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09/30/201909/30/201909/30/2019Issue 1Issue 1Issue 1

Homecoming 2019!By Aaron Baumiller

Parkston students spent the last full week of Septem-ber celebrating the yearly ritual of Homecoming, and this year, the weather was absolutely perfect, cool fall weather.

Th roughout the week we had multiple dress-up days. On Monday we had Farm Boss day, Tuesday was Twin day, Wednesday was Movie Character day, Th ursday was Th rowback Th ursday, and Friday was Blue and Orange day. We also enjoyed daily mini games like scooter races, a game of basketball Lightning, and the staff /royalty vol-leyball game.

Tuesday night was Coronation and this year’s candi-dates for king were Nate Boettcher, Nate Doering, Rylan Leischner, and Riley Weber; for the queen we had Sydney Wickersham, Amber Albrecht, Bennett McIntosh, and Hannah Braley. Th e Parkston Choir performed the song “We Will Rock You.” Th e band also performed for the crowd. Th e fall athletic coaches introduced their teams and brought everyone up to date on their seasons so far. Th en they fi nally announced the 2019 King and Queen: Riley Weber and Sydney Wickersham. Lastly they had the burn-ing of the PHS outside where students gathered to watch.

It was a busy sports week, as well. Monday there was a volleyball game at Tea Area, which the Parkston won in the fourth set. Th ursday there was a home volleyball game against MCM. Th e girls ended up losing in the third set.

Th ursday there was a JV golf meet at the Parkston Country Club. Four competitors from Parkston competed in the Open, and the fi nal scores were: Spencer Albrecht 59, Jaxson Scheetz 62; Ragen Weber 79; and Carter Som-mer DNF.

Friday was a busy day with Homecoming activities. Aft er a brief SRB, the classes went outside to put the fi nish-ing touches on their fl oats, and then everyone moved in-doors to participate in games. Th en, the community joined

the students for BBQ pork sandwiches and stayed for the pep rally in the National Guard gym. Aft er that, the stu-dents headed out for the parade.

Th at night, the football team took the fi eld for the last event of the week. Th ey faced a tough team, the Gregory Gorillas, and ended up losing 47-0.

Seniors Logan Seppala and Deanna Luikens coordinated costumes for one of the dress-up days.

One of the mini games, Musical Chairs, gave Gordon Seppala, Lindsey Roth, Baylee Schoenfelder, Summer Sloan, Emma Poore, and Jesse Newton a chance to shine.

Additional Photos from Homecoming on Pages 2-3.

By Alex Manley

The flood waters caused highways to be closed and streets to flood over the water. In some places in Parkston, the water reached about a foot deep. The water also flooded basements a lot and damaged the baseball fields, the parks, and some bridges. Some cars could get through the wa-ter but most could not so that caused parents to not be able to make to work and children to have three days off of school. After the water receded there was lots of trash and debris in the baseball fields. The construction on one of the bridges in town could not be done because of the water. Some people couldn’t make it out of their driveways and several basements were destroyed.

As a result of the flooding, the school closed for three days. But that’s not all, there was so much water that some people had water in there base-ments long after the water receded.

Floods cause school and community problems

Softball wraps up seasonBy Sadie Lindeman

Parkston Softball had an amazing season this past year. Bringing home yet another state title. The Parkston 18 & Under softball team has built up quite a reputation for themselves, win-ning three state titles in the years 2015, 2018, and 2019. In 2018, they went to nationals where they placed second. In their very first state tournament, in 2014, they placed third. They have also won multiple league championships. They play in a local league. 

Parkston 18 & Under has had some major ups and downs in their many seasons, but no matter what they stick together. Most of these girls have been playing with each other since they were five, though over the years many girls have come and gone from the team. This season there were thirteen girls on the roster with ages ranging from 15-18. By the end of the season, they had lost three girls but also gained a pickup player they met at a tournament. When they began to practice they had to work in the gym because the field was flood-ed by the rain.

The team went to four tourna-ments this year: Sioux Falls where they placed 2nd; Watertown where they didn’t place; Yankton in which they also didn’t place; Then finally their league tourna-ment in Scotland, SD, which they won for the 4th year in a row.

Taylor ThuringerOne of the most difficult events

for any school to work through is the loss of a member of our com-munity. This year, we lost one of our own, Taylor Thuringer, a bright and involved student who was about to begin her freshman year of High School.

Each of us deals with her loss in our own personal way, but we also come together and grieve, and eventually, heal, as a family.

It is an honor to have shared her life.

Sadie Lindeman

the clothespin game. In the cone snatch game, you have 11 cones on both sides of the mat. Then you split into teams and try to get cones back to your side without be-ing tagged.

