Graphic Designers– Amaya Dasti & Jose Canez

Photographers– Ashley Torres & Gabriel Ochoa

Student Life– Kole Michealis & Jada Willis

Cactus Clubs– Joshua Lo-pez

Opinion Poll– Emily Bate-man

Games, Puzzles & Trivia Writers– Jacob Daugherty

6th/7th/8th Wrestling Coach Interview- Hunter Stewart

7th/8th Boys Baseball Coach Interview– Francisco Gonzalez & Dillon DelaCruz

7th/8th Girls Basketball Seth Stager & Miah Pesqueda

Featured Teacher/Staff/Student Reporters: Kyle Summers, Sophia Llanas, Kyle Lairmore, Jerimiah Carranza, Dorian Valencia & Lizet Abonce

Teacher: Ms. Hendrickson

Newsletter Staff

7th grade: 1st Place—Harlee Coley (Championship word—spoonerism)

2nd Place—Kyla Lovette

3rd Place—Brendan Ludlow

Alternate—Mattie Bradford

Spelling Bee

Geography

Bee

6th Grade: 1st Place—Ricardo Ornelas (Championship word- phonics)

2nd Place—Samantha Kukawski

3rd Place—Jay Hernandez

Alternate—Shun Hatton

8th grade:

1st Place—Bri Riccomini (Championship word—nostalgia)

2nd Place Elvis Bowman

3rd Place Joel Vedamanikam

Alternates-Emmanuel Rodarte, and Carlos Barraza

1st Place—Logan Brown - 7 grade

2nd Place—Ben McFann—7th grade

Top Ten: Tied for 3rd Place– Bri Riccomini (8th) & Justin Schade (6th)

Joel Vedamanikam, Ashley Torres, MJ Maglaya, Samantha Armendariz, Julianna Rodri-gues & Isaiah Guillen

Participants: Adrian Talavera, Keian Reyes, Paula Venzuela, Car-los Alvarado, Ashton Redd, Tylynn Sullivan, Cole Roberts, Brianna Olloque, Chance Dickerson, Kristin Riggs, Destiny Valenquela, Jacob Lara, Daniel Wiles, Samantha Ku-kawski, Matthew Ward, Ricardo Ornelas, Grace Owen, McKayla McKay, Beb Trieu, & Justin Merrell

Wesley

Family

Tribute

Page 1: Spelling & Geog-raphy Bee—Wesley Family Tribute

Page 2: Sport Teams

Page 3: Sports and Stu-dent Life

Page 4&5: Featured Teachers/Staff/Students

Page 6: Opinion Poll, Games, & Student Life

Sports Page

Mr. Busby had coached 5 years of high school freshmen and JV girl’s basketball. He would like each girl to improve their individ-ual game, in terms of their skills. Mr. Busby would like the girls to work on dribbling, shooting, and passing. He would also like the girls to play as a team and do their best as the 8th grade girl’s basketball team. Mr. Busby’s expectations for the team this year are to have fun, learn more about the game of basketball, and be a positive role model through wins and losses. Busby shows school pride by putting his business days aside, and inhale the fames of basketball, “It doesn’t get any better!” Mr. Busby’s favorite col-lege sports teams in basketball are, Gonzaga, Arizona, and the “Cinderella” teams in the NCAA tournament. This year Mr. Busby wants the Seahawks and the Colts to play in the Super Bowl. ‘You always need a little “luck” to be a repeat champion.’

Mr. G.’s favorite part of coaching is seeing the players improve and grow as athletes and to also become a team. He expects all girls to improve each practice and, by the end, he wants to hear that they “feel they did better”. He wants the girls to practice every technique there is to make them a better player. He is excited because there is a lot of potential on the team this year. Mr. G says that he shows school spirit by participating in spirit week and expressing how awesome all Cactus Coyotes are. He wished that he could have seen the Vikings win but since they didn’t make it he would like to see either Patriots or Seahawks win. He also wants everyone to work hard and be respectful.

