By Zach MitchellEditor-in-Chief

Starting next year, Starkville High School may be moving to a new school calendar: the flex quarter system.

Under this system, students, teachers, and faculty will attend school for nine weeks at a time and then have a three week break before returning to school again.

This new system was proposed to the school board during their Nov. 2 meeting by Millsaps direc-tor James Stidham.

“We’re in the 21st century, but we’re still operating under a 19th century calendar,” Stidham said.

Stidham feels that the main ad-vantage to this new system is that it will help with the dropout rate.

“It makes school seem a lot shorter,” Stidham said. “Students

won’t think of it as a straight 180 days, but as in smaller nine week tunnels.”

During the nine weeks that the school is in session, school will operate as normal. However, dur-ing the three week break, students who failed a course during the previous quarter will be able to immediately recover the credit in what Stidham called “instant sum-mer school.” During the last week

of the break, the entire school will shut down, and students and fac-ulty will all have a break.

“It’s an incentive for students to study,” Stidham said. “If I was a student with a 64 in English to-ward the end of the quarter, I’d be doing everything I can to pull that grade up so that I can enjoy my full three weeks off.”

SEE “Flex Quarter”, PAGE 2.

TheJacket buzzstarkville high school • 603 Yellowjacket Dr. Starkville, MS, 39759 • www.shsjacketbuzz.com • VOLUME XVIII, No. 4 • 12-02-10

SHS Celebrates the Holidays ... Feature on Pages 8-9.

The

B o xBuzz

15 15

December

6

44 Christmas parade

6

7 7I-STEEP testing

Band Concert

9 9

11 11

Choir Concert

ACT test date

Stidham proposes year-round school

Tardy Troubles

By Dominic HennNews Writer

Getting to class on time is one of the fundamental rules at Starkville High School.

However, many students are, for whatever rea-son, incapable of upholding this rule and do not get to class on time.

The administration has made many attempts to lower the number of tardies, including giving the students a relaxed dress code day if tardies were kept low.

If students can reduce the number of tardies this week, they will earn a relaxed dress code day on Fri-day. The students have another chance to have the relaxed dress code by reducing tardies next week.

The dress code incentive was first tried in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving break.

SEE “Tardies”, PAGE 2.

Senior portraitdeadline

Photo by Ruth Brown.

Teachers who choose to teach during the two-week remedial session will be able to earn extra money.

If the school cannot find enough teachers that want to teach in the remedial session, they will hire new interim teachers.

Though many may wonder how this will affect Starkville School District’s tight budget, both of these will be payed for by federal money, according to Stidham.

A committee - consisting of Stidham, the principals in the dis-trict, and the two assistant supts. - is researching the topic.

SHS principal Keith Fennell said that he does not have an opinion on the flex quarter sys-tem yet.

“It has been beneficial for many

other schools, but I would like to wait for more info before I form an opinion,” Fennell said. “I’m in favor of anything that provides opportunities for success.”

There are some negatives to this new system, however. Athlet-ic schedules may get thrown off due to Starkville being the only school that has this new schedule. Some fear that teams will be play-ing to no crowd at all. Stidham believes that athletics won’t be a problem, however.

“Studies show that it won’t make a difference,” Stidham said. “They can make it work. If our football team is having a winning season, people will come and watch the games even if we aren’t in school.”

Stidham also feels that the stu-

dents, teachers and community will all come to like this new sys-tem.

Some students agree with Stid-ham.

“I’m up for anything,” sopho-more Gabriel Myles said. “I like what we have now, but we need whatever is best for us.”

Some, however, are already against the new schedule.

“I don’t think that it’s a good idea,” sophomore Angela White said. “It will be just like having the first day of school four times a year.”

Despite the criticisms, Stidham feels that his heart is in the right place.

“I’m not doing this for me,” Stidham said. “I want what I feel is best for the students.”

Page 2 • 12-02-10 www.shsjacketbuzz.com News

By Andrew LaFranceNews Writer

Former senior Collin Whitten has found the adjustment to col-lege life in Alabama to be easy, thanks to the preparation given by classes he took while at Starkville High.

In addition to the usual class load, Whitten took several Ad-vanced Placement (AP) courses. Whitten took AP Physics with the now-retired Paul Cuicchi and AP European History with Ty Adair.

“AP classes have helped me a lot. I scored high enough that I received three hours of Humani-ties credits, and two Science cred-its,” Whitten said. “They gave me a five hour head start, but I think they helped me know what to ex-

pect from a college class.”SHS currently offers several AP

courses ranging from chemistry and biology to United States his-tory and literature.

AP art history teacher Marcy Smith believes in the benefits of the AP program.

“If a student performs well enough, they can earn college course hours,” Smith said. “That means they have to take fewer classes, which means their parents can save more money, which is al-ways important.”

The benefits to students don’t end with saved money, though.

“Probably the largest benefit of AP classes is what the student learns in the way of skills,” Smith said. “Having a syllabus with ac-tual due dates forces students to

work on their time management skills. The workload is much more like college than other high school classes, too. For a student, in AP or in college, if he or she falls behind, it can be overwhelming to try and catch up. AP courses also allow teachers to go more in-depth with our classes, and let’s us [teachers] learn to cover every-thing on time.”

Whitten knows how useful that can be.

“The only place in high school that required as much of me as college does now was those AP courses,” Whitten said. “When you’re thrown into a university setting, getting used to everything can be challenging. Having that experience, even if it’s something completely irrelevant to my college

classes, makes it that much easier to adjust and take everything in stride. I definitely think that kids who are considering going to col-lege should expose themselves to college-level work as much as pos-sible.”

Considering how cheap AP classes are ($80 to take the na-tional exam) compared to college courses, there is little downside.

“It really is a hard transition,” Whitten said, “so why not take advantage of everything you can get?”

AP classes prepare students for college

Tardies, cont’d from page 1.

Flex Quarter, cont’d from page 1.

“Why not take advantage

of everything you can

get?”-Collin Whitten

Craig Piper is an AP course teacher at SHS. Photo by Bailey Brocato.

During the first week of No-vember, the administration of-fered the students a camo day if they were able to lower the amount of tardies that week.

On Monday and Tuesday there were fewer tardies, but on Wednesday tardies were back up. By Thursday there was no improvement, so the “Camo Day” wasn’t awarded.

The next week, the administra-tion again challenged students to lower the amount of tardies, but tardy numbers remained high, higher than the week before.

Junior Andy Bond argues that the number of tardies won’t be consistent, that they need to give students something more long lasting.

Junior Quadry Edmunds agrees and suggests that food coupons or movie passes would provide more of an incentive.

The incentive days are part of the administration’s new ap-proach to handling issues.

Asst. principal Sean McDon-nall said that there is a positive behavior support committee comprised of teachers, admin-istrators and parents whose job is to analyze discipline and com-pare it to previous years.

“We look at how many refer-rals are written each month un-der different categories, and we then think of incentives that will

encourage the students,” com-mittee member Marcy Smith said.

At first, the administration gave the student body a chance for a relaxed dress code day in late October if students could reduce ID infractions.

Students successfully dropped the number of ID infrac-tions down to six, allowing the students to wear jeans and a Starkville High T-shirt that Fri-day.

