h t u o M f o d Wor Volume 8, Issue 7
April 2014
Warrior Weekend #3 Oak Hill Academy Student Newspaper
By Yonatan Belayhun, Mariah Ashley, & Amy He Students received a special treat as they watched the Gold Team play in the Dick’s National High School Invitational in New York City. As a ‘prequel’ to the Warrior Weekend 3 trips and activities, students, faculty, and staff gathered in the chapel to watch the team on a jumbo screen. Much clapping and cheering could be heard outside the chapel as the Warriors took on the top talents in the nation. All
three Gold Team games were shown in the chapel for everyone to watch. The third Warrior Weekend started on Friday, April 5th with some delicious dinner trips. The trip to the River Rock included dinner and bowling. There was also a trip to Chipotle Mexican Grill and another to Bojangles. Students on the Village Inn Pizza trip were treated to a buffet of pizza choices. According to Jason Shi,
“Village Inn is a great place to get pizza.” Everyone loved the dinner outings. There were many trips and activities on Saturday, including: an all-day fishing trip which concluded with cooking what was caught, a trip to see Captain America followed by a wonderful buffet meal, and a special social to watch the NCAA Final Four (Continued on page 3)
Inside this issue: Spirit Days
2
Equestrian Team
3
Creative Innovations
3
Boys’ Tennis Team
4
Spring Drama Preview
5
Friday Funnies
5
Red Team POV
6
The Big Apple By Shawn Haas and Tony Anderson The Gold Team trip to New York began with a 10-hour ride on a charter bus. Once in NYC, the team was surrounded by traffic. For this monumental adventure, Terrence had one of his friends film
the whole trip, including the games. After arriving, the team walked around the busy streets of NYC to get the feel of the “Big Apple.” Game days were very intense. The team opened with a game against Northside
Christian Academy from Charlotte, NC. Being the underdog motivated the team. There was a desire to prove the doubters wrong. Strong rebounding, on point shooting, and fast transition play made the (Continued on page 5)
Page 2
Word of Mouth
Spirit Days—Final Results By Leah Baucom Every school year, Oak Hill Academy holds a spirited competition throughout January and February. The school wide competitions held are known as ‘Spirit Days.’ Each grade level competes against each other to win the ultimate prize, the school spirit stick and a day off from Saturday school. The results are now in on the final two events.
The Academic Bowl is a competition where each grade selects four students and one teacher to answer questions on a variety of topics in a quiz-like setting. The objective of the game is to correctly answer as many of the 20 random trivia questions as possible. If unsure of an answer, each team had the chance to ‘throw in the towel’ one time and ask the expert panel, Mr. H. Crede, Ms. Richardson and Dr. Groves, for help. Leading the underclassmen Academic Bowl team were Mr. Sid Finklea, Sam
Bernstein, Christine Sears, Tyler Whiteman, and Mariah Ashley. Mr. Hill led the junior class with Destiny Crickman, Michelle Watson-Jones, Konstantin Kreutzer, and Chris Benson. Mr. Pease led the senior class, with Lien Raets, Shawn Haas, Christian Schmidt, and Alex Van Stippen. Ultimately, after many answers were toiled over, the juniors triumphed and took home the win. Many thanks to the score keepers: Rodney Miller for the underclassmen, Trevor Manuel for the juniors, and Destiny Alston for the seniors. Mr. Bunn assembled and presented the questions for the bowl. The last event of Spirit Days was the Pep Rally. The underclassmen, juniors, and seniors had three activities in which to participate. The first activity was to make up a unique school cheer, followed by a timed
basketball shooting contest and a performance of the OHA Alma Mater. The seniors dominated the activities with an original cheer involving drums and talented dunks, a masterful completion of the timed basketball shots in under 15 seconds, and a memorized rendition of the Alma Mater. After all the points were totaled, the senior class came out on top winning the Spirit Days competition of 2014. The senior class will hold the spirit stick until next school year’s Spirit Days competitions. They thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in on Saturday, March 29th while everyone else attended school.
