Former SJO baseball stars receive academic recognition at UIS

St. Joseph-Ogden alumni Colton Hale, from St. Joseph, and Mason Coon, from Ogden, are two of 675 students who earned Dean's List recognition for their work in the classroom at the University of Illinois in Springfield this past Spring semester.

Mason Coon takes a swing at a Murphysboro pitch during SJO's state semifinal game in 2016. Coon and Prairie Stars teammate Colton Hale were nominated to the Dean's List at UIS this semester. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

In order to qualify for the Dean’s List, the pair were required to take at least eight graded semester hours, maintained a grade-point average of at least 3.75 for the semester and did not receive an incomplete grade for any class they were enrolled during the semester.

Hale, who red-shirted the 2019 season, appeared in 18 games with one start in 2018. On the hill, he has collected an 8-1 ERA with one save. Opposing batters had .256 batting average against him.

In the 33-1/3 innings he hurled in his first season, the former Spartan struck out 42 batters. He earned his first NCAA postseason victory after allowing one run and two hits, and striking out three hitters for the Prairie Stars.

He appeared in four games this spring before the season was halted due to the Coronavirus.

Coon, who was named to the GLVC All-Academic team, played in 14 games, including two postseason games during his career at UIS.

Like Hale, he played in four contests for the Prairie Stars during the 2020 season. In his best outing, the 6-3, 190-pound southpaw recorded four strikeouts against Southern Indiana on March 8. Coon recorded a pair of singles and two doubles at bat during early season play.

34 area students make the Spring 2020 U of I Dean's List

Last week, the University of Illinois announced the students recognized outstanding academic achievement with the release of the Spring 2020 Dean's List. Thirty-four area students who studied at Illinois' flagship university were among the 13,183 earning recognition for their academic performance.

Students named to the UIUC Dean's List must complete coursework and grading to fall into the top 20% of a student’s college class or curriculum. Due to the complications from the Coronavirus pandemic, students who earned a spot on this semester's list took of 12 credit hours for a letter grade or received a final grade of "Pass" in classes that shifted to or was offered in a pass/fail format. Under normal circumstances, the University of Illinois requires students to have enrolled in a minimum of 14 credit hours. Classes taken pass/fail are not counted toward their academic standing for this award.

The list below does not include Dean's List honorees added after Jan. 27 or students who did not list their hometown as Royal, Ogden, Philo, Tolono, Sidney or St. Joseph with the University.

Benjamin Albrecht, Senior, St. Joseph / Kinesiology
Elanor Atkins, Freshman, Tolono / Animal Sciences
Cody Ayers, Senior, Ogden / Molecular and Cellular Biology
Sierra Benson, Senior, Tolono / New Media
Kathryn Bigger, Sophomore, St. Joseph / Elementary Education
Emily Bluhm, Sophomore, St. Joseph / Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Nicholas Cagle, Sophomore, Ogden / Economics
Max Daly, Senior, Sidney / Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Dawson Dodds, Senior, Tolono / Finance
Carson Florey, Junior, St. Joseph / Linguistics
Lauren Gherna, Senior, St. Joseph / English
Jocelyn Harmon, Senior, Tolono / Supply Chain Management
Evan Hawkins, Junior, St. Joseph / Advertising
Makenzie Heyen, Junior, Sidney / Graphic Design
Mason Housenga, Junior, St. Joseph / Physics
Ian Hulette, Senior, St. Joseph / Human Development and Family Studies
Riley Knott, Junior, St. Joseph / Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications
Kristen Kurtz, Junior, Ogden / Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Mark Maddock, Junior, St. Joseph / Political Science
Robert Malmberg, Senior, Tolono / Philosophy
Camryn McKee, Sophomore, St. Joseph / Political Science
Mira McLain, Senior, St. Joseph / Integrative Biology
Abigayle Mizer, Sophomore, Ogden / Political Science
Adalyn Parke, Junior, St. Joseph / Psychology
Keegan Payne, Senior, Tolono / Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
Allison Place, Junior, St. Joseph / Crop Sciences
Corynne Roberts, Junior, Ogden / Materials Science and Engineering
Abigail Schlueter, Sophomore, St. Joseph / Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications
Arthur Schmidt, Junior, Tolono / Technical Systems Management
Rylee Sjuts, Sophomore, St. Joseph / Undeclared
Benjamin Snodgrass, Junior, Tolono / Kinesiology
Ashlee Walters, Senior, Tolono / English
Israel Wells, Junior, Sidney / Kinesiology
Madisyn Welsh, Junior, St. Joseph / Social Work

Neither the post office or Congress wants to deliver

By Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

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Some of America's problems can be fixed easily. One of them, voting by mail in the November election, should not be one of them for Americans.

I suggest the polls remain open for at least two days. Every state should open their polls from 6am until 8pm. Some states already have later evening hours like California where residents may vote until 8 PM and in New York where voters can vote as late as 9pm.

Some states allow you to show up at the courthouse and vote early. It should be easy to vote on one of the voting machines like always if you aren't available to vote on November third.

Indiana will allow voters to come in as early as October sixth to cast their ballot. It's called "Absentee in-person voting". This would be a good idea for every state. You will never have more than one or two people in front of you when you vote early. Social distancing occurs, you pick the day and you know for sure your vote has been cast.

The stage for a fiasco is set for any kind of mail-in ballots this year.

It's a big issue. Some people want it and others don't. This is not the year to try it out. People are hollering social distancing and Covid-19. Yet, these same people are walking through Walmart without a mask.

One idea for handling the election day voting is to let Chick-fil-a handle the process.

I've never seen anyone take the orders of fifty cars and have all their food to them in ten minutes like they do at our local Chick-fil-a. Every time I go there, I think, "Wow, this being closed on Sunday is just killing them." I say that as a joke, of course, as their business is better and greater than ever.

The United States post office has timed their demands for money at the right time. They've declared they can't guarantee delivery of mail-in ballots on time because of lack of funds.

Can they ever really guarantee delivery? I mail stuff out priority mail occasionally and sometimes it shows up ten days down the road. The promised delivery time is sometimes much shorter than actual delivery. I would never depend on my vote making it to the courthouse via mail. Oregon uses mail entirely for voting. Washington state has a lot of mail-in votes.

I'm sympathetic with the needs of the post office. I think they should eliminate delivery and close the post offices on Saturday. This should save some money.

Go ahead and raise all the postage costs five percent. Many Americans pay their bills online. Christmas cards are going out online for many.

Oh, and someone needs to make sure Amazon is paying a fair price for delivery of their goods. Free delivery of Amazon products is not really free. Someone is paying the cost.

For seniors over 70 on minimal incomes, give them some free stamps very month to mail their bills. They're already hurting enough.

Some of America's problems can be fixed. Our greatest problem is fixing Congress. They are the greatest obstacle in solving most of our problems.

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Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization.

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This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of PhotoNews Media. We welcome comments and views from our readers.

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