By Nancy Gutierrez
At 6:30 a.m. each morning, a time when most high school seniors are just getting up for school, Steven Ingolsby is already dressed, out of the house and at a seminary scripture study class.
From seminary Ingolsby heads to school for a day filled with physics class, band practice, guitar class and other academic subjects in which he maintains above a 4.0 grade point average. And once a long day at school has ended Steven's afternoon is filled with other activities like practicing for track or swimming, mock trial or the drama club's next play.
These accomplishments might be the reason Steven was chosen as Lindsay's Youth of the Year, an award so coveted and secret that the nominators of each recipient are never named nor the reasons disclosed. After all Steven isn't just involved in these activities, he excels in them.
Steven has been the track team captain for three years and Most Valuable Player for two years. He said he has been swimming since he was 6 years old with the Lindsay skimmers, a recreational swim team. It's only natural that as he entered high school he would join the swim team and has since been captain for two years and named most valuable player for three years.
So he's athletic -- lots of teens are -- right? Well how about athletic and musical. Steven has been playing the piano since he was 7 years old.
"I saw my older cousins play the piano and I wanted to do it," he said. "Both of my parents play so I started taking lessons."
In fourth grade he started playing the trombone. As a seventh grade student Steven felt the need to learn a solo instrument and started taking private oboe lessons. For the last two years Steven has played the oboe for the Presbyterian Church's production of, "the Messiah. In high school Steven's primary instrument is the trombone but his junior year, he was asked by Director Charles Hickenbotham to learn to play the tuba as well since the band was in need of one.
"It wasn't terribly hard," he said. "It's a brass instrument so I related the slide positions to the valve [positions]. It took some work."
If that wasn't enough, Steven started the guitar class this year. He was given special permission by teacher Nancy Wills to skip the introductory class and start in the advanced class.
"She let me go straight to advanced because I could already read music," he said. "I was behind for a little bit then I caught up."
His knowledge of so many musical instruments helped earn him a position on the COS community band.
But the list doesn't end there. Steven has been in every LHS play since he started high school, and has been Drama Club president for the last three years. He is serving as the KEY club vice president. On Jan. 22 he competed in the county mock trial competition.
Steven has also been very active in the community. He is an assistant coach for the Skimmers. He has been active in the Boy Scouts and is working toward earning his Eagle Scout status. That is no easy feat. One of the last requirements, which Steven has completed, is organizing a large scale community service project. Steven, along with another scout, organized and worked on a tree planting project where more than 100 people helped to plant 280 crepe myrtles down Tulare Road in Lindsay.
"There were a variety of categories I needed to get along the way to advance through the rankings," he said.
The list of accomplishments goes on, but most impressive, is the appreciation Steven has for the community he lives in and those who have helped him along the way. As he accepted his award as Chamber Youth of the Year, Steven thanked city officials for providing programs for Lindsay youth.
"I was really shocked," he said. "But I wanted to thank the community for the opportunity I had to do these things."
