Vol. X Issue VII Fall 2015
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Recap and preview
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8
CheerleaderS
11 Band Member Of The Week
Drill Team Member Of The Week
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Stu-Co Member Of The Week GAME Pictures
10 Majorette Of The Week
13 Ignite Member Of The Week
Panther Tracks is the product of the LHS Newspaper Staff and students in the LHS Graphic Communications/ Printing Department. Student Council members hand out Panther Tracks to Panther fans at home and away games. Advertising space is still available. Contact Mike Zimmerman, Newspaper adviser, at 630-4305. NEWSPAPER STAFF
Christian Ibarra Dion Medina Emily Medina
Ricardo Reyes Irving Sanchez Christian Stephens
Haley Williams Managing Editor
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Panthers clinch playoff berth with 38-10
Christian Stephens Sports Writer
The Lufkin Panthers clinched a playoff spot with a 38-10 win over the Corsicana
Tigers last week and are 6-3 on the season and 5-1 in district play. The Tigers scored the first 7 points of the game, but after the score, it was all Lufkin. The Panthers scored the next 31
Photo by: Maddie Zimmerman Sophomore Savon Fields (6) scoops up a fumble to count as one of the four turnovers the Panther defense had last week’s 38-10 win over the Corsicana Tigers en route to clinching a playoff spot.
points and never looked back. Lufkin started the game in the worst way as quarterback Kordell Rodgers threw an interception on his second pass of the game. Corsicana would score on the following drive on a 22-yard touchdown run from quarterback Kishawn Kelley to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead. Less than three minutes later, Lufkin answered back as Rodgers found wide receiver Dhalion Phillips in the corner of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown pass. The Panthers would score again early in the second quarter to take a 10-7 lead on a 30-yard field goal from kicker Rodrigo Molina. Lufkin scored again in the second on a 2-yard touchdown run from running back Dalvin Smith to make the score 17-7. The Panthers increased their lead 24-7 on their next drive as Rodgers connected with Phillips again for a touchdown, this time from 25-yards out. Lufkin’s defense stepped up and made a Continued on page 5
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win over Corsicana; end district tonight Continued from page 4
play in the second quarter as linebacker Ariel Olvera intercepted a pass and took it for a touchdown, but the points were taken off the board because of a penalty for an illegal block. Although the points were taken away, Lufkin still had the ball and scored just three plays later on a 5-yard run from Kordell Rodgers. Lufkin was now up 31-7. Corsicana’s offense scored once more on the final play of the first half on a 33-yard field goal from Jesus Barreto to make the score 31-10. Lufkin would score for the last time late in the third on a 36yard touchdown run from running back Khalil Brown to make the final score 38-10. For the Panthers, Rodgers had 207 yards passing with two touchdowns and one interception and 104 rushing yards and a touchdown. Phillips caught six passes for 87 yards with two touchdowns and Brown had ten carries for 70 yards and a touchdown. The Lufkin defense forced four turnovers as Ariel Olvera, LaVonte White and Jeveon Johnson all had interceptions and Savon Fields had a fumble recovery. Lufkin travels to Jacksonville tonight to face the Indians at 7:30 for the final game of the regular season. The Panthers will be looking for a win tonight so they can stay hot and roll into the playoffs on a four-game winning streak.
