Senior Spotlights with Anna Tranel, Konnor George & Nathan Maier

Anna Tranel

Clubs & Activities
Track and Field (4 years)
Maroon Platoon, Spanish Club

Hometown:
St. Joseph

Siblings:
Four siblings: one older brother, one younger sister, and two younger brothers.

Hobbies:
Running, writing with sidewalk chalk, and hanging out with friends

Favorite SJO memories:
She enjoyed going to all of the home football games and the powderpuff game before Homecoming during her senior year.

Favorite classes:
All of her math classes, U.S. History, Civics, and Advanced Biology.

Favorite teachers:
Mr. Risley and Mrs. Ford at St. Joseph Middle School and Mr. Marshall Schacht, Senor Zak Sutton, Ms. Kelly Steffen, and Mrs. Ashley Krisman at St. Joseph-Ogden High School.

College:
Parkland College or Augustana University, majoring actuary science

Advice to future SJO students:
Make the most of high school and enjoy it because you never know when it will end.


Konnor George

Clubs & Activities
FFA

Hometown:
St. Joseph

Siblings:
Four siblings: one older sister, two younger sisters, and one younger brother.

Hobbies:
His hobbies revolve around music. He really enjoys playing the guitar.

Favorite SJO memory:
Homecoming during his freshman year

Favorite classes:
World History and Geography with Mr. Kieffer, and U.S. History and Civics with Mr. Beckett.

Favorite teachers:
Mrs. Steele at St. Joseph Middle School and Mr. Jeff Kieffer, Mr. Shawn Skinner, Mr. William Billman, and Mrs. Alisyn Franzen at St. Joseph-Ogden High School.

Career Plans:
Plans to join the U.S. Army and possibly have a career in a law enforcement.

Advice to future SJO students:
Do homework and to stay on task.


Graduating from college with an undergraduate or advance degree? Tell us!

Nathan Maier

Clubs & Activities
Basketball (3 years)
Football (1 year)

Hometown:
St. Joseph

Siblings:
Two older brothers

Hobbies:
Reading books, working on his computer, practicing photography, filming, and hanging out with family.

Favorite SJO memories:
His positive times being a part of the boys’ basketball team as a manager during his junior and senior years. Nathan felt motivated to be a part of the basketball family, and he will always remember these moments.

Favorite classes:
Trigonometry with Mr. Kiel Duval and Spanish with Senor Zak Sutton.

Favorite teachers:
Mr. Jeff Kieffer, Senor Zak Sutton, and Mrs. Heather Lindenmeyer

College:
Parkland College, Business

Advice to future SJO students:
Always try to reach out if you need help because St. Joseph is such a welcoming community.




Text & photos provided by St. Joseph-Ogden High School.


A quick look back, who would have guessed?

Wow. How fast life can change.

Last August, if you had asked what I thought would be happening with all the St. Joseph-Ogden sports team by today, I would have predicted the baseball team would have just five losses and the softball team would have just notched their 20th win of the season.

Softball player Bailey Downing would have crushed the prep national home run record by now and looking to do more damage before SJO clawed their way into a Class 2A state semifinal game. Between calls and emails from college coaches from major programs from around the country, Atleigh Hamilton would be routinely jumping her winning state mark last spring. Pitcher Keegan McCarty would be carrying a 6-win, 1-loss pitching record and Drew Coursey would lead the team in RBIs for the Spartan baseball team.

I'd say head track coach Jason Retz would be writing a letter of apology and a check to help replace Unity's new synthetic rubber track after the speedy boys 4x200 spikes absolutely shread the center lane from a 22 second time better than last year's state qualifying mark.

The juggernaut Spartan athletic program and the dedicated athletes who proudly wear the uniforms would be firing on all cylinders across the board with postseason play just weeks away today. Who can argue that there wasn't a real good chance that there would be at least two new IHSA state trophies in an already crowded trophy case at the high school?

Then along came this doggone pandemic.

Before things get worse, while we wait for the Asian giant hornet invasion - they aren't threatening to humans or pets, and a perhaps a little tectonic plate action from the New Madrid Fault Line, let's look back to the first six Sentinel headlines that started off what looked like a seemingly normal 2019-2020 school year.


August 26, 2019
Our first story of the school year was a photo page featuring the football team's fall kickoff event where head coach Shawn Skinner said, "We don't have one or two leaders. We have a team of leaders right now." Click on the photo of the page to read the article.


August 28, 2019
Keeper Mason Behrens fended off 9 of 12 shots. SJO volleyball team looses to St. Teresa, who later took the 2A title months later. Click on the photo of the page to read the article.


August 28, 2019
University of Illinois freshmen Abigail Schlueter and Rylee Sjuts were two of 159 underclassmen designated Chancellor’s Scholars in the Campus Honors Program this fall. Click on the photo of the page to read the article or here.


August 30, 2019
Football dad's ready the field for the Spartans home football game. See who was involved by clicking on the photo of the page to read the article or follow the link here.


August 30, 2019
Emily Bigger was credited with 22 assists, nine digs and three kills leading the team to a 25-15 and 25-13 victory. Click on the photo to read more.


August 30, 2019
Two hundred and 27 minutes into the season, roughly a little more than two and half games, senior Zack Seeley finally nailed the soccer team's first goal of the season. Click on the photo to read the entire article.



2020 Senior Spotlight on Kenly Taylor

Kenly Taylor
On the right, Kenly celebrates senior night with her parents before the start of the Spartans' last home game of the season back on October 22, 2019. Above, Taylor celebrates a point for SJO during the team's state semifinal match against Breese Mater Dei at Redbird Arena. Below, the SJO senior poses for a photo with team's third-place trophy and her state volleyball medal. (Photos: PhotoNews/Clark Brooks)


Clubs & Activities
Volleyball (4 years)
Student Council, NHS, Spanish Club, Maroon Platoon, SADA, FCA

Hometown:
Ogden

Siblings:
An older sister; two brothers, one older and one younger

Hobbies:
Playing card games with friends, hanging out with family, and watching Netflix.

Favorite SJO memories:
Her greatest memories are playing hacky sack every Friday for Spanish Club during her senior year and the whole IHSA state volleyball tournament experience this past fall when the Spartans earned a 3rd place IHSA State trophy.

Favorite classes:
Physics with Mr. Robert Glazier and Spanish with Senor Zak Sutton.

Favorite teachers:
Mrs. Anderson at PVO as well as Mrs. Heather Lindenmeyer and Mr. Marshall Schacht at SJO.

College:
Parkland College, majoring in nursing

Academic goal:
Study abroad in Spain.

Advice to future SJO students:
Enjoy every moment and to not take anything for granted.



Text provided by St. Joseph-Ogden High School.


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