For centuries band and other activities have been an outcast due to sports. However, we are in a time where band and other activities and sports coincide with one another. Most of the students at Fairbury don’t do as many activities because they are caught up with sports. This is a very valid reason. However, there are also a lot of kids that do sports as well as other organizations.
Time is a difficult thing for many students. Most of the time it is just time management that catches people off guard. Being highly involved takes up alot of the time most kids spend on classwork. However, like Jayden Tracy 23’ states,” I love being involved so its not difficult for me to do sports as well as other activities.” Most students at FHS feel the same way. When asked the question, “ what advice would you give to students who want to do both
activities and sports?” Jayden said, “ Stay involved, it is the best thing that you can do in high school, and you will make so many memories!” Making memories is important to Jayden, and many others.
High School is about getting work done and making lots of memories along the way. Band numbers have significantly decreased over the years, and sports numbers have increased. Most kids are going to play sports. One thing that affects these numbers is the pep band.
Fairbury’s pep band is at every home football game, basketball game, and other sports. Our pep band is made up of our regular band. This means that kids that are involved in different sports that are also involved in band can’t do them simultaneously. That is why the majority of our band numbers are so low compared to sports.
There are many other things that take into effect. Sports are very serious and they take a lot of physical activity and dedication. This takes up most of the time that could be spent on extracurricular activities. This goes along for organizations as well. Sports take up a lot of time between practices and games as well as your own personal training. That takes the time
away from other activities. Some activities meet before or after school. That is when our sports teams practice.
Time is a very limited thing, and there is only so much time in a day. Whatever is decided to do with your time is totally up to you. There are many ways to be involved at FHS and many students are highly involved. However, there is only so much you can do.
Striv is a commonly known thing in our school.
If you do not know what Striv is, I’ll explain it to you. Striv is a site where schools live stream sports and events.
The Striv equipment consists of: a computer, camera, tripod, headsets with microphones, and soundboard plus all of the cords that connect to the different parts.
The people that make it possible are students at the high school. I started doing it because I signed up to take Video Production with Mrs. Mans.
Usually, I wouldn’t take a class like that but it piqued my interest and I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and learn new things.
I had no clue until the class started that we would learn how to Striv and do events. Every quarter, we have to do a minimum of four events and we get graded on the events we did which were mainly games.
We would get paired with someone else in the class or
someone else that helps. I would say it’s very important for there to be two people because then one person could run scoreboard and the other can run the camera.
It really sucks if I have to do an event by myself because then I have to set up everything myself.
Doing Striv though can be difficult. It is for me because I don’t watch sports and you have to commentate what is going on in the game, whether it’s the score, who’s playing in that moment or what’s exactly going on.
I believe that the most stressful part of Striv is when you have technical difficulties. The most common difficulty is that the microphone is too quiet or loud.
Then you have mess with the soundboard levels and that becomes a little bit of a hassle.
The only other difficulty that I’ve run into was not putting the right video and audio sources on the layer.
It’s not that difficult to figure out but when I just see a black screen when I put the camera source on the layer, I panic a bit thinking something is wrong with the camera.
Mrs. Mans has been a great leader of Striv. She is always just a text or call away whenever we needed help or had a difficulty.
Every holiday has decorations to go along with it. When it is that holiday’s time, it truly gets the time to shine with its decorations, except for Thanksgiving. It feels like Thanksgiving is always pushed aside just for Christmas to come through.
Walmart is a prime example that I have seen through my eyes. Before Halloween even occurred, guess what holiday’s decorations were already on display? You would guess Thanksgiving just as a stand alone answer, but no. There were already artificial Christmas trees displayed on the top of shelves.
It always baffles me as to why Thanksgiving decorations are always pushed to the side. I mean, decorations for it do exist. You got the typical things such as the fall leaves, the colors that come with the fall leaves, turkeys, corn and
pumpkins. So it’s clearly not impossible to decorate for Thanksgiving, and yet it seems to not have a lot of attention.
But, I think I may have found an answer to it. It’s always about the Christmas season or winter season when it comes to decorating, but never the Thanksgiving season. So it just makes sense to set up Christmas decorations as they will be up longer.
Along with the period of time that they will be out, temperatures also play
Holidays are a time that family gets together and spends time with one another.
