Jacket Buzz (11/30/12)

JBuzz

BThe

JacketStarkville High School • 603 Yellow Jacket Dr.

Starkville, MS, 39759 • shsjacketbuzz.comVolume XX, No. 3 • 11-30-12

20years1992 - 2012

of The Jacket Buzz.

Bracey fights Parkinson’sSenior learns to manage Parkinson’s Disease while partici-pating in high school extra curriculars.Page 4

Gunn heeds the call to serviceSenior gradutes early to serve his country in the Marine Corps. Page 5

Lincoln a hit with scholars

Spielberg movie finds fans with reknowned

historians. Page 5

Robotics go to Auburn Millsaps BEST takes their robot to the next level. Page 3

TRAINEDTOGO

For the second straight year, the Jackets are back in the 5A State Champion-ship game. But to bring home the trophy, they’ll need another performance like they had last week against West Point.

Read our coverage on pages 8-9.

• 11-30-12 shsjacketbuzz.com News

By Ashley RudeNews Writer

On Nov. 10 Starkville High School’s band students be-gan the first part of their auditions for the Mississippi Lions Band, and every mem-ber of the SHS band made it through the first part of the auditions.

But on Nov. 17, only two students made it past the second half of auditions and were successful in joining The Lion’s Band.

Freshman Jacob Easley and Junior Andrew Rogers were inducted after their more than satisfying auditions.

Junior Emily Turner and Josh Franz were the alter-nates to Rogers and Easley, and Matthew Reynolds was awarded honorable mention.

“I think for anyone on their first year, it’s really nerve-wracking. Especially the first

week, but once you get past the nerves and realize what you can do, it gets a lot bet-ter,” Easley said.

Lions Band is an opportu-nity for band students from around Mississippi to en-hance their musical abilities and travel to conventions all over the world.

But this type of program takes lots of effort and dedi-cation.

“I practiced my instrument probably two hours every day,” Rogers said. “I would start with breathing exercises and then just with the mouth piece, my audition pieces, and then my scales. I had to prepare for six months. I got the music in May and prac-ticed all summer. It was a lot of work.”

The students were not alone in their musical exploits. The band directors saw to it that each student was up to date

on his or her practices and ready for the challenge.

“We’ve been listening to them individually, we’ve been working with them on their scales, and their music, and most of them have been taking private lessons,” band director Shawn Sullivan said.

Turner, who made alter-nate, has plans for trying again and finally making Li-ons band as a senior.

“I’ll just start preparing earlier,” Turner said. “I’ll be practicing all summer to be more prepared, and I’ll have to work on my scales.”

All bands students are en-couraged to audition for Li-ons Band and those who do and even those who do not make it appreciate the expe-rience.

“It’s all just really interest-ing and really intense, but it makes you a better musician in the end.” Turner said.

Rodgers, Easley win slots for Lion’s Band

December8th- ACT Testing

10th- SATP English II

11th- SATP English II

12th- SATP Algebra I

13th- SATP United States History

14th- SATP Biology I

18th- 3rd and 4th Block Exams

19th- 1st and 2nd Block Exams

20th- 60% Day; Exam Make-up DayRodgers marches in this year’s marching Mississippi music-themed halftime show. Photo by Alicia Carter.

By Cullom McCormick Editor-in-Chief

Senior Adam Bracy came from Stillwater, Oklahoma to Starkville High School thinking he would play football without having to answer any questions. After three days on the team, though, his doctor pulled him out because of his early onset Parkinson’s disease.

“I didn’t even want to mention it,” Bracy said. “I didn’t have any problems with that back in Still-water, being medically cleared. I was on the team for three days. I was there for one game day and practiced two days. And then I was done. So when people knew that I was on the football team for just a couple of days and then I wasn’t, questions started to be asked. A lot of people were re-ally surprised – no one said, ‘Oh, well that’s the issue.’ Everybody was like, ‘Oh, holy heck…’ I just always described it as ‘the Mi-chael J. Fox thing.’”

Bracy doesn’t think ususally think of his Parkinson’s. In fact, this was the first year it was even an issue, and only because he couldn’t play football anymore.

Really, the only times he feels self-conscious about his disease is when people try to do things for him or when he thinks everyone is staring at his shaking.

“In English the other day, I was trying to write something down, and my hand was just shaking so much to where I could barely write. I could see that everyone who was sitting with me no-ticed. It was humiliating because I couldn’t just write something down. It felt like somebody was going to say ‘Do you need me to write that for you?’ That’s one of my biggest problems, when peo-ple say ‘Do you need me to do this for you?’ I don’t even let my mom tie my shoes when I can’t do it. She’s asked me that a few times because I’ll get up and my hands are shaking too much to where I can’t actually tie them.”

Although Bracy comes from a long family line of rugged, mas-culine men with heavy emphasis on physicality, his Parkinson’s by no means emasculates him.

“I didn’t think Parkinson’s took that much away from me,” he said. “I just thought of it as an issue I’d try to get through. I thought of it as something that I’ve got to work with. It’s another obstacle in my way that I have to keep fighting through. My dad told me he doesn’t think I’m any less of a man for it, and he supports me.”

Besides, not being able to play football doesn’t change his future too much.

“I’ve always had it in mind to be a lawyer, a politician or a pro-fessor. My football talents were good, but they weren’t good enough to go to the pros or any-thing like that.”

While doctors say Bracy could develop full-blown Parkinson’s, it’s not set in stone.

“That’s the wonderful thing about early-onset – if you can call something like that wonderful.”

By Ashley Rude News Writer

The Millsaps BEST Robot-ics team advances on to the regional competition at Au-burn University this Saturday. This is a direct result of their previous win in the state level on October 26th and 27th.

The minute it was an-nounced that Millsaps won 2nd in robotics and then minutes later 1st in BEST, the Millsaps section erupted with enthusiasm and screams, knowing they would advance on.

“I was so overwhelmed and glad that we were going to Auburn,” Taylor Hollingshed said. “I’m just glad that we got the opportunity to be in the [state] competition.”

