When senior Lexy Scarlato started playing basketball at age six, she didn’t imagine it would become a passion that she would avidly pursue for the next 12 years. Especially when, shortly after she began playing the sport, she majorly embarrassed herself during one of her games, creating a joke that her old friends still bring up and laugh about.
“This was back when I first started playing, so it was [just] co-ed YMCA basketball,” Lexy said. “I used to be so scared, [so when] I went in the game, and then I got the ball, I didn’t know what to do with it, so I just threw the ball and ran up, crying, to my mom.”
Despite the rough start she had to the sport, Lexy has stuck with it all through high school. She intends to continue playing basketball after graduation, hopefully for a collegiate team. She has made many memories and new friends through the FHC girls’ basketball program, but has also learned many vital skills that have helped her in other areas of her life. These tools, she believes, have improved her ability to collaborate with others.
“I definitely think being a part of the [basketball] team has made me more of a leader and made me more able to work with whoever [I need to],” Lexy said. “I can literally work with someone I don’t even know.”
This is important for Lexy, not only for basketball or group projects in school, but also for her role as a student section leader. This job entails making sure that the students are staying safe, participating, and having fun during school events like assemblies and football games. Especially during the Homecoming season, she has an important role in the school.
Being a student section leader is a position that can only be held by seniors, but Lexy has been passionate about her school for a long time.
“I wanted to be a student section leader because I have a lot of school spirit,” Lexy said. “I just love being loud and encouraging and dressing up [for spirit days].”
While popular media portray high school students as dreading school every day and wanting nothing more than to graduate, Lexy contradicts this stereotype; she genuinely loves her school and enjoys participating in all the extracurricular activities and events that the school offers.
Her passion for school spirit is especially evident now because of her role as student section leader, but it’s been a big part of her life since freshman year. Since then, she’s been going all out when dressing up for the spirit days; in her mind, the more over-the-top her outfit is, the better.
Many different teachers and peers have had impacts on Lexy, but one person in particular has formed her more than anyone else: her sister. When she was a freshman and didn’t know the school very well, her older sister helped support her through the uncertainty. Of course, as with many older siblings, they didn’t agree on everything, especially with Lexy’s double-take inducing spirit day looks.
“Since freshman year, [or maybe] sophomore year, because freshman year I was kind of scared to, I was like, ‘Let’s go all out for the football games,’” Lexy said. “But then sophomore year, because my sister was a senior, I was here at the football games, and she’d be like, ‘Lexy, you are actually crazy.’”
Aside from her sister, her teachers and their classes have greatly influenced her attitude towards school and her work ethic. Both Geometry teacher Brian Pierce and Introduction to Business teacher Jared Lowe have benefited her as instructors, both in school and outside of it.
“[For] Introduction to Business…you have to actually do your work and stuff because it’s more of a team-oriented class,” Lexy said. “You have to make a product and then sell it. So [Mr. Lowe] kind of taught me that you have to actually put in the work to get a good outcome that you want.”
This feeling of mentorship in the school also extends to Pierce, who helped her through math, which she’s always struggled with. Instead of leaving Lexy to her own devices, he actively worked with her so she could be successful in his class.
While she loves her school and will miss leading the students of FHC after she graduates, Lexy is excited to apply what she’s learned in her four years at the high school to her life as a college student. For now, though, she’s content to continue hyping up her classmates at the football games and being an example of Ranger Pride.
“I’m always a friendly face,” Lexy said. “If you see me in the hallway, don’t be scared to say, ‘Hi’…or if you have questions at the football games, just come ask!”
