Edgewood ENVOY
THE
Edgewood High School’s Student Newspaper
October, 2019
President Optimistic About Next Steps By Alejandro Trinidad-Echeverria President Mike Elliott is confident that progress is being made for playing games on our field and being able to make improvements to our athletic complex. Mr. Elliott said, “The first step is to get out of the master plan which treats us unfairly.” This means that if the city council votes in our favor and repeals the master plan, Edgewood athletes will be able to play on their home field. “The repeal would eliminate their ability to say you can’t play any games on that field because of the master plan. That would be erased and we would have the ability to play games on our field, like all other high schools in Madison with no restrictions.” Mr. Elliott believes that we are being treated unfairly and discriminated against by some because we are a private, Catholic school. The popular stereotype that Edgewood is a rich, preppy, school is influencing how some neighbors and community members look at our proposal. “They forget that 41 percent of our kids are on needs-based financial aid. They forget that our alumni produces $700,000 a year to help keep tuition down. They forget that we go out and do community service throughout the Madison community. They forget all the things we do to make our community better,” said Mr. Elliott. From the start, Mr. Elliott has been and
currently is working with the neighbors to eliminate their concerns. First, the neighbors were concerned about excess traffic, so a traffic study was done and the city stated that there would be no traffic concerns. A second concern was parking on campus. Mr. Elliott said stalls were added to the Commons parking lot and excess parking will be added from the College lots to provide more parking than we had at Middleton. A third concern was lights but Edgewood understands the neighbors’ concerns. However the proposed lights are top-of-the-line, the best ones currently on the market. “The lights we are putting up will not go past the borders of our property. They are excellent lights with the latest technology. We are going to put those in not because we have to, but because we want to for the neighbors.” Mr. Elliott said that only two parks in Madison have these lights because they are just too expensive. Mr. Elliott at times has become frustrated with the neighbors because he has listened to their concerns and come up with solutions that meet or exceed city standards or ordinances. The neighbors seem to be developing their opinions based on false information, personal assumptions and rumors. “A lot of misinformation continues to be spread by the No Stadium Now People, as to what we’re going to do with the stadium. We’re not going to rent the field out every night. We’re not going to play games every night.
We are not going to have concerts. We are going to be respectful of the neighbors’ needs and their concerns, and expect that they will be respectful of ours. Having every single game be an away game just isn’t fair.” Mr. Elliott said that if the council repeals the Master Plan, our next step will be to ask the city to release the previously approved light permit. “The lighting permit has already been approved. It just hasn’t been issued.” Edgewood would then begin the city process to seek approval for additional seating, sound and storage. Mr. Elliott says we will file for a conditional use permit to get this done. In addition to the Athletic Complex, Edgewood is finalizing plans and fundraising for a much anticipated athletic training facility. The former band and choir rooms will be home to these state-of-the-art facilities that will provide training equipment for all sports. Mr. Elliott hopes to begin that process by the start of the new year. Mr. Elliott is working extremely hard to make all of this possible. He has a great passion for his job, and puts his heart into everything he does. His striving to build this complex and give us a better athletic experience is incredible.
Inclusion Club Plans Service Involvement By Amara Voss Inclusion Club is a new after-school club that Edgewood has started this year. Mrs. Samson and Mrs. Bondoc are the people to talk to about this. I sat down and interviewed Mrs. Bondoc, and got the inside scoop on what this club is all about. What is inclusion club? In this club you should expect to “talk about issues of groups of people who marginalize people, with a focus on LGBTQ+ issues,” said Mrs. Bondoc. You may be wondering when and where they meet. They meet every other Wednesday 3:30-4:30 in room S204 in the Science Center. You are free to just go to a meeting, and there is no sign up required. I also asked Mrs. Bondoc what will be going on and what you will be doing in
Inclusion Club. She said, “We’ve only met one time, but there’s lots of people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Basically right now we’re deciding on what are some of the issues we want to focus on, talk about, and do we want to do a fundraiser for certain issues? Do we want to do a buddy system with older students and younger students? Right now we’re just trying to figure out what the mission is going to be.” She goes on to say that the club is student driven, so it could always be different. My next question was, are you going to do anything outside of Edgewood? Mrs. Bondoc said, “We want to invite people from a similar club at West High School and find out what they do because they’ve been meeting for a while and just get some ideas from them, that would be our first reach out. We’re going to be involved in raising
money for local causes and following local politics as well.” Inclusion Club is a great way for anyone and everyone at Edgewood to come meet and work with new people. I think this is going to be a successful club at Edgewood, and hopefully people find new ways to help and connect with others not just in our school but outside as well. Go check out Inclusion Club!
