Fairbury's Edson loves rising to the challenge
KiLee Edson will be able to look back on her Fairbury High School days with plenty of pride.
She’s combined being a standout three-sport athlete with a 4.0 grade- point average that put her in a tie for No. 1 in her senior class. Edson was an honorable mention all-state setter last fall in volleyball after starting for the third year. A four-year basketball starter, she earned second-team Super-State and first-team all-state honors last winter after averaging 23 points a game and leading the Jeffs to the Class C-1 state tournament.
Her athletic resume is still being written with three more weeks remaining in the track season. Edson, who’s planning to compete in track at Nebraska-Kearney next year, won three medals at last year’s state track meet (seventh in the long jump and 400-meter relay, and eighth in the 200).
Edson, however, has one regret about her senior year. With just a couple of weeks before graduation, she wishes she had taken a more difficult class load her final semester.
Edson has two classes this semester — modern problems and multi-media II. Fairbury uses block scheduling, in which there are four 90-minute class periods during the day. She has an open first period and is a teacher’s aide in the final period of the day.
“(Fairbury girls track) Coach (Chuck) Moore told me, ‘KiLee, you shouldn’t have done that,’ and he’s right,’’’ Edson said of her second-semester schedule. “I’m bored right now and I’m the kind of person who likes a challenge. I wish I would’ve taken more classes and learned something.”
Edson did most of her heavy lifting in the classroom as a sophomore and junior. She worked her way through the math curriculum Fairbury offers, finishing up with calculus last year. She took chemistry and biology during that time and tackled three years of Spanish and four levels of English.
Fairbury girls basketball coach Shawn Ekwall has Edson in his modern problems class this semester, and he sees many of the traits she possesses on the court in the classroom as well.
“She’s a perfectionist in terms of getting things done and doing them right,” Ekwall said. “KiLee‘s a very perceptive kid who soaks information in very well.’’
Edson is uncertain of her career path. She’d like to stay involved with athletics either as a physical therapist or as a teacher and coach, following the footsteps of her father, Rod, the head football coach at Fairbury. If she goes the teaching route, her area of focus will likely be math.
“I’ve always been good at it and it’s always been fun,” Edson said. “I need something challenging or I get bored, and solving hard math problems is something I enjoy doing.”
Rick Bell, the Fairbury boys basketball coach and Edson’s calculus teacher, saw her meet the challenge of difficult subject matter many times in the classroom.
“Like an athlete, she worked hard in getting her work done in a timely fashion and always had herself prepared well for quizzes and tests,’’ Bell said. “She was never afraid to ask for help if there was something she didn’t understand, and if something was perceived as a weakness, she worked hard to turn it into a strength.”
She’s combined being a standout three-sport athlete with a 4.0 grade- point average that put her in a tie for No. 1 in her senior class. Edson was an honorable mention all-state setter last fall in volleyball after starting for the third year. A four-year basketball starter, she earned second-team Super-State and first-team all-state honors last winter after averaging 23 points a game and leading the Jeffs to the Class C-1 state tournament.
Her athletic resume is still being written with three more weeks remaining in the track season. Edson, who’s planning to compete in track at Nebraska-Kearney next year, won three medals at last year’s state track meet (seventh in the long jump and 400-meter relay, and eighth in the 200).
Edson, however, has one regret about her senior year. With just a couple of weeks before graduation, she wishes she had taken a more difficult class load her final semester.
Edson has two classes this semester — modern problems and multi-media II. Fairbury uses block scheduling, in which there are four 90-minute class periods during the day. She has an open first period and is a teacher’s aide in the final period of the day.
“(Fairbury girls track) Coach (Chuck) Moore told me, ‘KiLee, you shouldn’t have done that,’ and he’s right,’’’ Edson said of her second-semester schedule. “I’m bored right now and I’m the kind of person who likes a challenge. I wish I would’ve taken more classes and learned something.”
Edson did most of her heavy lifting in the classroom as a sophomore and junior. She worked her way through the math curriculum Fairbury offers, finishing up with calculus last year. She took chemistry and biology during that time and tackled three years of Spanish and four levels of English.
Fairbury girls basketball coach Shawn Ekwall has Edson in his modern problems class this semester, and he sees many of the traits she possesses on the court in the classroom as well.
“She’s a perfectionist in terms of getting things done and doing them right,” Ekwall said. “KiLee‘s a very perceptive kid who soaks information in very well.’’
Edson is uncertain of her career path. She’d like to stay involved with athletics either as a physical therapist or as a teacher and coach, following the footsteps of her father, Rod, the head football coach at Fairbury. If she goes the teaching route, her area of focus will likely be math.
“I’ve always been good at it and it’s always been fun,” Edson said. “I need something challenging or I get bored, and solving hard math problems is something I enjoy doing.”
Rick Bell, the Fairbury boys basketball coach and Edson’s calculus teacher, saw her meet the challenge of difficult subject matter many times in the classroom.
“Like an athlete, she worked hard in getting her work done in a timely fashion and always had herself prepared well for quizzes and tests,’’ Bell said. “She was never afraid to ask for help if there was something she didn’t understand, and if something was perceived as a weakness, she worked hard to turn it into a strength.”
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