Montrose Area School DistrictVolume 33, Issue 3

MASD elementary teachers say good-bye.

Produced by the students of the Montrose Area Junior/Senior High School

Mete r ChronicleApril 2015

INSIDE

..................................Dates to Remember

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Photo courtesy M. Gilhool/Meteor Chronicle.

Varsity baseball gets new coaches.

Read about this sto-ry on page 15.Photo courtesy vec-toons.com

As the 2014/2015 school year starts to see the spring season blossom many retiring teachers at MAHS are starting to experience their own form of “senioritis”. Having five teachers atthe high school retiring at the end of this school year, the MAHS will be seeing a few new faces next fall. Algebra teacher Thom-as Lucenti, art teacher Cathleen Regan, metal shop teacher Jim Fluck, Government teacher Jo-seph Festa and school nurse Jean Hollister are all of the staff mem-bers that will be retiring at the end of the school year. Mrs. Hollister has been the MAHS school nurse for the past 29 years. She had the inspi-ration from her mother to pursue a career in nursing. “After 40 years in the nursing profession, it is time to try some-thing different,” Mrs. Hollister said.After retiring, Mrs. Hollister looks forward to having her own time schedule. She plans on spending time gardening, volun-teering, and traveling.Not being able to have teachable moments with students about their health concerns will be one of the things that Mrs. Hollister will miss the most.“This has been a wonderful op-portunity and I will miss being at MAHS very much,” Mrs Hollis-ter said.After 18 years of being an art teacher, Mrs. Regan has said its time to put down the paint brush-es. She taught at Tunkhannock for ten years before teaching at Montrose. Mrs. Regan grew up in a family of artists. Her grandmother was an artist and her mother was the art teacher at Montrose for over

25 years. Working with different materials and students can be quite chal-lenging at some points, but when creativity takes over wonderful

things can be created.“I have had so many good mem-ories here from working with grades 1-12. My favorite memo-ries are those with all of my stu-dents,” Mrs. Regan said.After she retires she plans on cre-ating her own art work, quilting, and making everyday fun and exciting, whether it be traveling or being at her cottage on Heart Lake.“I will miss working with stu-

dents; my favorite part of this job is spending time with them. I also really enjoyed spending time with the other teachers that I work with,” Mrs.Regan said.

Mr. Festa, and Mr. Fluck started their MAHS teaching journey 34 years ago. Both of the teach-ers have always enjoyed teaching and getting to know one another. One year later in 1982 Mr. Lu-centi joined the goup.“I enjoyed teaching and coaching so the two went hand in hand for me,” Mr. Lucenti said.Becoming a teacher was an easy decision for Mr. Festa. His father was a teacher for MAHS and the

jobwasanaturalfitforhim.Re-tiring though, wasn’t as easy a de-cision for him. “Many things conspired to con-vince me to retire, it’s time to give someone else a crack at the job,” Mr. Festa said.The endless amounts of memo-ries that are made while teaching are one of Mr. Festa’s favorite parts about being a teacher.“I’d like to thank each student. It has been my privilege to teach at MAHS. You have made my time here a 34 year journey of love,” Mr. Festa said.Teaching in the Philadelphia area for one year before taking the job at MAHS, the Montrose area suit-ed Mr. Fluck much more than the Philadelphia suburbs. Working in the metal shop Mr. Fluck has had the opportunity to see students build all sort of things.“One of my best memories in the metal shop was being apart of Thomas Jordan’s carbon nano-tube project,” Mr. Fluck said.Having a passion for music Mr. Fluck plans to work on building guitars and amps to occupy some of his time after retirement. “I’ve been told that every day is like a Saturday after you have re-tired,” Mr. Fluck said.Mr. Lucenti has always had a pas-sion for football and teaching. When the job at MAHS became available, he knew that it would beaperfectfit.Coaching the MAHS football teamwhenMr.Lucentifirststart-ed was one of his favorite parts of teaching. His favorite memory was when the football team be-came league champions for the firsttimeinschoolhistory.

Read more about this story on page 12.Photo courtesy www.cli-partbest.com

(Above) Mrs. Hollister, Mrs.Regan. (Below) Mr.Festa, Mr.Lucenti, and Mr.Fluck.

Story Continued on Page 4.

April 24Physics trip to Six Flags

May 7

Spanish/French Club trip to NYC

May 9

Junior/Senior Prom

By Angela RussellCo- Editor -in- Chief

MAHS Faculty Members Catch ‘Senioritis’

PAGE 2 April 2015 METEOR CHRONICLE

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Principal’s Perspective

On March 12th, the MAHS held its annual Disability Aware-ness Night. The night consisted of the community and MAHS Special Education classes fam-ily’s coming together for an evening of games and fun. The night helped raise awareness for students with disabilities

After serving as the new Principal of Montrose Area Jr/Sr High School for just 2.5 months, I can officially confirm that this is an exceptional school com-munity. It has been a whirlwind these past few months getting to know the building, all of the teachers and many of the stu-dents. Everyone has welcomed me here with open arms and I cannot be more excited about being here.

One thing that I have noticed since arriving at Montrose Area is that the vast majority of Mon-trose Area students seem to have a lot of school pride. I get to witness the tremendous amount of school pride on a daily basis, as I walk the hallways of the Jr/Sr High School and I see many students proudly wearing their

Montrose Area sweatshirts, t-shirts, hoodies and varsity club jackets. I also got to witness school pride by attending several home and away boys & girls’ basketball games this winter and I was amazed by the number of students who attended the games to support our teams.

The other thing I noticed is that the students here at Mon-trose Area really seem to treat each other with dignity and respect, regardless of their back-grounds. That can be rare these days, especially in high school settings, where nationwide, there has been somewhat of a rise in the number of reported cases of student bullying and harassing. In fact, recently, the Scranton Times Tribune published an ar-ticle highlighting how students in surrounding school districts have been dealing with cyber bullying, which has been occurring on a new online app called “Burn-book”. In order to be proactive

on this issue, our Superintendent, Mrs. Carol Boyce recently sent a letter home to parents concerning “Burnbook”, and cyber bully-ing sites like it. Fortunately for us, we have seen very little of this type of behavior in our Jr/Sr High School and that’s a testimo-ny to the teachers, students and parents of our school commu-nity. The Montrose Area School Board Policy 249 on Bullying/Cyberbullying, clearly outlines their commitment to ensure that we provide a safe and posi-tive environment for all district students. If any of you ever experience or personally witness this type of behavior, I would encourage you to immediately report it to me, Mr. Powers or one of your teachers.

Thank you for making me feel so welcome here at Mon-trose Area and I look forward to getting to know more students each and every day and in com-ing years.

Mr. Bill KingMAHS Principal

MAHS Spring FashionSophomore Lyndsey

Kerr looking fashionable in a button-up denim top with a bright spring colored shirt and shoes to tie the outfit together.

Sophomores Harley Mullins (Left) and Johnny Amato (Right) looking dapper in dress clothes and efortlessly pulling off bow ties.

Junior Sam Stack, seen on the right, wears a loose, springy dress topped with a striped cardigan to wrap the outfit up.

All photos courtesy M.Pasteka/Meteor Chronicle

MAHS Holds Disability Awareness Night

METEOR CHRONICLE April 2015 PAGE 3

On Sunday, February 15, the band room was up to its knees in water.

While no one was at school on Sunday, the heater in the band room broke and had started leak-ing. The school was lucky that a student had to get into the band room to retrieve their instrument and walked into a watery mess, which was immediately reported.

The carpet was destroyed and had to be ripped out. Future plans for the band room include possible hardwood flooring.

Luckily the back room, where all the instruments are stored, did not flood and every instrument survived.

Sadly, some music in boxes got wet and all the snack foods stored in the band room had to be thrown out.

The whole process of remov-ing the floor and replacing it is expected to take a few weeks to complete.

When Mrs. Bennici heard about the classroom her and

other music teachers immediately went to work hauling everything out of the band room and onto the stage of the auditorium. The auditorium was made their new home.

After the carpet was torn out everything had to be brought back into the room to make way for the stages other uses.

Since the band room is cur-rently under "construction" the students clearly can't keep their instruments and such in the back room because of all the filing cabinets and things that are cur-rently placed back there.

