FFA Members Gear Up For State Convention

By Ellie Schmidgall, OHS Torch reporter

Every June, FFA members from all over Illinois head down to Springfield for the annual FFA state convention and this year, Olympia will be sending down 14 students.

Olympia FFA members have been fortunate enough to attend state convention every year. Last year, 12 girls and 2 boys attended. Those attending this year is undetermined.

There are many activities to participate in during the three-day long convention. Sessions, dances, talent shows, and voting for new state officers are just some things that go on during convention. Pretty much all of downtown Springfield is filled with FFA members during those three days.

Sophomore Karmen Glueck said, “We got to go to Knights Action Park last year and it was awesome. Brock Gottschalk and I went down a huge slide together and it was terrifying. Overall, I loved everything about convention.”

Members stay in a hotel close to Prairie Capital Convention Center where all activities are held. Everything related to the convention is in walking distance, but if you want to venture out to something such as Knights Action Park, you’d have to drive.

Mr. Hofffman, FFA advisor, drives one of Olympia’s white buses down. This year, students will be leaving on Tuesday the 14th and returning on Thursday the 16th.

Sophomore Brock Gottschalk said, “I’m excited to go down this year, I love meeting new people and gaining more leadership skills through different sessions.”

Overall, this year Olympia FFA members are excited to go down and experience convention whether it’s for the first time or they’ve been before. It will be a great start to a new year of FFA!

Spanish 4 Teaches Elementary Students

By OHS Torch Reporter Nick Barclay

            On Friday, April  22, Olympia High School Spanish 4 students visited Olympia West Elementary to teach the young students a little bit about the Spanish language.

            The Spanish class took a quick field trip to Oly West to teach students a little bit of Spanish. The trip’s objective was to inspire young kids to take an interest in learning Spanish, said Mrs. Natalie Cahill, OHS Spanish teacher.

            The students learned the basics behind the Spanish language. Kids at Oly West learned how to count in Spanish, as well as learning the colors in Spanish.

            Sophomore Blake Stine said, “I really enjoyed teaching the kids a little Spanish, I hope I helped them develop an interest in Spanish.”

            The trip allowed the high school students to reach out to the elementary kids, teaching them and making some friends along the way.

Junior Vittoria Cira said, “I am glad I was able to go.  It was a lot of fun meeting all of the kids and seeing them laugh and learn.”

The adventure was very fun for everyone and left students excited to learn in the future. Hopefully, it allowed students to want to learn in the future.

Skills USA Hits Olympia Hard

By Kiersten Robbins, OHS Torch reporter

Skills USA took place April 21 through 23, in Springfield at the Prairie Capital Convention Center. There were multiple vocational schools there, Bloomington Area Career Center, where OHS students attend was a huge hit at the competitions.

There were eight 1st place winners, four 2nd place winners, and six 3rd place winners from BACC. Three of the 1st place winners are from Olympia High School.

Senior John McCain competed in Open and Closing Ceremonies, Job Demonstration for Fire Science, and Skills for Nursing. He placed 3rd in the ceremonies, 1st in job demonstration, and 4th for skills and qualified for nationals in Louisville, Kentucky.

John said, “It was my second year and everything was exactly the same. I still had a blast and it was still a great opportunity”

Senior Chantelle Clemmons also competed in the Skills USA competition. She received 1st place in promotional board with her team from different schools, Marissa Jordan, Becca Jones, and Zach Miller.

Chantelle said, “This was my first year and it was great! My favorite part was just chilling out at the hotel with my teammates.”

Senior Cody Cheeseman also received first place in his firefighting competition. These three students will be competing in nationals in July! Olympia High School and the Bloomington Area Career Center are so proud of all the students who competed this past weekend.  Good luck to all who are attending nationals!

FFA Members Take On State Livestock and Horticulture Judging

By Ellie Schmidgall, OHS Torch reporter

On Friday, April 22, 10 Olympia FFA members traveled down to Champaign, Illinois where they participated in Illinois State Horticulture and Livestock judging held at University of Illinois.

