The Green Pride

In this Issue:

www.dhsnews.org Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

-See Page 2

Meet Mr. Meyer

-See Page 5

Check out 3rd Street Asylum

-See Page 6-7

@DHSgreenpride

Page 1

Phase 2 construction coming close to completion Jake Stephens

staff reporter

Construction for Phase 2 of De Soto High School started last school year, and is now coming to its end.

The finishing of Phase 2 will bring many new additions to DHS, as well as a not so crowded parking lot.

The construction is close to finished, with the new com-petition-sized gym scheduled to be ready by Christmas time. The entirety of the construction is scheduled to be finished by spring break this school year.

Those who are the most ex-cited about the new additions to the school are those involved in athletics, as the completion of Phase 2 brings many new fea-

tures in addition to the new gym.Spectators and fans can look

forward to new features such as a new entrance, concession stand and ticket booth at games.

Coaches are being given a new coaching room, as well as a new training room.

The new rooms in the add-on include a new wrestling room, weight room, a cardiovascular and multipurpose room.

While the new wrestling room and weight room are improved replacements of previous rooms the cardiovascular and multipur-pose rooms, are completely new additions to DHS.

The multipurpose room will include indoor turf and batting cages. The room will be effective-ly used for all sports and weights classes for warm-ups.

The cardiovascular room will have new treadmills and bikes that can be used by students.

Upon completion, there will also be a new health room and a multipurpose fine arts room. The multipurpose room, which is a room that is painted all black, can be used for things such as

one-act plays.The new rooms to the build-

ing have also all been built to withstand dangerous weather.

Over the summer, the locker rooms were expanded, which is an addition of Phase 2 that has already been completed.

The summer was an impor-tant time for the construction, because it was easier for con-struction to take place since stu-dents and teachers were on break. During the summer 60 percent of Phase 2 was completed.

“The construction has all went underway pretty smoothly. I think we can thank that due to very good planning by the ad-ministration,” Activities Director Dwight Spencer said.

The entire cost of the con-struction of Phase 2 is around $9 million, but the district was reimbursed for about $1 mil-lion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

With construction coming to an end by the second half of the school year, students will have something exciting to look for-ward to.

Homecoming Candidates 2012

Page 2 September 21, 2012 Vol. 40

NEWS @DHSGreenPride Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

Revised policies greet studentsBy Tyler Bell

associate editor

Students and staff at De Soto High School are making a transi-tion to the new rules that have been set by Principal Mark Mey-er for the 2012-13 school year.

In the past, students at DHS were able to use their cell phones during passing period, and some teachers would allow students to listen to music during work time, but Meyer is redefining how the school day looks.

“After receiving input from teachers, I had to really define the school day, and I want to re-move distractions from the aca-demic setting,” Meyer said.

Along with cell phones, Mey-er also removed iPods and other music players, not just because it is a distraction, but it also re-moves the school from being li-able for theft or damages.

“There is a huge difference in technology, and it pushes peer pressure to get the biggest and best,” Meyer said. “I have worked on property damage and theft cases in schools for 12 years, and I want to keep those types of situations to a minimum.”

Now that electronic devices become less of a liability, staff and faculty can focus more on what they teach without distrac-tions, like a buzzing in a student’s pocket or bag.

Meyer is also reviewing incen-tive programs like Early Release.

“I have mixed emotions on Early Release because Seminar is an academic study hall that stu-dents should take an advantage of, but I do not want to treat it like it is a reward to miss school either,” Meyer said.

Meyer’s goal for this school year is to achieve balance and to have academics become the main priority for students, not the lat-est trend on Twitter. Students should not expect to see these privileges gained anytime soon.

“I am really impressed with how students have responded to my policies, and the students who do not agree have handled themselves in a first class manor,” Meyer said.

Cell phones and music devices have been removed, and Early Re-lease is under review. DHS is mov-ing forward under new leadership and positive student response is starting off on a good note.

On Aug. 16, 2012, De Soto High School lost junior Alan Maxville in a tragic accident. Since the trag-edy, DHS students have banded together coining the phrase “Be an Alan” and recognizing Alan for his positive attitude. Many joined together in the DHS parking lot to reminisce with memories of Alan and his impact on whomever he met. Fol-lowing these events, students generated a RIP Alan Maxville Facebook page, T-shirts and wrist-

bands dedicated to Alan. On the web page, students and friends can share memories and pictures of Alan. Shirts can be bought through senior Rhiannon Caldwell for $10 and wrist-bands can be bought from junior Kaylee Asher for $1. Both the T-shirt and brace-let mention Alan’s smile. The DHS community will forever keep Alan in loving memory.

Honoring a lost friend

By Emily Herrington staff reporter

Imagine how great it would be to be someone who knew what they wanted to do with their life from a young age.

Principal Mark Meyer came to De Soto High School aware of the strong academic reputa-tion that the school holds and is already impressed with the char-acter that the school has shown since his arrival.

Meyer wanted the students to know how much of a joy it is for him to come to work every day.

“I really can’t see myself doing anything different,” Meyer said.

From the start he knew he really liked school, therefore he

chose it as a career choice in trib-ute to the strong teachers that he had when he was younger.

“First and foremost, I loved school when I was a kid. School was a good place, a safe place,” Meyer said. “I really valued my education.”

Meyer does not just spend all of his time at school though. His favorite thing to do in his free time is be with his family.

“That’s my priority,” Meyer said, “but when I can, I love to play golf.”

In September 2010, Meyer lost his 7-and-a-half-year-old son, Kade Meyer, in a tragic ac-cident outside of his school.

In celebration of the 7-and-a-half-years that they had with

Kade, the family and some spon-sors host an annual run at Cel-ebration Park in Gardner called the Kade Meyer Celebration Run on Sept. 22.

