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BLACK HAWK

TIMES

THE november

e d i t i o n[]

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Co

nte

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Word in the Halls

Red Ribbon Week

Veteran Day/ New Staff

Blood Drive/ Career Fair

Black Hawk Crew

Go Grafton Go Pink

Testing/ Black Hawk Time

Fine Arts

Sports

Musical Preview

Holidays

Black Hawks of the Month

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Marcus and Ben Bates!

-James Carpenter

The Broncos!

-Mrs. Wahl

Coffee! -Rachel Weidner

School of course.

-Charles Potter

Uhh, mashed

potatoes. -Rachel Rouna

The men and

women who serve our country.

-Luke Benzschawel

Soccer. -Micaela Brunnquell

My bed. -Kelly Megan

Having a car.

-Nick Krummey

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Stand Up to Drugs and Alcohol

Shout It! Inspirational speaker Harriet Turk teaches the student body her “Life is Great!” cheer by punching her hands in the air and yelling “Life is Great!” for the Red Ribbon assembly on Monday October 20.

Pictures by Abby Valerius

Dance like nobody’s watching! Brandon Steen, Brad Parsons, Lauren Brun-quell, Mina Kozicki and Ben Weishan let loose and just strut their stuff on the stage.

Red Ribbon Week happens once a year to inform kids and teenagers about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. This year it fell upon the days of October 20- 24th. This week reminds students to help prevent the use of drugs in the school and in their homes. Harriet Turk came to GHS to talk about having the confidence to be yourself and not changing to impress anyone. Harriet and her husband came up with a chant for their kids to remind them of this. “I am somebody special, if you don’t like me, TOUGH. Cause I am cool enough, smooth enough, and doggone it, I am hot enough to be who I want to be,” said Turk.

Turk was here to tell the stu-dents how alcohol affects people and a heartwarming story to warn the student body not to do drugs. GHS’s club LEAD does just that. LEAD promotes not to do drugs and teaches how to love life too much to ruin it by using. There are many resources for concerned friends to get help vic-tims of drug and alcohol abuse. If you or a friend needs someone to talk to contact Mr. Chris Hanley in the Guidance Office. As Harriet Turk talked about, “You’re cool enough, smooth enough, and doggone it, you’re hot enough to be who you want to be.”

Story by Abby Valerius and Danielle Lemke

Freshman Callan Hanley ties a Red Ribbon band around a tree in front of the high school to remind the commu-nity that it’s Red Ribbon Week.

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2014New Year, New Faces For the 2014-2015 school year, twelve new staff members were hired in various departments. The faculty members began their new jobs on September 3rd, 2014, welcoming students and warming up to the unfa-miliar atmosphere. The Special Educa-tion and Interpreter Depart-ments gained seven of the twelve new members. The other five new faculty were hired in Science, Physical Education, Communication Arts, Counseling, and the LMC.

While some faculty was new, Mrs. Houck re-sumed her position in the Communication Arts de-partment after one year of leave. “It feels like I never left. The faculty, staff and students were all so welcom-ing,” said Houck. Mr. Welden came up to the high school this year from GES. When asked about the transition , Mr. Welden joked, “These kids are just bigger, and have cell phones.”

Story by Caroline Fossum & Rhylan Gosselin

Mr. Mike Welden, Phy. Ed

Mrs. Stacy Houck, Comm. Arts

Veterans Day

3 Roman Monarski gives a speech about his experience in the Army. This speech is meant for students to appre-ciate everything the US Army does and maybe even inspire a few kids. 4 After every vet-eran was named off with his rank, the men saluted as the students gave them a standing ovation.

1 The Rose-Harms post 355 American Legion group came to GHS for the assembly. Veterans come every year on Nove-mer 11, marking the end of Word War I and now Veterans Day, to tell their stories. 2 Veterans salute the flag during the post-ing of the colors and the National Anthem.

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45 pints of success. As the fall blood drive came to a conclusion, it was clear that there was a great effort among the student body. With over 60 students volunteering their time and veins, GHS made a great contribution to the Bloodcenter of Wisconsin. Even though the numbers we achieved is something to be proud of, there are several improve-ments planned for next year in order to increase the number of successful participants. “The main thing we want to emphasize is the importance of a good breakfast,” said Mrs. Sandy Gulianai, who helped organize the event, explained. The drive may have captivated the hearts of the students, however many of them could not donate due to health reasons, the most common being an easy fix: eating breakfast.

“The problem was I didn’t eat enough, but I really wanted to donate, so I still tried,” senior Sara Dieringer explained. Next years’ drive will try to make information more available to students on how to prepare to do-nate blood. Another effort the blood drive team hopes to make next year is for the incorporation of planning with athletic events. Unfortunately this year, some hopeful donors were not able to contribute, due to having a major sporting event the same day as the drive. Ultimately, with some slight tweaks, next year should yield even greater results, saving many more lives.

