JACKET BUZZTH

E Starkville High School

Volume XXV, No. 2 • February 10, 2016

SHS wide receiver A.J. Brown signs to play football at Mississippi

Page 5

INSIDE

SHS Theatre students advance to regional competition

Page 3

SHS students make record donations in blood drive

Page 2

National Signing DayJones stays at home, signs with Miss. State

By Camryn Dawkins Jacket Buzz Editor

On February 3, 2016, Four Star Defensive Recruit Kobe Jones announced the big-gest decision of his life at the Starkville High School Ath-letic Complex.

“I actually made the final decision last night because it was a hard process.” Jones said. With offers from the Uni-versity of Miami, University of Alabama, and Mississippi State University, Jones com-mitted to Mississippi State University, a decision which will keep him at home. “As I looked at the statistics, I could not afford not to go to MSU,” said Jones.

Mississippi State Defensive Line Coach David Turner, played a major role in his fi-nal decision. “He makes me feel comfortable, and we have developed a very strong re-lationship over the past few weeks,’ Jones said.

Red-shirting his freshman year does not worry Jones be-cause he feels his work ethic will win him a starting posi-tion. “It is my home town and I am going to feel like a king around here,” said Jones.

Growing up in Mississippi

Jones felt there was so much out there, so he took every of-ficial visit possible.

“ It was really hard to choose MSU because I did not want to miss out on something big-ger and better, but the grass is not always greener on the

other side,” said Jones. Jones felt MSU was his pick

over Miami because of the home support he would re-ceive from the Bulldog com-munity.

Photo by Camryn Dawkins Kobe Jones unzips his jacket to reveal his pick.

See “Signing” page 8

2 The Jacket Buzz FEBRUARY10, 2016

Exchange students share feelings about new homeBy angel tate

Jacket Buzz

The experience of being an ex-change student can be everlasting. An exchange student is a one in high school or in post-secondary systems of education who leave his or her home country to spend anywhere between a few weeks and an entire year within a foreign country.

Starkville High School has three foreign exchange students this school year: Paul Enseling, Eduardo Aguero, and Benedetta Trentarossi.

Paul Enseling who is from the west side of Germany, close to the Dutch/Netherland border is a 15 year old ju-nior. Paul plays soccer for the Starkville High School Boys’ Soccer Team. Paul truly likes America and said his fa-vorite thing here is the people, but his least favorite thing is cafeteria food.

“They (the people) are so nice,” said Enseling.

Enseling said there is not a huge difference between American and German the culture, yet one differ-ence is there are no school or univer-sity sports teams in Germany.

“You have to go to a club or select team to play sports. I really like it bet-ter here. Everybody at the school sticks together and supports the school, for example, at football games,” Enseling said.

The second exchange student is Eduardo Aguero. Eduardo is from Coahuila, Mexico, located about three hours from Texas. He is a 16 year old junior. He plays golf and soccer for the Starkville High School Boys’ Soc-

cer Team. Aguero said he likes every-thing about the USA but he misses home too.

“My least favorite part about being in America is that I miss a lot of things in Mexico,” Aguero said.

Benedetta Trentarossi is from Mi-lan, Italy. She is a 17 year old junior. She said her favorite thing here is the school and the football games.

“I do not think there is anything that I do not like. It is all new and I love new experiences. It is very differ-ent from Italy. The biggest difference would probably be the school,” Tren-tarossi said.

In Italy school is only for study, and they have the same classmates for five years. Trentarossi said here there are a lot of fun things to do. There are a large number of clubs and sports teams. She hopes to be on the track team.

“Also, here you change classmates every block and you get to meet more people,” Trentarossi said.

Being in a foreign country brings about experiences that one never for-gets. It teaches a great deal about be-coming more open to new ideas and change.

Photo by Angel TateEnseling, Aguero and Trentarossi enjoy the culture of Starkville High School.

SHS students make donations in record for blood driveBy Ethan Tucker Jacket Buzz Staff

SHS students gave blood Jan-uary 20 - 21 in the bloodmobile parked on Victory Lane right outside the SHS gym.

Cameron Maddox, a senior, gave blood to help others. “It is an easy way to contribute to saving lives,” Maddox said.

Each year we have numerous students here at SHS ready to donate blood to those in need, and this year was no exception.

“We had 132 students to sign up… the most we’ve ever had,” Nurse Gruchy said.

