Sophomore Nate Lee crouches on the ninth and last hole at Tam Golf Course in Niles, the low sun illuminating his figure. His white Niles West cap and red polo-shirt blow in the light breeze, and have since dried from the momentary drizzle of rain at the fifth hole. He examines his shot extensively, surveying four different angles while his opponent from Maine South takes, and putts in, his shot.
Junior Jacob Malina follows the Hawk-golfer by making a putt of his own. If Lee takes any note of his counterpart’s success, he doesn’t show it. It’s a relatively easy shot; three feet away from the hole, a small tap-in. The two Maine South golfers and Malina give him some room as they walk off the green.
Finally, Lee puts his ball on the mark, and prepares to putt it in. Feet? Check. Back? Check. Arms? Check. The only thing left is for him to apply the force. Just a gentle tap, and…
[singlepic id=2511 w=320 h=240 float=right]Lee’s day begins in the STEM lab for his SIRS class, taught by science teacher Ms. Gleicher, where they discuss some early ideas they have for their year-long projects. It seems as though the students have gotten used to having an early bird, as the sleek, black classroom is devoid of yawns and head bobbing. Only three, long rows of lights are on in the room, giving the feel of being in a top secret government lab a mile underground, busily working on ways to oust enemies of the state; however, taking out North Korea isn’t on today’s lesson plan, as the student’s talk about phage, bio-degradable waste, interesting uses of fish scales, solar-powered cars, and inhibiting tumors with garlic and ginger.
When the time comes for Nate to share his thoughts with the class, he presents the idea of extracting phosphoric acid from a potato using a copper wire. Gleicher is skeptical that a project based on this would go far in the end-of-the-year competition, saying the judges would give the impression of, “Oh look… another potato kid.” Nate counters this by suggesting that potatoes could power cell phones and living room lights.
The bell rings in the middle of Nate’s presentation, so it’s off to English with Ms. Hettinger. At this point in the day, he is already dreading going to the Cardio Lab for his third period P.E. class, and he shares his sorrow with sophomore Jayna Shah, who is in his English. After the bell rings marking the beginning of second period, Hettinger passes out a calendar, and this time around, Lee has something to celebrate, because according to it, nothing is due this week; however, there is an in-class essay and poetry terms quiz the following week. For now, Lee works on his poetry-evaluation assignment on his netbook. The desktop is occupied by the image of a Nissan Skyland GTR R304 racing through narrow, European streets. Normally, he’d be working with his partner, sophomore Saleh Siddique, but he isn’t here today, so he analyzes John Donne’s “The Flea” on his own. Inevitably, the “workday” becomes a social hour, filled with candy-selling, picture-taking, and off-topic talking. Sophomore Sharon Matthew, who is taking webcam pictures in the desk in front of Nate, is quickly given bunny-ears right before she snaps another photo.
Forcing Nate to get on task, Hettinger comes over to his desk to discuss his poem, but he quickly shows her he knows his stuff by naming off themes, analyzing the rhyme scheme, and finding the meter, but he needs a little help decoding certain lines. Hettinger says that the author of the poem, John Donne, notorious for being a player is trying to seduce a woman in this poem. She says that when he writes “Our blood has mingled,” it implies marriage, but “And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two” means she won’t get pregnant.
Soon enough, Nate is saved by the bell, sparring him any further awkwardness, but alas, it’s time for the dreaded Cardio Lab, where Nate feels overwhelmed with thankfulness as he is sparred the black belt of death (the heart-rate monitor).
[singlepic id=2517 w=320 h=240 float=left]The Cardio Lab is filled with the scent of unwashed gym clothes and sweat. Most of the class goof off the bikes or the ellipticals, but the unfortunate ones having their heart-rate monitored are, oddly enough, focused on the task at hand, worrying about the possibility of failing gym. With mouths opened wide and eyes glued to the television, which airs “Sesame Street” and “The Rachel Ray Show” in fuzzy quality, complete with subtitles written on the spot by a 10-year-old. Nate, who biked for the entire period, feels overly accomplished when, at the end of class, realized that Ms. Metoyer only had to stop warn him to keep up a steady pace once. While leaving, he notices his picture on the All-Conference Wall, noting that it’s a “bad picture.”