Since Mrs. Bennici can't hold her class in her room anymore the auditorium will have to suffice as a replacement "band room".

The band can't practice or play music so her class is busy listening to and analyzing music for grades.

As for her other general mu-sic classes, they are continuing with their routine.

..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

“The great flood of 2015 caused many troubles, I’m proud of the band members ability to persevere. The band members worked tirelessly through the flood, practicing relentlessly in order to perform on the originally planned date,” Mrs. Bennici said.

It wasn’t just Mrs. Bennici that was distressed about the band room, some of the students that participate in band shared their feelings as well.

“ I was really worried that the instruments had gotten damaged. I also knew how much stuff ev-eryone had in there, so that was a big concern too” said sophomore Megan McVaugh.

Another set back the flood-ing has on the band is that their spring concert is coming up. The senior high band shouldn’t be a huge problem because they are all old enough to take their instruments home and practice their music.

On the other hand the junior high band is more of a concern

because they are still semi learn-ing how to play their instruments and trying to play better as an ensemble.

“It certainly disturbed the practice schedule but it was true testament to our dedication to be able to put everything together for the concert,” junior Kira Karpov said.

While it's true the band room meltdown is surely stressing out Mrs. Bennici, fellow band stu-dents also have issues with their band room out of use.

“It felt like being homeless,” freshman Danielle Dubofsky said.

On the bright side of the band room flooding, Mrs. Bennici is getting a new floor for the first time in a while.

Hopefully the band rooms “renovation” will be done and over with before the upcoming end of the year events.

MAHS Bandroom Experiences FloodingBy Genna SmithStaff Reporter

Autism awareness month, which is in April, represents stu-dents on the autism spectrum.

Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), are terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. Trouble com-municating with others, behavior problems, and dificulty under-standing others emotions are all symptoms of this disorder.

You may see people wear blue quite often during the month of April and that is because blue is the color that represents autism.

At the Montrose Area High School, students with autism participate in the autistic support classroom program.

The classroom consists of three students, Alx and Matthew who are in 10th grade and Liam who is in 7th grade, one teacher who is Ms. Caitlin Kerwin, and instructional aides.

This is the third year the

autistic support classroom is run-ning in the Montrose Area High School. It helps students be able to be themselves in a comfort-able way.

The students of this class-room are able to do things of their own interests. For example, they may like to do a puzzle or listen to music if they are not comfortable in the environment.

Students with autism develop differently depending on their situation. Some may not be able to interact with people such as talking or playing together.

Students with autism seem to find that they have advantages and disadvantages.

"Students with autism often have a difficult time communi-cating and forming relationships with others," Ms. Kerwin said. "They often take things very literally, but, they are all unique and wonderful in their own way.”

Students with autisim also

gave their own opinions about how they feel.

"I don’t feel any different. I don’t find anything about it dif-ficult," Alx Porrini said. "Some advantages I have are remember-ing and drawing."

Even though some students have a hard time communicating, some do try to talk with others. For example, these students tend to feel more comfortable around their teacher and instructional aides than others in the school.

"I talk with new friends at school. Ms. Kerwin is really funny and says silly stuff," Liam Kildare said. "I met Ms. Kerwin when I was in 6th grade and I always help her with things in her room."

Autism is something students live with every day, so remember to represent them this upcoming April by wearing blue!

MAHS Raises Awareness for AutismBy Selina VetriArts and Entertainment editor

The new flooring for

the band room is pic-

tured above.

Photo courtesy K.Payne/Meteor Chronicle.

Pictured above are just a few of Ms.

Kerwin’s students.

Photos courtesy L.Kerr/M

eteor Chronicle

PAGE 4 April 2015 Meteor Chronicle

For most senior students, the pressure of application dead-lines and deciding their future is plenty overwhelming. However, Ethan Stankewicz took that pressure to a new level when he made the decision to apply to the United States Military Academy at West Point during Christmas break of his junior year.

Ethan’s admiration and respect for those defending our country began at a young age, which quickly developed into a determination of his own to defend and give back to our country in some way. The ques-tion as to what route he would pursue remained unanswered for quite some time, however.

“Once I began to look into West Point I knew it would be the right fit for me, it was just a matter of getting there.” Said Ethan

If you’re unfamiliar with the process, it’s much more intense than your average college appli-cation. Ethan began his applica-tion two months after he made the decision and immediately be-gan setting up fitness tests, medi-cal evaluations, interviews for nominations, and writing some of the seven essays required.

While doing all of this, Ethan continued working, excelled in sports, and maintained his excep-tional grades.

Although this process was a true test of his determination, he expressed a lot of gratitude toward several teachers, coaches, and his boss, who did what they

could to assist him with this process.

His Cross Country coach and physical education teacher, Mr. Brewer, had no doubts in the promising future that Ethan holds.

“I think Ethan’s time in cross country really helped him with his leadership skills and I’m sure he will apply them at West Point.”

“I would not have gotten through it without so much help and cooperation from the people around me. I did a lot but I owe a lot of it to them.” Added Ethan.

Just a few months ago Ethan received the news confirming that all of this time and effort was worth it, as he received his certificate of appointment in the mail.

Thousands of students go through this same process every year and approximately 9% are accepted. To say this least, this is one honorable feat.

“I feel very thankful to be given this opportunity and that I have all these supportive people in my life. Thank you to every-one who helped me out in any-way and gave me the confidence to continue to push through this process. I’m very excited as to what the future will bring and it would not have happened with-out all of the help and support.”

Ethan’s accomplishment is a true testament to the power that hard work holds, especially when it’s accompanied by determina-tion and a positive attitude.

Student of the IssueEthan Stankiewicz

By Abbey Capwell and Lyndsey KerrElementary Editor and News Editor

Mr. Weller has been a teacher for just under twenty years, and has been teaching at Montrose for just over ten. He teaches mathematics, but not the easy mathematics. He teaches Trigo-nometry/Advanced Mathematics, Calculus and AP Calculus.

In years past, he's taught Algebra II, Geometry, PSSA Math, Statistics, and SAT Math. Since Mr. Weller teaches the more challenging math subjects, he teaches students who are sophomores or above.

Knowing what you want to do in life at a young age is a great thing, but can be challeng-ing in the future. Mr. Weller always knew he wanted to do something in mathematics, but wasn't quite sure what.

"I was in between teaching and accounting, but when I took

the accounting class in school and didn't enjoy the work, I de-cided on math," He says.

Even after this experience, he wasn't completely sure about teaching, so he majored in mathematics at Kings College, and took education classes on the side.

Having access to influential people in your life to help you with these decisions is a wonder-ful thing to experience. Not only did he have math teachers who taught him, but his father was a math teacher at this school for thirty-four years also.

"Growing up in the home of a teacher probably had the most influence," Mr. Weller said.

Mr. Weller enjoys working here as much as he loves teach-ing math.

"I like working here be-

cause I work with the students and the schedule. It also allows me to spend a lot of time with my children." Mr. Weller said.

Students like having Mr. Weller as a teacher. Junior Felicia Quinn has had Mr. Weller since she was a sophomore, and will until she graduates. She enjoys his class and his teaching style.

Mr. Weller is a hard working teacher but also leaves time to be a family man. If you have him as a teacher, you will learn a lot from him.

“Having Mr. Weller as a teacher has given me the oppor-tunity to really learn and under-stand math on a very advanced level,” senior Angela Russell said.

Mr. Weller’s students admire his will to teach, and the fun he has while doing it.

Teacher of the IssueMr. Weller

By Megan McVaughStaff Reporter

Mr. Weller is pictured above...............................................................................................................................................

Coaching football wasn’t the only thing Mr. Lucenti enjoyed doing while completing his 33 years here.

“I have enjoyed teaching be-cause I have gotten to interact with the students, I think that’s why I got into teaching, to help young people,” Mr. Lucenti said.

After retirement he plans to take road trips and enjoy the time that he has to peruse his interests.

“When reflecting back on my retirement I’m going to have no

‘Retiring Teachers’ Con-

tinued from page 1.regrets, I’ve had a great 33 years at MAHS and it’s been great to make friends and be a part of the community,” Mr. Lucenti said.

