Volume 91 Issue 2

Volume 91, Issue 2 October 27, 2014

SCAN & VISIT

LHSNEWS.NET

The

Bell

TOC 02

Table of

Contents

A Night For The Future.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .06 Improv Insanity.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .07 This is Going To Be EPIC.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08 Just a Little Scar.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .09 Work All Day, Work All Night.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 New Club New Goals.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Students Living Honorably... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Changing The World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Freshmen Amos Mwaura.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Sophomore Holly Stansbury.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Junior Zach Garland-Foster.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Senior Malae Selepeo.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Teacher Rika Heruth.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Administration Cris Ward.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Stress 101.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21 Beware of Ogre.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Throwback Movies.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-25 Pro/Con.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28-29 Editor Columns.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30-31 Play For The Cure.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Blue Jay Branding.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Athletes of the Month.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34-35

TOC 03

Photo by: Maddie Wurtz

Photo by: Aubrey Lytch

SEE PAGE 08

SEE PAGE 06

Photo by: Haley Smith

See Page 32

See Page 07 See Page 16 Photo by: Chris Marnell

Photo by: Madi Hayter

TOC 04 On the Cover: Juniors Barcilio Blake and Cainen Harris participate in the Environmental Club stream cleaning.

Photo by Madi Hayter

The Bell staff creates a coloring book annually for Safe Halloween. This will be hosted this year on October 30, 2014.

Staff

Advisor --> Lori Oyler Editors in chief --> Aly Copp & Zach Kilgas Opinion Editor --> Amanda Kovac A&E Editor --> Kennedy Allison Features Editor --> Tara Prindle News Editor --> Alex Wilson Sports Editor --> Jeffrey Walters Business Manager --> Michael McHale Online Manager --> Erica Schmitz Reporters --> Sarah Hartley Katie Crouch

Katie DeClue Teryn Deshler Sol Kim Teresa Parra Kasey Allshouse Brooklyn Balsdon Kati Benhardt Kamden Bernard Daryl Gichui Addison Gray Emily Johannes Jackson Pena Hope Scobee Lacy Williams Annika Fuller Hannah Leonard Teegan Saunders Jenna Spence

Leadership class members aid StuCo in creating decorations for MASC Northwest Districts, on October 24, 2014.

Mission

Our mission for the 2014-2015 school year is to unite a diverse group of people and ideas to compose an informative and enter taining magazine using articles, photographs, and commercial

messages. As journalists in training we endeavor to give the best representation of the comunity of Liberty High School. The Bell student newspaper is a public forum for student expression.

Contact

Address --> 200 Blue Jay Drive Liberty, MO Phone --> (816)-736-5353

Email --> loyler@liberty.k12.mo.us Twitter --> @TheLHSBell

Jabber i’m only happy when my room’s clean my room’s never clean

TOC 05

Senior Night Thankful for ma and pa

@marissssabaker

@ashhwin_ @MalloryPinson and on the 17495939582nd day god said let there be mozzarella sticks

Billy Butler just stole a base we're winning the world series @moflem22 @syd_millz Why do I keep having these dreams where I am spongebob omg

It was a good night to be at the K @allisonrenee18_

News 06

A Night for the Future Story by Annika Fuller Photo by Aubrey Lytch

In September, high school students around the district met many colleges face to face.

“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans,” John Lennon said. While this quote is relevant today, students are still making plans for their future.

On September 30 at LNHS, the Liberty School District hosted their first Missouri Association for College Admission Counseling (MOACAC) college fair since 2004. Over 50 colleges, from Vanderbilt, located in Nashville, Tennessee, to William Jewell, participated in the fair from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The college fair experience allows freshmen through seniors to view their options for secondary education. The night is supposed to help students get a better understanding of the number of colleges out there. “[The college fair helps students and parents] get a better understanding of what the college experience is like,” Counselor Scott Gillespie said.

During the evening students were able to talk to admission counselors from a wide variety of colleges. What made it a beneficial experience is that there were schools ranging from New Jersey to Tennessee all in one place. Even if students have their preferred college in mind, they should still have considered attending.

“Juniors, [should attend] because they should keep their options open,”

Counselor Brenda Wiederholt said.

“Their decision may be based upon not having a wealth of information, so they should always think with an open mind opposed to a closed mind when it comes to colleges.” “[We want the students to have found] a good fit for them or their interest to take the next step,” Rockhurst Admission Counselor Kevin Roy said.

Even though the Royals were playing during the fair, LNHS was heavily populated with students who found it important to explore their options at the college fair.

“[The college fair helps students and parents] get a better understanding of what the college experience is like Counselor Scott Gillespie said.

“It helps people become more familiar with degrees and campus life of several colleges and also helps individuals make connections for their future,” junior Sarah Berry said.

While the college fair is set up to help students make decisions for their future by getting them the information they

need, some students still find it difficult to narrow down the choices.

“It has made me more indecisive if anything, because of the new choices,” sophomore Halle Hewitt said. Although some feel it has made the future more vague, the information students were able to receive was rewarding.

The location also made this fair a special occasion, “[The college fair] is in our backyard, right down the road,” Wiederholt said.

“It makes it that much easier to go to, that much more accessible, and because it is really just Liberty North and LHS students, students should be able to have more face time with the representatives,” Gillespie said.

Not only do the students benefit, but the colleges get the publicity they need to recruit future graduates. Missouri Southern State University’s (MSSU) Admission Councilor Brian Corcoran said it is important for colleges to participate in the fair, specifically MSSU, because the college is located in Missouri and there are LHS graduates that attend MSSU. The attending colleges come not only to recruit but also because they love Liberty students.

Among the colleges that attended Vanderbilt was highly anticipated. “[Vanderbilt] is a highly selective institution,” Wiederholt said. “College representatives, including Vanderbilt, understand that Liberty produces excellent students and that is why they are coming.”

“I think we’re here because we’ve had really good success from the KC area, I’ve been very impressed tonight [with the Liberty students],” Vanderbilt Admission Counselor Greg Lawhon said.

A Northwest Missouri State University represenative assisted junior Abigail Hill.

Improv Insanity

News 07

Story by Kamden Bernard Photos by Madi Hayter

With new members the Exit 1-6 crew plans to make the school laugh more than ever.

Laughter is said to be the best medicine and one LHS group is providing it.

Exit 1-6 is an improvisation troupe at LHS. The group performs skits and the audience never knows what will come next. Exit 1-6 will perform on October 30 in The Little Theatre. “[The troupe] learns different ways of improvisation and they has improvisation games,” Sponsor Don Johnson said.

They do a show [of] just different improvisational skits. There is a lot of participation.”

One member explains the uniqueness of this group. “[Our shows are] usually the last Thursday of every month,” senior Austin Cable said. “We form a completely made up, on- the -spot show of comedy and play different funny games with scenes.”

Even the auditioning process is unique.

“Auditions were a lot of fun.” sophomore Hannah Dipoto said. “They were basically just a whole bunch of games and all the members of Exit 1-6 at the time made you feel real comfortable and not embarrassed to be yourself or do anything.”

Another member recounts her auditioning experience.

“It wasn’t scary,” sophomore Kailyn Peterson said. “I was just kind of nervous because a lot of my friends were in Exit 1-6 and a lot of people that were auditioning were really good. At first, I was like, oh man, these people are funny, and I didn’t know if I stood a chance but then when, I realized Exit 1-6 is about a mix of people who all have different

strengths and I got in.”

The show is not scripted; the members make everything up as it progresses.

“Well, we make a setlist before the show so we plan out all the games we’re going to play, which is what rehearsal is like,” Dipoto said. “ You really never know what’s going to happen. We know what games we’re playing, what we are playing them in but we don’t know what will happen. We don’t know what suggestions we’ll get, we don’t know what kind of scenes will come out of it so I mean it’s improv anything can happen.”

Practice consists of hard work and fun.

“Rehearsal is just like auditions and just like our shows we just play games,” Dipoto said. “Sometimes we have certain focuses, like we will have one practice we focus on characters and so every game we play and every warm up we do is focused on characters and building characters and thinking of new character, Sometimes it’ll be object work where we build our environment because we have no props or anything. So, we have to work, on making an environment and creating one for us and the audience and so we just play games the entire time but they have specific meanings the games that we are playing,” Dipoto said.

Things have changed with the group since last year.

“The people are definitely different but it always is but because we got new people so it changed the dynamic of things. So, last year we had these entire super, amazing actors and actresses that went on to do great things and go to

great colleges. Now, a majority of our group is sophomores. We had a majority of seniors last year and now we have a majority of sophomores so that’s a switch,” Dipoto said.

Members were quick to state that anyone who likes to laugh should come to the show.

“I wasn’t in it [Exit 1-6] last year, but from what I hear we’re more of a family and it feels like we get along more and we understand each other more,” Peterson said.

“Anybody who likes to laugh honestly.

The shows are really for anyone we pretty much entertain anybody,” Cable said.

“I think anyone who likes to laugh really. I’ve seen people from theater be at our shows and enjoy it. I’ve seen people whose main focus is school be at our how’s and enjoy it. I’ve seen people who are athletic enjoy it. We actually did a show for a bunch of football players last year and they enjoyed it a lot. Which was surprising because we’re used to theater people because that’s who we hang out with so I think really anyone who enjoys laughing would enjoy it,” Dipoto said.

