The Eagle's Nest 12.5

The Eagle's NestSPRING EDITION

STATE CHAMPS! SPORTS, PAGE 6

SERIOUS HORSEPLAYLIFE, PAGE 3

KEEPI NG THE S TUDE NTS OF RHEA COUNTY HIGH SCHO OL I NFORMED SI NCE 1996

VOLUME 12, NUMBER 5

Plans complete for additional classrooms

YOUR PHOTOS AS STICKERS! TECH REVIEW, PAGE 4

By CORY SMITH [email protected]

By JULIUS SMITH [email protected] By ALEX BROWN

[email protected]

Recently, construction began on the modular buildings that are supposed to temporarily allevi-ate the overcrowding problems at RCHS. The plans have been fi-nalized and on-site construction will be seen as soon as the first of April.

The buildings will hold ten classrooms and a Science lab. The buildings should be inhabitable by the first weeks of June and will be ready for use at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year.

The new building will be lo-cated between the current build-ing and the baseball field. There will be two ways to get to the building: the main entrance will be the doors where the coke ma-chines on the Science hallway are currently housed, and the sec-ondary entrance will be a covered walkway that rounds the corner of the building from the entrance between Mr. West’s and Mrs. Guffey’s rooms.

According to Mr. Levengood, no decision has been made yet concerning which actual classes

from Science Hallway(the exit at the snack machines)

Classroom (23’ x 28‘)








Science Lab (31’ x 44‘)

Storage



will be taught in the new class-rooms.

The idea of housing as many of the Freshman Academy classes as possible has been brought up, mostly for concerns of traffic flow

in and out of the building. However, Mr. Levengood says,

nothing is set in stone and mid-year relocations may be a possi-bility if the traffic is too much.

The buildings are on a five

year lease. During these five years, the plans for permanent buildings will be discussed. Also, paying for a permanent building will be dis-cussed.

Recently, a sales tax referen-

dum to benefit school renova-tions and new buildings failed by a mere 82 votes. In hopes of pas-sage, the County Commission has placed the referendum on the bal-lot again for August.

The final layout for the new modular buildings. In addition to a much-needed classroom space, the buildings will also house a new science lab. Construction should begin sometime in April, and teachers will be able to move in over the summer.

Blood Drive ApproachesRCHS Spring play is quite a change

BACK ROW (from left): Autumn Dillard, Sara Goode, NeNe Raiteri Rachel Thurman, Zak Barnes, Carrie Lounsberry, Rachel Wilson, PJ Buckner. FRONT ROW (from left): Trent Snyder, Nathan Bates, Zack Travis.

photo by sarah heath

On April 8, RCHS students will again have the opportunity to vicariously save the lives of patients on the brink of death. Blood Assurance will be hosting the years’ second blood drive.

Ms. Cotter, freshman science teacher, commented on the emo-tional effects of donating blood to those in need. “The blood drive is a great thing! When they did the blood drive, when I had heart surgery, people donated blood in my name and it took ten dollars for every pint off of my hospital bill,” she said with great apprecia-tion. “It helped ten other people, also,” she adds.

Mr. Knudston was positive about the help of students dur-ing the drive. “There was good participation from all students [in November] and numbers exceed-ed last year, so we are expecting even better numbers for April,” he said.

Each blood donation is 500 milliliters, or about 1/4 of a 2-liter soft drink bottle. This amount of blood can be used to save up to three people’s lives.

You must be at least 17 years old to donate.

I have to do a double-take. Zack Travis is on stage letting out his feminine side, and he’s not holding back. His falsetto voice and absurd strut are amusing, but also mildly disturbing. I’ve come here to get some answers, but right now I’m more confused than enlightened. Fortunately, I was able to sit down with assistant director Dusty Pas-chal for a quick interview.

The RCHS Theater Department is currently preparing for Switch-eroo, a comedy about our favor-ite event of the year—prom. The story begins with a rather flustered group of girls, who are all dateless for the dance that evening, since none of the guys have bothered to ask anyone out. (Tip for you guys out there: waiting until the day of the prom is a very, very bad idea).

Anyway, two budding scien-tists in the group, Beatrice and her friend Pokey, come up with a con-coction that will force the guys to pitch a little woo.

As in any story of this type, the love potion doesn’t quite work as expected. The end result is that all the guys now believe they are girls, and the girls think they are guys. It also makes for one hilarious play.

Dusty is quick to tell me his fa-

vorite character. “[He] is played by Jordon Dodd and Zack Travis. His name is Harold. He is hilarious, and he is a dork.”

