Senior color guard members prepare for one last twirl

by Natalie Kirton

Years spent finding the perfect music, practicing tosses and participating in competitions are slowly coming to a close for Shena Bryan, Natalie Wheeler and captains Aly James and Brynna Steele. These seniors, along with the underclassmen, commit to arriving at the school early in the mornings for seven o’clock practices. They practice every morning they can get, trying to perfect their routines in time for competition. With the seniors’ last competition around the corner on Dec. 2, the girls reminisce about their experiences.

When asked what the most challenging thing about color guard was, Bryan, James, and Steel responded with getting up early for practices. 

Wheeler disagreed, responding, “The thing I find most challenging would have to be trying to count out the music while doing a flag movement and watching your steps all at the same time.”  

Collectively, the girls’ favorite part about color guard is the competitions. Team members travel by bus to the Wells Fargo arena early in the morning on competition day. They enjoy circling up to do each other’s hair and make up. After performing their routine in front of the judges at state level, the girls watch other schools’ color guard and cheer squads perform.

As the girls look toward their last season, they feel that they will most miss being with friends when performing and getting ready for competitions.  

Teacher Talk: Kelsie Sheets

by Chelsey Moore

Four short years after attending Montezuma Community Schools, new teacher Kelsie Sheets returned for a new position as junior high special education teacher. 

She participated in football cheerleading, basketball, golf, FFA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, color guard, yearbook, speech and drama, school plays, and choir while in high school. 

After she graduated from Montezuma Schools, she started attending college at Central College in Pella, Iowa. While there, Sheets studied elementary education, Spanish, reading and special education. In college she was involved with community choir, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, volunteer committee and football cheerleading.

Sheets realized she wanted to become a teacher in third grade.

She admits, “ I had the most amazing teacher, Ms. Danks. She made learning fun, and it sparked my interest. I wanted to make learning fun for other kids, and I had the perfect role model.”

Sheets student taught in a sixth grade special education setting in Pella and a fifth grade classroom in Oskaloosa, Iowa. 

“I came back to Montezuma to be close to my family. Monte had an open position that was my dream job, and I could get really involved here,” she said.

As basketball cheerleading coach, junior high basketball coach, and assistant color guard coach, Sheets keeps herself busy and involved in the school as she was in high school. 

Sheets said, “I was nervous coming back to my hometown, but I have enjoyed every bit of it! I couldn’t be happier where I am.” 

While there are many great things about her dream job, she enjoys the staff and students at Montezuma most.

Sheets said, “Knowing that I can come to work everyday and work with amazing people makes my job that much better.”

Next year she hopes to simply be more organized but is aware that organization will just come with time. 

Sheets said, “I have a lot of new ideas, but it will get take some development and planning to get to where I want to be.” 

In her free time, Sheets likes to spend time with family and friends. She also enjoys drawing and anything to do with music. Also, she is currently trying to learn how to play the guitar.

Turn of the Page: 'Lord of the Flies'

by Elizabeth Ostrem and Kayla Werner

Published in the early 1950s, William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” is about an assortment of adolescent boys who are left stranded on an unknown island after their plane is gunned down. The main protagonist of the book, Ralph, calls the rest of the boys to him by blowing into a conch found by another boy, whom everyone calls “Piggy.” The meeting is the first of many assemblies to decide what they’re to do in this unpleasant situation. Ralph teams up with Jack, another leader-type with great ambitions, although Jack makes it clear from the start that he would rather lead the group instead of Ralph. Other notable characters in the novel include vivacious twins Sam and Eric, referred to as the single presence “Samneric” by the other boys; Roger, an emerging sadist and Jack’s lieutenant; and Simon, the only one whose kind nature isn’t affected by the absence of true authority.

Liz:

I’ve read Lord of the Flies once before, but this time it affected me more. The contrast between the light interactions in the beginning (e.g. when Ralph and Piggy first meet) and the later, more serious ones (e.g. the hunting of the pig) is especially striking given the short time frame. 

Golding’s scenario is, for me at least, quite believable.  It might be hard for some people to imagine the events in this book becoming a reality, but away from law and order, the regressing into savagery in such a short time isn’t the most improbable idea in literature.

To cap it off, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite having read the majority of it in one stretch. It’s a great book like that, though, if you have the time to sit down for a few hours and amble through; it keeps your attention and makes you want more. It wasn’t until I had finished it that I realized I wanted to continue reading about Ralph, Piggy, Simon and Jack, but I think the adventure, brief as it may be, is perfect as is.

Kayla: 

The conflict in this book made it really fun to read, and I could really picture what was going on, from the boys starting the signal fire with Piggy’s glasses to when Simon confronts the Lord of the Flies and it seems to be speaking to him. 

The boys kind of represent the battle between being civil and becoming savage. Jack and Roger are showcasing the savage side of it all. They want to gain power and use it to satisfy their own wants and needs. On the other hand, Ralph and Simon want to be leader because they feel the need to protect the younger boys. They aren’t thinking about themselves in this act; they are putting everyone else before themselves. 

‘Lord of the Flies’ shows how easy it really is to turn in a bad situation.

Practices begin for large group speech

by Vincent Bushong

The time of year has come again for students to share their acting abilities in countless ways through speech and drama. 

Speech and drama includes many different opportunities for everyone, including choral reading, ensemble acting, musical theater, group improvisation, reader’s theater, one-act play, radio broadcasting and short film. 

People must use communication. Speech and drama gives students a great chance to improve those skills.

Senior Alexis Ferguson said, “Speech and drama gave me the ability to perform in front of an audience and many different people.”

Ferguson is involved in ensemble acting. Her group is looking to focus on a comedy theme this year. 

Senior Natalie Wheeler said, “I’ve enjoyed speech and drama all four years of my high school career because it’s allowed me to become more expressive.”

Both Ferguson and Wheeler are participating in choral reading this year. The choral reading’s performance will center on a collection of inspirational song lyrics. 

Teamwork is also an area speech and drama helps students improve. “We’ve learned to work together as a team,” Wheeler said. 

Junior Niall Lyons will return to group improvisation this year. Lyons said, “We have a lot of fun; this year we have a great group with lots of potential.” 

Speech and drama coach Derek Bates said, “We want students to walk away with at least one thing this year to be a more effective and confident communicator.”

Practices will continue as groups prepare for the January large group contests. This is expected to be a great season for the speech and drama students.

JV Bravettes open season

by Kayla Werner

The JV Bravettes started their basketball season off against BGM on Nov. 18^th in Brooklyn. Despite a strong start, the Bravettes lost to BGM with a score of 23-10. 

They had an early lead, but fell behind at half, 13-8. In the second half, they struggled to pick things back up offensively. 

Coach Stew Timm said, “Before the game, I reminded the girls that it was the first game out and offensively we were still working on timing and just playing together. Our freshman and sophomores haven’t played a game together, so some of the offensive struggles will happen.”

Katelyn Gregory, Abbi Nelson and Alex Brenner had three steals a piece. Gregory also led the team with four points and Paige Snook had three rebounds. 

Freshman Clara Johnson said, “It was our first game and we were mainly working on defense. We will improve.”