For the 2025-26 school year, English teacher and President of the SHS’s Alumni Association Brent Bockelman has been announced as the Alumnus of the Year.
“I was really humbled by it,” Bockelman said.
The Alumni Association chose Bockelman for Alumnus of the Year for his contributions and the impact that he has had on the Alumni Association.
“He has given so much time, so much energy to this organization and to this program that I really do firmly believe that this is an honor that he very, very firmly deserves,” Assistant Principal Josef Horvath said.
Alumnus of the Year is an award hosted by the Alumni Association. Selecting Alumnus of the Year is a lengthy process, started in August, taking until the end of the school year.
At the end of the year, an alumni who has made a positive impact to the school and the community is chosen and is recognized for their efforts.
‘The way it works is, we have a nomination form that’s set up all the way in August.” Horvath said. “It’s on our website, Mr. Bockelman sends it out to all the alumni and everything. And from there, people nominate.”
After a nomination form is posted on the Alumni Association website and shared to Southport Alumni, nominations start rolling in.
Once the nomination portal is closed, all the nominee considerations are placed together, and a committee is assembled.
The committee, set up by Horvath, includes SHS alumni and two senior students.
Once the committee is gathered, they review all the nominations and narrow down the ballot of candidates they will later vote on.
At the end of the unanimous vote, Bockelman was officially named the Alumnus of the Year.
“I definitely think he does (deserve it)…,” senior Lydia Hiller said. “He had maybe the most, or one of the most nominations of anybody else we’ve seen… It’s clear that he’s had a pretty big impact on a lot of people’s lives, and he’s done a lot for the community and the school.”
Once he was announced as Alumnus of the Year, his mind went straight to those who helped him throughout his time as president of the Association.
“The first thing was I thought of all the people that make what I do possible…,” Bockelman said. “I am the president of the Southport Alumni Association, but I rely on a whole lot of people… I am at the face of it, but there’s a whole lot of folks that make it possible.”
With the honor of being named Alumnus of the Year, Bockelman’s name was added to the plaque, in between student services and the bookstore, along with all other former Alumni of the Year.
Bockelman will also have the opportunity to speak at the SHS Alumni Association Scholarship Recognition Ceremony hosted in May by the Alumni Association due to this honor.
He remarks the award was only possible because of the many people who put in time and effort into the process.
“Its all the people that made that even possible,” Bockelman said. “Nobody gets paid to put in hours and hours and hours of work. They just do it because they want to see the community thrive. I think that’s why I won that award because I represent that group of people, and without them, none of it is possible.”