MASD will be losing five very talented, respected, and liked faculty members who will be missed dearly. They have all made an impact in the lives of students, fellow faculty members, and at the school in general.

At this time we would like to thank these wonderful staff mem-bers for their many devoted years.

From the students, teachers, and faculty at the Montrose Area High School, we wish the best of luck to the retiring faculty.

METEOR CHRONICLE PAGE 5April 2015

Summer; Hair gets lighter, skin gets darker, water gets warmer, drinks get colder, music gets louder, nights get longer, life gets better!

The sound of summer is much more appealing than an-other snowstorm.

As of right now, MASD has had nine snow days. If we con-tinue at this rate, we won’t have much of a summer.

All we can do now is hope that the big storms hold off for the rest of the year, so a picture-perfect summer can be pos-sible!

Mother Nature not only needs to cooperate for summer to take place, but also for spring sports begin.

“I’m not a fan of snow days, but they’re good because it doesn’t jeopardize the students that have to travel to school.” Said Mr. Castellani, tenth grade history teacher and track coach at MAHS.

The students here at MAHS have diverse views on snow days.

Sophomore, Theresa Mc-Namara, is very much for snow days,

“I love them because I like sleeping in, hanging out with friends and snowmobiling,” She said.

Eighth grader, Riley Brown, isn’t necessarily against snow days, he just believes that the standards for the calling of snow days should be stricter,

“Well… we live in Northeast Pennsylvania. It isn’t uncom-mon to have snow days once in a while. I was concerned on some of the calls made, and really wondered what our standards were for snow days. I think we should be setting standards for snow days and try to come

to school a little more often in snowy weather,” Riley said.

Whether you’re for or against snow days, there’s no denying that you can do whatever you desire that day, instead of being forced to attend school.

“I usually stay home and baby-sit my little brother on snow days,” said sophomore, Mi-kayla Henry.

Whether you choose to be productive or lazy on your snow day, it is indeed a day off. Everyone needs a little break sometimes.

“I like snow days because I get to go to the park and go sledding with my friends.” Said eighth grader, Kyle Mc-Granaghan.

Studies show that it’s harder for people to leave their homes during the winter months be-cause the weather is so brisk

There was rarely a week in the winter where we had a full week of school. There were a lot of cold, miserable days this win-ter where we got to stay home.

“I don’t mind to be in school most of June,” McGranaghan says, “I like to be with my friends in school because there isn’t much schooling being done and I get to see them more.”

You could say that there are ups and downs to snow days. Just have summer in your mind and in the long run, you will eventually get there.

Snow Days vs. SummerBy Lyndsey KerrFeatures Editor

Questions/comments? Feel free to email us at newspaper@masd.info

Meteor ChronicleMontrose Area Junior/Senior High School

Co-Editors in chief............Kayleigh Payne & Angela RussellNews/Features editors.......... Maddy Pasteka & Lyndsey KerrOpinion editor.............................. Kayleigh PayneArts & Entertainment editor....... Selina VetriElementary editor....................... Abbey CapwellJunior high editor.......................... Chris LewisSports editor............................... Meghan Gilhool

Adviser........................................... Jon Carpenter

The Chronicle is a student publication researched, written and produced by members of the staff named here and printed by the Mulligan Printing Corporation. All unsigned editori-als within this publication were written to reflect solely the opinion of the entire newspaper staff. Letters to the editor are welcomed and will be published as space allows but must be signed and include contact information. Names will be withheld upon request. The Chronicle reserves the right to edit letters for grammar and clarity, and all letters are subject to laws governing obscenity, libel, privacy, and disruption of the school process as are all contents of the newspaper. The Chronicle’s editorial policy is available upon request.

75 Meteor Way Montrose, PA 18801

As the last few weeks of winter come to an end, Mother Nature can’t seem to let it go. And to our surprise, Queen Elsa didn’t cast an eternal winter upon Montrose.

Regardless of how cold it is, most of us can’t help but to catch spring fever. A common symptom of spring fever that is seen among high school seniors is a bad case of senioritis. These illnesses entail a lot of time spent on masd.info constantly refreshing the page hoping to see the glorious announcement that school has been delayed, or even better, canceled.

Despite the awful winter we’ve had, no one can deny the

excitement we all have for spring to finally arrive. Many students look forward to participating in spring sports, such as track, softball, baseball and boy’s ten-nis.

It’s not just the athletes that are yearning to get back out in the sun and soak up some vitamin D. Many people look forward to seeing green again. Green grass, green trees, any-thing but white, really.

Once the weather finally clears up and becomes warm again, the buzz of summer sets in. What we all ultimately want is to be warm. To not have to bundle up to go outside and to be able to wear your favorite t-shirt Maddy & Kayleigh

and shorts again is something we all look forward to.

Another thing we all can’t wait for is not having to go outside in the freezing cold to start our cars 20 minutes before we leave the house. Odds are that even then, it’s still not warmed up enough.

Safe to say, we’re all sick of the below freezing weather. We’re sick of the snow, the slush, sub-zero temperatures and the iced over windshields and roads. Just as our friend Olaf says, we can’t wait to finally see what frozen things do in summer!

Keep it real,

Arts & EntertainmentMETEOR CHRONICLEApril 2015PAGE 6

Book Reviews With Mrs. Fischer: Best Books For Summer 2015

By Mrs. Katie Fischer MAHS Libararian

Featured Artist Emily Hare

By Angela Russell Co-Editor in Chief

ration to create their art from everyday surroundings. Trees and flowers seem to come to life by the artistic abilities of young artists.

“I get most of my inspiration for my work by pretty much everything around me. When I draw people, sometimes I

German-Canadian girl, and a Cuban-Jewish girl from New York City become friends when they spend three sum-mers at a Swiss boarding school.

den family emergency, all with a sense of humor and a loyal group of friends.

“Art is not what you see it’s what you make others see,” Edgar Degas said.

Sophomore Emily Hare has always had an interest in art and drawing. It wasn’t until she had the opportunity to participate in art classes in elementary school when her talents really showed.

Elementary school teacher Shannon Maynard focuses her class on introducing young students to art and the many different styles of art. This is where Emily first became in-terested in art.

Emily has been enrolled in art classes since kindergarten and plans to pursue a career that will emphasize on her tal-ents and interests.

“I hope to go to college for Graphic Arts, or anything that involves art would be great, I can’t see myself doing any-thing other than creating art,” Emily said.

Many artists look for inspi-

base the way they look by the people that I go to school with,” Emily said.

One of Emily’s favorite styles of art is semi- realistic style, it allows her to bring her own creativity into the piece that she is working on. She also enjoys art that doesn't follow a specific design or lay-out. Its more “messy” as Emily would describe it.

With summer just around the corner (you may have to climb a snowbank to see it), young adult readers can start gathering fun titles to read pool side, at the beach, or on a nice blanket of green grass. Here are some new books that will make your summer shine. All books on the fol-lowing list can be found in the Montrose Area Junior Senior High School library. COME CHECK THEM OUT!

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS by Jeff Kin-ney - Greg Heffley recounts his daily experiences during summer vacation as he tries to live out his ultimate fantasy of spending the days inside playing video games with no responsibilities and no rules. All this despite his mother's attempts to pack the summer with outdoor activities and family fun.

DREAMS OF SIGNIFI-CANT GIRLS by Cristina Garcia - In the 1970s, a teenaged Iranian princess, a

FROM WILLA, WITH LOVE by Coleen Murtagh Paratore - As summer comes to a close on Cape Cod, Willa finds herself dealing with bad news from her best friend, a surprising secret from her brother, an unexpected crush, and last minute wedding plans.

GIRLFRIEND MATERIAL by Melissa Kantor - Kate's hopes for a summer romance are dashed when her mother announces plans to stay with wealthy friends in Cape Cod as a ploy to make Kate's fa-ther jealous, but when Kate is introduced to Adam things begin to look brighter.

GLEE: SUMMER BREAK by Sophia Lowell – After re-ceiving a bump on the head, Rachel Berry wakes up to find her world turned upside down. She is now a Broadway star, Mercedes is the head cheer-leader, Coach Sue is being nice, and Brittany is running the Glee Club. Rachel cannot seem to decide if this alternate world is a dream come true or a nightmare.

