Jacket Buzz (10/19/12)

JBuzz

BThe

JacketStarkville High School • 603 Yellow Jacket Dr.

Starkville, MS, 39759 • shsjacketbuzz.comVolume XX, No. 2 • 10-19-12

20years1992 - 2012

of The Jacket Buzz.

MAGIC KINGDOMstory on page 3.

Band robbed at ProvineThe SHS band and cheerleaders were robbed at the recent Provine game.Page 4

Hobart,Ousley save the Yellow JacketSophomores gain 40 points after two of their own save the mascot.Page 6

Jacket Buzz turns 20

The publication turns 20 years old and staffers look back on the first edition and

first year. Page 5.

The senior maids in focusThe five senior maids show in the lime light. Page 2.

Starkville’s

• 10-19-12 shsjacketbuzz.com News

!!

!"#$%&'%%%

()*%++,-%.,,/01%20,,0)%345*%6/,%748%9-/:05;4,%%

'05/8-0<=%":54>*8%+?5)%

'508@A;11*%'B485CB1*D%%

6*E;C5805;4,F%?FGG%0HIH%JK%60:*F%LFGG%0HIH%

M%N;1*%O/,%6/,PQ01@F%LFRJ%0HIH%S:4C5/I*C%*,:4/80E*-TU%%

N48*%;,748I05;4,%0,-%8*E;C5805;4,%748IC%0A0;10>1*%05%VVVH'508@A;11*O4/,-05;4,H48E%%

'B4,C48*-%><%'508@A;11*%W1;,;:%748%Q4I*,%!""#$%&'#($)&''*+#,)#-'.'/0,#,1'#2,%$340""'#2&1))"#50+,$0&,#

%

X/*C5;4,CY%W4,50:5%.,0C50C;0%91-*8%05%Z+Z[+G\\% !

Senior Homecoming maids

Carolina Summer Berryhill is the daughter of Ray and Amy Berryhill. She is heavily involved in Future Farm-ers of America. She is a co-captain of the Lady Jackets soccer team and Starkville High School tennis team. She is verbally committed to Jones Jr. College for a soccer scholarship and plans to major in Elementry Educa-tion. Her escort is her father. Photo by Robert Dandass.

Jailyn Montgomery is the daughter of Erica Akins and Marcus Mont-gomery. She is a Starkville High School cheer squad captain and a member of the band. She is involed charitable clubs like the Jr. Hu-mane Society. She plans to attend Mississippi State University and later become a radiologist. Her escort is her father. Photo by Robert Dandass.

Stacie Young is the daughter of Glover and Sandra Young. She is a key component in Starkville High School’s volleyball team, the award-winning SHS Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and the National Honors Society. She plans on at-tending the University of Missis-sippi and major in pharmacy. Her escort is her father. Photo by Robert Dandass.

Holly Travis is the daughter of Dr. Rick and Cynthia Travis. She is the student body president and is in-volved in a multitude of activities and organizations, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She plans to attend Mississippi State University and major in po-litical science and minor in Span-ish. Her escort is her father. Photo by Robert Dandass.

Jamiyah Deniece Covington is the daughter of Rev. James and Pamela Covington. She is a senior co-captain of the Starkville High School cheer-leading team and the SHS volleyball team. She is involved in Key Club and various other student organiza-tions. She plans to attend Mississippi State University to major in veteri-nary medicine. Her escort is her fa-ther. Photo by Robert Dandass.

Spirit Week Score Card

Starkville High’s senior maids show poise, personality, great reputations

Category

Holiday Day

Throwback Day

Two of a Kind Day

Hallways

Car Show

Disney Day

Save the Jacket

Flat Decorations

Dance Attendance

Dance Competition

Black and Gold Day

Yearbook Sales

TOTALS:

Fresh.

10 pts.

10 pts.

20 pts.

Soph.

20 pts.

10 pts.

20 pts.

15 pts.

20 pts.

40 pts.

20 pts.

145 pts.

Juniors

10 pts.

10 pts.

10 pts.

20 pts.

10 pts.

40 pts.

Seniors

20 pts.

20 pts.

25 pts.

40 pts.

40 pts.

145 pts.

By Ashely Rude News Writer

Starkville High School’s spirit week began on Monday, Octo-ber 15. Students can dress up according to each theme day and compete with other classes to gain spirit points to help their class win overall at spirit week.

“I got to wear bright and crazy colors and not get sent to ISS for it,” sophomore Jade Andrews said.

Monday’s dress up theme was “holidays.”

“I was Santa Claus,” sophomore Jalin Mobley. “I had a red suit on with a red hat, and I was going around saying ‘Ho ho ho.’”

Tuesday was a day for dressing back in time.

“I dressed in the 50s and gelled my hair back,” sophomore Cam-eron Maddox said.

Spirit week points can be earned by submitting a car for the car show, finding the hidden yellow jacket, decorating each of the class’s hallways, and being

the loudest at the pep rally on the last day of spirit week.

The hallway designs are based off of each class’s theme. Seniors have Magic Kingdom, juniors have Hollywood Studios, sopho-mores have Animal Kingdom, and freshmen have Epcot.Thus, the hall decorations ranged from a princess’s palace to the jungles of the Amazon, Epcot walkways to a glamourous movie studio in Hollywood.

Wednesday’s theme was pair day; students dressed up as a pair of something with a partner, such

as salt and pepper, or for juniors Emily Turner and Dasha Bonder-anko, the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood.

“Dasha’s always wanted to be red riding hood, and I happened to look like a wolf, so it worked out perfectly,” Turner said.

As a whole, Spirit Week has been a week of school spirit and fun.

“I just like seeing all the cool costumes and everyone dressing up and looking funny,” freshman Joy Carino said.

@shsjacketbuzz • 10-19-12News

COME SEE US!

Spirit week break from norm, students say

Anna Gaudin and friends walk back from lunch on Thursday of Spirit Week. Photo by Robert Dandass.

Underclassmen Homecoming Maids

Sophomore maids Megan Wolfe, Khris Carr, and Jaleesa Mobley. Photo by Robert Dandass.

Junior maids Alicia Carter, Jaime Coleman, Alex Ward Knight, and Pau-line Kelly. Photo by Robert Dandass.

Freshman maids Katelyn Jackson and Aubreonna Mitchell. Photo by Robert Dandass.


The Starkville High School Best Robotics team is facing a challenge nothing like their previous competition.

They must design, build and program a robot able to climb up a rope and deliver “cargo” into “space.”

“We can’t just take what we did last year and improve on it,” junior William Klein said. “We have to completely redesign everything.”

This new objective is mod-eled after a space elevator, a new technology being de-veloped to replace the space shuttle.

“I think the most difficult thing is figuring out how we’re going to get up into ‘space,’” engineer Sabrina Micha said. “But figuring out our strategy is just as difficult.”

The team’s obvious solution for climbing the rope was a pulley system, but they still needed a way to carry cargo. Eventually, they developed a circular wire device to pick up balls by pressing on them from above and trapping them inside. The contraption has an opening, so that when the arm makes a dunking mo-tion towards the bucket, the balls fall out.

More so than the issues with the robot, site of the com-petition was also changed; instead of Starkville High School, the competition is now being held at Armstrong Middle School.

This change is only an in-convenience to the Millsaps BEST team; the real prob-lem is some of the students competing in the competi-tion have to take the ACT that morning.

A sophomore and veteran team member, Micha finds herself caught in that very situation. A robot driver and “spotter” from last year, she has the experience to drive again. However, with the ACT in the morning, she doesn’t qualify to drive this year. Instead, junior Kelley Mazzola will take her place.

“Even though I won’t be able to spot or drive, I’ll still be in the stands supporting Kelley and the drivers,” Mi-cha said.

