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Twenty-one students have been named to the Administrator's Honor Roll which is for students acquiring a grade point average of 3.75 to 4.0. Students receiving this honor include seniors Cody Krob, Hollie Marquess, Matthew Rodriguez, and Kelly Wilson.

Choir to Ellis for MCL clinic

The choir attended the MCL Vocal Clinic at Ellis High School November 2. Members include junior Janell Darnell, senior Lindsey Ostrom, sophomore Jessica Eisiminger, freshman Stacy Selbe, junior Asia Schonthaler, freshman Nicole Bender, sophomore Heather Ulrich, junior Chris Peavey, senior Auldin Morris freshman Charles Mooney.

The choir members practiced five pieces together under a guest clinician. The guest conductor was Dr. Rager Moore. He is the choral conductor at Fort Hays State University.

Peavey was a soloist for one of the mass group numbers. The mass choir practiced five numbers all afternoon. They performed the numbers that evening at 7 p.m. Following the mass numbers each individual school performed special numbers.

The mass choir performed "Kyrie" by Grag Gilpin, "Hush! Somebody's Callin' My Name" by Spiritual, "Once Upon A Dream" by John Leavitt and "What a Wonderful World" by Russ Robinson. The Plainville choir sang "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by Teena Chinn and "Just a Single Voice" by Albrecht & Althouse.

"Our choir did an excellent job," Director Connie Reishus said.

There were four other schools that attended the clinic. They are Ellis, Victoria, Trego and Hill City.

Senior Class Inform Students By Presenting Facts in Mock Election

The senior government class held a mock presidential election November 7, 2000.

At the beginning of the year, the students selected an affiliated party, studied the election process, elected candidates, made posters, and debated the electoral college issue.

To get the student body involved, the class divided the school into precincts and registered voters. Every student had the choice of whether or not to register. They also held a "Meet the Candidates" assembly followed by the mock election.

During the assembly several students portrayed the candidates by giving a speech. Cole Fredrickson and Kelcee Lowry represented Democrat Al Gore. Gore's running mate, Joseph Lieberman, was represented by Adam Glendening and Stephanie Fellhoelter. Jared Ganoung and Trent Fuzzell represented Republican George W. Bush. Bush's running mate, Dick Cheney, was represented by Heath Albert and Byron Knight.

In our state election, John Binder and Dan Johnson were running for the 110th House District. Representing those candidates were Sarah Koehler and Matthew Rodriguez. Both men were invited to attend our assembly. Johnson was able to attend, but Binder was not.

The mock election resulted in Bush and Cheney winning the presidency. Ralph Nader came in second place followed by Gore. Johnson was also voted in by the school body.

Cindy Harlan said, "I will continue to have the government class have a mock election. I unfortunately can only do it every four years. In years to come, I plan to get more involvement from the community an more publicity from the local paper."

November Boosters

The boosters for the month of November are sophomores Morgan Fellhoelter and Ryan Williams.

Fellhoelter is involved in volleyball, track, Pep Club, CYO, and FCCLA. Her favorite movie is Titanic and her favorite song is "I Love You Always Forever" by Donna Lewis. She enjoys hanging out with her friends, playing volleyball, and baby-sitting. She plans to go to college after high school.

Williams is involved in basketball, track, stuco and CYO. His favorite movie is Varsity Blues and his favorite song is "April 29, 1992" by Sublime. His favorite food is boiled shrimp on ice with cocktail sauce. In his spare time, Williams enjoys hunting, fishing, working on cars, and having fun with his friends. He plans to attend college after high school.

Freshman Class Has Wreath Sales

The Freshman Class sold Christmas wreaths from October 16-31. The class had a goal of 240 items. "The students who sold greenery did an excellent job. The class did not meet their goal because only about half participated," Sponsor Kim Albers said.

The freshman have displayed a positive response to the Homecoming activities and other duties that accompany the responsibility of being in high school.

"They did a good job with Homecoming activities and are enjoyable students to work with," Albers said.

The freshman have no other fundraisers planned for this year.

New Student Attends PHS

PHS has yet another new student. John Smee has joined PHS for his junior year.

Smee came to Kansas from Cheyenne, Wyoming where he attended East High School. East High consists of about 2000 students and 400 teachers.