I EVEN FUNNIER: A MIDDLE SCHOOL STORY by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein- While on a mission to win the Planet's Funniest Kid Comic regional competition, New York middle schooler Jamie Grimm copes with rival comics and bullies, a buddy in trouble, and a sud-

LAWN BOY by Gary Paul-son – Things get out of hand for a twelve-year-old boy when a neighbor convinces him to expand his summer lawn mowing business.

RULES OF SUMMER by Joanna Philbin - Spending the summer working as an errand girl for the Rule family in the privileged Hamptons, seventeen-year-old Rory be-friends the family's teenaged daughter and develops feel-ings for their older son, but she finds that societal rules can be hard to break.

SUMMER BALL by Mike Lupica – Thirteen-year-old Danny must prove himself all over again for a disapproving coach and against new rivals at a summer basketball camp.

THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY by Jenny Han – Belly spends the summer she turns sixteen at the beach just like every other summer of her life, but this time things are very different as she finds her-self falling for a boy she has known since childhood.

SWIM THE FLY by Don Calame – Swim team mem-bers and best friends Matt, Sean, and Coop, set them-selves the summertime goal that seems a bit unrealistic. So while the chances of them completing their goal seem very dim, Matt's personal goal to swim the one-hundred-yard butterfly to impress the new girl on the team seems even less likely to happen. Continued on page 7

April 2015

Artist of the Issue Continued from pg 6

Photos Courtesy of A. Russell / Meteor Chronicle

METEOR CHRONICLEPAGE 7

design or layout. Its more “messy” as Emily would de-scribe it.

MAHS art teacher, Mrs. Regan, has seen Emily excel in art classes throughout the years.

“Emily has developed her own style and excels in every medium and technique she tries,” Mrs. Regan said.

In 8th grade Emily received the Scholastic Gold Key art award for a piece of her work. The piece was then featured in the art gallery at Maywood University.

Emily has really stood out to all of her art teachers at MAHS with her incredible abili-

ties.“Emily is one of the top art

students I have ever had in class,” Mrs. Regan said.

Not only is Emily actively involved in her art work but she is also a part of the MAHS girls’ basketball team and girl’s golf team.

Emily plans to take art classes for the remainder of her high school career. Be-yond high school her interest in art has pushed her to want to have a career in graphic arts.

Creating art work is a way for any artist to express him or herself. There are many tech-niques and styles that an art-ist can guide themselves with when creating a piece of art

work. Artist also have a lot of freedom to create pieces of art that really shows off their strongest talents.

Freshmen Students Take Part in NaNoWriMo

By Selina VetriArts and Entertainment Editor

Novel writing is not always the easiest, but it is fun and ex-citing. This is a way for students to write with creativity and their imaginations. A freshmen honors English class at the Mon-trose Area High School recently created novels. All students used their creativity and imaginations to form novels about a topic of interest. Freshmen Makenzie Garner, Jordann Monaco, and Courtney White wrote novels on different ideas.

"Write a Novel in a Month (NaNoWriMo) is an an-nual, world-wide event. (See <NaNoWriMo.org> for more details.). Students elect a word count goal and have the month of November to reach that goal," ninth grade English teacher, Mrs. Kelly said. "This year's Honors class chose a goal of 30,000 words. They have until midnight November 30 to com-plete their novels."

When writing novels, it could be time consuming and lengthy. For the class purpose, students were given a month time frame for their novel. Most students finished within the month time frame or earlier. The novels were going to be counted as a project grade.

"Students begin prepar-ing in October with a novel-writing workbook provided by the NaNoWriMo organization, which explores the literary ele-ments of a novel," Mrs. Kelly said. "Examples and brainstorm-ing help "psyche” them up for the novel itself."

"It took 25 days to com-

plete," Jordann said. "It was very difficult and although it was a cool experience, it is not some-thing I would do again."

"This novel was a project for Honors English and took me a month to write, given only a month," Courtney said. "To me, this wasn’t too long compared to my other novel being over 82,900 words. The hard part was writing it this long in such a short amount of time. Through panic attacks and mental breakdowns, it was still a good experience."

Each student shared a piece of their novels, and gave a sum-mary of what happens.

Makenzie's novel was about vampires and she named it “The Extraordinary Story Of Eliza-beth Crowe.” To give some in sight about her novel, here is an excerpt from it. “Misfortune falls on Elizabeth and Damon. They are forced to adapt to their circumstances. Trouble arises in Elizabeth's and Damon's city and they must leave. They will be escorted by an officer and he will take them to a safe place where they will learn to prosper. On their journey they run into many bumps. Elizabeth and the officer have to complete their fast or forever be tortured.”

“At first I was not going to stray into the whole vampire thing. Once I started writing the story just seemed to go there. The story just wrote itself after a while and it went where it wanted to,” said Makenzie.

Courtney's novel was named "The Eternity." To give some in sight about her novel, here is an excerpt from it. "It is about a girl

who is immortal and has been for three centuries. She killed her-self in 1927 after watching her boyfriend being killed. In 2014, he wakes back up to find a guy who looks just like her deceased lover."

Jordann's novel was named "Shifted." To give some in sight about her novel, here is an excerpt from it. "It is about three witches with magical pow-ers who are battling a very evil magical being."

Each novel was published in December of 2014. All the stu-dents were excited and expressed how excited they were.

Makenzie's novel was pub-lished on December 9, 2014.

Jordann's novel was pub-lished on December 26, 2014.

"It's really cool to have ac-complished something that some people couldn’t even dream of doing in such a short period of time," Jordann said.

Courtney's novel was pub-lished in early December.

"One of my goals for the past two years has been to get a novel published. This isn't the first book I've written, but it is the first I've gotten published," Courtney said. "When I found my book on Amazon, I was over-joyed. It was a dream come true."

According to Mrs. Kelly, all winners (those who meet their word goal) can have copies of their novels published in perm abound, complete with a pre-for-matted or self-generated cover.

If interested in reading these novels created by MAHS fresh-men, you may go to Amazon.com and enjoy.

Photo Courtesey of S. Vetri/

Meteor C

hronicle Freshm

en, Makenzie, C

our-ney and Jordann

Arts & EntertainmentMETEOR CHRONICLEApril 2015PAGE 8

Montrose Area Theatre Takes on First Ever “24 Hour Theatre Challenge”

Secret ingredients were voted on by the students here at MASD. There were many random items/objects to vote on. The winners were a pound of bacon, with 28 total votes, and a plunger, with 24 votes. This meant that the writers had to include these two things into their scripts.

Next on the agenda came the actual writing. Writers outlined, created characters, made plot points, developed ideas, criti-cized constructively, and came up with a script all from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The writing teams were divided into five groups, one per skit. At 11:00, lunch was served and set construction supervisors and artists arrived to begin work. At this time, sets and props were built and the flats were painted. The set artists included freshmen, Savannah Anderson, Jenna John-son, Alexis Lindstrom, Jordann Monaco, Searra Muller, Alanna Rivera, Kristen Smith, Alexis Waldron and Andrew Wurth. Also, juniors Lynsey Kutalek, Mark Mayes, and seniors Maddy Pasteka and Kayleigh Payne. The set construction workers included seniors Brandon Bruzek, Ken-ny Fowler, Billy Hewes, Noah Kildare and Christian Mondi.

“I think It was a really great experience to be able to be a part of something that almost every department of the school could be involved in, and I had a really fun time doing so,” artist Maddy said.

From 2:30 until 9:30 that night, students were still hard at work. Actors were learning their parts, artists and set builders were testing their skills and making beautiful sets and writers and directors were constantly revis-ing their scripts and making sure everything would be perfect. The next day began at 8:00 AM when casts and directors arrived. Not

By Kayleigh PayneCo editor in chief/

Opinion editor

“Create Greatness. Just do it quickly.” In essence, that is exact-ly what the participants did dur-ing this “24 Hour Theatre Chal-lenge”. So, what exactly is a “24 Hour Theatre Challenge”, you may ask? According to theatre teacher Mrs. Winn, who came up with the idea of doing this chal-lenge, a 24 Hour Theatre Chal-lenge is where students create a script from scratch, for a one act skit while other students design and create a set, direct and per-form it all within 24 hours.