Left: Exit 1-6 performs without a script in front of an audience.

Right: Senior Josh Anderson performs improv on stage.

News 08

This is going to be EPIC Story by Katie DeClue Photo courtesy of EPIC Elementary.

Liberty High School students meet and teach EPIC Elementary students.

A lot of high school students focus on hanging out with friends, doing homework, and working a job, usually not mentoring elementary students.

Many LHS students have formed a bond with younger elementary students from EPiC Elementary through a partnership that Dr. Michelle Schmitz, Principal of EPiC Elementary and Dr. April Adams, Principal of LHS, have created.

“Dr. Adams and I look forward to having our students work together. We are able to expand learning opportunities for both elementary and high school students by forming a partnership,” Schmitz said.

Many of the classes involved with the partnership are A+, EIP, Spanish 4, and College Chemistry. In A+ high school students tutor the elementary students to earn hours for college or scholarships.

“EPiC students in Studio 2 have partnered with a high school class to revive our LPS memory garden. It is place in the district where we can honor our own LPS family that have passed way.

People are welcome to come and walk in the memory garden. The students have planted shrubbery that attracts butterflies with the help of a community expert. It is very peaceful,” Schmitz said.

The second grade class held a fundraiser on October 7th and 8th to help raise money for the memory garden. The second grade class came over in two groups during Liberty Hour and sell bags

of Skittles and M&M’s.

College Chemistry has also been mentoring fifth graders and helping them with science experiments.

“We went over there for a half day to basically help the students design an experiment on popping popcorn and go through that process of having a testable question, writing a hypothesis, conducting experiment, and so on. We’re following that up with some mentoring where the high school students will be virtually meeting maybe through FaceTime with some of the fifth graders as they design their own science experiments this fall” college chemistry teacher, Todd McDonald said.

There are only 10 to 11 LHS students from College Chemistry that help mentor EPiC students and they love what they do. “[The elementary students] really enjoyed having us [be] there. It was really great to be able to work with them and they seem to really enjoy being able to work with us,” junior Sam Browning said.

“I have relatives who are teachers and have always had an interest in education.

It’s been something that I’ve really enjoyed helping others do.”

“We’ve only been once, but the whole group asked Mr. McDonald if we could possibly do something again in the future,” junior Blaine Rohlf said. Not only does mentoring elementary students help give an insight to what a career in

education could possibly be like, but it also helps them enjoy the subject they’re teaching even more.

Teachers love seeing students mentor younger students because they believe it helps refresh the information they’re teaching and also having one-on-one interaction can really help them learn even more.

“You know a couple things, I think it helps to refresh really what good science is for them, I also think it is been helping for them to give constructive feedback for them to even work with kids, and I think just even entertaining the thought of maybe they want to work with kids in their profession,” McDonald said.

“Well, it’s a great experience for anyone who’s interested in science or in education. So if it ever comes around again it would be great to see other people do it,” Browning said.

LHS and EPiC has a unique partnership that is unlike any other.

“We are in an age where collaboration is very important. It is one of our 21st century skills. It is nice that we have the high school right across the street. It makes it easy to provide collaborative opportunities for students of all different ages. The high school students can learn from EPiC students, and EPiC students can learn from high school students,” Schmitz said.

EPIC Elementary students gather around and pop popcorn with junior Blaine Rohlfs

Just a little scare

News 09

Story by Teryn Deshler Photo by Madi Hayter

LHS is ready to continue the tradition of the annual Safe Halloween.

The leaves are changing, the temperature is dropping and fall has arrived, along with Student Council’s annual Safe Halloween. This year’s event falls on Thursday October 30, just a day before Halloween.

“Safe Halloween is a safe trick-ortreating event targeted to kindergarten through third grade students to give them an environment where they can come and have a good time in a safe and friendly space,” Student Council Advisor Melanie Prince said. “It allows students to showcase clubs and organizations and give something back to the kids of our community.”

Safe Halloween involves the school’s many clubs, giving each the freedom to have their own booth. From face painting to ring toss, the booths provide countless entertainment (and candy) to the community’s families.

“Clubs have done everything from fishing games, dancing games, ring toss, guessing games, bowling games, and more,” senior Mary Mwara said.

In addition, each class is asked to host their own booth, free to choose a creative game for the kids to enjoy. Everyone involved in Safe Halloween is asked to dress in costume in order to create a true Halloween environment.

“My favorite part of safe Halloween is seeing all the kids dressed up in fun costumes and enjoying the variety of different activities,” Senior Cassidy Paul said.

“High school kids are having just as much fun as the little kids,” Prince said.

“It’s fun to see them interact with each other. It’s good to show the little kids that big kids aren’t scary.”

Student Council has worked hard to put on this event every year, planning

the event in advance. A big part of the planning process is reaching out to clubs and getting them involved to host a booth.

They also set up and provide decorations, which range from a giant blow-up arch to pumpkins and friendly ghosts placed around the commons.

Safe Halloween is also a way for Liberty High School to give back to the community. Student Council teamed up with Key Club for a canned food drive.

By bringing canned food, you can get into Safe Halloween for free.

“Any food and donations that we bring in that night will go to Key Club to use for a backpack/snack program for families in our district,” Prince said.

“Anyone is welcome to come,” Paul said. “the nice part about Safe Halloween is that it’s not limited to high school students and their families, it’s for the whole community.”

Safe Halloween provides a controlled Trick-or-Treat enviroment for children of all ages.

Features 10

Work all day, work all night Story by Katie Crouch

Many students are stressed out from working jobs while going to school.

Many students at LHS have or plan to get a job during their high school years.

Some students have the luxury of a choice and some have to get a job to pay for college, bills, or a car. Some students do not have a choice.

“Time management and saving is definitely really important to me at this point in my life,” senior Nina Hawkins said.

Hawkins spends a majority of her time working her two jobs. Though it is time consuming and difficult to balance at times, she sacrifices social activities to make time for her jobs.

Through all the stress and hard work, Hawkins feels more independent and enjoys having the extra money.

“I work at Steak & Shake as a server, and I work at B&B Theaters as a cashier,” Hawkins said. “I’ve worked at B&B for a year and three months and I’ve worked at Steak & Shake for about eight months.”

Hawkins works nearly 60 hours a week because of work release and is very dedicated to making her own money and her own decisions.

While students like Hawkins put a lot of time into their job, there are also students who have jobs to have spending money because they spend a majority of their time doing extracurricular activities or sports.

“I work at Lamar’s and I’ve worked there for about two years,” senior Coleman Howard said. “I need a little extra money and I also had to save up for the trip to Germany I went on with the school.”

Only working about twelve hours a week allows Howard to put adequate time into football and school.

“It just gives you extra spending money. You can go out with your friends, you can do stuff on the weekend that you wouldn’t get to do if you didn’t have a job, or you’d have to ask your parents for money,” Howard said.

Howard sees his job as a gateway for

opportunities in the future as well.

“I do think it’s very important [for high school students to experience a job],” Howard said. “I think it’s really good to get work experience even if it’s just something part-time at a restaurant or something. It’s good to get experiences to put on resumes in the future and stuff like that.”

At this point in Howard’s life, school remains the most important thing.

“Getting into college is definitely the most important thing right now, so I have to get good grades,” Howard said.

Here at LHS, there are also students who balance three different activities along with school. Junior Jenna Edens is involved in band, cross-country, and has

When LHS students were asked if they had a job outside of school, 323 students answered.

No. 30%

I had a summer job.

13%

a job at the Northland Rolladium Skating Rink. “[I chose to get a job] because I was doing a lot more stuff and I needed the money,” Edens said.

Though she has more spending money, it often gets difficult to balance her everyday activies.

“I don’t get very much sleep because of all of my activities. I have to organize when I do things and sometimes I don’t get everything done,” Edens said, “Sometimes I have to call into work, or skip cross-country.”

Edens fits everything into her schedule to accomplish what she wants to do.

“If my schoolwork was going badly, I couldn’t do my sport,” Edens said, “and if those two things were going poorly, I would have to quit my job.”

Personal Finance teacher Adrienne Fowler thinks that students with jobs learn valuable life lessons.

“I think it teaches students responsibility and time management and it also teaches them how to manage money,” Fowler said.

However, there are downsides to students having jobs.

“Some negatives could be if a student is taking on too much,” Fowler said. “Like if a student is working 30 hours a week and involved in an activity. I think when it cuts into school work is the only bad thing about a student having a job.”

Having a job is a choice that depends on schoolwork, activities, and personal values. LHS is full of bright students who excel at school and activities with or without a job.

Students should have jobs.

1% Yes, more than one.

6% Yes, one part time job.

49%

Features 11

New Club, New Goals Story by Emily Johannes Photo by Bri Goszewski

Diversity Council aims to increase knowledge of diversity at LHS. As a brand new club, Diversity Council intends to promote awareness and celebrate diversity throughout LHS. They plan to do many activities, community outreach and even have guest speakers.

“The Diversity Council is open to all LHS students,” Guidance Counselor and club sponsor Kathy Alagna said. “We will focus on our own personal development by inviting guest speakers from diverse cultures and attending a field trip to the Nelson Art Gallery to view the Plains Indian Art Exhibit and part of the Asian Art Exhibit. We will have monthly events to increase cultural awareness to the entire school. These ideas are still a work in progress.”

