New Bands at EDSS

Matt Lucas

With a coffee-house coming up on October 12^th, an interest in the new bands has been brought forth. This has been seen first amongst the older bands.

An advertisment for the up and coming coffee house.

Brady Schummer, grade twelve student, and guitarist and vocalist in Gwen’s Mascara says “a lot of the older bands try to help the newer bands when we can”.

 There has always been support for bands at EDSS, especially with the coffee-house, which was created to give bands a chance to play.

Schummer feels that there could always be more support. “That goes for anything though. The level of support at school is still really good.”

 Although the bands seem optimistic, the crew running the coffee-house are not as excited about the new bands.

“New bands seem to think that the sound checks aren’t important,” says Chris

 Scott, a grade twelve student and sound man for the coffee houses. Scott also took time to express his concerns about the coffee-house“We need better people running the coffee house, to benefit the bands,” says Scott. “There’s one supervisor who seems particularly unqualified, and that makes it difficult to provide a good atmosphere for the bands and the crew.”

 The biggest problem for the bands themselves is that there is less of a community amongst bands than there should be. Brody Lucas, grade eleven student and drummer for Three Pennies Band says, “none of us have the same sound – which is good, but our only connection is through Facebook and the fact that we all go to EDSS.”

Lucas feels that there is always room for more bands.

Volleyball and Rugby : Fading Away

Cole Martin

Senior Boys Volleyball has been cancelled this year due to lack of numbers, similar to the Junior and Senior Boys Rugby teams.

Lucas Nosal in Mid Serve

Blaine Cressman, EDSS alumni now studying Kinesiology at University of Waterloo, says, “It’s pretty disappointing to hear from my perspective as a former player. I know from my experiences at EDSS, that playing volleyball was something I looked forward to each year. Getting back together with the guys in September, practicing every day after school, and obviously playing in the games. Some of my best friends (still to this day) are guys that I got to know by playing on those teams.” As a former key player here at EDSS Mr. Cressman would like to see the program back up and running next year.

Sara Girth, Junior Volleyball coach and child and youth worker at EDSS had this to say, “The good thing for me is that I have their coaches helping me. So their loss is my gain. We have a strong team and we’re molding them for next year. We’ll definitely have a team because most of the juniors will be moving up.”

Not all is lost in Ms. Girth’s case, but  current seniors such as Jon Milanovich, are very disappointed since this could be their last year to play volleyball competitively. The Juniors Boys Volleyball is a winning team and should be very strong as they shift into Senior next year.

Junior and Senior Boys Rugby has not been running for the past two years. Students and coaches believe it is because of lack of interest.

Reid Dented, Former Rugby player and student here at EDSS, says, “I was really looking forward to the return of the rugby program for the last two years. It’s tough to try to find kids to commit to the team.” He then said that if EDSS had the same amount of kids coming out for Rugby as they do for Football we would definitely have a contending team in WCCSSA.

Steve Karn, Senior Football coach and Phys-ed teacher at EDSS, said, “Students have to save up for tuition. It’s not that they don’t want to be there, it’s that they cant. Usually the first thing that they sacrifice is sports in order to get more work.”

 Mr. Karn how gets fifty kids out for tryouts and a minimum of thirty-five out to practices. “I think it attracts people because there’s a position for everyone. You don’t have to be a star athlete. They always see it on TV to so it intrigues them. This year there’s also two scholarships that may cause more commitment with players trying to get that scholarship.”

FUNDRAISING FOR EAST AFRICA MADE BIG BUCKS

Shannon Schultz

 People in East Africahave been suffering through severe drought and famine, its threatened millions of people and taken many lives. Students and staff at Elmira District Secondary school have recently participated in a campaign called “Because We Care”.

 Student council member form the out reach team, Alyssa Tomlin put up posters around the school, supplying facts about Africa and quotes about how the money you donate is being used. Everyone in the school was sent home with a form for donating money said Tomlin.

 Ryan Gingerich, student council teacher says, “We haven’t raised as much as Help with Japan but we still raised quite a bit.”

Nicole Hartwick , a fifth year at Elmira District Secondary School donated forty-five dollars to the “Because We Care” campaign.

Tomlin said many students and staff donated towards the campaign.EDSS School raised $1375 towards the “Because We Care” campaign. There will be more fundraising to come for East Africa and hoping for lots more money for the suffering people inEast Africasaid Tomlin.

 The campaign was a Board wide funding program. They had 119 schools that organized different fundraisings to raise money for the campaign.  All the money made from this campaign went to the Canadian Red Cross and the Mennonite Central Committee.

 The Canadian government was matching dollar for dollar donations, through all the fundraising.

 Though all the fundraising, all the money made will help to provide doctors and aid to those suffering from the drought and famine and start building a better future for East Africa.

Nothing But Net

Taylor Newman

EDSS’ senior girl’s basketball team is back this fall and training for victory, new and returning players determined to put their all in this year.

 The team is on their way to countless victories with early morning practices and after school. Players on the team want nothing but winning games and large improvements within the team to make it to OFSAA.

Jasmine Wilson, senior member of the girl’s basketball team warming up before home tournament.

One of four returning senior students on the team, Jasmine Wilson says, “It’s been fun so far, we were undefeated until today. Our third game was a big one against East Wood since they are a higher ranking team.”

 “Carter is pushing us to our max potential because he wants us to do the best we can.” Wilson explains that because EDSS’ basketball team isn’t the tallest team, Brian Carter, couch of the girl’s basketball team wants them to be the most agile and in shape team of the surrounding schools to make up for the lost inches between players.

 Amy Hachman, senior player on the girl’s basketball team explains that she wants to see a big improvement in everyone on getting all their shots in the net, “We gotta get our shots in. We gotta just score,” she says.

 Girl’s Basketball this year has been bringing in more spectators in the stands. Both Wilson and Hachman have noticed more bodies in the stands. “The stands were almost full. I was like, ‘Who are all of these people?’”Wilsonsays.

 The girls ready up for their first home tournament this weekend.