4/27/2018 0 Comments A Stately SpeechBy: Anderson Prater
Last weekend Josie Barstad went down to Apple Valley high school where she made it to the final round of the state speech meet. Josie competes in a category called “extemporary reading” where each round she would draw three excerpts from a book and then she was given time to choose one and prepare to read it to a judge, who would score her performance. This year all of the excerpts were from Ray Bradbury books, and the book you compete with change each year. Josie has been doing extemporary reading since eighth grade and has made it to state once before. Josie had an exciting senior year in speech, including making it to the final round at most of her meets, and bringing home plenty of ribbons. Based on her success at invitational meets she was hoping to make it through to state, but shortly before the sub section meet she was struck with laryngitis and lost her voice. With what Josie described as, “twenty five percent of a voice” she powered through the sub section meet taking third which allowed her to move on to the section meet. Friday of the same week, Josie, still suffering from laryngitis went to the section meet with ”seventy-five percent voice power,” and some determination, where she took second place and moved on the the state meet. In speech there are three preliminary rounds followed by the “final round” for each preliminary round you are given a score. You are chosen to advance to final round based on your performance in the first three rounds, your performance in the final round is what determines your place at the meet. In the first round Josie drew one of her “favorite and best stories,” and subsequently in rounds two and three drew stories she had scored very high with throughout the year, this she said boosted her confidence and eased the nerves. In the preliminary rounds Josie scored high enough to move on to the final round with seven other competitors. There she placed eighth out of eight but was not discouraged saying, “I did even better than I expected and I was very happy with how successful men season was.”
0 Comments
4/25/2018 0 Comments 2018 Golf Season PreviewBy Abby Painovich
With the winter weather finally coming to an end, the Hinckley Finlayson golf team will open their 2018 season with a home meet at Grand National Golf Course on Tuesday, May 1st. The team has already had to cancel three meets due to weather complications, but are hoping to start off their season with some low scores and take advantage of playing on their home course. This season, both the girls and boys teams grades 7-12, will have 25 total team members. They welcome back 16 returning golfers, nine of which are varsity letter winners and are also adding nine first time golfers. Both teams will rely on their returning seniors to show the young athletes the ropes. The girls golf team has three seniors, Katelyn France, Ashley Golly, and Savannah Morgan, who are projected to score low throughout the season. The boys also have two returning seniors, Parker Klar and Kyle Nicholson, who have performed outstanding in the past and this year, expect nothing different. With five seniors total, Mr. Grimm, high school golf coach, predicts that they “will have a strong boys team and a strong girls team with great senior leadership.” He also is expecting to have some golfers do well throughout the season and place fairly high at the section meet. The HFHS girls and boys golf teams are coming into this season with a goal in mind. Through hard work and top notch performing, they aim to claim the title of the Great River Conference Team Championship. This will be no easy task, but Coach Grimm believes it can be achieved as long as every individual gives it their best effort and “continue[s] to work hard at their game.” Regardless of their standing at the end of the year, Coach Grimm is just looking forward to “working with a group of fun and enjoyable golfers who can surprise our opponents by playing quite well.” Katelyn France also knows it is not all about winning as she tells us she is, “looking forward to spending some time with all of the people that [she’s] grown to love throughout [her] six years on the team.” With spring finally presenting itself, the HFHS golf team is very eager to get out on the course and start competing. Coach Grimm notes that “with the shortened golf season, it will be very important to get off to a good start with our first meet.” They hope to score low scores, improve all throughout the season, and would love to see the Hinckley community supporting the HFHS golf teams. Good luck to both teams on their first meet next Tuesday! 4/19/2018 0 Comments State Science Fair 2018By Avery Degerstrom
Making their appearance at the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, Hinckley-Finlayson students attended the 80th annual state science fair. The students who attended showed off their hard work put into their experiments in the hopes to impress the judges. Although all participants had some very good projects there were two students who received awards; Kristina Johnson and Jacob France. Both Johnson and France were awarded the Acoustical Society of America-Upper Midwest Chapter - Excellence in Acoustics - Honorable mention. They each got a trophy and twenty-five dollars. 4/15/2018 0 Comments 2018 Baseball Season PreviewBy Anders Prater
The boys baseball season is about to be in full swing, once the the snow melts, that is. The boys are prepping for what is looking to be a short, jam-packed season. With snow cancellations already happening it appears the baseball team will be playing an abundance of double headers in May to make up for the games lost to the snow filled April showers. The baseball team is coming off two very successful seasons, last year they made it to the section semifinals, and the year prior they attended the state tournament. The team lost four players to graduation, but have eight returning letter winners who plan on carrying out a season just as successful as years past. Coach Kreger talked about the returning players saying, “We are lead by a group of experienced seniors and have a nice mix of juniors, sophomores and freshman on the team.” Coach Kreger went on to talk about his goals for this season saying, “We have several team goals which include winning our conference and repeating as sub-section and section champions.” The coaches have expressed a lot of hope for the team’s pitching and defense this coming season although it may be tough to prepare defensively given that the team has not practiced on the field once this year. The team is keeping their hopes high that the last of the snow has fallen and the field will be ready before they have to pay their first game. There are plenty things the team has been working on at practice and they have many lofty goals for the season, but the one the team is looking forward to more than anything else is the snow getting of the field so they can play ball. 4/12/2018 0 Comments 2018 Softball Season PreviewBy Abby Painovich