At the start of each round the spotter, the person who gives directions to the driver, and the driver attached their robot to the bottom of a rope for the robot to climb up and carry “cargo” up and down. This process went along smoothly until the last round of competition.

Throughout the state com-petition, the team only con-centrated on getting light cargo balls to the top, but this may not be enough for them to stand a chance at Auburn.

“We tried picking up fuel bottles, but it didn’t work as well,” Nathan Smith said. “We are going to improve on that, but we’re not sure if we are going to use it on the actual

competition.”All the aspects of team and

its products were improved, and those changes didn’t al-ways apply to the robot.

“We add added a calen-dar and more pictures to the website,” Heiselt said. “The calendar shows what happens each day in practice, and the pictures will just show inter-action with our robot.”

The team’s booth had a space elevator design, but it did not win an award at the state competition. Changes to it have also been started for Auburn.

While the preparation for Auburn was hard, club mem-bers are looking forward to competition.

“The competition is going to be tough, but we’re not there just to win,” Kelley Maz-zola, one of the spotters, said. “We’re told to win, but we’re also told that when we’re out there, it’s just like practice. We’re there to have fun.”

@shsjacketbuzz • 11-30-12News

COME SEE US!

Driver Evan Ware and spotter William Kao work together to operate the robot, “Ella.” In the competition, there are five driver slots and equal number of spotter slots. Millsaps, however, opted to have a single spot-ter for all the rounds and a duo of back-up spotters. Photo by Robert Dandass.

Robotics wins state, headed to Regionals

pRoboticsSaturday & Sunday, Auburn University

Regionals

nRobotics club steps it up a notch to be competitive at Auburn.

Bracy grapples with Parkinson’s, hopeful for future

Bracy, a senior, with his leading lady Mary Kate Hughes in the Starkville High school play “The Insanity of Mary Girard.” Photo by Robert Dandass.

CAD director junior Robert Bowdan puts the finishing touch to a SolidWorks assembly. The students of the club have to do things such as CAD drawings as documantation of their robots progress. Photo by Kelley Mazzola.

By Kelley Mazzola News Editor

Keats Voges-Haupt doesn’t re-member a time when art wasn’t a part of her life.

“My dad’s an art professor at State,” Voges-Haupt said. “My family is very art oriented. He brings his paintings home.”

From this, Voges-Haupt’s tal-ents were developed.

“My dad likes to randomly say, ‘Keats, draw this plant,’” Voges-Haupt said. “Then, he talks about the negative space around the plant and everything. It’s just little random art lessons that helped me.”

However natural art comes

to Voges-Haupt, her raw talent came under scrutiny of Andrew Lark Jr., an Starkville High School art teacher. From there, her art career really began.

“Keats thinks outside the box,” Lark said. “As I look at her abili-ties, I glimpse into infinity, go-ing on and on. She deals with problems artistically and comes up with creative solutions.”

However, for Voges-Haupt, Lark’s classes came as a well timed challenge.

“I don’t struggle with school,” Voges-Haupt said. “I’ve never had to work very hard at aca-demics. Art is challenging. There’s always something new, something different. You’ll look at YouTube and find some-thing that you’ve never seen or thought of before.”

Lark, according to Voges-Haupt, pushes her to go beyond what is necessary, but for her betterment.

“Mr. Lark encourages larger pieces to show advanced skill,” Voges-Haupt said. “That’s what the art program at SHS is all

about. Everyone draws people here because drawing people takes a lot more skill than still-lives. With people, there’s ways to draw them that tell a story, deeper than what you could get from a still-life.”

Lark, meanwhile, sees Voges-Haupt development from not just his challenges, but because of her effort.

“It’s dedication and commit-ment,” Lark said. “She’s truly a passionate student, and she puts it into anything she does. She’s a truly commited person, and does more and beyond expecta-tions. I know her passion is the same as following God.”

For Voges-Haupt, honing her talents in high school has set up a bright future, including a ca-reer in graphic design.

“We did a trip to National Portfolio Day last year,” Vog-es-Haupt said. “The Chicago Institute for Art approved my portfolio as soon as they looked through it. They accepted me on the spot. Art school really opens a lot of doors for you.”

Lark only expects more great things to come from Voges-Haupt.

“If I had every student who resembled her I would have a

utopia for a teacher,” Lark said. “She grows and continues to grow, and is a true life long learner. She’s a special stu-dent.”


Voges-Haupt excels at art, sees bright future ahead

Keats Voges-Haupt concentrates on her easel before begining a piece. Voges-Haupt, named for John Keats, a great poet, credits her success primarily to hardwork and passion. Photo by Alicia Carter.


The Starkville High School Junior Reserve Officer Train-ing Corp’s drill participates in a drill meet on Dec. 1 here at SHS. Drill team member and junior Teanna Jefferson looks forward to a good day there.

“We’ve been working hard and been practicing a lot,” Jefferson said. “I’ll think we’ll win the first place tro-phy.”

Jefferson, a member of the color guard and a sergeant major for the Yellow Jacket Battalion, is very experienced with drill meets. However, some of her teammates are

still a very new to the experi-ence.

“This year is more fresh-men than anything,” Jefferson said. “We have very dedicated cadets, though; they come to practice, and they work hard at practice. Most of our old team members are gone, like Tanaugia. We’re still working on their technique. We’re working really hard on their skills they’ll need to do the best they can. We’re like a family.”

She feels like she can only help her team mates grow into the positions they’re in.

“I can tell them from our previous drill meets thing we did wrong and stuff we did well on,” Jefferson said. “I can bring that to them and teach them how to march better.”

According to Stacie Young, the battalion commander, the team should have no worries competing.

“They’ll do wonderful,” Young, a senior. “They’re al-ways awesome.”

On Dec. 15, the team will head to Terry, Mississippi, to compete for the state title in JROTC drill. With a young team, some of the members will be a little overwhelmed. However, Jefferson is confi-dent that they’ll succeed.

