Volume 3, Number 29 April 5, 2012

“Hear Ye, Hear Ye!” The Blanco ISD

Board of Trustees Matt Herden, President

Troy Immel, Vice President Kirk Felps, Secretary

Tim Nance Charles Riley

Bernie San Miguel Darrel Wagner

Superintendent Dr. Buck Ford

Blanco High School’s One Act Play, The Elephant Man, swept District 8-AA honors during competition held last Saturday in Fredericksburg. “We gave an outstanding performance,” said OAP director Emily Houghton. “I could not have been more proud of the way Blanco students conducted themselves both on and off the stage. Our performance was moving and the technical aspects were flawless.” Blanco, along with Comfort, was picked to advance to Area competition.

Kellam Nabers was named Best Actor, and Madelyn Cox was named Best Actress. Sam Isenberg was named to the All Star cast, while the ensemble of Paxston Koehl, Echoe Burkhart, and Annabeth Griffin was named to the Honorable Mention All Star cast. “I was thrilled to see Madelyn and Kellam take both of the top honors,” said Houghton. “Of course, I believe that they absolutely earned them on Saturday!” Cox said, “It was such an honor to

One Act Play Advances to Area Competition Kellam Nabers, Madelyn Cox Take Best Actor and Best Actress Honors

Blanco One Act Play cast, crew, and director following District 8-AA winning performance in Fredericksburg on Saturday. (Photos by Carole Wrinkle Ford)

be recognized as Best Actress at District. I can’t wait to compete at Area!” Critic Judge for the event was Jim Mammarella, a professor at San Antonio College. He said, “This was an excellent production! There were beautiful visual images throughout.” Houghton said, “Though he gave us many compliments, Mr. Mammarella also challenged the students to continue working and to find new elements to add to the performance to make it seamless and flawless. We left the competition that day excited to dive back into the script and find more ways to bring this story to life.” Area competition will be held at Burnet High School on April 12. Plays will run consecutively beginning at 3:00 PM; Blanco will perform third.

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Blanco Boys and Girls Golf Teams (Front row, L to R) Emmalee Arlitt, Presley Savarino, Alex Le-Blanc. (Back row, L to R) Kyle Gray, Tanner Rogers, James Leachman, TJ Hardin, Lane Hoelting.

Boys Golf Team Wins District 8-AA Championship Girl Golfers Emmalee Arlitt, Presley Savarino Also Advance to Regional

Blanco’s boys golf team captured the District 8-AA champi-onship in links action Monday and Tuesday, dominating their district foes by a commanding 111 strokes! “We had our best year ever in golf,” said head coach Scott Balmos. “Our boys have been the front runners all year as a team. We’ve won two tournaments this year, and had six top five finishes.” The district tournament was played out over two days. Day one was played at Vaaler Creek in Blanco, and day two was played at Schreiner golf course in Kerrville. The boys broke a school record for a one-day team total (332) and for a two-day team total (698). The girls did not have enough numbers to field a team, but Emmalee Arlitt and Presley Savarino qualified for Regional as individual medalists. Arlitt placed third overall, while Savarino placed tenth. “Although we didn’t have enough for a team, our girls played well all year,” said Balmos. “Our three girls shot their best scores this year, and placed in the top ten in five tourna-ments this year. Boys team members are: Tanner Rogers, James Leachman, T J Hardin, Lane Hoelting, and Kyle Gray.

Girls team members are: Emmalee Arlitt, Presley Savarino, and Alex Leblanc. The Regional golf tournament is scheduled for April 16—17. The boys will be in Odessa, and the girls in Midland.