“I never thought that this was possible,” principal Keith Fen-nell said. “There are over 1,200 students that go here and only six incurred ID infraction.”

Fennell wants the incentive days to continue by focusing on certain infractions, and then a “mystery infraction.”

The mystery infraction would be a random infraction not an-nounced by the administration to keep students on their toes and doing their best.

If the infraction numbers decreased, there would be a re-laxed dress code on that Friday.

However, the administration is still working on decreasing the number of tardies.

“I don’t know what we are going to do about tardies,” Mc-Donnall said, “but we will ob-viously have to revisit it in our future meetings.”

Example Flex ScheduleJuly 19-Sep. 7

Sep. 20- Oct. 8Oct. 11- Nov. 19

Nov. 22 - 26

Nov. 29- Dec. 17Dec. 20 - Jan. 7

Jan. 10 March 12March 15- April 2

April 5- June 4June 7- July 15

45 Days

15 Days

30 Days5 Days

15 Days

15 Days45 Days15 Days45 Days30 Days

School

Vacation

SchoolVacation

School

VacationSchool

VacationSchool

Vacation

www.shsjacketbuzz.com 12-02-10 • Page 3News

By Andrew LaFranceNews Writer

This Friday, Dec. 3, Starkville High School students will present their play, The Purple Fan, at the Mississippi Theatre Association Regional Competition.

The play is based on an Asian folk tale rewritten by Kenneth Scollon. The story follows a peas-ant boy, Jing Ho, as he searches for the missing prince, who was kidnapped years ago. Travel-ing with the boy is a ghost, Jug Lui, who witnessed the kidnap-ping. Jing Ho uncovers a magical purple fan, which will ring bells when it hits the true prince on the head. However, because the author is deceased, they were able to change some things about the tale, specifically the ending.

“The original ending didn’t re-ally suit the direction we are tak-ing the play,” senior scriptwriter Hal Sullivan said. “Since the play is public domain, we had the grounds to change it. I made an ending that fit better with what we are doing.”

The Regional Competition is held every year, and there are three competitions. The north regional has 17 schools, including SHS, en-tering. Five schools will move on

and compete in the State Compe-tition in Meridian in January.

“We can really learn a lot from the competition,” director Man-dy Kinney said. “After we finish our play, which has to be under 45 minutes (including set-up and clean-up), each of the three judg-es has five minutes to grade us.”

The students also get something out of the competition.

“The judges give awards based

on performance,” Kinney said. “There are awards for best actor and actress, best ensemble, best technical staff, overall merit and even a peer choice award that all of the schools vote for.”

Previously, SHS has won the best tech and peer choice awards, and won the best ensemble award during the first year it was given.

“I really think we’re going to do well this year.” Kinney said.

2nd 9 weeks Exam Schedule

Mon. 12/13 Tues. 12/14 Wed. 12/15 Thurs. 12/16 Fri. 12/17

Regular B day 1A 1B 3A 3B

schedule 2A 2B 4A 4B

1B 3A 3B 60% Day

2B 4A 4B

The exam schedule for the second nine weeks of the 2010-2011 school year will be brand new. Instead of testing in alternating blocks on a regular schedule, students will test during the first two blocks of each day to avoid testing during lunch periods. This will also allow for reviews in afternoon classes immediately preceding the exams the next morning. The students will not follow a standard A-Day B-Day schedule. Instead, they will visit classes from both days on everyday except for Friday, which is a 60% day with a 12:30 p.m. dismissal. See the schedule above for full details.

Purple Fan heads to competition

Bailey Brocato, Elizabeth Underwood, and Lacy Claire Whitten offer a dramatic interpretation of a tree in Purple Fan. A3�

Exam

Exam Exam

Exam

Exam

Exam

Exam

Exam

By Cullom McCormickClubs Editor

“The Starkville Mayor’s Youth Council strives to provide youths with opportunities for personal growth and ability to contribute to the city through community service, peer mentoring and lead-ership development that raises issues with community leaders in the city of Starkville.”

This is the Starkville Mayor’s Youth Council’s mission state-ment.

Though cities across America have had Mayor’s Youth Councils for years, this is the SMYC’s first year of operation.

The SMYC plans and executes fundraisers for charities, organi-zations, and churches.

“It’s starting because it had been a vision of the mayor [SHS graduate Parker Wiseman],” proj-ect coordinator Stefanie Shackl-eford said. “If any organization wants us to help with community service, that’s what we’re here for. We’re developing tomor-row’s leaders today to help move Starkville forward.”

The SMYC has already part-nered with the organization Kids Count and has helped with the the Egg Ball, a silent auction on

the day before the Egg Bowl. One of the SMYC’s objectives

is to educate students on the gov-ernment of Starkville.

“The gov-ernment of Starkville is try-ing to get the youth involved,” vice chairperson and sophomore Emily Damm said. “We sit in on Board of Al-dermen meet-ings and then tell them what we like and don’t like. [We] make sure that the youth is heard.”

The SMYC reports that the stu-dents signed up for several rea-sons, like the prevention of gang violence and alcohol abuse.

Some members “wanted to get to know the community more,” chairperson and senior Billy Ed-monds said.

One of the ideas many appli-cants for the city of Starkville had in common was that of a youth center.

Ideally, the center would pro-vide a place where students can socialize, do homework, have alternatives to gangs and drugs, and have many other needs met.

The SMYC also aims to hone

students’ speaking skills. One exercise the Council uses

to accomplish this is the ‘eleva-tor speeches’. Members pair up

and take turns telling each other what the SMYC does in under two minutes, the approx imate amount of time spent on an elevator.

A n o t h e r program that the SMYC may be-come involved in is Youth About Business.

Seven members would be cho-sen to represent Starkville at a conference in Tenn., where the team would develop a theoreti-cal business in seven days. The top three teams would go to Wall Street and be able to buy stocks in the stock market. The cost of going would be approximately 3,000 dollars per person.

In order to apply for SMYC next year, a student must apply, which includes an application form, conducting a formal and informal interview, and letters of recommendation. The SMYC will also be accepting new appli-cations in the spring.

Page 4 • 12-02-10 www.shsjacketbuzz.com ClubsKey Club plans fundraisers, float

SMYC members and seniors L.K. Lindsay and D. Richardson help set up the Kids Count Egg Ball. Photo by Ruth Brown.

Starkville’s first MYC is launched

By Cullom McCormickClubs Editor

The Starkville High School Key Club is designing a Christmas float, still deciding between “A Hogwarts Christ-mas,” “Christmas in Narnia,” and various other themes. In the meantime, some fundrais-ers are planned.

Key Club won best float in the nonprofit division of Starkville’s Christmas parade with their “redneck Christ-mas” float last year, president and junior Cat Everett said.

“The theme [last year] was ‘a country Christmas’. We all dressed up like rednecks and had a float with deer and fish heads and a homey set-ting,” junior Andy Bond said.

One fund-raiser Key Club plans to bring back dedicates paper angels to students’ loved ones. Students will be able to buy an angel for 50 cents, write their own dedi-cation to someone special on it and post it on a tree outside of sponsor Brenda Jackson’s room.

All proceeds will go to Op-eration Smile, a club dedicated to raising money for the cor-rective surgery of children with cleft palettes in third world countries.

