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406.433.1971

710 S Central Ave

406-482-12681053 S Central Ave.

Sidney, MT

Come see us in our new building!

News The Spokesman2W e d n e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 0 9

By Brandi WilkinsonExEcutivE Editor

In the spring of 2009, the Ag department welcomed a new piece of equipment. The plasma cam is a computer operated met-al cutting device, which uses an electric arc combined with an air thrust to cut through the metal, producing the desired object. The Ag-Ed department was able to acquire the plasma cam, through federal funds. In past years, this money has been awarded to dif-ferent departments around the school and last spring it was Ag-Ed teacher Gary Schaff ’s turn to decide how to spend the money.

The total cost of the machin-ery, software, and programs came to a grand total of $15,000.”It was defiantly worth the money, it makes cutting and designing signs so much easier,” comment-ed Junior Wacey McMillen. Not only is the machinery costly, but so is the sheet metal that it cuts. On average, a four-by-four piece of metal costs around one hun-dred dollars, making it about

three dollars per square foot. At this point, Schaff isn’t looking to form a business off the new equip-ment, although he has donated signs to auc-tions and even raffled one off at last year’s donkey basket-ball game as a FFA fundraiser.

The new de-vice is mainly used by the ag and welding students. “It’s still a learning process for all of us,” said Schaff. In hopes to preserve the equipment only students trained to use the machine or the Ag-Ed students are allowed to run the device. Sidney students are not the only fortunate ones; Wolf Point, Glendive, Baker, Livingston, and about six other surrounding schools own a plas-

ma cam. “This is very beneficial because it allows our school and the other surrounding schools to share information and designs amongst each other,” reported Schaff.

The Ag department is very pleased with its new accessory and encourages eager students to learn the process of the machine.

Brandi wilkinson

Ag-Ed Department gains new equipmentBy Brandi WilkinsonExEcutivE Editor

“Santa Baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight,” instead of sitting in class all day, you could be up on stage singing this! It’s time for the Holiday Talent Show and the more people that sign up to perform the longer everyone will be excused from class on Dec. 23. It’s not just your ordinary talent show! It will include an air guitar compe-tition, lip syncing, crazy Christ-mas caroling, karaoke, and any other creative thing you would like to share. So, get a group of friends together and in the spirit of Christmas have a joyous time preparing for the show. Student Council will be putting on this holiday treat in the gym and would also love to have some student versus staff competi-tions in the mix too. Hurry and sign up in attendance clerk Ma-ria Peters’office. Don’t forget, the more acts we have, the more time we get to spend outside of class having fun in the gym!

This isn’t the only way Stu-dent Council is bringing Christ-mas joy to the school. They will also be distributing candy canes and hot chocolate throughout the day on Wednesday Dec. 23. In hopes to bring even more holiday cheer, a Santa hat wear-ing competition will take place on Friday Dec. 18. Student Council members seniors Whit-ney Thiel, Jordan Sullivan, and Brandi Wilkinson will be seated at a table in the main hallway to collect a dollar from all those who wish to wear a Santa hat, and even if you don’t wish to wear a Santa hat you are still encouraged to donate money which will be donated to the Christmas Coalition. The class that raises the most money will receive early lunch for an entire week!

In the spirit of Christmas student council urges everyone to participate in the upcoming festivities and remember Santa’s watching so get your acts to-gether!

Holiday cheer is here

Christmas isn’t the only thing sneaking up on us. Before we know it, it will be semester test time as well. For many the mere thought of semester test sends a sense of terror through their body, especially for the new freshmen. Don’t panic, semester week doesn’t begin till Jan. 12 and it lasts only three days.

All students can expect to be taking a semester test in ev-ery class, excluding study hall, unless the teacher tells the students otherwise. Students must stay in their classroom during the entire test period. The week breaks down simply enough. There will be a short-ened schedule on Tuesday, Jan.

12. After lunch, tests for periods two and seven will be held. Stu-dents who must ride the bus will be released early from the Period 7 test. Wednesday will contain three tests spanning from 8:15 to 2:25. Lastly, Thursday will hold two tests the first beginning at 8:15 and the last at 10:10.

Only those students excused

for illness or another prear-ranged excuse will be allowed to miss a semester test. Through-out the test week students are urged to only attend school dur-ing their test times, but if you must come into the school, then you are asked to please be in the study hall, the library, or the foyer.

Junior Wacey McMillen, poses next to the Plasma

Plan ahead, semester tests are just around the corner

News The Spokesman 3W e d n e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 0 9

By Whitney ThielSPORTS EDITOR

Students aren’t sitting around this holiday season. From fund-raising for trips to giving back to the community in service projects, they are working to-gether to make a difference.Business Professionals of Amer-ica has a long list of fundrais-ing on their agenda from selling Christmas goodie trays to the Throw-back Jersey Night for Boys and Girls Basketball. The Christmas good trays help those who don’t have time to bake with the busyness of this time of year. This will be the second consecutive year for the Throw-back Jersey Night which will take place in January. “It is one of biggest fundraisers we do all, year and last year we made close to $9,000,” adviser Elaine Sted-man said. BPA members came up with this idea through team-

ing up with Sidney Community Education Foundation and made a project proposal with members, advisers, and other chapters. The earnings from this fundraiser will help fund many students’ trip to State Leadership Conference in Billings, Montana and National Leadership Conference in Ana-heim, California. They will need over $75,000 for these trips.

Key Club is in the spirit of giv-ing this holiday season. To start off they are helping with Shep-herd of the Valley Children’s Christmas shopping project and Community Christmas Coali-tion. They have started their an-nual selling of Christmas candy cane sales. The sale is when students can send a candy cane with a message to a friend in the school on our last day before Christmas break. This always gets the school in the holiday spirit.