“I think this drill meet will determine how we’ll do,” Jef-ferson said. “It’ll motivate us to do better and get us ready for the Terry.”

JROTC ready for meetBy Kelley Mazzola News Editor

Every four years, the Starkville Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps bat-talion undergoes an accredi-tation inspection. Despite being prepared for Novem-ber’s inspection, the Yellow Jacket Battalion both felt re-lief and annoyance at a new development.

“We would’ve been pre-pared,” Lt. Colonel Charlese Webb said. “However, they changed the system this year.”

Thus, the inspection was delayed a year, to insure the JROTC programs under re-view would be prepared un-der the new regulations.

The accreditation checks insure that the JROTC bat-talions under review provide the best educational opportu-nities that JROTC programs

can provide, testing on a mul-titude of objectives.

“They ask the battalion questions about anything,” Battalion commander Sta-cie Young said. “It could be about drill, staff, dress, any-thing JROTC related.”

Before, there had been less emphasis about technology in JROTC programs. However, that has changed.

“The inspector is going to say, ‘Pull up and input cadet records,’” Webb said. “We can’t help them, and just have to cross our fingers.”

This year’s JROTC seniors had been a part of the previ-ous accreditation inspection.

For them, this year would have brought back memories.

“It was nerve racking,” Young, a senior, said. “We’d had the Gold Star for years then, so we had confidence.”

However, despite the se-niors of next year green when it comes to the accreditation inspection, Young is confident they will do well.

“They’ll do just fine,” Young said. “A few need to step up, but I feel like they’ll keep the Gold Star for another four years.”

The Gold Star is the high-est accreditation level that a JROTC program can attain. The Yellow Jacket Battalion has held the Gold Star for ap-proximately ten years.

Webb has high expectations for her students.

“We’ll work really hard next year for the accredita-tion,” Webb said. “November 2013 is it.”

JROTC Accredidation check

pJROTCSaturday, Dec. 1

Starkville High School

Drill meetpJROTC

November, 2013

Accredidation

nJROTC program hosts meet and expects greatness in later meets.



Starkville High School’s freshman choir will per-form a Christmas concert at Starkville Manor on Dec. 17.

“It’s just an opportunity for them to show off some of the Christmas songs that they’ve been working on and an opportunity for a perfor-mance grade because they are not involved in every-thing as far as events choir,” assistant choir director Joel Barron said. “It’s an oppor-tunity for them to go and do something different within the choir.”

The freshmen look for-ward to the extra practice and the uplifting Christmas songs.

“I think we need lots of ex-perience so we can do better in concerts,” Joy Carino said.

The residents of the home really enjoy this experience, year after year.

“They really enjoy people coming out and singing,” Starkville Manor activities director Jennifer Mhoon said. “They love music and they really love children, so them

coming out will make their day.”

“I think they’ll really like it,” Jenny Kwon said. “When I went once with a church youth group choir, they really liked it and they sang along.”

The small choir will leave Starkville High School during their first block choir class and stay at the retirement community for the duration of their first block.

Hopefully, this will be enough time for the fresh-man choir to spread smiles and Christmas cheer to those with little to wish for during the holiday season.

“Last year a lot of them loved it and they just had a lot of smiles on their faces that they didn’t have when

we got there,” Barron said. “It seemed like it just made it a little better for them just giving them a little bit of Christmas hope.”


Released on Nov. 16 to the general public, Lincoln has re-ceived excellent reviews across the board, including Civil War and Abraham Lincoln scholars.

“It was fabulous,” Lincoln scholar Frank J. Williams said. “Most people who see this the first time and who are inter-ested in Lincoln will want to see it a second time because there are many nuances. This is Spielberg at his best.”

Williams, co-founder of the prestigious Lincoln Forum or-ganization and president of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, is also a retired member of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He has written several books dealing with Abraham Lincoln, his latest being Judging Lincoln. His book shares content with the recently-released Spiel-

berg film, such as the debate over the suspension of Habeas Corpus.

The time period of the movie is January to April 1865. In the last four months of the Civil War, the reelected president, Abraham Lincoln, pushes through a bill through the House of Representa-tives, which the Democrats control. However, this is not just any bill; this bill proposes an amendment to the Consti-tution, and this particular bill proposes the abolition of slav-ery in peace and in war.

Despite the Emancipation Proclamation being in place, the slavery issue had not been firmly settled in early 1865. The Proclamation, issued on Jan. 1, 1863, freed the slaves in the Confederacy, i.e. the se-ceded states.

However, there was a catch. The Proclamation couldn’t

stretch to peacetime, since the Proclamation rested within the executive branch’s war pow-ers, as defined by Lincoln, and therefore could only be used during wartime. Daniel Day-Lewis, playing the sixteenth president in Lincoln, touches this on.

“[Doris Kearns Goodwin, a Lincoln scholar] thought she was looking at Lincoln,” Wil-liams said. “I think that’s the closest approximation as any-one could give. He [Daniel Day-Lewis] immersed himself into his character and did a wonderful job. Even the clog-ging of his feet and the high pitched voice was based in his-torical accuracy.”

Among Lincoln scholars, the movie received enormous praise not only in the accura-cy of Lincoln’s portrayal, but the situation dealing with the “healthy dose of corruption,” as

said by Tommy Lee Jones’s con-gressmen Thaddeus Stevens, to get votes to pass the Thirteenth Amendment.

“There is a Mr. Bilbo, kind of a sleazy guy, but he was a lob-byist that was known for gar-nering votes,” Williams said. “The character missing from the movie was Seward’s right hand political operative, Thur-low Weed. He was very close to Seward, and he helped to get votes through people like Mr. Bilbo.”

Altogether, the movie will be used as a resource to study of Lincoln, but not just by Lin-coln academia.

“I think this would be a plat-form for civics teachers and high school teachers,” Williams said. “I would use it as a base from which to discuss race, emancipation, the Thirteenth Amendment, and what a trans-formational event this was.”

Freshman choir sings at Starkville Manor

Lincoln movie historically accurate, scholars say

Movie poster of the movie Lincoln. This movie, released Nov. 16, is still in theaters. Courtesy photo.

