That helps explain why more than 4,000 people attended her wake in the Roncalli gym.
“She had a fighter’s personality,” Lauck says. “She went around nationally speaking about cancer awareness. She was also involved in the St. Baldrick’s Foundation [an effort in which people agree to shave their heads for donations that benefit research for a cure of childhood cancer]. A number of kids at Roncalli shaved their heads every year because of her.”
As he thought of Katie, Lauck also focused on some of the girls who knew her well—the members of the softball team.
‘We came together’
Since the beginning of the softball season in March, Lauck believed he had a state championship-caliber team. But the team just wasn’t playing like it or acting like it as the season moved deeper into May.
“There were some trust and chemistry issues with the team,” Lauck says. “It wasn’t a united team.”
Looking back now, everyone connected with the team says the change in attitude came with the news about Katie.
On the afternoon of the day that she died, the team was scheduled to play against a team from Whiteland High School. The players all told Lauck that they still wanted to play. When he met with them before the game, he noticed the depth of their shared sadness. He also noted that the air of invincibility that marks many teenagers had been shaken. As the players took the field that day, they all had written Katie’s initials—K.M.L.—on their upper right arms.
“After Katie passed away, everyone was so impacted,” says Kristen Thomas, a senior pitcher on the team. “It brought the team closer together. Everyone was so inspired by her efforts to fight off the cancer.”
Roncalli won the game against Whiteland, but it was a scene afterward that was more memorable.
“We came together at home plate with Whiteland’s team and offered a prayer for Katie, for her energy and her personality,” Lauck recalls. “All the fans were on the field, too. It was a touching moment [that] I’ll never forget and the players won’t ever forget.”
(Story continues below)
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In the days that followed, Lauck used the tragedy of Katie’s death to talk about the priorities and foundations of life—family, faith, relationships, trust, forgiveness and support for others. He had stressed those themes throughout the season. This time, the players embraced them.
The team also set a goal: “Win State for Kate!”
“We wanted to show her what she meant to us, the whole softball program and all of Roncalli,” Kristen says.
Nine straight wins later, the team made it to the state championship game.
‘They never forgot her’
Before the championship game against the team from Andrean High School in Merrillville, the Roncalli players hung Katie’s softball jersey in their dugout, just as they had before every game throughout the state tournament. They also once again displayed her initials on their upper right arms.