Meyer said that the weekend of the run is over all a positive weekend for the family and ev-eryone who participates. They spend the entire weekend host-ing both the run and a golf tour-nament in celebration of Kade, rather than spending the time mourning him.

The event includes a one-mile kids Fun-Run, a 5k and a 10k for the older, more serious partici-pants.

The money collected at the celebration run is donated to a scholarship fund for the class of

2021, the year that Kade would have graduated.

As another way for the fam-ily to spend some time together, Meyer and his family like to spend their vacation traveling to-gether.

Over the summer he made his first trip out of the country with his wife to Mexico. Hav-ing traveled a bit, Meyer knows that there are even a few places that he would like to go back to, including Washington D.C. and Disney World.

“I’m also a bit of a big kid,” Meyer said, referring to his past three or four trips to Disney World. “I enjoy doing things like that. One of these days I’d like to travel to Europe. That’s one of

my big goals in life.”Meyer also enjoys watching

movies like Top Gun, Star Wars, Saving Private Ryan and Good Will Hunting. He says that even his basement has movie posters included as decoration.

“I like comedies, I like ac-tion shows. I love a good story,” Meyer said. “When you walk out of the theater feeling good and happy.”

Many students at DHS feel very lucky to welcome Mr. Meyer as its new principal. It’s not often that a school is lucky enough to welcome someone who is com-pletely fit for the type of leader-ship that the population asks for, but also someone who is purely happy to be here.

DHS students and staff welcome new principal

OPINION www.dhsnews.org Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

By Laura Meyersnews editor

The 2012 campaign year is a time to reflect back on the past four years, a time to evalu-ate whether or not the president has fulfilled his promises and changed our country for the bet-ter. The truth is, even he gave himself an incomplete grade.

The competing party nominee, Gov. Mitt Romney, is the man that I will be voting for on Nov. 6. Romney and his presidential pick, Rep. Paul Ryan call themselves “America’s comeback team.”

If a person breaks a bone, they

Issue 1 September 21, 2012 Page 3

Romney proves to be best choicego to the doctor. If a person is robbed, they go to the police. If our country is in an extreme eco-nomic debt, shouldn’t we put the appropriate person in charge?

Romney is a smart business man and an experienced leader. He is the founder of Bain Capi-tol, former governor of Massa-chusetts and he saved the 2002, Salt Lake City Olympics from it’s economic plummet.

Bain Capitol is a venture capi-talist firm. In this firm, Bain invests its money into a failing corpora-tion, and, using their business ex-perience, they then take over the management department, to try to repair and uplift that business back into success. Romney and his firm helped salvage corporations such as Staples and The Sports Authority.

Look at our country’s eco-nomic deficit, we are failing. The United States is in over $16 tril-lion of debt. If Romney has ex-perience repairing and managing failing corporations, he has the

perfect track record for the 2012 presidential pick.

In addition to being Bain’s founder, Romney is the former governor of Massachusetts He was voted into this position dur-ing 2003, a time of economic turmoil for Massachusetts. He faced a state legislature full of democrats. Despite these chal-lenges, Romney brought the state up from its decline.

By the end of Romney’s term as governor, he had many improve-ments to show for it. He dug the state out of a $3 million deficit, decreased the unemployment rate from 5.6 to 4.7 percent and cut unnecessary tax requirements.

Preceding his time as gover-nor, Romney was hired as the President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002.

Planning for the event began in 1999, and after one budget-damaging mistake after the other,

President Obama deserves a second term

The Green PrideDe Soto High School35000 W. 91st St.De Soto, KS 66018

Phone: (913) 667-6250Fax: (913) 583-8376

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF» Sophia TemplinMANAGING EDITOR» Tyler BellNEWS EDITOR» Laura MeyersOPINION EDITOR» Rebekah BurgwegerFEATURE EDITOR» Kaylee AsherSPORTS EDITOR» Maddie TorlineARTS EDITOR» Makenzie HillADVERTISING MANAGER» Ryanne MercerSTAFF REPORTERS» Emily Herrington, Jordan Wolf, Jake StephensCARTOONIST» Ben PattonADVISER» Michael Sullivan

EDITORIAL POLICY The editorial policy of The Green Pride is (1) Letters to the Editor must be typed, signed, and less than 300 words in order to be published and (2) the staff reserves the right to edit all copy. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in The Green Pride do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Green Pride Staff, De Soto High School, the DHS administration or the De Soto Unified School District #232 Board of Education.

CENSORSHIP POLICY Kansas Senate Bill 62 guaran-tees the same rights for student journalists as are given to profes-sionals. These rights include, but are not limited to, all First Amend-ment rights, including the right of freedom of expression, insofar as published items may not contain libelous, slanderous or obscene statements, may not incite or promote illegal conduct, and may not cause a substantial disruption to normal school activity. This bill does not allow the adviser, admin-istrators or any other faculty to censor the paper in any way.

the event’s budget began slipping into the red zone. Then, as a result of the disastrous events of Sept. 11, security became number one on the event’s priority list. In an act of desperation, event organiz-ers decided to hire Romney.

Romney tidied the budget, generated firm event security and lead the 2002 Olympic games to and through a successful event.

Romney is a notably strong leader, as well as a strong believer in The American Dream. He is a conservative, religious man who worked his way up the corporate ladder, and he wishes to preserve this dream for all Americans.

He has plans to cut taxes, in order to stimulate the economy, repeal Obamacare and address health care from a more taxpayer-friendly approach. He and the Re-publican party do not have wishes to remove God’s name from their platform. Instead, he wishes to lead America out of our debt while preserving our personal freedoms.

