David Claffey

Honorable mention male Scholar-Athlete
David Claffey
Grove City Christian
Grade-point avg.: 4.46
$1,000

Sports played: Soccer (4 years), cross country (1)

Academic highlights: National Merit Commendation; National Honor Society member; scored 32 on ACT

Athletic highlights: Second-team all-league in soccer and cross country

College choice: Georgia Institute of Technology (anticipated major: mechanical engineering)

Photo location: Brobst Park in Canal Winchester, near where I rehabilitated after I injured the posterior cruciate ligament in my knee

Home front: I live with my parents, Elizabeth and David, and two younger siblings, my 13-year-old sister, Eva, and my 15-year-old brother, Danny.

Favorite subject: Math. I took differential and integral calculus at Ohio State and absolutely loved it. The applications of calculus really interest me, especially optimization and Taylor series.

Least-favorite subject: History. While the events were engaging, I never connected with the dates or names we memorized.

Prized possession: Probably my snowboard. I just got into boarding two winters ago. My weightlifting coaches advised me against it due to a chronic knee injury, but I bought the board anyway and have fallen in love with testing my limits.

Favorite book: “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” By Douglas Adams. It’s a unique type of science fiction that engaged me comedically as well as intellectually. “It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.”

Favorite television show: Definitely “New Girl.” I’ve been told I strongly resemble one of the main characters, Nick Miller, and his quotes never fail to crack me up.

Favorite musician: Kenny G. The family and I once saw him in concert at the Ohio Theater, where he played a single note for five minutes on his soprano saxophone.

Essential app: Without Spotify, all of my three-hour drives to Lake Erie would be filled with silence, or worse, radio commercials.

Favorite home-cooked meal: Stuffed peppers, prepared by my mom every once in a while. One of the reasons it is my favorite is because my siblings don’t care too much for peppers, so I can eat as much as I want and the leftovers last a week.

My cooking specialty: When I cook, I usually flounder around making random decisions that often lead to spaghetti. I’d say unpredictability is my specialty.

Favorite restaurant: My favorite restaurant in Grove City is Piada, where I get the avocado with crispy chicken every time. Of all the restaurants I’ve been to, my favorite is probably somewhere with good sushi, such as Small City Taphouse in Sandusky.

Guilty pleasure: Every once in a while I treat myself to some 75% Dark Lindt Chocolate. If I buy a bar on Monday, I’ll be out of chocolate later on Monday.

Proudest sports moment: My first game back on the soccer field after weeks of recovery from a PCL tear. I had been working incredibly hard to get back in time for the district tournament, and I was absolutely giddy to be playing again. The shock and cheering from the stands were wild and everything about that moment meant so much to me.

Sport I’d like to try someday: I would like to try boxing or MMA. UFC is a big thing in my family. I even wear my Irish flag around my shoulders on Conor McGregor’s fight nights.

Story behind my uniform number: My dad’s number was No. 9 when he was a kid. He played baseball and football growing up, so when I started soccer as a kid, he was in the dark. But my dad worked really hard to understand the sport anyway and he’s been my biggest supporter, so I’ve always kept his No. 9.

Favorite athlete: For a while, my personal soccer-trainer was Wil Trapp’s old coach. Trapp being from Columbus, I have always felt really close to him even though I’ve never met him. It probably stems from rising up through similar connections, athletics and environment.

Inspiration: Elon Musk has been my inspiration for years. I keep up with all of the SpaceX launches and I’ve read several biographies about/by him. Elon has always represented a unique rise to success in my mind.

Dream job: After college, my dream is to work for SpaceX or a similar rising tech company. My end goal is to run my own contract-manufacturing firm.

Place I’d like to travel: I want to travel everywhere — and often. At the moment I would most like to visit Ireland. I’ve been working on my Irish accent during the quarantine and it needs some finishing touches before I go overseas.

Something most people don’t know about me: Even though I played piano for a while when I was really young, I absolutely cannot read music no matter how many times I’ve tried to learn. I just write all of the letter-notes into my sheet music!

Least-favorite household chore: Loading the dishwasher. I will put away clean dishes all day but something about yesterday’s ketchup getting on my hand just really never sits well.

Something I can’t get right no matter how hard I try: My golf swing. There are about 200 balls at the bottom of our pond. I have watched video after video and no matter how confident I am walking out with my clubs, the water still finds a way to be wherever my ball goes.

Words to leave by: “I am not convinced I know how to read, I’ve just memorized a lot of words.” — Nick Miller, from “New Girl”

By Ray Stein
rstein@dispatch.com