Eastlake students heard the tragic story of Ryan DePuy, a Bothell High School junior who accidentally overdosed on four prescription medications last April. Contributed

Practically all 1,329 students at Eastlake High School learned about the harsh realities of prescription drug abuse among teens at a presentation in the school’s theater Nov. 24.

Scott DePuy, EFR firefighter and founder of the Ryan’s Solution Foundation, and Brent Campbell, founder of Sammamish-based Real World Info, put on the 35-minute presentation. It focused on educating students about an issue that plagues the youth population. 

“My perception is that it went really well,” said Eastlake advisory coordinator Elise Meilleur. “And the students were interested to hear the personal story of someone in their community.” 

The story was of Scott DePuy’s son Ryan DePuy, a Bothell High School junior who died last April from an accidental prescription drug overdose. Campbell and DePuy dished out sobering facts and stats about alcohol and drug abuse, such as large doses of Oxycontin can mimic the affects of ecstasy. They showed students a brief video to “shake them up,” DePuy said. 

DePuy told his first-hand story of losing his son to drug abuse. “(We) were trying to show the kids, ‘you’re looking at a father that doesn’t get to hug his son ever again.’”

DePuy and Campbell said students seemed interested immediately after the session, which included a short question and answer period.

“We got great feedback. I’ve already been contacted by the leadership class and they want to develop a standard for not using drugs and alcohol,” Campbell said about having students sign a pledge to stay clean. “Every time I talk to kids, there’s always a line of kids that want to tell their story. You see the light bulbs go on.” 

The light bulbs indeed went on for a few Eastlake students. Two students said although the facts about their peers helped broaden their knowledge of the problem, DePuy’s story impacted them the most.

“When Scott talked of feeling helpless and trying to help, but not impacting his son, I was deeply affected,” sophomore Margot Smith said in an email. “I feel very passionate about the drug and alcohol problem in the community because I am close with some people who have resorted to these influences. Although I do not do drugs or drink alcohol, I feel like I need to take a stand for the sake of myself and others.”

“These problems are huge and much more dangerous than I was previously led on,” said sophomore Zac Vorhorf in an email. “The story of Ryan DePuy is one that easily reaches the heart of many students in the audience. Hearing some kid our age died of an overdose is terrifying and very sad.”

In addition to showing youth the dangers of using illegal or prescription drugs, the program highlighted that part of the problem is parents enabling teens by not securing medications in the house. 

“Our big message to people this holiday season is making sure parents talk to relatives to make sure they lock up their medications,” DePuy said. “If we all start taking better care of locking up prescription medications … just hiding them isn’t good enough. A teen seeking out drugs will do a pretty good job of going through your house.”

It’s all about removing the temptation, he said. 

Scott and Charlene DePuy established the Ryan’s Solution Foundation on July 27 after their son’s death and are working to make it a recognized charity. The foundation is dedicated to educating teens and their parents about the prescription drug abuse.  

Campbell started Real World Facts about two years ago and speaks to schools, community groups and PTSA groups.    

“The younger we can talk to the kids and the parents the better off they’ll be,” Scott DePuy said.  

For more information, visit www.realworldfacts.net or www.ryanssolution.com. 

Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or at chuber@isspress.com.

Eastlake’s Alyssa Charlston is expected to be a force for the Lady Wolves this year. Contributed

The Eastlake girls basketball crew comes off a 16-8 2007-2008 season. And despite finishing fourth in the KingCo conference with a record of 9-5, the Lady Wolves return eight players from last year’s roster, including three all-KingCo players. 

Junior forward Alyssa Charlston made first team all-KingCo last year and is already getting looks from about a half-dozen Division 1 schools, head coach Scott Sartorius said. 

Captains Ellie Martinez (senior forward) and Hannah Ostic (senior point guard) were named to the second team and honorable mention all-KingCo respectively. 

“She (Martinez) has been a quiet leader for us,” Sartorius said. “She goes out and just does what the team needs.” 

Eastlake looks to Ostic’s leadership on the court to take it to an increasingly tough conference.

“She’s just a gutsy, tough, physical player,” Sartorius said. “She sees the floor so well.”

