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Monday, October 1, 2007
Follow the Leaders
Central Indiana, IN
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By: Tom Hayes
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Photo(s) By: Jeff Solenberg
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Hamilton Southeastern tennis players Corbin Mathias and Justin Kingsolver know how to make their point on the court – and in student government.
Mark Heiden has no interest in getting into a political discussion with his Hamilton Southeastern tennis team. He’s afraid he’d be in over his head.
“Those two guys have a ton of commitments to fulfill,” Heiden said of seniors Justin Kingsolver and Corbin Mathias. “They know more about government issues then anyone I know.”
Kingsolver and Mathias are key members of the Royals’ junior varsity squad, but their influence on the team is felt everywhere.
“Those two guys are just natural leaders,” Heiden said. “Corbin is one of our co-captions and Justin just leads by example. Those two guys are busy before school, during school and after. I don’t know where they find all the time they have.”
Kingsolver serves as president of the student council while Mathias is president of the senior class. Kingsolver earned his position in a school-wide election while Mathias was elected by his senior classmates.
Being leaders is nothing new to either student-athlete. Kingsolver was a student council representative his sophomore year and last year served on an executive board that helps advise the principal. Mathias was class president as a sophomore and served on the HSE Foundation Board as a student representative last year.
“I’m just a strong advocate of youth having a voice in government affairs,” Kingsolver said. “Leadership is a core value of our school and I’m doing whatever I can to become a strong leader.”
Kingsolver oversees a student council that numbers nearly 300 students. Each student must perform 10 hours of community service per semester to remain on the council. The president and the vice president are the only positions elected by the student body.
The student council is in charge of school activities like homecoming, pep rallies, spirit days and distributing hot cocoa and popsicles to the student body on selected days.
“We’re the people behind the scenes,” said Kingsolver, who hopes to be a high school history teacher before possibly looking at a career in political science. “We do all the little things to help make school fun. I get enjoyment out of watching the student body have fun.”
Both Kingsolver and Mathias were members of Hoosier Boys State last year and Kingsolver went on to represent Indiana in the Boys Nation.
“We both just try to set good examples,” Mathias said. “We both like the school and we like to be involved. Doing this just comes natural.”
Mathias may be the busiest student in the halls. In addition to being on the tennis team and president of his class, he’s also president of the Thespian Club, is a past president of the German Club and is actively involved in fundraising activities. His involvement in fundraisers ended up getting him in trouble last month.
“I got pied in the face at halftime of our football game with Fishers,” said Mathias, who plans to teach high school history. “We had a fundraising competition with Fishers and they beat us by $200. That meant they got to pie me in the face.”
Not that Mathias minded in the least.
“I just enjoy having fun,” he said. “My whole goal is to help make school a fun place place to be. Being involved is my avenue.”
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