She was excited and very proud of the student body for being very selfless and willing to donate blood in order to help those in need.

The blood donated by SHS will be transported to multiple hospitals all across Mississippi. This life saving blood is very important for many injuries that occur every year in Missis-sippi.

Photo by Lawson Joy Dumas

Tyrese Kelly gri-maces as a nurse prepares him for a blood donation during a drive held at Starkville High School Jan. 20 and 21.

february 10, 2016 The Jacket Buzz 3

SHS theatre students advance to regional competition

By katelyn PeeplesJacket Buzz staff

Examples of Excellence is a new event at Starkville High School.

The administration, coun-selors and SHS Leadership Team has started this pro-gram to recognize teachers and students whose efforts have made an impact on the school.

“The criteria is open, you can get this award for any-thing, you do not have to be a straight A student to be ex-cellent. Excellence is across the school,” lead teacher and program facilitator Ginger Tedder said.

Any student in the school has a chance to receive this award. Per month all aca-demic and curriculum depart-ments choose one student to recognize. The nine students who have been chosen to re-

ceive this award are called to the office to be recognized for their hard work and dedica-tion to the school. Following this recognition, each stu-dent is then asked to choose a teacher who has directly im-pacted his or her life.

“I was excited, and it was a bonding moment for my teacher and me. I felt hon-ored and grateful that I was chosen,” freshman recipient, Georgia Grace Thurlow said.

Receiving the Examples of Excellence award is a great honor for both teacher and student.

With recognition comes the big perk — both the students and the teachers they have chosen are invited for a ca-tered meal in their honor the following week. The meal is hosted by the school’s admin-istrators as a way for them to show their appreciation for true student and teacher ded-

ication. “Starkville High school will

hold this event for many years to come; it has really shown the students that people no-

tice the hard work they have put in to really represent their school in the best way pos-sible,” Tedder said.

A display case in the down-

stairs main hall of SHS has been designated as the Ex-amples of Excellence show-case. Recipients’ photos can be viewed in the case.

New program recognizes, praises students’ efforts

Submitted PhotoStudents and teachers celebrate Examples of Excellence.

By Lawson Joy DumasJacket Buzz Staff

The Starkville High School Theatre competed in the Mis-sissippi Theatre Association competition January 14-15 in Meridian, Miss.

“Eurydice”, a Greek Myth about Orpheus and Eurydice, is the play they performed at MTA. The play pushed them on to compete at the next lev-el, Southeastern Theatre Con-ference in North Carolina on March 1-6.

The cast won Runner-up for Best Production at MTA. They

also received many rewards such as Excellence in Sound and Makeup design, overall Technical Excellence, and Best Actress, Liz Jones, for “Eury-dice.”

“As a whole this was our best performance yet. We re-ally connected onstage and the judges noticed.” said Liz Jones. Jones believes they still have room to improve and will put on an even better show at SETC.

Progressing on to the next level, SETC is something that hasn’t happened in over 5 years.

“To advance to the larg-est theatre conference in the world is a rare honor that re-flects greatly on the Starkville School District.,” said Jones. Jones also believes that SHS is not only a school of athletic and academics excellence, but artistic excellence as well.

Achieving all the awards they received took a good director to help push them selves to be the best they are.

“Mr. Dendy, the director knew what kind of talent he had to work with and out ev-eryone in a place they could shine,” said Jones.

Submitted photoStarkville High theatre students advanced to regional com-petition with their state festival performance of “Eurydice.”

Page 4 The Jacket Buzz

february 10, 2016

Leadership TeamEditor in Chief: Camryn DawkinsPhotography: Tristen GranthamFaculty Adviser: Angela Hobart

ediToriaL poLicy The Jacket Buzz is published by the Journalism Department at Starkville High School. The Jacket Buzz is a student-run publication committed to providing SHS with objective information and serves as a forum for student expression. Opinions expressed are those of students and do not necessarily reflect the views of administrators and others in the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District. Content decisions are made by student editors. Factual errors will be corrected in the next scheduled edition. Letters to the editor are accepted and published, excluding those that are deemed libelous or disruptive. Unsigned or anonymous let-ters will not be published. All letters are subject to editing for grammar and space availability. All letters and comments may be e-mailed to shsjacketbuzz@gmail.com.

sTaffMari Hunter Brown

Dawson BurrellCarly Daniewicz

Lawson Joy DumasKennis KingeryHailey Locke

Cameron MaddoxKatelynn Peeples

Ethan Tucker

OPINIONSocial media, the new note home

The use of social media by schools, teachers, and coaches is beneficial. Technology has taken over our soci-ety and we all know it’s the best way to stay in touch.