Starting his third year as head coach, Sartorius said the team is more established this season, after spending the past couple of years rebuilding.

Games to watch: at Eastlake vs. Skyline, 6:30 p.m., Dec. 12; at Eastlake vs. Redmond, 6:30 p.m., Jan. 16; at Eastlake vs. Ballard, 6:30 p.m., Jan. 28.

Eastlake Wrestling

Wolves’ wrestling went 0-11 to finish ninth in KingCo in 2007-2008 with a tiny team of just 13 players. This winter, however, Eastlake returns with a much larger crew of 30 grapplers. 

Head coach Riley Cornet said it’s a young team that looks to improve throughout the year. 

Key wrestlers for Eastlake this season will be Sam Boucher, Shay Fuentes, Trevor McKinnon, Tom Kuehny, Adam Nakanishi and Al Charat.

Matches to watch: Eastlake vs. Skyline at Eastlake, 7:30 p.m., Jan. 20. 

Skyline Girls Basketball

The Lady Spartans’ basketball team moves up to KingCo 4A this year after going 9-7 in conference in Class 3A competition in 2007-2008. They finished with an overall record of 14-11. 

The club starts the season with its third new coach in three years in head coach Greg Bruns. The team will follow the talented senior duo of Lindsey Perry and Carlie Wolken.

As newcomers, sophomores Michelle Bretl and Lindsey Nicholson may add a little depth to the starting line-up of Perry, Wolken, senior Mikayla Neves and juniors Kassia Fortier and Amy Ziegler.

Games to watch: Skyline at Redmond at 6:30 p.m., Jan. 9; Skyline at Issaquah at 6:30 p.m., Jan. 16; Skyline vs. Eastlake at Skyline at 6:30 p.m., Jan. 30. 

Skyline Wrestling

Skyline’s wrestling crew is looking for some strength at its 215-pound and heavyweight spots in the 2008-2009 season. 

Coming off a 5-8 overall performance last year, head coach Gus Kiss said the team has plenty of depth from the 103- to 189-pound class to contend in the new KingCo 4A surroundings after being bumped up from 3A last year. 

The Spartans grapplers, who have four state tournament participants returning to the mats, saw an influx of freshman join the team this year. The 14 ninth-graders will follow the leadership of captains Tannor Steciw (state alternate 2007-2008) and Anthony DeMatteo (third place state 2007-2008, 171 pounds), as well as Nolan Richards (130 pounds) and the lone female wrestler Alexis Wilcher.

Wilcher took second place in the girls’ 145-pound match at last year’s Class 3A state tournament. 

Matches to watch: Dual meet tournament at 9 a.m., Dec. 13 at Skyline High School; Skyline at Eastlake at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 20; Skyline at Issaquah at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 28. 

Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or at chuber@isspress.com.

Members of the Eastlake High School robotics team reassemble part of their robot Nov. 19 at Eastlake. Photos by Christopher Huber 

It was pitch-dark outside and the school corridors were barely lit. No one but the custodians was left in the building. No one, that is, except for members of the Eastlake High School robotics club. They congregated in D122 and watched the Ball State-Central Michigan football game as they waited to start their work.

They came together Nov. 19, like always — Mondays and Fridays at 7 p.m. — not to watch football, but to work on a new robot, which some jokingly called Wall-E.

The club, which was started in 2004 by former student Tyler Evans, met to work out a few kinks in the 18-by-18-inch robot’s design and plan for an upcoming competition. They’re preparing it for the FIRST Tech Challenge Dec. 14 at Bellevue High School.This is the first year Eastlake 1294 (the number refers to the order in which they joined the competitions) has entered the late-fall competition, but Steve Evans, one of the club’s advisors, said entering early and often during the school year gets the students much needed real-world experience in engineering and mechanics.

“The big thing is getting the kids experience,” Evans said. “They’re going to have a whole competition season under their belts before even the January ones start.”

FIRST, which means For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, will host the events the team competes in this year.

For the upcoming event, approximately 24 teams from around Washington will descend on Bellevue High School with their kit robots for the state championship, Evans said. 

To do well at the competition, the robot must pick up as many hockey pucks as possible and drop them into various containers. 

