Bell, Schopp Rally OHS Speech Team to Many Victories

By OHS Torch Reporter, Thomas Hallstein

    The Olympia High School speech team hasn't just been winning this season; many of the team's members have been winning individual awards and also team tournament awards, making them the top team in the conference.

Over the past couple of speech competitions, many OHS members have done big things for them individually and for their team, rallying them past other competitors.

OHS Senior veteran member David Bell is one of the main reasons why the team is having such great success. “I’ve been doing this for 4 years, I have plenty of experience under my belt," said Bell.

With Bell doing big things individually for himself and the team, the team has another great Senior Collin Schopp and his little brother Freshman Ethan Schopp.

“It’s nice to see my little brother off to a great career in speech,” said Senior Collin Schopp.

The 3 of them together create a pretty mean trio, with their skills and talents put together the team has high hopes of being conference champs.

“My brother has taught me a lot of things about speech, he’s showed me the basics,” said Freshman Ethan Schopp.

With the holidays coming up, the team has a decent amount of time off, but once it comes back to meets the team will be back to doing successful things.  

P.E. Classes at Olympia Keep Rollin’

By Tristan Davis, OHS Torch Reporter

        The Olympia High School P.E. classes have been going on strong for a whole semester with fun movement enticing activities like, bags, Frisbee golf, ping pong, and many other activities.

    Olympia’s P.E. program has always been a good class that keeps students active the whole year. Students that participate in sports also appreciate the ability of being able to take strength and conditioning P.E. since it keeps student athletes in tip top shape.

    As the year progressed, students and the teachers could see the progression in athletic abilities as they worked every day. With the help of the trained teachers, students said that the PE classes were always fun and always kept them active.

    A few P.E. classes that previously were available for students, such water aerobics and outdoor-living, are not offered this year. Some students in this year's classes stated that they wouldn’t have minded if they could have taken those classes.

    Olympia’s P.E. teacher, Mr. Gerry Thorton, said, “The health and wellness class gets the students their basic 60 or more minutes they need a day while keeping them entertained.” People who participate in the health/wellness class go to Health for 40 minutes, then to Wellness P.E. for 40 minutes.

    Olympia’s P.E. teacher, Mr. Tim Thomas, said, “My students really enjoyed playing bags, horseshoes, Frisbee golf, ping pong, volleyball, and wiffle ball so they will definitely be provided to future classes.”

    Aerobics is a new class has been presented to Olympia is taught by Olympia’s new P.E. teacher, Mrs. Hoffman. The aerobics class was taught by Mrs. Goff for a year before Mrs. Hoffman taught at Olympia. The students did enjoy the class and said it was a good learning experience.

    Mrs. Hoffman is new to Olympia this year. As her first go around as an Olympia P.E. teacher, she very much enjoyed the first semester and cannot wait for future classes.

OHS Special Ed Class Enjoys New Room

By Taylor Rich, OHS Torch Reporter

“We work to improve their quality of life by giving them an opportunity of independence,” said OHS Special Ed teacher, Ms. Anna Shaw, about the independent living skills class in their new classroom which opened this year at OHS.

Students in Ms. Shaw’s class cook, clean, and work on job skills, money skills, reading, and writing. “We go out once a week into the community. It is important we go out and practice social skills. It gives us an opportunity to help with disability awareness,” said Shaw.

Ms. Shaw says they still work on the general curriculum, such as geography, science, and civics, but they mostly work in life skill.

Students in Shaw’s class make a daily schedule to show their parents what they did throughout the day. A lot of parents ask what students did in the day, and normally their answer is “stuff” or “I don’t know”. A daily schedule gives the students an opportunity to share their daily activities.

Ms. Shaw’s students have developmental challenges, making things more challenging to achieve.

Hannah Baker, OHS freshman, gets to enjoy Shaw’s class. They get to play games based on life skills that would be helpful in the future. Hannah also has joined Mrs. Hapgood's Freshmen advisory class for social skills development opportunities.

All of the students are very welcoming and love to be a part of the crowd, and will be. They all have a struggle of their own; however, they are able to overcome the obstacles and have fun in the process.

Olympia FFA Attends Section 9 Career Development Events

 

By Sierra Priebe , OHS Torch reporter 

On Wednesday, December 2, nine members of the FFA attended the Section 9 FFA Meats, Dairy Products, and Agronomy Career Development Events at Prairie Central to compete in three contests.

