Prom Guests “Fall Into Wonderland”

Inside this issue:

Silver Medallion 2

NHS Quarter Auc-tion

3

Artist of the Month 6

The Bird’s Eye View

National Honor Society Inducts 36 New Members

By: Ashlee Wittman & Hayley Neibel Prom will be held on May 9, from from 8-11 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Commons. Promenade will start at 7 and coronation will be held at 9:30. The 2015 prom theme is “An Enchanted Wonder-land.” Students can fill out a prome-nade slip when they buy tickets, which will be sold April 23, 24, 30 and May 1, during lunch. This year tickets for juniors, under-classmen, and guests are $20. The seniors were going to be charged $10 per ticket but the class officers and sponsors agreed to use some of their class funds to pay for the prom tickets. Seniors still need to pick up their compli-mentary ticket during lunch. Everyone attending must have a ticket. Students bringing an outside guest must fill out a form and turn it in to the office no later than May 1.

Don’t forget that any students who have been absent 10 or more days, ex-

cused or unexcused will not be permit-ted to attend, unless approved by the

administration.

After the dance, an after-prom party will be held at the YMCA Meyer center in Edwardsville, IL. Tickets will be sold April 23, 30 and May 1. Order forms for after-prom photo DVDs will be sold during lunch, and cost $10. Orders must be in by May 1. Everyone attending after-prom will meet at the high school at 11:45 p.m. Students are NOT al-lowed to drive to the YMCA. After prom goers will stay at YMCA until 6 a.m. Activities at after-prom will include a rock climbing wall, mechanical bull, inflatable jousting, basketball, volley-ball, roller-skating, and dodge ball. Dur-ing the night a variety of food and drinks will be provided at no charge. The cost of after-prom is $5 which comes with a souvenir t-shirt. Everyone has to have a ticket before May 1, to go to after prom. For updates on after-prom, students can like the SWHS after-prom page on Facebook.

By: Leah McGaughey National Honors Soci-ety inducted 36 new members on April 23, in the Middle School Commons at 7:30 p.m. The inductees, current NHS members, and family attended in order to celebrate the induc-tion of the new mem-bers. Although Mr. Tim Reed is the NHS advisor, the officers led the event. “I liked that the ceremony was student led,” said Principal Mark Bearley. “They did a very good job.” NHS President, Keely Egelhoff, start-

ed off the cere-mony by thanking individuals who have helped with NHS throughout the year, recog-nizing the current NHS members, and introducing

the inductees. After everyone was recognized, the NHS officers

Brandon Murphy (vice president), Emme Hayes (secretary), Darby Jones (treasurer), Ashley Egelhoff (historian) and Payton Heyen (reporter) lit the unity candle and ex-plained the four different qualities that

are emphasized in the National Hon-ors Society. These qualities include character, service, leadership, and scholarship. Then it was time for the induction of the new mem-bers. One by one, the names were called and the inductees lit their candles on the unity candle. After everyone sat down, the inductees stated the traditional oath, blew out their candles, and were official-ly inducted into the National Honors So-ciety. The new members received a framed certificate and everyone enjoyed cake and punch made by Ginger Bailey.

Photo By: Mrs. Susan Ruyle

Prom Court 2015 members- (front l to r) Hayley Neibel, Hannah Greeling, Amber Barnett, Me-ghan Peuterbaugh, Ashlyn Ringhausen, and Grace Luly. (Back l to r): Toby Fowler, Alex

Baldwin, Jacob Rotermund, Leo Vinyard, Con-nor Robinson, and Ryan Laramee.

NHS new members read the induc-tion vows. See page 3 for a list of

names of all 36 students inductees.

was very laid back. I had a lot of fun!” Senior Payton Heyen commented, “It was a lot of fun and raised money for a good cause.” The faculty will play the purple team on Friday, May 1, before the pep assem-bly. This will actually be a rematch since the majority of the team members lost to the faculty last year. The faculty team includes Ms.

Kinser, Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. Goetten, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Bearley, Mr. Eldred,

and Mr. Rich.