Bleeding for a Cause

Many companies came out to the career fair as well as College programs from schools like Marquette and UW Milwaukee. This years career fair focused on manufacturing and healthcare specialty jobs. “The career fair provides opportunities for the kids here to see the career options in the Graf-ton area,” said Principal Ken McCormick.Not only was the career fair informative on the occupations, but the presenters also incorpo-rated some fun aspects to keep students around their booths. Milwaukee Area Technical College allowed students to play chess and while they were playing the booth instructor would explain the basics of the jobs their company offers. Other booths such as the Marquette University Neu-

roscience lab allowed students to see an actual human brain. Waukesha Metal Products provid-ed candy for students. Other booths had small toys to keep students around while they gave an explanation of the specifics of what their jobs re-quire and what kind of schooling they had to go through to get there. Learning about the school-ing and courses is also a big help to the students so they know what to focus on at a collegiate level. “The fair had a stand for the career I want to pur-sue after high school so it benefited me by being able to talk face to face with professionals in that field,” said senior Kaytie Lighthizer. The career fair has helped many students at Graf-ton get motivated to pursue their dream job, now its only a matter of time before they achieve it.

Expand Your HorizonsStory By Jimmy Otworth

Story By Rob Bergman

Every three seconds, someone in the United States needs blood.

There is no substitute.

To find a donation site go to www.bcw.edu

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Black Hawk Crew Black Hawk Crew has been in existence for a few years now, but this year it is rising to new heights. Created with the intent to gradually introduce incoming freshman to high school, it has been reworked to involve upperclassmen much more. Leaders Mr. Mike Kalina, Mr. Zach Gajewski, and Ms. Nikki Slagle are all helping make this year one to be remembered. “We wanted to help freshmen have a smoother transition into high school. We also would like to provide a positive atmosphere that can help stop bullying,” said Kalina. Mentors began to be recruited as early as the fourth quarter of the 2014 school year. They were assigned four to six freshman mentees that they were to contact and invite to their very first event, a tailgate before the home opener of the 2014-2015 football season. But, before the tailgate even occurred, mentors put in hours of preparation during their summer vacation. “I thought it was a pretty successful event, because more people showed up than we’ve ever had before. Not to mention, everybody was entertained and seemed to be having a great time,” said co-president Bradley Parsons. Once the school year began, mentors made sure to be there every step of the way, even coming in on the freshman only first day of school. The mentees were able to have all of their questions answered and if they had any confusion brought on by their schedule, a mentor was there to lead the way. A few team bonding activities throughout the day also made sure to ease any nerves brought on by the upcoming school year. “It was a better start for me, because it really helped prepare me for the next week or two ahead,” said freshman Sean Brennan.

In addition to being in contact during the week, mentors and mentees took advantage of the newly introduced Black Hawk Time to meet and discuss anything different. After their conversations, a cooperative game usually followed. “Meeting with my mentees really makes me feel like I have a better connection to them and it’s almost like they’re my siblings. It’s also a really rewarding feeling to have freshman look up to you. We make sure to talk about dealing with stress in high school, because I know that it can be overwhelming,” said Co-President Kaleigh Wallock. As the first quarter came to an end, it is safe to say that this year’s Black Hawk Crew is the most successful to date. With still so many projects to come the freshman have no doubt hit the ground running into high school.

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Go Grafton, Go Great, Go PINK! “I’ve seen how hard

the battle can be, and I know how

many people have to go through it. I wanted to make sure everyone is

getting the support they need” -Maddie

Schultz The color pink was everywhere around Grafton High School on Thursday, October 23. Not only was it displayed on posters in the hallways, but close to every student and staff member wore some shade of pink. Senior Brandon Steen said, “Seeing so much pink in the hallways created excitement because pink is a color that stands out amongst other colors. It makes people happy.” “Go Grafton, Go Great, Go Pink” was an organized day for GHS to raise awareness and money for breast cancer. The day was put into action by teacher Mrs. Kellen Wesson and the LEO Club with students Madeline Schultz, Monica Geiser, and Hailee Ziehr. To spread the word around school, teachers hung posters and Mrs. Wesson organized a

picture to be taken outside in the shape of the pink Breast Cancer ribbon. T-shirts and memorabilias for each student were sold to raise money for the American Cancer Association as well. “The awareness of Breast Cancer impacts people by allowing everyone involved to have hope. It also makes them more educated; the more they see it the more it makes them understand how hard diagnosed individual’s battles are to fight,” said sophomore TJ Stoltman. “It’s surprising how many students are affected directly by breast cancer. It’s a good cause to be aware of and we should appreciate the people in our life because we never know how much time we have left with them”, said Wesson.