Economics class competes in International SummitBy Jareth MurrellNews Writer

The students of Ginger Ted-der’s High School economics class participated in their first International Economics Sum-mit on Tuesday, Nov. 27.

The International Econom-ics Summit is an event focused on international trade where teams in the event compete against each other in quiz-zes and in a trading session. Starkville’s teams also wrote global proposals, campaigned for votes, and made costumes and displays representing their country.

“This experience was a bit overwhelming but well worth it,” Tedder said. “Due to the block schedule, we had to con-dense the preparation for the summit. The key to remember is a positive attitude and flex-ibility, all characteristics that this initial group of SHS Sum-mit delegates possessed.”

Those first Starkville High

School students represented the nations of Jamaica, Costa Rica, Columbia, Lebanon, Egypt, and Italy. The team rep-resenting Italy won awards for scoring a perfect score on their geography quiz, while the team representing Costa Rica won awards for having one of the top table displays.

Professor of economics, Dr. Becky Smith, coached them. Smith’s goal is to further ex-pand Starkville’s involvement in the summit.

“What I really was hoping to do was to have a program in the fall where we train and get high school students linked up with middle school students,” Smith said. “We’d have middle school and high school teams working together or middle school students and high school students working together on one team, and then compete at the summit.”

One of the aspects of the summit is the international trade session, which the SHS

teams scored high points on. According to Smith, trade is a difficult topic to teach, es-pecially in relation to inter-national economics, although SHS showed otherwise.

“I think we did a good job at the heart of the summit, which is trading,” Smith said. “The other stuff, the proposal and the table, you can do all kind of effort on that and still not win, so on that you’re we’re lucky. I thought we did well. Most of us met our import goals, which is the heart of the competition.”

Tedder plans on continuing to do the summit in upcoming years and hopes that students’ involvement will leave a posi-tive impact on their future.

“As graduating seniors, I want my students to under-stand the global nature of the word economy,” Tedder said. “I want my students to under-stand the strategy and critical thinking skills necessary to success achieve success.”

““They really enjoy people coming out and singing. Them [choir] will make their day.-Jennifer Mhoon


Darius Gunn, a senior at Starkville High School, plans to do what according to the Marine Corps motto few can do- lead Marines.

With 27.5 credits under his belt, Gunn plans to graduate this Dec. to join the United States Marine Corps. The main motivation to do this, however, has to deal with the climate.

“Well, the weather,” Gunn said. “You hear a lot of recent Marines that the experience, the training is very very hot during the summer. During the winter, it’s going to be colder weather; it’s going to be more tolerable for me from my soccer experiences. Get-ting my basic training done now and graduating early is just way better.”

While earning those 27.5 credits in high school, Gunn feels like he was prepared not by school, but by extracurric-

ular work with his recruiter.“Nothing can compare to the

Marine Corp,” Gunn said. “I joined the Delayed Entry Pro-gram with the United States Marine Corp. With that pro-gram, you do PT two times a week with my recruiter to get my body ready for the expec-tations at Parris Island.”

One thing he feels that transfers to his career choice, however, is his extensive his-tory education.

“I love history,” Gunn said. “It has really brought me to the Marine Corps. The Ma-rine Corps was sworn in on November 10th, 1775. His-tory is an important thing with each of the branches, and I just love it.”

Remembering the veterans this Veteran’s Day and No-vember being the month of the 1919 end to World War I, Gunn appreciates the sacrifice that veterans have made, and is proud to join their ranks.

“I’ve met a lot of veterans on Veterans Day, and, two years

ago, I told them I wanted to join the Marine Corps,” Gunn said. “Even now, seeing how I’ve conducted myself and held my word. They see me with my hat and my shirt, and ask me, ‘Are you going in,’ and I say, ‘yes sir, I’ve signed my contract.’”

His family is very support-ive, according to Gunn.

“My grandmother raised me since I was a kid,” Gunn said. “She is very supportive of my choices. She herself has had a son join the Navy when he was eighteen years old. She un-derstands what it is and what it takes to go through basic training.”

Despite achieving great things already in high school, he doesn’t plan on becoming an officer in the Corp after en-listment. In fact, he “has a plan B and C”, including authorship or astronomy.

“It’s one of those things that I take step by step,” Gunn said. “Whatever job they give me, I’ll do it.”


The JROTC Color guard marches in the Christmas parade. They have particpated in other marches and events, including the Veteran’s Day program and SHS football games. Contributed photo.

JROTC cadets brave the cold and march in the Christmas parade. The Yellow Jacket Battalion has marched in the Christmas parade for years, and has made it a tradtion to lead it down Main Street. Contributed photo.

JROTC, Band march in community Christmas Parade

Gunn to take up call to arms this December

Darius Gunn takes a minute to do a few push ups between school times. Gunn trains several times a week to prepare for basic training on Parris Island. He will attend boot camp in January. Photo by Alicia Carter.

By Jareth MurrellNews Writer

In light of the recent Vet-eran’s Day program, and the holiday itself, mem-bers of Starkville High School have come together to reflect on what the day means to them.

“To me Veteran’s Day gives the community a chance to show that we actually honor people who actually honor our coun-try and serve our country,” said Junior Reserve Of-ficer’s Training Corp and band member Nicholas Estrada.

Estrada and dozens of other students and fac-ulty worked together on Starkville High School’s annual Veteran’s Day pro-gram that took place on November 7, 2012. The pro-gram took place in the SHS gym and invited veterans within the community and within the faculty to visit and be honored by the school and its students.

“Our veteran’s, our JROTC program, does an excellent job at putting on a veteran’s day program,” said Assistant Principal Shawn McDonnall. “For the veterans that come and visit other veteran’s day programs across the state, they say that this is one of the best ones that they at-tend. That just makes me feel better to know that here at Starkville high school we rep-resent our veteran’s well and give them a good program.”

McDonnall is among the many faculty members work-ing at SHS who are veterans. Of the SHS faculty, 11 mem-bers of the faculty are veter-ans or served in the military.

