Trojan Tribune 09/15/2017 Issue 1 Parkston High School Parkston, SD parkston.k12.sd.us Coronation Photo: Scott Voje Dress-Up Days By Hannah Neugebauer & Jo Boettcher The dress up days for Homecoming 2017 were Jersey Day, Tourist Day, America Day, and Blue & Orange Day. Tuesday was Jersey Day. The winners for Jersey Day were Riley Weber and Kyla Konfrst. Wednesday was Tourist Day. The winners for Tourist Day were Sammi Murtha and Jenna Bialas. Thursday was America Day. The winners for America Day were Brady Albrecht and Maggie Baumgart. Friday was Blue & Orange Day. There are not any winners on Blue & Orange Day. Below: Paige Semmler, Maysa Davidson, and Sammi Murtha. By Cecelia Neugebauer The Homecoming King and Queen candidates included Brady Albrecht, Brady Schoenfelder, Brayden Leischner, Dawson Semmler, Jenna Bialas, Jayden Bormann, Sam Kinneberg, and Paige Semmler. Carter Konrad, Landon Weber, Maryam Farooq, and Karlie Konfrst were train bearers. The ushers and usherettes were TJ Bigge, Sammi Murtha, Tulsa Janish, and Lauren Reiner. Homecoming King and Queen were Dawson Semmler and Sam Kinneberg. Photo: Scott Voje The students take a break Friday of Homecoming Week each year to spend some time building team and school spirit with games like the traditional tug-of-war. More Homecoming 2017 on Page 7! Games Photo: Jenna Bialas By Justin Ganley Tuesday the sophomores won the first game, the scooter races. In each leg of the race the players ride the scooter to one side of the gym, switch places and ride it back to the original side. In the first leg of the game, one player sits and the other pushes. In the second leg, one player lays down and the other pushes them across the gym floor, Continued on page 7
Royalty welcomes new students to the district This year, the student council is doing something new. Just before Homecoming week, all students new to the district received a Parkston t-shirt. The idea is to help make them feel more like they are part of our school community. As an added bonus, the Homecoming royalty candidates were able to distribute the t-shirts, and were able to take a moment to welcome each new student to the district. Jayden Bormann (left) and Dawson Semmler (right) delight elementary students new to Parkston with a smile and the gift of a Parkston t-shirt just in time for Homecoming. Rare eclipse obscured by dramatic thunderstorm By Maysa Davidson Tuesday August 21, a solar eclipse passed over the United States. It started in the northwest corner of Oregon and ended in South Carolina. After preparations for the much anticipated event, the day ended in disappointment. Parkston was close to the path of totality which was in specific spots such as Casper, Wyoming, and much of Nebraska. We were still supposed to have as much as 93% coverage. This eclipse path only occurs every 400 years. It is a great opportunity to be able to view this great event of science. Unfortunately for viewers in Parkston, a brief, strong storm stirred up at the time of the eclipse, and that combined with the darkening of the sky by the eclipse, caused the night-time lights to come on in the parking lot. Eighth grade science students went outside just minutes before the moment of greatest coverage and saw a sky boiling with rain, hail, and lightning. Not surprisingly, they stayed out only a few moments.