By: Molly Lutz

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Go Grafton, Go Great, Go PINK!

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MarchTesting Dates

3rd : ACT Plus Writing4th : ACT Work Keys

April27th : ACT Aspire [Reading]28th : ACT Aspire [Math]30th : ACT Aspire [Science]

May4th : ACT Aspire [Writing]

*9th grade

7th : ACT Aspire [Writing] *10th grade

5th : ACT Aspire [English] *9th grade

8th : ACT Aspire [English] *10th grade

Hot Spots

LibraryAuditorium

Choir Room

Classrooms

A new addition to the Wednesday schedule was put into action this year and was given the name Black Hawk Time. This was set up by Mr. Ken McCormick as a time to let students get things done without having to sacrifice precious time in their normal sched-ules. It also allows teachers to get in touch with students who are struggling in their class. “This could be a B+ AP student looking to get an A or student who was failing looking to get a passing grade,” added McCormick. Students have had mixed reactions to this change. Many forget to sign-up for help and spend their time in the auditorium. Junior Monica Wenton said, “I really didn’t like it as first, I kind of thought it was a waste of time. Af-ter a few weeks I realized it was a useful time in the day to get something done productively.” It is also used as a time to meet with a whole grade without interrupt-ing a class hour. “In the past, we would meet during 2nd hour, so students missed a good part of this class. Now, students miss a little of all classes, not a lot of a single hour,” said McCormick. Wednesdays were chosen for Black Hawk Time, because those periods were already shortened because of late start. “Teachers of lab classes (Science, Tech, FACE) asked that we not shorten periods on another day because labs can not be completed in shortened period” said McCormick. Many are wondering if the new schedule advancement is working. McCormick said, “It is too soon to tell if we are making a positive impact on student success in the classroom.”

It’s Black Hawk Time!

Students Aspire to Boost Test Scores

Story and Photos by Haley Bikman and Rachel Stein

Story by Kaitlyn Larson and Rachael Place

As part of the state of Wisconsin’s new requirements for standardized testing, GHS will be partaking in a series of new tests administered by ACT. With these changes comes a new testing schedule for the 2014-15 school year. In October freshmen took the fall version of the ACT Aspire, a 250-min-ute computer-based test designed to assess current knowledge and provide data to teachers on students’ learning abilities. In addition to the fall test, freshmen will take a spring version of the ACT Aspire in late April and early May, as will the sophomores. The freshmen scores will be used to measure their growth from fall to spring, while sophomores’ scores will be used to measure growth from ninth to tenth grade. The test is also a predictor of future ACT scores. Adding to the changes, the ACT Plus Writing and ACT Work Keys tests will be introduced to all juniors. Both will be administered during the school day in March as part of Wisconsin’s vision for students to be both college and career ready. “I think it’s a good idea to have all the juniors take the ACT at school because that way everyone will have an equal chance of taking it,” junior Hailey Hacker said. The ACT Plus Writing consists of four multiple choice tests in English, Math, Reading and Science and a 30 minute essay. This test is intended to measure students general knowledge and their ability to complete some college-level work. The ACT Work Keys is a completely new form of testing that measures skills critical to job success. The areas tested are applied mathematics, locating information, and reading for information. The ACT Work Keys allows students to compare their skills to those that a real job requires. This test as well as the ACT Plus Writing is a pencil and paper assessment.

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Right before a haunting Hal-loween weekend, the Grafton High Open Studio Time (GHOST) club sat back and enjoyed Monster cookies and caramel corn during their costume party. Students got in touch with their creative side with fake blood, face paint, and some home-made outfits. In attendance were none other than Life and Death, and The Little Mermaid. Amber Micoliczyk (top right) came decked out in full wig and spar-kly scale leggings. Her Little Mermaid costume was complete with sea shells hot glued to a purple top and a stuffed fish from a resale store. “I saw the leggings and said, ‘That’s what I’m going as,’ so I started collecting materials,” said Micoliczyk. Anastasia Gouchina and Shelby Babl (bottom right) dressed as

Life and Death in a partnered costume idea. Gouchina dressed in white and green with a flower crown and antlers, while Babl sported all black every-thing, even lipstick. “We were going to be Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask [from the anime Sailor Moon], but we were too lazy. We just wanted to be cute and matching.” Gouchina explained. GHOST started off as a social gathering for artists, but have elect-ed officers for this year, including President Karina Osipyan, Vice Pres-ident Anastasia Gouchina, Treasurer Oleeyah Derzon, and Secretary Fiona Lawtin. This year they used their artis-tic talents to participate in volunteer work and fundraisers, and they even decorated pumpkins for Pumpkinfest.

