Our last athlete of the week spotlight before the start of the 2021-2022 school year highlights 2021 Olympia High School graduate and Danvers native, Andrew Nichols. Nichols was a member of the varsity baseball and basketball teams and also a member of National Honor Society and Student Bank Board. He was a three-year starter for the varsity baseball team and would have been a four year starter if his junior season wouldn’t have been lost due to the pandemic. This year, he will be attending Illinois State University to study finance. Although Andrew’s athletic career is over, his leadership impact on his younger teammates will be apparent especially in the baseball program for many more years. Nichols, along with former teammate Hayden Stork, have been working with younger generations of Olympia baseball players. They work to help the young athletes improve their game and develop into the future of Oly baseball. 

This week’s Olympia Athlete of the Week is Adam Swartzendruber. Adam is from Minier and will be a senior at Olympia High School this upcoming school year. Ever since his freshman year at Olympia, Adam has been an athlete for the Spartans. Adam has been a basketball and baseball player for Olympia starting his freshman year and just last football season, in his junior year, Adam also started playing football for the Spartans. 

This week’s athlete of the week is Savanah Beavers, a hardworking and dedicated student-athlete. Savanah is a 2021 graduate from Olympia High School and Danvers native who ran cross country and track and field during her time as a Spartan. Savanah has competed in the State Meet for cross country every year since she was in 6th grade at Olympia Middle School. She has also competed in the State Meet for track in two seasons. She holds five all-state honors along with multiple all-conference, regional, and sectional awards. On top of all of that, Savanah has collected multiple awards and honors from different places in our area. She is the 3200m school record holder in track and field with a time of 11 minutes, 4.33 seconds. Throughout all of those achievements, Savanah believes that the 2017 cross country season stands out as her favorite. She stated, “The 2017 season stands out as being my favorite for the team's camaraderie and the personal growth I experienced. Throughout the season, we surprised ourselves with winning some meets and then finishing 8th at State.” She struggled with some health problems that season and learned to prioritize team success when she wasn’t able to perform her best individually.

Austin Swan is this week’s Olympia Athlete of the Week. Austin is from Hopedale and will be a senior this year at Olympia. Since his freshman year, Austin has been on the varsity wrestling team and was a starter on the varsity football team in his sophomore season. As a senior, Austin is looking to have another successful year in sports, as he will be back out on the field and on the mat this fall and winter. 

This week’s athlete of the week is Danika Frazier, a member of the class of 2024 at Olympia High School from Danvers, IL. Frazier plays softball, volleyball, basketball, and participates in key club and FCA. While she is a well-rounded athlete, Frazier excels in softball. She is a right-handed pitcher that also brought power to the Spartan’s lineup. This previous season, where the Spartan Softball team finished top 16 in the state, she had over 200 strikeouts in the circle and 11 home runs up to bat. Her 11 home runs led the Illini Prairie Conference in home runs. She was also the RBI leader. 

Hunter Berges from Stanford is this week’s Athlete of the Week. Hunter was a class of 2021 senior and played baseball, basketball for all four years, and football his senior year. Growing up, Hunter was always active and involved in sports. His active childhood led him right into a high school career full of sports. In football, Hunter was a first-year player his senior year, but still managed to do more than enough to help the Spartan football team go 4-2 this spring. Hunter started at both wide receiver and corner for his six games of high school football. His athleticism and length were a lot for opponents to handle on the field. Hunter’s specialty was making the spectacular catch for Olympia. 

A dominant three sport athlete, great student, and even better person. What more could you ask for out of a high school role model in the community? Taylor Nowaskie, a soon-to-be senior at Olympia High School, is this week’s athlete of the week. Nowaskie plays basketball, volleyball, and competes in track and field for the Spartans. During the 2020-21 school year, she was even a four-sport athlete. Nowaskie, a Danvers’ native, participated in cross country during what would’ve ended up being an offseason due to rearranged seasons because of COVID.

Trevor White is this week’s Olympia Athlete of the Week. Trevor is from Minier and went to Olympia his whole life. From a young age, Trevor always enjoyed playing or watching any sports. In his time at Olympia High School, Trevor played baseball, basketball, and even represented the Spartans very well in bowling. Trevor’s basketball career came to an end after his freshman year, when he decided to really focus on bowling, which ended up paying off for him in a big way. In his junior season of bowling, Trevor placed 11th in the IHSA Regional Bowling Tournament with a six-game total score of 1232, which was good enough for him to advance to the IHSA Bowling Sectionals. At Sectionals, Trevor finished 3rd, this time bowling a six-game total score of 1342, earning him a spot in the IHSA Bowling State Tournament. Trevor performed very well at State, in front of many of his friends and family. He ended up bowling a score of 2468 in twelve total games at the State Tournament. This performance was enough for Trevor to start getting noticed by college bowling coaches. After talks with a few different schools and after a couple different visits, Trevor accepted a scholarship offer and committed to bowl at Missouri Valley College. Unfortunately, for Trevor’s senior year, there was no IHSA Postseason Bowling due to COVID concerns. Now a graduated senior, Trevor is looking forward to moving into MVC in August and getting his collegiate bowling career started. 

Kennedy Smith is an Olympia 2021 graduate from Waynesville who was involved in National Honor Society, Blue Crew, Varsity Basketball, Varsity Softball, and was a Middle School Softball Coach during her time at Olympia High School! She has participated in a year of sports unlike the rest of her time as a high school student. Despite this, she still enjoyed her time as an athlete and made unforgettable memories with her teammates and coaches.