By Tyler Bellassociate editor

Category is, politics, and it is almost election day. The two candidates that are currently in the running are Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama.

In these last four years, Obama has helped bring the economy out of a recession that begun during the presidency of George Bush. Many people do not agree with his values or

methods, but there is a lot that we can learn from Obama.

The job as president is not an easy one, but Obama has man-aged to make it this far. His cur-rent most debated policy, Obam-acare, is showing signs that it will help Americans retire earlier be-cause health care will be easier to get and to afford.

Candidate Romney does not completely agree with ‘Obam-acare’, but if he is elected he would use parts of it as a template to go off of to create his vision of health care.

Not only will health care be cheaper, but under Obama’s term, families have been reunited as sol-diers and members of the military have started to come home, and the mastermind behind Sept. 11 was defeated, making the world one step closer to a safer place.

Granted, during his term, Obama has made some choices that not even I agree with. Like supporting the Stop Online Pi-racy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), proposed by con-gress, but in the long run his goal was to protect Americans from harmful products and to ensure software companies that they make the profit they deserve.

I have full confidence that Obama can handle another term in office. He has more experience now, which will help him in the next term, and he will be able to spend more time on issues that America needs to face.

Recently, Obama has came out showing support for the Lesbain, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgen-dered (LGBT) community which is a big step because soon LGBT citizens could soon gain legal

marriage rights in more states.Not only will the LGBT

community’s rights progress, but immigrants are getting more rights under Obama too. In the 2008 election, Obama received around 60 percent of the His-panic-American votes. This leads to show that a minority presi-dent gives other minorities hope that they can make it in America.

With the 60 percent of the Hispanic-American vote this also shows that immigrants are going through the proper stages to be-come a citizen, and that is going to help the economy.

Throughout Obama’s first term, he has helped the economy and gave hope to people that had none. If Obama is elected for a second term, who knows what would be achieved in the next four years.

-Versus-

OPINION @DHSGreenPride Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

Cell phone policy does more harm than good

By Rebekah Burgwegeropinion editor

For the 2012-13 school year some controversial changes have been made; most notably, the cell phone policy. Unlike in years past, students will not be able to use their cell phones or iPods during passing period this year.

Contrary to belief, the actual policy has not been changed, just the definition of the school day. The policy states that stu-dents can possess a cell phone or iPod but they cannot use it during the school day “as de-fined by the administrator.” Now, the school day is defined as starting at 7:50 a.m. and

ending at 2:55 p.m.The definition was changed

so that 100 percent of the aca-demic day would be focused on learning. So far, the change in policy has had good results and focus has been up and personal conflicts fueled by social media, has been down.

Yet, even though the end re-sults of the cell phone policy is positive, I do not believe that this is the best course of action for the school.

There are many instances where cell phones are needed. There are many times when students forget homework, lunches, etc. and need to con-tact their parents. While the student could go to the office to call their parents, there is not always time do to so, especially if one realized that he or she forgot something near the end of passing period. On the other hand, it is much easier to send a quick text from a cell phone.

Cell phones are also of im-portance when a practice or ac-tivity is canceled. While in the future these will be put up on

the school website, not all par-ents will check the website for updates. Also, if everyone in-volved went to the office to call their parents to inform them, then those people would be late to class because they had to wait in a line to use a phone.

In addition, if parents needed to contact their son or daughter, a cell phone would be a useful tool. Instead of call-ing the school and having to interrupt their child’s school day, they could have just sent a quick text, which could be checked during passing period.

Even though, students are losing only 25 minutes total of cell phone use, I do not agree

By Sophia Templin editor in chief

With every new school year come changes including new staff, students, policies, etc. This year, many differences can be seen in the cafeteria. Due to Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 enacted this year, all schools

included in the National School Lunch Program were required to meet some new requirements and waste more food.

The federal law mandates a requirement of a serving of a fruit or vegetable, whole grain offerings and a specific vegetable offered weekly. Since the USD 232’s cafeterias operate under the National School Lunch Program, De Soto High School and other schools in the district are required to follow all mandates and laws put forth by the United States Department of Agriculture.

The district nutritionist Amy Droegmeier explained how the school district plans on enforcing the new guidelines.

“Because of the Healthy Hun-ger-Free Kids Act of 2010, stu-

dents who purchase a reimburs-able or hot lunch are required to take one serving or 1/2 cup of a fruit or vegetable to purchase at the published price of $2.10 for a regular-priced student lunch,” Droegmeier said. “If a student does not choose to take this por-tion of their lunch, it becomes an ala carte purchase where each item must be charged separately.”

Although the new Act is a necessity to follow, students are being required to add to their meal with fruits and vegetables to keep the price of their school lunch down. As a frequent cafete-ria visitor, it is obvious that many students take the serving because they have to, fail to even think about the fruit or vegetable on their plate until they toss it into

New federal policy creates food waste

Page 4 September 21, 2012 Vol. 40

the trash at the end of their meal. It seems that by enforcing this

act, the U.S. government is at-tempting to conquer obesity but continues to let the environment plummet. Research conducted by the United States Environ-ment Protection Agency shows that in 2010, more than 34 mil-lion tons of food waste was gen-erated. Thirty-three million tons of food maintained the largest component of waste in landfills and incinerators.

“I’m sure there are items that are being wasted by students, but I don’t believe it’s in much greater quantities than before these new rules were enacted. We encourage our students to take as much as they will eat from the Garden Bar. Our intent is that students will try

new foods over the year and dis-cover a new fruit or vegetable that they do enjoy while meeting the new guidelines,” Droegmeier said.