“Andy [Bond] and Laura Kathryn [Lindsay] are presi-dent and vice president [re-spectively] of Operation Smile,” Everett said. “They gave us the idea that Op. Smile always needs money when we were talking about where the money could go.”

In the spring, Key Club will plant flamingo yard ornaments in individuals’ yards.

The individual can pay to have the flamingo removed. The flamingo is then moved to someone else’s yard, and the process repeats.

The club is discussing Mr. Merry Christmas and Dancing with the Teachers as possible fundraisers next year.

In Mr. Merry Christmas, SHS boys dress as contestants in a stereotypical beauty pag-eant, acting out the pageant at the Greensboro Center.

As with most pageants, each contestant has a talent and participants will compete in competitions such as the swimsuit competition.

Dancing with the Teachers pairs up several teachers with students. Teachers sign up with a chosen student partner. The pair chooses a song to

dance to and performs it in front of the students.

Key Club encourages students to join and get i n v o l v e d with each event.

“It’s just good to have peo-ple involved with extracur-ricular activities,” Everett said. “[They] have fun thinking outside the box with it. Last year, the float was really fun, because a lot of people were involved with it. People can just come to meetings and get involved. And last year, it [Key Club] was fun, but we didn’t do nearly as much as we’re go-ing to do this year.”

Club members can be eli-gible for a scholarship from Kiwinas, the mother organiza-tion of Key Club.

Students can become eligible for this scholarship by being active in the club and attend-ing the majority of the meet-ings, which are the second and last Tuesday of every month.

“If we get 5,000 dollars’ worth of scholarship that we can divide amongst two stu-dents, it’s well worth it,” Jack-son said.

The Christmas parade will be Dec. 3. The club’s next meeting will be on Tuesday, Dec. 14.

“We’re developing to-

morrow’s leaders today

to help move Starkville

forward.”-MYC coordinator Stefanie Shackelford

“Last year, Key Club was

fun, but we didn’t do

nearly as much as we’re

going to do this year.”-junior Key Club president Cat Everett

By Cullom McCormickClubs Editor

World history and journalism teacher R.J. Morgan dominated social studies dept. head Ty Adair in the Thespians Turkey Teacher fundraiser with 1,029 feathers.

Morgan won a frozen turkey and, more importantly, bragging rights.

“I’m happy for my sophomores,” Morgan said. “They got cheated out of Spirit Week, and this was a chance for them to win something. Plus I do enjoy a fine bird.”

In the fundraiser, teachers had ‘naked’ turkeys outside their doors.

Thespians sold paper feathers for 25 cents each. Students put them on the turkeys of their choice.

Morgan and Adair competed throughout, sending messages to each other. Adair’s class sent the first message, and Morgan’s class responded with: “You realize, of course... this means war.”

Adair tried to stop a student from sending a bluff.

“Mr. Morgan is a valuable, trust-ed friend and colleague,” Adair

said. “The SHS social studies dept. is very fortunate to have a teacher with his enthusiasm and ability. Additionally, Mr. Morgan is the current Starkville School District teacher of the year. He makes the social studies deparment a fun and better place to work.”

Morgan reports enjoying his free turkey with gusto.

“I took it home to my mama,” Morgan said. “I wouldn’t have even known how to start cooking it.”

www.shsjacketbuzz.com 12-02-10 • Page 5ClubsMorgan wins Turkey Teacher

SADD, PASS use puppet show, dance to spread message

By Kiana StinsonNews Writer

Project PASS and members of Starkville High School’s Stu-dents Against Destructive Deci-sions will be hosting a Christmas stage performance on Dec. 8 in the SHS Theater at 4:30 p.m.

“The students are so anxious to present their show to family and peers,” coordinator Linda Walker said. “One of the objec-tives of Project PASS and SADD is to reduce destructive decision making – especially during the Christmas holidays.”

The Project PASS dancers will present a dramatization with an anti-alcohol and anti-drug message to students through stepping, expressive dance, and cheering.

“We are here to send a posi-tive message,” dance instructor Kayla Gilmore said.

SADD will also present a Lar-ry Zinger puppet show, a show that focuses on consequences families often face when dealing

with the dangers of underage drinking.

Junior Tori Butler plays a moody, independent African American girl.

“Like me, my character is very outgoing,” Butler said.

Freshman Akash Shanuk’s character is laid back, but likes to irritate his sister, Butler’s character, like any brother.

“I love my character because

he has long dreads like Waka Flocka,” Shanuk said.

Freshman Alfred Stockes is the protective father of the family.

“I enjoy using the puppets,” Stockes said. “You can become a different person.”

SADD and PASS encourage students to come out and enjoy the event.

Food and drinks will be pro-vided.

Morgan’s students stare in silent awe of his feathers. Photo by Ruth Brown.PASS memebers L. Henley and E. Thiam work with instructor T. Gladny. Photo by

Ruth Brown.

www.shsjacketbuzz.com 12-02-10 • Page 7News

By Christine MazzolaNews Writer

Maggie George, a junior in the Starkville High School band, is prepared and excited for this year’s concert season.

“We have a really good group,” George said. “We’ll have a really good concert season this year. There’s a lot of talented fresh-men.”

George’s career as a flute player began in sixth grade, and she’s been a member of the marching and concert band since her fresh-man year. George has attended several workshops and clinics with the SHS band.

Currently, George is stationed as second chair in the flute sec-tion of the wind ensemble. She’ll say farewell to the aged piccolo she has been playing recently.

“I’m getting to play a new pic-colo,” George said. “After the

second practice [of concert sea-son], Mr. Sullivan said the old one had to go.”

The first test for the band will be the Christmas concert at 6:00 p.m. Monday evening, Dec. 6 at Lee Hall on Mississippi State ‘scampus.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth grade bands and the orchestra will also perform.

The wind ensemble’s selection includes “Sleigh Ride,” “Christ-mas Sing-a-Long,” and “Happy Xmas (War is Over),” made fa-mous by John Lennon.

“It’s a good, festive, and fun concert,” George said.

By Christine MazzolaNews Writer

Starkville High School enior Hannah Reynolds has been sing-ing for as long as she can remem-ber.

“My mom sang,” Reynolds said. “Between her and church, it was very inspiring.”

She sings in the First Baptist’s youth choir, known as P 4:4 for the bible verse Philippians 4:4. As a freshman, she made the Mississippi Bap-tist All-State Youth Choir and Orchestra

“It was a great experience, not only because I learned a lot of great music but I made a lot of great friends along the way,” Reynolds said.

A member of the SHS choir

since ninth grade and the mad-rigals since eleventh, she sings a second soprano among the eigh-teen-strong madrigals and is part of a sextet. Reynolds was also

honored as one of eight se-niors to attend a conference at the University of Southern M i s s i s s i p p i . She was a part of the All-State Choir for two years.

The choir’s next performance will be the Christmas concert, and Reynolds has high hopes for the group.

“I think that our concert will be really good,” Reynolds said. “We have lots of challenging music.”

Selections for the choir include Halleluiah Chorus, Ukrainian Bell Choir, and traditional holiday fa-vorites.

“We hope everyone will come out to support us,” choral direc-tor Regina Weeks said.

