The WC Basketball Boys Hope to Take Home the State Championship

The Worthington Christian boys’ basketball team will be ending their season on February 20th. As they enter the last few games of their season, they hope to bring home the championship.

The Worthington Christian boys’ team will be looking to rebound after last year’s loss in the state championship. However, the loss of a few key players could keep the media wondering how WC will bounce back in this year’s tournament run.

The leading scorer of last year’s team, Brian Hecker, will look to lead a new and little-experienced team into what he hopes will be a state championship—he stated that he was “excited with this team’s chances; and if we play well, we can succeed in this year’s tournament.”
The other senior on the team is Brady Beals: he hopes to help a young team succeed in the tournament this year. “I am excited to play with such a young and yet experienced team,” Brady said: “and we are showing signs of improvement.’’ Brady is known as the defensive specialist, and he can really shoot the ball well, too.

Coach Weakley said ‘’I want them to compete at the highest level, knowing that if they make a mistake, the only disappointment is if they do not continue to play and think hard. These tense moments can unite a group of individuals into a team.’’

“In addition, leaders emerge to direct the way,” Coach Weakley continued. “In the midst of all the intensity and excitement, my hope is that each young man can learn to glorify God, because character is revealed in our responses to the moment."

The WC boys’ basketball team will be excited to get the tournament started, and hopes to bring home the championship.

Worthington Christian boys’ team will have a major advantage as they have a great coach who is determined to prepare his team for the tournament.

We hope the experience from last year’s run will help them succeed this year!

“Ready? Set? Go!!”: Worthington Christian’s Track Team Begins the 2009 season

The Worthington Christian High School Track Team heads into spring, led by Mr. and Mrs. Adam and Jess Heath. The 2009 track season has been highly anticipated, with practice now in full swing. The team has high expectations of finishing in the top half of the league and going to states.

The track season begins April the 6th, but spring workouts are already underway. That first meeting will be taking place at Columbus Academy in the first away meet of the season.

The schedules are even set up where schools trade locations and home meets: which means that a school goes to another location for a meet; and the following year, that school returns the favor.
This year’s track team is full of talent and will be led by senior Jacob Rider, along with an experienced senior core. The Worthington Christian track team has achieved records of every kind in past seasons.

Deven Keene, a graduate of the school in 2007, made records in the 100- and 200- meter dash with times of 11.04 and 22.26 seconds respectively. Maria Shaw and Mindy Sloan broke records in the 100- and 200-meter run for the girls back in 2006 and 1989 respectively. These records are a motivation for this year’s track team so that they can do well.

Second-year coach Adam Heath is heading into the season excited to work with this year’s team. He stated that “There will be a lot of success stories…the seniors have been around, and they will invest in each other’s lives during this season.”

Brooks Hooley, a junior, said, “The goal for this year’s boys is to win all home games and reach the top half of the Central Catholic League.” Connor Brown, a sophomore, said, “I hope we go to states in the “4:1” and “4:2” categories.” A “4:1” is where 4 people run in a 100- yard dash; and a “4:2” is where 4 people run a 200- yard dash.

The track players also have fun while running track. Brooks Hooley said that “The best part of track was not just the socializing but the different medals attained for our achievements.”

Although Mr. and Mrs. Heath coach track, they are also highly involved in academics at Worthington Christian High School. Mr. Heath teaches World History and US History, while Mrs. