Community members were welcomed to Downtown Maryville’s Annual Stakeholder Forum 5:30 p.m. March 18 at Rose Hill Acres Event Center to celebrate successes, recognize volunteers, share event plans and encourage community involvement.
After brief announcements about new sculptures for the square and building facade improvements, Downtown Maryville Board of Directors President Kim Mildward gave an update about other amenities coming to the area. These include the Downtown Pedestrian Alleyway Project and the Downtown Pavilion Project.
The Downtown Pedestrian Alleyway Project will convert the east-west alleyway from vehicle-oriented to pedestrian-oriented. It will be a public space with activities and social areas. The Downtown Pavilion Project aims to construct an openair covered pavilion to hold activities and community events.
Mildward encouraged community members to share their ideas on how the pedestrian alleyway murals could look.
“The other is going to be the pavilion area, which is there at Fifth and Main next to the library in the city parking lot,” Mildward said. “We will have some design input there as well, as (to) how that area is going to look with the pavilion and some potential other features that could be in there. We’re excited to work with the city on both of those projects.”
Next, board members Autumn Quimby and Ashlee Hendrix shared Downtown Maryville event highlights from 2024. Some of its top events were Spring into Fun, Fall into Fun and the Yuletide Magic Holiday Parade and Lighting.
One of its biggest events, however, was the weekly Downtown Maryville Markets that operates from May to September each year. Quimby said while the market only began a few years ago, its yearly attendance is expected to grow.
“Last year we brought in over 5,000 visitors in our 18 weeks of the market,” Quimby said. “We had an average of 35 vendors each week. We’re anticipating a few more this year, and an average of three volunteers assisted every week. We (volunteers) are there to help set up tents, to tear down, to give people change, we provide water (to) our vendors. It definitely takes a village to run the market.”
Quimby said if anyone is interested in participating in any of Downtown Maryville’s events, it can always use volunteers. People can also choose to sponsor it monetarily or donate their time, talent or materials for the activities.
SOURCE: TRANSLATORS WITHOUT BORDERS
BUILDING
BARRIERS
New executive order names English official language of the U.S.
English became the official language of the United States March 1 as a result of an executive order by President Donald Trump. This came after his administration took down The White House’s Spanish-language website page and social media shortly after his inauguration.
Trump’s order caused some concern, as the top language in the U.S. besides English is Spanish, with about 42 million Spanish speakers living in the country, according to Share America. However, this likely will not have an impact on the way Spanish courses are taught at Northwest.
Jose Palacios Perez is an associate professor who teaches the Spanish language and other Spanish-based classes. English becoming the official language of the U.S. is something he said his classes have discussed before.
Palacios Perez said he thinks this move is mostly a political statement meant for show. With English already being used as the main language in the U.S. for practicality purposes, he said making it official is a big effort for little real change. However, he said language education is in a crisis, and this change might affect that.
“Since the late 90s, there has been less and less language professors graduating every year, and more and more schools looking for language professors that they cannot find because there are not enough language professors out there,” Palacios Perez said. “That has (a) very significant impact on students and people when they grow up, but they’re not aware of that.”
Palacios Perez said knowledge of multiple languages is more important than people realize. Foreign language competency, he said, is important for many different industries, including everything from software development, to biochemistry, to the military.
With the removal of The White House’s Spanish-language page, Palacios Perez said non-English speakers will likely be able to find the information they need through the English page. He said most Spanish speakers in the U.S. also speak English. For those who do not, Palacios Perez said most businesses and institutions may have Spanish interpreters on staff regardless.
Bearcat women’s basketball ends their season at MIAA Conference Tournament.
Women’s basketball recap
The Superintendent of the Maryville R-II School District Logan Lightfoot was placed on administrative leave Feb. 24 by the district’s Board of Education. Board of Education President Josh McKim said he cannot comment on the reason for Lightfoot’s administrative leave due to it being for personal issues. He also said there is not yet a finalized timeline for the leave.
McKim said Maryville R-II School District Assistant Superintendent Philip Pohren is taking on the responsibilities of the job.
“We’re leaning heavily on existing staff in the short term to deal with that,” McKim said. “We are very fortunate that we’ve got a very strong team at the Maryville R-II School District, and are really working hard to pick up all of the different tasks.”
A hearing to continue discussing Lightfoot’s administrative leave is set for 6 p.m. March 20 in the district administration’s office.
McKim said the Board of Education is talking to the school district’s attorney, Duane Martin. He said Martin advised the Board of Education to withhold from sharing information on the matter.
“It is a closed session hearing where, and after that I would guess, there’ll be a clearer picture of what’s going to happen going forward,” McKim said.
McKim said he advises the Missourian speak with Martin in regard to Lightfoot’s administrative leave; however, Martin did not respond to the Missourian by the time of this publication.
We are very fortunate that we’ve got a very strong team at the Maryville R-II School District, and are really working hard to pick up all of the different tasks.”
JOSHMCKIM BOARD OF EDUCATION PRESIDENT
The announcement of Lightfoot’s leave was made public by the Maryville Forum in a March 6 article, which was later posted to its Facebook page. Many community members commented. One comment from Stephanie Mclntyre said she believes since the matter affects children, the public should be more informed.
“I think since he is supposed to be looking over all our children that the reason for being placed on leave should be public knowledge,” Mclntyre said in her Facebook comment.
Others posed questions about why the Board of Education or district did not share the news before the press did. In regards to this, McKim said he cannot comment.
INFOGRAPHIC BY SAVANNAH ATHY-SEDBROOK EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Northwest associate professor Jose Palacios Perez teaches his Spanish class March 7.
NATHAN VANDRUFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Survey shows student substance use
ANNA BAILEY Asst. News Editor | @AmBailey16
Missouri Department of Mental Health’s Missouri Student Survey shows decrease in students obtaining substances
The Missouri Department of Mental Health released its 2024 Missouri Student Survey, in which data from substance usage and class attendance showed ongoing trends.
Susan Depue Bradford, research associate professor at the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, said in 2024 nearly 80,000 students participated, with 648 of these students living in Nodaway County.
Looking at the 2016-2024 MSS comparison, there is an overall decrease in students who say substances are easily obtainable. This includes alcohol, cigarettes, vapes, marijuana and both over-the-counter and prescription medications.
Depue Bradford said this is likely due to the amount of resources available. She said there are about 160 registered coalitions across the state and 10 prevention resource centers.
“You will also look at things like, alcohol use has decreased,” Depue Bradford said. “Standard cigarettes has plummeted. That is all, I really think, due to a lot of the amazing work of people on the ground.”
Substance use being associated with being cool has also decreased Depue Bradford said. She said the MDMH is ultimately interested in actual usage, and these decreases show progress.
Maryville R-II School District Assistant Superintendent Philip Pohren said he also believes these trends could be due to the network of resources students have access to, but there are other factors to take into account.
“I think another area that I noticed was the community and the support students also believe that their support networks tell them that drug and alcohol abuse is also wrong,” Pohren said. “So I think part of it is because of the communi-
ty response, and I think that filters into the schools a little bit.”
Another notable statistic showed 44.2% of students in Missouri said they have “cut” or missed a whole day of school in the last 30 days. However, in Nodaway County, nearly onefourth less students answered yes, making the local percentage 28.5%, according to the MSS Nodaway County Report. In Nodaway County, there are also 5% fewer students who said they are not attending school because they believe it is unsafe. Pohren said it is helpful that Maryville is a small community, allowing for positive studentteacher relationships to develop.
“I think for us, what we would say helps students feel safer is just drawing connection and relationship with students, and that starts with our earliest learners,” Pohren said. “We get to watch them grow through their middle school and high
school career, and that impact, or that relationship that (is) established early, I think pays big dividends later.”
