Trojan Trumpet

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‘Werewolf’s Curse’ a success

Assessment results announced

SADD sponsors fair

November 2009 Volume LXXXIV Issue 2 Troy High School Troy, KS 66087

by Whitlea Klaus

Junior and senior members of SADD went to the grade school Wednesday, November 27, to work with the grade school kids and play games for Red Ribbon Week. SADD members set up six different stations for the kids to rotate to. Two sta-tions were educa-tional, showing kids what is okay to eat, and medications that are dangerous to take without permission

from their parents. The other educational game that was played was a true/false game to make kids think about what is or is not okay to do. Other sta-tions included danc-ing, shooting baskets with small bouncy balls, throwing a foot-ball through a hoop and a dress-up game. “I thought it went really well! It is fun playing with the kids and teach-ing them at the same time,” senior Desiree Weatherford said.

by Katie Smith

The report card is in and... Troy passed! The Troy Elementary build-ing including grades five and six made Stan-dard of Excellence in Reading. Third grade also received the honor in Math. All grades at Troy High School and Middle School achieved Standard of Excel-lence in Reading. Grade eleven also achieved the Standard of Ex-

cellence in Math. “I was very pleased to see the number of groups that achieved Stan-dard of Excellence and the individuals that proved they are learning by doing well on the assess-ments,” Mr. Cash replied when asked how he felt about the test scores. “We are getting to the point where it will

be harder to reach the standard set. Only by having every student working as hard as they can, will we be able to make the im-provements to reach the ever higher bar.” The school board has decided to give each student in the grade level that earned Standard of Excellence a t-shirt.

Happy Thanksgiving!

by Daniel Dominguez

The costumes have been put away, the props have been put back in storage, and the lights have been taken down all after two great performances of The Werewolf’s Curse, or Hair Today, Gone To-morrow, produced by the drama department. Last-minute changes and performance pol-ishes were made all throughout the week including some input from the cast pertain-ing to blocking and di-alouge. November 12 the cast

and crew performed for the public as well as for most of their peers. The sec-ond grade through high school came and supported their friends while also getting a good laugh. The performers also enjoyed show-ing their talents off to the school. “I thought it [the play] was really animated and fun. I think it’s one of the best plays we have done... My favorite part was showing them [the audience]

all we had been work-ing on and it paid off,” said senior actor De-siree Weatherford. The production ran a second night, Novem-ber 14, for the public. The play was received well by the audience that laughed through most of the evening. Junior Steven Clary, who performed for the first time at Troy, said of the experience,“I liked doing the play but I won’t do the mu-sical!” The club will now start early prepara-tions for the musical.

Left: Dr. Frank Einstein, played by Kenneth Thar-man, prepares to sedate Ste-ven Clary, or Harry Pate, for surgery. Photo by Mickayla Shelton

Above: the cast and crew of The Wereworlf’s Curse, or Hair Today Gone Tomorrow pose after their matinee performance for the grade school, middle school, and high school. Photo by Mick-ayla Shelton.

Editorial Trojan Trumpet November 2009

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New Moon, Olive Garden: winning combo

The Trojan Trumpet

PO Box 160 66087 Volume LXXXIVIssue 2 November 2009

Editors in Chief:Daniel DominguezNews Page: Whitlea Klaus, Katie SmithDaniel DominguezEditorial Page:Daniel Dominguez, Katie SmithFeature Page:Whitlea Klaus, Dil-lon Simpson, Daniel Dominguez

