Student Spotlight Spring 2020
Shedding light on the students who are striving to achieve more in Del Norte County
Page 2 — Student Spotlight • Spring 2020
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Student Spotlight • Spring 2020 — Page 3
New baseball coach looks to take Warriors back to the basics
David Hayes Staff Writer
Roger Schultz, 53, may be Del Norte High School’s new head baseball coach, but he is certainly not new to the sport. Most of his experience coaching was in the private sector — Del Norte Limited, teaching lessons for 15 years, working in Little League and Babe Ruth up through the ranks and has he done a lot of officiating. He’s actually seen many of the players on the team now since they were 6 years old.
Schultz is ready to take the program in a new direction — winning. “Last year was horrible. We’re coming off the worst season probably in Del Norte history with just one league win,” Schultz said. He attributed the down year to a transition in coaching and a lack of desire. “They didn’t do any teaching at all. They expected the kids through osmosis to somehow hit the ball. We’re not going to tell you how to fix your swing, but somehow if you keep doing it enough, it
will get better,” Schultz said. To help him turn around the team's fortunes are assistant coaches Mike Dixon and Danny Bassett who have come up through the same ranks as Schultz. Schultz has 10 players on varsity, all but three are seniors. He figures to fill the roster by bumping up some underclassmen from the junior varsity squad, which has a pool of 18 players. “We’ll see if they’re mentally and physically ready. A lot of this game is
See more Coach on page 8
Page 4 — Student Spotlight • Spring 2020
Tennis team hopes for continued success Staff Report The Del Norte Warrior boy’s tennis team is headed into another season with a good track record, talented players and a fairly new, yet successful, coach. “Last year’s season was good… we are hoping to do the exact same thing this season,” said Coach Rivers Drown. Under Drown’s leadership, the Warriors went 9-2 last year, and Drown hopes his players will produce similar, or even better, results this year. With three promising star players, Drown believes they have a good chance of
reaching their goals. The team’s lead player last season, sophomore Zack Lor, and Drown’s son, freshman Evan Drown, and senior Xavier Young have prepared for the season and bring experience and determination. The team consists of 11 players, only six of whom will travel for and play in games. However, the remaining five will play exhibition matches, extra low stakes matches on open courts during home games. That way the players get time on the court and their families get to see them in action. As the season begins,
Drown plans for the games by reviewing the competition, and he predicts the Arcata High School Tigers will be their greatest challenge. “That’s not to say that there won’t be challenges with other schools, but Arcata I really have a lot of thought process about,” Drown said. To Drown, teaching students tennis is an investment in their future. When people get older, some sports, such as football, are not as feasible to play, but Drown says tennis is a sport people can enjoy their entire lives. “When you’re 60, you’re not going to be wrestling, and you’re not going to be jumping hurdles when your 60. But you’re probably going to be playing tennis,” Drown said. By encouraging students in the sport, he is offering them an enjoyable way to
exercise and stay healthy that they can maintain throughout their future. “It’s just great exercise. You’re exercising, but you don’t think you are because you’re having so much fun and that’s why I like it, too,” Drown said.
Not only does tennis allow students to hone their athletic ability, but it also gives them problem-solving skills, according to Drown. “It’s a sport that teaches you how to figure how to deal with the problem because after every hit there
is another problem coming and you have to adapt and manage the problems,” Drown said. As the students learn and practice these valuable skills this spring, Drown hopes to see them take more wins for Del Norte.
Student Spotlight • Spring 2020 — Page 5
Crescent Elk chess club responded to overwhelming popularity David Hayes Staff Writer
In her second year as librarian at Crescent Elk Middle School, a funny thing happened in 2019 when she put out a chessboard as decoration in the school library. “The kids flocked around it. There was a huge crowd around it every day at lunch,” Millhouse said. “So, I figured I’d put out two more boards and see what happens.”