81% of students in Nodaway County said they know where to find help if they need it.
About 81% of students in Nodaway County said they know where to find help if they need it; however, Pohren said he noticed a related statistic that only 53.2% know how to handle stress.
He said resources are provided to all students, but this does not mean they all take ad-
vantage of them. Pohren said the Maryville School District has a partnership with Mosaic Medical Center-Maryville and through that, the administration is able to express a need for services.
Social media usage, Pohren said would be interesting to see in the survey, especially with its growing effect on mental health.
Depue Bradford said though this category is not included, if a school is interested in seeing this data or other categories, it can request an optional module.
“If schools say to me they are interested in social media, it’s not that I’m necessarily interested in that data, but if they would like to collect it through their survey, that’s one of the incentives we give to schools to participate with us,” Depue Bradford said.
Depue Bradford said adjustments are occasionally made to the survey, however, the core questions do not change. One
reason new categories are not often added is because the survey already takes students an average of 32 minutes to complete. She said making it longer would likely cause the students to not give their full attention. Pohren said a concern that is still present is the 10% of students who said they drank alcohol in the past 30 days. He said he recognizes this has been a recurring trend; however, it is a problem to continue working on. Pohren said in order to address and solve issues like these, those initiatives begin with the school board of education.
“As a school community, I think a big part of it starts with our school board…but those folks are in tune with what our community wants and needs, and so they help us set policy, monitor policy, so that we’re doing the very best for our students,” Pohren said.
Organization president receives extra Senate funds
The president of Northwest’s Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society was selected to present at the American Chemical Society’s national conference. The presenter requested an appropriation to attend the conference from Student Senate in its March 18 meeting.
Senior Kiersten Buck will attend the five-day conference, where she will present research she conducted the previous
summer with the chemistry department at George Washington University. She will present her poster board, titled, “Exploring surface interactions between Alpha4N and molecular scaffolds.”
“I was really excited,” Buck said. “I’ve heard about ACS for the past couple of years and it’s been like, ‘Oh, that’s a cool thing to do, maybe in graduate school.’ But having the opportunity to go and do this as an undergraduate is really exciting and I can’t wait.”
The ACS Spring conference will be March 23-27 in San Diego.
Buck presented to Senate, explaining the benefits of attending this conference. She said not only will her presentation bring attention to Northwest, she also will learn from students on other SAACS executive boards.
One aspect Buck said she is looking forward to talking to other students about is how to grow Northwest’s chapter.
Buck presented to Senate during the fall semester to gain approval to make SAACS an official campus organization.
In her presentation, Buck said she is requesting $1,100 from Senate. She said the total amount for the trip will come to nearly $2,700. Buck will travel alone, and she said the total is so large due to the location of the conference.
In an attempt to raise money to pay for the trip, Buck said she requested funds through the Northwest Honors Program, where she received $500. She also requested $1,000 from the Undergraduate Research Funds Grant through the College of Arts and Sciences, of which she is still waiting for a response.
“This leaves me covering at the very least $144 of this by myself, though that is likely going to increase by $1,000 pending what I hear from Senate, as well as the undergraduate research grant,” Buck said.
Following Buck’s presentation, Senate discussed its approval of the appropriation. The first discussion point was
made by Denise Neal, senior class president, who asked for the appropriation amount to be amended to $1,500; this would increase the total by $400.
Following, off-campus representative Amaira Peterson asked if the amount was amended how much would be left in Senate’s budget for the semester. Executive treasurer Meagan Moreland responded to the question.
“We’d have about a little over $1,500,” Moreland said.
Once the discussion finished, Buck was brought back into the meeting room. Executive President Chloe DeVries announced
the full appropriation was approved and an additional $400 was amended to the total. Buck said she has been busy preparing for the trip and appreciates receiving the extra funding from Senate.
“I was a bit worried about the financing on it because it is a really big opportunity, so I was bracing myself to have to cover a large portion of the conference costs,” Buck said. “Knowing that I have a little more wiggle room to work with — it’s
absolutely amazing and I’m
credibly grateful to Senate and everyone here.”
just
in-
ANNA BAILEY Asst. News Editor | @AmBailey16
President of Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society Kiersten Buck requests $1,100 for a conference at the March 18 Senate meeting.
ALLY JEFFRIES PHOTOGRAPHER
INFOGRAPHIC BY JULIANNA LAWRENCE DESIGN EDITOR
SOURCE: MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH
CRIME LOG
for the week of March 20
Maryville Department of Public Safety
March 17
There was an accident between Catherine M. McGuire , 62, and Lucky B. Ferry , 17, on the 1000 block of South Main Street. McGuire was charged with following too close.
March 15
There was a summons issued to Larry J. Mossburg 46, for larceny on the 1600 block of South Main Street.
March 14
There was an accident with Kas C. Brady, 23, on the 2000 block of South Main Street.
There was a summons issued to Anthony J. Duncan 19, for larceny on the 1600 block of South Main Street.
March 12
There was a summons issued to Steven F. Boedeker, 41, for peace disturbance on the 1600 block of South Main Street.
March 11
There was an accident between Heather D. Pearson 36, and Laverne J. Farrell , 80, on U.S. Highway 136 and Jet Road. Pearson was charged with careless and imprudent driving, leaving the scene of an accident and failure to maintain fi nancial responsibility.
March 10
There was a summons issued to Sandra D. Patterson, 68, for failure to use turn signal on the 600 block of South Mulberry Street.
March 8
There was a summons issued to Blake A. Richardson, 29, for driving while suspended and failure to maintain responsibility on the 100 block of South Mulberry Street.
FORUM
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Downtown Maryville Executive Director DeAnn Davison presented on the city’s economic vitality and organization. She said the downtown building vacancy rate in 2014 was between 7080%, but is now at 15%.
“It’s just incredible to see the amount of people who are coming downtown and bringing more foot traffic and more vibrancy to the downtown, and hopefully seeing downtown as their home, and we’re so very happy that they chose to start their business in our downtown,” Davison said.
While Downtown Maryville’s social media visits and followers have gone up in the last year, Davison said the city saw a drop in visitation last year. The number of downtown district visitors went from around 179,600 in 2023 to 170,300 in 2024.
Davison said this can be due to a variety of reasons, such as the number of people visiting Northwest, or how the area sports are performing in given seasons.
“I think all the businesses are doing great about trying to provide those services and be open, but this just shows us that there’s an opportunity to improve,” Davison said.
New children's program coming to town
RAIEA SALERNO Contributing Writer | @Raiea_S
Partnering with the Iowan-based program Can Play, Maryville Parks and Recreation will host its first event of the four-week accommodated soccer program 6 p.m. April 1 at the Maryville Community Center.
Kristy McLain, Maryville Parks and Recreation recreation and aquatics supervisor and Northwest alumna, began planning this event last fall after being approached by Can Play. Maryville is one of the first out-of-state partners to offer Can Play.
She said she aims to add a communitybased program that can provide sports for all groups of people.
“Our mission is to empower individuals with physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities, as well as those with chronic health conditions and autism,” McLain said. “So the soccer program has been modified to meet these specific groups of participants. This could be equipped through equipment, content, rules, structure, support and environment.”
For example, instead of playing soccer on grass, McLain said participants will play on flatter surfaces to provide better mobility.
She said Maryville Parks and Recreation
partners with other recreational programs in Iowa. This includes the Can Play programs offered by the Clarinda Lied Center in Clarinda, Iowa, and the Montgomery County Family YMCA in Red Oak, Iowa. She said the partnership would allow her to gain more insight and experience to improve the Maryville program in the future.
McLain said she hopes the first event will bring success and awareness to the cause, and hopes she can receive feedback for future events. Following its first event, the program will host events April 8, 15 and 22, and she wants to provide the program in the fall as well. McLain said sign-ups closed in March, but nine parents have registered their children for the program.
On par with volunteer support, McLain said she hopes more participants will gain an interest for future events.
“Right at the moment, I just want to see how well and how successful this program is before I create another one,” McLain said. “I'm running this program around the same time that my other soccer program is running. My idea is probably to run it like that, so we would have it twice a year.”
She said she partnered with Northwest's Adaptive P.E. Program to help recruit vol-
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unteers and support during the games.
McLain said having a program similar to Can Play was long needed in Maryville. She said with this program she is more focused on individual needs to include a wider variety of children as opposed to before.
“I believe it's important just because we don't have anything structured like this around our area,” McLain said. “We always advertise our activities as inclusive, but we've never actually had multiple participants participate in any of our sports.”
She said Maryville Parks and Recreation never had an adaptive sports program, so she thought it was time for it to expand. She said she hopes the children who participate have fun and feel included.
McLain said she always had an interest in adaptive sports since her years as a Northwest student and wants the Can Play program to play through full fruition in Maryville by garnering more community support.
“I graduated from Northwest as well in my park and rec (recreation) degree,” McLain said. “I took adaptive classes, so this program kind of pulls out my heartstrings a bit. When I was approached with Can Play, it was just a no-brainer to me that we need to get this started.”
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As for the University’s Spanish classes, Palacios Perez said he does not think this policy will negatively affect them. On the contrary, he said the order might make Northwest’s Spanish program bigger in the long run. However, he said other, smaller languages could be at risk.
“I’m not 100% aware of how that’s going to affect languages that are in real risk, like native languages,” Palacios Perez said. “I think… the negative effect is going to be stronger (for) languages that are already in danger of disappearing, they have very few native speakers… they don’t practice it anymore, they don’t have a community strong enough to use it on an everyday basis. I would be more concerned for those languages than (Spanish).”
Eric Dickey is an assistant professor who also teaches in the Spanish program. He said he does not plan on changing the way his classes are taught as a result of the policy change.
He said he does not think English becoming the official language is a bad thing, as many countries around the world have an official language.
However, Dickey said there are many people in the U.S. who come from different countries and cultures, and he believes they should have the opportunity to practice their culture and speak their language independently of English being the official language.
“I think it would be very sad if people began to…veer away from their own cultures,” Dickey said. “I think it’s important that they have the opportunity to get to be who they are…I hope that having English as the official language does not forbid people from speaking their own languages at home or even in public.”
He does not agree with the removal of The White House’s Spanish-language page. He said there are many people in the world who are culturally sensitive and ignorant, but access to a foreign language is a doorway to open-mindedness.
Dickey said he worries Spanish speakers might now be fearful to speak the language in their homes or teach it to their children. If children don’t embrace their values and history, Dickey said it could be very sad.
“We should be respectful and appreciative of the diversity that exists in our country, and further that rather than closing the doors on that,” Dickey said.
INFOGRAPHIC BY JULIANNA LAWRENCE DESIGN EDITOR
Downtown Maryville Executive Director DeAnn Davison points at an attendee of the annual stakeholder forum March 18.
NATHAN NODA ASST. PHOTO EDITOR
PANdemIC
COVID changes freshman’s friendships, family dynamic
Kelly-Lynn Owens
Half a decade has passed since the COVID outbreak was declared a national emergency in the United States, the pandemic causing mass shutdowns across the country — specifically in schools.
Individuals who were in middle and high school when the pandemic first hit are now college-aged adults. Northwest freshman Kelly-Lynn Owens was in eighth grade in March 2020. The then-14year-old was sleeping over at her friend’s house when she found out about her extended spring break, and said she and her friends were thrilled at first.
However, the initial excitement quickly wore off for Owens, whose mother was diagnosed with cancer in January of that year.
“A lot of my teachers were super supportive and helpful during that time, because my mom was in the hospital
the whole time, and my dad was there taking care of her,” Owens said. “I was spending a lot of time alone, and honestly, I really missed school. I missed just having some kind of support system.”
Owens said due to COVID policies at Mosaic Medical Center-St. Joseph, people under the age of 18 — such as herself at the time — were not allowed into the hospital. Owens said her mom did a lot of her treatments by herself, which made Owens feel helpless.
Owens did not return to school until her sophomore year of high school. At that point, her mother had died, and her father’s work union was on strike, so she worked part-time at McDonald’s to help out her family. She also said she did not feel ready to return to school just yet.
“It was definitely hard when I first went back to school…I think I had maybe one friend, and her brother was high risk,
so we weren’t allowed to see each other, so I was just super isolated,” Owens said. “By the time I actually went back to high school, I felt like I had missed so much, and I didn’t know how to make friends or how to socialize at all.”
The pandemic, Owens said, changed the way her family and friendship dynamics worked. She said after being cut off from her friends and family for a year, she is not as close to the same people she once was.
Owens said the pandemic as a whole acted like a reality check for everybody in multiple ways, including economically, politically and socially.
“I think it really put things in perspective for people that history repeats itself and it’s serious because I know a lot of people did not take it seriously at the time in the slightest, and that is a lot of the reason it got as big as it did,” Owens said.
Student recounts pandemic hitting, isolation from peers
Zachary Gullick
Freshman Zachary Gullick was 14 years old and in eighth grade when the pandemic hit. He said he cannot believe it’s been five years since then, and that the past five years still feel like 2020 to him.
At first, Gullick was excited to have a break from school, but he did not realize the pandemic would last as long as it did.
However, Gullick said his town’s smaller population meant he was able to return to in-person classes the following year.
“Being from a small town, I mean, COVID was a concern, but we did in-person,” Gullick said.
“We had a choice to do online.
During the pandemic, Gullick occasionally visited his grandparents’ house, but he did not hang out with his friends or socialize outside of school as often.
Although he was able to return to school, it was different from before. He said he mostly traveled from his home to school, and then straight back to his home again.
“To me, the biggest impact school-wise, is that (we) couldn’t do assemblies, didn’t go on field trips,” Gullick said. “We didn’t have any of the fun parts of school, it’s more just like school, school, school, school — it kind of ruined school for me. I’m a guy that enjoys school and other things about it.”
Gullick said other changes COVID made to the world include its effects on the health industry, essential workers and businesses like movie theaters shutting down.
The pandemic and its related lockdowns and precautions affected health care spending
greatly, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Changes in spending for the years 20202021 were impacted when restrictions were lifted and vaccinations became available. Despite many states’ attempts at protecting public health through restrictions, some workers were deemed essential in many industries aside from health care, such as food and agriculture, transportation and child care. These employees had to continue working through the pandemic, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other economic impacts of COVID come in the form of business closures. About 400,000 establishments temporarily closed in 2020, with nearly 370,000 reopening later that year, according to the Federal Reserve Board.
Northwest freshman Kelly-Lynn Owens walks into the J.W. Jones Student Union during some of her free time March 19.
ALLI DUARTE COPY EDITOR
Northwest junior Emma Pollice and brother Anson Pollice visit Ecuador during the 2020 pandemic. Pollice’s grandparents live in Ecuador, and since COVID was not as prevalent there at the time, her family decided to take a visit there for their safety.
EMMA POLLICE SUBMITTED
INFOGRAPHIC BY JULIANNA LAWRENCE DESIGN EDITOR
Teacher talks COVID impact on schools
Lance Hyde
Graduate student Lance Hyde is a high school teacher at Herculaneum High School in Herculaneum, Missouri. He took the job in 2019, and in November of that year, he said he remembers his students showing him information about a new disease breaking out in China.
