Having been a hunter for nearly 10 years, Isaiah Sitterding said the weather conditions aren’t always favorable.
He thought it would be nice to have an insulated hunting blind, a sheltered structure that conceals hunters from wildlife and allows them to observe and hunt without being detected.
As he and one of his business management classmates, Jack Pace, were trying to figure out a good business plan for Maverick Challenge Jackson County, a few possibilities arose.
An excavation business focused on septic was one. Welding was another. Customized insulated hunting blinds was the third option.
The third one was the charm.
“The hunting blinds and the outdoor production was what really set us along,” Sitterding said. “We thought of this one day, and it took off.”
Their business plan for S & P Outdoor Productions was one of 10 finalists for the high school business planning competition.
The day after oral presentations March 5, Sitterding and Pace learned they were selected by the judges as the winners.
The Brownstown Central High School juniors received $3,000 to put toward their business.
“There were a lot of ideas running through our head, and then this was the final one, and it ended up being the best one we could think of,” Sitterding said.
“It really just came to us one night, and we said we’re going to take this as far as we can. When I saw that we won $3,000, I was like, ‘All right, we’re doing this now,’” Pace said, smiling.
New this year, the Maverick Challenge winner was among the finalists for the SPARK Tank competition March 27. This was the second year for that contest, which is part of the Jackson County Chamber’s SPARK initiative.
Now, Sitterding and Pace have added fishing structures to their product line, and they are pursuing an LLC for their business.
“Something that I’ve gone by this whole thing — we both have — is my grandpa told me, ‘If you do somebody a good job, they’ll tell a couple people, and if you do somebody a bad job, they’ll tell everybody,’” Sitterding said. “That’s kind of driven us to do a good job for everybody. It’s kind of our driving off this.”
The teens became close friends while playing football their freshman year, and since then, they have tried to align their school schedules.
At the beginning of this school year, they chose to take Luke Cobb’s business management class. One of the requirements is entering the Maverick Challenge.
“We had heard about people doing it,” Sitterding said. “Bryce Peak had done it, Luke Imlay had done it and they both were successful, and it’s kind of like, ‘Well, why not do it?’ It’s a fun class.”
Imlay and Peak won the county competition in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
“Especially having a friend that won it the year before and we more or less thought of it together, we were like, ‘We have good ideas, and we can win some money doing it,’” Pace said. “We both entered into the class together, and we’ve stuck together through it and went through some ideas, and this is the one we ended with.”
After the duo picked their project, they put together a written plan and a video, which ultimately landed them in the top 10.
Pace took a shop class his sophomore year and gained knowledge of building, so he drew up the plans to construct their first hunting blind.
“I brought the knowledge to it, you could say,” Pace said. “In the sense of building, (Sitterding) took a lot of charge in doing that, and I was on the computer side of things and drawing up, telling him what he needed to do, and he ended up doing it.”
They put nearly 35 hours into the hunting blind.
“We each knew what we needed to do to make it happen, and we just kind of fell into our role, and it worked. It’s been fun,” Sitterding said.
He credited some other people in helping make the first hunting blind possible. His stepdad, Steve Cissna, funded it, Roger Bane shared building knowledge, Cobb supported their efforts and Ryan Kemp was their Maverick Challenge mentor.
The hunting blind is made of treated lumber, stands 6½ feet tall on the short side and 8 feet tall on the tall side and weighs nearly 2,000 pounds.
What makes their hunting blind unique? It’s insulated with spray foam and can be customized.
“We’re making a high-quality product … with a reasonable price tag. We’ll do anything that anybody wants for them, so that’s a big thing,” Sitterding said.
“I’d say what gives us the edge is we take a lot of pride in quality, and we love to satisfy customers,” Pace said. “We will do anything they ask and we’ll give you a reasonable price for it and we try our hardest to make it happen is really what sets us above anybody else.”
A customer has ordered a second hunting blind, so that’s next on their to-do list.
Sitterding and Pace also came up with a second product, fish structures.
“If you have a pond and you have to fish in it and you want to try to raise an ecosystem, those little fish, they need somewhere to hide from those larger fish because if they don’t hide, you’re never going to have good fishing in there,” Pace said.