Leo Club is in full swing pre-paring for their holiday activi-ties. Coming up will be the Fifth Annual Turkey Bowling which has become a popular activity for students at SHS. This activ-ity is when students that bring cans throw a frozen turkey down a path to hit bowling pins. The proceeds for this fundraiser will go to Richland County Food Bank to help families in the area during the holiday season. The bowling will take place Decem-ber 16-18. Students bring your canned goods to your first period teacher. Christmas stockings for the Coalition of Domestic Vio-lence are one way to give gifts to children in need. “It is a fun way for us to be able to give back to the community,” President Hana Paladichuk said.

Spreading holiday cheer is a staple this winter and students at SHS are certainly contributing.

Clubs demonstrate spirit of the season by giving back

By Tari SythA&E EDITOR

Supervisor Gail Staffanson looks over Room 401 while the team practices their sketches. She gives the students advice on their performance and tips on how to score better at the meets while her assistant, Holly Redman, makes sure everyone’s paperwork is in order for them to leave for their competition on Saturday.

The team competed in a meet in Froid on Dec. 5 and took first in both the speech and the drama categories for class A schools. Seven young actors walked away with medals. The students who placed in the com-petition were Ciara Parks and Taylor Fay second in Serious Duo; Michael Schmitt second in Extemporaneous; Kalen Hance third in Extemporaneous; Jacob McDonald third in Memorized

Public Address; and Andi Brunsvold and Katie Staffanson seventh in Serious Duo competi-tion.

Right before their big meets, the Speech and Drama team practices every day. This entails the members flocking together to share in the comedy of humor-ous sketches and listen somberly at the power of serious ones. They act and laugh an dlook forward to the showcasing of their hard work come competi-tion time.

Other students who competed in the meet in Froid were sopho-more Brant Pewonka, Original Oratory; freshman Ross Bogens-hutz, Lincoln Douglas Debate;freshmen Jesse Staffanson and Tori Getchell, Humorous Duo; sophomore Carl Redman and freshman Michaela Lofthus, Humorous Duo (Lofthus will do a Serious Solo piece as well);

freshman Katie Gustafson, Humorous Solo; seniors Dil-lon Leland, Aaron Norgaard, Michael Yontz, and sophomore Jordan Cundiff did not compete in Froid but will be competing in meets later on in the year. Norgaard will be performing a Serious Solo, Leland and Yontz will be competing together in the Humorous Duo category, while Cundiff will mimic his way on stage in the Pantomime event. “We’ve got quite a few individu-als and some duos that have the possibility of doing well, not just at divisional; and I’m hoping we will continue to grow and keep improving their skills through-out the year.” Staffanson said.

The team will be compet-ing in five other meets: Miles City, Dec. 19; Lewistown Jan. 9; Laurel, Jan. 14; Divisional in Hardin, Jan. 21; and State in Corvalis, Jan. 27-28.

Speech and Drama garner awards Merry Christmas!Junior McKenzie Carda helps a child during the Shepherd of the Valley Christmas.

CHANTZ BLOCK

Opinion The Spokesman4W e d n e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 0 9

At some point in our lives, we’ve all been told that ab-stinence until marriage is the way to go. We all know that this is just not going to be the case for some high school students, as well. Let’s face it; some high school stu-dents are just go-ing to be sexually active! But doesn’t it seem a little ridiculous when middle school students are given the chance to obtain birth con-trol pills through school policy? If the middle school is King Middle School in Portland, Maine, this idea is, apparently, not ridiculous at all.

In October of 2007, King Middle School passed a policy

in which birth control pills were made available to all middle school students. We are talking grades six through eight! This means 11- year- old girls were

able to get the pill if they felt they needed it, as long as their par-ents signed them off for it.

S o m e Portland people were very much in approval of this policy be-cause they thought if the stu-dents were going to be sexu-ally active, then they might as well be protected from getting pregnant. Perhaps they don’t believe all kids have parents that guide them to be abstinent.

On the other hand, some peo-

ple think it is absolutely crazy that kids at such an age have the opportunity to get the pill. Can you imagine your 11-year-old daughter going to school and having the chance to get a pill that prevented her little tummy from growing a baby of its own!?

If anything, the schools should be teaching more about abstinence and trying to pre-vent middle school students from becoming sexually active. Instead, the school is now just passing out pills, just to keep the pre-teen boys and girls “safe” if they feel like getting a little out of control some night! This policy should really never fly in a school environment. To me, it seems like a way of giving students the OK to be sexually active because they’ll have pro-tection from getting pregnant. Instead, the schools need to work harder to enforce abstinence.

Schools should encourage students toward sexual abstinence, not activityMaine middle schoolers receive ‘the pill’By Jordan SullivanSportS editor

Limited financial aid for working students

Do students who work and save towards college receive less money in financial aid because their personal resources are big-ger? The fact of the matter is that generally, yes, they do receive less. Like most, I am puzzled on this subject. Why should the students who choose to bet-ter themselves for the future by having jobs in high school be punished for it by colleges and certain schol-arships?

Colleges and need-based schol-arships should be looking at the fact that the student took the initiative to get a job rather than using the money they make against them. There is no way a part-time job, alone, can pay for

a college tuition, plus the extra costs that come along with it. Therefore, students with part-time jobs, making their own money, deserve college and need-based scholarships just as much as those students not tak-ing the opportu-nity to get a job.

Pa r t t i m e jobs benefit high school students im-mensely. It gives them a chance to gain work experience for future jobs and helps to pre-pare them for the real world. They also help to develop lead-ership and work ethic

skills. Unfortunately, most scholar-

ship committees will not give

By Brandi Wilkinsonexecutive editor

Tips on Financial Aid• Educate yourselfPlan what is likely to be one of your life’s largest purchases.

