Well Said:

Wrestling-

only the strong

survive, the rest

play basketb

Taylor Walker, commenting on the new wrestling season and the hard work and time the wrestlers put into the sport.

ll

rest rest

ballall

Contents

A & E.................7

Crossword..........8

Features..............4

News...................1

Sports.................5

This week:

Wednesday:

Minimum day

Thursday: ThanksgivingNo school

Friday: No school

Tuesday: Red and white wrestling match,Boys basketball Gunnison @ NS

By the Numbers:

The approximate number of families who receive food

from the Central Utah Food Bank each year.

The percentage of students North Sanpete High School has lost since the beginning

of this school year.

Number of times the vol-llleyball team has been state champions in the last 15

years.

number of cast members in the fall musical

The approximate number of pounds of food collected from

this years food drive.

Photo by Amy Bangerter

BY CY ARLY CY HAPMAN

Immigration is an issue that effects everyone living ffffin the land of the free. Im-migration is a national con-troversial topic, but person-al experiences from Mexican immigrants are lost in the de-bate.

Countless immigrants come to Sanpete County to work for Moroni Feed. These workers bring families, with students that create 10 per-cent of NS High School’s population. These students continuously face prejudice and are judged from their background.

“Preconceived notions of Hispanic community are somewhat mythical when they are given an opportuni-ty to work hard,” said Court-ney Syme, Superintendent of NS school district. Maria Reyes, junior, shares the opinion of many con-cerning immigration.

“Because of who I am—I’m not illegal, but I’m His-panic. It’s part of my culture,” she said.

Reyes said she believesthis country was founded by so-called “illegals,” beginning with Christopher Columbus invading from Europe.

“[Illegal Immigration] is going to continue on,” she said.

Reyes disagrees with some of the methods that illegal

Immigrants face strugglesaliens use to achieve citizen or resident status. She is par-ticularly disgusted when she hears about undocumented people paying thousands of dollars to marry some one in order to be legalized. She said some “illegals” are nice and deserve to gain citizen-ship, while others are here for selfish reasons and should be deported.

“I’m not for [the cur-rent laws] or against them,” Reyes said. “Immigrants just come here to get a better life. I don’t think [current laws] could become a win-win sit-uation. Some people deserve a chance.”

Locally, an illegal alien discovered that having a look-alike twin has unfore-seen advantages. One of the twins is a legal resident of the United States, holding all of the documents necessary for this status. The illegal other borrows the sibling’s pass-port and other required pa-pers when needed. This twinuses the sibling’s documents to be eligible for work in the U.S., in order to support fam-ily in Mexico.

Alan Montano, junior, said his dad entered the U.S. for the first time when he was 17, employed by fruit-pick-ing, a typical job for illegal immigrants. He would bring the money he earned back to Mexico, like many other aliens still do today.

Over a course of time, Montano’s dad got caught re-peatedly by the same officer on his way to the same place.

This officer noticed that Montano’s dad was a good person with a worthy pur-pose and chose to give him advice on how to enter and stay in the U.S. The officer told him to buy a suit, buy a bus ticket, and get a clean shave and haircut.

When he rode to the bor-der dividing the U.S. and Mexico, soldiers would get on the bus and ask if he was a U.S. citizen. He was to an-swer “yes, sir” in a believable American accent. Those were the only two words in Eng-lish that he needed to know. This advice worked flawless-ly.

Montano and his family are now legal residents of the U.S. He said this takes out the fear of being deported or profiled. He doesn’t have a problem with the current im-migration laws, but feels the immigration officers have re-cently exploited their author-ity by deporting immigrants without checking their back-kkground, separating families.

“It stirs up a hate in the c h i l d r e n — t r a u m a t i z i n g them—when they tear up the families,” Montano said.

Syme advocates an open-minded and accepting atti-tude towards immigrants.

Attendance policy working for

some students, failing for othersBY AMYAA BY ANGERTER

Last year, NS implemented a new attendance policy in an effort to ensure that students were going to class. ffff The new policy includes a variety of new rules and consequences.

A student absent for five days is issued a truancy notice. Atten or more unexcused absences, the student may be issued ahabitual truancy citation. After this citation, the habitual tru-ant will be referred to juvenile court.

With the same system in place this year, many people are wondering if it is the right system for the students at NS.

“I think it’s stupid and they need to give you more days,” said senior Brook Hammond. “They sent my five days pa-per notice the same day as the court paper, so I didn’t even know.”

Though the administration sees room for improvement, they believe in order for the policy to be successful, all parties involved with the problem need to be accountable.

“I think we need to develop and look at a program for the school,” said Vice-Principal Jason Strate. “Not only do we need to look at consequences, but we need to look at positive reinforcement.”

Some students admit that the consequences in place are not enough to push many students to class. Hammond would

SEE PAGE 3, ATTENDANCE

SEE PAGE 3, IMMIGRATION

Boys basketball plans to use height advantage

this season

Photo by Jy esse Richmond

See page 6

2

HeardHalls

IN THE

While walking down the halls at the school, you hear some bizarre things that make no sense when taken out of context. Here are a few of the funniest ones we’ve heard.

NSSD students give to hungry

Photo by Jy esse Richmond

NS enrollment declinesBY KY IMBERLY LARLL SEN

Over the years the enrollment at NS has fluctuated, but for the past few years the numbers have been slowly getting smaller.