Spring competition season is right around the corner for the choir, beginning when students return from Christmas break.

“We aim for superiors at con-test,” Reynolds said.

She’s not ready to stop singing after graduation, either.

Weeks has had a tremendous influence on her throughout her musical career.

“I plan on trying out for the choir at [Mississippi] State,” Reynolds said. “Thank you, Ms. Weeks, for inspiring me and ex-posing me to all different kinds of music.”

By Zach MitchellEditor-in-Chief

Although some of the songs were written almost five years ago when the band started, The Jarheads’ first full-length album, Breathe In, sounds very modern and fresh. Singer, guitarist, and recent SHS graduate Grant Beatty said this was his main goal while recording the album.

“While we were in the studio, we revamped a lot of our older mate-rial,” Beatty said. “‘European Girl’ and ‘Dying Breed’ were written back when the band first started, but songs like ‘8:43’ are where we’re going now.”

The title song “Breathe In” marks a new direction that the

group’s sound is taking.“The album relies heavily on

heartbreak and angst, but is also about shoving those things aside and getting the best of life,” Beatty said.

The album is a much more cohe-sive record than their first EP, No Sugar. The band also used the stu-dio to their advantage, from small things such as ground control tell-ing the titular character of Astro-naut Guy to “let it go,” to much larger things like the piano in the bridge of “Porch Song.” Producer Mike Yeager helped the band create many of the sounds on the album.

It was also Yeager’s suggestion that “Breathe In” be recorded at all. The producer heard the band play-ing the song at a soundcheck and

convinced them to go back into the studio just to record that song.

Despite the band’s success, Be-atty describes this as “the hardest time” for The Jarheads, due to drummer Collin Whitten’s enrroll-ment at the University of Alabama and Beatty and bassist Adrian Lew-is’ attendance at Mississippi State University.

However, Beatty wants to make music his career choice.

“This is my pursuit in life,” Be-atty said. “We’re going to make connections and keep going back to venues that like us. And in six months, I hope we’ll be back in the studio.”

ChoirThursday, Dec. 9, 2010

6 p.m. at McComas Hall, MSU

Christmas Concert

BandMonday, Dec. 6, 2010

6 p.m. at Lee Hall, MSU

Winter Concert

Maggie George, Band look to concert season

Jarheads aim for more mature sound

Singing natural for Reynolds

For a more detailed version of this story, go to shsjacketbuzz.com

Phot

o by

Bai

ley B

roca

to.

“Thank you, Ms. Weeks,

for inspiring me and

exposing me to all

different kinds of music.”-senior madrigal Hannah Reynolds

Page 8 • 12-02-10 Featured Story 12-02-10 • Page 9Featured Story www.shsjacketbuzz.com

Holiday spirit encompasses both secular, spiritual

By Andrew LaFramceNews Writer

At Starkville High, the household living skills class is gearing up for a local Christ-mas Bazaar.

SHS student Adam Roman is a member of the classes that are making crafts and good-ies to sell to the public.

“Basically, we make the food, ornaments and soap,” Roman said. “Then we can sell them during the three days.”

The Christmas Bazaar takes place Decem-ber 1, 2, and 3.

This year, the event is taking place at the S t a r k v i l l e Sportsplex on Lynn Lane.

“This is the first year the city is hosting it,” household living skills teacher Mary S. Nicovich said. “So this is the first year that the Bazaar is not on the MSU cam-pus.”

The classes are making Christmas or-naments, candles, soap, and various food items.

The students rotate between two class-rooms, making food with Nicovich and other items (ornaments, etc.) in Suzanna Brooks’ room.

“The teachers on this hall get pretty mad at us,” Nicovich said. “They can smell the food, and they all have third lunch. And of course we will have the tin-foil Christmas ornaments, and they will be tree-shaped and decorated for either SHS or MSU. We also make things like placemats and throw pil-lows for people to buy.”

The classes’ participation in the Bazaar is a part of a program to help the students learn life skills, but that’s not the only reason be-hind their involvement.

“We hope that we are giving them skills that our students can carry into adulthood,” Nicovich said. “At the end of the Bazaar, we will take the profits to pay for a luncheon for our students and their parents in May. It will be entirely organized by the students, who will have bought the food and prepared it for the meal.”

Nicovich is confident that both events will go very well.

“We will be doing units on good table man-ners and ordering from menus, but that isn’t all we want to get from the luncheon,” Ni-covich said. “We want to show these parents not only what their children have learned, but how much we all appreciate them.”

Roman is happy to participate in the events.“The classes are pretty fun. For this, though,

we have to make all of the items right so that they will sell at the Bazaar,” Roman said. “At the end of the three days, we get to take any of the leftover stuff to our parents, which is great.”

Household Living Skills class bakes for Christmas Bazaar

Lakesha Grayer, Lateshia Grayer, Brittany Hogan and Adam Roman cook fudge for this week’s Holiday Bazaar at Starkville Sportsplex. Photo by Ruth Brown.

By Andrew LaFramceNews Writer

Christmas morning is a very stereotypical, yet memorable scene – children waking up early, racing down the hallway to wake their parents, and then gathering around the tree to open their presents.

However, for some students, December 25 is just another Saturday of the SHS win-ter break.

Jordan Cohen is a sophomore at Starkville High School. She is also Jewish, a religion

that celebrates Hanukkah, not Christmas, in the winter time.

“The timing of Hanuk-kah isn’t always the same,” Cohen said. “So it only coincides with Christmas sometimes.”

This year Hanukkah be-gins on Dec. 1. This is be-cause the religious event follows the Hebrew calen-dar, rather than the Grego-rian calendar most people are familiar with.

“The celebration of Ha-nukkah begins at sunset,” Cohen said. “For eight nights, we open presents, dance, and light the candles.”

Judaism is not the only non-Christian reli-gion in Starkville, though.

Senior Muhammad Dakhlalla is a proud Muslim.

“We don’t really have any winter holidays,” Dakhlalla said. “We did have two around Novem-ber, though. One was cel-ebrating the end of Rama-dan, our month of fasting. The other, Eid al-Adha, is in remembrance of when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.”

Divya Patel is a senior at SHS and a member of the Hindu faith.

“We recently celebrated New Year’s, by Krishna’s calendar, in No-vember.” Patel said. “All we do for that is get together and socialize, with a lot of people from our church.”

The religions, especially in the way they celebrate, are all fairly similar to each other.

Each deals with the majority religion and Christmas in their own way.

The Dakhlallas, for example, are very ac-cepting of their Christian neighbors.

“It doesn’t affect us very much,” Dakhlalla said. “However, there are some Muslims that, when they come to America, try to as-similate, so they join in to the whole Christ-mas celebration.”

Cohen’s mother’s side is Christian, so her family is familiar with Christmas.

“The two holidays are not all that differ-ent; they’re both about enjoying being with family,” Cohen said. “Besides, we get the same amount of presents that they do. One thing my family does, though, is maybe go to a movie on Christmas day, because there won’t be very many other people out in town.”

Season special in different ways for Starkville’s diverse community

SHS is diverse with Hinduism, Judaism and Islam represented in the student body. Pictured above is the Muslim holy text The Koran, traditional Jewish gold coins and a dreidel, and the Hindu god Ganesh. Photo by Bailey Brocato.