GHOSTs and Ghouls

On Sunday, October 19, the Choral Department held its first con-cert of the year, a benefit for The Trevor Project. “It’s something Ms. Hemming did before I was here and I thought it was a great way to give back,” Mr. Adam Qutaishat, the choral director, ex-plained. To choose an organization to donate to, Qutaishat opened up the floor for student ideas. Then, all of the choirs voted. The students decided to donate the $710 raised to The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ organization that helps to prevent suicide among young teens. Senior Brandon Schmidt con-tributed the idea of having the pro-ceeds go to this charity because, “They helped me when I was coming out, so I

thought I’d give back.” Giving back to a charity such as The Trevor Project inspired many of the choir students. Junior Shelby Babl said, “It’s a lot more of a minority charity wise and it encourages LGBT teens to come out; It gives them a safe place to talk about it.” The choirs performed various styles of music, from pop to spiritual to contemporary classical. Seven choirs performed, including Chamber Singers, Neonotes, Camerata, Vocal Jazz, Cho-rale, Graftonics, and Concert Choir. The show-stopper was “The Road Home” by Stephen Paulus, performed by Chamber Singers. Qutaishat said, “I found out after the performance that Stephen Paulus passed away earlier that day,” making the song even more intriguing for him to conduct.

Raise Your Voice

Freshman Rose Lawton sports her spooky makeup done by her sister, junior Fiona Lawton.

Story by Maureen Tomashek Photos by Adele Danner

Story & pictures by Sofie Green

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Finishing StrongStory by Emily Mueller

Pictures by VIP and Angela Amundson

The Boys Cross Country team finished out a respect-able season. There were many new faces on the team including nine new freshmen. “I joined cross country expecting a hard sport, but I got that but so much more, I’ve made some good friends with my entire team.” said Freshman Peter Danner. The team made their way from the first early season invite in August to the WIAA Sectionals in October. Meet MVPs included; Noah Vaculik at Shore-wood, Gordy Thompson at West Allis, Ben Weishan at Menomonee Falls, McKenna Wolfe at Waukesha South, Joe Docter at Manitowoc, Pat Plier at Slinger, Max Jen-sen at the North Shore Conference, and Alec Weinhold at Sectionals. Although the whole team did not qualify for state two members did: senior Alec Weinhold and junior Max Jensen. They competed at the WIAA State meet at Wiscon-sin Rapids on November 1. Alec finishing 28th with a time of 16:41.2 and Max finished only two places behind in 30th with a time of 16:43.1

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Finishing Strong The Girls’ Cross Country team had another successful year, setting personal records and finishing the season strong. The highlight of the season was at the North Shore Conference meet at Concordia University. The day was dreary and cold, but every teammate who competed performed the best they had the whole season, each breaking their personal records. To get fired up before a race, the girls got into a huddle, tapped one another on the shoulders, and wished each other good luck. Each girl had a different mindset stepping up to the finish line. “Most of the time I’m really nervous. But it’s a good nervous,” said junior Jennifer Woolf who ran 21:39.77 at the Conference meet. For other members of the team it’s different. “It’s really weird. I’m standing at the line. I’m getting all ner-vous. And right when the ref yells 30, I feel a sense of calm. I’m ready to race,” said senior Rachel Ruona who ran 20:49.25 at the Conference meet. One thing is for sure. Every girl on the team has a deep love for running. “I feel amazing after a race. No matter how good or bad the race went I feel amazing when I’m done. It is like the best mo-ment of my life, and makes up for my nerves before the race,” said junior Ella Aspenson.

Story by Adele Danner

Pictures by VIP and Angela Amundson

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You Got Served!Story byMorgan WeisflogBreannah Palubiski

Photo by: Sydney Struck

Photo by: VIP

Photo by: Laura Parsons

Losing a handful of seniors in the previous season, the girls tennis team came back stronger than ever. They advanced two sets of doubles teams to sectional finals, sending one more team than last year. The teams were sophomores Allison and Amanda Parsons, and juniors Abigail Benvenuto and Sydney Struck. “We improved a lot from last year so we have more potential coming into next year’s season,” said Struck. Benvenuto and Struck finished with a 7-5 record in conference and made it to sectional finals. This year, the girls varsity squad gained 4 new players. “Joining tennis this year was a great idea because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and it turned out that I had a lot of fun,” said sophomore Gillian Waskiewicz. In terms of successes, the team took home first, playing the best they had all season, on Saturday September 6 at the Delavan - Darien Doubles Invite. These team improvements weren’t just a fluke. “We got better as a team because we actually worked in the offseason,” said junior Benvenuto. Placing sixth in conference the

girls played an intense season overall. New players, #3 doubles team of seniors Kate Lennon and Katie Boyer finished 3-3 in conference. “Every time we were down, we reminded ourselves that we’re playing for fun and then we improved,” said Boyer.