Despite these setbacks, the club looks forward to a good showing at competition.

By Jareth MurrellNews Writer

When the band and cheer-leaders went to Provine High School, they didn’t come home with everything they brought with them. Some-time during the third and fourth quarter of the game, assailants robbed their band and cheerleading buses.

“I was the first person to walk on the buses and I just saw that my stuff was on the floor,” SHS Drum Major Britton Walker said. “I had an emerald ring stolen, pearl earrings, a monogrammed bag and one of my shoes.”

Walker was among many that night left searching for their belongings. Among the items stolen, those included money, clothes, jewelry, credit cards, electronics, and other valuables. In total, the burglars stole around $3500 worth of items.

“We filed a police report and we are hoping that they are go-ing to pay retribution for the items that are stolen, but we haven’t heard from them yet,” band director Shawn Sullivan said.

The Jackson Public School’s security was there accom-panied by the Jackson Police Department to secure and monitor the game. The officers present told SHS directors and coaches that their buses would be in a secure, monitored area. This was only, however, after moving and relocating the ve-hicles multiple times.

“I still blame, just as I had voiced it to their officers that night that I think that it was a major breakdown in their communications system,” Starkville Police Officer and SHS Security Officer Sammy Shumaker said . “We were be-ing told different things even when we got there, and when asked, ‘Would somebody be out there to watch the buses?’ they told Mr. Sullivan ‘we’re

going to watch it, we are going to have somebody out here,’ and they didn’t do that.”

As to compensation, the sum would be paid by the Jack-son Public Schools in most cir-cumstances. That actually hap-pening, however, isn’t quite so set in stone.

“I doubt that that will hap-pen from JPS. I don’t think that there is a high likelihood that they will reimburse our students for their loss,” Shu-maker said. “I gave them my fax number here at the high school. I gave them my cell-phone number. As I expected, I never did hear anything or re-ceive anything from JPS.”

The band is now tightening their security on future trips.

“We’re going to buy a big lock box and put it in the truck and let everybody put their bags in that truck in the lock box,” Sullivan said. “And plus, we’re probably not go-ing to travel back to Hughes Field because even more so than the items that were stolen, I just didn’t feel like it was a very safe environ-ment.”

The environment was a ma-jor concern for the Starkville officers and is believed to have played its part.

“I would be opposed to us having to go there just be-cause of the neighborhood in general,” said Shumaker. “Different things have hap-pened there that I’m familiar with as a law enforcement of-ficer and it just really is not safe for any school to subject students there.”This trip has become a costly

learning experience for many SHS band and cheer students.

“I was kind of naïve with what could happen to me be-fore I had all my stuff stolen, so now I’m a lot more cautious with what I do with my purse and what I have in my purse,” Walker said.

SHS security is working to prevent this from happening again and will further warn students on future trips.

“For our students, any time we go on the road, keep things at a minimum,” Shumaker said. “Take no more than $10. I cer-tainly would not advise stu-dents to take large amounts of money, nor anything of value.”


Millsaps Robotics ready for competition at Regionals

Band, cheerleaders robbed at ProvinenMillsaps BEST

Robotics prepares for regionals, fac-ing challenges all the way.

““It makes me sad that there are people out there that would take advantage of a situation like that. -Britton Walker

CAD director junior Robert Bowdan puts the finishing touch to a SolidWorks assembly. The students of the club have to do things such as CAD drawings as documantation of their robots progress. Photo by Kelley Mazzola.

““We’ll get it done. It’s stressful, but we’ll do well at competi-tion.-Denise Adair


Jacket Buzz turns 20, staffers look back.

Advising SHS student newspapers not such an easy job

An excerpt of the front cover of the first edition of The Jacket Buzz. Shown is the first staff of the publica-tion. From left to right: Kelly Killcreas, Angie Barton, Aaron Sink, Rachel Price, Christy Jordan and Moira Brodnax. Archive photo.

Marcia Neal advised the staff of the Jacket Buzz from the fall of 1993 to spring of 2008. Then, she primarily advised the paper staff. Now, she teaches 9th grade English. Photo by Robert Dandass.

R.J. Morgan is the current advisor of the staff of the Jacket Buzz. Under his leadership, the publication and its staffers have won multiple awards from the Mississippi Scholastic Press Association, including first place in the Feature Writing catagory. Pictures by Robert Dandass.

““I enjoyed [advising the Jacket Buzz] for 15 years. It was stress-ful, but fun.-Marcia Neal

““Every day is a new set of challenges. It’s been really interesting to see the stories of SHS change. -R.J. Morgan

By Kelley Mazzola News Editor

Twenty years ago on Octo-ber 28th, nothing truly seemed out of the ordinary. However, on that day, the first edition of the SHS Jacket Buzz found its way into the hands of SHS stu-dents.

“It was the first school news-paper in a long while,” athletic director Stan Miller said. “Be-fore then, we only had an an-nual, but I felt like we needed a paper so I pulled it together.”

Miller, at the time, was prin-cipal of SHS and publisher of The Jacket Buzz. On the front cover of the first edition, there was even a story introducing him as the new principal of SHS.

Before The Jacket Buzz, how-ever, there was a newspaper, the Hi-Jacket. However, this newspaper seemingly stopped printing at the end of the 1989

school year. It isn’t clear why, but what is known is that the advisor for the Hi-Jacket, Carol Templeton, died in a car acci-dent after the discontinuation of the newspaper.

Even though The Hi-Jacket faded away, The Jacket Buzz found support with Miller and the staff of the Starkville Daily News.

Originally, there were five writers, a hodgpodge of seniors and juniors and all of them girls. Angie Barton, Kelly Kill-creas, Rachel Price, Christy Jordan and Moira Brodnax found that they had a home with the special education class in south wing. Shortly after they arranged for help from the Starkville Daily News, Aaron Sink “decided to be brave and join our clan of women report-ers”, as Barton wrote in her ar-ticle “The Birth of the ‘Buzz’”.

“It was really cool,” Sink said. “We would just talk about story

ideas, decided on it, get them done, turn them in, lay out of the paper, and go to print.”

Despite being surrounded by women and women are re-nowned for drama, Sink found that very little drama happened during the year.

“We were all friendly to one another,” Sink said. “There was a little something about dating a best friend and we got under each others skins a little, but it wasn’t anything major.”

Even though the skills of a journalist seemed one-dimen-sional at the time, Sink has al-ways seen his time on staff as a major learning experience.

“I’m in the restaurant busi-ness now, and people skills are a must,” Sink said. “Doing in-terviews then helps me now in everything I do in the work place. It developed my people skills and writing skills, which are invaluable in this day and age.”



The Starkville High School marching band went up to re-ceive their ratings in Grenada on Oct. 13.

“I think we finally had a great performance, a great trip. I’m very proud of the way they played and the way they marched,” band director Shawn Sullivan said. “The percussion scored a 95, the band scored straight superiors. They were the highest scores we’ve got since I’ve been here. It’s a good step to build onto next week’s contest in union and a busy week in homecoming.”

In addition to receiving such high scores, the band ranked as the second highest scoring band atfestival and continued a 5 year streak of superior ratings.

This festival became more than just another rating. This year’s class of senior band stu-dents is the first group of se-niors to achieve 4 straight years of superior ratings in their time under Sullivan.

“I’m really glad we got su-perior ratings across the board because we’ve been working really hard and honestly we deserve it,” senior trombonist and soloist Akane Little said. “Since this is the 4th year in a row that we’ve gotten superior ratings, it’s really a big deal for the school and for all of us.”

This accomplishment means

a lot for the band directors.“The program is getting bet-

ter and we keep growing and building, keeping quality kids in here,” Sullivan said.

