2nd Edition NS Times 2019-20

English teacher brings love of

Spophomore places second at state cross country

the arts and ballet to NS. --See story page 5

--See Story page 8

13 nov 19

www.nstimes.org

volume 13 issue 2

WELL SAID

“If there were a cure for stupidity, I would have it on hand daily and I would give it to students regularly” -Coach Brian Strain, responding to questions

WEBSITE FIND THESE STORIES AT WWW.NSTIMES.ORG

Flu Shots BY

M ARLEE CROZIER

State Volleyball BY

SIRI HUNTINGTON

10 Hardest Classes BY

CARSON H ADLEY

Super Mario Maker 2 BY

K AJE NIELSN

UPCOMING EVENTS Thursday, Nov 14 Swim @ Richfield 3:30 pm-7:30 pm

Principal chosen as new superintendent BY

M AYZIE TALBOT

On Oct. 24, beloved NS principal Nan Ault was announced as the new superintendent for the upcoming school year.

“I am so proud of the board of education for making decisions that they feel are necessary for us, but I am extremely overwhelmed and honored that they would even consider me,” Ault said.

About a week before the announcement was made, Ault was approached with the decision by some members of the board. The decision was not an easy one for the dedicated principal.

“It was a lot of thoughtful prayer and consideration about how this affects my staff because they’re my first consideration in a

See Nan, page 2

Photo provided my Mayzie Talbot

NS principal Nan Ault was appointed superintendent for NSSD on Oct. 24.

Her presence at the high school will be greatly missed.

Priorities vary among dedicated students

Tuesday, Nov 19 Girls Basketball vs Carbon @ NS 4:00 pm-9:00 pm Swim vs. WA, Carbon & Gunnison @ NS 3:00 pm-7:00 pm

BY

Wednesday, Nov 20 Fall Sports Awards @ NS Auditorium 8:00 pm Thursday, Nov 21 Swim @ Milard 3:30 pm-7:00 pm

BY THE NUMBERS

2

Place sophomore Aubry Cook took at state cross country

50 Percent of NS students that got a flu shot this year

1

Photo by Kaylee Anderson

For most students at NS, grades are the number one priority. Students also feel competition in classes, especially honors, to be the highest achievers.

AUDREY I NGLISH

For many students, it feels as if there simply aren’t enough hours in a day. With so much to do and so little time, students have to prioritize the different aspects of their lives.

“When sports are going on, it’s kind of hard to focus on everything at once,” said sophomore Landon Bowles. “It just takes a lot of time, so you don’t have as much time to do school work, but it’s worth it.”

See Priorities, page 3

Honors Classes spark student competition BY

K AYLEE A NDERSON

At the high school, students tend to go in two different directions when choosing their schedules. Some take the required classes and a couple other electives to meet graduation requirements; other students take the harder path and chose more advanced classes.

In the two core classes, math and language

arts, there is an honors option for the students who pick up concepts faster than the average student. Honors classes also differentiate in some subject material.

“The biggest difference,” said Language Arts Department Chair Kaylene Johnson. “Is that we can go, often a few levels deeper and talk about more significance than just getting through the subject

matters the core wants us to do.”

Being able to discuss topics on a deeper level is one compelling aspect that draws people to take the honors classes.

“I know my freshman English teacher started talking about the more obscure ideas and that made me want to take an honors English class,” said Johnson. “He wouldn’t talk about it very much until he

See Honors, page 3

ACT changes could lead to higher scores

BY M AREN BENCH

at ACT said students who want to better their Place NS was ranked Beginning in Sept. scores would be given in football RPI 2020, high schoolers the opportunity to retake CONTENTS won’t need to repeat single sections of the fivethe whole ACT exam in part test, instead of retakFeatures................5 Sports....................8 order to improve their ing the whole test. The Arts.......................11 score. purpose is to help stuCrossword...........12 On Oct. 8, officials dents avoid getting worse

scores on sections they have previously taken.

“You will have more choices and greater confidence that your ACT test scores best reflect your hard work, overall academic achievement, and potential for success

throughout your life,” according to an announcement on www.act.org.

Other changes include a new superscore, which is the combination of the highest results from each section regardless of test date, and faster

results with online testing.

“One thing that I don’t like is that I think that because they’re now pushing more towards the online testing be-

See ACT, page 3

2 news Nan, continued from page 1

move like this,” Ault said.

When there’s a need for a new superintendent, a school board can do one of two things. They can open a position and interview candidates or appoint a superintendent.

“Our board decided unanimously to appoint Nan as the new superintendent, and so we did,” said school board president Greg Bailey.

Usually, a new superintendent is announced later in the year, but the board decided to make the announcement earlier to allow Ault more time to adjust to the role.

“There’s a lot more to a district than a high school, so she’s got some things to understand, which she will,” Bailey said.

The school board has decided to leave the timeline up to Ault, regarding her transition from principal to superintendent, but she wants to get everything squared away before she leaves.

“I’m not just going to jump ship and pack my bags and hop on out of here,” Ault said. “I really have an investment here and need to finish this out well.”

Ault looks forward to seeing what she can do and still be a part of NS. “I just want us to feel like North Sanpete, and I want us to feel like we’re all part of a good team and that we can do anything we want to do. I really be-

lieve that,” Ault said.

She also looks forward to being able to sit down at lunch with her staff, an opportunity that being a principal took from her.

“I’ve eaten lunch in the faculty room twice in 23 years, so my promise is that I’m going to come over and I’m going to have lunch with the staff,” Ault said.

Ault didn’t anticipate this change so suddenly. She feels it will be a good opportunity for someone else to be principal at NS. “I always knew that at some point it would feel right for someone else to be here and have the chance to love this school like I do,” Ault said.

This is Ault’s eighth year as principal, so she has mixed emotions about this huge change.

“It is extremely emotional and hard for me because I adore this staff,” Ault said. “I think we have amazing people that work here at this high school, but I also know that I have incredible principals in other schools and staff that love their kids, so it’s worth it. It’s worth it.”

Even though Ault will no longer be a permanent presence at the high school, she still plans to support and love the Hawks.

“I love the high school. I will always be a Hawk,” Ault said. “I will

only be a parking lot away. I’m going to come eat lunch. I’m going to be at games. I’m going to be rooting for my kids and loving my staff from afar and taking care of them.”

During her time as principal, Ault has been not only a boss, but a friend to her staff.

“If you ever have a headache, or if you just need some chocolate, Nan has it in her office,” CTE teacher Auralee Brooks said. “All the staff knows where it’s at and we can all raid that drawer and get what we need. She takes care of us, so I’m going to miss that. I’m going to miss that I know that in that office the teachers have somebody who’s going to defend them. She’s always had our back.”

As for her role as superintendent, Brooks has no doubt Ault will be successful.

“I know how she has led the high school and she will do amazing. She takes things and she just goes,” Brooks said. “She kind of has a Midas touch.