For my family this is difficult. Most of my family doesn’t live around here. This makes the holidays pretty different.
Most of the time, I travel to see my family for the holidays. This is also difficult for me because my parents are divorced.
So, this means that some years I don’t get to spend time with the other side of my family. This makes holidays very difficult.
Reasons like these, divorce, families far away, reasons like these are very common for kids our ages.
Many people have big families
as well. This can be very difficult for people because not everyone are social butterflies.
There are many feelings circling the holidays. However, like many other things, you get out of it what you put into it. You don’t have to like your family no matter how big or small.
However, holidays are a time for you to be around the people that you love and others that love you. This is why you should make the most of it.
Everyone has their own way of expressing this. Just be thankful for what you have even if it’s not much.
Not all people are going to feel the same about holidays, but we can all agree that they are inevitable, so we should do the best we can to be happy and spend that time with our family. And be thankful for the time.
a part in this. As soon as Thanksgiving is finished, there’s usually no snow and the temperatures outside hopefully aren’t too low. It is also easier to get outside decorations stuck into the ground when it is warmer out, as trying to get something staked down in frozen soil is difficult.
So, for what Thanksgiving decorations are worth, let’s be sure to give them some thanks as even though they won’t be around as long as Christmas decorations, they still deserve a day for themselves.
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“Stop, drop, and roll,” is something that has been taught to a majority of students in the United States. While this hasn’t seemed to be something of utmost importance in Fairbury, recent fires that have overtaken Nebraska say otherwise.
According to fireweatheravalanche.org, as of November 8, 2022, fires are still present in the state, especially in the sandhills. They’ve also stretched from western Nebraska to the western edge of Iowa.
Avery Baumann ‘25, a student that lives in Wilber, said, “There was recently a fire about five miles away. All the fields are black or charred. There seems to be a new one every other day.” On the other hand, Delaney Gasper ‘26 said, “I only saw smoke in the air near my house. No actual flames…hopefully
not yet.”
Judd Stewart, a firefighter in town, has been on high alert with the recurring incidents. In an interview, he described a situation he had to assist with.
“About 3 weeks ago, I was driving southwest of Diller to fertilize a yard for a customer. I noticed a lot of dust that quickly turned tan in color, and could tell it wasn’t just dust…The fire was about 50 by 50 feet at the time, and he was doing a good job of controlling it. After about 5 minutes, the fire had grown to about an acre in size. Being an assistant fire chief for FRFD, I grabbed my fire radio and contacted Jefferson County Dispatch and asked them to page Diller Fire and Rescue out to the scene.
“Only a few minutes later, they arrived on scene and started attacking the fire, to which they quickly gained control of the situation.
The farmer didn’t have a cell phone with him, so without me this could have been a larger disaster.”
With the talk of fires and how to stay safe, it seems to be a good time to talk about escape plans. Crystal Sokolik ‘24, a member of FHS and firefighter trainee, has her own plan of escape. She states, “It depends which door is closest to me. If I leave out the front, I will stay across the street. If it’s the back, I go to the neighbor’s yard and ask for help. My entire family has the same plan.”
No matter the weather, a fire plan for any situation is something that can be crucial. With the recent wildfires in the state, they’re needed now more than ever. As firefighters, trainees, and civilians are the most alert, safety plans become just as important as putting out the fire itself.
Voting for the school board concluded on November 8 with two new board members being elected onto the board: Andrea Schmidt and Neil Lucking, and one member being re-elected: Jonathan Winter.
The new electees will be sworn in and begin to serve their fouryear terms at the January school board meeting on the 9th, while the members who did not get re-elected will finish out the rest of their terms.
“I’m excited,” Principal Sean Molloy said. “Truly it does not matter who is on the school board, really my responsibility is to be able to work with anyone that is within the school district and so the school board members all want what is best for students and, at times, any differing opinions, anything like that, will only help benefit us be a stronger school district.”
This campaign period has a total of five candidates running for it, the two other candidates being current board member Barry Schwab and Jerry Ebke.
“I decided to give it a shot, another four years,” Mr. Schwab said. “I won’t deny that I am disappointed that I didn’t get another four years, but that’s the way it is. People win elections and people lose elections, and in the end if you are not on the winning side of the election, then you have to wish the best to those who are, and I do. We all want the same thing in the end as school board members, and that is the betterment of our school district.”