District 8-AA Golf Tournament April 2—3, 2012

Vaaler Creek Golf Club, Blanco Schreiner Golf Club, Kerrville

Boys

1st Blanco 698 Total Regional Qualifier Team 2nd Ingram 809 Total Regional Qualifier Team 3rd Junction 863 Total 4th Harper 916 Total 5th Comfort 924 Total

Girls 1st Ingram 823 Total Regional Qualifier Team 2nd Comfort 840 Total Regional Qualifier Team 3rd Harper 1102 Total Medalist Qualifiers, Blanco: Emmalee Arlitt, Presley Savarino

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Panthers Upend Comfort in Dramatic Fashion

Remain Undefeated in District 8-AA

The Blanco vs. Comfort baseball game last Friday had as much dramatics in it as the District 8-AA One Act Play contest that was conducted the following day. In a battle between two district unbeatens, the Panthers pulled out a 5-3 win over the hosts from Comfort. The seventh inning packed a wallop. “That was a great comeback in the last inning,” said head coach Bryan Wyatt. “The boys never gave up; they fought until the last offensive out and won it.” Had this been a One Act Play contest, Colton Childress would have brought home the award for Best Actor. His grand slam with two out in the top of the seventh inning put the Pan-thers in the lead 5-2. The Bobcats fought back, scoring a run and loading the ba-ses in the bottom half of the frame, before pitcher Ian Ray ended it all with a strike-out of the final batter. “We faced probably the best pitcher in the district,” said Wyatt. “And we came out with a huge win on the road.” The Panthers are now 3—0 in league play, and travel to Junction Friday for an 11:00 AM game. Junction is 0—2 in district play.

Lady Panthers celebrate following win vs. Comfort last Friday. (photo Diana Schwind)

Lady Panthers Take on Junction with First Place at Stake

Both Teams Enter Game with One District Loss

The Lady Panthers travel to Junction tomorrow, with first place in District 8-AA up for grabs. Both teams enter the game with one district loss. Comfort upset Junction last Tuesday 2—1, which effectively puts to-morrow’s winner in the district driver’s seat. “Junction is a solid team that will take advantage of any mis-takes,” said head coach Michael Seales. “Both teams match up well—solid pitching, hitting, and fielding.” “It is a must win for Blanco if we want to have a chance to win district.” Friday’s game time is 1:00 PM.

Comfort Game The Panthers beat Comfort last Friday 13—3 in five innings. Callie Culton picked up the win, the team committed no errors, and banged out 12 hits.

Colton Childress congratulated after grand slam with two outs in the seventh inning to put Blanco up 5—2. (photo Diana Schwind)

District 8-AA Standing

(Thru 4/5/12) Junction 4—1 Blanco 3—1 Harper 3—2 Comfort 2—3 Ingram 0—5

Ian Ray closes out the seventh inning. (photo Diana Schwind)

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Blanco FFA Excels at Tarleton Invitational

More Than 7,000 Students, 500 Schools at Contest

Blanco FFA students competed at the Tarleton Invitational.

By Jason Marek—The Blanco FFA Chapter recently trav-eled to Stephenville to compete in the Tarleton State University Invitational Career Development Events. Annually, the Tar-leton Invitational has proven to be the largest youth competi-tive event in the world with over 7,000 contestants and more than 500 schools competing each year. With more than a dozen contests being held on the day, the Blanco FFA would compete in 7 different events. Highlighting the day for Blanco would be 1st place finishes by both the Live-stock and ENR teams. The Livestock team would claim the top spot out of 257 teams in a competition that proved to be the largest contest ever held with over 1,200 contestants. Individu-ally, Alex Gustafson, Sam Isenberg, Kellam Nabers, Tyler Har-din, Logan Dodd and Joanna Delavan would do well as each would place in the top 75 contestants overall. The Environ-mental Natural Resources (ENR) team would also take home top honors for the second consecutive year. Team members Colton Childress, Jace Ammons, Weston Copenhaver, Kyle Sauceda, Ryan Wagner and Chad Marshall would also rank high individually with Colton placing 1st, Jace 2nd, Weston 5th, Kyle 9th, and Ryan 10th. Blanco’s next highest placing would go to the Land team which placed 4th overall. Mike Gonzales would place 3rd indi-vidually, while Britton Wagner, Mackenzie Johnson, Skylar Itz and Megan Andrews would all finish in the top quarter. Next in line for Blanco would be 5th place finishes by both the Entomology and Range teams. In Entomology, Megan