Five members were on each team. Gannon Springer, Andrew Renfrow, Genna Vanwye, Carson Goff, and Ashley Miller participated in livestock judging. Ellie Schmidgall, Bailey Hoerbert, Kelsey Slager, Nate Herbig, and Eddie Dehart were on the horticulture judging team.

Overall, Olympia placed 32nd out of more than 100 teams. Carson Goff was 12th overall individual and Genna was 55th. Our Olympia horticulture team placed 26th. Bailey and Nate were Olympia’s top individuals.

Senior Carson Goff said, “It was such a beautiful day for livestock judging. The competition was great and the U of I farm was a perfect setting.”

State livestock judging was the third event that Olympia FFA’s judging team got to participate in this year. Prior events include section judging and a competition at Illinois State fairgrounds.

As for horticulture judging, there was one prior event. It included schools from section 9. Only three students were able to attend that competition, but it was very successful.

Senior Bailey Hoerbert said, “State horticulture judging was pretty challenging this year. There were many plants I had never seen before, but it was a really good learning experience.”

With the seniors graduating, juniors and sophomores who participated this year will have to carry on Olympia’s success. Mr. Hoffman is ready to recruit new members who will help Olympia’s CDE teams prosper.

Olympia FFA Has Another Successful Banquet

By Collin Loeffler, OHS Torch reporter

On Sunday, April 17, the Olympia FFA hosted their annual banquet that was open to all FFA members and their parents to come eat dinner and watch final ceremonies. There were over 120 guests present the night of the banquet. Dinner was served at 5 with ceremonies after starting around 6:30.

Darryl Springer provided pork loin for dinner and Beth Beachy made side dishes, drinks, and dessert. The meal was served in the OHS cafeteria.

The 2015-2016 officer team had their final ceremonies as a whole team that night. There were many awards given out to those who participated throughout the year and those who showed dedication to FFA.

Several weeks before the banquet, senior FFA members interviewed for scholarships from the FFA alumni. Scholarship amounts were presented that night to receiving members.

There was a slideshow for seniors that included pictures throughout their lives. At the conclusion of the ceremony and banquet, there was a slideshow that had pictures throughout the 2015-2016 year.

Senior Gannon Springer said, “This is the definition of bittersweet. FFA has played a huge role in my high school career and I’ve learned so much from being involved. It’s going to be weird not wearing my official dress next year.”

Many of the seniors were 4 year FFA members. They started their FFA career their freshman year by taking Intro to Ag. Those seniors have been through a lot of change, but they adapted and stuck it out their high school careers.

Junior Ashley Miller said, “I don’t know how I’m going to handle not having my seniors next year. I know they will go out and do great things, but banquet was definitely an emotional time.” ​

Olympia Students Rock out at Battle of the Bands

By Alyssa Lang, OHS Torch Reporter

On Friday, April 15, six bands competed for the title of  King of the Castle of Battle of The Bands; Sundown was one competing band which includes three Olympia Students, John, Richie, and Casey Ingram plus their father.

The Ingram Triplets have been playing in talent shows since they were eight years old. They perform at festivals, and bars around Armington, Delavan, Bloomington, Lincoln, Mackinaw and Peoria, they also play Sunday mornings at Minier Christian Church.

The whole family is involved in the band, their mother is the manager of Sundown, their father, John, sings and plays rhythm guitar, Richie plays lead guitar, Casey plays bass guitar and John plays drums.

To get nominated to play at the Battle of the Bands competition, they had to submit a letter and a CD of original music to the person in charge of the event, they then reviewed all of the applicants and chose six bands.

“My favorite thing about performing is seeing the smiles on the crowd's faces, and watching people get up and dance, it makes you feel good making people happy through music, also I like being able to express myself through music and performance,” said Casey Ingram

John says they like playing Classic Rock and Southern Rock, they got twenty-five minutes to play during the competition so they picked their five best songs, the songs they performed were Love and a Passion, Back on the Ground, DeJa Vu, Friend and On Common Ground.

