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.

As you walk into Jordan McCown's bustling classroom, you feel a sense of belonging hit you in the face. Everyone is chatting with each other, as smiles brighten the room, and laughter echoes into the hallway. The Trojan Torch is alive and burning with passion.

In every hallway, there’s more than a teacher; they guide, believe, and are compassionate towards their students, even in the ones who learn differently. At Jenks, from mild interventions to intensive one-on-one care, the three levels of special education work together to ensure every life is well-suited for success. Behind those classrooms stand teachers who have patience and dedication that form the school.

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.

Founded just this year, the Environmental Club at Jenks High School is on a mission to make students more mindful of their impact on the planet. Through projects, meetings, and school-wide initiatives, the club aims to turn environmental awareness into meaningful action.

In a room with black walls, ceilings, and floors, Allyson Blackshare manages to light up her classroom with her energetic teaching style and positive attitude. A Jenks Alumna and former OSU theatre student, she knows her way around a stage. Blackshare is young, fun, and full of energy. Just sitting in a room and talking to her could make anyone realize how she’s become a beloved teacher in such a short amount of time.

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.

Jenks High School has a rich history, especially in football. The Oklahoma powerhouse is home to 18 State Championships. The dominance of this scale was built by legendary coaching, from the founder of the standard R. Perry Beaver to the legendary Allan Trimble, and then the bridge Keith Riggs. 

The first people to greet you on the first day of school, the ones who come out for a section of a pep rally, and the group you can hear from the bleachers of a football game, the drumline. The Jenks Trojan drumline is a group of 20 percussionists who practice countless hours a week to be perfectly prepared for competitions and special gigs throughout the school year. 

Last school year, phones were a common sight in our school days. Students' eyes glued to their phones at lunch, surrounded by their peers, who did the same, AirPods in both ears, blasting music. Hallways were filled with teenagers texting or calling as they walked from class to class. But since the ¨bell-to-bell¨ state wide phone ban was implemented, things have changed---not a phone in sight. Whether you're for the ban or against it, it seems like everyone has an opinion. Concerns for safety and being able to focus without music battle reports of more involved and more social classes. An anonymous survey was conducted as an opportunity for students to express how they really feel, in their own words. From Freshmen to Seniors, our Jenks student body has had a lot to say about it.