It might sound simple, but the students spend nearly two hours each meeting redesigning the chassis, fine-tuning parts and measurements for the scoop and arm and programming commands to load into the central processor.  

Students said they enjoy the mechanical and technical problem solving aspects of building a robot. 

As he tweaked the robot’s arm, Senior Nick Meyers said the fun of it is “when you hit a wall and you have to think about it. The problem solving is just incredible.” 

Meyers, like many of the dozen regular members of the club, enjoys building things and designing the robots with computer programs. 

He also said this year is different — better — than last year because each project has more people involved. 

Last year the club had around six members, but more people means more input and ideas on the table. 

“It’s different because three people are on the same thing,” Meyers said. “Reflecting on it, it’s working a lot better.” 

The Tech Challenge in December is just the beginning for Eastlake 1294. Evans said they plan to enter a few more events, including the Microsoft Seattle Regional, March 26 at Key Arena. There they will compete against 50-60 teams from around the world.

Although it is expensive — some competitions cost $3,000 to enter and robots cost $1,000-$5,000 — the Eastlake Robotics Club receives much of its funding from outside companies like Boeing and Microsoft. The club also recently received a grant from the Lake Washington Schools Foundation. 

The club has high hopes for this season. Last year, they placed 7th overall in the Microsoft Seattle Regional, held in Tacoma. Evans said this year will be challenging, but competing in Bellevue is an important first step.

“The Seattle one will be tough this year because there will be 60 teams, but I think we’ll end up doing better than we did last year,” Evans said. “They’ll have their hands full.”

Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or at chuber@isspress.com.

Eastlake freshman Katie Kinnear (left) and Skyline junior Andie Taylor each won a state title in one of their respective events. Taylor broke her own state 200-yard IM record set at the district meet with a time of 1 minute 58.23 seconds. Kinnear surprised many when she won the 100-yard butterfly race in 54.73 seconds, earning All-American status.

Eastlake’s Kaitlin Saunders (Kate Miller) and Alex Truewin (Tommy Clifford) rehearse a scene in “The Cover of Life” Nov. 13 at Eastlake High School. Contributed

And you’ll only see one role played by a male.

The Eastlake Drama Club will be performing its fall play Nov. 20-22, starting each night at 7:30 p.m. and with a special matinee showing Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Eastlake High School theater.

“It’s a relevant play for right now,” said drama club advisor Silas Lindenstein. “There’s people in Sammamish going through kind of what people in the play are.”

Lindenstein, who is directing the play, said “The Cover of Life” is a good fit for the drama club because traditionally, many plays offer only one or two female leading roles.

“I decided to bring a play that I had already directed,” he said. “I thought it would be a good play for them to give a lot of opportunities for the girls there.”

Eastlake senior Kaitlin Saunders plays Kate Miller, a reporter who travels to the South to write a wartime story about the Clifford family.

“It’s a really great story about self-discovery and liberation,” Saunders said. “It’s a subject that appeals to everybody.”

“The Cover of Life” is set in the small town of Sterlington, La., in 1943. 

Kate, a journalist for Life Magazine, sets out for the South to write a story about life on the home front. 

She follows the Clifford family, whose three sons leave their wives at home to go to war. 

It’s a story of women struggling to find a sense of self-worth through humor, anger and frustration.

It’s comedic at first, then it turns serious about halfway through. But overall, it’s a good slice-of life play, Lindenstein said.

The club, which is separate from the school’s theater class, has about 30 regular members and meets every Tuesday after school. 

The seven cast members, along with close to 30 production crew members, have been rehearsing 16 hours per week since the beginning of October, said Jenni Nadler, who is club co-president and plays Tood in the play.

Saunders said people might learn something from the play.

“It’s like the idea that things can really take you by surprise,” Saunders said. “When you least expect it, the most valuable lesson could be right in front of you.”

Tickets will be available at the door and cost $8-$12. 

If You Go

What: “The Cover of Life”

When: 7:30 p.m. Nov 20, 21 and 22 and 2 p.m. Nov. 22

Where: Eastlake Performing Arts Center

Cost: $8-$12 tickets available at the door

Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or at chuber@isspress.com.