Smee is looking forward to having fun while attending PHS. He plans to play golf in the spring.

Smee said, "I like the people here. The only thing I don't like is the rumors that go around PHS."

FFA Attends Contest

The Plainville FFA attended the Poultry and Entomology judging contest on November 14 at Hays. At these contests members are asked to evaluate and place chicken patties, grade chicken parts, identify parts of the chicken and judge four laying hens. Freshman Aryn Garvin placed 10th out of approximately 80 contestants.

Garvin said, "To prepare for the contest, I watched movies and read books about poultry judging. I quizzed myself on that information. Many judges commented about how well I did, even before I got my scores back. Some of them said I needed to join their FFA because I do better than their students."

Advisor Ed Rath said, "Garvin did an exceptionally good job!"

FFA also held a hog roast on November 17, before the school play. The purpose for the hog roast was to get the eighth graders involved in FFA. They were planning on serving 200-250 people.

FCCLA Members Travel to Birmingham, Alabama

FCCLA attended National Convention in Birmingham, Alabama November 2-5. Members that attended the convention include junior Rhiannon Becker, junior Jennifer Bland, freshman Jessica Casey, sophomore Mandy Cox, junior Jolene Eilers, sophomore Carrisa Fredrickson, sophomore Lacey Hambelt, senior Lindsey Hamblet, freshman Laura Lacy, senior Sarah Koehler, sophomore Abby Stagner, junior Michelle Rath, and freshman Jordyn Wilkens.

The convention lasted two days. The guest speakers were Bill Cortes and Jason Dorsey. The members attended workshops on Families First and Career Connections which are two national FCCLA programs. They learned about stopping violence and the importance of spending time with their family.

"We got some really good ideas for our Family's First project and some fundraisers for upcoming years. We also brought some ideas back for STAR Events which is in February," Koehler said.

The convention gave the members a good chance to meet new people from all across the country and to learn more about FCCLA, not to mention Birmingham and the South. They visited the 16th Street Baptist Church where four young girls were killed by bomb during desegregation. They also visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Larks Park, The Arlington Antebellum House, the Whistle Stop Cafe which was the site of the movie Fried Green Tomatoes.

"I enjoyed the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute because it explained the hardships of the African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement," Casey said.

Three Letterman Return for 2000-01 Season

Three returning lettermen will help lead the team of 16 players this season. The lettermen are Matthew Rodriguez, Brian Deutscher, and Matt Renk. Head Coach Steve Buresh will be assisted by Coach Matt Smith.

Other players include seniors Adam Glendening and Andrew Simon; junior Tony Dopita; sophomores Wayne Cook, Chris Hair, Adam Siefers, and Ryan Williams; and freshmen Joel Hrabe, Dustin Kraft, Brad Lynch, Charles Mooney, Justin Morris, and Keegan Turnbull. The manager for this season is Cody Krob.

"We have the capability of being a very competitive team. Keys to our success will be our ability to be patient offensively and aggressive defensively. Areas of concern are our lack of bench-depth and inexperience at certain positions. Our levels of effort and leadership have been very positive points to this season thus far, and I expect those aspects to carry over from practice to game play when the schedule begins in December," Buresh said.

The team will begin their season with a home game against the Osborne Bulldogs.

Lady Cagers Hit the Court With Young Team

The 2000 girls basketball team started practice November 13. Three returning lettermen will provide the leadership this year, and 21 other girls are out. The lettermen are seniors Cara Hansen and Sarah Koehler and junior Libby Hrabe.

The rest of the team consists of seniors Ashlee Grover, Kelcee Lowry, and Kelly Wilson; juniors Lacey Brin, Stacy Dreher, Shanna Fellhoelter, Kayla Fisher, Danielle Kenney, Heather Plante, and Michelle Rath; sophomores Mandy Cox, Tesha Florian, Lacey Hamblet, Heather Hrabe, and Naomi Thompson; and freshmen Jessica Casey, Jordan Finnesy, Julie Hrabe, Terri Kenney, Christina Terry, and Michelle Reishus. Head Coach this year is Norma Finnesy with help from Assistant Coach Jason Johnson.

"We are off to a great start. The league is going to be really strong again this year. We are inexperienced in some positions, but I think we have people to set up and get better. We will compete with people every game; therse girls are not quitters. The underclassmen are working hard and catching on. I am looking forward to a good year," Coach Norma Finnesy said.