“I felt pretty good about the performance even though I wasn't playing on my own set of drums. While I was rocking out I hit my hand on the drums and it started bleeding a lot, I didn't notice it until I got off the stage but I didn't care it was all part of the life of being a drummer," said John

The winner of the Battle of the Bands received a Bombsight recording studio prize package that includes a full weekend of tracking to complete a three-song extended play, a full weekend of studio time to complete mixing. The extended play will be professionally mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room in Chicago.  Alkaline Trio, Local H, Buddy Guy and Kanye West will be featured.

Sundown did not place but they received tons of positive feedback, “I personally think it was our best performance yet! When I looked at the crowd everyone was watching and getting into it!”

Sundown will enjoy many more performances entertaining people around the area and hopefully win future battles.

OHS Celebrates STEM with Elementary Children

By Sara Rathbun, OHS Torch reporter

The week of April 11 was the STEM celebration for OHS; grade schoolers from all the Olympia elementary schools gathered at the high school to enjoy a magic show, planting seeds, and much more.

The celebration included the involvement of several high school classes and three high school science teachers to make sure everything ran smoothly for the elementary students. This celebration also occurred over the course of several days with the elementary schools visiting the high school on different days.

OHS science teacher Mr. Jarrod Rackauskas, said, “I think the overall celebration functioned very well this year and I am very proud of the work the students did. I also think Mrs. Mohr deserves credit for making sure everything ran smoothly.”

The preparation for this event took a while to plan. The extensive preparation for this event was worth it to make sure that the children received the best experience they can.

OHS science teacher, Mrs. Chris Embry Mohr, said, “If we were to plan anything different for next year, it would be that we had more time to be prepared because this takes a lot of planning to run smoothly.”

There were a variety of different activities for the kids to participate in such as a magic show, planting seeds in the greenhouse, and building bridges. The activities always engage the children by being hands on and interesting to make it a very exciting day.

OHS science teacher, Mrs. Brandi Cooper, said, “If I were to change anything for next year, it would be that we had more time for the kids because eight minutes didn’t seem long enough for some stations.”

Overall, the science teachers feel as though this year was close to perfect. This year’s celebration was definitely one for the books for running smoothly and being an exciting experience for the elementary children.

NHS Holds Recognition Ceremony on April 25

by Genna VanWye

The Olympia High School National Honor Society will hold its annual end of the year banquet on April 25th, at 6 pm to honor members, hand out cords and pins, and induct new members.

Senior NHS members will be honored for their involvement and community service over the years. They will each receive cords that can be worn on graduation day.

Katie Bergeron, senior, said, “NHS has been so helpful in pushing me to go out of my way for others that may not be as fortunate as I am. It has given me a sense of community and I feel as though I actually had an impact on others.”

Junior members will receive their NHS pins to honor their involvement in the program for one year.

Jake Eichelberger, junior, said, “My favorite part about NHS is helping the community and I’m looking forward to contributing even more next year.”

Sophomores and juniors who have qualified and written an entrance essay will be inducted at this banquet. They will enter the program starting in the 2016- 17 school year.

Chevy Wilkins, sophomore, said, “I am excited for NHS because of all the opportunities within the organization and I am looking forward to seeing what it is all about.”

As a member of National Honor Society, one is required to complete 20 hours of community service over the course of one school year. Some of the projects students were involved in this year include the NHS Haunted Halls, a canned food drive, Relay for Life, tutoring, lunch buddies, and Spartan bowlers.

With another year coming to a close, the Olympia High School National Honor Society is proud to have amazing kids coming into and leaving the program.