Jacksonville is 2-6 on the season and 1-4 in district. The Indians are coming off of a 57-21 loss to the John Tyler Lions. The quarterback for the Indians, Cameron High, had an amazing game on the ground last week despite the team’s loss. Although High only completed one pass for four yards and threw two interceptions, he did rush for 164 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries. He will definitely be a huge part of the Indians offense tonight and will be a key player that the Panther defense will need to keep an eye on tonight. Date
Opponent
W/L
@Tyler Lee
W
OPEN
-
Aug. 28
@Longview
Sept. 11
@West Monroe
Sept. 25 Oct. 9
Sept. 4
Sept. 18 Oct. 2
Oct. 16 Oct. 23 Nov. 1
Nov. 8
L
Score 20-21
52-49
L
36-44
Nacogdoches*
W
38-0
John Tyler*
L
38-41
Whitehouse* Lindale* Ennis*
Corsicana*
Jacksonville*
* District Games
W W W
W
-
47-3
28-17
2-0 coin toss
38-10
** Homecoming
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Broken bones, sprains or burns…
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Jackson lets performance prove his dedication Christian Ibarra Staff Writer Senior running back Ellis Jackson is “upset” but excited for his last home game. “It’s really upsetting,” Ellis admits. “But it’s life. I am going to miss them a lot and playing with the Panthers.” Even though he is going to miss high school football, he is looking forward to and
Photo by: Maddie Zimmerman Senior running back Ellis Jackson gains yardage in the Panther 38-10 win over the Corsicana Tigers last week.
is hopeful to play for college ball. “I’d love to play for any college,” he said. “I love football. Any way to continue balling out. If I don’t receive a scholarship, I’ll try to walk on to SFA. I just simply want to play the game. I’ve been in love with since my first city-league game.” Ellis currently has some college teams looking at him, but has not received any scholarship offers. “Recently, I have two colleges looking at me. SFA and Prairie View,” he admits. “I haven’t got an offer yet, but I am working on it.” Playing football has influenced Ellis to pursue a career in the sport. “I really love football. I want to stay with something and be involved in something I truly love doing,” Ellis claims. “And even hopefully have an influence on the players that coaches here have had on me in my football career.” Jackson has played other sports when he was younger. Ellis “I played baseball when I
was younger but lost the love for baseball after playing it a while,” Ellis said. Ellis said he does everything he can to improve, which no only includes going to team practices but finding time to work out more on his own. “I lift weights,” Ellis said, “and I do the ladder for footwork to help increase my speed and movement while running the ball.” The senior also said coaches A l t o n Dixon and David Guzman have done the most to push him to be better each week. “They’re really good coaches,” he said. “They help me out and give props when needed but don’t think twice about not correcting my wrongs. And I appreciate them and as coaches. They definitely had an impact not only in my football life but my personal life with the lessons they’ve taught me.” Ellis said he is involved in KEY Club do volunteer work in the community.
Jackson
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Miller excited to be a Panther, role model Christian Ibarra Staff Writer Senior defensive end JaCory Miller said he has been playing football since his dad got him interested in city league football. “I’ve played football since I was six years old,” JaCory said. “I really grew a love for the game and I’m glad my dad told me about trying out football.” And now JaCory plays for the team he has grown up watching on Friday nights. “It feels good knowing that I play for the Lufkin Panthers,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to achieve that goal since I was young.” JaCory said he has been trying his hardest by paying attention to the plays the team does, watching film and practicing hard so he can become a starter. “It feels really good knowing I’m JaCory Miller starter,” he said.a
“I’ve been trying my hardest and practicing real hard since my freshmen year of high school.” JaCory said he likes the rush he gets as soon as he sees the quarterback run back with the ball looking for a receiver to throw to or for a hole to run it through because he has time to try and make a good play. “My favorite part about being on the defensive line is the pass rush,” JaCory said. “I like to put pressure on the quarterback and making good plays.” JaCory said he won’t stop playing when the last whistle blows at his last Panther game. “After high school, I plan on going to college and getting my business degree off of a scholarship I get from football,” he said. “At the moment, I know Texas State and Stephen F. Austin University are looking at me right now.” However, the senior said he has his eyes on
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another Texas school. “Texas A&M is a school I’ve really liked and have been paying attention to them since the very beginning,” he said. JaCory said he is trying his hardest to be the best role model for his 9-year-old cousin who goes to all of his games just to watch him play. “What inspires me to give it my all every Friday night is my little cousin because he says he wants to be like me.” JaCory hasn’t had his name spreading around like his teammates Karl Chatman, Bronson Massie, and Eric Smallwood but that doesn’t mean that he is making good plays on the defense. “Bronson “Boom” Massie and I do pretty good together because we work as a team and try to give each other the opportunity to make a good play.” JaCory said. “The game where I had got the fumble recovery was pretty nice because it was my first fumble I recovered this year and was happy to know that I got the ball back for my team.”