News

Top 8% in Senior Class Honored at Silver Medallion Banquet By: Payton Heyen “Since 1988, Olin along with other businesses in the area have been honoring the academic top 8% of seniors from schools in the Riverbend area in an event called the Silver Medallion Banquet,” said Principal Mark Bearley. This year, six companies hosted the banquet including Global Brass and Copper, Olin Corpora-tion, The Alton Telegraph, Lewis and Clark Community College, Philips 66, and 1st Mid-America Credit Union. The Southwestern students honored this year were the follow-ing seniors: Connor Robinson, Ryan Laramee, Brandon Murphy, Ellie Trombetta, Briana Gillespie, Ashlyn Ringhausen, Rachel Bald-win, Payton Heyen, and Emily Jones. The banquet was held on April 16, at Lewis and Clark’s River-bend Arena. The doors opened at

5:30 pm and the proceedings began at 7. The meal was catered by Lewis and Clark. Mr. Joe Craig, who is affiliated with the Alton Telegraph, began the awards ceremony and kept the event running smoothly.

(Back row -l to r) Su-

perintendent Brad

Skertich, seniors Brandon Murphy,

Ryan Laramee, Connor

Robinson, and princi-

pal Mark Bearley.

(Front row -l to r) sen-

iors Briana Gillespie, Emily Jones, Ellie

Trombetta, Payton

Heyen, Ashlyn Ring-

hausen, and Rachel

Baldwin.

By: Karlie Green On April 4, Student Government hosted the 2nd annual St. Jude’s vol-leyball tournament. This year, five teams participated. The entry fee was $10 per person and the money raised will go to help find a cure for child-hood cancer. Mrs. Jen Borkowski, Student Gov-ernment sponsor, set up a concession in which Student Government mem-bers Abby Mueller and Samantha French sold sodas and snacks. At-tendees to the event were asked to make a small donation in place of ad-mission fee. The championship game was the purple team against the pink team. The winner was the purple team which consisted of juniors Reagan Rinacke, Karlie Green, Taylor Nixon, Maddy Greeling, Erika Daube, Reid Nixon, Braden Whipps, and sopho-more Dylan Green. Junior Samara Parker, who was a part of the pink team, commented, “It

Student Gov’t Hosts Volleyball Tourney to Spike Down Cancer

Students who participated in the St. Jude’s Volleyball Tournament on April 4, which was hosted by Student

Government.

Seniors (l to r) Troy Wild, Nick Ballard, Hannah Greeling, Payton Heyen, Meghan

Peterbaugh, and Ellie Trombetta played on the orange team.

Baldwin commented, “It was an honor to be a part of this ceremony.” Emily Jones said that it was a great honor to be there with other top scholars in her class and in the area. “It was a nice evening spent with family and friends,” added Jones.

NHS Raises $2600 at Quarter Auction By: Ailee Manns This year, National Honor Society hosted a quarter auction to raise money for community needs. President Keely Egelhoff planned most of the event in which $2,600 was raised. NHS mem-bers worked at the auction by taking tickets, collecting quarters and raffle tickets from the tables, selling conces-sions, and delivering auction items to the winners. The decorating committee met at 8 a.m. to decorate the MPR in blue and gold. NHS members collected donations from area businesses and were required to sell at least five tickets. Each ticket cost $15. Many family members and friends of the members came to the auction. The auction was completely student led and was Egelhoff’s idea. Sponsor of NHS, Mr. Tim Reed, was there to oversee the event. Ticketholders were given a paddle and one free drink and food item. Egelhoff made out a master list of every basket and how many quarters it was worth. As she called each item, people put the right amount of quarters in the bucket on their tables and raised their paddles. To decide the winners, Egelhoff had a basket of poker chips with all the numbers written on them. If

