Kandace Lee and Joshua Hitchcock of Durant High School have been selected as the Shamrock Bank Performing Arts and Impact Athlete Students of the month for November 2023.
Hitchcock, a senior, is a three-year starter of the varsity football team and a powerlifter.
He also served as a co-captain and played on special teams for the 2023 Lion football team whose 5-5 record was the best since 2016.
“Josh is the epitome of what a Durant Lion exemplifies,” DHS head football coach Todd Vargas said. “He knows his purpose and goes after it with relentless effort. He is a young man who has great integrity and the discipline to achieve whatever he sets his mind towards.”
“Josh is the ultimate team guy with an unmatched enthusiasm for his teammates and the program. Josh will excel in whatever he puts his heart and mind towards in the future.”
Joshua is involved. At DHS, he is the football representative on the Union Leadership Committee and has stepped out into community to serve on the Choctaw Youth Advisory Board, participated in the Toys for Tots fundraiser through Choctaw and has volunteered at area food banks. He is also a member of the Durant Church of Christ.
A 4.0 student, Hitchcock placed in Regional Curriculum in Chemistry and Algebra and participates in Honors and AP classes at DHS. He is also a member of the Oklahoma and National Honor Society, Champion of Character and the Superintendent’s Honor Roll.
Joshua has gotten a head start in his post-high school studies by taking classes at Southeastern in Durant. He has an eye on Finance as a course of study and is deciding between Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A & M as his college destination.
His parents are Kevin and Julie Hitchcock. He has three siblings Jonathan, Katelyn, and Kaylee.
Kandace Lee keeps quite busy in choir, (eight years), band (seven years) and musical theater (four)years.
The senior’s musical theater credits include roles “Cecile” in “Annie”, “Heavenly Voices”
in “Cinderella”, “Little Terk” in”Tarzan” and a part in the DHS 2023 production of “Seussical”.
She is a section leader in the “Pride of Durant Band” where she primarily plays the vibraphone which is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars.
She says the tone of the vibraphone makes it special. “If you just sit and listen the note moves so beautifully. It gives you a sense of peace and the world disappears for just a moment.”
Kandace offered special thanks to her teachers citing “their sternness and support” in leading her to achievements she never thought she could accomplish.
Active in church, she loves working with kids each Wednesday night.
Her future plans include studying film production at Southeastern or Oklahoma University.
Kandace’s parents are Tim and Larisa Lee. She has two sisters, Kayla and Kassidy.
Congratulations to Joshua Hitchcock and Kandace Lee selected as the Shamrock Bank Impact Athlete and Performing Arts Students of the Month for November 2023.
