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
Guest Writer
Miley Phillips
By: Laci Burnett
On Friday, February 27th, Senior Rylie Burdette signed to play Softball and attend Highland Community College for two years. This event was huge, and the whole time, she was enveloped with support by her family, friends, peers, coaches, teachers, and DeKalb staff members.
Rylie Burdette has played on the DeKalb Softball team all four years of her high school career, and has racked up some very impressive stats. According to her, this took “Lots of hard work and lessons and money.” Over her four years, she has played in 90 games, where she has a recorded 109 hits in the box, with four of those being home runs and 36 of those hits being doubles, where she was only four shy of setting a new record. In total, she scored 39 runs, and was able to get her teammates back home 66 times, with only 4 strikeouts and was able to bat
a .422 in the box. Then, on the defensive side, during her time as a catcher, she was able to throw out 12 runners.
Rylie has worked hard to pave out this future for herself and “feel[s] thankful” to be where she is now. She credits her coach, Hayley Horr, for helping her get to where she is today, saying “She really pushed me in this direction and she really wanted me to go see the campus […] If that wouldn’t have happened, I wouldn’t be here.” Coach Horr is elated that she has taken this chance, and is excited to see how far she will go.
Coach Horr says that she is “proud of her for taking this step and trusting her ability to go out and represent our little town on the next level.” Along with her coach, her teammates, peers, teachers, family, and friends are beyond excited for her, and can’t wait to see how far she will go.
Rylie Burdette advises younger students to “Follow your heart, but take your brain with you and don’t take people’s advice the wrong way; always try to see the positive side.” Rylie has taken her own advice and made this future for herself, and has locked in two years of free tuition.
We wish Rylie Burdette the best of luck, and we know that she will make it far. Good luck, Rylie!
By:
High School Scholar Bowl had their first meet of the season on Thursday, March 5th They competed against Fairfax, Jefferson, and Craig at DeKalb, and they had a win/loss record of 2-1 For their first round, they crushed Fairfax 170-90. In the second round, they sadly lost to Jefferson 270-70, but they came back for the last round against Craig and won 100-60.
The team this year consists of five Seniors, including Ceci Sherlock, Faith Williams, Miley Phillips, Presli Punzo, and Team Captain Grayson Moore The team’s Juniors include Josie Long and Thomas Gunter, and the Sophomores are Brayden Massengale and Gunner Delp
“The team showed excellent team work and they really listened to each other on bonuses which we didn't do as well on last year,” said Coach Amy Miller. The top scorers for this meet were Senior Grayson Moore and Junior Thomas Gunter, who both scored 50 points on toss-up questions. There were several other players whose scores were pretty close as well. “The reason we don't have an individual high scorer is because our talent is pretty evenly distributed,” Miller added. Junior Thomas Gunter is new to the team this year and hasn’t competed since third grade. “I think I did well because I knew a lot of history and geography questions,” said Gunter
To prepare for their meet next week, “We need to work on Fine Arts, and remembering some of the weird rivers and geography,” said junior Josie Long Their next meet is on Tuesday, March 10th, at Nodaway-Holt where they will compete against Tarkio, Rock Port, and Nodaway-Holt.
By: Lauraly Lane
By: Grayson Moore
If you like fantasy books with sequels, then I recommend Skyshade by Alex Aster. This book, like the other two books, follows Isla Crown and her feelings for both Grim and Oro
Isla has to find a way to change her prophesied fate. This prophecy makes her choose between the two kings, thus causing her heart to “split in two.” After all of this. Isla ends up with Grim again. The two get married, and the war finally ends
Isla then finds out there’s no way to end Lark. So, Isla sacrifices herself by traveling through a portal to the skyshade realm. Isla dies, so she gets taken back to Grim’s realm. Grim then binds Isla’s life to his.
You can find Skyshade at Walmart, Target, online, and Barnes & Noble.
If you are looking for a new game to play, I recommend playing Reanimal. This adventure horror game, in which you play as a little boy and his sister when they go to rescue their missing friends, was developed by Tarsier Studios, who also made the Little Nightmares series.
Reanimal was released on February 13th this year and had almost 25,000 players on release and about 2,500 players now This game has about 16,000 reviews, with 72% of them being positive.
If I had to rate this game, I would give it a 7/10 because it’s pretty short, and it’s not my favorite style of game, but I really enjoy the world design and atmosphere
By: Miley Phillips
FFA Contest at Savannah
High School Scholar Bowl meet hosted at Nodaway-Holt, starts 4:30
High School College English class touring Missouri Western
FFA Contest at Hamilton Select FFA group will attend Farm City Breakfast
By: Katlyn Boydston
Last week, DeKalb’s Ag program celebrated FFA week FFA Week is a week celebrated all across the United States to celebrate and participate in activities for FFA members There were several events throughout the week.