Since there are two periods for Theater Arts class, some charac-ters, like Harold, are double cast. That is to say, there are two actors for the same part.

The two classes also have dif-

ferent directors. Morgan Price and Danielle McGhee are the two main directors. Morgan and Marita Martin are directing the third pe-riod class; Daniel and Dusty direct for fourth period.

Switcheroo will be making its premiere on Thursday, April 3 for the local middle schools. There shows April 4 during school;

Freshman and Sophomore classes can attend during 2nd and 3rd periods and Juniors and Seniors during the 5th and 6th periods. If you prefer an evening show time or would just like to see it with your fam-ily, there will be a 7:00 perfor-mance on Friday and Saturday nights, April 4 and 5.

2 The Eagle’s Nest • Spring Edition • March 2008

RCHS Career Day is coming on Wednesday, April 9. It’s a great opportunity to gather information from area employers.

Take a T.I.G.E.R. Tour! During the week of March 12–20, RCHS students are invited to take a “Take Initiative and Get Education-ally Ready” tour of the Chattanooga State Dayton campus. Hours are from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. If possible, call 365-5010 to set up an appointment, or just drop by when it’s convenient.

If you’ve applied to colleges, start checking to make sure your paperwork and financial aid documents are complete.

You’re invited to the career fair mentioned in the Senior notes, above, as well as the CTSCC tour. Take advantage of these op-portunities!

Gateway Tests are scheduled for May 6–8: Algebra I, May 6; English II, May 7; Biology I, May 8.

End-of-Course Tests are scheduled for May 6–8: English I, May 9; U.S. History, May 9; Math Foundations II, May 12; Physical Science, May 12.

SENIORS

JUNIORS

EVERYONE

GUIDANCECORNER

Highway 27 Sfrom Dayton

Carter Street first right

Chattanooga Convention Center

Exit #1A MLK Blvd. East

B

B

B

Find your way to the prom

Thanks to the these businesses for sponsoring our prom directions!

The prom is at the Chattanoo-ga Convention Center downtown, and getting there’s pretty much a straight shot—assuming you’re not making any stops along the way.

To get there from Dayton, just hop on Highway 27 South and go straight. For a long time.

Eventually, you’ll cross High-way 153 (where you’d get off to go to Northgate). Keep going straight on Highway 27.

Finally, you’ll cross the Ten-nessee river on the P.R. Olgiati bridge. Pass the Lookouts ball-park, and keep going to Exit 1A, Martin Luther King Blvd. East.

Loop around, and take a right at the first traffic light, on Carter Street.

The Convention Center is the white building on the left; As you approach, look for the entrance to an underground parking garage on the left between the Mariott hotel and the Convention Center proper. Drive safely!

On Monday, Febru-ary 18, students were sent to compete in the regional SkillsUSA competition. Un-fortunately, no one from RCHS will be headed for the state competition in Cosme-tology and Carpentry.

Cosmetology teacher Mrs. Stewart said, “There were only two returnees that competed; it was everybody else’s first time. But everyone had fun and they will try again next year.”

Returnee Crystal Pilkey

Students in the RCHS Key Club will attend the K-T Dis-trict Convention on Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16, 2008.

Club sponsor Mrs. Faulkner and seven students will travel to Chattanooga, where they’ll meet with other high school students from all over Tennes-see and Kentucky.

In the course of the week-end, they’ll participate in many activities, including a talent show, an impromptu essay con-test, and an event to raise mon-ey for Grassroots Soccer, and organization that is dedicated to fighting AIDS among the youth of Africa.

Key Club members to attend District Convention

By NILAM PATEL [email protected]

By SARAH HEATH [email protected]

Clubs will also share ideas for projects geared toward helping their communities.

Key Club has been able to at-tend convention for a couple of years and this year is a wonderful opportunity to attend in Chatta-nooga.

This is the first time the club has been able to attend the conven-tion in three years, due to a lack of funding. This year they are able to go thanks to the sponsorship of the local Kiwanis clubs in Dayton and Spring City.

A student-led organization, Key Club strives to teach leader-ship through serving oth-ers.

has competed in two different areas of the SkillsUSA competi-tion, the Job Skills Demo and the Prepared Speech. This year she competed in the Job Skills Demo competition. “It’s a great compe-tition,” said Pilkey. “It’s definitely not something to miss out on.”

Steven Patton went for Car-pentry. Although he did not place in the competition, Mr. Heath said, “He represented RCHS in a honorable fashion and he built a good wall.”

Graphic arts will be sending Zach Taylor to compete in the state competition near the end of March.

