Sheriff’s department member reaches rare fitness territory
ASHEBORO — When Luke Wible saw the list of physical tests from the National Tactical Officers Association, he noted the value for a SWAT team member.
That might have been just part of what led the Randolph County Sheriff’s deputy to achieve a rare score on the test.
“I’m a newer guy, but I could see how those things you do in the test could translate when you’re on duty in a real situation,” he said.
Wible, a patrol deputy, basically aced the Physical Fitness Qualification Challenge.
“He’s such a motivator,” Lt. Eric Wilson of the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department said. “He has a way about him to motivate others.”
The challenge test is offered to SWAT officers. A perfect score is considered 50, but Wible compiled 13 additional points for a 63.
“I’m just really into fitness,” he said. “It’s kind of therapeutic for me.”
He runs several times a week with other officers. He also takes part in a Jiu-Jitsu class along with other workouts.
Wible, 26, is 5-foot-9 and 170, shedding about 20 pounds from when he was a teenager before he became entrenched in workouts. His background includes time in the Marines.
Now he’s going to be the source of positive attention for the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department. His name and the agency’s name will be recognized in “The Tactical Edge” magazine, a publication of the NTOA. That will be a first for Randolph County.
“He knew that he wanted to max out on it,” Wilson said. “We suspected that he was going to probably get a perfect score. … This was taking it a step further. It’s a very rigorous test.”
Wible said the intent wasn’t to gain notoriety but to push himself and hopefully elevate others along the way.
Luke Wible of the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department demonstrates a squat that he completed during a National Tactical Officers Association fitness challenge last week. (PJ WARD-BROWN/NORTH STATE JOURNAL)
“It’s really cool to be a part of that,” Wible said. “Everyone on the SWAT team has been very encouraging. Not just the SWAT team, but the sheriff’s department as a whole.”
Wible is on the department’s 15-member SWAT team, which joins forces with agencies in Archdale and Liberty.
The NTOA is the standard for SWAT teams, Wilson said.
“That’s where we get our guidelines on how we operate,” he said. “We use that when we’re drafting our training.”
The test, conducted in uniform and boots, includes an 800-meter run; a 400-meter run while carrying two 25-pound weights, wearing a weighted vest and a gas mask (no filter); three minutes of burpees (ups and downs or a combination of squat thrust and squat jump); two minutes of air squats in weighted vest and gas mask; and one minute of pull-ups. There are three-minute recovery times between events.
“To wear all that equipment and go do something so intense, it looked challenging,” Wible said. “I had to train specifically for (wearing the gas mask). The first time I went through the test during training, I threw up after working out.”
His drills were conducted last week at Randolph Community College’s emergency services training center. Wilson said NTOA members administered the test with extra scrutiny because of the potential for a record score.
Wible is from New Jersey and then met his future wife, who was from Greensboro, at Fort Lee in Virginia. The couple wanted to live in North Carolina but in a more rural setting than Greensboro and ended up in Asheboro.
Wible spent more than 2 ½ years with the Asheboro Police Department before joining the county’s department in November 2020.
He’s in his first year on the SWAT team, which involves a part-time commitment within the department. With the sheriff’s department, he already made an impact as the recipient of the 2021 Eagle Award based on strength, honor, and integrity, with a presentation from Wilson.
“There’s no assignment that I’ve given him that’s too big,” Wilson said.
ARCHDALE — One year into serving as mayor of Archdale, Lewis Dorsett has a new appreciation for how much time the job consumes.
He wants to stay busy doing that.
Dorsett has filed to run for the office of one of Randolph County’s rapidly growing cities.
“My role changed from being a councilman,” Dorsett said. “A lot more meetings. This takes more time, a lot of meetings. There’s a lot of development going on and a lot of potential going on.”
Dorsett said the city’s growth was the biggest issue during the past year. He said the council approved the construction of up to 1,000 townhouses or single-family sites.
“It has just really taken off,” Dorsett said. “The city is just growing, and a lot of folks don’t like that. Archdale is booming and is growing. We’re trying to manage that.”
Archdale has openings for mayor, city council at large, City Council Ward 1, and City Council Ward 4. The Ward 1 incumbent is Larry Warlick, and Ward 4 incumbent is mayor pro tem John Glass.