The first game is scheduled for December 1. The Cardinals will be hosting the Osborne Bulldogs.

Grapplers On the Mats

Seven returning lettermen will lead the wrestling team this year. They include seniors Justin Balthazor, Cole Fredrickson, and Jason Stahl. Juniors include Luke Wise and T.J. Staab. Scott Wise and Jason Rath are the returning sophomores.

Eight new wrestlers have joined the team for the 2000-01 season. They are senior Kyle Dreher, juniors Cody Pfaff and John Smee, sophomore Willie Ruder and freshmen Adam Meyers, Travis Double, Tyler Nelson, and Alex Smentana.

The team will be coached by Brad Fredrickson and assistant D.J. Basgall. Manager for the year is freshman Ben Ruder.

Fredrickson said, "We return four state placers including S. Wise, Fredrickson, Staab, and Stahl, but the team lacks depth."

USD 270 Shows Appreciations for Seniors With Dinner

The first Signigicant Senior Dinner was held at Plainville High School on Wednesday, December 13. The school board and Dr. Grover came up with the idea. Several student organizations were called upon to assist in the event.

Each organization helped out in different ways. Stuco collected donations for door prizes. FCCLA served and FFA helped the senior citizens from their cars. National Honor Society was in charge of organizing the event. Each member was asked to head a committee such as entertainment, clean-up or service.

"The dinner allowed students and seniors both to see each other in a different setting. Just seeing the seniors' faces should help the students realize just how appreciative they were for this day," NHS sponsor Rita Carswell said.

The door prizes varied from fruit baskets and cocoa mix in cups to free dry cleaning and free meals. USD 270 plans on having this dinner in the future. Next year they would like to have more time to plan.

Teens as Teachers

The PHS Teens as Teachers performed a program for grades 3-5 December 7 at 1:30 p.m.

Teens as Teachers is a group of high school students who are interested in teaching elementary students about the dangers of tobacco use. Members for the 2000-01 school year include seniors Stephanie Fellhoelter and Kelly Wilson, sophomores Jessi Eisiminger and Jamie Stahl and two year members, juniors Renee Post and Chris Peavey.

In order to become a Teens as Teachers member, the students had to attend a training session on Monday, September 11 at Fort Hays State University. Counselor Rita Carswell accompanied the group and Deb Turnbull helped plan out the program when the students returned.

Both Carswell and Turnbull have agreed to continue being involved in this program, but the participants decided that the first year level is the most beneficial.

Students Participate in KMEA Concerts

Many PHS musicians traveled to Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas for KMEA music on Saturday, December 2.

KMEA stands for Kansas Music Education Association. You must first volunteer to audition and submit a tape for the judges. You may either be an instrumentalist or a vocalist.

Three instrumentalists were chosen from PHS. Sophomore Naomi Thompson, freshman Jessica Casey, and freshman Makenzie Rempe were chosen to play their clarinets. Vocalists selected were juniors Janelle Darnell and Chris Peavey. Three students from Plainville Elementary School were also selected. They were Dawn Gore, Vanessa Owings, and Jestine Peace.

Dr. Micheal C. Robinson is the Director of Bands at Fort Hays State, and he conducted the band. Dr. Roger H. Moore II is a tenured Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Fort Hays State. He conducted the honor choir with the help of his accompanist Pam McGowne.

The Honor Band performed four songs. They included "The Pathfinder of Panama" by John Philip Sousa, "Prelude, Siciliano and Rondo" by Malcolm Arnold, "Down a Country Lane" by Aaron Copland and "Incantation and Dance" by John Barnes Chance. They then combined with the choir to perform "America the Beautiful" by Ward/Dragon.

The Honor Choir performed six songs. They included "Let Their Celestial Concerts Unite" by George Frideric Handel edited by C.F. Manney, "Island in Space" by Kirke Mechem, "A Girl's Garden" by Randall Thompson, "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Randall Thompson, "If Love Should Count You Worthy" by James Quitman Mullholland and "Choose Something Like a Star" by Randall Thompson.

Director Connie Reishus said, "It is quite an honor to be chosen to perform in the KMEA Honor Band and Honor Choir. There are many performers from different schools that try out."