The game, bulldog, is a little bit easier: One person is ‘it’ and they stand in the middle as everyone else tries to get to from one side to the other without getting tagged. Once you get tagged you are also “it” with whoever else is tagged. The clothes pin game starts by everyone having two clothespins on their shirt. Then you run around and try to get as many as you can to win.

The Cheer team’s most recent competition was a challenge against some of the biggest schools in the state. They earned 6th place behind SF Washington, Harrisburg, SF Washington Brookings and Watertown, but ahead of Mitchell (7), Yankton (8) and five other schools. It was an impressive performance considering the team had a last-minute replacement when one of the members had to leave the team abruptly.

Our first two competitions were canceled due to the widespread flooding after heavy rains. Our Home-coming then was the first chance we had to perform for the school. The rest of our compe-titions are September 28, October 12, 19, 21, and 25.

Parkston Competitive Cheer started August 5, 2019. We were the first fall sport to start. In competitive cheer we start off our practices with a five minute run or a type of game. The type of games that we have an option to play are cone snatch, bulldog, and

Competitive Cheer team starts earlyBy Maci Degeest

The Parkston Competitive Cheer team begins their routine at the Homecoming Pep Rally. From the left: Maelie Culbert, Madison Zwinger, Keelie Konfrst, Bennett McIntosh, Maci DeGeest, Gracie Oakley, Kennedy Heidinger,Kayla Neugebauer, Kenna Konfrst, and London Sudbeck, and just out of the frame is Rachael Mahoney.

Volleyball season going wellThe Volleyball season has been rolling along with

the team racking up more wins than losses. The coaching staff is new this year after last year’s coach, Mrs. Rylance, moved on to a new school. Abbie Hobbick has taken over as the head coach and Lyndsey Gerhart has joined the team as an assistant coach. The regular season runs through October followed by the end of season tourna-ments which run into November.

Volleyball players are intense as they pursue their sport!

By Quinn Bormann

The season is winding down quickly for the golf team. After placing first in the pre-region meet, and second in the region meet, the team heads to Vermillion for the state meet on October 7-8.

Adverse conditions caused the first golf meet of the season to be quite a challenge for this year’s boys golf team.  The scores were high, all across the field as the team compet-ed in the Pierre AA Tournament August 27, 2019. 

Parkston ended up finishing in 8th place with a combined score of 77 over par. Quinn Bormann led the team with an 88 and tied for 25th place. Kaleb Weber shot a 90 and tied for 26th place. Payton Koehn shot 93 and tied for 38th place. Matt Ehler shot 94 and tied for 40th place. Braden Bruening shot 98 and tied for 50th place, and Jon Akre shot 109 and placed 67th.

The tournament included a packed field of 12 schools with 78 golfers. The 12 schools that par-ticipated were Rapid City Stevens, Watertown, Spearfish, Aberdeen

Central, Mitchell, Pierre, Huron, Parkston, Rapid City Central, Mo-bridge-Pollock, Todd County, and Winner. 

The tournament started at 10 a.m. in a shotgun start. The weather conditions were not great out on the course. There was no rain but the wind was severe. The wind averaged 40 mph all day long with gusts got up to 51 mph.

The boys golf team include: Quinn Bormann-10th grade; Payton Koehn-8th grade; Kaleb Weber-9th

grade; Matt Ehler-10th grade; Bra-den Bruening-12th grade; and Jon Akre-11th grade. The team was led by their coach Tyler Hockett.

Boy’s Golf team approaches State

The 2019 Boys Golf team includes (from the top left corner) Quinn Bormann, Payton Koehn, Kaleb Weber, Braden Bruen-ing, Matt Ehler with Coach Hockett and, top right, Jon Akre.

By Kade Bialas, Landon Sudbeck, & Lane Johnson

The Trojan football team lost a high scoring affair to Wolsey-Wessington on Aug. 23. The game was a back and forth fight in the first half, but the Wolsey-Wessing-ton Warbirds pulled away in the second half. The final score was 62-36.

Wolsey got off to a hot start when they threw an 86 yard touchdown to start the game and take an early 6 to 0 lead. Parkston did not lay down after that. They put together a nice 50 yard drive which ended in a 15 yard touchdown pass to Rylan Leischner. The game con-tinued to be a back and forth battle until the Warbirds caught a 14 point, 42 to 28, lead heading into the half. In the beginning of the second half both defenses found ways to make adjustments and stop these high powered offenses with Riley Weber making an interception early in the third quarter. Parkston would continue to score on that possession, that would not be enough for the Trojans, however, and the Warbirds defeated them 62 to 36.

