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September 27, 2018
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS The Growl Staff, 2018- 2019
Contents Inside this issue
3 Why Field Day? 4/5 HoCo Photo Essay 6 Themes: Behind the Scenes 7 Expectations v. Reality 8 Tips for a successful Field Day Hello Grizzlies! We are The Growl, your school news magazine, but we are just one aspect of a larger student media production. As a staff, we provide live streaming of events, broadcast stories, print issues and social media posts. We pride ourselves with providing you, the students, with the latest news and trends globally and within our community . We have an announcement; We are going to be primarily DIGITAL! We know that a print paper newspaper is a thing of the past. We want to stay more relevant with you! However, we will have special print issues when topics dictate the need. Check out all of our issues on our website, social media accounts and various other digital ways to stay connected. We want to help you stay up-to-date on all school wide events. From Homecoming week to state championships, we want you to know about all the news! We believe in giving you quality news that you want to know. Giving you a voice is our top priority. As our mission statement says: “We give the news. You give the views. Providing the truth that students need to hear.� The Growl, GTV and Grizzly Student Media are all about you!
STAFF
Editors-in-Chief Photographers Kaleigh Haworth Bryant Gross Jordan Lear Maddy Stadler
Brandon Chastain Abby Chastain Haylee Owen Liam Schuler
Reporters
Broadcast
Cassidy Portilla Hadley Donaldson Sophia Romano Tara Pecha
Graphic artist Jason Spond
Social Media Caitlin Estes Kyle Barton
Kyle Barton Carter Brockbank Brady Gill Trevor Grow Joe Perry Cole Wentworth Carson Shea Jake Ross
Adviser
Nikki Sameshima
September 27, 2018
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WHY FIELD DAY? THE TRADITION EVOLVES YEARLY Maddy Stadler
Abby Chastain and Ashley Harhigh
One score and three years ago, TRHS opened its doors. But it wouldn’t be until two years later — in 1999 — when founding Principal Jim Wallendorf would introduce the Field Day tradition to TRHS. And it keeps growing every year. This year, the student body began preparation the first week of school, with the reveal of the Mythological Mayhem theme during an assembly on Aug. 17. Then the real work started as seminars began organizing for the expected competitions. “When we chose a theme of Field Day and then it goes down to the classes and they chose their Field Day seminar activities,” said Student Government junior Preston Coons. “Field Day is a good day to just build school spirit and just have a fun time.” “Field Day is probably the best thing that any school could do. It just boosts school spirit and makes kids want to come to TR and participate,” said Eddie Stassi. And TRHS Principal Nikki Ballow agrees. “There are so many great aspects of Field Day, and it’s long-standing tradition. The best part of Field Day is everyone coming together as a school and as a team. Field Day pumps up students and encourages teamwork and school spirit,” said Ballow. My personal favorite event would have to be the obstacle course and seeing our Unified Team get the crowd on their feet.” She went on to explain former TRHS Principal Chris Tabeling’s passion for Field Day: “Mr. Tabling loved being able to do this every year and was always so excited for
‘Field Day is probably the best thing that any school could do...’ -Eddie Stassi
Top and Left: The cheer and pom teams promoted school spirit by decorating the halls with festive green and blue decor before Homecoming week began on Sept. 10. Streamers hang in the Athletic hallway.
Field Day. He allowed for teachers and the school to put a lot of time and commitment into planning and preparing for the big day.” And this year, Ballow will be taking the reigns of Field Day for the first time as Principal. “As the new principal, my opinions of Field Day haven’t changed all that much from when I was an assistant principal. Field Day is amazing! It is a wonderful opportunity to come together as a school and showcase what it means to be
a Grizzly. The whole school comes together in a way that no other event allows. I will say that one thing has changed since becoming the principal. I now feel a bigger responsibility to make sure that this is a tradition that continues to happen at TR for years to come and that we continue to focus on the community aspect of Field Day.” Field Day is an important aspect of ThunderRidge, making the school unique and special. Field Day allows for all students and teachers to come together and celebrate teamwork and healthy competition. Did you miss Field Day this year? Don’t worry Grizzly Student Media live streamed the event on the TRHS Facebook page, where you can relive the joy for the first or the hundredth time.
//4 Homecoming
September 27, 2018
Abby Chastain, Liam Schuler, Haylee Owens, Arianna Dubois
Homecoming week was busy with a wide range of activities. Check out these two pages featuring favorite memories. Right top: Junior and senior Ultimate Frisbee was intense, but the seniors pulled out a win on Tuesday, Sept. 11. Right bottom: The Grizzly mascot was featured during the parade on Friday, Sept. 7. He hitched a ride on the back of a golf cart. Bottom left: The crowd enjoyed the TRHS band’s music as they marched in the parade. Left top: Students surrounded the bonfire in the C lot on Friday, Sept. 14, as they watched the pallets burn.
Ultimate Frisbee
September 27, 2018
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Abby Chastain, Liam Schuler, Haylee Owens, Arianna Dubois, Brandon Chastain
Top and Top Right: Student Government members and others made posters promoting the week’s events. Bottom: Seniors on the cheer team were featured riding a vintage fire truck during the parade, which was moved to Sept. 7 to boost enthusiasm for the week. Left: During the junior and senior Ruff ‘N Tuff volleyball game, seniors came away with the win. The game was held Sept. 12.