The reason behind the deci-sion to conduct this project was because it met the theatre’s needs and was also easy to resched-ule if bad weather came about, which, of course, it did. The orig-inal dates for the challenge were February 27 and 28. Due to bad weather, though, the challenge was rescheduled for March 6 and 7, which were two very busy days.

On the first day, March 6, there was a lot to be done. On this day, writing and rehearsing took place ending at a grand total of 13 ½ hours. Starting at 7:00 that morning, students were arriving to begin work. This time frame, from 7:00-7:30 was known as “Meet, Greet and Eat.” Breakfast and tons and tons of coffee was provided for the creative teams. From then on, they began plan-ning and brainstorming. At 8:05, auditions and casting began. At 8:45, the ‘secret ingredients’ were revealed.

“[The secret ingredients] keep the writers from being able to do any work before the event. Also, they allowed non-participants to still feel involved,” Mrs. Winn said.

being able to take their scripts home to practice overnight, the actors had a lot of lines to memo-rize and not a lot of time. After an on-stage dress rehearsal, the hair and makeup artists, Kay-leigh Payne and junior Madison Koloski, arrived to get the actors ready for the stage. At 6:30 P.M. the doors opened. There was a fun slideshow being shown to the au-dience until everything was ready and the curtain rose. The slide-show included many pictures of all of the students while they were putting in a lot of time and effort trying to make it all happen.

Happen, it did. Miraculous-ly, 24 hours was “enough” time to get in writing teams, choose casts, build and create sets, write and memorize scripts, and still have enough time to go home at night and sleep. All Mrs. Winn was looking for was a lot of cre-ativity, and she certainly got that. Every student has different tal-ents and during this challenge, any student could put their talents to good use. Writers could write, artists could paint, tech-ed stu-dents could build, actors could act, hair/makeup artists could make the actors look great, and directors could direct.

There were five, original one-act presentations written, directed, designed, produced, and performed 100 percent by Montrose students. The first play was named “Typical Americans”. It was written by sophomores Ivy Chance, Dylan Jenner and Madison Purtell and was direct-ed by senior Tyler Gilbert. The skit starred sophomore Caitlyn DeCamp as Ruthie, sophomore Sadie Minarsky as Amelie, and senior Ashlea Wilson as Jeff. For this skit, senior Marisa Van-ness and junior Kira Karpov were wonderful subtitle card holders

and translators. This skit was about a couple who had a trouble-some time on their vacation in Paris. The next skit was called “Happy Go Lucky”. This was written by seniors Charlie Daly, Eddie Fish and Konstantinos Konstas. Its cast included fresh-man Danielle Dubofsky as Sarah, 8th grader Katherine Gatto as Becky and senior Liam McKeeby as Mr. Harrison. This hilarious skit was about a miserable teacher who finally catches a break. The next skit was named “No Math”, written by seniors Anna Churco, Tatiana Sangzhieva, Marisa Van-ness and Ashlea Wilson and di-rected by junior Kira Karpov. This skits cast included freshman Elizabeth Bennici as Connie, Konstantinos Konstas as Rob-ert, Lynsey Kutalek as Linda and Katherine Gatto as Vicky. This comical skit was about a couple who go on a lake house vacation. The problem, though, is that the husband, Rob, is more in love with math than he is his own wife. The fourth skit was called “Do You See a Problem Here” which was written by junior Allison Arnold, freshman Ashley Miller and freshman Maddie Weidow and directed by freshman Garrett Flaherty. This skit had characters including Charlie Daly as Dean, Eddie Fish as Bill, 7th grader Chalice Guyette as the Godmoth-er, Liam McKeeby as worker 1, Danielle Dubofsky as worker 2, sophomore Frank Lubash as Mob Man 1, and Mark Mayes as Mob Man 2. This was a story about a scandalous business deal about bacon with a blind man for a wit-ness. The final skit was named “Pushing Daisies”. This play was written by Kira Karpov, Sadie Minarsky and junior Katherine Wurth and was directed by Al-lison Arnold. This skit starred

sophomore Ivy Chance as Bertha Boon, Frank Lubash as Marvin Boon, Marisa Vanness as Linda and Maddie Weidow as Da-isey Boon. This was about a girl named Daisey who had found out that her family could get a lot of money if one of her parents died. Being on the verge of losing their home, she comes up with a mis-chievous plan to “kill” her moth-er, but as you could imagine, it didn’t work out so well. When her mother climbs out of the casket because she has to pee, Daisey is caught in the act at the funeral. Still desperate for money, she de-cides to try and sell the “cure for death” from her mother’s blood. Many people couldn’t get over the fact that her father was in love with a plunger, which was one of the secret ingredients.

Overall, the first ever 24 Hour Theatre Challenge Presentation was a hit. All of the participants had fun, and although they had to work hard for nearly 24 hours straight, they did it. The crowd loved it, the school loved it and the students loved it. Of course, none of this could have been done without the help of many people. Mr. King, the principal, who was willing to support something new and different, the school board who continued to keep drama club alive after all of the prob-lems they’d faced, the teachers and staff who worked with the students and allowed them to miss class on Friday, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Bennicci for helping with technology, lighting and sound, and lastly, the families who dropped students off early and picked them up late and came to the show to support their par-ticipating student. Turns out an evening of bacon and plungers is more interesting and complex than it sounds.

Arts Alive @ MASD

Gracie Lutz, Grade 12

Mor

gan

Gro

over

, Gra

de 1

2Alx Porrini, Grade 10

Melissa Bourizk, Grade 8

METEOR CHRONICLEPAGE 9 April 2015

Arts Alive @ MASD

Morgan Groover, grade 12

Carys K

adlecik, grade 11

Carys Kadlecik, grade 11

Gabi Cramer, grade 10

PAGE 11 April 2015 METEOR CHRONICLE

Carys kadlecik, grade 11

April 2015 METEOR CHRONICLEPage 11

Arts Alive at Choconut Valley

Devin Ford 5th G

rade

Alyssa Lanfair 5th grade

Marina Eshbaugh 6th grade

Alicia Barken 6th grade

Reagan Welch 1st grade

Addison Stephens

All photos courtesy of

Shannon Maynard Cho-

conut Valley

METEOR CHRONICLE APRIL 2015PAGE 12

After working for the Mon-trose Area School District for 28 years, Mrs. Joann Betka is now retiring this year. Mrs. Betka started working at Montrose Jr. Sr. High School in 1987 teaching grades 7-12 for four years, and has been working at Choconut Valley Elementary School teaching grades k-3 for 24 years.

Mrs. Betka knew she wanted to teach ever since she was little. Her mother said that when she was little, she would line up her toys and “teach” them all. Mrs. Betka started teaching when she was 21 years old.

“I can never recall a mo-ment I didn’t want to teach”, Mrs. Betka said.

Her mentor or inspiration to be a teacher was her fifth grade teacher, Mr. Marshall Roberts.

“He was a very caring and loving teacher, who went out of his way to make every student feel important and special,” Mrs. Betka said.

She started her college career during her senior year in high school. She attended her local community college that year and then transferred to Greenville College in southern Illinois for a year. She then finished her under-graduate at SUNY Geneseo. She did her graduate work at SUNY Binghamton.

“It’s fun to see them ex-cited about learning” Mrs. Betka said.

Her favorite part of teach-ing is teaching kids how to read, social issues, working with children that have failed multiple times in school and seeing their success. Helping

children focus on what they can do rather than what they can’t do is also important to her. Mrs. Betka has enjoyed all the different age groups that she has worked with over her teaching career, but she enjoys working with the primary age students the most.

Mrs. Betka decided to retire under the current teacher contract and she was the right age to be able to do so. Mrs. Betka is al-ways looking for ways to help children and help them to understand things they are struggling to learn.

As for other teachers retiring this year, Mrs. Tru-man will also be retiring. Mrs. Truman taught for 36 years in all and has decided to retire in order to enjoy other pursuits. She taught special education her whole teaching career for 1st-7th grade.