“I assumed it was going to be no different than previous outbreaks like Ebola, SARS, or MERS,” Hyde said in an email to the Missourian. “Yet, once 2020 rolled around and COVID became more of a household name there was slight concern.”
Hyde said when everything became really serious in March 2020, the school superintendent declared two weeks off from school due to the pandemic. Hyde said the school was assured it would be back in session after those two weeks were over.
However, nobody came back to the school that year.
“As a teacher, we were told
that we had to post educational material to Google classrooms, but it couldn’t be anything new and we couldn’t count it for a grade,” Hyde said. “Therefore, I had very little engagement from my students if they did not see any value or buy-in from it.”
Hyde said that semester became a massive educational waste since nothing was really being taught efficiently, and there was no real way to hold students accountable or keep in contact with them.
The 2020-2021 school year, Hyde said, began strangely. He had to rearrange his classroom, prove his desks were six feet apart and masks became mandatory, although he said many students refused to wear them.
“Parents were coming in to school boards with local and state politicians to protest the school’s COVID protocol,” Hyde said. “There was even an organized protest of the local population across the street once a
student was no longer allowed on campus because he refused to follow the mask measures. All the while (teachers) were expected to teach both in-person and virtual students.”
Hyde said all of the teachers quickly experienced burnout, as they were actually teaching double the amount of classes, doing both in-person and virtual.
Something else he noticed was a massive loss of interest in education, with his students taking on a “who cares” persona when it came to learning.
Hyde took aside some students he trusted and asked them why this was, and they gave him up front and brutally honest answers. Hyde said his students questioned why they should do work when no one was held accountable. Many of his students, he said, came back with this mentality.
“I’ve also noticed a much larger reliance on cellphones than ever before,” Hyde said.
“Our school district instituted a new cellphone policy and it was almost like watching people go through withdrawal symptoms from drugs or alcohol. At first I thought students were really blowing this out of proportion, but then I stopped and thought about it more.”
After putting it into perspective, Hyde said many teenagers looked to the internet as a sort of comfort during the pandemic when the adults did not have answers. Cutting off phone access to these children, he said, may be why they are rebelling and having meltdowns in schools more than before.
“I’m hoping that after five years we’ve learned a lot about each other and how fragile society is really held together,” Hyde said. “I’m also hoping that as these students grow up into adulthood we can label them as something more than the COVID generation.”
Virus, pandemic show long term effects
Maddy McDowell
Sophomore Maddy McDowell was in eighth grade when the pandemic hit. She said it seems unreal to her that it’s been five years, as time has been moving quickly for her since.
At first, the abrupt and early end to the school year did not bother her, as she thought COVID was similar to the flu. However, she was disappointed not to be able to attend her eighthgrade graduation.
Quarantining at home also came with difficulties for McDowell.
“It was hard, if I have to be completely honest,” McDowell said. “I live with my mom, and that at the time, my grandma was still alive, so it was my mom, my grandma, me and my three little brothers. I helped my mom and grandma out as much as I could with keeping my brothers occupied, because having nothing to do every hour of the day
for basically a whole year, it felt like, was so rough on us.”
The following year, classes at McDowell’s small school were in person, but families were able to choose online learning if they wanted.
Going back to school was already hard, McDowell said, but she said there was a negative impact specifically in sports. This affected her playing tennis, which she did all throughout high school.
“We still went to practices and everything, but then it was like one after another sport, the sport teams started getting down with COVID, and we’d have to quarantine,” McDowell said. “That was truly a game changer for me, because the first time I was in quarantine, I didn’t have COVID, but I had to quarantine away from my whole family. I was the first one in my family to have to quarantine.”
As for sports attendance, McDowell said teammates were only given two tickets for their families, so there were never many people in the stands at events.
As the pandemic continued to grow, with new variants arising, McDowell said she realized everyone handled COVID differently. She deals with a weakened immune system herself due to allergy-induced asthma, so the virus took a toll on her.
“The last time I had it, my body was weak enough that I couldn’t even walk up the stairs to get upstairs to my mom to go to the doctor,” McDowell said.
“My boyfriend and my mom had to work together to get me up the stairs and into the car. So not only did it (affect) the person that had COVID, it also impacted everyone else in the family.”
McDowell said it took her a long time to gain strength back to participate in sports again.
When it comes to her sense of smell and taste, she said there are some foods she cannot eat anymore, saying COVID ruined them for her.
Persistent or prolonged damage to taste buds caused by low amounts of COVID can linger for months or even more than a year, according to the National Institute on Aging.
Despite some of the struggles the virus has brought her, McDowell said COVID affects the body like any other sickness does, and she felt the quarantine and isolation periods were intense. She said she understands many people had health issues and were immunocompromised, but she said younger children and teenagers had it worse than anyone.
“When we’re young, we want to be on the move,” McDowell said. “We don’t want to be at home, we want to live a life.”
Student recalls high-risk quarantine
Emma Pollice
Junior Emma Pollice’s household is considered high-risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines people with obesity, diabetes, asthma or chronic lung diseases, or who have other diseases and are immunocompromised as being high-risk for COVID.
at their school tested positive for the virus. At that moment, Pollice said, it became real. Her school shut down within a week.
she was not due to being high risk.
Pollice said everyone in her family has asthma, with her and her mother possessing an autoimmune disorder as well. Her mother also has cancer, though Pollice said she is now in remission.
s
“It just all got taken away really quickly, and I did not expect that it would be that long, because I thought people would do the right thing and just stay home and wear their masks,” Pollice said. “I did not expect that it would be a yearlong ordeal. I thought it was going to be two or three weeks tops.”
During quarantine, Pollice said she spent a lot of time outdoors, but this quickly grew old. She said she purposely took harder classes her first three years of high school so she could have an easygoing senior year, but online classes put a damper on that.
Pollice said the distance between her and her friends, as well as being cooped up with her family, caused some relational rifts in her life.
Pollice remembers being on a bus, waiting to arrive at a band competition when she and her peers received word they couldn’t go because someone
After an extended Spring Break, Pollice finished the school year from home, although she said many of the standardized tests were waived. The following year, however, Pollice said her friends were able to return to school, while
“I think that COVID mainly just impacted my relationship with others because it was so hard on me that I was struggling mentally the entire year that I was stuck in quarantine,” Pollice said. Fox 5 New York recently re-
ported on what it calls the COVID Time Warp, explaining how the pandemic — a large milestone in many’s lives — may have changed people’s perspective of time. Pollice said time seems different to her since the pandemic, saying everything has seemed to go by much faster in the past five years. However, she has also heard that time may move faster as one ages, so Pollice said she is unsure what is causing her change in time perception. There is evidence of time seemingly speeding up as people age, according to Psychology Today. In the event another pandemic or world health scare occurs, Pollice said she hopes everyone is prepared.
There has to be more sympathy for victims
BROOKLYN FARNAN Missourian Columnist
True crime is something I’ve been a fan of for longer than I can remember. I grew up watching the Investigation Discovery channel trying to figure the crime out way before the episode ended.
I was also raised on YouTube. I never thought those two interests would be combined. They are now with one family — the Frankes.
The Frankes are a family that blew up on YouTube with their family vlogging channel, 8 Passengers. There are two parents, Ruby and Kevin, and six children, the oldest being Shari and Chad, with four still being minors.
They were one of the biggest family vloggers until old footage began appearing on TikTok and people became outraged at how the parents — Ruby in particular — treated the children.
In a since-removed video, Ruby and Chad are talking about punishments and how they haven’t ever hidden anything from viewers. Chad spoke up and said “I don’t think they know that I haven’t had my bedroom for seven months; I’ve been sleeping on a bean bag.” Ruby’s response — laughter.
