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Kalan Gardner Jr. has joined the ranks of a select group of Port Arthur Independent School District choir students who have achieved the top level of recognition.

Add to the mix the fact his father, Kalan Gardner Sr., achieved the same about 20 years prior.

Gardner Jr. has earned the University Interscholastic League Outstanding Performer recognition.

Since 1987 there have been nine PAISD students earning the distinctive honor, according to information from the district.

The Wilson Early College High School junior learned he had earned a 1 rating, meaning superior, after the competition. He didn’t learn he had earned the Outstanding Performer recognition until recently. He described it as shocking because it was on a Sunday right before church. His dad woke him up and told him he’d won the highest award but at first he didn’t believe him, he said.

“I thought he was just playing and then I got on Facebook and saw they (district) had made a post,” he said.

Gardner had chosen the song Ride On, King Jesus for the competition. The idea that his father sang the exact same song in the 2002-2003 school year, in French, didn’t persuade him to choose this particular song. Gardner Sr. is pastor at the historic First Sixth Street Baptist Church so he spent a lot of time singing and at the house of worship.

“I only chose it because you can’t repeat songs,” he said referring to the UIL rules of performing different songs as one progresses through the competition. “I thought, I’m going to do this song since I already kind of know the basics.”

Both father and son are humble in the idea they each won a coveted UIL choir recognition. For them it’s not that big of a deal. But, Gardner Sr. said, to music teachers and in the music world, it’s a big deal.

Thousands of students take part in the competition but only a handful are chosen for the distinction.

Obviously music has a special place to both Gardner Jr. and Sr.

“Music is very important. Sometimes it can be therapeutic, sometimes it can be inspirational,” Gardner Jr. said. “ I listen to music a lot. I don’t listen to all of the genres, but I do listen to music a lot.”

Gardner Sr. agreed.

“It’s been very instrumental to me as well. I grew up being a musician in church, singing, you know, that kind of thing, so it’s been a major part of my life as well,” Gardner Sr. said.

The high school junior is a well rounded student. As a student at WWECHS he is working on his associates degree while earning his high school diploma.

He now has the top UIL choir honor and is on the varsity Titan football team playing offensive left tackle.

After high school Gardner Jr. aspires to attend Thurgood Marshall School of Law and pursue a career as a lawyer.

Choir Director Adriana Hutcheson has spoken with Maestro Chelsea Tipton II of the Symphony of Southeast Texas about the Symphony’s holiday concert later this year. She has suggested for Gardner Jr. to be the male singer at the performance, she said.

Gardner Jr. will be recognized at next week’s PAISD School Board meeting.