In taking up juggling within the past year Corey Reese Jr. said, “it was a no-brainer for me.”
 
In so many ways.
 
In a sense, the reasoning behind it as much as the act itself sums up Reese in a nutshell.
 
A senior involved in everything he possibly he can be at Lebo High School, Reese has spent the past four years juggling a schedule jam-packed with activities. From playing four sports for the Wolves to participating in multiple clubs, Reese has his hands in nearly everything the Class 1A school has to offer.
 
Which is exactly how he intended his high school career to play out.
 
“I thought to myself my freshman year, I want to try everything,” Reese said. “I don’t want to get out of high school and be like, ‘I wish I’d tried this, or gotten into that club or organization.’ I wanted to try a little bit of everything. Personally, I decided my freshman year to do it all and take on as many challenges as I could.”
 
Reese, a recent recipient of one of the Kansas State High School Activities Association’s TrueBlue® Scholarships for the sport of baseball, is this week’s CapFed® True Blue ® Student of the Week.
 
Challenging himself also fits the mindset Reese adopted in trying to learn how to juggle. It’s something Reese applies to all his activities, many of which he had little to no background in before giving them a try.
 
His club involvement is a good example of that desire to step out of his comfort zone and explore new paths.
 
Already vice president of both Lebo’s National Honor Society and Student Council, Reese has spent his entire time in high school as a member of the school’s Future Business Leaders of America club, the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America Club and Future Farmers of America Club.
 
Each one had a particular appeal to it that drew Reese in.
 
“With FBLA, I’ve always loved numbers and mathematical equations and business is a great thing for that,” he said. “As I’ve been in FBLA over the years, I learned it’s about much more than that. It’s about making connections with people and being a people person, talking to them about what they need and want and what their desires are. It’s just so versatile and you cover everything. It’s not one set skill, you need multiple and I love that aspect of it.”
 
He's thrived in that club, qualifying for state three times, including advancing to the finals as part of a tandem with older brother Kyle in Sports and Entertainment Management where they got to present their pitch.
 
Reese called it his biggest club and said one of his favorite thing the club does is putting on the annual Easter Egg hunt for the youth of Lebo.
 
“I love setting the eggs out and getting to see the little kids run around and have a good time gathering the eggs,” he said. “That’s one of the best events we do for the community and I absolutely love it.”
 
His draw to FCCLA came from his strong commitment to family and he’s enjoyed plenty of success there. Reese has received Gold honors at regionals the past two years, but hasn’t been able to compete at state due to conflicts with his baseball commitments.
 
Reese has been a big part of the club’s SAFE (Seatbelts Are For Everybody) program and said he’s “gotten more out of the club that I had hoped.”
 
“It’s great to be a bigger part of something than ourselves,” he said. “That’s one of my major goals in life. It’s something I’m always striving for. I know I can always improve on it, but it’s something I work hard to do.”
 
Even with Lebo being a rural-based community, Reese didn’t have much of an agricultural background before joining FFA. The extent of his exposure came from his family living with his grandpa, Seraphin “Sonny” Wendling on his farm in Olpe when they moved to Lebo and hadn’t yet found a house.
 
“He worked his far up until his was 88,” Reese said of Wendling, who is now 94. “When we lived with him, we were helping out with the day-to-day stuff, working cattle, helping during hay season and other various things. It was great to get that insight and I wanted to keep that tool and keep developing so I joined it to learn more about that field.”
 
In joining FFA, Reese said he felt a little “out of it,” not having much knowledge about the various subjects and areas the club deals with. But at the same time, he relished being in that position.
 
“I like being out of my comfort zone,” he said. “It does make me feel like I’m getting better and better and learning new things. Going in, I knew absolutely nothing about it. Some of the things I know today, I had no clue about my freshman year. It’s made me a better person in general.”
 
The clubs complement a busy sports schedule Reese also keeps. He was a four-year starter for the Wolves’ eight-player football team, earning All-Lyon County League honors all four years and being named the league’s defensive player of the year as a senior.
 
He played basketball as a freshman and sophomore before giving it up as a junior to concentrate more of his top sports passion, baseball. A four-year starter for the co-op Lebo/Waverly team in baseball as well, Reese also is a member of the Natural Baseball Academy in Olathe.
 
And while he doubles up in the spring, also competing for Lebo’s track team in the sprints and pole vault where he’s a league champion and state qualifier the past two years, baseball is where Reese is home.
 
In particular, at home plate where he’s a catcher, following in Kyle’s footsteps.
 
“I’ve always loved baseball since a little kid,” said Reese, who has signed to play collegiately at Pratt Community College. “One of the main reasons, I had the opportunity to play up with Kyle. When I was in 8U, able to play up with 10U and did that until I was around 14. I got to enjoy a pretty big chunk where I got to play with my brother and those were some of the best experiences of my life, playing with him.”
 