News National Honor Society

2015 Inductees: Andrew Fry– Senior

Chelsey Milligan– Senior

Savannah Brinkman—Junior

Samantha Brown– Junior

Samantha Cranmer– Junior

Brittany Hand– Junior

Hunter Kahl– Junior

Scott Kasting- Junior

Ryan Paslay– Junior

Cheyenne Slack– Junior

Paige Stahling– Junior

Collin Walter– Junior

Collin Baumgartner– Sophomore

Kimberly Behrends– Sophomore

Taylor Bozarth– Sophomore

Raechel Brandon– Sophomore

Grace Burns– Sophomore

Samantha Burns– Sophomore

Lauren Camerer– Sophomore

Kassidy Cottingham– Sophomore

Grant Francis– Sophomore

Benjamin Gallaher– Sophomore

Stephanie Korte– Sophomore

Nicholas Ringhausen– Sophomore

Shelby Salzman– Sophomore

Adlai Schetter– Sophomore

Baylee Scott– Sophomore

Bailee Stahl– Sophomore

Aaron Tutterow– Sophomore

Jonathan Tutterow– Sophomore

Alexander Watts– Sophomore

William Werner– Sophomore

Ezekiel Wilfong– Sophomore

Ethan Wilson– Sophomore

Emily Wolff– Sophomore

people wanted more than one paddle to increase their chances of winning, they were able to purchase more. The big prize of the night was a St. Louis Cardinals’ basket, which includ-ed 2 t-shirts, a $50 Visa gift card, two game tickets, and a pullover jacket. “It turned out better than I expected and I even won a Dr. Seuss Basket!” said Mr. Reed

NHS President Keely Egelhoff leads the quarter auction.

ETS Members Visi t SIUE By: Jamie Brockway On Friday April 17, Educa-tional Talent Search students vis-ited Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. The students met at 9 a.m. and loaded a bus where they then went to Edwardsville. Once at the college, students were able to look around the campus while waiting for the presen-tation to start. At 10:45 a.m. the group sat for a presentation about the school’s social and academic life. All students were told when to apply for scholarships and when to fill out an application. After the slide show, the members

were given a tour of the campus, and shown what a dorm looks like for all incoming freshman. The group then met at the main building for an on-campus lunch. The students were given many options for what they wanted to eat. ETS members then were able to go bowling at the college for an hour be-

fore they had to leave to head back to the high school.

The crowd bids on the St. Louis Cardinals’ basket.

Sports Piasa Birds Fly Around the Track

By: Payton Heyen

Boys Track- “The season has been going great. We have been winning quite a few meets, and the boys are progressing well,” said boys track coach Aaron Fricke. Senior Tyler Skelton agreed, stat-ing, “The season is going good, we felt like we had some pretty big shoes to fill, and I think we’re doing that well.” Coach Fricke mentioned that the biggest surprise this season has been the contribution that underclassmen are making to the team. “We have a good group of freshman who are scoring varsity points every meet,” he says. Although these young athletes are making great strides for the Birds, Fricke sees the 4x200 and 4x400 teams as being the leaders so far this year. “Our 4x200 and 4x400 relays are cer-tainly the most dominant at this point. Ryan (Laramee), Mi-chael (Nolte), Connor (Robinson), and Tyler (Skelton) have been working extremely hard to push themselves and continue to get better with their handoffs.” He doesn’t know if they will break the school record, but mentions that it is a huge accom-plishment that they are even close to record times. As the season nears the last few weeks of competition,

Coach Fricke stated that the teams main goal from here on out is stay-ing healthy. He added, “We are at the point in our season where legs start getting tired, so we have to monitor that and make sure we are doing the necessary stretching and training. If we can stay healthy, we have a few athletes who have a shot at making it to state.” Girls Track– The girls track team has been working very hard this year. Coach Bowker has been push-ing the limits at practice and work-ing to make them as competitive as possible. After losing two state qualifying seniors last year, the Lady Birds

have been trying to find the best combination of runners to get the job done at meets. “It’s getting better,” senior Ailee Manns stated. After the ladies ran at the co-ed relays hosted by Southwest-ern on April 14, senior Sarah DuPont commented, “Last night was awesome!” The combined efforts of Piasa Bird boys and girls won the meet, defeating Civic Memorial, Staunton, and Gillespie. Both teams look forward to the Macoupin County and Sec-tional meets.