SkillsUSA competition ends

Disney’s High School Musi-cal opened on February 29 at the Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville, Tennessee. Approx-imately 40 students from schools all around East and Middle Ten-nessee are performing in this pro-duction.

Of these students, two are from RCHS, Senior Dusty Pascal

and Junior Morgan Price. Both auditioned for the parts in De-cember and received call backs for parts in the show. Morgan is play-ing the part of Martha Cox, and Dusty plays Zeke Baylor. Dusty is also the understudy for the part of Ryan Evans.

Practice began on February 3, and lasted for 3 weeks. Dusty and Morgan have had to be truly com-mitted to the production, sac-rificing a lot time to be part of a

performance like this. Rehearsals typically began

soon after school and ran to around 10pm, which meant they didn’t get home most nights until around 11 pm. Dusty quit his job and gave up playing soccer in order to have time for the show. There are usually shows 5 nights a week.

Although they have to sac-rifice, they both think that it is worth it to be a part of this experience. Both Morgan and Dusty consider this perfor-mance to be very different then any they’ve ever been in—there are larger audiences, more in-tricate costumes, more elabo-rate sets, and they get their own dressing rooms.

They both say they’re enjoy-ing the production. They get to meet new people, and even sign an occasional autograph. They also get to challenge themselves more in this production.

Morgan and Dusty are also assistant directors for the RCHS spring play, coming in April. Morgan is also planning on try-ing out for a part in Beauty and the Beast at the Cumberland County Playhouse in April.

High School Musical runs until April 26. Tickets are $20 for adults and $11 for children and students. Tickets can be purchased from the Playhouse Box Office at (931) 484-5000.

RCHS students land parts in Cumberland County Playhouse’s

High School MusicalBy ERIC BAILEY

[email protected]

In addition to their normal activities around school, and their involvement with the RCHS Theatre program, Senior Dusty Paschal and Junior Morgan Price have been performing in the Cumberland County Playhouse’s production of High School Musical.

Corsages • Boutonnieres Bouquets

22576 Rhea County Hwy Spring City

365-4020

Student Life

Not just horsing around

Confessions of a video game coward

By ALEX BROWN [email protected]

There we were, me and my crew, in the middle of a heated battle with an alien horde. We were trying to break through their defenses, but they were mowing us down.

“Keep going,” I screamed, “Show them what you’re

made of!” My loyal crew ad-v a n c e d , r u n n i ng and gun-n i n g t h ro u g h the waves of en-

emies. But then, just when the

momentum started to go our way, an explosion ripped through my men. I was the only one who sur-vived. I didn’t know what to do.

I quickly found the nearest ve-hicle and got out of there. T h i n k i n g quickly, I abandoned my ride and ran to a nearby crate and hid be-hind it.

I’ll never know why these things are so indestructible and never seem to move, but I sure was glad at the time.

The bullets of the ap-proaching enemies whizzed by the crate and I could hear the slugs pounding the side. As I sat there cowering behind that box, I looked back and saw a battalion of my allies advancing to me. I couldn’t let them see me like this.

I panicked. But then, I noticed some-

thing that I hadn’t noticed before: a cloaking device. I grabbed it quick and, invis-ible, ran behind my troops.

As they charged, I moved forward behind them, taking cover without them noticing I

TYLER HUMPHREY

was there. When a man would fall, I

would grab his ammo to com-pensate for my non-stop firing. I threw grenades as often as I could, sometimes sacrificing one of my men for two of theirs.

Eventually the aliens were purged, and I hopped back in my vehicle and took the side route to arrive in the base before my men. I had done it. I stayed alive and still managed to keep my reputa-tion.

I’ve got to wonder—should I really be behaving in this despi-cable fashion in these imaginary universes?

You would think that when a person’s playing a game, the emotions that he feels would be similar to the emotions that he would feel in reality.

H o w e v -er, a recent study by re-searchers at the Univer-sity of Hel-sinki (Niklas Ravaja, et al. “The psy-chophysiol-ogy of James Bond: Phasic e m o t i o n a l responses to violent video game events.” Emotion. Feb 2008.) suggest

that game players are actually re-lieved and often find it humorous when they die in a game, instead of being disturbed or angry.

It also notes that “instead of joy resulting from victory and success, wounding and killing the opponent elicited anxiety, anger, or both.”

Maybe we’re going about this video game violence all wrong. Maybe it’s just a new form of stress relief and could actually be beneficial in some way, rather than harmful.

