BELLEVUE  EAST  HIGH  SCHOOL    COURTNEY  SELCH  CHELSEA  WIECH  JASMINE  PUTNEY  YEARBOOK  THEME  DEVELOPMENT  

Belle

vue Ea

st Hig

h Scho

ol C

hiefta

in 2013 Volum

e 72

Belle

vue Ea

st Hig

h Scho

ol C

hiefta

in 2013 Volum

e 72 United yet

Unique

Morgan Nieman (9) Friendly

Title Page

Remembering At the state girls basketball tournament in Lincoln, Neb., the number six ranked team Bellevue East, played against Lincoln East, the number three ranked team. “State basketball is always fun and it’s an honor to make it there and play amongst the best players in the state. The atmosphere gave me an adrenaline rush. Its was really a humbling experience,” junior Amaun Frazier said. Photo by Maddy Goss

1401 High School DriveBellevue, Nebraska 68005Phone: (402) 293-4150 Fax: (402) 293-4259Website: www.bellevuepublicschools.orgEnrollment: 1,5592013 Volume: 72

United yetUnique

Bellevue East High School

1

Alyssa Campbell (9) Radical

Opening

4

Every school year brings distinctive lessons and understandings to the table, but this year the routines, traditions, and activities of 2013 set Bellevue East apart not only for the uniqueness of each event, but also in the way that each experience helped unite the students, faculty, and staff.

United we listened…Each morning, Principal Brad Stueve started the day off with a few words of wisdom over the intercom. He welcomed the new school day and gave a few phrases of advice, always

ending his talk with an inspirational quote before inviting the student body to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The daily greeting was new to this particular school year and helped to unite the entire building as “Chieftains.” One of the many goals Stueve had for the morning greeting was to assist East in building and maintaining a positive culture and climate among

the students and the staff. Hearing Stueve’s voice every morning helped create consistency and his words encouraged respect for oneself and others, doing right thing, trying one’s best, and being kind.

“Good morning Bellevue East. I trust we all had a productive and meaningful Tuesday evening. Let’s make the most of the day. Smile more, be happier, make great choices, and be good to one another. As Martin Luther King said, “Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it because those that are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others. Have a super Wednesday Chieftains. Please rise and say the Pledge.” Brad Stueve (Principal)

United we responded…This year, a student brought a gun to school, causing a school-wide evacuation. Over a dozen Bellevue Police officers arrived in minutes, carrying loaded semiautomatic weapons. Students and staff worked together to exit the building, without hesitation or commotion. Because of this event, Bellevue Public Schools worked with the police department to review policies and procedures to help make the school a safer place on a daily basis for all.

“Students are a huge part of safety in schools. The level of cooperation between the staff and the students was one of the things that made a huge difference. In this siutation, ... everybody understood the gravity of what was going on and cooperated. That’s very reassuring for me to know that when things are on the line, people are going to do what needs to be done to keep everybody safe.” Frank Harwood (Superintendent)

United we cheered…In the past, pep rallies were held with both sides of the gym open, spreading the student body out and making it difficult to communicate. This year, however, students were brought together on one side of the gym, which helped pump up the atmosphere of the rallies and keep everyone’s attention on one specific place. With senior class members leading the rallies instead of faculty, the student body became united.

“School spirit is always better when everyone is engaged and when everyone cares about it. We decided to move everyone to one side of the gym in order to use positive peer pressure by everyone around them and have people keep their attention fixed on what was going on. We also decided to go back to having a student led pep rallies, figuring

that people respect what their classmates have to say rather than their teachers after a whole day of school. All in all, Chieftain Nation had all the pieces this year to have really great school spirit.” Callen Hedgelen (12)

United we are BEAST…After years of not using the moniker, head varsity football coach Jerry Lovell seized the opportunity to bring the Chieftain Nation together by reinstituting

the tradition and pride of “BEAST.” BEAST means Bellevue East, but also means beast, as in physically strong.

“We started using the term in 2003 to identify our student body at the various games for Bellevue East. There were schools that had an identity for the fans, but we did not. After we won games, we would tell our players to go greet our fans by telling them, ‘Go feed

the BEAST. It was kind of fun when we played Lincoln East in the playoffs that year in both girls basketball and football, as there were BEAST vs. LEAST signs everywhere in the BEAST crowd. Since we are the BEAST school in

Bellevue, it made sense to really promote the term to give our student body a term they could proudly represent at events, while at the same time giving our future Chieftains in the elementary

schools a better term to rhyme East with (East is not the Least; East is the BEAST).” Jerry Lovell (Coach)

Unique events help unite student body

intertwined yetindependent

Alicia Drelicharz (11) Cheery

Division

5

Honor Carrying the Chieftain flag onto the field is senior Jake Pannell. “I felt privileged to carry the flag because it gave me a sense of still being a part of the team, even though I wasn’t playing,” Pannell said. Photo by Fritzie Buglewicz

Sports

84

Kody W

hitmarsh (12) Strong

Unified Teams

Individuals work together as a teamsingular athletes

“I caught a pass and as I was running up the side line I got horse collared and I tore pretty much every part of my knee. Because of this, I had to have surgery on my MCL, ACL, Meniscus. The doctors estimated my recovery time to be about six to nine months, but I have cut mine down about a month and a half from just taking care of myself. It took a lot of physical therapy and just moving my knee around at first to get the range of motion and then they started putting me on treadmills and bicycles just trying anything to get it back in shape and recovered. It absolutely sucked not being able to play any sports this year, but I know it will help me in the long run. For a while after everything happened I was really down and just sad but I had to think about the fact that the better my knee gets, the better I get.” Brady Pelzer (11)