The SHS band and its band directors hope to see the par-ents and students of SHS on Friday nights as they perform their superior-winning show “The Sounds of Mississippi.”


The Starkville High School choir will perform in Oxford on October 20th.

“It is a choral festival where a lot of different choirs will be competing for rat-ing,” choir director Regina Weeks said. “And there will be a sweepstakes trophy too for the overall best perfor-mance.”

Last year, their first time at this competition, they only sang in one big choir, this time, they will sing in a mixed choir, an SATB choir, and a madrigal group. The group hopes to gain some in-sight for the upcoming year.

“I think this year is a tran-sition,” sophomore Kathleen Ritter said. “So, since this is our first competition, we can see how we are going to im-prove for state.”

On the topic of a transition year, Weeks does have one reservation.

“The four by four schedule greatly decreased the number

of male students in the choir,” Weeks said.

Madison Buntin agrees with Weeks, citing her experience in madrigals.

“The four-by-four really af-fects madrigals because half our class is in band,” Butin said. “They had to split the block and they just don’t get to the learn the songs and don’t know them as well.”

At competition, the SHS choir groups will perform mainly just for points, hoping to get superior, between 90 and 100.

“We’re performing in front of three judges to get their opinion about our perfor-mance and just take some constructive criticism about things we might need to come back and perfect and work on in detail,” Weeks said. “So

we’re really going there for a rating.”

With the scores from all the schools, the judges will determine who will move on to the next level to compete again.

“I’m kind of nervous,” ju-nior Allison Crow said. “But I think we’ll perform really well when it comes down to it.”

Weeks feels that her choir will do well, despite ner-vousnes and agitation among choir members.

“They have to remember their good performance eth-ics,” Weeks said. “If they have a good work ethic then its going to be evident to the jugdges that they have done well and polished work.”

Sophomore Morgan Ballard has a few doubts about their performance.

“I don’t think we’re going to do as well as last year,” Bal-lard said. “They’re really hard pieces.”

“We’re going to get all su-periors,” Buntin said.

Band scores superior fourth year in a row

Choir ready for Festival rating, prepared for best

The band performing at the Hawaiian pep rally before the Noxebee game. Photo by Alicia Carter.

pChoirTomorrow, All day,

Oxford, MS.

Festival

Hobart, Ousley save Jacket

Jace Hobart and Jared Ousely find the yellow jacket outside the Cobb Institute on MSU campus. The search took two days, but the sophomores earned their points on this one. “It was hard,” Ousely said. Contributed photo.


On Wednesday, Keith Fen-nel announced that the Yellow Jacket had been found.

The Yellow Jacket was found at the Cobb Institute on Mis-sissippi State University cam-pus by sophomores Jace Ho-bart and Jared Ousely.

“Students seem to enjoy the competition,” said Fennell. “Groups of friends always get together and wait each day for the next clue.”

This time, however, mem-bers of the sophomore class decided that waiting for the next day’s clue wouldn’t be necessary and got together to formulate where the Yellow Jacket was.

“The second day is when we figured it out,” sophomore Kristen Lacy said. “We fig-ured it had to do with colise-ums and Roman architecture, so we thought it had to be at on campus. We had a lot of time to think about it during swim practice.”

Sophomores Kristen Lacy, Sarah Byrd, and Laken Vick-ers came together as a group during their swim practices to figure out where the Yellow Jacket was.

During one of these swim pratices, they told Jace Ho-bart and Jared Ousley their theory.

“We went to Allen Hall at first because that’s where we thought it was,” Sarah Byrd said. “It’s a big building on

campus, and a lot of impor-tant people go into Allen Hall. And it’s on the Drillfield. Me, Laken Vickers, and Kristen Lacy were running at swim practice, so we ran to Allen Hall. We were going to swim so we couldn’t go look for it. So we thought we might as well tell them.”

Hobart and Ousley heard about it and went looking for the Yellow Jacket on Tuesday.

“It was at the Cobb Insti-tute,” Hobart said.

Finding the Jacket was diffi-cult, according to Ousley, but they still managed to find it.

“This really helps us out,” said Hobart. “We’re really go-ing to give the seniors a run for their money.”


Starkville High School’s theater department puts on a musical every spring with auditions typically in Janu-ary, but this year auditions will be on November 8 and 9.

Drama teacher Jessica Tay-lor believes that the earlier they start the better.

This is Taylor’s first year teaching at Starkville High school. However, she knew from the start that she en-joyed her position.

“When I started college, I knew I wanted to be a the-ater teacher,” Taylor said. “It was always a way to be inv-oled with it and show others the joy of being on stage.”

While the play and musi-cal are her first productions with Starkville High School, she has always emersed her-self in theater.

“I’ve done an excessive amount of theater work at MSU and community the-aters,” Taylor said. “I’ve been in over 100 produc-tions since I started when I was five.”

To the issue at hand, Taylor feels that earlier set of audi-tion dates only help the de-partment.

“We want to go ahead and get this started earlier with earlier rehersals,” Tay-lor said. “You get to have an earlier show, which pre-vents conflicts with band and choir.”

Thespians president senior Elizabeth Underwood sec-onds the motion.

“It’s a really good change, and I think we can probably

get a lot more stuff done with more time,” Under-wood said.

Many of the younger thes-pians also feel that the new change is good.

“If she feels that it needs to be earlier for us to have more time and to better im-prove the performance, then I support 100 percent,” thes-pian sophomore Brannon Godwin said.

The earlier schedule gives cast members more time to memorize lines, but some fear that the festival show, “The Insanity of Mary Gi-rard,” could interfere with musical plans.

“I think people could mix up lines with the festival show with the musical,” Amanda Miller said.

If the cast and crew of this year’s festival show take the

production further in the competition, things could get tricky.

“The schedules are just go-ing to have to be organized well,” thespian senior Akane Little said.

The thespians have had to deal with a festival and musical show falling at the same time, so it is nothing they don’t know how to deal with.

“We just have to budget the rehearsal times,” thes-pian senior David McKell said.



Starkville High School’s DECA organization attended a conference in Natchez on September 24. The Starkville group left their event well trained in leadership skills, business management, and teamwork.

“We learned what the whole point of DECA is and what a great honor it is,” ju-nior Jordan Harmon said.

The conference featured several teambuilding exer-cises to unite all the DECA chapters in DECA.

DECA is an organiza-tion for the future business

owners and marketers of America, and is dedicated to improving the education of young people pursuing a ca-reer in business.

“It’s marketing, econom-ics and business skills that we learn, they can be used in anything,” junior Reagan Hunt said. “You’ll use those skills for the rest of your life.

At the conference, the club also learned about an upcom-ing spring competition.

“We have role play, and they give you a situation and you have to explain what you would do professionally in that business situation,” Hunt said. “Then you have differ-ent categories all pertaining to business. It’s a lot.”

This competition is an op-portunity for DECA mem-bers to demonstrate their business abilities with per-formances, a written exam

and presentations. Students may work by

themselves or in groups of two or three to effectively demonstrate their business management skills, which can be anything from pre-senting with a tri fold board to designing a store front.

“DECA is a really good club for students to be in-volved in,” junior Breanna Cummings said.

To junior Logan Schaefer, this conference was a little more that a learning experi-ence.

“Meeting new people was the funnest part of the trip,” Schaefer said. “Overall, it was a fun learning experi-ence.

The SHS DECA chapter became skilled at commu-nication, marketing, and in-teractions with new people. They feel more prepared for the business world.

