Saegertown students to attend Adjudication Festival

by Stefanie Arblaster, website editor

The Saegertown chamber singers will be attending the 2017 PMEA (Pennsylvania Music Educators Association) Adjudication Festival hosted by Westminister College in New Wilmington, Pa. on May 10. The festival will feature twelve different chamber singer groups from across the state, including Wilmington, Mercer, and Butler. Each group will perform three songs for a panel of judges and receive written and spoken comments on their performance.

Mrs. Susan James, Saegertown’s musical director, who attended this festival once in 1994, has entered this year’s chamber singers in hopes of improving the group’s abilities as a whole. “I hope that they can provide some positive feedback as well as some things to improve on. I think this will be a really good experience for them to hear other schools and to get out of their comfort zone,” Mrs. James said.

The chamber singers will be performing “Take me home” by Penatonix, “Sing me to heaven” by Daniel E. Gawthrop, and “Adoramus Te,” a traditional Catholic song. “I really enjoy all of the pieces we chose this year and I’m really confident that we’ll do well as a group and learn a lot from this experience,” senior Emily Burger said.

 

Dunn attends 4-H Capital Days in Harrisburg

By Stefanie Arblaster, website editor

On April 1 through April 3, junior Patrick Dunn attended the 2017 Pennsylvania 4-H Capital Days in Harrisburg. Capital Days is a three day program for 4-H members ages 14-18 to enhance their knowledge on Pennsylvania state government.

Among numerous other activities, Dunn and many other 4-H’ers from across the state came together to learn about parliamentary procedure. They learned how the procedure can help them within a 4-H meeting. “It’s a great tool to use. It’ll help us problem solve and run the meetings more efficiently,” Dunn said.

  They participated in ice breaker challenges, which helped the group grow familiar with each other, attended a dance hosted by the program at the Hilton Hotel, explored the state capitol building, and even ate with the state senators.

“It was a really great experience, I learned a lot and I would definitely go back.” Dunn said.

 

Saegertown students take on taekwondo

By Hillary Twiford, staff writer

After school, many students participate in activities that no one knows about. For example, sophomores Renee Allen and Mykenzie Connally have been taking taekwondo lessons since October. They attend classes at Humes Martial Arts in Waterford two to three times a week to receive instruction from David Humes.

Their lessons focus on four different areas: sparring, self-defense, traditional movement patterns known as katas, and kata with weapons like bo staff and nunchucks.  However, classes in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and karadio, a mixture of karate and high intensity cardio combinations, are also available.

Allen’s favorite part of class is sparring, a match where you fight an opponent having little to no contact, whereas Connally prefers self-defense and katas because she feels like she has more control.

“I’ve been wanting to do taekwondo for awhile. I wanted to do something with fighting,” said Connally. “It seemed really cool, so Renee and I signed up to do it last minute.”

         Allen cites the reason for getting into taekwondo is because of her mother. “My mom was nagging me to do a self defense class so I said ‘hey why not?’”       

        They are currently yellow belts, but plan on surpassing orange belts and earning their blue belts in May before competing in the Champion of the Sword tournament on May 20 at Northwestern. “I’m excited for it, and we’re training really hard,” Connally said.

 

Why do we selfie?

By Hunter Trzeciak, arts and entertainment editor

People have been “selfie-ing” for decades now, but in recent years it has blown up, especially with all the social media empires that have had immense growth in the past few years.  Here are what Saegertown students had to say when asked, “Why do you selfie?” 

 

Name	Grade	Reason
Emily Burger	12	“I like to do my makeup extra, and then take selfies.”
Kevin Johns	11	“Because I’m sexy and I know it.”
Maddie Stevens	11	“I feel like social media needs to see my face.”
Laura Monico	11	“Because everyone else does.”
Carlie Schlosser	10	“To impress the community.”
Christina Fischer	10	“Because I’m Rihanna, Zendaya, and Beyoncè.”
Mikayla Balog	10	“I only find a need to take them when I am feeling fleeky.”
Cameron Hockenberry	10	“I just don’t take them.”
Chloe Luchansky	9	“I feel like I need to capture my bomb outfits.”
Zachary Balog	8	“To get more followers!”
Maycy Troples	7	“Because I’m cool.”

Bowling team finishes strong

By Elizabeth Hasko and Cami Reynolds, staff writers 

Sophomore phenom Kylee Higby bowled in the state finals today at Dutch Lanes in Ephrata, Pa. where she placed eighteenth out of 24 for the girls division. “It was really tough because it was so competitive. Plus, the lane conditions were insane,” said Higby. She shot a 196, 210, 143, 160, 169, and 185.

Higby was the lone Saegertown bowler to qualify for the state tourney, but the team overall enjoyed a very successful season. After Winning the Venango-Crawford district title for the second year, bowlers Ricky Kanline, Michael Costello, Austin Bedow, Kylee Higby, and Nick Archaki moved onto regionals which were held in Pittsburgh at Princess Lanes during the weekend of March 10-11.

Higby shot an average of 189, placing her sixth out of 84 in the individuals. “I am thrilled that we won [the league] for the second time in a row.  I am so proud of everyone,” Higby said.