As a new club that formed this year, they have only had a few meetings. Council members already have a clear idea of what they would like the club to be about. “[The goal of the club is] to teach kids not just here at LHS, but everywhere about different cultures and the history of them,” freshman Ayraka Straws said.

The club hopes to accomplish this by hosting a diversity dinner. The dinner will celebrate all different demographics within

LPS and will be held second semester.

Community outreach will be another foundation of Diversity Council.

“I know that a lot of us in the group are also involved in other volunteer organizations like Key Club and NHS so we’re definitely going to look for a way to insert the group into those organizations and involving the community,” senior Mary Mwaura said. “I know that at LMS they had a cultural fair. We had a lot of different speakers and people from different cultures come and put on a little fair. It’s an idea that’s in process, along with a lot of ideas we have going on.

We have a big picture, but it’s all about narrowing it down to what we’ll actually end up doing.”

Members of Diversity Council believe that all students who have an interest should definitely give it a try.

“I would recommend Diversity Council to any LHS student because we all experience diversity on a daily basis, but sometimes we just don’t acknowledge it,” senior Riley Peek said.

“I would recommend the club because, of course as a Diversity Council, we

want a lot of diverse people from diverse backgrounds because everyone has something to offer,” Mwaura said. “And I think it’s a really good way of being able to expand your knowledge. Having that opportunity makes for a more diverse culture within our school and within ourselves and hopefully within our world as we move on to other stages of life and take that knowledge with us.”

Students may have heard of the African American Association, as it was a club in previous years at LHS, but it is no longer in existence. Counselor Brenda Wiederholt, the former sponsor, felt that Diversity Council better encompasses all the differences LHS students see on a daily basis.

“We wanted to make sure all students had a place to come and feel welcome and celebrate their differences,” Wiederholt said. “We are talking about ethnicity, race, gender, disabilities, everything that encompasses diversity.”

The club meets Thursdays during Liberty Hour B and welcomes all new faces in support of diversity.

Diversity council meets during Liberty Hour.

Features 12

Living Honorably Story by Teresa Parra Photos by Natalie Grusch

NHS includes students with high GPAs and leadership skills.

If you have an accumulative GPA of 3.5 and want to improve the community, then you belong in National Honor Society (NHS).

NHS is a nation-wide organization that juniors and seniors with high academic success, who demonstrate service involvement and leadership skills, can be a part of.

The overall goals of NHS are not just beneficial to the community but also to the students who are in the club.

“We try to teach each other that community service is important; especially because our lives here at LHS are so privileged,” senior President Lucas Peterson said. “We have so many opportunities and there are so many people in the community who don’t have that. So really, the point of it is to work together towards a common goal of bettering the community.”

If you meet the requirements for attendance to meetings and the appropriate amount of in-club service hours, you can have the pride of walking with cords at graduation. Getting cords are just one of the many benefits to being a part of NHS. “It’s definitely an honor to be in the group,” sponsor Kelsie Kleinmeyer said.

“There are currently 177 members of NHS. It’s prestigious. It’s something that looks good not only to colleges but also

for scholarships. It really shows that the students are the best of the best.”

Students who are always willing to learn and grow while helping out the community should consider becoming a member of NHS. “I have learned a lot,” Peterson said. “Last year as a junior, I learned community service is a really important thing. I’ve also learned time management, responsibility, and accountability. One specific thing I’ve learned is how to communicate better with my fellow officers. There was a one time where a member of NHS was asking about a service project; I didn’t know what was going on. I texted the other officers but I didn’t have the one officers contact information that knew what was going on.

So I told the person with the question to not show up. They ended up missing out. I learned that communication is key.”

NHS participates in many service projects and activities across the Kansas City area.

“I like the volunteer opportunities, they’re a lot fun, especially when you get to go with your friends,” senior Vice President of Attendance Mallory Bell said. “My favorite so far is the Cedar’s [of Liberty] Nursing Home. There are a lot of sweet people there. It’s just so rewarding going there. We set up crafts in their Rec

Above: students attend the monthly meeting every first Tuesday of each month in the Little Theater. Right: Vice President of Attendance Mallory Bell and senior Vice President of Hours Camille Meeks also attended the meeting.

center, one kid last year brought a guitar and played with them, also play games like checkers. With the girls we brought a whole bunch of nail polishes and set up a table where we painted their nails and talked to them. It’s a lot of fun to interact with them.”

At the beginning of each year juniors and seniors will be notified via letter if they are invited to apply to the club or not.

The letter will explain the requirements and tasks you need to complete to apply.

“The requirements are to have a 3.5 GPA and at least five hours of volunteer work to complete the application,” senior Vice President of Volunteer Coordination Tiffany Lawson said.

Freshman, sophomores, and juniors who are interested in being a member of NHS remember to start working to that goal now.

“Keep your grades up and it’s always good to have experience with volunteer opportunities beforehand and not to do it just to put on a college application,” Bell said. “Do it if you want to do it, if that’s what you are passionate about.”

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Changing the World Story by Brooklyn Balsdon Photo by Lindsey Barnes

Environmental Club makes the environment a better place.

Getting dirty in a stream is what Environmental Club is best at. Most clubs just have the average meeting during Liberty Hour, but not Environmental Club. Environmental Club is knee deep and sometimes up to the waist serving the community.

“I feel like it is different than all of the other clubs at the high school,” junior Kaitlyn Baker said. “We’re more hands on and you can go outside and actually do things and get involved.”

So far Environmental Club has started the year off strong. The club is student led and they have already had many discussions about their ideas for service projects and are ready to have a year full of events.

“Last year we started to plan some things and they didn’t really happen because it got too cold and it started snowing,” Baker said. “I feel like this year we started out already planning the stream clean up and we already have events set that we’re doing, so we are getting a lot more accomplished.”

On October 8, the club went to do a stream clean up at Martha Lafite Nature Sanctuary in Liberty. Members aren’t actually cleaning the stream by picking up trash. They are taking large nets and collecting different organisms that live in the stream. Sometimes they catch fish and

turtles, but they always put them back.

“We test[ed] how healthy the stream is by checking the bacteria that live in the stream, the pollutants and the types of organisms that live in there,” sophomore Claire Reedy said.

The students who are in Environmental Club were knee deep, and sometimes even up to the waist, in a stream with large nets to gather species of organisms to study.

The types of organisms that live in the stream and oxygen levels give clues to how healthy the stream is. Organisms are classified into different tiers based on the places they live. If an organism is in tier one, they need very clean water to live. If an organism is tier three, they can live in dirtier water.

After they recorded all the data from Martha Lafite Nature Sanctuary, the club sent all the data to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

“People have been going out to the stream for probably ten years before I was even here,” Biology Teacher Rick Knowles said. “So, we probably have about 20 or 25 years worth of data at Shoal Creek alone.”

Stream-cleaning is not the only fun large project the club has planned. The club takes a trip to the Omaha Zoo every year and has been thinking about going on a float trip or going camping. Members are

Above: (Left to right) Barcilio Blake, Megan Barksdale, Abby Hill, Katie Rackers, Elizabeth Ruark, Haley Grimes, Meagan Gardner, Emma Pletcher, Favour Oribhabor, Cainen Harris from Environmental Club during the stream clean up.

Right: Barksdale and Hill check the water during the clean up.

Check out more photos in the gallery at Lhsnews.net

always looking for ways to get involved with the environment.

“When I was your age, we would throw away trash. We didn’t even think about recycling,” Knowles said. “I think it is a great time to get involved in Environmental Club and to watch young people inherit the earth and take it in a new direction than the previous generations have taken it.”

The club has one main goal: make the community a better place for animals and humans. Every meeting they put in effort to help as much as they can.

“I really love the environment. I know that sounds cheesy but I really do,” Baker said. “I want more people to recycle because it makes me sad when I’m in the lunchroom and I see everyone throwing away their plastic stuff when I know it could be recycled.”

Environmental Club is a club for everyone. The club meets every Wednesday Liberty Hour A in room 209 and new members are always welcome.

Whether you really love the environment or just want to get involved, there is a spot for everyone.

“I participate in the club because I think you can learn a lot from it because it is real-life stuff,” junior Megan Barksdale said. “I think I want to be a biologist and this is real-life experience that you can’t

Features 14

What are your hobbies?

“My hobbies are sleeping, playing any sport except for golf, baseball and lacrosse, hanging out with friends, acting in musicals, running, and eating food because food is great.”

Who inspires you?

“My sister, senior Mary Mwaura because everything she does always pushes me to become a better person and she motivates me everyday to strive for greatness and I love her.”

What is your favorite childhoood memoriy?

“My favorite childhood memory was visiting Africa for the first time because it was a great experience. I also got to meet new family members that I have never met before- like my grandma. Also I got to try new kinds of food that tasted absolutely delicious, such as mandazi, an African biscuit. I was eight years old when I first visited. It was also the first time I flew out of the country and went to Africa just for a vacation, with my family. I have been there twice, once in 2008 and again in 2011.”

Mr. Winkler's thoughts on Amos Mwaura: “Amos is a great kid, he has a smile on his face everyday in class.

