Waldron Salutatorian finds right basketball and academic fit at Wabash College

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WALDRON -- With one final push, a strong performance in a dual-credit class, Lucas Mitchell earned the Salutatorian honor at Waldron High School for the Class of 2023.

The basketball standout will continue his playing career at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, and major in Economics with a minor in Business.

A member of Waldron’s 1,000-point career scoring club, Mitchell is excited to fulfill his dream of playing college basketball and getting a top-notch education.

“It was strictly basketball at first but I did some research and (Wabash) is a really good school,” said Mitchell. “I am pretty excited.”

Mitchell recalls wanting to play college basketball since as early as second grade.

“It’s been a dream to play at the next level for awhile,” he confirmed.

Mitchell is part of large freshmen class coming to Wabash. That means immediate playing time is not guaranteed – a fact he is not concerned about.

“They said I obviously have to work for everything like always,” said Mitchell. “Nothing will be given. I will just have to go in there and earn my minutes.”

The versatile Mitchell, who played everything from point guard to center at Waldron, believes he projects as a forward with the Little Giants.

“A forward … whatever they need,” said Mitchell. “They have size but not a lot of it. I might play a ‘3’ or a ‘4.’ It will depend on how I go in and contribute.”

In 2022, Wabash finished 28-4 and reached the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament semifinal round. The Little Giants went 21-8 this past season and again qualified for the NCAA postseason tournament.

“It’s a successful program,” said Mitchell. “Coach (Kyle) Brumett is top of the line. They went to the Final Four two years ago and the tournament again last year. He just knows what he is doing.”

As salutatorian, Mitchell was tasked with giving a speech at graduation. His message was simple and came easy to put down on paper.

“The writing of it was quick and easy. I knew what I was going to say,” said Mitchell. “I talked about my faith and how it has helped me. That’s one of the things that has brought me to where I am. That was super easy to write about.”

While the writing was easy, standing in front of his peers and their families proved a little more challenging.

“Once I got up there, it was a little nerve-wracking talking in front of people,” he said. “After the first couple of sentences I was fine.”

Mitchell found Wabash had a lot of similar characteristics to Waldron which he believes will make the transition go smoothly.

“I will definitely miss the guys and the friendships that I’ve built and the relationships over time, it is definitely one of the things I will cherish from this place, for sure,” he said. “I think it will be weird at first just switching from (Waldron to Wabash). I feel like I am kind of getting the same feel from here to there, like I will have my close friends like I had here and I will have those same relationships with those guys that I had here. I think it will translate pretty well.”

Mitchell has two months to prepare for his arrival at Wabash on Aug. 19. That sounds like plenty of time but he knows it will go by quickly, just as his time did as a Mohawk.

“If Wabash is anything like it was here, it will go by super quick,” said Mitchell. “The last four years have been the best but also the fastest four years of my life.”

This is the seventh in a series of feature stories from the Shelby County Post on Shelby County’s Class of 2023 valedictorians and salutatorians.

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