Whatever she touches just seems to turn to gold; It works out.”

Although she can’t literally turn objects to gold, the board shares Brooks’s opinions on Ault’s attributes.

“She is a leader and I just can’t imagine anyone not getting along with her because she is just so easy to get

along with,” Bailey said. “She makes great decisions, and we feel that she is a great team player and collaborator.

Pretty much anybody that you talk to that spends time with her, they feel listened to and that she truly cares what others think. She asks for feedback and opinions and makes decisions based on that. That’s very important in this decision.”

Ault’s sudden promotion was a shock to many, and it will be a hurdle for the faculty and staff at NS to overcome.

“Because it was a little bit out of the blue, I do know that there was some surprise and I do know there were some people that felt blindsided,” Bailey said. “But we have awesome people at all levels in the district, the administrators and the teachers who, really no matter what is thrown at them, will be professional. They’ll do what’s best for the students and that’s what we expect of them.”

This change leaves a big question for the faculty and students at NS. Who will the new principal be?

“It deserves a great amount of thought,” Ault said. “And to the board’s credit, by doing this now and making a strong decision for themselves and putting things in place now, it gives us the time to do what’s right here.”

Gallery display created to showcase student art BY

M ARY JONES

All throughout the school, there are display cases dedicated to the purpose of showing the awards and successes of the sports teams at the school. However, there wasn’t a place to display the visual arts until this year.

“We have several shows that we do like: Springville, region, the State Capital show,” said art teacher Paul Allred.

“Nobody gets to see those pieces except the kids in the class, or me, maybe some adminis-

tration, and then it goes to the show and it’s displayed there, but nobody down here gets to see it.

So this gives more kids a chance to be recognized.”

Things like visual art are not displayed as often as sports. Something possibly less recognized in the school than even visual art is woodwork, which will also be put on display. But rather than showcase students like the other arts, their goal is to showcase the class.

“These types of classes teach so much more than just how to build a piece of furniture,” said

CTE teacher Brandon Olsen. “I mean it goes into so many other trades and circulates the foundation for lots and lots of jobs that people need, that people do in the future. We have a lot of students from North Sanpete that have gone into the trades, into skilled positions, and this is a class that kind of started them on that track.”

For Allred and Olsen, one of the problems that could occur with the exhibition room is damage to art from the sun, but that problem can be solved with UV protec-

tant glass. For NS student Makayla Robinson, the main concern is having art destroyed, damaged or not displayed because of the controversial viewpoints that can be expressed through art.

“If there was a downside, it would be kids going in and ruining it,” Robinson said. “I am thinking about doing a bunch of controversial stuff, so if one of those gets put up in there, then kids get offended over little things.”

A question that could be asked is whether the exhibition room

Photo Provided by Mary Jones

Built this summer, the display case will be a way for students to express themselves.

is going to accomplish its purpose. While there isn’t a set goal of the exhibition room, the purpose is to showcase students that otherwise wouldn’t be showcased.

“If a kid can get some

recognition or praise off of it, did it accomplish its purpose?” said Allred.

“Yeah. That is the whole purpose of having artwork displays, that we enjoy it.”

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3 news Priorities, continued from page 1

Survey displays drastic differences in top priorities of student body.

As a As a student that plays both football and basketball, Bowles understands the difficulty of high maintenance priorities. But sports aren’t the only activity that students at NS dedicate their time and effort to. Between academics, jobs, social events and extracurricular activities, the priorities of individual students can vary.

“It’s always been my goal to keep a 4.0 for as long as I can, so that’s my main focus,” said freshman BreiLynn Lund.

According to a recent NS Times

Honors, continued from page 1

survey, more than 70 percent of students consider maintaining their grades their first priority, while less than 10 percent prioritize learning.

“I wish all students, in a perfect world, were motivated to do well in their classes,” said Principal Nan Ault.

“Not just because they want a grade, but because they really want to learn it.”

Although the majority of students at NS consider their grades their first priority, the student body’s secondhighest priorities are more diverse.

just said, ‘Oh wait, I’m getting off-topic--I’m having a discussion with my honors class,’ and I thought I want to be a part of that.”

Another difference between honors classes and regular classes is that the students have two different kinds of views on education.

“This is not specific to students,” said math teacher Matt Syme. “But in general honors students just have a goal. They have a purpose in high school.

It’s pretty apparent that most honors students see a value in education and see a value in what they’re doing. They have motivation.”

Many honors students follow in the steps of older family members and that is their reason for taking the harder classes.

“I have an older sister and an older brother, and they are polar opposites when it comes to school,” said junior Elizabeth Madsen. “My sister was a 4.0 student and my brother was not to say the least. I saw both the paths they took and my sister took honors classes and I was like, ‘Oh, that is something I want to do.’”

Honors classes not only spark a deeper level of discussion but they also can

ACT, continued from page 1 cause you’ll get your scores back sooner,” said Hill. “I think they’re soon going to become all digital and online and I think that that would harm some students.”

Many seniors think along the same lines as Hill while the juniors and lower classes are looking forward to the changes.

“I think they’re gonna be great. Everyone is gonna get higher scores so that’s great,” said junior Jared Strait. “From what I’ve heard you can get your test results back faster and I just feel like it’s more convenient if you do it online, like you don’t have to go through all the worksheets, you just have to click next and you’re

According to the survey, students’ social lives are the second priority of most, closely followed by sports and grade maintenance.

“I do think that for the majority of students, they’ll get by with their academics, but they just want to be here with their friends,” Ault said.

With so many things to spend their time and effort on, it is common for students to manage multiple highmaintenance priorities at once. Trying to divide their time between their social lives, sports and academics can prove to be a challenge.

“I think [sports] makes it more difficult to keep your grades up because you always have to practice after school, and that takes time away from homework and studying,” Bowles said.

Between attending practices after school and preparing for games, it is more difficult for students in athletics to find time for their school work.

Similarly, students often find it difficult to prioritize between their grades and their social lives.

“I think that it is important to have

have more of a competitive nature to them.

“It kind of depends on the class,” said language arts teacher Jori Turpin.

“Some classes are way competitive; they want to know who has the highest A or whose was the best essay though. I definitely see that competitiveness, where maybe the regular English kids don’t care.”

While in some cases the competition can push students to better themselves, other times the competition ties with comparisons that hurt the kids more than motivates them.

“The one thing I hate in honors classes,” said Syme. “Is when you start throwing out test scores, students start comparing. You can see certain students in that honors class--they know what they got on their test and you can just see it crushes them.

That competition can be detrimental; it can shut people down and make it so if I’m not as good as that person, then why try?”

The competition felt by students in those classes is not always with their fellow peers in class, but oftentimes with just themselves.

“I personally have a slight fear of failure,” Madsen said. “I feel less competitive against other people and more competitive against myself to always be better

ready to move on.”

