Eagle Award nominee: Swim team, water polo captain moves to bigger pond

Eleanor Kanerva
Public Relations/Tiktok Manager

Senior Dominic Lee has been nominated for both commencement speaker and the Eagle Award.

Lee plans to attend Michigan State University to study biosystems engineering with a minor in Spanish. He also intends to study abroad.

Lee has swam on the swim team all four years, played on the volleyball team for two, and just this year joined the high school’s unofficial water polo team. He also is a member of the Spanish Club, National Honor Society and an equity group.

Lee’s swim and polo coach, Evyn Spencer described Lee as “very kind, very genuine, and a great natural leader.”

Lee was a captain on the swim team.

Spencer said, “As a captain, he just very effortlessly ran the team by way of example. He led with integrity, and he led with passion…He’s really good at making decisions that affect the whole team. He takes in account other
people’s opinions and does not just do what he thinks is best. He wants to know what’s best for the team and the program.”

When describing his past four years, Lee said, “There’s been a lot of character development. I’ve learned a lot
about not being embarrassing and how to be a mature person and like take care of
my work and like be focused and not trying to be the class clown.”

Spencer has also recognized Lee’s growth through the years he spent on the swim team.

Spencer said, “He got a lot more coachable as the years went on. He was at first so determined with the outcome and not the work to the outcome. Over time, I watched that change.”

“He was less focused on specific goals and more focused on accomplishing the build up to those goals. That’s a huge part of growth because when you’re young you think about the accomplishment, you don’t think about what it takes to get there. Everyone wants to say that they’ve been able to do something, but nobody wants to put in the work,” Spencer said.

Lee considered his parents to be his biggest supporters. He said, “My parents are very supportive, and they also push me all the time, even when I think I’ve done enough, they continue to push me.”

Eleanor Kanerva- Tik Tok Editor/Public Relations This will be Eleanor Kanerva’s first year on ECHO staff. They also made several contributions while taking journalism class their junior year.