• ResearchThere are many potential tax benefits that are available to most tax payers. These include Section 529 college tuition savings plans. Additionally the interest on student loans is sometimes tax deductible.

• Uncle SamThe first financial aid form you complete should be the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Even if you know you won’t qualify for any aid, filling out this form is often the first step to applying for many types of aid includ-ing federal loans, state grants, and college scholarships.

• Apply EarlyApply as soon after January 1 as possible.

• Apply for EverythingThere are many good scholarship search engines as well as many different types of scholarships out there. There are many good scholarship search engines as well as many dif-ferent types of scholarships out there. Chances are you will qualify for a number of these.

Recently a jury awarded $850,000 to the parents of a young Miles City, Montana boy killed in a baseball accident in 2003. The parents sued Louisville Slugger, the maker of the bat that was used. The young boy was pitching for a high school team when he was struck by a ball that was hit with an aluminum bat. The boy’s parents argued that an aluminum bat forces a ball at higher velocities than a wood bat. They claimed the bat was danger-ous. Aren’t all bats dangerous?

My opinion on the case is accidents are bound to hap-pen. It saddens me that an 18-year-old’s life was cut short tragically. But is the maker of the bat really responsible?

There are many parties to blame. Louisville Slugger made the bat. A sporting goods store sold the bat. The league al-lowed the use of an aluminum bat. His parents allowed him to

play the sport and buy the bat.The $850,000 awarded to the

parents is not going to bring back their son. I think the parents saw an opportunity to get a lawyer and make some easy money. They al-lowed the death of their son to be exploited to take on a great American company that has pro-vided great bats for 125 years.In the process they ruined Amer-ica’s greatest past time also. All we have left is mom’s apple pie and it’s only a matter of time till an apple company gets sued be-cause little Billy choked on his pie. It is pathetic that kids can’t even play a wholesome game of baseball. No wonder video games and MySpace is so popu-lar with kids today. What used to be a favorite weekend sport now has a dark and shady side unfor-tunetley. Hopefully, some par-ents allow there kids to enjoy this sport. I may sound heartless on the subject but I think occurrenc-es like this show how sue happy the American public has become.

Parents sue bat companyBy Tyler Gossopinion editor

it to a person who is shown to make money from a part-time job. One important thing for a

student to do in or-der to have a fighting chance at r e c e iv i n g such schol-arships is to put your m o n e y in an ac-

count under one of your parents’ names; this way the money can-not be used against you when searching for financial aid. There is still hope though, plenty of scholarships are out there that are based solely on academic achievement and involvement in the community and activities.

Colleges and scholarship com-mittees need to re-check their criteria before deciding who is deserving of the award.

Why should the students who choose to better themselves for the future by having jobs in high school be punished for it?

-Brandi WilkinSon

Senior

Eagle ExpressionDo you feel it is important to have a

school newspaper?

Freshman Carlie Carpenter

“Yeah, because it informs everyone.”

Sophomore Tom Voll

“No.”

Junior Brooke Schmitt

“Why yes, because it’s inter-esting and gives you an idea of what’s happening in the school.”

Senior Ian Kessler

“Yes, it’s good to have students express their opinions about what goes on in the school.”

Spokesman Staff 2009-2010

The Spokesman is the publication of the journalism class of the Sidney High School, 1012 4th Ave. SE, Sidney, MT 59270, phone: 406-433-2330. The Spokesman is a member of the Quill and Scroll and the Montana Interscholastic Editorial Association. The Spokesman has been named the Class A Pacesetter 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2008. In 2004 the Spokesman earned Quill and Scroll’s International First Place Award.

Editorial Policy We at the Spokesman strongly encourage letters to the editor. Letters should be delivered to room 108, may be no more than 300 words and must be signed by the writer. The Spokesman may edit letters for grammar, punctuation and spelling. The Spokesman has the right to not publish letters that: 1) contain obscenities, 2) contain libel, 3) are similar to other letters that are to be published, 4) are not legible or are incoherent. All signed editorials that appear in the Spokesman are solely the opinion of the individual that authored the said letter and are not necessarily the opinion of the Spokesman staff.

Brandi WilkinsonExEcutivE Editor/News

Dan PetersPrincipal

Tyler GossOpinion Editor

Chantz BlockNews Editor

Sloane TuckA & E Editor/Artist

Megan GreenwoodFeature Editor

Trisha SenffOpinion Editor

Tari SythA & E Editor

Carol HearronAdviser

Alyssa KesselExEcutivE Editor/Eagles Eye Jordan Sullivan

Sports Editor

Sheridan PopePhotography/Ad Manager

Whitney ThielSports Editor

Opinion The Spokesman 5W e d n e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 0 9

When you think of a farmer what do you picture? Is it a poor, crooked-toothed overall-wearing fool? Does he drive a beat up old “pick em up truck” with a dog riding co-pilot? American soci-ety has created this stereotype over a course of years. In film we seldom see a clean cut intelligent farmer who works hard to make a living. Film likes to portray them as foolish, lazy, and quite filthy. Even as a child I remem-ber cartoons and children’s pro-grams portraying a farmer as a “country folk” who has a piece of straw in his mouth and is baf-fled by modern technology. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Farmers are some of the hardest working people in the

American work force. They are not unintelligent by any means. Farmers manage thousands of dollars, sometimes more, in a course of one year. A brand new John Deere four wheel drive tractor can cost upwards of $370,000. Land values are high too. Values are assigned by the acre and determined by type of land. Even at $350 an acre, land could cost $224,000 for just 640 acres or one section.

As for them being technologi-cally incompetent is also false. Technology is greatly used by farmers in America in many ways. They have recently start-ed using GPS powered equip-ment to map a field to prevent equipment from overlapping previously worked areas, sav-ing the farmer time and money.