The duties of the school board members include overseeing Fairbury’s school district, managing finances, the hiring and evaluating of a superintendent, and hiring certified staff, to name a few. Meetings of the school board are conducted once a month to discuss these topics.
“My responsibility is to attend every school board meeting,” Mr. Molloy said, “and at the school board meetings, I submit an administrator’s report each month that details things the school board members should be aware of that are happening at the high school. At times, I’ll include discipline data, academic data, upcoming events, policy changes. That is my main part at school board meetings is my administrative report. Also, at times when there are certain things being discussed, then I may be asked to elaborate by school board members.”
School board members may also split off into various committees to split up the work of the school board. These committees need to stay under the number of four, as if they go over then it would legally be classified as a meeting. These committees will meet and work outside of normal school board meetings. These committees
will then work to bring up recommendations for the board as well as information relevant to the school board meetings.
“All of the committees will work with Mr. Grizzle to prepare those recommendations,” Mr. Schwab said. “So we have a building, grounds, and transportation committee, as a standing committee. We have policy and curriculum committee as a standing committee. We have a negotiations and finance committee as a standing committee. There are several committees that we call standing committees, so they are committees that are always doing something at different times of the year.”
Due to how the seats on the school board rotate, the next election will occur in two years.
“I really enjoyed my time on the school board,” Mr. Schwab said. “I think in my time we did some really good work and not only improved our facilities, but also our curricula. We, in general, helped grow the school board to give it a good reputation.“
There is a custodial shortage world wide in the U.S. right now. Fairbury Jr.-Sr. High school is facing this issue first hand. After losing a custodian Fairbury is faced with the decision on what to do next to make sure that the school is still getting cleaned the way it was before.
There are several issues that come with this shortage. Custodians are forced to stay later or not spend as much time in certain rooms to make sure that everything is getting cleaned. This can become more difficult with the bigger room and the fundraisers that organizations do.
“We do have an option for custodians to work extra hours or overtime.” head of maintenance Chris Goeking said.
With flu and RSV season coming up there are a number of procedures that need to be taken to make sure that flu numbers remain regulated. With the custodial shortage it can make it difficult to thoroughly clean all the rooms, especially the bigger ones. Some teachers have noticed a few differences in their rooms since the shortage has occurred.
“I have noticed that sometimes trash is left on my floor
occasionally,” Family Consumer Science teacher Delaney Hamel said, “and my tables aren’t always necessarily as clean as previously.”
Teachers have attempted to help the custodians by having their kids make sure that they are cleaning after themselves. This can lead to the custodians not having to spend so much time on each room. This can make the process a lot faster and make sure that the custodian’s job is a lot easier especially with the shortage.
“I have to be more mindful of the things that we are doing in class and make sure that the kids are picking up after themselves.” English Teacher Grace Ellis said.
Other custodians may start to begin to struggle with winter sports approaching quickly. Making sure that Fairbury schools are clean and prepared can become an issue with the shortage and can cause rooms to begin to suffer.
“It’s very hard to maintain games and the classrooms,” Custodian Tommy Navaro said, “I am just glad that I have teachers and students to help with the process.”
Introducing a variety of new fundraisers for the local FCCLA chapter to be involved in, the officers decided to partake in an assortment of new charities and fundraisers.
After attending a state convention for FCCLA last year, the officers were met with a new fundraiser from an organization named We Help Two. This fundraiser is meant to help support and fund the education of children overseas.
In order to accomplish this goal FCCLA has the task of selling many socks to the community. The FCCLA adviser, Delaney Hamel chose to support a 5 year old girl from Uganda named Abriyana Babirye.
“I went online to the We Help Two website where there were a handful of children that needed help with finances to attend school,” Hamel said. “I chose a young girl based on her story and her needs. She is 5-years-old and her father was recently killed, so she was being
raised by her mother and her aunt. They could not financially support her going to school anymore, so I thought it would be a great cause to help her.”
Developing new ideas for FCCLA and Fairbury in general, Eliana Livingston ‘23 likes this idea mentioning that this fundraiser is something that FHS hasn’t seen before, at least since she has been in high school.