Dorsett, 66, had been the mayor pro tem. The city council appointed him to fill the remainder of the mayor’s term beginning July 1, 2021, upon the retirement of Bert Stone, who had been the city’s mayor for more than 20 years and either in that seat or on the city council for nearly 30 years.
“Bert was such a mentor for me,” Dorsett said.
Glass held the at-large spot until Dorsett moved to mayor, with Glass shifting to the Ward 4 spot. Lorie McCroskey was appointed to fill the at-large spot.
All incumbents are expected to be on the ballot. Dorsett, Warlick, and McCroskey filed Friday when the filing period opened. Kelly Grooms also filed for the at-large spot on the first day.
Dorsett said the Randolph-Guilford megasite has greatly influenced the city, even as much of the impact might be in its infancy. Archdale is about a 25-minute drive from the megasite.
“The megasite has changed Randolph County, and it’s changing Archdale,” Dorsett said.
Other work that city officials are addressing includes re-writing planning and zoning ordinances, the mayor said.
Dorsett, who graduated from Asheboro High School in 1974, is a retired carpentry teacher from Trinity High School, where he spent more than 20 years. He continues in a part-time role as a driver’s education teacher for the Randolph County School System.
Candidates must file by noon July 15. It’s a two-year term for the mayor and a four-year term for council members.
Archdale extends into a sliver of Guilford County, with about 220 voters eligible in the adjacent county.
Dalke, a senior, wrapped up his high school career by leading the Cougars with 20 runs batted in. He homered twice to lead the team in that category while playing in all 25 games.
In the field, Dalke was a third baseman and catcher. He played primarily behind the plate when an injury on the team necessitated that versatility.
Dalke was a linebacker for the school’s eight-win football team. He received All-Piedmont Athletic Conference honors for his role as one of the key contributors to the defense.
ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Education met June 29, when it approved pay increases for school nutrition department staff to fill vacancies and retain staff.
“The school nutrition department is proposing an increase of 6.2-9.4% for all school-based School Nutrition classified employees, including school nutrition assistants, school nutrition assistant managers, and school nutrition managers,” said executive director of operations Dale Brinkley. “In addition, the school nutrition department is proposing a 5% increase for all school nutrition central services support staff. This increase will help prevent the compression in the salary schedule once the $15 minimum or 2.5% increase is passed in the 2022-23 budget.”
The total annual cost of this increase will be $340,000, including matching FICA and retirement, with the cost being funded solely by the School Nutrition Budget. It will become effective on August 1, 2022, according to Brinkley.
Randolph County Schools has 32 openings for School Nutrition positions and according to director of school nutrition Kelly Green. That number is significantly up from March 2020, when there were just nine openings.
“The new pay adjustment will allow the School Nutrition Department to better retain current employees, recruit for current vacant positions, and remain competitive with surrounding school systems,” Brinkley said.
The board then approved the submission to the State Board, the Randolph County AIG Plan for 2022-25. A new plan has to be submitted every three years to the state, and this was the year for the new plan.
“Our plan is a comprehensive plan that involves stakeholders from across the district, parents, and AIG teachers,” said assistant superintendent Cathy Waddell. “They came together to talk about what needed to be in the plan, and the focal points of the plan are as follows: We have a criteria by which we identify students that are AIG, we provide services, practices, and strategies for the students that are identified, we try to provide a rigorous and relevant curriculum for AIG students, we recruit and retain highly qualified professionals to teach AIG students, we continuously engage stakeholders in the planning and implementation processes and then we monitor what we do.”
The board of education also had the option to approve the contribution of funds to the North Carolina School Boards Action Center, which is a separate part of the North Carolina School Board Association that focuses on advocacy and lobbying to support local school boards.
“It’s basically another avenue for lobbying,” said superintendent Stephen Gainey. “They try to help school boards with local bills and different bills they work with. I think we get a lot of good services from the school boards association. It’s the same rate. We were a member of the action center group last year, and it’s the same rate as last year, $5,000.”
However, the board declined to contribute to the North Carolina Schools Boards Action Center for the 2022-23 year. The board cited prior issues and lack of advocacy dating back to the masking debates in schools as the primary factor for refusal to contribute this year.