“The two holidays are not all that different; they’re both about being with

family. Besides, we [Jews] get the same amount of presents as [Christians]

do.”-sophomore Jordan Cohen

“We want to show these parents not only

what their children have learned, but how

much we all

appreciate them.”- Mary S. Nichovich

Holiday BazaarToday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Booth #45 - Starkville Sportsplex

Page 8 • 12-02-10 Featured Story 12-02-10 • Page 9Featured Story www.shsjacketbuzz.com

Holiday spirit encompasses both secular, spiritual

By Andrew LaFramceNews Writer

At Starkville High, the household living skills class is gearing up for a local Christ-mas Bazaar.

SHS student Adam Roman is a member of the classes that are making crafts and good-ies to sell to the public.

“Basically, we make the food, ornaments and soap,” Roman said. “Then we can sell them during the three days.”

The Christmas Bazaar takes place Decem-ber 1, 2, and 3.

This year, the event is taking place at the S t a r k v i l l e Sportsplex on Lynn Lane.

“This is the first year the city is hosting it,” household living skills teacher Mary S. Nicovich said. “So this is the first year that the Bazaar is not on the MSU cam-pus.”

The classes are making Christmas or-naments, candles, soap, and various food items.

The students rotate between two class-rooms, making food with Nicovich and other items (ornaments, etc.) in Suzanna Brooks’ room.

“The teachers on this hall get pretty mad at us,” Nicovich said. “They can smell the food, and they all have third lunch. And of course we will have the tin-foil Christmas ornaments, and they will be tree-shaped and decorated for either SHS or MSU. We also make things like placemats and throw pil-lows for people to buy.”

The classes’ participation in the Bazaar is a part of a program to help the students learn life skills, but that’s not the only reason be-hind their involvement.

“We hope that we are giving them skills that our students can carry into adulthood,” Nicovich said. “At the end of the Bazaar, we will take the profits to pay for a luncheon for our students and their parents in May. It will be entirely organized by the students, who will have bought the food and prepared it for the meal.”

Nicovich is confident that both events will go very well.

“We will be doing units on good table man-ners and ordering from menus, but that isn’t all we want to get from the luncheon,” Ni-covich said. “We want to show these parents not only what their children have learned, but how much we all appreciate them.”

Roman is happy to participate in the events.“The classes are pretty fun. For this, though,

we have to make all of the items right so that they will sell at the Bazaar,” Roman said. “At the end of the three days, we get to take any of the leftover stuff to our parents, which is great.”

Household Living Skills class bakes for Christmas Bazaar

Lakesha Grayer, Lateshia Grayer, Brittany Hogan and Adam Roman cook fudge for this week’s Holiday Bazaar at Starkville Sportsplex. Photo by Ruth Brown.

By Andrew LaFramceNews Writer

Christmas morning is a very stereotypical, yet memorable scene – children waking up early, racing down the hallway to wake their parents, and then gathering around the tree to open their presents.

However, for some students, December 25 is just another Saturday of the SHS win-ter break.

Jordan Cohen is a sophomore at Starkville High School. She is also Jewish, a religion

that celebrates Hanukkah, not Christmas, in the winter time.

“The timing of Hanuk-kah isn’t always the same,” Cohen said. “So it only coincides with Christmas sometimes.”

This year Hanukkah be-gins on Dec. 1. This is be-cause the religious event follows the Hebrew calen-dar, rather than the Grego-rian calendar most people are familiar with.

“The celebration of Ha-nukkah begins at sunset,” Cohen said. “For eight nights, we open presents, dance, and light the candles.”

Judaism is not the only non-Christian reli-gion in Starkville, though.

Senior Muhammad Dakhlalla is a proud Muslim.

“We don’t really have any winter holidays,” Dakhlalla said. “We did have two around Novem-ber, though. One was cel-ebrating the end of Rama-dan, our month of fasting. The other, Eid al-Adha, is in remembrance of when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.”

Divya Patel is a senior at SHS and a member of the Hindu faith.

“We recently celebrated New Year’s, by Krishna’s calendar, in No-vember.” Patel said. “All we do for that is get together and socialize, with a lot of people from our church.”

The religions, especially in the way they celebrate, are all fairly similar to each other.

Each deals with the majority religion and Christmas in their own way.

The Dakhlallas, for example, are very ac-cepting of their Christian neighbors.

“It doesn’t affect us very much,” Dakhlalla said. “However, there are some Muslims that, when they come to America, try to as-similate, so they join in to the whole Christ-mas celebration.”

Cohen’s mother’s side is Christian, so her family is familiar with Christmas.

“The two holidays are not all that differ-ent; they’re both about enjoying being with family,” Cohen said. “Besides, we get the same amount of presents that they do. One thing my family does, though, is maybe go to a movie on Christmas day, because there won’t be very many other people out in town.”

Season special in different ways for Starkville’s diverse community

SHS is diverse with Hinduism, Judaism and Islam represented in the student body. Pictured above is the Muslim holy text The Koran, traditional Jewish gold coins and a dreidel, and the Hindu god Ganesh. Photo by Bailey Brocato.

“The two holidays are not all that different; they’re both about being with

family. Besides, we [Jews] get the same amount of presents as [Christians]

do.”-sophomore Jordan Cohen

“We want to show these parents not only

what their children have learned, but how

much we all

appreciate them.”- Mary S. Nichovich

Holiday BazaarToday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Booth #45 - Starkville Sportsplex

Page 10 • 12-02-10 www.shsjacketbuzz.com Opinion

The Jacket Buzz

The Jacket Buzz is published three times each semester by the Journalism Depart-ment at Starkville High School.

The Jacket Buzz is a student-run publication committed to providing the students of Starkville High School with objective and informative coverage of events involving or

affecting the student body.The Jacket Buzz serves SHS as a forum for student expression and thought. Content decisions are made by student editors, and factual errors will be corrected by a retrac-

tion in the next issue. Opinions expressed are those of students and do not necessarily reflect the views of the adviser, administration, Starkville High School faculty, or the Starkville School

Distict. Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Jacket Buzz staff.Letters to the Editor are accepted and published, excluding those that are deemed libelous, malicious, hurtful or disruptive. Unsigned letters will not be published,

and all letters are subject to editing. Please email all letters, or other comments, to

shsjacketbuzz@gmail.com.

Zach MitchellEditor-in-Chief

Volume 18, Issue 4 December 2, 2010

R.J. MorganAdviser

Staff Members Dominic Henn, Christine Mazzola, Kiana Stinson, Andrew LaFrance,

Hal Sullivan, Merve Karan, Tierra Tillman, Brandon Gardner, Mariel Marcum, Bailey Brocato, Jennifer Hunt, Ahsia Temple, and Yingying Zhang.

Statement of Policy

Taylor BowdenNews Editor

Tess LongOpinions Editor

Cullom McCormickClubs Editor

Lammi Micha Sports Editor

Ruth BrownPhoto Editor

Ty RingoYearbook Editor

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

LaMarion LindseyMarketing Director

We feel that the flex schedule would be largely beneficial to our student body.

