NS wrestling team
competition
Senior student explores new art medium
-- see story page 9
see story page 6??
overcomes adversity, excels at state
Voice of the North Sanpete Hawks
WELL SAID “I’m tired of hearing about people who still think COVID-19 is a hoax... I’m tired of the drama of the people. The drama of the virus I’m okay with. It’s not nearly as taxing to me as the drama of people” -- Teacher Sterling Whipple on the challenges of COVID-19 over the past year.
BY THE NUMBERS
2nd
The. Love. Connection.
by
MAren benCh
Love and connection can be found in every aspect of life. Through hardships and world chaos to friendships and relationships, connection is found. In a time of isolation, this connection is more important than ever. “Love is just like when you kind of give a part of yourself to someone else or something else,” said senior Adam Cox. “It’s
Place NS Drill Team took at state competition
400 Million dollar budget for investments in education
611,000
Number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in Utah
NS EVENTS Tuesday, Mar 9 Girls Golf @ Mountian View All Day Softball @ Grand 2:30pm-7:30pm Baseball Millard @ NS 3:30pm-7:00pm Wednesday, Mar 10 Boys Soccer Union @ NS 3:30pm-7:00pm Thursday, Mar 11 Baseball Emery @ NS 3:00pm-7:00pm Friday, Mar 12 End of 3rd Quarter
CONTENTS Opinion..................4 Features.................5 Sports....................7 Arts......................10 Crossword...........12
2 March 2021 www.nstimes.org Volume 13 Issue 6
not just you anymore, it re-
quires a lot of vulnerability.” Everyone shows love to
those t h e y c a r e about in different ways. From handmade gifts to just spending time with one another, love can be found. “Just being there when one of us needs us,” said junior Emily Wheeler. “When one of us is sad or upset, the other one is immediately like, ‘I’ll be right there.’ each other.” Love can also be shown by just being
present and validating the other person. “ Va l i d at i o n a n d empathy,” NS teacher Sterling Whipple said. “I can think of no better way to truly show somebody that you love them than to take a part of who you are, pull it out and present it to them and say, I understand with you, I’m here with you.” Being there and supporting each other helps to build a connection, allowing both people in the relationship, whether it’s romantic or platonic, to feel loved. “Your best life is lived when you have a good support system.
We encourage each other to become better people,” Wheeler said. Love and the bonds/connection that it forms help to improve and lift everyone who is affected by it up. “We are a pack species. We are not meant to be alone,” Whipple said. “We’re not designed to be alone, whether by God or through evolution, either way we’ve been created in a way that feeds off of each other. In a dualistic, positive feedback loop that improves everybody, lifts everybody together.” By having those connections, we can serve others and give
back to the community. “I want to help people a lot and that’s one of the best ways that I show love,” said senior Liz Madsen. While the connection aspect of love is important on its own, it also aids the developmental process in teenager s
ages ten to twenty-four. “High school is a training ground for adulthood. It’s important for high schoolers to experience love,” Whipple said. “Now of
See Love Drive, page 2
Foodbank initiates campaign for teen involvement by
MArlee CrOZIer
Pantry’s director of fundraising.
‘I ate paper this morning cause there was no dents in Sanpete qualify for free or reduced lunch, and one food in the house’ Recently at a local elementary school, a young boy passed out during class and upon being taken to the nursdidn’t have any food at home for breakfast. Instead, he had eaten paper. “You have no idea how many students go home and have nothing to eat,” said Marty McCain, Sanpete Food
ger in Sanpete. This hunger students can face plays a crucial role in their lives. “Nutrition plays a huge role in academic performance and social interaction, in everything the kids do,” said Cindy Lund, NS school districts’ parent-student coordinator. “If they don’t start the day out with a good meal it can drastically impact their
Senior takes first in virtual Poetry Out Loud by
JessICA blACKhAM
Three students still choose to compete; however, the students were required to schedule a time outside of school to record their poems as an alternative to presenting them live because of the ongoing pandemic. tle bit different than we’ve had in the past,” said NS language arts teacher and Poetry Out Loud advisor Kaylene Johnson. “We didn’t hold a live event like we usually do, and the recording process was a little chaotic. Luckily that didn’t stop kids from participating in Poetry Out Loud.” To compete in Poetry Out Loud, each See Poetry, page 3
day.” Understanding students’ needs, the pantry took into consideration that the greatest
impact people can have is on those around them, and with this in mind, the ‘3 and Me’ campaign was founded. See Food Drive, page 3
Lawmakers approve increased education budget by
This year instead of standing up and reciting poems up in front of a crowd, the Poetry Out Loud competition took place virtually at NS. Regardless of the changes made this year, senior Liz Maden received
Student government sending off donations from recent food drive. The local food bank is in need of donations.
brAdley POWer
The Utah legislature, in session since Jan.19, has proposed multiple notable bills, some of which could eventually pertain greatly to education in this state. Nearly 700 bills have been proposed, but for North Sanpete High, cantly impact the school. Firstly, a historic Public Education Budget has been signed into law by newly appointed Gov. Spencer Cox. In the past, annual budgets for public schools were called “Base Budgets,” and in general, the budget would stay the same from year to year, unless the legislature decided to change something about it. In November 2020, voters passed an amendment to the Utah Constitution that the Base Budget must now, by law, include compensatory funding
and other factors. “They pushed for a lot of money last year, and then COVID happened,” “then they had to kind of retract it and change things a little bit.” cooperate on these new precedents, and it includes about $400 million in investments for public education. The two most notable changes in budgeting are the $121 million stipend that will give every licensed educator in Utah a $1,500 bonus, and a 6% increase in the state’s Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU), a number that represents the amount of Utah. In addition, $105 million was added See Legislature, page 2
News
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Legislature, continued from page 1
greatly-and positively-impact educators and students in the years to come. HB302 A second bill introduced in this legislative session will have massive repercussions when its outcome is decided. House Bill 302, known as “Preserving Sports for Female Students,” addresses a topic that has already ignited wildnation. Introduced by Republican Representatives on Feb.
moving forward. The bill proposed that high school athletic activities be categorised into one of three groups: “male,” “female,” or “coed.” The bill details that students of the “male sex” would not be allowed to participate in sporting activities designated for the “female sex,” and vice versa. Sex is logical, physical condition of being male or female, according to an individual’s genetics and anatomy at birth.” considered short-sighted and were called “a cruel attempt to exclude a marginalized group of children” by Troy Williams, executive director of Equality Utah, a prominent LGBTQ group. The bill does not address trangender boys, who would apparently still be allowed to participate in boy’s sports after the passing of the bill. It has been called unconstitutional, and concerns have been raised that the passing of the bill would have detritions for the whole state-it has even been said that if this bill is passed, hopes for the Olympics being held in Utah at some point in the future will
Education Priorities for the 2020 Legislature EDUCATION FUNDING
Other Funding Issues:
900 Million Student Investment
(About 1,234 per student)
- Teacher Compensation*
208 MM
Tax Policy: Ensure sustainable, long-term, equitable and GROWING education revenue sources.
32.5 M
Constitution: Safeguard public education revenue as provided by the Utah constitutional guarantee directing income tax to education.