8 Passengers lost millions of followers and the family started posting less until the channel’s name was changed to Moms of Truth, a title shared between Ruby and Jodi Hildebrandt. Hildebrandt is a wannabe therapist obsessed with hating men and “saving” women — taking advantage of people who are struggling with a controlling cult and helping them commit horrific acts of child abuse.
The height of the abuse was against the youngest. The children were bound with rope and handcuffed, and food was withheld from them for days. Police found the children Aug. 30, 2023, after the youngest son escaped and ran to a neighbor’s home for help. Ruby and Hildebrandt were charged with child abuse.
I say all that to talk about the discourse around their documentary. “Devil in the Family: Fall of Ruby Franke”, a three-episode documentary released on Hulu Feb. 27. It goes into detail about the abuse the children endured.
I binged it in one night. The documentary — in my opinion — was well done. But after getting on social media, I am appalled at the discourse following the details of each case. Most videos I have seen are in support of the children, but some I’ve seen are proudly defending Ruby and Hildebrandt. I personally can’t understand this stance — however, it got me thinking.
As a huge fan of true crime and YouTube, I believe direct access to people’s lives is harming the way we as consumers think. What do you mean you agree with Ruby Franke that the abuse couldn’t have been that bad? Those are children; and I think we are forgetting these are actual children and not just people who exist in front of the camera.
I genuinely believe we need to gain more compassion for victims, be mindful of family vlogging — it’s so weird — and keep people accountable.
Your Bearcat is in a COVID time warp
I — a 14-year-old fetus — was sitting in bed when I got the email.
“The district will be closed for four weeks starting Monday, March 16, 2020,” it read.”
Before I knew it, a fourweek lockdown turned into the rest of the semester. Not only did school shut down for months, but the whole rest of the world did too. I remember it like it was yesterday — and that’s precisely the problem. My life moved slowly before
the pandemic. Since COVID hit, however, my life has been a whirlwind of virtual learning (All the parts of school that made it fun? Gone), earning my driver’s permit (There’s nowhere to go when everything is shut down) and navigating adulthood (Gee, fun).
I’m in college now, and I recently reflected on the fact that the pandemic is now half a decade old — and that revelation quite literally gave me a heart attack. That’s right, I’m now
at a point in my life where I’m having frequent heart attacks because that’s how much I’ve aged since my first quarantine. I actually have a full head of gray hairs, my own pair of dentures and the attitude of a Karen — because somehow even though the world is moving faster, the McDonalds employees aren’t — to match my age. Now, I look around at all of the now-high schoolers. They are able to live out their teen years to the fullest in a way I
couldn’t. I feel like I’m living in a revolving time warp. Looking at these younger high school students is like looking at a different species. I’m finding myself questioning the youngins’ slang terms — what’s a “skibidi?” I’m realizing more every day that I am, in fact, an elderly being, and I wholeheartedly blame the pandemic for aging me.
Panic buying isn’t necessary; supplies need to be available
Natural disasters and global pandemics can be stressful, but so can trying to be prepared when supplies are unavailable.
Essential supplies including bottled water, nonperishable foods, medicine and more are purchased in bulk, emptying the shelves and making it hard for others to prepare. It’s always good to be prepared for such situations, but overpreparing is problematic. It can lead to product shortages and panic buying.
Panic buying reduces supply and creates higher demand, which creates a shortage of products and an urge to purchase supplies before shelves go empty. Weeks — sometimes months — of delays have caused shoppers to buy items they may not need to ensure they won’t run out in case of an emergency, encouraging panic buying throughout the rest of the community.
In times of crisis, it’s easy to let your anxiety control your emergency shopping practices. However, this affects the rest of the community and makes it difficult to find essential items, especially for those who truly need them. For ex-
YOUR VIEW:
How have you been impacted by overconsumption during the COVID pandemic or weather crisises?
ample, similar to toilet paper, infant formula has no substitute. When people panic buy and leave the shelves empty this leaves none for the rest of the mothers who need it for their children.
Most products purchased in bulk sit unused and go to waste when others are struggling to find them on shelves. It’s important to remember resources in a time of need aren’t unlimited, and everyone else has needs too. We must ask ourselves: Do I need all of this, or am I preparing for the worst that may never happen?
During a time of panic, we should seek to help each other rather than capitalize on others’ fear of a low stock of products. Essential items are already hard to find and inflated in prices, but those who hoard and resell don’t help the market or people struggling.
To prevent customers from hoarding essential supplies by overstocking at stores, stores should implement a reasonable purchasing limit to ensure essential supplies are available for everyone. This can ensure resources are evenly distributed throughout the commu-
nity and manage the urge to overstock. Making a fair shopping experience helps balance the supply and demand chain where everyone feels they have access to items they need to prepare for emergencies.
There hasn’t been a time when we’ve experienced such extreme situations where stores weren’t open to get the supplies we needed. Even during the COVID pandemic lockdown, stores and supplies were still available, but the panic to prepare made everything more difficult.
This also applies to severe weather instances. As we enter storm season we need to remember we aren’t the only people trying to be prepared.
Limitations on how much customers can purchase give a sense of fairness and cooperation throughout the community, and we can ensure everyone has equal access to essential supplies during times of need and can get what they need.
It’s completely unnecessary and immoderate to buy up the whole stock when everyone else needs to prepare, too.
OUR VIEW:
ANNA CASE CARTOONIST
“I feel like that it consumes like my whole life, in every aspect, like, especially with food lately.”
MATTIE SANDERS Freshman Physical Education
The Stroller has been a tradition since 1918 and does not reflect the views of the Northwest Missourian.
@TheMissourian
THE STROLLER:
Your Bearcat is a Minecraft movie fan
I’m not afraid to admit it — I play Minecraft. I’m not saying I used to play, I’m saying I just spent Spring Break yelling at my siblings for dying in lava while we were mining.
As we all know, the new Minecraft movie will be in theaters starting April 4 and I am ready to jump up and down like a college student on St. Patrick’s Day. The amount of excitement building in my body since the first time I watched the trailer is immeasurable. It’s like I drank
THE STROLLER:
five energy drinks back-to-back in an hour.
Now, some uneducated people who don’t understand the masterpiece that is Minecraft are not able to relate to the world of possibilities that come along with this movie. It’s OK — I’m here to educate you.
I mean, come on, the movie stars Jack freaking Black. Any movie that boasts him as their lead actor is bound to have you falling off your chair laughing — have you seen Nacho Libre? The
man is versatile.
I wouldn’t expect uncultured, non-gamers to understand why seeing an animated baby Minecraft panda sends me into a physical frenzy.
I’ll admit, I know nothing about what the plot of this movie is supposed to be, but it doesn’t even matter. We’re about to enjoy the journey of real people in the Minecraft world and possibly cry a little when we see our own Minecraft adventures repeated on the big screen.
Remember that time you played in survival mode for the first time and came across a chicken jockey? So does Jason Momoa when he has to fight one in a boxing ring. The trailer leads me to believe this movie will have everything I’m looking for — sarcasm, out-of-thebox plots and Jennifer Coolidge. In conclusion, don’t let the haters who have only played Minecraft once in their lives convince you this is not going to be one of the best movies in 2025.
Your Bearcat isn’t OK with this movie
OK, I cannot get behind the Minecraft movie. Maybe it’s because I played the game for the first time this past summer, or maybe it’s because it looks outright awful.
Let’s start with the trailer — no, actually let’s start with the idea. Who sat down and thought the Minecraft movie was going to be the next big hit? Some uncultured people will tell you this is the peak of cinema.
