Scanlons give back to athletic facilities
March 27, 2015
Not only is John Scanlon a coach at SAHS, he is also a business owner. He explained, “I sold a company last year, and that is how we came across the extra dollars. There were plenty of worthy causes, but we wanted to do something local and something we believed in. The teachers and staff are unrecognized of all the hard work they do, and Julie and I are fortunate we could honor them in this way.”
The proposed Stillwater Area High School Pony Activity Project (PAC) project will improve the locker rooms, weight rooms, gym space, football and soccer fields and track. Recently, the PAC project received a major boost to their funds from an extremely generous donation from the Scanlon family. Both John and Julie Scanlon had fathers who dedicated 50 years to teaching and coaching careers along with two sons, Kyle and Konnor, who graduated from Stillwater schools. The Scanlons felt that it was their time to aid the community.
The SAHS administartion and School Board saw a need to extend of all of these facilities, but much like the Scanlons, they saw how the facilities would impact community members.
“I would like to let people know that Julie and I believe strongly in public high school education and make a donation to Stillwater schools in honor of our dads, Jack Scanlon and EJ Frahm. Both were heavily involved in sports as coaches,” said John from a press release.
The Scanlons’ donation will substantially help with all of the facilities, and the student athletes are very appreciative. Gyms and locker rooms can often be found crowded with two to three sports in season at a given time. The PAC project will see that these athletes will be able to get ready and practice with ease. The winter weightlifting program also has troubles finding gym space with all of the wrestling and basketball teams fighting for their share, and they will have more room as well.
“I think that their donation will help all of the students and the athletes, especially in the gyms as they are sometimes overcrowded during the winter,” said junior Kenny Allen.
With spring sports coming into the picture, track, tennis and baseball often have to share the indoor gym space until snow is off the ground. These sports struggle with finding equal gym times and athletes often do not have a regular schedule until outdoor conditions permit. The donation will go a long way toward these new gym and track spaces along with the tennis courts.
“During the spring, it gets really annoying when all of the sports have to book the gyms at different times and your practice schedule doesn’t always stay at the same,” said junior Justin Boerner.
The PAC project also has potential to impact those on other teams around the high school such as the Ultimate Frisbee team. The ultimate team is forced to practice off campus due to an insufficient amount of gym and field space around the campus grounds.
“I would greatly appreciate having more field space at the high school because then we wouldn’t have to rent not so nice of places such as the Washington County Fair grounds,” said Allen.
During the spring of 2014, some athletes were forced to move locker rooms or get their locks cut as there was an inadequate amount of lockers. These athletes would not be able to be in the same locker room as their teammates before and after practices.
“Being a sophomore last year and being kicked out of the locker room for not having enough space made me mad, but I do think it’s fair that the seniors and juniors get priority. The extended locker and gym space will also be nice for the next athletes coming through the high school,” said Boerner.
The donation from the Scanlons will take care of a portion of the Pony Activity Center project funding, but that is not the point that they wished to make. The Scanlons wanted to show their appreciation towards the Stillwater schools, along with thanking the staff, teachers and coaches for their constant hard work and dedication to the programs.
Kyah LaBancz • Apr 2, 2015 at 10:11 am
Interesting story. Explains the situation very well with extensive background. You can tell that Braden spent time gathering information during the writing process.
Jake Simcik • Apr 2, 2015 at 2:12 am
I enjoyed that this article not only explains the PAC but also how the donation will affect it.
Mathias Hoefferle • Apr 1, 2015 at 9:38 pm
I thought that the interviews you got really enhanced your article, and that says a lot about the questions you must have been asking to receive such in-depth answers.
Ingrid Kollaja • Apr 1, 2015 at 12:04 pm
Minor issues with spelling but the well written story made up for that. Very good information on the facilities plan.
Emily Lodahl • Apr 1, 2015 at 12:07 am
I found a couple of spelling errors but that was a minor issue because the article was very well written otherwise. It totally explains the PAC program and the reasoning behind the Scanlan’s donating for the athletic facilities. It’s important that people see the athlete’s point of view on topics like locker space so that we can improve that in the near future with this donation. Good job!
Megan Friederichs • Mar 31, 2015 at 3:53 pm
This story really helps capture what the PAC program is and what it is planning on doing. The quotes help offer insight as to what it could help improve on and what need changes.
Emily Ness • Mar 31, 2015 at 1:36 pm
This is wonderful. Good job embedding quotes. Very neat story.
Marya Redmond • Mar 30, 2015 at 9:08 pm
Wow the article does an excellent job capturing the story about the money as well as the behind the scenes of where they got the money from. Good to see a photo of the one donor but would have preferred d a mug shot or even both donors with a big check.