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New Faculty Begin Year
Mrs. Smith By Ziyuan.Xiong
Edgewood is a large family and community, the school’s teachers and students are happy to work together. The Student Service Center is a very important part of Edgewood. As a logistics section, it does a lot of complicated work for students. So the teachers at the student service center are very hard to better understand the students and teachers, make the school communication more smoothe, and reduce the burden on teachers and students. This year we have a new Student Service assistant teacher. Mrs. Smith is a very good and patient teacher. When we were interviewing, there were a lot of students coming to ask questions, and Mrs.Smith showed great professionalism and patience, and answered questions for them one by one. It was her first year in this position. She has had many years of experience. She is a graduate of UW Whitewater and specializes in English and world history. The major of the postgraduate is spiritual formation and discipleship, so the students
Mr. Ligot By Camille Miles Mr. Ligot, pronounced Lee ∙ göt, is one of our two new librarians here. Still learning the ropes at the beginning of his first year at Edgewood, he’s already making a difference. He is more than just a librarian. Along with sorting the shelves, he works as a writing consultant spending time with students individually proofreading college essays, helping students find resources and brings creativity into the atmosphere of the library. When he’s not helping students with academics, he decorates table stations in the library (showcasing new books, poems, and magazines relevant to the month or specific holidays) along with crafting display tables and occasionally asking people to leave the library solely in an effort to “keep the library at peace.” Already he’s considering starting a book club and possibly bringing in various writers into the library in the future. His main goal as a new member of the community is to make the library a comfortable space for everyone. The focus is to create a place where students can study for tests, get homework done, work on a puzzle or read a book all in the same space. Already there are several new books and poetry pieces added into our library to make reading more fun and less academic when possible.
in that major learn the Bible and preach spiritually to other people . As a historical fan, in her spare time, she likes reading, history or fantasy. Probably because of the preference for reading, Mrs. Smith is a very quiet person, but her quietness did not change the personality she wanted to help the students. In our interview, when I asked her what she most wanted to achieve in her career, she did not hesitate to say that she wants to help others. This is one of the reasons why she is a teacher. In addition to reading books, the sport she likes is ultimate frisbee, which is the sport she plays with her friends or family in her spare time.
a smaller school. Of course, we have reached a consensus on the quality of the school and the quiet and harmonious environment. As a relatively new teacher, Mrs. Smith has to get the feel of this place, but she thinks that Homecoming week is very exciting. At Homecoming week, the school atmosphere is also very intense. She believes that students at Edgewood High School have many advantages, and students are also very fortunate, because there are a lot of resources available here, and the learning atmosphere is very good. She hopes that we can make full use of resources we have a at Edgewood High Hchool.
Regarding future plans, Mrs. Smith did not have a clear plan, probably because she is very busy reasons. In addition to the Student Service assistant, she is also a resource advisor to help students find the teachers and resources they are looking for. But the heavy work did not reduce her determination to be a good teacher. When we talked about why she chose Edgewood High School, she thought that the high school she went to was a big school, and now she wants to choose
Before joining Edgewood he worked for two years at an art foundation connecting his passion for art and literature. Mr.Ligot stumbled upon EHS while looking for more work related to his studies. As an international student, he entered the United States in 2017 to later receive his master of fine arts degree at UW-Madison. His first year he taught Introduction to Creative Writing and his second year moved on to Writing Compositions. He also won awards, such as The Jerome Stern award, during his time as a teacher. In his other time, he worked at a larger library near campus. He’s intrigued by art and design and is most comfortable in a museum and art institute atmospheres, and his key is to “admire art without changing it.” Prior to UW, he had never been out of the Philippines in the city of Quezon where he’s from. There he lived with a large family and attended some college before coming to Wisconsin. Being the “hip but laid-back” type, he spends most of his time around the Monroe Street area near fresh and local grocery stores, such as Trader Joes, where he can find a selection of food that he enjoys. Otherwise, he’ll spend time with friends laughing and crafting homemade meals. One of the biggest changes he has encountered so far would be the decrease in the selection and diversity of food in the
Mrs. Smith
grocery aisles. Here at Edgewood, he has most enjoyed the open arms of the faculty and staff, especially the support he has received from our principal Mrs. Steffen. To the students he would like to say, “If you want this high school to stick with you, it will.”