“I decided I wanted to do something more adventur-ous in my younger days, so I joined the US army,” said Police and SHS Security Of-ficer Sammy Shumaker. “I was stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas, the home of the 1st infantry until, of course, des-ert storm in 1990 and I went

over in 1991, where you still did your job, but at the same time you had to do combat type stuff as well. The expe-rience that I gained from the military and the war effort helps me now with the job that I do as far as dealing with people and different kinds of people.”

Among those veteran fac-ulty members, are the actual

instructors of the JROTC, CSM Billy Houston, Lt. Colonel Charlese Webb, and CSM Robert Bishop.

“I joined the army in 1970 in September,” Houstan said. “I enlisted in the army on the 16th day of September in 1970. I was 17 years old. I started teaching in 1995. I knew from day 1 after I met the kids that this was what the good lord wanted me to do. And now 18 years later, I might be on my final year.”

With a faculty and com-munity so rich in veterans, SHS has had a much more unique and personal reflec-tion of Veteran’s Day.

“I went to war with sever-al Vietnam vets,” McDonnall said. “It was a much different time, they weren’t looked at as heroes. It just wasn’t a hero’s welcome. And when we came home from the Gulf War, I’ll always remember the faces on those Vietnam vets finally getting their he-ro’s welcome, so that’s what veteran’s day means to me is all of those soldiers who went out and put their life on the line for our freedom, for our way of life, and whatever conflict we’re involved.”


Starkville High School’s Na-tional Honor Society will par-ticipate in the charity “Opera-tion Christmas Child.”

“Operation Christmas Child is a charity set up through Samaritan’s Purse that ac-cepts Christmas boxes that have been sent to children in typically other countries, sometimes in really poverty stricken areas of the United Stated,” NHS advisor Marcy Smith said.

Each club member packs a shoebox full of small Christ-mas presents for a child in need and sends it to Samari-tan’s Purse with a letter to whichever child receives the box. The child that receives the box is encouraged to re-spond to the letter.

“The kids that are inter-viewed later about their boxes said that the most important

thing in the entire box was that letter that went back to the family that was donating the items in the box,” Smith said.

Most of the boxes sent con-tain inexpensive toys or basic

toiletry items.“I put a coloring book,

two boxes of chalk, crayons, socks, and soap in my box,” junior Marry Bess Nichol-son said.

Operation Christmas Child is not just about gifts. It is about spreading the Christmas spirit all over the world where children have never heard of Christmas before.

“Thinking about another child being in need and get-ting my box just warms my heart,” senior Akane Little said.

This small price can bring a huge smile to the face of a child who may not have enough, or anything at all.

“Christmas is a time for us to give things,” junior

Abbie Upperman said. “With this we can give to people who wouldn’t have much. To us it’s just ten bucks, but to them it’s a big deal.”


Veterans reflect Operation Christmas Child success for NHS students

““Christmas is a season of giv-ing. With this, it’s really fun for us to give something that kids need and want.-Alex Mazzola

““ That just makes me feel better to know that here at Starkville High School we represent our veteran’s well.-Sean McDonnall

Given the recent events at Ole Miss and on Twitter, Mississippi now more than ever needs to change their state flag.

Early morning on Nov. 7, about 400 stu-dents at the University of Mississippi in Ox-ford, Mississippi took to the streets and voiced their displeasure with Obama’s reelection.

During the protest, people burned Obama/Biden signs and shouted racial slurs. Campus

police dispersed the crowd, but the damage had been done.

This is only a small percentage of Ole Miss students, but the footage was on national news which, as well as racist tweets, brought back memories of an awful recent past in the South.

Mississippi and Alabama tweeted the most racist comments on election night amongst other Southern states such as Louisiana, Geor-gia and Tennessee.

I’m most certainly not accusing all Missis-sippians of being racist, but when someone tweets their displeasure of “[Gay slang]” re-electing “that [N-word] back into office” it is obviously meant offensively.

Mississippi is a state with a long eventful his-tory that is largely associated with segregation

and racism. Our state flag holds the battle flag of the Confederate States of America, who se-ceded from the United States to defend their use of slavery, their way of life.

In 2001 a new state flag was proposed with-out the Confederate battle flag, but it was voted down with 64 percent opposed to the new flag.

However, only 756,442 of the state’s nearly 3 million residents voted.

If a vote was taken now with a hard argu-ment for a new flag I believe the vote may be different.

Younger voters and minority voters are much more active now which would probably swing the vote in favor of a new flag.

Whenever I ask somebody why the Confed-eracy should be represented in our current

state flag I hear the same answer: “The history of the state is being remembered.”

Mississippi keeping the Confederacy alive in its flag is like if Germany had a swastika in their flag because the Nazis were a major part of their history.

I understand that Mississippians are proud of the fact that the state stood up for what it believed in, but what the state believed in, and what it was doing, was humanly wrong.

It is not a history people should be proud of, especially considering that things only began to change for minorities in Mississippi about 50 years ago.

Mississippi needs to take bigger strides to rid themselves of their bad history, and removing the confederate flag from the state flag would be a great first step.

The editorial below is a written collaboration among all members of the Jacket Buzz staff. Ideas expressed represent the majority opinion of the students.

Cullom McCormickEditor-in-Chief

Kelley MazzolaNews Editor

Jordan CohenYearbook Editor

Rex AmesMarketing Director

Robert DandassPhotography Editor

Aaron RemotigueSports Editor

R.J. MorganAdviser

Jareth MurrellAshley RudeAngela WhiteAvery CohenColin DammsAlicia CarterShelby Adair

Staff Members

Editorial • 11-30-12 shsjacketbuzz.com Opinion

Send a statement, change the flag

The Jacket Buzz is published three times each semester by the Journalism

Department at Starkville High School. The Jacket Buzz is a student-run

publication committed to providing SHS with objective information.

