Sweeter's Tiger Tracks

More Debate Excellence

Congratulations to Spenser Kavanaugh for placing as the first alternate for the National Debate Contest in International Extemporaneous Speaking.  Spenser just missed qualifying for nationals by a tie breaker final round rank. 

Grappler Success

I am excited to announce that we have four wrestlers represnting GHSat state next weekend in Aberdeen.  Yesterday Matt Thorson placed 4th, Ryan Delzer placed 3rd, and Jeric Albrecht placed 2nd in regions.  In addition to these three gentlemen Brooke Anderson brought the pain as he finished 1st at regions.  Way to go and good luck next weekend.  I am sure you will do us proud.

It has been busy!!!

It has been a great week for our students and staff.  Check this out:

Academically 

1. Mr. Johnson was nominated to the ballot and elected to the South Dakota Bandmasters Association board of directors.
   1. It is a 4-year term.
   2. He will serve as the representative from regions 3 and 4.
2. Mr. Stearns was given the Friend of Mathematics and Service to Mathematics Award at the Math and Science Convention
3. P/T Conferences -- Many Changes
   1. Taking lunch in shifts 5:30-6:15 & 6:25-7:00
   2. Adding an extra 30 minutes +
   3. Invited several universities and colleges to set up informational booths

                                         i.    NSU, PC, Lake Area, and Great Lakes

              4. Parents are excused from meeting with teachers if their student has an A in the class.

Activities

1. Wrestling
   1. Placed 2^nd in Districts
   2. Regions in Groton on 2/19

                                         i.    GHS Qualifiers:  Jeric Albrecht, Devon Poppen, Conner Blumhardt, Greyson McCranie, Matt Thorson, Dalton Locke, Brooke Anderson, Trenton Duncan, Ryan Delzer, & Derrick Lone 

1. State Tournament in Aberdeen on 2/25-2/26
2. We ordered group tickets this year
3. All State band
   1. Annie Hockhalter made All State Band for the 3rd consecutive year.  10th chair clarinet
   2. Kelsey Wieseler made it for her second year in 2 opportunities...batting 1.000!  6th chair clarinet
   3. Ashley Larson also is batting 1.000 with her second acceptance in as many attempts.  2nd chair bass clarinet
   4. And after 4 years of trying out, Spenser got in to one of the 2 baritone saxophone positions available!
4.   Debate
   1. Congratulations to Spenser Kavanaugh for placing 6th in foreign extemporaneous speaking at the Rushmore Challenge this past weekend.
5. Mathcounts
   1. Congratulations to Jacob Milbrandt for taking 2nd place and to Luke Smith for placing seventh in the individual division at the Northeast South Dakota Chapter MathCounts Competition on Saturday.
   2. Their team including Gabe Dohman and Lucas Sternhagen for being awarded second place in the team division thereby qualifying to participate in the state competition in March! 

 

 PHEW!!!

Check Day

Yesterday Hannah and Kyla two of the more influential students involved with the Shock and Awe campaign, gave a $7300 check to Richard and Holly.  This is actually only the first payment.  We have more money coming in so we will get the rest of it to them at a later date.  For those of you who don't know.  Richard is the founder of the entire Kids Against Hunger organization and Holly is the coordinator in Aberdeen.

 
 

Band Excellence

52 Groton music students attended the Region IV Solo & Ensemble Contest at the Johnson Fine Arts Center on Wednesday February 9th.  These students performed on their instruments and/or sang a prepared piece of music for a highly qualified judge who provided oral and written comments as well as a rating to the soloist or group.  1=Superior, 2=Excellent, 3=Good, 4=Fair, 5=Poor.  Pluses or minuses indicate "slightly better than" or "slightly less than" the given rating.  Students who recieve a "1" rating for a solo are awarded medals, and members of an ensemble that receives a "1" are awarded pins.  Congratulations to all that participated!

Shame on You

If you missed last night's girls basketball game, I am sorry.  Our girls shocked the world when they took down the #1 ranked Sisseton Redmen.  A true David and Goliath tale.  I have to say the atmosphere was electric.  Some strong senior leadership carried this rebuilding squad to the biggest win of the season, and perhaps since I have been a Grotonite.  Way to go ladies.  It was great game!!!!

BUGS

Every year we recognize the students that improve their grades from on quarter to the next.  Below is a list of BUGs or students who have Brought Up Grades.

7th Grade BUGs

2^nd Quarter

 

Amber Schuster

Lily Cutler

Emily Raap

Kiernan McCranie

James Thompson

Hailey Hanson

Carly Wheeting

Mason Hanse

Brody Sombke

Mikaela Blumhardt

Allison Weber

Aubray Harry

Katie Miller

Jerick Hanson

Angela Locke

Jayleen Lier

Brady Graff

Toby Weber

Kyle Miller

Isaiah Cutler

Carter Johndahl

Kaitlyn Ringgenberg

Jamie Krueger

Sarah Stange

25 out of 53 students or 47%

 

8^th Grade BUGs

2^nd Quarter

Gabriel Dohman

Natalia Dohman

Rachel Blackmun

Alyssa Sippel

Brittany Kjelden

Austin Merkel

Chelsea Rintala

Rayce Harder

Spencer Knecht

Kiana Kokales

Dylan Vogel

Sheldon Herr

Alec Voss

Kayla Moffett

14 out of 53 students or 26%

 

 

More Giving

Today I received a letter from the Salvation Army.  Apparently our students raised so much food that they were able to donate 49.5 pounds of food to their cause.  This was after the students gave many many pounds of food to local needy families.  More evidence that our students are the best.  Thanks to everyone that helped make this another success.

Things that make you go hmmmm!!!

I read an article today from Ed Digest.  While the article didn't really catch my attention for the most part, there was one quote that really stood out in my mind.

"Listen, I love basketball.  But the smartest kid in the school...should be getting as much attention as the basketball star."

This is a statement that I truly believe in, but will admit that I probably do put an unbalanced amount of emphasis on our activities.  Something to work on.

Winterfest Wrap-up

I might be biased, but I am extremely pleased with how last week's events transpired.  I am most excited by the overwhelming response to our Shock and Awe campaign for the Kids Against Hunger organization.  To refresh your memory we set a goal of 80 workers, 50000 meals, and $5000 dollars raised.  We crushed all of the goals except one, but I am going to call that a push.  We had over 250 workers, which overloaded all of our resources and expectations.  To date we have raised over $8300, and have been told that there is more coming.  Our only shortfall was that we only bagged 43000 meals, which I think is still extremely impressive.  I am calling this a push because we had some unforeseen logistical issues that couldn't have been resolved.  When we do this again we will conquer 50,000. 

As we were planning this we thought we might have been shooting too high.  I should have known better.  This community and its students always step it up when called.  Thanks to everyone that made this such a wonderful evening.

I have linked a slideshow to my wiki under the tab students in action.  Most of the pictures are from this incredible evening, but I did throw some other Winterfest Pics in there as well.