Sports Page:Steven Clary, Whit-lea Klaus, Dillon SimpsonPhotography:Mickayla Shelton and StaffAdvisor:Martha-Jean Rockey

by Whitlea Klaus The long awaited ar-rival of the Twilight Saga: New Moon has finally come. Teens and adults everywhere are just as excited as Troy’s students when it came to seeing this movie. My friends and I arrived at the theaters about an hour early, only to see the line that had formed the entire length of the theater hall. Once we were able to get into the sold-out theater, it was fairly easy to find enough seats for ten of us. As of Sunday, Novem-ber 22, the box office showed an amazing esti-mation of $140,700,000. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is left heart-broken and depressed, when her true love, Ed-ward (Robert Pattinson) leaves her behind, after a near- fatal accident on her 18th birthday. Due to his fears of Bella’s being hurt, Edward con-vincingly tells her that he no longer loves her or wants to be with her. After months of sitting at home, Bella begins getting out more and hanging out with her childhood friend, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). She realizes that when she participates in dan-

gerous activities, she sees images of Edward. Trying to hold onto any piece she can of Edward, Bella helps Jacob re-build a motorcycle. At this time, Bella notices Jacob begin to change physically, and jokingly accuses him of using ste-roids. Jacob begins avoiding her calls, because he is unable to tell her that he has become a werewolf. After Bella has a near-death experi-ence, Alice Cullen returns to Forks to see if she is dead. There she has a vi-sion that Edward was going to go to the Volturi to have him-self killed, for he be-lieves he has nothing to live for anymore. Alice and Bella race to save Edward. Will she arrive in time to save Edward? To find out, visit one of your local theatres to see New Moon. Overall, this movie has tons of action, and does an excel-lent job of making you feel you are ac-tually in the movie. Chris Weitz does a much better job in this movie at keep-

ing emotion and liveli-ness in every moment. .If you liked the first movie, Twilight, you will love New Moon. While impatiently waiting for time to pass to see the mov-ie, we went to Olive Garden to celebrate a birthday. After a 45-minute wait to get in, I was not impressed with the quickness of service, and strongly believe they need to hire more staff. Our two waiters were very nice, one of them even stopping to take group pictures for us (including taking a picture of himself). We were all very full from the school’s Thanksgiving dinner, so we all shared sal-ad, breadsticks and a cheese ravioli. We also shared a slice of excel-lent pumpkin cheese-cake that was topped with graham crackers and caramel. Ol-ive Garden is a great place to go, if you have a small group or don’t mind waiting. Although it is pricier than most restaurants, Olive Garden has wonderful food with kind staff who make it an excellent choice for a special occasion.

Editorial Trojan Trumpet November 2009

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Roving Reporter

What are you thankful for?

“Family, friends, and students that stay awake during class,” said Mr. Hamilton. “Family and friends,”

said freshman Reece Simpson.

“My church youth group,”said senior Han-nah Simpson.

giving involves sit-ting around with relatives, filling your tummy with scrumptious food and spending the rest of the day mis-erable because you’ve eaten too much. Now there is nothing wrong with this, but have you ever thought that maybe there is more of a reason behind this holiday? I mean think about how much more you have to be thankful for besides food and family. As I was thinking about this myself, I thought of school.

Now, I don't espe-cially like school, but did you know that in the United States 99% of the total population over the age of 15 can read and write according to the Central Intel-ligence Agency in 2005? And yet 785 million adults in the world are illiterate. Be thankful you live in the United States and have the oppor-tunity to learn and attend school. An approximation made by the Nation-al Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty estimated that 3.5 million peo-

ple are homeless in the nation. Of those, 1.35 million are children. Be thank-ful you have a place to go for shelter and warmth. Water is a necessi-ty of life. The aver-age person uses 80-100 gallons per day. What if, in America, we didn't have clean running water? Ac-cording to water.org 884 million people (one in eight) do not have access to safe, clean water sup-plies. 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease. Forty-three percent of those

by Katie Smith

The leaves have turned and fallen; there's a chill in the air; Thanksgiv-ing is days away. I don't know about you, but all I can think about is food. Delicious turkey, creamy mash po-tatoes covered in gravy, hot stuffing, home-grown corn, juicy green beans, a hot buttered roll, and, of course, a big slice of pump-kin pie with a healthy dollop of whipped cream on top. Yum! If you’re like me, your Thanks-

deaths are due to diarrhea. Children ages 0-14 make up 84% of that death population. Be thankful for clean running water. After doing re-search on what to be thankful for, I found that anything and everything is worth giving thanks for, from the most ba-sic things that that we’re used to having and take for granted to the extravagant things that we are so happy to receive. Be thankful.