Whether or not more or less food is getting wasted, by requir-ing students to take food they may not even want is only creating a potentially wasteful problem. Al-though the district is attempting to create incentives for students to try new foods, countless fruits and vegetables are being thrown away. Along with the new lunch policies, compost piles should be created as well. Compost provides countless benefits for the environ-ment as it decreases waste. A com-post pile would not only limit contribution to landfills but also give opportunity to students to use compost in classes.

with the new definition of the school day, but I do agree, that the old cell phone policy was far too relaxed.

Cell phone use should be al-lowed in the halls, but students should not be permitted to pos-sess a cell phone during class. When students feel their cell phone vibrate, or sees it light up, signaling a text message, their academic concentration is broken and there is almost a natural instinct to immediately check it. Most students will act on this instinct, moving their focus from the teacher to the phone. If they don’t, they will be thinking about the text mes-sage until passing period.

Therefore, I propose that stu-dents should be able to use their cell phones during passing pe-riod, but they must give them to the teacher when they enter the classroom. This way there is absolutely no temptation for students to check their cell phone during class. Then, when class is dismissed, students can grab their devices and head off to their next class.

While I understand that most students will be unwill-ing to give up their cell phones to teachers, I believe that if students were able to use their phones during passing period in exchange for this, they would gladly embrace it.

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FEATURE www.dhsnews.org Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

By Makenzie Hill arts editor

Frights, adventures and thrills are the main desires of people during the Halloween season. Many people travel to haunted houses and attractions intended to scare them. One such attrac-tion is the 3rd Street Asylum lo-cated in Bonner Springs, owned and operated by Steve Hoffine, Mike Clouse and Jerry Hoffine. This haunted house has been op-erating for three years.

It all started with the family’s love for Halloween. They had an annual haunted hayride that they put on for locals. Each year they would attend a Haunt Show, an annual show of Halloween themed attractions put on by TransWorld in St. Louis. While there they learned all of the latest techniques in scaring people.

Five years ago, the family de-cided to a building constructed in 1918 from the city to use as their own haunted house.

The site was originally used as a cemetery. In 1873, a one-room school was built over the top of the graves; some graves were dug up and moved, but those whose fami-lies could not afford to move the bodies remain at the site. This fact, Steve Hoffine explained, added to the haunted factor of the site.

Later in 1897, a school build-ing with two floors replaced the smaller one. This building stood until 1918 when it was torn down and the current building was built.

This building functioned as a school until in 1984 when it was closed down and gated shut. The building remained empty until the Hoffines decid-ed that it was the perfect venue for a haunted house. In 2007, the Hoffines and Clouse began repairing the building.

While working on the build-ing Steve Hoffine described ev-eryone leaving the building and coming back to tangled extension cords and rearranged materials. Many of the workers reported other strange occurrences, such as whispers, doors shutting on their own and the sound of footsteps. Curious, the crew decided to call in a psychic to see if anything was really going on.

The psychic reported seeing a man with dirty hands looking into the school watching a fright-ened women who was working in the building. From the man’s ex-terior he seemed to work for the railroad or as a coal deliverer. The man eventually killed the women and she now haunted the upper levels of the school while the man haunted the boiler room, kitchen and a section by the stage. The

psychic also reported young children scampering through the building.

With these reports and the va-riety of scares 3rd Street Asylum offers, more and more people are attracted to this haunt every year. Luis Gardea, a local student, re-ports it being “much better from last year” and after having gone to the very popular haunts in downtown Kansas City describes it as “pretty good.”

Cassidy Halloway, also a local patron, described the scariest part as being when she had to crawl from place to place, but then add-ed that “it’s all scary!” Many dif-ferent tactics are used in the haunt to invoke fright. Tight spaces, dark and strange noises add to the involuntary paranoia of people.

Hoffine added that they used rooms dedicated to people’s pri-mal fear, such as spiders, clowns and insanity. The actors are also made up with top of the line make up and masks. Kelsey Floyd, local, stated “the cos-tumes are really good.” She ex-plained she thought that many things were real.

3rd Street Asylum opens Oct. 5-27 from 7 p.m. to midnight, and costs $18 per person. It will also be open Oct. 31-Nov. 2. The building is located at 3rd street and Cedar Street in Bonner Springs.

Behind the scenes of the Hoffine haunted house

For more information, visit www.3rdstreetasylum.com

All photos courtesy of 3rd Street Asylum

Page 6 September 21, 2012 Vol. 40

Neon Nights: Homecoming 2012 www.dhsnews.org Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

Whitney DuncanParents: Russ Duncan and Alison BrownInvolved in: LITE Team and Cardio LiftFuture Plans: Attend the University of Kansas to major in biology and chemistry then trans-fer to the Kansas School of MedicineFavorite Neon Color: Neon Coral

Taylor PhongsavathParents: Tohn and Jean PhongsavathInvolved in: SoccerFuture Plans: Attend Kansas State University to study architectureFavorite Neon Color: Neon Blue

Elise MillerParents: Shaun and Christy MillerInvolved in: Cross Country, track and field and LITE TeamFuture Plans: To attend an unknown college to study nutritionFavorite Neon Color: Neon Pink

Shelby DeghandParents: Steve and Lynette DeghandInvolved in: Cross country, basketball, soft-ball, NHS, LITE Team, Madrigals, and FCAFuture Plans: Attend an unknown college to study special educationFavorite Neon Color: Neon Purple

Brent JohnsonParents: Brent Johnson and Ann GriffinInvolved in: Football, track and field, power-lifting and bowlingFuture Plans: To join the Air Force and be-come an engineerFavorite Neon Color: Neon Green

Noah CardiffParents: David Cardiff and Tari ThompsonInvolved in: Football, basketball, baseball, longboarding and croquetFuture Plans: Attend an unknown college in San Diego to study actingFavorite Neon Color: Neon Camo

Neon Nights: Homecoming 2012 www.dhsnews.org Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

Issue 1 September 21, 2012 Page 7

(Above) SENIORS BRENT JOHNSON, Noah Cardiff, Elise Miller, Whitney Duncan, Shelby Deghand and Taylor Phongsavath pose like the cast of Jersey Shore. (Left) Homecoming Court: Freshman Prince Jackson Reynolds and Princess Lyndsey Fowks, Sophomore Prince Isaac Stevens and Prin-cess Emma Jackson, Junior Prince Luke Stenzel and Princess Maddy Cater.