Volume 8, Issue 7
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Chatham, Virginia Horse Show By Destiny Crickman On April 5, 2014, the Oak Hill Equestrian team traveled to Chatham, Virginia to show at the Southside Saddle Club. Destiny Crickman won 1st place in the Saddle Seat Championship and 3rd place in walk, trot, canter. Ashley Dupper won 2nd place (Reserved Champion) in the Saddle Seat Championship and 2nd place in
walk, trot, canter. Michelle Watson-Jones won 1st place twice showing Saddle Seat walk, trot, canter. Cheyanne Molina placed 4th and 6th showing Hunt Seat walk, trot, canter. Linda Goins won 1st and 3rd showing Hunt Seat walk, trot, canter. Overall, the girls placed very well and the show was a total success. The girls worked
very hard for this show, practicing almost every day after school from 3:20 p.m.-6:00 p.m. for two weeks. The girls woke up at 6 a.m. to groom their horses, clean their tack, and get dressed to begin the show at 11 a.m.
Creative Innovations State Tournament By Maddy Leech On Saturday, April 5th the Creative Innovations team, along with team manager Ms. Luksic, and tournament helpers Ms. Bronson and Mr. Saxton, participated in the Virginia state tournament for Destination Imagination. The team, made up of Destiny Alston,
Mason Kelly, Maina Ly, Andrew Awantang, and Maddy Leech, wanted to focus their energy on improving their costumes and scenery for the state tournament. As a first time DI (Destination Imagination) team, they did what they set out to do. The goal was to improve their performance in the areas of costumes and scenery as well as to realize what the DI program has helped teach them. Overall, Creative
Innovations became a class conducive to team work, hands-on, independent learning, and critical thinking as well as being a super fun class!
Warrior Weekend #3 cont. (Continued from page 1)
match-ups or play board games in the dining hall. When asked if he enjoyed the special weekend, Antonio Angelo said, “Yeah, my favorite trip was the
fishing trip because I got to travel with my friends. We even caught a huge trout!� Sunday activities for Warrior Weekend started with breakfast at Shatley Springs. The meal was served family style to the three
vans of students on the trip. Students could also choose to take a wagon ride. A rustic wagon transported students into the past on a (Continued on page 4)
Page 4
Word of Mouth
Boys’ Tennis By Ma’moun Bukhari The OHA boys’ tennis team is looking at a bright start to their season. Mr. Saxton, serving as the coach for his first season, is planning to help the players advance as much as possible through instruction and experience with the game. Mr. Saxton has been playing tennis since his sophomore year in high school. ‘Lettering’ at Foothill High School, he was ranked the ‘number one’ tennis player as a senior. He continued to play at the ‘club level’ three years in college and is now
excited to be back in the game helping others to improve. Several players on the team participated in their first match on April 2nd. Great potential could be seen on the courts. The matches were very competitive and all the games ended with very little difference in score. Mr. Saxton plans to focus more on footwork, ground strokes, serving, and conditioning in the upcoming practices. When asked about the first matches, Mr. Saxton smiled and said, “It was my excellent leadership that allowed us to lose
every game.” He made it clear that the team enjoyed the matches on that day and have set the priority of enjoying their season. This year’s team includes: Devin Soulsby, Ming Ogden, Spencer Titztmann, Josh Yoon, Won Jun Jung, Alex Van Stippen, and James Yuan.
Warrior Weekend #3 cont. (Continued from page 3)
lovely ride among the mountains. Two active trips on Sunday included the Creeper Trail Bike Ride and Laser Tag. According to David Mosindi, the 20-mile bike ride along the Creeper Trail was very delightful and good exercise. Laser Tag was fun for all. Ms. Sargent took students to get their nails done in Jefferson. They had dinner at Osaka afterward. During the afternoon, there was an “Easter Egg Hunt” on
campus. In the eggs, students found either candy or googly eyes. A googly eye meant you were going to get a special prize during homeroom on Monday. Sallie Jones, Cynthia Gao, Christine Richardson, Charlie Favor, Maddy Leech, Aislinn Curtin, Jasin Rhymer, and Linda Goins were the lucky winners. Cynthia Gao and Linda Goins got a $5 certificate. Charlie Favor got a $20 certificate. Christine Richardson was able to choose school lunch for everyone for a day, and Jasin Rhymer was able to cut lunch line
for a week. Aislinn Curtin and three of her friends got to dress down for a day. Maddy Leech got a ticket to skip one day of work detail. (This is pretty ironic as Maddy has never had work detail!) So she is able to choose one person to share it with. Sallie Jones found two special eggs which rewarded her with a $10 certificate and a one hour late for school certificate. All three Warrior Weekends this year have been a great success. Students, faculty, and staff truly enjoy these special weekends.