“I tried cross country for the first time this year and I wasn’t exactly the fastest and we also had a very small team. And that is when I think it really hit me, running is kind of intimidating; so I figured if we had a club, something that people could join just for the fun of it, people would find it all a little bit less intimidating. They could get better at their own rate and that it would give them all the little boost of confidence to maybe go out and try for those other sports that they never thought to try, like track maybe. I personally love running just because I feel that running is one of those activities where no matter how slow or fast you are you can always get better, plus it’s fun and it really gets you time to think and if you’re running outside, the scenery is great! To me, I feel like runners are the most accepting of athletes, and in running club we have created a nice little community for people to connect.” Helen Timmins (12)

“Back in March last year, I decided to try out for the cheer team, and made it. I chose to do cheer because I’ve always liked it ever since I was little. I really looked up to my older sister who was a cheerleader and I was always so amazed by what she did, I just knew that I would have a passion for it later, and I was right. I absolutely love being the only boy cheerleader, and just a cheerleader in general. Personally, I think that being the only boy cheerleader, I’ve made a huge difference by showing people that you don’t have to be a stereotypical male or female to be able to do something you love. People can sometimes be cruel, but it doesn’t even bother me anymore when people say stuff about me. I’m doing cheer for me and no one else, it’s something I love and it has make a huge impact on my life. I plan on doing cheer for the remainder of my high school career; this year was just the beginning for me, because now I can’t imagine myself without it.” Zach Burlingame (10)

Division

Anabela Monjarez-Falcon (9) Crazy85

Spread By: Courtney Selch (11) & Story By: Diana Marcum (11)

Sports

120

MusiciAN IN THE

An interview with sophomore Storm CorbinMAKING

Q: What famous bands have you met and how did you come across meeting them?

A: I’ve met bands like, In This Moment, Hail Storm, Black Label Society, Megadeth, and

a bunch of others. I met most of them at concerts and music festivals because my parents bought me either the meet and greets or VIP packages.

Q: What was some advice that the different artists gave you and how did it help you?

Q: What inspires you most when you are creating new music and during everyday life?

A: Just simply music; I love listening to music almost 24 hours a day. It just happens to

inspire me to either write music, play a song, or even just pushes me to learn and listen to music I really want to.”

A: Dave Mustaine told me that I needed to keep better grades so that I could be

someone that is smarter and help change the world. He also told me that if I get straight A’s that he’ll give me free guitar lessons for the rest of his life. He really helped me get my motivation back for school and my music.

Q: What is your band’s name, what role do you play in it, and why did you start writing your own music?

A: I have written a couple of songs, just they don’t have any lyrics, and so they’re

just instrumental. Just the fact that I do like to play covers of songs, but I also want to make an impact on the world with my own music. The bands name is State Your Sin. I am the lead guitarist, the one that plays all the solos and the main riffs.

Q: What made you want to start a band? Why? What is the impact that you ralk about leaving?

Q: You talk a lot of what goes on with your music now, in the future, do you plan on pursuing a music based career?

A: At the beginning of high school, I wasn’t so set on the whole “going

to college” thing, but now as I think of it I’m really good at creating musical videos. Like ads and things and I have a lot of great ideas so I plan on going to college for video production.

Q: When just relaxing and unwinding, what is the type of music that you enjoy listening to and why?

A: I mostly listen to heavy metal music, but I do sometimes enjoy pop and rock music,

like Michael Jackson. But again, it’s mostly metal because it pushes me to do what I want to do – it drives me to do the next great thing.

A: The fact that I just want to leave an impact on the world and with starting my

own music that I can do. And just push it (the music) on to people. I want to leave an impact on the world that is just bigger than what I came with being by myself. And the impact that I’m talking about is that bands aren’t going to be here forever – so I want to be a part of it and I want people to go out and see them, enjoy them and themselves while they are young.”

Michael M

cCourt (10) Stallion

Sounds of his Storm

Nick Smith (12) Nice

Profile

121

Storm Fest (Below) At the 2012 Stormfest, freshman Storm Corbin gets up on stage and performs “Faith Buried In Flames.” “It was one of my first times on stage so I was kind of nervous, but then as I played on I was totally cool,” Corbin said. Photo courtesy of Storm Corbin

Bucket Head (Top) “Bucket Head is one of my favorite guitarists ever because of his music; he can go from fast metal to slow rock and everything between the two,” Corbin said. Photo courtesy of Storm Corbin

Circle (Bottom) “I was really excited to play and sing with these people because they are members of major bands and just getting to perform with them was such an honor,” Corbin said. Photo courtesy of Storm Corbin

First Name Basis (Far Left) “I’ve met Nick Catanese so many times before that now whenever we see each other we just greet each other like old friends. By the third meeting we were on a first name basis,” Corbin said. Photo courtesy of Storm Corbin.

In This Moment (Right) “One of my favorite bands of all time, In This Moment’s music can go from hard-core to something much more mellow; it’s the main reason why I love them,” Corbin said. Photo courtesy of Storm Corbin.