These are the same people who have barely seen anything outside of Disney Channel Originals — which I would believe are probably better than this Minecraft movie. Now, I do play Minecraft regularly. No one even knows this about me. I love the game and it’s something I’m not afraid to admit — anonymously. It’s not a hatred or misunderstanding of the game, it’s the absolute horror that the movie portrayed in
its trailer.
Now we can move on to the trailer. I’m going to start having nightmares and a sleep paralysis demon now. The trailer didn’t even tell me what the movie is actually about. What is the plot? What is the purpose? Movie tickets are just getting more and more expensive, I need to know that it would be worth it — the trailer didn’t make a good case.
The horror genre is making a comeback
I have to say the horror genre is back. These past couple of years I have been surprised by the amount of horror movies that have actually made me happy. I am a horror junkie at heart, so this might just be my personal opinion.
The first movie I have to talk about is “A Quiet Place: Day One.” I loved the first two “A Quiet Place” movies and this was as close to a perfect prequel as you can get.
Lupita Nyong’o is an amazing actress and was the perfect person to play her role. Also, who doesn’t love a horror movie with a cat as one of the leads?
I typically don’t go see movies in theaters, but this was one I had to after the first two were also great movies. I sat there with my popcorn and soda and enjoyed every second. It had everything a good horror movie should — thrill, emotion, intensity and even pieces of humor.
We need to stop giving mediocre entertainment such a large platform. I need to have good movies come out this year too and with everyone supporting this, I’m scared for the future of cinema.
Jennifer Coolidge — the queen she is — is the only good thing about this movie. Will I watch this? Give me two years and I’ll get to it, but until then I’ll be a Minecraft movie hater.
I have to thank A24 Films LLC. This company has consistently produced some of my favorite horror movies. The difference between them and other companies is they are growing with their audience. They have adapted to what people want to see and have focused on the younger generations — who are the ones watching these movies. One of the more recent ones they came out with was “Talk to Me.” First, I’ll say this movie made me angry. Not because it was bad — because it was not bad — but because it was very realistic of how people would act during this situation. Every bad decision that was made wasn’t a shock. I think a healthy dose of hopelessness in a movie is important. I don’t want to keep seeing the movies where you know the ‘good guy’ is going to win at the end. Horror is the best genre. There are so many routes it can explore and subgenres it can go into. Every aspect of another genre can be integrated into horror. Do you want comedy? Horror can do it. Do you want romance? There’s been plenty of horror movies that include it. Do you want action? Look no further, it’s covered. Whether it’s about vampires, curses or demons, the horror genre is doing it all right recently. I haven’t run out of movies to binge yet. All I ask is we keep this up. The entertainment industry needs it — I need it. I never sit and think about a movie or what it represents more than when I am indulging in the horror genre. If you think about it, that means the genre is making me smarter and use critical thinking skills more. So if you’re ever wondering what I’m doing, it’s safe to assume I’m falling down the rabbit hole of symbolism for the next big horror movie — seriously the amount of symbolism in horror is insane.
HANNAH CLAYWELL Managing Editor @Hannah_9504
ANNA CASE CARTOONIST
NEXT WEEK IN SPORTS
NW BB
vs. Arkansas Fort-Smith March 21-23
Bearcat Baseball Field
vs. William Jewell
3 p.m. March 25
Bearcat Baseball Field
vs. Missouri Western
5 p.m. March 26 St. Joseph
NW SB
vs. Fort Hays State March 21 Hays, Kansas
vs. Nebraska-Kearney March 22 Kearney, Nebraska
MHS BB
vs. Mid-Buchanan
4:30 p.m. March 21
Maryville High School
vs. Smithville March 22
Maryville High School
vs. Maysville
4:30 p.m. March 27
Maryville High School
NW T&F
@ Spire Distance Carnival March 21
Leavenworth, Kansas
MHS GIRLS SOCCER
vs. Savannah
5 p.m. March 25 Savannah High School
NW TENNIS
vs. Arkansas Fort-Smith
1 p.m. March 21
Frank Grube Courts
vs. Southwest Baptist
2 p.m. March 22
Bolivar, Missouri
TAKEN OUT CONTINUED FROM A12
During their five-out-of-seven stretch, Maryville earned key conference wins against Chillicothe, Savannah and Cameron, which boosted its confidence. This momentum carried over into the district tournament, where they once again defeated Savannah 42-37 in the quarterfinals March 3.
Stoecklein said the young group — sophomore forwards in particular, Jackson Wilmes and Lucas Ziegler — came out of their shells and helped the team out when they needed it.
Northwest track and field looks toward its outdoor season
LANDON CLOUSE Missourian Reporter | @NWMSports
With the indoor season finished, Northwest track and field set its sights on the outdoor season — first on the agenda for the distance team is the Spire Distance Carnival March 21 in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Distance coach Wick Cunningham is focused on avoiding overloading the runners before the upcoming meet. Ensuring they have enough rest and a manageable workload is key to preparing the athletes before heading to Leavenworth.
Cunningham said he is working on many ways to get his distance runners ready after running basically year-round for this final stretch of the season.
“It can be very challenging to compete literally all year, summer aside,” Cunningham said. “Ultimately, just trying to not overdo it and just let the athletes rely on their body of work. They can kind of ride their cross country and indoor season a little bit into outdoors. Give them what they’re comfortable with, and most importantly, just give them the rest. The last thing we need to do is race more and dig them into a hole.”
Looking back on the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships March 13-15 for the Bearcats, it was a respectable showing for Head coach
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Brandon Masters’ team. He was able to bring a good group down to Indianapolis, Indiana, and placed fifth in the nation. The Bearcats had an outstanding team performance, earning a total of 20 All-America honors at the meet. The men achieved their best team finish at the NCAA indoor championships since 1987, securing fifth place with 30 points. Meanwhile, the Northwest women scored four points, finishing in a tie for 36th place in the team standings.
The relay teams had a successful weekend, men and women alike. The women’s 4x400 meter relay placed 5th with a season-best 3:41.09, and the men’s 4x400 meter relay team set a school record with the 5th-fastest time in Division II history with 3:08.18, securing 3rd place overall.
Masters was pleased with his team’s effort and performance, and proud to have achieved the best finish of his coaching career at Northwest.
“We competed well, we had a lot of kids that performed above expectation,” Masters said. “Unfortunately, some kids didn’t quite get what they wanted done. But in the end, to be in the top five in the country is a big deal. And as it is my best finish as a head coach here, we just keep knocking off one at a time, we were seventh a couple years ago, then six, and now fifth. So we’ll keep moving forward, and it was a lot of fun.”
“It was a little bit discouraging because it was such an adjustment,” Acklin said. “Sometimes it was like ‘Oh my goodness, are we ever going to get this?’, but I think now, seeing that we’re going to get it; I think this is going to flow into next year and I am super thankful that he (Morley) is our coach.”
With only a few players returning for the 2024 season, Morley played the lowerclassmen to prepare for the ‘varsity’ feel.
“You know, I think we’ll have a really good freshman class,” Morley said. “We are getting a couple players back. I think we’ll be OK.”
One of those lowerclassmen who saw the court was freshman guard Jade Price — little sister of senior guard Jalea Price.
“Well we put Jade in because we were struggling to shoot,” Morley said after the Class 4 District 16 Tournament loss against Savannah. “Jade is a really good shooter, she’s also very small but they were a lot longer than us, so she couldn’t get in any position where she could get any shots off of.”
HIGHS
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The rest of the regular season was back-and-forth for the ’Cats in the win-loss column and concluded their 2024-25 season with an even overall record at 15-15 (8-11 MIAA) — after their season came to a close in the opening round of the conference tournament with a loss to the Missouri Southern Lions. Northwest has now had four consecutive .500-plus seasons and finished with the toughest strength-of-schedule in the country this year.
