Chris Crutcher

Accomplished author, Chris Crutcher, visited Central High School April 14, 2015.

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Flyers were hung all over the school to promote the visit

Basketball Blues

Boys Varsity huddle on Senior Night

Although basketball season is over, the coaches are teary-eyed as some memorable seniors move on to continue their lives. Senior Night pictures are now in and it is a struggle to lose some valuable team members, according to coaches and team members.

Football Trio Off To College Together

The boys signing final papers for Lyons College

Childhood friends, Isaiah Holyfield, Jordan Johnson, and Jay King, are now looking forward to attending college together as they continue on their journey as football players. The trio recently signed on attending Lyons College in Batesvilles, Arkansas. Best of luck to you, boys! 

Dr. Teague Teacher Of The Year Nominee

Dr. Teague was recently nominated to be teacher of the year. Teague works at Central as the leader of Drama Department and she is in charge of the plays and musical productions put on at Central High School. Teague most recently directed Exit The Body, the Spring Play performed by a cast of Juniors and Seniors a few weeks ago. I thouroughly enjoyed watching the play. Congrats on the nomination, Teague!  

Exit The Body Cast 

Student Council Elections

Student Body Elections took place last week at Central High School. Students voted for the most qualified candidate for the position to represent our school for the 2015-2016 school year that is fast approaching. Advertising is a sure chance to get ahead. Congrats to the new Student Council Members. 

As the school year comes to an end, the stress level of students rapidly increases. With finals approaching, CHS students have a lot of pressure on them while they try to raise grades and turn in last minute assignments.  

CHS Choirs World of Fun

Recently, Central's Chamber Choir, Concert Choir, and Women's Choir all packed onto three buses and visited Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri to perform and compete in their music festival. With over 80 choirs competing at Worlds of Fun, Central did an amazing job and was able to get critiques from incredibly talented musicians. 

This being Alberta Smith's 29th and final year conducting CHS Choirs, she was prouder than ever when Central took home the gold with first and second place out of all 80 high school choirs competing and sweepstakes. Mrs. Smith says to choir students,"This is unbelievable. Thank you, thank you all for giving me the best past 29 years I could have ever asked for. We did it!"

CHS Choirs before performance at WoF

Although the three hour bus ride up and back was agonizing, according to Koral Saeed it was still pretty fun. "As much as I hated being crammed in a tiny bus with so many people, I was able to sit with my friends and have a good time." Students on the bus sang all the way up to KC with high hopes for the weekend. Taylor Haverstick, a member of Chamber and Concert Choir says,"Being able to harmonize with your best friends is so cool to me. Yes, we were crowded and yes, we were hot, but we made the most of it. We started singing Party In The USA on the way up to Kansas City and I looked around and realized what a cool group of people we are. This is why Central is so awesome." 

"Not only were we able to go to Worlds of Fun and play in the park all day, but we were also the overall winners of the competition! It was such an awesome day and if I could go back to that weekend, I would in a heartbeat."-Mikala B'Williams, Member of Women's Choir.

The Women's Choir received their critique audio recordings from the judges and listened to them in class. The advice from the judges was helpful and very minimal. Mrs. Smith says,"I know there are things we can improve on because there is always room for improvement. However, I am so proud of my kids this past weekend and they know they did an amazing job."

Not only did the Choirs compete and win it all, but Central's band did too! Marching Band took first and second place at World of Fun that weekend, as well. 

Way to go, CHS! Central's Choirs and Band make us proud to be bulldogs. 

IB Art Show

Last Friday, April 10, Springfield's Creamery Arts Center hosted Central's IB Art Show. The evening featured talented IB Art students with aspirations of continuing in the arts. The venue was home to Springfield Ballet, Operarazzi, and other theatrical events, making it an appropriate place for IB Theatre and Music students to perform as they support the art showcase.

The event had a large turn out with performances by some of Central's IB Music and IB Theatre students. Harper Vincent and Troy Robertson, 2015 IB seniors, performed musical pieces throughout the night. The art show was free and attracted a large audience including many students, parents, and local art-enthusiasts.

Nathalie Lindsey, a sophomore at here at Central, attended the Art Show. "My favorite part was when the IB Theatre class got to perform. They interpreted different emotions, such as anger and vanity, and expressed them theatrically. I thoroughly enjoyed the showcase as a whole."