That could explain why my above-mentioned victory didn’t leave the same impact on me as my repeated deaths. Next time, maybe I’ll forget the mad dash to ignominy, and just take what’s coming to me, instead.

Beside a horse trailer, a tall blonde wearing a blue, 20X name brand collared shirt is stretching an American Paint horse. The rider smells the damp Mississippi air as she warms up her wise and trained horse, which she refers to as simply, “Blue.”

The 18-year-old American Paint is lopes lithely along, guid-ed by the enthusiastic cowgirl at Jackson, Mississippi’s Youth World competition, a grand deal for barrel racers.

“In a basketball game every-body shoots to warm up,” Bailey Messimer says, making a shoot-ing motion with her right arm. “Stretching is really important to us.” Messimer, a junior at Rhea County High is a member of NBHA (National Barrel Horse Association), IBRA (Internation-al Barrel Racing Association), and the East Tennessee Barrel Racers Association, and started racing only last September.

Her eyes focused downward, Messimer admits that the NBHA is a big accomplishment and great chance to meet the people from all over the world.

“Oh yeah, I’ve seen riders from France, Canada, and Pana-ma. They really do come from ev-erywhere for the race,” Messimer notes.

Seven hours away from Jack-son, the exclamations of 150 horse buffs echo throughout the valleys of Roane County. A slender girl with chestnut hair brushes the

silky coat of “April,” the first horse she has ever trained.

This NBHA competition doesn’t seem to play on Taylor Wopat’s nerves, or affect her calm, tranquil nature. “It’s very loud and there are many people,” Wopat says with a blithe expression.

Taylor explained that folks in the NBHA may come from miles away to witness and compete in the Roane State area, and that at-tendance normally rounds out close to 200.

Wopat waves her hands like Vanna White after explaining ev-ery meticulous step in the warm up process. Like any musician or athlete, rodeo riders must prepare and warm up.

“Brush her down, Get her saddle. Then her bridal. Then I put her boots on. She has boots she has to wear to protect her

legs. Then... that’s about it. Then I stretch her out and we go!”

For those of us who have not taken “Barrel Racing 101,” it goes basically like this: three barrels are placed in a designated area and a rider and horse must ride around them in a clover-leaf pattern, competing for the fastest times.

Both girls have their fair share of stories collected during their time barrel racing.

As might be expected, riders may encounter danger sometime during their career.

Taylor Wopat’s voice becomes a little solemn at the mention of injury in the competitions. She glances down toward her shin.

“I’ve hit the barrel before . . . cut my shin. I’ve, you know, cut it a couple times. My horse has never fallen with me, but I’ve seen people who go around the barrels and the horses slip and fall they hit the barrel. Knocks the person out. Yeah, it has happened. Usu-ally doesn’t—but I’ve seen it a couple of times. It’s dangerous!” She laughs. She emphasizes the fact that extreme caution should be taken while riding.

Bailey Messimer also proves basically fortunate when speaking of barrel racing accidents.

“You have to sit at the middle of the horse and they can lose their footing. They will turn a little too close a lot of times. I’ve been pretty lucky! He’s only hit three barrels. If you do hit the barrels you add five seconds. You’re au-tomatically out, like money-wise and everything. Sometimes, it just takes a little acrobatic skill.”

Bailey recounts a recent mis-fortune with a young horse she

Bailey Messimer and her horse, Blue, compete in the National Barrel Horse Association’s Youth World competition, held in Jackson, Mississippi in July.

photo sUbMItteD

A pair of RCHS girls take horseback riding very seriously indeed

Start/Finish Line

105’

90’

>= 45’

105’

12

3

B

B

B

B

B

B

A TYPICAL BARREL RACING COURSE consists of three bar-rels arranged in a triangle. Riders trace a clover-leaf pattern around them, trying to turn as tightly as possible without losing momen-tum or disturbing the barrels. A knocked-over barrel usually re-sults in a 5-second penalty.The measurements in the diagram above are typical, but may vary. Riders may also begin with the left barrel first.

“The bullets of the approach-ing enemies whizzed by the crate and I could hear the slugs pounding the side.

As I sat there cowering be-hind the box, I looked back and saw a battalion of my allies ad-vancing toward me. I couldn’t let them see me like this.

”

see HORSES page 5

4 The Eagle’s Nest • Spring Edition • March 2008

At one time or another I’m sure we’ve all experienced the innate obsession with plastering stickers on every surface we could get our hands on.

Ok, so maybe that was just me and normal kids (read: boring) have no desire to wallpaper the kitchen cabinet with Power Rangers. Hon-estly, I feel sorry for you and anyone else who missed out on such an im-portant stage of life.