Livingston has been an influencer in many organizations, wanting to make an impact on the school shes gone to her whole life, she not only shares her ideas but implements plans to fulfill them.
In addition, Livingston also introduced the idea of the Dolly Parton book charity and the daddy daughter dance that
FCCLA will be doing today.
“I know the increase that I have been contributing to has been mostly me wanting to do things before I graduate,” Livingston said. “When I share my ideas I can potentially create something that organizations can use year after year! When you can raise money without spending money, not only do you help a cause it also makes our school look better too.”
“I am just glad that i have teachers and students to help with the process.”
-tommy navaro
“I chose a young girl based on her story and her needs.”
-Delaney Hamel
There are various things to have nostalgia for involving childhood memories from school. From what games were played at recess to the ways that holidays were celebrated, but things have changed over the years and that also means memories have changed with them.
Over the past 50 years there has been a change in the way things are operated in schools. The style has changed, dress code has changed, the classes have changed, and even the rules were different from what they are now in the 20th century.
“I have several good memories from the old days.” English teacher Karen Horky said.
According to voiceofplay.org statistics show that more than 80% of elementary kids’ favorite subject is recess. Recess has been around for decades but the games that are played at recess have changed with each generation of students. Some of the games played in earlier generations include Red Rover, King of the Hill, tag, and playing in snow banks. While newer generations remember playing games like four square, kick ball, chasing boys, and football.
“During recess I remember the girls in my class used to chase the boys,” Ashley Sanchez ‘24 said, “I just remember sitting on the swings and then a few girls would run up to me and ask
me to come chase boys with them.”
Holidays also contain a variety of differences of how they are celebrated or the nostalgia that comes with it. Holidays can be celebrated in many ways and different generations can celebrate them in different ways. For example, music teacher Ryan Dusso said he remembered getting dressed in costume and walking around the schools nearby neighborhood and collecting candy. Other students said that they remember doing pottery in Mrs. Shinns’ class for Christmas. While others say they remember having their parents come to their classrooms after preparing games and snacks for the class to celebrate the upcoming holidays.
“My mom would always help out with all the parties at Jefferson,” Regan Kapke ‘25 said, “I remember specifically for valentines day we used to play this game where we would stack candy hearts and try to get the tallest stack.”
Looking at past generations, change in style is a visual feature of change in each generation. Generations tend to define their own trends that differentiate them from other decades. English teacher Karen Horky along with other teachers reminisce on the fashion trends of their highschool years.
“Buckle Rolled jeans were a pretty big deal,” math teacher Julie Petersen said, “you would practice at home on how to get them to buckle and roll and stay.”
With the holidays season approaching, students and teachers begin to look back at past years uncovering many childhood memories and nostalgia around the holidays especially Christmas.
Holidays are a time that is usually spent with family and friends. Looking back on the memories shared with her cousins during Christmas, math teacher, Julie Peterson tells us how she celebrated Christmas with her family.
“I was the youngest cousin on both sides of the family,” Peterson said. “I looked up to all of my cousins so much! My dad’s side of the family loved to play a card game called Nerts! It’s a competitive form of solitaire. Nine cousins would spread out on the living room floor with nine decks of cards. It would get intense and loud! Then we would all
pause as Grandpa walked across the floor through our game.”
Sharing a memory from her childhood, Destiny Vocelka ‘26 said that she would go to her aunts house and get together with her family. They would all get together and watch all the parents do a white elephant gift exchange.
With holidays celebrated so close to school days, the celebrations carried into our school with parties and movies. Celebrating Valentines and Halloween together, while parent through class parties. Samantha Starr ‘25 remembers how her class used the celebrate Christmas.
“Celebrating holidays at school was my favorite, especially Christmas,” Starr said. “My favorite year was in 2nd grade when we decorated Mickie Mouse ornaments and watched Polar Express while we got to drink our hot chocolate.”
when you think of your childhood? Is it that certain more or tv show you watch continuously or those toys you would beg your mom to get every time you went to the store.
Each generation has things that are nostalgic to them that other generations wouldn’t get the same feeling from. Over the years things have changed from more outdoor creative activities to tv shows, movies and toys.