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The 2014 volleyball season had many ups and downs, yet the Hawks finished strong. Composed of one freshman, six sophomores, four juniors, and three seniors, the girls proved that even with such a young team, achieving victory was still possible. Their conference season ended in 3 wins and 4 losses. The Hawks took 8th place out of 32 teams at the Oshkosh Tournament on August 26 & 27. Following that tournament the Hawks took 2nd place out of 6 teams at both the Milwaukee Lutheran and Slinger Invitationals. All of the players agreed that winning their last conference game against Plymouth High School on their home court was the most memorable moment of the season. Junior Amber Amenda explained, “Beating Plymouth at their home game was most memorable because we’ve struggled playing them in the past and we finally proved we could beat them.” Adding onto this, senior Rachel Schmitz said, “When we beat Plymouth, we

had so much energy the whole time. It as so fun to beat such a tough team like that.” Head Coach Jarrod Luedtke said, “This is just the beginning. We have worked so hard to build up our volleyball program, and by next season we will take off. I’m very proud of the dedication these young ladies have shown and I can’t wait for them to show it on the court next season.” Although Luedtke has resigned from his head coach position, he will remain involved with the volleyball program through fundraising and supporting the girls at their games. Many awards were presented at the end of the year: Sophomore Kayla Tsui was nominated team MVP and recieved the individual award of being second place all-conference player. Senior Rachel Schmitz recieved the Leadership award for being able to carry the team as the only captain. Sophomore Maggie Proefrock took home the Most Improved award and senior Hannah Weber recieved the Sportsmanship award.

Story By Lexi Sutherland & Maureen Tomashek

Passing

Expectations

Setting Standards

Killing the

Competition

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The GHS Football program had something to prove com-ing into the 2014 season as they were led by a new head coach and only had seven returning starters. What the team lacked in experience they made up for in effort as they ended the year on a 5-4 record, with two wins coming from forfeitures. The Black Hawks came out of the gate swinging, crushing New Berlin West at home by a score of 34-12. “The first game was one of the best games this year. Get-ting two sacks in that game was pretty great,” said senior lineman and fullback Brandon Steen. They went on to lose their second game at Wauwatosa West, 35-15, however this loss was later changed to a win by the WIAA after discovering that Wauwatosa West had played an ineligible player. The team then started their North Shore Conference record with a win, thanks to a Nicolet forfeiture. Nicolet was forced to forfeit all of their scheduled games, as a result of not having the numbers for a varsity team.

The week Grafton was to play Nicolet, the team played an exhibition game against Mar-quette High School from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Grafton lost at home, 32-20, but the loss was not counted in their season record. The Black Hawks went on to lose three more games in a row against Homestead, Whitefish Bay, and Germantown, all confer-ence games. The Black Hawk’s homecom-ing game was against their arch rivals, the Port Wash-ington Pirates. The team had arguably their best perfor-mance of the year and defeated the Pirates by a score of 25-6. “Homecoming and abso-lutely manhandling Port were the highlights of the season for me. Nothing feels better than beating Port. Especially since I’m related to half of the town,” said Brennen Streff, a senior cornerback for the Black Hawks. Tom Rose, a half back for the Pirates also comment-ed, “Both teams played well. (Grafton) rallied and got the ‘W’ on their homecoming.”Grafton lost their next game at Cedarburg, but finished

out the season with a win vs Milwaukee Lutheran, beating them 27-9.The Varsity Reserve team also had a good year ending with a 6-3 record. Head Coach Andrew Kolstad arrived at Grafton in February and immediately unrolled his weight lifting program, “The Grafton Grind”, in March. “He brought a whole new energy to the program,” senior Brandon Steen said. After weight lifting all spring and summer, the team hit the field on August 4 to pre-pare for the upcoming year. Kolstad had to bring in a new system, and a new coaching staff, and had to put it all together and make it work by week one. “I think he did really well for the first year,”said senior wideout Adam Cibulka, “We all had to get used to the new offense and his new way of coaching and we still had a winning record and we were successful.” Even with 16 seniors leaving this year, Grafton will have some key pieces returning next year. Junior Jarred Kettenhoven, who took over

at quarterback during the team’s loss to Homestead, will now have five games of varsity experience going into next year. Junior lineman Luke Benzschawel led the team in tackles most games and was a major contribu-tion to the offensive line. After senior linebacker and running back Matt Pfan-nerstill went down with an injury week one, it opened up playing time for junior running back Max Lerret and junior linebacker Drew Bran-denburg. There were even three sophomore players who made major contributions on offense and defense. Jack Senczyszyn and Vincent Gior-gi improved the team’s pass rush from the outside line-backer position, and Jaelan Turan contributed on the offensive and defensive lines. Their experience and others’ will definitely help this team come next year. “I think we’ll get done what we need to. We have ten to twelve returning varsity starters and we know the system better. Next season should go just fine,” says junior defensive end Daryl Bagley. “We all appreciate what the seniors did this year. I admire that they never gave up. Even when we were down, they always picked us back up. They really did take on the leadership role for our team and it showed on the field.”

