Monthly Archives: November 2011

November 4, 2011 · 1:31 pm

OGHS named Star School

By: Allison Slusher
Staff Reporter
Oak Grove has received many honorable awards in the past including three National Blue Ribbon School awards, a Top High School award by Red Book Magazine, and a Lantern Award from the Mississippi Department of Education. Most recently, however, Oak Grove High School was named a Star School.

The Star School award has only been around for the past three years and honors a school that has reached the highest level of academic achievement through test scores, met a required graduation rate, shown growth within the student population, and made over a 200 on the Quality of Distribution Index (QDI). While the high school has not received this award before, it has come close in years past by missing the award by only one of the various qualifications, but it has now managed to meet all of the qualifications in one year. Oak Grove was given the award during the summer, but the award didn’t become public until mid-September.

In order to congratulate the students on the honor, the administration decided to host a celebration day on October 14th. The day’s activities included a cookout, games on the football field, and a DJ. The PTO even provided t-shirts for the teachers for the day’s festivities. The celebration’s intent was to recognize the students on their job well done throughout the previous school year.

Now that the Star School festivities are over, Mr. Folkes is looking ahead and encouraging the student body and faculty to achieve the award again next year. “It says a lot about our students to go to a Star School. It says a lot about our faculty who encourage and motivate every day,” Folkes said. There are many things the administration is doing in order to ensure Star School status this year including looking at areas of concern such as low test score areas, comparing the pre and post tests for academic growth, and looking to see what the school did effectively last year in order to have the same success again next year. “I think that the expectation is now there, and we have to step up to achieve that. Everyone has to pull together,” Folkes said when asked what he would say to encourage the student body to achieve the award for a second time.

Mr. Folkes now knows what Oak Grove High School’s student body and faculty are capable of, and he is hopeful that both groups will keep working hard and stay on board with the task of receiving the award again next year. “Warriors thrive on success and will accept the challenges in front of us to continue to achieve,” Folkes said.

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· 1:30 pm

Swim team dives over competition at State meet

by: Will Pipes

Junior Hayley Higgason swims 200 freestyle relay in the MHSAA State Swimming Championship.

Here at Oak Grove, it would seem that some Warriors are part fish. The swim team went to the MHSAA State Swimming Championships this past Saturday and placed 8th overall. The team competed in the butterfly, freestyle, back and breast stroke events in both the individual and relay categories. Teams swim two preliminary rounds, and the top eight competitors in all events come back later that night for a final round. Teams are given points for the placing their swimmers receive with 1st place receiving 10 points, 2nd-8 points, 3rd-6 points, and so on. The team with the most points at the end wins. Hayley Higgason, girls’ Captain, Morgan Eguia, Kelli Fowler, Emilee Asquith, and Kaylee Humphries progressed all the way to the final round of the meet with all five making finals for the relay events. Eguia also made finals in the girls 100-yard butterfly and back stroke events where she placed 3rd in the butterfly. Fowler made finals in the 500-yard freestyle. The team has had a succesful season, placing 1st or 2nd at every regional meet they have attended and placing 2nd at the South State Championships. “We swim about 2,000 yards as well as run everyday,” Eguia said. With this year’s rigorous pratices, the team’s endurance will surely set the bar for next season.

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· 1:27 pm

Civil rights integrated into U.S. History curriculum

by: JoAnna Gunnufsen

In a state where racism and violence once thrived, the issue of civil rights has been a sore subject. Every February, history teachers give a brief run-down of black history, but they are not required by law to teach the subject. In landmark fashion, Mississippi has become the first state to mandate civil rights teaching into its social studies curriculum.
Officials from the Mississippi Department of Education have spent the past five years revising the social studies curriculum to include civil and human rights lessons. Though the revisions have only been implemented this school year, teachers are already feeling the effects. “The focus is shifting from learning general American history to learning more about the efforts of minorities, immigrants, and labor unions. It’s more of a cultural history,” Mr. Sutton, 11th grade U.S. History teacher, said.
In addition to creating a new history curriculum, the Department of Education has also created a more difficult state test. The state has made civil rights a part of the U.S. History test that students must pass for graduation to ensure that it is taught in schools. There is a greater emphasis on reading, writing, and comprehension in connection with history. “Students are writing more essays than in previous years and have been given more documents for understanding. It’s like they’re preparing for an AP test but on a smaller scale,” Sutton said.
Though U.S. History students have just a semester to prepare, many students are confident that they can pass the state test. Josh Hart, a junior in Mr. Sutton’s class, said, “I’m not worried about the changes in the test. I know that our class will be well prepared.”

