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Christmas around the world Cadence Seffens door singing and doing other tradi- toys, fruits, and often nuts. tional celebrations. Redbird writer The Festival of Winter is Rus- Sweden celebrates Christmas sia’s Christmas. This is because there Christmas is a holiday cele- but with very different traditions. It was a ban on Christmas by the Soviet brated all over the world. It has been starts on the first Sunday of Advent Union. People often fast and pray to celebrated for thousands of years and and its biggest day is December 13th, Babushka. Babushka means was even mentioned in the Bible. But which is Lucia’s Day. Girls will tradi- ‘grandmother’ and she is famous be- nobody celebrates the holiday season tionally dress up in plain white dress- cause in the tales she is the women the exact same way. es with candles on their heads and who refused to go see baby Jesus with Kwanzaa is celebrated during they all bring rolls and coffee and sing the wise men. She soon regretted it the season in many places throughout songs. Tomten is their version of San- and couldn’t catch up and ended up the world. It was first celebrated in ta. He is an elf who comes out on delivering toys to kids now due to re- the United States in 1966. Every year gret. it’s from December 26 to January 1, On December 6th traditions in and it celebrates seven principles of Germany start for Christmas. Children African-American culture. Each princi- often write letters to Christkind. pal is given a day to be dedicated to. Christkind is a figure with wings to Hanukkah is celebrated all shows up to take their letters from though out the world by Jewish peo- the windowsill and leave gifts in re- ple, but the more intense celebrations turn. happen mostly in Israel. This celebra- Of course all these traditions, tion lasts up to eight days and cele- and many more, are celebrated and brated the Greeks losing battle to the believed just as much as our tradition- Jews. A candle a night is lite on a me- al Christmas is here. All cultures have norah to celebrate how the oil in the Christmas day to watch over the fami- totally different beliefs, but most can temple during the battle mysteriously lies and bring gifts. agree that the holiday season is a lasted up to the eight days. Jews who France celebrates Noël, which time for family and generosity. celebrate Hanukkah also exchange adds a few key twists to the holiday. gifts. Père Noël is known as the Father of St. Stephens day is celebrated Christmas and the one who brings for a month in Ireland. It’s celebrated toys to children. They also do not use up to the epiphany due to its im- traditional stockings. Children will portance. It’s celebrated the day after place their shoes by the fireplace and Christmas where many businesses awake with them filled with small stay closed and little boys go door to 2 #1 Clemson and #2 Alabama vying for national champtionship

Kaleb Gongwer Conference champions. head coach, Nick Saban. Alabama fin- ished the season 12-1, losing to the Redbird Writer Playing against Clemson will Ole Miss Rebels early in the season. be the Oklahoma Sooners, who fin- The 2015-16 college football ished the season with a record of 11-1 Playing against the Tide in the playoff teams were selected on De- under Coach Bob Stoops. The Sooners playoffs are the Michigan State Spar- cember 6th. The top bowl games will just came off of winning the Big 12 tans. Michigan State took the Big Ten be played on December 31st. The title game against the previously four number one seed, Clemson Tigers, will seeded and undefeated Iowa Haw- play the four seed, Oklahoma Sooners, keyes. The Spartans jumped the Haw- at Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida keyes in the playoff selection after the at 4pm. The number two seed, Ala- conference championship win, putting bama Crimson Tide, will play the num- them at the number 3 seed. MSU fin- ber three seed, Michigan State Spar- ished the season with a record of 12-1. tans, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas at 8pm. The winners of each Clemson and Oklahoma will be bowl game will face off in the national facing off in the Orange Bowl. Ala- championship game on January 11th, bama and Michigan State will play in at the University of Phoenix Stadium the Cotton Bowl. The Clemson Tigers Championship game against Oklaho- in Glendale Arizona. last Orange Bowl appearance resulted ma State. The Sooners outscored the in a victory against Ohio State 40-35, The Clemson Tigers will be Cowboys 58-23. The Sooners are play- two years ago. Oklahoma’s last ap- fighting for their second National ing for their 8th national title in school pearance in the Cotton Bowl resulted Championship. The first National history since 2000. in a 41-13 loss against the Texas A&M Championship they won was in 1981 The Crimson Tide of Alabama Aggies, in 2013. under coach Danny Ford, beating Ne- is rolling to the playoffs in hope for braska 22-15. Clemson finished the their 13th title after beating Florida in season undefeated with a 13-0 record the SEC championship 29-15 under over all and are the Atlantic Coast LHS implementing new snow day policy

