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.