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The Echo BGA’s Student Newspaper
February 5, 2019
February Issue
2019 Chili Cook-Off by Sarah May
As many of you know, the annual Senior Chili Cook-off took place on February 1st. This is the 12th annual Chili Cook-off put on by the senior class, which took place prior to the girls and guys senior night basketball ball games against CPA. The goal of the Chili Cook-off is to help raise money for the Senior Project Graduation Party. For a little more background on the tradition of “PG,” or Project Graduation, I contacted Mrs. Candy Sullivan: “Project Graduation (PG) is an all-night lock-in for graduating seniors. It is held the night of graduation. It begins at 10:30 pm and goes until 6:00 am. This year’s event will take place at the Williamson County Enrichment Center (old BGA). PG was started in the 1950’s by a group of parents. At that time it was determined that grad-
uation night was the night in which there were the most student deaths due to drinking and driving after celebrating their graduation. The parents felt if an event was planned for the students to celebrate their success, it may cut down on the number of graduation drinking-related deaths. BGA started PG in 1996. The theme is a casino
Speech Update by Paige LaRock The Speech and Debate team has had an immense amount of success throughout last semester and in the past few weeks. The spring season started early with Natalie Watson ‘19, Marie Stengel ‘20, and Julianna Mills ‘21 all travelling to Nebraska before our second semester even started and all three members made it past preliminary rounds. Only a week later, the team travelled to the University of Alabama where Natalie Watson won Dramatic Interpretation and Original Oratory as well as placing in Poetry
and Prose Interpretation. Other finalists include Paul Lohmann ‘21 in Informative, Ben Boger ‘21 in Extemporaneous, and Paige LaRock ‘21 in Extemporaneous. Following that tournament, the team took 1st place at the Cookeville High School Invitational where Natalie Watson won Dramatic Interpretation and Original Oratory, Paul Lohmann won Informative, and Paige LaRock won Extemporaneous. Other finalists include Jimmy Shi ‘21, Julianna Mills ‘21, Alex Wasson ‘20, Mary Courtney Finn ‘22, and Grace Rook ‘24. The team also competed in Bartlett this past weekend and took
The Echo Staff Bailey Anderson Mitchell Morrison Ching Ching Zhang Sarah May Shea Kelly Drew Lamb Nick Semptimphelter Ally Newkirk
Sara Grace Harney Lindsay Phelps Jack Sauder Cooper Helm Jack Cheney Alex Pareigis Dalia Diab Jad Diab
night with lots of food and prizes. The seniors vote on the dealers from BGA faculty and staff. They also vote on what types of food and prizes they would like at their party. It is the last time for the entire class to be together until they begin their reunions.” Each year seniors decide their own teams. Every group has a theme
in which they decorate their tables and dress up in different costumes. Guests were able to vote on their favorite Chili, best costume, and best decorations. Some of the tables this year include Chilionaires, Chewbacca Chili, Hill-Chili, Chili Wanka and the Bean Factory, and Kevin’s Chili (The Office).
3rd as a team with all members breaking in all events. Natalie Watson won Dramatic Interpretation and Original Oratory, Paige LaRock won Extemporaneous and placed 2nd in Informative, Mary Courtney Finn placed 2nd in Extemporaneous and 5th in Informative, Ben Boger placed 4th in Poetry and 5th in Extemporaneous, and Paul Lohmann won Informative and placed 6th in Impromptu. The season is far from over with tournaments in the coming weeks
in Collierville, Gatlinburg, and then the team is heading to the NSDA National Qualifier and the Tennessee State Qualifier. If you are interested whatsoever in speech, it is not too late to try it out this year. We have plenty of spots still open on our State Qualifier entry and this would be an excellent first tournament to try speech for anyone who is thinking about becoming involved in Speech and Debate next season!
Colby Davis Emma Shumaker Izzy Donoghue Parker Daniel