagram account and on Monday October 30, the video was posted on the Sports Center Next Instagram account and has since picked up traction on social media.
“After I made the shot, I knew it would probably go viral, but not that viral,” Barry said.
Directly following Marsch Madness, the class of 2025 was finally able to participate in the Senior Bonfire. With fire ban restrictions being lifted in La Porte County, the class of 2025 was able to finally have its version of the bonfire which has previously always taken place during Family Weekend at the beginning of October. Even though it was pushed back almost a month, the senior class was still excited to participate in a tradition the students have been looking forward to for years.
What’s coming up?
Now that the basketball season has officially begun following Marsch Madness, all teams are in competition. Both the Boys Varsity Regional team and the Girls Varsity team won their first games against Andrews Academy on October 29. With a strong start to the season, both teams are looking like they will have promising seasons, with the hope of bringing back a South Shore Athletic Conference trophy.
Along with the Boys Varsity Regional team, and the Girls Varsity team, the Boy’s Junior Varsity (JV) team and Varsity National teams are also starting their seasons with upcoming games. The JV team begins its season on November 14 against Andrews Academy and the Varsity National team begins its season on November 1.
The Varsity National team brings a lot of excitement to the winter sports season for the Lakers, as it has recently been ranked among the national top 10 basketball rankings, ultimately coming in at eighth place. The Varsity National team will again host a Nike Elite Youth Basketball (EYBL) tournament in La Porte, and additionally hopes to make the Chipotle National tournament at the end of the season.
There is also a very exciting event for students and faculty this November: Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving dinner takes place the Thursday before Thanksgiving and is a time for students to hangout with their friends and faculty while eating a delicious meal made by the chefs on the food staff. It is a very special opportunity for international students especially, as many of them have never celebrated Thanksgiving dinner before coming to La Lu.
“It’s cool to see people try Thanksgiving foods that are so normalized to us,” said Senior Anne Kuehn. “I don’t even remember a day without Thanksgiving, while other students I am surrounded by daily have never had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, let alone even celebrated Thanksgiving.”
Staff spotlight:
Chris Conrad is the current Director of Student Activities at La Lu and is also an assistant coach on the Varsity National Basketball team. Conrad has worked at La Lu as a coach for five years. Prior to La Lu, Conrad was a St. Charles native and University of Dayton Alumni.
Recently however, Conrad has taken on the role of Director of Student Activities. In this role, Conrad works to organize head’s cup competitions, school dances, and activities such as Marsch Madness.
During La Lu’s year-long head’s cup competitions, Conrad works directly with the current Activities Prefect and the whole prefect board to ensure that students are enjoying the contests. The head’s cup activities range from athletic events such as bowling pin dodgeball and giant soccer, to more academic events such as jeopardy and timed multiplication tests.
“It’s fun to be able to create activities that the students not only enjoy, but also activities that the students get competitive about. It’s really the best part of the job,” Conrad said.
In addition to planning head’s cup contests, Conrad also works to curate a fun environment for the numerous La Lu traditions that fill the school year. Throughout the school year, Conrad plays an integral role in traditions such as Freshman Friday’s, the Senior Bonfire, and Marsch Madness. Freshman Fridays are during the first semester of freshman year, and provide a time for the newest La Lu students to better know each other after school. Due to working with the freshmen at the Freshman Friday’s and the seniors at the Senior Bonfire, Conrad is always a part of the La Lu journey.
Student spotlight:
Casey Van Eekeren is a senior boarding student at La Lu and has deep connections to the school and community. Originally from Western Springs, Illinois, she has had deep ties to La Lu since childhood. Growing up, Van Eekeren was around the La Lu community, as her mom and older siblings are all La Lu alumni, however it wasn’t always in the plan to become a Laker herself.
Since freshman year, Van Eekeren has been involved in volleyball, tennis, and residential life. In all of these, Van Eekeren has been a great leader for all four years. In April of 2024, Van Eekeren became one of the Residential Life Prefects and works closely with her other Residential Life prefect Firdavs Sharifov, and Director of Residential Life, Mike Heffron.
Together, the three plan weekend trips, along with creating opportunities for students to grow into leadership opportunities. Van Eekeren serves as the main liaison between students and residential life staff to create activities for everyone. In her role, Van Eekeren decides what trips students prefer, along with deciding where students would like to go.
“I plan activities for boarders to do during the week and we also try to create student leadership by having our school library run by students at night. We try to make the boarding experience fun and make living on campus interesting,” Van Eekeren said.
Van Eekeren puts her all into making the boarding life at La Lu an inclusive, enriching experience for all students regardless of age or background. The environment Van Eekeren has cultivated at La Lu is one of leadership opportunities and has been extremely successful through the residential life programs.