Enterprise The Idaho
Oneida County's News Since 1879 Malad City, Idaho
February 29, 2024 |Vol. 144 No. 9
MHS Wrestling Reigns Supreme at State; Coach Morrison named 2A Coach of the Year
In the end, it was no contest as the Malad Dragon wrestling team overwhelmed the IHSAA State Wrestling tournament. With 17 talented wrestlers qualifying to compete at the final tournament of the season, it seems a given that the MHS team would find great success over the two day competition. Nonetheless, being crowned as the 2A 2024 State Champion team was an impressive and long celebrated feat for the Dragon wrestling team. The Idaho State wrestling tournament was held in Pocatello at the new ICCU Dome Friday, February 23 and Saturday, February 24. 40 2A teams from across the state competed for individual victories as well as team glory. Having taken care of business at the District Tournament, each of the 17 Malad played a part in their huge team win. Even before the second day of wrestling, which featured the final matches in each bracket, the Dragons secured the place as the number one team with 183.5 points. Coming in second place was New Plymouth, but a far 24.5 points behind Malad. Their impressive team score was made possible because each and every member of the Dragon wrestling team won matches. Head Coach Devin Morrison said, ““It was definitely a team effort. Everyone of our kids contributed to this win and that is something they should all be proud of.” The tournament didn’t go as well as all the wrestlers had hoped as they battled it out on the mats with the
NEWS IN BRIEF US lands craft on moon
The Odysseus lunar lander has become the first U.S. made spacecraft to touch down on the moon in 50 years made touchdown last week. The condition of the craft is unknown by mission control at present. The craft, nicknamed “Odie,” experienced a very difficult landing attempt, during which mission control lost communication contact with the craft. Later, contact was announced to have been re-established. The mission for Odie, the first commercially produced vehicle to touch down on the moon, is to assess the environment of the moon’s south pole in advance of the planned crewed mission to the moon, currently scheduled for late 2026. Coach Devin Morrison's team took state, while he took home the Coach of the Year award.
very best from around the state. Day one of the state tournament had some highs and some unfortunate lows for the Dragons. As the first day came to a close, twelve MHS wrestlers were still found fighting for a spot on the podium, Malad having the most wrestlers of any team still competing in the 2A tournament. Throughout the day, the Dragon wrestlers had put up several great wins, but had also experienced upsets of other high seeded Dragon wrestlers. “After tough losses it is up to the kids to decide what kind of wrestler and teammate they are,” commented
Coach Morrison. “They can give up and feel bad for themselves or they can push ahead and help their team succeed. Our wrestlers chose to show up for their team and fought hard to earn team points and put themselves on the podium.” In the first round of wrestling on Saturday morning, the Dragons continued to fight and pushed nine wrestlers to the medal rounds. In the semi finals, freshman Oakley Maddox upset the number one seed, a senior and MHS WRESTLING On Page 12
Beauty and the Beast performance will begin this weekend On Monday night, the cast and crew of the Oxford Peak Arts Council and Malad high School Drama Club’s production of the musical “Beauty and the Beast” held their first dress rehearsal in advance of the show’s opening engagement on Thursday, February 29 at 7:00 p.m. The show will run from the 29th through the next two weekends. Performances will take place on March 1, 2, 4, 7, 9 and 11. Saturday March 9 will feature both a 2:00 p.m. matinee in addition to the regular 7:00 p.m. performance. Tickets are $14, with group rates of $12 for groups of 10 or more, and $12 for seniors and members of the military. A dress rehearsal has the unique effect of being both a nerve-wracking plunge into the deep end of the full production while also providing something of a safety net that will ultimately be pulled away before the first performance. The purpose of a dress rehearsal, of course, is to nail down all the disparate elements of the performance into a cohesive whole. The memorization and acting elements of the play are just the tip of the iceberg of the components that need to be stress-tested during the rehearsal. Beyond them, the evening’s run time is devoted to the timing and interplay of the technical elements of staging the play. As the dress rehearsal went on, scenes were frequently redone in order to try various combinations of sound equipment, audio levels, lighting selections and cues, and pre-recorded track timing.
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The large “Be Our Guest” number is probably the best known of the musical. It is a good example of a scene with a large number of moving parts and staging elements to coordinate.
The light, sound, and stage elements were handled by Madison Alvarez, Ada Campbell, Jade Charles, Mordecai Charles, Jenetta Jacaway, Kala Layton, Jeff Richins, Ella Sperry, Jenny Sperry, Elyzabeth Teeples, Alivia Waldron, and Connor Worrell. “Staging” is the catch all term used to cover the “mise en scene” or visual appearance of the play. Staging includes everything from props and costumes, to set design, lighting and sound, and other elemets that help define the look of the play. As the actors refined their performances on stage, the conversation behind the scenes between the technical crew were just as busy as
they discussed staging choices. The crew tried out different microphone setups, level combinations, lighting choices, and so on. Several times the back of the theater crew asked the actors to reposition themselves on stage in order to achieve better spotlighting or clarify a microphone pickup. Beyond technical issues of appearance, the directors of the play, Chalae and David Teeples, also used the dress rehearsal as a way to block the movement on stage with a full cast to work with and around. “BlockBEAUTY AND THE BEAST On Page 2
INSIDE THE ENTERPRISE
Mental Health Committee Report ............. Pg. 2 School Board............................................... Pg. 3 Legislative Updates..................................... Pg. 5
Community Calendar.............................Pg. 10 St. David's Day...................................Pg. 11 Sports......................................................Pg. 12
Grocery merger leads to lawsuit On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the $25 billion dollar merger between Albertsons and the Kroger Corporation. The proposed unification of the two grocery giants would be the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history. The FTC is skeptical of the merger, because in their opinion the merger would radically reduce competition in the supermarket sector at a time when food prices are skyrocketing. Kroger and Albertsons employ unionized employees, and the companies state that their merger would represent an alternative to the non-unionized companies Walmart and Costco, although unions themselves are largely opposed to the merger.
AT&T Outage affects thousands
Last Thursday, tens of thousands of U.S. customers lost cell phone access as as result of an outage on the part of AT&T. While there have not yet been any reports of serious results from the interruption, many 911 services were potentially unable to receive or respond to an unknown number of calls, and it was reported that some lines had been flooded by calls from people seeking to verify that their phones could still contact emergency services. There is no evidence that the outage was the result of any malicious action, but the chaos and communication problems that resulted from it certainly put a spotlight on the potential for such an interruption in service to generate confusion if a malefactor were to undertake it in the future.
Brad Compher trial underway
The man accused of murdering Pocatello woman Nori Jones in 2004 is finally facing trial for his alleged crime. Compher was originally charged with the stabbing death of Jones in 2014. His trial has been delayed since that time as his competency to stand trial was argued in the legal system. Compher was first found competent enough to understand the trial proceedings, but was deemed not competent enough to justify the death penalty as a potential punishment. DNA linking Compher to the crime has been uncovered in the meantime.