Twenty-five conference champion teams, 24 teams with state appearances. Nine individual champions, 14 All-State selected champions for sports, 14 All-State speech events, numerous Division I ratings in band and choir, plus an average GPA that was just around 3.5 for the entire class.
Even as senior speaker Kali Nelson rattled the accomplishments off for the class of 2023 for Lisbon, it was truly, as speaker Lance Kamaus noted in his own speech, one of the special classes in Lisbon’s history.
Lisbon secondary principal Jack Leighty said he felt Lisbon’s success came from three characteristics he has witnessed at the school in his first-year there – The students’ work ethic, their integrity and their character.
“When you look at this group and have students who just helped win the Class 1A State track competition this weekend, graduate, and tomorrow, many of them will be gearing up for baseball and softball,” Leighty said. “You don’t get this level of success without students exhibiting a level of work ethic and focus.”
Integrity, Leighty attributed to not only the students, but also the community of Lisbon who helped instill that in students in the district.
Character is the one that Leighty charged students to continue working on even after they leave Lisbon’s doors, quoting Neil Wolfard ““Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
Alex Bock, Nelson and Peyton Robinson were the class valedictorians and speakers for the class of 2023.
Bock focused on memories of students times together in the district, like getting scolded for destroyng a bush during middle school homecoming activities or missing out on Romeo and Juliet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robinson said that a lot of what made Lisbon students time memorable has been their perseverence and hours spent in their curricular and extracurricular activities.
“Those hours spent doing what you love has helped us persevere in the most trying of times,” Robinson said.
Kamaus, social studies teacher at Lisbon, was the chosen speaker for the class of 2023.
He started his speech trying to find the right walk-up anthem.
When “The Best” by Joe Esposito started playing, he said that anthem actually belonged to Lisbon’s boys’ and girls’ 4×100 squads, the shuttle hurdle relay team and the boys’ track team for pulling off first place finishes at state meet that same weekend.
Kamaus settled on using the long lists of songs he’s played during volleyball season.
The first lyric he spoke oncame from Kesha’s “The good Old Days.”
“Sometime in your life you’re going to change and you’re going to miss the good old days.”
His second song on shuffle was Aaron Tippin’s “You got to Stand for Something,” with the lyric “Whatever you do today, you have to sleep with tonight.”
“That speaks a lot about the energy you need to put into your days moving forward,” Kamaus said.
Third of the five was “I Need a Miracle” by Third Day.
“There’s going to come a time when you can’t make it on your own,” was the lyric.
Kamaus encouraged the students to stand up and look at their family and friends gathered in the auditorium.
“Those people here, they don’t go away just because you graduated,” Kamaus said.
The fourth song on the shuffle was “The Long Goodbye” by the Nadas, with lyrics “Celebrate today for what it becomes.”
The final song was Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” with the lyrics “Let’s celebrate just feeling we’ll be okay.”
Kamaus said the class of 2023 was special to him because it was one of the classes where he knew so many of the parents, due to his son Cohen graduating with the class, and had spent so much time with them inside and outside of the school.
“I’ve worn a lot of hats over the course of my life, teacher, mentor, coach, husband, but the one I’m proudest in my life has been dad,” Kamaus said.
Members of the Lisbon choir perform.