Mr. Ligot
Mrs. Edquist New guidance counselor Ms. Lindsey Edquist teaches Group Guidance every other Day Six during mods three, four and five. Topics range from academics, to social-emotional learning lessons, to health and wellness, to relationship building, and to bullying prevention. Ms. Edquist graduated from Cedarburg High School and then went to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a minor in Women’s and Gender studies. She also has a certificate in peace studies and conflict resolution. She attended Mount Mary University to receive her Masters in school counseling and a Masters in clinical rehabilitation counseling. Before coming to Edgewood, she worked at Rogers Memorial Hospital as a mental health professional on the child and adolescent inpatient unit facilitating therapy groups and also worked as a school liaison providing information to patients’ schools of treatment progress, sitting in on individualized education plans (IEP) and 504 plan meetings and provided psychoeducation to school staff. Ms. Edquist completed her practicum for her Masters Degree at West Bend West High School and Lakeshore Middle School. She also worked at Easter Seals and Harrigan Development Services as a counselor. “My first year at Edgewood is to really
Mrs. Greenfield By Tyler Schmidt We have hit that time of year. School has started and the temperature has started to fall. At the start of the school year we see fresh faces such as brand new freshmen and some teachers, new to Edgewood. We have quite a lot of new teachers here this year, but one teacher I think that every person should meet is Ms. Olivia Greenfield. Ms. Greenfield is from the south side of Chicago in Illinois. She went to Vanderbilt University. Ms Greenfield came to Wisconsin because she heard many great things about the school districts in Madison. She was looking for a job in the Madison area for teaching high school English. She applied for many schools in the area, but the way that she found out about Edgewood was she was interesting. Apparently, she was driving past the school one day and thought it looked really cool. She then found out that there was an opening this year for a job and she applied! Ms Greenfield is the new English teacher, teaching Sophomore English II during the last few mods each day. Her goal as a
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learn the ways of the school and its Student Services Department. Eventually I hope to provide creative, new ways of providing comprehensive school counseling services to students.” As for her activities outside of school, she loves spending time with her family and two Boston Terriers. “I love going up north to the family cabin in Minocqua. I enjoy jewelry making, woodworking, and pottery. I am a total do-it-yourselfer too.” In woodworking she has made a coat rack, floating shelving units, a bookcase, and refurbished a dresser and kitchen cabinets. “My father-in-law has a woodworking workshop at his house and I love bouncing ideas off him.” As for jewelry making, she said, “When I was in middle school I spent an entire school year with a goal in mind, being able to sell my jewelry pieces at my neighborhood’s summer festival. I reached this goal and made $250. I am now teaching myself how to bead stitch beaded jewelry. At UWM she took a pottery wheel class and fell in love with the craft. “I wanted to sign up for a membership at the pottery studio but I was a broke college student. I hope to become a member of a pottery studio soon.” “I knew I wanted to be a school counselor since I was in high school. Sometimes I believe it’s because of my high school counselor who helped me through some teacher is that she wants her students to be able to advocate for themselves. She believes that students should be able to speak their mind and be able to have points to back that main point up. A way that she tries to meet this goal is when she has her students using Socratic seminars. Socratic seminars are discussion periods when you are talking about a certain topic about which students can make strong arguments using evidence to back it up. Ms Greenfield said her English II class starts with a “be brave” prompt and that is to get her students to increase their own confidence in writing on various topics. She then lets the students share what they had written about that daily prompt. What Mrs. Greenfield does during her everyday school life is that she substitutes for the American Literature classes in the morning. During her off mods she is either grading or walking to the student services office looking for candy. In the afternoon, she teaches three classes of English II. After school days, Ms. Greenfield works on some grading while she has a podcast going in the background. If she is feeling creative, she likes to decorate her classroom. In her classroom there is a calendar. Ms. Greenfield allows
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troubling times. He was the one who sparked my interest in counseling. I truly believe I became a counselor because I genuinely like helping individuals reach their goals. Humans are incredibly interesting and learning how uniquely different one person is from another intrigues me because we all want the same thing, the human connection and feeling close to another person. What I enjoy about my job is helping individuals feel connected, reach their personal and/or career goals, and feel connected with the self and help someone define who he/she is Ms. Edquist finished by saying that when Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears were popular she would spend hours writing music in her bedroom because she thought she would be the next Britney Spears when she grew up.
Mrs. Edquist
her students to write on the calendar what events that her students have upcoming for school sports or different kinds of clubs. When she looks at the calendar, she likes to attend her students’ events. Outside of school days, Ms. Greenfield likes to explore around town searching for new things she might like to do or a new restaurant that she wants to try out. She also likes to cook, and to experiment by making different types of desserts to see if they are good. What Ms. Greenfield is looking forward to in her first year teaching is enjoying community events she has never before experienced.