Page 8 September 21, 2012 Vol. 40

FEATURE www. dhsnews.org Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

By Kaylee Asher feature editor

Over the summer, several De Soto High School students went overseas to do various projects that benefitted third-world coun-tries. These students include ju-nior Meghan King and seniors Halie Hanson and Alyssa Fulling.

King went on a two-week mission trip through her church to the Athi River outside of Nairobi, Kenya. During her two-week stay in Kenya, King worked with a small group from her church to help renovate a building that was left completely in ruins.

Besides renovating the build-ing, King visited an Ahadi House, which is a housing facility for young boys to college-aged men.

“The Ahadi House was my fa-

vorite part of the trip. When we first got there, they performed songs and skits and each sited a verse from the Bible. We gave them simple gifts, like pencils, and they just looked at them amazed. It was one of the best experiences of my life,” King said.

Hanson went on a trip to Ni-caragua to build houses through her church youth group. During Hanson’s week-long stay, she also played with the children of Nica-ragua and visited a general hos-pital to converse with all of the suffering patients.

“The experience was unreal. Someday I want to go back for longer,” Hanson said.

Fulling ventured to Haiti for a week-long mission with her church group. During her stay, she assisted in digging a founda-tion for a church that had been

demolished during the tragic earthquake in 2010. This proj-ect was designed to help restore the damage that had been done during the earthquake. Fulling also helped direct Vacation Bible School and played games with the children. This experience led Fulling to desire to return to Haiti or a nation similar. In the future, Fulling intends to go on other mission trips.

“In the spring of 2013, I plan to go to Honduras and teach a sewing class and make skirts and maybe another project,” Fulling said.

To raise funds for this future trip and the projects involved with it, Fulling will be selling friendship bracelets to anyone interested for $3. Fulling will also be accepting donations from anyone willing to put forth money for the cause.

Wildcats go on a mission this summer

SENIOR ALYSSA FULLING worked on renovating this foundation while on her two-week long, youth group mission in Haiti. Fulling also assisted with Vacation Bible School and directed various games for the young children of Haiti while on her mission. wildcat photo

SENIOR HALIE HANSON (above) is surrounded by a group of young chil-dren that she worked with in Nicaragua. Hanson (below) is embraced by a small child while on her youth group mission. wildcat photos

SPORTSwww.dhsnews.org Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

Football traditions before the game begins

Issue 1 September 21, 2012 Page 9

By Jake StephensStaff Reporter

Many people love to head to the football field every Friday night at 7 p.m. to watch the foot-ball game. The games are always fun and exciting to watch, but does anyone really think about what goes on before the game?

What do the players and the coaches go through to mentally and physically prepare them-selves for the game?

The team prepares for the game during the weeks by prac-ticing every night after school and having a pre-game practice the day before the game.

The team starts preparing for the game on Friday, right af-ter the last bell rings for school. After that, the players all report to the commons for a pre-game meal. The meal usually consists of pastas and sandwiches to give the players energy for the game.

If the game is an away game, then the team will likely load

their equipment on to the bus and head to an away locker room.

When the team plays at home, after their pre-game meal, they prepare themselves for the game by watching game film. They will watch film of the opposing team to familiarize themselves with how the team plays. The play-ers also watch film of their past games to watch and see what they need to improve on.

“Film really helps us get a good understanding of what we need to do and improve on for the game,” junior Trevor Bell said.

Film is one of the most im-portant parts for preparation for the football players. It is more so an effective tool for the coaches as well, who use it as the most important part to preparing the team for the game each Friday.

“Film, film and some more film is basically how we get the

By Jordan WolfStaff Reporter

The De Soto High School cross country team has been running together throughout the entire summer. In the time they have spent together, they have been able to get to know one-another and develop friendships.

Head coach Chris McAfee be-

team ready for the game,” assis-tant coach Joel Thaemert said.

After film, the team heads to the locker room to get their equipment ready for the game. The team also uses this time to get focused and mentally ready to play.

“I like to listen to music while I’m getting ready for the game. It gets me focused and ready to play,” junior Nelson Reeves said.

The players have a long gap of time while getting ready so that they can relax before they have to warm up to play the game.

After the players has got-ten ready and focused, the team starts going out to warm-up. The team goes through their pre-game warm up routine and begins practicing drills and plays.

About the time the team starts to finish their practicing, the crowd starts to appear in the stands.

Once they have finished their pre-game warm up, the players will go inside one last time before

Cross country team bonds over summer runs to improve efficiency

By Maddie Torline Sports Editor

De Soto High School’s ten-nis team has gone through many coaches throughout the years. The newest head coach this year being Justin Hoffman, a special educations teacher at De Soto. Michael Sullivan, former head coach, desired Hoffman to take his spot after stepping down fol-lowing the 2009-08 school year.

Hoffman’s favorite part of ten-nis is indistinguishable, simply because he loves everything about it. He has played since he was a kid when his dad bought him and his brother their first tennis racquets. Previously coming from Baldwin High School, where he coached tennis for seven years, Hoffman has all the experience necessary to coach.

Practices usually last a little over two hours on a daily basis.

lieves that this unity can help the team succeed this season.