He always seems to be very positive about everything, which I find very refreshing. He is the kind of student that creates a classroom atmosphere that makes everyone enjoy the hour.”

Freshman

Amos Mwaura Story by Hannah Berry Photo by Molly Filger

Features 15

What are some of your hobbies?

“Running, watching Netflix, and reading. I’ve finished Greys Anatomy, Revenge, The Fosters, Lie to Me, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars. My favorite show is Greys Anatomy. I am in Young Life and track. I am a 300 hurdler and I did sprints last year as well. [In track] I liked meeting new people and being a part of a team. [I also like to] hangout, I like driving around and listening to music with my friends.”

Who inspires you?

“One of the most inspirational people in my life is my friend Darcie Nixon, because she has helped me through a lot of things and she is really wise. I like to get her input on the tough decisions. I got to go on mission trip to Trinidad with her. We had VBS for little kids and got to visit elderly homes and an orphanage.”

What did you do this summer?

“I went to Camp Barnabas, a Christian camp for kids with special needs and I volunteered there for a week. I got to meet some of the campers, I served them and cleaned. My favorite thing was definitely the relationships that I made with people that I met.”

Ann Bertoldie's thoughts on Holly: “Holly is a great broadcasting student, and is always positive. Her positivity makes stressful times during a broadcast less stressful. She is always the first one to volunteer to help out.”

Sophomore

Holly Stansbury Story by Hannah Berry Photo by T.J. Stansbury

Features 16

What are your passions and hobbies?

“I’ve been playing for about four or five years. But I play seven instruments total. I play saxophone, clarinet, flute, guitar, bass, piano and vocal. I do boy scouts too. I don’t do a whole lot outside of it. I’m going to get my Eagle Scout in a month. [I am inspired by] Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Charlie Bird Parker, Frank Sinatra, Cole Porter [and] I like these jazz guys because I like the way they use cords and how they write music I like how certain people sound. Outside of jazz I like really intense music.”

What did you do this summer?

“I played at the Kauffman Center on July tenth this summer. It was really fun; I got to play with some really great musicians.

I composed my own song it was called ‘The Luckiest Man in the World’ and it was just a cute little jazz song. [Besides that] I just sat around my house and practiced my saxophone.”

What do you want to do after high school?

“I hope to play in college. I’ve really been looking at UMKC, but UMKC is my [backup] college if none of my other college choices work out, I want to find a college with a good jazz scene around it.

Optimally I would like to go to a place like Berkley or North Texas State. I want to go on tour in my younger years like from when I’m 20 to when I’m like 40. Then maybe after that I want to produce records because when I go to college I would like to do recording engineering because I have a lot of inspirations with that kind of stuff.”

Steven Owen's thoughts on Zach: “Zach is an energetic, enthusiastic and talented young man. He contributes great things to our band program in lots of ways - he plays in our marching band, concert band, jazz band, and even helped form a jazz combo this fall. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to work with him on so many different levels of music.”

Junior

Zach Garland-Foster Story by Tara Prindle Photo by Chris Marnell

Features 17

What do you do outside of school?

“I work a lot at Jimmy John’s. I like to go to sporting events like Sporting KC Games, [but] I don’t really watch anything else. My sisters both play sports. Sina and Nese both play basketball, [and] Nese plays soccer. My family is very sport-oriented so I spend my time watching them.”

Who is someone you look up to?

“Honestly, my mom [because] she does a lot. She works twelve hours a day everyday, Monday through Friday. She has to run my sisters to basketball practice, soccer practice, or any practice that they have. She has to worry about dinner and everything [else] a mom has to do. I don’t know how she does it some days. We’re crazy, so I don’t know how she handles all of us. We have our ups and our downs, but at the end of the day, no matter what happens, we’re always together.”

Is there anything interesting about you that not a lot of people know about?

“A lot of people assume that I am Hawaiian, but my mom is from American Samoa, and my Dad is from Saipan, also known as Guam.

American Samoa is on an island by Hawaii, and Saipan is by the Japanese Islands.”

Math Teacher Chris Murphy's Thoughts on Malae: “I have know Malae for three years. I didn’t even have her in class the first year I met her, she came into my classroom for a study hall. That’s how I got to know her. She’s one of those people that every time I see her, she always says “Hi” and she always has a smile on her face. This year I have her in class and she’s fun to have in class and does well in it.

She’s just one of those people that it’s hard to be negative around.”

Senior

Malae Selepeo Story by Jenna Spence Photo by Desiree Johnson

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What are your favorite things about teaching?

“The students I get to work with. We have kids that are just very passionate about music here. We have a very strong fine arts program.

The kids that come here to sing with me really inspire me. They’re very talented, they’re very hard working and everyday I learn something from them as well. We [also] have many students involved in MSHSAA events and MCDA, which is Missouri Choral Director Association events.”

What is your favorite kind of music?

“I love all kinds of music because I grew up helping with show choirs. I also worked my way through college as a professional pianist and singer. I had a club job where I was paid actually very well, a lot of my friends were waiting tables for two dollars and fifty cents an hour and this was back in the 1980’s, I was getting paid 25 dollars an hour just to play background music at a restaurant and then I did a couple of sets of singing and playing the piano. So I love pop music for that reason. Like most of you guys, I listen to rock bands and stuff like that. In our program we really try to do a wide range of music from Bach to the Pentatonix.”

What are your accomplishments?

“I’ve been teaching music for a really long time. I started my undergraduate degree in 1980 and I was already teaching piano and voice lessons through our college program at that time. My first teaching job, I started in 1984 so I’ve been teaching for 30 years.

Just knowing I was part of their journey and seeing where they were able to take their passion and knowing that they’re going to touch other lives through their music. It’s just a beautiful web of growth, just knowing that I was a small part of that is very rewarding.”

Kailyn Peterson's thoughts on Dr. Heruth: “She is so sweet. She is just so caring and sometimes she’ll get down to the nitty gritty when it’s time to get ready for our concerts, but all in all she is just a wonderful person and I love her.”

Teacher

Rika Heruth Story by Tara Prindle Photo by Hailey Smith

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When did you decide to work with computers?

“I decided at a small age, when I was five years old. My uncle worked on computers and was really big with them. He actually gave me my first laptop when I was five. It tells you how old they are-they were one color. It had a blue screen and that was it. White letters. So as soon as I started playing with those, it just kind of took off from there.”

Have you ever encountered a problem that you couldnt fix?

“We encounter problems all the time. The big thing with technology is we depend on a lot of outside companies for help. If it’s something, for example, like the filter issues right now, we have to contact the outside companies to fix the issues because we don’t have access to fix their stuff. Right now the internet access for all of the students has been down because our web filter is not working correctly. On average, between seeing me and the librarians, I’d say close to forty people a day come in with problems.”

Who do you look up to?

“Somebody I look up to is my wife. She always knows how to solve issues when it comes to a crisis. She may get stressed out, but she can always find a way to fix any problem. My best friend would be my wife as well. We’ve been through a lot together and we’ve been together a long time. We’ve grown so close and conquered a lot. I think we’ve been together for six or seven years.”

Jenny Ward's thoughts on Mr. Ward: “He is a foundation. Not only at home, but in the work place. He is constantly responsible and reliable in everything that he does.”

Administrator

Cris Ward Story by Jenna Spence Photo by Molly Filger

Indepth 20

Stress 101 Story by Hannah Leonard and Addy Gray

Photo by Molly Filger

Varying stress levels among students pose questions about dealing with the pressure.

Keeping up with grades, extracurricular activities and jobs while trying to find themselves as a person can be overwhelming for young adults. In a survey of around 310 students 38 percent (about 119 students) at LHS say they are “highly stressed” during the school year and another 37 percent (about 115) said they were “moderately stressed”.

Students at LHS are beginning to feel the pressure of high school as they approach the middle of first semester. Students have begun to feel the anxiety of reaching an acceptable GPA. Balancing out activities outside of school and getting good grades is a common stress factor for most high school students.

“From what I have seen personally is that students are stressed because of all the extra activities, the tough courses they are taking, and sometimes the thing they are worried about most is their grade,” AP World History teacher Jeff Wilkins said.

“Some of them handle that extra pressure pretty well, others don’t. Sometimes it becomes an excuse ‘I have my job’ or ‘I have so much work to do for Forensics’ or something like that so depends on the individual student. Sometimes they still get their work done and score well, other times it becomes the reason that their grades slide a little bit.”

Another stress factor is social acceptance, something perhaps every teen struggles with.

Teenagers at this stage in their life are trying to fit in and figure out their identity.

Peer pressure forces teens to make stressful choices in order to gain approval from their peers. These choices can compromise their personal best interests.

“Kids our age have started to be more focused on fitting in rather than being focused on getting school work done,” sophomore Peyton Trester said. “School has become more about social status then getting a good education.”

Positive Outlook

Stress is often considered a danger and a hindrance to teens or adults in our society.

Here at LHS, some students believe that stress can actually be a positive thing.

“Stress affects you every day, whether it be with school, sports, or just friends,” junior Ben Kunkel said. “It can also be good stress as it can push you to achieve things you didn’t think you could do.”

“I think an appropriate amount of pressure and stress is important to let the student figure out how to manage. Going to college and or working full time can be very stressful so expensing stress in high school can be a good life lesson and how

to deal with that stress,” Department Chair Counselor Brenda Wiederholt said.