At the beginning and ending of each year the amount of students attending NS is counted. The average percentage of lost students during the school year for the past twenty years is about 5%.

According to Jason Strate, the vice principal at NS, there were 714 students who enrolled at NS at the beginning of the school year. On the October 1 count there were 657, a loss of 8%. Although there was this decline, the amount of students this year will probably not keep going down.

“I think that we’ve stabilized,” said Strate. Strate said that out of the NS students lost per year, five

of six out of them have been those who have dropped out. Dropping out isn’t the only thing contributing to the de-clining enrolment, but many believe that the economy also has a part.

“I think it might be the uncertainty of the turkey plant,” said Jim Bowles, the principal at NS. “It used to be the tur-key plant was the biggest employer.”

The School district is now the biggest employer in San-pete in part because of the problems with the Moroni Tur-key Processing Plant. Because there was an increase of the production of ethanol (a natural gas made from corn), the prices for corn were raised which made it more expensive to feed the turkeys. This caused a scare for the parents of some students who were employed by the Turkey Plant.

Some did, in fact, lose their jobs, which made others start to look for different occupations as a precaution. Many of ffffthese occupations were from outside of Sanpete and took families and their students away from NS.

With every student lost at NS comes also a loss of mon-ey. The school receives $44 per student each year from the school district. This money goes into the general account which covers costs for things such as paper and textbooks. There is also a general fee of $42 that is lost with each stu-dent not enrolling at NS.

With budget cuts and lower enrolment comes the ques-tion of when or if the school will change from its 3A rank-ing to 2A. This would mean that the amount of students from grades 10 to 12 would have to drop from the current 657 students to under 400.

“It would take something really drastic for that to hap-pen here,” said Strate.

There may be questions and worries about these things but nobody can know the answers for sure until they have actually happened.

“We go forward with what we have today and if we ever have to make future plans we will,” said Strate.

BY HANNAH ALDRIDGE

On the night of the 14th of November, NS students had the opportunity to kick back, relax, and dance the night away. Preference Ball was a girls choice dance held in the high school’s commons.

“We had a good turn out,” said Auralee Brooks, Foods

and Teen Living teacher.Brooks, with the help of

the FCCLA, was in charge of the Preference Ball. Brooks admits that Preference week is a very stressful time, and without the FCCLA the dance could not have hap-pened.

Of course the dance was not the only activity planned

Lincoln Olmstead wins most preffered manffff

Photo by Hy annah Aldridgy

for that week. The FCCLA planned a few activities for the candidates of Most Pre-ferred Man. The candidates where William Cruz, Justin Poulsen, Jared Watts, Lincoln Olmstead, Chaz Jorgensen, and Nathan Aagard. These six candidates baked cook-kkies that they sold at lunch on Monday. On Wednesday they had the challenge of taking home a Reality Works Baby. Many of the candida-tures found this to be a par-ticularly hard job.

“I hated it,” said William Cruz, senior. “It kept waking me up all night long!”

Cruz found the Reality Work Baby to be a cumber-some chore, but he is glad he had the experience.

Another activity that was planned was an assembly that took place on Thursday. All six candidates preformed a dance at the assembly. Brooks oversaw all of these

activities. “It was fun working

closely with students,” said Brooks. “It helps build ca-maraderie between the stu-dents.” Brooks had to work very closely with her pupils to complete this task. Some attendants of the dance agree that their hard work was worthwhile.

“It was the best date dance I’ve ever been to!” said Car-issa Lynn Garff, senior. Garffff ffenjoyed the music and care-free atmosphere. She also was very happy to see her date win the title of Most Preferred Man.

Lincoln Olmstead was voted Most Preferred Man by the NS girls. Justin Pouls-en was first runner up, with Jared Watts close behind.

“I was really surprised,” Said Olmstead, senior. “I didn’t think I would win.” Olmstead is viewed as a fun-loving boy who is friends with everyone. He believes

that this is the reason he won the title, by being nice and friendly to everyone.

BY JY ESSE RICHMOND

The annual NS food drive has come and gone, collect-ing over 1,500 items of food for the Sanpete County Food Bank.

NS has participated in the food drive for over a decade. Food Bank Administrator Gayle Jensen estimates that the drive has been held for 14 years. Activities Agent Na-than Aagard says he can re-member doing it “ever since [he] was a little tike.”

Going into the drive, Shel-by Earl, Student Body Secre-tary, encouraged students to donate for the cause.

“[Our goal was] to help the hungry and get students involved,” Earl said. Addi-tionally, Aagard said it was important to give back to the community for supporting the school for so long.

NS High is not the only school to hold a drive for the food bank this time of year. The student govern-ments traveled to elemen-tary schools and the middle school throughout the dis-trict to get kids excited about giving. Rival school Wasatch Academy also held a food drive.

Besides local school drives, the food bank gets its supplies from various plac-es. Both Girl and Boy Scouts hold food drives to help meet the demand, some-times bringing in as much as 20,000 pounds of food. Wal-Mart has a “Grocery Rescue” program, where nearly out-

of-date food is given to the food bank instead of being wasted.

When the food arrives, itis placed in a warehouse ad-joining the bank. The food is then sorted into “stable” and “add-on” groups, and placed on the shelves inside the bank.