What happened was an unexpected, growing outlet into an untapped student interest. So, Millhouse created a club dedicated to the burgeoning tabletop sport that actually dates back more than 1,500 years. “We now have over 100 students signed up for chess club out of 600 in the school. But they don’t always all show up. Some just signed up for the novelty,” Millhouse admitted. The club meets every
Friday during lunch and recently had a tournament against Smith River School, with a less-thanideal outcome. “We lost,” Millhouse said. “Our finalist was eighth-grader Blake Larson. It was a close tournament and a lot of fun.” Larson went 6-1 in the tournament, losing just the championship match. Now in his second year in the club, Larson said he’s See more Chess on page 9
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Page 6 — Student Spotlight • Spring 2020
The hottest kitchen in town Staff Writer
Every Wednesday, sweet aromas of apple pie, chicken parmesan, baked potatoes or other such delicacies waft through Castle Rock Charter’s campus. The scent comes from Room 9 where Chef Michael Gomez teaches his cooking class. Inside, the classroom reveals students stirring, rolling dough, chopping vegetables and flouring their pies while oven timers sound in the background. The chaotic, yet orderly, scene is one that has become a safe place for many students who can explore the art of cooking
while in the friendly environment Gomez has cultivated. “It’s all about belonging through socialization with education by getting them in the kitchen and involved,” Gomez said. For two years, Gomez, who has extensive experience in the restaurant business, has taught the basics of cooking to Castle Rock Charter students. He instructs students in basic nutrition and trains them to cook from scratch. “I like that every week we get to make something new and the chef is really nice. Everyone is working like a well-oiled machine and is working together,” said ninth-grader Anna
Smith. His class has become a popular option for students. It started with only a few students, but more and more have been joining to the point where Gomez had to turn some away. “The way that the children get to be a large part individual but taught and they work together. I think it’s wonderful and just been growing and growing and growing,” said Monika Gambrell, one of the parents. But the class is about more than simply cooking. It is about creating a place of belonging, where students can get away from technology, make friends and learn soft skills
through something that connects people — food. “Everybody wants to belong. And the chef program is designed that way to get these kids to work together,” Gomez said. “In the future, when they get a job, they [will] know how to communicate, and the best way to communicate is through food.” As much as is feasible, Gomez uses quality ingredients to help students learn healthy eating, and his class has received several food donations from
local producers, such as Alexandre Farms and Rumiano Cheese. He also emphasizes using good hygiene and clean kitchen practices. All of the students must watch their hands before they begin cooking and throughout the class. “If you teach them right from the very beginning, they will develop better skills when it comes to healthy eating, and this is what’s good about our community,” Gomez said. “My goal is to make a
healthy community.” At the end of every class period, after cooking and cleaning, the students get to pause from their work to enjoy the food they made and visit with each other. They also make extra food to feed to the staff so the staff can check their progress. Gomez hopes his class will give the students foundational tools to create a healthy lifestyle in the future from cooking in college dorms to making dinner for their families.
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Softball team works for solid base Jessica Goddard Staff Writer
After a rough season last year, the Del Norte High School softball team, comprised of mostly younger players, is swinging into the season with the goal of building a resilient team. Coach Jacki Heuberger hopes a strong foundation will lead to more victories this year and following seasons. “We have basically a brand new team. Lots of opportunities for new girls to come in and take over positions, and that’s actually what we’ve seen, “ Heuberger said.
