By Emma Schneider April 8, 2019 Boone, being a small town in North Carolina, is somewhere where there is not much development or opportunities for a wide range of activities. Yes, there are the basics, hiking, fishing, climbing, ect. And we have a strong section in athletics, but is this range wide enough to cover the not as well known sports. For example, lacrosse, this sport is a very tough and interesting game, however, is it known well enough to spread to areas where there is little diversity in sports. Because of the small selection of athletic programs in our area, are teams without rec opportunities, when growing up, set up for failure? The men and women’s lacrosse team at watauga high school are low on the list. But this is caused by the lack of preparation in the game before high school. In Boone, there are no rec opportunities for lacrosse, and one of the closest teams is in Charlotte, North Carolina. Although some people resort to driving down the mountain for athletics, there is plenty of room in Boone for more diversity in sports. The Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex does not just have to be for soccer, there are many ways people can incorporate lacrosse into these fields, even if it is just pickup over the summer.
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By: Laramie Ward January 7, 2019
access minutes before the 9:00 tip-off because of ‘double ticketing.’ Many people had sold their tickets online because they couldn’t make it to the original game, but since there was no time to mail in the actual tickets, their barcodes were voided before they had been resold. Once the game was postponed and rescheduled, the Duke-Carolina tickets quickly became the hottest of the season. The Tar Heels won 74-66. Since the 1949-50 season, UNC has scored 13,581 points against Duke and allowed 13,559. That's a difference of just 22 points over 179 games, or 0.1 per matchup. This is one of the simple reasons as to why I believe Carolina is the continuously stronger team in this Blue Divide.
Basketball started nearly 158 years ago when P.E. instructor James Naismith was tasked with finding something more involved and engaging than calisthenics. He created it during a cold winter, with an empty gym, 2 peach baskets, and a soccer ball. This isn’t the cool part, though. Dean Smith attended the University of Kansas and played for Phog Allen before he graduated with a degree in mathematics in 1953. Allen was a legendary coach who had played at Kansas for Naismith starting in 1904. So there you go: the game traveled directly from Naismith to Allen to Smith. Smith believed that it was important for his players to get a good and well-rounded education, and because of that, over 95% of his players earned their college degrees. He worked to clean up UNC’s image, and in all of his seasons, his program was never charged with a single violation. He also joined in on several protests on campus against segregation and had outspoken support for several other topics such as nuclear disarmament and abolition of the death penalty. As Mike Krzyzewski said, Dean Smith “...set a standard that you had to adopt or else you dropped by the wayside. He was one of the great pioneers, and that doesn’t even describe it. He built a program when most people didn’t even know what a program was...He recruited unbelievably great kids, developed great relationships with them, and they played a brand of basketball where they showed up every night...Dean has really been something special for the game of basketball. And to share something with him for this moment is a good thing, a really good thing.” Isaac Ewers 11/18/2018 With the first meet being last Tuesday, November 27, the swim team is ready for the new. This season is looking up to be a good one, with more athletes than the previous few years. Ella Campbell, the captain of the swim team, said “this is definitely pretty exciting, cause usually swim team doesn’t have too many people interested. This year, we have the most guys in a long while.” However, with the first meet just occurring, it brings up the question: how popular is the swim team? “It’s definitely not the most popular sport in school,” Ella told me. “Many people don't even know we have a swim team.” When asked further thoughts on the topic, Ella said “I wish there was a little more promotion. Any kind of advertising or something like that would help get the swim team out into more people’s eye.” Even without the popularity of some of the school sports, the WHS Swim Team is quite the competition, with last year sending two members to state. Now, this year, they aim for more. With the first meet going very well, and regionals coming up this winter, there is definitely more to look forward to. “Swim, to me, is amazing. It gives a fun opportunity to meet new, cool people, and keep in shape. Even if someone doesn’t know how to swim, it’s a great opportunity for everyone to learn and improve.” Article By: Gaelan Wilson-Adams 11/18/18 This season, the women’s soccer team will have a new head coach. On the 8th of November, Dustin Kerley, the Watauga High School athletic director, announced that Chris Tarnowski would be replacing Gody Zayobi as the head coach for the 2018-19 season. Tarnowski was an assistant coach last season and is now teaching English at the high school. Leadership in these two roles makes him a familiar face and a new head coach who already knows his team and their many talents.