Gridiron Glory

Photo by VIP Photography

Photo by VIP Photography

Story by Seth Herlinger

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Boys Soccer

The Black Hawks had a memora-ble season and there is no cliché in-tended there. The team, coach, and individuals all broke school records that have been set by some of the most collegiate level athletes.Coach Don Arnold achieved his 600th win when the Hawks beat Slinger 5-3. They racked up 5 more wins by the end of the season set-ting his record at 605-347-97. The team only had 3 losses and that put them at 2nd best in all of Grafton boys Soccer history. Adding to their already long list of achieve-ments, they scored 103 goals in a single season beating the record of 99 goals set in 2012!

Individually, center midfielder Jake Demerath had a phenomenal season, setting and breaking many records. As a junior, he is 2nd all-time in career points at 123, 1st in season points with a total of 67, and 1st in career assists with 37- not to forget that he is only a junior! His hard work was recognized in the conference by making first team all-conference as well as being ranked the second best player in the conference. Another individual to get his name in the books was sophomore Logan Block. As a center midfielder, he set a new record of 19 assists in a single season. He also received an

honorable mention from the confer-ence. Senior captain Ben Lorge’s contributions didn’t go unrecog-nized. As a 4-year veteran he was consistently an important element in the Black Hawks defense and was ranked the 10 best player in the the North Shore Conference. In addi-tion he was also named to first team all conference. Unfortunately the boys came up short in the sectional final against the Delavan Darien Comets, making it the last high school game for the 8 seniors. It was an exciting run and a huge achievement to simply make it to the sectional finals.

Story by Taylor Arnold and Axel Olivas

Photos by VIP

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Photo By Gabrielle Kraus

With a strong team performance, the girls all contributed a final score of 290, just 36 points above Edgewood Swim Team. Sophomore Autumn Haebig and senior Samantha Senczyszyn each won both their events. Haebig broke her own record in the 100 butterfly from the previous year beating her record time of 55.81 with a 55.63. She also was the state champ her second year for the 500 freestyle. Senczyszyn was close to beating her record time in the 100 freestyle of 50.28 but ended up with a 50.95 and sophomore Mallory Fox came in 3rd a little behind Senczyszyn with the time of 52.39. Senczyszyn

also won her even in the 50 freestyle. Senior diver Gabrielle Kraus came in 3rd place for the 3rd year in a row with a high score of 416.3 and had the swim team start off with 16 team points. The 200 yard freestyle relay team of sophomores Mallory Fox, Emma O’Brien, and seniors, Rachel Hauer and Senczyszyn took first. Also taking first, was the 400 yard freestyle relay team of Haebig, Fox, junior Natalie Keshemberg and Senczyszyn. The 400 yard freestyle team broke the state record of 3.29.26 with a time of 3.28.12. With all the hard work and dedication, the Swim and Dive team destroyed Division 2 state meet once again.

A night of broken records:

Photo By Katherine Bordetskaya

Photo By Katherine Bordetskaya

Story By Katherine Bordetskaya

Photo By Katherine Bordetskaya

Photo By Katherine Bordetskaya

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Another Year of SuccessComing from an undefeated season and state champ title, the Girls Swim and Dive team lost 8 seniors, but also gained 13 new swimmers. The numbers were small for the North Shore Conference, but the depth is divine. The speed of the girls combined made up for the limited people.The team placed second in conference, second in small school state, and their dual meets ended in winning 5 meets and losing 2 meets in the season, slipping from their undefeated previous season. Senior Samantha Senczyszyn said, “Although we didn’t win all of our dual meets, we kept a positive outlook on the state meet.” As the girls come to some of their last practices of their 2014 season, they trained for two of the most important meets of the year: sectionals

and state. Diving took place at Cedarburg High School on November 7th and swimming took place at Plymouth High School the next day. The girls earned their second Sectional Championship this year winning first again.The state team included swimmers, Freshman Gabrielle Sparapani as an alternate, sophomores Mallory Fox, Emma O’Brien, and Autumn Haebig, junior Natalie Keshemberg, and seniors Samantha Senczyszyn, Rachel Hauer, and diver Gabrielle Kraus. With limited number of people, junior Natalie Keshemberg said, “We might not have had depth compared to other teams but, our top 6 swimmers could out swim any swimmer on the other teams. Although the other teams have more people, we still had the top speed which helped us overcome anything.”