With Hartnett, graduate student guard Caely Kesten and senior forward Kelsey Fields’ careers coming to a close as Bearcats, Head coach Austin Meyer said it is going to be difficult to fill the top three scorers’ shoes.
“We had pretty high expectations coming into this year after finishing second (in the MIAA) last year and going to the NCAA tournament, so to finish the season .500, I think we were all disappointed because he had higher expectations for ourselves,” Meyer said. “But that group has been with us for four, or five years, and has just elevated the overall win total and put our program on a whole different level.”
Hartnett appeared on all five MIAA all-league lists during her career and is now the secondleading scorer in program history with 1,794 career points — trailing only Janet Clark (2,121). Hartnett ranks fifth in Northwest’s all-time assists list with 434 and holds the second-best career free-throw percentage at 84.5%.
Hartnett, who earned secondteam All-MIAA honors in 2024, third-team honors in 2023, and honorable mention recognition in 2022 and 2021, as well as MIAA Freshman of the year in 2021, was named to the third team for the 2024-25 season. Kesten secured her second consecutive all-league recogni-
tion after leading the Bearcats in scoring with 14.2 points per game. Kesten made 73 three-pointers this season — the fourth-most in a single season at Northwest — and led the MIAA in three-point percentage at 42.9%. Kesten finished with 190 careerKesten said these last five basketball seasons at Northwest have been a blessing in disguise to help her both as a player and person.
“I’m very grateful for the experiences and the things that I’ve learned throughout being a Bearcat,” Kesten said. “I just hope that I’ve made an impact on the people around me in the community of Maryville, and I’m just grateful for the opportunity I’ve been given and everybody that has helped me along the way.” Fields started all 30 games in her final season and was the third-leading scorer behind Hartnett and Kesten this season. Junior forward Emree Zars (fourth-leading scorer), junior guard Lindsey Kelderman (fifthleading scorer), freshman forward Sadie Maas (sixth-leading scorer) and freshman guard Brooklyn Stanley (eighth-leading scorer) look ahead to next season for a bigger role offensively with the top three scorers from this season concluding their careers. Now, with the offseason officially in full swing for Meyer and his team, he said it is going to be a busy next few months to get the right kids in the program to fill some newly vacant and crucial spots on the team for next season.
“Obviously, we’re going to have to go out and get a few kids than can score it,” Meyer said. “We have a 1,500-plus point scorer in Bailey Birmingham coming in from Norwalk, Iowa, but we got to go get some kids that can score because we just feel like as a program we defend, we do the right things and we take care of the ball. We just have to be able to score it at a higher level.”
Northwest senior Moses Koroma jumps hurdles at the MIAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at Carl and Cheryl Hughes Fieldhouse March 2.
NATHAN VANDRUFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Northwest baseball takes tough defeats
The Bearcat Baseball team (10-12, 4-6 MIAA) had a rough weekend against Pittsburg State (17-5, 7-5 MIAA) getting swept in the three-game series over the weekend. Head coach Tony Jandron said the team didn’t like the results and it understands it’s a long season ahead.
“We are committed to the process, learning about our experiences together and we believe this thing will move in the right direction,” Jandron said.
To start the series, The ’Cats traveled to Al Ortolani Field at Pittsburg State for a doubleheader, and game 1 was one to forget. The Bearcats failed to get on the scoreboard the whole game, which marked the first scoreless game for them this season.
In the top of the fifth inning, they finally were able to get some momentum from a single from graduate student designated hitter Ashton Neuman that moved graduate student infielder Jacob Selock to third base with only one out. The next two at-bats resulted in a strike out and ground out that finished the inning as Northwest left two runners on base.
Junior pitcher Ben Haug started the game, and went six-andtwo-thirds innings, allowing seven runs. The game finished 0-8 in the Gorillas’ favor as they finished the game with 13 hits compared to the Bearcats’ six hits.
Game 2 wasn’t much better for the ’Cats. Northwest had the game close at four-and-a-half innings where the game was 3-1 to the Gorillas. Over the next three innings, the Gorillas would bring in five runs, making it a score of 8-1. However, in the top of the seventh inning junior pinch hitter Parker Griffith hit a three-run home run, moving his total to three runs this season. Senior first baseman Kai Young and sopho-
more right fielder Chester Brooks came home from Griffith’s home run, which cut the Gorillas’ lead down, making the score 8-4.
In the top of the eighth inning, Brooks hit an RBI single to bring home Neuman and make the game 8-5. The Gorillas added one more run to their cushion for 9-5 in the bottom of the eighth as the Bearcats were down to their last three outs of the game heading into the ninth. Northwest would go three up, and three down to end the game and give the Gorillas the win.
Heading into the final game of the series, game 3 was not pretty for the Bearcats who lost 6-16, giv-
ing the Gorillas the series sweep. Northwest opened the game well, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning, getting RBIs from senior shortstop Dylan Hufft, Young and Brooks. The Gorillas brought in six runs to take the lead back 6-3 in the bottom of the first inning, however. The game went scoreless the next two innings, and wouldn’t return until Selock hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth to cut the lead down 6-4. The top of the fifth saw RBIs from senior second baseman Alex Bowers and senior left fielder Ryan Williams, cutting the lead down again 8-6 heading into the bottom of the inning. The Go-
Bearcat baseball brothers head to the field for one last season together
From the days of Little League to the Bearcat baseball field, a pair of Northwest baseball brothers have spent years sharing the game they love, with their bond growing stronger every time they step on the field together.
Senior infielder Dylan Hufft and redshirt freshman outfielder Brody Hufft have spent countless hours at the same ballparks, but it wasn’t until high school that they had the chance to suit up and play alongside each other.
“It was pretty special,” Dylan Hufft said. “We’re two years apart, but we would be at the same complex most of the weekends playing, and then
we fi nally got to play together in high school.”
After two seasons together at
Park Hill South High School, the brothers split up when Dylan Hufft graduated and committed to play college baseball. Dylan Hufft spent his college career playing for Kansas State University, Johnson County Community College and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before deciding to transfer to Northwest for his final season before hanging up his cleats.
Brody Hufft followed in his brother’s footsteps, deciding to play college ball. He committed to Northwest after graduating in 2023. The brothers have once again found themselves together on the diamond, and they are excited to play together.
“It’s pretty cool to look across the field and see your brother and know you guys are striving towards the same thing and same goal at the end of the day,” Dylan Hufft said.
For the brothers, it’s not just about the big moments, but the little ones as well. They cherish every aspect of the game, from the early practices to the long road trips.
“Honestly, just everything that goes into being a baseball player and being on a team, it’s pretty special to be able to do things during practice together and then go to games together and compete with each other,” Dylan Hufft said.
Having grown side by side on the diamond, Brody Hufft has always looked up to Dylan Hufft, both as a player and a person.
“I’ve learned how to be a better teammate,” Brody Hufft said. “With Dylan, he’s always been the leader on the team, so I’ve been able to learn how he acts and just go along and make the team better as a whole.”
After tough losses, grueling practices and challenging moments, the brothers know they can lean on each other for support. Through it all, they’ve found baseball has not only shaped them as players, but also strengthened their relationship as brothers.
“We’ve always played baseball together, it kind of created the bond that we can always hold strong,” Brody Hufft said.
The excitement isn’t just limited to the brothers — their parents are equally thrilled to see them back on the field together. As alumni, Tommy and Carly Hufft are delighted to watch their sons play for the college they once called home.
“Sometimes they’d have to split up and go one way or the other to watch us both play if we were playing in different locations,” Dylan Hufft said. “But pretty much every weekend, that’s what their weekends consist of — watching baseball. So I’m sure this spring in Maryville, they’ll be up here every weekend.”
rillas ended up putting the hammer down as they scored eight runs over the next three innings, resulting in a tough defeat for the ’Cats at 16-6.