There is also the new scoring process known as superscoring, that is being added to the ACT. Superscoring is the process of averaging your four best individual subject scores from any and all ACT test attempts to find a new score now known as a superscore.

“We encourage colleges and universities to consider adding superscoring to their score-use policy because, as our research shows, superscores are just as predictive — if not more predictive — of first-year grades than other scoring methods.” according to act.org.

Colleges will be able to set their own policies regarding

superscoring.

ACT will supply them with at least one full composite score with each superscore, along with all the scores that make up the superscore composite. If colleges allow the super score composite, it could lead to ACT scores increasing, possibly significantly.

“I don’t hate that idea,” said English teacher Jori Turpin.

“I know that’s what people are super upset about is that all these ACT scores are gonna go way up, well if you take it three times and they take an average of that, that’s maybe a little more true to your skill, your knowledge level.”

When asked what their plan was regarding superscoring, the colleges surveyed still haven’t decided because the changes are relatively new.

When the decision is made, the information regarding it can be found on the colleges’ websites.

There is also the option to choose to take the test either

a group of friends, or at least a few good friends. Just to create memories, and so that you don’t regret your high school experience,” Lund said.

Why do students prioritize the things that they do? Many students prioritize according to the possibilities in their futures. Students like Lund and Bowles focus on their grades as a way to ensure a better future for themselves. “[In] my family, not all of them have gone to college,” Lund said.

“They don’t all have constant jobs. I’ve seen what kind of situation that can put people in. I’ve always just wanted to make sure that I have stability for myself.”

However, students also prioritize sports and extracurricular activities because they are passionate about their interests. “[When] you see the marching band, the drill team, all of these individuals, the football team, whatever they’re doing, they are doing something that they love, and that is a priority for them,” Ault said.

and to always get that A. Sometimes it gets extremely stressful for me getting competitive with myself and I tend to get emotional during classes even though I don’t want to.”

For some honors students, they feel the competition depending on if they are in math or English.

“In honors, you have to understand it as well as do it,” said junior Spencer Olsen. “But in language arts, as long as you are churning out words that are normal, then you are pretty good.”

Honors classes have been around for some time, but they may not be beneficial enough to keep them separate in the long run.

“I’ve heard that they have talked about blending them,” said Turpin. “There are plenty of studies too though that show kids do better when they are blended. Then classes are more even and they kind of pull those struggling kids up with them a little bit, but I do think that having a class where you can just hit the ground and run and have these deep discussions are really valuable, so I hope that there is still one.”

online or the traditional paper and pencil way. If you do choose to take the ACT online, you will get scores back in as soon as two days which allows for students to make more informed decisions about the future.

“I love that! There’s a lot of times our Sterling Scholar votes or for colleges, things like that, we need the students scores and sometimes we just don’t have them,” said Turpin.

“We don’t know how to make interventions either for those kids that struggle because the school year is halfway over by the time we get the scores back.”

By having their scores back sooner, it will also allow students to know whether or not they need to take the ACT again.

“One issue that I’ve had and I know a lot of people have had, is they want to sign up for the next ACT test and they want to do it as much as they can, but they haven’t gotten

their scores back from the last time they took it,” said senior Katelyn Hill, “so they’re missing opportunities and missing chances to better their scores when they should be able to take it as often as they can to get the best score possible.”

The reason for all the changes boils down to wanting to help students succeed in both high school, college, and the rest of their lives.

“Students come first at ACT, and these groundbreaking new options will directly benefit them, providing more choices, an improved testing experience, and a better opportunity to showcase their readiness and reach their maximum potential,” said Suzana Delanghe, ACT Chief Commercial Officer. “With these changes, ACT is evolving to meet students in the digital world in which they live. We want to do a better job of helping them succeed.”

4 news

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5

features 13 nov 19

NS teacher shares experiences in performing arts

photo provided by Catherine Carney

Catherine Carney with her father in her childhood home in Evanston, Illinois where she lived for the first seven years of her life.

BY

ATHENA DEGROFF

One wouldn’t assume that a ballerina from Chicago would end up as an English teacher in Sanpete County. But that’s exactly what happened to Catherine Carney, Language Arts teacher at NS. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Carney was exposed to the arts through both her school and family.

Activities such as going to museums, visiting the zoo, and viewing ballets and operas were all common occurrences.

“I reflect and think of kids talking about going to the movies--that never

happened at my house,” Carney said. “I think we would rather spend money on a ballet ticket than on a movie ticket, even though a ballet ticket would have cost more.”

When Carney was about four years old, the New York City Ballet Company came to Chicago.

Even at such a young age, she enjoyed their performance and knew that she wanted to be a ballerina.

“I started dancing around the house and just kept begging to take lessons,” Carney said. “Finally my mom called Gus Giordano studios and somehow she convinced them to take

me.”

In elementary school, Carney’s parents wanted her to be excused early each week in order to catch the train that took her to ballet lessons at 4:30. When the school refused, Carney’s father wrote a letter to the state superintendent of schools requesting permission.

“I still have the letter that the superintendent sent to my parents, as well as the school district,” Carney said. “He basically said that the school was not going to stand in the way of somebody’s dreams.”

She continued to take intensive ballet lessons

through junior high and high school, even getting permission to miss some school and have her lessons count as P.E. credit.

Carney continued to dance a couple of years after high school and was in a small dance company. Then after years of taking ballet, she decided to be done.

“I worked for my parents for a while until they told me that if I didn’t go to college they would give me the family business,” Carney said. “I decided that I’d better go to college, because I didn’t want the business. I was good at it but it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

At first, Carney wanted to major in architecture before realizing that it involved a considerable amount of math. So she decided to major in something she was more familiar with, theater.

While in college, Carney met her future husband who suggested she change her major to one that could lead to a steady teaching position. As a result, Carney changed her major and ended up getting her BA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

When her husband got a job at Snow College they left behind their city life and moved to Ephraim, Utah. Living in such a rural location was a big change for them.

“We lived behind Cache Valley Bank, and I would tell people ‘Okay, you go to the corner, turn

right, and at the first stoplight is McDonald’s,’ because the first stoplight at that time was in Spanish Fork, it’s like 60 some miles,” Carney said.

When she first started teaching at NS, Carney brought her love of history, particularly facts and dates, into the classroom.

“I find that her memory is like a computer; she can calculate almost as fast as a computer as well,” said Kaylene Johnson, English teacher at NS. Now Carney realizes that memorization is not the most important part of education.

“It’s okay for me to rattle stuff off and if it sticks, that’s awesome, but if it doesn’t, it’s not really going to change a kid’s life,”

Carney said. “How many of us are going to go on Jeopardy and need little bits of trivia information?”

Carney has been teaching at NS for over 20 years, influencing many students along the way.

“I think she cares a lot about students and wants them to learn and to understand how to read and write well,” said counseling registrar Becky Rees, “I’m always amazed about how much she follows students after high school.”