When a person or family is in need, they are issued food according to how many peo-ple they are feeding and the combined incomes of those people. Food is allotted once a month, but patrons are giv-en three emergency pick-kkups a year in case something comes up.

On a daily basis, Jensen says that the food bank helps around 25 individuals and families per day. In a year, the total is around 3000.

Glancing into classrooms

last week, it wasn’t uncom-mon to see Top Ramen in either packets or boxes. Ra-men is a relatively inexpen-sive way to give food, and it goes a long way.

During last year’s fooddrive, the food bank collect-ed some 200 cases of Top Ra-men instant soup. It’s been a year, but there are still seven left, sitting together in a small pile on top of other goods.

With every food pickup, the food bank tries to include enough sustenance for 15 meals, and Ramen is a good way to subsidize those meals. That being said, Jensen says that the food bank tries to ra-tion the Ramen, usually in-cluding two packages in each pickup.

“We get a lot [of Ramen], but we don’t give out a lot,” Jensen said.

Earl said that the elemen-tary kids were very enthusi-astic about the drive, espe-cially the promised reward of a doughnut and chocolate milk party.

In one particular instance, Earl says a Fountain Green Elementary student shout-ed that he’d bring 100 box-es of food for the drive. His classmates upped the ante, offering successively higher ffffamounts. When the amount finally hit 100,000, an incred-ulous student shouted that such an amount would take 100 weeks to achieve.

Whether students donate 100,000 boxes of food or a single can, every contribu-tion is important.

“We greatly appreciate ev-erybody for donating,” Jens-en said.

“As a nation of immigrants, we need to respect other immigrants,” Syme said. “There’s no excuse for not giv-ing respect.”

Though there are many negative stereotypes, many citizens find the presence of the Mexican immigrant population beneficial.

“It’s nice to have some diversity, so we’re not sheltered,” said Jeff Ericksff -en, teacher. He has a Mexican im-migrant student that does not speak English well, but manages to be very successful in his health class.

In the past, Ericksen has taught students who crossed the border ille-gally, traveling through a dank, dark

tunnel to arrive in the U.S. success-fully.

He said they were contributing citizens who deserved to be resi-dents. Ericksen said Latinos enrich the classroom experience more than anything, clarifying that immigrants are definitely not a negative effect. ffff

To register in the NS school dis-trict, a potential student no longer needs a green card or a Social Secu-rity number.

They do, however, need up-to-date vaccinations, their birth certifi-cate, and proof that they live within school boundaries. The district must enroll and educate all eligible, stu-

dent-age children by law. “We believe students are best

served when engaged in schooling,” Syme said.

Taxpayers are sometimes worried that their money is spent excessive-ly, used to educate illegal immigrants. The district does not get awarded substantial amounts of funding; the Federal Funding depends on thenumber of students rather than eth-nicity of students.

“There’s some Federal Funding for English Language Learners. The dis-trict receives money to educate mi-grant students—families that move with an industry, like the Turkey

plant,” Syme said. “Money that we get from immigration families, frank-kkly, it’s not a lot.”

O’Dee Hansen, counselor, said students with similar obstacles can find support and friends by joining school clubs, such as the multicultur-al club, which Hansen advises, or the Spanish club.

“My connection with Multicul-tural Club is obviously huge,” Han-sen said. “I value the opportunity to learn from other cultures.”

In addition to cultural clubs, the school offers English Language ffffLearners classes for students who speak English as a second language.

The younger students, meaning elementary or middle school age, have been able to learn the English language faster than adults or high schoolers.

“The language barriers are obvi-ously huge,” Hansen said. “But it de-pends on the student. If they already have friends and family here that they know, they can acclimate well.”

Hansen furthers his effort in makffff -kking Spanish-speakers feel at ease when visiting his office.

“Because I speak Spanish, as a counselor I can speak with the par-ents [of Latinos] and make them feel comfortable,” Hansen said.

At least five staff of NS Highff flu-ently speak Spanish. “I think a lot of times people forget: whether you’re a citizen or not, your rights are protect-ed by this country,” Syme said.

3

Editor-in-ChiefChana Thompson

Managing EditorsBrandi Peahl

Sadie IvieAdvisorBen Cox

NewsBrandi Peahl, editor

Hannah AldridgeMitch McClellanWhitney Nafus

Shayla RicksFeatures

Jesse Richmond, editorKim LarsenAlexis Fryer

A&ECarly Chapman, editor

Amanda JohansenKim Larsen

SportsAmy Bangerter, editor

Paul CookAlisha Peckham

Lexi TurleyClay MitchellAmanda Clark

LayoutSadie Ivie, editor

Chana ThompsonBrandi Peahl

PhotographyHannah Aldridge, editor

NS Times staff Immigration, continued from page 1

Attendance, continued from page 1be more apt to go to class if there were more serious con-sequences such as not being able to graduate.

“I only have two classes. I wouldn’t want my GPA to be way low,” said Hammond.

Hammond does not feel that the administration and her teachers have pushed her to go to class.

“Terry has never called me into her office,” said Ham-mond. “Obviously they are not doing too much. I went to court last year and I’m go-ing back.”

Going to court did not have a powerful impact on Hammond.

“We just went down to the courthouse and we talked to a probation officer. He told me to start going to class, then we left,” said Ham-mond. “It didn’t help much either; they don’t push you to go.”

