Vol. 36, No. 44
$1.00 Wednesday, April 5, 2017 skiatookjournal.com
Roads project moving forward | 2
Taylor Anderson takes first in Pryor | 5
Anatomy and physiology students visit OSU |8
Denton Wolf named Sperry Teacher of the Year By Brent Core Director of Instruction Sperry Public Schools
Mark Epps and assistant SUBMITTED
Mark Epps wins first bass fishing qualifier By Lindsey Renuard News Editor
The Skiatook Lake Angler’s held their first Bass Tournament qualifier of the season March 25. This tournament was the first of six events plus a championship. Sponsored by Bill’s Marine, the tournament is for two person teams fishing for their top five largest bass of the day. All tournaments are on Skiatook Lake. Mark Epps won first place with 23.57 pounds of bass. His team’s largest bass was 8.9 pounds. In second place were Robert and Cooper Park with a total weight of 23 pounds. The Coopers also caught the largest bass of the qualifier at 9.13 pounds. Jeremy Bersche and Todd Perkins placed third with a total weight of 19.63 pounds. “The tournament is 100 percent payback, meaning all money paid in gets paid back out to the winners,” said TJ Martin of Bill’s Marine. “This is a fun, family friendly tournament that has been around for a very long time.” Membership fees to the Skiatook Lake Anglers are used to pay for equipment and staff for the tournaments. Legend Boats is giving a bonus of $500.00 to the highest placing Legend owner who bought a Legend new from Bill’s Marine. It can be any year as long as the boat was bought new from Bill’s Marine. “It doesn’t matter if you end up in 50th place. If you are the highest placing qualifying Legend owner, you win,” said Martin. TJ Martin was the $500 winner during this qualifying tournament. The next tournament in the series will be on April 29. Follow me on Twitter @SkiatookJournal E-mail lindsey.renuard @skiatookjournal.com
Robert and Cooper Park SUBMITTED
The halls of Sperry High School have been familiar to 2017 Sperry Public Schools District Teacher of the Year Denton Wolf for far longer than the four years he has been a teacher there; he walked these same halls as a high school student, and was taught by some of the same teachers he now works with as a colleague. Mr. Wolf was the Salutatorian of his graduating class Wolf at Sperry High School in 2008. He attended the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri on a baseball scholarship, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2013 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mathematics. After graduating college, Wolf returned to Sperry High School to begin his teaching career in the fall of 2013, and since then keeps a busy school year as he assists in coaching football in the fall and baseball in the spring, and teaches Algebra II, trigonometry, and pre-calculus all day throughout the school year. “I’m not surprised that Mr. Wolf has been given this honor,” Sperry High School Principal Randy Shaw said. “Students find him approachable; he tries to be available for them and does what it takes for them to learn the material. It is easy to see he loves teaching and wants his students to share his appreciation of math. As a member of this faculty, he is dependable, one of my goto teachers when I need something done.” Mr. Wolf is known by students as someone who “has a great personality, and makes us feel important.” One student noted that “even though what he’s teaching is difficult to learn sometimes, he makes it interesting so we want to learn it.” Students know about Mr. Wolf’s impact in the classroom long before they are ready for any of his classes themselves, and they realize the positive effect it can have on their future. “I can’t wait to get in his class,” one sophomore student said. “I know if I do well in his class, I’ll be ready for my college math.” “I have always been proud of the quality of teachers at Sperry, and the those chosen as Teacher of the Year generally illustrate the highest levels of that quality,” Sperry Superintendent Dr. Brian Beagles said, “but it truly speaks volumes when teachers who have taught for two or more decades select a colleague for this honor that they themselves once had as a student.” “I knew Mr. Wolf when he was a student here,” Sperry School Board President Jeff Carter said, “and followed his progress through his college years. I believe we are fortunate that someone of his caliber chose to return to teach the next generation of our community.”
In this issue News............................ 2, 11-12 Community............................ 3 Viewpoints.............................4 Sports.................................. 5-6 Faith...................................... 10 Education............................7-9 S K I AT O O K J O U R N A L 13-14 Outdoors......................... SkiatookJournal.com
SKIATOOKJOURNAL.COM Jeremy Bersche and Todd Perkins SUBMITTED
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