It may seem to be the dead of winter, but the 2018 senior high girls softball season is right around the corner. Although, officially the team was supposed to start their season recently, all games have been cancelled for this week, postponing their season. At the Jag Journal, however, we are getting a lead off into the softball season with an inside scoop. This season, the HFHS senior high girls softball teams will have a total of 25 members; two of which are first time softball players. Losing two senior catchers last year, they are looking for someone to step up to the plate and take on the responsibility. With 23 returning players at the JV and Varsity level, Coach Joe Ranger will be looking for, “strong underclassmen group ready to jump up at a moment’s notice.” This being said, Coach Ranger says that he will rely strongly on his last year varsity starters to lead the way. The team will have to use their past knowledge and experiences in order to have a successful season. The coaches are expecting their team to work hard every game and every practice and are optimistic that it will result in a winning season. In order to obtain the ultimate goal of having a winning season, the 25 team members have made a list of a couple small goals that will lead them to their big goal. The first of these goals is that they are looking to improve their conference standings from last year. Last season, they finished fourth in their conference and are looking to move up in their ranking in order to get a better playoff position. Their other goal they have in mind is to not get ten run ruled by their opponent. They aim to play strong defense and shut out the other team on the scoring front. With these two goals in mind, they hope to achieve a winning season and be an unstoppable force. Throughout the rest of the season, Coach Ranger is looking forward to “working with all of the girls and having so many girls come back out for softball again this spring.” The softball team is excited to get out onto the field to start practicing but are halted by the neverending winter. Coach Ranger would also like to see the snow melt so he and his team can “actually get outside at some point in time.” When the weather warms up and the snow melts to reveal the field, come out and support the girls when they play their home games at the Flagstad fields over by the elementary school! 4/6/2018 0 Comments It Comes To An End On The MatKenidy Cessna and Killeen Prater
PINE CITY -The Hinckley-Pine City wrestling season has come to an end. Two out of 20 players on Varsity Roster are from Hinckley Finlayson High, Justin Matson, Luke Knudson, along with Junior High wrestler Brian Barlow. Now if you’re wondering what opportunities wrestling brings to your personal benefit, Justin Matson answered just that: “I have been wrestling for about 10 years, it’s helped me mature and build off to be very successful in life and on the mat.” If you are interested in Wrestling, go for it! “I encourage others to join because, it’s very competitive. There is no sport near tough as it regarding conditioning to technique. They work you to the ground and you would feel as if you wanted to just quit, but once you get on the mat and shake hands you realize they are going through the same thing and that you worked harder,” said Matson. Justin is the first HF-Pine wrestler to go to state in the eighth grade, winning 10 total. There are always goals that can be accomplished in the future if you wrestle. There are many good wrestlers on the HF-Pine team and their work is never finished as some wrestle all year long for other clubs or teams. 4/6/2018 0 Comments 2018 Track season preview By: Anderson Prater and Abby Painovich
Although spring has not arrived, spring sports have begun, so we at the Jaguar Journal are giving you a sneak peak into the upcoming track season. The HFHS Varsity boys track team has 14 returning athletes, as well as many first timers. Totaling 30 team members, this year will be the largest turnout in Coach Nelson’s career as head boys coach. This large turnout has brought high expectations along with it. Coach Nelson talked about his expectations saying, “our athletes show a lot of potential this year and I am excited to see what marks they can reach.” The Varsity girls track team has 8 returning athletes and 17 new members totaling 25 teammates. Making up over two-third of the team, Val Kunze, head coach of the Varsity girls team, comments that the newcomers look to ensure a promising season and that with their numbers, the girls track team “should be really strong this year.” Not only are there high expectations, but the the boys track team has some goals they set themselves, Coach Nelson stresses the importance of fun along with hard work, and his main goal is that everyone on the track team enjoys their experience. Coach Nelson went on to say, “I want our athletes to experience success and PRs, but also to have fun while they are doing it.” As for the girls track team, their first goal is to “ focus on finding which events fit each athlete's interests and abilities,” as said by Coach Kunze. She also would like to see see a lot of PRs (personal records) this year, but most importantly, “the goal is to always try to have some fun along the way.” The track team has many meets coming up and plenty more goals to reach but their main objective at the moment: getting outside. The cold weather has already canceled one meet and threatens continue cancelling more, so the team is yearning to get outdoors and onto the track. Despite the weather the team has squeezed in two indoor meets already this season. The first of which was the Great River Conference indoor meet. Due to the basketball teams success and the band trip the team was lacking quite a few members. Regardless, the boys team still had successful individual performances and PRs (personal records). Aaron Mulder, Ean Chose, Jacob Barstad, and Sam Stapek all recorded new PRs. The second meet of the year was the Mora invitational where the Jaguars notched quite a few placements and PRs including: Kolby Fox taking 1st place in the high jump and 2nd place in the 200m dash. Howie Hodena, Jacob Barstad, Edward Roubinek, Trever Nolan, the 4x400m relay and the 4x800m relay all taking third in their respective events. In addition to all of the place winners our boys team recorded eight new PRs. Throughout the rest of the season, Coach Nelson is “excited to see [his] team growing and constantly improving.” He and Coach Kunze both are expecting to see a lot of personal records as well as just getting outside on the track. Coach Kunze is looking forward to “grow[ing] together as a team,” as well as her watching team members “find that perfect match [event] and then seeing them drive to work hard to keep getting better.” With a few successful meets under their belts, both Track teams hope to get outside in some warm weather and continue to place and get new PRs. |
Jaguar Journal News PageThis is where all the Jaguar Journal articles can be found. Archives
June 2018
Categories |