One event was their visit to the Farm Show in Kansas City. Aaron Medsker said, “Everything went great The students really enjoyed the farm show ” The reason they do FFA is that some of their activities are good learning opportunities, like the Farm show, while others are just good fun experiences for FFA members.
Another event was to drive your tractor to school, and only two students drove their tractors to school Sophomore Conner Eastbourn says, “It was pretty good, but we should do more activities next year.” Conner’s favorite part of the FFA week was driving his tractor to school.
There was also a morning breakfast for the FFA members, and they passed out goody bags. Senior Presli Punzo said, “I think it went well, I think we could have probably planned a few more activities and got some more people involved, but we did have to drive your tractor to school day, which was pretty cool, and had a few people participate.” Presli’s favorite part of the FFA week was “probably the donuts because they were really good.”
By: Gunner Delp
A particular genre of movie that I often find myself enjoying is romantic comedies. As luck would have it, a movie in that genre was recently released. On February 6th, the movie Solo Mio was introduced into theatres after a highly anticipated wait
Solo Mio is Kevin James’ newest movie, in which he plays the role of a man, named Matt Taylor, who was recently left at the altar by the woman he thought was gonna be his wife, Heather (played by Julie Ann Emery) However, Matt Taylor unexpectedly finds himself falling in love with a woman who helped him out after his fiancée had left him. The movie takes place in the beautiful city of Rome and is all about finding oneself, second chances, redemption, and obviously romance
I very much enjoyed this movie, and would very highly recommend going to see it in your local theater before it is too late. I would also like to suggest that you see this movie with a significant other, seeing as it is a romance movie
By: Michaela Copeland
This week I’ve been listening to My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance was most popular in the early 2000s, primarily due to their albums, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and The Black Parade.
My Chemical Romance typically falls into the alternative rock, pop-punk, and emo genres MCR is mostly known for their songs, Welcome to the Black Parade, Teenagers, I’m Not Okay (I Promise), Helena, and The Ghost of You.
My Chemical Romance was formed in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when Gerard Way, at the time a comic creator, witnessed the attacks and felt inspired to form a band Although the band is still together and actively touring, they broke up in 2013, lasting until 2019 when they decided to have a reunion. They have been touring consistently since 2022.
I recommend My Chemical Romance to anyone who enjoys bands like Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Pierce the Veil, or Blink-182.
By: Bella Beems
Before I begin let me define “burnout” for you guys. Burnout is: a state of severe physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion caused by prolonged, unmanaged stress and overworking. Some symptoms of burnout are: chronic physical/emotional exhaustion, constant negative thinking, reduced performance, and detachment.
Now, I am not claiming to have the cure for burnout, and I’m not in any way a therapist. These are just things that help me when I am feeling this way, and MIGHT help you too!
5.Trysomethingnew
Whileitisimportanttodo somethingthat you enjoy,even it out with somethingnew as well.I’m not sayingtodo anythingBIGlike a newhaircut, butif youliketo cook,maybe trya new recipe.
1.outRecognizeyou’reburnt
Don’t just blow it off as being aabitstressedorputofftaking break. Recognize your burnt out and take a break away fromthesituation.
2.Leavethecurrent situation/surroundings Now,I’mnotpromotingskipping school,butifyoucantakeaday offoratleasttaketheweekendto getaway,youshould.Constantly beinginthesameplacethat stressedyououttobeginwithwill onlymakethingsworse.
3.Be by yourself
6.Pleasetalktosomeone
Even though it is important to be alone for a bit, you needto alsotalkto atrusted person who will listen. Just because you are having alone time does not mean you needtogothrough what you'regoingthrough on your own.
4.Do something that YOU enjoy
This one is the most important, do one of your favorite things that maybe you haven’t done in a while due to stress. This can stem from watching your favorite movie to simply eating/making your favorite comfort food.
You have to focus on you and you alone in moments like this or things won’t get any better. You already have enough stress going on, don’t burden yourself with other’s stress. Make sure your boat is not sinking before helping others with theirs.
wLikeIsaid,I’mnotatherapist.Thisisjustmy adjustayofdecompressing.Youcanalterand thesestepstoyourneeds.Ifyour prstressfeelsliketoomuch,pleasecontacta saofessionalandgetthehelpyouneed.Be feandtaketimetojustrelax.
Isabella Beems
