St. Joseph-Ogden grad lands AD job at Salt Fork

In 2011, Dustin Dees decided to further his education to obtain a Master’s in Education Administration from Eastern Illinois University. The move paid off last month when the 2004 St. Joseph-Ogden High School graduate assumed the role of Assistant Principal and Athletic Director at Catlin High School last month.

Before moving into his administrative role at the high school and as AD, Dees was a physical education teacher and coach at Tuscola High School.

"I felt like it would open the door for future opportunities to work with students, teachers, and coaches in an educational leaders role," he said. "I am grateful for all my experiences as a teacher and coach to this point. I owe a lot to some great communities and school systems such as Decatur, Monticello, Bismarck - Henning, and Tuscola. These places provided me with the experience I needed to pursue my dream of working in education administration."

He is grateful for the opportunities and the individuals who mentored him leading him to land his position at the Vermilion County school. He counts himself lucky to have been able to coach basketball, track & field, and cross country in several great towns, with some great coaches, and more importantly, with several programs that had great student-athletes.

"I owe a lot to great high school head coaches and athletic directors such as Coach Mike Stephens at Bismarck-Henning, Coach Matt Franks when he was at Tuscola, Coach Dave Beery at Monticello, Ryan Hornaday, Tuscola’s AD, and Randy Moss when he was the AD at Monticello," he pointed out. "Being around coaches and athletic directors like these helped me learn what great coaching and leadership look like on a daily basis."

Senior Dustin Dees celebrates a touchdown by running back Daniel Widick during SJO's Week 2 road playoff game against Carlinville. When asked what did he remember about the 2003 game he wrote: "I remember that game being a thriller! We were down early and made a huge comeback to win 19-14! If I remember correctly Carlinville had been ranked in the 4A polls that year and dropped down to 3A for the playoffs. They were really good that year and had a better seed than us. Answering the bell and winning that game was huge." The Spartans indeed defeated the Cavaliers, 19-14.

The most rewarding part of coaching for the former Spartan who played football and basketball at SJO, is watching kids improve.

"I feel like as a coach it’s always a personal goal each meeting with your team for each athlete to get better at something," he explained. "That may not always mean improvement in the sport you are coaching, the reward for me extends into witnessing athletes become better teammates, improving work ethic, and building strong character."

His fondest memories from high school was playing four years of Spartan football.

"There was always such a buzz around our football program. There was just something about the fall at SJO and high school football that gives me goosebumps thinking about it," he recounted. "When I reflect on those days I think about how lucky I was to learn from the great coaches I had like Dick Duval, Brad Allen, and Bob Glazier."

Off the gridiron, Dees said the quality of his education at SJO was invaluable.

"I also have great memories of having some of the best teachers," he add. "I always felt like we had extremely high quality teachers at SJO, many of who were also coaches, and that made going to school a lot of fun."

While at Tuscola, Dees helped obtain $5,000 matching grant with Tuscola CUSD #301 and the Tuscola Rotary to add "POLAR" heart rate tracking technology for the classroom. He also developed a dynamic physical education curriculum for kindergarten age students through the fourth grade and he led the way in the creation of a school wide wellness committee. He also created a school Health and Wellness Fundraiser called "Competing for Wellness".

Prior to taking teaching and coaching responsibilities at Tuscola High School, Dees spent two years in the Bismarck-Henning school district where he coached junior high basketball and track. He also developed a junior high "Student learning outcomes" for physical education program and built district approved Student Growth Assessment program.

Outsiders might look at his job as athletic director and assume that scheduling games and managing travel for teams under his umbrella might be one of the biggest challenges he will face in the new job, especially as the Vermilion Valley Conference adds three new programs after the break up of the Sangamon Valley Conference at the end of the coming school year. Dees said navigating the uncertainties as well as maintaining a safe athletic environment during the Coronavirus pandemic might be tougher.

"Scheduling with the new VVC should go pretty smoothly since the conference AD’s work well together," he said. "The challenge I see for next year will be accommodating and changing some of the things that we do for COVID-19."

SJO grad and spiritual runner Jolee Paden, appointed director of operations post

Jolee Paden, who graduated from St. Joseph-Ogden High School in 2012, recently accepted a new role that will take her to the other side of the planet. Her new title and role as Director of Operations for Southeast Asia FCA will take her to Malaysia in a leadership role that offers an extraordinary opportunity to experience other cultures and promote the Christian organization's mission of leading "every coach and athlete into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His church."

She wrote on Facebook:

This wasn't in my "plan," but what good thing ever is? It is hard to imagine leaving my DC fam for now, but it is clear to me that God is moving me into this new opportunity. I would love to share more with you if you want to hear it!

Of course, we had to spill the beans on this SJO grad's amazing journey.

In Malaysia, she will be working with the Vice President of the Southeast Asia to pioneer and strategize for sports ministry across the 11 countries of this region for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

"Much of my role will include recruiting, hiring, training and mobilizing staff in their countries," she said via an email interview. Her territory covers Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. "I will be doing a lot of traveling across Southeast Asia and frequently coming back to the States. In many ways, I will create a bridge between these two places."

While at SJO, Paden ran both cross country and track for the Spartan program. Her best time in the two-mile distance was 12:02 and she cruised the three-mile course to a career best 18:49.

She said the lessons along with her relationship with her teachers and coaches in high school help paved the way for her to enjoy an exciting career. Many of her teachers were special but one stood out in the conversation.

"The feedback from Ms. (Susan) Pensinger in my English and Journalism classes challenged and encouraged me," Paden said, who later wrote and published her first book while a sophomore at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. "We still keep in touch today with letters here and there."