If the flex schedule is enacted, there will 45 days of school, followed by 15 days of vacation with 30 days of vacation for summer (June 5- July 15) and five days vacation for Thanks-giving.

With this schedule, students will still be in school the re-quired 180 days, yet there will be more breaks throughout the year rather than one long summer break.

This should help students to retain more information from classes, as everyone knows that during the summer it’s very easy to forget everything that you’ve managed to learn in class the year before.

In the flex quarter schedule there will be shorter periods of school, so students will be less fatigued and will, hopefully, be more apt to stay focused while in school.

The three week breaks provide instant gratification for stu-dents after working hard in school, and the first two weeks of vacation the schools will stay open so any students who failed a class will be able to make it up in those two weeks. Students that attend this “instant summer school” will be able to jump right back into their classes, instead of having to wait until the summer after they have forgotten what they have learned.

However, we do believe there are some negative aspects of this program.

It will increase costs for our school, because the air con-ditioning, electricity, and maintenence will be running lon-ger due to the two weeks the school will be open for every break.

The schedule will also negate the cultural aspect of a “sum-mer break,” where students have the entire summer off and are able to participate in different camps, trips, and activities. We feel that many local activities would change their sched-ule to accomadate our new schedule in order to include the majority of their attendees.

Even with these issues that might come up, we still believe that the Flex Schedule could definitely help students have a more enjoyable school experience.

I have a love/hate relationship with reality checks. I love them because they (occasionally) inspire me to take some initiative and make myself a better person.

I hate them because they often force me to see things about myself that I would rather overlook.

The other night my mom and I were driving in the car when she launched into this long story about how some guy who was doing a political survey had called and wanted to ask her some questions.

She was laughing about how she had to skip half the questions because she was so behind on current issues and politics and had no idea what he was talking about. While I was laughing along with her at this pathetic situation, I began to have a reality check.

Being brutally honest with myself, I realized that I re-ally am quite clueless about the major issues affecting our country today. This came as a shock to me, as I used to consider myself pretty well informed.

But somewhere between juggling high school, two jobs, tons of homework and other responsibilities, I lost sight of what is happening in my country.

I know many students who are extremely well in-formed, but sadly, for every one of those students there are two or three who are just as clueless as I seem to be.

As high schoolers, we’re about to be thrown into the real world. We need to have the knowledge to vote, know what’s going on in our community, and, on a larger scale, know how our country is involved worldwide and have a basic knowledge of our foreign affairs.

Whether it’s schools focusing more time on current events, or parents devoting more time to talk to their kids about these things at home, I think many people will agree that something needs to be done.

As for myself, I’m hoping to turn this particular reality check into a “love” relationship, and spend just a little more time each day learning about this country we live in and call home.

By Tess LongOpinion Editor

Flex quarter schedule beneficial to students

Ignorance strikes our generation

“You don’t believe in God.”My little sister told my family over dinner that in

class someone had come up to her and told her that she didn’t believe in God.

I remember being in elementary school and how no one cared what their classmates believed in—watch-ing the same TV shows and playing the same games were enough. Now, it seems as if both little kids and high school students are seeing things from CNN and hearing things from the adults around them that makes them think that people that are different from them are doing something wrong.

My family and I are Muslims from Isparta, Turkey, and we moved here in 1994. In the span of 17 years, we’ve lived in Turkey, Missouri, Alabama, and Missis-sippi. It’s always been a little weird, being a Turkish Muslim growing up in America; not being able to call myself American because I wasn’t born here, but not feeling Turkish because I had not grown up there.

After 9/11, many misconceptions have come about regarding Islam and many people automati-cally assume that these misconceptions are true.

The most common misconception, articulated by the 5th grader above, is that Muslims “don’t believe in God.”

This is ironic, considering Islam is the second biggest monotheistic religion, after Christianity, and all Muslims take the belief of one god very seriously.

Another misconception is that Muslims don’t be-lieve in Jesus. However, Jesus is mentioned in the Qur’an (the Holy Book of Islam) about 30 times. He is believed as a prophet and his life, family, and miracles are written in the Qur’an.

I believe that these misconceptions come from people believing everything they hear and not stop-ping to question it.

It comes from stereotyping and assuming that the minority represents the majority. When everything is at your fingertips and you choose not to know, there is no other word for it than ignorance.

There are times when that ignorance can be seen in our political leaders and celebrities—people that are known around the world. America is no longer seen as “the place to be.” It’s now seen as a country in a mist of ignorance, a country with people that are struggling to see outside the border.

www.shsjacketbuzz.com 12-02-10 •Page 11Opinion

Many know the feeling – the warmth of the stage lights, the thick, smoky air, the gallons of sweat that seem to be pouring out of your body – this is live music.

This is the raw, unbridled feeling of a concert; this is what we are missing.

Why do so many people flock to shows like Trey Songz, The Fray, Three 6 Mafia, and Jason Mraz when they come to town? Is it because of their radio-friendly, dance-able music?

Possibly. But it might also be because of Starkville’s strange aversion to concerts.

This aversion, however, might not be so strange after all.

Venues in other towns have more shows because people actually go to them. The es-sential “if you build it, they will come” has become, “if you bill it, they will come.”

So, why don’t Starkville kids go to local

shows? The main reason is because the DJ has,

essentially, replaced the band. Because of this, the local music scene is desolate.

“Back in the day” when high school kids would go to parties, there would always be a band, usually a local band.

People weren’t afraid to dance to the sounds of driving guitars, smooth bass, and the rhythmic pulsations of a drumbeat.

They would jitterbug, they would jive, they would boogie, they would two-step; it was what they did on the weekends.

Nowadays, bands can’t play the Stanky Legg, and you can’t do the Dougie to Queens of the Stone Age covers, so the local band has died out.

However, there are a few bands that choose to not walk it out, choose to stay on the grind, beating the pavement, keep on keepin’ on, and other musical clichés.

One of these bands is Starkville’s main local youth band, The Jarheads. They are comprised of Collin Whitten, Adrian Lew-is, and Grant Beatty, all of whom are SHS alumni.

The guys recently put out their first full-length album, Breathe In, on Nov. 5, but guitarist Grant Beatty is dismayed. “People

don’t go to bars to hear bands anymore,” Beatty said. “They go to socialize. It’s wa-tered down; you don’t have to listen to it. It’s background music. Those kinds of people don’t want to come to punk rock shows.”

So, what needs to be done?Go to shows. Support your local artists. If there are no bands, then there’s no

music scene. And Starkville’s youth music scene is on the endangered list.

Although Beatty has issues with the struggling youth scene, he tries to stay op-timistic.

“I want to have hope for Starkville…we’re growing, we’re learning, and hope-fully we can make some sort of impact,” Beatty said.

And we can. By going to shows and en-joying yourself. Because if your friends don’t dance, then they’re no friends of mine.

Investigate Islam before judging

By Merve KaranOpinion Writer

By Hal SullivanOpinion Writer

what part of the holiday season is most important to you?

Total Number of Polls Received 437

Receiving gifts 13%

Giving gifts 8%

Family 47%

FOOD 18%

Religion / customs 14%

Music scene needs students’ support

The Jarheads rock their release party for their EP No Sugar at Barrister’s Bar and Grill. Photo by Mariel Marcum.