Musical auditions in November, while Festival in December

DECA headed down south for conferencenDECA students learn a lot from recent conference in Natchez, MS.

nWith new teacher’s direction, thespi-ans kick their productions into high gear earlier with high approval rating. pTheater

Thursday-Friday, Novem-ber 8-9th, 3:15 p.m.,

Theater

Musical Auditions

Healthcare

SHS hosts mock election

Voter apathyELECTION 2012 Some of this year’s biggest

topics and how they affect SHS

By Rex Ames Marketing Director

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have very different positions on the ways education funding should be spent. As the cost of a college educa-tion rises, students across the nation are struggling to pay tuition.

The Associated Press has reported that from 2008 to 2010, the cost of tuition rose 15 percent for public universities.

More than 37 million Americans owe student debt, and a majority of students take on loans to attend college. Obama and Romney have agreed on the extending of the interest rate on federal loans, which had been set to increase from 3.4 to 6.8 percent on July 1.

Obama says he plans to increase student funding to need-based Pell Grants, which don’t have to be repaid. Obama’s biggest proposal would boost federal investment to the Perkins loan program from $1 billion dollars to $8 billion dollars.

Romney has also expressed a preference for redistributing aid dollars toward some of the neediest of students. But Romney has also endorsed a sweeping budget plan his running mate Paul Ryan has laid out that would make deep cuts to domestic spending, which includes education. This would limit the number of students who would be eligible for Pell Grants. Romney himself has said he wants to “refocus Pell Grant dollars on the students that need them most,” aiming to avoid future spending issues.

The President has said that colleges need to work to contain costs and not rely on tuition increases in the absence of state government funding. If the colleges do not, then Obama said they could lose federal money.

Obama vs. Romney:Education


On October 30 and 31 Starkville High School will host its own mock presidential election to give its un-derage students a chance to voice political opinions.

“It is very important to me,” Se-nior Rex Ames said. “As a student, I see this as an opportunity for me to say ‘stand up for what you believe in.’”

The mock elec-tion has gotten students interest-ed in politics and how the upcoming election can af-fect them and their school.

“Obama would want more science and math teachers, and Romney thinks the government should have more control over each school,” freshman Lakendrea Young said. “So depend-ing on who takes office, the schools could change dra-matically.”

The vote calls for a certain level of maturity and un-derstanding of current events for it to be an accurate representation of the real election, and some fear that SHS students won’t take this elec-

tion seriously enough.“They’ll just put down whoever

they see first,” junior Dasha Bond-arenko said.

But it is still worth having the election for the students’ ex-perience.

“It’s a good idea because it’ll get peo-ple used to having to vote in later years,” sophomore Skyler Runnels said.

The mock election is an opportunity for the SHS students to become a contribut-ing part of society and share their opin-ion on the affairs of the country.

“I think the stu-dents at SHS like having their own little election,” sophomore Sammira Rais-Rohani

said. “Some students, like me, are still underage, so this is a good op-portunity for us to express our views of the election and experience the voting process.”


In today’s world, nearly half of the eligible voters in the United States do not vote. That democratic turnout is among the lowest in the developed democratic countries. Though there has been an improvement in voting since 2008, in many areas, the non-voting population has grown.

One of the reasons why people don’t vote is because they simply can’t. If a person is very ill or disabled enough to not be able to leave their home, they tend to not be able to vote. An exception to this would be if someone were to bring them their ballot, however this is not a common practice. In turn, those in a mental in-stitution are also ineligible to vote. Felons and resident aliens are also disqualified from voting. A smaller number of so named “cannot-voters” do not vote because of their religious views or because of their sudden traveling. All of these people actually only represent a fraction of the total number of non-voters.

The majority of actual non-voters do not ac-tually have any limitation restricting their right to vote. Many of those who do not vote tend to feel alienated or are simply content with the way things are, but that does not represent all non-voters. A very large number of non-voters, particularly within the younger community, are apathetic, or uncaring, about politics.

Reasons for these voting gaps range from re-ligious and ethnic backgrounds to income and occupation and from party identification to the candidates and issues themselves. The more

prevalent issues that tend to generate non-vot-ers revolve around education and family. An ap-athetic family tends to have apathetic children, and children to who do vote tend to vote with their parents. Those with not as much access to education or knowledge about politics and cur-rent event tend to be disinterested in politics in general. Similarly, people who do not like any candidate or care for any candidate’s po-sitions also tend to not care about politics as much as they would if they had a candidate that they liked.

And those that do vote also are affected by factors such as long ballots, weather, long lines at the polls, time zone fallout and ballot fatigue. Time zone fallout, which is when elections are called in earlier time zones and people stop voting because of this, and ballot fatigue, which is the practice of voting less the more localized voting is, are 2 of the more major factors that affect turn out.

With all this, the democratic process in this country is not functioning quite as originally hoped. According to many political scientists, voter apathy is one of the greatest factors af-fecting elections in the United States. Because voter apathy is so wide-spread, not everyone’s opinions are represented and outcomes occur that many are not in favor of that might not have happened, if more citizens had voted.

Starkville High School is currently running a “Promote the Vote” campaign and registering eligible Starkville High School students to vote. This is all in an effort to fight against the pro-jected decline in voting and the rise in voter apathy.

As nation-wide voter apathy increases, less and less Americans vote


The Affordable Care Act brought forth by the cur-rent administration is something that, though argued to be beneficial, is met with extreme criticism. More importantly, the majority of the people criticizing the act support a majority of the provisions in the Afford-able Care Act. Here in Mississippi, this is particularly evident.

Most of the criticism comes from the belief that the act gets between patients and their doctors. Through the amount of regulation, one might think that, but it is not the case. The act specifically protects patients’ choice of doctors. The act also provides for the fund-ing for the National Health Corps to provide scholar-ships and loan repayments for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers who work in underserved areas. The majority of the regulation falls onto insur-ance companies.

Insurance companies will now not be able to ex-clude those with preexisting conditions. They can’t drop coverage from people who are sick, and this protects roughly 124,000 Mississippians. They can’t place lifetime limits on their coverage, this would en-sure the 1.3 million Mississippi residents that their private insurance coverage wouldn’t run out or that they would have to pay out of pocket. Insurance plans’ use of annual limits will be tightly regulated to ensure access to needed care protecting 1.2 million residents with health insurance from their employer, along with anyone who signs up with a new insurance plan in Mississippi. Also, insurers will have to develop

an appeals process to make it easy for enrollees to dispute the denial of a medical claim. Not all provi-sions fall directly on insurance companies, though.

Coverage will also come to early retirees. On June 1, 2010, a $5 billion temporary early retiree reinsur-ance program began to help stabilize early retire cov-erage and help ensure that firms continue to provide health coverage to their early retires. State and local governments, companies, and unions are eligible for these benefits.

The act also works to close the “Medicare Part D Donut Hole,” a gap in coverage that makes Medicare providers pay out of pocket. The act not only sets up a way to fully close the gap by 2020, but it also has given a $250 rebate check to those who hit the gap.

For over 34,700 small businesses in Mississippi, they could be helped by given a tax credit that makes it easier to provide coverage to their own works and make premiums more affordable. There is also fund-ing provided for Mississippi’s 178 community health centers, as well as for that of the construction of fu-ture ones.

Due to this act, for the first time, Mississippi has the option of Federal Medicaid funding for all low-income populations, irrespective of age, disability, or family status.

Even with all these benefits, there is still a heavy opposition to the act, which has already been in ef-fect for some time now. When polled, both those in favor and those against have repeatedly supported the provisions within the act. Yet, at the same time, the opposition remains, even by those who are directly or indirectly benefiting from it.

Obama’s healthcare: What it is, what it does, what

it means

$8,200The yearly income a Mississippi family of three cannot exceed to receive Medicaid. Obama’s healthcare plan would extend the limit. However, Mississippi governor Dolph Bryant rejects the extension because of the additional financial burden on the state.