Photo By Visual Image Photography

Photo By Visual Image Photography

Photo By Visual Image Photography

Photo By Visual Image Photography

Photo By Katherine Bordetskaya

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GHS Presents...

Long nights, tiring practices, hard work and many other components all come down to only four preformances, about 2 hours each. All of this hard work is put together on November 20-23, the drama department will put on the classic musical The Secret Garden. The musical is a rendition of the 1911 novel written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The story is based in the early 20th century and follows the adventures of Mary Lennox (senior Katie Fischer), a young orphaned girl who was sent to live in England with her Uncle (senior Nick Pavelic) at the age of 11. While Mary is trying to discover herself, she discovers a neglected garden and brings it to life with the help of another young gardener, Dickon (junior Spencer Knier), in order to bring a bit of magic back into her life. Junior Molly Lutz said “I like the musical, It’s just very different from any of the other productions I’ve done because It’s more dramatic and sad, but the music is beautiful and the highlight of the show.” Lutz has been involved with the drama department throughout high school and is playing Martha, the head maid for Mary, in the performance. This years show puts an emphisis on the unique music. Senior Brandon Schmidt who is playing Ben Weatherstaff, the gardener, said “The music is very melancholy and I was very happy to get one of the leads.” With the elaborate set designs and costumes, the vibe of the overall show is deep and inspirational and will be sure to keep your full attention. You won’t want to miss this years musical filled with plenty of emotion, self- discovery, and talent from our students. By:Emily Welsh

November 20-22 @ 7:00pmNovember 23 @ 2:00pm

Tickets: $9.00

The Secret Garden

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Mr. Qutaishat directing the opening song.

Mr. Qutaishat giving junior Molly Lutz some tips on how to improve .

Sophomore Erin Hogan studying her fellow cast mates’ preformances .

Juniors Abby Stanisch, Maddi Hill, and Maddie Schultz take a quick break on the set.

Seniors Nick Pavelic and Riley Luettgen practice their dance scene .

Sophomore Megan Klos and Senior Katie Fisher strike a pose in one of the opening scenes .

Break A Leg!

November 20-22 @ 7:00pmNovember 23 @ 2:00pm

Tickets: $9.00

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One day every year bumble-bees, super heroes and storm troopers fill the streets hunting for candy. Hal-loween is the time of year for pump-kins, apple picking and eating all of the candy in sight as people of all ages dress up as their favorite char-acters and trick or treat all night. Dressing up as a character and pretending to be a certain object for a whole day seems exciting for most people. Unfortunately, as time goes on and kids grow into teens and adults, costumes and dressing up become more scarce. Though this year the senior class decided to give Halloween one last chance by sporting costumes. Seniors Tori Alexander and Lauren Brunnquell organized an all-class dress-up day through social media. Alexander said “I have had the idea of being Barnacle Boy and Mermaid Man from Spongebob since last Hallow-een, so we wanted another place to wear our costumes and just to have another fun thing for the seniors to do.” Besides trick-or-treating and dressing up, haunted houses were a way for people to celebrate Hal-loween. Student Council held their annual haunted trail that revolved

A Haunted Nightaround the theme of Zombies. “We decided to do a zombie theme this year so we could continue our Homecoming theme. We used less props this year than in past years and we used more actors from Stu-Co,” said senior Brandon Schmidt. Senior student council Vice Presi-dent Emily Priddy as well as many others all watch the Walking Dead which inspired them to create this years theme for the Haunted Trail. The trail followed a format pertain-ing to a zombie apocalypse, “first we told our guests that a zombie apocalypse was occurring and we needed to make it out of the woods without being eaten by zombies in order to survive the epidemic. It was so much fun having the tour guides get ‘eaten’ throughout the trail, and a couple of decoy guests that pretended to run off halfway through the trail. It really freaked out the guests,” said senior Kaleigh Wallock. While trying to figure out the decorations, “we wanted to take a more minimal yet effective approach with barely any deco-rations but a lot of people,” said senior, Emily Priddy. The haunt-

ed trail ran for two nights and was a hit around the community of Grafton. The focus of a zombie apocalypse allowed

Story and photos by Juliana Galar-za

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Established in the early times of 1863 to celebrate putting time

aside to be with loved ones and family, Thanksgiving is the brainchild

of who else but good Ol’ honest Abe. Many think that the “First Thanksgiving” was back in 1621, with the whole extremely-inaccu-rate-and-stereotypical Pilgrims dealio, but it was actually officialized by our 16th presi-dent, who proclaimed that the last Thursday of November was to be a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our benefi-cent Father who dwelleth in the heavens”. Thanksgiving means a lot to our country, but it means different things to different people. For some it’s about comfort: “Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday

of the year!” claimed the darling of GHS, Mike Maney, “I’ve known exactly what to expect from that day since I was a mere four years old. It’s so reliable: eat, sleep, football. Eat, sleep, foot-ball… and when I wake up, more eating and football await me. They

are always there for we on that glorious day. I love Thanksgiving.” For others it’s about family: “I remember my dad choking on an excessive amount of gravy,” said freshman Lizbeth Huertas, retelling a cherished mo-ment of Thanksgivings past. “That was hilar-rrrious. He’s safe now.” There is also the momentous topic of coming of age: “Only this past year, I’ve been pro-moted to the coveted adult table after ac-complishing the three golden tasks: mashing the mashed potatoes, stuffin’ the stuffin’, and slaying the turkey,” said senior Marci Kluge-wicz.