Mrs. Greenfield
Special Report
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McKinley Performing Arts Center Opens
The new PAC joins the older building
New PAC is named after long-time EHS teacher and staff member, Mr. Dennis McKinley
Bishop Hying enters through the bishop’s doors.
Bishop Hying leads the first liturgy in the new auditorium
Mrs. Diane Ballweg presents Mr. McKinley with a much-deserved honor at the Gala.
Edgewood choir members sing at the Gala
Donors are acknowledged at the Gala.
A new music classroom in the PAC
Mrs Hewitt By Tingwei Chen This year, Ms.Rebekah Hewitt joined our Edgewood family as a new librarian! Ms. Hewitt is here to help students with finding resources and managing the library. Ms. Hewitt feels passionate about her new working environment. She thinks that kids at Edgewood are very nice and respectful, hoping to help them more. Before Ms.Hewitt came to Edgewood, she received two master’s degrees and had five work experiences. Even though she ended up working in a library and becoming a poet, Ms.Hewitt had a dream when she was younger, which was to be a veterinarian in the future. Working at a vet hospital during high school, she had some ideas about the job. Afterward, Ms.Hewitt majored in biology at Purdue University for one semester. However, she didn’t like
News, Feature, Sports all the math and chemistry that she had to do and wasn’t sure sure if she would be happy to be a veterinarian anymore. Thus, Ms.Hewitt transferred to Taylor University in Indiana and majored in English. After graduating from college, she worked in a public library for one year and then worked with kids in foster care for eight years while getting a library science degree at the University of South Carolina. Then Ms.Hewitt had children and worked parttime in a public library and a college library for a few years. In 2017, Ms. Hewitt came to UW-Madison to earn an MFA in CreativeWriting. While she was there, she taught creative writing at UW-Madison. Ms.Hewitt has traveled to England, Italy, Spain, France, and Mexico. She joined a school program that was spending four months in Italy when she was in college. Ms.Hewitt did not have to learn Italian since a lot of people in Italy speak English in big cities.
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Ms.Hewitt and her husband used to work together in foster care. Her husband became a realtor after the whole family moved to Madison from North Carolina. During her free time, she mostly reads and writes poems and books since she is a poet. For the rest of her free time, Ms. Hewitt has to take care of her four children who are all under ten years old.
Mrs. Hewitt
Restaurant Review: Marie’s Serves “Soul” Food If you are looking for a good place to eat, try Marie’s Soul Food. It is a good place to eat. It has good prices and has a 4.6-star review on Google. It is located at 1637 Monroe Street. near the Monroe Street Library. As soon as you walk in, the people there are very welcoming and nice. It is a takeout restaurant and not a dine-in restaurant. They serve only at dinner time Thursday through Sunday. If you are looking for a whole meal, look no further. For $11.50 you can get a meat, two sides, a corn muffin, and a drink. The meat options are fried
chicken, ribs, ham, and baked chicken. The side options are collard greens, baked macaroni, dressing, yam, and corn on the cob. The atmosphere felt good and it was an enjoyable time. Marie’s has that familystyle feel, with a mom and daughter at the front taking your order. The fried chicken is made-to-order so it is nice and hot when you get it. Their ribs are really good. They are on the bone and have a barbeque sauce to top them off. They practically fall right off the bone and taste great.
Ribs, rice and beans. Yummy!!
Boys Volleyball Works To Improve
By Wallace Schmotzer
The boys’ volleyball program, now in its second year, is one of the newest sports at Edgewood. This program is showing great improvement since its humble beginnings last year. The program has more than doubled in numbers with three full teams being filled up this year at the varsity, JV and JV2 levels. The team has added many new players and is still very young. In the program there are four seniors: Chris Maly, Wallace Schmotzer, Alejandro Lira, and Caleb Gerry. This young program has high hopes for both this season and for upcoming seasons. The current varsity record is 3-4 with hopes to place in the top half of the bracket. The season is an interesting mix with so many new and inexperienced players. The team often struggles with simple errors, especially passing, that other teams don’t deal with. These things
are working themselves out as the season progresses, but at the end of the day most of the teams played against have thousands of repetitions and years of experience. But the Edgewood team cannot be overlooked. Despite flaws they have managed to win sets off of teams like West and Middletown who both rank in the top half of the conference bracket. The Head Varsity Coach Karl Hubbard, said, “I think we’ve made a lot of progress both on and off the court. It’s a long process to become a good player and a good team. There’s a lot to learn and to do. It’s a game that appears easy but is drastically more difficult than it looks.” Coach Hubbard is looking forward to the upcoming tournament. It’s going to be a chance for the team to prove itself and prove to the state that it wants to compete. The first game will be this Friday. The
team will be playing away and encourages attendance. Next year coach looks forward to having a more experienced team with everyone having one more year of play and practice. He also encourages people new to the sport to try out. The sport is quickly growing with schools developing it all across the state. In a young sport there’s plenty of room for new players to grow and establish themselves. Players were upbeat as well. Wallace Schmotzer said, “Our team works hard and have improved greatly over the season in passing and team chemistry. We are starting to build a really competitive program, and I hope it will continue into the future.” Chris Maly said, “Our best server was frosh Max Levincarls, who can serve aces. Our best game so far was against Fort Atkinson. We won first set, lost the second, and came back to win in the third set.”