.

70 million.The approximate number of Americans currently receiving Medic-aid.

7 million.How many more Americans Medicaid is estimated to cover by 2014 under Obama’s healthcare plan.

14 - 27 million.The number of Americans that the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foun-dation estimate would lose coverage under vice presidential candi-date Paul Ryan’s proposed 2011 budget plan.

$26,600The average student loan debt of the class of 2011.

.8.3 percentThe average 2011 - 2012 increase of tuition at public universities.

.4.5 percentThe average 2011 - 2012 increase of tuition at private colleges.

.34 percentHow much college enrollment increased amongst students under 25 from 2000 to 2010.

.

62 percentThe percentage of voters who cast a ballot in the 2008 election, the highest since 1968.

.

56.5 percentThe average percentage of active voters in Presidential elec-tions since 1988.

.

52.9 percentMississippi’s average Presidential election voter turnout since 2000, one of the lowest in the nation. Mississippi’s voter turn-out is perpetually low.

.

““As a student, I see this as my opportunity to say “stand up for what you believe in.-Rex Ames

pMock ElectionOctober 30 - 31

Starkville High School

Vote casting

51 percentThe percentage of 18 through 19 year-olds who voted in the 2008 Presidential election.

.20.9 percentThe percentage of 18 through 19 year-olds who voted in the 2010 general election.

. 35.5 percentThe percentage of Mississippi voters who participated in the 2010 general elections, again one of the lowest turnouts in the nation.

.

The editorial below is a written collaboration among all members of the Jacket Buzz staff. Ideas expressed represent the majority opinion of the students.

Cullom McCormickEditor-in-Chief

Kelley MazzolaNews Editor

Jordan CohenYearbook Editor

Rex AmesMarketing Director

Robert DandassPhotography Editor

Aaron RemotigueSports Editor

R.J. MorganAdviser

Jareth MurrellAshley RudeAngela WhiteAvery CohenColin DammsAlicia CarterShelby Adair

Staff Members

Editorial • 10-19-12 shsjacketbuzz.com Opinion

A government for the people, by the people cannot function if the people do not participate. Voting is how Americans exercise their lib-erties and change their world for the better.

If the majority of Americans fail to vote, then we cannot expect our leaders to represent what the country wants. Voter apathy is how states elect people like Arkansas Representative Charles Fuqua, who endorses a death penalty for rebellious children. We end up electing people like Congressman John Hubbard, who describes slavery as a blessing.

These men serve in office right now. Because of voter apathy, we have men who support putting children to death and revere the goods of slavery – we have these men shaping laws that we must live by.

A popular excuse for not voting is that one vote doesn’t matter. History proves this wrong. If Thomas E. Dewey had gotten just a few more precinct votes in 1948, then President Harry S. Truman likely would’ve lost the election because of Dewey’s favorable reputation in the House. However, Republicans could’ve easily gotten Dewey in the White House – however, most of them stayed home on voting day because they assumed he could win without their vote. If just a few precinct votes had gone differently in 1960, then John F. Kennedy

would’ve never been President. These small communities had the power to change history with just a handful of individual votes.

Furthermore, voting is how Americans ensure that the government is working for what the American people want and not what rich Senators and Congressmen want. If leaders did not have to worry about the public’s approval of them, then they could advance their own agendas however they wanted. Our system prevents that. But because so few people vote, these leaders are still only working for a small part of the population. Because most people don’t vote, our leaders are not what the entire nation wants.

Not voting is letting someone else decide aspects of your life for you. If a man hates Barack Obama and denounces the way he runs the country, then why should he sit back and let people on the other side of the country reelect a man who will perpetuate the healthcare this person hates and a foreign policy he can’t stand? Why should a woman who despises Mitt Romney’s economic proposals and depends upon Obama’s healthcare let strangers force the President out of office?

If you are of age to vote, do it. If you are old enough to vote but haven’t registered, do it. No one can change the country like a voting American.

Voter apathy inexcusable

The Jacket Buzz is published three times each semester by the Journalism

Department at Starkville High School. The Jacket Buzz is a student-run

publication committed to providing SHS with objective information.

The Jacket Buzz serves SHS as a forum for student expression. Opinions

expressed are those of students and don’t reflect the views of others in

the Starkville School Distict. Content decisions are made by student edi-

tors, and factual errors will be corrected by a retraction in the next issue.

Letters to the Editor are accepted and published, excluding those that

are deemed libelous or disruptive. Unsigned letters will not be published,

and all are subject to editing. Please email all letters and comments to

[email protected].

Statement of Policy

Education vital to economic improvement

Mississippi is the poorest state. This isn’t news for anyone because we have grown up hearing it, but it isn’t good that we have become so used to it.

The fact that we have been stuck in this rut of poverty since the end of reconstruction rests solely on the fiscal irresponsibility of policy makers.

I’m not talking about squandering away millions on pointless things because a lot of the things policy makers spend money on are necessary, but we do need to prioritize better.

In order to improve our local economy we need to raise the status of our schools. Education is the biggest factor affecting the future of our students, our communities and our states; however, our schools are underfunded and teachers underpaid.

The average salary of a teacher in Mississippi is $41,975 compared to the $64,509 earned by the average Illinois teacher. In 2011, 79 percent of eighth graders had a reading skill of below profi-cient according to the Annie E. Casey Founda-tion. Mississippi is listed on the ACT’s website as the state with the lowest average ACT score with a grand total of 18.9. This is just one point above the minimum requirement to get into Mississippi State University.

While we are on the topic of universities, less than 20 percent of Mississippians have a bachelor’s degree, which is the third worst in the nation ac-cording to Statemaster.com.

How are we supposed to attract more talented

teachers to our state when they are so underpaid? [Granted that Starkville High School gets more teachers because we are in a college town.]

The problem is that, while Starkville High School produces a good amount of quality of students, these students all decide to leave to seek better aca-demic colleges out of state. Businesses then look at the status level of the schools in the area and decide to set up shop somewhere else. Why? Because busi-nesses want to set up where there is a well-educat-ed work force to draw from.

The goal of local policy makers should be to im-prove local public schools to produce better high school students. In turn, we should look to improv-ing state colleges such as Mississippi State Univer-sity, University of Mississippi and University of Southern Mississippi to encourage the bright stu-dents we do produce to stick around. This should attract a variety of better businesses that graduates of the newly advanced institutions will work for.

REMOTIGUE WAY

AARON REMOTIGUE

Makeyour voice

No one can express

like you can. Send a tweet to @shsjacketbuzz or an email to [email protected] to show us what you

think of issues that are important to you. We just might print it.

heard.your views

9.1 percent.Mississippi’s unemployment rate, the tenth highest in the nation.18.9 percent.The percentage of Mississippians with a bachelor’s degree.83 percent.The percentage of Mississippians over 25with a high school diploma.

Gun controlPRO

@shsjacketbuzz • 10-19-12Opinion

Gay marriage

U.S. PresidentHealthcare

By Angela WhiteSports Writer

Gay marriage should not be legalized. As a Christian, I believe the Bible is an absolute truth, and God says that He created man and woman in His image and for each other so that a man shall leave his mother and father and unite with his wife.

God also says that homosexual activity is an abomination to Him, thus I believe mar-riage should be a sacred ritual shared only between a man and a woman, just as God designed it to be.

Am I saying that homosexuals should be discriminated against or persecuted? No, definitely not. Besides, it is debatable if merely being a homosexual is in and of itself a sin.

However, homosexual relations are indeed a sin. But the Bible also clearly states that Christians should hate the sin but love the sinner.

The separation of church and state is very important. However, my state must also re-spect the values of my religion. Therefore, I do not believe that homosexuals should be allowed to marry.