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Hyde excited to be cheering on the Panthers Emily Medina Staff Writer Varsity Cheerleader Janae Hyde, daughter of Dr. Gregory and Shirley Hyde, is excited for her senior year as the cheer season advances. “Cheer helped me break out of my shell as a shy kid,” Janae said. “It’s made me the determined person that I am today.” Janae was inspired at the age of four by watching the cheerleaders perform on the sidelines. “The cheerleaders were always moving and being active,” Janae said. “I told my mom and she asked our family friend, Dee Ann Gourney who owned a gym in town, if I could come tryout cheering, and I fell in love with it.” Janae has been in competitive cheer since she was 5 years old and has been in school cheer since 8th grade through senior year. “I was put into a ballet class at age 3 and changed into an advanced class with older kids,” Janae said. “I wanted to be active and that’s when I knew I wanted to be a cheerleader.” Janae appreciates all of the opportunities that cheer has granted her like going to Hawaii for cheer camp. “I met so many new people and made lifelong friendships with my teammates,” Janae said. “Instilling so many great qualities in myself as a person.” Janae said she learned not only physical skills that come with the sport but is the person she is now because of it. She also learned how to be a strong efficient leader. “It’s made me the outgoing, hard working, confident, compliant
CHEERLEADE
Rs
person that I am today,” Janae said. “So many important things that can benefit me in the future and I plan to use that.” Janae said she will miss supporting and cheering for the Lufkin Panthers with some of her best friends. Janae loves being able to be people’s support and making them feel like they are capable of success through encouragement by the cheerleaders. “As a cheerleader, supporting the Lufkin athletes is my job,” Janae said.” Janae said her favorite part about cheer is the feeling that she gets when sharing her love and pride for Lufkin with everyone involved in Friday Night Lights. “Lufkin has so much pride and school spirit and that’s so important to me,” Janae said. “I hope to attend a college that is just like that, spirited and super prideful.” Janae plans to get into one of her top four schools either Penn State, University of Oklahoma, Baylor, or BYU-Provo to be a journalist in the Army and travel around the world. “I’m still indecisive right now,” Janae said. “Hopefully I make the cheer team at one of the Janae Hyde colleges.”
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Laviolette glad she made Pride choice
Haley Williams Managing Editor Senior Panther Pride member Reagan Laviolette has been dancing for drill team her for four years, and unlike other members who have been dancing since they were toddlers, Reagan started dancing at a young age but quit to participate in other sports. “I started dancing when I was younger but I took a break to play softball, basketball and join band,” Reagan said. “I played the clarinet all through middle school.” Reagan said that as a majorette in band, she realized she loved to dance, so during her 8th grade year had a tough choice to make; band or drill team. “It was a really hard decision to make because I love band and my band people, but I also love dance,” she said. “I wish Lufkin allowed both, band and dance,” she admits. “I started dancing again in 8th grade to try out for JV drill.” Reagan chose dance because it gives her a way to expressing herself in a “beautiful” way. “It’s like a really lovely art,” Reagan said. “Dance is a really good way of expressing yourself and it just gives a different feeling
than playing an instrument.” Reagan said she will miss the feeling of performing at football games. “The adrenaline rush you have when you finally get perform in the spotlight and looking up to see everyone watching you is something I always look forward to and will miss once my last football season is over,” Reagan said. Throughout her four years on the dance team, Reagan said her favorite memories took place during her first year on Panther Pride. ““The first performance as a Panther Pride member is a different feeling than your first performance as a JV drill member,” she said. “You look back at that memory as a stressful time, but you were so eager to put on your boots, hats and sparkly overlay and perform with your sisters.” The family feel isn’t just something that Reagan felt, but it’s practiced among the members to make all new and past “sisters” feel welcomed and at home. “Once you join Panther Pride, you join a family,” she claims. “You are assigned groups of sisters that you work with and you also welcome the incoming members as well to join the family. We welcome them with posters and at the Hat Ceremony.“ Panther Pride has taught Reagan an
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Drill team
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important life lesson that she isn’t likely to forget. “This past summer my best friend left to go to A&M. It’s been hard on me not seeing her everyday,” she admits. “Over the summer, we hung out as much as possible and that made me realize that time is short. Time is short and it’s best to appreciate the time you have with the ones you love while you have it. So with that said, I have been spending as much time with new members and reruns as possible because I’m who the lookup to now, being a senior member. I have made time to be with my friends and family more also.”