“We have some holes to fill and naturally, there always seems to be someone who steps up and fills spots,” McAfee said. “We’ve been training together for the ma-jority of the summer, so the tran-sition ... has been pretty easy. We always have great kids so it’s easy for them to fill in spots.”

they go out for starting kick off.With the game about 10 min-

utes away, the team does one fi-nal thing before they walk out. The coaches turn off the light and give everyone the chance to quietly collect themselves.

When the lights turn on, the players walk outside together in a line going two by two. At home games the team makes an entrance through an inflatable

football helmet, breaking down before running out.

The crowd has arrived by now and the teams lines up on the sidelines preparing for kickoff. Captains of both teams go out to the center of the field to shake hands with the other team’s cap-tains before the kick off. Com-pletely ready, the kick off teams gets into formation, and with a kick of the ball the game begins.

One hole the team needs to fill is that of recent graduate Philip Kaul. McAfee thinks freshman Luis Murillo can fill this void.

“[Luis] will be one of our bet-ter runners. We lost Philip Kaul, who was a State medalist, so it’s always hard to replace that kind of performance. Luis is extremely talented, and he has a great at-titude and work ethic, so per-

Throughout practice, all 17 play-ers are focused on learning funda-mental tennis skills, strategy and bettering the skills each player already possesses.

“It’s going alright. It’s difficult to transition to a new team and take on brand new players. We are struggling to learn with each other and get them to the level that I want them at. But they are working hard and making prog-ress in the right direction, and

Paige [Williams] is just destroy-ing everybody, that’s always nice too,” Hoffman said in responce to how the season was going so far.

Hoffman’s goal for the team is to improve on a daily basis and to hopefully be able to compete on the highest level. He also hopes to get to entrees to State and Wil-liams to place in the top four.

From coaching both boys’ and girls’ tennis, Hoffman notes on main difference between the two.

“Natural competitiveness. Girls are more cooperative when it comes to tennis, guys will try to make each other look bad,” Hoff-man said.

Between the two teams, Hoff-man prefers to coach girls. “I say that because of the weather. Fall season is so much nicer than not having the rain and cold that we have with the boys. I will prob-ably get in trouble by all the boys for saying this,” Hoffman said.

sonality wise, he really fills the void that Philip left with his in-telligence and positive attitude,” McAfee said.

Sophomore Tyler Wollum, who is currently running for the DHS C-team, says that his per-sonal goal is “to run hard” and “hopefully make JV next year.”

“I want the teams to run up to their full potential,” McAfee said

when asked what his goal for the season was. “That is what I would be most happy with, and for each runner to individually run up to his or her potential.”

Last season, the boys’ team took first place at Regionals and the girls’ team was the runner-up. McAfee thinks the boys can repeat, and the girls will have to work hard to match last year.

A more than desired head tennis coach lands the wanted job

DE SOTO FOOTBALL players gather for their weekly pre-game meal in the DHS Commons on Sept. 14. wildcat photo

SPORTSwww.dhsnews.org Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

Issue 1 September 21, 2012 Page 10

By Ryanne Mercer Ads Manager

Wildcat fall sports have started for the 2012 year. For the volley-ball team, the season started on Aug. 25 with the Frontier League Tournament in Eudora.

The Wildcats finished fourth in the opening tournament.

Girls have high expectations for this season, because of last years success.

“Our focus is to just improve and compete everyday. Winning league would be great, but we have to do the little things first,” head coach Lindsay Hothan said.

The team graduated four ath-letes, including three who are playing collegiate volleyball this year.

Hothan said that the girls showed improvement against Ottawa on Sept. 11, since a rough start at the beginning of the season.

“Our match against Ottawa really showed our improvement throughout the course of our sea-son so far,” Hothan said. “Our defense has really improved tre-mendously, as well as our connec-

tion with our setter and hitters.”The volleyball team has many

goals for the season and includ-ing, mini goals for everyday.

“Our every day goals are: Compete, consistency and fo-cus. Our bigger goals are to win league, win a tournament, and win Sub-State,” Hothan said.

After the start of the season as 3-6, the girls have improved their record to 13-10, with mul-tiple games left.

“I just want the girls to focus on ourselves. We are our own opponents,” Hothan said.

On Sept. 15, they played in Rossville for another tourna-ment. The team went 2-2 in the tournament.

“This season has been really good, and I’m really excited to compete in the rest of the games. Our defense is really good, our setters are really good,” senior Jeannett Calmpitt said.

The De Soto High School volleyball team will host the annual Dig Pink game on Oct. 4, where they play Mill Valley High School. The money raised will go towards Breast Cancer research.

SOPHOMORE KENNA HALL attempts a spike in the middle of the game to help the De Soto team out on its match against Ottawa on Sept. 11. Photo by Lela Servos

Volleyball season al-ready shows promise By Jordan Wolf

staff reporter

The De Soto High School girls’ golf team has started its season, and so far, they believe they have started it well.

The team began its season earlier this summer, and the var-sity team has been to three tour-naments so far, all of which the team has left as champions.

Seniors Halie Hansen and Rhiannon Caldwell, who are both on varsity, are both excited about this season and the up-coming talent.

“Every tournament that var-sity has gone to, we have taken first as a team and have about three girls place in the top 10 every tournament, so it’s been a really good season so far,” Caldwell said.

“They’ve been doing pretty

good,” Hansen said about the new freshmen on the team. “They’re beginners so they don’t really know how to golf, but hopefully they can get better so our team can get better when the seniors leave,”

The team is coached by Adam Wessel, who teaches at Mill Val-ley High School, and Drew Wal-ters, a teacher from Mill Creek Middle School.

