Lauren Townsend Award

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Lauren's life, along with 12 others, was cut short in the 1999 school shooting.  In memory of Lauren, we have retired her number, "8", from our program uniforms, but we keep her spirit alive in our hearts. To commemorate all those lost in the tragedy, we display the number 8 surrounded by 13 stars on our uniforms, practice gear, and warm-ups.

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Each year, we are privileged to present the "Lauren Townsend Award" at our end-of-season banquet to one of our Varsity student-athletes. This award honors a student-athlete who exemplifies the qualities Lauren stood for: teamwork, dedication, a positive attitude, and making a meaningful impact both on and off the court.

 

The award is presented by Lauren's mother, Dawn Anna, who also supports us by attending many of our matches throughout the year.

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About Lauren 

Lauren was born and raised in Littleton, CO along with her three siblings, Kristin, Matt and Josh.  Her family was very involved in all kinds of sports so it seemed natural for her to be involved herself.  She faithfully attended all her siblings games but would be found more often with her head in a book rather than watching a game. Often she came up to them afterwards saying, “Good job!  Did you win?”  After watching so many games, it was only a matter of time before she started playing on her own.  Since her mother and sister were already involved in volleyball she also became involved at the high school level as well as playing for a competitive club.  Through volleyball she learned to be a leader, a team player, and a disciplined worker as well as knowledge and skill in the sport itself.  She played for three years on the varsity team (lettering two of those) and was named co-captain of the team her senior season as well as being selected  2nd Team All-Conference. 

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Lauren loved traveling. In the summer of 1998 she journeyed to Puerto Rico with her brother Josh, sister Kristin, and mom where brother Matt was researching.  Matt taught his siblings to scuba dive and Lauren discovered a new undersea world of animal life.  Before her murder, Lauren realized a lifetime dream by traveling to Europe over spring break.  She toured through Scotland and England for ten days with fellow students in her Advanced English class and sent back postcards filled with excited stories of her trip.

This was just one of the advanced placement classes Lauren had; she also took A.P. Biology and Calculus.  Even though she was involved in extra-curricular activities and had recently received two academic scholarships to Colorado State University, Lauren continued to strive for a perfect grade point average.  She graduated posthumously with a perfect 4.0 grade point and as a valedictorian.

 

Amongst all these achievements Lauren had a pure and simple soul and wanted to be the best person she could be to herself and the people she loved.  Her goal each day was to make someone laugh and make that person feel better.  She loved God. She loved people.

(excerpt above taken from: https://www.heavensflower.com/lauren.html)

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