“If you look at the benefits, it hasn’t changed for several years,” said board member Todd Cutler. “It’s the same things. The people down at the North Carolina School Board Association, they’re great. They’re a good group of people, but we also found out that when we needed help dealing with the masks and stuff, they weren’t there. They were not there. They didn’t want to touch that at all.”
The Randolph County Board of Education will next meet July 18.
Khyland Hadley-Lindsay of Asheboro intends to play basketball in college. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
Here’s where some members of the Class of 2022 intend on playing on college:
From Asheboro: Khyland Hadley-Lindsay and Tramir Martin are set to play basketball for Pfeiffer. Hadley-Lindsay was Asheboro’s starting quarterback for the football team.
Charles Perry IV decided to play football for Averett. Alexander Spruill is heading to Methodist to play football.
Boys’ soccer players Alex Cruz and Irving Velazquez-Luna will go to Carolina University in Winston-Salem.
From Eastern Randolph: Softball player Charlise Phillips selected Guilford College.
From Providence Grove: Edi Austin, a standout in softball, is going to Louisburg College, a two-year school.
Zane Caudle, who was the Player of the Year for the Piedmont Athletic Conference in boys’ basketball, is going to Brevard.
From Randleman: Lineman Jann Ortiz is going to Guilford College for football.
From Southwestern Randolph: Payton Shiflet of the Class 2-A state championship volleyball team is going to Greensboro College. She was a conference Player of the Year or co-Player of the Year each of the past two season.
From Trinity: Michael Connelly announced that he would go to High Point to participate in track and field. He was the PAC champion in the 110-meter hurdles this year.
From Wheatmore: Baseball player Rylan Smith picked Guilford College.
Bryson Coltrane, also a wrestler and track and field participant, is slated to join the Catawba College football team. He’s a lineman.
Josh Waldron and team members celebrate a weekend victory in the Challenger series at Caraway Speedway. (Courtsey photo)
SOPHIA – A.J. Sanders, past standout as a Caraway Speedway regular, was the winner in Saturday night’s Mini Stocks race at the track.
Sanders topped points leader Jimmy Crigger, who was second in the 40-lap event. Tommy Raino placed third.
Josh Waldron, a fill-in driver, claimed the race in the Challenger series.
Waldron was a substitute for Archie Adams Sr. as part of the “Caraway Strong” program.
Toby Lane placed second, followed by Raino.
Crigger and Raino had busy nights because they were first and second, respectively, in the Enduro/Any Car competition.
In the UCAR race, Alan Vance prevailed across the 20 laps. Steven Collins was second and Josh Phillips claimed third.
Caleb Allred and Jamie Vance posted victories in UCAR heat races.
The Bandolero race went to Phoenyx Kimball, who edged Bryson Brinkley.
In Legends, Charles Parker captured the victory. Kevin Yonker was the winner in the 10-lap Bootleggers race.
Rusty Harpe Memorial
The speedway’s busy stretch of action last week began with the Rusty Harpe Memorial, a rare midweek racing card.
Joey Coulter won the 99-lap by passing Bobby Labonte in the SMART Modifieds feature.
Coulter’s time of 1 hour, 53 minutes, 38.9 seconds was tops in a field that had 29 entries. Labonte, a former NASCAR Cup series champion, was in the 12th spot by the end.
Second place went to Caleb Heady, followed by Dennis Holdren, Kevin Orlando, Jeremy Gerstner and Troy Young.
Winston-Salem standouts Burt Myers (20th) and Jason Myers (24th) didn’t make impacts in the standings.
The pole award for the Modifieds went to Brian Loftin with a fast time of 16.189 seconds.
The Late Models race, which included 16 cars, was captured by defending champion Dylan Ward.
Heath Causey was second, with Coy Beard next followed by fast qualifier Trevor Ward, Justin Hicks, Boo Boo Dalton and Gary Causey.
In the 602 Modifieds was won by Paul Hartwig III. Carson Loftin was second.
Luke Thomas fires a pitch from the mound this spring. He’s planning to play college baseball. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
CLIMAX – Whatever the sport at Providence Grove, Luke Thomas had the ball in his hands.
Those were good hands for the Patriots.
“I like being in control of the game. I don’t like leaning on other players,” Thomas said. “I like being the make-or-break type of guy.”