Tristin Dahl change from last year, when we had five two days, there will be more available for excused snow days. This gives Loudonville class. This will allow the teachers and stu- Redbird Writer two less excused days that can’t be missed dents to get more class in and not be miss- This winter is approaching and a during the winter and have to made up on ing out on precious time in the school new policy is going to take action at scheduled make-up days. year. Loudonville High school. The policy limits The shortening of the amount of Last year at Loudonville High the school’s snow days from three to five. unexcused snow days is being set in action School we had a rough winter that forced Each school is given an amount of to benefit the school. us to miss excessive days because of win- days by the state of Ohio that they can ter. With the policy being shortened, some “It was a big change, but it was miss for snow days before they have to argue that this will force us to make up a rational to allow for more instruction time make them up. The schools administrators large amount of days if bad weather re- for the teachers and students,” John and teachers this year have decided on turns. (Continued on page 3) Lance, the principal of Loudonville High having three excused snow days. This is a School said. With reducing the policy by 3

(From page 2)“It is a terrible ing Spring Break. This will still allow for we don’t have to miss more than idea even though we’ve had a calm the class hours to be taught, but stu- three days, then it will have no effect winter so far. This could take a turn dents and staff will come to school on the school, but if more than these and we end up missing a whole week during days they would have usually three days are missed, the school will like last year,” said LHS senior Coleton had off. be forced to make the days up during Heffelfinger. the scheduled make-up days. As the The new policy is being put winter goes on, the policy will be truly If another harsh winter occurs, into action this year for the first time, tested, but until then the calm weath- the students will be making up the so only the weather will tell how it er will be enjoyed days on either President’s day or dur- stands. If the weather stays mild and Christmas movies to watch over break

Ryan Odenkirk Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: Santa has the normal eight reindeer Redbird Writer pull his sleigh. However a snow storm The Grinch: Adapted from a conjured by an evil queen delays San- Dr. Seuss story, this movie is about a ta's flight on Christmas. It's up to Ru- green hairy who named the Grinch dolph to save the day. lived in a mountain above Whoville called Mt. Crumpit. He had a dog named Max. All the people of Who- ville were really happy, but the Grinch wasn't. So to ruin their Christmas, the Polar Express: A young boy who be- Grinch steals all the Whos’ presents. lieves in Santa gets aboard a train They all come together, however, and which only children who believe in continue to celebrate Christmas and Santa can see and board. He eventual- the Grinch learns the true meaning of ly meets Santa after a wild night of adventure and making friends. Home Alone: 8-year-old Kevin McCallister acts up the night before his family trip, so he's forced to sleep in the attic. After the McCallisters mis- takenly leave for the airport without Kevin, he awakens to an empty house and realizes that no one else is home. But his excitement goes way downhill when he realizes that two robbers plan to rob his house, and that he happiness and Christmas. alone must protect the family home.