The Art Show was well advertised. Several posters were hung all over every floor of Cental's halls, over 100 flyers were passed out to students and springfield residents, and social media posts were made to promote the event.

Marin Billionis, a Pre-IB art student, loved being able to visit the showcase. "The Art Show was really cool and I loved walking around and seeing what IB students created. I am planning on going into full IB art as I continue my high school career and this is really inspiring for me to see. The students who worked on the art show worked really hard and it showed in their pieces."

August McGrail admiring the artwork by Samuel Snodgrass

As the school year comes to a close, students begin to wrap up their art projects and finish up their final pieces. Many artists are graduating this year, leaving a lot of weight on the underclassmen in the art program's shoulders.  Art students, such as freshman Caleb Conaway, say, "Although it is sad that we have a lot of seniors leaving this year and so many talented artists will be absent as of next year, I cannot wait to see how the program will evolve with years to come."

Tennis Team

As soon as the sun comes out, the racquets do too! Central's JV and Varsity Boys Tennis Teams are busy with a demanding tennis schedule this season. Many freshman are taking part in the sport this year and the coaches are excited that the school's tennis program will continue to blossom as the seniors go their own way this May.

"The Central tennis program is an excellent program, it allows the pros and the beginners to have fun and learn to play the game of tennis." -Traeton Norman, Freshman.

Norman, along with many others, has only been playing tennis for a short period of time. This being their first year, the boys claim to have learned a lot about the sport and they plan on continuing in the program next year.

Evan Parker, a JV Freshman, has enjoyed his experience on the team. "I've had a lot of fun this year on the Tennis Team. I really enjoy the sport and it's awesome to be able to play with some of my best friends. I look forward to next year." 

Support for the Tennis Team has been great throughout the season with daily reminders of matches via CHS Paw Squad's Twitter Posts. 

Tennis Team members feel confident under the guidance of Coach  as they compete in tournaments and continue to succeed in weekly matches. Aman Patel, JV Freshman on the Tennis Team, says, "Our team had only played in one tournament this year but so far I think our team has done really well and will keep improving as the season goes on."

As the school year wraps up, the school's sport teams will come to a close. Be there to support the Tennis Team at their last match on April 30th at Gillenwaters Tennis Complex. 

Science Fair

Science students at their stations preparing to present their experiments 

The science fair took place in the commons of Central High School on April 14, 2015. All underclassmen were required to take part in the event. Students were expected to conduct a scientific experiment, record results, create a trifold, and type up a 10+ page lab report to meet the requirements of the science teachers. 

Students were given over one month to gather supplies, conduct, and record results. Although people given an entire month to work on the project, they were not thrilled about it being a requirement. Parker Mauzey, a freshman in Mr. Friesen's 8th block biology class, says ,"I think it's dumb. I think we have better things we could be doing with our time other than science that we already know." Many students like Mauzey agreed that the project seemed a bit ridiculous. Emma Demers, a sophomore in Earth Science, found the project to  be an unreasonable amount of work. Demers says, "Yes, we were given over a month to complete the project. But we were given no warnings or any 'heads up' whatsoever about the due date. A warning would have been nice to let students know that the projects due date was approaching." Students express their anger via Twitter. 

Other students, such as Avery VanDenBerg, one of the winners of the fair and a student in Mr. Epp's Biology Honors Class, say that the project has ended up benefiting them. "I believe that having this project as a requirement is a good thing. I think it teaches us skills that we will need to know throughout our high school career and it also teaches us good time management skills. Getting my work done ahead of time was much easier than waiting until the last minute like some groups did." Lauren Anderson, another one of the winners of the project was verbally thankful that the project was over. "I am so relieved. Although my partner and I finished the project relatively early in the game, we were still stressed beyond belief. I understand why it was a requirement, but I think that doing it at the end of the year was stupid. The teachers know how much work we have because is the end of the year and we are completing last minute assignments and preparing for finals. Throwing a science fair project in our list of things to do is not helping us. It's just so much." 

Although the project may have been rushed according to some students, the science teachers lecture how beneficial this knowledge of collecting and recording data will be to students as they continue to grow in their academic career. 

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