New teachers join the staff of Parkston Jr./Sr. High School By Deaunna Johnson & Savannah Giedd With a new year we have some new teachers. The band is now under the direction of Mr. Kevin Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz is a proud Trojan who graduated from Parkston High School and then attended college at SDSU. With this only being his first year as a band director, Mr. Kurtz is doing well. Next on our list is Mr. Jon Huber, a 7 th and 8 th grade teacher. Mr. Huber had taught in Emery before he came to Parkston. He has taught for a number of years at one of the colony schools, and most recently in the elementary. He attended Mount Marty College in Yankton, SD. Our last new teacher is Ms. Karleen Wegehaupt in the resource room. Most recently she was teaching in Tripp. She has lived in South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. She attended college at Concordia in Seward, Nebraska. Photo by Maysa Davidson
Sports PHS Sports teams build momentum Competitive Cheer By Jenna Bialas Homecoming Friday, the Competitive Cheer team stepped out on the mats to show their skills and help boost the crowd at the Homecoming Pep rally, the day before their first competition. On September 9, the Cheer team took second place at the Winner Invite. The team started off the year strong having six weeks of practice going into their first competition. This year, six new members joined the small group team of twelve. The team first performed at Homecoming, but they performed even better the next day in Winner. Cross Country By Flynn Aldecoa and Mica Johnson The cross-country team started off the year with the Beresford meet, where the boys took seventh and the girls took sixth. At the McCook meet, the Parkston boys took third place and the girls got first. The top girls were Lindsey Roth, Adaya Plastow, and Maelie Culbert. At the Twilight meet in Sioux Falls, the Parkston boys didn t place and the girls got 14 th. At the Scotland meet, the girls got second and the boys got first. The top boys runners in the Scotland meet were Austin Bartelt, Tanner Hohn, and Tucker Murtha. At the Nike meet, although there were no individual placers, the team got 12 th. Above, Jacob Dundas, Zach Clausen (Ethan), Tanner Hohn, and Austin Bartelt. Below: Morgan Hinkley (Ethan) and Abby Hohn. Boys Golf By Jonah Zwinger The golf team is doing well this year with the team consisting of Jon Akre, Flynn Aldecoa, Isaak Bialas, Kade Bialas, Quinn Bormann, Braden Bruening, Matt Ehler, Braydon Hurley, Carter Kalda, Jacob Lee, TJ Schmidt, Marshal Seppala, and Kaleb Weber. Even though the team is very young with only one senior, they have kept improving each meet and are gaining a tremendous amount of experience for the coming years, according to Coach Hockett. The golf team placed third at the Madison and Parkston Invite, tenth at the West Central Invite with Jacob Lee medaling, seventh at the Sioux Falls Christian meet with Jacob Lee medaling, and third at the Parkston Invite with Jacob Lee medaling, again. Right: Jacob Lee. Below: Matt Ehler.
Volleyball By Paige Semmler The Parkston Lady Trojans return six seniors for the 2017 season. With an experienced crew coming back, they have high hopes for the year. The Trojans kicked off their 2017 season Thursday, August 24th with a win against Tripp/Delmont/Armour. Set scores were 25-11, 25-16, and 25-19, all in the Trojans favor. Two days later, they hosted a tournament with teams including: Arlington, Northwestern, McCook Central/Montrose, and rival school, Wagner. The Trojans fought hard, but could not put together a strong front to get the W against Arlington, Northwestern, or Wagner. They managed to push MCM into three sets and got their lone win of the tournament. Northwestern won the tournament by going 4-0 on the day. The Lady Trojans are still in a rut as of now, but according to senior Faith Rands, things will start to look up if they tweak a few minor things. As long as we keep up the intensity not only on the court during a game, but everyday in practice and make a constant effort to communicate with each other throughout each rally until match point, that should help us get back on track. During the Trojans most recent games against Hanson, Avon, and Andes Central/ Dakota Christian (all of which they lost) it was evident that they lacked the exact things Rands talked about. A positive for the volleyballs girls season so far is that the girls have really amped up their serves. We have really worked on spot serving this year and it s paid off for us, says Rands. Our servers are becoming more and more aggressive which in return makes it harder for our opponents to set up an offense. Coach Leslie Rylance also agrees with Rands. The team has worked hard to become consistently tough servers. Their aggressive serves push teams out of sync in serve receive. However, she agrees with Rands that the Lady Trojans can improve on keeping high intensity on the court at all times. Volleyball is as emotionally exhausting Paige Semmler is airborne returning a volley as Sammi Murtha, Lauren Reiner, and Amber Albrecht are ready to back her up. as it is physically exhausting. The team needs to work hard to give their all on both ends. With all of this being said, Rylance is optimistic about the rest of the season. There is still a lot of season left and we hope to hit our stride the end of the season when it really counts. Faith Rands, Sammi Murtha, and Izzy Hohn rush in to return a volley.