According to Strate, the court avenue is not the an-swer. He would like to see a program specifically de-signed to help students with their attendance problems and reward those who are on time. There needs to be a plan tailored to fit NS in which ev-eryone works together.

“It’s just like soldiers going into battle,” said Strate. “The reason our military does so well is they work as a group; they work as a team.”

Parents, administrators, teachers, and students all need to do their part to im-prove attendance.

“The students need to fol-low the policies and realize the policies are written for their benefit to help them be better students,” said Princi-pal Jim Bowles.

Parents are influential in helping their students have the desire to succeed, which

includes being on time to class and having good atten-dance.

“The parents need to read and understand the policies and help their students be the best they can be,” said Bowles.

Having the teachers start class on time with bell-ring-ers or quizzes also helps many students to not be tardy. The administration is improving their consistency with con-tacting parents and doing more one-on-one types of communication for students with tardy problems.

“I think our follow-up with parents is working well,” said Strate.

There are other ways the teachers and administra-tion are working together to find solutions to the atten-dance problems at NS. Dur-ing the summer, a problem solving team was created. It

is a group of teachers and administration who suggest positive changes and work together to find ways to im-plement them.

According to Nan Ault, the teachers and administra-tion have to work together. When some of the teachers fail, then consistency fails. If the administration does not keep up, it also fails.

“I think [the policy] is better than it used to be,” said Ault. “I think we have a hard time finding appropriate con-sequences.”

Trying to find the right solution to the attendance problem is a work in prog-ress. Hammond has a sugges-tion for improvement.

“Start enforcing every-thing—not just talking to [students] and saying, ‘Oh we’ve talked to you; you can go’,” said Hammond.

Photo from jewishworldreview.com

4

BY AY LISHAHH PA ECKHAHH MAA

What made you want to teach?Bro: Honest answer? June, July and August. No just kid-

ding, we love to teach.Mrs: I liked school when I was in school. Teachers make a

difference.ffff

Do you like working at the same school?

Bro: There are not very many choices and yeah we like it.Who wears the pants in your relationship?

Bro: We both do because she never wears a dress, only on Sundays.

Mrs: Yup that’s it. We share the pants.

Bro: We both put one leg in each.

Mrs: Just kidding. We real-ly don’t share pants. We just share responsibilities.Which one of your subjects is more important?

Mrs: For graduation, mine. For life, his.

Bro: One teaches you how to make a living and one teach-es you how to live.Do you talk about your teaching styles together?

Bro: No not really. Hers is x’s and y’s. Mine is Alma and Nephi.

Mrs: Once in a while I’ll steal an activity of his that I can relate to my subject.

Bro: No, that’s too educational stuff for me.ffSo he doesn’t take it from you?

Mrs: No, he’s too good for me.What’s it like teaching your son?

Bro: It’s fun. It’s been fun teaching him in class. And with me as a teacher he will not sluff. He will not sluffff ff as long as he ffwants something to eat and a nice, warm bed.So does he like having you teach him?

Bro: I asked him the other day and he said he hasn’t hadanyone else, so sure.How did you guys meet?

Bro: Together.Bro: We met at college of course. Weber State.Mrs: It’s up in Ogden; it’s in the hood.Bro: Such a special moment.Bro: I was working on becoming a professional student.

Year five I met her. I seemed to be on the slow program. Went to seven years of school for a four- year degree.What habits do you guys share?

Bro: Everything, whatever you name, we do it together.Softball, basketball, sports, news, hunting; we do everything together. We have the same interests, the same favorite chan-nels on the television. We don’t even fight over the remote; we have the news and ESPN. We have the same interests, she grew up with four brothers. We’ve never even been in some parts of Wal-Mart before. The pink section has never been touched.

Photo by Ay lisha Peckham

Fred and Cheryl Hadley inspire students in religion and math

BY AY LEXIS FRYERFF

You enter the music room. No students are there, but you find the teacher in his of-fffice as you hoped. The room is quiet at first, but as you talk with Mr. Kidder, you now re-alize there is music coming from the other room. It is a

beautiful jazz improvisation, being played on the choir pi-ano. The music is created by Devin Shelley.

Shelley, senior, has been chosen as the music Sterling Scholar for this school year. As well as practicing severalmusical talents, Shelley hasparticipated in cross-coun-

try for each year of his highschool career, and is just be-ginning his fourth season of basketball.

Shelley said he has en-joyed the games he’s played as well as the people he could work with in both sports.

“There were really fun people. It was really fun to

go hang out and go places with the team,” Shelley said. “The sports were not only pleasurable but educational.”

“I’ve learned how to make myself do things that are hard,” said Shelley.

According to the choir teacher at NS, Carisa Rober-son, this same determination

he has learned in sports has carried over into his music.

“He knows what he wants, and he’ll do what it takes,” said Roberson.

Shelley plays the piano, percussion instruments, and sings in the school choir. His passion for music has lead to practical application as well. Shelley plays the organ in his church meetings about every other Sunday.

“It’s fun to learn [the or-gan],” said Shelley. “I still have to learn how to do it but it’s fun.”

Shelley has participated in several musical events and organizations to build up his portfolio and gain experi-ence. He is in the NS choir presidency and has attend-ed the Julliard Jazz Camp at Snow College for several years. In addition, Shelley re-cently auditioned to be part of the All-state High School Jazz Band and is waiting on the results of his audition.