By Colin DammsSports Writer

“All human beings are born free and equal in dig-nity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

This is the first article in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The last time I checked, gay people are human. This fact alone should be enough to ensure gay rights. Unfortunately, the separation of church and state, established by the Enlightenment-inspired founding fathers, has not held.

Despite America being predominately Christian, our founding fathers were Deists who valued rea-son and the natural world over organized religion.

Religion has no place in government. Marriage is a legal institution, according to the separation of church and state. Gay couples are denied legal ben-efits such as hospital visitation rights and tax breaks that are granted to heterosexuals.

38 states don’t allow gay marriage, and 18 states do not protect gays from hate crimes. Mississippi is in both groups.

Since “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” gays should be allowed to marry and be protected from discrimination.

CONBy Kelley MazzolaNews Editor

Despite talk of firearm control laws, gun con-trol laws are illegal due to our Constitution.

Several years after the Revolutionary War, two groups of our Founding Fathers formed: the Anti-Federalists and the Federalists. The Federalists wanted to add several amendments to the Constitution, while the anti-Federalists said nay. However, the Federalists won out, and ten amendments, known to us as the Bill of Rights. The second amendment reads thusly:

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be in-fringed.”

Despite the technicality of “Should it be only Militias or just the ordinary Joe living in Soho?” (as dissected by lawyers and judges for the past two centuries in multiple court cases), the Supreme Court has affirmed that the Second Amendment does allow ordinary citizens to bear arms. The most recent affirmation of this right was in the ruling of McDonald vs. Chica-go, which repealed the ban on handguns in Chi-cago on the grounds of violation of the second amendment and the fourteenth amendment.


The Affordable Care Act is something that should stay in effect.

It protects those with preexisting conditions from being denied insurance and extends cov-erage for children under their parent’s medi-cal plans to 26 or until they get insurance of their own.

It also prohibits dishonest insurance prac-tices and makes it harder for insurance com-panies to deny medical claims. It provides a temporary early retiree reinsurance program to help stabilize early retiree coverage.

It also provides a stimulus for the providing medical coverage for the uninsured and pro-vides an option for federal Medicaid funding for all low-income populations, respective of age, disability or family status.

For small businesses it provides tax cuts to make medical coverage affordable and easier. It closes funding gap and provides funding for community health centers and those working as and for healthcare providers. All of these provisions will benefit the country and should stay in place.

The Affordable Care Act is an effective solu-tion to the healthcare dilemma and deserves to remain in effect.

By Jordan CohenYearbook Editor

I am pro gun control. Contrary what the Na-tional Rifle Association will tell you, I don’t think that the government should go door to door removing all guns from every home in America. There is a place for guns in this coun-try, and this place is in the instances self-de-fense and hunting. These are both valid means by which guns can be beneficial to society.

However, it is outside of these uses where I become concerned.

According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fishing and Parks, it is illegal to use automatic weapons while hunting. And, in the instance of self-defense, an AK-47 seems a bit extreme in lieu of a handgun. So, why is it legal to purchase automatic weapons in the United States? What productive purpose do they serve?

I believe in our second amendment right to bear arms. I believe that there are instances when firearms can be a productive and nec-essary part of society. But automatic weapons have no such benefits and are therefore detri-mental to the welfare of this country and its citizens.

By Cullom McCormickEditor-in-Chief

Barack Obama has helped the American econ-omy regenerate to a 7.8 percent unemployment rate, the lowest since his inauguration.

His American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or “the stimulus” as it is bitingly referred to, has a bad reputation because of conservative mass media slandering it at every turn, often not for fiscal reasons, but for petty partisan politics.

The act saved 2.5 million jobs, helped the economy grow by about 3.8 percent and slowed unemployment. $1.5 billion of the act funded rent subsidies and emergency housing, shel-tering 1.2 million people and preventing mass homelessness. Its boosts to food stamps and Medicaid kept over seven million Americans out of poverty.

Solyndra is a popular example of the act’s sup-posed misguidance with clean energy, but Con-gressional reports state that only four of the 28 funded clean energy projects involved compa-nies that were sold or out of business.

Contrary to popular belief, most workers got tax cuts out of this act. Only about 10 percent noticed this in their paychecks because of the Obama administration’s poor self-marketing.

By Shelby AdairStaff Marketer

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, informally known as “Obama Care” is bad for the United States. The Affordable Care Act aims to provide universal health care for all Americans. While this is a lofty ideal, doctors will be required to spend less time with patients, people will wait longer to receive basic healthcare and fewer stu-dents will want to be doctors due to salary cuts.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services predicts that the number of patients re-ceiving Medicare will increase by 36 percent over the next ten years. The number of physicians will increase by seven percent. This shortage of doc-tors means less time with patients, and therefore more undetected heart diseases, cancers, etc.

The quality of medical care will fall because the incentive for profit will have lessened. This act discourages potential medical students from pursuing the profession because of longer hours with less pay. The percentage of patients sup-ported by government-funded Medicare must increase under the Affordable Health Care Act. Many physicians, especially those specializing in fields such as heart disease and cancer treatment say the amount of money rebated by the federal government under the current Medicare system does not meet their costs of treatment.

PRO CON

RomneyObamaPRO CONBy Rex AmesMarketing Director

I think the man for the job of highest of-fice in the land is governor Mitt Romney from Massachusetts.

Over the past four years our national debt has nearly doubled. President Obama said he would decrease it in half, but that hasn’t hap-pened. Mitt Romney with make that one of his top priorities. But the main focus during this election is jobs. Mitt Romney was a busi-nessman, and he would know how to create jobs for the American people. One of his top goals to get “tough” on China.

Governor Romney also wants to contain gas prices. One main thing Romney is known for is campaigning for the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or Obam-acare. Although I think it very important that every American be covered with insurance for medical bills, I do not want the federal gov-ernment telling that I need to buy a type of insurance.

This year’s election will be a very close race. I just want the best for America’s future. That’s why I believe Mitt Romney is the best candidate for the job.

• 10-19-12 shsjacketbuzz.com Sports

Lechiem|Avery Cohen

As a resident of the Deep South, many people don’t believe me when I tell them I’m a vegetarian. They sim-ply cannot contemplate the fact that I consciously decided to go over a year without (intentionally) eating meat. It’s like I just told them that I went a year without something vital, like oxygen or chocolate. The look on their faces at this point usually goes from disbelief to pity. Poor girl, they think, having to resist all this amazing barbeque that Mississippi is famous for.

So then comes the inevi-table question: why?

Well, I’m glad they ask. I have a lot of people tell me that being a vegetarian is the worst thing I can do to my body as an athlete.

I disagree. Being a veg-etarian detoxifies your whole body and can lower

your risk of some cancers, diabetes, high cholesterol, stroke and hypertension. More interestingly, the di-rector and president for the Preventive Medicine Re-search did a study on veg-etarianism that concluded that obese individuals could lose as much as 24 pound in their first year of being vetetarian.

Also, tofu is a very effec-tive and healthy way to re-ceive the protein my body needs to maintain and cre-ate muscle.

On that note, a lot of people are automatically grossed out by the thought of tofu. I was, too, until I realized that it tastes exact-ly like whatever you cook it in. It’s pretty much just a flavorless block of protein, but when cooked right, can actually taste pretty good.

I love being a vegetar-ian (or as my friends call me, a “veggie”), because it makes me feel great. I can still eat a lot of what I did before I was a vegetarian also (cookies, brownies, ice cream, etc.).

So I challenge you, stu-dents of SHS, to go “veggie” for just one week, a day, or like my sister, an hour. It’s not as bad as you think, and you’ll feel great.