Polling based on # of 1st block surveys returned

Page 12 • 12-02-10 www.shsjacketbuzz.com Sports

Boy bowlers win openerBy Bryson GunnContributing Writer

This afternoon the bowling team will host a match against Kossuth at 4 p.m. at Bulldog Lanes. It will be their second match of the season.

Stephen Gunter, leading scor-er for the bowling team, says the season is off to a “tremendous start.”

“We are currently 1-0 on the campaign after defeating East Webster,” Gunter said. “Overall I’m pretty pleased with the per-formance of our players, coach-es, and student athletes who are currently on the Starkville High School Bowling Team.”

Although he wasn’t happy with the girls’ performance at the first match, head coach Jim Philamlee was pleased with the outcome of both the varsity and junior varsity boys’ games.

Gunter takes bowling very se-riously as so does his family.

“Bowling is fun because it’s a sport that you can also play with your family,” Gunter said. “Sometimes my family and I will go out to the lanes on a beauti-ful Sunday afternoon, and just spend time with each other and have fun.’’

But bowling is not all fun and games. Bowling is also very com-petitive, and Gunter is dedicated to improving.

“The hardest part of bowl-ing is when you get frustrated is to keep a positive attitude and move forward,” Gunter said. “So, therefore, you can progress your way ahead and continue to climb the ladder that is laid out for you to achieve what you want to achieve.”

Chris Crosby is also a senior at SHS and encourages younger bowlers to work hard and make bowling a priority.

“It’s not something to take lightly,” Crosby said. “If you’re going to do it, be serious. Also,

be willing to work to become better.”

When you are willing to work hard and not give up, your hard and dedication will pay off in the end.

Crosby and Gunter have cer-tainly worked hard, and now they have very high goals for the remainder of this season.

“I plan on being in Tupelo for the State Championship,” Cros-by said.

Last Game

Next Game

Boys: Win vs. East WebsterGirls: Loss vs. East Webster

Today4 p.m. @ Bulldog Lanes

SHSvs. Kossuth

www.shsjacketbuzz.com 12-02-10 • Page 13Sports

Located in the Old Main District of downtown Starkville 103 South Washington St. 662-323-7665

Bring this Ad and Play

Free pool after School 3pm to 5pm Monday thru Thursday

(Starkville High School Students with School ID; Expires 5/15/2011)

Jackets fall short to Falcons, miss playoffsBy Margaret Allison

Contributing Writer

It was the last game of the 2010 season and it was the game that would determine whether Starkville High School would seal that spot for the playoffs. Unfortunately, the senior foot-ball players experienced a heart-breaking 34-32 loss to Colum-bus on Nov. 5, knocking them out of the playoffs.

Head coach Jamie Mitchell is losing 24 seniors this year, all of whom have been committed to football for a long time.

“They have stayed in football even when the program wasn’t very good,” Mitchell said. “That isn’t very easy to do.”

Although it is their last year of being a part of the Jacket com-

munity, they have left behind a good example for the future upperclassmen players to take over.

“They put a lot of hard work, dedica-tion, and com-mitment in the game,” Mitchell said. “They got our program back to where it’s competitive again.”

Unfortunately, this was the last high school football game that senior quarterback JaQuez John-son will ever play. Johnson to-taled 1,335 yards this season and is the captain for the Jackets.

“I have a lot of mixed emo-tions about it,” Johnson said. “Columbus played harder than

we did. We are a lot more tal-ented than them, but effort can

beat talent.”Johnson isn’t

pleased with his overall per-formance in the game, but is even less pleased with how the team

played altogether.“For the most part the team

didn’t play the best they could,” Johnson said. “The underclass-men didn’t play as hard as they are capable of.”

Johnson wasn’t the only one who thought that.

Senior cornerback Bryce Hen-derson thought some teammates didn’t take it seriously enough.

“What killed us the most is im-maturity and game preparation,” Henderson said. “[The players]didn’t know how to be serious and one person being childish can rub off on others.”

The Jackets ended their season with a 5-6 record overall and 3-4 in Class 6A.

The returning players for SHS will be hitting the weight room in the spring to prepare for the 2011 season.

Senior quarterback Quez Johnson Runs the ball for the Yellow Jacket offense. Photo by Bailey Brocato.

“We are a lot more

talented than them, but

effort can beat talent.”-Senior QB JaQuez Johnson

Family Centered ProgramsStarkville School District

615-0033

Partnering with the community to create a safe school environment

Social Services Mentoring

Enhanced SecurityMental Health Services

Page 14 • 12-02-10 www.shsjacketbuzz.com Sports

Yearbooks will be on sale again starting Monday, Dec. 6 outside the cafeteria. Last chance before prices go up! Regular $45 Deluxe $50

By Lammi MichaSports Editor

Junior midfielder Kase Kingery, who was one of the best players on the Starkville High School soc-cer team, isn’t playing soccer this season because he has to keep his grades up.

With classes like Advanced Placement European History, physics and trigonometry, Kingery says the main struggle is maintain-ing good grades.

“There was speculation that it was bad grades, but it’s just keep-ing them up,” Kingery said. “It’s hard classes and no time.”

Kingery, who started playing soccer at 6 years old in a rec soc-cer league, now plays soccer for a select soccer team in Jackson, Miss.

“It’s too hard to play for them, the high school and keep my

grades up at the same time,” Kingery said.

Kingery has given up SHS soc-cer this year so that he can keep his grades up.

“The biggest thing when you lose a good player is that it effects your depth,” head coach Brian Bennett said. “But we moved Alvaro into the center mid position, which I think helps him a lot.

According to Bennett, Kingery was a silent leader for the squad.

“If you followed his lead, you’d do well,” Bennett said. “He wasn’t the kind of person to try to tell you what to do.”

Kingery says that he needs to keep up all A’s so that he can go to an out-of-state college.

“He is a wonderful young man,” AP European History teacher Ty Adair said. “I enjoy teaching him. But that situation is between him and his parents.”

Midfielder Kingery doesn’t return for soccer

Junior midfielder Kase Kingery watches and supports the Yellow Jacket soccer team from the stands. Photo by Mariel Marcum.

By Lammi MichaSports Editor

Senior goalkeeper and captain of the Lady Jacket soccer team Raevonne Shoemaker fights a bat-tle everyday in order to keep with her passion of playing soccer.

According to Shoemaker, her seizures happen when she gets “stressed or not enough sleep.”

At 4 years old, Shoemaker be-gan playing soccer. By the time she was in the 8th grade, she was the starting goal keeper for the SHS Lady Jacket soccer team. In a home game her 8th grade sea-son, she was kicked in the head by a member of the opposing team after she was already in control of the ball.

Approximately two years later, she began having very painful mi-graines.

After a CAT Scan and an MRI, she was told that there was left over iron from a hemorrhage and a concussion in her head.

“At any moment, I could have a seizure,” Shoemaker said. “It

could be devastating to the whole game; it could be devastating to the whole team.”

Shoemaker continues to push through game after game despite her condition.

“It’s just a 50/50 chance that it could happen,” Shoemaker said. “I’m on better medication now.”

Even though there’s that chance, Shoemaker fights through her condition everyday to continue to play soccer.

