Penn High School Athletics teams continued to stand tall on the Indiana High School Athletic Association landscape, as the Kingsmen combined for an 82.7 percent winning percentage (554-106-10) in 19 sports during the 2017-18 school year.

A total of 1,100 students competed in the Penn Athletics program.

In addition to winning in the arena of competition, Kingsmen student-athletes also excelled in the classroom, combining for a cumulative Grade-Point Average of 3.54 (on a scale of 4.0).

Girls Soccer, coached by Jeff Hart, highlighted an exceptional 2017-18 showing by Kingsmen teams with a second straight state championship and a national championship title.

Football, coached by Cory Yeoman, competed in the State Championship Game for the 12th time in program history, and finished as state runner-up.

Two Penn student-athletes earned IHSAA’s top honors during the 2017-18 school year.  Kristina Lynch earned the prestigious IHSAA Mental Attitude Award for Girls Soccer, and Erin Ludwig, also Girls Soccer, was one of 13 student-athletes state wide named as a CATO Scholarship award winner for excellence in academics, sportsmanship, community involvement and citizenship.

Penn also dominated in the Northern Indiana Conference (NIC), accomplishing a combined 92.6 winning percentage (274-22).

Additional highlights for the 2017-18 school year include:

• Penn teams earned 16 sectional championships in 19 IHSAA Championship Tournaments.
• The Kingsmen hoisted a Regional Championship trophy in 9 sports.
• Penn won 2 Semi-State Championships.
• Penn teams combined to win 15 of 19 NIC Championships.
• Penn was the only school in the state to win a Sectional Championship in every Fall sport.
• Penn was the only school in the state to win a Sectional Championship in every Spring sport.

More than 250 people participated in today’s (Monday, July 2) an active shooter training drill held at Penn High School. Personnel from multiple local emergency, first responder and police agencies, along with Penn High School and Penn-Harris-Madison administration and staff were all involved in today’s valuable community exercise. Participants in today’s drill either partook as active participants in their emergency responser role, actors, observers or evaluators. Please see a photo gallery below from today’s drill. 

P-H-M’s Director of Safety and Student Services Mike Seger worked with Sgt. Bryan Fox, Training Coordinator with Mishawaka Police Department, and several other St. Joseph County agencies for nearly a year planning today’s safety exercise. Other participating agencies included: St. Joseph County Police, Mishawaka Fire Department, Penn Township Fire Department, Clay Fire Department, St. Joseph County Emergency Management, Memorial Hospital, Elkhart General Hospital, St. Joseph Medical System, St. Joseph County 911 Center, South Bend Fire Department and Honeywell Security Group. Representatives from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Indiana Department of Education Office of School Building Physical Security & Safety were also on hand to observe today’s drill.

“Today’s drill was important for P-H-M because it gets our community first responders working together for the benefit of our school and all other schools in the community,” said P-H-M’s Director of Safety and Security Mike Seger.

“Anytime you get the opportunity to have this many disciplines, this many organizations do a real life exercise in the environments that they may have to work in some day, it’s a benefit,” said St. Joseph County Police Assistant Chief Bill Thompson. “Today was a worthwhile venture because we were able to get some many people involved, test a lot of our systems, to see not only what we do well, but the things we can improve on. Any time you get a chance to do that, it improves our capacity to respond and it makes our community safer.”

The scenario for today’s training exercise was an after school hours event at Penn High School: a student/staff dodgeball game taking place in Penn’s Main Arena. Actors were on the gym floor and in the stands simulating crowd patrons, as well as staff actors stationed at the event door entrance. A St. Joseph County police officer playing the role of the active shooter entered the building using noise bombs and blanks. The drill included simulation of multiple victim casualties. This allowed for law enforcement personnel to practice their tactics of finding and neutralizing the shooter within the building. By having actor victims, this gave local Fire Departments’ Rescue Task Forces and First Responders the opportunity to practice arrival on the scene to access, triage and transport victims. St. Joseph County’s 911 Center involvement in today’s drill allowed the dispatch systems to be tested. Today’s exercise also involved the extra step of transporting the actor shooting victims to Memorial Hospital and Elkhart General Hospitals; St. Joseph Medical center used paper patients. Including the hospitals in today’s drill was key affording our local hospitals the chance to test their internal emergency and surgical staff and systems.

“The overall goal was to test the system to identify the intra agency communication breakdowns in order to overcome and correct what we can to make the system better together,” said Cmdr. Bryan Fox, Uniform Devision.

The exercise was an evaluation and was conducted in a no- fault atmosphere.  A debrief was held immediately following; however, a more detailed report and findings will be provided to participating agencies at a later date.

An active shooter training event will be held Monday, July 2, 2018 at Penn High School. The training exercise will simulate a shooting taking place at an event after school hours. The purpose of this safety drill is to test key Penn High School Emergency Preparedness Procedures and first responder coordination, unified command, critical decisions, communications and the integration of multi-department assets. The exercise is an evaluation and will be conducted in a no- fault atmosphere. It will provide responding agencies an opportunity to meaningfully evaluate player actions against response plans and potential for an active shooter incident during an after school hours event. The last multi-agency, full-scale training exercise held at Penn was in 2013.

