Athletes of the Year
Male: Aaron Stout
The honor caught Aaron Stout off guard.
No, not being named The Examiner’s Oak Grove Male Athlete of the Year – although he did admit that he was a bit surprised to receive his most recent award.
The award that stunned Stout was being named the first-ever winner of the Four-Year, Three-Sport Award, which was introduced this year by activities director Jerry Girdner.
Stout earned four varsity letters in track, two in soccer (the school has only had a boys soccer team the past two years) and two in basketball. He also earned two junior varsity letters in basketball and football.
“At a school, the size of Oak Grove, the success of our teams depends on the number of student-athletes we have come out for each sport,” Girdner said. “We wanted to come up with a way to honor a student-athlete who had participated in three sports for four years – and Adam was the first name we placed on the plaque that will hang in the school.
“We want our freshmen to see that plaque. It might have an impact on them, hoping that one day their name might be there next to Aaron’s.”
Stout was all-conference and all-district in soccer his senior year and a state qualifier in track.
“When I found out I’d won that Four-Year, Three-Sport Award, I was really surprised,” Stout said. “I didn’t even know we had an award like that. Then I found out it was the first year it was given out.
“It’s really an honor to be the first person to win that award. I’m proud of that.”
When asked about being the Oak Grove High School Male Athlete of the Year, he added, “That means a lot to me. To be honored by The Examiner is special. I just have some mixed emotions right now because I’m really proud and honored to win these awards, but it also means my high school career at Oak Grove is over, and I’m going to miss high school.
“Someone asked me the other day if I was happy that I had graduated, and I told them I was happy to graduate but I was sad to leave the high school. It’s like leaving your family. I’ve never seen a school where the seniors were so close to all the underclassmen.
“We knew their names, we hung out with them – like I said, it was like a family.”
Stout played defender for the Oak Grove soccer team, was a guard on the basketball team and ran the 400 meters and was part of the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 relay teams for the track and field squad.
“I liked to stay busy,” he said when asked about going from one sport to another, to another throughout the year. “My favorite sport was soccer. I started playing soccer when I was 4 years old.
“You know, we just had the soccer team at the high school the past two years, so I never even thought I would get the chance to play at the high school level.
“When I heard we were getting soccer, it was one of the happiest days of my life.”
And his high school career will be well documented and preserved, thanks to his mother.
“My mom is a scrapbooking machine,” he said, chuckling. “She has everything I ever did in a scrapbook.”
Let’s hope she has a few more pages, for this most recent honor.
“She will,” he said. “Believe me, she will.”
Female: Taylor Vickers
When Taylor Vickers was in fifth grade, she huddled with her mom and made a list of goals for that special day when she would become a member of the Oak Grove High School basketball team.
“I remember making that list like it was yesterday,” said Vickers, The Examiner’s Oak Grove High School Female Athlete of the Year and Scholar Athlete of the Year. “The first goal was to start on varsity as a freshman.
“The second goal was to make all conference – and I made all-conference honorable mention. No. 3 was to score 1,000 points for my career and the fourth was to get out of the first round of district – which we did.
“That was one of the greatest nights of my life. I mean it, it really was.”
Vickers scored 13 points as the Oak Grove girls eliminated Warrensburg with 37-26 win.
The Panthers lost their next game to top-seeded Pleasant Hill, but the girls finished with a 9-17 record – a far cry from that 2-21 mark she suffered through as a junior.
“People ask me about playing basketball at Oak Grove,” Vickers said, “and I tell them that I would have liked to have won more games – you play the game to win – but I wouldn’t trade my experiences at Oak Grove for anything.
“High school can’t be all about wins and losses. Our community support and student support was amazing. People in Oak Grove love the Panthers. They like to watch a winner, but they also enjoy watching us compete and watching us work hard.
“We worked hard – real hard. And it might not have always resulted in a win, but it was never for a lack of effort.”
Vickers was an easy choice to claim the Oak Grove honor, as she also starred on the girls volleyball team as an academic all-state choice. She lettered all four years in basketball, three in volleyball and two in track and field.
“She’s just a warrior,” former Oak Grove coach Aaron Neeser said of Vickers. “She works so hard, in practice and in the games, and she really inspires her teammates.”
While Vickers recalls writing that list of goals, she also has an earlier recollection about her desire to be a part of the Oak Grove sports scene.
“When I was 5 or 6, we’d go to a clinic at a gym north of Oak Grove and the girls on the Oak Grove basketball team would coach us,” Vickers said. “My gosh, getting coached by the girls on the team when you’re 5 or 6? Is there anything better than that?
“I know all the little boys in town dream about being an Oak Grove football player or wrestler or basketball player – I dreamed about being a basketball player. And I wanted to work at a clinic like one I attended when I was a little kid.”
Oak Grove activities director Jerry Girdner said Vickers, who also volunteered with the Special Olympics, didn’t just make an impact on the court.
“Someone like Taylor makes such a big impact in the community,” said Girdner, who along with Neeser started a program that brought basketball to the elementary school level. “We work with the kids in the elementary schools and they see the players up close and in person. It’s a thrill for them to work with someone like Taylor Vickers.
“I think that’s a big reason our community continues to embrace our athletic programs, even when the boys and girls basketball programs are struggling right now.
“But they’re working hard and they have great leaders like Taylor. I know whenever I see her in the halls, I ask how things are going.
“And she’s always so positive and full on enthusiasm.”
She shared that enthusiasm when she was informed of her latest honor.
“It’s a real big deal for me and a great honor,” she said, “but it’s also bittersweet. It means my high school career is over. I’ve always dreamed of going to the University of Missouri, and I’m going there to be a full-time student.
“But I can’t give up basketball. I’ll have to find an intramural team that needs a player. I’m going to miss Oak Grove so much that I’m going to have to find a basketball team to occupy my spare time.”
Panther Team of the Year: Wrestling
Record: Class 2 state runner-up
Highlights: Junior Mitchell Bradley was not only signaling his second straight individual state championship, it’s also the place the Panthers finished in the Class 2 state championships behind Platte County. Oak Grove, under first-year coach Bobbe Lowe, reasserted itself as a state power, helped by Bradley’s 112-pound state title and finals berths by freshman Anthony Barker (103) and Caleb Titus (140).
Honorable mention: None.
Panther Scholar Athlete of the Year: Taylor Vickers
Academic highlights: 3.71 grade point average; ranked 21st out of a class of 130; National Honor Society president; Senior class president; A+ program; Special Olympics volunteer;
Sports highlights: Earned nine varsity letters – four in basketball, three in volleyball and two in track and field. Three-time All-MRVC, two-time all-district in basketball and scored more than 1,000 career points. All-conference, academic all-state in volleyball
Other nominees: Austin Rogers, Jordan Stanley.
