15 minute read
Student Profi les
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STUDENT PROFILES
Thanks to the coaches and teachers at Northern and Northwest High Schools for their student recommendations and input, which make it possible to recognize these talented, dedicated students for their accomplishments in academics, athletics and cultural arts. by MEREDITH BARKLEY
NORTHWEST GUILFORD Marcus Harnarain, senior
Sport: wrestling
Marcus Harnarain said when he announced during seventh grade that he was giving wrestling a try, his parents
“were pretty surprised.”
“I did a lot of other sports when I was younger, but I never found one that would stick,” said the Northwest Guilford senior, who wrestles as a heavyweight. “They didn’t think wrestling would stick either. But here we are, six years later.”
Along the way, Harnarain has gotten pretty good at the sport. Last year he surprised some people by making it to the state championship match. He hopes to win it all this season.
Next year he wrestles at Belmont Abbey, an NCAA Division II program. He expects to study marketing or sports management.
“I’m pretty excited for it,” he said of his transition to college.
Pro wrestling on television whetted Harnarain’s appetite for the sport. When he began trying it for himself, he fell in love.
“I think it was the teammates and the mental aspect of it,” he said. “It got me out of my comfort zone, and the coaches I’ve had have been amazing.
“There’s a huge adrenaline rush when you step on the mat,” he added.
Part of his success, he said, comes from techniques which he developed over the years that have given him an edge over many heavyweights who are not as nimble. He has also worked at building endurance so he can compete in the late stages of often grueling matches.
Teammates, he said, have noticed, and have given him a nickname: the “CEO of Overtime.”
“I can push through those overtime matches pretty easily,” Harnarain said.
He tries to keep his weight around 265, although he could go 20 pounds heavier. At 265, he says, he’s “light enough on my feet” for quick moves, yet heavy enough to “keep pressure on them and hold them down and pin them.”
A lot of heavyweights, he said, are afraid to go after an opponent’s legs. Not Harnarain. He aims for size and agility that allows him to “do what I can during the match.”
He keeps his weight in check by shunning carbs after 5 p.m. most days, opting for healthy options over sweets and fast foods, and working out.
NORTHWEST GUILFORD Brooke Tyler, freshman
Sport: golf
Brooke Tyler, a Northwest Guilford freshman, says golfers need to tend to the “little things” if they expect to play well.
One of those things is definitely concentration. The Vikings golfer describes golf as “more of a mental sport than physical,” and said, “If you’re not right in the head you won’t do well.”
Technique is also critical, especially when developing the all-important swing, she said.
“If you make a mistake, the ball can go anywhere,” Tyler said.
One of the things she has enjoyed about playing golf in high school is being part of a supportive team.
“We all share techniques and methods, and encourage each other, and I like that,” she said.
But her score is hers alone, and that’s something she also likes.
“You’re not relying on anyone else,” she noted.
Her golf interest, Tyler said, started as more of a “joke.” She was 6 years old at the time and her dad was often on the golf course. She wanted to go along, so he’d take her. She didn’t play during those early outings, but she did get in lots of practice. Before long she was good enough to join her dad and older sister. By age 8 she was playing in golf tournaments.
“When I first started, my sister would always beat me,” Tyler said of Kendall, a Northwest sophomore who is also a Vikings golfer. “But playing with her helped me get better.”
When her sister gave up golf for several years, though, Tyler caught up.
“It kind of gave me a bit of leverage,” she said. “When she came back, I was beating her.”
Her favorite subject at Northwest: civics and economics, which she said has helped her better understand global
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events “like conflicts between two countries and how it affects trade.”
COVID left little opportunity to volunteer with school organizations this past year, but as life gradually returns to something resembling normal, she hopes to join one that works with the homeless, like those she and a friend interacted with recently.
Talking with them made her thankful for what she had, she said.
“You really don’t need all the expensive stuff that everybody wants,” Tyler said. “You really just need food and stuff that keeps you going.”
NORTHWEST GUILFORD
Drew Pepin, sophomore Sport: wrestling
When Drew Pepin was 4 years old, one of his football coaches suggested he also try wrestling. Might make him a better tackler, the coach said. So Pepin, now a Northwest Guilford sophomore, did. And perhaps to the coach’s surprise, the youngster found something he liked even more than football.
“I fell in love with it,” Pepin said. He eventually gave up on football and is now wrestling year-round.
“I don’t regret that decision at all,” he said.
After 11 years in the sport, he considers himself a veteran.
“Last year I was a freshman, but it didn’t feel like it,” he said of his first year at Northwest. His record: 37-2. He was wrestling at 120 pounds then. He’s at 138 pounds this year.
Maintaining weight is key in the sport. If wrestlers are too heavy for their weight class, they can’t compete. So Pepin limits what he eats, especially carbs and sugars, and drinks only water during key times. He sometimes sweats off pounds by running three miles wearing a trash bag with cutouts for head and arms.
“I’ve lost 4 or 5 pounds in just one run,” he said.
Many folks have a misconception about wrestling, Pepin said. They think it’s all about strength. While that’s important, he believes being successful at wrestling relies on strategy and technique. He has learned a lot about both over the years, he said.
A stretch during sixth and seventh grade was his darkest in the sport. He remembers “getting beat up a bunch” by older guys during practice, and begging his parents to let him quit.
“It just wasn’t an amazing time,” Pepin said. But it was an important time, he reflected. His parents urged him to hang with it. He did, and not only came out a better wrestler, but learned key life lessons, he said.
