The Black and Gold Volume 5 Issue 32 April 24th, 2026

Newspaper Staff

Editor-in-Chief

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

FFA Goes to State

Read about DeKalb’s FFA group traveling to State and how all the members did! -p. 6

New Baby Tiger!

Learn about our newest member of the Tiger Family! - p. 7

DeKalb Takes Shelter

See what the Tigers did during the tornado warning last Friday - p. 12

By: Gunner Delp

On Saturday, April 18th, the DeKalb Scholar Bowl team attended Districts at Craig. After a mixed performance in the preliminary rounds, they were unable to qualify for the championship rounds.

In the first round, the team was given a bye. The second round, we unfortunately lost to Tarkio with a score of 90 - 190. In the third and final round of the day, they pulled off a win against Craig with a score of 160 - 90

The whole team did exceptionally well. However, Senior Grayson Moore went above and beyond and earned the team a total of 460 points throughout the season out of the 2,680 total points. This score comes out to be 200 more points than the second-highest scoring player and earned him a Team 1 All-Conference title.

Grayson Moore states that, “This year's season went better than previous years based on the season record ”

Coach Miller agrees: “It was a great season overall. The students outperformed themselves, and we had a lot of strong talent. I’m looking forward to next season.”

Middle School Track Earns More Hardware at North Platte

By: Michaela Copeland

The Middle School Track

th

North Platte and earned quite a few places in the process placed 2 , which included Elliott Tanner, Zoie Nowak, Avalee ell placed 2 in the High Jump, and Jackson Wachtel placed Zoie- 6 in Long Jump. 4x200 placed 4 - Klhoee, Makenna

While placing is nice, it isn erything. gr g ys she got two personal records at the track meet on Tuesday “ I feel like everyone did really well, I got two PR’s, nobody got hurt, and we all worked as a team.” Other positives include the chance to “meet new people and visit other places while also staying active,” says 8 grader Tucker Lane. Keddie agrees that track is a good way to build relationships and a community while staying active: “When I’m running it feels like I'm floating and I like to listen to my thoughts. Track is like a family to me.”

In addition, some of the athletes feel the need to push themsevles at their sport Tucker reflects that “I still need to get my spin down for disc and do better on my triple jump” As a team, he adds that they each need to work on “Running faster, getting field events down, and putting forth our best effort.”

The team’s next meets are on Tuesday, April 28th, at Tarkio, and Thursday, April 30th, at Riverside,so make sure you come out to support them.

What to Read

By: Bella Beems

It’s not often that people recommend graphic novels, and it's not often you see a high schooler reading one, either But today, I want to recommend a story that has stayed close to my heart since I first read it in 6th grade

Smile by Raina Telgemeier is a true story about the author growing up in braces after a dental trauma in middle school through high school in the late 80s to early 90s. Through the story, you see Raina struggle with not only the physical pain that having braces has on her, but also the mental image of herself being pressured by hitting puberty, and her braces don’t help in that process.

Smile is a bit of a coming-of-age graphic memoir that follows Raina through her struggles in a goofy and silly way that kids and teens can relate to

Please check out this amazing story and some other similar stories by Raina Telgemeier if you are looking for an anti-overwhelming short read that has a good plot and meaning.

What to Listen To

By: Katlyn Boydston

If you listen to Meghan Trainor or you are interested in listening to a new album, then I recommend Toy With Me. Meghan Trainor releases this new album on Friday, April 24th, and it has 16 different songs. This is currently her seventh studio album

The album explores themes of selfconfidence, personal freedom, and navigating relationships. Described as her most honest and fearless work to date, the album focuses on personal growth, overcoming insecurity, and learning to meet people where they are at.

Some of the songs on this album are Get in Girl, Chef’s Kiss, Little One, Delulu, Ladylike, Shimmer, Still Don’t Care, Pink Cadillac, Princess, Men’s Tears, Potential, Angles, Rich Man, Cry Baby, and Hush.