Nate has homeroom with Mr. Miller. According to Nate, his homeroom can get pretty crazy at times, but today, it’s fairly tame. Sophomore Zach Gelfand tries to solve a Rubik Cube, and rejoices when he solves one side, much to the amusement of his twin brother, Eli Gelfand, who says “Now you have, like, five more sides.”
In fourth period lunch, he eats at a table with sophomores Andy Garcia, Kyle McCaffrey, and Eli. When Nate comes back with his green plate special from the sandwich station, he finds himself thrust into an argument as to which Subway sandwich is the best. McCaffrey announces, so that the whole table can hear him, that “Subway Clubs with everything on ‘em reign supreme!!” In a much calmer, yet antagonistic voice, Nate states “Nuh-uh dude, Italian marinara is by far the best one.” Not wanting to continue the conversation, Nate heads over to his girlfriend’s, freshman Briana Hester, table.
While sitting next to her, he apologizes that he can’t make it to her volleyball game tonight, saying he too, has a game. After wishing him good luck, she mentions that she’d think it’d be a good idea if he called her mom in order for her to tell her the score. Remembering to the time when he called her only to be sent to voicemail, he is hesitant to call her again, but Hester says, “Don’t worry, she has your number now,” to which Nate responds, “She does? Haha that’s weird!”
Nate’s playfulness extends to his friends, as well.
“He’s really sweet, even if he doesn’t know a person really well. Not to mention he’s really driven, whether it be in school or sports,” says sophomore Gabby Abesamis.
Next, Nate has study hall, but he won’t be going to his normal hangout, the IRC, today, as he wants to tutor someone at the Lit Center… for the first time of the year. After apprehensively signing in, he sits down at a table with sophomore Connie Dang, who notices that he isn’t wearing his tutor shirt, which all tutors are supposed to wear on Thursdays. Before any potential tutees come in, he grabs a medium shirt from his volleyball coach during the spring, Andrew Roach, who congratulates him on shooting one under par versus Glenbrook South a few days before. When asked what he was most nervous about for his first time tutoring, Nate replies, “Just forgetting the stuff that they ask me to tutor them in.”
Sophomore Christine Bautista walked into the Lit Center, attempting to cram information for a test during her next class. Reluctantly, Nate walks up to her, introduces himself, and leads her to a table. Upon opening up the book, Nate’s draw drops, as he comes face to face with his worst chapter, back when he took Algebra/Trigonometry. The problems are complex fractions, which might as well be a foreign language to Nate. He lets out a nervous laugh, followed by a loud gulp. The very thing Nate had dreads about tutoring is happening before his eyes.
“Okay… now here… ummm… you’re subtracting a positive from a negative, so that means that the answer is gonna be positive… I mean negative… so, yeah. Then you’re supposed to multiply out the denominator so that… ugh…hey Lucy, can you help me out here?”
Junior Lucy Chang scurries over to their table, and, without any help from Nate, successfully solves every problem that Bautista throws at her.
Afterwards, Nate, who found Zach in the hallway on his way to his Chemistry with Ms. Lefevre, says, “Dude, I just tutored this girl in complex fractions, and I was like ‘uhhh’. So bad!”
In his Chem class, he prepares for an upcoming lab quiz by listening to a lecture on Nitrates, determining the forms of compounds in reactions, and the metrics system. A quick and painless lecture seems to end in only a few, short minutes, as Nate moves on to his IED (introductory Engineering) class.
Much like his English class, the class today might as well be a study hall, as it’s a workday turned tea party. While some students work on their power point presentations for the class, others simply surf the web, Nate, decides to google “Complex Fractions,” but he eventually begins work on his project on airplanes, which starts from their humble beginnings with the Wright brothers in North Carolina, all the way up to the present day Boeing 747s. Sophomore Ryan Tan sits next to him, looking up at his computer screen and working on his project on clocks. He’s working on his first slide, and Nate laughs when he sees one of the bullet points, which reads “Clocks are used to tell time.”
During his eighth period Honors Geometry class with Mr. Chu, they work on finding midpoints on lines and writing the definitions of points, lines, and angles. The A/C in the room isn’t working, so Nate sheds his tutors shirt in favor of just having one shirt on. Unlike some of his other classes today, Nate tries to remain attentive while he’s stranded in a sea of laughter and babbling; this class crushes, chews up, and spits out the notion that honors kids don’t cause trouble.