4 Sports at LHS can be costly Melody Rush around $250 each, the bill gets pretty With only two seasons practi- high. Most uniforms are only replaced cally carrying the whole sports pro- Redbird writer every 3-5 years, depending on the grams on its shoulders, it can be chal- Around 33% of students in our coach’s budget. lenging when it comes to buying sup- plies. school play sports, but has anyone “All money collected at sports thought about how much sports cost events, in ticket sales, goes to the With safety regulations being the school? sports programs. We’re self- so high nowadays it’s hard to find Our school has a self- supporting,” said Kelly Seboe, the things that are not expensive. Dean of Students and basketball supporting sports program that has all “The bill can get real high, real coach. of the money from sports events fast,” said Seboe. (ticket sales) used to buy uniforms and All sports are varying in cost The safety regulations aren’t to enter our teams into tournaments for equipment, tournaments, and uni- the only thing that are very costly. and competitions. forms. Football for example is more Whenever a team wants to enter a expensive than cross country. With so Our school doesn’t give any of competition, they have to pay an en- many safety standards to reach for their budget to the sports. The only trance fee. The fee is determined by football they have to spend lots of money they get is if there is big how many teams are a part of the money on having the proper safety crowds at sports events. competition. equipment. The school’s athletic boosters also help contribute funding to the “For spring events we don’t different programs. charge for intermission. The fall and winter sports basically carry the With helmets alone costing spring,” said Seboe. Teachers participate in Secret Santa gift exchange

Wylynn Skelly that’s just a couple dollars like a candy The limit for this gift of what you can bar, pop or bag of chips. This Friday on spend is $20.00. Redbird Writer ugly sweater day all of the teachers “We tried to make it cheap so This year the teachers at LHS will reveal themselves as whoever’s more teachers would be interested. I started a Secret Santa gift exchange. Secret Santa. I will have all the teach- got a bath and body works key chain, Ms. Thomas, an intervention specialist ers just stand in a big circle and guess but some people are going way over- at our school, came up with the idea who they’re board. The least amount you can of bringing the gift exchange to our Secret Santa spend a week is $1,” said Thomas. school. The exchange is only for was. After they teachers, and they do not have to do guess, that per- The teachers will have re- it if they don’t want to. son will tell ceived about 5 or 6 gifts by the end of the gift exchange. Mr. Bataglia re- “It’s bringing the Christmas them that they ceived a Sports Illustrated magazine, a spirit in, and allowing us to get to were their Se- bag of M&Ms, a Powerade Zero, and a know the new teachers here. It’s just cret Santa” said bag of beef jerky. Mr. Snyder received a fun thing to do for the holiday,” said Thomas. a container of buckeye balls, a fra- Mrs. Thomas. On ugly sweater day the grance warmer and a wreath. “Every week you get a gift teachers will receive the best gift they have gotten from their Secret Santa. 5 Redbirds hand Hillsdale a loss

Kaleb Gongwer think we still did well and our defense Weber. “We focused on running the is a work in process. Our teams com- floor, executing our plays and playing Redbird Writer munication is what makes us so close solid defense. The team really takes Senior Marissa Cox and the and that we are there for each other. part in my success when encouraging Lady Redbird’s pulled in their fourth It means everything for us to beat me, pushing me hard at practice to win of the season against the Hillsdale Hillsdale since they are our rival.” make me do my best every day.” Falcons on Saturday, with a whopping Freshman, Nikki Weber, made The ‘Birds upcoming oppo- score of 63-24. The Redbirds now hold 50% of her three point shots and led nents, the Danville Blue Devils and St. a record of 4-3 overall and 1-1 in the the team with 25 points. Weber Peters Spartans, will challenge the conference. Cox and the ‘Birds went scored 39% of the overall team score Redbirds for the Mid Buckeye Confer- 60% from the free throw line and and led the team with 5 assists. Defen- ence crown. Loudonville will play Dan- made 34% of their shots. sively, Weber stole the ball from the ville this Thursday at Danville High “We could have done better,” Falcons 7 times and managed to be School and play the St. Peters Spar- said Cox. “But we’re getting there. the game changer for the Redbirds. tans on Saturday at St. Peters High Winning means everything, but only School. “Communication is our biggest when we play together as a team. I aspect when playing as a team,” said

