I Am Building Woodward Academy // Staff Profile // Lorenzo White

After growing up in small town Texas in a suburb outside of Houston, it was football that brough Lorenzo White to Iowa. He graduated high school in 1998 and went to Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas on a football scholarship where he excelled on the field and graduated with an
Associate degree. He transferred to Iowa State University and played for the Cyclones, majoring in Sociology.

In 2002, he entered the NFL as a free agent and went to mini camp at the Jacksonville Jaguars’ facility, and later spent the remainder of the year with the Minnesota Vikings. At the end of the 2002 season, he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AFib), an irregular heartbeat that can lead to heart failure. This prevented Lorenzo from continuing to pursue his football career and led him back to Woodward.
   
Lorenzo first started working at Woodward Academy his senior year in college. When he returned, he worked as a youth counselor and quickly was promoted to supervisor. He is currently the Program Director of Pathfinder Hall. Lorenzo has been with the football program since the beginning, serving an assistant coach for 3 years. This was his third season as Head Coach.

Wrestling Week

Wrestling Week has become an annual tradition at Woodward Academy that is full of costumes, makeup, and the ridiculous personas that occupy organizations like the WWE. For the past three years, both students and staff have paid homage to the "sport" of professional wrestling in preparation for a show put on by Impact Professional Wrestling on Saturday Night.

On its surface, the week plays right into our student body's demographic: teenaged boys. They love the spectacle and it is a good reason to get crazy. But Wrestling Week is much more than that and a reflection of the philosophy at Woodward Academy. Organized activities are a staple on campus. During the week, students attend school, participate in high school athletics, have therapy groups, extracurricular activities, clean the dorm, and get homework done. The weekends are just as structured with schedules penned out at least week in advance.

Beyond keeping students engaged in positive activities, this week is a good opportunity for staff to get involved as well. When Program Directors, Group Leaders, teachers, and counselors get involved in any activity, it subtlety shows students that we can all have fun, and work hard together. The fact is that these fun weeks make the more difficult moments for students much easier to take on. They see staff invested in their life and they will be much more likely to open up and accept feedback from them. The organizer of the week, Program Director, Bill Badgely, took participation to a new level when he (and his brother) got in the ring for a final tag team event.

The above image of Group Leaders on campus says it all about the week. If you want to see all of the wrestlers from the week, and pictures from the event, visit our Knight Pics website.

State Cross Country // Video

At Woodward Academy, cross country is a team sport. Since 2006, the Knights have qualified for the Iowa High School State Meet three times ('06, '07, '12) and the runners from this year's team were looking to add to that legacy. Head Coach Jason Anderson has led each of those teams to State and knew this team had the potential to be very special early in the season. "This team never quit. They came to practice every day and wanted to work. They never gave up and they kept their eyes on the goal." That goal was to make it to State.

Like all sports at Woodward Academy, most of this year's runners were new to cross country, and they would need to be coached. Anderson and his assistant coach, Aric Rush, have worked together since 2012 and they have a similar philosophy when it comes to cross country. They are both positively idealistic, and this leadership is reflected in the team. It has to be. Cross country is hard work. Coach Rush was joking when he said "our sport is other sport's punishment," but he is kind of right.

Both coaches stressed that the most difficult aspect of cross country is building the mental determination in the runners. Rush commented that "cross country is always a good idea to most students… until it gets hard. Top runners overcome that and motivated runners excel." That was the kind of team the Knights had this year. Desmond Edwards was the top runner for the team much of the season, but he was surrounded by a lot of inspired runners. Even on easy days, practice often turned competitive because the runners wanted to log quicker times or beat their teammates. That level of grit was an instinct in this team and perhaps the most determining factor to their success.

All season, the Knights competed against top schools, many of which were larger than Woodward Academy and who had an established cross country program. Although they did not win meets, the Knights used the competition to increase their 3.1 mile times and they peaked at the right time. When it came to districts, the hard work paid off. Desmond Edwards and Ricky Gabbard finished 6th and 14th, qualifying themselves for State individually. But it was the second wave of runners who made the difference and pushed the team to State. Each position, and each runner counts. Many cross country teams undervalue the 6th and 7th runners on the team, but for the Knights, they are who made the difference. After edging out a couple runners at the end, the Knights placed 3rd at Districts after beating Des Moines Christian by 2 points.

On October 31, the Knights represented Woodward Academy at the Iowa High School State Cross Country meet, annually held in Fort Dodge. You can see highlights from the meet in the video above.