By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The local record books have her down as Jennie Vopat. Now married, Jennifer Davis still holds the Great Bend High School record for career free throw percentage. The feat helped her to a pair of basketball scholarships after high school and set her on the path to new recognition as the 2025 USD 428 Secondary Teacher of the Year.
"I did not think, especially in my second year coming back, that would be an honor I would be able to achieve," she said. "It's kind of fitting that it's here in Great Bend where I started my journey down this path. It's a very full-circle moment."
After graduating GBHS in 2005, Davis attended Hutchinson Community College and Kansas Wesleyan University to play basketball. Upon graduating from Wesleyan, she accepted her first teaching job in Southeast Kansas where she met her husband, Tanner. She fell in love with the communities of Yates Center and Neodesha.
"I wouldn't be the teacher I am today without that experience," she said. "Southeast Kansas was an amazing place. We absolutely adored both towns. My daughters were both born there and raised there for a little while."
But Davis wanted her daughters, Addilynn and Izabella, to experience some of the same childhood moments she did. And she wanted to be closer to family. Tanner wanted to work in a larger school district. The move back to Great Bend was a natural one.
Davis jumped right into the mix of things at GBHS, now as the C-team volleyball coach and the main assistant for the Lady Panther varsity basketball team. She teaches world history, mostly to freshmen, and geography and economics, mostly to sophomores. She credits her success as a teacher to her communication skills.
"My most people know my dad is Jim Vopat," David said. "He's very talkative and I definitely inherited that skill from him - being able to communicate with my students in maybe a way they would understand in a different format."
That means the students know they can always come in after class to chat with Davis one on one, and she uses a variety of formats to reach kids who learn in different ways.
"I wasn't the greatest student," she said. "I got good grades but I had to really work at those. I'm willing to work with (students). I'm willing to help them on deadlines and work with any of the subjects we're going over to make sure they really understand the topic."
Davis was joined in the honor by Elementary Teacher of the Year Traci Miller, an English Learner teacher at Riley Elementary. Both teachers will represent USD 428 in the upcoming 2026 Kansas Teacher of the Year competition.