“What these (structures) do is they create a shelter and little places for the small fish to hide from the bigger fish,” he said. “It just gives them a home. That’s really all it does.”
Next for S & P Outdoor Productions: They need more inventory and tools, and they have discussed expanding services, including tree stand installation.
“It still all boils down to customer satisfaction,” Pace said. “Even if they just come up to us with an idea, we’re going to tell if it’s feasible, and we’re going to do our best to make it as perfect as we can.”
Right now, this is considered a side hustle for the teens. While they may not do it for a living beyond high school, it’s something they could always do on the side.
Sitterding plans to pursue farming or construction, and Pace wants to study civil engineering or accounting at Purdue University and raise cattle.
“I don’t think either one of us really wants to do hunting blinds or outdoor productions for a living,” Sitterding said. “It will be something we could have around and maybe hand off to our kids one day, let them take charge on it if they wanted it.”
2025 Maverick Challenge Jackson County
Winners: Isaiah Sitterding and Jack Pace, Brownstown Central High School, S & P Outdoor Productions ($3,000)
Olivia Wilp, Seymour High School, Rock and Roll Rink ($2,500)
Michael Brooks, Seymour High School, Infinity Lead ($450)
Presley Hampton, Brownstown Central High School, Next Level Stylist ($450)
Bryan Jaime, Seymour High School, Pal’ Mundo Entero ($100)
Andrea Heideman, Seymour High School, Easy Life ($100)
Mikayla McCory, Medora High School, Vest Friends ($100)
Jayda Clodfelder, Brownstown Central High School, Jay’s Designs ($100)
Caleb Walton, Brownstown Central High School, Caleb’s Cases ($100)
Mallory Applegate, Seymour High School, Uniquely Me Pottery ($100)
Sponsors: Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., Jackson County Chamber, Brownstown Ewing Main Street, Seymour Main Street
A week before the Indiana Robotics State Championship, Cody Blackburn was told he needed to volunteer at the event.
His parents, Ronnie and Adrienne Blackburn, said he and another student would be escorting a woman at the competition.
He had no idea the surprise that was in store.
The woman he’s referring to is Purdue University Vice Provost Cherise Hall.
When she went onstage during the tournament, presented by TechPoint Youth on March 22 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Hall announced Blackburn as one of the winners of the Purdue Robotics Scholarship. The other was Tressa Howey of Fremont High School.
The scholarship covers full-cost resident tuition for four years at Purdue in West Lafayette.
Hall said the scholarship supports Indiana’s top STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) talent, helping students excel in engineering and technology, according to techpointyouth.org.
She also said there’s more to robotics than just competition. It’s about preparing students for future success in STEM careers, and Purdue is committed to supporting these efforts by investing in the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers.
Blackburn said he participated in robotics for two years at Brownstown Central Middle School and all four years at Brownstown Central High School. Robotics is one of the programs JCIDC’s Workforce Partnership supports at Jackson County schools, from elementary to high school.
After graduating from BCHS in May, Blackburn will turn his attention to studying mechanical engineering at Purdue.
“It just feels great because I don’t have to worry about getting any costs covered for tuition at all,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about applying to new scholarships that cover tuition because it’s already covered and done.”
Winning this scholarship means all of the time he spent with robotics and his other academic endeavors in high school was worth it.
“It really feels like it did just pay off,” he said. “I put in a lot of work, a lot of hours into robotics, and it really feels like it actually went toward something because the only thing I would have gotten otherwise is just qualifying for state at a competition or something.”
Luke Cobb, the robotics coach at BCHS and one of Blackburn’s teachers, nominated him for the scholarship because he was the robotics leader this year.
“He spent the most time working, talking and thinking about the robot. He was the robotics president, as well, this year,” Cobb said. “Cody was the mind behind their robot this year. He would come every day to practice with an idea in mind on how to better their robot and team.”
Cobb submitted the nomination in December and found out Blackburn was chosen in February.
