JV Team continues to improve the score

by Cami Shaver 

On Monday, Oct. 4 the JV girls swept the North Mahaska Warhawks in two games, winning 25-15 and 25-11. Kendra Cranston led serves with 9 for 9 with an ace serve. Cami Shaver had 7 for 7 with 2 aces and Courtney Petersen had 6 for 7 with 3 aces.

The Bravettes knocked the Belle Plaine Plainesmen off their horses on Thursday, Oct 7, by winning two games, 25-17 and 25-18. Shaver led the night with 11 for 13 serves including 6 aces, while Brynna Steele served 9 for 10 with 2 aces.

On Monday, Oct. 11 the girls won two games against the Sigourney Savages, 25-18 and 25-11. Petersen led the night: 16 of 17 serves with 4 aces. Cranston served 9 for 9 with 2 aces and Aly James served 6 for 6 with 2 aces.

Braves fall short to nondistrict opponent

by Bryan Stanford

The Montezuma Braves’ Junior Varsity football team continued to get better and gain experience as they faced a tough Williamsburg Raider team in the 43-22 loss Monday, Oct. 11. 

The Williamsburg team was big in size for being all freshmen and they had some great athletes, but the Braves did not back down one bit. The Braves fell behind early, 0-12, but responded with some nice scoring drives to end the first half down only 20-16. 

In the second half, the junior varsity squad competed every single play with great effort and energy. 

Defensively, the Braves responded well to the no-huddle hurry-up offense that the Raiders ran the entire second half. That is something hard to prepare for and the boys hung in there and continued to make plays. 

Coach Keith Sietstra commented,  “As a coaching staff, we were really pleased to see the guys come out and fly around and tonight, even though on the short end of the scoreboard again, we definitely got better.” After the loss, the junior varsity record fell to 2-4 on the season.

General Business goes to the top

Wyatt Van Dee looks over his stocks to see how much money he has earned and if his class ranking has improved. He is currently ranked 17 in the class.

by Jered Engelking

Dow Jones goes down, NASDAQ rises to the top, and Russell 2000 goes all the way. Every day in the life of stocks these names pop up and what they do is constantly changing. Keith Sietstra is teaching his General Business students to watch and to predict the Stock Market.

Throughout this unit, the students will attain several lifelong skills. As students learn to watch trends of the stocks they can predict if the stock will likely go up or down, knowing this can help them decide if they chose the right stock.

“That is definitely my goal, I think that giving them this hands on experience will be very helpful in the long run,” said Sietstra. 

Nineteen students started out with $10,000 and senior Teona Sutfin put all her money into stocks evenly and lead her class for the first three weeks, while others such as Katy McKee, Kirk Salnave, Krista Engelbarts, and Wyatt Van Dee they invested their money mainly in Apple Inc., Wal Mart, and Google. 

Sutfin invested in Apple Inc., Hewlett Packard, International Business Machines Corporation, Johnson and Johnson, Sony Enterprise, Walmart and Walt Disney Company, all of which have risen throughout the class days except for Disney.

After those three weeks, Sutfin lost her lead and McKee rose to the top, gaining $1,118.01 and Sutfin only making $479.12.

“I was in the lead and it’s hard to track your money because they are changing every hour,” said Sutfin.

Learning the tricks of the stock market and how to watch and predict it not only teaches students how to profit from it but as well, they will attain skills such as predicting, studying, and knowing when to make decisions and what ones will be the most profitable. All of these skills will likely help them later on in life.

Montezuma Takes home gold at Nationals

FFA Advisor Rick Swenson and seniors Alex Peck, Shannon Sutfin, Katy McKee and Courtney Latcham are pleased with placing fourth overall in Business Management at the National FFA competition in Indianapolis, Ind. (Craig Latcham photo)

by Courtney Latcham, Shannon Sutfin, Katy McKee and Alex Peck 

“Your fourth place national Business Management Team is the FFA Chapter of Montezuma, Iowa.” 

Once those words were spoken, we realized our work was officially done. Ever since the beginning of July our Business Management team, consisting of Shannon Sutfin, Katurah McKee, Courtney Latcham and Alex Peck, has been diligently working and studying for the national competition. 

Hours of reviewing old tests and taking new tests occupied our lives for the past four months and provided us with a large amount of stress. 

By the time October came around we started to work even harder as nationals was quickly approaching. Many nights and weekends were spent at the school working around the clock. 

On Monday, October 18, following the regional volleyball victory over the North Mahaska Warhawks, the volleyball portion of the team loaded up and headed to Indianapolis, Ind. for a week of studying, preparing and eventually, celebrating. 

On Tuesday, after arriving at 4 a.m., the preparation began as we broke out the practice tests for a day of focusing and concentrating. We knew what to expect with this being our second year of nationals competition, but of course this year did bring new situations. We all knew to study as much as possible. 

The next two days were filled with stress, suspension and hours of thinking. We had a three-hour individual test on Wednesday and an hour and a half team activity on Thursday.  

We were ready to get both tests over with but we took our time working as hard as possible while believing in each other and ourselves. Finally, Friday came when we found out how we did personally and as a team, receiving fourth out of 42, with our families and FFA advisor Rick Swenson. 

Individually, Courtney Latcham placed 5th overall and received a $1000 scholarship, Alex Peck placed 14th, Shannon Sutfin placed 42nd an d Katy McKee placed 91st. Latcham, Sutfin and Peck received gold while McKee was awarded silver.

Leaving the banquet we all were looking forward to a few-hours nap back in our home away from home beds under heavenly comforters. 

The few days we were there was somewhat stressful and nerve racking but we got to see so much and learn new things. From going to a haunted house on Thursday night to a walk downtown with everyone on Friday night was a blast and all of us can agree, we deserved it.

Our trip was about competing at our best potential with all the information we learned through the past several months. It was also about representing our state, school and community and being proud of each other at the same time. We could not have accomplished anything without the community’s support along with our teachers and parents. 

As seniors, it was a great last national FFA trip and we will never forget the headaches, laughs and memorable moments we made together. 

Ag Sales

by Alexis Ferguson

With a group of six girls, nerves are always going to play a large role in any type of competition. Weight was lifted from the shoulders of the Montezuma FFA Ag Sales Team after hearing the words “Montezuma, Iowa FFA Chapter, 11^th Place” come from the speaker’s mouth. After months of early mornings, late nights and hard work all of the work was paid off. 

The Montezuma sales team competed on Oct. 20 and 21 at the National FFA convention. Shena Bryan, Alexis Ferguson, Kendra Doty and Kendra Cranston, along with the support of alternates Breanna Johnson and Bridgette Moore, participated in a sales call, a practicum, written test, and a team activity. 

The Ag Sales team sold Heartland's Healthy Salsa, a 100% organic product. The eleventh place team had two high finishers, Alexis Ferguson taking 20^th place individually and Kendra Cranston taking 27^th. 

After competing hard against 40 teams for many days, the team got to relax with fellow FFA members.