When asked how she felt about the new head coach, Emma Schneider, a WHS junior and a member of the team, said, “We’ve never really had a consistent coach for the women’s soccer team and I feel like with Mr. T and his wife both having jobs here our team will have some consistency. In each of the three years I’ve been in women’s soccer there’s been a different coach. The last two years it was Coach Kat and Coach Gody, and this year it’ll be Coach T, and it’ll be the same next year. And since we have such a promising team, I mean, we made it into the playoffs the last two years, we’ll have a good chance at getting really far this year since we only lost two seniors.” While another change in leadership is unsettling, Coach Tarnowski’s familiarity, as well as his commitment, will provide the stability and continuity to take the team even farther. By Olivia Pinnix Pictured Above: Jackson Propst, Josiah Isaacs, Hayley Painter, Bekah Yoblinski, August Carter, Sarah Tyndall, Autumn Blackwell, Madison Ward, Chris McAdams, Adam Kalistad, Pierson Rucker, and Michael Stamey. Marching Band season has come to an end. It’s a sad time for all of the band kids, especially the seniors, but this band season definitely wasn't a bad one. This year we went to three band competitions and won awards at all of them. For two of them, we came home with a first-place trophy in our division. This year’s show was titled “Jazz”, it took the audience through the development of this musical genre throughout time. It was a journey the ensemble enjoyed, even if the student section at football games never cared to listen. The first movement, which was a combination of ‘St. James Infirmary and When the Saints Go Marching In’ by Louis Armstrong, was a slow and dramatic blues piece; one you couldn’t help but sway to. This movement had us all channeling our inner Louis Armstrong. Movement two was ‘Summertime’, from the Broadway show Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin. For me, this was by far the most fun to perform. This opera/jazz piece is easygoing and relaxed but still full of ups and downs that keep you interested. The saxophone solo, performed by Adam Kalistad, was done very well and his improv was well matched with the rest of the piece. The third and last movement of “Jazz” was ‘Gopher Mambo’ by Yma Sumac and ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ by Louis Prima, the most lively of the movements. This part of the show featured the drumline and pit players of the WHS Marching Band with difficult, but essential, parts. Pictured Above: Hayley Painter, Abraham Hernandez-Ariaz, Callie Cook, Becca Yoblinski, Bailey Dodds, Alex Vazquez-Equiha, Benji Hyler and Olivia Pinnix. Your first competition is something you’ll never forget, the rush of adrenaline, those 15 minutes of silence on the bus, and the fear of failure will forever be in your memory. The crowd is always dead silent and no one is getting up and moving around out of respect. This is respect you’ve never gotten at any of your other performances. After you perform, relief sets in, then panic, then the existential crisis, but it only lasts a few hours. The first award you receive is always the most memorable, every award is really. This year’s freshman had many memorable moments as we received several awards. But trophies don't measure the true success of a band, memories do. “Musically we were successful, as an ensemble we were successful but as people, we became closer. We became a family and for that, I believe we had the greatest success we could’ve had,” says Hayley Painter, a senior at WHS.
By Marley Forrester 10/28/18 On Friday, October 26, Watauga defeated Freedom High. Prior to this game both football teams were undefeated. This leaves Watauga 10-0 with one more conference game to go. Assuming Watauga wins against West Caldwell on November 2nd, this season will be our first undefeated regular season since 1978. In addition to this exciting victory, this game was our senior night for Watauga’s football players, cheerleaders, pacers, and band members graduating in 2019. In regards to both senior night and the win, senior, Matthew Wilkins says “The whole night was something I know us seniors definitely won’t ever forget. Seeing everyone that came out to support and cheer for us and our families was awesome in itself, but also beating a team like Freedom the way we did, and earning an opportunity to win an outright conference championship next week in our last regular season game, as seniors is really something special.” The football players weren’t the only seniors celebrated on Friday. Home games would not be complete without the performances of our cheerleaders, Pacers, and marching band. Senior cheerleader, Bethany Bryan is co-captain of varsity cheer and has been cheering since she was three years old. Bryan says, “Senior night was bittersweet for me, I’ve been cheering with Watauga all four years of my high school career and it’s weird to think that this is my last home game. It’s really cool to look back on the past four years but it makes me nervous that in a few months I’m going to have to leave everything I’ve come to know.” Each team has its own senior night traditions, however the routine of the Pacers is arguably the most thorough. The girls celebrate with the help of their sweet “little sisters,” families, and of course friends. Erin Stevens, one of two seniors on the dance team says, “Senior night was a big deal for me because when I was a freshman I got to watch my sister go through it and see how special it was! I didn’t realize how emotional I would be until I got my poster from my little sisters on the team, and it finally hit me that this game was the last time I would dance at a regular, non-playoff football game. It got even more real when we walked and got announced because it kind of showed that we were having one of our last celebrations being on the pacer team before we graduate. I wouldn't have traded the past four years on the pacer team, or at Watauga for anything and I honestly can’t believe I’ve had my first senior night. The next (basketball season) will be the last one, and the last time I will get to stand with my girls and family as a senior at WHS.” It is clear that the seniors from all four teams will be missed when they leave Watauga High, but it appears that we may have a couple more chances to watch football games and performances at our home field during the playoffs! Article By: Emma Schneider