“I definitely like Walters,” Caldwell said. “He’s a new addi-tion and took Mrs. Bogart’s spot. He’s really stepping up for the JV team and making them better all around. I also like Wessel; we’ve had him for a while, and he’s a pretty good coach.”

“I like [the coaches] a lot be-cause they push me and make me do my best,” Hansen said.

The team will play five more tournaments this year, not in-

cluding Regionals and a possible trip to the State Tournament.

“I’m hoping that we can make it to State as a team this year, because we should have four girls that can qualify instead of only making it individually, we can hopefully make it to State.” Caldwell said.

Sophomore Brittani Jenson hopes to place higher than last-year’s 10th-place finish at State. Already, Jenson has placed first at Alvamar and second at Dubs-dread. Caldwell said she hopes to place in the top 20 at State, after finishing 37th in 2011. Hansen also hopes to make it to State in-dividually and finish her senior year well.

With seven girls on the team from DHS this year, there are enough girls for Mill Valley and De Soto to possibly separate into two teams later this season.

DHS Golfers off to a good start

By Emily Herrington staff reporter

The De Soto High School varsity boys soccer team is look-ing forward to a more talented season this fall, despite a higher number of inexperienced play-ers on the team this year.

After sporting through a los-ing season the year prior, the players have some new motiva-tion. They are more eager to win than they have been in a while.

Head coach Darren Erpeld-ing can attest to that. He said that with around six seniors and only four returning start-ers, that the team has a major-ity of inexperienced players. With new players on the team, it gives even more of an incen-tive to win some games. The team simply isn’t as experienced as it has been in the past.

“Last year was the first los-ing season in at least 12 years,” Erpelding said. “So the guys are really motivated from that.”

With some good practices together backing the team up, it doesn’t sound like they are too far off from winning. Even though the amount of inexperi-ence is higher this year, the talent level and chemistry seem to be working out well for the team.

“I would say overall we aren’t near experienced as we were last season,” Erpelding said. “But the talent level is way higher. The talent is definitely going to help.”

After having played several games and winning, the team has plenty of time to make up for their losses. With seven games and many practices be-tween where they are now and Regionals, they have plenty of room to improve.

Sophomore players Stephen Mitchell and Caesar Villa agree that there’s always something that they could work a little bit harder on.

“All we need to do is finish more. Shooting, scoring, and talking to each other better,”

Mitchell said.“Well, we struggle to put the

ball in the net,” Villa said jok-ingly.

Although there’s always room for improvement in the world of athletics, Erpelding believes that the team has improved on being a team.

“Team chemistry has defi-nitely gotten better,” Erpelding said.

As for getting the ball into the net more often, the only thing that could truly help them with that would be more prac-tice time. Erpelding hopes the team continues to practice hard.

“Kids these days, they want to take time off. They just count on stepping onto the field and just winning,” Erpelding said. “It’s frustrating and I want that to stop.”

Between the high talent, growing chemistry and motiva-tion to practice harder, the team can almost count on an improv-ing season together and getting the ball into the net.

Young soccer team presents drive to win

Page 11 September 21, 2012 Vol. 40

Marching band brings Dreams to De SotoBy Laura Meyers

news editor

De Soto High School’s marching band will bring an original, captivating show to every Friday night game this season. This year’s marching show theme is: Dreams.

Summon the Heroes by John Williams, All Ameri-can Nightmare by Brad War-ren, I Dreamed a Dream by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Dream On by Steven Tyler is the program for this marching season.

Summon the Heroes, made popular as an Olym-pic theme, is an appropriate opening number since 2012 is an olympic year. It is fol-lowed by All American Night-mare, a hard-rock groove played by the band Hinder.

I Dreamed a Dream is a slow, yet powerful piece, tak-en from the musical Les Mis-erables. As the closer, Dream On, maybe Aerosmith’s most popular song, will hopefully bring the crowd to the their feet and create a strong finish to the program.

“All American Nightmare

By Rebekah Burgwegeropinion editor

This year, the De Soto High School theater department has made a change to the schedule to accommodate students’ agendas. The musical and the play will be switching dates, with the musical being put on in the second semes-ter and the play being performed during the week of Nov. 7-10.

This change occurred because the majority of the males involved in theater are also in-volved in fall sports and there-

fore, could not participate in the musical. This proved to be an is-sue, as those in Madrigals are re-quired to be in the musical.

“Rather than having to deal with the conflict between the two, we decided to move it [the musical] to … the winter, be-cause we have fewer people that play winter sports,” director Erin Purifoy said.

Purifoy believes that this change will have a positive effect on the musical, as the cast will be able to leave rehearsals earlier and avoid late nights. This will also

allow the cast members to have more energy both in school and while performing on stage.

“It gets to be very, very ex-hausting, so we’re looking out for the benefit of everyone involved,” Purifoy said.

While generally the musical gets more of an audience, Purifoy hopes that by moving the play to the fall, more people will attend it. Yet, the opinions of the cast members concerning the switch has been mixed.

Senior Lindsay Everson thinks the musical swap is a smart, but

School musical and play switch performance dates

is by far the most difficult song we have,” band director Matt Bradford said. “There are 11 dif-ferent moves and a drum break in the middle.”

With a challenging show, the band is hustling to put things to-gether in time.

“In the grand scheme of things, we are behind where we need to be, but because of our schedule, we are doing okay,” Bradford said.

The plan for the season is to have the full show on the field by the last home football game. With a director change, a large freshman class and a football schedule full of early-in-the-sea-son home games, the band is fac-ing several obstacles.

However, the marching com-petitions this year are not until later in the fall. In past years, the band has participated in two marching competitions: one at Baker University, the other at Andover High School.

This year, however, the band will replace Andover’s competi-tion with Kansas State Universi-ty’s marching festival in October.