Jandron said the team can learn from this series and use it as a learning tool for the future.
“Playing established programs with great coaching is always a challenge and one we need to embrace,” Jandron said.
“We will learn from this one and get right back to it. This league provides a ton of opportunity to play against some quality teams.”
The ’Cats move into a threegame series this weekend at home, hosting Arkansas Fort
Smith (8-15, 3-10 MIAA) at Bearcat Baseball Field, where they have defended home-field well, being 5-1 for home games this season. The team hopes to bounce back and look forward to playing in front of home fans. Jandron said there is excitement to get back out and show his team’s fight.
“I know our players are excited to get back home to play in front of our fans,” Jandron said. “I expect to see a scrappy Bearcat team this week; full of energy, hungry to get back on the field to play for one another.”
Northwest baseball redshirt freshman outfielder Brody Hufft and senior infielder Dylan Hufft are spending their season on the diamond together.
LEAH COX Sports Reporter | @byleahcox
CLAYTON CULP Missourian Reporter | @ NWMSports
Northwest baseball senior infielder Dylan Hufft slides into third base during the Bearcats’ 6-3 victory over the University of Central Missouri March 18.
This win marks Northwest’s first triumph over a top 5 opponent since 2021 and its first home game win against the Mules since 2018.
LILLY HALLMON PHOTOGRAPHER
baseball brothers play
MHS boys basketball taken out by Benton, ends season
LANDON CLOUSE Missourian Reporter | @NWMSports_
The 2024-25 season came to an unfortunate end in the second round of the Class 4 District 16 Tournament for Maryville boys basketball, falling to a talented St. JosephBenton team 72-33 March 6 in St. Joseph. It was a season marked by highs and lows, offering valuable opportunities for reflection and improvement for the next year. Early on, the team faced a setback with an injury to senior leader guard Matthew Walter, and there were challenges with cohesion and chemistry in certain areas. As a result, Head coach Matt Stoecklein’s team experienced some difficult moments throughout the season.
Stoecklein said his team ran into a great Benton team who deserves to be deep in the postseason, and it was just an unlucky matchup for the Spoofhounds.
“When you do the scouting report and a guy shoots 14%, and he hits two threes in a row, it’s just going to be one of those games,” Stoecklein said. “But they’re very good. There’s a reason why they’re in the Final Four, and they played really well against us. We’re still young and inexperienced, and that’s just got to happen sometimes”
The first half of the year came with a five-game winning streak with some notable wins. A comeback 64-54 victory against Smithville Dec. 6, and a 14-point victory, 64-50, at home against Odessa Dec. 17. Then came the injury to Walter — followed by losing four of the next five games heading into the new year.
But they’re very good. There’s a reason why they’re in the Final Four, and they played really well against us. We’re still young and inexperienced, and that’s just got to happen sometimes.”
MATT STOECKLEIN HEAD COACH
Inconsistency was a real factor in the season for the Spoofhounds where they were winning, but were also losing in ways that led them to the even 13-13 end-of-season record. Stoecklein said the season was filled with on-and-off performances and the chemistry not being where it could have been.
“We won some games, but we had some highs and some lows,” Stoecklein said. “We had a really crazy game against Smithville, where we came from behind, and won it. And obviously, we started off the year getting beat up as well by Platte County. We were just so up and down, so inconsistent during that first part of the season.”
In the second half of the season, the team’s younger players began to make a significant impact. Despite a tough stretch from late January to early February, which included a five-game losing streak, Maryville bounced back, winning five of their final seven games to close out the regular season.
TORN UP
Northwest women’s basketball graduate student guard Molly Hartnett dribbles into the paint during the Bearcats’ 59-50 loss against Missouri Southern March 5. Hartnett is the second-leading scorer in Northwest history with 1,778 career points.
NW women’s basketball finishes season, takes look back on highs
TREY HOUCHIN Missourian Reporter | @NWMSports
As the final whistle blew in the MIAA Conference Tournament, Bearcat women’s basketball left themselves and their fans with mixed emotions — a season that began with promise and produced flashes of brilliance, including two top-five triumphs, ultimately ended on a sour note.
Northwest (15-15, 8-11 MIAA) squeezed into the conference tournament as the No. 8 seed — out of 10 teams — and fell to the No. 9-seed Missouri Southern (19-14, 10-9 MIAA) 5950 March 5 at historic Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. It was a roller coaster season for the ’Cats, one that produced moments of glory, but struggled through a few tough losing streaks that kept them from finding consistency on the court.
Graduate student guard Molly Hartnett said although the year was filled
with some disappointing lows, it was ignited by dramatic highs to make it a memorable final season.
1,794 career points.
“I thought we started off the season super great, then we kind of hit a lull in our season, but we stayed together through it all and tried to work through the challenges of losing quite a few games in a row, so that was a big struggle,” Hartnett said. “I’m just super proud of this year and the fight
that the girls showed, and the growth we saw throughout the year, especially when things got hard for our team.” Northwest’s season started off with high expectations after earning two signature top-five wins in its first four games over No. 5-ranked Ashland (57-49) Nov. 2 in its season opener, and a win against the reigning Division II national champion and then-No. 1-ranked Minnesota State (85-67) Nov. 9. The Bearcats handed the Mavericks their first loss since Feb. 17, 2024, and their largest margin of defeat since Jan. 11, 2020 — this victory marked the ’Cats first-ever triumph over a No. 1-ranked team in program history. Northwest built off its momentum to kick off the regular season with a 7-1 record. That momentum started to shift after a loss to Highway 71 rival Missouri Western in its first MIAA matchup of the season. The Bearcats went on to lose eight of their next 10 games, moving their record from 7-2 to 9-10 (2-7 MIAA).
OLIVIA WALLACE Sports Reporter | @_oliviawallace_
The Spoofhounds season may not have ended the way that the team wanted — but this season was one for the books.
With a new coach and three seniors, the Maryville girls basketball team had to learn to adapt to the changes of the new season. Head coach Del Morley went into the season with an open mind despite the team’s losing past.
“From a team that had very little success for two or three years and with only one full-time starter from last year returning, they’ve come a long ways and they’re just a great group,” Morley said. “Everybody was pulling for each other and so that’s kind of made it such a fun group, and they all liked each other and supported each other.”
In the 2023 season, the team went 7-17 and a majority of the teams Maryville lost to last season, the ’Hounds won against this season. The change of mindset and fundamentals is what the team worked on going further into the season, for a chance of postseason play.
Coming back from winter break, the Spoofhounds came out with two-straight wins, whereas last season the team had three-straight losses — something Morley worked on with the team. With the tight schedule toward the end
HANNAH CLAYWELL MANAGING EDITOR
of the season, the ’Hounds saw opponents they played previously in the season. One of those teams was the Savannah Savages (189), a long-time Highway 71 rival, who they took down Feb. 21 in a 47-39 game. One of the players who stood out was junior guard Brylee Acklin who helped score
half the points for the ’Hounds against Savannah. Acklin was also a part of the 7-17 team, a record she saw as disappointing, but as the season went on the connection between Morley and the team grew stronger.
Maryville girls basketball junior guard Brylee Acklin looks for an open teammate during the Spoofhounds’ Jan. 24 matchup against Bishop LeBlond. The ’Hounds finished their season 7-17.
AARON HARE PHOTO EDITOR
PHOTO
Northwest women’s basketball graduate student guard Caely Kesten goes for a three-pointer during its 57-48 loss to Missouri Western Dec. 3, 2024.
NATHAN VANDRUFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Hartnett is the second-leading scorer in program history with
