When you ask an athlete why they do their sport, the answers you may receive vary so dramatically that you could hear so many different answers, it feels inconceivable.

Imagine you spent almost your entire life doing something–something that decides what you do after school, when you take a vacation, who are going to be your friends are, and in many ways, this thing could become your entire life. Imagine that one day it just ends. For many seniors, this is the reality. 

For many high school athletes, the dream of playing in college comes with both excitement and uncertainty. The jump in competition, workload, and personal responsibility can feel overwhelming. To get a closer look and a personal opinion on the transition, I talked to Jenks Alum Chase Martin, who experienced the transition firsthand when he stepped onto a college basketball court for the first time.

Most fans only see the victories on the field, but behind every healthy Jenks athlete are two women working tirelessly in the shadows. From early-morning treatments to late-night injury checks, athletic trainers Katie Munger and Jill Richardson keep the Jenks Trojans running—quietly, expertly, and without fanfare. This week, I got the chance to step behind the scenes and shadow them, seeing firsthand the nonstop hustle, care, and precision that make them the heartbeat of Jenks athletics.

Last year, many of the teachers in our theatre department resigned, and multiple great new teachers stepped up and joined our department. Allison Dodge moved from Owasso to Jenks to become Jenks High School’s new stage makeup teacher and has become loved and intertwined in our department. Since the beginning of this school year, she’s done stage management, directed The Crucible play, stagecraft, and stage makeup for our department.

The classroom is mostly quiet as you take a seat at one of the tables in the debate room, turned into  a pavilion of prose. The air crackles with unspoken words and unsnapped fingers. Words that could invoke feelings that other spoken or written words could not. This is Jenks High School Poets Society.

Intensity, consistency, and leadership are the non-negotiable characteristics of new coach Brain Walker. The ex-pro and Razorback came back home to take control over the Trojan’s four time state champion baseball program. Coach Walker’s regime is one of one and has worked at the collegiate level. 

Feelings of uncertainty, nervous glances at strangers passing by, struggling to find your next class mere minutes before the bell rings — these are all emotions that a typical new student would feel, but not Temperance Parker. With her bright smile, bubbly personality, and experience in both softball and media, Parker is the last person to let moving schools dim her light.

Jack McInelly is a 2024-2025 graduate from Jenks High School who is currently at Army West Point. He’s a Jenks lifer, Football player, Lacrosse player, Mr. JHS runner-up, and member of multiple other clubs. Not only did he show the meaning of being a Trojan, but he's now on the way to showing what it means to be a patriot.

Colorful flags, music from across the globe, and slideshows of international dishes and traditions filled the Jenks High School PAC on Tuesday night as students gathered for the annual ISP Night of Culture. Hosted by ISP (International Scholars Program), the event served to celebrate diversity, student collaboration, and spread global awareness.

Sports are one of the few things that can unite an ever-so-divisive world. People from different backgrounds, states, and countries can all unite behind sports, whether that's watching them or playing them. However, not everyone is born with the ability to play sports like everyone else. Some kids are born with Down syndrome or with cerebral palsy, but how do they get to participate in sports? What's available for them?

One student's passion for birding is actively changing the city's nightlife and saving local avian lives in the Tulsa community. Senior Tej Beniwal, who founded the Jenks Birding Club in 2023, promotes bird observation and conservation at Jenks High School and within the Tulsa area as a whole.

Have you ever yearned for a sense of belonging or connection? To have people who know what it’s like to be you in a sea of people who don’t? As a Junior at Jenks High School, Abeni Murage knows that feeling very well.

In the middle of it - that's right where you will find Courtney Trimble. Her equipment room, located precisely in the middle of the Robert L. Sharp Health and Fitness Center, places her at the core of the Jenks Trojan football team. Overlapping sounds of the team getting ready to head out for practice and the subtle buzz of the commercial-grade washing machine on its daily cycle are the background noises of success. However, the sound of busyness is nothing unfamiliar to Trimble.

The clothes you wear tell a story to the world. The way you dress is the first impression people get from you, and it is a way you can show people who you are without having to say a word. The Jenks Fashion Club is on a mission to show the students how they can use fashion as a tool to bring confidence and also to build a community to help others.

Colorful trifolds that tell stories of generations, games from all over the world, kids opening their eyes and their minds to cultures they had never been exposed to. In the early October air, you can hear the laughter and awe coming from the kids as they go from region to region, gaining a more cross-cultural understanding.

When Addy Gaylor walks into a pep rally, the energy shifts. As the first female president of Jenks High School’s school spirit organization Superfans, her goal isn’t just to be the one to start chants and dress up for themes. She wants to lead by example, and show what it means to lead with spirit, humility, and purpose.

On Friday, September 25th, blinding lights will illuminate the field, and cheers will erupt from the stands as the Jenks Trojans step onto the field, ready to take on who most say is their biggest rival: the Bixby Spartans. The yearly ritual of a brutal battle on-field occurs this time with both teams nationally ranked: Jenks ranked #25 and Bixby ranked #2, according to on3.com’s rankings.

Dunk tanks, water balloons, and the aroma of barbecue in the air—what do they all have in common? Hometown Huddle. Each year, Jenks holds a fundraiser downtown that brings students together to form a community and raise money for Jenks students and their sports.

Our technological world is ever-presently changing. With the rise of the internet in the early 90s, social media in the early 2000s, and now the emergence of artificial intelligence. We are constantly having to face changes and adapt to those changes, so how do we know what's right and wrong?