Carney’s experience in ballet and early exposure to the arts helped shape the person—and teacher—she is today.

photo by Catherine Carney

Young Catherine Carney practicing her ballet positions at the barre.

Fear of driving keeps students from getting licenses

BY

E MILY STR AIT

Many students at NS are excited to turn 16, get their license and be able to drive. However, there is a growing number of students that are not interested in getting their license.

A lot of students or past students at NS have worked on the farm at young ages and have already driven and become familiar with the vehicle, so they are more comfortable than others who have not had this experience.

“Lots of people around here grow up driving and they work on the farms and stuff so it’s just part of their daily life,” junior Kaylee Anderson said. “I never really had to do that, so I feel like I don’t know the vehicle well enough to start driving.”

There are many different reasons why students aged 16 and older do not have their license. Maybe they have pushed it off or they are too busy and don’t have the time.

“I don’t have my license because I decided to be really lazy about it and prioritize other things instead,” senior Isa Wright said. “When I did have the opportunity to take the test, I didn’t put in the effort to study.”

Others who do not have their license may have a fear of driving or are scared of the vehicle itself.

“I pushed it off for a while at first, but I’ve always been kind of scared to drive,” Anderson said.

Students who do not drive are usually able to catch a ride with friends or their parents depending on both their schedules.

“I felt like I didn’t really have to[drive] cause one of my friends could; everyone is always going somewhere and so lots of times it matches up, and I can just get a ride with them,” said Anderson.

Other students who have their license often laugh or make fun of those who do not have their license yet. They mock and talk bad about them for not getting their license when they are 16 or older.

“They call me names,” senior Henry De Groff said.

Many students believe that getting their license is a necessity of life, and that people should get theirs because it will be hard without it. Students who do not have their photo by Emily Strait license feel all sorts of different ways because of what oth- Students driving in the school parking lot. ers say and the influences they have on them.

“I get a hard time from everybody for not having my me home at least, and my parents will pick me up from license it’s like my friends, teachers, siblings, parents— ev- things,” Wright said, “A lot of the time I walk if I want to go eryone just gives me a hard time,” Anderson said. “Every- to Terrel’s and buy some chicken tenders.” one just sees it as a necessity of life, and I am going to learn how to drive, I just don’t feel super comfortable yet.”

As students get older in high school, they become more and more involved in activities or events that take place in different areas. Having their license comes in handy when they want or need to go somewhere.

“It’s kind of annoying because I’d rather just be able to drive myself and not be annoying to other people and ask them for rides, but I think it usually works out for them,” De Groff said.

Some students choose to walk places instead.

“I usually have friends that love me a lot and take

6

features

Classroom incidents bring interest to teaching lot.

Photo by Bradley Power

Senior Gage Taylor works on his project in shop class. Shop Class is one of the worst places a classroom nightmare can happen.

BY

BR ADLEY POWER

Teaching high schoolers is a risky endeavor. Every day, there is a chance of disaster, a nightmare waiting around the corner.

Teachers at NS are full of stories that detail classroom nightmares.

“For me, a classroom nightmare is any situation in which you either don’t have control or are exposed to risk of injury to student or injury to self,” said physical education teacher Bryan Strain.

Strain said that student behavior was the biggest cause of nightmares in his classes.

Panic-inducing and uncomfortable situations abound in classrooms. Injuries, accidents, destruction, embarrassment, and

other negative incidents are all the results of one thing: human stupidity. Specifically, teenager stupidity.

“That [stupidity] is part of being a kid,” said Brandon Olsen, shop teacher at NS. He described stupidity as “forcing yourself to learn the hard way.”

In a wood shop, one of the worst things that can happen is losing a finger to one of the machines.

“Having a student get hurt seriously bad…” Olsen said, “that would be an actual nightmare.

That would be a career changer.”

Strain, who teaches multiple classes in the school’s weight room, shared a story about a group of individuals from an old class who liked to get in trouble a

“One of the individuals that just liked to goof around decided that he was going to do a pull-up with a weight plate on the bar…

Well, he ended up falling off of that and the weight plate ended up crushing his hand,” Strain said.

“You can imagine that as a teacher your first year there, you’re thinking: ‘Oh, crap! I just lost my job.’”

Luckily, this incident was solved, and Strain wasn’t fired.

Losing your job isn’t the only downside of these nightmares, though.

An English classroom doesn’t seem to be as prone to danger as a weight room or a wood shop, but there have been incidents over the years.

Catherine Carney defined a classroom nightmare as “when the entire class is just out of control. They won’t listen, they won’t stop talking, they refuse to do any work, it’s like they’ve just lost control.” She continued by describing a specific class period full of troublemakers. “It was pretty awful,” she said.“it ruined every B-day… every time I had that class I was like ‘ahhh… no…’”

Not all classroom incidents are disastrous; some can be funny.

“I had this one individual in my class who decided to wear non-

dress code pants, and we were doing exercise,” Strain said. “He went to go do an exercise, and he blew his pants out from the end seam, all the way up to his rear seam.”

Hoopes shared a similarly funny story, not from his classes, but from his own childhood.

“When I was in school,” he said, “I wasn’t necessarily in the classroom, but we had a commons area… I was talking to a girl, and one of my friends snuck up behind me and pantsed me, and all my everything went down.”

Students over the years have also done things like blow up toilets, exit out of classroom windows, and nonchalantly report smoking machinery. This brings us back to the simple paradox of teenage stupidity. Interestingly enough, every example these teachers gave involved stupid teenage boys, and not teenage girls.

“My female students tend to listen to instructions better, and follow directions,” Olsen said.

“It’s just part of being a teenage male, a lot of teenage males just think ‘you can’t tell me, I know how to do this, just because that’s my God-given right,’ and it’s part of being a teen boy.”

Other trends are evident in these incidents.

“Almost always, they [the

troublemakers] are sophomores,” said Carney. “It’s a hard year to get through, for a lot of sophomores… it’s a hard intellectual and emotional year to get through.” She continued, “but for the most part, anybody who was driving me insane as a sophomore, I see a lot of maturity by the time they’re a senior.”

Hoopes believes classroom incidents are a normal part of high school.

“I think that it’s a part of everyday life,” said Hoopes. “When they happen, just out of normal life, they’re fun; when you cause them, they’re hurtful to others.”

Olsen thinks that classroom nightmares are a part of learning.

“Sometimes you’ve gotta learn the hard way,” Olsen said.

“And sometimes, learning the hard way hurts.”

According to both Hoopes and Olsen, stupidity is unavoidable.

“If there were a cure for stupidity, I would have it on hand daily, and I would give it to students regularly,” Strain said laughing.

The truth is, classroom nightmares will always be a reality, and there isn’t really a way to explain or stop them.

Teacher wears many shoes in career, hobbies BY

P H A EDR A L A MB

W hile hunting with his friend, Bill Pollock accidentally rode an elk.

