Lessons learned from Blackhawk Pride

Cole Young, Adrian Class of 2002, talks with R-III

staff about what Blackhawk Pride means to him.
(Picture courtesy of Adrian R-III)

ADRIAN BLACKHAWKS - WE ARE FAMILY

The Adrian R-III administration and staff kicked off the school year with “We Are Family” games and activities to boost Blackhawk Pride.  There were many positive, happy comments at the end of their first day back after summer break.  Today, November 27, the kids were out of school and the staff came together for more family time.

A guest with a family history of Blackhawk Pride that dates back more than 100 years, spoke to the staff.  Cole Young, Class of 2002, is an exceptional speaker and writer who shared details of his life that tie back to his days at Adrian R-III.  His mom, a beloved teacher in the Burris home and in many homes, is Kim (Gutshall) Young.  After 30 years of teaching in Adrian, Kim retired last year.  Young’s aunts, Kelly (Gutshall) Reichert and Kirsten (Gutshall) Collier, continue to bless the Blackhawks administratively and in the classroom.  From his great grandparents and their siblings to his cousin Kameran Collier, AHS freshman, and everyone in between, Blackhawk Pride runs deep in Young’s family.

Here is Young’s exceptional speech, just in short of its entirety:

“I graduated in the Class of 2002…so 15 years ago…kind of that amount of time when it doesn’t feel that long ago, but also then you realize 75% of the students in school weren’t born when I was in school.”  NOTE:  The AHS freshman class was not yet born when Young graduated!  “We were a fun class and one that got to experience a lot of fun things.  I’d like to think we helped shape the future of senior classes by getting to be the first one to go out-of-state on a senior trip.”

“I was very involved in a variety of things in school - editor of the newspaper (Drumbeats), President of NHS, Band, Choir, Show Choir, State Music, and a charter member of the short-lived Blackhawk Broadcasting Club. The weekly 30 minute show highlighting the happenings of the school is still the second highest rated radio show of all time on the Butler station behind Swap Shop.”

Note:  After graduation from AHS, Young went on to attend and graduate from Northwest Missouri State University.

“Right now I’m enjoying ‘funemployment,’ that sweet spot where one company is paying you not to work and another has already hired you.  I start a new job next week as a Sales Operation Analyst. Essentially my job is to make it easier for my new company to make money. I live in Raymore with my wife, who teaches 7th Grade Language Arts at Raymore-Peculiar, and a three year old.”

“So anyway… Blackhawk Pride. This weekend I was down at the state football championships on Saturday.  As I was standing on the sidelines at the football game, I listened to what Maryville’s coach was telling his players after they won the title.  It was a pretty good message and one that honestly I didn’t necessarily expect to hear:  ‘Don’t let this be the best day of your life…’  He went on to say, ‘Use this day and what’s happened this season as a building block rather than a culmination’.”  And as I was thinking more about that message this weekend, I thought you know that applies a lot to Blackhawk Pride as well.

“...there’s over 100 years of people (in my family) being part of this school community. But when I don’t have any direct ties to the school does my Blackhawk Pride end?  Absolutely not. I would say instead it’s probably more important when you aren’t in school.  Instead, what I want to talk about is how Blackhawk Pride has helped me since I’ve left Adrian. There’s a lot of different things you could talk about, but today I want to mention two of the skills that I think tie pretty closely to Blackhawk Pride - character and self confidence.”

“Now character is a word that I think is overused. But it’s probably the best word in this context I can think of. It’s one of those things where folks talk about being a man or woman of character.

And that’s all good and well when things are easy. When life is going according to plan.

It’s when your life gets thrown into a blender that character really matters and it really gets tested. So rewind back to my senior year, homecoming week. I think homecoming is something you either love or you hate. And for me, I enjoyed it. Obviously it’s a special thing at Adrian. Floats, the parade, the spirit stick.”

