Community Corner

Former Gwinnett Local on Jeopardy on Wednesday

Katy Stigers, granddaughter of Grayson couple Howard and Martha Emmons, will be a contestant on the game show. Stigers is a graduate of Parkview High in Lilburn.

 

There will be one family in Grayson glued to the television screen Wednesday when the episode of Jeopardy airs – Howard and Martha Emmons. The reason? Their granddaughter, Katy Stigers, is one of the contestants.

“We are so proud of her,” said Stigers’ grandmother, Martha Emmons. “We will definitely be watching. She is so smart. She is the head coach at Virginia Intermont College. She’s a good teacher, but she’s also a very good soccer player. They wanted a soccer coach and she needed a job, so right now she is coaching soccer.”

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Emmons said they have told everybody they know about their granddaughter’s scheduled appearance on Jeopardy and will have a get-together at their home in Grayson during the airing of the show. Stigers’ parents will be visiting for the occasion.

The episode of is scheduled to air on 11 Alive at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. It was taped in November.

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“They have said they’ll come by, so we will all be watching,” Emmons said.

Stigers said she is thrilled to have such a wonderful opportunity, and she credits much of that to her grandparents.

"They were very important in making it happen. When I had to go to the final interview in Orlando, there were a number of conflicts for me and I didn't think I could get it done," Stigers said. "My daughter was in a family wedding in Missouri and I had the job interview here in Virginia where I'm working now. I thought I wouldn't be able to get it all done, but my grandparents said this was such a great honor and that they wanted me to do this. They offered to help me get from Virginia to Orlando and they did - so now I'm in it."

Stigers was raised in the Mountain Park area and now lives in Bristol, Tenn. with her husband, Peter, and their two children. According to the Virginia Intermont College bio on Stigers, she is a graduate of Parkview High School in Lilburn. While there, she captained her soccer team to a state championship as a junior and a state final as a senior. She also was a club state champion and MVP of the Georgia Open Cup in 1996 as well as Gwinnett County Player of the Year in 1997. In 1998, she was named to the Georgia senior all-star game. Stigers also reportedly played on the Georgia Soccer Olympic Development Program team for several years. According to her bio, Stigers been coaching soccer almost as long as she played including coaching club teams and camps in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri. Stigers also served as assistant coach at NCAA Division I Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. in 2002.

With Jeopardy, her academic qualifications are going to be key and her grandmother doesn’t think that is going to be a problem.

“Oh, she is very smart,” Emmons said, referring to Stigers participation in the political science program at Emory University.

On the Virginia Intermont College website giving Stigers academic qualifications, it gives Stigers as a graduate of King College with a double major in History, and Political Science (BA magna cum laude). She also earned an M.A. in Urban Affairs from Saint Louis University (St. Louis, MO) in 2007 and is a graduate student in the Ph.D. program in political science at Emory University.


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