During regionals, individuals competed at 9 a.m. Friday morning, while the team competed at 9 a.m. Saturday morning. Unfortunately, senior Jake Sada could not attend regionals due to other priorities.  

Kanline shot 182, 224, and 256 at regionals. “This year started off a little shaky, but then a few weeks into bowling, it was like all of us became the family that we used to be,” Kanline said. “As the year progressed the bond was back, and we started to win as a team.”

Heading into regionals, the team wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but they remained confident. “You can’t count eggs before they hatch. We just have to go with the flow and keep confident,” Archaki said. “We didn’t do very well [at regions], it was really tough. We bowled against 17 other competitive teams. Unfortunately, the pins didn’t fall very well for us.”

 

 

Students create Spanish projects

By Hillary Twiford, staff writer

To end their latest unit on clothing and culture, students in Spanish two classes created artisan projects. The students were allowed to choose their projects as long as they were genuine to the culture. They had three class periods to complete their projects. Some of the projects included God’s Eyes, maracas, and other various things involving skulls. They are currently on display in the Spanish room.

“I think projects like this give students an appreciation of the culture of the twenty-one Spanish speaking countries,” Spanish teacher Señorita Nova Dinsmore, said. She also wants to do the project next year and has even started preparing. “I’ve already started collecting materials,” she said. “I certainly will do it again.”

NHS participates in Read Across America

By Hannah Nicholson, staff writer

On March 2, students from Saegertown National Honor Society traveled to the Saegertown Elementary School to read to the younger students. Grades pre-K all the way through sixth grade got to escape class to listen to the high schoolers read to them. Many of the NHS students chose Dr. Seuss books to commemorate Dr. Seuss Week. Twenty-four high school students volunteered to read to the elementary children.

Senior Jade Allen read If “You Give  A Cat A Cupcake” by Laura Numeroff to second grade teacher Mrs. Brown’s class. “They asked me about how high school works and what classes we take,” said Allen. Many of the young kids were interested in the high schoolers and their readings.

Senior Austin Brown read “The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories” by Dr. Seuss to Mr. Askey’s fifth grade class. “They seemed to enjoy the stories since it wasn’t as common as other Dr. Seuss books like ‘Green Eggs and Ham,’” Brown said. This was Brown’s first time participating in Read Across America, “I liked reading the stories, and it was a unique experience,” said Brown.

The NHS students received service hours for participating in Read Across America. They all gathered in the elementary school’s library to pick out books to read, and after, they returned for donuts and a picture with their school librarian Mrs. Betty Litke.  

“Read Across America Day is important because you get to share stories with our youth, and stories are the most important things that we can provide them because it gives inspiration and hope,” said Brown.

District Chorus successful for Saegertown seniors as three advance to Regions

By Jade Allen, staff writer

The 2017 PMEA (Pennsylvania Music Educators Association) District Chorus was held at Bradford High School on Jan. 11-13. This year’s participants were senior Emily Burger on Soprano 1, senior Emily Ford on Alto 2, senior Ben Haylett on Bass 1, and senior Jesse Stewart on Tenor 2. They were accompanied by Mrs. Susan James to the festival.

The music selections for this years District Chorus concert were: “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “Psalm 23,” “Agneau de Dieu,” “Sure On This Shining Night,” “Swing Down, Chariot,” “Ain’-a That Good News,” “Musicks Empire,” “Jesus sprach zu dem Blinden,” and “Walk Together, Children.”

On the first day of the festival, the participants go through an a blind audition process to determine who will move onto Region Chorus. During these auditions, they warm up and sing selected portions of the songs that the judges have chosen for each part.

Participants are not notified of what part of the songs they will be auditioning on until they are in the holding rooms prior to the audition. This is because the director wants the participants to practice all music equally since they are not aware of which piece they will audition on. Senior Emily Ford said, “As a senior, I witnessed an experience in PMEA that will be remembered forever because for the first time in history my section had to re-audition.”

The top 10 chairs of each section move onto Region Chorus. Jesse Stewart received sixth chair, Ben Haylett received eighth chair, Emily Burger received tenth chair, and Emily Ford received twelfth chair. Stewart, Haylett, and Burger will move onto Region Chorus at Freeport High School on Feb. 23-25.

SHS Lip Sync Contest 2016

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Photos by Hannah Myers and Emily Ford, Panther Press photographers

Rolling into the bowling season

By Elizabeth Hasko, staff writer

After Saegertown’s victory at Seneca Lanes last year to secure the 2016 Championship, the team of five aim to sharpen their techniques and performances for the upcoming season. Members of the bowling team includes seniors Ricky Kanline and Jake Sada, junior Michael Costello, sophomore Austin Bedow, and freshman Nick Archacki.

Sophomore Kylee Higby, a former member of the bowling team, shared some advice for this year’s team: “Encourage each other, but don’t bring each other down. Always stay positive as a team. Stay focused, but most importantly, have fun.”

There are high ambitions for the team to be back to back champions. Kanline said, “This year, our team wants to win the league again.” Their major rival is Cranberry. The last time the two teams met, the Panthers defeated the Superberries 3-2.

Costello made a bold prediction about the team’s chances this year:  “I think our team will go undefeated this season again and win the championship.” Their first match will be in November.