    The nine members who went to the CDE’s were Brock Gottschalk, Josh Kindred, Bailey Hoerbert, Ellie Schmidgall, Laura Rankin, Genna VanWye, Ashley Miller, Lane Miller and Kelsey Slager. At the CDE’s they participated three contests, Meats Judging, Agronomy and Dairy Products.

    The Meats Judging contest consisted of judging different slices and parts of an animal. The goal of Meats judging is to help students who want to go into the industry learn how to price their meat for the greatest profit. Olympia FFA members that participated in this event placed third overall.

    During the Dairy Products part the students judge milk and various cheeses. The idea is to be able to evaluate the quality of the milk and organize cheeses by their characteristics. The team for this particular contest consists of four members, whose team is ranked by the sum of all the individuals scores.

    Plants and plant’s seeds are judged during the Agronomy contest. One thing competitors are expected to do is analyze a given scenario and create a management plan for the crops. The OHS agronomy team finished 7th place.

    Junior Ashley Miller said, “The CDE’s were a good experience for me because I see myself having a future in Agriculture.”

    The Career Development Events promote teamwork, leadership, problem solving and critical thinking. Senior Genna VanWye said “I liked the team aspect of the contests”. CDE’s hope to encourage a future for FFA members a future in Agronomy, Meats or Dairy Products by giving them chances to be recognized for their skills.

    The Olympia FFA members who attended the Career Development Events got to showcase their skills and knowledge over agriculture, while building their leadership and team working skills.

Olympia History Classes Take on Springfield

 

By Katie Bergeron, OHS Torch Reporter

On Friday November 20th the American Law/Government and Contemporary History took a field trip to Springfield; while there they visited the old capital building and the new one.

History Teacher Mike Haak said, “I was very impressed by the students, they all participated and were respectful. It tickled me pink! Also Representative Keith Summers was very amazed by everyone.”

The Classes went to the old capital first to see where people like Abe Lincoln used to work. After that they went to the new capital and toured it.

The Students ended up climbing over 200 steps that day. They got to see the State Representative room, Senate room, and the old Supreme Court room.

That concluded their tour of the new capitol building. Their they meet representative Keith Summers and he talked to them more in depth of the history of the building.

After learning and seeing all that the new capitol building had to offer the classes went back to the State Representative room and held a mock meeting. The students assumed the name and role of actual representatives and passed a bill.

After the students agreed on an amended bill and passed it, Keith Summers invited the classes to his office for lunch. He provided Little Caesar's pizza and water for the students and teachers.

Elaina Needles said, “It was actually really fun, and a lot of people were involved in the debate. Keith Summers was awesome by buying all of us pizza!”

OHS Guidance Office Wins $1000 Grant

 

 

By Taylor Rich, OHS Torch Reporter

Recently, Mr. Alex Castillo, new OHS counselor, won big at a tour of Midwest Technical Institute.

    Castillo was in a group of about 15 to 20 other people from various central Illinois schools touring  MTI to learn more about the program and what it can offer area high school grads.  After the tour, there was a raffle to win one of two $1000 grants. Mr. Castillo was one of the lucky winners.

“We want to make sure it’s used for technology,” said Mr. Castillo. Mrs. Lisa Steve, OHS counselor, said she wasn’t sure where the money would be allocated, but agreed it will be used for technology somewhere in the high school.

 

Ultimate Frisbee Whirls Up Excitement at Oly

By Shannon Morr

 

Counselor Alex Castillo has begun an ultimate frisbee club at Olympia this past semester for students who are interested in trying something new and who want to improve their skills.  

Ultimate frisbee, also known as Ultimate, is a mix of football and soccer where players advance the disc by passing it to other teammates. Ultimate is a non-contact sport that is fast-paced and requires good endurance.

While there are only 7 players on the field at once, teams consists of 7-28 players. Points are scored by passing the disc to a teammate in the opposing end zone.

Mr. Castillo said, “I played Ultimate at Eastern Illinois University and then coached there. It’s a lot of fun so I wanted to start a team at Olympia. My goal is to compete with other schools later on for the state championship.”

Ultimate frisbee is not an IHSA sport currently but it is played at club and college levels through USA Ultimate. Men, women, and co-ed teams can practice either in a gym or on a football field.

When asked what makes a good ultimate frisbee player, Mr. Castillo said that height, speed, and throwing ability are helpful but anyone can have success if they work hard at it and have a drive to improve.

Currently there are 22 Olympia students signed up for the club. They practice at 6:45 on Friday mornings.

With the cold winter weather, practices are being held indoors currently but will be moved to the practice football field in the spring. The team is hoping to scrimmage the ISU team is it is approved by school officials.