For years, Samantha Davis played the waiting game.
 
As Oskaloosa's forensics coach, Davis had a duet performance she knew would play out well as a competition piece. And for the past couple years she had her eye on one particular student she knew could deliver in one of the play's roles.
 
Only Cannon Cramer wasn't sure that forensics was something he was cut out for.
 
"It's definitely out of my comfort zone," Cramer said. "Acting is something I never thought I'd do or even be good at."
 
If there's one given about Cramer during his time at Oskaloosa, it's this: Whatever he decides to take on, he flourishes.
 
Cramer's endeavors at Oskaloosa have been numerous and various. From athletics to student government to music to academics – and anything and everything in between – Cramer has done it all. And done it well.
 
He is this week's Capitol Federal True Blue® Student of the Week.
 
"He's got the gamut covered," Oskaloosa business teacher and FBLA sponsor Julie Adams said.
 
So when classmate Rebekah Ballast came to Cramer this year and asked him to give forensics a try and do a duet with her, he decided to step out of his comfort zone and give it a shot.
 
"It's a new experience and I've enjoyed it," Cramer said. "I just put myself out there, which I'd never really done before. I thought it could be a brand new experience for me and open my eyes to a whole new world."
 
Much to the delight of Davis.
 
"I've been recruiting him since he was a freshman," Davis said of Cramer. "His senior year, I've finally got him. I'd heard good things about him before he got in my speech class. When he got in my class and gave a speech, I said, 'That's a kid that understood how to organize thoughts and has a really good public speaking presence.'
 
"Even the first semester of his senior year, he took on some interesting roles. He did our Dancing with the Bears and his performance was so theatrical. I'd never seen Cannon be theatrical, which is part of forensics as well. When he performed on that stage, he was really a fit for a lot of options."
 
In particular, Cramer fit the male role in the play, "To Every Coin." The pairing of Cramer and Ballast was ideal in Davis' mind, enabling her to finally use the performance she'd been holding.
 
"When they presented themselves, I was like, 'Here it is. Let me bestow it upon you,' " Davis said of the play chronicling the birth and death of a relationship between a man and woman in which they speak to each other and the audience, mixing humorous and somber storylines. "They took to it right away. I think it's such a unique piece and they had the skills and abilities to pull it off. I knew emotionally they could handle it.
 
"I don't view Cannon and Rebekah as the most hilarious people. Can they be funny? Absolutely. But they're not slapstick comedians. This piece worked well to their personalities where it starts off cute and humorous and has some really great hitting funny moments I knew they could do, and then it becomes somber and serious and they can portray that well. It was a nice balance for their personalities."
 
She was right. Cramer and Ballast will compete at this Saturday's Class 2A State Forensics Competition at Bishop Carroll High School. The duo qualified after finishing second at the Northeast Kansas League meet earlier this spring.
 
That Cramer has thrived in his new environment comes as no surprise to those at Oskaloosa High School. That's all they've known of Cramer during his time there.
 
"I don't think I've ever come across a kid like him," said Amy Waldron, Oskaloosa's music teacher. "He's like an adult packaged in a kid's body. It's so rare. There are smart kids and there are doers, but they're not always in the same package. Cannon is the complete package."
  

Adams first got to know Cramer his freshman year when he joined the Future Business Leaders of America program. Even coming in as a freshman, Adams saw something different in him.
 
"He started in FBLA his freshman year and I could tell right away he was motivated," Adams said. "I had two girls who had gone to nationals the year before and he gravitated toward them immediately to find out what he needed to do to do that."
 
Cramer was a quick learner. He was Oskaloosa's only national qualifier in 2019. After COVID wiped out the 2020 season, Cramer qualified for nationals again last year as a junior, competing online, and has qualified in business calculations for this year's national FBLA competition in Chicago in June.
 
"It's been fun to compete," said Cramer, who finished second at the state FBLA competition in March. "I did way better on that test than I thought I would. I took a personal finance course last semester that helped me a lot."
 
Competing at the highest level is just the normal for Cramer, who is the student council president as well as president of Oskaloosa's National Honor Society. He owns a 35 ACT super score, was honored as a Governor's Scholar on Sunday (top 1% of Kansas high school students) and is ranked No. 1 in his class along with Ballast.
 
Ballast's arrival at Oskaloosa after starting her high school career at Veritas Christian in Lawrence has been a motivating factor for Cramer in more than just the forensics world.
 
"We got closer this year being two of the more studious kids in the class," he said. "We banded together for a lot of stuff. Having that competition for No. 1 puts a little bit of pressure. I know in physics I have to be on top of it because that's my toughest class. She may not know it, but she does push me."
 
But there's plenty of internal push on Cramer's part, particular when it's come to his academics.
 
"It's always been my own drive," he said. "Doing well in school was something I always knew I wanted to do. School was going to come first no matter what so I took every step I possibly could to make sure I did well."
 
He distinctly remembers the only time he didn't get the highest grade possible, receiving a 4 on a 5 scale in spelling when he was in fourth grade.
 
"That was detrimental – took a toll on me," he said. "I was very upset. That was in my perfectionist stage."
 
Ever since, it's been straight As. And when it came time to take the ACT, his goal was very definitive.
 
