Over 12,000 students have walked the halls at 64th and Dante during the course of Mount Carmel’s existence. Several have gone on to be professional athletes, entrepreneurs, and politicians.
None may have been quite like Kaleb McCluer.
The MC senior takes pride in his unique skills and involvement in the school community. He is a swimmer and water polo player, regarded as one of the best in the Catholic League. Outside of aquatics, he has taken up coding as a big hobby, even designing his own video game. He has honed his skills in the art of origami, submitting his work in hopes of getting a full ride to the University of Notre Dame.
This may be the most well-rounded student at Mount Carmel.
McCluer’s love for aquatics started with his dad.
“I always loved to be in the water, and he was always there with me,” McCluer said. “It’s so fun spending time with him in the pool, and he loves watching the water polo games [and swimming.]”
Kaleb may have never swam for MC if it was not for his dad dropping a pretty amazing fact on him as his son entered MC.
“I didn’t even know that he was a really good swimmer until freshman year when I was going for the basketball team,” he said. “[That’s] when he told me that he was an Olympic swimmer and I was like, maybe I should try swimming then.”
Kaleb always enjoyed the sport but had never done it on a team before high school.
“I actually didn’t even know how to swim [competitively] freshman year here,” he said. “I knew how to be in the water, but I never swam competitively.”
Swimming coach Matt McGuire instantly saw his potential.
“I didn’t have to do much in the beginning,” Coach McGuire said. “He just had that swimmer mentality, that swimmer physique. It was easy to work with him.”
He has very high hopes for McCluer this season.
“I’d like to see him qualify for the state meet this year,” he said. “He would be the first state qualifier in 15 or 20 years. He has a chance to win in two events.”
While he is a great swimmer, McCluer definitely enjoys water polo more. In fact, he has been playing with a semi-pro water polo team since last year.
“I was only 17, and you have to be 18 to play, but they’re really good,” McCluer said. “It was fun to practice and for them to let me join in.”
Now, he is a senior and one of the reasons the Caravan team is still going strong.
“He’s definitely a big factor in even having a water polo team,” senior player Quincy Poole said. “He’s definitely been recruiting and talking to the freshmen for the past couple of years. If it weren’t for Kaleb, none of us would have played water polo.”
Poole feels McCluer has had a huge impact on him.
“He is always very energetic,” he said. “Recently, I’ve spent most of my time in the water with Kaleb, so he’s pushing me to be better. When he tries other sports, he pushes me to be better as well, and I do it with him.”
While McCluer is known for his swimming, most people do not know about his coding skills.
This passion started through his love of video games with his brother.
“Me and my brother, we play a lot of video games,” he said. “That’s kind of how we connect with each other. After a while, we played all of the games we liked. That’s when I figured, why don’t I make something?”
He has been working on his latest computer game for over a year and a half now. By the time he finishes college, he wants to release it, but he has mastered different types of coding script through the process.
“I eventually picked up actual scripting languages,” he said. “I learned Python first, and I also know GD script. It’s engine-specific to an engine called Godot 4 for programming games.”
Coach McGuire is not only his coach, but was also his Video Media teacher, and admires his passion.
“It’s refreshing to have someone that is able to be super creative and very technical at the same time,” McGuire said. “I’ve had one or two kids [like him], but he was pretty advanced.”
McCluer hopes to use his coding experience for his future career.
“It’s definitely something that companies look at,” he said. “Especially with interviews [for programming], they’re more based on what you can do, and less based on where you got your education from.”
However, it does not end here. Most recently, he has been trying to focus on his art skills, taking Advanced Drawing and Painting with Mrs. Julie Chappetto (H). His skill set has prompted her to give him a more focused curriculum.
“I tried to add a little bit more things for him to do differently than other students,” Mrs. Chappetto said. “I’m gonna push him a little bit more.”
Her class does not even cover his strongest ability, origami, but she has tried her best to help him with that as well.
“Someone had brought me stacks of origami paper,” she said. “So, I gave them to him, and he just started folding it up, putting it together. It’s not my style of art, but it’s his thing, and he’s really good at it.”
In fact, he is currently submitting pictures of his origami and drawing work for a scholarship to Notre Dame.
“We took a couple of photos of some drawings,” she said. “They’re asking for some paintings, but they do understand that it’s high school and you may not have a ton of stuff. We’re just trying to gather as much as we can so that he’ll have something. But the majority of the photos are origami.”
She has faith in his chances for the scholarship.
“If he chooses to [study art], I think he would be successful,” she said. “He has definite skill. Not everyone could do it. He can. He has the skill, and he has the ability. Artists have to see three-dimensional, and he can do that.”
It is hard to believe that his artistic abilities are just a single aspect of his accomplishments. Freshman year, McCluer played four sports. This year, he tried out soccer and cross country and is the newest addition to the Scholastic Bowl team. He may be the most involved student at the school and truly embodies what it means to be a Man of Carmel.
“He’s super devoted to Mount Carmel,” Poole said. “He’s always trying to make a way for me to enjoy my experience. I really can’t imagine a Mount Carmel without Kaleb.”