Band and choir perform holiday concert

Wylynn Skelly Night”, “Going to Bethlehem”, “Omnia lowed by performing “Mad Russians Redbird Writer sol” and the “Hallelujah Chorus.” The Christmas,” “Oh come all ye faithful,” symphonic group is the high school “Sleigh Ride” and “Joy to the World. On December 10th Loudon- girls’ and the boys’ choir together. ville Hgh School’s band and choir par- “We had a standing ovation took in the concert at the C.E Budd “The experience of performing for a ‘Mad Russians Christmas’ and at School. Just like every year around this on stage with the choir just leaves me the end we had a lot of applause,” time, it was a holiday concert to bring in awe sometimes. I really enjoy being said Dillon Portz. part of the group, and men’s chorus is in the Christmas spirit. The director of Mr. Snyder prepared the choir always a blast. I think that was our the choir, Mr. Snyder, and the band for this concert for about a month or best performance and it really showed director Mrs. Yingling, were in charge two, and Mrs. Yingling started prepar- our progression,” said Austin Zody, a of preparing their students for their ing her students right around when member of the men’s choir. performance for this year’s Christmas football season ended. concert. The Jazz band performed There was also a good-sized “Charlie Brown’s Christmas”, “The The men’s chorus sang “A city audience for the concert to support First Noel,” and “Here Comes Santa Called Heaven”, and “Sing me a Song.” the band and choir members at our Clause.” The high school band fol- The symphonic sang “Lost in the school. 6 Marjorie Robinson, outstanding journalism teacher, still holds legacy

Cadence Seffens “She was not going to publish choices. Some of her students went anything that was going to have a mis- and achieved a journalism degree. Redbird writer take in it. It just wasn’t going to hap- One of those students was Louise The Redbird newspaper has pen,” said Spreng. “It went to the edi- Swartzwalder, who also achieved Ro- been a part of Loudonville High School tor of the department, then it went to tary speaker's mug from Loudonville for many years. Students could write the editor of the paper and they Rotary President for her articles. the latest news and print it while mak- checked it and if anything wasn’t right Another former student is Jim ing themselves better writers. If they they sent it back to you. And then Brewer, who currently writes for The were good enough, their paper could even if they made a mistake the final Loudonville Times. Brewer had Mrs. even go to competitions, and it did. say was Mrs. Robinson’s.” Robinson for Journalism and English The Redbird won many awards and She gave enormous amounts his junior year. achieved high praise during the tenure of time to her students as well as mak- of a renowned teacher named Marjo- “She was an outstanding lady. ing the paper perfect, which may be rie Robinson. Classy. She had a way about her where why The Redbird achieved so much you immediately respected her and Marjorie Robinson taught at success during the period Mrs. Robin- tried your hardest for her. You did an- Loudonville High School for over thirty son was in charge. ything not to disappoint her,” said years. Almost as long as she taught Brewer. English, she taught Journalism, as well. Brewer said Mrs. Robinson influenced his career choice by a single “I took two classes with her,” compliment. said Dave Spreng the current anato- my teacher who went to Loudonville “Within the first month of High school when Mrs. Robinson was English 10 she told me ‘you have a a teacher here. “I took Journalism talent for writing,’ and that went into and I took a class called Research Pa- my career choice more than anything. per.” It was just the fact she said that to “You knew she knew what she me,” Brewer said. “She was a very structured was talking about, so you just wanted teacher,” said Judy Briggs who also Everyone had the same view to give her your best. As a younger had Mrs. Robinson as a journalism of Mrs. Robinson, and with the name person I knew that The Redbird was teacher. and awards she left behind it’s no this fantastic newspaper and everyone wonder why. Although she taught many wanted to be a part of it,” Spreng said. different language arts subjects, Mrs. Mrs. Marjorie Robinson set a “She made everyone a better Robinson is still today known for her high standard for teachers and stu- writer. She told you what she wanted Journalism class. She was known for dents of Loudonville High School jour- and she expected it,” said Judy Briggs. having high expectations of her stu- nalism to follow, and gained much dents. Mrs. Robinson’s teaching in- respect in the process in over thirty fluenced many people in their career years. 7 Anatomy field trip