“I do a lot of writing andarranging on my own,” Shel-ley said.

His sister, Andrea Shelley, said that much of his time at home is spent writing music. He plans to play a piece that he composed himself for the judges at the Sterling Scholar competition.

“One of the reasons that he is so good at music is be-

cause he loves it so much and he’s dedicated to it,” said Andrea. Andrea thinks very highly of her brother and said that they are very close.

“I talk about anything with Andrea,” Shelley said.

This situation is similarwith the rest of their family.

“We spend a lot of time at home and that’s a really hap-py place. It’s great there,” said Shelley.

Shelley also gets great support from his group of friends.

“We just wing it,” said Shelley. “We never have a plan so we get together and just make it up as we go along.”

One of Shelley’s closefriends, Dyllon Tabler, de-scribed how they talk about anything and everything.

“[We talk about] what’s been going on lately, girls… and our diabolical plans to rule the world,” Tabler said.

Tabler also was confidentof Shelley’s future success.

“He thinks outside the box and he has very highstandards and is hard-work-kking,” said Tabler.

So, whether he’s improvis-ing the day with friends or a jazz piece on the piano, Shel-ley is looked at with great confidence and respect as an example to those who know him.

Shelley displays skill in music, sports

BY CHAHH NAA ANN TA HOMPSON

“After school let’s go hun’in up in the moun’ans, I seen a bunch of deer up by the old crick.”

Sanpete has its very own unique dialect, and you have probably heard some Sanpete residents make the common pronunciation errors mentioned in the first paragraph.

“I would probably know if two kids werefrom Sanpete even if I don’t know what they’re saying,” said Leah Woodard, a ninth-grade English teacher at NS. “I would know they are from Sanpete just from the intona-tion of their conversation.”

According to Woodard, after moving to Mount Pleasant from Oregon this August, she realized that the people in Sanpete have a very specific grammar usage. She gave ex-amples of phrases such as we seen, we was, I have chose, and I had went. Woodard said that that dialect is incorrect grammar, but the varying vocabulary is used consistently.

Be aware that most people may not even know the mistakes they’re making.

“A lot of things in speech that we use,

we don’t realize we’re doing it,” said Diane Ogden, a linguist and the director of the In-ternational Center at Snow College. “It just works for us.”

So where does one obtain these habits, and why does dialect differ in certain areas? ffff

According to Ogden people usually adopt their speaking habits first from their parents and then from their friends.

People in different areas tend to have the ffffsame dialect as their community. Woodard said that heritage is also a contribution to the dialect in a certain area.

Carissa Lynn Garff, a senior at NS, moved ffffto Chester this August from West Valley and said that people in Sanpete have a more dis-tinct pronunciation than in West Valley. She said that they tend to slur through their words more. Garff also said that there is less diverff -sity at NS.

“People think they’re ghetto in West Val-ley and in Sanpete people are more like cow-boys,” said Garff. “I think people talk the way ffffthey do because that’s how they were raised; there are different ways that people are raised ffffand brought up and that effects the way they ffff

communicate.”Woodard also noticed that in Sanpete peo-

ple form their words differently.ffff“The O’s and R’s are lower and in the back

of the throat, some vowels are elongated and clipped at the end,” said Woodard. “The into-nation of the way you speak is different than ffffin Oregon.”

You may think that variety of speech pat-terns and diversity makes each being differffff -ent than one another, but humans are still the same despite language differences.ffff

“People are the same everywhere, but their language and culture are what differ,” ffffsaid Ogden. “The only thing that separates them is their language barriers and beliefs.”

According to Woodard, language is con-stantly evolving and that it is nice to have a standard. Allowing for language to change does not mean we don’t have a standard for proper language.

“Languages as they once were are evolv-ing,” said Woodard. “Things that once were incorrect may now be acceptable.”

Differences in language are okay but it is ffffimportant for us teach proper English so that

people can go into the wider world and be taken seriously stated Woodard.

Although incorrect ways of speaking are now more acceptable, one thing in language will never change. The way you speak tells a lot about you.

“Every time you open your mouth you tell a lot about yourself,” said Ogden. “You tell about your background, education level and even your socio-economic level.”

Everyone has to communicate to be suc-cessful in society, whether it’s blinking youreyelashes if you are paralyzed, using sign lan-guage if you are deaf or mute, reading lips or feeling braille with your fingertips. Language and communication are essential survivaltraits.

There’s no doubt about it, the dialect in Sanpete is unique to the area, it has it’s own lilt.

“The way sentences are said there’s a lilt, which is the music the word makes,” said Wo-odard. “The music of the language in rural Utah is different than anywhere else.”ffff

Sanpete’s speech patterns differ from other locationsffff

Photo by Ay lexis Fryer

5

Girls volleyball takes state

Photo by Ay my By angerter

Senior outside hitter and tournament MVP leads team to title

BY PY AULPP COOK

As the volleyball fell to the floor, the La-dyhawks jumped into a pile in the middle of the court in celebration. Shelby Earl, how-ever, couldn’t join her team--she had already fallen to the floor where she was standing.

Overcome with exhaustion and exilera-tion, this year’s tournament MVP realized that her years of hard work had finally led her to what she always wanted to be: a champi-on.

Earl started playing volleyball when she was in 7th grade, and has grown to love it.