“My senior year we were working at our float location of choice, Mike Ferguson’s house. Homecoming was already weird because it was early that year. Week 3 of the season…2nd week of September.  Needless to say, the Tuesday of homecoming week, September 11, 2001 kind of put a damper on homecoming. I don’t know that it’s necessarily easy to feel a lot of Blackhawk Pride and Blackhawk Spirit when all that was going on.  That said, it was a situation when things got all shaken up and you had to figure out how to get through it. And with something like 9/11, you never really get through it, but you kind of galvanized yourself and say ok…it’s going to be ok. Let’s make the best of a bad situation and let’s move on.”

“Fast forward 16 years and about 6 weeks. I’m sitting in my office, going through a regular Monday. Something seemed a little off in the office, but no one could really tell for a little bit. A new hire comes by my office and we get introduced.  Next thing you know, I look up and it’s the big boss standing there. My boss’ boss. The managing director. Forty-five seconds later I’m getting the run down of the severance package, getting the rundown of benefits, your position along with 20 other folks are being eliminated, blah blah.  Just like my senior year you can sit there and let this awful experience ruin your week, your month, ruin your year.  In that situation it wasn’t something I had to summon back to, but instead it was instinct. I wasn’t sitting in that conference room thinking, “Cole, remember show your character,” but instead you have these baked in instincts you learn that you quickly harken back to. To me that was one of those skills that was packaged inside that vessel known as Blackhawk Pride.   The character part of Blackhawk Pride came through as you simply smile, shake their hands and head back to pack up your office.”

“So that’s the sad part, but let’s talk about one of the the positive parts of Blackhawk Pride.  I had a handful of teachers especially in high school that I felt like I connected with, one who is still on staff and was the leader of the aforementioned Blackhawk Broadcasting Club.  Now mind you, this wasn’t probably the same Matt Sears that many of you know. This was two kids and a pretty rocking goatee ago. Looking back, he was probably about my age.”

“Through working on the newspaper and sharing his own experience, Matt taught me that it was possible to go from a small school to work at a major daily newspaper. He instilled the confidence that I could do it. Without that confidence I’m not sure I would have had the nerve to go work on the college paper my freshman year.  Working there led to a full scholarship when I became editor and it got me the contacts with people at the Star, which led to getting a job there, which set me down my career path.  Matt helped teach me the self confidence and the can-do attitude part of Blackhawk Pride.”

“But kind of going back to that newspaper path, working at the Star for three years then doing some other things including still doing a lot of freelance high school writing, I’ve had the opportunity to go to a lot of football games, basketball games, wrestling tournaments. I think I’ve covered a state title in every sport except swimming and soccer.  And what I’ve had the opportunity when doing that is to see a lot of schools. I’ve had a chance to see them at their best. And fairly or unfairly for me, they all have to measure up to Adrian. Sure it’s probably romanticising the past, but I can probably only count one or two times when I’ve thought to myself, ‘Man, I wish I would have gone to school here’.  Whether you’ve never left, you’ve come back or you are new to the district, I think it’s important to hear, other places don’t do it quite like it’s done in Adrian.”

“There’s a group of guys I’ve become friends with partly through Twitter and partly because some of us live around Raymore that all went to Adrian and are a little older than me. It’s a group that includes:  doctors, professors, computers programmers, a superintendent, plus me, kind of the hanger on of the group.  And it’s fun to think, ‘Man, this school produced all these successful people, but more impressive than their careers is that they are really, really good people’.”

“And in closing, I think that’s the important thing when it comes to Blackhawk Pride and this kind of 360 degree educational experience.  From kindergarten all the way through senior level courses, these things can be ingrained and taught and talked about as Blackhawk Pride that hopefully makes you a good person.”

“It goes back to what that coach at Maryville was saying.  You run the same plays in practice over and over…you do the mental reps so that when the game comes along these things happen without thinking.  In a lot of ways 13 years at Adrian at least for me and thousands of other kids were practice. The game starts when you graduate.”

“Thank you guys for listening.”