Volume XLIV, Issue 1
September 24, 2014
D.H Conley High School
2006 worthington road greenville n.c 27837
taking over
green machine
trailer tantrums
replacing cable?
its a metaphor
unfinished trailers
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freshman quarterback leads varsity football By Olivia Dunn At only fourteen years old, freshman Holton Ahlers has earned the position of starting varsity quarterback. Although he is young, he is “not your typical athlete” said head coach Brian Paschal. At 6 feet 4 inches and 210 pounds, Ahlers is physically mature as well as “mentally far ahead of the curve,” said Paschal. “He’s steady, and no moment is too big.” Ahlers strengths far surpass his size. His talent lies in game management. “He ultimately has to control the play,” said Paschal. While according to his coach he needs to improve on reading defense and secondary coverages, Ahlers plays with the same qualities of former Conley quarterback Davis Kirkpatrick (‘13).
Holton Ahlers
“Davis managed the ball really well and was an excellent runner,” said Paschal. “ Holton is a bigger version of him.” Growth is the name of the game for Ahlers and the team as a whole this season. “We need to keep maturing,” said Paschal. “By the conference games, early mistakes have to be left behind, meaning little to no penalties and turnovers.” Because of his young age, his teammates “went easier” on him in the beginning, but the coaches treated him equally from the start, said Ahlers. Both teammates and coaches respected him because of his modesty. “He didn’t come in with an ego,” said Paschal. As the quarterback’s coach, Nathan Conner works specifically with the freshman; Conner “brought him along slower” due to his inexperience on the varsity level according to Paschal. As for earning the position of starting quarterback, Ahlers was surprised by the title. “I knew I was up for it, but I didn’t expect to actually be the starter,” he said. Ahlers began playing football in sixth grade for Chicod, and it quickly became a passion of his. The Vikings didn’t first spot Ahler’s talent at tryouts. Paschal and his coaches watched him play in the Viking bowl, a championship game for middle schools held at Conley.
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school suffocation: population keeps growing by Christian Reid It’s a new school year. New classes. New friends. New students… New problems. Typically, this only includes dealing with different people, a heavier workload, and that one class that you can’t stand. But over the past few years, D.H. Conley’s student population has grown tremendously, posing a litany of problems for not only the staff, but the students as well. Since 2011, the incoming freshman class has been increasing steadily, with this year standing at almost 475. In comparison, last year about 400 seniors graduated, and even before they left it was overcrowded. How much more can the school handle before it’s overtaken by the student body? “We’re doing all that we can with the little resources we have,¨ said underclassmen counselor Kelly Wynne about how the school is handling overcrowding. ¨Because DH Conley is such a
great school, we’ll be getting more freshman each year, so hopefully, the county office will realize that we need more supplies and more teachers.” A larger student body means that people will interact differently with more students. Junior Devin Lanon predicts that Conley’s student population will continue to increase. When asked about this year’s batch of freshmen and how they impact the halls, he says that “They’re so small. I don’t talk to them, and they don’t talk to me, but if they get in my way I just try to find a way around them.” Logically, studies have shown that overcrowding prevents learning from taking place. A University of London study
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