Most Successful Grads

So our sports information director recently sent out an e-mail asking for a list of successful graduates for a series of articles he's working on. A couple of coaches hit "reply all" with some decent names, but in just a couple of minutes here's what I came up with:

• Alex Van Huis - admitted to four of the top fourteen biomedical engineering programs in the country (he didn't apply to the other ten) and is currently pursuing his PhD.
• Bryan Pelka - studying medicine at the armed services medical school in Bethesda (i.e. he's earning a salary instead of paying $100k/year in med school tuition).
• Ivan Manolov - recruited by Yahoo! out of school, quit that to make six-figures for a hot start-up in the valley (Honestly.com), though he's quitting that to work for another start-up (CollegeSwimming.com)
• Dr. Brad Wipfli - after studying neuroscience, Dr. Brad got his PhD from Arizona State. After this, he was awarded the 2009 dissertation of the year award from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education and is now a researcher at the Oregon Health & Science University.
• Nathan Fisher - just graduated from the National University of Health Sciences and is now a Chiropractor.
  
• Chris Trella - Getting Masters in Kinesiology from University of Johannesburg (South Africa) after teaching in Alaskan village and in China.
  
• Henry Somers & Nathaniel Chapman - rapidly rising up the corporate ladder for Oracle and Cummins up in the Twin Cities.
• Stacey Kiefer - Swimwear/Apparel Purchasing Manager with Adolph Kiefer & Associates. She's also a part-time model for Jockey International (photo right).
  
• Steve Szymanski - recruited straight out of Carthage to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the Big Five accounting firms.
• James Beaman & Charlie Staniger - James works at Corporate for Walgreens while Charlie is on the managerial fast-track and running the store at 18th street;
• Justin Reeder - Deputy Sheriff, Porter County Indiana; and
  
• Teachers & Coaches: Almost too many to mention and many I'm sure I've forgotten but they include Andy Bax & Tracey Keckler - both teachers here in KUSD; Tricia Biedron and Kristen Martin (Suburbs), Nick Parry (West Chicago), Jessica Bogie (Delta Aquatics), Delilah Center (Chesterton, Indiana) Amanda Croix (west point), really too many to mention
• 
  

I'm sure I've forgotten some, but not a bad list.

Kiefer Commits to Carthage Class of 2031

Somers, WI - Carthage College men's swimming coach Greg Earhart today announced the signing of River Jeremy Kiefer to swim for Carthage beginning in 2027.

Kiefer, who was born earlier this week, is the son of Robin and Stacey ('02) Kiefer, brother of Ginger ('27) and great grandson of Olympic Gold-Medalist Adolph Kiefer.

"We do a lot of scouting of recruits and our staff really feel that River was the best available swimmer graduating in 2027." explained Earhart. "Add in his family history at Carthage [mother, Uncle Andy, Aunt Kelli, uncle Craig, and Casey Griffiths (who must be related in some way) all swam at Carthage] and we felt he would become an impact player."

He is believed to be the youngest-ever recruit to commit to any collegiate program. Last month, Michael Avery, an eighth grader from Thousand Oaks, California committed to play basketball for Kentucky. That factored into Carthage's recruitment of the infant.

"With the trend towards earlier and earlier college commitments, we felt we needed to pull the trigger early," explained Earhart.

When asked to comment, River Kiefer drooled.