The distribution of money for Watauga High School’s Athletic Program is a topic not often discussed. Once interviewing Dustin Kerley, the Athletic Director at Watauga High School, it proved that what students “know” about the distribution of money at the school is very inaccurate. The money earned from Athletic passes is pooled together in an account used for the Booster Club to expend when needed. Same goes for the ticket booths at all games, except it is added together in an account used for all sports. The $6.00- $5.00 spent to enter a game goes to an account used for all sports. They use this money for the needs of all sports, not only equipment but gate workers, PA announcers and clock workers. Coach Kerley says, “If it’s a year where we do really well on gates, we may be able to fund all of our needs first and then go out and get some things that our programs want in addition to what they need. Or if it’s a year where our gates are a little down we might only be able to fund the needs as opposed to the wants”. According to the Conference bylaws, football and basketball must be $6.00 each ticket. Taking advantage of the crowds for both of those sports brings in a good amount of money. And for soccer, swim, lacrosse, volleyball, and softball the entry fee is $5.00. All sports are also able to fundraise for their team at any time. This can be a very beneficial way to gain money and to provide for a sport. The total amount of money being brought in overtime is very useful to fulfil, at least, the needs of all the sports at Watauga. Although the money is dispersed whenever any sport needs it, junior Emma Brown feels it favors football more. She says, “I thought it would go more towards football. It seems like that’s all they care about. I mean, you look at the football facility and their locker room and their uniforms and everything, and you can tell they put a lot of money into them”. Football is a very valued sport here at Watauga and the United States, it is filled with fun times, tailgating and intense crowds. This American heritage gives our school a very good reputation by our football team making it to the second round of playoffs in 2017-18. By having the biggest turnouts at games they make a lot of money at the ticket booths. This provides a lot of money for all the team’s needs and wants at Watauga, however, this “equal” disbursement of money might be inaccurate according to Emma Brown. Kerley says, “I hope that you or anyone else would know that when I look at the disbursement of funds to each team/program I make an effort to do this in the most equitable manner possible.” This unbiased mindset of even disbursement allows all teams to succeed. Even though the student’s knowledge about Watauga High School’s athletic program and how they distribute money is somewhat inaccurate, with the right information some still believe football is the “favored sport.” Though some students feel this way, it is up to the Athletic Department to decide where to go from here. Article By: Grace Jeter & Nichole Johnson
The famous Avery v. Watauga rivalry has come to an end this year. On August 31st, 2018 Watauga was face to face with their final showdown against Avery. This is due to Avery no longer wanting to continue this yearly match up. In the coming seasons Watauga will be forced to schedule other opponents. Next year Watauga will take on Pfafftown Reagan in place of Avery. To show our rivalry against Avery, whenever there was an Avery game we always dressed up in camo. In return, Avery always dressed up in tie-dye. When Watauga takes on Pfafftown next year, the traditional pep rally and camo day will not take place. While this is upsetting to some students, others realize that it also opens up the possibility for Watauga to form a new rivalry and tradition. When asked how they felt knowing that this would be the final game against Avery, Sebastian Best said, “It was definitely surreal. Playing your rivals of over 50 years for the last time is pretty crazy.” Most of the football players can agree that being a part of the final team to play Avery was a big title to uphold, and that the game was very “surreal.” When asked if they would do anything differently if they were able to play Avery one more time, Sam Sappington replied with, “I think that if we could play Avery one more time, I would relish the moment a bit more. I would take the time to soak it all in, not just as the last time that Watauga played Avery, but the last time that I and my team played Avery. Those are two very different feelings and I wish that I had embraced that a little more.” In the end, Watauga defeated Avery for the final time with the ending score of fifty-eight to seven; as a result, Watauga was able to keep “the golden bucket.” “The golden bucket” was yet another tradition that Watauga and Avery both kept alive. This tradition involved a golden bucket, and whoever won the game was allowed to keep the bucket until their next game. To stand as a symbol for their final win against Avery, Watauga was able to keep the bucket. In the end, Watauga football players and fans will greatly miss the rivalry between the two schools. As seen above, it is easy to recognize how much the players will feel like a part is missing next year and in the years to come when they do not compete against Avery. They talk about wanting to savor the moment a little longer and taking it more seriously. Hopefully in the future, when they play against other rival schools, they will start to discover the thirst for more competition just like they had for Avery. The fun tradition and rivalry against Avery will be missed, but never forgotten. |