Friday, September 15, 2023
Back in the saddle
Ethan Scott
Abigail Thomas is taking on game day from the back of a horse after spending two years on the sideline.
Abigail Thomas’ journey to Spirit Rider Bella Casey News and Lifestyle Assistant Editor
hood pony were formed on the back of a horse. On Sept. 2, Thomas saw a new view from between the ears of a horse: Boone Pickens Stadium. Horse ears framed different views Thomas is the 2023-24 Spirit for Abigail Thomas throughout her life. Rider. She is responsible for riding Lifelong memories from OklaBullet at football games, accompanying homa High School Rodeo Association, him to events and riding him during the roping lessons and rides on her childweek.
“The whole thing is so Abby,” said Abigail’s mom, Christi Thomas. “I mean, everybody that knows her is like, ‘This is the perfect position for her.’” She commutes to Tulsa four days a week to ride Bullet and spends every moment of game day by his side. Each week, she pours hours into her major, interior design, and runs a photography business.
Although Abigail said organizing her busy schedule is as easy as writing everything down, her fiancé, Cale Brooks, said her work ethic is to credit for her time management abilities and her position as Spirit Rider. “There’s absolutely nothing that she can’t get as long as she tries,” Brooks said. “She’ll do whatever it takes.” See Rider on 3A
Small COVID wave hits OSU Kennedy Thomason one on her dorm floor News & Lifestyle to test positive, but there were other cases Editor identified in the same
Courtesy of Robin Herro The Cowboy Marching Band will debut 40 new silver trombones this Saturday.
Christmas in September
OSU alumni donate 40 custom trombones to the Cowboy Marching Band Jessica Pearce Staff Reporter OSU’s Cowboy Marching Band will look and sound different when it takes the field Saturday. The band is equipped with with 40 custom silver trombones, donated by OSU and CMB alumni Bob and Pam Spinks. The year-long journey to
What’s Inside
attain the trombones began at a football game last season when the Spinkses first met the director of bands, Brad Genevro. Through the second half of the game, Genevro and Bob Spinks, a former band director, discussed the organization’s goals for future years. “Brad and Bob absolutely connected as music educators,” Pam Spinks said. “Brad’s idea of what he wants to do and how it
New BOB changes leave students, staff out to dry
helps the kids— they just had a mind meld. We drove home and Bob said, ‘We’ve got to help.’” Bob and Pam Spinks said they view their donations to the CMB as a natural way to give back to an organization that gave so much to them: the Spinkses met through marching band and developed skills and relationships that lasted long after they graduated more than 50 years ago. See Trombones on 4A
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The power of women in leadership
Maggie Bertwell never thought she would spend her first week of college in quarantine. The freshman noticed symptoms on the first day of class. “I started feeling sick Monday night, but I thought it was maybe because I’m stressed out,” Bertwell said. “It wasn’t like I got up the next day on Tuesday and I was like, ‘I cannot do this.’” Bertwell made an appointment with University Health Services and tested positive for COVID. She self-isolated, bearing the brunt of her 103.7 degree fever. She was the only
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building. Katly Clift, a student academic mentor for the FIT living learning community living in the same dorm, said some of the freshmen she is in charge of experienced illness. “I didn’t know about any of the sickness until like a week after they were sick,” Clift said. “They just kind of isolated themselves.” In line with the rolled back CDC protocols, UHS no longer tracks at-home positive results and doesn’t require students to self-report. Clift said it was “nerve-wracking” to handle a COVID outbreak during the first week of school. See Covid on 3A
Scotty McCreery comes to town Q&A
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