There is some good news, how-ever: today happens to be your lucky day. By reading this article you can gain the power to regain part of your childhood. Well, some-thing like that.

Among other things, the (rela-tively) new Web service MOO.com lets users personalize and print their own professional-quality stickers with ease.

No longer do you have to dream about what it would be like to stick miniature pictures of your adorable pet all over your locker or note-books.

For starters, MOO has almost perfected the art of uploading your own images, either from your com-puter or by importing images from some of the more popular social networks such as Facebook and Flickr. (Sorry MySpace users, no easy importing of pictures for you.)

most of the book. Moon is pulled deep into the twisted world of Victorian England as he searches for answers. Along the way he encounters a bearded woman, the human fly, a man who lives backwards in time, and his faith-ful sidekick The Somnambulist.

What seems to be a straight up murder mystery in the be-ginning quickly changes into a humor-filled quest for answers as Moon and The Somnambulist uncover a cult whose goal is to take down London and rebuild it using the pantisocratic plans of the poet Coleridge.

What I still don’t understand is why it was called The Somnam-bulist. The title character is in fact

Ah, the dimly lit aisles of a book store swim before my eyes as I squint at many a title. For the past three hours I have been searching for one decent book

to do a review on and have only come away with dozens of cliché captions. The standards for pub-licists have obviously reached an all time low. The standards for authors aren’t so hot either.

Finally I came away with The Somnambulist. Edward Moon is a washed out magician who used to be famous for his ability to solve crimes, but now is past his prime. Boredom is starting to get to him when one day he gets a visit from Inspector Merryweather who needs help with a new case.

“This one’s special,” the man insisted. “There’s something queer about it, something grisly and gothic and bizarre. So you can see why I thought of you.”

Gothic and bizarre describes

MOO prints nice thingsWait! Don’t jump!

TECH TOOLSby

Matthew Price

MOVIE REVIEW by

Tyler Humphrey

BOOK REVIEW by

Starr Houston

A weekend with vampiresBy KARISSA [email protected]

Jumper revolves around the story of David Rice, a man with the ability to “jump” to any place on earth he is famil-iar with.

Rice spends his days do-ing frivilous things all over the world and having fun 24 hours a day.

Eventually, though, his powers are found out and an anti-Jumper group called the Paladins comes after him.

Sounds pretty cool, right? I thought that, too. We’re

wrong. Jumper is one of the worst

movies I’ve seen in a very long

ABOVE: MOO’s Web interface is clean and easy to use. You can upload photos from your computer, or import them from Facebook or Flickr albums.RIGHT: MOO.com’s sticker books are a relatively inexpensive way to turn your photos or artwork into high-quality vinyl stickers.

Samuel Jackson, leader of the Paladins, a secret sect sworn to destroy the “Jumpers,” hunts Hayden Christensen.

Jonathan Barnes’s The Somnambu-list is available in Hardcover from HarperCollins publishers.

photo by MIchael gIbson / twentIeth centUry Fox anD regency enterprIses

photos coUrtesy oF Moo.coM

time. The plot was lackluster at best and it did nothing to bring the sci-fi action flick forward.

The dialogue was downright cheesy and the action scenes were so badly directed that the longer fight scenes actually gave me mo-tion sickness from the constant use of the increasingly popular “shaky cam.”

But none of these problems are the worst part. While I was watch-ing the movie, I didn’t think that it was that bad. It was nothing spe-cial.

But after leaving the theater and thinking back on the movie, I began to realize just how bad it was. The movie solves absolutely no conflict. It seems that the movie was just a 90-minute trailer for a new franchise. By the time you get to the end, the story just . . . ends.

If I were you, I would jump away from this movie as far as pos-sible unless you are looking to be sorely disappointed.

The Somnambulist no sleeperonly a minor character that shadows Moon around—a tall, bald, golem-like creature that communicates by writing on a slate and has a passion for milk.

There are several vague ref-erences about him resembling Gog and Magog the last of England’s giants, but beyond that his origins aren’t elabo-rated on.

The most remarkable thing about him is that he can be impaled, slashed, and sliced with nary a drop of blood be-ing shed. Well, I didn’t say he wasn’t odd—he just isn’t fea-tured enough to warrant the book being titled after him.

The story can be some-what confusing in places, but for the most part it’s funny enough that you won’t care. Never fear though, by the last three chapters everything is resolved quite nicely and all the odd pieces stitched to-gether.