Reagan Laviolette
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e t t e r o j Ma
Kelly excited about being majorette
Irving Sanchez Staff Writer Junior Sarah Kelly has been in majorettes since her 7th grade year and said she becomes more involved each year. I grew up around dancing, and I always liked the majorettes,” Sarah said. Although her mom did not do majorettes, Sarah has great role models in majorette, one of them being Tyra Flenoy. “She is my role model because I look up to her. She was a great twirler,” Sarah said. “Her attitude towards it was really awesome.” Sarah said she has learned that being a majorette does not just come out of someone being a good dance, but that hard work and dedication helps along the way. “I have learned that it is a lot of hard work and that it does not come from not working,” Sarah said. “I feel like I should just have fun at the games and not worry about dropping my baton.”
When first trying out for majorettes in 7th grade, Sarah said it was very difficult not to feel nervous. “When I first tried out I was very nervous and kinda confident then not very confident about myself because I was really scared about it,” Sarah said. “When I made the team, I felt like it was a blessing to me. I was just very happy because I thought I was not going to make it.” According to Sarah, this past summer was very special because she enjoyed every part of it from band camp to just being with her friends and going to youth group retreats. Although band camp was very hard, she said learned many thing and hard discipline. “This summer I did a lot of band things, and I did some things with my church youth group retreats,” she said. “And I relaxed with my friends. With camp, I was not nervous, but I really did not want to deal with the hard stuff.” As a junior, Sarah said she has a lot to think about with her future and has her path set up with plans to attend SFA to major in
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nursing and is thinking of going on with majorettes. “I want to go to SFA to get my nursing degree,” she said. “I want to do nursing because I love children and taking care of them. I have thought about going on with twirling in SFA, but I’m not very sure yet.”
Sarah K elly
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Band
Hernandez building band, school memories
Dion Medina Managing Editor Senior Abigail Hernandez, daughter of Monica and Daniel Hernandez, joined band when she was in the 6th grade with plans to play the flute. “Mr. Butler, a former clarinet teacher that taught at the middle school, said I had too big of lips to play the flute,” Abigail admits, “so he gave me a clarinet and ever since I played the clarinet.” Abigail said she has many good memories being in band, and her favorite memories are Friday nights. “You get to spend the whole night with some of your closest friends watching the game and dancing to jam band music,” she said. “Those are memories I won’t ever forget.” Another memory will be those made at summer band camps. “Band camp was very hot,” she said. “It was a lot of hard work dealing with a variety of different people with different opinions and different learning styles.” Abigail said she has learned a lot from band and that is what influenced her to continue performing. “What influenced me to stay in band was everything band has taught me throughout the years,” Abigail said. “From meeting deadlines and being on time most importantly because I use to be bad at not showing up to places on time. I think band would help me in college because you have to meet many deadlines in a short
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amount of time and to always be on time to even the littlest things.” When she does perform, the senior said the crowd’s reactions make all the work worth it. “But after it’s all done and your standing in front of a big crowd and they give you a standing ovation,” she said, “it’s a really great feeling.” As for what she will miss after graduation, Abigail said it will be all her friends that she has made. “And all the memories I shared with them and just walking down the halls of a school you’ve known for four years,” she said, “you get comfortable with the place and then it’s your time to leave and start a new chapter in your life and the thought of that is kind of scary.” Abigail’s advice for her senior band members would have to be to “Never lose faith, never lose sight in what you’re working for,” she said. “Yes, times may get tough, but it’s life. Never give up on something you want and always do your best.” Abigail plans to major in photography and film editing. “My plans after high school are to go to college at SFA or maybe even Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada to major in photography Abigail Hernandez and film editing.”