“I grew up living on three acres with a barn full of animals, I loved to be outside! My “toys” were baby kittens a few times a year! When I wasn’t at home, I was enjoying gymnastics and then high school volleyball and basketball,” Math teacher Julie Petersen said.
The activities that we did when we were kids were different then activities our parents did and activities that
reporter Adeline Blatnyyounger kids do today. Certain toys can hold that nostalgic feeling for every kid and each generation has their own that are very different compared to others.
“When I see Barbie’s I instantly think of my childhood,” Sophomore Sam Starr said.
Toys like Barbies, Legos, dolls, Zhu Zhu pets, Pokemon cards and much more are how we are able to remember our own childhood and the shared memories with people we still know today. Walking down the halls and seeing people that we still have memories of playing with those toys leaves that feeling of nostalgia.
“Paw patrol brings back a lot of memories for me every morning. My brother and I would wake up and watch it together in the living room,” Starr said.
Not only do we have those nostalgic toys every generation also has
nostalgic movies and tv shows. Whether it’s Disney movies or tv shows like Wonder Pets, Dora, or Spongebob they all hold the same feeling. Some are even more special because of the people you spent time watching it with like siblings.
“I did a lot of playing with Barbies while my brother would protect them with his legos, we would just go outside and play with worms, or play on our swingset. We did watch some movies and tv shows but mostly we would play games or play outside,” sophomore Natalie Heidemann said.
The activities and games we did outside are something that shares nostalgia among multiple people whether it was friends, siblings or cousins. The outdoor games that our parents taught us that we then changed til we liked it is something that we won’t forget.
Everyone has a certain hobby that interests them. Whether it be drawing, painting, music, writing, working, or making something. For FHS Student Lexi Mau ‘24, it’s beekeeping. Beekeeping itself is a very interesting hobby, with quite a lot of benefits, such as the production of honey.
The process of getting and making the honey is rather easy, if you know how to do it. It’s a more patient process, taking place over the seasons.
“We usually sell in the spring after they are wintered out and well,” agriculture teacher Thomas Dux said, “If something happens to the bees, we would have to buy a new batch of about 3,000 workers and 1 queen, which would usually cost around $150 total.”
Selling the honey made is the major factor in this operation, but keeping the bees alive and the honey pure is also an objective.
“Sometimes when the honey is not in
use, it would crystallize. The way to fix this is to microwave it, to get it out of the crystal form,” Mr. Dux said.
For many people, hobbies start when said person tries out something new, and enjoys it enough to continue it further. Lexi started this hobby from a simple agriculture project.
“I wanted to do a Supervised AG project, but I slimmed it down to beekeeping,” Lexi Mau ‘24 said. “Also, my grandparents also have bees, so I’ve had previous experience with them,” Mau added.
The amount of sellable honey made after every batch is quite remarkable as well.
“Each batch of honey usually equals about 3 gallons worth by the end of the extracting process,” Lexi Mau ‘24 said.
In terms of interest, beekeeping seems to be a rather enjoyable hobby, and has benefits for those who do it.
“I enjoy that I can make a profit off of the bees when all they do is just make honey, nonstop,” Lexi Mau ‘24 said.
Mau added, “I would recommend this hobby to other people, because I think it is interesting and can be a source of income for many who want to do it.”
Hunting has been around since, well, whenever we gained knowledge as a species. Many people partake in hunting every year, whether it be for providing for your family or just for the fun of it. Quite a few people in Fairbury High School hunt during the winter, each one having a unique, yet similar perspective on hunting itself.
The concept of hunting has many steps to it. For instance, the type of firearm the hunter uses while hunting. Of course, there’s archery, being quite popular with seasoned hunters, but the other options are also valid.
“For this season, I used a .308 Rifle and will be using a muzzleloader during December,” Walker Nickel ‘26 said.
There are many animals that are huntable in Nebraska, but for the winter, every hunter seems to want one in
particular, the Whitetail Deer.
“I always make it out to hunt whitetail deer during the rifle season every year,” Science teacher Drew Stone said. The Whitetail Deer is one of the most popular of the huntable game in Nebraska, due to their vast numbers and their meat.
With hunting, there has always been a debate on whether hunting is good for the ecosystem or not. For many however, hunting is a good concept to practice and has many benefits.