500-600
MM
- 6% WPU Increase - Teacher Induction Programs
45
- Teacher Scholarships
M
MM
MM
provides so many opportunities for everyone… it helps everybody.” Most of these changes will not take effect until 2022, but the teacher bonus will be distributed as soon as March. Even though it may be a while before the impacts of this funding can be seen, the changes are still histor-
3, the bill is seen as a response to Pres. Joe Biden’s Executive Order 13988, which was in turn regarded by the Human Rights Campaign as the “most substantive, wide-ranging executive order concerning sexual orientation and gender identity ever issued by a United States president.” HB302, in essence, bans transgender girls from participating in high school sports. Proponents and supporters of the bill argue that transgender female athletes have unfair physiological advantages against cisgender girls. Opponents argue that with the passage of this bill, the transgender community of teens will be stigmatized further, when they are already at higher risk for suicide. The Utah House of Representatives passed this bill on a largely party-line vote, 50-23, on Feb. 11. It has now moved on to the Utah Senate, where if it is passed, Gov. Cox must choose whether or not to sign the bill for it to be made into law. Newspapers and organizations all over the nation have both criticized and praised the introduction of this bill, and all eyes are on Utah now for what happens
50.2
ations in student enrollment. A Public Education Stabilization Fund was also created with a balance of $128 million. This fund exists as a buffer for any unprecedented economic downturn in Utah because of uncontrollable events that impact schools. “Any time that they bring any money into education,
- Enrollment Growth
Privatization: Oppose schemes to funnel public ed money to personal student accounts or private entities where taxpayer accountability is lost.
*As recommended in the Envision Utah A Vision For Teacher Excellence report and adopted by the Governor’s Education Excellence Commission.
TEACHER PIPELINE EARLY CAREER SUPPORT
K-12 CTE G TEACHIN Y A PATHW HER TEAC RSHIPS STRO OLA SCH PREPA NG RATI PATHW ON AYS
Salary & Benefits
EDUCATOR RECRUITMENT
High Licensure Standards Workforce Diversity Teacher Status & Responsibility
• High-Quality Induction Programs
Teacher Leadership Roles
• Comprehensive Mentoring Programs • Teacher Residencies • Professional Learning
EDUCATOR RETENTION • Workload Considerations • Class Sizes • Competitive Compensation • Retirement & Benefits • School Supports (social workers, nurses, para-professionals, etc.)
National Board Certification
QUALITY TEACHING
EDUCATION POLICY Strengthen accountability standards for charter and online schools consistent with neighborhood schools, including student performance, governance, educator evaluation and financial accountability. Support direct, non-partisan election of school board members. Eliminate the misuse of student test scores to grade schools and impose consequences on schools. Ease the overwhelming workload heaped on Utah teachers by reducing the number of education bills and limiting the number of mandated initiatives.
be completely dashed. For NS, this bill is not “we follow the Utah High School Athletic Association’s rules and regulations. That’s who we follow.” Gov. Cox, who is one of the most prominent Repub-
licans in the state, is unsure of the validity of HB302. He said in a news conference that he is “not comfortable with the bill as it stands right now,” and that he will veto the bill if both sides are unable to come to a reasonable agreement
Poetry, continued from page 1 Sky” by Lewis Caroll. “I liked to choose ones that had a story,” Kjar said. “When they have a story, I’m able to connect with them more and understand them better. For some reason, it also makes them easier to memorize.”
photo by Kaylee Anderson
Poetry Out Loud competitors Bradley Power (left), Liz Madsen (center), and Gracie Kjar (right).
student must have two poems memorequired categories for at least one to be 25 lines or less or Pre 20th Century. One of the two poems may satisfy both requirements. However, Madsen has to have three poems memorized as she goes and competes virtually at region. The poems Madsen presented are “A Poison Tree” by William Blake, “Ways of Talking” by Ha Jin, and “Dirge Without Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. “I started doing Poetry Out Loud as a freshman because I wanted to do
something new,” Madsen said. “Now that this is my fourth year competzy and weird this year where it’s not in person. Looking at the bright side, though, I’m happy that I got to do it because I really enjoy performing my poems.” Madsen enjoyed the stories the poems told; therefore, she chose them because she felt she could perform in a meaningful way. Gracie Kjar, a freshman, also competed in the competition with the poems “Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat” by Thomas Grey and “A Boat Beneath a Sunny
Love, continued from page 1 course the most exciting part of that is the boyfriend/girlfriend type infatuation. But more importantly, from a developmental standpoint is kids being modeled to what appropriate love looks like and it should be happening in the home.”
Even if this all just sounds like some cheesy Hallmark card, we all feel and share different types of love for those we care about. Love is something that can be found in every aspect of life and the connections love creates are invaluable.
competitor Bradley Power chose the poems “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson and “A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman for the pure satisfaction of memorizing the Pre-20th Century poems. While the circumstances were not ideal, Poetry Out Loud is still an enriching experience for students. It gives a chance for students to explore a new activity and express themselves in a new way. “It isn’t what I expected exactly,” Kjar said. “But I’m really glad that they still had it at all because if they would have just canceled it or something, I would have never got the chance to do it, and I’m glad I did because the whole experience has helped me get out of my comfort zone.” For many, it is a terrifying thought to recite a poem in front of others. Nonetheless, Poetry Out Loud helps students to branch out and explore
new interests. It also becomes a learning experience in other aspects of life. “I ended up liking poetry a lot more than I thought I would,” Power said. “Not only did I learn so much about poetry from analyzing my poem as in class, but the actual process of memorizing and performing I really think will help me communicate with NS usually does well at region and state in past years because NS language arts teachers take the time to teach kids how to analyze poems. “It’s probably the number one reason why we do so well,” Johnson said. “When we focus on memorizing and learning how to analyze poems, students learn how to better understand what they are reading. So then, when we go to compete out, kids often have a deeper understanding because they’ve practiced in class. I love to see the kids grow a love for poetry as they’re learning.” Johnson hopes the school continues to do well, but she’s the happiest just watching the students improve and succeed. Altogether, having a virtual Poetry Out Loud competition did not prevent the fact that it is a great growing and learning experience for students.
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Food Drive, continued from page 1 “We have a donation program that we started in December called ‘3 and Me’,” McCain said, “which stands for a simple consomebody like you, [a high school student] to say, “Ooh I would like to help out, I can give ten to twenty bucks, four times a year. Then we ask you, “Hey can you ask three friends?” Just like that, there is eighty dollars going to the pantry to those in need. Then if each of those three friends texts three of their friends
and so forth until there er people, you would lars. “To help you understand how powerful that is, it is about eight dollars per kid-pack [sacks of food given out at schools before the weekend], we have to buy that food. A pallet of milk alone costs about $4,000,” McCain said, “Now if you got $500, you just fed about sixty-two kids for a weekend. You just reached out and touched sixty-two kids. How power-
ful is that $20 now?” The ‘3 and Me’ campaign has been a success and has made a true impact on those students and their families in need. “A [high-school student] did a text blast to her friends and raised $12,000 dollars in a week. Just asking for $10-$20,” McCain said. These seemingly small donations have a resources the pantry will be able to provide. “If I have ever become aware of a family need, the pantry has
been more than happy to respond to my requests,” Lund said. “I can just call and say I am aware of a student in need and they have given me boxes of food that I am able to deliver.” Not only do the donations impact their resources now, they play a huge role in program and outreach expansion for the pantry. “We are working shelves stocked with food so we can go out to farther areas and do drop-ins [in the eve-
ning] starting hopefully in April so that when the kids and the parents are home they can get some food,” McCain said. “This truck should pack enough food to feed twenty families and the donations we have received these past three months are making it all possible.” If you are a student or parent in need of food, there is help readily available, just reach out. “It is important that students and families are aware that there are resources available and
they are just a phone call away,” Lund said. Many more of these opportunities and programs can become a reality as more donations are provided to the pantry.
