Scholar Athlete spotlight: Columbia's James displays old-school attitude

A senior three-sport standout at Columbia High, if James is playing it, chances are he’s pretty good at it.

As a junior he led the boys soccer team with 29 goals. As the point guard on the basketball team this winter, he averaged 11.2 points per game and led the Eagles in assists (30) and steals (19) in an 11-game pandemic-shortened season.

A three-year starter at shortstop for the baseball team, James has hit .269 with five runs batted in and two steals through 16 games this spring. He’ll play baseball at Southwestern Illinois College next year.

When the coronavirus pandemic was in its early stages last spring, James decided to take up golf. Turns out he’s not half bad.

“If it has a ball involved, I’m in it to win it,” James said.

You might find James on the green, the diamond, the hardwood or the pitch, but one place you’ll never catch him is on the couch with a controller in his hands. In a time when high schools are forming their own teams and joining leagues as esports soar in popularity, James has no interest.

“I just can’t do it,” James said. “I couldn’t tell you where the buttons are on the controller.”

Columbia’s Post-Dispatch Scholar Athlete, James had little use for virtual learning last spring and the first part of this school year. It was a stripped-down version of the high school experience and not one he particularly enjoyed.

“I’m a social person,” James said. “I’m not good at sitting up in the house.”

When in-person learning resumed at Columbia, James was thrilled and so were the teachers that have him in class.

“It was really a breath of fresh air to have some normalcy,” Columbia baseball coach Neal O’Donnell said.

James took O’Donnell’s economics class last semester. O’Donnell saw that the way James goes about his business on the field is the same way he handles himself in the classroom — with aplomb.

“Jonah is a great kid,” O’Donnell said. “He’s the slickest, smoothest infielder I’ve coached the last 15 years or so that I’ve been here.”

Each year every teacher at Columbia picks a student to receive the Soaring Eagle Award. Every teacher’s exact criteria is different, but it boils down to which students exemplify the best qualities of what it means to be a Columbia Eagle.

O’Donnell picked James and it wasn’t all that tough of a decision.

“It was really easy for me,” O’Donnell said. “He does it inside the classroom and he does it outside the classroom.”

James is ranked No. 32 in his graduating class and a member of the National Honor Society. He’s taken two years of advanced placement English, received college credit in physics and studied Spanish for five years.

On the field or the court, James goes about his business like he’s from another era. There’s no trash talking or showboating in his game. Instead he has a quiet confidence that permeates those around him.

“He’s unbelievably polite,” Columbia soccer coach Jason Mathenia said. “He does everything the right way. He’s down to earth. You wish you had more like him.”

The 5-foot-9 and 150-pound James credits his family for how he handles himself. One person in particular that has impacted James is his maternal grandfather, Clifford Papenberg. Now 90, Papenberg served in the military during the Korean War. Upon returning to the area he took up working on the family farm. Not long after a farming accident took his right arm.

“He was right handed and lost his right arm,” James said.

Despite the injury, Papenberg continued living his life the way he wanted to and continued to work the farm every day. Papenberg’s example has inspired James in ways that will stick with him the rest of his life.

“It’s just amazing to me,” James said. “He’s out there proving people wrong every day and I love it.”

He’d always known his grandfather had one arm, but it wasn’t until about four years ago that James really thought about what it must be like to go through life like that. There were days he’d try to mimic Papenberg’s routine by not using one of his arms.

It only reinforced how remarkable his grandfather has been.

“I’ll get 20 minutes in and have to stop,” James aid. “I don’t know how he does it.”

One of the toughest parts about the past year during the pandemic was not getting to spend as much time with his grandparents. The lasting lesson James will take going forward is that nothing is promised. And to get those hugs in when you can.

“It was hard for them to get out,” he said. “We’d wave at them from their porch but it’s not the same. I’m never going to take that for granted ever again.”