It was a day to remember for Lutheran South tennis player Aidan Toner.
The senior spent the late morning and early afternoon Friday winning his Class 1 individual sectional match against Rhyder Williams of Dexter 6-2, 6-0. That victory qualified Toner for the Missouri individual boys tennis state tournament May 17-18 in Springfield.
There was another reason to celebrate Friday night as Toner was set to graduate in ceremonies at the Lutheran South football field.
"I guess I had my two biggest achievements in one day," said Toner, who will be attending Truman State University.
Missouri running back Cody Schrader is a consensus All-American, solidifying his status as one of the nation’s top players and among the best running backs to play for the Tigers.
When he wasn't running roughshod through Division II defenses at Truman State, Cody Schrader had no interest in watching other games on television in his spare time.
It didn't matter who was playing, be it teams from the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC or anybody else on college football's biggest stages.
"I didn't pay attention to any of the big-time Division I football games just because I always saw myself being able to play at that level and play in the biggest games even if nobody else did," Schrader told ESPN. "I was mad about it. I wouldn't watch, couldn't watch."
Now fans across the country are watching Schrader on those big stages, and defenses on those "big-time Division I football" teams are struggling to stop the 5-foot-9, 214-pound dynamo. In his second season at Missouri after transferring from Truman State as a walk-on, Schrader leads all FBS players with an average of 129.4 rushing yards per game.
The Lutheran South baseball team was one of only two St. Louis County high school baseball programs awarded the 2022-2023 Team Academic Excellence Award by the American Baseball Coaches Association.
Cody Schrader's career path up to this point has already been well-documented.
Especially for those who've followed Missouri football over the past couple of seasons, his story has been shared countless times. No scholarship offers out of high school, domination at Division II Truman State, walking on to Missouri in 2022, fighting his way up the depth chart, exploding in 2023. As Schrader rumbled his way into the national spotlight along with the Tigers, that story was echoed time and time again.
When he took the podium on Friday at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, he had 15 minutes to share as much of his career journey as possible in order to convince reporters that hadn't been following him as closely that he was the real deal.
Lutheran South has seen a “significant increase” in transfer students over the past five years, which is attributed largely to families who seek a school “that more closely resembles their family’s morals and values.”