Vegetarianism a healthy choice

Biloxi approaches for swim teamBy Colin DammsSports Writer

The Starkville High School swim team is preparing to compete for a lane at the State Meet in Biloxi on October 25 by moving on this weekend at the North State competition.

The swim team has been improving all season for the chance to win at state, but how far have they come in the past few years?

“I remember feeling really scared because there were just a couple people my age and a lot of older kids,” senior swimmer Barrett Higginbotham said. “Its pretty cool being the older kid now.”

Senior Victoria Hearn is back on the team for the first time after taking a couple years off. “Its different now that I’m an older kid seeing younger swim-mers in the position I was in

a couple years ago,” Hearn said. “It’s cool being in more of a leadership role with my friends.”

“We’ve been gradually im-proving, and a lot of the credit is due to our Coaches,” Higgin-botham said. “Coach Hobart is strict, but she’s good.”

Senior Captain David McK-ell transferred from Starkville Academy just before his Junior year, and has fit in very well with the team. “It was easy to fit in,” McKell said, “I already knew most of the team from Shockwave, and the ones I didn’t know were very friend-ly.”

The swim team is preparing for this Saturday’s North State Meet in Jackson against other 5-A opponents such as Oxford. The swim team has been able to move on to State the past few years and are looking to achieve more at the State level

Soccer builds for another ringBy Colin DammsSports Writer

Starkville High School’s boys soccer team will kick off their season this fall trying to de-fend their state championship and rebuild a team that lost six starting seniors.

Goalkeeper Addison Watson, defenders Austin Wileman, Justin Gandy and J.R. Tomlin-son, midfielder Kase Kingery and striker Price Day will not be available on coach Brian Bennett’s team sheet this sea-son.

These are huge spots left to fill by the coaching staff with new and younger players.

Returning starters such as sophomore Juan Slazar, junior Justin Gordon and seniors Tay-lor Wise and Dylan Howard will help restore the team.

Wise’s style of play on and off the ball uses his advantages of height and skillful footwork to move past defenders.

Gordon uses speed and power to break into scoring position in the last third of

the field. He can be used as a striker, attacking midfielder or winger.

Howard may be smaller than the average central midfielder, but his ability to pick out a pass has set up many scoring oppor-tunities for the jackets.

Salazar is a winger with speed

and quick footwork. With good passing and finishing ability he solidified his spot in the start-ing 11 as a sophomore.

Charlie Henderson, the only returning starter on defense, is a stout centre back who can overpower forwards and catch up to attackers on the run.

The boys soccer team has a tough task ahead of them, but with returning starters and im-proving younger talents they are looking to contend for the state title once again.

Practices start this week in preparation for the season opener in early November.

Center Charlie Henderson takes control of the ball in last years play off game against Rideland. Photo by Victoria Hearn

Sophomore Jared Ousley swims the breast stroke. Photo by Victoria Hearn

@shsjacketbuzz • 10-19-12Sports

!

!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

!

100 Russell Street Suite 9 Starkville

662-323-9771

! @COSTUMEPARTYMS /COSTUMEPARTYMS

!

!

!

Q&A with SchaeferBy Angela WhiteSports Writer

Blair Schaefer is a junior basketball player who moved from College Sta-tion, Texas to Starkville this summer. Her father is the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Missis-sippi State University.

This will be Blaire Schaefer’s first season with the team, and she says

that she is all ready meshing well with her teammates.

What position did you play on your basketball team in Texas?

Backup point guard and shooting guard.

How has your parents being coaches helped you through-out your career thus far?

They help me a lot when I work out, and since my dad is a coach and my mom coaches me now, they both coach me.

Do you like having coaches as parents?

Yes, I like it. It is hard sometimes, but it is helpful in the end.

How did you feel when your parents told you that you were moving to Mississippi?

New experiences are always cool. I was sad to leave my friends, but I knew that new opportunities would come. It was exciting.

Are there things that you are having to learn to do differ-ently?

I have had to learn how to say things the right way so that (my team) will respond to me in a positive way. Be-ing the point guard, I have to be a leader. I have to learn how to help teach (my teammates) while I’m im-proving myself.

What do you expect from yourself and your team this season?

I want to become a better point guard and lead our team far this year.

Softball season endsBy Avery CohenSports Writer

Although the slow pitch softball season was short, it was a learning experience.

“I definetly think if we would have had more time to improve, we would have been better,” Sophomore Iyunna Clark said.

There is still hope for the team in future seasons. Clark added that they have a “young team”, and a little improve-ment can go a long way.

The softball players won’t be down for long though, be-cause the fastpitch season is just around the corner. Last

year, the fast pitch team had a record of 3-12, not making a playoff game. The softball team will start playing again in the spring, leaving more time for the improvement Clark was hoping for.

By Aaron RemotigueSports Editor

As the Starkville High School Yellow Jacket volleyball season comes to a close, the Jackets can take pride in the fact that they have gone another season undefeated in their district.

After a stellar regular sea-son, the Yellow Jackets fell short during their first playoff game last Saturday to Center Hill.

The Yellow Jackets have not lost a game in district play since entering the 5A district in 2011. The Jackets have two district championships under their belt, and Senior Michaela Mills has been on the team for both championships.

“This season was absolute-ly the best season I’ve ever had,” Mills said. “I’m going to miss playing with [the team]. The other seniors and I have formed a great friendship. The fact that we went undefeated for so long was very awesome. We beasted.”

This being Michaela’s senior season she has a challenge she leaves behind to her team-mates.

“The girls will have to work on being and playing like a

team,” Mills said. “The upcom-ing seniors will have to step up and take responsibility for their teammates.”

Barksdale played libero, which is the defensive special-ist, for the Yellow Jackets. This meant that she remained on the back row awaiting deep serves or shots.

“We ended the season amaz-ing,” Barksdale said. “We worked harder than ever be-fore and it paid off. We have been practicing since the spring for this season.”

The Jackets overcame a major problem this season

with Head Coach Love, but it wasn’t a problem that one might expect.

We have pushed through not having a coach because of pregnancy,” Barksdale said.

“This year we took the pro-gram farther than it has ever een efore in the history of SHS Volleyball, thanks to our coach.

Barksdale assures readers that she is all ready applying for next season

Now junior Vivian Barks-dale will be waiting her turn to step up as a leader for the Yellow Jackets.

VB undefeated in district for second straight season

Courtney Hollis awaits the pitch from the Columbus Falcons. Photo by Victoria Hearn

Seniors Jamiyah Covington (4), Stacy Young (15), and Michaela Mills (11) show off their number. Photo by Alicia Carter

• 10-19-12 shsjacketbuzz.com Sports

$1 SCOOPS ON TUESDAYS!

Fair toughs out senior seasonBy Angela WhiteSports Writer

David Fair, like many of the seniors on the SHS football team, started playing ball early in life.

He joined the Starkville Raiders team because his dad played football and he wanted to ‘try it out.’

Soon after joining the team, football took over Fair’s life.

“Now, the game is more of a passion for me,” Fair said. “It’s something I love to do. It’s something I wake up to do. Then, it was running around and having fun, now it’s ‘we have to win,’ and that’s ev-erything. You want to play to win.”

With this passion for foot-ball, Fair began to follow in his father’s footsteps and, just like his father, Fair tore his ACL. Fair has now torn his ACL three times.

The last time his ACL was torn was during the Yellow Jacket’s match up against Mad-ison Central this season. Since injuring his knee for the third time, Fair was given the option to have surgery.

However, if he had surgery he would not be able to play football for nine months, and being his senior year, Fair is not willing to do that.

Therefore, he has played with a torn ACL and meniscus since the second game of this season.

This puts Fair in a vulnerable position on the football field.

