By FRED KRONER
Kelly Steffen is a mathematics teacher at St. Joseph-Ogden High School.
Her life has been – and will continue to be – impacted more by former SJ-O students than the ones she is currently teaching.
A Bloomington native, who attended college at Indiana State University, in Terre Haute, Steffen knew the whereabouts of St. Joseph years before she became enamored with the community.
“I had driven by so many times on the way to college, but had never been (in the village),” Steffen said.
Both Steffen and her younger sister, Paige, were track athletes while growing up in Bloomington. The sister’s junior high coach at Bloomington was Tom Mathis, a former SJ-O athlete.
“Our family kept in close touch with him throughout the years,” Steffen said. “Fast-forward to the semester I would graduate with my teaching degree (2014), Tom Mathis called me about a math position opening at St. Joseph-Ogden High School.”
Within a matter of a few weeks, Steffen applied, interviewed, was offered a job and had accepted.
She received a warm welcome to the community as she began her teaching career, and the search for a place to live.
“John and Norma McDannald (parents of former SJ-O athletes) offered me their house to stay at the first six months of my teaching career,” Steffen said. “I instantly fell in love with the community.”
One of Steffen’s colleagues in the mathematics department at SJ-O was another former Spartan athlete, Ashley (Runck) Krisman.
“We became very close quickly when I started working at SJ-O,” Steffen said.
As their friendship grew, Steffen became aware of Krisman’s reputation.
“Amongst our group of friends, Ashley is known as the Match-Maker,” Steffen said. “Years prior, she set up her co-worker (Ariana Mazza) from a previous school she worked at with Ryan Bensyl (an alumni of SJ-O).”
Mazza and Bensyl are now married and have a baby girl.
Krisman decided to try her magic on Steffen, who had never been on a blind date, but was open to the possibility.
“Ashley told me about her friend that she wanted to set me up with,” Steffen said.
Her decision to go forward was not based on what she knew about the other person as much as it was the faith she had in the colleague that was setting her up.
“I trusted Ashley’s judgement,” Steffen said.
That brings yet another – and perhaps the most important – SJ-O graduate into the story: Tyler Johnson.
“She gave Tyler my number and eventually convinced him to text me,” said Steffen, who is the girls’ track and field head coach at SJ-O as well as the assistant director of the high school’s fall play.
Steffen remembers that the call didn’t happen immediately.
“Ashley kept telling me about her friend, and I kept waiting on a text,” she said.
Johnson, an Ogden native who had been living in Decatur, was moving back to eastern Champaign County and followed up on Krisman’s recommendation to make contact.
“Kelly waited about a month until I ever got ahold of her,” Johnson said. “I’m not even sure why she ever answered when I did.”
He learned early about one of Steffen’s virtues.
“She was extremely patient (waiting for the call),” he said.
Johnson, a sales rep for Pioneer Seed and Pepperidge Farm, actually had advance notice about the person he would meet, and he was intrigued.
“Ashley mentioned Kelly to me about a year prior, but told me she wouldn’t give me her number until I moved back to town,“ he said. “I was only 50 minutes away.
“So a year later, when I moved back, I earned my privilege. The way that Ashley and another teacher friend of mine (Kiel Duval) talked about Kelly, made me more interested to meet her.”
Shortly after Johnson and Steffen first communicated, their first date was in August, 2017.
“We went on a date to Seven Saints (in downtown Champaign) and sat outside in the outdoor seating area,” Johnson said. “She wore a green T-shirt dress. She was very peppy and had a great smile.
“She ate an Asian salad and pretended she didn’t want their delicious cheese curds. We now know that she was just being ‘polite’ and ‘proper.’ I found out later that she loves cheese curds.”
A love for each other was soon being fostered.
Earlier this month (Saturday, Oct. 3), at a family gathering in the Bloomington home of Steffen’s parents (Mitch and Annmarie Steffen), they were engaged.
“We were all at my parents house to celebrate my grandma (Linda Steffen) and my brother-in-law‘s (Andy Houin) birthdays,” Kelly Steffen said. “We had gotten done singing to them and Tyler then set another cake in front of me that said, ‘Marry Me?’”
Though they have been together three-plus years, the moment was unexpected.
“While I stared at the cake in shock, my family started screaming, cheering, jumping up and down and pulling out their cameras,” Kelly Steffen said. “I got out of my seat at the table, and Tyler was down on one knee.
“It could not have been more special having family there to share the moment.”
Johnson knew what he wanted, but that didn’t make following through with the proposal any easier.
“I wasn’t nervous until dinner time,” Johnson said. “I was planning on proposing after dinner. After the proposal, I think I had eight glasses of water.
“I think the entire family was pretty shocked.”
Johnson was one of two men in the house who knew what to expect that day.
“Excitement and surprise filled the room when Tyler asked me,” Kelly Steffen said. “Only my dad (Mitch Steffen) knew this was going to happen.”
Naturally, one of the first orders of business after the congratulations had been exchanged and the pictures taken was NOT to set a wedding date.
“The night we got engaged, we had to FaceTime Ashley and (her husband) Nick Krisman to tell them the exciting news because, without them, this may have never happened,” Kelly Steffen said.
Johnson knew that the gathering would be an ideal time to propose. Besides Kelly Steffen’s parents, sister (Paige Houin), and brother-in-law, a nephew, aunt, cousins and grandparents were also in attendance.
“I chose this time frame because we were planning on a trip to Carbondale the next weekend,” Johnson said. “I wanted to be able to enjoy the trip, instead of having the thought of ‘when might he propose,’ hanging around.
“The (Oct. 3) date also worked out well because most of the immediate family on her side was getting together to celebrate two birthdays.”
The newly-engaged couple still reflect on their first date.
“A vivid memory we still talk about is how Tyler offered to get us cheese curds for an appetizer, but I said I was ‘OK’ and just ordered a salad,” Kelly Steffen said. “Fast-forward to all of our other dates at Seven Saints, you had better bet we get an appetizer.”
As for when the wedding will take place, that is still to be determined. The couple are leaning to a summer or fall wedding in 2021.
They could face an additional obstacle that never affected engaged couples until 2020.
“We aren’t sure if the coronavirus will affect us or not,” Johnson said. “We will know more when we start calling around to venues.”
As Johnson and Kelly Steffen work out the details for their future together, Steffen said she is grateful for the role played by Ashley Krisman.
“Tyler brings me so much life,” Steffen said. “His genuine kindness to everyone is so contagious.
“Tyler has kept a smile on my face since the first day we met.”
Kelly Steffen will celebrate her six-year anniversary as a teacher at SJ-O in December.
Johnson could have a part in that tenure being extended.
“To everyone that wanted me to make sure that Kelly stayed within this school district, you are welcome,” he added.