The Jacket Buzz serves SHS as a forum for student expression. Opinions

expressed are those of students and don’t reflect the views of others in

the Starkville School Distict. Content decisions are made by student edi-

tors, and factual errors will be corrected by a retraction in the next issue.

Letters to the Editor are accepted and published, excluding those that

are deemed libelous or disruptive. Unsigned letters will not be published,

and all are subject to editing. Please email all letters and comments to

[email protected].

Statement of Policy

COLIN THE SHOTS

COLIN DAMMS

Almost three years after Starkville School District’s implementation of a dress code, both students and administrators have mostly settled into the expectations required by the policy.

In these years, we as an editorial staff have come to the conclusion that while the dress code is beneficial, it is still - as it was in the beginning - a flawed policy.

In the years since its implementation, in-stances of disciplinary issues have been re-duced almost to half of what they were before the dress code.

According to assistant principal Sean Mc-Donnall, disciplinary infractions have been dramatically reduced as a result of the dress code’s implementation.

In this regard, the policy has been proven successful.

However, the policy raises the issue of con-sistency.

With ninety teachers and over 1,200 stu-dents, consistently enforcing a dress code is a major challenge.

The freedom allowed by the dress code, as opposed to a uniform, only contributes to in-congruity in implementation.

The nuances of the code (for example, you may wear a logo on outer wear if it takes up less than ten percent of the garment, but you may not have a logo on collared shirts) make it difficult for teachers to definitively say what is and is not acceptable.

Teacher preference also plays a major role

in inconstancy. For example, some teachers allow colored

scarves, while others do not. This is ultimately confusing for both stu-

dents and administrators, as standards are blurred and changed from block to block with the change in teacher.

The severity of disciplinary action for being caught out of dress code is also still question-able.

While it is clearly a challenge to enforce dress standards for such a large student body, the consiquences for breaking the code are un-necessarily severe.

The ultimate purpose of the dress code is to create a better learning environment for students.

Why, then, is the punishment for breaking this code removal from the learning environ-ment?

This does not remedy the issue the dress code was put in place to address, it exacer-bates it.

We as staff recognize the value of a dress code, and we certainly understand the chal-lenges that are presented by it.

We respectfully suggest that the issues raised be addressed so that its effectiveness will not be compromised.

We realize the dress code is here to stay, but these issues - and the confusing, undermin-ing effects of them - remain just as much in need of attention now as they did back in 2010 when the policy was introduced.

Uniforms good policy, but issues remain

PA I D F O R B Y T H E S T A R K V I L L E A T H L E T I C D E PA R T M E N T

This is it. Starkville vs. PascagoulaVeteran’s Memorial Stadium Jackson, Miss. - Saturday, Dec.1 - 7 p.m.

For...Preston Baker, David Fair, Nigil Randle, Gabe Myles, Stanley Higgins, Kentrell Spencer, Johnny Smith, Jimmy Saulsberry, Quavarius Robertson, Dondre Dailey, Raphael McClain, Deondre Harris, Devin MItchell, Trey Robinson, Shyquell Spruell, LeEdward Jefferson, Jacoby Smith, Jalen Henderson, Jawon Johnson, Josh Kitchens, Kirk Kinard, Josh Rice, and Taylor Wise ...

• 11-30-12 shsjacketbuzz.com SportsColin the Shots|Colin Damms

Recent SEC addition Texas A&M recently upset then no. 1 ranked Alabama 29-24 in Bryant-Denny Stadium potentially ending hopes of a 7th consecutive SEC BCS National Champion. Howev-er, the following week no.1 Kansas State lost to Baylor and no.2 Oregon lost to Stanford which brought Ala-bama’s hopes back to life .

Obviously the SEC is and will be the major force in the NCAA, but has their variety of powerful teams back-fired?

The SEC has dominated the BCS era in college foot-ball winning 8 of the 14 na-tional championships. The only team to lose in a cham-pionship game was LSU who lost to fellow SEC West team Alabama.

Not only has the SEC won every championship they’ve played in, but they usually dominate the other team who plays.

In 2006 Ohio State was led by Heisman winning quarterback Troy Smith, and a Heisman candidate wide receiver. They went 12-0 in the regular season includ-ing victories over no.2 Texas and no.2 Michigan, but they were massacred 41-14 in the 2007 National Champion-ship game by Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators.

In 2010, Nick Saban’s un-defeated Alabama successful-ly dismantled Texas’ feared

offense to win 37-21.Sure, The SEC has 6 ranked

teams that are all in the top 10, but there is a 2 team cap for each conference in BCS Bowls. Now that Texas A&M and freshman sensa-tion Johnny “Football” Man-ziel are in the SEC mix the competition has only gotten harder.

Even teams like Mississippi State and South Carolina, who historically are lucky to play in a decent bowl game, have improved significantly in the past few years. South Carolina was ranked as high as 5th this season, and Mis-sissippi state was ranked 11th just before falling to 3 SEC west powers in a row.

Currently Alabama is ranked no.2 behind Notre Dame, but must beat no.3 Georgia in the SEC Champi-onship game to earn a spot in the BCS title game. Flor-ida is no.4 and will likely go to a BCS bowl, but not the champion-ship. There was a chance for Texas A&M to play for a BCS bowl, b u t w i l l l i k e l y play in the Cot-ton Bowl against a Big-12 foe.

The BCS era has been kind to the SEC and will continue to be. Perhaps the proposed play-off system will bring about a few changes to that, but will most likely allow for more SEC powers to prove their worth. There hasn’t been a team yet that has the offense and defense to handle a top SEC opponent. I see no end to the SEC’s reign.

SEC back on top?

Berryhill leads youthful JacketsBy Aaron RemotigueSports Editor

Now that fall is full swing, the Lady Jacket soccer team has kicked off its season with a 4-1-1. The Jackets only loss has been against the Tupelo Golden Wave in which they were outscored 5-0. What is impressive is how young the Lady Jackets are.

With only two seniors in the starting line up, the Lady Jackets are a very young team comprised of mostly under-classmen. Senior Carolina Berryhill is a team captain and has been a consistent scorer for the Jackets this season.

