Saving a canine: A ‘doggone’ good return
By LANEY COOK, Student Reporter
What seemed to be another ordinary Saturday became a happy surprise when a lost dog made its way back to its home.
Jenna Brooks, originally from Taloga, was driving to her home in Taloga on a Saturday afternoon after leaving Alva when she found a dog wandering lost along the side of the road.
She saw that the dog had its collars on so she could figure out who the owner was.
“I hurried and pulled over as soon as I saw that the dog had a collar on,” Brooks said. “He looked so sad as he was walking, so I felt like I had to pull over for him.”
After looking at the collar, she called the owner, whom she knew from when she lived there previously. She set up a time to return the dog to its owner.
“When we were pulling up to their house, [the dog] started getting really excited, and you could tell he missed his family,” she said.
The missing dog belonged to a family of four. Brooks said they had been worried about him for about five days and were very thankful that she found their dog, named Rusty.
Brooks said she was just happy that the small family got their dog back safe and sound.
“I’m glad that I was able to find it with being originally from there,” she said. “It was nice being able to reunite Rusty to his family. Small town dogs are the best.”
A runaway rescue: Ramos ‘sprints’ into action
By DESTINY GARDNER, Student Reporter
A night of football turned into a courageous rescue after a high school student found two girls in a bar ditch around 1 a.m.
Kaden Ramos, a high school student from Waynoka, said he was driving home from a football game in Maysville on Nov. 20.
He said he was almost to Chester and something sparkling caught his eye.
After spotting the sparkly object, Ramos turned around to check it out. The sparkles, he said, were on a backpack. He then saw two young girls hiding in the ditch.
The two girls were ages five and seven. They claimed to be running away from their foster home near the area, Ramos said.
Ramos then called 911 and waited with the girls until a police officer arrived and returned the girls to their parents.
From homeschool to college football: Barnett transitions from being Jaguar to Ranger
By ETHAN EVERSON, Student Reporter
Going from being homeschooled in Tulsa to getting recruited to play college football in Alva, Northwestern sophomore Jarrod Barnett didn’t have an easy time finding what college he would go to.
Barnett was homeschooled for three out of his four years of high school.
Barnett wanted to play college football, but getting recruited from being homeschooled is no walk in the park, he said. He had trouble finding ways to go to college.
Luckily, he said, Tulsa had a high school football team for homeschool students called Tulsa Noah Jaguars. Barnett was the starting quarterback for the team.
Barnett had trouble finding ways to get recruited like a normal high kid, he said.
“It was rough,” he said. “I had to send a lot of emails of my highlights and go to as many camps as I possibly could.”
Barnett had to still focus on school while he took online high school courses at Epic Charter School.
Barnett, while taking high school classes, managed to keep a 4.0 GPA, making it pretty easy to get accepted in any school, he said.
After his senior football season, he reached out to several different schools, and Northwestern Oklahoma State University offered him a football scholarship. Even though he didn’t go to an actual high school, he still managed to find a college.
Barnett is now in his second year of college and adapting not only to a school, but also to the changes he went through to make sure he would do good while he is attending NWOSU.
“It’s way different than it was when I was homeschooled, but after my first few weeks, it didn’t take me long to adjust to the college life,” he said.
Barnett plans to major in health and sports science, and he plans to continue playing for the Ranger football team, he said.
Being homeschooled doesn’t mean you can’t live your dreams of going to college and getting a degree, he said.