Mr. ”X” enjoys coaching because he enjoys watching teams get together to become a team. Mr. ”X’s” expectations for the team, this year, is to feel the synergy of the team, which will take them far. The skills that his athletes are working on this year are to keep it simple and have fun. His favorite sports to watch are soccer, ice hockey, and Cactus baseball. Mr.”X” shows school spirit by support-ing the success of students and student athletes. Mr. ”X” would like to see Green Bay in the Super Bowl because they’re the underdogs. Cactus rules!!!

Mr. Phillips is coaching the 8th grade boy’s baseball team. He has been coaching baseball for four years now. In 2012, he coached the greatest base-ball team that has played for Cactus. His goal for the team is to go unde-feated and win the conference title. Mr. Phillips likes to watch football, basketball, and baseball. He predicts that the Seahawks and Patriots are going to the Super Bowl, and the Sea-hawks will win again. Mr. Phillips likes to encourage his students and his athletes to be the very best they can be. He plans on spending Valentines with his beauti-ful wife.

8th: Carlos Alvarado, Adam Belloc, Hunter Chavez, Gabriel Coye, Dillon De La Cruz, Brice Gay, Paul Keeling, Juan Martinez-Celaya, Jacob Quinonez, Justin Ybarra, Davin Soto.

7th Grade: Carlee Meiner, Nnena Okuagu, Jesanai Badilla, Leah Salcido, Dominique Ortega, Victoria Perez, Tristen

7th: Brady Archer, Nick Cabello, Isaiah Bernal, Nicholas Cabello, Frank Calderon, Seth Gabaldon, Domonic Gallegos, Anthony Gar-cia, Dyson Gay, Ramiro Gonzalez, Jayvion Kelly, Nathan Mat-

thews, Noah Miller, Caleb Olivera, and Brennan Urseth

8th Grade: Jada Willis, Zeandra Gipson, Kelsi Moody, Savanna Leavitt, Mikah Doty, Maria Garcia, Khalia Kelly, Ronnelyn Sato, Sariya Pitts, Kahaley Talayumptewa.

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Page 3

Mr. Anderson thinks this year we have a good mix of experienced wrestlers and first time wrestlers. He expects our athletes to work hard in practice and class and to continue our Cactus winning streak. Mr. Anderson says that our Coyote wrestlers need to work on the basics, takedowns, stand-ups, and half-nelsons. Through the drills we should get a good grasp on those, and be able to continue domi-nating in the Signal Peak Conference. So far this season Mr. Anderson’s favorite wrestlers to watch play are Monica Subia, Jose Canez, Henry Scholes, Dustyn Sandsness, Hunter Stewart, and Noah Harry, but there are a lot of strong 7th and 6th grad-ers as well. Mr. Anderson tries to show his school patriotism by coming to work everyday and expect-ing our students to do well both in athletics and academics. He also participates in our pep assem-bles and spirit weeks. Mr. Anderson only supports one team and that’s the Denver Broncos. He says, “Just like our Coyotes, I expect them to win every year.” He would like them to play the Dallas Cow-boys in the Super Bowl. For Valentine’s Day he will probably take his wife out to dinner and to a movie. Mr. Anderson would like to say, “Continue to work hard in class and practice, and it will stay with you through high school and beyond.”

Mrs. Herman’s language arts class is playing a game called “Roll Dice and Write”. After read-ing two pages from the book “Killing Mr. Griffen,’’ students rolled the dice to find the an-swers to their question that went with dice number. For example, the student may have to write three predictions about what is going to happen next. After answering questions, students continue reading two pages.

Mr. Busby class is working on a trebuchet (which is like a Catapult). They are also constructing them and get-ting them ready to launch.

