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Volume 104 • Number 26 • Friday, February 7, 2014 • PO Box 188 • 111 E. Jenkins • Maryville, MO
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Northwest grad shaves inches, sheds pounds Diet, exercise pave way for ‘big loser’ By KEVIN BIRDSELL Staff writer
Realization
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Luke Cox weighed around 415 pounds at his heaviest. A comment by his oldest son about the number of X’s on his T-shirt helped him realize that he needed to shed weight.
A Tarkio High School teacher used his competitive nature to tackle something that had been plaguing his personal life — his weight. Luke Cox teaches at Tarkio High School, is married and has three children. He also coaches football, basketball and track. Cox graduated from Tarkio High in 2000, then attended Northwest Missouri State University. He got his bachelor’s degree in social science education and is currently pursuing his master’s degree in education administration at Northwest. In early 2013, Cox weighed over 415 pounds. He wore a size 5-extra-large T-shirt and size 50 jeans. “Here I was teaching students and athletes discipline and hard work when I had none myself,” Cox said.
“I would come home after practice and ignore my wife and young children and sit in front of the TV and fall asleep.” His wife, Rudy, had always been concerned about her husband’s weight and would tell him that he needed a change, but to no avail. It took an innocent comment from his son to change his mind. “One day, my oldest son (age 6) was helping me fold laundry and counting the X’s on my shirt,” Cox said. “He said, ‘Wow Dad, did you know there are five X’s on your shirt? That’s a lot.’ His comment hit me like a ton of bricks.” From that point, Cox knew there needed to be a change. He knew he wanted to lose weight, but he wasn’t sure how to go about losing. It. Cox spent his high school See COX Page 6
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Incredible shrinking man
Teacher and coach Luke Cox dropped more than 80 pounds during a competition hosted by Kansas City Fitness Magazine from March to May 2013, going from size 50 jeans down to size 42.
R-II school board reassigns Snow By STEVE HARTMAN Staff writer
The Maryville Board of Education met in closed session for just over an hour Thursday, after which Superintendent Larry Linthacum announced the creation of the new position of athletic director and the reassignment of Activities Director Paul Snow, effective next fall. “We looked at the current position of athletic/activities director and decided it was too much for one person,” Linthacum said. “When you consider the overall management and leadership component of the position in it’s current state, we decided it was in the district’s best interest to divide the duties. “We expect that person to schedule all athletic events and officials, evaluate programs and coaches and communicate with parents and district patrons. That doesn’t even factor in coordinating all of the other activities that our students are involved in, so we felt this division of duties was necessary.” See SNOW Page 12
Ample supply of winter wear
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Clothing Room Coordinator Juanita English stands beside a rack filled with used coats at the Nodaway County Ministry Center. Despite the current prolonged cold spell, English said the center has an ample supply of men’s and women’s clothing on hand in a variety of sizes. However, she added the charity can always use more children’s garments.
Donated venison, Farm Bill help stock Ministry Center By TONY BROWN News Editor
The generosity of northwest Missouri hunters is helping feed low-income Nodaway County families struggling through a long, hard winter. Starting Jan. 1, the Nodaway County Ministry Center food pantry, located at 971 S. Main
St. in Maryville, started giving away 1-pound packages of frozen ground venison. The meat was made available through the Missouri Department of Conservation’s annual Share the Harvest program to which 4,487 deer hunters contributed 227,358 pounds of venison statewide. Since Share the Harvest began in 1992, it has provided more
than 3.1 million pounds processed venison to food pantries and other nutritional assistance programs. More than 100 participating meat processors prepare the packages, which are then transported to pantries and other agencies for distribution to those in need. Merlin Atkins, the Ministry Center’s volunteer food pantry co-
OFFICE NUMBER
660-562-2424
Stoll completes job shadow day at Daily Forum By BROOKLYN STOLL Jefferson C-123 junior
I was recently fortunate enough to job shadow the Maryville Daily Forum’s advertising representative, agricultural editor, and online communications director Kaity Holtman. When first arriving at the Daily Forum, Kaity let me sit in on a conference call where she and the Daily Forum’s pubSee STOLL Page 12
See GENEROSITY Page 3
INSIDE
Record....................... 2 Opinion..................... 4 Religion..................... 5
Sports.................... 7, 8 Community Life ..... 9 Classifieds............... 11
Brooklyn Stoll
OUTSIDE
Today High: 17° Low: 8°