“TechPoint keeps it all quite a secret,” Cobb said. “I only told his robotics team that he had been given an award and he had to be at state this year. We told his parents, as we needed to find a way to get him to state robotics, but other than that, nobody knew exactly what he got.”
Cobb said it was quite a shock when he learned Blackburn won the scholarship.
“Of course, Cody is incredibly smart, but when they are only handing out two scholarships across the entire state, it is quite competitive,” Cobb said. “It was great to see him get it and his reaction.”
Blackburn said he didn’t realize it was a full-tuition scholarship until he asked how much it was worth afterwards.
Purdue’s in-state tuition is nearly $10,000 per year. Blackburn will still have to cover room and board, but he’s hoping other scholarships will help with that.
“If the scholarship can cover anything with college, then yeah, I’ll still apply,” he said.
Blackburn feels he was chosen for the scholarship based on the activities he has participated in and engineering classes he has taken throughout high school.
Along with robotics, he was in the marching band for three years in middle school and all four years in high school, including drum major as a senior.
He also was on the Spell Bowl team all four years at BCHS and Academic Super Bowl math and science teams for two years, and he was captain of all three.
Other activities include German Club for four years (president as a junior), Science Olympiad for three years and musical, Tee Pee Times newspaper and National Honor Society for two years.
Blackburn said he benefited from robotics in a variety of ways.
“It doesn’t just build building skills, like designing skills, but it also develops working as a team because I’m not the only one who worked on the robot throughout the season. It was a team effort,” he said. “It just helps working with other people, and then also, there is just the designing process, where you have to come up with a design, put it into practicality and actually get something done.”
For the 2025 Indiana Robotics State Championship, there were more than 1,900 students from 320-plus teams competing, making it the nation’s largest robotics state championship. That included seven teams from Jackson County.
Blackburn plans to apply what he has learned in robotics to his studies at Purdue and beyond.
“I considered computer science, but I didn’t really know how to code or anything, so I didn’t do that. I considered engineering just because I’d say I’m good at math and science and stuff, and that uses both of those,” Blackburn said. “When looking at the different fields of engineering, that one (mechanical) just seemed best.”
Jackson County was well-represented at the 2025 Indiana Robotics State Championship on March 22 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.
There were 122 teams competing in the elementary school division, 111 in the middle school division and 64 in the high school division.
In the elementary division, Immanuel Lutheran School Team 520C (Jonathan Rice, Joshua Haugen and Jacquelynn Rice) placed 73rd, St. Ambrose Catholic School Team 3522G (Oliver Cutsinger, Ashley Alexander, Zoe Barradas and Felicity Hughes) placed 102nd and Jackson County Homeschool Robotics Team 1597Z (Daniel Hinckley, Micah McIntyre, James Timberlake and Raychael Timberlake) placed 110th.
In the middle school division, Lutheran Central School Team 47220B (Collin McKinley, Hank Stuckwisch and Waylon Wolka) placed 75th and Immanuel Lutheran School Team 520C (Gabrian Wilkins, Daniel Neawedde and Elizabeth Scheiderer) placed 92nd.
In the high school division, Seymour High School Team 31330D (Micah Yee, Kaeden Leonard, Noah Chambers and Ethan Rubin) placed 40th and Trinity Lutheran High School Team 1483C (Jacob Lorenz, Lincoln Huff, Rylan Adair and Nolan Teipen) placed 57th.
This school year, there were 2,060 Indiana robotics teams, and 297 of them were at state, making it the largest state championship in the country.
The results of the 2025 Maverick Challenge Jackson County are in!
The winners are Isaiah Sitterding and Jack Pace of Brownstown Central High School. They were among the top 10 finalists who delivered oral presentations March 5 at the Community Foundation of Jackson County in Seymour.
Their business is S & P Outdoor Productions, which makes insulated hunting blinds. They were awarded $3,000 for winning the high school business planning competition.
Next was Seymour High School’s Olivia Wilp with Rock and Roll Rink, a roller skating rink designed to help with mental health and those with disabilities. She received $2,500.