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THEMES: BEHIND THE SCENES
September 27, 2018
Student Government members decide on the Homecoming themes at a summer retreat Kaleigh Haworth
Freshmen
Abby Chastain and Haylee Owens
Sophomores
The Homecoming themes are on full display on each trash can. Revealing the Homecoming themes is more than just a mere announcement. It’s so important that Student Government stages a production during an assembly to unveil the themes, which then play a principal role in the all the classes’ success or failure at Field Day. These themes serve as a compass for every activity leading up to the big competition on Field Day. Needless to say, the choosing of these themes is a salient and vital process, but one which goes largely unknown by the student body. The members of Student Government make this decision during the summer retreat, according to Student Body President Madeline Cassic. The process, she said, involves the production of many different ideas, including themes. “Everyone goes around and writes down ideas for what the subtopics could be… then we vote on themes, which are sent to Admin, who tell us what the top five themes were. From there, we split into classes, and narrow it down to three, then two, then one,” Cassic explained. Regarding the decision this year, sophomore Vice President Lizzy Brunn said,“How long it takes depends on how stubborn everyone is that year. This year the general idea was chosen pretty fast, but we had to spend a while hammering out the details.” According to senior Senator Elissa Wardell, “When people get passionate about certain ideas… it can get very chaotic because there’s so many opinions that want to be out there, but when everyone is on the same page it becomes less of an ordeal and it
Juniors
Seniors
goes from a five-hour process to about three.” Looking back on Field Days of the past, it’s clear that there is no shortage of ideas for themes. This is partially kept in check by an unofficial regulation that StuGov members call ‘The 10 year rule,’ which ensures that themes can’t be reused until about 10 years have passed. According to Cassic, this year’s themes came close to breaking this regulation, as a past theme consisted of specific greek gods for each class. This rule forces StuGov members to get creative in order to come up with new ideas for Field Day, bringing around increasingly eccentric ideas each year. These ideas included precious metals, and TV genres, featuring sub-themes of gold, platinum, silver, bronze, rom-coms, and action, according to Cassic and Wardell. “A couple years back, we had modes of transportation up there for a while. It was like, ‘airplanes, trains, scooters’... that’s the one that made me laugh the most,” said Cassic. Although lots of ideas were suggested this year, Student Government is proud of the themes they chose for 2018 Field Day. “This year, I’m so excited,” continued Brunn, “even the freshmen have a good theme; they can do a lot with it. Everyone in StuGov is pretty excited this year.” With the conclusion of the theme reveals this past August, Student Government relinquished the pressure of picking themes until they meet again next summer to decide the 2019 themes.
September 27, 2018 Caitlin Estes
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September 27, 2018
THE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL FIELD DAY: UNITY Bry Gross
Samantha Gillmore
Field Day is meant to unite the school and is supposed to be the best day of the school year. Although, last year’s events proved that Field Day can be spoiled in a matter of minutes, this year the school celebrated a successful event. “We as a Student Government would like to thank every grizzly out there for really making Homecoming week and Field Day such a special experience to so many people. Without everyone of you Grizzlies, it wouldn’t be possible to have such a great week,” said senior Michael McCormick, a member of Student Government. Ultimately, it is up to each individual student to start with a positive state of mind in order to make a great Field Day for the school. “If every kid has a great time and creates memories that will stay with them for the rest of their life, that’s a successful Field Day in my eyes. Field Day is a super special type of day where it doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, all you have to worry about is cheering and winning. That alone can bring a class together under any circumstances,” says McCormick. “It’s all about unity,” says senior Drue Christian, who added, “Field Day is great when all of the students in our grade feel closer and united, and use teamwork to defeat the underclassmen.” When students feel a sense of unity and incorporate teamwork, Field Day works to the benefit of the students and the teachers. When these factors are not used by the students, it can result in a catastrophic week and an even worse day.
‘We as a Student Government would like to thank every Grizzly out there for really making Homecoming week and Field Day such a special experience to so many people.’ -Michael McCormick
Juniors celebrate with excitment during Field Day on Sept. 14. “When we lose conduct points it makes Field Day awful because we are going against what Field Day is supposed to do[unite the school],” said Christian. “There is no such thing as an unsuccessful field day, there are just some that are better than others. Field Day is what you make it, so if you choose to have the time of your life it’ll be great but if you hesitate it could change your experience,” said McCormick. When students receive deduction points, it shows the school that we don’t care about the time others took to make Homecoming week the best week of the year, and because of that there are consequences. During the 2017 Field Day, the seniors received deduction points from an inappropriate chant they started the previous year (2016) involving Harambe, an internet
meme at the time. This later caused a chain reaction and the juniors of last year were kicked out of Field Day for doing a variation of the chant. This resulted in penalization later on in the week, and the juniors were kicked out of the “Do It” chant at the end of Field Day. Furthermore, they were kicked out of the chant at the football game later that night. “It was definitely a different experience from prior years. I personally thought getting kicked out was a little harsh, but as a class I think that we definitely bounced back from a bad decision and had a great last Field Day,” said McCormick For future Field Days, be positive and realize that the day is supposed to unite the school, not create unnecessary division.