A three sport competitor with a dedicated approach to her challenging school schedule, SHS senior Alison Geary exemplifies the student-athlete. Geary has participated in volleyball, basketball, and track all four years of her high school career between two schools, all while maintaining an impressive 4.0 GPA, the 2014 class salutatorian.

Geary, like her two brothers and sisters, started her high school career at a Lutheran school in Watertown, S. D. After her freshman and sophomore year, Geary decided to move back to Sheridan High School for a variety of reasons, mainly for her academic and athletic pursuits. “I wanted to come back for all the opportunities. The AP classes, and the good sports programs, and the scholarship chances for college,” Geary said.

Moving back to Sheridan held promise for Geary for college, as she plans to attend the University of Wyoming. She is unsure of what major and career she plans to pursue. At first, elementary education was her goal, but now, business looks like a fit for her. She mentioned advertising and design, stemming from her ability to make eye-popping costumes from homecoming to Halloween, doubtlessly the most noticeable in the school. “Alison is very enthusiastic at dressing up and really no one else can compare to her,” said friend Grace Henderson. She interned at Highland Park Elementary School first semester, and now is interning at the Chamber of Commerce to immerse herself in that field.

Geary liked the freedom of being away from home, but it was a much different school setting than most are accustomed to. “It was way smaller, sort of like Tongue River. We couldn’t wear shorts or sweats, and had to take religion classes.”

On the other hand Geary had college-like independence of making her own decisions from what to buy and to doing laundry to having the opportunity to make new friends.

Now Geary is a huge part of the Lady Broncs basketball team which has lost only one game all season and is ranked first in the state. Geary plays post and had a big role in keeping Natrona’s Stanford bound Kaylee Johnson to only 11 points in a giant victory over the formerly ranked top team, who had beat Sheridan early in that year.

In addition to basketball, Geary has lettered in track, where she throws shot put and discus, and in volleyball. “Alison’s a great athlete and deserves recognition for her hard work and dedication to all sports,” said fellow trackster and thrower senior Dylan Lindly.

Despite having sports practices and games consuming her time, Geary still has challenged herself with a strenuous academic schedule. Over her two years here at SHS, Geary has taken AP U.S. History, AP Environmental Science, AP Psychology, AP British Literature, AP Calculus, AP Statistics, AP Spanish, and accelerated English.

“As a student I think Alison is very sharp and quick-witted. She gets things really quickly and I think that she has a quality of open-mindedness that sometimes people don’t recognize,” said AP Literature teacher Michael Clift.

Alison is the daughter of Tim Geary and SHS English teacher Rita Geary.