Thomas helped make Providence Grove relevant on just about every level during a high school career that turned out unmatched.
“A fixture not only in the football program but a fixture in the whole athletic program,” said Calvin Brown, the athletics director and football coach. “Pretty much everything that our athletic department has done for four years, on the male side, has revolved around Luke Thomas.”
The recognition extended beyond the Patriots. He’s the Male Athlete of the Year for the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
His impact came in various forms – from the quarterback who was the PAC’s Offensive Player of the Year in football, a starting guard on the school’s PAC regular-season champion basketball team, and the lead-off batter and starting pitcher for the baseball team.
Aside from statistics and accolades, it was clear Thomas was making a difference. You don’t have to investigate much to find the guy with the golden locks flowing out of the helmet or baseball cap.
“I haven’t cut it,” he said of the flow. “I’ve always liked it. When I first did it, nobody really had it. My grandma could find me on the field.”
Luke Thomas goes between Eastern Randolph defenders during a basketball game last winter. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
Thomas, 18, is heading to UNC Greensboro as a pitcher after this summer’s American Legion baseball season with Eastern Randolph Post 81.
To excel as a three-sport athlete was something that gave Thomas a sense of satisfaction, not to mention the team success that evolved.
The breakdown for Thomas goes like this: “The funnest sport to play is football because there’s nothing like it. … I had to work the hardest at basketball. My overall favorite is baseball.”
Even as the individual accolades piled up, Thomas seemed prone to brag on teammates.
“I’m confident, but I’m not cocky,” Thomas said. “You have to have a little swagger. I get a lot of hate sometimes when I go places. But that’s fine. That comes with doing a lot of things and trying to be good in sports. You know that coming in. That’s what we ask for.”
Check a postgame handshake line, and it’s often clear that Thomas receives doses of respect from the opponents.
It’s no surprise that he’s well-known around Randolph County. He has been doing this for quite some time.
Better be ready
In the third game of the 2018 football season, Providence Grove quarterback Andrew Poteat went out with a torn knee ligament. There weren’t many options for Brown.
“From that point, Luke was the guy,” he said. “We knew Luke was going to be good, and we also knew he was a freshman.”
Luke Thomas had a record-setting career as Providence Grove’s quarterback. He was the PAC’s top offensive player as a senior. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
There was no junior varsity team, so Thomas had been the varsity backup. Thomas said he wasn’t sure he was ready, and yet the circumstances dictated that he would be thrust into a key role.
“I got thrown into the fire, and it ended up working out for me,” he said.
That began a stretch when Thomas set every school passing record. By last fall, when he threw for 22 touchdowns, it took his career total to 55. He passed for more than 6,000 yards, even with the abbreviated 2021 spring season (replacing the nixed 2020 season).
“Each year, we put more and more on his shoulders, but he could handle that,” Brown said.
The Patriots have had eight-win records the past two full seasons. There was even a 2021 home game in the state playoffs.
“It’s unheard of,” Thomas said. “Providence Grove could barely get into a playoff game. We weren’t happy with the result. I had higher expectations for myself and my team. I’m glad I ended on that field.”
Yet so often, Thomas left that venue only to turn up at another the next day to play another sport.
Brown said he knew Thomas’ pursuit of baseball was important and marveled at how the morning after a football game that he would be on the way to play baseball.
“That says a lot about him to turn around the next day and go pitch because college coaches wanted to see him,” Brown said. “He was always up for those challenges. He always had that drive and competitiveness.”
For Thomas, it was a sense of pride in being a three-sport athlete and a difference-maker.
“Showing you can do all three and still get where you want to be,” Thomas said. “About every weekend (in the fall), I was playing baseball. I’d try to recover a little bit. That’s what I had to do because of my situation.
“That is not easy to do. It’s very hard on your body and mentally. You don’t always want to play Friday night and get up Saturday morning and go play baseball.”
So after dodging defenders and flinging the football around the field, those 7 a.m. wake-up moments and perhaps a two-hour drive were a grind.
“You’re not the most fresh that next day,” he said. “I can’t really complain about it.”
On days he didn’t pitch, he usually was slotted for another position in the field.
In basketball, Thomas was regarded as the Patriots’ best defender, which coach Wes Luther said was only a slim part of what made him so critical for the Patriots.