If you like dark Victorian books with random bits of hu-mor thrown in...this is a must. If you are easily grossed out by descriptions of gore and the occasional just plain gross, then it’s a must not.

somnambulist (n.) [Origin: 1790–1800; < nl somnambulis-mus, equiv. to somn(us) sleep + ambul(âre) to walk + -ismus -ism]

Once you’ve uploaded some images, the options you have are rather slim. Personally, I welcome this change from the all too often busy and confusing web sites I’ve been unfortunate enough to visit. Because not all pictures are equal, MOO includes the ability to zoom and crop your images.

A reset button is also provided if you feel that you’ve messed up beyond all belief, but I’m not sure if that’s really possible.

Change your mind about which pictures to include? Don’t fret. There’s even the option to add more images or remove current ones. Crop settings will be saved, so you

don’t have to worry about readjust-ing all your precious images.

The stickers are glossy vinyl, 22mm square (about 7/8 of an inch) and come in a smooth little booklet with tear-out pages. Each booklet has 90 stickers total—and you can use up to 90 individual pictures! If you have less, pictures will simply repeat.

A sticker booklet costs $9.99, plus $2.99 for shipping (the com-pany’s located in London, Eng-land); but at $12.98, that’s 14¢ per sticker! Not bad, if you’re looking for a flashy way to show off some pictures, or for a creative gift for a friend.

Straight out of Columbia University, Vampire Weekend didn’t have to wait long for their music to reach the masses.

Long before their album was even released, Internet blog-gers had already sampled their music, they’d appeared on the cover of Spin, done Letterman, been interviewed on NPR, and had a scheduled appearance on SNL.

These guys are pretty much everywhere, and in my opinion they deserve to be. Their self-titled debut displays an indie guitar rock record with traces of Afro-pop influence.

Songs like “Oxford Comma” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” are so delightful and catchy in all of the right ways.

Overall, this is just a really fun and simple album, some-thing that people have needed for quite some time.

The Eagle’s Nest • Spring Edition • March 2008 5

Jimmy Dean rides on, and this time you can heave a sigh of

relief... this one’s much easier (and much ancient-er) than last

time. Give it a try!

Same as before, squint your eyes and try to identify the

pixelated location shown in the photo above. Make your

guess, then submit your answer to the drop box in the library,

using one of the entry slips provided. (It’s on top of the card

catalogue--you remember...that things with all the trays of little

cards that have book titles on them? Yeah, that.)

The deadline for entries is

Friday, April 11th.

One entry, drawn at random from all

the correct entries received, will win a

gift certificate for a FREE custom sticker

book from MOO.com!

calls “Trucker.” “The other night at

Cookeville, my four-year-old horse’s tie down broke. So he took off running and ran into a wall. It threw me off and left a big bruise on my hip. You look back on it now and kind of laugh about it, but it was scary at the time.”

Overlooking the danger aspect is pretty easy when you factor in the rewards.

Bailey seems rather happy to receive the extravagant cash prizes that she has earned in the past. So far in her short career, she has collected close to one thousand dollars in award money and a prize belt buckle, which she is proudly wearing.

Messimer stands up and displays the shiny prize. “I

save the money for entry fees to compete more,” she says. Taylor has garnered 20 ribbons and a trophy.

Keep an eye out for these two riders in the future. “I’d like to continue on and do professional

rodeo. Not just barrel racing, but the whole thing. I would love to train horses, too,” Bailey says.

“I want to do it as long as I can,” exclaims Taylor gesturing emphatically, as if suggesting that this was her destiny. “I love it.”

HORSESfrom Page 3

Taylor Wopat prepares for competition on her practice course at home.photo sUbMItteD

Equipped with a new coach and eight returning varsity players, the RCHS softball team is ready to kick off another season.

Coach Hayes is expecting a lot out of her girls during her first year coaching a RCHS, and a very competitive season to follow up from last year, where they placed second in the district.

The eight returning var-sity players include Myranda Hughes and Charlie Mc-Cuistion (Seniors); Charlie

Sports

As the chill of winter begins to fade away into spring, the Rhea County 2008 Baseball team is hard at work in anticipation of a successful season.

Seniors Ryne Anderson, Devin “Devo” Paschal, Jamey “Jimbo” Paul, Tyler Burton, and McMinn

Congratulations to our new State champions, Jacob Henley(Senior , 125) and Hunter Daniel (Senior, 140), as well as to all the RCHS State qualifiers: Cody Graves (Senior, 215), Kev-in Revis (Junior, 285), Quinton Carter (Sophomore, 119), Logan Henley (Freshman, 112), and Nic Fuller (Freshman, 103).