With only four returning players, one senior and no junior varsity, the team faces the challenge of mastering softball’s foundational elements. However, the coach has confidence in her diligent players and her knowledgeable coaching staff, which includes her husband, Morgan. “I have a very strong coaching staff [who] knows a lot about the game. It’s a lot of fun to come out and just be able to have coaches that you don’t have to coach,” Heuberger said. Even this early in the season, the players are thriving as a team, according to
Heuberger, and they are willing to put in the grueling work to master the sport. Not only that, but they are also enthusiastic. “It’s hard to build a program and have fun at the same time,” Heuberger said. “They’re just really excited to be out here and that helps us really keep being more inspiring as coaches.” The biggest difficulty this season is the lack of pitchers. Only two of the four returning players will be pitching this season. Regardless, they have had a decent roster with 18 girls coming out. Among those players are a
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Student Spotlight • Spring 2020 — Page 7
few key players for the season, including the only senior, Mckenzy Fernandes. She batted almost .400 last year, and she is the team’s number fourhitter. “She’s super confident and works hard every day,” Heuberger said. “I think she’s going to be amazing.” While Heuberger is pushing for a cohesive team, she enjoys seeing her players succeed individually as well. The players work together during the game, but when they go up to bat, they get to flex their individual skills. “Softball is one of those funny sports where you can be
an individual and still be part of a team and do well,” Heuberger said. “The great thing about it is trying to get girls to understand how to work hard as an individual and then also support your team.” The team is ready to put in the work to establish a solid team, learn the basics and win some games, and finally, they are hoping for good weather throughout the season. “We plan on winning, winning as much as we can and learning,” Heuberger said. “We want to be successful this year, but really build so that next year we just get to be even better.”
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Page 8 — Student Spotlight • Spring 2020
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year,” Schultz said. “A.J. Schultz hit .433 and led us and was top 10 in the league. But everyone else was below .200. If you’re not hitting above .300 in baseball, you’ve got a problem.” Schultz said he wants to get the Warriors baseball program back to being solid and respectable like the school’s other success-
ful sports. “I want to get it solid so it’s a program kids want to play for. Football has been successful. Wrestling is successful. Basketball is successful. Baseball, we want some of that. We want more community support, get more fan support. We’d like to fill the bleachers and make it fun again,” Schultz added.
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mental toughness and mental preparedness. Our job is to mold them and help them understand that part of the game,” Schultz said. The main goal for the year is to get back to .500 in league play. To accomplish that, he plans at this level to get back to the basics of fundamental baseball. “Get them learning how to move their feet, field properly, how to throw, position themselves properly for the backup throw, how to communicate. The things I’ve seen that’s been missing watching from the stands, keeping books, the stats. So I know where we’re at,” Schultz said. At the same time, he’ll be working on improving the offensive side of the
shortstop. Tanner Forkner is the catcher and Kurtis Turner may be brought up from JV to give Schultz another option at catcher. In the outfield, Kaden Ritter is back for his fourth year on varsity in center field. “We’ve got a great outfield, we just need to get their batting average up from the .200 average last
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better than you are. Just play to the best of your ability. Do the things you know you need to be doing and you’ll be successful,” he said. Schultz sees strength in the Warriors' senior defense with some good, experienced players. But he figures they’re still a little light in the pitching department. “We’ve got some stable pitchers who can throw strikes, which is good. We don’t have a lot of high velocity. We’ve got kids that can hit the target. Spot pitchers, we call them,” Schultz said. He said the Warriors have a good core of infielders with O.J. Calleja at first, A.J. Schultz at second, who may see some time in the outfield, and Jared Dixon, who can provide versatility being able to play second, third or T277879bE0320
Coach
game. “We’ll be working on pitch recognition, swinging at the right pitch, the mental part of the game. To know when to put the ball down, how to play small ball, how to work the bunt when you need to. Get them to not swing at the 2-0 count, low-outside curveball and pop out. They did that a lot last year and that’s what we’re going to get away from this year,” he said. Schultz expects tough competition this year from Eureka, Arcata and a St. Bernard’s Academy junior pitcher, who throws in the 90s and is getting looks from Division I colleges. “I just gotta keep these kids mentally thinking that’s no big deal. When they see somebody out there like that, you’ve got to think there’s nobody you can’t hit. There’s nobody
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the College of the Redwoods for experienced players, but they, too, did not have an active club. So, for now, there’s Crescent Elk, Smith River and a few players scattered around the district. Seventh-grader Lily
Davis said she joined the club last year. “I learned to play in the fifth grade from my grandpa,” she said. “I like playing chess now so I thought I might as well join the club. It was another fun thing to do.” In addition to the fun
element, Millhouse said she noticed the students are respectful to one another when they play chess. “In the year and a half of running the chess club, we have only had one player being disrespectful and not showing amazing
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sportsmanship,” Millhouse said. This year, Millhouse allowed the chess club to merge together with the D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) club. “I kind of let the nerd things group together,” she teased.