“My thing is defense. If I can bring that, they’re going to take care of the rest,” Thomas said of his teammates. “I can have a good night every once and a while. That’s not my job with this team. My job is to defend and take care of the ball.”
Yet he turned in a 24-point performance against Randleman in an overtime victory in the PAC Tournament.
He missed a few midseason basketball games because of a meniscus ailment and later wore a brace on his right knee. And even with hair tied up to keep it out of his eyes, it wasn’t difficult to identify one of the best athletes on the court.
Proud Patriots
Much of the influence for what seems like this nonstop success came from his father, Doug Thomas. A conversation about his achievements is bound to involve the father-son connection.
“I started being successful because I started working a lot harder, getting in the weight room,” Luke Thomas said. “Dad pushed me, just having support. Somebody to humble you and somebody to give you support when you need to be pulled up.”
The elder Thomas has been an assistant coach for the Providence Grove baseball team. Early on, he planted the idea that Providence Grove would be an ideal setting for notable accomplishments if coupled with the right work ethic.
There was no reason to look elsewhere, even if rosters at other schools often seemed to have changing personnel.
“I wanted to show people you could win doing it this way,” Luke Thomas said. “You could do it with your buddies and the kids you went to elementary school with. I like the way I did it. I showed people you could stay at your own school and be successful. I think that’s a big thing in high school. I like the underdog aspect of it.”
At times, Providence Grove might seem like an out-of-the-way rural school almost devoid of fanfare. That’s something that Thomas used as motivation.
“We get disrespected,” he said. “When you do it the right way, you’re not going to have the greatest seasons. When you have Randleman, Eastern (Randolph), Asheboro, Southwest (Randolph), they always overshine us, especially in publicity. Adding this (basketball title), finally gets us some.
“We like it here. We feed off that. That’s why I like being here.”
For the past few weeks, he has been one of the leading players for Post 81. It’s his first season with the team, though it didn’t take long for coach Nate Cockman to be thankful for that development.
“Getting Luke was huge,” Cockman said, listing many intangibles that Thomas’ presence provides and noting the boost for Post 81 in attracting such a well-regarded athlete.
Of course, the foundation for this came at Providence Grove.
By the time Thomas was a junior, his roles had been more defined in terms of leadership.
“I don’t have any regrets. I’m at peace,” he said. “The best part is probably the friends I made throughout playing these sports. You learn as you’re doing it, especially when you’re older. It got easier because people there you get to know and they care about you.”
There will be a shifting of gears when he arrives at UNCG. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be slowing down after this juggling act at Providence Grove.
“I’m glad I played three because it could only help me,” he said. “It will be nice to focus on one sport now.”
Andrew Grande hopes his time with the Asheboro ZooKeepers leads to other opportunities. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
Injury stalls plans for ‘free agent’ in search of new team
ASHEBORO — No baseball team in the Coastal Plain League is probably ready for the season’s second half more than the Asheboro ZooKeepers.
It’s bound to get better.
The college summer league has had unfortunate stop-and-go nature for the ZooKeepers, both from a team perspective and an individual level.
The ZooKeepers were forced on the road and into several situations necessitating make-up games because of delayed renovations at McCrary Park.
Then there’s the case of Andrew Grande, a once highly coveted college prospect trying to get back on track. That’s what made Asheboro an ideal summer destination, though an injury has stalled Grande’s season.
“It’s a really good league,” Grande said. “You play against really good players every night, so it’s a really good place to get reps and help this team in Asheboro to win some games and eventually find a new home for myself as well.”
It has been somewhat of a whirlwind for Grande. He was set to play in in college for Rice, but the May 2021 firing of coach Matt Bragga created a change of course. That led Grande to a spot on Charlotte’s 2022 roster.
“I was originally committed to Rice and they had a late coaching change,” he said. “Houston was a long way to go, so I was thankful for Charlotte picking me up late.”
Several weeks into the season, he sensed it wasn’t the right fit, entering the transfer portal.
Grande, who generally plays as a corner infielder or corner outfielder, began the CPL season with a clear objective. He holds a version of the NCAA’s free-agent status, eligible to be a redshirt freshman in 2023.
“It’s an odd situation,” ZooKeepers head coach Jeremy Knight said. “The portal has added an interesting dynamic (to summer ball).”