“I love to compete,” said Earl. “I love the game.”

As a freshman, Earl started on the varsi-ty volleyball team as an outside hitter. She continued to play varsity for the next three years.

Throughout these years, Earl said many people have helped her improve her game,

including coach Sharon Christensen, coach Ricky Stewart, and teammate Kara Ander-son.

“They push me to become better and give me a lot of advice in life and sports,” said Earl.

This fall Earl had the opportunity to play in the volleyball state championship. She contributed greatly to the Ladyhawks’ victo-ry with twenty-one kills and was named tour-nament MVP.

“[Taking state] is probably the most awe-some thing of my life,” said Earl. “It’s the high-light of my life so far.”

Earl has been very successful in volleyball throughout high school and she is grateful for the support of her teammates.

“They are always there to back you up and we have had a lot of fun together,” Earl said.

Earl has also played varsity basketball and softball the past three years of high school. During her junior year Earl was appointed

Photo by Ly exi TurleyTT

to all-state teams in both volleyball and soft-ball.

“Shelby is an exceptional athlete,” said head softball coach Tyler Bailey. “She can do just about anything athletically.”

Along with being an incredible athlete, Earl also does well academically. She main-tains a 3.5 grade point average and serves as secretary for the student body.

Other student body officers are grateful for her hard work and good personality.

“She tries to make things not so girly, and she is entertaining,” said Activities Agent Na-than Aagard.

Earl has set high goals for her future in sports. She has a scholarship at Snow Col-lege for softball and plans to play college vol-leyball as well.

BY AMYAA BY ANGERTER

So much for predictions.Despite entering the state

tournament as the third seed from their region, and huge underdogs, the NS volley-ball team did something that few teams in the history of the school have done: bring home a state championship.

The Ladyhawks captured the state title on Halloween night by beating the defend-ing champion Morgan Tro-jans to give the school its fifth volleyball title in the past 15 years.

NS and Morgan battled it out, trading wins back and forth in five close games. In the final game, both teams were tied at 13, before the Hawks earned a side out, and held on for the final point.

“I can’t even describe it,” said Shelby Earl, outside hit-ter who was named MVP of

the tournament. “There were so many emotions going through me.”

The Ladyhawks worked hard to make it to the champi-onship game, including wins against Hurricane, Judge Me-morial and region rival Delta, and they couldn’t be more proud of the results.

“It was one of the best feelings ever and I’m glad that I did it with the team-mates that I had,” said mid-dle blocker Lindsay Bradley.

The fans were also thrilled with the outcome of thegame.

“It was sick,” said Kelton Olsen. “It was just spectacu-lar; the best, triumphant winof the millennium.”

Olsen was not the only fan who appreciated the effort.ffff

“It was most definitely the most intense game all season and our crowd slayed their crowd,” said senior Ben Da-

vis. “It was the most antici-pated game in the history of the whole world.”

The NS student crowd continued their tradition of loud cheers and many of them lost their voices.

“My throat started bleed-ing because of how much I was yelling for them,” said Ezra Hainsworth.

The Hawks were able to take state behind the expere-ince of eight seniors. Yet,even with the experience, the Hawks struggled through much of the year.

“We knew we were skilled at volleyball, we just didn’t know how skilled,” said Coach Rickie Stewart.

The team worked on their energy and excitement as well as in believing in them-selves. They also did some-thing out of the ordinary—dodge ball.

“[Dodge ball] made us get

pumped up and work harder for what we wanted,” said Ta-leena Holgreen.

The Ladyhawks also worked on building team uni-ty by doing a lot of activities together outside of games, practices, and school. They made T-shirts for homecom-ing, had sleep-overs and had lots of dinners. As a team, they get along well with one another.

“Most of us are friends outside of volleyball,” said senior libero Mckelle Ander-son. “At school we talk to ev-eryone even if they’re not in our clique.”

Anderson is not the only one who feels close to her teammates.

“We’ve all just been play-ing with each other since middle school,” said Earl. “We just all got along. It was the best season with that. All of us are just really great

friends.”Entering the state tour-

nament, few people gave the Hawks a chance at a champi-onship. After all, they ended the season third in region.

“This day and age, to win state, everything has to line up perfectly because teams are so competitive,” said Stewart. “We knew we had a legitimate chance but we had to play the best we’d ever played.”

The Ladyhawks were con-fident that they would do well in the competition, and were determined to leave it all on the court.

“I thought we would do way good and I knew we could do it even though no one really thought we could,” said Earl. “I realized it was now or never. It was all we’ve been dreaming about since we were in 7th grade.”

The seniors on the team

were able to turn their dream into a reality.

“They had a goal in mindand they weren’t going to let anything stop them and that’s certainly something to be proud of,” said Stewart.

Stewart helped her team to succeed by being optimis-tic and encouraging.

“She always stayed posi-tive,” said Anderson.

Besides having a positive attitude, Stewart focused a lot of attention on hard work and determination.

“The team who wins is the team who works the hardest and they worked the hard-est—for sure,” said Stewart.

The team is proud of their successful season and how they brought it all together in the end.

“We had our ups anddowns,” said Bradley. “We came together as a team and we peaked at the right time.”

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BY AMANDAAA CA LARK

The NS Girls Basketball season recently began as the team held tryouts and dai-ly practices over the past weeks.