“I think it’s great because it gives you a good work ethic. I also enjoy it because I can spend time with my father,” Brendon Runge ‘23 said.
Many other hunters share this value of the sport. “I think hunting is extremely important for rural areas like Fairbury. It also gives people a great opportunity to go out and try to understand nature.”
Mr. Stone said. “Without hunting, animals can become overpopulated and it can be harmful to the ecosystem and sometimes the people that live around them,” Stone added.
One of the most important things to hunting is the tradition behind it all.
“My dad tells me that whatever you kill, you eat it, not wasting anything good in the process,” Brendon Runge ‘23 said.
Families that hunt always make an event out of it, bringing each other together. Some hunters have been doing this for almost their whole life.
“I have been hunting since around the age of 10, and I’m glad I had the ability to take hunters safety when I was young.” Mr. Stone said. “You can learn so much from hunting, and it is a great way to make memories with family and friends.”
Each year FCCLA hosts the annual turkey your principal. Turkey your principal is an event where Central, Jefferson, and the High School compete to see which school can donate the most canned goods and nonperishable items. After the contest, whoever wins, their principal dresses up in a turkey costume for the whole school day before Thanksgiving break.
In Keilani Trimm ‘24 college intro to business class she had to do a community service project. She decided it would be great if she did turkey your principal. Trimm said it was easier to do turkey your principal because she already knew a lot about it from being in FCCLA since 8th grade.
“In all honesty, I had a community service project for one of my college classes so I figured why not kill two birds with one stone,” Trimm ‘24 said.
The last few years either Central or Jefferson won but the winner this year was the high school. The results from all three schools was around 817 pounds.
The high school won with around 304.5 lbs donated. Central had 264.5 lbs donated. Jefferson had 248 lbs.
“I think that Jefferson will win. I believe they have won the last four years,” FCS teacher Delaney Hamel said. “Everyone was shocked that the high school won.” Turkey your principal has been going
on for many years. Two of which Hamel has been in charge of it.
“I always appreciate when students can lead and take responsibility for different projects because it shows great leadership skills and its great organization and accountability for them in the future,” Hamel said.
When a senior with many responsibilities leaves it is hard to replace them and their contributions.
Last year Ellie Livingston ‘23 was asked to take over Jeffs Gone M.A.D. since previous leader Zane Grizzle ‘22 had graduated. It would be a hard job to find the right person to take over this active organization.
“Zane approached me about taking over Jeffs Gone M.A.D.” Livingston said. “I thought it seemed like a great opportunity. I can handle a lot of stress and I am very organized so I was excited to bring some of the ideas that I had to life!”
Livingston is a very valuable person in our school, especially because she possesses many great leadership skills. She is president of the Student Council, National Honors Society, and secretary of FCCLA. With being such a busy and prominent person you need some
support.
“I have had a lot of supporters within the school, my friends, and at home,” Livingston said. “I would say my biggest supporter would be my mom. She is always helping me do some of the behindthe-scenes things and letting me bounce ideas off to her.”
With a new leader comes new ideas and activities. Jeffs Gone M.A.D. has done many new and different things throughout the year. In fact everything the club has done this year are all new ideas Livingston came up with.
A few activities are reading to the children at the library, making blankets for the children's hospital, Mental Health Awareness week, and making and delivering flower bouquets.
“All of the projects that I have done are new to Fairbury and Jeffs Gone M.A.D.!” Livingston said. “Some of my favorites have been making the blankets for the Children’s Hospital Rainbow House and
the healthy kids day at the hospital!”
There is a lot more work that goes into putting these activities on than most people would think.
Livingston is a very creative person and has many ideas for this community. The ideas that she follows through with, have to go through a lot of consideration and preparation.
“Following through with them takes more work than people would guess.” Livingston said. “I spend a lot of my time making sure all of my projects run smoothly.
“The first steps I take is making sure I can find volunteers on that date. From there I start to finalize little details! I have many ideas that I have not done yet. Some of these things I will probably save and follow through with them in college because some of the projects are more directed for what I want to be studying. The projects that I do now I want them to impact our community!”
Black Adam is the newest DC film to come out this year, and oh boy, it was something. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and starred: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Shahi, Quintessa Swindell, Noah Centineo, and Bodhi Sabongui. Black Adam is by far one of the most bombastic superhero movies I have ever seen. It’s got all the right ingredients for a stellar movie, but sadly, it falls flat in many regards.