Prom planning sees major changes amidst pandemic by
hOPe shelley
nior Prom will be held in the middle of April (the sixteenth and sevenin March. Through the constant struggles of Covid-19, the prom committee has had to make a few changes to prom compiled a few ideas to help reduce the number of people, while still trying to keep the proceedings as regular as possible. One way the prom committee has tried to reduce the number of people coming is by having only juniors plus one rule. “The current plan for attending the dance is juniors plus one,” said prom advisor Sterling Whipple. “It’s junior prom and it will be for the juniors. If a junior wants to ask a senior, niors, so that’s the current plan right now.” At the current moment, it is also okay for a freshman, sophomore or senior to ask a junior. As long as a junior is involved in the couple. Another change the prom committee believes will happen at this time will be limiting the number of people going to promenade. They would like
to include the community, but they are unsure of how many will actually be able to attend. “I think they are mostly concerned with the amount of people coming to the promenade; they might just let only the kids have like two tickets and they can split it up between the nights,” said junior Jada Bailey, who is on the prom planning committee, “similar to what they did for winter sports.” There are many unknowns with prom this year. “Since it’s clear in April, we are trying to see how things turn out,” said Bailey, “Like with the vaccine so
are going to get better or things are going to get worse. It also depends on the health department and what the administration decides.” The theme for prom this year will be masquerade. In their decorating they will try to include blacks, whites, and gold. Their goal is for it to have an elegant look. “We are doing the whole mask thing anyway, so we are inviting everybody that if they would like to, they can bring their own masquerade style masks,” said Whipple. The prom committee also already ordered a few masquerade eye-style masks for people if they would like to use them when they get to prom.
photo provided by Ben Cox
This year, prom will be held in the middle of April and will maintain sigattend.
They will simply be black and gold and unisex for both genders to use. If students don’t want to wear one, they don’t have to. Even though prom is further away this year, it has not delayed the asking process. Students started asking way back in the beginning of January . “We thought it would be like the end of February when people would start asking, but it was like right when we got back from Christmas break,”
said junior Natalya Benson, who is also on the prom planning committee. There is much excitement for prom and it’s a dream come true for the juniors that they are able to have it during these times. It will be worth it in the end, even with all the restrictions. “I feel like it’s a good compromise,” Whipple said.
Recent schedule changes present unique teaching challenges with the teachers,” freshman Aidan Inglish said. But students aren’t the only ones who have had to make adjustments. Teachers instruction time, which can mean cutting from their curriculum. Despite that sacri-
A recent NS survey shows 63% of students in favor of the new schedule, with 1 being least favorable and 5 being most favorable. by
JAKe COX
On Nov. 10, 2020, the NS school district issued a new Friday schedule for NS high school, making Fridays for remote learners and for in-person learners to work online. That schedule has meant a lot of changes, including both teachers and students. “I like the Friday schedule just because it gives me a chance to cool down,” sophomore Conner Power said. “If I do have assignments, it’s
very minimal, so it kind of just helps me personally. I feel like people like it a lot more than what the schedule used to be.” And while in person students get the opportunity to stay home after being in school four days of the week, remote and quarantined students get a chance to come in and receive help from their teachers. “I think it’s helpful to some degree, because at least for me, it’s like the only day that I can fully communicate
worth it. “Right now with the pandemic, I think this schedule is a good thing for the most part,” math teacher John Sadler said, “but I can see it being wasted easily and I wouldn’t hope that we continue with it. I don’t think that it’s an advantage for the school year because we miss some opportunities to have class with everyone. But until we get all the students in the classroom again, I think it is important.” And because of this Friday schedule, time can be easily wasted. Even though Friday is a remote day it’s still a work day for all kids,” Principal Christy Straatman said, “The material that teachers need to get through in a school year, cause they’re almost chucking more of that Monday through Thursday especially
for those that come in person. They feel like they don’t have as much time to get through their curriculum.” While the Friday schedule has provided some help for remote learners, some still “I get to communicate more,” Inglish said. “During the week that doesn’t happen, but the bad thing is that some teachers just don’t try to communicate at all anyways, so it’s kind of just like a day wasted almost.” While many remote stumeet with teachers and get instruction, some in-person learners love it for other reasons. “I feel like the new Friday schedule is really great. I feel like when we have the Friday schedule we don’t get as much
homework because we aren’t at school on Friday,” junior Evan Garff said. “It seems like most of the teachers just do Zoom where you can get on and ask questions and for students that’s a positive because they can get on if they need and if they don’t, they don’t have to which is nice.” But while receiving not as much homework is nice, is it good for the students to be home? “I think that a lot of students don’t take advantage of [the Friday schedule] and I think that they fall behind in class work and school work and try and catch back up,” Sadler said, “and I think it’s catch back up then if they had just done their work in
News
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Administrators plan more personalized approach to learning by
Audrey InglIsh
In response to recent developments and initiatives from the Utah State Board of Education, teachers and administrators have found themselves contemplating whether their students’ understanding of class material. Does an A show true mastery of a topic? Does an F really indicate failure to understand? Throughout the state, many educators have concluded that in order to thoroughly ensure student understanding, a more personalized, competency-based approach to learning is necessary. NS district administrators are currently in the process of applying for a grant that would allow them to explore the potential of the Personalized Competency-Based Learning (PCBL) framework promoted by the state. Closely tied to what the state refers to as Competency-Based Education (CBE), the PCBL framework aims to move away from seat-time as a criteria for student success and instead focus on the student’s skills and ability to use their knowledge outside the classroom setting. Under these guidelines, methods of assessment wouldn’t strictly adhere to quizzes, exams, and essays. “If I was teaching science and I was trying to help my students understand and interpret data sets with some sort of chart or graph,” said Instructional Technology Coach Dax Higgins, “what I would want to do is just make sure I can give them any set of data...but the data will still
lead them to a conclusion or be able to make a prediction. That’s the skill. It doesn’t matter what the actual content is, as long as they’re acquiring the skill that is that competency.” Administrators hope that a competency-based approach to teaching will help ensure that the data that teachers input into gradebooks and report to parents more accurately and commastery of the material. “What we want to do is maybe move away from things in a gradebook that knows, and has learned, and understands,” said Superintendent Nan Ault. “It’s all a journey towards a better understanding of how we determine what students know and how that might be recorded.” Examples of this concept in action would include limiting the points given to a student for arbitrary accomplishments, such as contributing to a school-promoted food drive or turning in disclosure documents, and instead focusing on accurately indicating a stuof learning. In addition to a more accurate representation of educational data, administrators want to see students taking accountability for their own learning, and believe that the PCBL approach is a way to encourage this. “To improve student learning is always the main goal of education,” Higgins said. “But we want to improve student learning by helping [students] be a little more accountable for their process