His last class of the day just so happens to be his favorite class, Ms. Qian’s Chinese class. When the bell rings marking the beginning of the period, everyone in the room promptly stands and bows for her and says “Laoshi Hao”. Group activities commence throughout most of the class, yet Nate is nervous again. No, he isn’t tutoring someone this time, but competing against Maine South, where he still hopes to teach someone… a lesson. By the time the class is singing “Happy Birthday” to junior Chelza Jalapadan, Nate’s in his own world, where a Chinese classroom gives way to a massive golf course, with countless holes, fairways, greens, and hazards. Suddenly, a voice interrupts his serenity, as Qian is reading a short story, and Nate soon realizes she has assigned a paragraph response to the story for homework. Lucky for him, aside from this paragraph, there wasn’t any real homework assigned, leaving him to focus on his other, main commitment.
[singlepic id=2518 w=320 h=240 float=left]Zany European techno music blasts in senior David Lotsof’s car. Nate’s getting a ride with him to Tam O’shanter Golf Course in Niles, where they’re playing nine holes against Maine South. When they arrive, they putt around on the practice green for awhile; Nate practices some easy putts, and rarely misses one. Junior Brandon Moy walks over to Nate, telling him to set his goal as going one under, and points to a nearby T.V. in the clubhouse, which is covering tropical storm Nate. It’s not exactly ideal golf weather here, either; the sky is filled with, dark, foreboding clouds, threatening to cancel the game at any moment.
Nate lays eyes on his opponent, a foul-mouthed flamboyant and cocky golfer, complete with plaid pants (yes, plaid pants). Today, Nate’s playing partner is junior Jacob Malina, who hits his drive as soon as head coach Mitch Stern is finished explaining the course rules. After Malina and his opponent go, the plaid pants guy makes his first drive of the day, effectively hitting it into a tree.
Now it’s Nate’s turn. He extends his lanky arms above his head as far as he can, stretching one last time before teeing off. He picks a beginning spot different from the other golfers, putting his ball off to the left. Taking only one practice swing, he bends over ever so slightly, looks over his shot, and, in one fluid motion, the ball is speeding off into the gray clouds, quickly disappearing from sight.
It’s been a day of futility for the golfer in the plaid pants, whether it be driving balls onto adjacent fairways or into watersheds, getting his ball lost in the bushes, or missing three-footers. Nate’s doing well so far, but needs to par (par 3) this last hole to get even for today. His drive goes a mere few feet from the green, and he easily gets within three feet of the hole on his next putt. For the last time today, he examines his shot extensively, surveying four different angles while his opponent from Maine South takes, and putts in, his shot. If Lee takes any note of his counterpart’s success, he doesn’t show it. It’s a relatively easy shot; a small tap-in.The two Maine South golfers and Malina give him some room as they walk off the green. Finally, Lee puts his ball on the mark, and prepares to putt it in. Feet? Check. Back? Check. Arms? Check. The only thing left is for him to apply the force. Just a gentle tap, and… the ball curves left of the hole. Nate clenches his lips together and looks to the sky, seeking an answer as to why he missed. He knows he has no one else to blame but himself. He was cautious, a little obsessive even, but still the putt went wide left.
In the end, Nate’s missed putt didn’t matter too much, as the Wolves won 139-150. Stern still has great expectations for Nate.
“Nate has already proven to be one of the top golfers in his age group in the state of Illinois. In order to be on the national scene he will have to take his workout regimen to the next level. He will make it to the collegiate level and be very successful if he can dedicate more time to the sport. He is a very talented player.”
Nate plays at Sectionals today, Tuesday, Oct. 11, at Balmoral Woods Country Club, and then at State at The Den at Fox Creek in Normal, IL, this coming Friday and Saturday. Nate feels confident in his abilities to do well in the championship part of the season.
“I’m hitting and chipping the ball well, and I’m mentally focused and ready,” he said. “As for state, I’ll certainly do better than last year. I’m far more confident in myself this time around, and I’m ready to impress people.”