Tristin Dahl view parts of the body from an indi- examples,” said senior Bronson vidual who donated their body to sci- Mosher. This was a helpful way for Redbird Writer ence. All the personal information of students to get more out of the infor- On Wednesday, December 16, the individual isn’t given to the staff of mation they learned other than seeing the Loudonville High School students North Central or any students viewing it in lesson and on programs. took a field trip to North Central State it. The LHS students got to learn more Along with the cadaver the College. The trip was to visit the about the body by observing real sam- students also got to see examples of school and view the cadaver. ples of the parts of the body. different body parts. This included the The anatomy students lead by smallest bones in your ear to a split their teacher Mr. Spreng went to femur. NCSC also let the students test NCSC in Mansfield, Ohio. At the trip their ECG and lung capacity with they were given a visit of the campus different activities. Because NCSC is a and all of its facilities. Two NCSC stu- college, they had more access to more dents led the tours. After the tour advanced examples and machines for they watched a presentation given by the students to use. This gave the stu- NCSC staff explaining more details dents more ability to see different about the college and its degrees they parts and structure in a person that offer. they might not see at the high school. “It’s so different from the pic- The students also got to view tures by getting to see the real thing in Loudonville High School stu- a cadaver while an instructor ex- person. This is a lot different from the dents gained many experiences from plained the different parts of the things you see in the classroom in the this field trip. body. This allowed the students to 8 Loudonville-Perrysville merger

Ryan Odenkirk weren't even close to coming togeth- industry to Loudonville, so that is a Redbird Writer er. Sure there was a few exceptions big plus to the school linking because but the majority didn't mix," said it almost links the towns as well, " said Until 1961, the Loudonville Grant. current 8th grade science teacher Jim School and Perrysville High School Gale. were separate school systems in that The merger between the two had no connection whatsoever be- schools helped both schools athletical- Manufacturing takes place in sides being located moderately close ly as well. The two schools combining the Perrysville community. Step2 and to one another. In the 1961 school allowed for nearly double the ath- the Pottery and multiple others all year the two schools came together as letes. “We’d be much smaller and our help Perrysville to be a major produc- one school district known as The sports would be less strong. The Per- tion village in the area. rysville kids would have been a huge Loudonville Perrysville Exempted In a clipping from the Ashland help at the time due to their strong School District. Times Gazette, "Perrysville merger work ethic. They would have also An article in The Loudonville with Loudonville is much more logical. helped in the class room because they Times from 1962 stated, "The merger The geographic considerations all fa- would have had their great students promises to be a smooth affair, with vor merger with Loudonville. The com- and the ones who struggle so there little to no confusion, thanks to the bined Loudonville Perrysville district would have still been that competi- thoroughness of the conscientious would have a property valuation of a tion," said current vice principal Dan groups who worked so long and faith- little more than 22 million dollars and Eckenweiler. fully on the project,"states an article enough students to provide a fine ed- in The Loudonville Times from 1962 The two schools had a lot of ucational program.” controversy at the time for coming One student at the time of the The merger between the two together because there were many two schools coming together was Abe schools was beneficial to everyone people who disagreed with the idea of Grant. A graduate of the class of 1962. around at this time. It helped to im- a combined school and others who prove education, funding, and indus- “I was a junior when they fully supported the decision to join. try. All of these things are beneficial to combined those two schools. It was a "Further delay in this logical both towns and have helped the econ- big change. I had originally a class of I merger of two school systems can do omy of both towns. There were also think 60, and when they joined it nothing but harm to the so-far peace- merger ideas with Big Praire, Lakeville, jumped up another 30. I didn't know ful and harmonious feelings between and the Holmes area. any of the new ones that started going the people and the offficials of two to my school so it had it's up and districts," stated in an editorial written downs. It was nice getting to know in the Ashland Times Gazette from everyone and hear their stories and 1961. learn about them. It was kind of weird though because we kept to ourselves. "I don't see a problem with The Loudonville kids and the Perrys- the two schools coming together. ville kids didn't ever mix. We were all They seem to work well together. The going to the same school but we Perrysville town does bring a lot of