And, of course, who can forget the food: “My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the fact that once you’re done there is so much food still left over that you can feast for another week, easy,” said Senior Jimmy Otworth, “UUUGGHH, and those mashed potatoes… mmm.” “I absolutely HATE stuffing,” confess-es senior Keely Lipke, “but those gelatinous cranberries in a tube are so amazing.” Thanksgiving’s meaning is unique; it can be a day of relaxation and hallmark moments or a day of hectic bustling with ex-tended family. It can be a day of lazy dozing and falling asleep at eight at night, or it can be a day of coupon cutting and waiting in line at the local Target at two in the morning. It can be a day of serving yourself a proper meal, or it can be a day where you go to a shelter and serve others the proper meal that they deserve. The Family Sharing in Grafton isn’t just a resale shop, but also a food pantry in which forty-four percent of the food program recipients are under the age of eighteen. Thirty percent of the rest are sixty-five and older. People of all ages, near and far, bene-fit from the food banks and the kindness of others. So with that in mind, help where you can. It doesn’t have to be much; donate to a food drive, have the whole family put time aside to go help serve food at a shelter, give old clothes to those who need it. Do some-thing you can be proud of. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.” Who knows? Maybe the good you do will be the thing that someone is thankful for this year.

Let’s Talk TurkeyStory by Emily Priddy

“Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year!”- quote from Mike Maney

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Black Hawks Monthof the

Benjamin Lorge

The student and faculty member chosen to be the Black Hawks of the Month were chosen at complete random to provide equal opportunity. Each student’s name was put into a database that randomly chose one. The same was done for every Grafton High

School faculty member.

Benjamin Lorge is known to most of the high school for his incredible soccer talent. As a three year varsity soccer team member, he has been a crucial component of both the offense and defense. Being a senior captain this year, Ben was forced to step up and take on the role of stopper. “Stopper is a great position for me because I get to distribute the ball to anyone on the field,” said Lorge. His leadership in this position helped the Black Hawks to go 18-3 on the season and win a Regional title. Apart from playing for the Black Hawks, Lorge has played for various other soccer clubs that have built him

into the soccer player he is today. His early days were spent playing for the Grafton Rangers and now he is a member of the Bavarian Soccer Club. With college coming up next year, Lorge has hopes of becoming a Wisconsin Badger like his older brother and sisters. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he plans on continuing his soccer career in any way he can. “Hopefully I’ll play really well and have the possibility of trying out for the Varsity team as a walk on. That would be awesome,” said Lorge. If this does not work out, Ben intends on continuing to play the game he loves at the club level.

Mrs. Shannon Measner

Stats:

When students hear the name Shannon Measner, most think AP Economics, but Measner is more than your average Econ teacher. She balances kids, work, the occasional marathon, and a social life all in the short time it would take some of us to even say that all. “It is very difficult and my sacrifice with my personal life is getting here early. Doing this offers more time with family after.” Measner’s favorite things to do when growing up included: water skiing, skiing downhill, and anything to outdoors. After the fast pace life of a college student, Mrs. Measner wanted to settle down and get married. She chose to move to the lower part of Wisconsin to make a family of her own, after she received her

position here at our fabulous GHS. She is raising her two children, Conner and Logan, alongside her husband while she continues to run marathons and teach. “I’ve been here for almost twenty years, and have been through the changes of our mascot. This has been a part of my life for half of my life.” Measner is a legend among her AP Econ. students for her cookie baking. Years ago she and a AP Econ. student paired up to make a delicious concoction; they named this cookie the Greebe. This savory mix of everything good in this world has made economics students drool and strive to do well on the AP to receive a batch and the sought after recipe. Stats:

Age: 18Dream Job: Chemist Favorite Candy: Kit-Kat

Guilty Pleasure: Game of ThronesCelebrity Crush: Shakira Favorite Meal: BaconI Support... Manchester United

Favorite Books: The Harry Potter Series1 Wish: Kids to be Happy and HealtyhyFavorite Candy: Reeses Peanutbut-

Celebrity Crush: Orlando BloomGuilty Pleasure: The Walking Dead

Starbucks Order: Chai Latte