and for their learning plan.” With an increase of student involvement will likely come a change in the role of teachers. Because of this, student-teacher relationships/ interactions may start to align with an unfamiliar dynamic. “They basically will have to be that facilitator that as a kid asks the questions, they are able to help them work through those without just giving them information and having them spit it back,” Higgins said. Although the PCBL framework relies on increased student accountability, it is likely that teachers will also have to exercise increased involvement in the learning of individual students to successfully integrate the personalized aspect of PCBL. “We want to be equally attentive to a student who needs more attention, or more time, or a different way of learning than we do a student that is way accelerated--let them move forward and do their thing,” Ault said. “That’s the personalized part of this conversation.” In meetings that began in the fall of 2020, a team of administrators, board members and principals from around the district have discussed these ways in which PCBL cation in the district. Currently, their focus is on applying for a state grant that would support them in carrying on this discussion. “We are applying for a grant, which will allow us to plan,” Ault said. “It’s not an implementation grant. It’s allowing our teachers and our administrators to have a con-
versation about, now that we have these essential standards, how do we then determine what is competency?” As a competitive grant, the exact monetary value that may be given to the district is currently unknown. However, administrators are prepared to continue this conversation regardless of whether they receive funding from the state or not. cial support so we can carry on the conversation,” Ault said. “We’re going to carry it on no matter what. So whether we get the grant or not, this is going to be part of our investigation because to tell you the truth, we’re in the profession of education, and education does change. It evolves, it develops. And we’re learners too.” Components of PCBL are already being exercised in elementary schools throughout the district, and have been for years now. But when it comes to secondary schools with larger class sizes, administrators are faced with the challenge of maintaining these strategies on a much larger scale. With time and planning, they hope to incorporate aspects of PCBL into what teachers are already practicing in their classrooms on a regular basis. “It really is based on these concepts that these teachers already know: feedback and practice,” Ault said. “And then giving kids a chance to be a part of that conversation. And having different strategies that they can actually pull from might be really what’s best for my teachers.” However, some teach-
ers worry that these changes in educational methods and strategies could be counterproductive. “It depends on how the district chooses to implement it,” said English teacher and counselor Ben Cox. “If they were to go full-scale with the PCBL stuff and with the standards-based grading, there are a lot of components of able. I think that sometimes these types of changes, if not done carefully and correctly, can actually do more to hurt students than help them.” Teachers like Cox fear that taking an extreme implementation route towards personalization could devalue the teacher’s role and ability to instruct students. “What I fear is that when you try to individualize so drastically, you can end up actually creating more of a problem, to the point where the teacher becomes a gloriAs administrators discuss these potential changes, they see the importance of respecting the role of teachers and the responsibilities that they already carry. “These teachers work incredibly hard,” Ault said. “So we’re not trying to make this more complicated, we’re trying not to add anything to their plate. What we’re trying to do is really better and certainly make ourselves students into the conversation and really just continue what we’ve already been working on, which is these essential standards and helping kids understand what learning is.”
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Voice of the North Sanpete Hawks
Features
1 February 2021 www.nstimes.org
5
Teachers, students reflect on events of a difficult year by
aThena deGroFF
In retrospect, this past year has been full of challenges. Masks became another thing to remember along with the car keys. Events and vacations were canceled. Self-isolation decreased the number of cases but increased loneliness and mental health issues. Over two and a half million people have died worldwide and more than 500,000 people in the USA have died from COVID-19. This month marks a year since Sanpete county became directly affected by the coronavirus panstudents and teachers that they would not go back to in-person learning, starting school from home instead. No one expected this unfamiliar “coronavirus” to have such an impact on the year to come. “At this point last year, I don’t really think I thought it was going to become the pandemic that it did, and I certainly didn’t think that it would interrupt our lives the way it did,” said Catherine Carney, Language Arts teacher at NS. “I was constantly watching it, but I kept thinking it was ‘over there’–– it wasn’t going to come to Sanpete County.” In March 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. And eventually, it did come to Utah and Sanpete County. During the lockdown last Spring, everyone had some extra time on their hands, providing the opportunity to develop new skills. “I learned many things last spring,” said NS sophomore Janessa Dyches. “I learned how to cut and edit audio for videos. I also have learned many things about history in the past year from just getting bored and studying people for fun.” It ended up that the entire last quarter of the 2019-20 school year was online. In the fall of 2020, in-person schooling began again, with added restrictions and responsibilities.
“I was so happy to come back in person, like I was just: ‘I will wear a mask, I will wear whatever you need so that I can be back around people,’” Carney said. For some, going back to school made life almost normal. Others, however, are still dealing with challenges brought about by COVID. Carney hasn’t seen her husband since December 31 of 2019, since he is in Kahsakstan for work. NS teacher Sterling Whipple has also been separated from his spouse as a result of COVID. “My wife is high risk and in an attempt to protect her from me, who works in a public education system, I’ve actually sequestered myself to my own part of the house,” Whipple said. “I live in a different room than my wife does, basically. And that’s probably been the worst. I don’t even get to hug my wife.” Whether it is a spouse, grandparent, or friend, missing people seems to be a shared effect of the coronavirus pandemic. “The biggest challenge for me this year has been not being able to travel and see family ––and not seeing people just in general,” Dyches said. “I know some people who come to school in person miss their friends who are doing school at home online.” general disruption of everyday activities that no one used to give a second thought about. For example, it has been harder to participate in sports, especially team and community sports. “I’m still waiting for things to clear up enough that I can go play some racquetball and some tennis without having to worry about contributing to a global pandemic that has killed more people than World War II. So yeah, It’s affected me,” Whipple said. Wearing face masks and sanitizing have become
additions to the daily routine. With this comes more things for people to remember as they head out the door. “I miss the ability to just go without thinking,” Carney said. “Like ‘do I have a mask, etc.?’ It’s kind of like having a small child, ‘do I have all of the essentials I need for the small child?’ instead of just being able to grab the purse and go.” Everyone misses something; whether it is family or normal routines, the current pandemic has taken something away from everyone. certing that after all this time, after all these deaths, there are still people who don’t believe that covid exists––or who are not participating in preventative measures such as mask-wearing. “I’m tired of hearing about people who still think COVID-19 is a hoax,” Whipple said. “I’m tired of hearing about people who go to theaters without a mask and sneeze without covering their mouth; that’s what I’m tired of hearing about. COVID news, and learning about the developments of the strains and the vaccines, that’s still interesting because that is important information that we should all care about hearing. But yeah, I’m tired of the drama of the people. The drama of the virus I’m okay with. It’s not nearly as taxing to me as the drama of people.” Over 611,000 covid vaccines have been administered in Utah, which has contributed to the downward trend of cases in the state. COVID-19 is more understood and more under control than it was a year ago, but it’s still prevalent and won’t be disappearing on its coronaversary of reaching Utah. “For me personally, I was just like everyone else, hoping that we would be able to go back to our usual way of living this spring,” Dyches said. “But in some sense, we all already knew that it wouldn’t be that easy for us to get rid of covid.”