With the coming season just ahead, there is a lot of pressure and a lot of practice. But the future expectations are high in the eyes of many of the players including se-nior Erica Draper.

“We will do good if we fo-cus and keep our head in [the game],” she said.

The team already seems to be putting their head in the game as they go through a se-ries of drills to work on their shot, defense and endurance.

“[Practice] is tough, it lets you know how the season will be,” Draper said. “They want to make you work hard to prove yourself.”

Although the season has already started out tough, Coach Hadley mentions that they have a lot of experienced athletes who are returning to play which works to their ad-vantage. Some of these play-ers include Kara Anderson, Shelby Earl and Erica Drap-er.

Hadley also notes that an-other great strength is the team’s quickness.

The team does have chal-lenges to overcome; the big-gest factor seems to be work-kking as a team. It is expected that the team this season will be stronger than last year.

Ladyhawks will use speed, experience to guide team

Photo by Cy hana ThompsonTT

“We have a good solid group of seniors who have been dedicated for a long time,” Hadley said.

Charlette Holman, a ju-nior, said that in order to become better they need to work as a team and not focus on individuals.

“We have great talent to do good, but unless we come

together as a team it won’t work,” Holman said.

Draper describes thatthis can be done if the teamlearns how to communicate more often and talk to each other on the court.

Despite the improvements needed, the team seems to be heading on the right track as the players future sights are

set high.“I want to take region and

state,” Draper said.Coach Hadley also wants

to do well and has a goal of at least getting past the first round of the state tourna-ment.

In order to get to that point she expects the team to be dedicated and have great

teamwork.She also hopes the players

will keep a positive perspec-tive throughout the season.

“I want the team to keep that same never-give-up atti-tude,” Hadley said.

The girls’ attitude seems to come with their love for the sport. Draper explainsthat her confidence has been

boosted and she feels likepart of a team or family by participating in basketball.

“I like the feeling of being in shape,” said Jenifer Nuttal.

Through the girls’ dedica-tion, tough endurance, and their pure love for the game, the coming season of the girls basketball team seems to have great things in store.

BY LEXI TURLEYTT

When winter comes around some kids think of playing basketball, snow-boarding, or skiing, but not the NS wrestling team. They all look forward to winter because of one thing: wrestling.

Wrestlers find this sport fun, but they also have challenges when the sea-son comes around. They have to main-tain the same weight all season, and they have practices for long hours every day before and after school.

Wrestling takes up a lot of time, espe-cially when it comes to practice. Wres-tlers wake up at 6 a.m. to go to weights until 8 a.m. Then they go to practice from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Practices are very challenging. They involve circuit train-ing, long distance running, sprints, and lots of wrestling drills. These together help the players build muscle and main-tain the correct weight.

“Wrestling--only the strong survive. The rest play basketball,” Taylor Walker said.

Each wrestler has his own weight class, and all season they must be with-in this weight. Because of this, wres-tlers constantly watch their weight, and sometimes exercise extra and eat less to lose weight before matches.

“It really sucks to lose weight,” Bradee Sunderland said. “Sometimes we don’t

even get to each lunch. It’s really sad.” But despite these challenges, there are

a lot of NS students wrestling this year. Forty kids went out on the first day, and even more came within the same week. The team is pretty young, but the team will still have a good season, and even better in the seasons to come.

This year NS’s wrestling rivals are Delta and Juab, but they plan to do well against them this year. Varsity athletes that are most likely going to do well are Walker, Jared Watts, and Sunderland.

Along with this new season comes a new assistant coach, Mark Blain. He will be assisting head coach Tanner Cowan throughout the season. Both Blain and Cowan went to UVU for college. They both plan to coach well and have fun.

Wrestling is challenging, but it can be fun. Wrestlers enjoy it because it’s an in-dividual sport, and they learn to work for something. It’s a sport that you can have fun participating in, and also coaching.

“I like coaching because I get to be around the kids,” Cowan said. “I love to watch them progress. We also build long lasting bonds--friendships that are for-ever.”

The first wrestling match is Red and White Night, which is on November 24th. Other tournaments and duels will start at the beginning of December.

Photo by Cy hana ThompsonTT

NS wrestling team endures challenging

practices to prepare for their season

BY CY HANA THOMPSON

As the NS boys’ basketball season approach-es, coaches prepare the team mentally as wellas physically. They have been training since the beginning of August, including camps and ear-ly morning agility and speed training.

“We [attended] basketball camps in the summer; seven different tournaments,” said ffffHead Coach Bull Keisel of Mount Pleasant. “Then in August we started jump, agility and speed drills in the morning at 6:30.”

Along with morning drills the team also has prepared for the upcoming season by running plays and practicing defensive and offensiveffffsets, passing, conditioning and lifting weights on Mondays and Thursdays.

The athletes feel that the hard work they have engaged in has been very effective.ffff

“We’ve done a crap load of stuff, [we] liffff ft-ed in the morning and practiced shooting and drills,” said Nathan Aagard, a senior from Ft. Green. “We’ve done morning speed and agil-ity training drills for months now. It gives us sick hops and jumps, and we have really mad ups.”

Senior Dylan Larsen from Mt. Pleasantfeels that the drills have helped him to gain a few inches in his jumps.

“I’m a lot faster and my vertical is a lot bet-ter,” said Larsen. “I can jump higher.”

