By Joe O’Leary, For The Mountain Times
“As long as you’re working hard, you can do it,” Sandy senior Makenna Kato said. This mantra, at surface level, seems a tad cliche – it’s something that you could hear just about anyone utter. For Kato, however, hard work seems to embody her spirit.
Kato is the president of SHS’ Honors Society, an officer for the school’s Key Club, a member of the girls’ tennis team and a future valedictorian, among several other seniors that win the shared award for having the highest grade point averages in their graduating class.
“There are definitely a lot of events that overlap,” Kato said. Academics seem to be something Kato has always excelled in. Tennis was something hand picked by Kato directly before starting high school four years ago.
“I had some upperclassmen friends that play tennis and they told me to join. I was an incoming freshman and I just played tennis that whole summer. I made the team my freshman year, and the rest is history,” Kato explained. Throughout the course of her time with the team she has learned more and more about the sport, blossoming into a role of leadership. This season is the first under new girls’ tennis coach Todd Lewis. Lewis has come in with a mindset that emphasizes tennis as a leisure sport that can stick with any of his players for life.
“It’s been a rough couple of years switching up coaches so much but no matter what they’re all putting in so much time and effort,” Kato said, “Todd is very team oriented which I’ve noticed has helped bridge the gap between age and skill levels that has always been pretty big in years prior but almost completely gone away this year.” Kato also reflected on the way she’s been able to achieve her goals with the team in spite of challenges that were out of her control.
“This year I’m singles one, so that’s a huge accomplishment for me. I hope to inspire more girls on the team, to just keep playing tennis and work hard to meet their own goals,” Kato said.
Beyond this year, the senior plans to go on an 18 month mission trip, centered around service and spreading faith. The latter being a core part of the senior’s character, the former being something Kato is no stranger to after hundreds of hours of combined community service through SHS clubs.
“[Having an impact] is important to me. Especially out of the country, doing service. I think it’s important,” Kato said. All things considered, this desire to have an impact on others seems to be a crucial part of Kato’s demeanor as a student, a philanthropist and, of course, an athlete.
“Within our team I need to be someone to look up to. Just kind of being a positive role model for [underclassmen]. That’s what makes or breaks their experience, how other girls are treating them,” Kato said.