By: Miley Phillips

High School Baseball at East Atchison

High School Track at Stanberry

Middle School Track at Tarkio

High School Baseball at OSHS

Middle School Track at Riverside

High School Baseball at home against Rock Port

High School Track at Mound City

DIVA of the WEEK

Aric Bramble

Reason: He is a

pro in track

Brinkley Frakes

Reason: Works

hard in pole vault

FFA Goes to State Convention

By:

Lauraly Lane

On Wednesday, April 15, six contest teams went down to Columbia to compete at the FFA State Convention. The teams stayed down in Colombia for three days; during this time, their schedule was packed with activities at the State Convention.

On Wednesday, they went to the Mizzou Arena to see Conner Eastbourn be recognized for his SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) in agricultural mechanics Conner says, “I spent a lot of money on my SAE, so getting recognized for that is nice.”

Thursday, they went to the workshops in the morning. At these workshops, they work on different leadership skills. “This is the most teams I’ve taken to State, and most of the teams got a Silver rating, which is very good at State,” says Mr Medsker “The Farm Management team got a Gold rating, and they placed eleventh in State They are the first team in ten years to get this rating ”

On Friday, the teams returned to Mizzou Arena to watch Ava Donaldson, Presli Punzo, and Kenzi Pflugradt receive their state degrees. For her group, Presli Punzo got 20th in the state individually. “It felt good to be rated group one all four years of contest, and it feels good because I worked so hard for it all four years, so being able to see a goal that I set be accomplished was very rewarding,” states Presli

Dekalb Welcomes A New Tiger!

By: Ashlynn Bowen

On Monday, April 13th, at 9:18 a.m., DeKalb welcomed a new baby Tiger into the family, Gianna Marie Holder! The birth went great, luckily very quick, and she was born at seven pounds, three ounces, and twenty and 3/4 inches tall. Mom and baby are both doing well.

Her name was inspired by the female saint, St Gianna, who has meant a lot to Mrs Holder and her husband over their first year of marriage.

Gianna has lots of personality so far. She loves swinging in her swing that rocks her side to side, and she will only sleep when she’s swaddled up tight. She loves to touch her face and will break her hands free from her swaddle to lay them on her face as she sleeps

“She’s my mini bestie,” said Jada Holder, mama to Gianna.

Welcome to the Tiger family, Gianna!

Track Acheives Several New PRs

By: Gunner Delp

On Tuesday, April 21st, the DeKalb Track and Field team attended their most recent meet at Worth County This meet went well, with many of the members achieving new personal records and putting forth a valiant effort.

Coach Rumpf states that, “Everybody did really well that day and competed well.” However some players gave an outstanding performance by placing a new personal record Amongst these players are Freshman Easton Matthews and Senior Kenzie Pflugradt

Easton got a new PR in the 100, with a time of 11.74, as well as a new PR in the 200, with a time of 23.98. Furthermore, Senior Kenzie Pflugradt got a new PR in the 400, with a time of 1:07.20. “Sure the team could have done better overall, but overall I don't think we did too bad that meet,” states Easton. Similarly, Kenzie claims, “I think I personally could have competed better”

The team’s next meet will be held tonight at West Platte Be sure to show up and show out for our Tigers!

Rain Affects Baseball Again

By: Michaela Copeland

On Monday, April 20th, the Baseball team played at Conception Junction against West Nodaway Although the team fought hard, they lost 10-0

“There could have been a lot of things done better [at Monday night’s game], like making contact with the ball more,” says Freshman Reid Reagan. Senior Kyle Funk also mentions that after Monday night’s game, the team needs to focus on “Making sure we get the bats ringing, less errors in the field, and just making more plays overall ”

Even though they still have things to work on, Reid Reagan says that “Cooper’s pitching was really good.” Kyle Funk also says that for in the next games, he really hopes to “Score some runs,” and “I want us to run the score up a little bit.”

