School News

The 2021-2022 school year followed an incredible arc. The start of the year, which is normally full of excitement and eager anticipation, was instead mired with Covid questions for our school, our families, and our students. Can school take place in person? What happens when someone gets sick? Do we have enough substitute teachers? The questions and possible scenarios seemed endless. The arc, however, continued on with a courageous and caring confidence that we would provide a rich, in-person, Christ-centered, college preparatory education for our students who were themselves marooned in their own Covid questions. We planned and pressed on with determination.

The 61 seniors who began the 2021-22 school year embodied the concept of pressing on with determination. There are a number of characteristics for which we want our graduates to be known: curious, confident, hard-working, determined, growing in faith, and caring, just to name a few. Being equipped with those characteristics doesn’t mean our students will have the answer to every question, but rather that they will have the skills to find solutions to the challenges on the horizon. As a school, we embraced that mindset throughout the 2021-22 school year. We didn’t know the challenges that were going to come our way, but we knew that through the power of a strong education, faith in Christ, and the care of a Christian community, we could overcome whatever challenge arrived. I’m proud to share that all 61 seniors who started the year finished it! In fact, all 61 seniors walked the stage as graduates to join the long proud community of Lutheran East alumni.

The same creative problem solving that helped us navigate the 2021-22 school year also helped us advance our goal of providing students a 21st century educational experience in a building that was built in the 1950s. Looking at our spaces and reimagining how they can be optimized for today’s learners is an awesome and exciting exercise. Through that process, we set out to transform an oversized and underutilized classroom into a modern Admissions Center which also includes a collaborative space for our teachers, and a home for our Alumni Director, even while retaining and right-sizing a classroom! This specific transformation is, in many ways, a microcosm of Lutheran East as a whole. I find myself asking, how can our school on Mayfield Road in Cleveland Heights, with its extensive history, with its challenges, and with its opportunities, grow and change and transform so that the lives of young people can do the same? Our mission is, after all, to change lives through sharing the Gospel of Christ and the power of a quality college preparatory education.

We carried that mission forward throughout the 2021-2022 school year. The successes of the year were many, from our boys’ basketball team making a trip to the State Final Four, our Gospel Choir traveling to perform in Philadelphia and New York City, graduating 100% of our seniors, and seeing matriculating freshmen, sophomores, and juniors find their voices. With the confidence that comes from navigating a year that started with the uncertainty of Covid and finished with the celebration of Commencement, we’re looking forward to the next chapter in the life of Lutheran East. We’re thankful for the opportunity and privilege that God has given us to serve God and students through this educational ministry. Thank you for your continued support and prayers along the journey.

For the Kids and the Kingdom,

ANDREW PRUSINSKI '02

PRINCIPAL, LUTHERAN EAST

The Year in Arts: Lutheran East

The highlight of the 2021-2022 school year for the arts program at Lutheran East was the Schola Cantorum (select choir) spring tour to Philadelphia, PA and New York City, NY. Twenty-seven students made the trip from April 21-23 to perform at Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church and three churches in New York City: Abyssinian Baptist Church, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and worldrenowned St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Director of Choral Activities Mr. Jonathon Turner said of the trip, “Being able to stand in the aforementioned spaces as invited guests in a full concert was an unparalleled experience.”

Between the Gospel Choir and Schola Cantorum, the vocal music department performed more than 20 times throughout the 2021-2022 school year! Along with multiple choir concerts held at Lutheran East, and a performance at the Cleveland Lutheran Educational Endowment Fund (CLEEF) Christmas Brunch (hosted by the CLHSA), notable performances in our local area included performances with the Akron Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra.

Mr. Turner also reports that Janelle Walker ’20, a founding Schola Cantorum member, is now a sophomore at Tennessee State University studying Music Education, a path she chose in large part to the experience she had with Lutheran East’s music program.

The Year in Athletics: Lutheran East

Fall 2021 Season

In the fall, the Falcon Football team finished 5-5 overall, advancing to the OHSAA playoffs for the third consecutive year. The 2021 season marked the first season for new head coach Desean Washington. Star running back Rayshon Kennedy ’22 received a football scholarship to Tiffin University.

The Lutheran East Volleyball team went 5-16. New coach Davida Swain was hired in April 2022.

Winter 2021-2022 Season

The Falcon Boys’ Basketball team won their 7th consecutive district championship, their 6th consecutive regional championship, and earned a 6th consecutive trip to the OHSAA State Final Four. At the time of this publication, the 2022-23 team was ranked number 1 in the State of Ohio in Division 3 and 5th overall in all divisions. Three current basketball players hold D1 college scholarship offers, with star player Jesse McCulloch ’24 currently holding more than twenty D1 scholarship offers.

