Adriana ChavezFremont High SchoolThe Rustler NewspaperNov/Dec/Feb RustlersHeadline Writing

Sports November 20168

FULLBLAST

Justin Pettit can pinpoint the precise moment when he set himself down the path toward becoming the featured running back at Fremont High School. He was 17-years-old and heading into his senior year at FHS. Pettit was standing on a patch of dirt masquerading as part of the Ti-gers practice field, during a summer team-camp scrimmage, when he peered through his face mask at the toughest linebacker on the Arch-bishop Bergan varsity football team. The two players lined up on oppo-site sides of the ball, in a situation that loosely resembled the Oklahoma drill (the quintessential test of football toughness): where two players line-up 10 yards apart, and on the coach’s whistle they charge at each other and collide, like a couple of rams.

After Pettit took a handoff from quarterback Riley Harms, on a play called 27-Reach, he sprinted to find an opening in the line. As Pettit turned up-field, he noticed an outside linebacker-the one he was staring down just a few seconds earlier-standing in his way. So, Pettit gritted his teeth and leveled the outside linebacker-who jumped up from the dust angry-on his way to scoring on a 30-yard touchdown run.

Fremont Coach Seth McClain, stunned at Pettit’s vicious hit, decid-ed to call 27-Reach again on the Tigers next possession. Anxious and excited, Pettit took the handoff from Harms and went right at the same outside linebacker. Just like the first time, Pettit flattened him again en route to scoring on a 22-yard run.

Pettit cherishes that memory as “the moment where it clicked,” and his teammates whooped in approval of his transformation.

“Prior to that scrimmage I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to play run-ning back,” said Pettit. “I played fullback last year as a junior, so I was comfortable with that position. I knew that running back was hard, having to make all those reads, but after those two plays I started think-ing that running with the football is fun and I could really do this.”

Pettit made his transformation from fullback to running back com-plete when he ran for 117 yards and scored on a 52-yard touchdown run during Fremont’s season-opener against North Platte last August 26th.

FHS seniorJustin Pettit

brings a levelof toughness

to the football field and the

wrestling mat.

Fremont senior Justin Pettit ran for 117 yards, and scored on a 52-yard touchdown run, during the Tigers sea-son-opener against North Platte last August. It was Pettit’s first game as the featured ball carrier for Fremont. Pettit went on to become the Tigers leading rusher, finishing the season with 457 yards and scoring four touch-downs. Now that the football season is over, Pettit is currently preparing for the upcoming 2016-2017 wrestling season. Photo by Aaron Mercado

6 Rustler In-Depth December 2016 7Rustler In-DepthDecember 2016

remont Club Hockey

Open 24 Hours Everyday840 East 23rd Street, Fremont, NE

68025(402)727-6717

Making l ives heal th ier, eas ier, happier !

Earned not given: Franzen cherishes captain’s roleHockey, more than any other sport , confers upon its captains an

importance that goes beyond the symbolic to the practical, the essential even. They are merely more than good players. They

are the official liaisons between coaches and the locker room, between coaches and referees. Captains carry the burden of failure in defeat and often receive outsized credit in victory.

A heavy shot, hawk-like vision, soft hands and big numbers are all wonderful ancillary attributes of players who wear the C. But in the world of high school hockey, the less easily defined ability to lead and create team chemistry, are really how captains build a winning culture.

Left: Noah Franzen advances the puck up the ice against Omaha West-side earlier this season. Franzen, a junior at FHS, serves as the captain of the Fremont club hockey team. Below: Center Evan Bespoyasny prepares to take a shot against Metro North at the Sidner Ice Arena in Fremont.

Left: Steve Franzen, the coach of the Fremont hock-ey club, surveys the action on the ice from the bench as his players look on. Be-low: Spencer Sorensen, a freshman at FHS, gains control of the puck against Metro North during a home game.

For this generation of local hockey players, Fremont High School junior Noah Franzen-who spent the last two seasons playing with the Omaha Junior Lancers Double A high school hockey team-has long been the unofficial totem.

While he enjoyed playing his freshman and sophomore years of high school with the Junior Lancers, Franzen said he missed playing hockey with his Fremont teammates, many of whom were playing in the Fre-mont Flyers program.

“Hockey is more of a lifestyle,” Franzen said. “Because of that I want-ed to come back and join my Fremont rink family. Some of the Fremont guys I’ve known for over three years, so I just really wanted to get back together with the guys.”

To make that happen, the 16-year-old Franzen spent the summer months convincing his former Fremont teammates (and a few additional players) to come together and form a new team.

“The core of us have been together for four years,” Franzen said. “We had five freshman from Fremont move up and we brought in one player from Bennington, two from Fort Calhoun, two from Omaha and one from Lincoln, to form our Fremont team this season.”

Once the team of 18 players (including 12 from FHS) was assembled, Steve Franzen, the director of Fremont High School Hockey (and Noah’s father), successfully secured a spot for the Fremont team in the Omaha High School Club Hockey League in September of 2016. The Franzen’s then scheduled rink time at the Sidner Ice Arena in Fremont, purchased uniforms, designed the new Tiger claw logo and gathered team essentials.