There was a scheduled home game for Thursday, the 23rd, but unfortunately it got cancelled due to weather Even though the game was cancelled on Thursday night, the Baseball team has another game tonight at Dekalb, so make sure you come out to support them!

What to Play

By: Lauraly Lane

If you’re looking for a game to play with your friends, while also having a wide range of variety to choose from, then I recommend Roblox Roblox is a platform that hosts lots of games.

Many of the categories at your disposal include role-playing games, simulations, and obstacle courses; while also being mostly kid-friendly, there are also many that are meant for more mature audiences, such as horror, war, and fighting games.

In order to keep imperative safety measures, Roblox added a chat box for ages close to the player’s age, as long as you can prove your age, while this also applies for voice chat

Some games I really like at the moment are twoplayer games. Some involve animals like bees or spiders, and others are just your avatar Mrs Miller’s favorite is Retail Tycoon, which lets you design and run your own store

If you are interested in checking it out, you can set up an account at roblox.com.

What to Watch

By: Grayson Moore

If you are looking for a good movie to watch, I recommend watching Inception.

Inception came out in 2010 and earned a box office of total of $839 million worldwide on a budget of $160 million It is a Sci-fi action movie directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Cillian Murphy. Christopher Nolan also directed The Dark Knight trilogy, Oppenheimer, and Interstellar. Inception has a score of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8 8/10 on IMDb so it is a pretty good movie

Inception is about a thief named Dom Cobb, who enters people’s dreams to steal secrets from their minds. He is given a chance to clear his past if he can do something different: plant an idea into someone’s mind instead of stealing one Cobb and his team travel through layers of dreams where time moves slower and danger grows. As the mission continues, Cobb must also face painful memories that threaten the plan.

If I had to rate this movie I would give it a 79/10 because it can get pretty confusing.

FBLA Attends State

By: Ashlynn Bowen

On Sunday, April 19th FBLA’s advisor, Haley Horr, took the Hospitality and Event Management team to the State Leadership Conference in Springfield MO The team consists of Ceci Sherlock, Presli Punzo, and Grace Downing.

“My favorite part of FBLA is meeting all kinds of people and learning more about different kinds of businesses,” said Senior Presli Punzo The group was given a prompt that they had to plan and execute in 20 minutes The prompt was to plan a wedding for a group of people They ended up qualifying for the top fifteen, but they did not place

“We represented well. This is the second year in the past five years that we’ve had people go down and compete on the State level,” said FBLA Co-Advisor Haley Horr.

Afterwards they also went down and did some shopping at Bass Pro, saw some alligators and turtles, visited Fantastic Taverns and made some new friends They also ate ice cream in front of the world’s largest fork by mass, which has become a tradition to visit.

DeKalb Takes Shelter

By: Josie Long

Everyone who lives in the Midwest knows the weather is always unpredictable In the span of 10 minutes, we can experience all 4 seasons. On Friday, April 17, DeKalb students witnessed a oncein-a-lifetime severe weather event at school.

While the rain started coming down around 2:15, it abruptly came to a stop For the most part, the weather was calm, and the storm seemed to have passed us. That was until 3:00, when the hail began to come down. Even then, not many people thought it would escalate to the extent it did.

“I've not witnessed one [a tornado] personally I've seen them, but never been a part of one. The best way to figure out how to handle a weather emergency is just to determine the risk, and

there are just a couple of things I keep in mind when doing so. Like, for starters, the students' safety and keeping students calm so they do not panic in that situation It's also important to keep routines as normal as possible when taking care of the risk,” says Principal Austin Chisam.

Chisam goes on to say that he thinks “students and staff alike did a good job We didn't have anyone panicking, and everyone handled it well They did a great job, and I very much appreciate it ”

Thankfully, our staff was quick to act, and all s l f t

SENIORSPOTLIGHT

byMrs.Powell