Homecoming Competition Activity Center Underway by Julia Kennedy
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Renovations to downtown Homecoming Competition activity center underway BY JULIA KENNEDY Yutan is a small community with a rich history. Kevin Johnson, superintendent, is working to preserve a piece of that his- tory while meeting the needs of current students. As the community center undergoes renovations, Johnson works side by side with the school board to move the process forward. The center also holds many memories for previous generations of families who continue to live in Yutan. Former students played sports there for 35 years. Now, it will once again serve as a gym. “It will be used for junior high practices, special events, school dances, hopefully prom, as well as the Yutan youth basketball and volleyball,” Johnson said. “It will also help during basketball season when there are morning and late practices so kids can get home around 6 or 6:30.” BALLOON FUN AT THE CHIEFTAIN GAMES - Competitors closely eye the balloons during the balloon toss at the Chieftain games Sept. 19. The community center already has a Homecoming festivities Friday afternoon featured a parade, the balloon toss, dodgeball and cupcake eating. See more coverage of homecoming on new look inside. The front entrance loft and pages 4-5. Photograph by Julia Kennedy. stage have been removed. The basement was filled in so a new, larger gym floor could be installed. New rest rooms are currently be- Softball team captures Cellphone policy ing built at the front entrance with a storage room above. change designed In a few weeks, the building will have ECNC title at Auburn a freshly-painted exterior, new doors, win- BY HALEIGH WUSTER more Ellie Petersen said. to keep devices dows and lighting, and finished drywall. The nerves eventually disappeared as The setting of new floors and basketball Every team sets high goals it wishes to the game verses Johnson County Central out of classrooms hoops will bring the new gym closer to accomplish that season. The Yutan-Mead went into play. BY MADISON DAVIS reality. Because the gym will primarily players crossed one of their top goals off “We started out with not a lot of intensity be a practice facility, no bleachers will be their list on Sept. 27, becoming the East but picked it up in the end,” Petersen said. Cellphones are a big part of everyday installed. Central Nebraska Conference champions Sophomore Haleigh Wuster had nine life, but what happens when you are no lon- Thanks to local contractors, such as for the 2014 season. strikeouts this game, and seniors Jessica ger allowed to use them regularly? With the Long Construction, Brase Electric, Thomas Waking up bright and early for the long Pleskac and Lauren Taylor each had triples start of the 2014-2015 school year, teachers Plumbing and Bullock Construction, the trip to Auburn, Neb., players had mixed in the fifth inning. The Patriots won the first and administrators decided on a more strict community center is nearing completion. emotions about the day to come. The Pa- game of the tournament 8-2. cellphone policy. Johnson said they are hoping to have the triots were seeded third coming into the The Patriots’ second game was played Taking away the privilege of cellphone building done by Dec. 1. If not, by the first tournament. against second-seed Conestoga. Starting usage in class, students are only allowed to of the year. “I was kind of nervous, but I was mostly out strong, the Patriots scored five runs in have them during lunch and passing periods. Continued on Page 3 excited in hopes of getting the gold,” sopho- Continued on Page 7 “Cellphones were becoming an issue with students misusing them,” principal Tim McNamara said. “We feel this will limit non-educational purposes of phone use during school.” The school board members hope that the new policy will have a more positive academic effect on the students McNamara said. However, they might not know how music affects students. “I used to listen to music in study hall,” freshman Shelby Fenner said. “It helped me stay focused and get my work done.” Continued on Page 3 See What’s Inside............ Page 2 Opinion/Cartoon Pages 6-7 Sports/Activities CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS - Junior Nealie Josoff tags out a runner from Logan View during a softball game early in the season. Yutan-Mead captured the Page 8 East Central Nebraska Conference tournament championship with three wins at Auburn Sept. 27. The Patriots entered district play as the No. 1 seed with a 14-6 record. Photograph by Julia Kennedy. New Teachers Ebola not likely New teachers offer positives New teachers have the opportunity to throughout the first few weeks of school. the activity will already be adjusted to their to have impact breathe life back into a school. They can Joy Tiefel replaced Yutan’s Spanish new coach. shake up the curriculum and teach their teacher of four years, Kristen Day. Tiefel New choir teacher Matthew Gunter and on United States students in fresh, innovative ways. They can has made several changes to the curriculum math teacher Kassandra Bik have also taken bring new blood to sports, clubs and other and has brought in a more hands-on way of on several coaching and sponsor positions. extracurricular activities by taking over as teaching. She often uses a teaching tech- Gunter, who replaced Molly Schacher, has as it had on West coaches or sponsors. nique called total physical response, which made jazz choir accessible to students not allows students to walk around the room and in regular choir by moving practice times perform actions spoken to them in Spanish. before school. It is a great opportunity for African people Student Tiefel focuses on students’ speaking and non-choir students because it gives them the listening skills, which should help with chance to get involved in choir without hav- BY JESSICA WADE real-world applications of Spanish. ing to commit to taking choir as a class. Bik, Opinion New English teacher Laurie Kotalik has who replaced Christina Modrell, has taken Ebola is a deadly infectious disease that also made several changes to the curriculum over as assistant cheer coach as well as the is spread through bodily fluids; it causes Though there are many positive aspects and has taken over two coaching positions. junior high math counts sponsor. internal and external bleeding and, accord- of becoming a new teacher, there are also Her predecessor, Heather Niedfeldt, taught Despite facing challenges, Yutan’s new ing to the World Health Organization, as of many challenges. Students are often upset at Yutan for one year and was the speech and teachers have the potential to be wonder- Sept. 23 has killed over 3,000 people. about their former teachers leaving and can one-act coach. Kotalik has taken over both ful additions to Yutan High School’s staff. Most of the victims of Ebola have been find it difficult to connect with new teachers. coaching positions as well as the sophomore They have stepped up to fill in the gaps left in West Africa, but an unidentified man in They are used to their former teacher’s rules, speech class from Ginger Eikmeier. She by former teachers who were coaches and Texas has become the first person to be diag- routines and ways of teaching and can often has introduced impromptu Fridays into the sponsors. If they continue to have the suc- nosed with the disease in the United States. make a new teacher’s job more difficult. class in an effort to help students become cess that they have been having throughout The man is believed to have been visiting Despite having to face many challenges, better at writing and performing speeches the first few weeks of school, they will have family in Liberia when he was infected. the four new teachers at Yutan High School quickly. In my opinion, having the speech the potential to positively impact Yutan High The main concern of public health of- have done a fantastic job of updating the coach take over the speech class was a good School and its students. ficials is the amount of contact this man may curriculum and filling coaching positions idea because students who are interested in have had with others and whether or not the disease has spread. Despite the toll Ebola has had on West Africa, the fact that it is now in the United States should not cause mass panic. There is a huge difference between get- ting sick in a third world country and getting sick in a country like the United States. Because the disease is spread through bodily fluids rather than through the air it is harder to become infected, and Ebola does not kill everyone who becomes infected. The panic caused by the idea of a deadly disease can become just as catastrophic as the disease itself. The effect of the disease has already taken a toll on the already un- stable economic state of many West African countries. It is causing people to stop going to work and school. Instead of only reporting the horrors of Ebola, the media should also report what is being done to fix the problem. Health officials have already isolated and tested everyone the man from Liberia has come into contact with. Ebola should be treated with necessary precautions; it is an infectious disease that has killed thousands of people. But the possibility that an outbreak such as the one occurring in West Africa will oc- cur in the United States is highly unlikely. 2014-2015 Chieftain Student battles with arthritis BY MADELINE MILLER deficiency.