GroupMe, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are examples of apps and social media used by some coaches to keep their athletes informed.

I hear students say they don’t at-tend certain school events, or sign up for certain activities because “they didn’t know about it,” myself included.

According to Jose Duarte from omg-facts.com “an average smart-phone user checks their phone around 110 times a day. Meaning during walking hours, you probably check your phone more than once every 10 minutes.”

Some people’s habit is worse than oth-ers, but if we’re going to check it so much why not for the right reasons. Schools cre-ate social media accounts to alert students and parents of school-related activities, providing way more interaction from the students. Teachers and coaches should do the same.

The journalism staff, here at Starkville High, manages a twitter account which keeps students updated about sports, academic achievements, scholarship op-portunities, and just general after-school activities. I view this social media use as a

life saver. Many students fol-low the account and receive helpful information. It helps bring money into the school also by the alert of all the fundraisers that go on.

Social media is the best way for the faculty as well as the school board to reach

out to the student body. There is probably no other way to

reach such a huge portion of students at one time. Everyone is not available through social media, but most are and then that’s where spreading the word comes in.

Before we had all of these cyber connec-tions, schools sent letters home providing information, but I know I always lost it be-fore it ever reached the destination of my parent. Most students leave these notes in their lockers, cars, backpacks or toss them in the trash as they exit the building.

Now, using social media eliminates this problem because students and parents can always go back and find everything on the Internet. With social media parents become more involved in their children’s school events. They receive updates and stay posted. Everyone deserves a right to know of all the things we have going on in the Jacket Nation. Social media is the new “note home.”

Restrictive gun laws unfairRecently there has been a lot of

controversy about gun laws. The president has stated his opinion about them by saying that we should ban use of assault weap-ons. Altering these laws is not beneficial.

If a criminal wants a gun, he or she will get one illegally from the black market. If a criminal re-ally wants to use a gun for force or to kill someone, then a piece of paper will not stop him or her.

Restrictive gun laws make it difficult to practice our rights as Americans. It also hinders our sec-ond amendment which says we have the right to bear arms. Ev-eryone should have equal rights to guns. According to the Geneva-based small arms survey, 89% of the people in the United States own guns. That is a very large por-tion of America. It would be hard to make these laws and changes if most people already have guns.

If criminals can get guns then why can’t everyone? If people lose their rights to guns, then the inno-cent civilians will be helpless be-cause nobody will have a gun but the criminals. When we don’t have a weapon to defend ourselves, we

lose a little sense of security.

Gun control is not the answer. If we stop crimi-nals and take their guns, then we wouldn’t have to discuss limiting guns to citizens. America would be

safer with fewer criminals on the street meaning fewer guns in the wrong hands.

Some people do not eat pro-cessed meat, they live off the land and they need guns to survive. Without guns, those people have a hardship of getting meat to eat. Who are we to say that any certain choice of lifestyle is right or wrong? Better or worse? Shouldn’t we, as Americans, have the right to live as we choose within the law?

If gun laws are made, and in-nocent civilians have to pay con-sequences for simply owning a gun, yet criminals walk the streets with the guns, there is something seriously wrong with that. For a criminal, owning a gun is just one more law he or she does not care about breaking.

Tatiana BurgessColumnist

Coleman KennedyColumnist

Page 5 The Jacket Buzz

february 10, 2016CLUB BUZZ

Photo by Ethan TuckerThe National Honor Soceity is constructing a left field lounge to Car-lisle Field as a commmunity service project.

Kathy Dawkins/For the Jacket BuzzFifteen members of the Millsaps Career and Technology Center DECA recently won hon-ors at the district competition. In addition, DECA advisor Kathy Dawkins was named as District III MAME Teacher of the Year for the third consecutive year and will compete for the State Teacher of the Year this month.

By Cameron MaddoxJacket Buzz Staff

The National Honor Society is work-ing on multiple projects throughout Janu-ary and February including the Left Field Lounge Project led by Cameron Johnston at Starkville High School’s Carlisle Base-ball Field.