The KSU marching festival has more to offer than most com-petitions. In the morning, before

SENIOR RHIANNON CALDWELL plays piccolo, sporting the new uniform with the marching band at De Soto’s first home football game. Photo by Hannah Muxlow

SENIORS DREW STEPHENS, Blake Bradord and freshman Col-lin Cramer check their place on the field while learning a new drill for the upcoming Friday night Homecoming football game on Sept. 21. The band practices every Monday night during the marching season to work on its routine. Photo by Sophia Templin

ARTS www.dhsnews.org Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

different idea. “Being able to swap so we

have more men in the musical makes sense, but it is different,” Everson said. “I think a lot of the upper classmen think it’s really annoying, and they’re just mad that things are different.”

The play, Rumors, was select-ed by Purifoy. The play is a com-edy about four couples who go to a dinner party. When the first couple arrives, they find the host in bed with a gunshot wound to the head and the hostess gone. To keep the other guests from find-

ing out they start making up lies and try to hide what is going on.

“The play seems really good this year, it’s definitely the best we’ve had in a long time,” said senior Dylan Foster, a thespian at DHS.

Also, audience members will have the option of buying their tickets online this year, thus making them more accessible to a wider range of people. Tickets will begin to be sold on Oct. 15 priced at $4 for students, $5 for senior citizens and $6 for every-one else.

its performance, the DHS band will participate in a clinic, lead by KSU band director Dr. Frank Tracz and the marching band’s student leaders.

“This is the most important part of the day,” Bradford said.

There, the band will perform its show, while Dr.Tracz and the KSU students critique their per-formance and give them tips to use during that afternoon’s per-formance.

On top of the four home foot-

ball games, the band has goals to succeed in both their com-petitions this season.

“My goal for the band this season is to do well at K-State and get a 1 at Baker,” senior drum major Maria Pileski said.

Page 12 September 21, 2012 Vol. 40

ARTS @DHSGreenPride Friday, September 21, 2012 Volume 40, Issue 1

DHS students direct one act plays for fall

By Kelsea Burnsstaff reporter

Five De Soto High School Thespians have been chosen to direct several one-act plays that will be performed on Sept. 25.

The International Thespian Society is an honor society for middle school and high school students interested in theater. Students wishing to join the must meet the requirement of Thespian points set by the Thes-pian troupe director, which are earned based on quality and quantity of theatrical activites.

Each have the chance to direct a 15-minute one act play from Durang Durang, a collection of parody theatre pieces written by Christopher Durang.

Each student was able to choose which play they wished to direct out of the collection – junior Kassidy Forshey chose to direct Nina in the Morning, senior Courtney Goodin chose Mrs. Soken as well as Business Lunch at the Russian Tea Room, junior ErinKaul chose For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls and seniors Dylan Foster and Lindsay Ever-son chose to direct Wanda’s Visit.

The plays will serve as fund-raisers for the statewide Thespian conference in January, which costs about $150 per person. The two-day conference will provide Thespians with valuable oppor-

tunities to meet and talk with theater professionals and improve their skills such as dance, pup-petry, acting and sword fighting.

Each of the students took on all of the responsibilities that came with being a director in-cluding casting, blocking and, of course, directing.

“It’s been really fun,” Forshey said. Her play is about a woman who “seduces every man she sees” and then reflects back on her life, which is “a huge mess.”

The performers of the various casts underwent an audition pro-cess that consisted of improvising games and cold readings.

Most of the students per-forming in these plays are not in Rumors, the fall play written by Neal Simon and directed by Drama teacher Erin Purifoy. This allows for more students to get involved with DHS theater.

“It’ll be really cool for the freshmen and sophomores to get leads,” Forshey said.

Purifoy agreed with Forshey.All of the students involved

with the production will be working hard to put on a inter-esting show and are looking for-ward to the new experience of directing their own show.

“I’ve never been on that side of the stage [backstage],” For-shey said. “It’s going to be a dif-ferent experience all around... I’m so excited.”

BAND DIRECTOR MATT BRADFORD directs the Jazz Band during rehearsal on Sept. 14. Although Bradford is new to DHS this year, he is looking forward to implementing positive changes in the mu-sical department. Photo by Jordan Wolf

By Jordan Wolfstaff reporter

De Soto High School has a tradition of generating talent-ed musicians and a successful band. A band’s success generally starts with the band director, a position that was recently filled at DHS by Matt Bradford.

Bradford is in his 17th year of teaching and loves every minute of it. The decision to become a band teacher is not a choice that Bradford has ever regretted making.

“I like the students the most,” Bradford explained. “I like interaction and working with students. It’s kind of crazy, but I like all of the organiza-

tion. There are a lot of things to do and it’s always a challenge. It’s fun to have something that is so different every year.”

Bradford grew up in Lake-wood, Colo., which is a suburb of Denver. He attended college at MidAmerica Nazarene Univer-isty for two years and then trans-ferred to Washburn University for four years. He later received his master’s degree from Kansas State University after taking sev-en years of summer courses.

This is Bradford’s first year at DHS but he previously taught at Clay Center High School in Clay Center.

“Location is a big [difference],” said Bradford when asked about changing schools. “Clay Center

is very rural so the closest city, which is Manhattan, is over 30 minutes away. Clay Center is not small, but it is very farming oriented and that it is very dif-ferent compared to here.”

Bradford did not come to DHS alone. With him came his son Blake Bradford, a se-nior who plays the tuba. Blake says the change in schools his senior year does not bother him very much.

“I’ve been okay with it be-cause I’ll be going to college in a year so it wasn’t that big of a deal for me to move. There’s a lot more people here. There’s a bigger tuba section so there’s a lot more interaction between us,” Blake Bradford said.

De Soto welcomes new band director

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