2022-23 High School Confidential, Week 25

Mar. 23—***

Welcome to Year 7 of High School Confidential, powered by Danville Area Community College. It's an award-winning project made possible by aspiring student journalists from every corner of our circulation area. Each Thursday through April, they'll tell us what's happening in their hallways at news-gazette.com.

At least once a week, we'll also hand over our Snapchat account (News-Gazette) to our correspondents for behind-the-scenes tours.

Feedback? Email N-G/VP Jim Rossow at jrossow@news-gazette.com.

On to this week's report:

Academy High

Students from the school's Chinese class — along with three St. Thomas More students who also take Chinese with Academy's Eileen Chen outside of school — had the opportunity to travel to Taiwan on a study tour to engage in the culture and practice their language skills. Besides seeing important cultural sights and enjoying the country, they met with two local high schools and stayed with a host family for two of the eight nights. It was a great opportunity to see what life and high school is like in other parts of the world. Pictured:

— Rosie Atkinson

Arcola

Drama club held its final performance of "Clue" on Sunday in Arcola's junior high gym. Full of twists and turns, the play was a hit with community members and students alike.

BHRA

The FFA chapter, under the direction of Amy DeGolyer, saw three of its members — Audrey Taylor, Jordyn Rutan and Landon Potter — compete at the District Proficiency Awards (Rutan and Potter were first-place winners). FFA also won big at the section public speaking and job interview contests where Gunnar Sroufek won second place (creed speaking) and Audrey Taylor was third (job interview contest). Students were recognized at BHRA's FFA awards banquet.

— Cody Drake

Blue Ridge

Key Club hosted a "Knight of Fun" that included a pickleball tournament and refreshments, as well as various other activities for those who didn't want to participate in the tournament. The top three teams were awarded cases of soda and gift cards to Casey's. The champions of the tournament: Alex Blake and Kenyon Wagner.

— Cadin Dozier

Centennial

Noelle Hunt and Daniel Lacy set school indoor track records at the Charger Invite, Hunt in long jump and Lacy in the 60 and 200 meters. Three Chargers won Big 12 Conference titles: Aaron Hendron (800), Brooklynn Sweikar (800) and Hunt (long jump).

— Elena Reifsteck

Cerro Gordo

Students are prepping for the school's next play, "Bugsy Malone!" It's a musical spoof of old-timey gangster movies that tells the story of the ongoing feud between two gangs led by Dandy Dan and Fat Sam, respectively. It takes place April 26-29.

— Hannah Copeland

Champaign Central

Editors from the student newspaper, The Chronicle, shared fun things they did over spring break.

— Features Co-Editor Julia Hopkins (wearing glasses): "My family and I went to Florida for Universal Studios and a day on Cocoa Beach. It was vaguely cold which was strange but beautiful. The rides were pretty sick."

— Opinions Editor Sarah Jacobson: "With the extra time I had over break, I decided to make banana bread and it turned out really good!"

— Editor in Chief Jannani Pattabi (photo courtesy Erin Patton): "Most of my spring break was spent relaxing at home, so getting to go to Skateland was a fun change of pace! I hadn't been there in years and I really enjoyed relearning how to skate with my friends."

— Photo Editor Alex Curry: "My mom and I traveled to Disneyland Paris earlier this week. This is me in front of Sleepy Beauty's castle (it was chilly, hence the coat, scarf, and gloves)."

— Jannani Pattabi

Chrisman

Nicole Brown's Foods 2 class visited the Butcher Shop in Charleston where students observed a butcher and worked with a variety of beef and pork cuts. The class learned about the importance of straight cuts for more product production. They also learned how to prepare retail items that are seen in local stores.

— Reese Anderson

Fisher

The Academic Challenge team qualified for state after finishing second at the sectional level. Among individuals placing: Daniel Bein (first in chemistry, second in English), Carter Dickey (third in computer ccience) and Emily Landers (third in computer science). Pictured: Teachers are Jake Chittick and Michelle Wagner; (top row) Carter Dickey, Cooper Dickey, Daniel Bien, Max Bruggman, Dylan Zwilling, Ella Hazard, Emily Lone, Cassandra Mary, Ander Hazzard, Noah Hurly, Jordan Claxton and Jeremiah Todd; and (bottom row) Hanna Laible-Seif, Jenna Clemmons, Kiera Becker, Emily Landers and Sadie Bruggman.

— Emma McFarling

Hoopeston Area

The Vermilion County Principal's Association presented its annual Vermilion County Honors Music Festival, which included performances from band and chorus, both of which were compilations of students from schools in Vermilion County. The students practiced at Hoopeston Area to perform their work later that night.