Student Outlooks

Some students at LHS feel they are carrying a great deal of stress.

“With tests and everything it kind of gets to be a lot but it’s kind of easy to manage.

Do your homework, you don’t get retakes.

Study your best and as much as possible,” sophomore Sarah Parrott said.

To Parrott, stress is just a part of life and is not a major difficulty, yet teens with AP or advanced placement classes who are also involved in any extracurricular may find very little time for homework and many sleepless nights.

“I am involved in cross country and track,” sophomore Mason Armstrong said.

“Usually I have a lot of reading to do and I am taking two math classes right now so I have that. It’s usually hours worth of work.”

Students who are a part of athletic teams may have even less time to control anxiety and schoolwork.

“I play soccer so I have club soccer usually after school,” senior Emma Baldridge said. “I have soccer and then I have homework, then after that I have a test and I don’t have enough time to study efficiently.”

How stressed are you on a normal basis?

Moderately stressed

Highly stressed (Most of the time)

37%

38%

8%

Overwhelmed with stress

12%

Rarely stressed 4% Carefree, no stress

*310 students LHS surveyed

Indepth 21

The amount of homework some teachers give, as well as the difficulty of the content, may intimidate students.

“I normally have homework in every single class every day,” freshmen Mari Charlson said. “I normally go to practice then right after I have to go home and do homework, by that time I just go to bed.”

Solutions

Students Health

The most concerning result of excessive stress is the toll it takes on one’s health.

For students who have little time for themselves or simply put activities over their well-being, they may develop unhealthy eating habits as well.

“I think students can become unhealthy from being overworked because a big thing is a lot of students are not eating. If they are eating, they are grabbing something from Quick Trip or a fast food restaurant so they are not getting the proper nutrition they need,” School Nurse Karla Hausman said.

“The other big thing we can see from being overworked is lack of sleep. Lack of sleep can lead to other issues.”

Things such as coronary artery disease can be developed by unmanaged stress issues too.

“There are other unhealthy habits in taking caffeine which can lead to cardiac issues and chronic headaches,” Hausman said.

In some cases these habits, such as heavy caffeine intake, may result in addiction.

“Caffeine can definitely become addictive.

Then when students try to slow down the caffeine intake its very hard for them. They don’t feel like they can make it through the day without it,” Hausman said.

The best way to resolve these problems is to stay away from fried and greasy foods along with caffeinated products. Students also need to have a secure sleeping schedule that will allow them enough rest to have energy for many activities. Without a healthy diet and enough rest, students may notice recurring health problems or have a more difficult time fighting off illness.

“A body can’t function for a long time without that [healthy diet and sleep]. We could start to see students be chronically sick over and over from lack of sleep,” Hausman said.

Many health issues could occur from stress itself.

“We could start seeing other problems from all the stress. They may become anxious about school and have avoidance issues.” Hausman said.

Stress in high school may even cause or contribute to mental health issues.

“Sometimes kids get overwhelmed because they have so many things they are trying to balance,” school nurse Michelle Kist said. “That can lead to depression; they just can’t figure it all out.”

Finding ways to stay organized with ones schedule is crucial to keeping up grades and planning out work, thus reducing stress.

Prioritizing can save a lot of time and worry.

“Practice time management, make changes to make things work a little better,” Wilkins said.

One student suggests simply taking time to unwind.

“Take a break, just don’t think about anything, then after a while get back into it,” freshman Amos Mwaura said.

LHS is home to Be Kind Unwind, led by Wilkins himself. The club promotes acts of kindness and gives a safe place for students to relax and help cope with stress.

“They find it very relaxing to come in here and hang out and discuss things. I believe things have been very therapeutic for them.”

Wilkins said.

According to Kist, when it comes to preventing or relieving stress in a healthy way there is one simple solution for everyone.

“Exercise. It makes you produce endorphins which is the natural happy food that our body produces to keep everything on a norm,” Kist said.

Students who have trouble managing stress can be sensitive and find it difficult to be confident in themselves and their schoolwork. Teens who are stressed out from multiple activities need to find a way to unwind and stay healthy in order to do their best and perform well so they can be successful.

Adult Help

For some students in advanced classes there is a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time. It is important for these students to communicate with their teachers and seek adult help.

“I believe that sometimes students have too many things going on in their lives, an excessive amount of work hours or being involved in too many things can add to stress,” Wiederholt said. “If a student has to work to pay bills, then we can talk about ways to handle the amount of work hours and still be a successful student. I think an appropriate amount of pressure and stress is important to let the student figure out how to manage. Going to college and or working full time can be very stressful so taking care of stress in high school can be a good life lesson.”

Out of 310 students surveyed, 12% said they were overwhelmed with stress.

Beware of Ogre!

A&E 23

Story by Alex Wilson Photos by Kennedy Allison

LHS students prepre for the upcoming musical Shrek.

In tradition, this fall Liberty High School will be performing a musical. The choice of musical will be Shrek. Shrek will be performed at The Little Theatre November 12 to November 15 at 7:00 p.m. and November 19 - November 21.

The Musical will also be performed on November 22 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

To perform this large-scale musical, the theatre department needs to do a lot of work.

The first step to making this musical is finding talented students willing to give it their all for this production. This year around 200 students will be involved.

“They had two auditions, one was where we sang. Music was playing and you read off the music as you sang,” junior Truman Butler said. “This one was harder than the next one, which was dry reading, they match you up with random people and you read from the script, that’s how they could tell if you had the voice and acting for the part.”

Butler will play the lead character Shrek.

The audience will follow Shrek on his quest to retake his land.

“The musical is about an ogre named Shrek, and fairy tale creatures are sent to his swamp. Shrek goes to sees Lord Farquaad to get these fairytale creatures out of his swamp,” sophomore Trevor Harr said. “Farquaad tells him he needs to go find this princess and he will give him the deed to the swamp so he can live alone [again]. He goes and rescues the princess [but] they start to fall in love.”

Sophomore Trevor Harr will play Lord Farquaad, the villain of the musical.

He isn’t your typical villain however, Farquaad is extremely short, so that means Harr has to be on his knees the entire musical.

There is another quirky character in the musical, that character is Donkey. This donkey talks and follows Shrek on his journey. Freshman Dylan Moran will take on the role as Donkey.

“I am supposed to guide Shrek, I get stuck with him when he tries to go and rescue the princess,” Moran said.

The entire cast has to practice a lot, they practice Monday through Thursday until around 5:30 p.m. The cast has a lot

Left: Sophomore Trevor Harr practices for his role as Lord Farquaad.

of work to do but there is still a bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes.

Choreographers, makeup artists, and stage crews work hard to make this a fantastic experience for the audience.

“The makeup for Shrek is going to take me at least two hours to get into. It’s a cap then they turn me all green, I wear gloves and a fat suit,” Butler said. “I’m getting out [of class] everyday for a show because it is going to take a long time.”

The musical this year has plans to be very diverse in it’s music choice, the crew will be performing familiar and unfamiliar music genres.

“It’s a collection of music, there is modern songs [and] old [songs]. It’s very collective music.” Musical Director Donald Johnson said.

Come to the musical this November to see this movie reimagined.

Below: Junior Truman Butler and freshman Dylan Moran rehearse a song from when their characters first meet.

A&E 24

Monster movie madness Reviews by Kati Benhardt and Sol Kim

Reporters give their insight on four classic Halloween movies.

Poltergeist Poltergeist Sol- Do not let the PG rating fool you. There are Kati- Poltergeist is about the Freeling family who parts of Poltergeist that have stayed embedded in my brain, images from the movie that pop in my head from out of nowhere when trying to fall asleep at night. A young family is visited by ghosts in their home. The ghosts appear friendly at first but then they turn nasty and start terrorizing the family. Poltergeist frightens audiences by reminding them of those irrational, and yet somehow palpable things we feared so much as children: a noise from under the bed, a closet door cracked open, and other night-time terrors. Be prepared for lots of gore; from a paranormal investigator tearing off his face in big bloody chunks, to a little boy being horrifically swallowed by a tree. People who haven’t seen this movie yet, you’ve been warned.

are stalked and terrorized by a group of ancient ghosts that are attached to the family’s youngest daughter, Carol Anne. The Freeling family’s home sits on top of a Native American burial ground, which explains why ancient ghosts are terrorizing them. In Poltergeist, ancient ghosts who are being controlled by a demon called the “Beast,” abduct Carol Anne through her bedroom closet. While this is happening the poor boy is trying to fight off the evil clown. This movie was an instant success and has a unique story-line, making it great. Every time my television goes static, I quickly run away, screaming in fear.

The great great pumpkin pumpkin Charlie Charlie brown brown The

Sol- The Great Pumpkin is perhaps the greatest

Peanut’s special, although lovers of the Christmas show may beg to differ. This movie is one the whole family can watch with its message of faith and determination. Charlie Brown is thrilled that he’s been invited to a costume party.

Snoopy’s costume choice consist of the goggles and scarf of a World War I flying ace, who is ever in search of the elusive Red Baron. Linus makes preparations for the arrival of The Great Pumpkin, whom he believes will rise from the pumpkin patch and deliver presents to all the good little boys and girls. With all your favorite Snoopy characters, It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is a great movie for celebrating both the fall season and Halloween.