To look down at someone who does so much for modern society is shameful. A farmer provides the food that you eat and the clothes on your back. Agriculture employs over one third of the worlds population. In an agriculture based com-munity such as ours alot of people should be thankful for the income and jobs created by agriculture business. Agricul-ture is recognized as the birth of civilization. Modern society would not exist without farmers.

So next time you see a farm-er don’t think of him or her as what they are portrayed as, think of them for what they are. These are individuals work-ing hard for their piece of the American dream in a society that may not appreciate them.

Down with sterotypes against farmersBy Tyler Gossopinion Editor

After a short break our school newspaper is, once again, up and running! The journalism class wasn’t offered last year, due to scheduling issues. Luck-ily, for us, this year’s juniors and seniors were given the op-portunity to sign up for the class and bring the paper back.

I personally think it is impor-tant that the school has a news-paper in order to better keep stu-dents, parents, and faculty well informed with upcoming school events, as well as acknowledge those who make notable ac-complishments throughout the year, and discuss anything else involving our school, all

at a convenient availability. Not only is it important that

the newspaper provide the school with that information, but I think it’s also important that a journalism class be made available for the students to take. The class offers experience in skills that aren’t offered in other classes, whether it be using Ado-be InDesign when laying out the newspaper pages, or speaking with business managers when selling ads to fund the newspa-per. By far, the most important quality to possess, as a newpaper staff, is communication skills.

The environment isn’t at all similar to a stuffy classroom, it’s more laid back and professional-like. With the leniency comes

discipline, in the way that dead-lines must be met. If deadlines aren’t met, there’s no newspa-per. I sincerely appreciate being given this opportunity. We’ve only just released our first issue, and the class has already brought me to do so many things that I wasn’t, at first, familiar with and improved in what I hadn’t been so well at, to begin with. The opportunity to be in an environ-ment like this, at school, should almost be considered necessary.

The way I see it, a newspa-per is nothing but beneficial to our school and community. We can only hope that the newspa-per is back for good and contin-ues to give students one more way to be involved in school.

The Spokesman is back in businessBy Trisha Senffopinion Editor

By Alyssa KesselExEcutivE Editor

Students across the school en-joy shortened days due to pep assemblies, but this enjoyment seems to end the moment they are all herded into the doors of the gym to sit through“another boring pep assembly.” This atti-tude is not exclusive to this sin-gular event. From assemblies to dress up days the administration allows plenty of opportunity for school pride, but most these chances are met with apathy. Each homecoming and Christ-mas a competition is held be-tween classes for the best hall-way decoration, with each class assigned one hallway. Though the whole class receives the ben-efits of winning, the burden of assembling it falls on a selective few. When it came time this fall

By Jordan SullivanSportS Editor

A member of the community might be surprised to know how important his or her role is in high school activ-ities. From attending games, wearing school colors or to donating money to a club, every bit of community support plays a big factor in the atmosphere of a school activity. The community of Sidney plays an enormous role in supporting its students and athletes. Something students may not be well-aware of is the presence of support by the small businesses of the town. “The small businesses are always giving money for the ads, as well as selling tickets. If it wasn’t for the strong support of the small business-es, there would be a lot less people at the ball games,” Dana Moos, owner of the local Party Central, said. “The people of the community should be at the games. The presence of the people is a huge thing. Besides just being there, the people need to be positive at the games as well and be good role models. It’s great when school colors are worn, too!” said Gina Thiel, an avid sports-

By Tari SythA&E Editor Teachers play a key role in school spir-it. As the adults that students learn from day after day, teachers also take on the role of modeling enthusiasm for school events. Generally they try to get involved in spirit to get students to participate in the activities that the school provides them like going to games and dressing up on wacky days. Shining examples from the staff, teachers Cindy Osland and Kathi Rob-erts dress up at every opportunity they get whether it’s showing school colors or dragging out their old clothes. “I dress up to promote whatever activi-ties are going on around the school. I think it’s fun and it’s great when the teachers and students team up to form a big wacky group,” said Osland. Another English teacher Mary Pfau couldn’t agree more. “I hope we set a good example for the students,” said Pfau. “They see that we’re not afraid to show spirit and I hope

Spirit

watcher always dressed in school colors, Many ath-letes agree with Thiel when asked about the effect of the communities presence at games. “ When you see a lot of people from around town in the stands it really motivates you to play hard,” Senior Matt Harris said. “Sidney does have great support,” said Thiel, who has a daughter, Whitney, currently playing for the Eagles basketball team. “Through fundraising, and especially jersey night, there is great support. Peo-ple are very excited about the games; even to peo-ple without kids, sports are good entertainment,”. Although the support of the community is great, there is always room for improvement. “Tourneys would be more fun with a bigger community pres-ence. It seems like a lot of fans come, but other towns always seem to have more fans, so even more for Sid-ney would be great,” said Thiel. “Some sports in Sid-ney seem to draw a lot of fans, but every sport needs a big attendance. The community just needs to be in-tune with what is going on at Sidney High School.”

Spencer Brost, freshman class president, admits, “only a hand-ful of people showed up.” Senior Blair Troudt, after four years of class officer involvement, elaborated.“Ten show up at the most, and this year was more than usual,” she said. “Still it was mostly all the same people who show up for everything.” Troudt who is a multi-club, dual sport participant is vexed about why students don’t participate. “I just feel if I go to school here it’s my obligation as a student, and it’s not hurting anything by participating,”she said.