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Edgewood Football Moves On Despite Injuries
By Johnathan Hebl The 1-8 record that the varsity football team acquired this season is not a good representation of the success and improvement that the players received on and off the field. Daniel James talked about the performance of the team, saying, “I think we tried our best. I learned that consistency is key and that every play mattered.” Daniel felt that the team needed to focus on each individual play instead of focusing on individual success. A problem for the team this year was not just taking care of the football and working well together, it was the competition. According to Dylan Walton, “Edgewood should be moved down to division 2 due to the amount of students we have. We need the opportunity to succeed and in division 2, because there is not a huge opportunity for success.” The football team believes in order to have an opportunity to win they need to move down a division. Although the football team did not have a winning record there were many positives that the players believe made the season successful. The greatest point of the season according to Joe Hartlieb was their win at Fort Atkinson. He said, “It was the first time our team came together and worked as a combined unit. It was very rewarding for me to see our seniors happy as well as the rest of our team.” He also added
that “the seniors gave four years to this program and that it made me happy to see those guys get a dub.” The team did as well as they could with the amount of players they had,.The team struggled with injuries this year and it massively impacted the team. Sam Still said, “Injuries to our offensive line affected us early in the year, and by the end of the season most players were not fully healthy enough to play at their full potential. Most players had to play through their injuries to try to get a win.” Many starters found themselves injured and without their crucial knowledge and performance, they lost many games the team felt they should of won. Unfortunately, the football team did not make the playoffs and for the 11 seniors, the season ended against Monroe. A senior leader, Connor Grabins said, “ It was just in the back of my mind that it was my last season and that I had to leave it on the field. For Monroe specifically during the pregame, I kept thinking this was the last time I would get to play with these guys.” Jackson Trudgeon talked about the role of the underclassmen, not only this year but next year. He said, “They have a lot of potential. We all need to hit the weightroom. We need our guys to replace our seniors that are leaving and I think we will be able to do that.” A graduating senior, Dylan Walton, talked about his leader-
ship on the role, and when he was asked about the weakest part of the team he said, “It was always about staying consistent. We had games we played really well for a couple of quarters, but we would have one bad quarter, and everything would go downhill.” He also mentioned the amount of players hurt and how it was almost impossible for the coach to make a game plan because players were getting hurt every week. Dylan also wanted to mention that, “I appreciated the work coach put in and how well he did. Our record does not represent our coaching staff. They put a lot of time in and they deserve credit too.” The future’s looking brighter for the football team, and to Joe Hartlieb there are many strengths of the upcoming season. He said, “Our team chemistry was unreal. Everyone got really close and we worked as a family, continuously looking out for each other and helping one another.” Joe also said, “I want to thank the seniors for all that they did for our team, teaching us how to respond to difficult situations, and teaching us how to play well together.” The season was successful in the eyes of the players on the football team, and that is what matters. They competed every week and put their best efforts on the field. The returning players as well as the graduating seniors hope that the football team improves and they continue to strive forward.
Girls Volleyball Heads Into Playoffs
By Oriol Monliner Canto
The girls volleyball team is doing what is expected. After losing several seniors, the girls stepped up and showed their talent on the court. With this year’s seniors Tessa Parisi, Annabel Lewis, Caroline Craig, Kaiti Hanson, Elizabeth Cook, and Avery Mello, the team is unstoppable. They have a solid record of thirty-two victories and ten losses, spotting the team with the second highest number of victories in Edgewood’s volleyball history. They also got second on their conference, setting really high goals after it. Eliza Zwettler, the girls volleyball coach, said, “We have a lot of talent and high expectations for this team. I really like this year’s team because there is no drama. They are always at practice on time and with everything set up, and they are ready to work hard. They know that if we want to go as far as we can, they will have to work harder every day.” She is not only referring to the senior girls, but she is also referring to the juniors, sophomores, and freshman that are
making this possible. They are showing hard work and effort to stand out from the underclassman, being model roles for the JV and freshman team. Senior Tessa Parisi describes her team as “hard working, determined to make it to state.” Her teammate, sophomore Natalie Ring said, “A good group of people. We are not only teammates. We are best friends.”