Kati -The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is an

animated television special that is based on the comic strips Peanuts, by Charlie M. Schulz. On Halloween night, while most of the Peanut gang is out trick or treating, Linus is at the pumpkin patch. Linus is convinced, like years in the past, that the Great Pumpkin will come. I thought it was cute that Linus was very adamant in waiting for the Great Pumpkin in the Pumpkin patch.

I did not appreciate that his sister and friends made fun of Linus and gave him a hard time about something he believed in. Then again it is rather odd and different to think of a pumpkin as if it was something like Santa Clause. The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is a family-friendly movie that I always enjoy watching when Halloween comes around.

A&E 25 hocus pocus Sol- Hocus Pocus is a comedy-filled family

horror film from Disney. The movie ties in all the best elements of Halloween: witches, trickor-treaters, zombies and combines them with a hilarious slapstick chase around town that will have your sides splitting. Add an all-star cast and, bam, you have one of the best Halloween movies that is funny any time of the year! Full of one-liners, laughs, suspense, and amusing situations and cackling laughter, Hocus Pocus is a perfect mix of sinister spirit and delightful goofiness. Since this is a Disney film, pillows aren’t needed to cower under. Hocus Pocus is a timeless tale and is perfect for the Halloween holiday.

Kati- Hocus Pocus is an American horror

comedy film about three interesting looking witches, the Sanderson sisters, and their plan to become young again. These witches end up being resurrected in 1993 inadvertently due to a black flame candle being lit by a teenage boy and waking the sisters on Halloween from their 300-year rest. The beginning of the movie was spooky to me only because the opening scene is a little girl running off into the woods with a witch. The witch ends up killing the little girl; her brother is the boy who was turned into a cat because he tried to save her. Some, might find this movie to be a little spooky at first. Though, as time goes on, it becomes more humorous and interesting rather than spooky.

halloween halloween Sol-Halloween remains one of the most classic Kati - I remember watching Halloween for the first horror films of all time. It’s a simple, but horribly effective low-budget suburban indie film.

Regardless of how silly you think an early 80’s slasher movie might be, this will have you scared witless by the time the end credits roll. Michael Myers, the main antagonist, first appears in this 1978 film as a young boy who murders his older sister. After being sent to a mental hospital, Myers escapes and returns home fifteen years later to murder more teenagers. If you don’t enjoy suspense then this movie is not for you. The eerie background music adds more tension to each scene. Michael Myers sports his infamous mask and steak knife and is always one step ahead of you. Credit must be paid to the filmmakers who made the effort to really frighten us.

time with my sisters when I was ten. No matter how hard Dr. Loomis tried, the gruesome Michael could not be stopped. Dr. Loomis tried his hardest to convince the other doctors that Michael was going to kill again and no one believed him. I bet all those doctors regret that now. Michael’s no mercy killing left me with unwanted nightmares, and left me to sleep with one eye open. I expected the movie to be about a crazed man who comes out on Halloween to terrorize the people in the town on Halloween. Sadly, my predictions were just about right; only there was a deeper story to the crazed man and his past. When watching this movie, be ready for a lot of suspense and killing around every corner.

Sports 26 Sport Cross Country

Sports schedule November 1st-november 9th Level Varsity

Location TBA

Men’s Swim & Dive Last Chance

Varsity

Gladstone Community Center 9:00am 11/1

Men’s Swim & Dive State Swimming Premllims

Varstiy

St. Peters Recplex

3:00pm 11/7

Cross Country

Varsity

Away

TBA 11/8

Men’s Swim & Dive State Meet

Varsity

St.Peters Recplex

3:00pm 11/9

Men’s Swim & Dive State Swimming Final

Varsity

St.Peters Recplex

9:30am 11/8

Event Class 4 KC Sectional

Class 4 State Champ

Time & Date TBA 11/1

Should School Be A Student's Only Job? The holidays are near and businesses around town are already gearing up for the escalation of traffic that is expected at this time of the year. For many high school students, that also means one other thing: working more hours. As the amount of time that school requires of students has increased over the years due to homework, clubs, and sports, a question often arises as to whether or not school should be a student’s only focus.

The Bell Staff drew from personal experiences and conversations with adults in the building and the vote was an overwhelming no, jobs can be just as important as school.

A common thought amongst the staff is that jobs are important for teaching students responsibility as well as time management.

College can be extremely demanding, and so learning these skills early on can be very beneficial for the future, when they are almost always required. Jobs during high school help students learn how to balance

homework, club activities, sports, and work in the limited timeframe they have in the week.

On the other hand, some feel that jobs are too demanding of students. The staff discussed the difficulty of working late hours with some students, and learned that many do not get home until 10:00 p.m. or even 11:00 p.m. on a school night and then have to do an hour or more of homework, especially when they are in college and AP classes. Due to the fact that some workplaces have difficulty scheduling students around school hours and activities, the staff feels that if a student is scheduled to work ridiculous hours they should find a different job or quit altogether.

Some students solve the issue of getting home late from work by only working on weekends. That way, they can dedicate school nights to sports and homework.

Other students prefer working only during the school week because they have family activities or plans with friends on the

Opinion 27

weekends. Working during the week means they also have more spending money for the weekends.

Staff members felt that jobs are important and sometimes necessary because many students have to purchase a car, gas, insurance, clothes, food, and luxuries themselves. Some parents pay for these things for their students so that they can concentrate on sports, since sports are what they want to pursue in college and may pave way for scholarships. However, other students are required to have a job so they can learn how to be financially responsible and independent.

Overall, staff members agreed that school and jobs are both time and energy demanding and that jobs can sometimes contribute to a student’s stress; however, the benefits of having a job outweighed the negatives and the majority of the staff voted that school should not be a student’s only job.

The articles on these pages do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the entire Bell staff. Please feel free to comment in a letter to the editor.

Editorial Cartoon

Illustrated by freshman Jackson Peña

8:10 am-3:15 pm

Staff Topic Vote Yes - 4 No - 25 3:16 pm-8:09 am

Opinion 28

Age Is Only A Number Story by Jackson Peña

When do you become too old to Trick-or-Treat?

Photo by Amanda Kovac

It’s Halloween and you’re sitting in your house with no fun parties to go to. You decide to get up and go trick or treating, but wait, you’re not a kid.

Well, I say who cares? Everyone likes candy. The best part is that it’s free.

Trick-or-Treating is fun no matter what age you are, and there are many reasons why I think being older is better than being a kid on Halloween.

When you’re old enough, I think trick or treating is fun because you’re able to drive yourself. Most parents aren’t going to drive their eight-yearold when it’s a walking distance trip, but when you have a license you don’t need your parents on Halloween. Do you remember those years of walking houseto-house, getting more and more tired? By the time you get through a maximum of two neighborhoods you were done because your bag was heavy and you’re starting to sweat in your awesome costume. When you’re older you can go to all sorts of neighborhoods without the workout.

Speaking of neighborhoods, you probably know where all the really good neighborhoods are when you’re older. You know, the ones with the king-sized candy bars and the cool decorations. You probably couldn’t get to them before they turn off their lights for the night when you were younger; but now you’re older and faster.

Trick or treating is a great excuse to hangout with friends. You can have fun and get candy. What could be better than that? Nothing. Sure, you

guys could just hang out at your house or g o to the movies, but trick or treating is way more fun. This is my favorite part of Halloween. It’s just you, your friends and costumes.

Halloween is the one night you can dress up and be someone else.

You can be your favorite character, actor, or superhero. It’s always fun to walk around the street and see all the creative costumes. The older you get, the more gross, more creepy and more crazy you can get with your costumes.

They don’t have to be so sweet anymore. I like how Halloween is a day when you can escape reality for a whole night.

As you age you can stay out longer.

Trick or treating is one thing, but trick or treating when the little kids go home is another. Staying out later is a huge plus. The sidewalks aren’t as full of people, for one thing. Then all the people handing out candy are almost done for the night, so they give you more than they would have an hour ago. Sure, they might stop to ask, “Aren’t you a little old to be doing this?” but you can just ignore them.

In the end, no matter what age you are, trick or treating can be fun. It’s a long-lived tradition that I think everyone should experience at least once in their lives. It’s a night full of scares, laughs and candy. Being older makes all of these things way better.

Time To Stop Knock-Knocking

Opinion 29

Story by Daryl Gichui

Trick-or-Treating should be left to the pros: little kids.

When should you stop Trick-or-Treating?

Trick or Treating is for kids.

I’ll never stop until my teeth fall out.

22%

17% I’m in high school, 35% but I like the candy. *270 LHS Students Surveyed

25%

You should stop when you’re an adult.

Treating.”

Every year many of my friends and I continue to debate whether or not to go Trick-or-Treating. They know that there are better opportunities for having fun at other events like the Halloween Haunt at Worlds of Fun or costume parties; which dominate the Halloween holiday.

Trick-or-Treating, while safe and exciting, is for kids. Chances are you could probably have more fun at a party or a small gathering with friends and chow down on sweets for the night.

I’m not saying that going Trick-orTreating is for babies, but unless you’re taking your younger siblings out for Trick-or-Treating, there isn’t much to enjoy besides the nostalgia. Especially since after Halloween stores end up discounting their candy, so you can get as many jumbo bags of fun-sized Snickers bars as you want and at a pretty low price.