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Photos by Irving Sanchez Maddie Zimmerman
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il c n u o C Student
Moore excited to have officer title
Irving Sanchez Staff Writer Senior TyNeka Moore said one reason she is a member of the Student Council is because she “loves” helping people out and doing things for the community via the many opportunities the organization provides. “I like doing the fun events, going to workshops, learning new things, and meeting new people,” TyNeka said. “Student Council is a fun club to be in. People just have to be willing to participate and brainstorm and to come out of their shell and do things they never done before.” TyNeka is ready to graduate and be the best she can be by attending Stephen F. Austin State University or Prairie View A&M University to major in nursing. “I want to attend PV or SFA because they have really good nursing programs and their passing rate and learning experiences are high,” TyNeka said. “I want to major in nursing because I love helping people. I’m in clinical rotations with Mrs. (Darlene) Henderson. We go to the hospitals and in the spring we can take the state board exam.” TyNeka said she ran an officer position because that is where she thought she could do the most good.
“I ran for president, but did not make it,” she said. “I was just excited when I won an officer position. I ran for secretary because I wanted to become a leader for my class of 2016 and make a difference.” This past summer for TyNeka was filled with her friends and family, and she said she enjoyed every single part of it. “I had family vacations and slept a lot,” she said. “I also went shopping, and hung out with many of my close friends. Being with my family was my favorite part about this summer and making memories along the way.” TyNeka’s hopes for this year’s Student Council is just to become bigger, for more students to join the fun they have in Student Council. “My hopes for this year are that more people join and actually get involved in what we do,” TyNeka said. “To make it more fun than ever.” TyNeka Moore
The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have -Margaret Carty others on your side.”
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Vegiraju becomes mentor to pay it forward
Haley Williams Managing Editor As eighth graders transition to high school freshmen, the abrupt change in atmosphere is hard to adapt to, and that is why senior Monica Vegiraju decided to
Monica Vegiraju
become an Ignite mentor. “I saw that when I was a freshman that my Ignite mentor made the meetings fun for me,” Monica said, “so I decided that mentoring was something I might want to do as an upperclassman.” As a mentor, Monica said she has gained a great amount of experience that deals with becoming more open and understanding. “As a mentor, you need to be understanding because these freshmen are coming from middle school, and high school is a whole lot different world for them,” Monica said. “You need to be understanding because you can’t just expect them to just jump in because it’s going to take them awhile to get used to everything.” The senior also said she has gained some skills that have benefited her. “I’ve learned how to communicate with the people around me and speak confidently,” Monica said. “To communicate effectively, you need to sound like you know what you’re talking about in order for other people to believe
IGNITE
you.” Each year, Ignite holds a welcoming event for freshmen called “Fish camp” which consists of activities that the mentors have to prepare for the freshmen. “In Fish Camp, we basically took freshmen around and had them work together to get used to the high school atmosphere,” Monica said. Ignite is an enrichment class which all freshmen attend. During the enrichment time, the freshmen take part of activities that consist of life lessons. “The message behind everything is really good because there’s a moral we go through at the end of each lesson,” Monica said. The senior said she plans on attending college to major in nursing although she does not know which school she is to attend. Monica’s inspiration to major in nursing came from her father. “I look up to my dad because he’s a doctor and he made me want to join that profession,” Monica said. “It was interesting to see my dad work and do surgeries.”
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