Kyler Bondesen and Grace Gardner have been selected as this year’s Freshmen of the Year.
Grace, 15, is the daughter of Brian Gardner, who operates Santiam Spray Service, and Ally Gardner, a teacher at Sweet Home Junior High, and has an older brother, Gavin, who graduated this year.
Kyler, also 15, is the son of Josh Bondesen, a firefighter at Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District, and Janine Bondesen, an X-ray technician for Samaritan Health. He has two younger sisters: Brooklyn, who is an incoming eighth-grader, and Avery, who will enter fifth grade in the fall.
Both are top students and are active in the Leadership program at the high school.
Kyler said he particularly likes math – and P.E. He played football, basketball and baseball as a freshman, “but I don’t think I’ll play (football) this year.”
“In basketball, we play as a team, we have to communicate and we have to like, strategize how to win,” he said, explaining why he likes those sports. “In baseball, everyone has to like, do their position, like, play the position the right way and be confident at the position.”
Grace said she likes English and writing.
“I really like writing,” she said. “I like writing essays and stuff.”
She’s also an athlete, competing in cheer since she was young and, more recently, in cross-country and track.
Explaining the unusual combination of fall sports, she said that she’s been doing cheer “all my life” and “I like running, just like for fun, so I figured, why not do cross-country?”
She runs with the cross-country team during the summer and in the mornings to get in and then stay in running shape, then works out with the cheer squad in the afternoons during the fall.
She said she likes cheer because of “how much of a team sport it is. We rely on each other a lot.”
Grace said in her free time she likes to go on runs, “and I just like hanging out with my family and spending time with people.”
Kyler said he likes to go to the lake.
“We have a boat and I like to go to the lake and wakeboard and do all the water sports,” he said. He said he also likes fishing “off the bay” with family and friends.
Kyler said he hopes in the future to become a chiropractor and if that doesn’t work out, a firefighter, noting that he’d be following a family tradition.
“My grandpa was a firefighter and my dad is,” he said.
Grace said she hasn’t made up her mind yet on her future.
“I have no idea.”
Asked what they like about high school, she said that she likes that there is “more freedom” than there was in junior high.
Kyler agreed. “You can go out to lunch, off-campus lunch, and you have a lot more area.”
Also, both of them noted, they have more time between classes and can actually go outside, which didn’t happen in seventh and eighth grade.
“There’s no culinary, no woodshop, no metals,” Kyler said, drawing a comparison.
“There’s a lot more electives,” he said. “And then there’s, like, three teachers that teach Algebra 1 so different people who take Algebra 1 can have different teachers and different teachers for science and history.”
Asked what advice they would have for a younger student or a peer after experiencing their first year of high school, Grace said she would counsel someone “not to put so much of your worth in your grades.”
“Once I started focusing more on the learning part of school, it was a lot better.”
Kyler said he would advise to “be confident in yourself in everything you do. If you’re not doing good in a class, be confident. Just try go get better. Get your grade up.”