Volume 8, Issue 7
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Spring Drama Sneak Preview By Destiny Crickman One of the features of Parents’ Days is Mr. Pease’s direction of a rewritten version of Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing. The storyline consists of two couples who fall in love. It is expected to be funny with a few surprising guest star appearances.
Mr. Pease decided upon this particular play while studying it with his theatre class realizing the humor would be quite entertaining. There have been rehearsals twice a week since winter break to prepare for the performance. The cast consists of: BJ Stith – Benedick, Christine Sears – Beatrice, Jesse Wade – Claudio,
NYC Warriors cont. Warriors victorious and sent Northside Christian Academy packing for home. The next day, the team faced off against Findlay Prep from Las Vegas. Touting two McDonald’s All-Americans, Oak Hill had their work cut out for them. They were once again picked as underdogs, especially when they were down by ten at halftime. However, the Warriors wouldn’t give up that easily. Before every game Coach Smith wrote on the board, “Fight through adversity, No Excuses!” During the second half of play, the team took Coach’s words to heart and fought through adversity, scoring more points, handling the
ball with confidence, and wrapping up another win. Next it was on to home of the New York Knicks, Madison Square Garden. The Warriors worked their way through the tournament bracket to play the #1 team in the nation for the Dick’s National High School Invitational Tournament Championship. Montverde was a tough matchup for the Oak Hill Academy Warriors. After jumping out to an early lead, the warriors slipped up and were down by 17 at halftime. In the locker room at halftime, all of the coaches were adamant that Oak Hill ‘still had a chance to turn things around and right the ship.’ Montverde’s lead ballooned to 25 points before the four-minute
Michelle Watson-Jones – Hero, Mariah Ashley – Don Julia, Cynthia Gao – Conrad, Hon Lee – Don Perdo, Lien Raets – Jessica, Amy He – Maggie, Ty Hartsfield – Balthasar, Dani Kahn – Leona, Elisha Marrs – Antonia, Patrick Tighe – Scooby, Chris Benson – Shaggy, Michelle Metcalf – The Friar, and Destiny Alston and Maina Ly – Narrators. television time out in the third quarter. Knowing the Warrior’s resolve, the game was not yet over. Oak Hill came roaring back eventually pulling within nine points of Montverde late in the game. The team fought valiantly to the end, losing by a score of 71-62. Although the last game of the season did not see the Warriors on top, the season should be viewed as nothing but successful. Oak Hill Academy posted a sparkling record of 41-4 and will likely hold a spot in the Top 5 for the final rankings of the 2013-2014 season. It was a spectacular year filled with amazing moments and accomplishments. Congratulations to the Oak Hill Academy Warriors on a fantastic basketball season.
Editor-in-Chief Shawn Haas Staff Journalists Tony Anderson Mariah Ashley Leah Baucom Yonatan Belayhun Ma’moun Bukhari Destiny Crickman Aislinn Marie Curtin Amy He Staff Photographers Carly Bronikowski Sallie Jones Proofreaders Lisa Finklea Cyndie Richardson Faculty Sponsor Mikki Haas
The Mission of Oak Hill Academy
Oak Hill Academy is a coeducational, Baptist affiliated, boarding/day school committed to excellence in education and adolescent development in a non-military setting. The mission of Oak Hill Academy is to offer a safe, secure, nurturing environment for girls and boys needing a change in school, peer, community, or family relationships. Oak Hill provides a structured college-preparatory program to students in grades 8-12. Our curriculum challenges the brightest student and encourages those who are unmotivated, who are underachieving, or who are experiencing difficulties in their school setting.
Oak Hill Academy
2635 Oak Hill Road Mouth of Wilson, VA 24363 Phone: 276-579-2619 E-mail: info@oak-hill.net