Johnston squired the idea when “some of the guys wanted to have a construction project and we felt like a baseball lounge would be fun to build and encourage peo-ple to attend the games.”

Although the initial plan was to have the project done by the start of the baseball season, the reoccurring bad weather may cause the project to be prolonged.

On Feb. 11, 34 new members will be in-

ducted into the National Honor Society. Patrick Bell, a member of the Honor So-

ciety, is “looking forward to having more great service members to pass the torch on to for the upcoming year.”

Other projects such as The Starkville Manor Project will also be ongoing throughout this semester.

Josie Buntin, the founder of the project, describes the project as a “great way for the residents to spend their time” and to have “an even greater way for the students to make an impact on their lives there at the nursing home.”

The National Honor Society also changed multiple rules, including changing the minimum service hours required from 2 personal hours for seniors to 10 personal hours.

Honor Society builds ‘Left Field Lounge’ at Carlisle Field

DECA students win bigBy Carly Daniewicz

Jacket Buzz Staff

The Starkville High Debate Club is one of the many clubs students can join to learn how to debate and speak at compe-titions.

“Debate is where you get controversial subjects and have your best arguments with your opponent and you really try to figure out what should be done,” debate stu-dent Ethan Hall said.

“One of our past ones we had was if hand guns should be banned in the United States.”

As for debate student Han-nah Jian, joining the Debate

Club was a decision she made with the help of her friends.

“A lot of my older Asian friends always did it and would talk about it and I was like ‘Oh my gosh, this sounds really interesting!’ For me personally, I would always do sports but I was horrible at sports, so I found this,” Jian said.

Debate students are required to speak in front of judges and a large crowd at competitions, so mentally preparing for a debate can be tricky.

“You have to expect to do the best you can,” Hall said. “You have to accept defeat if it happens, but you’ll have

Debate Club masters art of effective argument

See “Debate” page 8

Page 6 The Jacket Buzz

february 10, 2016SPORTSBy Acacia McBride

Jacket Buzz STAFF

Senior Arthur (A.J.) Brown signs to continue his football career at the Univerisy of Mis-sissippi. With about 15 offers from different universities, Brown said his decision to play for the Rebels was made long before signing day. “I basically just went with my gut. I wanted to play for them a long time ago.” Brown said.He also admits to narrowing his final decision to Alabama and Ole Miss. After signing day, he said he is confident in the decision he has made, re-gardless of it being in favor of his hometown’s rival.

Head Coach Ricky Woods was proud of Brown and this senior class. “They just need to make up their own minds and go where they think is best for them and where they feel most comfort-able,” Woods said. On knowledge of where the players were signing, Woods said he didn’t know where they were signing until the actual moment to sign.Brown looks forward to at-tending Ole Miss and is ready to see what the future holds for him.“It’s a win-win situation. I will be getting my education and playing at the University of Mississippi,” Brown said.

SHS’ Brown signs letter of intent with RebelsPhoto by Kaylie Beth Hobart/Jacket Buzz Staff

Starkville High School four-star wide receiver A.J. Brown signs his letter of intent to play football at the University of Mississippi on National Sign-ing Day last week.

SHS Jacket Nation signees

celebratePhoto by Kaylie Beth Hobart/Jacket Buzz Staff

Starkville High School players who signed letters of intent on National Football Signing Day include, from left, Malik Bell, Aretavis Hendrix, Mon-terrio Montgomery, Terrance Grayer, Kobe Jones, Lorenzo Dantzler, Avery Brown, A.J. Brown and Rontavis Clark. Also signing a letter intent is Parker Lemm, who is not vis-ible.

february 10, 2016 The Jacket Buzz 7

By Dawson BurrellJacket Buzz Staff

Junior Starkville High School cross country and track runner Kate Mattox was selected Mississippi’s Girls Gatorade Runner of the Year for the third year in a row.

Mattox is only the second athlete to ever win the award three consecutive years.

“A huge factor for winning this award is the state meet, and who performs the fastest times there,” Mattox said.

Mattox said that not only do officials look at state times, but they also look at the season as a whole and what a runner does for the community.

“You just prove that you want it through your training and racing,” Mattox said.

Working hard in the class-room also played a factor in Mattox receiving the award.

“It means so much to me to receive this award. It has been my goal since seventh grade to get it,” said Mattox.

