ABOVE: Seniors Elliot Flohrs and Ava Rathman stand with the Knight as they have been crowned the Martin Luther High School’s AAA winners for excellence in academics, athletics and the arts.

NORTHROP – Seniors Elliot Flohrs and Ava Rathman have been chosen as the Triple A award recipients by Martin Luther High School for their athletic, artistic and academic pursuits.

Flohrs said he played baseball and basketball growing up, and as such, he translated it into his junior and senior high school days as well. He has also picked up trap shooting while at Martin Luther. Flohrs said athletics has helped his development as a team player.

“To see teamwork and how to work with others,” he said. “Especially when they’ve been new teammates, moving from a grade school team to high school. It’s been a learning process when we combine all three schools for basketball and baseball, it’s learning how to learn together.”

Artistically, Flohrs has been in band for all four years, while also doing choir on and off for around three years. Flohrs said when it came down to it, he had to make a choice, and band and other pursuits like PSEO have taken priority over choir. For band, family plays a big part.

“Seeing how they’ve enjoyed listening to me be a part of the band,” he said.

Academically, Flohrs has received all-conference academic recognition and high honor roll. He said he has taken all of the in-house PSEO College classes he can. Classes like college writing helped him with applications, and overall Flohrs said having PSEO classes is pretty important.

“I was happy we were able to provide in-house ones, that our teachers have that education,” he said. “It will save money at college, and it’ll help advance my personal life, getting a job, getting interviewed, whatever it is.”

Since ninth grade, Flohrs has been student council president. Being in this leadership role, he said it came with its share of challenges.

“I know people are looking to me occasionally, or I have some expectations to be involved in stuff,” Flohrs said. “I would say it’s good expectations, and good I’ve been able to be a part of stuff. I like to try and embrace kids looking up to me. I always used to look up to some of the leaders in school before I came here, and so to be able to be that leader now as I’m here has been really cool.”

Being a good community player is also a big part of Flohrs’ journey. He is involved in his youth group, coaches kids in sports, organizes events for them, such as trunk or treat, assists with youth sports tournaments, teaches youth at church and participates in service projects for the elderly.

When it comes to balancing everything, Flohrs said school is his top priority.

“I try and focus on school and those activities first, and make it so sports come second,” he said. “It’s been occasionally tough in a stressful season. Throw in a little activity for the kids, but it’s always really cool to see how much fun they have and get them interested in our school.”

Moving forward, Flohrs will be going to Southeast Technical College in Sioux Falls in an Electrician Program. By being chosen for the award, he said it means a lot.

“It feels really nice there are people that are thinking about me and think highly enough of me to select me for this nomination,” Flohrs said. “They’ve helped me through everything here at school, and they encouraged me in sports and the arts, and so that was really cool to see.”

For Rathman, volleyball has been the sport she’s played all four years. She did play softball for two years early in high school, but made a change and joined track this year. Rathman has received a varsity letter in volleyball and an all-conference academic award during her time in both softball and track and field.

“I wanted to try something new this year,” she said. “I had friends that inspired me to try, and it was a pretty fun experience.”

In the arts, choir has been Rathman’s main calling. In her freshman and sophomore years, her choir group was rated superior. They also do programs for churches and funerals. The whole experience has helped Rathman to find her voice.

“When my teacher encouraged us, we made it our goal to have you hear us,” she said. “One of my main goals was to be one of the strongest singers, and I think that really helped me.”

Academically, Rathman has received high honor roll and an academic letter for the past three years. She was able to attend the Girls State government simulation and served as a mayor. She said the experience increased her understanding of governmental processes.

“I learned about the various roles within the government,” Rathman said. “It provided me with a better leadership experience, as I was elected mayor of my city, I ran meetings and improved my public speaking skills.”

In addition to these extracurricular experiences, Rathman said PSEO classes, like a CNA license course and medical terminology, helped her with her planned career, sonography.

“It really helped,” she said. “It felt like I was in college. That makes sense, because they were college-level. It really helps me to work on my academics better. I wanted to be as ready as I can before I go to college. That was my inspiration for doing those.”

A plethora of leadership opportunities have been explored by Rathman. She is currently Martin Luther’s National Honor Society vice president, is co-president of her church youth group, class treasurer, yearbook senior editor and Lutheran Girls’ Pioneers assistant leader. She has also, in the past, been crowned Miss Godahl.

Her motivation to work in and thrive through all these positions is a strong work ethic.

“I work as hard as I can in the best way I can for anything I do,” Rathman said. “That’s just been how I do things. I also think it’s important to have good time management and put things that are more important, and do those. Prioritize certain things over another.”

She also finds time to volunteer, restocking shelves at the local food shelf, providing hygiene kits for the homeless under the Knights 4 Life program and doing the yearly Godahl community cleanup and setup, as just a few examples. Rathman said it is important to help others in any way she can.

“Because I have the ability to use my skills and things that sometimes other people can’t do for themselves,” she said.

Rathman is pursuing sonography as an ultrasound technician and has already been accepted into a cardiovascular study program. She said her multi-faceted approach and success thus far make her want to work even harder at the next level.

“Have the same level of accomplishment as I did in high school,” Rathman said. “It inspires me to try to beat that, like a goal.”