Kyle Winslow and Kristin Tolle are this year’s Sweet Home High School Freshman Boy and Girl of the Year, it was announced at the annual awards assembly during the final week of school.
The two, who were also the winners of the American Legion awards when they graduated from eighth grade, both have 4.00 grade point averages after a year of high school and have been involved in a wide variety of activities.
Winslow, 15, is the third in his family to receive the honor and he said it was “a relief” to hear his name called.
“My sister and brother got it so I was kind of aiming for it,” he said. Winslow is the son of Keith and Brenda Winslow. His father has been the principal at Oak Heights School and will take the post of assistant principal at the high school in the fall.
His mother is a homemaker. His siblings are Sarah, a college student, and Andrew, a senior-to-be at the high school.
Tolle, 15, is the daughter of Dave and Joan Tolle. Her father is a science teacher at the high school while her mother is a resource teacher at Oak Heights. She has a brother, Michael, who will be an eighth-grader in the fall.
“I was real excited to get Freshman Girl of the Year,” Kristin Tolle said. “It made me feel important,” she added with a grin.
Both honorees have been heavily involved in sports as freshmen.
Winslow played soccer, basketball and baseball, while Tolle was goalie for the girls soccer team last season, then played basketball and softball, moving up to varsity midway through the spring.
Both have also been involved in the Leadership Class and Tolle also was a member of the Watershed Council, the Concert Band and Jazz Band. She’s also a member of the Calapooia Critters 4-H Club and plans to show her Yorkshire pig and Jersey cow at the Linn County Fair. In her spare time she likes to read.
“I like to stay busy,” she said.
Winslow said he’s playing summer baseball and basketball, but likes to hunt and fish, play the guitar and hang out with his friends when he has free time.
“Every week, that’s basically all I do,” he said.
Winslow said he’s enjoyed high school.
“Elementary school was cool, junior high was better, but high school was way better than all the others,” he said. “Each trimester you’re getting new teachers. Every trimester the challenge is you have to adapt to how they teach and their ways. It’s a challenge. I like a good challenge.”
His favorite subject thus far is math, particularly with teacher Dan Tow, who also happens to be the baseball coach.
Winslow said he’s not sure what his plans are for the future, but he hopes to make valedictorian.
Tolle said she would like to earn an honors diploma, SIM and “maybe be valedictorian.”
“I like high school because you have more freedom, but there are more things you can get involved in,” she said. “It creates more opportunities.”
She said she has wanted to be a veterinarian for a long time, but she’s also gotten interested in teaching after working with children at Daily Vacation Bible School at Sweet Home Mennonite Church.
She said she’s particularly enjoyed history in high school thus far, with Jim Costa, and band.
“Mr. Costa, he gets so into the subject that he’s teaching that he really makes it come alive,” she said.
Winslow said having his father as assistant principal in the fall won’t be new territory for him.
“I had Dad in elementary school, so that was normal, I guess,” he said. “He was always around, though in junior high he wasn’t.”
He said he isn’t really treated any different than any other students, though he is expected to be “on my best behavior, always.”
“If I do get in trouble, he might make the punishment more, but that’s just because he expects good things out of me,” Winslow said.