The character of Black Adam is rather obscure to me. His origins come from the Shazam comics, where he was given powers due to his family avenging him.
Black Adam represents vengeance and has a brutal way of dishing it out. After seeing the movie, I think I learned the bare minimum I needed to know about this anti-hero.
The movie itself is basically his origin story on the big screen. From the description on IMDb, “Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods--and imprisoned just as quickly--Black Adam is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.” The premise sounds intriguing, but in reality, it leaves a lot to be desired.
With Black Adam, there is also the Justice Society (basically a global Justice League.) The members include Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo).
The only notable ones are Hawkman and Doctor Fate, as the other two are kind of pointless. That isn’t undermining their performances, but if you take them out of the film, nothing would be different.
Doctor Fate was by far the best of these new heroes, and should have had more time to shine. His character has the best comic design in the film in my opinion. Hawkman also looked great in this film and I actually hope to
see him again in the future.
By far the weakest of all the characters was the villain. The villain, Sabbac, was quite boring, but had at least a feasible story behind him, with Sabbac being the last descendant of the king who put Black Adam into slavery. He remains a normal human throughout the first 2 halves, and then becomes a big, CGI, demon man straight from the DOOM franchise.
The effects are not the worst, but they give off a vibe similar to most other superhero movies, with each one having a villain made of CGI and nothing more.
Now, we have a bad villain, but does that mean we have a bad hero as well?
No. The Rock has put in a lot of effort into Black Adam for almost a decade now. He is the best part of this film without a doubt.
He does all the signature “Rock” mannerisms: The stare, the eyebrow, the absolute cold line delivery, it’s all here.
Some of his scenes are rather weak, but the majority of the rest are absolutely “bonkers,” and insane.
He just throws people around, destroys buildings and is just a menace throughout the entire film. Sometimes it’s too much, but all in all, he is the standout of this film.
Now, I would be ending the review at this point, but there was something special about this movie. It wasn’t the Cavill Superman Cameo, it was the theater experience.
I decided to take my friends, Salvador Chavez and Aldo Ramos to this movie on a rainy Thursday in Beatrice. We got to the theater and nobody was watching the movie. We had seats to ourselves and we made the most of it. That night alone made this movie go from a solid C+ to something much greater.
Black Adam is one of those movies where you just need to turn your brain off and enjoy the ride. It has issues, but in the end, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it! Black Adam gets an affirmative B+!
For the past couple of years the Junior players that are involved in softball and girls basketball have seen some prominent changes in their coaching staff.
Throughout their entire highschool career, juniors along with the underclassmen have gone through a multitude of head coaches along with assistant coaches. Having a new head
coach each year teaches the players a different perspective and way to play the game. Basketball player, Deja Vocelka ‘24 talks about how each coach that she has had values something different then the previous. Along with creating new perspectives for her to build and learn off of.
Building relationships with coaches cannot be compared to building one with peers. Sometimes creating relationships
One of the many things that must be done for a majority of wrestlers is to start fasting. In order to lose the correct amount of weight at a healthy rate they must do certain things. Fasting starts right when conditioning week starts. In order to wrestle at any meet or tournament they must meet the weight that wrestlers are placed in.
“Hydration testing makes sure that you are hydrated enough for your weight class,” Arielle Perez ‘23 said. “If you fail hydration testing you need to take the hydration test again.”
Hydration testing is a big part of making sure that wrestlers are losing weight at a healthy rate. It also makes sure that wrestlers are not trying to drop or gain weight into unrealistic weight classes.
“I don’t have to cut weight, but if I had to I would eat healthy portions of food. I would eat chicken, rice and peas.” senior Makena Schramm said. “I would also try to stay hydrated.”
Cutting weight can become a struggle when the holidays roll around. Wrestlers are expected to cut weight or obtain
the weight they have had during holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. This can be tempting to eat a lot especially with friends and family around. If wrestlers do eat a lot during this time, they can do other things to lose the weight that they might have gained.
“We are looking to lose weight the healthiest ways possible,” assistant girls coach, Jonathan Fletcher said. “This can be accomplished by eating healthy amounts of food, staying hydrated, and getting in good workouts.”
