Featured Athlete: James Vaughn

Caleb Stein, Staff Writer • February 15, 2018

Katie Felton

James Vaughn races at the regionals swim meet. He is swimming the butterfly portion of the 200 individual medley.

Junior James Vaughn is the swim team captain and helps train his team mates.

At a Glance:

Favorite TV Show: Friends

Favorite Swimming Stroke: Butterfly

Least Favorite Holiday: Halloween

Favorite Class: Art

Favorite Fast Food Restaurant: Whataburger

Favorite Color: Blue

Looking Deeper:

The Red Ledger: When did you start swimming?

James Vaughn: I started swimming in about seventh grade when I joined the middle school team.

TRL: How long have you been swimming competitively?
JV: I started club swimming in eighth grade when I joined Texas Ford Aquatic in Frisco. I was doing middle school swim in the morning and club in the evening, and I’ve been swimming club ever since.

TRL: What has it been like competing for the school and being as successful as you’ve been?
JV: It has been super fun swimming for the past three years of my high school career, and I have to thank my successes on Coach Franks for pushing me through things I didn’t think I could do.

TRL: What is it like being one of the leaders of the team?
JV: Being a leader on the team, you have all the underclassmen looking up to you, and it’s a lot of responsibility. It’s fun to be a captain by leading cheers and cheering on my teammates while they are swimming. I get to watch freshmen who are nervous become more comfortable and become a member of the swim family.

TRL: Do you have any goals for swimming in the future?
JV: One of my goals in swimming is to get a D-1 scholarship to swim in college and hopefully make it to the Olympics after that. As for this year, I hope to be able to win state in my 100 butterfly.

TRL: What is preparing for meets and competitions like, especially as you prepare for the playoff meets?
JV: Swimming at districts, regionals and state have a lot more pressure than regular meets because you have to swim smart at those meets, and you can’t be as risky as you could be at regular meets.

TRL: What’s your favorite part about being on the swim team?
JV: My favorite part about the swim team would be training with my teammates and watch them develop and grow as an athlete. My training partner Jed Jones who recently moved from Minnesota pushes me both at club practice and high school practice which is also one of my favorite parts because we are always trying to one up each other in the pool and not let the other person beat us in any aspect of swimming.

About the Contributors

Caleb Stein, TRL Reporter

Caleb Stein, now in his senior year of high school, is excited to be coming back to The Red Ledger staff for his second year. While many things have changed since his freshman year, there are some things about Caleb that have never changed, such as his search for classes that give him the least amount of work possible and his impressively dry humor that routinely gets him in hot water mistakenly. Caleb is a sports fan, especially of football and basketball, but he finds himself watching less basketball as the Warriors get more stacked. Caleb is a confident person, a quality that some may find off-putting. But he is very genuine and sincere and a very good person if one gets to know him. He also loves poker, but his lack of money is a hampering on that hobby. He is extremely proficient in tasks that have no value whatsoever, such as trashketball, not being able to dunk, and having back problems like an 80-year-old man. For all his “skills,” Caleb is not perfect and works to grow as both a person and a journalist throughout his senior year.

Katie Felton, TRL Reporter

Senior Katie Felton, a four year Red Ledger staffer who suffers from severe senioritis, cannot wait to be done with high school. But, since she is stuck there until June, she is determined to make her last year her best year. As a part of making the 2017-2018 school year the best one yet, Felton created her schedule only with classes she enjoys going to, such as newspaper and art. Sadly, she was forced to include core classes. Newspaper has been a passion of Felton's since middle school when she was one day added to the class, and she’s been a part of it every year since. Along with a love for journalism, Felton also has a soft spot for art– sculpture, to be exact. If she is not at school, she is probably working or with friends, as she's not a big fan of sitting at home and doing nothing. Even though Felton already has one foot out the door, she adores newspaper, and it will be one of the very few things she will miss from her years at Lovejoy High School.