“There are lots of struggles in life, and that’s preparing me for them,” he said.
He hopes to attract the attention of college coaches over the next couple years. But if not, he said, he’ll fondly remember the good times and “take that (wrestling) mindset with me the rest of my life.”
NORTHERN GUILFORD Sam Emerick, senior
Sport: tennis
Northern Guilford’s Sam Emerick, who stands 6-foot-3, enjoyed using height to his advantage on the Nighthawks tennis court. “I love my service game and I love going to the net,” said Emerick, a senior. He figured his towering presence gave him the edge in both areas, and also added some heft to his overhead shots. It surely helped, as the Nighthawks went 12-0 for the season and were conference champs; Emerick and teammate Daniel ...continued on p. 32
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Ferree went on to represent the Nighthawks on a doubles team in regionals.
“I’ve always been competitive,” said Emerick, who followed his older brother and sister into the sport. “I feel like I’m more natural at tennis than any other sport I’ve tried.”
Emerick also played basketball all four years at Northern. So, which does he like best?
“That’s a question I get asked a lot,” he said. “I can’t really answer that. I love them both. They’re completely different.”
He gives a thumbs up to basketball coaches Kellen Parrish, Derek Hodge and Kent Phillips, and tennis coach Andrew McDowell, all of whom, he said, taught important “life lessons” along with sports fundamentals.
Next fall he heads to NC State, where he plans to major in accounting. That’s a field of study that showed up as a good fit through career testing at GTCC, where he’s dual enrolled and has already racked up college credits.
“It (career testing) was great for me because I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Emerick said. “I did more research into accounting and realized it was something I’m really interested in.”
He has a personal reason for being drawn to NC State – his sister is enrolled there and his brother lives nearby.
“It’ll be fun following them around,” Emerick said.
His favorite high school class: micro economics, which probes how people, companies and organizations function in an economy.
“I learned a lot,” he said. “I wasn’t too familiar with how the economy really worked.”
During his high school years he has participated in a number of volunteer activities, including BackPack Buddies, which provides food to hungry children, and a St. Pius X Catholic Church work camp, where he painted houses and schools in a low-income Charleston, South Carolina, neighborhood.
“You could tell they really appreciated it and it made us feel really good we were able to help them out,” Emerick said.
NORTHERN GUILFORD Cami Rivas, senior
Sport: golf
For Cami Rivas and others on Northern Guilford’s girls golf team, this year’s COVIDadjusted season meant playing in the spring rather than the fall and sharing coaches with the boys team, which practiced at the same time.
“It was a little more difficult this year,” said Rivas, a senior. Still, she said, “I’m really grateful we got to play.”
She credits the team’s coaches, led by Ted Bonham, with “doing a really good job” guiding both teams through overlapping schedules. She also gave a nod to teammates, whom, she said, were “enjoyable to play with” throughout “very different” practices.
Rivas started playing golf after her mom, who took up golf when she moved from Venezuela years ago, introduced it to her and her younger brother when they were very young.
“It was something she thought was very exciting,” Rivas said. For her, though, it was little more than a hobby – until freshman year, when she started playing competitively. She joined Northern’s team and played community tournaments during off season.
“It has its ups and downs,” Rivas said. “It’s very mental, and it’s hard to
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play. But it’s so captivating. There are so many things that can go wrong. But there are so many things that go right.”
And it’s a game she can play for decades.
“It’s definitely something I think I’ll always be able to do, and will be fun for me also,” she said.
She heads to UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall. She doesn’t expect to play for the university, but she may join a club golf team.
She plans to study political science and sustainability, headed toward a career in environmental law.
“I’m very concerned about climate change and related issues,” Rivas said. “Becoming more aware of that has caused me to want to take a more active role in where we’re going.”
At Northern, she founded a chapter of The Menstrual Movement, which addresses a need among poor women for menstrual products. She learned of it from a competing golfer, who had started a chapter at her school.
“I was very inspired by that,” Rivas said.
NORTHERN GUILFORD Chloe Templeman, senior
Sport: softball
Northern Guilford’s Chloe Templeman, a softball player since age 4, has found inspiration as one of her church’s leadership
interns.
Through that program, she said she has learned to be “more of a courageous leader” and has developed skills she believes will help her both as a teammate and throughout work life.
“I’d love to do it every day of the year if I could,” Templeman, a senior, said of the program at Definition Church on Merritt Drive in Greensboro.
Among the leadership principles that have stuck with her: lead from the front, and don’t make excuses, make adjustments.
Her Nighthawks softball team struggled this season, but she hopes some of what she’s picked up may have helped encourage her teammates and draw them closer.
She played center field most of her career, and said her height – 5-foot-9 – gave her an edge when it came to chasing down and snagging fly balls.
“I love making diving catches,” Templeman said. “That makes the game exciting.”
She gave volleyball a try freshman year, but she found softball to be a better fit. She was encouraged to give the sport a try by her father, a former baseball player.
“I had more connections with it and it was more fun. I could release more anxiety and stress from throughout the day,” she said of the sport.
She heads to Guilford Technical Community College in the fall for a twoyear dental hygienist program. She wore braces for several years, and said she has been fascinated by teeth.
“That’s the first thing I notice about people – their teeth,” she said. “I just think they’re super cool and a unique feature about everybody.”
She also likes some of the demands of the job.
“I’m the type of person who can’t sit still,” Templeman said. “I love being on my feet and having things to do all day.”
Another thing she likes about the GTCC program – it’s only two years. She’s looking forward to “being done with school.”
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