After the friend shot the elk, the friend and Pollock went down to take pictures, thinking it was dead. Little did they know its heart was still beating. Pollock was holding the cow elk up by the ears when he received quite a shock.

“It went jumping and running, and I would hit trees, we went probably 50 to 60 yards before falling down,” said Pollock, PE and math teacher at NS. Geography teacher Cris Hoopes calls it “The Legend of Bill.”

Not only does Pollock wrangle elk, he enjoys riding horses as well. “[I] ride a lot of horses, but not like that. I try to stay on top,” Pollock said.

Pollock started a breeding program after helping his grandpa with his ranch when he was younger.

Starting a new business was a challenge for Pollock.

“It was hard,” Pollock said. “I didn’t know a lot about it. It was up to me to learn that side of horses. I had to get inside of a horse and learn what makes them work and what doesn’t. It helps with relationships and trust.”

Today Pollock still has his company and hit his ten thousandth horse this year.

“It is very different than the social

atmosphere of the school,” Pollock said.

However, working with horses has helped Pollock connect with certain kids while teaching math.

“I can connect with them on that level, in the farmworld,” Pollock said.

Not only does Pollock connect with students, but adults also. Networking is important to Pollock.

“In life, it’s a lot more of who you know than what you know,” Pollock said. “If you don’t learn anything else in high school, learn how to network.”

For example, one of the reasons he was hired at NS was because he had known Hoopes beforehand and had coached him at Snow College.

Pollock worked in Youth Corrections for 18 years before he decided to get a degree in physical education.

The youth Pollock helped with came from all over the world. The reason Pollock stopped working there, wasn’t because he didn’t like it.

“Life has a funny way of forcing you in directions,” Pollock said.

Pollock chose to go in the direction of coaching track, golf and baseball. For a while his goal was to become a head coach, but recently that changed. Now he wants to help athletes “discover their own shoes.” One of the most important things he wants the kids to do is to be confident in themselves.

Pollock believes that each coach

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has a system. Normally it’s the kids job to adjust to the system. On the other hand, it’s completely different with teaching. Instead of the athlete adjusting to the coach, it’s the teacher who sometimes has to change their teaching method because each kid has a unique learning style.

Pollock teaches freshman math in addition to his physical education classes which he has found have different environments. Teaching in a classroom is more controlled and noise is not always seen as a good thing. However, the same cannot be said for PE.

“[In PE] noise is not a bad thing,” Pollock said, “when you introduce something new, sometimes the rowdier it is, the better.”

Not only is Pollock introducing new topics and goals in PE, but in math also. For example, one of Pollocks goals for his math classes is daily growth.

“Math is so vast,” Pollock said.

“You guys are on such a different scale. It’s a collective process, but it’s individual based.”

7

features

SBOs start tradition of recognizing teachers BY

H ARRISON C OOK

At the end of September, during advisory, many students filled out a Google form titled “Teacher of the Month.” This form had only one question, asking students here at NS to nominate one teacher and explain why they chose that teacher.

“We had 471 out of our 700 students respond to the survey,” said Assistant Principal Jeff Ericksen, “which is a pretty big response rate for an online survey.”

The new “Teacher of the Month” program was organized in a combined effort from the student body officers and Ericksen. The main goal in mind was to create a program in which teachers get just a little bit more recognition for their hard work and dedication.

“We made it so we can recognize teachers who are doing amazing things,” said vice president Mayzie Talbot.

Is it meeting its goal of recognizing teachers? Justin Morley, a teacher here at NS, seems to think so.

“I think it’s kind of cool,” said Morley. “It kind of gets the students thinking about what the teachers do, and then it gives a little spotlight to the teachers showing their hard work and dedication.”

For the month of October, the teacher of the month was Jori Turpin. Turpin appreciates the gesture to honor teachers and what they do. “I like it!” Turpin said. “I think it’s a good way to recognize teachers because I think in the more modern culture it’s an underappreciated job and it’s a lot of hard work, and I think it’s a good way to give teachers a little recognition.”

Many also thought that in addition to providing teachers with some well-deserved recognition, it could also provide teachers with a little bit more motivation. It could become a goal and an achievement to be the teacher

of the month.

“I think it could be,” said Turpin. “I know there have been years where there has been an assembly, and I had received an award for a couple of years in a row, and then I hadn’t received one for several years in a row, and it made me take this intrinsic look at myself, and be like ‘did I change something, am I not doing what I used to be doing’ and so, yeah, I think it could be motivational.”

On the other hand, some teachers see it as a kind of cool thing to achieve, but not necessarily worth striving for.

“I don’t think it would make or break my career or my day,” said Morley. “I think it would definitely be something that I would appreciate and be proud of, but sometimes you aren’t the most liked teacher because you have to make some hard decisions, and give students work they need to do.”

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88

sports 13 nov 19

Football finishes season with semi-final loss

Photo by Kaylee anderson

Senior Payton Clawson vaults over a Morgan player in state semi-final game against the Morgan Trojans.

by Caden Clawson The NS football team’s season was one of the most successful in the school's history. They tied for the most victories in school history (11) and they were ranked number one in the state among 3A schools.

Despite the team’s successful season, NS football suffered a heartbreaking loss to Morgan in the state semifinals, losing 7-10.

"They have good kids and they have good support up there,” said head coach Rhett Bird.

The game featured nine turnovers between the two teams, and the defensive struggle was won by Morgan despite their not scoring at

all on offense. The interception returned for a touchdown proved to be the difference in the game.

That loss shouldn't overshadow the accomplishments of the team this season.

The past two years the team has started to believe in and have confidence in themselves. That belief and confidence has spread throughout the community.

“Going 11-1 isn’t easy, and our kids, they just believe,” Bird said.

“And I think that’s kinda been a contagious attitude. There’s a lot of people in the community that I’ve talked to that kinda have that same attitude now. And they support us and there is that belief.”

This belief and support has helped the team in the playoffs. It’s one of the reasons the team is a successful team on and off the field.

It also helped the team with handling the pressure that came with being in a playoff game. The team feels like they do well with handling pressure.

“The Juab game there was a ton of pressure from the coaches and everyone,” captain Payton Clawson said. “I feel like the kids kinda didn’t play like they should’ve. They overthought things and stressed themselves out.”

Since that loss, the football team has gained a lot more confidence.

“I think everyone has kinda got-

ten a little more confident in themselves,” said senior captain Connor Jorgensen said.

The team has worked hard for the chance to play in the playoffs and they've been dedicated to work.

The team went into the game feeling good about their chances against Morgan.

“Morgan is a good team and all, and they are pretty well rounded in every position, but I feel like we should be all good competing against them,” Jorgensen said.

The team has been getting ready for the chance to play in and win the state playoffs since last year's season ended.

“It all started back in the weight room clear back in January, and even into early November as soon as the season was over last year, and it’s been a grind since,” Jorgensen said.