Then, there was running Coach John McDannald.

"(He) invested in me as first a person before the athlete," she said. "In FCA, we train on 3-Dimensional Coaching. Coach McD was training me to be a 3D Coach before I even knew what that meant.

He used running as a tool for learning about our ourselves and life."

After volunteering at the Champaign-Urbana FCA Power Camp over the summer, she helped launched FCA at SJO her junior year.

Paden is glad she grew up in the tight-knit community of runners and friends in St. Joseph. "I'm grateful to have grown up there and continue to have those roots to always go back to in places and people," she says. "My community in SJO continues to be a vibrant source of support for me -- relationally, prayerfully and financially."

Jolee Paden runs the course at the 2011 Cow Chip Classic. Helping the Spartan girls win this year's team title, the senior distance specialist ran the three-mile course in 20:04 finishing in second place in the Number 2 runner race. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

Sometime later this year near the later part of 2020, Paden, who graduated from college back in 2016 with a dual degree in Business Administration and Recreation Leadership and Sport Promotion, will move to her new home in Malaysia. With a population close to 30 million, the country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. Fifty percent of the population are Malay, with a large number of Chinese, Indians, and indigenous peoples, who are the minorities. Islam is the country's established religion, but the constitution there does grant the freedom of religion to non-Muslims.

"I will be working with the Vice President of the Southeast Asia to pioneer and strategize for sports ministry across the 11 countries of this region," Paden said. "Much of my role will include recruiting, hiring, training and mobilizing staff in their countries. I will be doing a lot of traveling across Southeast Asia and frequently coming back to the States. In many ways, I will create a bridge between these two places."

To hit the ground running, Paden said she has regular ZOOM meetings with her new team in Southeast Asia. She is looking forward to meeting everyone in person.

"I am both nervous and excited to be in a completely new environment and culture," she said. "You learn new things about yourself in new places, and I believe this will be no different. Also, I have heard the food is amazing."

She her tenure with FCA at George Washington University in January of 2018. Almost 20 months later she transitioned into the Collegiate Director role where she was responsible for building and maintaining relationships across the eight universities in the Washington, DC, area.

"During my time, we launched a new FCA student ministry at GW. The students now meet weekly in a large group and small group Bible studies based on sports team. I volunteered as an Assistant Coach with GW cross country and track team," she said. "Before the season ended this last spring semester, I took on a Character Coach role for the Howard University softball team."

Jolee Paden runs to a 14th place finish at the 2011 Spartan Classic. Paden crossed the finish line at 11:48.0. Host St Joseph-Ogden finished third in the overall team standings with 164 points. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

With her promotion and shifting focus on her new roll in an office over 9,200 miles from St. Joseph, a new George Washington FCA staff representative has taken over her responsibilities and now oversees the George Washington chapter working with a group of helpful local volunteers.

After high school, Paden's running career blossomed. As a collegiate runner Paden competed in both cross country and track & field. She earned All-ODAC Second Team recognition in three consecutive cross country seasons from 2013 to 2015. She was also named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic Cross Country Team in 2014 and was honored as Royals Athlete of the Week that year.

It was during that time she penned her first book, Spiritual Runner: A Runner After God's Own Heart and self-published it in July 2014. She even created a website to promote the book.

"I just finished my sophomore year of college," she stated. She explained how the idea started much earlier while she was in high school. "But, I did most of my writing during my spring 2014 semester abroad in the Middle East.

Rather than going through an extensive publishing process, I decided to self-publish. It was more about the words being written than any publicity or attention it would get."

2014 SJO graduate Logan DeWeese promoted while working on MBA

Logan DeWeese, a 2014 graduate from St. Joseph-Ogden High School, was recently promoted to Inventory Specialist for College of Engineering at the University of Illinois.

His new duties includes completing property accounting and business-related tasks for the college, inventory processing for required reporting, maintaining updates as well as revising inventory and equipment records.

Concurrently, DeWeese is also work on his MBA through an executive program through SIU-E. His area of concentration is business analytics and he will finish the program this August.

"I felt this masters degree would give me a wide range of business career opportunities in the business environment," he said. "Also data analytics are a growing industry that I have a strong interest in."

His program has a 15 credit hour limit per semester and is designed to accommodate working professionals. There is no mandatory meeting times.

Due to the U of I campus closing down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Deweese said he was only on campus with his new job for about two months before the shutdown.

"I have been working home for about two months now," he explained. "Certainly one challenge is getting to know all the staff, and the other would be remembering where all the buildings are."

After leaving SJO when he graduated, DeWeese attended Parkland College for two years. Earning an Associates degree in General Studies, he transferred to Eastern Illinois University to continues his studies picking up a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems.

For student who want to go to college but may not have the resources to for a four-year institution, he says they should consider starting with at two-year program.

"Attending a community college like Parkland or others community colleges in the area, allows you to save money and isn't costly to change your major as it would be at a four year university or private school," he explained. "I highly advise that high school graduates who don't have a scholarship, financial aid assistance, or grants not go straight into a four-year university depending on your financial circumstances."

He said his involvement in high school sports has paid dividends.

"Playing football in high school really installed in me how to operate and function in a team mentality which can be very crucial in a workplace environment. Making sacrifices and adjustments are all part of the process," DeWeese said. It has helped him "to make sound decisions in any situation."

Prior to his acceptance into the MBA program and taking a position at the University, DeWeese was an Inventory Controller and Delivery Coordinator at Menards in Champaign nearly six years.