though Evansville was not their biggest rival, the team kept the game serious and they still worked a lot for the victory. Now the team is heading for the Regional title this Thursday against Sauk Prairie at Edgewood. This game is far from their goal, but is a step for it. The girls are hoping to make it to state this year, remembering what happened last year, they are not going to give up if they play against McFarland again. Is a big rival, but our girls are stronger and we all wish them good luck.
Natalie Ring digs a ball The team’s bond has shown in all their games, either in the court playing or in the bench cheering on their team. Their coach described them as a “tough team that wants to compete, always with a smile”. They showed their character with their playoff victory against Evansville. Al-
Allie Barth blocks a shot
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Boys Cross Country Prepares For Sectional
By Oriol Moliner Canto The boys cross country team is having a great season this year. Although after the lack of recruiting new runners, and missing some runners that did not come back, the team did not disappoint at all. The varsity team consists of seniors Oriol Canto, Jack Brolin, Ethan Hughes, and juniors Geoffrey Rossow, Alexander Sviatoslavsky, Jacob Linderoth, and Leo Richardson. Coach LaMontagne, the head coach of the team, said, “I would rather have quality than quantity” and he wasn’t wrong. Although being the smallest team with only twelve runners, the team got second on their first meet at Cambridge behind East High School, with runners Richardson, Brolin, and Linderoth on the top twenty runners, and several PRs with a big surprise of Richardson, setting a new record at the track with a time of 16:03, also his new PR, but hopefully for not too long. The boys kept the energy and enthusiasm through the next coming weeks with the West Invite at Lake Farm, getting fifth behind D1 schools East, West, Verona, and Monona Grove. LaMontagne said, “I’m
surprised by this team’’ after he saw the results.
cated group of guys I have ever trained, dedicated to their team and work.”
The Smiley Invite in Wausau was next, and the team got second only nine points behind Shorewood, who is seeded sixth
Captain Ethan Hughes said, “Although we lost a lot of runners this year, the underclassmen were able to fill those rolls,” and the junior varsity is ready to show off for their last meet. But Conference is not the team’s main goal. There is a chance to make it to State, and the team is focusing on that. But they have to face sectionals if they want to go to State. As Captain Jack Brolin said, “I think this team is capable of getting to state, and even more. We just need to keep working hard if we really want to achieve it.”
Leo Richardson in the state. At this point the boys realized how much they had done and how far they got, but they were not satisfied enough and that is why they kept working hard and getting ready for the Nightfall meet in Wisconsin Dells. With the unfortunate injury of Linderoth, the team kept doing well, and got fourth at the meet, with Richardson and Brolin on the top five runners. Coach Regina said. “This is the most dedi-
Jack Brolin
Girls Cross Country Meets Challenges
By Truely Wallhaus The girls cross country team did not quite know how the season was going to turn out. They were very low in numbers this year, with only one new freshmen joining the team. However, they were stacked with seniors: Emily, Erin McClimon, Frankie Masciopinto, , Ellie, Sarah, Molly, Christal, and Sherlock. Their goal was to try and keep everyone as healthy and injury free as possible, which was one of their greatest challenges. “One struggle for us has been numbers, most teams we face are twice the size, so for us, we really focus and spend a lot of time rehabbing and staying as healthy as possible,” said Head Coach Ryan Sandler.
Coach Sandy. However with this they still had some high expectations and goals for the season: “Before the season started, we had high expectations. After the first meet we realized that those expectations could be attainable,” said Coach Sandler. The girls worked very hard to reach their goals, even having a third place finish at their first meet. They also had another third place finish at the Mount Horeb invite where Emily Meiers placed in the top ten.
they run fast, and with being ranked third, they could actually go this year! With these great accomplishments the team also faced a few challenges: “Our mental toughness has been a challenge, but it has worked to push each other to become better,” said runner Caroline Yager. They never backed down to a great challenge though because they live by the motto “Zoom” and “Run as One”. Even with some injuries, sickness, and hard races this year, the girls cross country team has been the best they’ve ever been in years.