Football By Brady Schoenfelder & Brayden Leischner The football team this year has moved down from 11B to 9AA. With the transition, the play style has changed a little: it s a lot faster paced and the fields can be smaller than the normal 100 yard field. With this transition, Parkston can bring back some old rivalries with schools like Bon Homme, Gregory, Kimball/White Lake, and Platte-Geddes. The first game that Parkston played was against Bon Homme in Tyndall. The game was a defensively played game with the score ending up to be 6-0 with Bon Homme managed to pull off the win. The following week the Trojans played their first home game against the defending 9AA champions, the Gregory Gorillas. On Friday, about nine minutes into the first quarter the game was postponed due to lighting. Trojans were winning at the time 8-0. On Saturday, the game continued and the Trojans came out flat as Gregory took advantage of it with the score ending up to be 36-8 with Gregory winning. Photo by Kyle Czrpenter Tulsa Janish stays just out of reach of the Gregory players in the first home game of the season. opponent was Potter County. They were coming off a pretty good year last year so they were going to be a good opponent. After receiving the ball to start the game on the very first play of offense, Dawson Semmler took it to the house for the very first score of the game. Then Potter County scored on a long pass, but after that it was all Trojans. Starting quarterback Nathan Doering got his first career touchdown on a 1 yard run. Potter County didn t score until the 4th quarter after the Trojans second team squad was sent in. The final score of the game was a Parkston win at 50-21. Dawson Semmler carries the ball from the kick-off to the end zone for the first touchdown of the game. On the third week of the season the Trojans finally got their first win against the Kimball/ White Lake Wildcats. The Trojans earned the win with a very interesting trick play called the double pass. With thirty-four seconds left in the fourth quarter, Dawson Semmler threw the football to Brayden Leischner behind the line of scrimmage, then Leischner grabbed the football and threw to Luke Bietz for a forty-three yard touchdown. The score ended up 26-18 with Parkston on top. Week four was the Homecoming game. Our Photo by Mackenzee Schudt Brady Albrecht and Rylan Leischner clear the field for Tulsa Janish as he sprints for the end zone.
Homecoming, Continued... Games they switch and come back. The last part is where they crawl on the scooter and then come back. Wednesday, there were four Minute-to-Win- It games. In the first game, one player throws a beanbag into a bucket on the other one s head. The Seniors won without missing a beanbag. The next game was where you squat and grab a dodgeball between the contestants knees and drop it into a hula hoop (Juniors won). The next game had students attached a ball to his or her head and try to knock down water bottles (Seniors). In the last game a tissue box with ping pong balls was tied around the waist and the students tried to shake them out (Freshmen). On Thursday was the traditional volleyball game between the Homecoming Royalty and the Staff. Score wasn t kept. On Friday there were a lot of games. Brayden Leischner won a pie eating contest between the Royalty. One game involved students trying to move a cookie from their forehead, to their mouth. Next was the relay race. The first person spun around then ran to the next person. The next person did the wheelbarrow with a partner. The next was balancing an egg on a spoon. Then a pair of people squeezed a dodgeball between their chests to the next group. Lastly, was a three legged race from one end of the football field to the other. In all, the sophomores won that. After that there was a collection of games between the classes like dodgeball and tug-of-war. Everyone had fun whether they won or lost. Above: Jacob Dundas and Tawni Griebel. Right column from the top: Cookie eating challenge with Jordan Lippert, Mica Johnson, TJ Bigge, Sam Kinneberg, and Tyrese Friederich. Second row: Alivia Royston. Tylee Neugebauer. Third row: Trenton Weber, Mr. Englin, and Riley Weber. Bottom right: Lizzy Kinneberg and CC Neugebauer.