Jacobs' Arceneaux cooks up 1 of area's best careers

Lauren Arceneaux has an interest in chemistry. Recently, for a class project, she took an aluminum bat and electroplated it with brass.

Anyone who saw Arceneaux play softball for Jacobs the past 4 years might have that her bat was made of gold.

Not only did the Golden Eagles' senior have another outstanding season, along with co-captain Lizzie Andrews, she became the leader coach Jeremy Bauer expected her to become as a senior.

More Coverage Links The Fox Valley All-Area Team All-Area co-captain Kayla Oranger

"She leads by example," Bauer said. "She tells you what to do and then she goes out and shows you how to do it. She was a vocal leader for us and she's a very well-rounded person."

And how. Arceneaux is one of 13 valedictorians of the Jacobs senior class and has already taken so many AP classes she must feel she's in college already. That will come in the fall when she attends Loyola University in Chicago and plays for coach Yvette Healy's Ramblers on scholarship.

This spring at Jacobs, Arceneaux helped her team to a 27-4 record and an outright and undefeated Fox Valley Conference Valley Division championship. She hit an area-best .565 with 5 home runs and 28 RBI. She had a .913 slugging percentage, a .646 on-base percentage and only struck out 8 times in 113 plate appearances. She was also one of the best defensive shortstops to come through the area in some time.

For her efforts this season, Arceneaux has been selected an honorary co-captain of the 2008 Daily Herald All-Area team, an honor she shares with Burlington Central junior Kayla Oranger.

Arceneaux could not have been a more well-rounded player. In her younger years she pitched and played short for the Golden Eagles before being the rock of the infield this season.

"She just does what needs to be done," Bauer said. "Two years ago we needed her to pitch and she had 14 wins. She could have pitched this year if she wanted to but we wanted to build our infield around her.

"She gets what she deserves and she works hard for it. She'll be successful in whatever she chooses to do."

Arceneaux knew coming into this season she had to take the leadership role for a talented team that had high expectations.

"I was able to fill more of a leadership role this season and I like helping the younger girls and changing the pace of the game," said Arceneaux, who will play again this summer for the elite Midland Magic 18U travel team.

"I thought or seniors did a good job this year of not letting practices get lazy and I liked being able to have more of an authority role on the team."

Arceneaux impressed Healy and the Loyola coaches from the get-go and Healy readily accepted Arceneaux's verbal commitment prior to her junior season.

"She was such a pleasure to recruit," Healy said this week. "She's from a great family that's so well-grounded. We made her an offer really young but when I saw that her maturity matched her athleticism I knew it was time."

Healy saw the same thing in Arceneaux that Fox Valley area fans saw for four years.

"She plays with such intensity and she has such great leadership qualities, it's just phenomenal," Healy said. "I knew when I saw her the first time she was the real deal. She's very athletic, yet she's very humble and she wants to learn."

The smoothness with which Arceneaux plays is the best example of how refined her game is.

"She makes plays other kids can't make and she makes them look routine," Bauer said. "The way she dives for balls and gives everything she has is amazing."

Above all, Arceneaux has always been the consummate team player, doing whatever was asked of her to help her team.

"I picked up pitching when I was younger," she said. "You always try to get the more athletic kids to pitch and when our team needed it I did it to try and help us win. But when I knew I wasn't going to pitch in college, I was able to concentrate on one position."

In addition to being the captain and leader of a conference championship softball team, Arceneaux excelled in the classroom as well, and not by taking puff courses.

"I took the most stressful class load," she said. "I had AP chemistry, AP language and composition, calculus, human anatomy #8230; I just wanted to prepare myself for college academically as well as athletically. I took those courses to be a better student and to learn to manage my time better."

Arceneaux, who has yet to decider her college major, heaps much of the praise for her becoming a Division I softball player onto her parents, Richard and Lea.

"My dad is so good about working with me and analyzing everything that goes on on the field. He really knows how to manipulate the game and he's passed that on to me. My parents both work so hard and I admire them so much."

That admiration extends to the classroom as well.

"Mr, (Wade) Scharlau, my AP chemistry teacher, has been so great to me," Arceneaux said. "That's probably one of the hardest courses at Jacobs and he's been really flexible with me and softball."

For all the great seasons Arceneaux has had at Jacobs, her favorite memory of being a Golden Eagle isn't of a particular win or big hit or sparkling play. It's reserved for this season, when she finally got to play on the same high school team as her freshman sister Kara, who became one of Jacobs' main pitchers this season. And this example of Lauren and Kara on the field together makes it easy to see that little sister has learned humility from big sister.

"When my sister's pitching, she'll strike someone out and she won't want that batter to see her, but she's got a big smile on her face," Lauren said. "She'll turn around and look at me and I'll see that big smile and it's so great. It's been awesome being able to play with her this year."

Just like it's been awesome watching Lauren Arceneaux master her craft over the last 4 years.

Previous captains

1996 -- Elizabeth Waller (Elgin)

1997 -- Heather Wendt (Burlington Central)

1998 -- Heather Wendt (Burlington Central)

1999 -- Stacy Nagel (Larkin) and Jackie Brittain (St. Edward)

2000 -- Tami Potter (Larkin)

2001 -- Kim Dean (Larkin) and Kelli Gallas (Cary-Grove)

2002 -- Lauren Morstad (Larkin)

2003 -- Lindsey Hall (Larkin)

2004 -- Tracy Korth (Larkin) and Candice Warren (Burlington Central)

2005 -- Lissa Fehlman (St. Edward) and Erica Maisto (Burlington Central)

2006 -- Corinne Dennison (Bartlett) and Caitlin Herina (Cary-Grove)

2007 -- Christine Holthus (Burlington Central) and Sarah Waylock (Cary-Grove)