By Derrick Smith

There is a sense of closeness that you feel when you attend a small-town school. Not only do you know your classmates, but there is a pretty good chance that you know at least one other person in their family. Another bonus is that different generations of the same family attend the same school, and that is why Janette Silkey is glad that her kids attend Pryor. 

“Our kids attend the same school district that both my husband and I attended, Pryor Public Schools,” she said. “Being from Pryor, we have known several of their teachers over the years. Pryor is a great school district, not only for athletics, but they offer a wide variety of class subjects and numerous extracurricular activities.”

When Silkey was in school, she was a member of the softball team. Now her two kids are carrying on the tradition of playing Tiger athletics.

“Our son, Nate, is a senior at Pryor,” she said. “He plays football and baseball. Mackenzie, our daughter, is a junior at John Brown University where she is currently a part of the women’s basketball team.”

Silkey and her husband know that with their children involved in sports, they are also going to take away a lot of life lessons that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.

“Since they like to play sports, we give them support and encouragement,” Janette said. “Sports can be a great life lesson for kids. It teaches them responsibility, teamwork, and how to manage adversity. It also teaches them that hard work can lead to great accomplishments.  We know that it is important for us to be there for them and with Mackenzie at JBU, we try to attend as many games as possible. Nate is still in high school, so we are at all of his games cheering him on.”

The Pryor community is always supporting the students and Janette says that she and her family have witnessed this personally. 

“Our community is very supportive of our school,” she said. “When my daughter was in high school and the basketball team made it to the state finals at ORU, Pryor fans packed the house! Our baseball team won state at Drillers Stadium and once again Pryor fans showed up in full force. We have great community support.”