This year’s State tournament was held at McKenzie arena on February 14–16. RCHS wres-tling was proud to take 9th place overall, having taken seven out of fourteen varsity wrestlers to the competition.

Coach Brown was proud and ecstatic to see two seniors he has grown to love work extremely hard throughout the year and achieve their goals. Brown has touched many of the wrestlers’ hearts with his examples of how hard work and dedication pay off.

Our Seniors Jacob, Hunter, and Cody all truly admire and look up to Coach Brown and would like to give a special thanks for all the time and effort he has dedicated to the team and to their individual lives.

The sad truth is that Jacob and Hunter’s wrestling careers ended with their State victory, since nei-ther plans to wrestle in college.

This isn’t the first State qualifi-

Henley and Daniel take championship titles

By ROCHELLE [email protected]

By VICTORIA [email protected]

photo by jUlIUs sMIth

photo by cathy barnes / the heralD-news

photo by cathy barnes / the heralD-news

cation for Jacob this year; he also helped the boys cross-country team achieve their goal of State earlier.

Katie Freels takes the mound against Chelsea Watson at a recent practice.

Seniors Jacob Henley (left) and Hunter Daniel show off their medals after their victories at the State tournament in February.

We’ve all seen the RCHS wres-tling team excel over the years and look forward to the next year’s season.

The 2008 Rhea County High School baseball team is made up of (front row from left) Head Coach Wes Caldwell, Josh Cal-baugh, Dewayne Holloway, Chris Gonzalez, Devin Paschal, Aaron Palmer, Ryne Anderson, Tyler Latham, (middle row) Justin Freeman, C.J. Goss, Jamey Paul, Michael Swafford, Jacob Moffett, Jarrod Benton, Joe Zimmerman, Cody Massey, Assistant Coach Pete Webb, (back row) Tanner Leamon, Jacob Swafford, Tyler Miles, Charlie Hester, Ronnie Stracener, Cameron Goins, Kenzie Goins, Tyler Burton and Cameron Tallent. Not pictured are Tyler Jolley and Assistant Coach Mike Davis.

County transfer Tanner Leamon will provide leadership for this years’ squad.

Though the Eagles only have twenty-two players on their roster, senior outfielder Ryne Anderson still believes the baseball team can be successful. “We may not have the numbers that we have had in previous years, but I still think

RCHS baseball team preps for challenging season

Lady Eagles softball team anticipates exciting

season with new coach

Eagle soccer team hopes hard

training pays off

By RYAN [email protected]

By SARAH [email protected]

that we will be fine,” he says. Fellow senior Devo Paschal’s

analysis of the 2008 team is, “We have a lot of strengths in our de-fense and a lot of pitchers who can produce day after day. Most of all, we have the heart of warriors, and the will to win.”

One major unanswered ques-tion is who will be taking the

mound for the Golden Eagles in 2008. Fifteen out of the twenty two-players on the ros-ter have been named as poten-tial pitchers.

Senior Tyler Burton and Junior Jacob Swafford have the most experience at the position, and will likely spend plenty of time on the mound.

After his three-year ca-reer at McMinn County High School, transfer Tanner Lea-man may be a major contribu-tor at pitcher for the Eagles. “This is the hardest working team that I’ve ever played for. I’m looking forward to the sea-son and hope that I can help out,” said Leaman.

The Eagles will rely on “heart” and “will” to make up for what they may lack in depth. When asked about his thoughts on this years’ team and the upcoming season, Golden Eagle head coach Wes Caldwell stated, “We started with forty-eight guys. Only twenty-two of them were will-ing to pay the price. I’m excited to go to war with those twenty-two.”

Wooden, Jenny Keener, and Ka-tie Freels (Juniors); and Haley Kidd, Cassidy Price, and Chelsea Watson (Sophomores).

These returning players should make the team skillful and com-petitive, as well the teams’ other varsity players: Charity Sanders, Kaycee Davis, Keely Sullivan, Carrie Negron, Jessica Freels, Mary Hickey, Chelcse Morris, and Jessica Holloway.

Hayes says the team is look-ing to match and improve last years’ performance.

Check out the schedule and come support our Lady Eagle Softball team. It’s going to be an impressive season!

Earlier this year, the boys soc-cer team attended a special camp, hosted by Bryan College. It was a week long event full of drills and coaching from college players and Coach Zensen, Bryan’s soccer coach.

Freshman Brandon Heath said, “It was a very productive week, I really feel like I learned a lot from Coach Zenson and Bryan College players.”