Jedidah Croll, Monica Subia, Evan Clute, Tyler Clegg, Christopher Tapia, Hunter Stewart, Gabriel Harry, Henry Scholes, Brady Archer, Anthony Giles, Shawn Jackson, Christopher Villanueva, Noah Harry, Dylan Whitmer, Dylan Goodsell, Austin Giles, Rafael Heredia, Ramon Delgadillo, Jose Canez, Diego Silvestro, Jett Hale, Kofey Begay, Henry Alejandrez, Anthony Ochoa, Damian Cruz, and Josh Lopez

Managers: Adrianna Favela, Arianna Ruiz, & Mattie Bradford

Mrs. Hale

Mrs.

Calhoun

Mr. Gerads

Jasmine

Madrid

Ian DeSantiago

Jorge Osorio

Mrs. Hale grew up in Stanfield and attended CGUHS. She gradu-ated with her Bachelors at ASU and received her Masters degree from NAU. Her favorite topic to teach in class are novels. Her classes read The Outsiders, the Giver, the Boy in the Striped Paja-mas, So B. IT, Hunger Games, Touching Spirit Bear, and Walk Two Moons. Mrs. Hale loves the reaction that she gets from her classes especially when they ask “Are we going to read today?” Mrs. Hale shows school spirit by being the Student Council sponsor, partici-pating in school spirit weeks, attending school sporting events and other student events. She spent her winter break with her family going to movies, watching football, reading and shopping. Mrs. Hale has been married for 22 years and has three sons. Hunter, her oldest son, attends CAC and works at the family landscaping business. Dylan, her middle son, is a football player at Union High School. He is also in National Honor Society and FFA. Jett, her youngest son, is a sixth grader here at Cactus. He plays football, was on cross country, and is now in wrestling. “We are all Steelers and Sun Devil fans” says Mrs. Hale. She hopes to see the Pitts-burgh Steelers win rather than the Cowboys or the Patriots. Mrs. Hale love what she does. This is her 23rd year of teaching. She enjoys working with the amazing staff here at Cactus.

Ian enjoys Mrs. Hale’s language arts class and Mrs. Watts’s math class. His after school activities include playing football. Over winter break he went to Mt. Lemon. He has 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Ian shows school spirit by participating in school activities. He hopes to see the Patriots win the Super Bowl. And Ian’s favorite NFL team is the Chargers!

Mr. Freed is a 6th grade science teacher in room A-6. He first became interested in teach-ing science class by teaching merit badges in Boy Scouts. His favorite subclass of science is plants and how they keep the ecosystem sta-ble. Mr. Freed shows school patriotism by supporting activities with his own time and resources! His wife teaches at Cholla Elemen-tary teaching 1st grade. His daughter is also a doctor of nursing practice at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, and she is also having a baby in May. Mr. Freed’s son is an environmental engineer for water treatment for the city of Phoenix! He looks forward to seeing the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl.

Jorge Osorio is a hardworking student that enjoys learning at school. His favorite classes are Science, Math, and Computers. His fa-vorite teacher is Mr. Freed. Jorge Osorio finishes work he did not finish at school on his free time, and he shows patriotism for Cactus Middle School by wearing the school colors from time to time, which is silver, grey, and blue. Jorge’s mother and sister work at Harrah’s Casino, and his sister has a 3-year-old child, along with an older brother going college at CAC. He also has a brother-in-law that is Mexican! Jorge Osorio would like to see the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl, and he would like to remind everyone to always be a cooperative, willing Cactus Coyote. “We are CACTUS!”

Mrs. Calhoun grew up in Manassas, Virginia. She went to school at C.D. Hyl-ton High School in Woodbridge, VA. She got her Bachelor’s degree at Virginia Tech in biology. She went to Radford University and got her Masters in Cur-riculum. She used to work for Dish Net-work. She loves to teach Genetics. She has been married for 7 ½ years. She has a 6 year old son named Ian. Mrs. Cal-houn shows school patriotism by being involved with the school. She wanted to see the Steelers in the Super Bowl but they lost haha.