The Girls’ Basketball team was very young in the 2021-22 season, with only three seniors. They finished their season 8-8 overall. 2021-22 was Head Coach Mel Burke’s first season coaching the Lady Falcons. Star point guard Amiyah Donaldson ’22 signed a full scholarship to the University of Charleston. Going into the 2022-23 season, the team will have six returning varsity players.

The 2021-2022 Lutheran East Cheer team was a dedicated and spirited group, helping to cheer on our Falcons throughout the fall and winter seasons.

Spring 2022 Season

The Track & Field team fielded the largest roster in the last five years, with 40 student-athletes. The season concluded with two athletes competing in the OHSAA State Tournament: Amere Talley ’22 (placed 6th in the 100 and 2nd in the 200) and Trayshon Tucker ’22 (placed 11th in the 100).

For more information & updates regarding Falcon Athletics, please visit us online at LutheranEast.org/Athletics and follow our school and teams on social media.

The 2021-2022 Lutheran West school theme, “Restored: Strong, Firm, and Steadfast,” was based upon

a passage from 1 Peter 5:10: The God of all grace will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.

This passage was selected as a timely reminder. Going into the 2021-2022 school year, we still faced some degree of uncertainty due to Covid. Yet we were determined to move through it together with God’s promise that He will restore us; He will once again make us strong; He will allow us to return steadfastly to our paths and purposes.

It was remarkable to observe the countless ways in which God worked to provide us with restoration, strength, and confidence throughout the school year.

Students, faculty, staff, and administrators returned to school in the fall of 2021 with renewed purpose and appreciation for aspects of our school life that had been “givens” prior to the pandemic: things like in-person classes, social interaction with friends, team practices, theater rehearsals, and the ability to gather together in person for worship. There was cautious optimism that we had weathered the worst of the Covid storm, and we saw restored gratitude for our school community in the eyes and hearts of our teenagers.

Lutheran West programs in athletics, the arts, and student clubs came back with strength and resilience. Students who had, during the previous year, been unable to collaborate with their peers on the field, the court, or the Jochum Performing Arts Center stage once again found themselves able to train, practice, and explore their interests and talents. Strength abounded as our athletes, teams, performers, and student leaders once again thrived in the many opportunities offered to them at Lutheran West.

The school remained steadfast in its strategic plan, unwilling to allow Covid to delay plans for starting a middle school at Lutheran West. During the 2021-2022 school year, it was “all hands on deck” to prepare every aspect of our school to welcome its first group of 6th-8th grade students. I am thrilled to report that in August 2022, Lutheran West marked the first day of school for 80 middle school students, a brand new team of middle school faculty members, and Dean of the Middle School, Mr. Jacob O’Hara ‘07. When asked about the vision for the middle school, which was shaped in the 2021-2022 school year, O’Hara said:

Above all, our school theme was demonstrated in the strength and steadfastness our students were shown every single day through the support, mentorship, and encouragement of the Christian men and women who make up our faculty and staff. They led by example, showing our young people what it means to, when faced with adversity, be strong, firm, and steadfast in God’s guidance.

The middle school will build upon the identity of the high school, with the school pride, mission, and traditions of the high school already evident in the culture of the middle school. Middle schoolers, however, have different needs than high schoolers, and come to us at different social and emotional levels. In planning the middle school curriculum, social events, and school culture, we’ve been very cognizant of these differences. The middle school will have its own uniqueness, culture and traditions which are just right for 6th-8th graders. The most important goal in developing the middle school’s culture will be to build a community of kids who love and respect God, and also show that love and respect to one another and in their communities.

MICHAEL WAUGH '02

PRINCIPAL, LUTHERAN WEST

The Year in Arts: Lutheran West

In Fine Arts, Lutheran West enjoyed an all-time high enrollment in art classes. All classes were full and even more classes were added! Lexi Miles won an Honorable Mention in the Lakewood Rotary/Beck Center Art Show, and twelve LW students had work accepted into this juried show. National Art Honors Society chapter members made Christmas ornaments for shut-ins and residents of the Concord Reserve in Westlake (the former Cleveland Lutheran Home). NAHS also painted murals for Bridge Avenue School (Cleveland), to decorate their classrooms and hallways (pending installation).