"I don't remember this, but my mom said when I was younger that I didn't really obsess about it, but I knew about it," Cramer said of the ACT. "That was something I wanted to do well on for college. I told her I would keep taking it until I got at least a 30, and I got that sophomore year. We have a 30 plaque at the school and I always wanted to be on it."
 
That's not the only place Cramer will leave his mark. And Cramer said it took getting over his perfectionist stage to make a lot of his experiences at Oskaloosa happen.
 
"I used to be really scared about doing anything out of my comfort zone," he said. "I was a perfectionist for a long time. Recently, I've gotten over that and learned to experience everything as a learning experience. If I fail in something, nobody is really going to remember. So I might as well try everything and do it to the best of my ability and see how things go."
 
Cramer played football for three years before opting to serve as the team's manager this fall. He played basketball for four years and baseball for three years, losing his sophomore year to COVID.
 
With his sports, he mixes in time with the pep and jazz bands, playing keyboard in the latter this year after having played bass guitar previously. It was a natural transition – he's taken piano lessons for nine years and has gotten I ratings at the State Piano Festival each of the last three years.
 
Cramer, who also played clarinet when he was in middle school, was named the school's outstanding musician this year. In more ways than one, Waldron, in her first year at Oskaloosa, is beyond relieved she had Cramer on hand to help make her transition as smooth as possible.
 
"I met him last summer – (former Oskaloosa music teacher) Stuart (O'Neil) had me come to a performance in Lawrence," Waldron said. "I came to listen to him and knew that he was already a pretty good musician. But man that's just the tip of the iceberg."
 
Waldron had never dealt with marching band, having previously taught at Raintree Montessori School in Lawrence. So Cramer stepped in and helped Waldron navigate the new territory.
 
"Cannon took charge there," she said. "He kept students moving, kept instructions coming. The commands I was supposed to know to get them to move forward, stop, play the next – I didn't know any of it. He's so humble and sweet that he's gently telling me how to get things done. Then he just did it and it just worked out because he knew exactly what to do."
 
Cramer has helped lead rehearsals in the classroom on days Waldron was absent. And when Waldron selected a piece written by O'Neil, who is now at Baldwin, for a percussion ensemble for this year's KSHSAA State Music Festival, she put Cramer in complete control of not only selecting the students to be involved, but also directing the group.
 
Cramer jumped at the chance.
 
"I'm familiar with how he writes the music and I've watched him direct the ensembles in the past," he said. "I've never really directed before – did some pep band stuff this fall – but it was cool. I assigned the parts to everyone who best fit which instrument. It was kind of cool because the majority of the ensemble doesn't play percussion. They play trumpet, trombone, clarinet. I had to get creative with what parts I would give.
 
"Standing in front of everyone was intimidating at first, me not fully knowing what I was doing. But we got it to click pretty well. We got a I at regionals so something must have gone right somewhere."
 
The 12-person ensemble, which includes performances on the xylophone, marimba, tympani, snare drum, bass drum, cabasa, sleigh bells and glockenspiel, followed with a I rating at last weekend's State Festival at Southeast of Saline.
 
"It's so cool because he picked the students who were involved knowing who could do what and he picked the right ones," Waldron said. "It's a complicated piece and he put it together in a perfect way. I've sat and given feedback, but they all know he's the reliable leader. He does it well and gracefully."
 
Cramer also received a II rating in his vocal trio performance at state last weekend. Earlier this year, he helped Oskaloosa's Scholar's Bowl team to its first state competition in 20 years.

After graduating from Oskaloosa in the spring, Cramer plans to study biochemistry at the University of Kansas, perhaps leading to a career in radiology. He had applied to Yale University and made it past the application process to the interview round.
 
Even though he ultimately wasn't selected, Davis said the simple fact that he applied should serve as motivation for younger Oskaloosa students.
 
"I think he's just been a really great role model and leader to a lot of underclassmen," she said. "He's raised the bar for a lot of them because they see him and know what's possible to achieve. If he can achieve it, why can't we achieve it?
 
"He's such a go-getter. If you needed him to help with something, he'll jump in and try it. I think that's allowed him to form relationships with a lot of different types of students, which has made him that role model and really relatable to many students. You see him in the forensic world, but then there's the group he sees on the football field or his peers in student council or FBLA or band and choir. He just has formed all those core groups that allowed him to be a role model and provided a lot of growth for him."
 
Adams agreed.
 
"They definitely recognize him as a leader," she said. "And he's a very comfortable leader, very approachable leader. If there was an underclassman who needed to know something, he has no trouble relating with them. He just seems to like everybody and get along with everybody. He's so comfortable in his own skin."
 
Having touched about every facet he could in high school, Cramer said finding the balance can be tough to maintain the high level of expectations he has for himself. But at the same time, he wouldn't have had it any other way.
 
"I've really just gotten experience in every aspect possible," he said. "It was great to be able to do anything I wanted. Time got crunched a little bit, but at the end of the day I got to be president of the NHS, organize blood drives, compete at nationals, compete in sports. Things like SADD, seat belt surveys and pledges and other stuff. Having all those experiences working with other people and learning to read people, understand what their strengths are and where they can best fit to lead others. That's more cool to me than doing it myself, finding someone else who can do it better than I can and watching them do it.
 
"I really didn't expect it to be that way. I just saw the opportunities and said, 'Why not?'"