Coach Heath has already seen much improvement since last year’s team. “I’m impressed with this years team,” said Coach Heath, “they have been practicing hard and some of last year’s voids have been filled.”

Phat Le has the same outlook, “Compared to last year,” he said, “We have bonded more as a unit and our skill levels have improved and that will prove a challenge to our opposing teams.”

The team’s first game is at press time, on March 11.

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PErsPEctivE:

Bethany Hamilton began surfing as a child and at age 11 participated in her first competition. Her plans of becoming a pro surfer were seemingly ended at age 13 when she was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark on Oc-tober 31, 2003 while surfing near Tunnels Beach in Hawaii. She lost her left arm just below her shoulder and miraculously survived the attack.

Within months, Bethany was back on her surfboard. She continues to pursue her dream of becoming a profes-sional surfer and has entered numerous contests. She won 5th place at the 2004 National Scholastic Surfing Association Nationals Championships, has made the finals in several other events, and has won three contests. Her determination to rise above adversity continues to inspire the people around her.

Like many of you out there, I am a student with a job. Also like many of you, I’ve never sat back and thought about how school is affecting my work. Now I know

this is the re-verse of what our teachers and parents think, be-cause they always say, “Just don’t let this job affect your school work. Your

education is more important.” And it is.

What I’m saying, however, is that whether you realize it or not, skills that you acquire throughout your school career are already play-ing a part in whatever part-time job you may be maintaining, and they certainly will be important when you begin your “real” career.

According to the College Board (at collegeboard.com), there are ten key qualities that employers look for in a job prospect, and all of these qualities should be obtained during your schooling.

Keep in mind, as well, that these are skills, not just general knowledge. You don’t have to be a walking encyclopedia to have these qualities.

First on the College Board’s list: writing skills. Don’t be mistaken, you don’t have to be able to write a “6” paper to get a job. What em-ployers do look for, however, is communication.

With almost any job imagin-able, you will have to interact with other people. It helps to be able put a sentence together in these situ-ations. You’ll also want to write a decent resumé, send intelligent

e-mails to your boss, and fill out weekly reports correctly. Commu-nication skills are most important in all of these situations.

The College Board also places emphasis on speaking skills. We’ve all had to give the age-old book presentation in front of the class, and we’ve all thought it was point-less. But it’s not. Every time you get up in front of the class and speak, you could be working on a skill that can help you in your work.

Teamwork skills are third on the list. The ability to work (and work well) with others is important in just about any job. It’s imperative to employers that you can work with others without conflict. No one likes a drama queen (or king).

High school can be a place to practice your teamwork skills, or at least discover what your strengths and weaknesses are in this area.

Initiative is another important quality that can be practiced at school. Initiative is taking the first step, doing things under your own motivation.

I admit that I have problems with this one. I am not the model student, and I certainly don’t al-ways start things when I should.

I recently had a conversation with a teacher who said that she hated it when people say they per-form better under pressure. She believes that when you run out of time, you have no choice but to do the work, so you do it.

I agree, because I’m a procrasti-nator. I don’t perform better under pressure, I just perform and get it done.

In the work place, employers aren’t looking for someone who will stand around until a pile of work builds up to get started. Rath-er, they want someone who will

start on a task immediately, with-out a nudge or prod in the right direction.

Attention to detail is another desirable trait in an employee. Nobody wants workers who slop around, and can’t be counted on to do a good job.

School provides many oppor-tunities to practice and display attention to detail (though it may not always be acknowledged or re-warded).

Finally, the College Board names the love of learning as an important trait in an employee. And really, this is what it all boils down to. You have to want it.

You can’t just show up to school every day and expect to leave edu-cated.

You can take all the standard-ized tests the state has to offer, and not leave school ready to face the real world because learning is not memorizing something and repro-ducing answers on a test. It’s not filling in the right bubble.

Learning is something you do, not something that happens to you. Even if you think a class is a waste of time, chances are you can find something to learn, or some way to stretch yourself.

The next time you have an as-signment where you have to write

Still waiting to get an education?

ALEX GREEN

© copyrIght 2007 Daryl cagle - all rIghts reserveD

a paper, speak in front of the class, work in a group, or get a head start on your own time, remember that you could be acquiring skills that may prove worthwhile someday. It’s not necessarily the content that’s crucial (though it’s certainly im-portant), but the process, and what you learn about yourself through it that’s important.

And make it a point to learn when you come to school. Don’t come and wait to be “educated.” Take initiative, pay attention, and walk away from each school day a smarter and wiser person than you were when you came started. Make the most of this time.

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