This indifferent attitude also appears at pep assemblies where staff and students alike do little to encourage those who are rep-resenting the school. The noise and excitement that should fill the air are replaced by pointless-

chatter. Attempts to create a pep assembly-suitable environment are often met with rejection. Se-nior Sarah Beyer relates an inci-dent where she and classmates Jordan Sullivan and Whitney Thiel were standing and cheer-ing as the student body took its usual sitting position. While encouraging others to stand up and join in on showing support, a staff member came over and told them to sit. “It offended me because we are supposed to have school spirit and be supportive of our classmates. Being told to sit down and not cheer them on we aren’t supporting them nor having pride in our school,” Beyer explained. These girls will continue to show their enthusi-asm but ask that the rest of their classmates join in, or at the very least not squash theirs spirit.

they try to act more like us in it.” Though many teachers take an active role in setting an example of school spirit for students, it’s agreed that there is always room for im-provement. “We could definitely do more to support.” said English teach-er Bernie Braden. “Our role is to go to the extracurricular activities and be there for our students and I, per-sonally, could to better at that.” Vice Principal Sue Anderson adds, “There are a lot of students and teachers that show spirit but I want more of a ma-jority of the school to participate.” Along with the desire to show more school spirit there are rules that go along with it.. When it comes to the crowd there’s no standing on the seat of the bleachers, feet need to stay on the lower parts because the designers put more support there for mass crowd weight. Students also have to be careful with open drinks. If someone spills on the floor, they better be prepared to run from ath-

letic director Mike Gear. Students must also watch what they wear: no offensive, profane or illegally advertised messages can appear on the fabric. Cross dressing is also looked down upon. Within accor-dance to these guidelines students are free to express their creativity in the crowd and around the school. So game time is fun and all, but what about wacky dress days where the students and faculty get to put their craziest face forward? The dress code rules are the same as any nor-mal school day, and Andersen com-ments that, “This year the students have been diligent with the dress code. I’ve been seeing good spirit in a lot of kids, but again I’d like to see more kids really get involved.” Sidney High School spirit isn’t just about dressing weird or stand-ing out from friends; it’s about the whole school, students and teach-ers amassing to support one anoth-er in all of the schools activities .

S t a f f s e e k s t r e n g t h i n n u m b e r sStudents who stand above the rest

By Alyssa KesselExEcutivE Editor

A main part of school spirit is the sup-port students show one another as they compete and display their skills out in the community. Anyone who has recently at-tended a school play or game can see where the sudden concern for school spirit is stemming from. The main support systems for our students seem to not only be lack-ing in attendance but also in enthusiasm. With a band numbering in the 50s an ex-planation is due as to why our pep band contains less than half this number on games that are not required. Corey Birch, the new band director, believes it’s simply inevitable “Everyone is busy. They have stuff they need to do and lives outside of school.” Many also claim they find greater pleasure in being part of the crowd rather than playing, which is not contrary to school spirit by any means. As students adjust to changes in the program, fans

hope that pep band numbers will increase. “Change is good, and great things are com-ing. It just takes some time,” said Birch. Not everyone has been slacking on their zeal though. Many clubs have put forth a real effort in creating more enthusiasm throughout the school. Student Council was hard at work this summer petitioning the city council to allow the cannon to be sound-ed again at football games. They achieved this, and the crowd welcomed the boom that echoed after every touchdown. The se-niors donated a banner showing the school song to be displayed in the gym as an early class memorial. The last noteworthy group of students is National Honor Society that created a committee to adress school spirit. School spirit has always been at the top of the list for the cheerleaders. “I think it’s very important that we are at games,” said captain McKen-z Ramus. “Whether the eagles are winning by 50 points or losing by 80, we are still there cheering them on.”

Assistant Principal Sue Andersen applauds the girls on their hard work and believes they’re doing a fine job and with a little more enthusiasm could really increase the support felt by athletes at games. Stuntmen were added to the squad last year, and the cheerleaders now proudly perform stunts for home crowds. “We try so hard to get new and more difficult stunts to see if that will impress our student section enough to cheer with us,” said Ramus. With all this work they still get discouraged when trying to extract spirit from an uninter-ested crowd. “We are at games and pep assemblies to get the students excited and ready for the game. We do our best, but it’s really hard to stay positive and keep everyone confident when they don’t even try to get pumped for the game,” she said. With the team’s main goal in mind these students will continue to do their best to bring animation back to the crowds. The most influential collection of stu-

dents is without a doubt those who show up to school events. With only an eighth of the bleachers being dedicated to the student section it’s hard to imagine it not being full every game. However, rarely is two thirds of the designated section occupied. When you do glance at the half empty stands, you would see students texting, lounging and not watching the game at all, accord-ing to Mike Gear. This attendance problem has been explained in many ways by those who don’t participate: conflicting schedules, different social obligations, and a simple lack of interest are all contributing factors. Those that do eagerly come, do so for the satisfaction that comes with it. “I feel good supporting my classmates,” said senior Blair Troudt. With all things considered, the question remains of what can be done to put school spirit at the top of student’s priorities? “Students need to put aside their personal opinions and rise to the occasion to support their peers,” Andersen suggests.

F a n a t i c i s m a t a n a l l t i m e l o w

Community plays role in school spirit

Sophmore Kodi Satra is pulled down by classmates while trying to cheer on eagle golf team during pep assemblyBlair Troudt

School

Arts The Spokesman8W e d n e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 0 9

By Tari SythA&E Editor

The trumpets start blowing, drums start pounding, the chorus starts caroling, and the high school begins its tribute to Christmas. Every year Sid-ney commemorates Christ-mas time with a full scale, holly-jolly concert, and this year is no different.

New band teacher, Corey Birch, and new choir teacher, Cedric Halvorson, are team-ing up to take the town’s holi-day spirit by storm.

Birch will be conducting the Concert Band in “Prelude to Christmas” and “Santa Meets Sousa,” followed by the Sym-phonic Band who will strike up “Silver Bells” and “An Old English Christmas.”