New bio-ag teacher uses personal ag experience in the classroom
photo by Michelle Lee
Jens Andreason passes out assignments to his bio-agriculture class. This by
cael hoWard
Jens Andreason is NS’s new welding and agricultural teacher and he only is he new to NS though, he is also new to teaching. Students seem to really enjoy his classes and style of teaching. “It is a very rewarding feeling to repair and have it completed,” said An-
dreason. Andreason really likes it here at NS. He likes the community here in Sanpete and thinks it’s just an awesome place to be. “There is a great community and the area all around is a great place to raise my kids,” said Andreason. Andreason gets students coming in for extra time out of their other class periods. He likes to run his class like a business. If students come to class and get what they need to get done, they get
their points for that day. “My goal is to recreate a workplace setting to give them a taste of what it’s gonna be like once they’re out of high school,” said Andreason. Andreason is the teacher for a variety of classes from bio-agriculture to welding and is also the advisor for FFA. He might be new to teaching but he’s not new to the subjects he teaches. He grew up in Corrine, Utah, where he and his family worked in agriculture. This background was what had made him interested in teaching ag classes. “I grew up in production agriculture, and I love teaching kids about where their food comes from, as well as the importance of agriculture in our everyday lives,” said Andreason. Andreason wants to help students do the best they can in his classes and learn a lot. He hopes to continue learning how to be a better teacher and become the best he can be along with the students he teaches. He wants to become better at teaching so he can help students learn more. “I hope to continually be learning how to be the best teacher I can be, and help kids learn to their greatest potential,” said Andreason. brought him a lot of fun experiences and crazy stories to tell. Andreason says
he has some interesting stories. Even in welding class, they’re learning the properties of oxygen and acetylene and the do’s and don’ts of hand sanitizer. A sanitizer in welding once. Even though crazy things happen, students still enjoy Andreason’s classes. “It’s easy and fun, it’s a pretty laid back class,” said sophomore Adam Ferre. Welding is a popular class and those that take it seem to really have caught on to Andreason. In welding, things by sticking pieces of metal tolearning how to do certain welds, and Andreason is extremely patient with them and gives them feedback on what they can improve on. “It’s my favorite class,” said sophomore Darld Swapp. “Mr. Andreason taught me how to weld better.” Andreason attended Snow College and found he really loved the Sanpete area. He grew up in a small town, so small town life isn’t new to him. This caused him to eventually come back and teach at NS. “I did a year at Snow College and I fell in love with the area and always wanted to come back,” said Andreason.
Features
6
Creative student adopts flashy new art medium by
Michelle lee & a delheide Johansen
There are many styles of art around the world, but spray paint art is a unique one. Cael Church started spray paint art only a couple months ago. He was working on a project in which he had to spray paint clothes. “I was like, I really like spray paint, and so I went and bought a bunch and just started working on it and stuff,” Church said, “but it took me a while to get good at it.” Though he has progressed a lot and is talented at the art, there are still a few things that he struggles with. “[The hardest part is] doing lakes and the reIt took him some practice to get to where he is now, but he turns to street artists and online tutorials for help and inspiration. Some of his inspiration was found in both San Francisco and Las Vegas. He looked more into it and through trial and error, he was able to get to where he is today. “It’s just a hobby for now, but I mean, if it turns into a money-making opportunity then that’s pretty great,” Church said. Though it could turn out to be a money-making thing, he isn’t in it for the money. He just enjoys doing it, especially with family and friends. For the time being, Cael’s spray paint art is just a hobby, but he wouldn’t mind pursuing it more and seeing where it goes. “It’s something that he enjoys doing and he likes to share it with other people,” said Shannon Chuch, “so when he has friends come over or cousins then he likes to spray paint with them--that’s a good thing.” His mom also talked about the great impact it’s had on his life. Rather than playing video games with friends and family, he turns to art instead. “It’s fun and because it takes a lot less time than regular art and it looks better anyways,” Church said. He really likes the uniqueness of this art, as
photo by Michelle Lee
well as other aspects such as the amount of time it “I like to do planets and space and try to do sunsets and lakes and stuff, but I’m trying to exThese are the styles that he has been working on, but he doesn’t mind branching out and trying new things. When working on a piece it takes Church only depending on the art style, but for the most part this is a relatively fast process. “It takes a couple minutes--it depends, sometimes you have to let the paint dry depending on what you are doing,” Church said. His materials are relatively inexpensive, with a spray paint can costing about $3. This is only a small price to pay, considering he works on only
starting out, he had to buy all the materials at once, so it was more on the expensive side. “Doing planets and stuff, we just learned from from lakes, we’ve also seen from some tutorial vidured it out,” Church said when asked about how he learned. The last time that Church took an art class was back in middle school, so he has had to teach himself for the most part. “I think it’s really cool and he just uses the most random things, and it turns out really cool,” said Cael’s sister, Sarah Church. process, he really enjoys doing it.
Teachers take on extra jobs in search of balance because you just don’t have anything to do,” Syme said. “So, you know, having a summer job or something to do in the summertime, it just gives you something to do. You can
photo provided by Bill Polluck
by
Mary Jones
Having multiple jobs can be a juggling act starting and ending in the early hours of the morning. For NS teacher Rickie Stewart, days are spent working for an accounting for her farm, coaching volleyball, and taking care of kids. For Stewart, having multibut she recognizes that it can be for others. “For me, it’s different than for others who are the breadwinners of their families, ” Stewart said. “They do pick up
second jobs because one, they have the time to do it in the summer or otherwise, right? But two, if you’re the breadwinner and you are trying to support a family on a teacher’s According to a recent survey among NS teachers, nine have a second job. For NS math teacher Matt Syme, the summer break was one reason that getting a second job was something that made sense to do. “You think to have ten or twelve weeks off is a good thing, but after a week or two, you’re driving yourself crazy
can only do so much vacationing before you get bored of it.” After leaving youth corrections, having worked there for eighteen years, NS teacher Bill Pollock considered doing his second job, shoeing horses, as his primary career. “When I got out of youth corrections and I was trying to decide what I wanted to do, I really contemplated just shoeing horses full time,” Pollock said. “Obviously that didn’t happen because I went back to school, and the reason I did that is because of the stability of school. It comes with salaried income where you’re getting income every month that’s the same, retirement, ing doesn’t.” tion offers, such as insurance and retirement, can be a large part of what motivates teachers to start and keep teaching. “If you quit teaching school and go someplace else, the insurance and the retirement goes away,” Syme said. “So once you’re in, once you’ve been in long enough, you’re kind of stuck there because, I mean, after teaching that close to your secure retirement, it’s so hard to give that up and then start a new career.” Syme has spent previous summers working for the forest service during the break between school years. Work-
ing for the forest service was a more enjoyable job for Syme than teaching because of the outdoor setting and the type of work he was employed to do. “If I could make the kind of money I do teaching school working for the forest service, I would probably do that instead,” Syme said. “The kind of work I was doing for the forest service, you can’t make that kind of money teaching school. Most of the high-end jobs working for the forest service were people sitting in joyed getting out in the mountains and, you know, getting my hands dirty.” For Stewart, having multiple jobs can be a good thing since she enjoys being busy, but it can be challenging to balance them. “You feel like it’s like a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-
none kind of thing,” Stewart said. “Like it sometimes feels like that … and there’s a time and a season for sure, but it sometimes feels like I’m not good at any of them, if that makes sense, like I’m just doing the bare minimum to get by.” Though having multiple ties, it brings variety, since not all effort is spent the same way. This variety is something that cial. “You have to be balanced in life, you can’t just be all into one thing,” Pollock said. “You have to have a healthy balance of things. There’s got to be other things to distract you from work, and from play, and from whatever it is that keeps you a balanced person. And that’s another reason why I do more than just teach.”
