Contributed by the Patagonia High School Journalism Class
Different Angles of the NBA
At the high school everyone everyone has an opinion on how the NBA season will go and why they’re so excited for the start up. Here’s a sampling of comments.
Freshman, Chris Miranda, commented, with no hesitation whatsoever, that his favorite team would be the Miami Heat! Chris says that team trades from the off-season make it like a new start every year. It’s also very exciting watching the college students come in to play with the NBA.
Sophomore Ralphie Padilla’s favorite team is the Boston Celtics. Ralphie is ready to watch all the new talent coming in from the draft. “I love all-star break,” said Padilla. He likes the dunking competition, but the best is seeing NBA’s best players compete against each other.
Gabi Bueras, our current sports journalist, prefers the Los Angeles Clippers. Bueras knows they will win the championship this year. She explained to me that she is ready to rub it in peoples’ face about the new dynasty of the Clippers. Basketball is one season Gabi is ready for, and it’s one season she always gets excited for.
Graduating senior Jorge Martinez also loves the game of basketball. His favorite team is the Golden State Warriors. Seeing the college students improve their skills in the NBA is Jorge’s favorite part to watch.
Head Coach of the PUHS boys basketball team, Kenny Hayes, also has a favorite team the San Antonio Spurs, but he is more excited about college basketball. Coach Hayes says, “College students play harder, and the NBA is just lazy.” Watching college is just a better feeling, seeing all the effort put into every game. Coach Hayes is ready to watch Michigan State play this season.
However, Mrs. Journee Hayes says, “I can’t wait to see the Phoenix Suns, or anyone, really dominate the Spurs!”
The AGUILA Tour
The weekend before Halloween, a select few seniors and juniors across Santa Cruz County attended the AGUILA Youth Leadership Tour. Amongst the many students that attended the tour, were two of our local Patagonia students. Savannah Foster, the school’s student council president and yours truly. The tour allowed the students, numbering around 40 in total, to visit and explore eight different colleges from Arizona to Texas.
AGUILA Youth Leadership Institute was first formed in Arizona in 2004 and since then has assisted 800 students in enrolling in 78 different colleges across the nation. The ultimate goal for AGUILA, and for those who both work and volunteer for the program is to see success, academic excellence, and overall achievement in each participant.
The AGUILA tour was a wonderful experience that made everyone who went aware of what to expect when applying for college and what it was like to attend one. The program also informed the students about scholarships. Savannah said of the tour, “It was a great opportunity for students. I know that it will widen my views on colleges in general.”
Speaking for myself, I found the tour was a delightful experience. Being able to tour and see college life that students go through every day and all of the classes that the different universities offer was an experience that I won’t soon forget. It widened my outlook about colleges in general and motivated me to pursue my dream career. I now plan on taking the ACT and SAT and applying for scholarships over the course of the year.
A Ghoulish Good Time
This year the junior and senior class held a Halloween Carnival on October 31 in the school’s multipurpose room. The carnival included a haunted house, multiple games like bean bag toss, toilet toss, basketball shot, ring toss and more. There was a haunted house on the stage and was said to be one of the “scariest haunted houses ever!” by several young guests. There was also space for face painting, a guessing box, a cupcake walk, and a hula-hoop competition. The seniors/juniors also sold concessions.
There were about 50 kids all dressed in costumes. The juniors and seniors held a costume contest with winners in three age groups. About 50 kids were there. They played all the different games, and from what I saw, the bag toss and Nerf shoot were the most popular. The haunted house turned out to be a big success. It featured most of the helping a juniors and seniors popping out and scaring kids.
The guessing box was popular. Kids had to put their hands in and guess what they were touching, You could see that “yuck” look on their faces. The choices were guts, monster blood, skin, fingers, and eyes.
Amaya Somoza won the best costume for age 0 to 5, David Cabrerra and Natalie Cooper won for age 6-11 and Jose Perez and Dawn Novack won the teen division.
Basketball Preview
The PUHS girls and boys basketball has just tipped off with their first practice on Monday. The boy’s basketball teams have a wide range of 17 players and the girls have ten. The boy’s team is looking certain to have a JV and varsity team. The girl’s team might not have a junior varsity, but is filling up a varsity team for sure.
This year’s coach for the boys will be Kenny Hayes who has coached basketball for eight years. Luke Bentley will be his assistant. Coach Ralph Padilla who has coached for more than 19 years will work with the girls’ team assisted by Coach Stephanie Padilla.
When asked how the season will be, Coach Hayes said, “I never go into the season with expectations, but I do want us to work hard and have better defense.”
The girl’s basketball team made it to the second round in the state tournament last year, but this season Coach Padilla says, “I’m expecting to go to state again this year and winning it.”
The first game will be on Tuesday, December 2 at home against the St. David Tigers. So come and support these two teams.
Chess Practice Continues
Gilbert Melanson, coach of the PUHS Chess Team, tells his players, “Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.”
This year’s chess team: Illiana Castro, Garrett Fish, Danny Schrimpf, Kelsey Norton, and Calvin Whitcoe took this advice to heart and just barely missed making the state chess finals.
At the start of the season, the team traveled all across southern Arizona, finally playing at home on October 4. Now, even with the season behind them, many players are working on improving their games.
Chess practice is open to anyone during lunch. This might be team members or beginners. The players can eat lunch and call “checkmate” at the same time. Chess is not only fun, it is a good thing to do during lunch, and some of these beginners will end up on next year’s team.
The PUHS Theater Department presented The Nutcracker Suite on November 14 in the high school multipurpose room. A beautiful mix of dances that the students created themselves, with the help of director Augusta Lucas, wove together the tale of a young girl named Clara and her journey into a magical kingdom filled with sweets! The cast included Alia Gutierrez, as Clara; Daniel Schrimpf as the Nutcracker Prince and Savannah Foster, who played both Clara’s mother and the Snow Queen. Mrs. Elvia Gallaher and her kindergarten class performed as Mother Ginger and her six tiny Polichinelles.