![Reaching out. Christopher Lesh, student at Central Catholic High School, serves ice cream during the event on March 2, 2025, at the Portland waterfront. Central Catholic was just one of the schools that sent student volunteers out to cook, prepare, dish, and serve food. Interact club’s co-president Rachel Gerber, junior, plated the food during the event. “I like how direct the contact is,” Gerber said. “You’re there [and] you’re just doing something good. It’s simple, it’s easy, you can feel good about it.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/interact-1-edited-1200x744.jpg)
*WEB CONTINUATION: This article originally appeared in Volume 105 Issue 4 of our news magazine, Amplifier.
According to the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), just 7% of the nation’s eight million high school athletes move on to play college sports. At the high school, there is a tradition of sending their elite athletes to the next level—Payton Pritchard of the Boston Celtics, Jackson Shelstad of the Oregon Ducks, and Sam Leavitt of the Arizona State Sun Devils, who have all risen to college and professional-level stardom, are just a few examples of the Lions who have continued their athletic and academic career in college.
This year’s senior class continues this tradition, with 31 athletes who have committed to continuing their education while playing their sport in college. They will be representing 14 different sports, spread across 22 schools and 11 states from Hawaii to Illinois.