Landing with the ZooKeepers meant Grande could showcase his talents.
“Everyone here wants to play all summer and have a good summer experience,” he said a few weeks into the season. “Super thankful for Coach Knight. It has been a great place so far. Playing every day. Everybody kind of goes through the ringer a little bit the first 15 games. We’ve had so many make-ups.
“Just kind of getting back in the groove of things and seeing pitching every day has been the best part of it I would say. Seeing pitching and playing every day is the best reps you can have.”
It began well. He homered in the team’s first game at Holly Springs, a road game that took him relatively close to his Clayton home. His parents were on hand for that game.
Then after a dozen CPL games, a hip ailment caused him to miss the last two weeks of the CPL’s first half. Knight said it’s uncertain if Grande, a 6-foot-5 player with a powerful bat, will be back in the lineup. He had a five-game hitting streak during a stretch before taking time off.
Knight said Grande, who finished his prep career at Christ School in Arden, has been in contact with some colleges. Ideally, he’ll have more chances to the ZooKeepers.
“The swing has been up and down, which is something you expect for someone who hasn’t played that much (for the last several months),” Knight said.
The ZooKeepers hope to have Grande’s bat back in the lineup for the final month of the season. His team compiled a league-worst 3-20 record in the Coastal Plain League in the first half to go with some other disappointing non-league results.
On Friday, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in Dobbs v Jackson that is overdue news for life and the unborn. I am glad the Court decided to return power to where it belongs – the people and their elected representatives.
Did you know more than 600,000 babies were murdered in the United States through abortion last year? In total, more than 60 million lives have been ended by abortion since Roe v Wade was implemented 49 years ago. It is clear, ending Roe v Wade’s unconstitutional and unscientific precedent – which mandated allowing abortion even beyond the time a baby has a heartbeat, feels pain, or sucks her thumb – will save innocent lives.
Following the Court’s decision, it is important to know there is not a nationwide ban on abortion now. The ruling simply restores states’ rights to pass the laws which they choose regarding this issue. The Court’s decision Friday centered on a Mississippi law which placed common sense limits on abortions after 15 weeks, except in emergency cases. At 15 weeks, a baby in the womb has a heartbeat, as well as fully formed arms, legs, fingers, and toes. A baby at 15 weeks responds to sounds, light, and even sucks her thumb. She also feels pain. In fact, modern science has evolved to the point doctors can operate on a baby at this stage. And they provide her with medication for the pain.
Science and medicine have advanced a great deal since 1973. Many people who support abortion now realize there should be reasonable limits. In fact, Roe v Wade’s unconstitutional precedent placed the United States in an extreme category, as one of only seven nations in the world, including North Korea and China, that allow abortion up until birth. By contrast, 47 out of 50 countries in Europe place limits on abortions near 15 weeks.
We now know it is barbaric and cruel to dismember a baby that can feel excruciating pain. That is why the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v Wade is the right thing to do. Decisions about what limits should be placed on abortion are now returned to the people to decide. And the people, through their representatives in Congress and state legislatures, should make these decisions – not seven unelected men, as was the case in 1973.
I have been a vocal advocate for the rights of the unborn all my life. In Congress, I have stood up for life and am proud to have a 100% rating from the National Right to Life for my voting record. I am inspired by faith leaders and so many in our community who have helped lead this effort. Unfortunately, many of the critical pregnancy centers that care for babies and mothers across our state and nation have been the target of violence over the past month.
Like violence toward justices on the Supreme Court, violence against faith-based and pro-life organizations is unacceptable. That’s why last week, I joined my colleagues in demanding the Department of Justice investigate recent attacks and take action to stop violence. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday, I will continue to pray for our nation and call for peace.
Last week marked a historic moment in the decades-long fight for life. As these debates continue, know I will always stand for life, as well as the need to care for mothers and babies at all stages of pregnancy. In everything I do, I remain focused on common sense solutions to address the most important challenges we face. This debate should be no different.
McDonald, a senior, wrapped up her high school career with a spot on the All-Piedmont Conference girls’ soccer team. McDonald was a goalkeeper for the Bulldogs. She also was a starter on the Trinity girls’ basketball team. McDonald ranked in the top three in many of Trinity’s basketball statistics.