Finally, the Tigers were ready for the current season to begin.“After a very hectic time setting things-up and getting things ready,”

Franzen said, “it was really fun to be able to get on the ice with the boys and really start to focus on the season.”

When the Fremont High School club hockey team hit the ice for the first time together, on Oct. 1, 2016, Franzen was wearing the C. Winger Spencer Sorensen, a freshman at FHS, said he was pleased that Franzen was elected (by a player vote) as team captain.

“Noah was the obvious choice to be our captain this year,” Sorensen said. “He helped put this team together and we look at him as our leader. He really works hard and helps us try to get better, not only as individu-als, but also by teaching us how to play better as a team.”

The Tigers played their first game in the Omaha High School Club Hockey League on Oct. 30, and posted a 3-0 win over Millard South. Scoring goals for Fremont (2-7) on opening-night were Sorensen, Evan Bespoyasny and Franzen.

“Getting the win in our first league game was just awesome,” Franzen said. “It was a huge relief mentally and it set the season off in the right direction.”

With no seniors on this year’s team, Franzen said the future of the Fremont High School club hockey team looks bright.

“I feel like we’ve been progressing well and meshing well as a team,” Franzen said. “I want the best for this team. I love to see progress in the guys and I feel like this team could really be a team to watch-out for next year.”

Hockey story by Austin Knippelmeir, page design by Madison Snodgrass,

and photos by Aaron Mercado.

2 News February 2017

ound-up RRu

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The Rustler is a product of the Fremont High School Journalism Department. Opinions expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of the administration, faculty or adviser. Letters to the editor can be submitted in the envelope

outside of B34, via email to jack.denker@fpsmail.org, or in person at B34. All letters must be signed. The Fremont High School Journalism Department is a member of the Nebraska High School Press Association

AdviserJack Denker

Editor-In-ChiefSage Reiger

Assistant Editor Adriana Chavez

Staff Photographers & Reporters: Kennedy Jones, Austin Knippelmeir, Taylor Ladd, Hayley Lambley, Brandi Maple and Brianne Masters (Business Manager) Graphic Designer: Madison Snodgrass. Cartoonist: Paige Kerwin.

Photo EditorAaron Mercado

Sports EditorJeremy Neill

News BriefsA total of eight Fremont High

School students won awards at the JEA Nebraska Winter Contest announced on Feb. 6, 2017. Cer-tificates were awarded for entries

judged superior, excellent and honorable mention. In all, FHS journalists received 10 awards.

Newspaper Awards

Hastings Honor ChoirThe Hastings Honor Choir

concert was held on Feb. 4th, at Hasting College. A total of eight

Fremont High School students were selected for the choir. Those students were: Juan Diaz, Garret

Drews, Ally Ibsen, Autumn Johnson, Aaron Mercado, Merrill

Mitchell, Anya Morozov and Aysia Webb.

The first day of third quarter finals at Fremont High School

will take place on March 8, 2017. First and second block finals take place on that date, with students

being dismissed at 11:20 a.m. The second day of testing, for third

and fourth block classes, will take place on March 9, with another

11:20 dismissal.

Third Quarter Finals

Satisfying a needNew charging

station turns a bad thing into a good

thing.

On The Cover

During a metro principals meeting last year, Fremont High School Principal Chuck Story overheard conversations about various schools around the area installing charging stations for the students to use.

“I went to a metro principals meeting earlier this fall,” Story said, “and a lot of the schools were talking about putting in charging stations in different locations. Lit-tle did I know that we were having a little problem with the ATM and people unplugging it to charge their phone.”

On at least two occasions during the first semester, Heidi Moran, an assistant activities di-rector at FHS said students un-

plugged the ATM machine locat-ed in the commons area in order to charge their phones.

Moran said this caused a sig-nificant problem in that unplug-ging the ATM shut down the entire system that connected the machine at FHS to the bank.

So, to rectify the problem, a new cell phone charging station was installed in the commons area at FHS on Dec. 2, 2016.

“We thought that there was a need for more areas for kids to plug their phones in (at FHS) since they are able to use them for lunch,” Moran said. “As a re-

sult, something bad then became something good.”

Moran said that the new charging station has been a hit at FHS the last two months.

“I think the ability to use the new phone charger, and have one more option, is very convenient,” Moran said. “It’s an easy way to charge your phone while mak-ing sure that it’s secure and it’s in view.”

The new charging station was not only installed and sponsored by Selectel Wireless in Fremont, but Moran said the cellular phone company also donated the station at no cost to FHS.

More stations will be installed in the future, according to Story, including one in the underclass-men cafeteria area at FHS.

Story said he hopes that more sponsors will help donate more stations to FHS.

“Future plans are to put anoth-er one in the 9-10 cafeteria,” Story said. “We’re looking at locations and we want to make sure that if there is another cellular provider out there that would like to bring one in-that’s in the Fremont area- that we would be open to that.”

By Sage Reiger RUSTLER STAFF

The photo of beach volleyball player Sammie Bobbett was taken

by Aaron Mercado.