Their hard work has really paid off, not only in their regular season, but it gave them a fighting chance in state play this year. Last season the they made it to the finals but were defeated by South Summit.

This year, the team started off the playoffs by beating Emery in the opening round 42-7. After that win, they proceeded to the state quarterfinals beating Juan Diego Catholic High School 33-9.

In order for Morgan to get to the semifinals, they faced off against Manti and South Summit, last year’s defending champion.

The other game in the semifinals was number three Grantsville against number two Juab. Juab won 22-20 and will go on to play Morgan next week for the state title.

Sophomore sets standard for girls cross country BY

CARSON H ADLEY

On a brisk morning in Sugarhouse Park, sophomore Aubry Cook glanced down, surprised to see that one of her shoes had come untied.

After a moment of panic, Cook looked up and continued running as if nothing had happened, she couldn’t stop.

It’s state cross country--there is no stopping.

“You can’t stop,” Cook said. “Well you can but that would be stupid. I just had to run with an untied shoe.”

Cook finished the 3-mile race with a time of 20:20 placing her in second place as an individual and putting the team in third place overall. An impressive accomplishment for someone who began running seriously just last year.

Cook, the oldest of seven kids in her family, never really considered herself a runner and hadn’t even thought about doing cross country until last year. Cook’s family had recently moved back to Sanpete after spending five years

living in California and at the encouragement of the coaches she decided to give running a try.

“I thought that I could never run, and then Butler told me join it, and I was like, ‘I don’t have a sport, so I’ll try it out,’ and I ended up really liking it,” Cook said.

Cook’s first ever meet she ran a 24:36, and since then, with the help of her coaches and teammates, she has worked hard and pushed herself to always be improving.

“We practiced every day except Sundays and just worked really hard,” Cook said.

Cook ran a 22.28 at region her freshman year, qualifying her for state as an individual. Unfortunately, in the days leading up to state, Cook became sick, but she refused to give up. She ran a 24.05 at state that year and finished in sixtieth place.

After finishing her first season of cross country on a discouraging note, Cook pushed herself and was determined

to do better the next year.

She ran a good track season in the spring and practiced all throughout the summer, preparing to start off this season strong.

Since then Cook led the team in several successful meets this season, including region at her home course Skyline Mountain Resort, where she narrowly lost the region title to Fiel Woods from Manti.

The team placed second in region and qualified for state.

State cross country took place on Wednesday Oct. 23 at Sugarhouse Park. As she started the last mile and neared the finish line, Cook sprinted past Woods, determined not to be beaten again.

“She was consistent, she didn’t miss practice,” Butler said. “If you want to really be successful at cross country you have to put in a lot of miles over the summer, you can’t fake long distance running.”

Besides being diligent, Cook accepts help and listens to her coaches’ advice.

“She is very coachable,” Butler

Photo Provided by

bill bedford

Sophomore Aubrey cook competeS in StAte croSS country,

plAcing Second And helping the girlS to plAce third overAll.

said, “She trusts the coaches and will do exactly what we ask her to do.”

Cook never thought that she could run cross country, but after starting she found that it was both addicting and rewardingly.

“I had to open my mind I guess, to actually believe that I could do it,” Cook said, “ I’m glad I pushed myself to do it.”

A big part of why Cook loves cross country is because of the people she runs with.

“I love my team,” Cook said.

“They are the best.”

Butler says that the team this year is different from many other years, all of the girls on the team are close friends.

“It’s one of the better groups of kids over the 26 years I’ve coached,” Butler said, “They are just dedicated, and they all get along well.”

And with the entire team expected to return next season, the future looks bright for the NS girls cross country team.

sports

9

State attempts to level playing field with new RPI system BY

R ILEY M ADSEN

The New RPI System affects NS As of this year, the USHAA has released a new system to seed teams for the state tournament.

The rating percentage index, or RPI, is a system designed to take the percentage of wins and losses from each team and then use a formula that then helps seed teams into brackets for the state tournament.

“It’s not going to be perfect, just like the old way wasn’t perfect, but there’s probably some benefits to it,” said NS athletic director Cheryl Hadley.

The USHAA decided to implement the RPI system to provide a more accurate reflection of the strength of the teams. Teams will now be seeded into the state bracket based on RPI ranking instead of placing them simply according to their regions.

“Our regions were so unbalanced competitively,” said Jon Oglesby, assistant director of the UHSAA. “We needed a different way to seed our state tournament.”

Oglesby said that the RPI came out as a proposal to the Board of Trustees. They thought this might be a way to solve the issue of seeding.

The formula being used to calculate a team’s strength, is 40 percent of a team’s winning percentage, 40 percent the opponent’s winning percentage and 20 percent the opponent’s opponent’s winning percentage.

“The second 40 percent and the 20 percent is purely to derive a strength of schedule which the board thought was very, very important,” Oglesby said.

If a team does well in their region, their RPI will reflect that. However losses can have a huge impact on a team’s RPI as well, and not everyone loves the new system.

“The wins don’t help you as much as the losses hurt you,” said head coach Rickie Stewart. “As a coach you have to think of this philosophically. Yes, you want to play good teams, but at the same time you don’t want to be in the 5-10 category in RPI because you’re then matched up in the quarters with a good team.”

This affects coaches a lot, making it hard to schedule games with the right teams that will help your RPI instead of hurt it.

The RPI affects many sports, including baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, soccer, softball and volleyball.

Other sports don’t have need of a separate ratings system.

Football

Rank

School

RPI

WP

OWP

OOWP

W-L

1

North Sanpete

0.684534 0.900000 0.547573 0.527524 9-1

2

Juab

0.683725 0.930000 0.507226 0.544173 9-1

3

Grantsville

0.676574 0.815000 0.605128 0.542613 8-2

4

Manti

0.662355 0.830278 0.558718 0.533783 7-2

5

Morgan

0.651181 0.938889 0.425358 0.527409 8-1

6

San Juan

0.602990 0.817259 0.422365 0.535704 8-2

7

American Leadership Academy 0.527548 0.615000 0.443319 0.521103 6-4

8

Juan Diego Catholic

Although the same system is being used for all of these sports, some will be affected more than others.

“Your wins or maybe losses in football will have a bigger effect than the other sports because football only plays ten games where everyone else plays twenty,” said Hadley. “Those wins and losses probably have a bigger impact on RPI’s [for football] just because of the number of games you play.”

Football plays each team in their region only once whereas most of the other sports will play teams in their region twice. Once at home and once away, plus other teams if they decide to go to tournaments throughout the season.

Only playing ten games may make the RPI system affect them more, but it also gives them an advantage.

When teams such as volleyball go play at tournaments during the season, they have a

0.520764 0.552088 0.494613 0.510419 5-5

chance to play teams that are from out of state, or who are smaller or larger schools than they are.