Senior track members: (back row l –r) Darby Jones, Tyler Skelton, Nick Ballard, Ryan Laram-

ee, Leo Vinyard, Connor Robinson, Payton Heyen, Ailee Manns, (front row l –r) Sarah DuPont, Keely Egelhoff, Megan Kirby.

Tyler Skelton Sarah DuPont Ailee Manns

“One of our main goals is to drop times

and qualify for state.”

“My goal is to get to state in our relays and get 27 seconds in the

200 meter dash.”

“I want to get 28’ in triple jump, be-cause I’ve been so

close!”

Seniors Tristan Scott, Dakota Duvall, and Jaden Lindsay signed a contract to play football at MacMurray College in Jackson-ville, Illinois, on Tuesday, April 21. They were joined at their signing by head coach Aaron Fricke (center) and assis-tant coaches Michael Fisher (left) and Mi-chael Paslay.

Seniors Sign with

MacMurray College

Sports Boys Baseball Gets Ready For Post Season Play

Girls Softball Prepares for Regionals

By: Karlie Green

With the season hitting the mid-way mark, the boy’s baseball team has a record of 10-5. They are also 5-0 in the SCC Con-ference.

Ending their 2014 sea-son with a regional loss against Roxana, the boys redeemed themselves, defeating the Shells 2-1. Coach Brian Hanslow is more than thrilled.

After the game, junior Zack Seymour comment-ed, “I felt like crying, it was a great feeling!”

In non-conference

games, the boys have won match-ups against Routt Catholic, Calhoun, Civic Memorial and more.

As they near the end of their season, the boys still have conference games against Staunton, Gilles-pie, Greenville, and Van-dalia. Their regional tour-nament will be held at Gillespie High School.

As for the JV team, the boys are 5-4. Teams beat-en include: Roxana, Li-tchfield, and Carlinville.

By: Reagan Rinacke As they near the end of their season, the girls softball team has a conference record of 3-3. Earlier in the season, the girls softball team played conference games against Hillsboro and won 5-1, but lost close games against Litchfield and Carlinville. With few conference games left, Coach Peg Mitchell is trying to keep a positive attitude on the field. The girls have had success against Metro East Lutheran, Mt. Olive, and Civic Memorial. Senior night for softball was April 29, against East Alton- Wood River. The three seniors, who have played all four years, are sad to hang-up their jerseys. “Its sad to see the season coming to an end, but I will never forget the memories made,” stated senior Meghan Peuterbaugh. Sophomore pitcher Bailee Stahl commented, “With everything be-ing stressful in conference, I'm just excited to see how regionals will go!” The girls play their first region-al game in Roxana on May 20, at 4:30.

Senior Spencer Heine-man pitches against Greenville.

Freshman Haley Edwards gets a hit in a varsity game.

By: Karlie Green

The Cardinals hosted their home opener on April 13, with a loss against the Brewers. On April 15, the Cardi-nals had their annual Jackie Robinson Day, and celebrated a win with a score of 4-2 against the Brewers. All of the players from both teams wore the number 42 on the back of their jerseys. Recently, the Cardinals went 2-1 with the Nationals. For the end of the month, the boys will be playing four games against the Phillies at home. You can order tickets on stlou-is.cardinals.mlb.com.

Cardinals On Deck

Upcoming Games By: Reagan Rinacke & Karlie Green

Baseball: 5/6/15 Collinsville

5/8/15 Gillespie

5/11/15 Greenville

5/13/15 Vandalia

Softball: 5/5/15 Staunton

5/8/15 Gillespie

5/11/15 Greenville

5/13/15 Vandalia

5/16/15 Carrollton

Seniors Rachel Baldwin, Ashlyn Ringhau-sen, and Meghan Peuterbaugh celebrate senior night.