P-H-M’s Director of Safety and Student Services Mike Seger has worked with St. Joseph County Police and Mishawaka Police Departments, along with several other St. Joseph County agencies for nearly a year planning this safety exercise. Participating agencies include: St. Joseph County Police, Penn Township Fire Department, Clay Fire Department, Mishawaka Police Department, Mishawaka Fire Department, St. Joseph County Emergency Management, Memorial Hospital, Elkhart General Hospital, St. Joseph Medical System, St. Joseph County 911 Center, South Bend Fire Department and Honeywell Security Group.

Please note most of Penn High School offices will be closed on Monday, July 2 due to the drill. The Bookstore and Athletics Offices will be available by phone. You can also call the Educational Services Center at (574) 259-7941 on questions that cannot wait until Tuesday, July 3. Please do not come to the high school on July 2 because of the training drill. Click here for more information on Penn Summer Hours and contact information.

Click here to read the June 20 issue of #KingsmenNation.

You will find details on the following:

• Penn High School Summer Hours on the following Offices: Main, Counseling, Athletic and Bookstore
• Chromebook return/repair

• First Fall Sports Practice Schedule

• Graduation photos

• Refunds on Lunch accounts for seniors

• Summer Reading for AP Literature & Composition

Penn High School Athletic Director Jeff Hart announced that former Kingsmen Girls Golf standout Katie Zielinski has been hired as the head coach of the Penn Girls Golf Team. She replaces Dominic Demeter, who will remain with the program as an assistant coach.

Zielinski, a 2012 Penn graduate, played for Hall of Fame Coach Jim Garrett at Penn before taking her talents to Saint Mary’s College, where she carved out a successful career at the collegiate level.

Hart said that Zielinski was a natural choice to take over the highly successful Kingsmen program, which owns four State Championships.

“Katie grew up in the Penn program,” Hart said. “She understands and embraces the importance of an energized youth program and her time at Penn and Saint Mary’s has prepared her well to lead this program into the future”. 

Zielinski, a kindergarten teacher at Northpoint Elementary, is eager for the opportunity to coach at her alma mater. 

“I am beyond excited and honored to be the new head coach of this amazing golf program and to be a Kingsmen again!” Zielinski said. “I look forward to creating a team culture, while encouraging excellence for all of our student-athletes. I cannot wait to see the amazing things this team will do.”

The Penn Boys Golf Team earned the 2018 Sectional Team Championship on Friday, June 1.

Penn’s Ben Szklarek won medalist honors.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

Penn High School Chemistry Instructor Diane Bowersox was named the initial recipient of the Jeneane Arter Teaching in Excellence Award, which is sponsored by the Penn-Harris-Madison Education Foundation.

This new $2,000 award – named after Northpoint Elementary School teacher Jeneane Arter – will be given to any current P-H-M staff member who exemplifies excellence in education. The award is underwritten by P-H-M parents Jason and Darla Lippert. The annual award will be determined based on a current P-H-M student one-page essay of how the P-H-M staff member has made a lasting impact on his/her educational experience. The Foundation’s Grants Committee selects the award winner from the group of essays.

“Mrs. Bowersox exemplifies excellence in education with her innovative and meaningful engagement with students,” said Mari Linn Wise, the director of the P-H-M Education Foundation. “The P-H-M Education Foundation is honored to partner with Mr. and Mrs. Lippert in awarding the Jeneane Arter Teaching in Excellence Award. The Lipperts want to recognize P-H-M staff members who every day go above and beyond in supporting our children.”

Bowersox was nominated for the award by Penn Senior Alyssa McNarney.

“I met Mrs. Bowersox my sophomore year when she was my teacher for Chemistry honors,” McNarney wrote in her nomination essay. “I then had her junior year for AP Chemistry. She has had a huge influence on my high school career and my career choices. Mrs. Bowersox has influenced me to go into chemistry as next year, I will be studying Chemical Engineering.

“Chemistry is one of those classes that most people dislike and find very difficult, but with Mrs. Bowersox as a teacher, Chemistry is enjoyable and easy to learn. She does labs, interactive activities, and other games that help you learn. One example is from sophomore year in Chem Honors. We played Jeopardy in class with buzzers. The questions were able orbitals and after that game I am pretty sure that everyone in class could give you orbitals for every element.”

The Penn Softball Team rallied for a 3-2 victory against LaPorte to win the Sectional Championship on Saturday, May 26.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

The Penn Baseball Team defeated Northridge, 11-10, on Monday, May 28, to win the Class 4-A Sectional crown.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

Since November, Penn Building and Trades students have been hammering away on their 49^th house.

The house on 414 Champery Drive in Osceola’s Newbury Pointe subdivision is now complete and is on the market!

In the video below, Building & Trades Teacher Les Crooks takes us through the completed house …

Interested and want to see the house for yourself? Come check it out at the Open House on Friday, June 1, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

The asking price for the house is $245,000. The proceeds from the house sale goes to the Building Trades Corporation, which is a separate entity from Penn High School.

For more background information on Penn’s Building and Trades program and details on this year’s build, click here.