As time moves on and we get older, Trick-or-Treating continues to be a staple to the Fall season, and an event that kids, teens and many adults still enjoy. Personally I have nothing against Trick-or-Treating, but I know I don’t want to see 30 year-old men coming to my door and asking for candy. I feel as if at a certain age Trick-or-Treating should be left to the pros: younger kids.

Photo by Amanda Kovac

Fun, friends, spooky creatures, costumes and enough candy to fill a pillow case. For many people, Trick-orTreating and dressing up for Halloween is a very exciting and an important part of October. It gives kids a chance to dress up as their favorite superheroes, Disney princesses, or TV show heartthrobs and have a really fun time getting as much candy as they can fit in their pillow case, so what’s not to like?

However, when is it time to stop Trickor-Treating?

As a kid, everything felt so new and exciting when I went Trick-orTreating. Getting free candy from houses around my neighborhood and visiting mysterious and spooky places made the experience that much better.

Nonetheless as I got older, putting on costumes was still pretty fun, but hunting down candy from random houses lost its flare, or in this case, candle light.

Getting older means having a wider variety of things to do in your freetime, especially on Halloween. Some people have fun Halloween costume parties to show off their costumes. Others, including myself, have a fun gatherings with friends that involve lots of candy.

I have very fond memories of going to Halloween parties as a very excitable elementary schooler in my miniSpiderman costume. In addition, due to Worlds of Fun being so close, many people go there to get a good spook at the Halloween Haunt. Events like these kind of put an ugly vampire cloak that just screams “Stay away from Trick-or-

Opinion 30

The Ugly Little Vampire

I am an avid believer in Halloween. I don’t know what it is about October 31 that makes me so ecstatic. Maybe it’s dressing up in a costume or maybe it’s the movies that make you shield your eyes because you don’t know what’s going to be around the corner. Who knows, it could even be the free Chipotle Boo-ritos.

When I was in the fourth grade, my Halloween fever was at an all time high.

My parents took me to the costume store like they did every year, but this time was going to be different. I went on a mission, and successfully found the scariest vampire

costume of them all. Somehow this wasn’t enough for my young self. I then begged my parents to let me get fake fangs, fake blood, white face paint and a long black wig to complete my epic costume.

In elementary school, one of the best days of the school year was the Halloween party when every student got to wear a costume to school all day. The morning of the Halloween party, I woke up 30 minutes early so my parents could help me get into full make-up. I wanted to look so scary that Dracula himself would run at the sight of me.

My parents caked on the white face paint, carefully snapped on my fangs and made the fake blood ooze out of the corners of my mouth. Then came the long messy black wig that fell down to my hips in tangled strands.

After my transformation, I didn’t look at myself in the mirror. I didn’t want to spoil the illusion of myself as vampire by seeing my reflection.

Practically shaking with excitement, I opened the door to my fourth grade classroom. I was anticipating the whole

Editorial by Aly Copp class coming up to me, begging to find out how I got such a realistic, amazing costume.

I couldn’t wait to see the other kids attempts to be scary.

When I opened the door, my mouth dropped in shock. No one looked scary. All of the other little girls were dressed as princess, fairies or some other sickening pink fluffy excuse for a costume. For those of you that have seen the movie Mean Girls, I was basically Cady Heron in the scene at her first Halloween party as a teenager.

For a moment, I was truly humiliated. Why did my parents let me come to school like this? Why didn’t they make me be Tinker Bell or something like I was the year before?

Then, an unexpected change of events happened. Everyone in the class came running up to me saying, “Whoa, Aly! You look awesome!” “You’re so scary looking, is that real blood?!”

The moral of this story is that it’s okay to be who you are, even if it is different than everyone else. Even if who you are is a scary little ugly vampire.

Editor in Chief

The Boy Who Lived

Recently I got new glasses. After the first week of wearing them I realized their rounded shape gave less of a high fashion vibe than it did boy wizard. Since my purchase more and more people have begun to call me “Harry Potter.” Two waitresses (at two different restaurants), my dentist, a teacher and a police officer have all claimed I share a resemblance to “The Boy Who Lived.” I couldn’t be more flattered.

For me, the Harry Potter series are books that will never lose their luster. Albus

Editor in Chief

Editorial by Zach Kilgas Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Hermione Granger and Harry himself all taught me valuable lessons, things I believe the students of LHS should remember.

There are three quotes, however, I think everybody should know.

(Even though it’s not a direct book quote,) Albus Dumbledore tells the students of Hogwarts in the movie The Prisoner of Azkaban, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest times if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

It may sound cliché, but in the grand roller coaster that is life, we face many ups and downs. Recently, I found myself down, being sad without reason. I stayed in my rut for two days, moping of sorts. After telling a friend about my troubles she told me she’d devised a plan to help turn on the lights in my darkness.

We rode in separate cars- my only instructions were to follow behind her and park near her car. Our destination was an old, abandoned building. My friend led me to a fire escape and told me we would soon

be on the roof. Before I could stop her she was halfway up the ladder yelling down to me, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,” she said quoting the sacred vow belonging to the Marauder’s Map. As I stared down on the city, I wondered how many people were like me, sad but without reason, just in need of somebody to remind them to search for the light.

It was then that I remembered one more quote from Harry Potter, “Words are, in my not so humbled opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it,” Dumbledore said.

I realized then, being Editor-in-Chief was magic, the simple words I say to the old friends I see briefly in the hallways is magic.

My “thank you” in the cafeteria is also magic. By using this magic, and even a little mischief, we can pull people out of the dark.

I may just be a nerd, but I love my Harry Potter glasses.

Only You Can Be You

I’ve always loved to write. When I was younger, I loved to write little stories and I even enjoyed writing papers in middle school. I know, I know, I’m kind of an English geek. I even wrote my own weekly newsletter when I was 12 and sent it out to all my friends and family via email.

(Long live The Michael Weekly!) Anyway, reading and writing have always been dear

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Editorial by Michael McHale to me and it still is my favorite subject to this day. It’s easy to say that reading and writing are huge parts of who I am.

I fully realized this when we began writing College Application Essays in my College Composition class a few weeks ago. As seniors, applying for college is a big part of your year, and the essays you write for your applications can really increase your appeal to admissions representatives. The essay, whether you write one for your application or not, really showcases your personality to readers. It shows them who you are. It was through this essay that I finally realized the importance of being yourself.

When writing the essays, Mrs. Ahart often reminded us to be ourselves, let our personalities show through our writing and let the readers get to know the real you. I took this advice to heart. This was one of the first times I’d ever connected writing with myself personally. I am a little ashamed that I’m just now realizing the importance of this, but hopefully you all see how important it is.

Where's the Magic?

There is nothing that irks me more than the modern-day Disney Channel. I have an eleven-year-old sister who will never know the joys of seeing Zack and Cody getting yelled at for playing football in the lobby or Penny Proud’s sassy grandmother hitting her father over the head with a cane. Gone are the days of old, when Raven Symone

Opinion 31

With that being said, I urge all of you to always be yourself. Never be insecure about your personality, or your appearance, or anything else. If you have the confidence to go out there and just be you, that’s really all you need. I used to, and still do sometimes, care too much what people think of me, but I’ve been working on it lately. You don’t need anyone else’s approval to be who you are. No one has the right to judge you for being yourself. Odds are, they’re insecure with themselves, too, and they’re taking it out on other people. Never let those people get you down, because one of the greatest things you can be in this world is yourself.

A true individual is becoming a rarity in this world. I think we can change that. Just be who you are, and remember these little tips: Have fun.

Embrace your little quirks.

Remember to laugh at yourself.

Breathe, and last but not least, Always be you.

Opinion Editor

Editorial by Amanda Kovac

and Hilary Duff were flourishing binders When I was as fascinated with Disney and notebooks across the desks of students. Channel as my sister is now, the plots and No longer do such wonderful faces adorn main ideas of the shows were diverse, with school supplies. Instead, children of today more than a teenager becoming famous are left with a talking dog and a Jonas (used in Sonny With A Chance, Austin brother/Hannah Montana wannabe called and Ally and Shake It Up) or a ditzy older Austin Moon. sibling (used in Good Luck Charlie and Dog Now, when I walk through the living With a Blog). I still find myself watching room I find myself cringing when I hear the old episodes of That’s So Raven and Phil of beloved voices of Cory and Topanga of Boy the Future on YouTube.

Meets World. The two are now featured I’m saddened by the fact that my sister on Disney’s series Girl Meets World, but hasn’t, and probably never will, see Derek there’s no Feeny, Eric, Angela, or Jack! and Casey fighting over the phone while Perhaps the disappointing part of this show Marti zings around them in a whirlwind, is that it is made for an audience who has or Ron Stoppable singing The Naked Mole no background on why Cory and Topanga Rap for the talent show. are together. I don’t see how Disney sees Even though the reign of Hilary Duff it fit to use jokes such as, “I wonder how and Lindsay Lohan is over, I take pride in many other relationships the idea of Cory knowing that I can show my little sister, and Topanga has ruined,” with an audience through my extensive movie recordings, a who’s average age is held within a single small scrap of the Disney magic I enjoyed digit. The spin-off of Boy Meets World when I was her age. only makes me regret every single time I’ve wished for a Friends, Full House or Fresh Prince reunion.

