Michaela Copeland
Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Bella Beems
News Editor
Laci Burnett
Reporters
Katlyn Boydston
Grayson Moore
Photographers
Lauraly Lane
Josephine Long
Designers
Ashlynn Bowen
Gunner Delp
Read about another hard-fought week for the Lady Tigers! -p. 3
Meet the newest baby Tiger in the DeKalb family! - p. 7
Learn about Senior Michaela Copeland and her future plans! - p. 9
By: Michaela Copeland
On Saturday, January 17th, Junior Cole Kovac was nominated to participate in the Four State Honors Band event at Northwest Missouri State University.
All the students nominated were given five pieces of music to practice and play with the group throughout the day. Then, in the evening, friends and family were invited to watch the performance that the combined band prepared.
Cole notes, “The director was very fun; he wasn’t strict. He was very laid back, so it made it a stress-free environment.”
Although the students are nominated by their band director, Cole says students should try their best to be a part of this experience because, “ I thought it would be a super stressful event, but it really wasn’t They designed it to be a fun event for everyone”
If you didn’t get a chance to watch the performance on Saturday, you can see the Band perform again at the next home Basketball game, which will be on Monday, February 2nd.
By: Laci Burnett
I would recommend the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, a gripping story of teenagers trying to find their purpose in a dystopian world filled with mysteries.
Everybody in Tris Prior’s world is split up into one of the five factions, each of which honors a virtue. Tris’s is abnegation, or selflessness, which she has been stuck with her whole life
Once she finally reaches the age of 16, she must take an aptitude test to see which virtue she aligns with most. She gets an unexpected result, which changes her life as she knows it, while putting her in severe danger.
This story is extremely interesting and sucks you in from the very beginning. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dystopian stories, as well as a small bit of young love. I personally would rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new book
By: Bella Beems
We are already almost one full month into the new year and all the rumors of “2026 is the new 2016” are seeming pretty plausible. This week I’ll recommend a 2016 favorite, Zara Larsson.
Zara Larsson was a teen favorite ten years ago and has made herself trending again with her feature on Stateside + Zara Larsson by PinkPantheress. This song is a personal favorite of mine and many others
Zara Larsson’s most popular song is Lush Life, a global hit in 2015, breaking the top charts in the UK. Another song by her is Never Forget You.
To get yourself into the 2010s mood or need a new playlist for your New Year’s resolutions, I definitely recommend Zara Larsson!
By: Laci Burnett
On Friday, January 16th, the High School Girls Basketball Team played in the championship of the Wildcard Invitational Tournament, where they went on to play a hard game against Union Star before taking home 1st place
The game was very tough, with Coach Rumpf saying, “There were 42 fouls, so there were a lot of people who had to step up and help out, but I feel that we overcame those situations and played well.” Even though it was a challenge, the DeKalb Lady Tigers came out on top, winning 52-33.
Then, on Tuesday, January 20th, the girls played against Rock Port, one of the best, if not the best, team in the state. Even though they lost, Coach Rumpf believes, “I do feel like we learned some things from it. I feel like it helped us get better, and it will help us for the rest of the year.” Although they faced a loss of 26-58, the girls never gave up and fought until the very end against a very wellrounded team.
Finally, to finish out their week, the DeKalb Lady Tigers faced off against West Nodaway on Thursday, January 22nd, in a fight for retribution from their previous game on December 5, 2025, where they just lost by one point. They ended up playing an amazing game, ending their week with a close loss against West Nodaway, with the final score coming to 46-57.
Come out and support your Lady Tigers as they fight to win in the King City Invitational tournament next week
Order by February 12th $ 1
By: Grayson Moore
If you are looking for a relaxing and fun game I recommend playing Minecraft, an open world sand box game where you can do pretty much anything that you want with over 1600 different items and materials
Minecraft was released fully in 2011 but the alpha version released a couple years earlier in 2009. Minecraft was originally created and the alpha version was released by Swedish game developer and Minecraft founder Markus “Notch” Persson
I enjoy playing this game because I like building cool bases and exploring. If I had to rate this game I would give it a 9 5 out of 10, the only thing I would change is the home screen I would change it back to an older version because it used to be a lot easier to navigate.