If someone plays a team from out of state or play a school that is bigger than theirs and they win, it will help their RPI, whereas playing teams below them still helps them but doesn’t give them an advantage of being the bigger school. This is known as the classification modifier.

“Teams would go to tournaments and play schools below them but not be very successful in their region,” said Oglesby. “Classification modifier was added where teams wouldn’t have an overt advantage by playing teams two or three classes below them beating up on them.”

Oglesby also said that the state worked with Maxpreps, an online database that tracks statistics for all Utah high school sports, to create an algorithm for the modifier.

He also said that neighbor-

ing states require teams to put schedules and scores in Maxpreps so they can pull the data from those schools to set up the RPI seeding making the process run smoothly.

Many people have different points of view and opinions with this new system.

They are not sure how to feel about it and don’t know how it will work out.

“I think we are trying to govern out a problem that you’re never going to govern out,” said Stewart. “It’s not the saving grace I think they thought it was going to be.”

Many people have a similar opinion, and some are upset about the decision to change to RPI. Some blame the UHSAA for the change, but the new system actually came from school leaders.

“The public believes it’s our staff who makes policies for our association,” Oglesby said, “but actually it’s all the member schools who make decisions.”

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sports

10

Winter sports kick off with excitement, potential

BY J ACOB

C OX

As winter sports ramp up this year at NS, four sports programs are in different positions and have different expectations. Some have high hopes with many good athletes returning from last year and some are starting with newer and less-experienced athletes.

Boys Basketball Coach Cris Hoopes is excited for this upcoming season after dealing with some challenges last year.

“We are really excited about the program,” Hoopes said. “I think that any time you go through a tougher year it’s fun to get started.”

Hoopes hopes that his team will make some improvements and finish stronger in region competition.

“We had a down year last year,” said Hoopes.

“The region was so overloaded with good teams that we actually ended up last in the region; it was actually very challenging.”

Hoopes thinks that the players can come

together and work as a team.

“They are very loyal to each other, and they work hard for each other,” Hoopes said, “The kids all genuinely like each other and they work hard.”

Hoopes thinks that with the way the team works they could have a chance at doing well at region.

group and I only have three returning from last year,” said Christensen.

Besides the challenges that come from having a young group, she is also worried about how tough the season will be but knows that they can improve.

“It’ll be a tough season but since they are so young and so inexperienced there will be a lot of growth because there Girls Basketball are starting from the botCoach Taylor Chris- tom and you can only go tensen is anxious to see up from there.” what her young team can do.

Wrestling “It’s always fun to Coach Bryan Strain go into a new year and was happy with his team see what will come for last year, and he feels like us,” said Christensen. they’re in a good posi“We know we are pretty tion this year as well. He young. We only have is most excited about one junior and one se- how many wrestlers are nior but we are excited returning and how they to start.” will do.

Christensen is ner“Good returning vous for this upcoming crew,” he said. “I should season, especially after have all my weights losing five starting se- again. Wrestling can be niors that helped them a difficult sometimes tryton. ing to find high school“I am excited to see ers that weigh one-hunhow different this year dred and six pounds. It is from last year. I’m ex- can be pretty violent on cited to see how the girls a mat, and that in itself will take me this year is just success, but I have because it is a different kids that I think could be

some of the best at state and I know they will do well this year.”

Strain said he is most excited about how well his team can work together and how much he tries to have them work together.

“We have tried to change things to be more of a brotherhood where we support each other and build each other up and not have fights here and there. We try to do a lot of things to work together as a whole.”

Coach Strain expects a lot from his team. Last year they placed seventh overall and Strain thinks that they can improve and do better this year.

“It is never a shutout and

we fight to the last sec- stronger with another ond.” year under their cap.

“We’ve got a lot of Swim Team our returning talent,” David Latomme, the Latomme said, “and swim coach, is excited with the new swimmers that a lot of his return- coming in as well, a lot ing team is coming back of the potential I see in to swim again. He thinks them again. Once we that his team has the hit our stride, every year potential to do well this we keep improving and year and hopefully have keep having the previous a chance at doing well in swimmers come in. Talregion and state. ents will develop and we “Last year was a re- will keep building those cord breaking year for talents.” us, and I know that this Having athletes with one is going to be a re- experience does a lot to cord breaking year. I can put his mind at ease. see that very clearly,” “I don’t have a lot of says Latomme. worries,” Latomme said.

He credits the re- “I’m very confident in turning students who set my team and I know that records last year. He be- they will do well.” lieves they will be even

Photo by

Mayzie talbot

Senior Stockton bAiley SwimS the 200 i.m. At recent home Swim meet.

11

arts 13 nov 19

IMPRISONED: PART TWO BY

M ASON K NIGHT

The man pulled the mask off and dropped it on the floor.

I looked up, expecting to see his face, but it was yet another mask.

It was black and looked loosely like a face, but still no holes for eyes like the other. The man stood in silence for a moment before breaking into laughter.

“You thought I was actually going to show you who I was?

Ha!” he laughed. “You should’ve seen your face!”

He picked up the other mask from the floor, finally composing himself.

“Okay, now that the fun is over, let’s get to the more important matters,” the man said, stepping closer. “Where is the catalyst?”

I tried to speak, but only muffled sounds came through the gag in my mouth.

“Oh, that’s right. Can’t talk if you can’t use your mouth.” He removed the gag and stepped back.

“I don’t know what you’re

talking about! What catalyst? I’m just a college stude—” The man’s gloved fist quickly slammed into my face, breaking the bolts screwed to the floor and tipping the chair backward. He reached down and flung the chair upright, crimson blood leaked from my nose.

“I don’t tolerate liars, Mr. Broderick,” he said flatly. “Just tell me the location of the catalyst and I’ll let you go.”

I’ve seen something like this before, in the movies. If I tell him, he’ll kill me, and if I don’t, he’ll do the same.

“I told you, I don’t know what this catalyst is. Please, just let me go,” I pleaded, my head spinning and eyes watering.

“You know what, that’s okay.

My intimidating visage has been known to cause people to forget things.” He folded his arms. “The catalyst, can create and clone super soldiers, create and cure biblical diseases, and it has the ability to decode and hack any technological device both now and in

the future. Ringing any bells?”

I shook my head no, trying my best not to lose my mind.

The man dropped his arms, he bent downward and touched my forehead with his finger. “The mind is a peculiar place. Sometimes it discards information, no matter how important, for many reasons. Sometimes it’s because we don’t want to remember, other times it’s because we aren’t allowed to.”

“What are you saying? Please just let me go!” I pleaded, suddenly thinking of all the petty things that I did in my youth.

“Why do the fresh ones always insist on being so difficult?”

He dropped his arm and stood.

“I’ll just leave you to your own devices. Hopefully the solitude will jog your memory.”

He turned and left for the door, silently singing to himself, “…and whisper in the wells of silence…” as he exited the room.