Halvorson will be leading the choir in song. The Chorus will be caroling “Angels We Have Heard On High” and “Silent Night.” Finally the Concert Choir will sing “Still Still Still,” “Christmas Time is Here,” and “Go Tell It On The Mountain.”

The musical festivities will happen Dec. 21 at 7 pm in the gym

By Sloane TuckA&E Editor

Tyler Schilling is this month’s feature artist. He has liked art since he was very little; the earliest he can remem-

ber his interest in art was when he was in the first grade.

Many years later he is a ju-nior and is taking his first year of Advanced Art classes with Bill Clark. His favorite media are basic pencil and charcoal. He fa-vors these to work with because in both media the shading is easy for him to manipulate. His

favorite subjects in art to draw are wildlife (elk and deer) and vehicles (pickups and older cars).

Schilling finds art easy say-ing, “It’s fun to do and it’s not like school work.” Schilling said he would like to continue do-ing art in his life he informed that he would like to con-tinue doing art “just for fun.” Tyler Schilling

Artist of the Month Tyler Schilling

Festive choir and band concert planned Izy and Tad By Sloane TuckA&E Editor

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By Sloane TuckA&E EDITOR

Rising pop star Lady Gaga is issuing a re-release of her album “The Fame.” It will feature eight songs with a different, emotion-al spin with a new name “The Fame Monster.” The new album will still contain her hit songs “Paparazzi,” and “Poker face,” from her previous album, but is being released with another CD containing her new songs. They include the addicting “Bad Ro-

mance,” the tech-no, hip hop song “Telephone,” and the slow, remorse-ful “Monster.”

Gaga has de-cided to take a dif-ferent tone with her new CD. “I wrote about fear and all the mon-sters that I’ve en-countered on the road,” she described in her vibe.

com interview. This theme has been outlined in each song representing a different fear. In her “The Jay Leno Show” interview, she talked about both songs “Telephone,”and “Mon-

ster.” Gaga did team up with

Beyonce Knowles to make the fast techno track “Telephone”; it represents Gaga’s fear that her career will always keep her away from having fun, “Fear of suffo-cation . . . something that I have or fear is never being able to en-joy myself.” Gaga also discussed her fears in her song “Monster.”“It’s the fear of attachment and the fear of loving something that’s bad for you. . . But what I really need is the security and safety and the womanhood, re-

sponsibility of my femininity, and so that is what the song is about.”

The album will also include the new songs “Alejandro,” “So Happy I Could Die,” “Speech-less,” “Dance in the Dark,” and “Teeth.” Gaga is well known for her first big hit “Just Dance”

--

chased at any local Walmart and at www.ladygaga.com.

Lady Gaga’s Album Cover for “Fame Monster.”

underthegunreview.net

By Tyler GossOPINION EDITOR

“It’s the Finals, the NFR, and the series of the sport,” sang Chris Ledoux, a five time Na-

tional Finals Rodeo qualifier and 1976 bareback world champion turned country singer.

Dec. 3-12 in Las Vegas, Ne-vada, cowboys from around the

world competed in the 51st an-nual Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Cowboys and cowgirls competed in saddle bronc rid-ing, bareback riding, bull riding, barrel racing, steer wrestling, tie down roping, and team roping. Competitors competed in their event every day for ten days.

Many exciting stories unfold-ed at the finals this year. Saddle bronc rider Jesse Kruse from Great Falls scored a 90 during a very exciting round four on a wild Calgary Stampede horse named Hell’s Half Acre. In bull

riding Douglas Duncan, Alvin, Texas, scored impressive high scores. Duncan rode for a 90 in round three on a bull named Hot Wired from the Rafter H Rodeo Company. Bareback rider Clint Cannon who resides in Waller, Texas competed in 97 rodeos in 2009 and was never bucked off on more than 200 rides. Cannon placed first in round seven and round eight on some very good rides.

Every night was action packed and kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more.

By Tari SythA&E EDITOR

Band teacher Corey Birch is the Musician of the Month for Decem-ber because he has shown o u t s t a n d i n g qualities in the musical field (es-pecially in band). “Sidney offered me a great opportunity to teach and I grabbed it up, because I was just out of school and who knows when I’d get anoth-er offer,” Birch remembers. “I don’t really have a defi-nite favorite; my music goes in spurts of when I like it to when I don’t.” he said. After a few minutes of deliberation, he fi-nally decided on Luciano Pava-rotti who was an Italian tenor who first sang opera then start-ed singing pop music in 1990. Birch’s musical talents, teach-ings, and freshman-like status at the school are the reasons why he is Musician of the Month.

Fast beat songs highlight new album

Musician of the month Corey Birch

Corey Birch

National Rodeo Finals sparks excitementMontana native scores big

Feature The Spokesman10W e d n e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 0 9

Come see us for your Christmas gift needs!

TRADITION [TRUH-DISH-UHN]

(N.): A CONTINUING PATTERN

OF PRACTICES. Whether it is what you do,

where you travel to, or what particular food you gorge, Christmas time typically brings about a tradition or two.

“It’s nice to have Christmas traditions,” explains sopho-more Ryan Sullivan. “They give you something to look forward to each year.”

Still, standard enough, tra-ditions vary from extravagant dinners to homemade pizza, on Christmas Eve; unwrap-ping one gift the night before, and the rest in on Christmas

Day or to all the night be-fore and the stockings in the morning.

With standard traditions come the not-so-standard, personal traditions; whether it’s the Beyer family making homemade caramel while watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” together, or four-wheel-ing before dinner on Christ-mas Eve as a Sundheim.

While most anticipate their traditions, senior Hana Pala-dichuk says, “My tradition is gaining 10-15 lbs.”, may not. That tradition may be more common than anyone else cares to admit, though.