Wier would rank the highest placing 3rd overall with Rance Dollahite finishing 15th. Team members Erica Flores, Monica Flores, Deanna Sevilla, Lauren Russell and Courtnie Schroeder would also do well placing in the top 50%. Individually in Range, contestants Callie Culton, Ed Alvarado, TJ Raby, Matt Pepper and James Leachman would all finish consistently in the top half of the event. Finally, a shorthanded Homesite team consisting of just two members would still do well enough to place 7th overall as Tay-lor Guinn placed 7th and Philip Alvarado 14th. Blanco’s Dairy team would just miss the top 10 finishing 11th overall with team members Colton Elrod, Aikman Elrod, Jack Morgan, Elise Edmondson, Morgan Lowak and Dylan Tesch all finish-ing in the top half of the event. As a group, the Blanco FFA Chapter was the only school to win more than one contest while also having 5 teams finish in the top 5 overall. As a result of winning Livestock and ENR, the Blanco FFA was awarded two $1,000 scholarships. Advi-sors for the Blanco FFA are Felice and Jason Marek.

Link to an informative video of the Tarleton Invitational: 2012 Tarleton State University Invitational CDEs

Elementary Gym Floor Open House Announced Monday, April 9, 5:30—6:15 PM

Coach Jason Campbell has announced an “Elementary Gym Floor Open House” for Monday, April 9, from 5:30—6:15. “Put on your favorite tennis shoes and plan to join us!” said Campbell. “Come see why students and staff are so proud of our new gym floor!”

Fifth Grade Celebrates the End of STAAR Testing

Pictures by Collin Gaskamp

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One of my favorite lessons to teach students is the lesson of the power of thoughts. Our thoughts determine the way that we feel. The way that we feel determines our mood. Our mood determines the way that we interact with others. The way that we interact with others determines how we make oth-ers feel. And, the way that we make others feel, determines the degree of impact that we can have on the world. That is a sim-ple truth. Grasping that truth and living accordingly is part of the secret to success. Our primary goal is to teach young peo-ple how to be successful, and embracing the power of our thoughts is one of the most important lessons along the path to achieving success. Teaching the power of our thoughts, goes something like this: When we find ourselves suffering, we must first ask our-selves, “What thought is creating this suffering?” After identi-fying the thought creating the suffering, then we ask, “Can I drop the sad story that is causing me to suffer?” The truth is that we can drop the sad story, and we can replace it with a story of experience and opportunity...a much happier story. I often encounter teens that are stuck in a cycle of feeling victim-ized and powerless due to early life events that were out of their control. When I recognize that pattern in a young person, I begin the process of teaching the power of thought by intro-ducing the possibility that perhaps we do not have to allow a traumatic event or sequence of events to determine the quality of the remainder of our lives. Many students embrace that idea and are able to begin healing. Others are still working on ac-cepting that they really do have the power to reframe their thoughts. The important thing is that they all begin at least pondering the power of their thoughts...which, ultimately, will determine the quality of their lives. I suspect that there are countless ways that we can teach this valuable lesson to our students. We can begin by embracing it in our own lives and modeling the power of positively sculpt-ing our daily thoughts. What difficult stories of our own can we positively reframe? We can also model that thoughts that lead to difficult emotions can simply serve as information as opposed to serving as random triggers for impulsive reactions. How do we react to stress? There are many eyes watching us, and they seem to be the most focused on us when we least real-ize it. Let us strive to model and teach that life experiences, especially those outside of our control, do not define us. It is the interpretation of our life experiences that defines us. Our

thoughts are so powerful that they can recreate our day and our lives...and create a beautiful ripple affect that positively impacts countless others.

Helping Students Find the Path to Success

By Keitha St. Clair Student Success Coordinator

District 8-AA Golf Tournament Pictures by Lisa Rogers

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Week of April 5—15 Fri, April 6 Linda Minjares Tues, April 10 Kathy Anderson Thurs, April 12 Julio Alegria Sat, April 14 Amy Hackebeil Sun, April 15 Jennifer Collette

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“Hear Ye, Hear Ye!”

Softball and Baseball vs. Comfort March 30, 2012

Photos by Diana Schwind