Way to Go: Jake Soriano, Longwood H.S.

A Longwood High School junior's winning design of a snarling lion will be imprinted on a multiuse synthetic turf field to be installed at the Middle Island school this summer.

The artwork by Jake Soriano, 17, beat out 25 entries in the schoolwide vote.

He used colored pencils to create the winning illustration in green, yellow and black.

"To be honest, I wasn't even going to enter because I was busy doing other projects at the time," said Soriano, who credits art teacher Christine Lulenski for encouraging him to participate.

Of seeing his piece on the field, he said: "It's going to be absolutely amazing."

Soriano said he's been drawing since the age of 3 and always has had an "infatuation" with drawing animals.

He is particularly excited about the possibility of his three younger brothers, who all play football, playing on the logo when they get to high school.

Soriano's other involvements include an art group, titled JZTectonics, in which he and friend Zack Cook videotape themselves drawing, then speed up the tape, add music and post it on YouTube.