Sidney’s very own tradi-tion, known as the Christ-mas Stroll with the Parade of

Lights is one that has been-around longer than any of us, ourselves, have. As the secre-tary manager for the Cham-ber of Commerce, Harold Lorenz came up with the idea in 1989 in order to “Perk up Christmas spirit throughout the community.” He con-cluded that it must have been a great idea seeing as how the tradition has stuck over the past twenty years, with every intention to continue on for years to come. “We haven’t missed a year since we’ve be-gun,” said Lorenz, proudly.

Standard or personal, each tradition is what one becomes accustomed to and has grown to appreciate. That is, after all, why it’s called a tradition.

Celebrating Christmas traditions Families share special timesBy Trisha SenffOPINION EDITOR

Symbols explainedCANDY CANES

In 1670 the choir master at the Cologne Cathedral gave his young singers sugar sticks to keep them quiet during the long Christmas ceremony. He bent them into the shape of a shepherd’s crooks to celebrate the occasion. It was not until the 1900s that red stripes were added and peppermint became the standard flavor

CHRISMAS TREE

The tradition of a tree first originated in Germany and were oaks. For good luck they would bring a small evergreen in to their homes and decorate them. When German immi-grants came to this country, they brought their tradition with them.

EGG NOG

Egg nog was originally made with beer. In the 17th century a strong ‘nog’ made with beer, sugar, egg yolks, lemon rinds, and cinnamon was drunk around the holi-days in Britain. We adopted the French version of “laite de poule,” made from milk, sugar, egg yolks and spir-its. We now pasteurize the drink to remove the threat of salmonella, but the recipe has been the same for over 150 years.

COOKIESDo you know that the most popular cookie kids leave for Santa is the Oreo? There is no exact date recorded but the idea of leaving cookies for Santa started sometime in the 1930s. Naughty kids use them to bribe Santa at the last min-ute, and nice kids use them as a way of thanking him for all his hard work on Christmas Eve.

WREATHCan you believe people used to worship evergreen holly as a sign of eternal life because it did not brown or die in the winter? We now place wreaths on doors or hallways to create a festive atmosphere during the holi-day season.

MISTLETOEDid you realize that mistle-toe is rarely used in churches because it comes from the ancient Druid ceremony cel-ebrating winter solstice? This once pagan tradition started when a girl would stand beneath the hanging plant and a boy would walk up, pick a berry and then kiss her. When the berries were gone…no more kisses.

Facts compiled from ClassBrain.com

Besides these three seniors, the team will also look for help from three others in Ethan Hoff-man, Rick Haraldson, and Neil Martin. Hoffman provides much quickness and athleticism, as Haraldson and Martin bring sharp shooting to the team.

Two juniors join the varsity squad for the 2009-2010 season. Cole Steinbeisser, at 6-2, returns to the roster, and Colten Herbert is a new addition to the team. Herbert transferred from Savage last spring, and was an all-confer-ence pick for the Warriors. Both are expected to fill big shoes this year.

Three sophomores wrap up the varsity squad. Ryan Sullivan, at 62, is a returning forward who looks to see much playing time. Josh Torgerson returns as well and provides a deadly outside shot. Alex Irigoin rounds out the roster.

“It’s going to be fun to get out there and play some division ri-vals this year,” said Sullivan.

The Eagles play host to East-ern A foes, the Miles City Cow-boys, on Dec. 18.

Sports The Spokesman 11W e d n e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 0 9

After a heart-breaking out-in-two performance at last year’s divisional tournament, the boys basketball team is ready for a fresh new start under head coach Danny Strasheim, who returns for his second consecutive season as head coach.

With the team returning three starters, experience and depth is going to play a key role this season. Mitch Kallevig, a senior, returns as the only Eagle earning post-season awards, as he was named to the conference’s hon-orable mention team. He brings important know-how to the point guard position. Beau Prevost, a senior, also started last year, and at 6-1 brings some size to the table. Josh Morasko is the third returning starter, and this senior provides a nice shooting range as he was one of the Eagles’ top three point shooters last season.

“We lost a lot of size this year, but we made it up with ex-perience,” said Morasko.” The younger players are really step-ping up.

Eagles return core of experienceBy Jordan SullivanSportS Editor

Ready to get over their two -year hump of third place finishes at the Eastern A di-visional, the girls basketball team is pushing to get to the state level this year led by their new head coach Jon Skinner.

Skinner is looking forward to the new challenges he isn’t used to, but it will provide a great way to learn from the athletes. “I took this job as an opportunity to inherit a team that has played together for many years, and to instruct athletes in achieving suc-cess,” he said. “It also gave me the opportunity to have success at the varsity level. Whether coaching girls or boys, athletes need to be coached hard and taught how to correctly play the game. My con-centration won’t be on gender, but will move towards wins and losses.” Skinner has been stress-ing lowering the number of turn-overs per game in practice, so the girls have been working on pass-

ing drills and also press break. The Eagles new head coach

has a few years of experience when it comes to coaching basket-ball. He has coached at the mid-dle school level and was on the coaching staff for the Dillon var-sity boys basketball team. He also played for Dillon in high school.

Skinner and the Eagles are working towards the state level. “Working hard on every play in every practice and ev-ery game is a huge challenge a coach faces, and playing with intensity and toughness is very key to a successful season,” said the first-year head coach. The coaching staff will include Brad Faulhaber and Sandy Sullivan, who will provide knowledge with their years of experience.

The Eagles will face a tough Eastern A Division. “Billings Central, Glendive, and Miles City look to be the teams to beat again this season,” said junior Megan Johnson.

Seniors Jordan Sullivan,

three-time All-State selection, and Whitney Thiel will pro-vide experience and leadership to the young team this year.