Clare Powless
Emily Meiers
They are believed to place third in sectionals, since they are ranked third in their sectional. At conference, nearly every single girl ran a new PR, giving them an even better chance to go to state! The top two teams at Sectionals go to State, so if
Elena Pankratz
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Girls Tennis Wins Conference Title
By Truely Wallhaus
The girls tennis started at the beginning of August. Many of the athletes were quite sceptical about how the season was going to go with the new Coach Kara Amundson. Luckily from day one Kara had set her goals very high for the team. “I had hoped for a great experience for you guys but also to have a winning record, go to Team State and hopefully win Team State. I also wanted to get as many players into individual State as possible. Lastly, just for you all to grow as individuals.” Kara being new to the team fit in perfectly. The girls tennis team have hit many bumps in the lineup having people move up and down, move from singles to doubles, and doubles to singles. The two have very different strategies, from making the opponent move, to reading the person closest to the net. However, as Coach Kara said, “I think one thing that was super great about our team was the team chemistry. That’s something that should never be underestimated. No team chemistry is a bad equation. I also loved that you all liked each other to do well. Like if everyone was at a different site the first thing you guys would ask was how everyone else was doing.”
The team chemistry that the team had throughout the season made it that much easier to have the changes that were happening. Once everything was set the team had a set line up: Baluk Deang at one singles, Morgan Merckx at two singles, Kyle Harkin at three singles, Claire Bolton at four singles, Kelly Smith and Sydney Raaths at one doubles, Truely Wallhaus and Alyah O’Gara at two doubles, and Sarah Dunn and Maeve Shannahan at three doubles. The team also had three alternates that were ready to go whenever the team was missing a player or when someone was injured: Sam Buchner, Bronte Jenson, and Ella Cory. The girls tennis team had a good run. They were undefeated for conference matches leading them to victory in conference where the one singles and three doubles received first, three singles received fourth, and two doubles received third. While taking on sub sectionals and sectionals once again one singles and three doubles placed first and two doubles placed second putting the team at third place overall. Unfortunately with this third place achievement the team was not allowed to move forward
to the goal of team state. However only Baluck Deang was able to move on to individual state where she is ranked second! The team might not have reached their highest goals, but overall as a team they were able to reach new levels of bonding and compassion for one another. As senior Captain Kyle Harkin said, “I wouldn’t have traded this team for anything. We are strong and fierce girls ready to take on anything. It’s going to be hard to let this team go once senior year is finished.” Coach Kara also said, “I’ve seen so much growth in everyone and it was amazing.” The players’ individual goals were reached because of the team’s saying: “Stay on your horse.”
Kyle Harkin returns serve
Swimmers Set Sights On Five Peat
By Nate Frucht The Edgewood Girls Swim and Dive team is aiming for a fifth consecutive state title. The team, Coached by Emily Schwabe and Sydney Lofquist, is trying to rewrite the history book with their dominant team. No division two program has ever pulled off a five-peat. The team is led by a commanding senior class of five seniors. Captain Maeve O’Driscoll is hopeful going into this year’s championship season, “We are looking forward to our fast swims at conference, sectionals, and state. We are looking to five-peat this year, and I think our team is extremely capable of winning another state championship.” O’Driscoll, a sprint freestyler, is set on swimming the 50 and 100 freestyle. Over the past two years, she has placed in the top six in both of these events at state. She is a favorite for an individual state championship this year in these events. Diana (Dee Dee) Walker is another experienced state swimmer for the Crusaders. She has dominated the distance freestyle events. Walker, has placed in the top three for the 200 and 500 freestyles over the past two years. Her accomplishments included a state title in the 500 freestyle last year.
One challenge the team has faced is the size of the team. Coach Schwabe said, “We are not the biggest team in division 2. This makes it challenging to win the conference because other teams in our conference have more depth.” Lack of depth plagued the team last year. After winning the conference from 2015-2017, the 2018 Badger South Championship tested the Edgewood team. They placed second out of nine teams. They were narrowly beaten by rival team Mcfarland 478 to 469. Senior captain Hope Haefer is excited for this year’s meet: “We have been training really hard this year for the conference meet. It was hard placing second last year. It is a team goal to take back the conference title”. The conference meet allows twentyfour swimmers, while sectional meet only allows 16 swims. With a tighter restriction for sectionals, conference is the last meet for many of the girls. Edgewood is the favorite to win the state title again. Losing seniors Kaitlyn Barth, now swimming for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and Issy Peterson, now swimming for the Butler Bulldogs, there was a gap in points to fill. A talented freshmen class filled this gap. Five incoming freshmen Alex McClure, Izzy Enz, Sam Vega, Claire Rothering, and Sophie Reed have more than filled the gap. “I was definitely nervous going into the season,” said Vega. “I
knew how good that Edgewood has been in recent years and living up to that legacy was intimidating… the season so far has been amazing”. Vega has made an impact filling in the gaps in the Crusader lineup. This year Emily Schwabe brought in a new assistant coach. Sydney Lofquist has had a remarkable swimming career herself. She swam for the USC Trojans before transferring to the University of WisconsinMadison. She has brought new ideas along with college-level intensity. With Lofquist paired with head coach Schwabe’s proven tactics, the swim team will be ready to compete at the highest level this championship season.
