Identical triplets set to walk in Mountain Pointe grad ceremony

Steven is the cocky one.

Kris is the shy one.

Nick is the calm one.

And - come Thursday night, when the 2008 graduating class of Mountain Pointe High School walks across the stage at this year's commencement ceremony - it's good ol' mom who will undoubtedly be the proud one.

That's not to say Barbara Lounsbury isn't already proud of her three boys and their accomplishments; of their companionship to one another; even herself.

"Thursday will be pretty hard. Last year I was there and I didn't even have any of my kids graduating and I was already crying," she said. "I'm sure I'll be teary-eyed that night. Let's just hope we don't go into ‘ugly cry.'"

In some ways, the last 18 years have flown by for Lounsbury and the three men in her life - her identical triplet sons.

"But in other ways, being a single parent, it's been so hard," she notes. "But I'd like to think they're pretty good kids."

Lounsbury's boys would like to think so, too.

"We've done pretty well for ourselves," said Nick, one of the key components to the school's varsity boys volleyball team, crowned state champions a little more than a week ago. "But my mom has done a wonderful job with us, especially with us not having a dad to help us grow up and make smart decisions."

Added Steven: "I like having us the same age. Growing up with the same things at the same time helped us cope with stuff."

After a rocky beginning to her kids' upbringing - "There were some family problems at the beginning. I was discouraged from keeping my kids ... encouraged to give them up for adoption," Lounsbury says - she took the boys at a young age to live in Southern California, looking for a fresh start.

"You always have it in your head, when your family tells you those things, that you want to prove them wrong, and in some sense that's what happened."

It was then, at that early stage, Lounsbury says she made the conscious decision that relationships of the romantic kind probably weren't in the best interest of Nick, Kris and Steven.

"I didn't want to put them through that," she said. "When I say the 18 years has been about them, it's been about them."

When the boys hit seventh grade, Lounsbury decided to move back to Arizona - with the intent that they could live near their father, who lives in Ahwatukee Foothills, and maybe even forge a relationship with him.

It didn't exactly happen that way, even though their half-siblings, Eddy and Barbara Robles, both attended Mountain Pointe.

"But the boys do have a wonderful relationship with their brother and sister," she noted.

It's their relationships with each other that Lounsbury finds most fascinating on a day-to-day basis - like how the boys swear to each other and everyone they meet that they're nothing alike.

"I think they truly believe that because they so fiercely want their own identity," Lounsbury said. "Freshman and sophomore years they were taking a class and they had to do a self portrait. I named off qualities about (Nick), and he said, ‘But those are Kris and Steven's qualities.' And I said, ‘Yes, but those are yours too.'"

Lounsbury also remembers fondly the efforts to explain to coaches and referees that her son wasn't playing out of turn, but there were really three of them.

"Freshman and sophomore year they all played volleyball together. I remember having to go up to the referee to explain that there were three of them," she said, adding that the referee was clearly confused by the similar faces in front of him.

It was the same thing even at the youngest of ages.

"We could never miss a game," Lounsbury said. "We had too much of the team in our family."

Now, with high school graduation, college, and a potential empty house clearly in sight, Barbara, Nick, Kris and Steven Lounsbury are each well aware things are probably going to be a bit different in the upcoming months.

"I think it's going to be more weird for Kris," Nick said of his brother, a soccer goalie at Mountain Pointe who will attend Chaminade University in Hawaii on an athletic scholarship. "Me and Steven will potentially be in the same state.

"At least we'll have somewhere fun to visit."

Steven said he'll likely move into an apartment with some friends when he heads to South Mountain Community College in the fall to play soccer. Nick isn't sure yet what his exact future holds - staying in the Valley is an option, but playing volleyball for a community college in California is the current leader in the clubhouse.

"From going 17 years always having three of us, I don't know how it's going to feel, but it will be different," Steven said.

And what about mom - full house to empty nest, just like that?

"She's going to love it," Steven said. "Of course she'll miss us, but she's going to love having free space."

Added Barbara: "I'm looking forward to finding myself again. My life has obviously been fully centered on them."

And so just as the boys have grown up, so has mom.

"She deserves that much," Steven says. "For everything she's done for us."

See the rest of AFN's complete graduation coverage:

Graduation Night:

DV and MP weather the rain during graduation

Wet weather won't keep Mountain Pointe grads down

Desert Vista's '08 class record-breaking

Class Lists:

Mountain Pointe

Desert Vista

Features:

Identical triplets set to walk in Mountain Pointe grad ceremony

Boatload of DV grads to become midshipmen - or women

Sports:

Carman, Hood MP's scholar-athletes of the year

Shepard, Kline DV's scholar-athletes of the year

Ellenberger, Sangston Horizon Honors' student-athletes of the year