A strong junior class will play a major role and provide experience to the squad. Ju-nior forwards are Janae Moore, an All-Conference performer last season, and Johnson. The guards consist of Alex Ham-mer, Kayla Lake, Brooke Schmitt, and Amy Rassier.

Three sophomores Kodi Satra, Cedar Lewis, and Mad-eline Warner will provide depth to the varsity roster.

The Eagles have good size, quickness, perimeter shooting, and solid ball handling to balance their squad compared to other Eastern A teams. “We have a lot of experience from this summer’s tournaments, and we competed very well,” Moore said. “Also, our team has good chemistry.”

Sidney will travel to Miles City on Dec. 17 to face their conference rivals the Cowgirls.

Girls ready to take over the court

Junior Colten Herbert looks for the ball as senior teammate Ethan Hoffman and sophomore team-mate Alex Irigoin defend. Head coach Danny Strasheim observes the play from the sideline.

JORDAN SULLIVAN

By Whitney ThielSportS Editor

Power poll shows Grizzly dominance

Griz: 143 votesBobcats: 58 VotesDon’t Really Care: 86 VotesTotal: 261 Votes

Students & Staff polled Dec. 1-2

Sports The Spokesman12W e d n e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 0 9

Upcoming Events Girls Basketball -Miles City (A)- Dec. 17 - Glasgow (A)-Dec. 19 - Wolf Point (A)- Dec. 22

Boys Basketball - Miles City (H)- Dec. 18 - Glasgow (A)- Dec. 19 - Wolf Point (A)- Dec. 22

Wrestling - Gillette Duals (A)- Dec. 18/19 - Glasgow/Havre (A)- Dec. 22

Junior Gold Hockey - Watford City (H)- Dec. 19

Girls Hockey - Watford City (H)- Dec. 19 - Glasgow (H)- Dec. 20

As the weather has cooled, local athletes have hit the ice and have begun prepar-ing for their hockey season.

Both the Ranger girls and Ranger boys Junior Gold teams started practice in early Novem-ber and are now beginning live-action-play in a variety of t o u r n a m e n t s and games.

The Jr. Gold played their first games in Sidney for their home tournament over Thanks-giving weekend. They won two of their four games against various Canadian teams, as well as a win against rival Wat-ford City, with a score of 10-0.

Senior Matt Harris, the return-ing captain, has a positive out-look for the year. “It’s difficult to

tell how we are going to do, but as long as we play hard and smart we should do very well,” he said.

This prediction was based on the talent and experience of the seven returning se-niors, and a sophomore goalie, Brandon Moore, who saw a lot of playing time last year.

Harris ex-pects the newcomers to adapt quickly. As for their goals, Har-ris said, “We are always s h o o t i n g for the state

trophy, and hopefully we’ll bring it home this year.”

The Rangers finished in fifth at last year’s state tourney.

After a loss in the champion-ship game at state last year, the 19 and under girls are deter-mined to claim the title this year.

They were well on their

way after a clean sweep to first place in their first tournament of the year in Crosby, and a 15-1 win against Williston.

After the loss of five seniors, the team was left with short-er numbers than they hoped.

“We’ll see good things from the Rangers this year,” said head coach Sara Ber-ndt. “Even with a short bench I think we will be competitive with everyone in the league.”

Junior Brittany Johnson, the top goal scorer for the past two years, thinks the season will be one of growth as they try to utilize more passing drills to open up play opportunities.

She also hopes to see each play-er be as conditioned as possible to make up for the lack of players.

As for their state goals, Berndt optimistically said, “We have an excellent opportunity to take the state title this season if everyone stays healthy and competitive.”

Rangers strive for slick seasonBy Alyssa KesselExEcutivE Editor

After winning the division-al championship for the last seven consecutive seasons, the wrestling team is striving for the title of divisional and state champions of 2010 with con-fidence and determination.

Guy Melby, Tim Stub-stad, and Ty Graves will coach the 37 wrestlers that began practice in November and will work into Febru-ary: four non-stop months of discipline and intensity.

The team has some power-ful returning wrestlers such as junior Brennan Gorder, who has won second place twice at the State A tourna-ment in the past; senior Lane Houchen, who took third at state last year, and junior

Jayme Kelly who placed fifth.Melby’s Maulers hosted the

Eagle Invitational Dec. 4 -5, and 17 teams participated in the competitive tournament.

The team won fourth place overall, and for the varsity squad nine Eagles finished in the top seven. Gorder took the title in the 125 weight class. Houchen took second at 135. Three Eagles were third in their respective weight class-es: Kelly at 145, sophomore Leith Johnson at 112, and Allen Neuleib in the heavy-weight competition. Sopho-more Gene Speldrich finished fourth in the 130 weight class, and junior Randy Green also finished fourth at 189. Soph-omore Trevor Tracy placed fifth at 152 while sophomore Austin Bridges rounded

out the varsity team at sev-enth place in the 119 group.

For the junior varsity squad, six Eagles finished in the top six. Sophomore Jory Stevens dominated in the 275 weight class and earned first place honors. Sophomore Ryan Buckles placed sec-ond at 112. Sophomore Joe Barsotti landed third at 125, and senior Kacey Betts also won a third at 160. Fresh-man Lane Lyseng scored fifth in the 145 division, and sophomore David Vos fin-ished sixth as a 152 pounder.

“We have a good corps of kids this year that really like to work hard. I think if they work hard, I can definitely see them succeeding in becoming state and divisional champions this year,” Melby predicted.

Melby’s Maulers host opening tourneyBy Tari SythA&E Editor

Senior Lane Houchen attempts to take down an opponent at the Eagle Invitiational. The tournament was hosted by Sidney Dec. 4-5.

SHERIDAN POPE

“We are always shoot-ing for the state tro-phy, and hopefully we’ll bring it home this year.”

-Matt Harris

senior