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· 1:26 pm

Civil rights integrated into U.S. History curriculum

by:

In a state where racism and violence once thrived, the issue of civil rights has been a sore subject. Every February, history teachers give a brief run-down of black history, but they are not required by law to teach the subject. In landmark fashion, Mississippi has become the first state to mandate civil rights teaching into its social studies curriculum.
Officials from the Mississippi Department of Education have spent the past five years revising the social studies curriculum to include civil and human rights lessons. Though the revisions have only been implemented this school year, teachers are already feeling the effects. “The focus is shifting from learning general American history to learning more about the efforts of minorities, immigrants, and labor unions. It’s more of a cultural history,” Mr. Sutton, 11th grade U.S. History teacher, said.
In addition to creating a new history curriculum, the Department of Education has also created a more difficult state test. The state has made civil rights a part of the U.S. History test that students must pass for graduation to ensure that it is taught in schools. There is a greater emphasis on reading, writing, and comprehension in connection with history. “Students are writing more essays than in previous years and have been given more documents for understanding. It’s like they’re preparing for an AP test but on a smaller scale,” Sutton said.
Though U.S. History students have just a semester to prepare, many students are confident that they can pass the state test. Josh Hart, a junior in Mr. Sutton’s class, said, “I’m not worried about the changes in the test. I know that our class will be well prepared.”

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· 1:23 pm

Whitehead wins international science medal

by: Miranda Rester

With his duties of the DDR club, tennis team, Mu Alpha Theta, select soccer, and Distinguished Scholar, can senior Nickolas Whitehead achieve any more accomplishments? Yes.
Whitehead, the only competitor from Mississippi, was awarded a bronze medal in the Energy category of the International Sustainable World (Energy, Engineering, and Environment) Project Olympaid, I-SWEEP, in Houston, Texas.
This was Whitehead’s Distinguished Scholar project, and he worked in Dr. Sabine Heinhorst’s lab the previous summer for his project.
Professor Heinhorst of USM, Whitehead’s mentor, helped him achieve his award. “Nick was selected because he won first place in the biochemistry division at the Regional Science Fair and was an alternate for the International Science Fair,” Heinhorst said. Heinhorst is a chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at USM and has mentored Whitehead through his multi-year research project.
The basic goal of the project was to manipulate the protein structures, carboxysomes, found in many bacteria that remove carbon dioxide.
When asked how this project has benefited him, Whitehead responded, “It will help me decide what I want to do in the future and what kind of research I want to do.” Whitehead’s project will finally be completed by the end of this school year.
He will do a presentation of his findings and project at that time.
In total, 2,200 projects were registered, and only 440 reached finalist status at I-SWEEP. Students came from 70 countries and 43 states.

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· 1:11 pm

Election nears: Dupree/Bryant battle

By: Jenny Tran
Staff Reporter
The time has finally come to vote for a new Governor of Mississippi. With Governor Haley Barbour term-limited, both the Republicans and Democrats have contests for the eighth gubernatorial nomination. On the Republican side, Mississippi has Lieutenant Governor Phil Bryant. Bryant has gained experience, forged alliances, and made himself known by serving as State Senator, State Auditor, and Lieutenant Governor. For the Democratic side, Johnny Dupree, the three term mayor of Hattiesburg, reigns supreme. While this is his first statewide race, he has gained political experience from his previous service on the Hattiesburg School Board and ten years as Forrest County Supervisor.

