Among the roughly eight hundred students that attend Elder, there are those whom everyone is familiar with. Whether it be your football captains, basketball stars, or student body president, there truly are some dudes around our school that have a reputation built up within the walls. However, there are people within these walls that have quite the stories to tell and quite the impact on the student body. Let me provide an example.

I’m writing this here to tell you about one of Elder’s most interesting people. This kid may not be a machine in the extra-curricular area, but he is one of those people that keeps the students’ morale as high as ever during the tough, stressful school year. Elder High School, meet Alexander Carter Ammann ’23, better known as Alex, but even better known as “Lich” (Pronounced like “rich”).

Now, how Lich became Lich is a long story that is classified for the time being, but nevertheless, I’d like to give a rundown on Lich up until this point. Like myself, he is an alumnus of the great Our Lady of Victory School, where we played with each other in Basketball and some soccer most notably. Not too much of a star on the pitch, Lich honed his jump shot every off-season to make sure he was at the top of his game as a hooper.

He was a jack-of-all-trades for Mr. Braun and Mr. Hutzel’s Viper basketball teams in the 7th and 8th grade, and looking back on it now, he assured me, “Basketball was prolly my favorite sport in grade school.” This is something you wouldn’t expect from the son of 4 year Varsity golf letterer Mike Ammann, but regardless, athletics is big in the family, with Andrew ’21, his older brother, being a prolific runner on both the Elder track and cross country squads.

With the desire to continue his basketball career as a CYO menace, Lich made the decision to opt out of high school sports for our shortened freshman year to explore and find his true niche in Elder’s vast opportunities for athletics. He dominated on the CYO court for the meantime, being a clutch shooter for the washed-up Vipers. It was at the beginning of sophomore year where he, like myself, decided to brandish the stick and skates as a member of the Elder Hockey team. Lich became a vital piece to our team, being a high energy locker room guy for us, never failing to make the boys chuckle.

Lich has always been the one to make people laugh with his goofy antics, and he’s not one to shy away from an opportunity, which brings me to his most recent hobby: cheerleading. Like I mentioned before, Lich had more to be desired when it came to getting involved at Elder, so he turned to be the head of what he always loved: cheering on the Panthers. As a cheerleader during the football season, Lich had undoubtedly the most heart behind the megaphone. He hosted the most notorious, rowdy pregame parties for the seniors as well as being the leader of the 3rd quarter “6-pack,12-pack” cheer several times this season.

He also was a vital part in our pep rallies, playing as a trojan in our pep rally for the game against Bishop Chatard High School, which consisted of being tossed in a trash can by multiple football players.

Lich also has another hobby that he has been doing for a while now, dare I say it’s an addiction…

Lich is an avid gamer. He loves all the sports games, whether it be Madden, NHL, or NBA2K, Lich is always up for a gaming sesh with the boys, considering 2K to be his favorite game. However, there is one thing that sticks out in his gaming. He is very serious about his 2K record: he will NOT play with you if you suck, so if you want to run the park courts with Lich, you better be good. Lich has spent some serious dough to make his 2K performance the best year-in and year-out, but that’s a story for another day.

Nowadays, Ammann is getting better every day at hockey, making sure he leaves it all out there for this senior season. In addition, he is making it his best effort to work around this hockey schedule so he can make it to all the Elder basketball games and cheer on Panther Hoops the same way he did with Elder Football in the hopes that some of the guys may come out and see him perform on the frozen water some time. Lich describes hockey as a “more exciting” sport, stating that hockey has “faster gameplay” in comparison to all the other sports, and he hopes that will be a pull factor in making the 20 minute drive to Northland Ice Center, where our Panther Puck men play their home games.

Lich has for sure pushed the pursuit of college to the wayside, considering he lacks a foreign-language credit at Elder. Although, that will not stifle his future success, as he has made the decision to join the workforce straight out of high school as an electrician, hoping to use the debt-free life as a platform to build wealth and start his own business, hopefully named, “Lich’s Electro”. I don’t know about any of you reading, but if my power went out, Lich’s Electro would be getting the first call. Nonetheless, Lich has been working hard in his “studies” to make sure he is clearly above the eligibility requirements for hockey and graduation come May.

I hope you all have become enlightened over the introduction of Lich. I’d bet almost all of us in the senior class consider him to be a vital piece to our school’s personality, and we do not know what would come of the class of ’23 without him. If you see him in the halls, make sure to give him a dap or a classic “Whaddup Lich”. If he doesn’t say it back, don’t blame him: we all get tired sometimes.

NOTE: All persons involved consented to the making of this article