New Illini Prairie Conference Replaces Cornbelt Conference

By Collin Miller            The Cornbelt conference  is disbandingfollowing Eureka’s announcement to leave next year to move into the Heart ofIllinois Conference and U-High’s departure to the Central State Eight andMahomet’s removal to the Apollo conference the following year.            The Okaw Valley Conference contains St. Thomas More (Champaign), Monticello, Rantoul, St. Joeseph-Ogden and Unity (Tolono). The five remaining teams in the Cornbelt conference are Central Catholic (Bloomington), Illinois Valley Central (Chillicothe), Olympia (Stanford),Pontiac and Prairie Central (Fairbury).  These 10 teams now form the brand new Illini Prairie Conference.            In February, principals and athletic directors from all ten schools voted unanimously to explore the creation of a new conference. It was taken back to the Superintendent and Board of Education for consideration.            “I’m not looking forward to this new conference at all, especially on Tuesday and Thursday night sporting events when the team will travel long distances,” said sophomore Mason Marquis.

Being a student athlete is challenging and these late bus rides home in the new conference will not make it easier for athletes. The shortest trip for Olympia in the new Illini Prairie conference would be to Central Catholic; all the rest are over an hour from the school.

“I don't think it will go good for sports.  These new teams coming in are very competitive and compete at the top level every year,” said sophomore Blake Blessing.

The name of the new conference “Illini Prairie” was voted on by students and staff in the schools of  both conferences. The name was unanimously passed by the new board of the conference in April.            The current presidents of the Corn Belt and Okaw Valley Conferences are excited about both the academic and athletic aspects of the Illini Prairie Conference. This new conference will begin starting the 2018 school year.

Fire Science Practice Real Situations

By: Jake Short, Torch Staff

Fire Science at Bloomington Area Career Center are going to the drill station in Bloomington-Normal to simulate situations they may face when entering a burning building.

The students are faced with crawling through tight spaces, and maneuvering through obstacles such as dangling wire and rope while staying with their partners at the same time. Fully equipped with gear, students work their way through whatever they are faced with.

Self Contained Breathing Apparatuses (SCBA) and Personal Protective Equipment (P.P.E) are one of the things every Firefighter has to accommodate to. This SCBA confidence course allows these students an upper hand in getting used to SCBA and P.P.E for when they join a department.

AC Isaacs, Fire Science instructor, said, “It is good they get a feel for the equipment so that the students get used to it now, rather than later in the future.”

“This course gives us a good challenge and always puts us to the test; it is amazing how we are able to accomplish what we knew nothing about in the beginning of the year,” said Normal Community junior  Guy Gudemen.

Mason Ratcliff, Homeschooler senior, said, “Getting over claustrophobia is difficult and facing it now is good so that we do not freeze when a real situation arises.”

“The tight spaces can really get to you, simulation or not, everything can be ok one second then the next you are tangled up or stuck in a tight space,” said Olympia junior Mason Moore.

Even though this course is fairly new, it is a great hit with the students. They love overcoming the challenges, such as finding a baby in the mess and having their sight taken away. The course allows the instructor, AC Isaacs, to give them a feel for anything and everything so they are comfortable when things go wrong in a structure.

Chem Bowl Divides Olympia

By Caleb Yeazle and Jon Crawford

On Friday, May 13th Olympia High School students compete in the National Chemistry Bowl; Mr. Rackauskas students versus Mr. Singer students, only the best will win the national championship.

Each class will have approximately 12 kids that have to answer 12 questions and 4 kids from each team answer a question at the same time. Out of the 4 kids, each turn in a paper with their answer to the question and are awarded points anonymously on a projected screen for the audience to see.

Mr. Rackauskas, OHS Chem bowl sponsor, said, “It’s an honor that Olympia has not only one but two teams fighting for the National Chemistry Bowl Championship.”

The Chem Bowl will take place during advisory on May 13th. Everyone is invited to attend this event. There will be walk- in songs played for each team, this event is to be epic.

Mr. Rackauskas, Chem bowl sponsor said, “Think about it millions of kids across the nation would die to have the chance at being National Chem Bowl Champions and our kids from Olympia in the middle of a corn field are going to be National Champions, that doesn’t happen every day.”

Junior Rece “Reckin Reco” Finck said, “Rack is love. Rack is life. #goat”

The winning team will receive accolades at the champions banquet. All proceeds from selling shirts will go to travel and expenses.

