Red Devil Ready: Weekly Message

Week #16: Vision Quest

zoom_out_map

Decatur County Community High School

605 E Commercial St, Oberlin, KS 67749

December 3, 2023 (Schedule at the bottom, Skip What You Want)

Follow us on Twitter at @DCHSREDDEVILS or

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Oberlin294/

Decatur Community,

Maybe I will just stick with the movie theme to end out the holiday season, although the movie that constantly kept coming up in my mind this past week was not a holiday movie, and it came out way back in February of 1985. We all know that there are about a million movies about baseball (The Sandlot, The Natural, Bull Durham) , football (Varsity Blues, Any Given Sunday, Remember the Titans), and basketball (Hoosiers, Glory Road, and Space Jam).

Heck, even boxing has Rocky (all 10 of them if you include the Creed movies).

But when it comes to wrestling, there is one true movie, the 1985 classic, Vision Quest. In the movie, a high school senior makes a big decision to drop over 20 lbs. to wrestle in a smaller class where a rival defending State champion is wrestling. Though there were many underlying themes, out in the open and a clear piece was just how hard it can be for some high school kids to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time.

That's what stood out to me more than anything this week, the massive challenge that I saw several of our wrestlers going through to try to make their weight class. Aside from the obvious loss of weight, there's the tired appearance and quieter personalities being exhibited.

I have always admired the commitment that these wrestlers display, and I have always wondered what it felt like.

As the large majority of the country begins the holiday tradition of eating cookies and pies, this group does their best to avoid the temptation.

SHOUTOUTS

zoom_out_map

Shoutout to our new wrestling coaching staff. Head Coach Denton Bailey isn't a new face, as he has been an assistant for several years. The former DCHS grad has taken the helm this year, and I love seeing his passion. Watching him in practice and interacting with the wrestlers, you can see that he loves the sport and is building strong relationships with his squad. Coach Brandon Hardwick spent a ton of time with the wrestlers last year which gave him a great opportunity to step in as the assistant. Coach Amanda Sowers takes over this year as the assistant girls' coach. Sowers is also a former DCHS graduate, and she now gets the best seat in the house to coach her 10th grade daughter Kyra, a State qualifier last year as a freshman.

Shoutout to each and every wrestler that had to cut weight to participate this past weekend. If you never wrestled yourself or had a child that participated, cutting weight can be one of the most challenging things to do in sports. Educators see it first hand. Bodies change, attitudes change, and these wrestlers are stuck in a paradox of expending energy daily to practice and stay in shape, while simultaneously providing themselves little food and rest. Several of our wrestlers had to cut, but special shoutout to freshman Cowen Anderson. Cowen went down to the wire, certifying and making his weight after his last practice on Friday.

Shoutout to these wrestlers for placing at the Hoxie Invitational on Saturday. It was a lot of fun to watch this year with so many wrestlers out this season.

132: Sr. Reid Fort - 2nd Place (4-1)

138: Sr. Lukas Zodrow - CHAMPION (3-0)

150: So. Sage Bryan - 4th Place (2-2)

157: Fr. Josiah Pattangall - 4th (3-2)

Shoutout to art teacher Anthony Marshall. I am always excited to see what Mr. Marshall is doing in class. He does a great job of displaying and sharing his art. Whether it be in the hallways of the school or through his online social media, Mr. Marshall is consistently putting student artwork out there. This past week a 7th grade student was bragging about how much she liked a piece of art she was working on and how proud she was of it. That's what you love to hear.

Shoutout to history teacher Trevor Williams. I meant to throw this out there last week, but I was in Mr. Williams class right before Thanksgiving, and the students were doing a lesson that was about the Civil War. Students were assigned a country that was part of the war, and they were then given small pieces of information on strips of paper. It was a game, but the point of the game was to use prior knowledge to make decisions and almost come up with a different set of allies based on scenarios given and communication between students. Students were engaged and having a good time.

Shoutout to kitchen worker Tabetha Carfield. Tabetha brings a smile and a positive attitude to work every day. This past week she stuck around and filled in when we had two maintenance staff workers gone. She has been a great addition to our staff since she joined us last year.

Shoutout to teacher attendance. We have a stellar group of subs that I have talked about before, but in all of my years of being an administrator, I cannot recall a year that has had fewer teacher absences than this year. Call it good health, call it loving work, whatever. This staff has done a phenomenal job of showing up and working hard all semester. I am also knocking on wood as I type this one handed.

zoom_out_map

Boys Lose Tough Opener to Against Atwood

The boys may have lost their opener against Atwood, but it is obvious that they have made strides. This is a much improved team that is very young and will improve each week. Shoutout to them in a close loss.

zoom_out_map

Girls Basketball Gets a Big Win to Start the Season Against Rival Atwood

There were a lot of questions that needed to be answered this season. Who was going to replace Breyana and Gabbi? The answer? a little bit of everybody in what would be considered a great team win for this group that is loaded with senior experience and young talent.

zoom_out_map

Junior Makadyn Ketterl Led the Team in Scoring with 11

zoom_out_map

Sophomore Brylee Minnick Led the Team with 8 Rebounds

zoom_out_map

Junior Jenna Fortin Led the Team with 3 Assists

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

zoom_out_map

Early Release Wednesday

This Wednesday, December 6th, we will be getting out of school at 12:00. Students will eat lunch prior to leaving for the day, and teachers will be in inservice meetings throughout the afternoon.

zoom_out_map

JH Choir Concert Monday

Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Tally, and Mr. Persinger will kick off the winter concert schedule tomorrow night as they have their Junior High Winter Music Concert. The concert will start at 7:00. After the Fall Concert, the Musical, and the various other singing activities that the Singers have been involved with, I am looking forward to hearing them once again. The JH students spent several Homerooms together preparing for the concert.

zoom_out_map

FastBridge Testing

This Past week, students at all levels began taking the FastBridge universal screener test. The district started using FastBridge a few years ago, and we look to continue to use the data gathered to improve both instruction and achievement.

What is FastBridge? As a universal screener, FastBridge is a test that is taken 3 times a year, fall, winter, and spring. It is a combination of reading and math tests taken by students throughout the country. Whereas state assessments compare students in Kansas and only include how well a student performs on content taught at grade level, a universal screener compares students to others throughout the country and measures their level across a grades.

Upon completing the test this week and the closing of the testing window throughout the country, student results will be available, and each student will be identified as either advanced, on-track, some risk, or high risk.

Parents and students, it is important to discuss doing your best on these tests. Without top effort, it is very difficult to use the information to help our students and teachers improve in the appropriate ways. It's also possible that students would be identified as needing assistance when they don't.

I will speak more on FastBridge as the year goes on.