By: Reagan Rinacke and Karlie Green With the season ending with a 2-11-1 record the boys soccer team has high goals for next season. Senior Chase Bowman stated, “ I was pretty happy with the way our season ended but I know we could have won more games.” Although Bowman is upset about graduating and not being able to come back and play next year he will never

Boys Soccer Team Has Big Plans For Next Season

Sports

forget the first game of the season. With Southwestern barely getting beat in overtime by Carlinville it was an exciting step for the team. Sophomore Trevor Keil said, “I look up to Chase a lot because he is a good team leader, and I’m sad he will be leaving.” While Sophomore Troy Evans still looks up to previous senior Brendan Schiller, “ I look up to him because he

Senior Tanner Dale Senior Ryan Laramee Senior Tyler Mayhew Senior Chase Bowman

“ I’m going to miss the excitement the team had during the games!”

“For my first time play-ing soccer, I’m really glad I did it. It was a really good experi-ence!”

“My favorite memory from the season was when I almost scored a goal from the center line at regionals!”

“I’m really going to miss playing with my teammates , it has been a lot of fun!”

Golf Team Finishes Season Strong

By: Breanna Fowler Golf finished up the season with a 14-9 record. Coach Gary Ballard said that seven of the nine losses were to larger 2A schools who made it to sec-tional play. Senior Nick Ballard led the team and was named All-Conference. Jun-ior Reid Nixon and sophomore Collin Baumgartner also contributed to the team. Nixon had a par round for nine holes at Timber Lakes Golf Course. Nixon commented, “I thought the season went very well, it was the first winning season with Coach Ballard.” When asked about the season, Nick Ballard replied with, “The sea-son was challenging yet fun.”

is very active and was a good goal scor-er.” With Keil and Evans excited and al-ready looking forward to next season, they both agree they will be better. “I feel like next year we will be big-ger and have more experience. Also I feel other teams are losing a lot of seniors that are good so it gives us a better chance.” stated Evans.

Besides having a great golf season, it was Nick’s last year of high school golf. He was asked what he plans on doing with his golf career, and he re-sponded, “I do not plan on playing golf in col-lege, but I’ll continue to enjoy the sport in my free time.” Nixon already has high hopes for the up-coming season, “I really hope we can beat Greenville!” The golf banquet was held at Cross Roads Community Church at 6 p.m. on October 27.

Mark Your Calendars!

Boys Basketball Green and Gold Game: Novem-ber 21st!

Girls Basketball First Home Game: November 25th!

Sophomore Collin Baumgartner

The Bird’s Eye View Staff: Editor: Hayley Neibel

Entertainment Editor: Ashlee Wittman

Sports Editor: Payton Heyen

Copy Editor: Jamie Brockway

Staff Writers: Aleigha Dobbs, Kr isten Doer r , Kar lie Green, Br ittany Hand,

Leah McGaughey, Josh Nagel, Reagan Rinacke, Ashlee Wittman, Breanna

Fowler, Aubrey Thornsbury, Meghan Pomeroy, Sarah Dupont, Aileen Manns

Advisor: Mrs. Goetten

The Bird’s Eye View is published by Mrs. Goetten’s Publications 1 class. The newspaper is available on www.piasabirds.net/highschool.

Extra Artist of the Month: Andrew Jackson

Andrew is honored to be April’s Artist of the Month.

SHS March

Students of the month

Freshman Kaylee Fisher

Sophomore Austin Selvog

Junior Ryan Paslay

Senior Tyler Skelton

FFA Green House Flower and Plant Starts May 4

By: Brittany Hand Southwestern’s Artist of the Month for April is senior Andrew Jackson. Ever since Jackson was little he has pursued art, although he “didn’t think he was too good ‘til later.” Jackson has been in Mrs. Ruyle’s 2D and 3D classes and this year he is enrolled in Drawing I and II. He en-joys drawing cartoons and anime, however he hopes to pursue a career in video games and develop graphics. If he cannot achieve this goal, he knows he has other options that are open for him in this field. He said that he creates his art for one sole purpose: FUN.

While he knows that some people have inspired him to work with art, he claimed, “There is no one specific per-son I can think of.” His advice for all artists is to “Have fun, that’s what art is: to have fun.”

$5 Hanging Baskets $1 Container Plants