Owatonna High School has massive involvement in sports and activities. With dozens of options, there is something for everyone at OHS. These options include robotics, speech, wrestling, adaptive floor hockey, lacrosse and more. The Activities Office makes this possible.
The Activities Office of OHS does countless tasks including scheduling, coordinating transportation to activities, working scoreboards or music at games, setting up the sites where activities take place and working with students who are encountering issues within their activities. Because activities have different seasons, the Activities Office is hard at work year-round. The two full-time Activities Office workers are Mr. Marc Achterkirch and Ms. Nancy Benson. They are the Activities Director and Activities Office Secretary, respectively.
Ms. Benson has worked in Owatonna since 1992. She has spent the last five years in her position of Activities Office Secretary. Before accepting the job at OHS, Ms. Benson worked a variety of jobs including music director at a church, working for dislocated worker programs and principal’s secretary at Wilson Elementary. During the 32 years Ms. Benson has lived and worked in Owatonna, it has become a special place to her.
Ms. Benson said, “[Owatonna] just became home. It has been a great place to raise our family and work.” She also cited a strong church environment as a driving factor to stay.
Every day is different as the Activities Office Secretary. There are constantly different activities going on in different seasons of the year. There are a lot of processes that go on behind the scenes to make the activities offered run effectively. Ms. Benson plays a role in registration, budgeting, ticketing, hiring officials, setting up table workers for every game, lettering for sports, ordering apparel and much more. She “coordinates to make sure the events happen.”
Ms. Benson enjoys her interactions with a variety of people that come with her job. This includes interactions with coaches, activities directors, site directors and kids. Ms. Benson said, “It’s fun to see the kids involved and knowing that you have a part helping that happen.”
Ms. Benson’s partner in crime is Mr. Achterkirch. This school year marks the end of his third decade working at OHS, with 23 years as a math teacher and seven years as the Activities Director. After his long tenure as a teacher, Mr. Achterkirch was ready to explore his interest of becoming an Activities Director. He seized the opportunity when the position opened up.
Mr. Achterkirch’s days can go from routine to busy in a heartbeat. He has to be “ready to jump” at any given moment. However, his average day includes scheduling officials, working with other schools as far as upcoming events, coordinating bus schedules and ironing out the details of upcoming games. This requires Mr. Achterkirch to work weeks ahead of schedule to ensure everything is in order.
Mr. Achterkirch’s favorite part of his position is watching the kids of OHS compete in their respective sports. He tries to make it to every game, driving back and forth to different sites if there are multiple games occuring. Mr. Achterkirch puts a heavy emphasis on growth throughout a student’s high school career.
Mr. Achterkirch said, “If you’ve been around as long as I have, you get to see kids from freshman year all the way through graduation mature, grow, develop and just become really good young men and women.” He went on to say that Owatonna is fortunate to have good kids, families, coaches and unmatched support from the community.
Besides Mr. Achterkirch’s focus on growth, his goal is for every kid to have a fantastic experience in OHS activities. Despite knowing there will be hiccups along the way, he hopes athletes are able to look back at their time participating in activities with fondness.
Mr. Achterkirch said, “I want [students] to go to whatever it is you’re in and walk away saying ‘that was great.’” His experience with activities is that the outcomes of games go away with time, but the memories of teammates and coaches do not. His desire is that participants of activities in Owatonna have positive experiences to hang onto well beyond their high school years.
Students of Owatonna have a very open opportunity to pursue their interests. Students are able to compete in multiple sports while still participating in music or any other activities of their choosing. The community support for the diverse set of activities is unique to Owatonna.
Mr. Achterkirch said, “The heights kids can go in their sports here is sky high, but I can also have my kid be in music and other athletics and activities. They are not stuck in one specialization.” In his opinion, Owatonna is the “perfect middle.”
The students of Owatonna High School are given the unique chance to explore a variety of interests through the activities offered in Owatonna. Mr. Achterkirch and Ms. Benson are the workers in the Activities Office that make this feat possible. They do the behind the scenes coordination to make events happen. In Owatonna, an emphasis is placed on growth and amazing experiences throughout a student’s participation in activities.