Editorial Photos by Amanda Kovac and Tara Prindle

Sports 32

Play for the Cure Story by Lacy Williams Photo by Hailey Smith

With an undefeated record, the volleyball team plays for a cure.

The volleyball team wears their new jerseys to raise awarness of the dig for the cure volleyball touranamnet.

One game. One night. One cause. One color: Pink. LHS, the number one ranked volleyball team in the state, played Truman High School at Truman on October 2 to raise awareness and support a cure for cancer.

“Basically it’s a cancer awareness game,” varsity coach April Fleming said.

“The survivors of cancer stand up in the crowd.” All of the proceeds go to the Susan G Komen cancer organization. In past years the team has sold bracelets and all the ticket money has gone to the organization.

Junior varsity and varsity both played in the game against Truman. The girls were looking forward to this game to not only help support the cause, but also because they recognized a person very special to them. The JV coach, Katie Goulding’s sister, was diagnosed with breast cancer just recently.

“My sister was diagnosed a month before her 30th [birthday] in February,” Goulding said. “She went through two different chemo treatments that lasted until this summer. She has had surgery and

will soon begin radiation. The doctors are pleased with the results so far.”

With all the hype for the preparation for the game, one of the greatest parts was designing a new jersey. Fleming created the jerseys this season. “They are bright pink then the front is going to have a number and the Blue Jay on it, then it will have Liberty written with the ribbon for breast cancer,” she said.

The atmosphere of the game had each girl excited for something different.

“It’s always been a big game,” sophomore Emma Cohalla said. “I’m really excited to finally be a part of it and play [in it].” “[I’m looking forward to] all the excitement of everyone there. I think it’s going to be so cool to see all these people and all this pink coming together,” volleyball manager and sophomore Jessica Maschino said.

Senior MacKenzie Rieth has been in past “dig for the cure” games. “[There are] poster[s] that say ‘I’m playing for:’ and people can go up and sign it for someone they know that had breast cancer,” she said.

The atmosphere was inspiring to the girls with all the pink in the crowd. “It’s kind of exciting even though we’re all there competing against each other; we’re there to come together to support a cause,” Maschino said. “Whether we win or lose we’re going to walk away with a smile on our face knowing that we were part of helping a cause.”

The season is now half way over. The girls have had an amazing season so far.

With an undefeated record and ranking number one in the state right now, the girls are sad to see the season come to an end.

“We all get a long really well,” freshman Jenna Rombalski said. “We’re also really good friends in school not just when we’re playing.”

Maschino agreed, “[I like] getting to see how everything works and getting to know the girls inside and outside of volleyball,” she said. “Our season is rockin’ right now.

Our girls have worked so hard and we are so proud of them. We’re coming out on top this year.”

Sports 33

Blue Jay Branding Story by Kasey Allshouse Photo by Adam Pouliot

Students in Blue Jay Nation promote Liberty High School’s sponsors.

Promoting school sports and finding sponsors has been Sports Marketing students everyday since they started taking this class. Sports Marketing is a hands on interactive class that is limited to juniors and seniors.

“I`m interested in sports and figuring out the business marketing side of things,” senior Logan Foster said.

“I want to major in marketing in general and this [sports marketing class] is kind of like a minor in sports marketing so it`s prepared me a lot because you get to experience everything basically in high school.” Foster said, “Not a lot of high schools have it or offer it so we`re very privileged.” From a juniors perspective Nick Kern told me.

“The easiest part I think would be I think just promoting sports and promoting stuff that’s the easiest part. The hardest part would be, we have to work with sponsors and businesses around Liberty and actually talk to real people,” Junior Nick Kern said.

“The hardest part would be thinking of ideas to promote the sport you have. If you Personal Finance Teacher Sara Havermann leads the class while Junior Jacob Nelson and Senior Daniel Gomez work on t-shirt desgins for the class.

have a sport that not a lot of people go to then it`s really hard to actually get people there. So you have to have really good ideas to promote it,” Kern said. “You get to work in groups a lot and you`re very busy a lot of the time but if you get your work done you get a lot of free time.”

“In Sports Marketing one [student] learn the basics of marketing, like who are targeting audiences.” Sports Marketing teacher Sara Havermann said. “They learn what different types of promotion are. We will learn about something called a sports event pyramid, which is made for specifically sporting and entertainment events.

Then in Sports [Marketing] two they take everything they learned in sports one and apply it to all the athletic programs that we have in school.”

Havermann also explained how this class prepares students for the future.

“You get a lot of hands-on experience, its not like a typical class where you come and you`re lectured and you take notes and you test.” She said. “Most of what we do in here is real world, [the class] is out in the community talking to people. They’re

producing all of the games. It’s a lot of projects and challenges instead of traditional learning.”

Sports Marketing One and Two both contribute to LHS sports by getting them sponsors and producing the games.

“Sports One does it with one event and they go out and find local sponsors to sponsor a specific event. Then the sponsors we have for Blue Jay Nation, we have 22 sponsors. Those are actually found by a company called Niles Media and then Sports two is responsible for fostering that relationship,” Havermann said. “[The students are] their contact for those sponsors and they make sure all their needs are being met, all their contract requirements are being met and if the students are ambitious and they want to go out and find company sponsors they are more than welcome to do so.”

The hard work these classes put into promoting school sports and nurturing their relationships with our school sponsors is apparent at sporting events as well as in the classroom.

Sports 34

Madison Duello

Story by Jeffrey Walters Photo by Madi Hayter

“I love [the team atmosphere] because it not just you that’s trying to win its working with your team to win the game. You care for the other person and you want them to do well too, it’s not just about you, its more about how you react about how people do. my parents inspired me to play because they kept pushing me to get better and did everything they could to make me the best athlete I could be.”

-Senior Madison Duello Said.

Senior volleyball Height: 6'2” Postion: Outsider

“Madison is just such a great leader, she’s so fun to be with on and off the court. She plays hard all the time and she brings it everyday to practice and she’s going to do great things in Wisconsin. I just can’t wait to see where she goes in the future.”

-Junior Morgan Fleming said.

“I would say Madison is a prime example of a good leader, a hard work ethic, and a great player. I can’t think of a time throughout the past 4 years where she missed a workout, missed practice, she was always in attendance. Whenever it came to the summer and everything that we had going on she would attend camps outside of the high school. She would travel around the United States to play club volleyball she’s just worked really hard and has gone a long way in the past 4 years and she has deserved all the credit she has gotten.”

-Head Volleyball Coach April Fleming said.

Josh Watson

Story by Jeffrey Walters Photo by Adam Pouliot

“My favorite thing about football is the team because we’re all a family and we’re brothers who have each other’s back on and off the field. That’s one of the most important things about football being able to count on the guy by your side, and being able to work together during the game.”

-Junior Josh Watson said.

“Josh is a great teammate who I know I can count on off and on the field.

I know Josh gives his 110% during practice and it shows on Friday nights under the lights. Josh inspires me to try my hardest during practice and also during the game. I’m so glad to have a teammate like Josh on the field with me.”

-Junior Nick Kern said.

“Josh is a kid for us that plays both sides of the ball and all special teams, so he has a lot of demands on him. He has to work hard at practice to be able to do those things. On top of that he’s a kid that holds a job outside of school along with school work. He’s a busy kid with a good work ethic.”

-Head Football Coach frigon said.

Junior Football Height: 5'7" Position: Wide receiver

Brittany Castillo

Sports 35

Story by Hope Scobee Photo by Natalie Grusch

“I really enjoy playing softball because it is a really fun sport to play. It’s really good for building character because you learn how to work with a team. It’s not an individual sport, so you really become more involved with other people with the same interests as you and that’s cool.”

-Sophomore Brittany Castillo said.

Sophomore Softball Height: 5'6" Position: Center Field

Robert Rawie

“Brittany is a great outfielder to have on the team. When the ball is hit to her, you know almost all of the time she will make the play and get the job done. Not only that but on offense she does a great job on getting timely hits, especially if the game is close and we need to score runs. Brittany shows a lot of heart and effort on the team and is somebody everyone can count on.”

-Freshamn Autumn Avery said.

“Brittany has been a great player so far this season. She has a tremendous arm and covers a ton of ground in center field.

She’s a blast to be around and we look forward to having her as a major part of our program over the years.”

-Vasity softball Coach Scott Howard said.

Story by Hope Scobee Photo by Hailey Smith

“Football has always been fun for me. It’s fun to play with my friends and meet new people. Basically, football is a way to be someone and build character. Seeing all of the support from everyone all around me and all of the Blue Jay pride people have for the varsity football team makes me want to work harder and push to be the best I can be.”

-Freshman Robert Rawie said.

“Robert is a great kid. He works hard; whenever he’s asked to do something on the football field, he does it. Whenever someone can’t play, Robert steps in and plays his heart out. He really performs well and I know he has a bright future ahead of him.”

- Senior A.J. Cambric said.

“Robert is a great example of a student athlete at LHS. Robert is active in sports every season and plays varsity football as a freshman. He is driven in the classrooms and does a great job with his grades, as well.”

- Head Football Coach Chad Frigon said.

Freshman football Height: 5'8" Position: Running back

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