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.”
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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! |