Alex McClure swims to victory
Sports
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Girls Golf Achieves Goals, Defends Title According to Coach Peggy Gierhart, “We hit all our big goals. We were top five in all major statewide invitationals, we won the conference meet and overall had and undefeated record in dual matches, which was exciting because we have been dueling Stoughton and Milton for a few years. Finally, the team won all three post-season events, the regional, sectional, and state.” The state title was the school’s fifteenth. Coach Gierhart is very proud of this team because the pressure is more intense for a defending champion.
as the season went on. They started to work harder and focus on each goal. The team’s extensive tournament experience helped them when the bigger events happened. While the team will miss its seniors. However, Caitlyn Hegenbarth (eigth at state) Grace Jaeger (fifteenth) and Alyssa Theo (seventeenth) will return next year, as will Sarah Nakada.
In her eighteen years of coaching, Coach Gierhart has learned to coach both the team and the student athlete. “The more I know the golfer and how she thinks, practices, and lives her life, the more I can Grace Welch was the individual medalist at reach her on and off the course,” she said. regionals, sectional, and state. After these The team worked on preparation in golf great accomplishments, she will continue and skills but also in life management. her career in Green Bay on a scholarship. The players tried to control the things they Grace was an amazing leader, full of talent could control. These things included a lot on an off the field. She played the numof repetition and practice on weekends. ber one spot for all four years, and will be They also played and analyzed courses missed next year. The team will also lose ahead of time. As important as course Anaka Leske, who also played varsity all preparation, players learned to manage four years. Leske brought leadership and their homework and the anxiety that comes character to the team. “She is a very hard with a heavy load. worker and is always there for her taem,” Gierhart said. Coach Gierhart also said, “If we could teach the girls to feel comfortable going The team started off slowly but improved into an event, then the anxiety lessens.
The player can arrive at an event prepared and can use her skill without distractions. Then players can give 100 percent knowing they did all they could to control the situation. Weather also played a part in the season. During state the cold, windy weather resulted in scores higher than the year before. Gierhart and Assistant Coach Betsy Zedra really had to assure the girls that par changes under those conditions. Gierhart said, “They had to know a bogey or a double bogey was okay in those elements. They did settle in after the first day with a new mindset and used their experience on the course to help them defend the title.”
Grace Welch tees off at state
Soccer Team Headed For Playoffs By Will Sprinkman With the last game for the soccer team’s regular season being last Thursday the team is headed for the playoffs. The team has a 4-2-2 record and is coached by Coach Martinelli. Two strengths with the team this year are the team’s undivided attention and the commitment they show. Weaknesses within the team are the amount of injuries sustained throughout the season and the effects they have caused on and off the field, one of these effects being the uncertainty of the starting line up going into the playoffs.
were the amount of yellow cards the team had and how they ended up bringing the team together and helping the team get focused. The biggest challenge the team is facing is how it has been valued. The team has been given the seventh seed to start the playoffs and will be facing many tough teams going forward. When asked what
Seniors are at the heart of the team. Center back Nick Stacy, midfielder Matt Judy, the team’s leading scorer, and others such as Gabe Brito and Henry Robertson hope to propel the team deep into the playoffs. Goalie Grant Merckx is also having a good season as the net minder. The team’s best game so far was against Monona Grove. The squad came in knowing MG was ranked better than them in conference, but with good communication and team play., they pulled off an upset. The toughest sectional team will be Delavan Darien. Edgewood is ranked the number two seed in the sectional. Now they need to work on offense, marking men, and defensive communication..
Nick Stacey battles for ball
Elliot Caulum looks downfield The team has played some tough teams this season, two being games against Monona Grove and Milton, and although they did not come out of either with a positive score it was the quality of play that made them significant. According to the coach the biggest surprises of this season
the greatest challenge going forward is the coach said, ̈Playing two tough teams in three days.” The coach also went on to say he felt the seeding was not what he felt the team deserved. The coach said he believes the team is ̈undervalued ̈ sayng that he felt the team was set back by certain factors throughout the season. Although the season is coming to an end the team is focused and determined to make a dent in the playoffs .
Henry Robertson prepares to throw in