What should we be thankful for?

“Friends and family,” said sophomore Molly Jamvold.

“Food,” said junior Garrett Meng.

Feature Trojan Trumpet November 2009

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Logan’s mother’s house. “I was shocked, sad and very upset when I found out what hap-pened,” Traci Smith said. The Smith’s home caught on fire due to bad wiring when their fuse box shorted out. They lost everything ex-cept for what they were wearing at the time. Their advice to every-one is to have plenty of smoke alarms in your home and to always check your fuse box and power outlets. McNorton to the res-cue! When he’s not at school teaching, Mr. McNorton is a part-time firefighter. He is usu-ally called out once or twice a month to a fire. McNorton’s advice to prevent a house fire is to check all electric ap-pliances. Be careful with candles and have your furnace serviced. Also, check your chimney for build-up, especially be-fore the winter season. Are you interested in becoming a firefighter?

FFA Educates about Fire Safetyby Whitlea Klaus Do you have a fire safety plan at your home? This is the ques-tion most grade school kids were asked during Fire Safety Week. The FFA showed their lead-ership when they went to the grade school, Tuesday, October 20, to teach the kids about fire safety. During the two hours the FFA was there, the members were split into groups to go to their as-signed grade. Members spent about 20 minutes in the classroom sharing facts and asking ques-tions. Then, they took their class outside to take a tour through the fire truck and see how different equipment is used. Some members of the Troy community have been impacted by house fires. One fam-ily is Kodey and Kelsey Smith’s family. At the time of the fire the kids were at school and Traci and Logan, Kodey and Kelsey’s parents, were at

The age limit for be-coming a firefighter is 18. There are training classes and drills per-formed at meetings to prepare anyone who is interested.

Did You Know? - Between 1998 and 2007, there were an average of 397,000 house fires each year. - In the U.S., someone dies from a house fire roughly every three hours. - Almost half of all house fire deaths in the U.S. happen between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.. - What causes house fires? - 36.4% : unknown cause - 26.4% : caused by cooking - 11.4% : heaters - 5.7% : arson - 5.4% : candles - 2.1% : smoking - 0.4% : children playing with matches -- National Fire Protection Association

by Dillon Simpson

Tori King, a 15-year-old freshman, came from Patton Middle School in Fort Leav-enworth, Kansas. She is the daughter of Chad and Shannon King. Her brother, Cadence King, goes to Troy as well.

Tori's favorite sport is basketball. She plans on participating in basketball and track this year. She likes the Troy High School schedule; she had it last year. Tori has two dogs and one cat. She likes her dogs the best.

In her free time she likes to read and draw. Before coming to Troy, Tori had moved 10 times and lived in five states including Colorado, California, Missouri, and South Dakota.

New student comes to Troy High School

Firefighter Matt McKittrick dresses the kindergarten class in firefighter gear for FFA’s Fire Safety Week.

Feature Trojan Trumpet November 2009

by Whitlea Klaus

What happened to fall? The cold has ap-proached much faster than anyone has ex-pected which means staying warm! Ameri-can Eagle has all new fall and winter fash-ions to fit everyone’s style. Guys, it’s time to put away the jean shorts and cutoffs and find your comfortable new

Editor visits Union Star High School

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ski” still rather funny. After lunch, Loren wanted me to join him in his psychology class. Unlike Troy’s psychology class, Star’s is not a dual-credit course; neither was Alex’s college al-gebra class. Star does not offer any courses for college credit. I reunited with Alex for his last class be-fore seminar: Land-scaping Agriculture. I was very surprised to learn that in its entire-ty, this class had only two students. After school ended, Alex’s sister, Martha, took a picture of the three of us before I left. These visits to these other schools have definitely shown me what we have at Troy High School to be thankful for, and as far as I’m concerned, Troy is just right for me.

