Northview’s lasting legacy
Each trophy, plaque, and award has a story. What do these stories mean for current Northview students?
Photo: Brooke Gavin
Brooke Gavin, Multimedia Editor & Claire Kim, Staff Writer, & Aleez Lakhani, Staff Writer
Northview is a school renowned for excellence. Excellence in academics, sports, arts, and clubs manifests in the empty walls that line each hallway. Students may have grown accustomed to the trophy cases sprinkled throughout the school, or may not have even noticed their existence, too busy with getting to class or talking to friends. These trophy cases hold importance and memories, and they are Northview's archive, with awards dating back to the school's opening in 2002.
On the wall outside of the main gym, passed by hundreds of students every day, there are pictures and plaques, the words above them reading "Northview Athletics Wall of Fame." Each plaque has a name, picture, and description of a past student and their accolades. These names are lost to time, with many Northview students simply not noticing their names on the wall. Among these names are the Auerbach brothers.
The Auerbach brothers are a true testament to the past successes of Northview Athletics. The oldest being Knox Auerbach, then Cade Auerbach, and the youngest, Cam Auerbach. All three brothers excelled in swim, participating in summer league, and trained at Dynamo Swim Club growing up. In high school, the trio each broke their fair share of school records, all three of them still holding at least one to this day. All three went on to swim at the Division One level at Alabama University.
It is not a surprise that Northview has also been successful in academics, especially in teams and clubs focused on intelligence and future careers. Of these teams, Northview's debate team is the one that frequently wins and has received awards dating back to the opening of Northview.
The debate team's successes are so plentiful that one might ask how their physical awards are organized without getting lost. Except, that is, for one incredibly special, but strange-looking, award, an award you might confuse with your morning cereal bowl. That is exactly what Ritu Ahuja, Northview's Principal Secretary and trophy case organizer, thought when she first discovered it.
"Maybe we can do our raffle tickets in this," Ahuja thought, but little did she know that the Debate Bowl is the most important trophy of the school year for the team. After discovering her mistake, she knew it was important to find the lost Debate Bowl and give it a rightful place in a trophy case.
"It means something to a lot of people, or those who have earned it for our school. It makes them proud." Ahuja said. After several months of tracking down the Northview Debate Team's prized possession, it returned to where it belonged, at the top of the trophy case, for all to see and respect.
From the Auerbach brothers' successes and records to the wins of past debate teams, each group was highly celebrated during each of their times at Northview, but now they are names on a wall. A student who swims at Northview may know of the Auerbachs but may not understand the legacy they left. The debate team may hear the tales from Mr. Cekanor, but can students learn anything from listening? The real question is - do the legacies left behind by so many past Northview students mean anything?
Northview teacher of 21 years, Mr. Dixon, says yes. Dixon is not only a teacher and coach at Northview, but he is also a part of the school's committee for the Hall of Fame for Athletics.
"Northview is kind of creating a legacy. Now we're almost in our twenty-fifth year. You know that's a quarter of a century, so that's pretty amazing," Dixon said.
Northview is decades younger than fellow high schools in Fulton County, so the legacy of Northview is found in the students who helped build it from the ground up. The first few swim teams and debate teams initiated the growth that has become what current Titans are now, and our reputation and opportunities are because of them.
When Northview students take a second to recognize their predecessors who cleared the path for current successes, we grow as a school and as a community. If students turn away from the past, choosing to only look forward, we end up stuck. Northview's sports teams, clubs, and publications can find pride and motivation in the past, building a legacy greater than anything Northview has seen.
