MORENCI — Libby Rorick once had a message for her sister. Leah Rorick never forgot it.
“My sister said don’t ever take it for granted and keep doing it because once you are done, you’ll want it back,” Leah said.
The younger Rorick took the message to heart, making the most of both academics and athletics at
High School. She earned 13 varsity letters, made multiple trips to state meets, played four sports her senior year and finished with a 4.0 grade point average.
“I don’t leave myself much down time,” she said.
To cap off her high school career, Rorick is Morenci's Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
In May, Rorick was the Class D female athlete in Michigan to win the Rich Tompkins Multi-Sport Award from the Michigan High School Coaches Association. She celebrated by earning her fourth trip to the state track and field finals and earned All-State honors for the third time by placing fourth in the high hurdles.
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She was first or second team All-Tri-County Conference in cross country all four years and qualified for the state meet three times in that sport. The Morenci basketball team went 21-4 and reached the state quarterfinals this past winter with Rorick leading the team in 3-pointers and averaging 6.1 points a game.
She was also part of the volleyball program this past fall and ran indoor track all winter.
Basketball has long been her favorite sport. She cited playing basketball on the same varsity team as her sister as one of her highlights.
“I remember I was in second grade playing on my sister’s team in basketball and I was in gymnastics before that,” she said. “I was always in sports.”
It wasn’t always easy to juggle playing multiple sports – some the same season – while keeping up on all her studies, but she made it work.
“I was definitely burned out my sophomore year and I tried to just keep pushing through it,” she said. “I just took it day-by-day and focused each practice and kept working hard.”
Her favorite class at school was gym and her favorite subjects were math and art.
“I had to do some homework at games sometimes just to keep up,” she said. “Sometimes it was hard to focus on class with all of the sports that I did.”
The daughter of John and Andi Rorick will be studying architecture at Bowling Green State University starting in the fall. Before that she is working at Candyland Child Care in Morenci and Louie’s Pizza in Morenci on the weekends.
At the childcare place, she takes care of babies – some as young as six weeks old.
“It’s my third summer there,” she said.
At Morenci, she was part of a volunteer club and was involved in numerous activities, such as officiating youth basketball games and helping out at camps. She volunteered at Stair District Library and for Revitalize Morenci. She collected donations for a homeless shelter, helped with a bake sale with the Kiwanis, helped with storm cleanup at the Morenci cemetery, manned a booth at the American Legion Halloween party and raked leaves for the elderly.
She certainly left her mark at Morenci.
“She's an excellent student and has maintained an impressive GPA from both honors courses, college courses, and is a member of the National Technical Honor Society at the Tech Center,” Morenci basketball coach Ashley Joughin said.
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Lauren Harsh, 4.38 (volleyball, basketball, track)
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