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actually been playing since fourth grade. “I just like the game. I’ve been playing it with my dad and friends. It’s a really good opportunity to play chess in the club. A hundred students seem to enjoy it,” Larson said. Millhouse is hoping the high school and other schools in the area start chess clubs so they can have an even bigger tournament next year. Most players in the club are beginners, so their Friday meetings are just free play, with Millhouse going from table to table, suggesting strategies. “I’ll go up to a board and yank off all the bishops and tell them to keep playing,” she said.
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Millhouse admits she is not a “chess mistress,” having only learned the game herself the summer before starting the club. “Someday I’d like to get in more experienced chess players who can teach advanced strategies, but for now, we do it pretty lose and have fun,” she said. Millhouse was very surprised that so many students signed up for the club. The first year was the group gathering around the one board then the next year, a group of sixth-graders coming in already knew the game and were really excited to finally have a chess club. “I have a group of eighth-graders who are actually depressed they won’t have a chess club when they go to high school,” Millhouse said. She also reached out to
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Page 10 — Student Spotlight • Spring 2020
Coaches set reasonable expectations for Warriors’ track program David Hayes Staff Writer
The Warriors' track program was in transition last year. It started with 70 on the team and ended with 40. Jeff Cook, who returns for his second season as head coach, is hoping to build upon last year’s learning experiences. Last year, Cook said he only planned to be a transitional coach, taking the reins from longtime head coach Samuel Escobar, who has stayed around to help as an assistant. But when no one stepped up to head the program this season, Cook was persuaded to return. “This year will be a lot easier,” Cook said. “Last year, I didn’t even know the name of the stretches in warm-ups. Now I understand the point of
why we do everything.” Cook said the Warriors were really young last year but still did pretty well. There were a lot of freshmen and sophomores last year, who should be returning stronger this season. “Our girls should be really good this year,” Cook added. Escobar has been with the track team for about 12 years, six years as head coach. He said in the past, the track and field program has averaged 60-70 athletes. This year, it’s down to 50, but should rise once the winter sports are over, Escobar said. “It’s been years since the Warriors have qualified anyone for state finals. The reason isn’t that our kids aren’t talented. It’s that California has only one division for
track and field,” Escobar said, adding the team is always up against the best of the best at each level. Escobar said the goal this season is to set reasonable goals for the program. “With this group of kids, that’s because we don’t have too many seniors on boys or girls team,” he said. “Pole vaulter Bryce Howard qualified last year for League of Champions (one level below state finals) and Luke King, a thrower, we have high expectations for. And sprinter Samuel Cowan did well last year.” He added overall, the
boys team, talent-wise, is not that strong. “For goals, we expect the team to get in shape, follow the drills we have for them and eventually be competitive,” Escobar said. The Warriors' last league championship was 2016. “We had five or six good kids and with that, you can get a league championship. This year will be tough when you’re not that deep and not that strong,” he said. In terms of girls, once basketball and wrestling are over, Escobar expects the Warriors are going to have a good core of kids that will be competitive.
“My expectation for them is to be competing for a league championship. Returning are Vanessa Martinez in the pole vault, freshman Giana Taylor who’s fast, Tiana Thompson, a sprinter who is fast, Lisa McCovy is strong in hur-
dling, McKayla Jackson who’s a good jumper and Clair Taylor who’s also a good long jumper,” Escobar said. “So, our expectation is reasonable — for boys, just compete. For girls, a league championship is within their reach.”