by Daniel Dominguez School, school, we all have school! It’s something that ev-ery child in America is privileged to and experiences at some point in his or her life. This common factor we all share can dif-fer greatly, however. From public to private and small to big, this country features them all. In the last issue of the Trumpet, I report-ed on a visit to a larger school in Kansas City and observed the dif-ferences and simi-larities our schools shared. For this issue I visited a school on the other end of the spec-trum. According to the National High School Center, in 2004 the average size of a high school in America was 768 students. Troy is well below this figure,

but Union Star High School in Union Star, MO is even further down the list. “Star” has roughly 40 students enrolled. Their K-12 grades are in the same build-ing and their seminars incorporate students from middle school and high school in the same classrooms. I shadowed Alex Steiner and Loren Vulgamott on a rainy Monday. The early morning hallways were nearly deserted. Like THS, Star stu-dents gather before their bell rings. I found the K-12 grade students congregating on the bleachers in the school gym. Alex greeted his sister and Loren’s little brother, both in middle school, before the bell rang and we went to Alex’s first class, anatomy.

Star’s FFA had re-turned from the na-tional convention the weekend prior to my visit, and one sick stu-dent had infected sev-eral others who were now missing. The four who were pres-ent, however, worked through a study guide and read a chapter from their books sepa-rately. I then accompanied Alex to Language Arts IV. Competitively and as a class, they created their own vocabulary list that they would be tested on later. This list included words like foy and sexage-narian. Missouri students are also required to take a government class to graduate and this class included all of the seniors. Without ab-sences, the room fills with the fourteen se-niors. No books were

cracked but a movie they had started, Spy Game, was finished. Alex and I hurried off to Body Condi-tioning so that he could have enough time to change. Here’s an interesting fea-ture, though: a stage doubling as a weight room! My confusion was noticeable and it was explained to me that, yes, whenever they used their stage, all the weight equip-ment had to be re-moved. Star also calls the Trojan their mas-cot and I toured the school on my own to snap some photos. Lunch was very relaxed, and for me, strangely quiet. It was not entirely for-eign, though. Week-end gossips were still exchanged and in-side jokes were still laughed at. As an out-sider I found “Poopin-

style. From new long-sleeves to nice blue jeans, you can find a small amount of items to pair with almost anything. Haley Whetstine models jeans with a tank and sweater to show a cute way to stay comfortable and warm. Millie King pairs a brown tank with a matching sweater to

show a dressier way to stay warm. This also comes in many colors. Next, Whetstine shows a three-quar-ter-sleeved plaid but-ton-up with a warm hooded-vest. Any of these styles can be paired with match-ing scarves, gloves or hats. Although American Eagle may be pricier than many, it has cute

styles that everyone will love. Check out your local American Eagle at East Hills Mall in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Winter fashions arrive at American Eagle

Sports Trojan Trumpet November 2009

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by Steven Clary October 9 the Trojans continued their sea-son with a league game against the Jefferson County North Chargers. This contest was the fi-nal game before District play began. Troy got off to a great start with a 47-yard touchdown run by quar-terback, Eli Smith, and a 45-yard interception re-turn by Garrett Meng for a touchdown, both early in the first quarter. The Trojans never looked back as they racked up three more touchdowns. Troy’s defense played a major role in the game, holding an of-fense that scored 41 points the week before to just 12 points. A key part of this accomplish-ment was the five turn-overs that the Trojan defense produced. The turnovers came on two interceptions by Garrett Meng, two by Kaeleb Zeltwanger, and one by Jesse Masters. Troy’s of-fensive attack ended the game with 314 rushing yards on 45 attempts. Garrett Meng was the Trojans’ leading rusher with 131 yards on 10 at-tempts. The final score was 34-12. The Trojans traveled to Centralia for their first game of a four-game series that would deter-mine who continued to the state playoffs. Cen-tralia returned the open-ing kickoff for a touch-down and set the tempo for the rest of the game. The Panthers controlled

