Leyden's Duwal stays busy, driven at everything he does

Seven hours.

That's how much sleep David Duwal shoots for each night.

"I try to get to bed as early as I can," Duwal said.

Seven hours of sleep leaves only 17 hours over the rest of the day for everything else, which hardly seems to be enough time for Duwal's lengthy to-do list.

Duwal, a 6-foot-4 forward for the Leyden boys basketball team who recently had one of his best games of the season when he scored 17 points in an overtime win over Morton, quite easily could be one of the busiest, and most driven teens in the Northwest suburbs.

He's a three-sport athlete, one of the top students in his class, he plays in the band, is a member of the science club, volunteers with his church, has a job - the list goes on and on.

It's no wonder Duwal is quite literally between Harvard and Yale right now. He has applied to both universities and will need to decide in March which one is best for him.

(By the way, Northwestern and Notre Dame are Duwal's backup schools.)

Until March, and perhaps for a few months beyond his big college decision, he'll remain on the overachieving hamster wheel that he has become accustomed to, and has essentially mastered.

"I've always done pretty much everything since middle school," Duwal said. "In middle school, I played every sport you could play. I was in clubs. I'm always interested in trying new things and some of the things I have gotten into, like band, I could never give up.

"In high school, it can be a little stressful doing a lot of things, but I love everything I do."

Duwal, who is 18 and lives in River Grove, starts his day long before the sun rises. He's at school by 7 a.m. for band, symphonic band. There is a distinction. Duwal is in four bands at school - symphonic, marching, studio jazz and regular jazz. And he's in the "praise band" at his church, where he also does volunteer work, plays roles in church Christmas productions and works as a kids camp counselor over the summers.

By the way, for those of you keeping count, that's five total bands for Duwal.

He plays multiple instruments, too - alto sax, piano and guitar, and recently he attended a state meet with Leyden's studio jazz band.

"I just love music," Duwal said. "I love to play the piano or the guitar when I get home because it helps me to relax. I love to play music when I do homework, too."

And, boy, does Duwal have homework.

Duwal's academic schedule is certainly that of Ivy League material.

He is taking three advanced placement classes (psychology, physics 2 and English literature) and two honors classes.

His grades? He has a 4.45 grade-point average and boasts all As.

In fact, through grade school, middle school, and high school, he has gotten less than an A only one time. Once.

"I got my first and only B last year in my first semester of AP Physics I. It was a really tough class," Duwal said. "But I got it to an A for the second semester."

Duwal, who has taken seven AP classes over his high school career, is also a good test taker. He rocked the SAT for a 1510 out of a possible 1600 points. That's the equivalent of a 33 on the ACT.

In the senior class on the East Leyden campus, Duwal ranks No. 7 out of about 400 students.

"In third grade, I actually started to not like school very much," Duwal said. "So my mom took me out of school and home-schooled me that year and I started to like learning again. My parents (Kenneth and Deborah) took me and my sister (Kendall, a junior at DePaul) to museums and we did fun things like art and we went to parks, and it made me like the idea of school again."

Duwal has tried to keep the fun in school, even in high school.

His day at Leyden is filled with more than just tough classes. He also is in the school's science club, the senior class club, which organizes social events for the senior class, and national honor society, which does volunteer projects around the school and community.

"I really love the science club, which is called Principia," Duwal said. "Right now, we are working on making an engine for a helicopter that will be self-propelled. It's pretty cool."

By the time the final bell at Leyden rings, most kids with a day like Duwal's would be ready to check out, crash on the couch at home. But he's just getting ready to head to practice.

Duwal is also rare in the sense that he is a three-sport varsity athlete.

He's the goalkeeper for the soccer team, and was brought up to varsity at the end of his freshman year. This fall, he was captain of the team and made the West Suburban all-conference team.

As a freshman, Duwal also earned the No. 1 singles slot on the varsity tennis team. He's been a captain for the Eagles since his sophomore year.

The last two years, Duwal has also been on the varsity basketball team, where he is more of a traditional, old-school post player.

"I make a lot of layups," Duwal said with a laugh. "Mostly, my job is to get in there and rebound."

Duwal says his best sport is probably soccer, but his favorite sport is whatever sport he's doing at the time. Spoken like a true jack-of-all-trades.

"I've actually seen David get better and better at basketball," Leyden boys basketball coach Bill Heisler said. "He's such a presence in the post for us and he is our best post defender. He's a quiet X-factor for us and this is only his second year of playing basketball."

Heisler said that he had been trying to get Duwal to go out for basketball since his freshman year.

"He was so busy with everything else he does that I don't think he thought he had time for basketball," Heisler said. "But I kept asking him and asking him and I think I finally wore him down by his junior year and he came out. Actually, I had him in my P.E. class and he had a 106 percent in the class but I told him that I was going to give him a B if he didn't come out.

"I was joking, obviously, but maybe that was what got him to come out, and I'm so glad that he did."

So is Duwal. As busy as he is, Duwal sees sports as a must in his life. Like his music, sports are somewhat a reprieve from the stress and hectic-ness of his life.

"I just enjoy sports so much," Duwal said. "It's a stress relief when I'm out on the court or in the field. I don't think about anything else, I'm just having fun playing and being with my friends."

Duwal is painfully aware that his time of playing competitive sports is nearing an end. He does not plan on trying to play any of his three sports at the collegiate level.

"I am really going to miss it," Duwal said. "But I'm sure academics in college will take the place of that, and maybe I will get to spend more time writing."

Writing is something Duwal does in his downtime, along with playing card games with his family.

"I think I'm going to try to get an internship this summer where I can do some writing," Duwal said. "I have loved all of my English classes. A big passion of mine is reading books and I love writing.

"My dream job is to be a best-selling author someday."

First book: "How to 'Duwal' it all."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

Follow Patricia on Twitter at: @babcockmcgraw