The team believes the training has paid offin physical performance thus far, but they stillneed to put those strengths gained to use and work together as a team

Coaches believe that the season will be a successful one if the boys can play with unity.

“I think we’ll have an awful good team,” Kei-sel said. “And we’ll be pretty darn good if we all work together.”

According to Aagard, he feels like the team will have an okay season, and they have

a chance at region and maybe higher because they are more united as a team and they’re mentally tougher.

The team feels that they have much strength that contributes to their confidence of playing well this season.

According to Keisel the team has a lot of height, they are very quick and they have some pretty good shooters.

“Most of the tall guys worked hard on ballhandling,” said Larsen. “I don’t think we’ll have a lot of turnovers, and the height will be to our advantage.”

Aagard says that a few other strengths the team has are their handles and dunks, but their weaknesses are injuries.

A potential weakness could be the team’s control issues.

“A lot of us lose our temper easily and weplay rough,” said Larsen. “We might get fouled a lot.”

Larsen compares basketball to football without the pads. He feels that he plays a lot rougher than most people.

Despite the team’s weaknesses, they have prepared constantly and are keeping hopes high for a winning season.

“I hope we’ll have a better season than last year,” said Larsen. “But I still have fun playing [basketball] with all my friends.”

Coach Keisel enjoys coaching because he enjoys the sport and the company of the ath-letes.

“I like working with the young men,” said Keisel. “And I love the sport of basketball.”

Larsen stated that the coaches help the ath-letes to concentrate and they make the boys’ work hard in practice to get the best out of them.

The team has been focusing on their first game. It will be held on November 24th againstthe Gunnison Bulldogs.

Boys’ basketball uses height and morning drills to their advantage

Photo by Cy hana ThompsonTT

to have great things in store.

ls to their advantage

7

Laurel Blackham, senior from MoroniFavorite Reality Television Show: World’s Strictest Parents

“It’s really funny to watch the troubled kids get their butts handed to them. The kids are all really stupid,” Blackham said. “I think if my parents were that strict I’d curl into a ball, crawl into a hole and die. But the show really helps me learn a lot.”

Photo by Hy annah Aldridge

Musical filled with character and color

Cali Anderson, freshman from Fountain GreenFavorite Reality Television Show: American Idol

“It’s really funny. People suck at singing,” Anderson said. “I love watching them embar-rass themselves. They all really suck. And I re-ally love Simon. He’s mean and really funny.”

Mandy Peckham, freshman from Fountain GreenFavorite Reality Television Show: Dancing With The Stars

“I love hearing the judges, they’re really funny,” Peckham said. “The dance routines are fun watching, and so are all the hot guys. I always critique their dancing! I’m always thinking to myself ‘Point your toes idiots!’”

Wes Holman, freshman from Mount Pleas-antFavorite Reality Television Show: Survivor Man

Survivor Man is about a man, Les Stroud, who is dropped off in the wilderness for sevff -en days and has to survive all on his own. He works the cameras himself, finds his own food, and makes his own shelter.

“Les Stroud is the biggest man I’ve ever seen!” Holman said.

Thomas Cameron Sego, sophomore from Mount PleasantFavorite Reality Television Show: American Idol

“I love the melodic charm of the beautiful people. I love their stories, and I always have huge sympathy for their heart,” Sego said. “I really love Paula. I cried myself to sleep when she left. I also love Simon’s honesty. Honesty is really what makes relationships true.”

Let’s talk reality TV

BY SY HAYLA RA ICKS

The night came alive when the actors and actresses hit the stage in the school mu-sical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

With two months of prac-tice, the show came together well. Everyone memorized their lines and dances. The music was exciting, the cos-tumes were colorful, and the story was intriguing.

With approximately 80 cast members, this musicalwas a big production for di-rector, Tanya Roundy and as-sistant director, Carisa Rob-erson.

“Anytime kids get up and do their best, that’s what makes any play a success,” said Roundy.

She also said that seeing the kids grow and become their characters is fun. For example, to get in to his char-

acter, Tanner Spaulding, who played the part of the pha-raoh, Elvis style, said he prac-ticed in front of his mirror for hours doing his hip swing.

For the part of a body-guard, Ezra McKay Hains-worth said, “To show offmy muscles for my part, I worked out twice a day for three weeks.” Of course he was joking.

Shauna Spencer, whoplayed mother of Joseph and

eleven brothers, said to get into her character, she did some research and actually knew someone with twelve kids.

Though many practiced their parts at home, bringing it together had to happen on stage. At the rehearsals many bonds were formed.

“One of the best parts was making memories and friendships,” said Spencer.

Lincoln Olmstead, who

played the main character of Joseph, said that what he liked best about participating in the musical is that there is no social pressure

“You just get up there and act like an idiot. It’s fun.” Ol-mstead said.

Though set in Egypt inbiblical times, the songs and scenes incorporated different fffferas such as the old west, the forties gangsters, the retro sixties, and even Elvis from

the fifties.Some of the songs were

multi cultured including French, Jamaican, and a Spanish Tango.

Overall, the musical was a night of colorful costumesand creative lines.

“I loved how much the kids brought to the play, and what they brought to the play.” said Roundy. “All of them just made their charac-ters come to life.”

Whenever you turn on the television it seems as if the only thing on anymore are reality shows. We interviewed sev-eral students from NS to find out their opinion on some of the more popular shows.

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