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Rockbridge County High School’s Wildcats ferociously fought against the challenges of Covid, working to get the most out of an unprecedented high school experience.
Salutatorian Brian Kendall reflected on his unique high school career. He said, “High school really is what you make out of it. The sports, the friends, the schoolwork – the more effort you put in, the more rewarding it will be.”
Kendall’s efforts paid off and next year he’ll be headed to Washington and Lee University with a 4.56 GPA, he told The News-Gazette. While attending W&L, Kendall will be studying engineering.
Coming from Lexington City Schools, Kendall attended RCHS all four years of high school and immersed himself into many of the school’s extracurricular opportunities.
As a four-team athlete, Kendall played soccer, ran both cross-country and track, and competed on the academic team. He dedicated time to volunteering with the National Honor Society and Project Connection, a nonprofit organization that reaches out to children in the community. Kendall also participated in Young Life.
Some of his best memories at school were on the soccer field.
“My fondest high school memory was probably Miles Williams’s half-time talk at our soccer senior night,” he said. “It was just a great way to wrap up the last five years of boys’ soccer for me. I’m really going to miss it.”
Despite the obstacles Covid created during his high school career, Kendall still values the countless memories he has made during his time at RCHS.
“I’ve made so many great memories and I’ll miss it a lot, and I’m so grateful for everyone who made it great,” he said. -Valedictorian Ryan Squire also found that friends and special moments created a very memorable high school experience.
“I think there was a lot of richness in my high school experience through the friends I made, special moments I had, and four years of acclimating to RCHS that has made my high school experience unforgettable …,” Squire said.
Some of Squire’s most distinctive high school experiences were the practices and meets he participated in through the academic team.
“Getting to school early enough for weekly morning practices where we would scrimmage, answer questions with friends, and learn, and stressful meets, which at the time I may have enjoyed less, but created the moments I’ll remember best: winning states junior year and being the highest scoring team at districts senior year,” he said.
Apart from being a member of the academic team, Squire played piano for the classical music program offered by the school.
Squire feels that throughout the pandemic he developed bad habits such as staying up late, procrastinating, and becoming dependent on technology. The valedictorian overcame these challenges to complete high school with a 4.6 GPA. Next year, he’ll be attending the University of Chicago to study molecular engineering.