Mrs. Truman started a long term substitute posi-tion right after graduating from Penn State University. Soon after that, she got of-fered a full time teaching po-sition. Mrs. Truman taught 7th grade at Silver Lake and grades 1-6 at Choconut Valley Elementary School. As the special education program expanded, she was limited to teaching 4th-6th grade. Now she works with 6th and some 5th grade stu-dents.

Mrs. Truman’s favorite part of teaching is seeing kids she taught in previous years. “I've witnessed many changes in special education, the school and community;

Farewell to the Unforgettable

By Mikayla NyeStaff Reporter

Every year, the first week of March, the MASD students and staff bring Read Across America to Choconut and Lathrop Street Elementary. This year, Read Across America took place on Friday, March 3rd, which hap-pened to be the day of an early dismissal due to the weather. Even though early dismissal complicated the schedule a bit, our dedicated staff and students were still able to pull it off.

Read Across America is a day of remembrance for Dr. Seuss, and the reading of the characters he brought to life in his stories. It is also a day where the high school students interact with the elementary students by preparing reading-involved games and activities to share with them.

"The students that helped out this year did an amazing job and really stepped out of their comfort zones. The younger kids were appreciative, atten-tive and enthusiastic!" Said Mrs. Sherwood, seventh grade English teacher, who was a big part of organizing Read Across America.

Read Across America not only takes place at the two el-ementary schools, but also at Head Start, a pre-school in New Milford. Mrs. Sherwood was responsible for driving the stu-dents to the pre-school and as-sisting the students when it was

needed. "The little kids at Head Start

were too cute and loads of fun. I also enjoyed seeing my students in a different venue." Mrs. Sher-wood said.

The students at MASD were really interested in helping out with the program.

“I enjoyed seeing the kids’ faces when we were reading to them and when we were playing reading-involved games with them." Said eighth grader, Bren-nan Gilhool.

Brennan visited Lathrop Street and Choconut Valley that day.

Due to having more than

enough volunteers, Mrs. Sher-wood and Mrs. Kempa had reached a maximum limit and could no longer accept more help.

The kids loved having the high school students come down,

“My favorite part about Read Across America was the fun games the big kids played with us and I liked when super-man came," said Jackson Fisch-er, kindergarten student at Lath-rop Street Elementary.

Mrs. Fischer, Librarian at MASD, helped out with Read Across America by advising the students, making sure they went to all the classrooms and things of that nature.

"Mrs. Kempa does such an amazing job with Read Across America, every year," said Mrs. Fischer.

Mrs. Kempa has organized and ironed out all of the details for Read Across America ev-ery year for sixteen years for MASD.

"I was pleased with the out-come of Read Across America once again this year. Although I would like to change things a little. I would like to get the the-ater arts class involved, as well." Mrs. Kempa said.

Mrs. Kempa's favorite part of the program is when Mrs. Dempsey's child development class writes and illustrates their own books to share with the classrooms. Read Across Amer-ica activities make reading fun and exciting for students of all ages across the nation. Much appreciation goes out to Mrs. Kempa and Mrs. Sherwood and their students, Mrs. Fischer, Mrs. Dempsey's child development class for taking the time to create their own books and everyone else who participated.

Motivating children to read is one of the main purposes of Read Across America. Research shows that students who are motivated and spend more time reading do better in school. Without all the generous volunteers at MASD, the program would not be pos-sible.

Read Across AmericaBy Lyndsey KerrFeature Editor

Little VoicesWhat is your favorite spring activity?

“Baseball and playing outside!”

Matthew DovinKindergartenChoconut Valley

“Taking walks with my grandma and her dogs!”

Tabitha Ellis2nd GradeLathrop St.

PAGE 13 April 2015 METEOR CHRONICLE

The new season brings new sports: softball, baseball and track. As of right now the team members seem to be pretty confi-dent that the season will go well. Last season each team did fairly well in their league.

The track team has already started preparing for the season ahead.

“I think we will place high.” eighth grade track participant Mi-chayla Stahl said.

The softball season came to a close with minimal defeats in 2014, the players and coaches are very optimistic about the year ahead.

“I think we only lost two games last year” eighth grade third baseman and pitcher Grace Aukema said.

According to some players, Elk Lake seems to be the junior high’s team to beat this year.

A few of the girls spent the off season sharpening their skills in preparation for the upcoming season.

“I have gone to (pitching) les-sons every week for the past nine months, and I have improved my speed” Grace Aukema states.

Josephine Flynn also played on the Northeast Revenge travel softball league over the summer.

The baseball season ended with no defeats this past year. The team worked together and won together. As of right now the team is expecting to do well this sea-son.

“I expect the team to do well

this season” eighth grade base-ball player Andrew Rapisardi said.

The baseball team will be coached by Montrose teacher Mr. Fluck. His intention while coaching the Junior High base-ball team is to prepare them for the next level of baseball. Mr. Fluck enjoyed watching the players improve over the course of the two years they spend on the Junior High team. To him it is very important for an athlete to have a short term memory.

“Often times you have to forget about what just happened and play as if it didn’t happen.” Fluck said.

Last year’s track season brought very few defeats in their league. The junior high team beat every team they faced by ten or more points. The team also made the accomplishment of winning third in the 4x400 relay.

The outlook for the team this season is pretty good according to Morgan Bush, who has par-ticipated in track for two years,

“I think the team will do re-ally well this year.” Bush said.

Each of the track members seems to have their own person-al goals for this season. Some wish to break records or simply to place higher.

Morgan Bush hopes to place at Leagues while Michayla Stahl wishes to break the 400 record.

Every sport is different, but they all share the common goal of working as a team and achiev-ing success together. If they all work hard and do their part, their goals can slowly be completed.

Great Expectations for Junior High SportsBy Kiera ShortStaff Reporter

Junior High track runs in the parking lot during practice.Photo Courtesy of Kiera Short Staff Photographer

Match the Teacher This teacher played Division I Field Hockey at Lousville University.

This teacher has published a novel.

This teacher owns a gym.

This teacher played soccer at Elizabethtown College.

A. Mrs. Winn

B. Mr. Lukasavage

C. Mrs. Brander

D. Mr. Stallings

As we are on the horizon of the sweet springtime, state test-ing is also to be expected. Ev-ery year at this time, students are given important tests to see where this district is ranked against all others. This year, 7th and 8th graders will be tested on math, science, snd reading

When asked how the stu-dents prepare for the test, Tier-stin Newhart replied that she studies and uses her time wisely. Dan Summerville said that get-ting sleep and studying were his top priorities.

When asked how much the students studied, Newhart says thirty minutes a day. Dan Sum-merville replies with once a day which is ideal for testing. Chase Purtell is serious about his test-ing and says he studies two hours a night.

“I study about an hour to two about every night before a PSSA test.” Jason Zenefski states “The

tests aren’t as hard as they’re made up to be.”

Some people say that sleep is important to good testing, while others disagree. When asked about the sleep studnts get be-fore a test, Tierstin says that she sleeps seven hours every night. Chase followed up with him get-ting the same amount. Dan and Scotty said that they sleep nine hours every night, which is about the average for most kids. Chris-tian gets a firm ten hours of sleep every night.

One common thought is that eating a healthy breakfast can help you get a better perfor-mance. When asked about this, Tierstin said she does not eat her morning meal. Dan eats breakfast every morning. However Chase doesn’t, similar to Tierstin. Chris-tian is on the brink as he says that he eats only sometimes. Scott eats in morning as does the Dan.

“I do eat breakfast most morn-ings. I do believe that eating ev-ery morning helps results.” Dean Fish said.

Most kids have a prefer-ence when it comes to testing. Some prefer reading, while oth-ers perform better at math. Tier-stin answered her least favorite was math. Dan said that his least favorite test was science. Chris-tian cleverly retorted that “ev-erything” was his least favorite, some kids just don’t like testing. Scott said English was his least favorite. “I dislike memorization. While Math is general problem solving, it will sometimes require a lot of dedication in remember-ing terms.”

No matter what your opinion is on stadardized testing, one of the greatest challenges it presents is how students prepare. if you don’t prepare well, struggling and low test scores can be an expected outcome. However if you study hard and prepare as well as you can, there is nothing more that can be asked of you.