Features
7
Surveys show increase in stress-eating among teens
photo by Josh Cox
stress. by
JoshUa c oX
What do you do when you’re stressed? Some take a relaxing bath, some take a walk. All of us have our methods to try and take the stress off our backs, and it’s the same way with students at NS. But what do nearly half the students do to cope with stress? They eat. “I think everyone does it to some degree,” said NS senior Adam Cox. “There are people who are worse than others.” Not all students eat the nitely a variety. Some just snack on junk food, some really love to eat salty foods such as chips and crackers, and some just eat anything But why do we stress eat at all? “Stress eating is kind of a way to make us feel better,” said Heather Allred, counsel-
you up.” Using food as a temporary escape from our problems can be good, or bad. A little bit of stress eating can be good, just like a little stress can be good. “If I’m working on a stressful school project, I’ll be like, shoveling [food] down just to give me something to do while doing it,” Cox said. But, too much stress can really take a toll on your mental health and your physical health, if you eat too much. This can be a problem for teens that stress eat, because stress often affects teenagers more than other age groups. “It really depends,” said NS sophomore Shirley Xicotencatl. “But if you’re overweight or something like that, and you just keep eating more and more, it could be really bad.” In a 2018 American Psychological Association sur-
vey, it showed that teens tend to be much more stressed than adults. “Teens reported that their stress levels during the school year far exceeded what they believe to be healthy (5.8 vs. 3.9 on a 10-point scale) and topped adults’ average reported stress levels (5.8 for teens vs. 5.1 for adults),” according to the APA. Even things that may not seem important to adults can cause stress for teens. “Things to an adult that might seem trivial to them, seem earth-shattering to a teenager,” Cox said. Teenagers usually don’t even have more stressful sit-
uations than adults either, but teens are often not very well equipped to handle stress. “Adults have been in this world longer, so they know how to deal with those feelings of stress, whereas teenagers haven’t been here as long,” said Xicotencatl. Although stress eating is a normal challenge for teenagers, the ongoing pandemic hasn’t helped. In fact, it’s made stress eating much worse in adults and teenagers. “Generally, the two big things that make children emotionally eat are boredom and stress, and we have a lot of that, the children have a lot of that right now,” said Bär-
bel Knäuper, a professor of health psychology at McGill University. Although the pandemic is a problem, some teens are doing better than others, and it’s the same way with or without COVID-19. “People in families that normally struggle, their struggles have probably increased,” Allred said. “The people that have fairly effective health skills are probably doing better than others.” Even with healthy teens though, most still have their comfort foods. A way to escape the grip of stress, at least for a while.
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Sports
2 March 2021 www.nstimes.org
8
Drill team takes second place at state
photo by Carson Hadley
Drill preforms their Dance routine during state competion at Utah Valley University. by
Abby bench
Resilient. The one word that perfectly describes their team, coaches, and season. After facing and overcoming multiple challenges throughout the school year, NS Drill Team’s competition season comes to a close, ending with them taking first at region and second place at state. Although all the girls really wanted to take first at state, most of the girls look on the positive side and are thankful for what they got. “Personally, I honestly feel so blessed since it was my first year,” said sophomore Ava Lamb. “I remember Kiersten saying how many people would kill for second place. I’m glad we got to take something home.” They brought back their second place trophy to add to the two
other state trophies. They’ve held their position for three years which is a success for them. “Maintaining that second place and being top five in the state for three years in a row is a huge accomplishment,” said head coach Kiersten Wheeler. Being able to get second was definitely an achievement for them, especially with all the trials they had to go through. This season was full of challenges such as both their coaches being pregnant, problems with routines, and of course, Covid. “Having to adapt to covid. That’s probably the hardest thing,” said Lamb. “Girls were getting quarantined, girls were testing positive.” Girls getting quarantined caused a lot of problems because their spot would have to be filled until they returned. This means that
other girls would have to learn a new part in a routine that some of them don’t usually perform. They put in the effort and were able to get through it. Another huge problem for them was that they didn’t even know if they would have a season, a chance to actually perform. With all the uncertainty, it was hard to get into the spirit and have the energy that they usually have. “I feel like over the summer we knew that there was a chance that we might not go to state, that it could be cancelled,” said Lamb. “So the energy was still there and it was still fun but it wasn’t like we were pushing towards this goal because we didn’t know if we were going to have it.” Eventually, they knew that they were going to be able to compete and they gave it their all and pushed
One way they “practice with a purpose” is for both the coaches and the girls to have a goal in mind and remember and stick with that goal till the end. “You just have to keep the end goal in mind,” said Wheeler. “Our end goal was obviously state and to do really well at state, and so we always made sure to practice with a purpose and to always keep our end goal in mind no matter what they were dealing with that week.” As the year went on they continued to improve both as individuals and as a team. Everyone works on being better and learning more. “It’s not just your rookies coming in that need improvement and need to work hard, it’s your rookies and your veterans that come in and need to improve, and so it’s awesome,” said Wheeler. The coaches don’t believe in seniority. Everyone gets treated the same and everyone works hard. Talent is more important than seniority on drill. “Kiersten doesn’t favor seniority at all.
She says that a lot,” said Lamb. “I knew I’d have to push myself if I wanted to be in the dances and so I feel like as a sophomore it really wasn’t that different.” No matter how long you’ve been on the team, the coaches expect you to work hard and push yourself. So does the team. Even when they’re exhausted they continue to give it their all. Whether they’re on or off the floor, the drill girls are expected to do their best in everything. The coaches want them to succeed in dance and life. “I’ve put it on myself to try to be the best example that I can be and to try and keep our team united and things like that,” said Cook. The lessons that both the girls and coaches learn from each other the relationships they created will stick with them they’re whole lives. “I think overall it’s really given me sound ground. I feel like I’ve made lifelong friends, I’ve learned life long lessons,” said Cook. “I’ll never forget it.”
themselves to do the best they could. “When we went to region, that was the day for me that something clicked,” said senior and drill mistress Shalyce Cook. “I feel like every girl had a different mindset and that mindset really trickled down to everyone. Everyone felt that change and that switch and it really was a good thing for my team.” Having a positive mindset is important to most of the girls. Having that mindset and having a goal and a purpose really helped them to improve. “One of our mottos is practice with a purpose, so there was a short period of time when I wasn’t able to be at practice but it didn’t matter,” said Wheeler. “They still needed to come and they knew photo by Carson Hadley they still needed to practice with a pur- ond in military, second in dance and fourth in show. pose.”