Ironically, it was Kyle who first took up juggling, which prompted Corey to follow suit. The youngest of four sons to Corey Sr. and Janet Reese, anyone who knows Corey knows that emulating his siblings has long been a driving force in his life.
 
“Being the youngest brother, he saw what they were doing, how competitive they were and they really brought him along,” said Lebo football coach Brian Hadle, who coached three of the Reese boys – Corey, Kyle and Brian. “He always seemed like he was a couple grades older than he really was and that’s the influence of his older brothers had on him. They set the benchmark that grades and doing extra and doing the right thing was important. He had really good mentors and it happened to be his brothers.”
 
Corey said he’s somewhat of a mixture of all of his brothers. Corey called is oldest brother, Derek, “the brain-type guy. Very smart.” Then came Brian, who Corey said “was a big sports guys and was more about general stuff instead of one field that stood out to him. He’s got a bunch of general knowledge and kind of mix and matched everything.”
 
He dubbed Kyle, the “boisterous, more ornery one. He’s been a redhead his whole life and stood out and embraced it.”
 
“My three brothers showed me the ropes to almost everything I do today,” Corey said. “Every single one of them was in one club or another and it gave me great insight to what I do. Watching them play sports growing up, it showed me I wanted to be on a baseball diamond and on a football field. It just showed me my passions and did guide me. Without my brothers, I’d be a different person today.”
 
Whether it’s sports or clubs, Reese has emerged as a true leader at Lebo High School.
 
“He’s always positive and always pleasant to be around, and you just love people like that,” Hadley said. “I think other kids feed off of that. It’s not just sports, it’s everything he does in life. He’s a great role model for the younger kids coming up and he had good role models for him. And that’s what you want to see, people setting the standard here at Lebo that this is how we do things and that’s hard work and it’s paid off for a lot of things.”
 
“This is my first year at Lebo and Corey really stood out to me as someone who is willing to help you out with anything that you need,” said FLBA sponsor Christy Turner. “He takes on roles and is a really good leader and good kid. People see him step up and he’s always somebody you can look to, to be that role model to those younger kids who aren’t sure what they want to be involved in. He’ll trailblaze a path that ‘Hey this hasn’t been done before, but I’m willing to do that and be that example set for things going forward.
 
“I feel like he has a lot of goals and knows what he wants to do, but is great about giving back to his community.”
 
Turner saw it first-hand when she started an officiating class and Reese was one of the first to jump at the opportunity to become an official. He’s worked youth sports in and around Lebo and sees that as something he potentially is interested in doing in the future as well.
 
“I realized how much of a challenge it is and I wanted to take on that challenge,” he said.
 
He’s given so much more back to the Lebo community, including organizing canned food drives, doing maintenance at the school and local ball fields and announcing junior high and recreational football games. His biggest contribution, however, has come with his mother in running the summer food service program, which supplies lunches to needy youth in the community when school is not in session.
 
“My favorite thing is seeing a big family come in and see all the kids’ smiling faces getting food,” he said. “You know that you’re making a difference for them and if you weren’t there, it would be a completely different story for them. It takes some pressure off them and being able to provide that has been really satisfying for me.”
 
Reese had a big decision going into his senior year at Lebo. His father took the superintendent job for the Stafford school district in central Kansas, leaving Corey to decide if he was going to transfer to the school for his senior year or stay behind with his mother, who still works for the Lebo school district.
 
“It was probably the biggest decision I had to make myself,” Corey said. “My dad left it completely up to me, which made it difficult on me but also more enjoyable because I felt I had complete control over the situation. I feel like it will make me better at decision-making in the future.
 
“I love Lebo, the environment, the community and it was tough to decide to leave or stay. I had family in both places and I’d be closer to Kyle, who is in college, and my dad; or I’d be back in the town I’d grown up in and where I’d done all my sports and activities. It was a hard decision, but I love the decision I made.”
 
Baseball also played a factor in the decision. Stafford had been involved in a co-op with nearby Ellinwood until this school year when it was dropped. In order to stay in the sport he loved, Reese would have had to potentially attend a neighboring school like Pratt or Great Bend.
 
He chose to stay at Lebo and finish what he started.
 
“I really feel like I’ve done above and beyond what I wanted to do,” Reese said. “Freshman year, if you’d told me I’d be where I’m at today, there’s no way I’d be there. My schedule is booked, but I absolutely love it. Being a part of everything has been great. It’s given me so many opportunities, it’s amazing. It really does feel like I’ve been given every single tool necessary to strive and be successful in life. I’m very appreciative of it.”