Her teammates are her main motivation for not putting down her keeper gloves and walking away from the game.

“I’ve been told I was the one keeping us in the game,” Shoe-maker said. “Seeing the smile on the girls’ faces when I walk off and them being like ‘Rae, look at you, you’ve held us up.’ motivates me.”

As a leader, Shoemaker feels like she provides back up as the last defender. She likes being the last line of defence to stop the ball from going in the net.

But, head coach Anna Albrit-

ton feels like she provides more knowledge and experience to the game and the team more than anything else.

“We sort of feed off of her,” Albritton said. “She understands how that defence is supposed to play and she doesn’t hesitate to come to me and tell me what’s go-ing on out there. She’s like a third coach.”

In Albritton’s opinion, Shoe-maker is one of the best keepers in the state if not the best.

“Well, she’s Rae,” Albritton said. “She’s pretty amazing.”

www.shsjacketbuzz.com 12-02-10 • Page 15Sports

XC teams finish in top ten at State Meet

Myles leads Lady JacketsBy Brandon Gardner

Sports Writer

Starkville High School Lady Yellow Jackets basketball team has had many great team lead-ers that have come through the school each year.

“All of my seniors are my lead-ers: “Whitney Taylor, Rebecca Myles, Chelsey Johnson-Weaver, Shareeda Brown, Jonissa Bu-chanan, Courtney Moore, and Tierra Tillman,” coach Kristi Williams said.

However, the team feels as though one player is more of a leader than the others.

“I feel that Rebecca is the lead-er,” junior Brittany Brown said. “Rebecca plays a position on the team that she is good at already, so while she’s playing, she gives us constructive criticism.”

Myles isn’t the typical leader in the eyes of her teammates.

Usually, leaders are more as-sertive and demanding.

“Rebecca is the type of per-son that’ll keep you laughing,” Brown said. “She makes sure we’re all okay if it was a bad game, and she always makes sure we are always smiling.

“I think her personality and what she knows gives her more of the push as our leader.”

Myles has been playing basket-ball for SHS since her freshman year.

Myles is able share her exten-sive experience and knowledge of how the team and the game works with the rest of the team.

“I’ve been playing basketball for a while,” Myles said. “I re-ally don’t see myself being a leader because we all play our part on the team, as a team. But I do help encourage us all.”

Myles likes to operate as if she was just another player on the team and not a key player or anyone to that degree.

Taking the game seriously is one thing, but taking it too seri-

ously is another, and Myles defi-nitely doesn’t want to do that.

“I think I take the game seri-ously, but not to the extremes,” Myles said. “I feel no one should be pressured or yelled at for do-ing something.

“I sometimes use our flaws to make a joke, so I can make sure everyone is laughing so we won’t focus on the person who just messed up.”

By Tierra TillmanSports Writer

Starkville High School’s cross country team ran in the Mississip-pi state meet Saturday, Nov. 6, at Choctaw Trails in Clinton, Miss.

The girls placed eighth and the boys placed sixth.

“Walker Mattox finished first for SHS girls, 25th overall,” head coach Caroline Woomer said. “Ka-mau Bostic finished first for SHS boys, 13th overall.”

Kamau Bostic’s time was 17:10 in the 5K and he earned All-State honors.

“Having Kamau and Joseph [MacGown] has been a big boost to the team’s moral,” Woomer said. “This is the first time that a SHS cross country runner has made All-State since I have been coach.”

Freshman runner Joesph MacGown’s fastest time in the 5K is 17:09.

“I think I can do better,”

MacGown said. “But, for my age, I think I do good.”

The majority of the girls’ cross country team is young.

“More than half of our girls’ state runners are eighth graders,” Woomer said. “Walker Mattox leads the pack.”

The cross country team has im-proved this year.

According to Bostic, the team has gained a lot of experience and he has enjoyed the friends made and the experiences had.

“I really enjoyed being a part of the cross country team,” Bos-tic said. “I am looking forward to next year.”

The runners that ran cross coun-try are ready to compete for spring track this year and use all of the new skills they have gained.

“Hard work doesn’t guarantee victories,” Barnett said “But at least it gives you a shot and no work at all will never give you a chance.”

Shoemaker plays through head trauma

Last Game

Next Game

57-26 Win vs. Louisvilleon Tuesday

Tomorrow 5 p.m. @ SHS Gymnasium

SHS vs. Columbus

Last Game

Next Game3-0 Win vs. Caledonia

Tomorrow5 p.m. @ New Hope

SHSvs. New Hope

Senior Lady Jacket goalkeeper Raevonne Shoemaker dives for the ball. Photo by Mariel Marcum.

By Brandon GardnerSports Writer

Gavin Ware is a skyscraper in the halls of Starkville High School. Standing at 6’8, there is no way that anyone cannot spot the junior in a crowd or on the court.

Ware plays center for the Yel-low Jackets and averaged 9 re-bounds per game and ended last season with 288 points.

“His size is the biggest thing,” coach Greg Carter said. “When he’s playing aggressively with his size, there’s no way others can stop him.”

And he’s still growing.“I was 6’6 or 6’7 last year,”

Ware said, “and now I’m 6’8. I sometimes have to travel to Jack-son to buy shoes, and my uncle ships me clothes that he bought from big and tall places.”

W a r e ’ s size requires a lot when it comes down to nutritional matters, seeing as to how he is an athlete for a sport that requires a lot of energy and working out.

“During conditioning season I try to limit my food amount,” Ware said. “When it’s time for offseason, I just throw down. If I go to McDonald’s, I get two double cheeseburgers, two apple pies, and a large fry, with a Sprite.”

Before Ware was introduced to basketball, he participated in the Henderson Intermediate School band.

However, Ware knew that he was meant to do something else whenever he compared his size to this fellow classmates and peers.

“I finally realized I was too big to be doing nothing physically,” Ware said. “I found something I was good at, basketball, so I started playing with Coach Mi-nor.”

Although Ware might be playing the game well, he is still devel-oping and l e a r n i n g more about the game.

“ H e ’ s [Ware] getting a lot better than last year,” Carter said. “He still needs to develop in some areas though.”

Ware takes basketball serious-ly, but enjoys the game for many benefits.

“I feel like basketball is an op-portunity where you can make something out of yourself,” Ware said. “It’s also a good workout for you.”

Ware dreams of being in the NBA someday, but he isn’t the ordinary naive athlete.

“I hope to go to college for a four-year degree,” Ware said. “I want to have something to fall on if I don’t enter the NBA.”

Ware is a junior, but he’s al-ready expecting scholarships offers from Mississippi State, Georgetown, Alabama, Geor-gia, Louisiana State, Tennessee, Georgia State, or the South Ala-bama.

Sports buzzThe

www.shsjacketbuzz.com 12-02-10 • Page 16

Friday, Oct. 29 7:00 p.m.@ SHS

Next GameSHS vs.

Columbus

Tomorrow7 p.m. @ SHS Gymnasium

Last Game76-55 Win vs. Louisville

on Tuesday

LARGE & in chargeJunior center Gavin Ware grasps hold of promising future as dominant force on court

“I sometimes have to travel to Jackson to buy shoes, and my uncle ships me clothes that he bought from big and tall

places.”-junior Gavin Ware