Compared to Johnny Dupree, Phil Bryant seems to have a strong advantage in the Governor’s race: Haley Barbour. In 2007, Bryant won the open race for Lieutenant Governor. “Being Governor Barbour’s Lieutenant Governor, I tell people, is like being an assistant coach to Bear Bryant,” Bryant said at a recent press conference at Mississippi College. “You get to see the best.” From the time Bryant announced his bid for Governor, Haley Barbour has seemed to be on his side, coaching him through every step. However, DuPree seems unfazed by Barbour’s endorsement of Phil Bryant. During an event on the Gulf Coast, DuPree told the hometown crowd that he believes Democrats can win in Mississippi this fall. “They may have all the money. They may have all the media. They may have all the other stuff,” DuPree said of the Republicans, “but we have people with the right heart. We have people who want to do what’s right by all the people of Mississippi.” The state of Mississippi will have to wait and see what will be the outcome of this election on Tuesday, November 8th.

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· 1:07 pm

Robotics team soars at BEST competition

By: Nan Buti
Staff Reporter

Caleb Turner, sophomore, tinkers with robotics team’s robot in preparation for Missisippi’s BEST competition.

After six weeks of rigorous building, training, working, and preparing for State competition, the Oak Grove robotics team headed to Mississippi’s BEST (Boosting, Engineering, Science and Technology) Competition. The competition took place at Stakville High School on Saturday, October 29th. The assigned theme to all robotics teams was simply bugs. The clever scene that Oak Grove robotics team created was in a genetic engineering lab where bugs have gotten loose and are on the crawl. The goal of the robot is to capture and feed the raving roaches, flies, and termites. The objective at competition was the more bugs captured, the more points awarded to the team. This year 40 members attended the state competition.

Working Mondays through Thursdays after school until 5:00 p.m., the robotics team was well prepared for the competition and also put in massive amounts of effort in order to qualify and attend the competition. Not all members worked on building the robot, though. There are different aspects of being on the team. The 52 members on the team are each assigned different tasks to complete and jobs to work on. The team maintained organized committees which is a big change from the team’s past years. Students work on web page design, sportsmanship acts, marketing presentation about the design, engineering design notebook, table display, and of course, the robot. These are all components of the competition that the team was judged on. They have come into play successfully since the members have been very disciplined with their work, and since 2011 holds the most members to be on the team to date.

“We really hope to overcome our disappointment from last year and get to South’s BEST this year,” Megan Fortenberry, sponsor of the team, said. The team won two years in a row at Mississippi’s BEST and went to regionals before 2010 when it lost, only winning best web page. “Our goal this year is to be successful again,” Fortenberry said. Unfortunately, the team did not qualify to the next round. It also did not win any components of the competition such as table display or web page design. If the robotics team had advanced as a top competitor at State, it would have progressed to a competition called South’s BEST which is in December at Auburn University in Alabama. “Disappointment was my reaction. We did fairly well last year. I regret the outcome because we could have done better,” John Baxter, member of the robotics team, said. The team did a great job overall. It can be said that a lot of effort was put in to building the robot and preparing for the competition. So, what went wrong? The robot went through a malfunction and didn’t act accordingly. It did not have equilibrium and lost connection to the controller. The team hopes for a better outcome at State next year. They expect more knowledge on testing of the robot and experience on how the robot works. The Oak Grove robotics team surely won in effort this year, after all of the hard work put into building the robot and putting together components needed for the competition. Overall, the team has had a great season and has learned a lot from experiences and mistakes.

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· 1:03 pm

Ladner returns, basketball season under way

Jaylen Adams (#24), sophomore, and Dramond Ellis (#30), senior, get in position to rebound a shot taken by Zac Barlow at Meet the Warriors.

By: Nathan Maxwell
Staff Reporter
There’s a new face on the court. Joining the Oak Grove faculty this year is Jay Ladner, new head coach of the Oak Grove Warriors boys’ basketball team. Though he might be a new coach, he is no stranger to Oak Grove. Ladner played basketball under legendary coach, Harry Breland, and graduated from Oak Grove in 1984.  Having previously coached at St. Stanislaus for 20 years with a career record of 493 – 167 and being the 2011 recipient of the Mississippi Coach of the Year award, Ladner has plenty of experience to lead the Warriors to victory.