For Instrumental Music, 2021-2022 was a year of “firsts” and “new beginnings”: the first full season of Marching Band (and the first year of Marching Band under the direction of Nolan Zubin ’14) and the first Festival of Bands (March 2022) since the onset of Covid. The year also marked the first-ever semester of Beginning Band in Spring 2022, as well as the return of the Choir/Band Pops Concert back to the Rock Gymnasium, where it had been in the past. The Festival of Bands welcomed middle school students from Royal Redeemer, Messiah, and St. Paul Westlake, who played alongside the Lutheran West Concert Band. The Lutheran Wind Ensemble, a group of adult musicians under the direction of Mr. Kevan Stuber, also performed at the Festival of Bands. The Band program commissioned local composer Chris Neiner to compose a new piece for the LW Concert Band, which they premiered at the Festival of Bands. The piece was titled Rocky River Counterpoint. Music department independent study student, Sam Silva ’22 performed the world premiere of his piece All They Ever Say (feat. Stephanie Koglman ’22) at the fall band concert in October 2021. He composed the song, the lyrics, and the backing track used for the performance.

In the Vocal Music program, students put on multiple concerts throughout the school year under the direction of Vocal Music Director Mr. Ken Daniel, including the spring Pops Concert in the Rock. The arts department is blessed to have many talented vocalists who not only participate in the school’s choral groups, but also lend their talents in Chapel and in the drama program.

Luthearn West Drama participated throughout the year in Playhouse Square’s Dazzle Awards. Through this program, our students were able to attend virtual workshops focusing on singing, acting, and dancing with actors from the touring Broadway Series shows that came to Cleveland. The fall play (Nov. 2021) was Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We had several students in the cast who had parents involved in the same play at LW 30 years ago! During the spring musical (Apr. 2022), Singin’ in the Rain, made it actually rain on stage during each show thanks to amazing parent and student engineering. The show featured several tap dancing numbers, one including most of the cast. Only a few students previously had tap dancing experience, but the students worked very hard and the audience was blown away by their performance. In May, we inducted 17 students into our International Thespian Society Troupe. We held our first Jr. musical summer camp for middle school students, performing The Little Mermaid Jr. Over 15 high school students helped out behind the scenes with the set and costumes, as well as coaching and teaching vocals, acting and choreography.

The Year in Athletics: Lutheran West

Fall 2021 Season:

The Longhorn varsity Football team went 8-2, winning the CVC Metro Division Championship (first division title since 2005). In their first post-season appearance since 2005 (and first home playoff game since 2002), they went into playoffs as the #8 seed out of 16 and lost to an outstanding Perkins High School team. Head Coach John Parrella was named CVC Metro Coach of the Year. Other accolades were earned by Eddie Lewis ’22 (CVC Metro Offensive MVP; First Team Northeast Lakes All District); Di’Marion Gill ’25 (CVC Metro Defensive MVP; Second Team Northeast Lakes All District; led the state in sacks). Making First Team CVC Metro were Eddie Lewis ’22, Richard Luecke ’23, Di’Marion Gill ’25, Dom Capretta ’22, Eli Burns ’23, Greg Fuentes ’24, and Manny Diaz ’22. Eddie Lewis also signed a DII scholarship to continue his student-athlete career at Lake Erie College.

Varsity Volleyball ended their season 14-10 overall, 7-3 in CVC Metro, and 2nd in the conference. Sophia Simon ’24 was named to the CVC Metro First Team, and Head Coach Laura Thrasivoulou was named CVC Metro Coach of the Year. The team beat St. Vincent-St. Mary in the sectional semi-final match, losing to Hathaway Brown in the sectional final.

Men’s Soccer went 9-10-1, ending their season against Fairview in the sectional semi-final. The fall 2021 season was the first for new Head Coach Joe Jovanovski. Braden Lamb ’23, Carter Bonacci ’24, Jacob Bacho ’24 were named First Team CVC Metro, with Braden Lamb also earning First Team Greater Cleveland.

Women’s Soccer had a season record of 6-10-1. The team beat Beaumont in the sectional final, but lost to Rocky River in the district semi-final game. Evelyn Albers ’22 was named CVC Metro First Team.

Both the men’s and women’s Golf teams finished 4th in the CVC Metro Division. Callie Wabeke ’22 was named First Team CVC Metro and signed to continue playing at Concordia Ann Arbor. DJ Robinson ’22 was named First Team CVC Metro. Ashton Sopko ’22 qualified for the district tournament, shooting an 83 at the sectional tournament.

In Cross Country, the men finished 2nd in the conference, with 14 of 17 runners PR-ing over the course of the season. First Team CVC Metro honors went to Sam Silva ’22 and Elijah Van Farowe ’22.

For Longhorn Athletics information, schedules, and sponsorship opportunities, visit LutheranWest.com/Athletics and follow Lutheran West Athletics on social media: @LW_Athletics on Twitter; @lw_athletics_ig on Instagram.