Mr. Gerads grew up in Sartell, Minnesota which is on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Mr. “G” went to high school at Sartell where he played football and basketball for the Sabers. He went to college at Saint Cloud State University. He enjoys teaching his students reading and poetry. He enjoys golfing, reading, watching mov-ies, and playing video games. Mr. “G” hopes to see the Vikings go to the Super Bowl, but since that is not going to happen, he would like to see any team but the Packers go.

Jasmine Madrid’s favorite teacher is Mrs. Calhoun. Jasmine usually reads, watches TV, plays on her phone. Jas-mine has a twin brother Jacob Ma-drid, 5 year old sister named Emory. Her mom owns a salon called Absolute Beauty and her dad works for Kinder Morgan in Colorado. Her favorite sub-jects are language arts and science. Jasmine shows school spirit by wear-ing school colors and doing the “We Are Cactus” chants. Jasmine would like to see the patriots in the Super Bowl.

Bri Riccomini’s favorite class is wind ensemble and her favorite teacher is Mr. Gerads. Her mom works at Phoenix Children’s Hospital and her dad works as a High-way Patrol Officer. Her younger brother, Ryan, goes to Cholla. Bri embraces our school theme by participat-ing in school and after school activities and she does not get into trouble. Bri likes to hang out with Emily and Cheryl and enjoys draw-ing and video games. Bri also says Skyrim is the best game ever.

Carlos

Alvarado

Bri Riccomini

Carlos’ favorite teachers are Mr. Busby and Mr. Phillips. Carlos’s family is very funny and they are very good cooks. The sports his family usually watches are baseball and boxing. His family is from Puerto Rico. Carlos embraces school spirit by wearing his Cactus sweater sometimes or even participating in spirit week. Carlos thinks the Patriots and the Seahawks will go this year and if they do he wants the Patriots to win. Carlos likes to hang out with Jacob ‘Q’, Gisselle C., Ariana A., Brooklyn N., and Damion F.

Mr. Freed

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Trysten Williams is an excep-tional student whose favorite class is Physical Education. Mr. Philips is his favorite teacher. He hangs out with lots of friends, and he works out after school. His mother and stepmother are his only cur-rent family. Trysten shows school patriotism by acting correctly and showing school pride at all times of the day. He wants to see the Cowboys in the Super Bowl, but since they lost, he also wants to see the Patriots beat Green Bay Pack-

Mrs.

Huffman

8th/

Weston

Logan

7th/Gage

Tawney

8th/ Mary Enise

6th/Abel Velazquez

Ms. Kathy was born and raised in Casa Grande; she attended her 8th grade year at Cactus Middle School and graduated from Casa Grande Union High School. Ms. Kathy unexpectedly went to Las Vegas for the first time with her family last summer. She has two “beautiful” daughters, Briana who is 6 and Liliana who is 2 years old. She also has two dogs, Rocky who is a Rottweiler and Oreo who is a Shih Tzu. Ms. Kathy shows school spirit by supporting her students and always thinking positive. She would’ve liked to see the AZ Cardinals go to the Super Bowl, but since they didn’t make it, she hopes her brothers’ Green Bay Packers make it. Ms. Kathy’s first job was a waitress and also worked at a day-care before coming to work at Cactus Mid-

Gage Tawney says this school year has been pretty good. His favorite teacher is Ms. Sherman, and his favorite classes are Science Olympiad, and language arts. He likes to be with his friends, draw, and play video games. His favorite sports are baseball and football. His favorite base-ball team is the Diamond Backs, and his favorite football teams are the Cardinals and Broncos. Gage shows his school spirit by following the rules. In his free time, he likes to watch cartoons, and S.I.F.I.

Weston Logan is a terri-fic student. He was in Drama, and played his drums in one of the plays. His favorite teacher is Mrs. Wiebold. His favorite subject in school is P.E. with Mrs. Dill. In his free time, Weston enjoys riding his bike with his dad every day. He loves to spend time at his grandparent’s house. His favorite sport is professional boxing. Weston shows his school spirit by dressing up during every school spirit week. He says his favorite food is cheese pizza, and he likes Bat-man.