Swim team breaks five records at state competition by
KennA cooK
Despite major setbacks of 2020, the swim team has been doing better than ever before. An overall of five records were broken between the two days of state and state finals. And for the first time at NS, two freshmen qualified for state in individual events. State swim competition was held in Bountiful, Utah, at the South Davis Recreation Center. State swim took place on Friday, Feb. 12 and state finals took place on Saturday, Feb. 13. Six swimmers from the girls team qualified for state, and all six girls came through for finals. Senior Hope Christensen broke the girls 100-yard Freestyle record with a time of 58.43. The girls 400 free relay team came seconds within breaking or school record. The girls team placed 14th overall out of nineteen teams. Nine boys qualified for state and eight came through in finals. The boys 500-yard Freestyle record was broken
twice in one night, first by junior Joseph Holbrook, followed by fellow junior Gideon Palmer with a time of 6:02.69, breaking Holbrooks record by four seconds and breaking the previous record by thirteen. Kaysen Smith set a new record for the boys 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.42, breaking the previous record by 0.05 seconds. The 100-yard backstroke record was broken by Kason Ericksen with a time of 1:06.76, taking a little more than a second off of the previous record. The boys team placed 11th overall out of twenty one teams. Brady Smith, the first freshman from the boys team to qualify for state in an individual event, qualified in the 100 backstroke. “To be honest, it’s pretty amazing,” said Smith, although his state placement wasn’t intentional. “It kind of just happened,” said Smith. Nevertheless his PR (personal record) in the 100 backstroke comes only a few seconds away from the school record. Senior Hope Christensen, one of the
best swimmers on the girls team currently holds all eleven of the girls records. She has been on the NS swim team since she was a freshman. “She is an incredibly hard worker and dedicated to improving herself,” said David LaTomme. “It gets harder to say goodbye to [the seniors] every year.” Tori Day, the girls first ever freshman to qualify in an individual event, qualified in the 200 free, 500 free and the 400 relay. “I’ve never been pushed this hard to swim at this level,” said Day. She has been swimming for three years with the Mt. Pleasant Betas. She feels that the one thing that has helped her swim her best this year are the newly acquired coaches, Rachel Keller and Jo-Anne Riley. Keller is a professor at Snow College and this is her first year coaching our swim team, whereas Riley has had previous experience coaching. Some were concerned with the possibility of
conflict with three coaches. “I don’t see that happening here,” Said David LaTomme, who has been coaching our team for three years. The three coaches have worked together and blended their coaching abilities together in a way that both LaTomme, Smith and Day agree to be profitable to the team. “We work well with each other and communicate well with each other,” said LaTomme. As his parting words with all his swimmers until next year, LaTomme left this: “Don’t give up, because if you do, you will regret it,” LaTomme said.
by Phaedra Lamb
Hope Christensen breaks girls 100-yard Freestyle record.
Sports
9
Three wrestlers finish in top six at state tournament
end, to take fifth.” Taylor has put in a lot of time preparing for his matches all season long, but much of his energy right before the match comes from warming up. “[I] go out there 10 minutes before my match and get jumping around and get a sweat going,” Taylor said. “I like to drown everything out and get focused and think about what I’m about to do.” Taylor used that edge to come out with the top athletes in the state, despite a season riddled with a lot of time out due to injuries and COVID. Kasey Curtis’s season, on the other hand, was relatively normal, giving him the chance to have a 34-8 record, with a sixth-place finish at the state tournament. photo provided by Marcy Curtis “Kasey had never placed at state Laramie Roberts stares down his opponent at state wresting tournament. Roberts took second overall in his weight class. so it was a huge accomplishment for him. He battled into overtime to place state tournament. by SIRI hUnTInGTon State wasn’t easy for Taylor, espe- in the blood round,” Dyches said. The wrestling team capped off cially when he lost his first match of Even though Curtis was able to have a good season, he didn’t have as many a successful season by qualifying all the tournament. “I kinda came out of my first mat- matches as he would have had in a varsity wrestlers for state and having three wrestlers place in the top six at ch and wasn’t that focused and just normal season. During a typical seaover thought a lot of things and ended son, the wrestlers usually get about 60 state. matches total, but due to COVID this Senior Laramie Roberts placed se- up losing,” Taylor said. Even though he lost, which put year, they weren’t able to have weecond, junior Kylan Taylor placed fifth, and junior Kasey Curtis placed sixth. him in the consolation bracket, he rea- kend tournaments. This significantly “The three guys that medaled, de- lized something very important. serve that medal. The 3A classification “After the first match I kinda realized was a tough classification,” said head that I’ve got to step it up here or else coach Spencer Dyches. “Probably my season is over,” Taylor said. “So [I] pound for pound, one of the toughest just had to push through or else I’d get classifications in the state and each one beat out.” After battling his way through the of those young men proved that they were deserving of that. You are going next three matches, Taylor made it to to earn what you get and that is what his last match of the state tournament wrestling is. Each one of those young to wrestle for a chance at fifth place. “I was wrestling a kid I had almen won their medals respectably.” This past year has been crazy for ready wrestled before and I’d beaten everyone, and for NS wrestler, Kylan earlier so I wasn’t that nervous about Taylor, it was no exception. Throug- it, but I still was a little bit because it hout the season he fought through an was my last match of the year,” Taylor MCL injury as well as having COVID. said. “But I just got out there and pretBut Taylor was able to push through it ty much just wrestled. [I] didn’t really all and take fourth place in region. He have any struggles and then I was just then went on to take fifth overall in the really happy that I pulled out, in the
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dropped their total matches to only 30 to 40. Other aspects of the season that changed due to COVID were where state took place, as well as the length of the tournament. Normally, state would be held at UVU with it being a two-day tournament, but this year Juab hosted it as a one-day event. Despite these changes, the atmosphere of the tournament wasn’t negatively affected. “It’s always a different feel. They usually have it at UVU, which I don’t know why, but it scares me a little bit,” Curtis said. Not only does state have a different feeling but crazy things can happen just like at any other sport state tournament. “There are kids that win all season long and get beat or kids that you don’t see win very often and for some reason they just flip a switch and win lots of matches,” Curtis said. “There are [also] some teams that come out and compete a lot better than others. It’s just a totally different feel than the actual regular season especially with this COVID where we didn’t get as many matches as we usually do.”