Rylan Leischner led the pack for Parkston with 136 receiving yards. Nate Doering went 7 of 14 for 106 passing yards. On offense, Nate Doering would rack up 106 yards of passing. He finished 7-14 with two of those completions going to Rylan Leischner for touch-downs. Leischner would also get back into the end zone with a 65-yard touchdown pass from Nathan Boettcher. Boettcher would finish the day with 60 rushing yards

Trojan Football faces tough scheduleand a touchdown.

The season is a tough one with many of our oppo-nents highly ranked in the state. At just past the half-way point, the team has a win/loss record of 1/4. The game against TDA/ACDC on September 20, gave the Trojans their first taste of victory with a 45-6 win.

Eric Norden, who has been coaching Parkston football for 9 years, stepped down as head coach this year. Matt Grave has taken over as the new head coach of the Trojans. He has been an assistant coach at Park-ston for three years now. It is his fourth year in Parkston, and there was an opening for head coach. So he applied and got the head coaching spot. Mr. Grave is also the Jr./Sr. High PE instructor, as well.

lt’s all about getting the ball down the field...Above: Nate Boettcher, Left: Rylan Leischner, and Below: Max Scott.

By Lindsey Roth & Jerry Kohler

The 2019 Ethan/Parkston cross country season is in full swing! The first practice was on Thursday, Au-gust 15. A total of 25 students are out for the sport. 

After summer break, they’ve been working hard to get back into shape. They started slow by running only about three miles per practice but now have worked their way up to five miles. What many of you don’t know, is that the team has been working hard to build up their core too. After practice every other day, they go into the wrestling room and do sit-ups, pushups, and many other core workouts. 

Four of last year’s six var-sity runners from both the girls’ and boys’ teams are returning this season. For the boys’ team, they have Austin Bartelt, Zach Clauson (Ethan), Noah Mahoney, and Evan Bartelt returning. Returning for the girls’ team is Lindsey Roth, Annalise Buenning, Taryn Lentsch, and Leah Klock (Ethan). 

The team’s first meet was Friday August 30, at Beresford. Leading the girls’ varsity team was Lindsey Roth finishing in 4th place with a time of 20:03.09. Leading the boys’ varsity team was Austin Bartelt with a time of 18:54.07 in 32nd and following him was Zach Clauson (Ethan) in 46th with a time of 19:35.58. 

The top girl in JV was Leah Klock (Ethan) running a 17:51.76 which placed her 11th in her 4k. Next, was Annalise Buenning (18:42.43) in 22nd , Kaleigh Royston (Ethan) (19:01.98) in 26th, Taryn Lentsch (19:19.03) in 32nd, Paige Kabeise-man (19:53.85) in 40th, and Morgan Hinckley (Ethan) (22:27.68) in 77th. 

For the boys JV, Riley Endres

Cross Country teams are stepping out(Ethan)  led the team with a 13th place finish and a time of 15:27.31, followed by Evan Bartelt (15:30.89) in 15th, Parker Hanselman (Ethan) (16:34.89) 39th, Kory Storm (Ethan) (16:46.13) 42nd, Jerry Kohler (18:25.48) in 94th, Logan Koch (Ethan) (18:59.41) in 106th, and Kevin RamosHernandes (Ethan) (21:08.31) in 127th. 

For the Junior High girls, Alys-sa Bartlet led the team with her 3k time of 14:27.76 in 30th and Ashley Clauson (Ethan) followed her with a time of 18:07.81 in 69th. 

In the boys’ Junior High race we had Gage Hohn (Ethan) in 11th with a time of 11:55.87, David Brock (12:45.41) in 34th, and Hunter Dean (Ethan) (13:28.00) in 59th. 

Thursday, September 19, the Parkston/Ethan cross-country team participated in the Chamberlain meet. Our boy’s JV team placed first out of all of the teams there this year.  All for the races that we had run-ners in placed runners. The runner that placed the highest on our team was Lindsey Roth that place 2nd in girls varsity. Our runners this time around did quite well with all of the changes to the course and with the weather that wasn’t best suited for running.

The course has changed from past years’ course due to unexpect-ed weather. The change cut off the whole back section of the course as well as two bridges that we used to run over. Instead of small loops on the inner part of the golf course and large loops on the outside of the golf course, they made the smaller loops more numerous to make up for the distance loss.

The weather for that day was challenging for a two to three mile run. It was hot, humid, and windy depending on where you were locat-ed. If you were really unlucky, you would hit all three of those weather types. More often than not, though, you would turn a corner and hit completely different weather. The weather was not the best to run in but it’s definitely not the worst weather to run in.

The varsity boys and girls teams at the Chamberlain meet.