Seymour High School’s Michael Brooks was given $450 for his business plan for Infinity Lead, a lead attachment for mechanical pencils, and Brownstown Central High School’s Presley Hampton also received $450 for her business plan for Next Level Stylist, a fashion app to search for formal wear.
Participation awards of $100 were given to the other finalists:
-Bryan Jaime, Seymour High School, Pal’ Mundo Entero, a food truck that serves Puerto Rican sandwiches and more
-Andrea Heideman, Seymour High School, Easy Life, an adaptive device to help with everyday activities
-Mikayla McCory, Medora High School, Vest Friends, a vest with an adjustable harness for dogs
-Jayda Clodfelder, Brownstown Central High School, Jay’s Designs, an interior design service
-Caleb Walton, Brownstown Central High School, Caleb’s Cases, a personalized cellphone case business
-Mallory Applegate, Seymour High School, Uniquely Me Pottery, a pottery business
JCIDC, Jackson County Chamber, Brownstown Ewing Main Street and Seymour Main Street are the sponsors of the competition along with funding partner JCBank. A total of $7,000 was up for grabs for the top 10 finalists.
There were 25 teams from Brownstown Central, Crothersville, Medora and Seymour high schools who participated in the competition. Ten local business volunteers served as mentors: Eric Stam, Ryan Kemp, Ryon Wheeler, Stephanie Strothmann, Brittany Percival, Kendra Zumhingst, Solomon Rust, Michelle Schaefer, Karen Dringenburg and Pete Ellery. The judges of the oral presentations were Brett Bevers, Doug Prather and Fayeann Hauer.
New this year, the winner will be one of the finalists in the SPARK Tank competition, giving them the chance to win up to $10,000. That’s set for March 27 at Jackson Live & Event Center in Seymour.
Students also could enter the state’s Innovate WithIN competition, which has a regional competition in the spring and finals in June with the ultimate winner receiving $25,000. Heideman entered that competition and was chosen as a regional finalist. She will present April 22 at Maker13 in Jeffersonville.
Maverick Challenge began in 2008 in Bartholomew County, and Jackson County joined the program in 2011. Two years ago, Bartholomew County ended the program, but Jackson County leaders kept it going in the county with a partnership between the four sponsors and the funding partner.
We tried something different for the quarterly meeting of the Jackson County HR group March 13.
JCIDC intern Parker Thompson was tasked with putting together a panel of his peers to give local human resources representatives an opportunity to hear how Work Based Learning and JCIDC Workforce Partnership activities have benefited them in high school.
Parker and fellow Seymour High School seniors Greer Henry, Brady Harpe, Trevor Goecker and Justin Laiz had an opportunity to ask the HR reps questions, and the HR reps were able to ask them questions. The panelists’ future plans include going to college, joining the military or entering the workforce in the skilled trades.
After that, attendees were led on a tour of the Seymour Ag-Science and Research Farm in the Freeman Field Industrial Park by administrator Joy Stuckwisch. Stops included the expanded space housing more classrooms, a machining lab, a welding lab, a food lab and the greenhouse.
Thanks to Parker, Greer, Brady, Trevor and Justin for being part of the panel, and thanks to the HR reps and Seymour Community School Corp. officials who attended.
A pair of Seymour robotics teams claimed awards at a VEX Robotics tournament March 1 at New Palestine High School.
Seymour High School Team 31330A, consisting of Nicole Ray, Hannah Baker, Dafne Dominguez and Taylor LeBlanc, brought home the Sportsmanship Award.
“This girl-powered team brought the energy to some of the top teams in Indiana,” according to the Seymour High School Robotics Facebook page. “They even strategically grabbed Boogie Woogie’s stake from positive points to the negative zone. These girls kept their cool while the opponent debated their moves with the ref. Ultimately, the-girl powered game play ruffled some feathers, and the crowd went wild with the girls.”
Seymour Middle School Team 30013A, consisting of Caydyn Parks and Cruz Gaspar-Pascual, received the Inspire Award.
“This team got a program running for autonomous points and got their top score skills points,” according to the SHS Robotics Facebook page. “They are now middle school skills ranked 18/47 teams in Indiana. We are so proud of how well this first-year VRC middle school team has done.”
