School District Update

CONGRATULATIONS to Badin High School seniors Mary Giffen and Jimmy Zettler, who were named National Merit Scholarship finalists in mid-February.

Being a National Merit Scholarship finalist is one of the most prestigious academic designations in the country. Giffen and Zettler scored in the top 1 percent of U.S. high school students who took the Preliminary Scholarship Aptitude Test (PSAT), which is the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, in the fall of their junior year.

Only 15,000 high school seniors are now eligible for the 7,250 scholarships—worth $30 million—that will be awarded in the spring by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Giffen and Zettler are tied for No. 1 in the Class of 2023 at Badin. It’s the first time that Badin has had two National Merit finalists in the same year since the 2015-16 school year.

Giffen is the daughter of Michael and Marie Giffen of Liberty Township and a graduate of Mother Teresa Catholic Elementary School. Zettler is the son of Jim and Edwina Zettler of Fairfield and a graduate of Sacred Heart School. While neither has selected a college as yet, they know the majors they are planning—Biology or Biochemistry for Giffen as a Pre-Med option; and Mechanical Engineering for Zettler with an MBA in the future. Among the potential schools under consideration are Dartmouth College, Purdue University, Saint Louis University, the University of Alabama, the University of Notre Dame and the University of South Carolina.

Badin head boys basketball coach

Pat Kreke announced his retirement effective at the end of the season. Kreke, a 1975 Badin High School graduate, spent four years on the Badin bench, including the last two years as head coach.

Kreke is a member of the Badin Athletic Hall of Fame and was the catcher on Badin’s first-ever team to reach a state championship game, the 1975 baseball team. He won 380 games during 30 years as the head boys’ basketball coach at Fenwick, guided Fenwick to the 1981 Class A state baseball title, and was an assistant on the Fenwick squad that captured the 1982 Class A state basketball crown.

A Xavier University graduate, Pat is also in the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame and the Ohio High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.

Eleven Badin student-athletes, seniors in the Class of 2023, signed to play college sports next season during a recognition ceremony on February 6. Caitlin Burger, the GCL Coed Division girls soccer Player of the Year and a second-team All-Ohio selection, will play Division I women’s college soccer at Wright State University.

Three All-Ohio football players signed: Jackson Martin, first team all-state and the GCL Defensive Player of the Year, will play Division I FCS football at the University of Dayton. Reese Anzalone will play at the University of Findlay and Kaden Starks at Georgetown (Ky.) College.

Five baseball players signed: infielders Diego DeCello to Marietta College and Caleb Jackson to Bluffton University; and three pitchers to junior college: Justin Hoevel and Aiden VanDeHatert to Lincoln Trail (Ill.) College, and Corbin Ausman to Frontier (Ill.) Community College.

Patrick Ray, who helped the boys volleyball program win the Ohio Division II state title in 2022, will play men’s volleyball at Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) University; and Erin Beeber (Sacred Heart) will play softball at Marietta College.

Junior Paige Harris earned a first place award in the painting category for her water color “Urban Renewal” at the annual “Tomorrow’s Artists Today” exhibition at the Middletown Arts Center. Harris was one of 23 Badin artists who had a total of 41 pieces of artwork juried into the event. Other winners included senior Olivia Blanton, who had second place and an honorable mention; junior Emmy Demmel, who also had a second place and an honorable mention; freshman Lexi Brecht, a third place award; and senior Eva Groh, an honorable mention.