Troy on both sides of the ball, keeping them out of the end zone all four quarters and scoring a total of 52 points. The final score was 52-0. In order to remain in playoff contention the Trojans had to win both of their remaining Dis-trict games. The first of the two games was against the neighboring Doniphan West Mus-tangs. Doniphan West entered the game with a 2-5 record and a previ-ous week loss to District opponent, Wathena. The Mustangs began the game strong, holding the Trojan offense in-check and forcing them to punt. After a few first

downs, Doniphan West gave the football back to the Trojans, but not in the way they had in-tended. Troy linebacker, Kaeleb Zeltwanger, in-tercepted the Mustang pass and at the same time gave the Trojans the momentum they had been lacking. Troy methodically moved the ball down the field and put up the first points of the game. Randall Baskins punched it into the end zone on a two-yard run. The two-point conversion was success-

ful. At the end of the first quarter, the Trojans led, 8-0. Doniphan West’s le-thargic power offense failed to convert a touchdown throughout the game, while Troy’s offense racked up 35 points and 324 yards of total offense. The Mus-tangs’ hopes for playoff life had been destroyed, but the Trojans were still alive. The biggest game for the Trojans was still ahead. With county rival Wathena coming to town and a playoff spot on the line, competition was sure to be intense. Both teams brought a 4-4 re-cord into the game; the

Trojans were coming off a win while the Wildcats had just endured a 52-14 beating from Centralia. The Trojan offense failed to move the chains after the opening kickoff and punted to the Wildcats. The Wathena offense pushed the foot-ball to within range and kicked a 21-yard field goal. With a 27-yard interception-return for a touchdown and a safety on the following drives, Wathena looked to have an insurmountable lead. The only high point for

the Trojan offense came late in the second quar-ter when quarterback Eli Smith broke loose for an 8-yard touchdown. The two-point run by Kenny Tharman was success-ful. The first half ended with a score of 11-8, Wa-thena. The second half began with a defensive strug-gle. Both teams failed to gain any ground on the opponent during the third quarter and the score remained 11-8. The fourth quarter began with a Trojan of-fense drive that chewed up most of the clock. The drive finished with a 1-yard touchdown run by Garrett Meng. The point after was no good. The Wildcats failed to answer the score and the game ended, 14-11, Tro-jans. The Trojans’ leading rusher, Kenneth Thar-man, ended the game with 49 yards on 19 attempts. Troy’s sec-ondary also played an important role, produc-ing three interceptions, two by Jesse Masters and one by Eli Smith in the final minutes of the game. After finishing sec-ond in their District, the Trojans moved on to the state playoffs. Troy would journey to Valley Falls to meet the Drag-ons for their first-round game. The game would be a rematch of the pre-vious year’s first-round game which the Trojans won, 48-21. Valley was coming off a first-place

finish in their District and looked to show they were a legitimate playoff contender. Meanwhile, the Trojans hoped to improve on their annual first-round appearance. Valley Falls got off to a quick start, scor-ing touchdowns on their first two possessions. Both touchdowns came on runs of over 45 yards, giving the Dragons a 16-0 lead with over nine minutes left to play in the first quarter. Valley Falls continued to put points on the board, with a 32-point lead at the half. After the break, a Val-ley Falls touchdown pass gave the Dragons a 40-point lead. Troy finally scored on an 11-yard touchdown run by Smith. The two-point pass attempt from Smith to Ross Libel was suc-cessful and the last re-maining highlight of the Trojan season. The game ended with a score of 40-8. The Trojans finished the season with a 5-5 record. They also advanced to the state playoffs for the eighth consecutive year. Five players from Troy received DVL all-league honors, including Gar-rett Meng (linebacker), Jared Meng (center), Jesse Masters (safety), Ross Libel (tight-end), and Kenneth Tharman (linebacker). Kenneth Tharman finished his varsity career with 2,411 rushing yards.