Since his latest injury, his knee has given out and he has had to be helped onto the side-lines several times.

Once he is to the sidelines, however, Fair does everything in his power to get back in the game.

This winning attitude helps him cope with the injury.

“First of all, I have to thank God for making me the person I am today,” Fair said.

Fair believes God gave him the skill set he needed to over come to the difficulties his in-jury caused.

“Determination is one of my characteristics, and I give all of that to God.” Fair said. “That just doesn’t happen overnight, you don’t wake up and you’re determined. That’s a gift from God.”

Jackets have history togetherBy Angela WhiteSports Writer

For senior defensive and of-fensive tackle Jawon Johnson, football is a lifestyle.

Johnson, along with seniors Gabe Myles, David Fair and many of the other players that make up the Starkville High School football team have been playing together since they were very young on a team called the Starkville Raiders.

They have helped one an-other become better players and people throughout their lives.

The Starkville Raiders learned how to play football together, which gives them the advantage of knowing

their teammates better than most high school football teams.

Each of these players has changed over the past eight years, but one thing has not, and that is their love for foot-ball.

“I started liking football when I was nine or ten,” John-son said, “(that is when) I played for the Starkville Raid-ers.”

Football has become such an important part of John-son’s life because he views the sport as an outlet.

“I started playing because I thought it was fun, I like contact sports,” Johnson said. “Now, it’s my dream to play. I want to play college ball and try to get even farther.”

According to Johnson, the best part of playing football is getting to be you, no matter if you win or lose.

Jawon Johnson was out for

last Friday’s game against Canton because he was suffer-ing from back spasms. How-ever, he should be cleared to return for the next game.

Jackets host Yazoo IndiansBy Aaron RemotigueSports Writer

Tonight the Yazoo City In-dians make the two-hour drive to take on the Jackets who are undefeated in dis-trict play. The Indians hold an even 4-4 overall record and a 2-2 record in district play.

The Indians have beaten both Lanier and Canton, but lost to Neshoba Central and Provine.

The Yellow Jackets come into the game averaging 101 passing yards per game, and more importantly, they tend to keep the ball on the ground averaging 195 yards per game.

Taylor Johnston and David Fair lead the Jacket defense totaling 44 solo tackles be-tween them. The Jacket has a stellar defense and has not been scored on since the start of district play.

The Jackets will be defend-ing the Indians offense that relies heavily on their senior running back Tre Richard-son. Tre Richardson leads the

team with 223 rushing yards averaging almost 4 yards a carry.

The Indians average 100.9 rushing yards a game and 96.6 passing yards a game.While this makes them look like a balanced offense, they actually run nearly twice as many rushing plays than they do passing plays.

Jawon Johnson awaits the snap at the line of scrimage. Photo by Alicia Carter

David Fair (3) is helped off field by LeeEdward Jefferson (44) during the home game against Ridgeland. Photo by Alicia Carter

@shsjacketbuzz • 10-19-12Sports

By Avery CohenSports Writer

Early in the morning, when most are pressing the snooze button on their alarm clocks, Freshman Nathaniel Methvin is wide awake swimming laps on the swim team or running a couple of miles for the cross country team before school.

“I kind of got into a routine, and my body’s gotten used to it,” Methvin said. “It’s hard, but I like it.”

On his first year on the cross country team, Methvin has been challenging the times of Seniors Jack Bryan, Ethan Musser and Nathan Gaudin. But for Meth-vin, cross country isn’t all about the competition.

“[I enjoy] getting to talk and getting to meet a bunch of new people and talking during the runs.” Methvin said.

Swimming and cross country cannot be compared.

“They’re two totally different types of workouts,” Methvin said. “One’s a full body workout, and one’s just plain endurance.”

And, according to Methvin’s times, all that endurance has paid off. Each race his times have gotten faster and faster, proving that he is an incredible athlete.

“[When I run fast] I feel good that I got better and that I did

my best,” Methvin said. “I’ve just been running at practice, doing whatever the coach tells us to do. We’ve been upping our mileage lately to get better for State.”

Methvin’s strive for victory is no secret, and he has his sights set high.

“[My goals are] to make state for swimming and to run at state for cross country,” Methvin said.

Methvin competes with senior Jacket runners

Jackets gain groundBy Colin DammsSports Writer

Despite a slow start to the sea-son the Jackets have improved to 3-3 primarily through a strong, reliable rushing game. The team’s interchangeable running backs paired with a dual threat quarterback compose an offense that has produced 964 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground.

The Jackets have 4 players with over 100 yards rushing, one of whom is sophomore run-ning back Jaquez Horsley.

Horsley is the team’s lead-ing rusher with 296 yards and 5 touchdowns, and is quickly becoming a frequent player in Kemp’s rotating running back core. “Coach is starting to rotate us in and out more”, Horsley said of the new offensive style.

Preston Baker suffered an in-jury against West Point a few weeks ago, but has quickly re-covered and gotten back into the rotation. He currently has 146 yards and 2 touchdowns rushing.

Darius Grayer is listed as a wide receiver, but has had much more action on the ground. He has 139 yards and 2 touchdowns under his belt.

In addition to running backs there are two strong dual threat quarterbacks at Head Coach Ja-mie Mitchell’s disposal. Senior quarterback Gabe Myles and sophomore quarterback Caleb Wilson are capable of making a good pass or scrambling to keep a drive alive.

Myles alone has 122 yards and

3 touchdowns rushing so far this season. Gabe is well known for his running abilities as well as his impressive passing game.

Caleb Wilson is more of a passer, but if the pocket col-lapses he has the ability get out of there. Wilson has 19 rushing yards this season from escaping the pocket.

Last season the Jackets’ rush-ing game helped the team to a State Championship appearance and 2502 rushing yards.

Carter looks to juniorsBy Colin DammsSports Writer

The Starkville High School Yellow Jackets boys’ basket-ball team is getting ready to tip off this season in early No-vember after an impressive run last winter.

Last season the Yellow Jack-ets basketball team ended their season with a disap-pointing loss to non-league opponents Wayne County by a score of 50-30.

The Basketball coaching staff has the difficult task of replacing the talented group of seniors that led the Jackets on the court last season.

One of these seniors was the 6’8 245 lb center Gavin Ware, who now plays SEC basket-ball as a freshman for the re-constructed Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Gavin had a total of 152 points in 10 conference games

for the Jackets last season Coach Carter’s team is pri-

marily Juniors with only two seniors playing this year. Se-nior forwards Avonte Amos and Ravonte Gandy are look-ing to step up this year.

“We’re waiting for someone to really stand out from the rest of the group,” Head Coach

Greg Carter said, “but I’m ex-pecting the juniors to stand out the most.”

The Jackets will begin this season against Meridian High School on November 6, 2012 in the Starkville High School Gym.

Zeb Rice lines up for a free throw during practice. By Alicia Carter

Nathaniel Methvin warms up for a practice with Damian Grady and Stuart Woomer. Photo by Robert Dandass

““We’re waiting for someone to really stand out from the rest of the group. -Greg Carter

JBuzz

BThe

Jacket • 10-19-12

Jackets face Indians

Volleyball perfect yet againThe Jackets take back to back district championships

The still-perfect Yellow Jacket defense matches up against the Yazoo City Indians in this weeks homecoming game for Starkville High School.

Basketball prepares for new seasonThe Jackets gear up for a season without graduates Gavin Ware or Jacolby Mobley

Cross Country prepares for home meetThe Jackets set goals high for Nathan Meth-vin as the Starkville meet approaches.

Swimming heads to North HalfThe Yellow Jack-ets hope to make a splash at the North Half meet in Jackson

Jacket Buzz (10/19/12)

Documents

Transcript of Jacket Buzz (10/19/12)