Mattox gives credit to her teammates for always sup-porting her and pushing her to work the hardest through the season, from early morn-ing workouts to summer run-ning.

“I want to thank my coach-es for their support and con-stant encouragement,” Mat-tox added.

Cross country, track standout Kate Mattox named state Gatorade Runner of the Year

Submitted photo/Jacket BuzzCross country and track runner Kate Mattox was named as Mississippi’s Gatorade Runner of the Year.

By Kennis KingeryJacket Buzz Staff

After the recent resigna-tion of previous Archery Coach Michelle Guyton, Assistant Football Coach Tate Fischer will be filling the slot for the upcoming season.

“Ms. Guyton left for fam-ily reasons, so they asked me to step up and be the guy,” Fischer said.

Although switching from football to archery can be a drastic change, especially with the major success of this year’s team, adding yet another sport to his sched-ule, Coach Fischer has plenty of experience with this to ease by without any trouble.

“I’ve done it my whole career,” having coached football, archery and track for twenty-five years, “they don’t conflict so it won’t be a problem,” Fischer said.

This being his third year and having eight seniors by his side, Coach Fischer has nothing to worry about.

“Looks to me like there’s a lot of new kids who have never shot before, so just getting them to be able to consistently shoot on tar-get will be the biggest chal-lenge,” Fisher said.

Returning team member and senior, Garrett Phelps spoke regarding Coach Fis-cher.

“He (Fischer) worked well with everyone last year, so I think it will work out. He did fine with her (Coach Guyton) here so I think he’ll do fine without her as well,” Phelps said.

Although Coach Fischer was not present for tryouts, he still has some idea of who he has to work with based on returning members.

Having some experi-enced members tagging along with him still, Coach Fischer should only have to coach up a fair amount of newcomers.

New SHS archery coach not new, looking forward

Fischer

8 The Jacket Buzz february 10, 2016

By Mari Hunter Brown

Jacket Buzz Staff

Ralesheia Gee represented Starkville High School on this year’s indoor track team.

Gee strives to do her best when it comes to track. Gee has been running track for five years.

“So far this season I’ve placed third in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.91 sec-onds,” Gee said. “I have also won long jump with a jump of 17.9 feet.”

Both of these events took place at the L.S.U. High School Classic on Jan. 9.

Although Gee prefers out-door track because of its in-tensity, she is pleased with her senior indoor track season.

“Before every meet I pray, stretch and listen to music to get in my zone and get fo-cused,” Gee said.

Gee said running track plays a huge role in her life. It teaches her leadership and responsibility.

“The difference between indoor and outdoor track are the track sizes. The indoor track is 200 meters, while the outdoor track is 400 meters,” Gee said.

Gee said she does not know if she is signing and has not made a decision on where she plans to attend, but said she looks forward to running in college.

JROTC holds annual Military Ball

Head Coach Ricky Woods was ecstatic with the group

of seniors that signed their National Letters of Intent. “I appreciate what they did for Starkville High School and the community as a whole,” said Woods.

Other signees include: Four star recruit AJ Brown, University of Mississippi; Parker Lemm, East Central Community College; Loren-zo Dantlzer, University of

Southern Miss; Avery Brown, East Mississippi Community College; Rontavious Clark, Itawamba Community Col-lege; Monterio Montgomery, Itawamba Community Col-

lege; Terrance Grayer, Missis-sippi Delta Community Col-lege; Montavious Hendrix, Gulfcost Community College; Malik Bell, East Mississippi Community College.

SigningFrom page 1

to accept the success, a huge

success. A lot of preparation helps definitely, that helps you not be so anxious and nervous and helps you be prepared in general.”

The students in Debate Club learn a lot from debate and pull out a lot of signifi-cant value from it.

“One thing debate has re-

ally helped me do is help my public speaking,” Jian said. “You need a lot of attributes way off in high school and into college and maybe in the

work force, and I think debate really helps with that.”

The Debate Club members competed last week in Salt Lake City, Utah.

DebateFrom page 5

Gee represents SHS on indoor track team

Ralesheia GeePhotos by Tristen Grantham/

Jacket Buzz Photo EditorTop Photo: Yellow Jacket Batallio Staff, Antoiette Hin-ton and Darius Bell make their grand entrance into the Military Ball.

Bottom Photo: Commander Shaliyah Miles and Eric Lowery make their way through the honor guard.