The Blog of Derrick James Freese

Everyone has hopes and dreams. Joe Sievert’s dream is to leave his mark on the world and be remembered. “I just want my name to be known. You know in the movies they have like, ‘your actions will echo through eternity,’ I just want something like that, and I think the only way I can get that right now is through wrestling.”

Joe is from Akron, a small town in the northwest corner of Iowa where he has lived all his life. Since he was a child, Joe Sievert was pushed to be a wrestler. Following his friends and his brother John, Joe participated in youth wrestling tournaments, where Joe says himself, “the only reason I wrestled was because we had fun and stuff.” And suddenly something changed, Joe started winning., “once you start winning something you love playing it and you want to keep doing it.”

After qualifying for state every year in high school Joe won his first State Championship at 160 lbs his senior year. Nobody enjoys losing, but for Joe losing was the motivation he needed to finally win that championship. Joe had a nearly perfect record during his final high school season. Going 44-1 the defining moment of the season was the one match he lost. “I needed to lose that match otherwise I wouldn’t have won state.” The one match put his mind into perspective, “without losing to that kid I probably wouldn’t be as good today either just because losing makes me push myself.”

During his freshman year of college at Morningside in 2010 he placed third at the NAIA National Tournament. Now, at the age of 20, Joe is a Junior wrestling for the Mustangs. Joe has been ranked number one in the nation by NAIA polls. Being undefeated so far this year Joe is looking for that National Championship title, letting his name to echo through eternity.

When he isn’t wrestling Joe enjoys being a regular student, playing video games, hanging out with friends, and participating in recreational activities. What comes after wrestling for Joe? Joe says, “When I’m done I think I’m probably gonna end up coaching it. I don’t think my life will ever be done with wrestling.” Joe would possibly like to get an assistant coaching job with the Mustangs head coach Tim Jager.

Echo in eternity

For further reading on Joe :

http://www.lemarssentinel.com/story/1504343.html

http://akronhometowner.atomicnewstools.com/pages/?p=1112

For my last News comment, I read an article on the passing of a legendary comic icon. On Wednesday Jerry Robinson passed in his sleep at the age of 89. Without Robinson Batman’s greatest arch-nemesis, the Joker, would not have been created. Robinson also created other characters, such as Two-Face, Robin, and Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s butler. He was hired by Bob Kane while attending Columbia University.

This would be a human interest piece and it is news because he impacted the comic industry greatly. Through the years the Joker has been remade with different looks, but he is always the same Joker.

Article – http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2011-12-08/jerry-robinson/51745168/1

Unless you win 45 million dollars in the lottery you will probably have a job for most of your life. To have a job most require a college degree and college is an expensive investment. Sure students get financial aid but for most they will have to get jobs to help pay their way through college.

Bob Taylor, or “the Great One” as many call him, is the Human Resource Manager at the Hy Vee on Hamilton. He believes all teens and students should have jobs.  Taylor has been working at Hy vee for 32 years, 17 of which he has spent as the Human Resource Manager. He has hired thousands of students in his many years, and has interviewed about 50,000 students. He says jobs give you experience working with other people, and good work experience whether or not it is in your field of study. He stated that along with the work experience the job will look good on a resume.

Matthew Maresh is a Senior at Morningside College and is on the wrestling team, he is also a cashier at Hy Vee. Hired by Taylor in 2009, Maresh has been a great asset to the Hy Vee family. Maresh feels that having a job “helps with preparing for real life, I feel like kids who don’t have to earn a little bit during their college years don’t have the same appreciation for the money they make as the kids who’s parents just pay for everything all through college, in the long run it helps with time management as well and can lead to jobs within those companies after college too.”

While working in school may give you less time to work on homework or do sports, managers are compassionate and schedule writers will work around you.  If you ever need to take time off for a big event or because you have a news story to write for your Journalism class,  just ask for that time off or find someone who can cover your shift. As “the Great One” Bob Taylor says, “All jobs are good jobs.”