Being able to participate in the National Chem Bowl is a big deal for Olympia. Not everyone can put on their resume that they are a National Chem Bowl Champion.

Mr. Rackauskas, Chem bowl sponsor, said, "Think about it like a civil war, brothers vs. brothers, team vs. team in the same school! Some of the best students won’t come back after they’ve been defeated."

This Chem Bowl will divide Olympia however. Two teams will enter but only one will come out as the victor. The best students will enter the fray but won’t come back.

Welders Learn to Cut on the Plasma Table

Welding is a hard skill to master along with learning cad programs and having to draw and write codes for the plasma table and then cut out objects, pictures, and signs.

Cad is program on the computer where you can create images, trace images, and create about just anything. After it is saved, you transfer it onto a flashdrive and then take it to the computer where the plasma table is and upload it on there.

When the drawing is uploaded and then the codes are written for the travel path of the cutting tip. After the path is done and a dry run is done, they apply the negative clamp and then have it cut out your item.

After your item is cut, you can take it off the cutting table and dry it off from the water. Grinding the metal afterwards is smart  because the slag from the cutting tip is pretty sharp to the touch.

Scott Fontaine, Senior, said, “ I am always cutting things out on the table or helping other people. I’m pretty fluent with this program and i plan on doing this profession for a career.”

The plasma table at Heartland is only capable of cutting out signs that around around 4 feet by 4 feet. This is on the small side of the scale for these plasma but they run about 12,000 dollars new for a smaller one like this one.

Cutting tips have to be replace around once or twice a month depending on how much has been cut. These range from 25 to 50 dollars and are fairly easy to replace.

Anything type of machine in the welding shop are very expensive and need to have routine maintenance done.

Olympia’s BSAA Class Takes a Trip to John Deere

By OHS Torch Reporter Clay Bachman

Olympia’s 2nd block Ag Class took a trip on Thursday, April 14th last week to Cross Implement in Minier. The students took a tour and participated in their testing of vehicles day.

Cross Implement invited Mr. Hoffman’s class to participate in this event. Many pieces of equipment were available to test that day.

The tour included seeing where they store all of their parts and even the upstairs attic where extra parts are. Also meeting a good amount of workers their especially the technicians that work on the equipment.

Ag teacher Mr. Hoffman said, “The thing I most enjoyed about this trip was getting the behind the scenes tour of the parts department and the shop.”

One of the biggest surprises of the tour was their parts shop. In the room was worth one million dollars of tiny parts.

One of the most fun parts about this trip was getting to drive the equipment. They had mowers for us to test out and drive in a little mapped out circuit.

Senior Thomas Hallstein said, “Driving the mowers was a lot of fun and especially driving around with my bros, I hope to see us mowin’ like that when we get older.”

This trip was a good experience for the students to see if they would enjoy working in a place like Cross Implement. This was a day the students won’t forget.

Skills USA Takes over Olympia

            By Kiersten Robbins, OHS Torch reporter

            Many Bloomington Area Career Center students are competing in Skills USA, a career student organization that has students compete state-wide in specific career skills, on April 21 through April 23 in Springfield.

            BACC is taking a total of 75 students with them to Springfield, 4 from Olympia. The Olympia students preparing for Skills USA are: seniors John McCain, Adam Gaither, Kiersten Robbins, and Chantelle Clemmons.

            This will be John’s 2nd year competing in Skills USA. Last year he competed for his Fire Science class, winning state and placing 4th in nationals. This year he will be competing in opening and closing ceremonies, a job demo for Fire Science, and skills in Nursing Assisting.

John said, “For Fire Science I am describing a SCBA and going over parts and showing how it works and putting it together and taking it apart.”

First year student Adam is competing in Digital Media in T-shirt design and pin design. He is using the same unique design for both the shirt and the pin.

Adam said, “We are making the designs already in class. I am going to have my teacher, Mrs. White, give me some feedback on my design to hopefully improve it.”

