Childhood Sweethearts Get Engaged At Mokena Junior High

MOKENA, IL — High school sweethearts is an often used term for couples, but you don't usually hear about junior high sweethearts. However, that's exactly what future husband and wife Clint Nooner and Paige Goesel are.

In February 2011, Nooner, a Mokena Junior High School eighth-grader at the time, said he mustered up the courage to ask fellow eighth-grader Goesel to be his girlfriend.

Nooner said he found Goesel in the B-wing hallway before eighth period. He asked her to be his girlfriend, to which she responded, "sure."

Nooner and Goesel continued to date through high school, and both attended Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. During their junior year, Goesel transferred to a school back home in Illinois to fast track her path toward graduate school for speech pathology.

The two said they then had a long-distance relationship for 11 months while Nooner stayed in Nashville to finish school. By November 2018, Nooner said he knew it was time to propose.

Nooner said he knew immediately just where he was going to ask Goesel. He planned a dinner at her favorite restaurant, and then had to devise a plan to get Goesel to meet him at Mokena Junior High, where they first started dating all those years ago.

Nooner plays basketball with friends and family once a week at the school. He told Goesel on the way home from dinner that he had to stop and grab the key to the school so they could play basketball the next day.

Nooner said when they arrived at the school, he asked Goesel to come in with him, but she said no. Nooner then turned off the car in the cold weather, forcing Goesel to come inside the warm school.

Goesel said she thought Nooner was just being rude.

The two walked up to the B-wing door, where unbeknownst to Goesel, Nooner's sisters had decorated a spot just inside the door. Nooner got down on one knee, and asked Goesel to marry him, proposing in the same hallway where he asked her to be his girlfriend when they were 13 years old.

Goesel once again responded, "sure."

Nooner and Goesel will be getting married July 31, 2020. Nooner is currently finishing student teaching to become a history teacher, while Goesel is in graduate school to become a speech pathologist.