By Taylor MinarskyStaff Reporter

PSSA Tests Kids Preparation

PAGE 14 METEOR CHRONICLEAPRIL 2015

Meteor SportsBy Meghan Gilhool Sports Editor

Sports Commentary

By Chris Lewis Junior High Editor

Basketball Teams Post Great Seasons

Sometimes in life you can prepare for as much as possible. Sometimes preparation can be enough, but sometimes it is all pointless. For high school sports preparation can be wasted when weather gets in the way. This year has been another example of just how easily weather can disrupt sports schedules. This year has seen numerous delays and cancellations of games and practices, causing a disruption in almost everyone's schedule. Sports, however, can be tricky when it comes to rescheduling. In high school sports it can be tricky to account for playoffs, league games and other vari-ables.

Weather can affect everyone's sport in different ways. In the fall and spring, outdoor sports requires not only good weather during games, but before games so that the fields are in good condition. In the winter when the sports are all indoors, weather can still have an effect on events. Now in the spring the snow is having a carry-over effect into spring sports.

"It has affected us by making us practice inside in the past and it's most likely going to be doing the same this year because of the snow on the field." said senior baseball player Kyle Watkins.

The athletes will not let weather dictate how they do, and they know that it is no excuse in the season.

"We have been doing the

best we can to prepare for the upcoming season indoors." said fellow baseball senior Andreas Mittmann.

"You always have to make sure you have the right apparel when its warm and the track be-ing covered with snow is always an issue. Always bring warm clothes!" said senior track runner Angela Russell.

Weather can also affect peo-ple’s schedules outside of sports when events get cancelled.

"When we have late practice inside I don’t get to eat dinner with my family." Watkins said.

Learning to adapt to the weather is a huge part of spring sports in this region. If the field are clear or you need to go for a run, the temperatures can still be dropping.

Normally when game days are hit with bad weather the games will be postponed and played at a later date. Occasion-ally the games may even be cancelled. However, practices can be tricky because they can't simply be postponed. Missing practices simply means being less prepared for your next game or meet.

Overall the weather can do a lot to sports and their athletes, but it can't knock their hustle and their work ethic. Whether it’s a sunny day or a blizzard, Montrose athletes are sure to be somewhere giving it everything they have.

Montrose Athletes Work

Against Mother Nature

The 2014-2015 basketball season has come to a close at MASD, and it was definitely one for the books. Both boys’ and girls’ basketball teams went undefeated in the league and made a run in the PIAA District II playoffs. The girls have won the league for the past five years, and the boys captured the crown for the first time since 2011.

The girls’ team was the number three seed behind num-ber one seed, Holy Redeemer, and number two, Dunmore. They had a first round playoff game on February 17th against Northwest Area at home. They defeated the Lady Rangers with a final score of 56-34, and moved onto the second round of playoffs facing a familiar opponent, the Riverside Lady Vikings. The Lady Meteors played the Lady Vikings in the pre-season and lost. They had a rematch Friday February 20th where they played hard, but couldn’t secure the win. The 46-34 loss for the Lady Meteors ended their season.

“I’m happy that I could to be a part of a successful team and that we went undefeated in the league,” senior Hannah Dieck said.

“Although the season didn’t end the way we wanted it too; we accomplished our goal of getting the league title and made numerous memories along the way,” senior Fallon Gurn said.

The boy’s team was the number one seed in the district, so they received a first round bye. The boys used the full week of practice to their advantage to get ready for their opponent, the Riverside Vikings. Like

the girls’, the boys also played Riverside in the pre-season. The boys opened the season with the Vikings and lost 70-49. The Meteors improved throughout the season, and were looking forward to having another shot at Riverside. They played Sunday February 22nd and came out strong taking the first quarter lead 12-5. The first quarter lead wasn’t enough for the boys’ to come up with a win, so their season ended with a 55-44 loss.

“We were successful this season because we had great team chemistry. We all worked well together, and were willing to make sacrifices to win,” senior Jack Fruehan said.

Although the playoffs didn’t go exactly as the coaches had hoped, both Coach Lopez and Coach Al met their goals in the league. Both coaches wanted to win the league and they ac-complished this goal, while post-ing undefeated records.

“It felt great to win our league. It was one of our main goals set in the beginning of the season, and to accomplish it was a great feeling,” junior Hunter Traver said.

“It felt good to win the league title because we worked hard for it,” junior Katie Warner said.

Basketball is a long season and due to NEPA’s harsh weather, games had to be moved around. Both the boys’ and girls’ senior night ended up being on the same night. It brought a lot of fans out for the game, and they saw two great games. At the end of the night, both teams knew they had won the league and got to celebrate.

“My favorite memory

was senior night, clenching the league title in the same night, and being the number one seed in the district,” Fruehan said.

“I enjoyed playing basketball with my friends, and being able to share the success we’ve had together,” Gurn said.

Since the season has ended the players have been reminiscing on the season and all of the memories made. The underclassman are going to miss the seniors and the leadership qualities they brought to the team.

“I’m going to miss the older girls who are going to graduate because they pushed the younger girls to be better,” Warner said. “I’m going to miss both the seniors and their leadership. They always set good examples for the underclassman,” Traver said. For most of the seniors, it was their last time playing and being in a Montrose uniform, the feeling was bittersweet. “I’m going to miss hanging out with the team. It was really fun, and I already miss seeing them every day,” Dieck said. “I’m going to miss the competitiveness of it. That was the last time I’ll play basketball at the high school level,” Frue-han said. All in all it was great winter sports season for the bas-ketball teams. The teams made memories, and worked hard on and off the court. Both teams are looking forward to next sea-son, and are already starting to prepare for it! Good luck to the all the seniors and their future endeavers!

METEOR CHRONICLE APRIL 2015 PAGE 15

Track ‘Sprints’ Into SeasonBy Maddy PastekaNews Editor

As the winter season simmers down, the spring sports season heats up. March 2nd marked the official first day for varsity track and field practices to begin. Last season, both boys’ and girls’ teams went undefeated to win the league, and the girls’ team went on to win the Jordan Relays for the third consecutive year. The team also sent several members to compete at the state level.

“I believe we have a good core group of athletes that are returning with some new faces. Good leadership by the veteran runners will keep the team com-petitive,” head varsity track and field coach and MAHS teacher Sean Castellani said.

The girls’ team graduated several key seniors last year, but has no doubt that this season they will be just as strong.

“We lost a lot of our seniors last year, but I feel confident that we will do just as well this year,” junior Michaela Pike said.

Along with some of the changes made with the teams’ lineup, a new coach was an-nounced. MAHS physical educa-tion teacher and cross country coach Dean Brewer was named the new distance coach for the 2015 season.

“I look forward to having a coach with a lot of experience. He’s really dedicated to what he does and always focuses on help-ing his athletes improve,” senior Angela Russell said.

The first few weeks of the season are no easy task. Dealing with the cold March weather can be tough, especially when you have to get all bundled up to go outside and run. Getting back into the routine can also be hard for athletes who aren’t fresh off a winter sport, but despite these setbacks, the track team pushes on and trains hard for the season.

“We start off stretching and warming up then we usually do a workout and event work, and other days we lift,” senior Steven Shelp said.

Many of the athletes are excited to return as league cham-pions this year, hoping to repeat that title again this season on both the girls’ and boys’ sides.

“Last year we were league champs, and I believe we can do it again this year,” senior Billy Hewes said.

Not only do the students have goals for the season, but the coaches do as well.

“Each day is an opportunity to get better. As a team, we will try to improve times and distanc-es with a goal of peaking at the end of the season, our training promotes this and we have been able to do this year in and year out,” Mr. Castellani said.

All things aside, support comes first on this small team. In a typical track season there is usually a wide array of injuries. Whether it be a sprained ankle, torn ACL, or even a sore muscle,

this team always has each other’s backs.

“Even though track is not considered a team sport, we are all very supportive of each other and running requires a lot of sup-port, so we really are one team,” senior Hannah Dieck said.

