School: Council Rock North
Basketball, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Candace Parker/Stephen Curry
Favorite team: “I don’t really have a favorite team, but I enjoy watching college basketball.”
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Getting to cut down the nets after winning the league outright on my Senior Night – it was the first time I’d ever gotten to do that.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “There were only a couple of seconds left in the state championship (basketball) game my sophomore year, and our team was losing by double digits, so we were just trying to finish the game out. My teammate shot the ball, and it somehow managed to get stuck between the backboard and rim in front of the whole crowd at Penn State. Needless to say, there was a slight delay in the game while the refs got the ball down – I don’t think my friend will ever live it down!”
Music on iPod: “There’s a really wide range – my favorite band is U2, but I listen to everything from rap to even some classical music.”
Future plans: “Go to Middlebury College in Vermont to play basketball and major in International Studies.”
Words to live by: “Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.”
One goal before turning 30: “Become fluent in one or more foreign languages.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I own almost every color of pre-wrap, and I’m slightly obsessive-compulsive about having it match what I’m wearing.”
Kate Logan is living proof that you can, in fact, do it all.
For starters, the Council Rock North senior is an outstanding student. A National Merit Finalist, Logan’s schedule is a steady diet of AP classes with a few honors classes sprinkled in, and she is a valedictorian of her class of approximately 550 students. She is a member of the National Honor Society and is secretary of the French Honor Society.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Logan served as editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. She is an accomplished pianist who participates in honors and high honors recitals.
Not that Logan needed anything else to occupy her time, but she took up a new sport this spring – lacrosse – after two years as starting goalie of the varsity soccer squad.
While Logan enjoys all of her many activities, her true passion is basketball
“Out of all the activities and things I’m involved in, basketball is definitely my favorite thing to do,” she said. “One of the main reasons is because I’m lucky enough that some other things come easier to me, but basketball is something I really have to work hard at.
“I really like the team atmosphere, and that’s definitely one thing that keeps my playing – playing for my team and setting goals to achieve as much as I can individually as well.”
It’s hard to imagine that Logan would even have time for sports, but the Rock North senior not only made time, she threw herself into her sports.
“She never missed anything,” basketball coach Lou Palkovics said. “It was ingenious the way she had everything scheduled so it never conflicted with basketball.
“She makes practices really interesting because practice for her is like a game. She’s always going to be going 120 percent all the time. She just worked really hard. She was definitely one of those kids I had to kick out of the gym after practice.”
Logan was a captain of a basketball squad that compiled a 20-2 regular season mark and advanced to the state tournament.
“We don’t end up the regular season 20-2 if she doesn’t give us what she gave us, which was – do the dirty work, play the best person on the other team and somehow hit almost 35 percent of her three-pointers and extend the other team’s defense,” Palkovics said. “She was special this year.”
Logan began playing basketball with Upper Makefield when she was in fourth grade. It wasn’t long before she had joined the AAU circuit, somehow juggling her schedule to find time for all of her many activities.
It wasn’t easy.
During basketball season, Logan not only was kept busy with practices six days a week with her high school squad, she also had to find time to carry out her responsibilities as editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.
There was also the not-so-little matter of finding time to practice piano, a particularly challenging feat as the time to audition for the spring honors recital approached.
“You have to memorize two pieces when you go in for recital auditions, so it’s hard to manage,” Logan said. “My piano lessons were on Saturday afternoons after my basketball practices.
“Sometimes we’d have games on Saturday when I’d have to run straight from my lesson to the game or shoot from my game to the lesson because my lessons are actually an hour away from home.”
Logan has been playing piano since she was five years old.
“It’s one of those things my mom’s encouraged me to stick with even though I have so many other activities I’m involved in,” she said. “I’m really glad she pushed me to stay with it. A lot of things you learn from piano practice and work ethic you can also apply to sports.”
Logan has been an integral part of a Rock North basketball program that boasts a proud tradition.
“As a freshman and sophomore, I was part of a team that went to the state championship twice, but I wasn’t a main part of the team,” she said. “It really meant a lot to me as a senior to be in a role that I watched as a freshman and sophomore because I really looked up to those girls.
“Now it was my chance to do what they did.”
Logan contributed even more than Palkovics expected this past year.
“I didn’t know how much she would mean to our basketball team,” the Indians’ coach said. “We didn’t have huge expectations for her.
“I just remember after losing to Cardinal O’Hara (in the state tournament) talking about how she made this year special for the coaches and special for the team because she gave so much more than we expected, not only on the court but off the court as well.
“She brings so much to the table – being number one in her class and having all those other interests. She was just a special kid to have on the team.”
This past spring, Logan, who had tired of soccer, opted to give it up in favor of lacrosse. She was a welcome addition to the team.
“Kate is a tremendous athlete with a great attitude,” co-coach Carolyn Kacergis said. “She is very coachable and willing to try whatever position we asked of her, even goalie.
“Kate is a hard worker and never gives up.”
“Kate is an outstanding athlete and person,” co-coach Pat Toner added. “She was willing to try a completely new sport her senior year and worked incredibly hard at every practice.
“She was even willing to serve as a back-up goalie.”
Although Logan, who played deep defense, saw limited varsity playing time, she enjoyed the experience.
“It was fun,” she said. “If I did it over again, I would try more things at the beginning of my high school years and a little bit less at the end. One of the things I wish I had done was try lacrosse earlier because I think if I had tried lacrosse my freshman year I would have been able to learn the sport. I really didn’t have a chance until my senior year and by that time it was too late.
“I really don’t regret any of my decisions. It all worked out great.”
With everything she had on her plate, when exactly did Logan find time to study?
“I’ll be honest,” she said. “I don’t sleep as much as I would like. Academics comes before piano for me, so if I have to cut something out, I cut the piano out.
“I stay up late a lot.”
Logan will continue her basketball career at Middlebury College where she will major in international studies and will once again juggle a schedule that promises to be rigorous.
“I really like French, and I wanted to look for a school that had really good language programs as well as that major,” said Logan, who spent two weeks in France last summer as part of an exchange program. “I read about Middlebury before I visited, and I was pretty sure I would like it.
“As soon as I visited, I basically fell in love with the school. I met with the basketball coach, and I really liked her coaching philosophy. I met some of the players when I went back for a second visit. Everything felt right when I was on the campus.”
And what does the future hold after college?
“I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think I’d like to do something with international business or something where I could combine my international background with business and economics,” Logan said. “I have a family that likes to travel a lot, so I’ve learned about the other cultures from that, and that’s something that really interests me.”
Add traveling to the lengthy list of interests that Logan has developed over the years. This is one student-athlete who is living proof that you really can do it all. And do it well.
