By FRED KRONER
St. Joseph-Ogden’s 10th Hall of Fame class – to be inducted on Friday (Sept. 17) at halftime of the homecoming football game against Nokomis – will establish a first.
The list of honorees will include the first family to be enshrined. The Gary Olson family will be joined by Kermit Esarey, Warren (Dee) Evans and Brandi (Carmien) Burnett in the Class of 2022.
The football game has a 7 p.m. kickoff.
The Gary Olson family
The nomination was made by long-time SJ-O coach and administrator Dick Duval, prior to his passing in August, 2021.
The incoming Hall-of-Famers are Gary Olson, his wife, Nancy (Ideus), and their children, 2005 SJ-O graduate Ory, 2007 SJ-O graduate Isaiah and 2010 SJ-O graduate Bria.
The Olsons have been volunteers and behind-the-scenes workers on assorted projects – such as re-doing the football practice field as well as removing and replacing the bleachers by the football field, which is appropriately named for Dick Duval.
Nancy coached the Spartan cheerleaders for several years, and she helped Sharolyn Worley and Mike McKenzie to organize the Maroon Platoon (a still-active student cheering section) nearly 20 years ago.
Bria is a former junior high girls’ basketball coach in the district and Isaiah is a former high school boys’ basketball assistant (who was part of the staff for the 2015-16 state championship team).
Gary Olson helped coach basketball at the high school and grade school level in the district for nearly a decade.
The recognition is especially meaningful for the family, they said, due to the timing.
“It is neat for me,” Gary Olson, 60, said. “Mr. Esarey (also a Hall-of-Famer who taught agriculture) was one of my favorite teachers.
“I was President of the FFA the 50th year they had it (an office son Ory later held, too.) To be inducted at Glenn Fisher Athletic Complex and Dick Duval Field is wonderful.
“They meant the world to me. To be nominated by Dick is very humbling.”
Fisher, who worked in maintenance and served as a bus driver, and Duval are not only both in the S-O Hall of Fame, but are also two of the individuals Olson worked tirelessly with on various school-fixup projects.
The Olsons’ three children are all active in the family farm, which includes raising cattle as well as growing corn and soybeans.
“As a family, we are very thankful and honored to go into the SJ-O Hall of Fame,” Nancy Olson said. “This is such a great community to be a part of and raise our family.
“St. Joseph-Ogden High School, with all of its wonderful teachers, coaches and staff, supports one another and has been a true blessing to all of us.”
Brandi (Carmien) Burnett
A 1993 SJ-O graduate, Burnett was a three-sport letter winner who earned 11 varsity letters between volleyball, basketball and softball. She was a varsity starter each year that she lettered.
“I definitely feel lucky in so many ways,” Burnett said. “I enjoyed my time as a student-athlete in a community that stands behind every extra-curricular.
“There are so many great people who have come through the school system. It is an honor to be nominated.”
Carmien was a center who scored 1,459 career points in basketball and was a two-time All-Area first-team selection. In softball, the first baseman was also a two-time All-Area first-team pick.
She didn’t exactly have a favorite sport.
“I enjoyed every sport as I was in it,” she said. “I loved all of them.”
Burnett had played basketball and softball prior to high school, but took up volleyball as a freshman.
She learned quickly. As a sophomore, she was an all-conference second-team pick. She was all-conference first team as both a junior and senior. As a senior, she was also named to the All-Area second team.
“You learn so much being part of a team and a teammate,” Burnett said. “There are life lessons that stay with you forever when you work hard together and repeat the process.
“I am still friends with a lot of the people.”
Her exploits were not only outstanding when she played for SJ-O, but she still ranks among the school’s all-time leaders.
In softball, she finished with school-record totals for career RBI (168) and career triples (20) as well as season marks for home runs (11) and triples (8).
Each of those marks stood for at least 18 years and – nearly 30 years after her graduation – she is still among the top eight in each of those categories at SJ-O.
Burnett played for teams that had a cumulative 107-22 record in softball and didn’t win fewer than 25 games on the diamond in any year that she played. She had a lifetime batting average of .465 and knocked in at least 50 runs as both a junior and a senior.
Her slugging percentage as a junior – when 26 of her 55 hits went for extra bases – was a school record of 1.160.
In basketball, she reached the 1,000-point mark as a junior before amassing a total that ranked second all-time for the Spartans when her prep career ended.
She had a four-year cumulative scoring average of 13.5 points per game while playing for teams that had a composite 92-20 record when she was in the lineup. SJ-O won at least 22 games in each of her final three seasons.
