From all accounts, what I heard about Heyworth High School student Noah Wiseman from his folks, best pal, and that friend’s mother is that he was an astute, dedicated, determined young man. Even though he was at an age when most kids are just figuring out what their life’s goal ought to be, the 16-year-old already had the blueprint for his life drawn out.
That’s what made losing him on June 24, 2014 so difficult to accept – not just for his loved ones – his parents, older brother and sister-in-law. It forced his friends and the Town of Heyworth to cope, as well.
His death hit the small community of Heyworth hard. Several hundred people – students, Heyworth High football teammates, and Noah’s friends and family attended Noah’s visitation and funeral services. There, they shared stories about Noah’s friendship, kindness, and generosity, and how his life had impacted theirs.
Now, almost 15 months later, Noah’s father, Clay Wiseman, explained his son “was a very mature 16-year-old.”
“He knew what his plans were in this world,” Clay explained, his voice trailing off. “He knew what his plan was for his life. His goal was to play football in college. He worked very hard at it.”
And he was a kid with a big infectious smile, his parents explained. He also loved playing football, the game he began playing as part of the Town’s Junior Football League, starting in grade school.
Had things played out the way the young man had hoped, he would have gone into the Army following college, training to become a Navy SEAL sometime down the road. To prep for college football life, he attended several recruiting camps including one in Chicago, where its organizers determine who attends. He was selected out of this camp to attend an elite camp in Ohio named “Top Gun”. “Noah was convinced he’d be picked for the ‘Top Gun’ camp,” Clay Wiseman relayed. He was chosen for that camp, but unfortunately, this camp was in July, 2014. A camp he never got to attend.
It just wasn’t football where Noah’s determination made it presence known, his father said. Regardless of task, Clay Wiseman said, his son “set his goals high.” His mother, Sue Wiseman, remembers a kid going into his junior year in the summer of 2014 “who was always sensitive to other peoples’ needs and wants. He was just a very loving kid.”
He was a loving kid who, maybe, unlike most of his peers, paid a little more attention to news of the day because his father had a car radio tuned to news-talk stations. Paying attention to such things helped to shape Noah as “a very, very patriotic individual,” Clay Wiseman said of his youngest of two sons. “For 16-years-old, he loved America.”
If you were a Heyworth High student and friend of Noah’s, you visited the Wisemans regularly “in a house all the kids came to,” Clay Wiseman explained. But that helped, it appears, the Wisemans discover who Noah considered his friends, and gave his parents an insight into the young man’s personal selection criteria for being with those friends.
Clay said his son admitted to him he felt a person’s character was important in choosing friends. “He was a leader,” Clay Wiseman said of Noah. “He wasn’t a follower.”
Jacob Day was in high school with Noah at Heyworth High, and like all teen boys, when paired together, fun is had and memories made. The memories that make Jacob Day laugh are the time Noah finished football practice but kept his helmet on, wearing it as he drove home, sitting behind the wheel of the family truck, not to mention the time he and Noah raced down the Wiseman’s basement stairs while tucked into sleeping bags. Friends like that you don’t forget.
And friends like Julie Day are ones you don’t say no to when they offer help, Clay Wiseman admits.
Day’s brainchild was to begin a scholarship in Noah Wiseman’s honor. The “Win For Wiseman” Scholarship will be a guaranteed commitment for each senior class for at least the first five years. The scholarship will be awarded each year to an HHS senior football player who attends a college or university after graduating from high school by writing an essay on a given topic. The topic for the essay will be determined annually by the Wiseman family. This year, the judging for the inaugural prize will be determined by a third party.
Julie Day wanted to do something to honor Noah’s memory and approached the Wisemans about starting a scholarship. There’s hope the project can raise $5,000 annually to give to a deserving student. The deadline to donate money currently is Feb. 1, 2016. The scholarship will be given at the annual awards banquet next spring. An independent third party will serve as judge of the submissions turned in.
Persons wanting more information or wishing to make a donation may contact Day either by phone at 309-531-0387 or by e-mail at jester259jd@yahoo.com
Healing will come in time for the Wisemans. The scholarship will be a help to a deserving student. Put together, the memories his family has and the community keeping his name alive will make sure Noah Wiseman’s life is not forgotten.