— Emma Rayls

Iroquois West

Last Wednesday, community members and students gathered to play in a volleyball tournament hosted by student council and representative Abby Fischer. The money raised from admission, T-shirt sales, the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America bake sale and team participation went to Tyler Shoven and his family. Without a doubt, the night was a success. Once the tournament ended, teams celebrated when they discovered Tyler had been released from the hospital.

— Calli Kraft

LeRoy

A group of students participated in a "Seniors Spa Day" at the Living Well United Senior Center. It was organized by Rylee Swanson and Kaitlyn Builta, seniors in high school who have been interning at the Senior Center this year. Students gave manicures while also getting the chance to engage in conversation. Both the students and the seniors at the Living Well United Senior Center had a fun and relaxing day

— Lily Monigold

Milford

On Thursday, senior Brynlee Wright had an athletic signing to announce her commitment to play softball at Kankakee Community College. She was joined by her family, friends, teammates and coaches to celebrate her commitment.

— Maddie Hardwick

Monticello

The baseball team's annual spring break trip to Carbondale was canceled last week due to weather conditions, so the Sages settled for a getaway breakfast at Holly's Country Kitchen in Monticello.

— Will Ross

Oakwood

Cherokee Hanner and Joshua Ruch were recipients for the sportsmanship award for the basketball season. They were handed certificates and patches at the Vermilion County Band and Choir Concert. Oakwood's band and choir also performed alongside other Vermilion County schools.

— Kalie Tison

Paxton-Buckley-Loda

The softball team opened its season with a 17-8 loss to Armstrong-Potomac.

— Kate Wilson

St. Joseph-Ogden

FFA held its banquet for friends and family to show the work that was accomplished over the year. New officers were inducted by the members. Pictured (courtesy Jayci Hayes): Cole Pruitt, Talan Miller, Mitchell Wright, Charlie Hale, Brodie Harms, Hallie Harms, Jayci Hayes, Kat Short, Thea Smith and Delaney Nekolny.

— Alyssa Acton

Salt Fork

Foods classes had fun participating in 4-H mini challenges leading into spring break. Each group had 20 minutes to prepare a dish. The secret ingredient was eggs and they had to use one food item from each food group. They then had to present their dish to the judges.

— Macie Russell

Shiloh

At the Lincoln Prairie Conference Honor Band Festival on March 14 at Blue Ridge, seven students accompanied band and chorus instructor Amy Nickell. Many hours of practicing and hard work went into the performance. Nickell is looking forward to the upcoming theater production for the spring musical which will be announced soon. Pictured, left to right: Kaylee Ruff, Lily Morris, Adysen Colvin, Erin Knofsky, Levi Eads, Brenden Cash and Kaylin Williams.

— Lydia Richardson

Tuscola

Student council members volunteer with student council President Elle Jones to create Easter cards for area nursing homes.

— Grant Kauffman

Uni High

Over spring break, the Scholastic Bowl team won the IHSA Class 1A state championship. The team (pictured, left to right: Jonathan Ouyang, Shreyas Singh, Arjun Kala and Shawn Syed) traveled to Normal with coach Kaila Simpson and rolled in the first three rounds. Advancing to the championship game, Uni High won in convincing fashion to take home the victory led by senior and team caption Arjun Kala. Also, both the varsity and JV teams took first place at the Illinois Science Olympiad regional round. The varsity faced 12 teams, winning 11 of 23 categories and placing runner-up/second runner-up in seven categories. The team, led by senior and team caption Seyed Ahmad Dastgheib and coach Jim Carrubba, will compete at state next month. Pictured: James Lippert, Sri Kannan, Joseph Torellas, Swapnil Kumar, Taehan Lee, Harsh Patel, Jim Carrubba, Jonathan Ouyang, Daniel Song, Andrew Kim, Marlow Tracy, Lisa Spencer, Tessa Waldhoff, Maddie Kim, Zainab Memon, Hannah Song, Bruce Tang, Dan Yang, Savindi Devmal, Priya Haran, Andrea Li, Seyed Ahmad Dastgheib, Anuprova Bhowmik, Miranda Burgos, Zhaoxin Sun and Shriya Nagaraj.

— Wes Lu

Unity

Last week, the softball team began its season after two canceled games due to weather. The Rockets traveled to Tennessee to play in the Sarah Beth Whitehead Tournament. They won their first game on Thursday, but were rained out Thursday night and Friday. During rain delays, team bonding included a trip to a movie and TV show car museum and a family pizza and game night!. The Rockets went 2-1 on Saturday.

— Jolie Meyer

Westville

Freshman class sponsored a Dodgeball tourney and "B.I.N.G.O" night. The $800-plus collected will be distributed to the Vermilion County Animal Shelter and the school's food pantry. Pictured: bingo players and dodgeball winners.

— Irelynn Phelps