Making sure that wrestlers are cutting weight in healthy ways is very important. Wrestlers try to lose or gain weight in healthy ways in order to
keep energy up and their health. If wrestlers gain or lose weight in unhealthy ways they can become sick or have other health problems. A few ways to cut weight in a healthy manner is
“The most unhealthy way to lose weight would have to be not eating at all,” Heidi Ramos ‘25 said. “You wouldn’t be getting enough energy and nutrients for your body to keep going.”
When cutting weight wrestlers must make sure that they are losing weight in healthy ways. Over the years there have been unhealthy methods that have been developed by wrestlers to lose weight. Coaches encourage only to use healthy methods to cut weight.
can come naturally for some people who have outgoing personality traits, but for others building a bond right off the bat and in the time of one season can be challenging.
“I would say I’m a shy person and it’s stressful to try to prove yourself to someone new,” Vocelka said. “I always stress about making a good impression and in doing so I sometimes tend to not perform as well as I can. When having old coaches, they know your abilities and know where you are on the improving spectrum.”
On the other hand, “Building a relationship with a new coach, every year, can be difficult as you don’t know anything about them or what they are like,” softball player, Alexis Mau ‘24 said. “This is why it is so important to be open to change and talk to people.”
Depending on how you view the program, you can visually see an influence in the development of the players and program, whether you believe that as a good or bad influence. Coaches can provide players with structure and knowledge throughout their practices and games but in all it all turns back to the players and their determination.
“I think players will always grow as a person no matter what,” Vocelka said, “but I feel with the different knowledge from each coach is a benefit. Seeing the different sides makes you more open minded and more knowledgeable about the sport I feel.”
Coaches create standards for players to follow. They determine if you do the little things when it comes to your game by stressing the importance of them in and out of practices. With the variety of different coaches, it gives players a multitude of principles that they can set for themselves for the years to come.
“Having a new coach every year for my softball season has changed the game I play because each coach comes with different standards they expect to be reached, as well as different experiences than the rest of the team,” Mau said. “ This has affected my learning experience because I haven’t been able to fully adapt to a coach’s teachings and principles without having the previous coach’s standards set in the back of my head.”
When you hear the word football, you probably don’t think of the same football that the rest of the world thinks of.
Here in the United States we tend to call the sport soccer, and right now the World Cup is going on which is one of the most popular sporting events worldwide.
The World Cup is a huge sporting event which takes place every four years, kind of like the olympics. This year the world cup is being held in Qatar, which is located in the Middle East. In the World Cup there are eight different groups lettered A through H with four teams in each group. This year the USA is apart of group B along with England which many consider to be a rivalry.
The first match of the World Cup for the USA was against Wales. The match ended with a score of one to one which would result in a tie, which would result in each team gaining one point.
In the World Cup a win awards three points, a tie one point, and a defeat results in no points.
The scoring system allows games to finish faster as some could take a very long time before a single goal is scored.
The USA was matched up against England for their second match. England was supposed to win the match by without much troubles but the USA kept with them the whole game.
Not a single goal was scored the whole game and after additional time the final score was zero to zero resulting in another draw for the USA.
Some more well known players in the world like Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo and Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, who is known as Neymar, compete for their country in the world cup.
Messi plays for Argentina who was upset in their first match by Saudi Arabia, but they won their second match against Mexico two to zero with Messi scoring one of the goals.
Christiano Ronaldo plays for Portugal who won their first two matches. Portugal won their first match three to two against Ghana and they won their second match two to zero against Uruguay.
Brazil is the favorite to win so far in the world cup being led by Neymar. Brazil set a record this year after not losing their last 17 matches in the group stage. Brazil has won 14 of their last 17 and the others resulting in a draw.
The last time Brazil lost in the group stage was in 1998 when they lost to Norway at the France World Cup. Neymar is currently second in all-time goals for brazil with 75 only two behind the leader, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pele.
(1)What are you most looking forward to in your winter sports season?
is something that you do before every competition or game?
To having a great season and to hopefully qualifying for state again.
Before every meet I put my headphones on and just listen to music while I get ready.
(1)
Before every game, I stretch and talk about only basketball.
(1)
It’s soccer not football SPORTS SPORTS