“We have some young kids,” Berryhill said, “but they are all pretty experienced. Coach Anna is really good with working with them and teaching them the basics.

For a young team, Berryhill says her team makes “mature choices.” Berryhill goes on to say that the team’s main

problem is with moving to the ball.

Head coach Anna Albritton says that her reason for re-cruiting younger players is to better develop the team.

“The girls were chosen to be on the team from an early age because they are soccer players and they are showing some skills,” Albritton said. “We don’t have to go back and redevelop these skills with them. They are going to get a lot of playing time over the next two years. We had to go the younger age group to develop our program.”

Sophomore Hanna Laird, who is a starting midfielder for the Lady Jackets, believes the Jackets play well for a team their age.

“We don’t have the experi-ence other teams have,” Laird said, “but we definitely have a lot of young skill. We just have to learn how to train it with the players that we have.”

Photo by Alicia Carter

Johnny Man-ziel led the Aggies in their upset of the Ala-bama Crimson Tide. Photo courtesy of the Texas Gazette

By Avery CohenSports Writer

This season, the Starkville High boys soccer team has traded in its five graduated seniors for ten fresh sopho-mores.

The team is coming off of a stellar season, which ended with a victory over Pascagou-la in the 5A State title game.

But after losing several key seniors, the pressure is on for this year’s tenth graders to now prove themselves.

Tenth grader Michael God-ley has stepped up as goalie after senior Addison Watson graduated last year.

“Addison is a great goal-keeper. I hope I can do as well,” Godley said. “The chemistry I have with my de-fense really helps. They’re the ones that make my job easy.”

One of those defenders is Connor Dunne, who plays center back or stopper for the team.

Dunne and Godley, as well

as a good number of the other sophomores, have been play-ing together for five years.

Dunne believes this brings good things to the SHS team.

“It gives the team good chemistry because we’ve been on the same team be-fore,” Dunne said. “So we already know our teammates without having a lot of prac-tices.”

Christian Kingery, a mid-fielder, is picking up where his brother, Kase Kingery, left off in his final season last year.

“We lost several key players

from last years seniors but a large amount of sophomores have joined the team and are ready to do what it needed.” Kingery said.

The boys will continue to live up to the seniors before them as the race to a second consecutive state champion-ship begins.

@shsjacketbuzz • 11-30-12Sports

!

!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

!

100 Russell Street Suite 9 Starkville

662-323-9771

! @COSTUMEPARTYMS /COSTUMEPARTYMS

!

!

!

Reigning champs hoping for repeat(L to R) Taylor Wise, Dylan Howard, and Juan Salazar are this year’s seniors hoping to lead a young team to another state championship game. The Jackets have lost seveeral key starters such as Addison Watson, J.R. Tomlinson, Austin Wileman, and Kase Kingery. Photo by Bailey Brocato

pNextCaledonia

Tuesday, Dec. 47 p.m.

game vs.

• 11-30-12 shsjacketbuzz.com Sports

$1 SCOOPS ON TUESDAYS!

By Aaron RemotigueSports Editor

It has been a hard-fought sea-son for the Lady Jacket Swim, and for Senior Mark Anne Ho-bart it was well worth it. The Lady Jacket swimmers took first in 5A State Championship for the first time in Hobart’s long career of swimming.

“The feeling is indescribable and amazing,” Hobart said. “As soon as I looked up at the board and saw that the last relay that I ever was gonna be in ever had won the State Championship, I started crying.”

The Oxford Chargers fin-ished six points behind the Jackets and were expected to beat the Jackets on the comple-tion of the last relay, but the Chargers were disqualified in the last relay due to a false start.

“Since we can only swim two relays if we swim two events, our best girls weren’t allowed to swim on that relays because

our other two relays were our best bet,” sophomore Laken Vickers said. “So it was killing us to have to watch it and not to be able to race and do some-thing about.”

Meet regulations prevent swimmers from partcipating in more than four events at any high school meet.

“I can’t describe the emotion when we found out we would be the ones getting second in-stead,” Vickers said.

Vickers took second in the 100-meter breaststroke, the 100-freestyle, and the 200-medley relay. Sarah Byrd, Mark Anne Hobart, Kristen Lacy, and Laken Vickers won first in the freestyle relay helping to cush-ion the lead against Oxford.

“Every year is different,” Ho-bart said, “and I can’t say that I like one better than the other. I can definitely say we worked harder this year than we ever have with Russell being our coach. He pushed harder than ever before.”

Lady Jackets take silver at State meet

XC Boys runners-up at StateBy Avery CohenSports Writer

Earlier in November, the SHS cross country team competed in their state meet. The girls placed third and were led by eight grader Kate Mattox, who placed first individually. The boys placed second, and were led by junior Joseph MacGown who also won first place. Not far behind MacGown was his teammate Da-mian Grady, a senior, who placed second.

While MacGown is proud of his awards this season, he is most proud of the relationships he’s made.

“I enjoyed running with a lot of the runners and trying to be an influence with stuff on the

younger dudes.” MacGown said.These “younger dudes” are un-

derclassmen who run with (or behind) MacGown.

Like MacGown, Walker Mat-tox was not the most proud of her performance this race, but that of her teammates, and one in particular.

“We all ran very, very hard knowing only God would get us through the race. Even though we didn’t get the results we wanted, we still gave it our all,” Mattox said. “Anna Jackson gave so much that she passed out and went unconscious 200 meters from the finish. That is what we call 110 percent effort. She lit-erally ran so hard she could give no more. Her effort was impres-sive.”

As for next season, MacGown is ready to keep on inspiring the “younger dudes”.

“I’m pretty excited for them to just do their best and really enjoy it enough that they continue to stay in good shape when they’ve

aged and what not,” MacGown said. “And it would be cool for the hard work and other positive influences associated with cross country to really take a toll on helping them in the future.”