In The News-Gazette biographical blurb after her All-Area selection as a junior, her evaluation read, “combines 6-foot-1 height with the ballhandling ability of a point guard.”
Besides her 1,459 career points, she totaled 786 career rebounds and 132 career blocked shots. As a senior, she also handed out 60 assists.
She later played one year of basketball at Kankakee Community College.
Her impact on the community – and the school district – continued after her graduation.
Burnett and her husband Chad – a Villa Grove graduate – have three children who are SJ-O graduates and were active in sports throughout their prep careers.
Abigail, 22, continued her volleyball career after leaving the Spartans for two years at Parkland College. She now works in radiology for OSF.
Crayton, 20, a former All-Area baseball Player of the Year, played for a year at the University of Illinois.
Kennedi, 18, is currently a student at Parkland.
“We feel blessed to have kids experience the small, country town,” said Brandi Burnett, who works in the loan review department at Gifford State Bank.
Warren (Dee) Evans
A 1960 St. Joseph graduate, Evans was a guard and linebacker for the football team and earned Little All-State accolades for his performance.
His top game was a 22-tackle effort against Young America as a junior.
A 5-foot-9, 165-pounder, Evans was a three-year letter winner in football and a three-year letter winner in track. He lettered one year in baseball, which was only offered his senior year.
There was not a lot of interest at the school in football when Evans played.
“We had 13 players for an 11-man team,” he said.
He had offers to play football in college at Monmouth, Montana and Eastern Illinois University. He played one year at EIU.
After joining the Army, and spending a year in Vietnam, Evans spent 40 years as a cement mason with Local 143 in Champaign before retiring in 2008.
Despite his accolades, Evans – who turned 80 in April – was not expecting a call from the Hall of Fame committee.
“It was a surprise,” Evans said. “When they called, I said, ‘What?’
“I asked how they chose me. I asked if I was the only guy left. There are plenty of other guys who have done so much more. I never expected it at all.”
Evans won the American Legion citizenship award as a high school senior.
As a member of the Legion, he was instrumental in construction of a monument at Woodard Family Park for all community veterans, regardless of where they graduated.
“That’s one of the things I am proud of,” Evans said.
The third child in a family of six, Evans has lived in the St. Joseph area his entire life.
Kermit Eugene Esarey
Esarey devoted 29 of his 34 years as an agriculture teacher at St. Joseph, starting in the fall of 1953, a decade before the consolidation with Ogden in 1963.
Born on a farm in southern Illinois, near Mount Carmel, he graduated from high school in 1940 and received a merit scholarship from Wabash County to attend the University of Illinois.
His family said when he took the bus up to Champaign to start school, he had $25 in his pocket. To make ends meet, Esarey took a job serving meals, washing dishes and cleaning at a men’s student boarding house on campus.
Esarey returned home for Thanksgiving break as a freshman and told his mother he was not returning to college. According to his family, she said, “Yes, you are going back.”
He not only returned, but also earned his bachelor’s degree in the spring of 1947.
First, his schooling was interrupted starting in the spring of 1943 when he was drafted into the Army as a second lieutenant. He served until August, 1946, when he left as a first lieutenant.
Esarey needed two more semesters to complete his undergraduate degree from the UI.
He taught agriculture for one year at Scotland and for four years at Cisne, before moving back to Champaign County to fill an opening at St. Joseph.
He retired in the spring of 1982. During his years on the faculty, he supervised 20 student teachers.
In 1979, he was the recipient of an Honorary State FFA Degree as well as membership in Alpha Tau Alpha, an honorary agricultural education organization.
Esarey was an active member of the local Lion’s Club as well as IAVAT (Illinois Association of Vocational Agriculture Teachers).
After retirement, he and his wife LaDema (Lee), moved to Texas, where he enjoyed hobbies that included fishing, gardening, reading and tinkering with projects.
His family said he especially enjoyed visits with former students.
His wife died in 2017. Kermit Esarey passed away in August, 2019 at age 97.
In 2020, Esarey’s daughter Gail (who lives in Arlington, Texas) created the Kermit E. Esarey Scholarship Fund at the University of Illinois. It is a merit-based scholarship that may be renewed annually for a student majoring in agriculture at the UI.
Top priority is given to SJ-O graduates. If none, the next priority is for students who graduate from a Champaign County high school. If none, it is opened up to graduates from any Illinois high school.