By: Gunner Delp
On Thursday, the Middle School Scholar Bowl team went up against Rock Port, Union Star, and Stewartsville The team won two of the meet’s three matches.
In the first round, DeKalb scored 100 over Rock Port’s 60. The second round ended in another win, with 140 over Union Star’s 90 The final round against Stewartsville was a 60 - 130 loss.
Coach Taylor says that overall the team is “starting to become a unified team. Everybody is finding their place amongst the group ”
Coach Taylor also said that this week’s top scorer was 8 grader Keiffer Solomon Keiffer says, “I feel on top of the world for being the top scorer last night ”
The Middle School Team’s season will end this coming week They will be taking on Union Star, Osborn, and Jefferson on Thursday, January 29, at Union Star
Her hard-work in Scholar Bowl
Her entertaining stories
On January 6th, 2026, Dekalb gained another tiger! Cooper James Wildhaber was born at 1:36 pm, and thankfully, the birth went smoothly He weighed six pounds and nine ounces and was 20 inches long
“I have been just beyond joyful about becoming a dad. That being said, it is also a scary experience since he is our first child and I am incredibly nervous about something going wrong,” said his dad, Jonathan Wildhaber.
So far, Cooper has been very well-behaved for a newborn He loves cuddle time with whoever is holding him, and he only gets fussy when he’s hungry
The process for picking a name was hard, but they both had lists, and they picked a name from each and put them together. Cooper is from Kate’s list, and James is from Jonathan's, and so far, his nickname is Coop
They are both very excited to be parents, and “we both want to thank everyone for being so supportive of our family,” said Jonathan. Welcome to the Tiger family, Cooper!
By: Lauraly Lane
On January 10, 2026, Mr. Medsker and his trapshooters went to Smithville for the Area 1 trapshoot. The top shooters for boys was Parker Pierce, with 43 out of 50, and the top shooters for the boys were a three-way tie between Kylee Dexter, Emma Pitts, and Kelsey Chatman, with 38 out of 50.
Mr. Medsker says, “It was good to get the January shoot in when usually that one gets canceled because of the weather Overall, our team is still in fourth place, and our goal is to get up to third place in the overall team standings of schools, but we’ve got a lot of shooters in the top five individually as well.”
The shooters this year have worked very hard on getting these scores, and their next shoot is February 7, 2026.
By: Josie Long
After a tough week in the Osborn Tournament with some players out, the boys were able to play against Rock Port This game sadly ended in a loss for the boys with a score of 26-65, yet they were able to regain their 6th player, Junior Kaiden Myers
“We need to work on not turning over the ball during our games because it happens a lot, and it just seems to be our weak point,” says freshman Gage Hartman “The main things I have taken away from our past games are that the more effort we put into the games, the better we usually do,” he adds.
The boys played against Nodaway Valley on Thursday, January 22, with a final score of 17-53 with Nodaway Valley winning Their next game will be Monday, Jan 26, at King City, so make sure to show up and support these Tigers for the hard work they have put in and the perseverance they have shown.
By: Katlyn Boydston
For this week’s What to Watch, I recommend The Housemaid if you're interested in a thriller. This movie came out on December 19, 2025
The Housemaid is a book-based psychological thriller based on the first book in Frieda McFadden’s viral series In the film, Millie Calloway, a woman with a criminal pas,t takes a job as a live-in maid for the wealthy Winchester family, only to discover dark secrets and manipulative games within the household.
The Housemaid also involves the erratic wife Nina, the kind husband Andrew, and their daughter Cecelia, all while Millie navigates her own hidden past and a dangerous dynamic with her employers. The story unfolds with major twists, revealing that Nina and Andrew’s dysfunction is an act, and Millie becomes entangled in their sinister relationship
I rate this movie a 5 out of 5 because it looks like a good movie from what I've seen previously
byMrs.Powell