“We are in a building mode,” Ladner said. He expects the Warriors to play with great effort and intensity each and every day. Ladner hopes to surprise fans late in the season. The team’s goal this year is to make the playoffs. Ladner says that he tries to model traits of dedication, self discipline, and honesty as well as strong work ethic for his players; what motivates Ladner to coach is the chance to be an influence on the development of each of his players’ Christian character. Ladner says the one thing that will make the team stronger is the desire to sacrifice individual goals for the success of the team.

Coach Mark Swindle expects great things from the Lady Warriors this season. He says that the team is exciting and full of talent and experience capable of taking them a long way. Swindle noted the key to making a team stronger is working together to achieve the same goal – I is not in the word ‘team.’ Alexis Calomese says Coach Swindle has taught her how to overcome adversity in times of struggle and to never give up. Swindle’s biggest motivation to coach is seeing athletes perform at their highest expectation on and off the court. “My motivation [to play] is the love I have for basketball and the faith I have in myself and my teammates [to win],” senior Anteria Berry said.
Coaches Ladner and Swindle both agree that fan support is a big deal. It’s intimidating to opponents, helpful in lifting up a player’s spirit, and vital to home court advantage. Swindle wants to see the student body filling up the bleachers this season supporting the Warrior teams. Boys’ manager Rebecca Lampshire said, “I am very excited about the upcoming games. The team has improved so much and with Coach Ladner’s help, I believe they will go far this year. Everyone should come out and support!”

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· 12:59 pm

By: Allison Slusher
Staff Reporter
Evan Sobiesk is currently the kicker for the Warrior football team and is being recruited by many division one schools. This article follows him throughout the decision making process and allows us to see which college he will choose in the end.

When choosing a college, many seniors visit the schools they are considering to attend. Evan Sobiesk, just like his fellow classmates, has decided to visit some of the universities that have contacted him about playing football. Due to Sobiesk’s growing recruitment, however, this list is continually getting longer.
In order to narrow his choices for a college, Sobiesk has already begun visiting these various schools. He will continue to make these trips throughout the semester including an upcoming visit this month to Montana State and the University of Alabama and a trip to Brown University in December.

Aside from campus visits, however, Sobiesk continues to stay busy in many different ways. First, Sobiesk has stayed in touch with some of the universities that have already contacted him including Harvard, who called him again in October. Secondly, Sobiesk has also proven himself to be a valuable player by participating in the National Nike Combine in Dallas in October. He has also been selected to play in the Mississippi North-South All Star football game, a game that showcases some of the most talented football players in the state. Many of the coaches for the Warrior football team have recently made light of Sobiesk’s talents by nicknaming him the Flying Squirrel, a name he received after making a tackle in a recent game.

Sobiesk has since proven himself to his coaches and teammates by showing his athleticism not only in football but also in tennis. “I’ve never played tennis before. I just went out there and hit a few balls at the tryouts,” Sobiesk said of making the Warrior tennis team. With accomplishments like this, we are all left to wonder – What can’t Evan do? Well, I guess you will all just have to stick around to find out as we continue to kick it with Evan Sobiesk.

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· 12:54 pm

Soccer teams prepare for new season

By: JoAnna Gunnufsen
Staff Reporter
On November 8th, the Oak Grove varsity soccer teams will take on West Jones in their first home games of the season. Though they have an entire season ahead of them, both teams have been preparing for what’s to come.

Jay Lang, senior, directs a shot into the top corner of the net at a recent OG boys soccer practice.

The boys’ soccer team has been working out and conditioning since June. They practice five days a week and have also started practicing twice a day. Eventually, the boys will compete against the top five teams in the state. Coach Lang, head of the boys’ team, said, “We have a large group of seniors playing for their fourth year. This is their opportunity to step up and be leaders.”

The girls’ team also has high expectations for the next few months. Olivia Shook, a senior on the team, said, “We have so much talent on the team, and as long as we work together, I think we can win.” The girls have been preparing by running, lifting weights, and perfecting technical work like dribbling.
With the start of the season just around the corner, the teams are more than ready to compete against their toughest competition.

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