(L to R) Mark Anne Hobart, Angela Hobart, Kirsten Lacy, Laken Vickers, and Sarah Bird celebrate winning first place win at State. Courtesy Photo

The All State country runners and coaches (L to R) are Coach Caroline Woomer, Walker Mattox, Joseph MacGowan Damian Grady, Kate Mat-tox, Ethan Musser, and Assisstant Coach Steven Griffen. Contributed Photo

@shsjacketbuzz • 11-30-12Sports

Lechiem|Avery Cohen

I can speak first hand when I say that the words “I’ll do it later,” inevitably ends in the task never being completed.

This is applies for home-work, thank you notes, and most often working out.

I’ve been guilty of saying that I would go for a run af-ter school, then changing it to after this TV show, then after dinner, until I repeat the cycle for the next day.

I find that the most effec-tive solution for this is to work out in the morning.

Studies show that morn-ing workouts will keep your body active hours af-ter you’re finished working out, and it will give your mind and body a boost.

Statistics also show that 90 percent of people who work out in the mornings

stick to their workout rou-tines.

A second way to insure that you won’t talk yourself out of a workout is a work-out partner.

When we work out with someone else, we’re less likely to say, “I’ll do it lat-er” because there’s some-one depending on you to show up.

Studies show that people who work out with some-one else have a higher prob-ability of reaching his or her personal fitness goals.

If you have someone cheering you on or chal-lenging you to do your best, the odds are you will probably end up pushing yourself to do your abso-lute best.

I know I work harder when I have a coach push-ing me than when I’m lis-tening to my iPod.

Also, working out with a friend can make work outs less of a chore, and more of an enjoyable activity.

Physical fitness is impor-tant, and workouts can’t continue to be something you ignore. Get up and get going.

Workouts best in the morning

New Lady Jackets take the courtBy Angela WhiteSports Writer

The Starkville High School girl’s basketball team has changed significantly this sea-son.

New players and an additional assistant coach have broadened the team’s hori-z o n s

and only bettered the attitude of team as a unit.

“The influx of a new player has only increased our intensity in practice,” head coach Kristie Williams said. “ How hard we want to go each day will lead to how well we are going to do this season.”

With a 2-2 record thus far, the Jackets are expecting things to only get better as district play rapidly approaches. In Tuesday night’s game against Louisville, Sophomore Blair Schaefer put up 44 points and was 25 of 26 from the freetrhow line.

“We are expecting as coach-es for our girls to step up to the challenge,” Williams said. “When district play starts, we should be one of the top teams in our district.”

With district play starting Tuesday, December 4th against Neshoba Central, expectations for the remainder of the season are exceptionally high.

Bowling hopes for second playoff tripBy Angela WhiteSports Writer

The Yellow Jacket varsity bowling team finished third in the state for the 2011-2012 season.

While that ranking isn’t anything to be ashamed of, this year’s Jacket bowlers, led by head coach Jim Philamlee, are expecting more this sea-son.

“We graduated six seniors altogether last year,” Philam-lee said. “But we have all of the bowlers, that weren’t se-niors, back from last year and we do not have very many se-niors this year.”

The Starkville High School boy’s bowling team has post-ed a 12-8 record thus far this season, while the Lady Jacket bowling team currently has a 6-6 mark.

Members of the team par-ticipated in off-season teach-ing sessions with Philamlee, but the foundation for win-ning was laid much earlier.

This season’s successes have been hugely credited to the experience that the varsity bowlers gained by being a part of last year’s state tour-nament squad.

This season’s varisity team in comprised centirely of bowlers from last season who were either on the junior var-sity team, which doesn’t play

in regional and state playoffs, or varsity team.

That experience level is helping. No one is having to learn the basics of bowling anymore.

With such familiarity with the game and rules, Philam-lee is confident this team will do great in regional and state playoffs this season, hopeful-

lly making another late run into the eight-team state tournament.

“Our teams have experi-enced players this season and we just didn’t have that expe-rience last season,” Philamlee said. “With both varsity boys and varsity girls, I feel pretty confident about this season.”

Cody Prewitt Photo by Rob Dandass

Basketball enters rebuilding yearBy Angela WhiteSports Writer

Head basketball coach Greg Carter and his team have a great deal of rebuilding to do after losing a talented group of seniors last year.

With only two seniors, some would say Carter is starting from the ground up with a young team.

However, he is confident the team will shape up and come out hard during the team’s next game in West Point.

“These players are getting a lot of experience, that’s for sure,” Carter said. “It seems like every game situation is different for them, but I’m hoping the season will im-prove as we go along.”

The coaches are expecting great things from the season, but know that playing smart is their biggest asset.

“We are going to play fast on defense,” Carter said. “But

we have to learn to slow down and execute offense on the other end of the floor. So it’s kind of a catch 22, because you want them to speed up and slow down at the same time.”

The Jackets made it as far as the final four in the 5A playoffs last sea-son and are expecting no less this time around.

“We have several good play-ers who are leaders,” Carter said. “I am looking for them to step up even more, they have to be more vocal.”

Being on of those leaders, junior point guard Richard Evans is expecting no less than the best from himself and his teammates.

“We have to work on of-fense, like getting plays right,” Evans said. “We have to work on our offense and play as a team.”

The Jackets begin district play next Tuesday against Ne-

shoba Central here in Starkville. pNext

Friday @ West Point7:40 P.M.

Game

pNextvs. Olive BranchThursday, Dec 6Bulldog Lanes

match

Imane Montgomery Photo by Rob Dandass

Richard EvansPhoto by Rob Dandass

JBuzz

BThe

Jacket • 11-30-12

SEC clearly superior conferenceWriter Colin Damms has the story

Basketball looks to rebuildThe Jackets look to restructure after the loss of both of their Dandy Dozen members

Cross Country wraps up its seasonCross Country finishes season strong with a second and first place season.

Swimming wins first in DivisonLady Jackets win second overall and first in 5A over rival Oxford Chargers

Back to Jackson

Head coach Jamie Mitchell leads the Jackets to a second straight appearance in the 5A State championship game

Jacket Buzz (11/30/12)

Documents

Transcript of Jacket Buzz (11/30/12)