By: Ty Taylor

Pepper Box Staff

     Many people’s goal is to make it big and to be the best in his or her own career. There are several people who are succesful in their fields who walked the same Ritenour halls as the students today.

    Ritenour Hall of Fame member Bill Chott (Class of 1987) rose as an actor and successfully became a cast member of the Disney show, “Wizards of Waverly Place.”

    Matt Flener (Class of 2000), became an Emmy-winning anchor reporter and has been in the news industry for well over 13 years.

    Chott played Mr. Laritate, the principal in the Disney comedy “Wizards of Waverly Place,” from 2007-2012, In order to achieve that stardom, there had to be a starting point, and it was Ritenour High School.

    “My classes at RHS were very valuable because not every high school back then had a radio station, and Ritenour helped introduce writing and broadcasting to me easily with the opportunity to take those classes,” Chott said.

    On the other side of the spectrum and about 13 years later, Matt Flener graduated RHS and was looking for a job in the news industry. Flener gradually made it up the ranks and became an anchor. Today, Flener is an Emmy- award winning reporter currently living in Kansas City and working for KMBC. “Ritenour was a great start for me because I had a passion for writing and the teachers there offered AP English classes. Writing is an important skill to have, no matter what field,” Flener said.

    Flener encourages students to experience every aspect of high school and take advantage of the oppurtunites at Ritenour High School.

    “Just because you succeed in something doesn’t mean you want to do that for the rest of your life. I was in choir, on the football team and the baseball team, and even if they weren’t helping academically, they helped my career a lot. My advice to students is to just be confident and to remember that there is always another day,” Flener said.