By: Georgia Kaufman and Emily Duvall

Opinion Editors 

Skillful artisan and Varsity Water Polo player, junior Joe Lonergan is anything but ordinary. The junior picks up hobbies and sports incredibly quickly, and found his place in the LGHS poll, on both the water polo and swimming teams. When speaking with the athlete, one can always expect a witty response to any question, which forces the awkward humor that Lonergan holds to shine through.

At LGHS, Lonergan is quite active in sports and artistic classes. About two years ago, he spent nearly a year and a half learning the ropes of ceramics in a course outside of school. This course did wonders in preparing him for his current enrollment in Ceramics 1. Lonegergan detailed his experience in the class, explaining, “It was a class that I saw online…I would go over there in the morning, and I learned how to throw pots which is basically putting a big lump of clay on a wheel that spins really fast and using water and your hands and pressure to make it into a pot.” Now, he loves applying this knowledge at school and the practicality of ceramics itself.

In addition to being skilled in the creative field of ceramics, Lonergan spends the majority of his time in the LGHS pool, playing on the boys’ Varsity Water Polo team. Lonergan began his water polo journey in sixth grade when a close friend, LGHS junior and fellow teammate Liam Amburgey, pushed him to try out for the local club team, Express. Lonergan’s swimming career began when he was only five-years-old. When deciding between playing a delayed season of water polo in his COVID-filled freshman year and swimming, Lonergan emphasized that the decision was clear; he remarked, “I was planning on swimming, but I had a lot of fun throughout the summer training for water polo with the high school team and wanted to actually get some games in my freshman year.” Lonergan is a very versatile athlete, having tackled nearly every position on the team besides set and goalie.

Lonergan’s twin brother, junior Ewan Lonergan, also swims. While they currently reside in the Los Gatos community, the pair were born in Portland, Oregon, moving to California when they were nine months old. As for Longeran’s other family members, his parents were born and raised from Glasgow, Scotland, and his older brother was born in England. Lonergan’s parents surprisingly grew up only six blocks from each other. Elaborating on his parents’ story, he stated, “[they] didn’t know each other until the age of 22. Both of their sisters were friends and had them meet up. Their moms were family friends, even though they had never met each other. And their dads worked together in the same hospital.” 

Lonergan tries to visit Scotland with his family at least once every three years, and  hopes to attend school there post-graduation. He shared, “me and my parents go there because all my family lives in Glasgow. We’ve been looking at colleges there and it’s really nice.” 

Although he doesn’t have any aspirations to go to college for sports, Lonergan hopes to head over to Glasgow to further his academic career and make his creative mark in all other fields.