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The Official Newspaper of Longview High School 201 East Tomlinson Parkway Longview, Texas 75605 www.lisd.org/long-view
Volume 76 No. 6 THURSDAY, MARCH 28 2013
The Long-View
ROTC MILITARY BALL, PG. 6
JUNIOR JUMPER, PG. 7
Team of support
OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, PG.8
PROM tickets
Prom is right around the corner, so here’s some useful information you might want to know about:
• Prom is Saturday, April 13th • Tickets are being sold by Mrs. Blacklock in the College and Career Center • Tickets are $20 until April 1st
Tonya Kendrick / SPECIAL TO THE LONG-VIEW
Homerun Support Members of the varsity baseball team pose with Neal McCoy to show support for Jim Kendrick.
Lobo baseball rallies behind players father Laura Aciano Staff Writer In a crowded hospital reception room, a row of guys wearing green baseball hats sit with their heads bowed. Among them and about forty others, a wife, son, and two daughters dart their sleepless eyes to the swinging doors, waiting anxiously for someone to barge through . On the tenth hour into surgery, a doctor walks into the room, his face unreadable. Their hearts quicken, first with hope, then with crushing fear, as the doctor tells them if they believe in praying, now would be the time to do so; remaining hopeful, they turn to faith and t-shirts. On the morning of Feb. 8, junior Cole Kendrick drove his father, Jim Kendrick, into the hospital for what everyone thought would be a routine procedure. Later at school, Cole received a call from the hospital: his father was going into emergency cardiovascular surgery. “I had a baseball game that day and it was hard to concentrate. My coach stayed the night when my dad was in surgery, he’s been one of the biggest helps. My teammates were there and stayed beside me,” Cole said. “It was hard, but having people there for me made it a lot easier. I’ve always looked at life like ‘if it’s my time, it’s my time’ and I’ll never say that again.”
During those critical seventen hours and thirtyseven minutes of surgery, Tonya Kendrick, wife of Jim and mother to Cole and Mackenzie, was able to see her children mature and grow closer with the support of those around her. “I’ve been married to Jim 20 years and I don’t know how to breathe without him. I heard my children crying and my first thought was ‘Oh no God, please don’t do this,’” Tonya said. “I watched Cole pick Mackenzie up and pray and it was priceless as a mom. I kept saying ‘[Cole] you’ve gotta go to school’ and he said ‘I’m doing exactly what dad and God would want me to do, I’m taking care of you’. I saw him quickly become a role I never expected before.” While they waited in the hospital, Mackenzie came up with Team Jim shirts, which had a great response, to support her father when he was released from surgery. “I was walking on campus and it was amazing to see people reaching out and supporting him,” Mackenzie said. “He’s like our rock, so when we found out he was going to be okay, it was such a relief.” The day of Jim’s release, the whole baseball team wore their Team Jim shirts to support his miraculous recovery, and under the supervision of doctors and nurses, Jim was able to stop by. “I’m a big supporter of the Lobos and an even bigger supporter of my son and it was good when I got to the point where one of the first outings I did was to the game and it was nice,” Jim said. “Cole talking about ‘if it’s your time, it’s your time’, he learned that from me and that changed. I really don’t think I’d be here without the prayers, and the shirts were a good tool.”
Old stuff, new experiences Z-Club girls volunteer at auction Laura Aciano Staff Writer The earthy scent of old, frayed rugs and dusty couches mingles with the smoky scent of burgers and fresh sandwiches. All over the room, girls dash in and out of the kitchen, every once in a while, getting glimpses of the beautiful antique objects around them. As part of their community service, Z-Club members volunteered at the Antique Show at Maude Cobb on Feb. 28 through March 3. People from all over the U.S. came and set up their boutiques with antique objects for people to buy. Aside from the show, lunch was served to those who attended and set up a boutique.
“We were waitresses,” sophomore volunteer Charlotte Williams said. “It was really fun, I kind of just looked as I went while waitressing. I remember this one [boutique] had just rugs, it was interesting.” Along with unique furniture pieces, the boutiques also offered a lot of glassware, and items like old telephones. The volunteers served all sorts of food including a variety of soups and fruit trays for the people. “I was seved by a couple of our girls,” art teacher and Z-Club sponsor Amanda Tilley said. “They did a nice job and I think they had fun talking to different people.” Despite how difficult waitressing proved to be, the girls hope to be a part of the antique show in the coming years. “It was hard work, it taught me to respect the people who I’ve had as waitresses,”
Meaghan McNamara / THE LONG-VIEW
Serving Hours Sophomore Mikaela Lammers waited tables for Z-Club at the Zonta Club Antique Show March 2.
sophomore Mikaela Lammers said. “Just the whole experience [was my favorite part], so in the future if I need to waitress, I know how.” Part of the proceeds made at the show will be distributed amongst local Z-clubs to better serve
the community. “It’s just a circle of giving back,” Tilley said. “[The girls] did have fun talking to different people. A lot of the people there were of the older community, and they were just tickled to see all these girls helping.”
Renovation dedication
Board to fix Lobo Stadium, softball fields including bathrooms and sidewalks Hannah Brown Features Editor Just a few years after the birth of the Mickey Melton Center for the Performing Arts, LHS will be taking a few more steps forward, but this time the focus is on the sports program. The School Board decided at their meeting March 3 that they will be adding renovations to the football stadium and the softball fields. It will cost around $3 million but the district’s general fund will provide the money. “Whenever we look at a renovation of this type, you have to bring up the work we need to do,” Assistant Superintendent Lynn Marshall said. “The summary on the scope of what there is to do is to look at improving the western facilities on the visitor’s side on the football field.” The new football facility will provide the required restrooms for the amount of seats and provide a new building for concessions on the visitors’ side. There will also be new sidewalks on the home and visitors’ sides for better wheelchair access, and the concrete beneath the bleachers will be resealed to prevent leaking. “We have looked that the number of restrooms that are currently in the facility are very few relative to the available seats at the stadium,” Marshall said. “On the visitor’s side there are eight men’s facilities and eight women’s facilities serving 4,000 plus people.” On the softball field, the renovations will include a solid wall around the dugout, a fence around the walk from the parking lot, and more restrooms for the home and visitors’ sides. “It would provide a wire fence and a couple of entries into the stadium. It would also leave control access into the visitors’ side,” Marshall said. “It would say that it’s not the identified entry, but it would help tie the campus together.”
THE STATISTICS Costs of the new facilities or renovations $1.7million Visitors’ restrooms $1million Home side restrooms $306,000 Bleacher restoration $100,000 Softball dugouts $15,000 Home side concessions