It's Valentine's Day, and love is in the air! We are checking in with a few of our Sycamore Alumni whose high school love stories went beyond the halls of SHS and stood the test of time. See below for these special SHS Sweetheart stories and hear what they are up to now. 

Jenny Lloyd Ruff '86 & Phil Ruff '85

"Phil and I met in orchestra in Junior high. I thought Phil got really cute over the summer before his senior/my junior year. In typical high school fashion at the time, I told my best friend, Jenny Blank this. She told him 'if you ask Jenny Lloyd out to homecoming, I bet she’d say yes'. He gave me his class ring on October 26, 1984 and we’ve been together ever since! We moved away for a few years while going to school but came back to Sycamore to raise our kids near family. We love to travel the world, but Sycamore will always be home. And recently, our oldest son and his wife have made us grandparents and they’re staying in Sycamore too! (And PS. All three of our kids played in the orchestra at Sycamore HS too!)"

Dylan Rautio '04 & Rachel Deutsch Rautio '07

"We met my freshman year, his senior year. He gave me rides to school, even after he graduated. He attended prom with me my senior year. We moved to Wyoming for college together, got engaged during college, and came back and got married. We have two kids together, and have moved back to Wyoming. Still love telling people we have been together since high school!"

Trenton Divito '18 and Grace Johnson '19

"Grace and I met when we were both students at SHS and had the same lunch hour. We met in the lunchroom and started spending more and more time together in and outside of school. We are getting married this June and are looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together!"

Todd Madden '94 & Jennifer (Beamsley) Madden '92

"We first met at SHS! Todd was a freshman and Jennifer was a junior. We were both late for class when we saw each other in the hallway and it was an instant connection! We have been married for almost 29 years! We have four boys who all graduated from Sycamore, a daughter in law, another daughter in law to be in 2025 and 2 beautiful granddaughters! We still live and work in Sycamore. Todd is Mortgage Loan Advisor and Jennifer has a photography business."

Scott and Lindsay (Sgarlata) Doty '06

"We first met when Lindsay moved to Sycamore in 7th grade and we had a similar group of friends. We first dated (briefly) freshman year and reconnected sophomore year when Lindsay invited me to the turnabout dance. We've been together ever since! Today, we live in Elburn and have three wonderful children, Paige, Sawyer and Emma. Lindsay teaches kindergarten in Downers Grove, and I work in corporate finance. We love that we are still close to home and that we call Sycamore our hometown!"

Amanda (Ericson) Graham '13 and Joseph Graham '14

"We met in Mrs. Poynter’s Ag classes! We were both in FFA together and after being friends for over a year and Joseph asking Amanda (more than once 😉) to give him a shot, she finally said yes! The rest is history. We started dating in 2012 and just got married on October 7th, 2023. We are both very proud Sycamore Alumni. Every fall, Joseph goes to as many football games as he can. We both try and support Sycamore as best as we can and are both members of the Sycamore FFA Alumni as well. We bought a house together in sycamore in 2018. Our tight knit friend group from high school can be found together on almost any given weekend. Without our time at Sycamore High School, our lives would’ve been vastly different. We are very thankful for the support, friendships, and love found at SHS. Amanda is a registered nurse in the ICU at Sherman Hospital and Joseph is a Logistics Coordinator for Ryerson Steel. FUN FACT: our joined best friend of the past 15+ years, Mr. Christian Thurwanger, who works at SHS, officiated our wedding."

Thank you to all for sharing your stories! We all travel life's path in different ways! Alumni Spotlight is an opportunity for Sycamore alumni to share personal and professional news (college degrees earned, new employment, professional accomplishments, etc.) as a way to foster community and strengthen connections among alumni. We invite you to shar your stories and help strengthen our Spartan network! These posts will be public on the Sycamore Alumni and Friends website.