Mrs. Huffman grew up in Dixon, IL. She attended Dixon High School (home of the Dukes). She received her Bachelors at West-ern Illinois University, and her masters at the University of Phoenix. Mrs. Huffman loves to be able to work with her teach-ers, students, and parents. She has two brothers. One lives in Kansas, and the other lives Dixon. Her parents both live in Dixon as well. Her favorite foot-ball team is the Steelers because they recently signed one of her former students. She is also very excited to watch the half time during the Super Bowl.

Able Velázquez is a 6th grader here at Cactus Mid-dle School. His favorite teacher is Mrs. Sutton, and his best subject is math. He enjoys being lazy all day and watching television. He has a little brother who he likes playing yu-gi-yo with, a sister who is nice when you get to know her, and a baby brother who sleep every 2 hours. Able shows his school patriotism by being respectful, responsible, caring, trustworthy, and a good citizen. He really would have liked to see the Cardinals in the Super Bowl, but he watched it anyway.

Mrs.

Kathy

Trysten Williams

Mary Enice is an 8th grader here at Cactus Middle School. Her favorite subject is math, with Mr. Maraldi. She enjoys hanging out with her 7 older brothers. Mary has recently traveled to L.A. and Las Vegas. Her way of showing school patriotism is by attending school, and doing her best at what she does. For the Super Bowl, she will be cheering for the New England Patriots. Mary says she is a proud Native American woman who respects her culture and people. She is originally from a reservation just outside of Casa Grande called Tohono O’odham Nation.

The cheerleaders will be cheering at home for wrestling starting in February and will be having a Kiddie Kamp during Spring Break.

On February 7, NJHS walked the 5k mara-thon to hand out waters to the runners. They are also collecting money for Relay for Life and you can buy a star for $1 and have it hung up one the front office. The Relay for Life is on March 28-29 from 6:00pm to 6:00 am.

Student Council held a Valentines Day dance on Tuesday, February 10, from 3:45-5:15. They will also be selling Valentine grams for 50 cents during CT. You must know the CT room for the person you’re sending it to.

Chess Club is working on Ranking Order Games to get the top 16 to compete in the Championship tournament in March.

Science Olympiad is pre-paring for the final invita-tional at Pargon Science Academy. They will have 30 CMS students participate in 13 events and on Febru-ary 14th, they will take 2 teams to regionals.

Yearbook Club has finished up the 1st half of the yearbook to be pub-lished. Yearbooks are still on sale for $25; pick up an order form and get yours ordered soon. During the month of February each grade level class will vote for the Superlatives (Best of the Best), Club pictures will be taken, and 8th grade parents can purchase a Congratulatory message for $25. See Ms. Hendrickson if you have any questions.

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1) Who do you want or think is going to win the Super Bowl.

a) Patriots 16 9 14

b) Colts 7 7 31

c) Seahawks 97 64 56

d) Packers 79 33 53

2) What is your favorite part of Valentines Day?

a) The cards from friends, family and loved ones. 41 14 8

b) Flowers and gifts. 34 27 36

c) Candy. 100 97 80

d) Staying home and watching cheesy movies. 39 13 16

3) What’s your favorite type of Valentines Day candy?

a) Sweetheart candy (candy hearts with messages) 7 5 10

b) Box of chocolates 29 40 38

c) Lollipops 10 7 13

d) I don’t care; I just want a lot of it! 181 106 96

Count the Hearts Game!

Find all the hearts in the Student Newsletter to win a prize! Record your guess to Mrs. Hendrickson on the West Computer Lab Door by the end of the day, on Friday 13th.

Cardinals, Packers, Colts, Cowboys, Lions, Panthers, Ravens, Seahawks, Steelers

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