Football season ends at Valley Falls

The Trojans huddle before a play against Valley Falls.

by Dillon Simpson The cross country team ended up having two girls compete in state. October 31 Hannah Simpson and Hana Speaks ran at Wamego. Hannah Simpson placed 16th with a time of 17:16, her second fast-est time this year. Hana Speaks placed 40th with a time of 18:10. They qualified for state by running at regionals, October 24 at Washing-ton, Kansas, on the Cedar Hills Golf Course. The girls tied for 4th place over all, with 87 points. Han-nah Simpson placed 2nd with a time of 16:58. Hana Speaks placed 9th with a time of 17:18. Haley Whes-tine placed 31st with a time of 20:02. Desiree Weather-ford placed 39th with a time of 21:33. Leslie Ostertag placed 40th with a time of 21:34. For the boys, Peter Masters placed 24th

Sports Trojan Trumpet November 2009

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Volleyball season comes to an endby Whitlea Klaus Teamwork. The abil-ity to work efficiently as a team. The Lady Trojan volleyball team learned just how much teamwork meant this volleyball season. As the season began to come to an end, the team took second at a Wathena tournament. “I think we have im-proved a lot, because we have really started working together as a team,” freshman Kelli Marriott said.

Troy’s last regu-lar season game took place at Wathena where they lost to KCC but took home a victory in two games against Wathena. “That was the best part of our season, beating Wathena three times!” seniors Han-nah Simpson and Bai-ley Morgan said. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the team wore pink socks and hair ribbons to support a

teammate’s parent who was diagnosed with breast cancer this volleyball season. The Lady Trojan vol-leyball season came to an end October 24 at Oskaloosa against the Immaculata Raid-ers. Seniors Hannah Simpson and Kia Gra-ble were not present due to Regional Cross Country and sickness. Although the vol-leyball team is losing three valuable play-ers, they are looking

forward to next sea-son, where there will be plenty of room for learning and improve-ment. “We started off rough but definitely improved. We just need to improve a lit-tle faster next season,” junior Mackenzie Clary said.

Mackenzie Clary watchess Kia Grable pass the ball.

Kia Grable, Hannah Simpson, and Whitlea Klaus wait for the ball.

with a time of 20:05, Gabe Martinez placed 56th with a time of 23:08, and Levi Dunn placed 61st with a time of 24:35. Dillon Simp-son started the race but did not finish. There

were 67 runners. October 20 the cross country team went to Jackson Heights to run. The boys’ varsity run-ner was Dillon Simpson, who placed 31st with the time of 22:17. The JV runners were Gabe

Martinez with a time of 22:40, placing 6th, and Levi Dunn placing 13th with a time of 24:02. The girls’ varsity run-ners were Hannah Simp-son, placing 1st with a time of 17:44; Hana Speaks placing 3rd with a time of 17:58; De-siree Weatherford plac-ing 26th with a time of 21:29; and Leslie Oster-tag with a time of 23:08 placing 33rd. There were 34 runners compet-ing for the varsity girls. The JV runner was Haley Whestine, who placed 1st with a time of 22:01. October 15 the cross country runners ran at Rim Rock Farm in Law-rence. The girls placed 6th as a team. Hannah Simpson placed 2nd overall with a time of 17:49. Hana Speaks placed 4th with a time of 18:30. Haley Whestine ran 21:14,

placing 42nd. Hanna King placed 47th with a time of 22:09 and Les-lie Ostertag placed 57th with a time of 23:47. There were 63 girls competing. Hannah Simpson and Hana Speaks were both first-team DVL runners. The boys did not have enough runners for a

team. Gabe Martinez placed 70th, running a 23:41. Dillon Simpson placed 88th running 25:41 and Levi Dunn ran a time of 26:02, placing 89th.

Far left: Peter Masters com-petes at Rim Rock. Left: Hana Speaks and Hannah Simpson embrace after running at the state meet. Below: Levi Dunn and Dillon Simpson run at Rim Rock. Photos by Angela Johnson.

Cross Country runs its course

Pictures Trojan Trumpet November 2009

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Clockwise from top: Senior football players shave Coach War-ner’s head. Kenneth Tharman demonstrates proper fire safety to grade school students. Peter Masters blocks a Wathena defender. Daniel Dominguez pauses while on a visit to Union Star. Desiree Weatherford helps prepare pumpkin pie for the Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Prudden lightens the mood during class. Jacob Win-kel performs during halftime of the Troy-Wathena football game. Union Star students lift weights in their makeshift weightroom.

You’ve been spotted