And in fact it was silence, throughout the entirety of the small, dark room my only compa-

AdAm’s music corner

BY A DAM COX

It is my belief that in this day and age popular music has lost a lot of what made it special. Long gone are the days when popular music seemed to have sincere meaning and emotion behind the lyrics. These days it doesn’t matter what you sing as long as it’s moderately catchy and painfully obnoxious.

When all hope was lost, a light shone through the fog of Ed Sheeran clones. That light is named is Robin Skinner, also known as “Cavetown.”

I recently had the opportunity to see “Cavetown” live with a group of friends, and it was a truly unforgettable experience.

I’ve never been a huge concert goer; the loud noises, cramped spaces, and bright lights have always bothered me and scared me away from concerts. However, when I found out that Cavetown was coming to Salt Lake City, I knew that I had to go no matter what.

I’ve been a “Cavetown” fan for a very long time. I was introduced to this amazing man through two of my friends who have exquisite taste in music. His lyrics and generally soft chill type music has helped me relax during the most stressful situations.

His voice is nothing short of angelic and will put you at ease the moment you hear it.

The lyricism at work is simply masterful and

can make you smile or bring you to tears in a matter of minutes. His lyrics dicuss struggle, heartache, pain, and anger, in realistic ways that you can instantly relate to.

When I arrived at the live show three hours early, a relatively large line had already started to form; the dedication of his fans is incredible. The line quickly became massive, stretching all the way down the street and curving back around the backside of the building.

I expected to enjoy the concert, but seeing him right in front of me was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had.

He built his set like a living room and his shy yet bubbly personality puts you at ease immediately. He had a TV screen dedicated to playing videos of his cat Fig throughout the whole show.

He also utilized unique instruments such as a kazoo and a melodica to constantly keep you engaged. Though all the crowd seemed to know all the lyrics by heart and belted it along with him. There is nothing more magical than a group of people unified by the love of something wonderful.

To think that a 20-year-old who wrote a song about a lemon boy could touch so many hearts and lives is really amazing. If I had to choose a favorite music artist of all time, this would be it.

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ny for what felt like several hours was that of my heavy breathing. But then a new sound came about. A faint buzzing, growing closer until I could distinctly hear the sound of helicopter blades spinning outside.

The chilling sound of a minigun echoed, followed by explosions and machine gun fire, they grew nearer to my room. Sounding like it was immediately outside, I mistakenly turned my head to look, and was hit by a bright flash as well as several chunks of debris. The force catapulted me into the wall, the impact nearly knocking me unconscious.

My ears rang, and I looked through blurred vision to see the helicopter floating outside, whitewashed in the intense sunlight. I saw hazy silhouettes jump off the helicopter and scanned the room with guns. They quickly cut me free and put both of my arms around their shoulders, carrying me to the chopper.

The door burst open and the man stepped through, his gaze

landed on the soldiers that carried me and swiftly made his way to them. The soldiers nodded to each other and one leg go to fight the man while the other threw me aboard and jump on.

The soldier blocked a punch from the man and returned one of his own, knocking him to the ground. The soldier ran and jumped aboard, a gunshot cracked the air and the soldier fell short. The other soldier that helped me aboard grabbed their hand, holding them above the ocean thousands of feet below.

The soldier’s grip loosened as blood soaked through the front of his mask. He let go, and dropped into the blue waters below.

“No!” The soldier aboard the helicopter screamed.

The man fired another shot that hit the soldier’s bicep. She screamed in pain, closing the helicopter door as it flew away. The last thing I saw was the woman soldier hovering over me.

“Alright Sergeant, let’s get you home.”

Big changes to come to the marvel cinematic universe BY

M EGAN BOOHER

On July 20, Marvel Cinematic Universe met in SDCC (San Diego ComicCon) and released the names of 10 new movies/TV series that they will be releasing starting in may of 2020.

The first movie the MCU announced was “Black Widow,” which is set to release on May 1, 2020. In “Black Widow” (starring Scarlett Johansen) the audience will observe Natasha Romanoff ’s adventures between the happenings of “Captain America: Civil War” with the split of the Avengers, and “Avengers: Infinity War” with the disappearance of half of all life in the Universe. Fans hope to see the back story behind Romanoff and maybe find out what happened in Budapest.

The next film MCU announced was “Thor: Love and Thunder” set to release on November 4, 2021, which will be the fourth movie in the Thor saga. The movie will star Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman) as Thor, and the fans are curious to see how the transition from Chris Hemnsworth’s Thor to Portman’s Thor will work.

Following Thor, the MCU will release a TV series titled “What If…?”. This series is scheduled to release 23 episodes on Disney+ in the summer of 2021.

“What If…?” is based off a comic series by the same name whose stories explore how the Marvel Universe might have unfolded if key moments in its history had not occurred as they did in mainstream continuity.

MCU announced another series titled “Hawkeye” (starring Jeremy Renner). This series will be released on Disney+ in the fall of 2021. In this series we’ll be exploring Clint Barton’s backstory, if we don’t find out about Budapest in “Black Widow” maybe we will find out

about it here.

The MCU will be releasing a new movie titled “Eternals” in November of 2020. The “Eternals” will star Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, and Don Lee. “Eternals” will be about a group of immortal beings who shaped earth’s history.

Following the announcement of “Eternals,” the movie “Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings” was announced and is set to release on Feb. 12, 2021. Shang-Chi will be tied back into the first Iron Man movie through the Ten Rings which is a group of terrorists that captured Tony Stark.

They also announced “Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness” with Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen, which is set to release May 7, 2021. Nothing has yet to be said about this film most likely because of spoilers for films that come out before it.

Along with the announcement of Doctor Strange the MCU announced an original series with Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, called “WandaVision” which will air on Disney+ in the spring of 2021.

The MCU announced a tv series titled “Loki” which will also be released on Disney+ in the spring of 2021. This will be a story about Loki and how he pops up throughout human history as an unlikely influencer on historical events.

Lastly the MCU announced a movie titled “Blade.” The MCU will be making a new version of Blade, the vampire slayer. Blade was originally a comic written in 1974 which was later made into a movie by Marvel in 1998; marvel made two additional movies in 2002 and 2004.

Many wonder how marvel will take this series and turn it into something new.

arts

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Video Games

by Michael Larsen and Joshua Cox

Heard in the

Halls -“Not only would I love to date Colonel Sanders, I can.“ -“Tom Holland looks like an M&M” -“I’m going to harvest my leg hairs and make a sweater with it.”

-“What if iPads had a string like a lawnmower?”

-”You can drink milk, but can you drink milk like an English person? “ -“I have more magic tricks than I have friends” -”Student: Teri, you look tense.

Do you want a massage?

Teri: What I want is to kick somebody in the head.”

-”If you want to see me in a monkey costume singing a solo, don’t be busy in January.”

Déjà Vu BY H ENRY DE GROFF

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