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Sports
10
Coaches aim to balance student, parent relationships
by
KAyLee AnDeRSon
Finding balance between parents, players and coaches can be a difficult task. For coaches, it can be hard to make the decisions you need to make because in most cases, there will be at least one person that doesn’t agree with you. “It’s hard because there are not a lot of sports programs here that cut kids,”said head basketball coach Cris Hoopes. “I only have five players on the court at a time, so there are decisions that I have to make. There are over a hundred students who would like to play so you end up dwindling that down. No matter what, there is going to be parents who are upset.” As a coach you have to look at the team as a whole. Some players and parents thoughts of how it should be run may not be what is best. “Oftentimes individual stuff doesn’t align with team perspective,” said head volleyball coach Rickie Stewart. “If you can get those two to match, then you are going to be far more successful. I think that when it is something as emotional as success and playing time you’re always going to have people who disagree with the job you are doing. I think you learn something new with every experience.” Managing both the team and the relationships between the parents and the players is difficult. What does help is knowing that not everyone has the same understanding of the sport. “I think having the proper perspective, going in knowing that people aren’t always going to agree with the decisions that I make is just part of life,” said Stewart. “It is certainly magnified and amplified in the heat of the moment when parents do get emotional and want to be their kid’s advocate.” Parent input is very influential on the team as a whole and on the individual players. The athlete’s performance can be impacted by it. “I want to make them proud and I don’t want to let them down,” said senior Brady Jacobson. “My dad has always been a big influence on my sports and he always puts pressure on me. I mean there’s never really a game where there’s no pressure because he expects me to do good things.” When parents think they know what’s best, it can cause conflict for the player. “Anytime there is coaching from home,” said Hoopes. “I think it is hard on players because they
don’t know how to tell you no, especially when they love you. It can be really hard because for parents a lot of time the most important thing is that their kid is happy. Sometimes that is not what’s best for the team, so you have conflicting things and conflicted kids.” It can be up to the student to decide how to take the coaching from parents. “I think it kind of depends on my attitude,” said Jacobson. “They are at every single game no matter what, so sometimes I like taking the criticism and sometimes I just don’t want to put up with it.” “It makes me frustrated when they yell at me and tell me to do better when I know I made a mistake,” said junior Erin Briggs. Parents don’t always have the benefit of knowing is what happens in practices outside of the game. This can cause misunderstanding between parents and coaches. “I think that parents sometimes don’t fully understand what’s going on,” said head basketball coach Cris Hoopes. “They judge you because all they see is games or they listen to their kid. They believe their kids first because they love them which is understandable.” For many students, cheers and comments made by parents can be interpreted in more than one way. “I play better because they point out things that I don’t realise sometimes,” said Briggs. “It can also be frustrating because when they scream at me I focus on that more than the play.” When there is a disagreement between parents and coaches, the student athlete can be put in an unfavorable situation. “The difficulty is they are still their parents,” said Stewart. “Athletes can go one of two ways, they can either agree with their parents who may or may not be right or wrong. The trouble is then that kid has to decide what that does to the team.” Being caught in the middle of the disagreement can be a hard situation and many students have to please both sides. “For the most part, I think that kids are really good at compartmentalizing it,” said Stewart. “I think that athletes get it and that they understand if their parents are saying crazy things they kind of just tuck it away and put a pin in it so they don’t cause problems at home. They are still their parents
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and they still should be loyal to them. I think kids learn to filter out the reality and chaos.” Even when parents say one thing, the kids can still find the meaning behind it. “I know they are watching me and supporting me,” said Briggs. “Even though it doesn’t feel like that half the time. I know that they want me to do my best.” Being a part of the team there are a lot of different views but what matters is that they come together in a way that everyone succeeds. “The most important part about being on a team is realizing that you are all working to the same goal,’’ said Stewart. “If your parents are detrimental to that goal then you have to pick a side unfortunately. In all reality the kids know when we treat them fairly and when we do the right thing for the team. I think that’s honestly very adult of them to separate the two.” Even though parents criticize their players, it is because they see their potential. “Well a lot of good coaches say that if a coach stops yelling at you then they believe that you don’t have any more potential that you’ve reached everything that you have,” said Jacobson. “Knowing that they still try to teach me stuff and make me better gives me confidence.”
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2 March 21 www.nstimes.org
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Band, choir students perform in long-awaited concert Booher said. “Because we didn’t
photo by Caden Clawson
Concert band students at the recent performance led by band and choir conductor Timothy Kidder. BY
CADEN CLAWSON
The band and choir concert on culties. a year since COVID-19 shut down a year without a concert and then school last March.
New Marvel series captivates viewers with compelling plot BY
CARSON H ADLEY
Arguably the biggest name in recent cinematic history, Marvel Studios is best known for making blockbuster action movies. But with movie theatres still closed in some states and COVID-19 restrictions preventing the filming of any new movies, Marvel has found a new way to reach audiences through their new TV show “WandaVison,” streaming now on Disney+. The show’s first episode premiered on January 15 and new episodes are being released every Friday, with the final episode of the season expected to come out on March 5. The run time of each episode typically varies between 30-40 minutes but is significantly longer if you count the end credits. The plotline of the show follows Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Vision, played by Paul Bettany, as they live a peaceful married life in the suburban city of Westview New Jersey. Each episode is based around a sit-com style from different decades, with the first episode set in the 1950’s and successive episodes set in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and so on. The show also introduces Wanda and Visions’ twin sons Tommy and Billy, with regular appearances from the family’s neighbor Agnes, played by Kathryn Hahn. “WandaVison” takes a bold step in a new direction for Marvel Studios, at first seeming to be noth-
ing more than a sit-com, far different than anything Marvel has done previously. However, after the first three episodes “WandaVison” returns to familiar territory for Marvel. The fourth episode introduces SWORD captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) along with FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) and astrophysicist Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) as they investigate the mysterious anomaly surrounding Westview. The fourth episode also reveals that the show actually takes place shortly after the events of “Avengers: Endgame”, with the sit-com happening as an actual television broadcast coming from inside the Westview anomaly. At first it appears that the whole situation inside Westview is being controlled by Wanda herself. However, after the fifth episode it is revealed that Wanda doesn’t really know what’s going on either. While she can control a lot of what goes on in Westview, she doesn’t know how the whole thing started and who is actually causing it. The show is really a big mystery, with everyone trying to figure out what is going on. SWORD is investigating the anomaly and trying to figure out how to stop it. Wanda is trying to figure out who started the anomaly and how she can take control of it. And Vision is attempting to figure out how he was brought back to life, while also trying to help his wife. The show does a really good job at keeping fans on the edge of their seats, revealing just enough
to make them want to watch the next episode. Overall, the show is well worth the watch. It might start off a little slow, but things quickly pick up towards the middle of the season. It has the topof-the-line acting and special effects that viewers can expect from Marvel Studios and its plot is masterfully crafted to keep viewers entertained.
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Celebrities BY
Heard
MICHAEL L ARSEN
in the
Halls -“I go to the yarn store and touch all the yarn.” -“The last thing I need in my life right now is a more modern looking Pringles man.” -“If you do it right, there’s ways to year-old kid!” the spirit of Danny DeVito.” -“You had me at ‘He’s British.’”
Across
3. The Fresh Prince. 5. Author of the Harry Potter series. 6. Actor who’s biggest break was by playing Troy Bolton in High School Musical. 10. He cried over a volleyball in a movie, and his birthday is July 9. 14. Host of critically acclaimed daytime talk show based in chicago. 16. Actor best known for his role as Han Solo. 17. SNL Star and actor who starred in Beverly Hills Cop. 18. Sang famous duet “Islands in the Stream” with Dolly Parton 20. Accomplished actor better known as Michael Scott. 21. 19-year-old musician with signature green hair. 24. Actor and former governor of California. 26. Youngest member of One Direction. 27. Eight-time Grammy winner who started to sing at age 14. 29. MLB LA Angels player nicknamed the “Millville Meteor.” 30. Canadian-born actor and producer whose last movie role was in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). 31. Ron Burgundy and Buddy the Elf. 32. Chinese actor known for doing his own stunts. 33. Highest paid Hip-Hop artist.
Down 1. Actor who has a reputation of not turning down roles. Best known for Leaving Las Vegas and Ghost Rider. 2. She owns a cosmetic and clothing line called Fenty Beauty 4. Best Actor winner for their roles in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. 7. Musician known for the 2017 album Divide. 8. Greatest QB of all time, and it's not close. 9. Director of the films Jarassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Jaws. 11. Most known for the talk show The Ellen Show. 12. Star of the Mission Impossible series. 13. Famous homemaker was jailed for insider trading. 15. Singer known for songs like Deep and Someone Like You. 19. Argentina national soccer team forward. 22. Most Grand Slam singles title wins. 23. Pop singer who sings Shake it Off. 25. Rose from Titanic. 28. Rapper who was once the lead singer of Destiny's Child. 29. Actor and model who plays supporting roles in Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014).
last year.” -“Valentine’s Day is a social construct.” -“If it’s not a social construct, it’s a plant.”
-“You’re one step away from just snorting peas!”