Student Spotlight • Spring 2020 — Page 11
Lacrosse club competes to recruit athletes from other spring sports Staff Writer
Ronald Gastineau is trying to get more students to join one of the newest clubs at Del Norte High School to play one of the oldest sports in North America — lacrosse. Gastineau’s booklet on the sport states there is evidence that a version of lacrosse originated in what is now Eastern Canada as early as the 17th century. Unfortunately, modernday evidence shows the field sport has a hard time competing with all of the other spring sports in Del Norte County. Gastineau, who teaches freshmen seminar and media arts, has helmed the lacrosse club for five years. It’s open to all grades at the high school and he even lets some brothers and sisters who might be eighth-graders join in on the fun. “Hopefully they play again when they become freshmen,” Gastineau said, adding the club only has 10 kids now and not all of them show up at the same time. “It ebbs and flows. Some
years we have people who are really gung-ho about it and want to play all the time. Then other years, you’d think the club would grow as people play from freshman to sophomore, but then as juniors and seniors they’re working, doing other stuff and activities,” Gastineau said. Gastineau played the sport himself for the first time for three years at Humboldt State University. “It has aspects of both hockey and basketball. And you don’t have to be huge to play because if you’re good with your stick handling, you can be a little short person inside and score goals all day,” Gastineau said. “That’s what I tell soccer players. ‘Hey, you guys want to score three or four goals in a game instead of a whole season?’ It’s high-scoring, exciting and the fastest game on grass.” Gastineau said the hardest part is trying to get kids out of the traditional spring sports of baseball, softball and track. “It’s a hard sport to play, so everyone pretty much starts off suckin’ at it. But
they keep trying it. This year we’re trying sweatshirts looking more like a team. Hopefully, get some more people in here,” he said. The steep learning curve didn’t detour sophomore Naomi Appel, who made lacrosse the first sport she ever played. “I saw a poster on the wall and thought, ‘Hey, that seems fun.’ It is a lot of fun. I’m not very good at it, but I’m having a lot of fun,” she said. Junior Blane Winingham also joined at the beginning of the year for similar reasons. “They randomly put a poster in a spot where I normally sit. I saw it and randomly thought, ‘Why not?’ I tried it out and I’ve been having fun,” Winingham said. “I like being able to get out of the house on a weekend. I don’t normally do anything unless I have a reason for doing it. And this is a really good reason.” The club meets throughout the school year (Gastineau takes summers off for vacation trips with his wife) on Sundays when odds are other sports are not
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using the facilities. As one of the fastestgrowing sports in the U.S., Gastineau is not surprised it has not caught on in Del Norte County. “I’m trying to get some of my HSU alumni buddies down there on board to get some kids together to throw around like we do. We have enough equipment to outfit five on a team. So two teams of five,” Gastineau said. A normal team is a goalie, three defensemen, three attackmen and three midfielders. Unfortunately, Gastineau added, it’s just as expensive as football — $250 a kid. “I spent a lot of money my first year getting equipment. Now we do fundraisers, go on field trips,” he said. As there are no other teams on the North Coast (the next nearest programs are in Redding, Roseburg, Ore., and the Bay Area), Gastineau takes the club on road trips to watch HSU play the sport. Another hurdle for the lacrosse club is the spring weather. “Lacrosse is an all-
weather sport, but who wants to be out in it if it was raining right now? So we can play in the gym,” Gastineau said. “We’re able to use the soccer fields in the spring.” He added the county athletic director is looking into taking the main football field and turn it into a multi-use, astroturf, allweather field. “But that’s millions of dollars that nobody ever
has,” Gastineau added. Now into her second year in the club, junior Kiana Lee said it’s a great social activity regardless of your skill level. “A friend got me into it,” she said. “I really like that it’s coed and it’s a contact sport and we just chill around with Mr. Gastineau. Everyone in the club is really friendly and we’re always open to new members.”
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Page 12 — Student Spotlight • Spring 2020
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