School board gives praise

For the Hot Springs County School District’s monthly celebrations in December, High School Principal Breez Daniels introduced sophomore Aiden Freeman and Band Director Drew Brown to recognize Freeman’s All-State Concert Band status.

Brown described Freeman as “one of my favorite students,” before joking, “Don’t tell them I said that,” and recalled how Freeman came to him as a sixth-grader, after class one day, and asked Brown how to proceed in band.

“I was like, ‘Okay, here are the steps you need to take, and these are the things you need to do,’” Brown said. “And he has done all those things. He is one of the kids that every coach wishes they had, in terms of listening, doing as he’s told and taking the opportunities that have been given to him.”

Brown noted Freeman has already been recognized as First-Chair All-State Jazz Saxophonist, and has just recently been selected to represent Hot Springs County High School in Orlando, Florida, as First Alto in the Wyoming All-State Concert Band.

“These accomplishments do not come lightly,” Brown said. “He is in the band room every day, and that is not a joke. Every single day at lunchtime, and after school practicing, it has been a real pleasure to work with him, and I wish I had 30 more like him.”

Brown noted Freeman is “not the first, but certainly not the last, in a long line of successful musicians that have come out of this community.”

Superintendent Dustin Hunt echoed Brown’s praise for Freeman, pointing out that he’d seen the student’s recent concert performance, and recalled joining him on a trip to Yellowstone when Freeman was in fourth grade and “looking for what might be his niche, and he has found it.”

Hunt described Freeman’s talent as sending “shivers down my spine, it’s so phenomenal,” before Brown brought up Freeman’s GoFundMe page, since “going to Orlando is not cheap.”

In addition to his talent of the saxophone, Freeman was lauded by Brown as “an accomplished trumpet-player, clarinetist, pianist and soon-to-be guitarist.” while Freeman joined the school board in thanking Brown for making his successes possible.

Hunt then introduced Brandon Deromedi, who’s been named both the 2A Golf Coach of the Year and the Middle School Athletic Director of the Year, by saying, “If this staff member had their way, we’d never know they did anything well.”

Daniels described Deromedi as “a key person” in at least half of the high school’s activities and athletics. She insisted she couldn’t “say enough” about what he does “every day” for students, before she was joined by Thermopolis Middle School Principal Steven Soderstrom, since Deromedi’s “Athletic Director of the Year” title applied to the middle school level.

Soderstrom recalled working as Deromedi’s assistant athletic director for a year, and Soderstrom confidently declared of Deromedi that “we’re not going to find anybody that’s willing to work as hard as him. He has 25 different hats he wears, and he wears them all super-well. You would never know he was busy, because he doesn’t ever complain. He just goes to work and does more and more for the kids.”

Deromedi responded by telling the board, “I can’t do this without the people around me,” in particular praising the students in the district’s golf program for making his award possible, before he thanked the school board, administration, principals.and coaches.