Many students are very anxious about going to skills. They would all like to qualify for nationals by placing 1st or 2nd in their skill category.

All students are perfection their skills to be the best that they can be. Good luck to all the Skills USA competitors.

DAR and SAR Citizens Chosen at OHS

By OHS Torch reporter, Jamie Hamblin

            Two exceptional Olympia High School seniors, Bekah Bauersfeld and Collin Schopp were selected as Good Citizens for the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution Foundation program.

            The DAR Good Citizens program stands for Letitia Green Stevenson Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. It encourages and rewards the qualities of a good citizen. It is open to all high school seniors. The qualities looked for in a DAR Good Citizen are dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism.

            Only one student per year can be honored as a school’s DAR Good Citizen. DAR citizens nominated receive a DAR Good Citizen pin, certificate, and wallet of recognition card.

            The nominee may enter the DAR Good Citizens scholarship contest, where they will first explain how he/she has displayed the qualities of a good citizen. They also must send in a transcript and two letters of recommendation. Secondly, a timed essay is completed, supervised by faculty or a DAR member.

            Bekah Bauersfeld is this year’s OHS DAR nominee.  She said, “I applied for the scholarships, but ended up not winning. I still received $50 for getting nominated. I sat in a room and wrote a one hour essay.  When we went to our luncheon, they read our essays out loud and announced the winner. I’m grateful for getting this opportunity.”

            SAR stands for General Joseph Bartholomew Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution. Collin Schopp was the OHS nominee for SAR; he expressed all of the qualities in order to be nominated by the faculty of Olympia High School.  He attended a luncheon on April 14. All nominated seniors, parents, and a teacher or parent from each school will attend at the Bloomington Country Club in Bloomington, IL.  During the program, nominees will be announced; pins and certificates will be presented for the Citizenship Award winners. One outstanding student will win a $1000 scholarship for education.

            Collin Schopp, OHS SAR nominee, said, “I was honored.  It definitely wasn’t something expected.  It was a nice surprise to think that I was thought of when they were choosing the nominee for this. I haven’t won anything yet , but I am in the running for a smaller scholarship that’s decided after the recognition lunch later this month. I will most likely compete for the national scholarship as well.”

            Congratulations to our OHS seniors for being nominated for their outstanding achievements.

Olympia FFA Members Participate in Section Livestock and Dairy Judging

By Ellie Schmidgall, OHS Torch reporter

            On Wednesday, April 6th, members of the Olympia FFA attended the section 9 livestock and dairy judging competition at the Tazewell County Fairgrounds and various Dairy farms.

            Livestock judging consists of carefully analyzing animals and comparing them to a common ideal standard. Those in livestock judging have to assess four different animals; sheep, cattle, hogs, and goats. Those in dairy judging have to analyze dairy cattle.

            Students woke up early on Wednesday morning to be at the school by 7:45. The contest started around 8:30. Livestock judging was done around 11:45 and dairy judging got back around 1.

            Genna VanWye, Carson Goff, Ellie Schmidgall, Andy Davis, Gannon Springer, Brian Tackett, Andrew Renfrow, and Luke Litwiller participated in livestock judging. Josh Kindred, Brock Gottschalk, Shelby Payne, and Laura Rankin participated in dairy judging.

            OHS senior Brian Tackett said, “I’ve done livestock judging throughout high school. I love it and think it really benefits anyone going into the agriculture field.”

            FFA secretary, Carson Goff, received fourth place in overall individuals while the livestock judging team got fifth place overall. Brock Gottschalk received 8th place in individuals and the dairy judging team received fourth place.

            Many students participate in livestock or dairy judging throughout high school, but many colleges offer collegiate livestock judging. Senior, Carson Goff, will be attending Lakeland Community College where she will be on the livestock judging team.

            OHS junior, Andy Davis, said, “We don’t always agree on the official scores and placings that the judge gives us, but we always have to look back and see where they’re coming from. Livestock judging really helps me keep an open mind about things.”