Many people might look at track as an individual sport, but there are many ways you need more than one person to win a track meet. For starters, you need to work together to earn points for the overall outcome of the meet. Then there are the relay races. These races require four teammates to work together to get the baton around the track in the fastest time possible.

So whether you join track to work on your individual status or to be a part of a smaller team, there are many options you have to choose from.

“I enjoy that track can be run as both a team sport and indi-vidual sport, working as a team towards a common goal and be-ing successful is a great feeling,” Hewes said.

Overall, the outlook for the season looks hopeful.

“I believe this season can be very successful for our athletes with dedication to the sport and to their academics. We have a fantastic coaching staff that cares deeply about our program and putting in the extra time with our athletes,” Coach Castallani said.

By Abbey CapwellElementary Editor

Baseball ‘Swings’ Into Season

Photo Courtesy M. Gilhool/ Meteor Chronicle

Members of the varisty track and field team warm-up in the wrestling room before starting their workout.

Though the spring weather takes its time showing up, our Montrose baseball boys waste no time getting the season in gear. From working out in the winter, to the tough heart challenges they endure, each player shows incredible dedication and enthu-siasm towards the sport.

Losing five seniors last year certainly may seem like it would put a dent in the team, but the boys seem more ready than ever to give all they can.

“I think the team is better than ever. We have six returning starting seniors as well as a great group of underclassmen to fill us out,” said senior Mike Vanness.

The boys put in a fair amount of individual effort, but they seemed to agree that it’s most important to help each other as best as they can. Like other sports, baseball may seem to fall more on the individual player, but it’s really dependent on how they all work together as a team.

Vanness added, “I feel it’s really important to put myself in situations that my team can improve from. There’s always something we can do in practice that will help another teammate.”

It’s tough for the boys, being stuck in the gym for the first month or more of their season, but they make the most of it, and take advantage of any opportuni-ties they have to be outdoors.

“It’s hard not getting to play on the field as long as some of the other teams, but it’s just what we have to adjust to. We have to make the most of what we’ve got,” senior Kyle Watkins said.

The seniors play a big role in leading the team and setting the tone for the season, and their efforts to help the team does not

seem to go unnoticed by any of the underclassmen.

“I’m really thankful we have such great seniors and I’m look-ing forward to improving with them and the rest of the team,” said sophomore RJ Arnold.

A team that gets along so well really helps the players build and grow, knowing they have so much support and faith in each other.

“Individually and as a whole I would say we get along really well and cooperate better than a lot of teams,” said sophomore Matt Ruseski.

The teams support and passion for the sport can carry them far, but the hard work and time they put in only add to it. Aside from that, it’s a very well rounded group of boys, as the coach emphasizes heavily the importance of grades and family.

“It’s not an option to do bad in school and play baseball. School remains a high priority and our coaches make sure of that,” Watkins added.

The skill of balancing extra-curricular activities and school work is valuable, although not many of the boys intend on pursuing anything more than rec-reational baseball in the future. Learning to balance their time and maintain the effort they put into both has proven to help the boys a lot already.

“Sometimes it gets really hard to balance everything, but it’s just a matter of prioritizing. I think it really makes us better students,” Vanness said.

The baseball boys seem more than ready to tackle on this spring season, knowing they have more than enough support and are willing to put in more than enough effort

METEOR CHRONICLEAPRIL 2015PAGE 16

Baseball Brings in Familiar Faces

By Meghan GilhoolSports Editor

By Mckala NewhartStaff Reporter

week of August, and a few tour-naments in the winter.

Lacy Nealy will be continu-ing her softball career at Her-kimer Community College in Herkimer, New York.

She is hoping to make it further in this season than in previous years.

If the Lady Meteors want to win, they have to defeat their biggest league competitor, the Susquehanna Sabers and a cross-over game with the Dunmore Bucks

“The team needs to focus and have solid contact with the ball and be ready to play softball”, said Coach McKennas.

Since the softball field is in harsh conditions from the winter weather, the team is condition-ing, trengthening their skills, defense and offense while inside.

We asked our fellow seniors on the Lady Meteor Softball team what they enjoy most about softball.

"I like the teamwork in-volved and the team atmosphere. Also, I like how nobody is afraid to get dirty," Nealy said.

"What I enjoy most about softball is spending time with my teammates," said senior Bridget Buck.

"I enjoy being outside and I like when the weather gets to be nice and it warms up", said senior Anna Churco.

Neither Buck nor Churco will be continuing their softball career in college. Although, Buck will be doing intramurals instead.

This year the Lady Meteors softball team will work hard to achieve their goals and are looking forward to a successful season.

The baseball season is in full swing and the players are working hard and excited for the season as they are every year. This year the excitement and hard work is being shown to a new coaching staff, but with some familiar faces. New head coach, Josh Winn was the previous junior high coach, and his assistant coach, Ryan Soden was the previous head coach. The transition was easy for the players, since they knew what to expect out of the coaches.

“It makes the transition easier because the team already knows the coaches and their style of coaches,” senior An-dreas Mittmann said.

Even though the transition was easy, it doesn’t mean losing the old coaches wasn’t heart-breaking.

“It’s difficult to see our older coaches go and not know of how things will change. It’s also going to take a long time to develop the same relationship we had with the older coaches,” senior Matt Benninger said.

Coach Winn is excited to step into his new role. He has goals and is looking forward to his new position, but is going to

make some changes.“This year we are going to

take a more aggressive approach and we are focusing on details and fundamentals,” Coach Winn said.

“My new coaches carry on the difficult physical workouts that my old coaches had us do. This year they are starting a mentor system. As a senior, I will have two younger players to be my grasshoppers,” Mittmann said.

Coach Winns tangible goals are simple. He wants to domi-nate the league and capture the division crown and bring home a district championship. The district championship is one of Mittmann’s goals too.

To dominate the league, the team is going to have some tough competition to beat in order to get there.

“Mountain View and Lacka-wanna Trail are always tough competitors, and Forest City is up and coming this year as well,” Coach Winn said.

Like the players seeing their hard-work in the pre-season pay off throughout the season, coaches see their hard-work they’ve put in come out through

their players.“I’m looking forward to de-

veloping young men into winners in every area of their lives and teaching the game of baseball. I’m also excited to unify the players,” Coach Winn said.

Having coached the majority of the boys in junior high, Coach Winn has nothing but great thoughts about them.

“I think we have a terrific team with a lot of experience and young talent,” Coach Winn said.

The players mimic Coach Winn’s thoughts about him.

“I’m very happy and excited to learn from them and grow a new bond with the new coaches,” Benninger said.

“I am excited because my coaches have a very strong desire to win. They also care a lot about my teammates and I very much,” Mittmann said.

The baseball program is heading in the right direction under the instruction of the new coaching staff. The coaches care so much about their players, have knowledge about the game, and have a love for the game that translates to the players. With those three things what else could a program ask for?

Montrose Lady Meteors are preparing for a great season. Head Coach Mr. McKennas is striving to win the Lackawanna League Division IV and compete for the District II title. Last soft-ball season, the Montrose Lady Meteors season was ended by the Hanover Area Night Hawks. The Lady Meteors ended with 11-5 record.

“The best part of coaching is watching the girls improve on their skills, gain confidence in themselves and improve as student athletes”, said Coach Mckennas

As a group, the Montrose Lady Meteor's Softball team has very strong pitching and defense. Last season junior, Katie Warner, who plays on a travel softball team called Northeastern Nitro Softball, stood out with a double, six triples, and one home run giving her a batting average of .333.

Senior Lacy Nealy also had an outstanding season with four doubles and one triple, ending the season with an overall batting average of .391.

As a freshman last year, Hai-ley Rapisardi hit three doubles and one homerun making her have an outstanding average of .381.

Senior pitcher Lacy Nealy, also plays on a travel ball team, with her former teammate junior, Anastasia Hester, called South-ern Tier Smoke, out of Elmira and Horseheads, New York. The furthest the team has traveled is Florida and this summer season they are going to Cincinnati, Ohio and Ocean City, Maryland. The season starts the first week of June and goes until the second

Softball Looking to Build From Last Season

Photo Courtesy M. Gilhool/Meteor Chronicle

Members of the junior high, junior varsity and varsity baseball teams stretch before they begin practice.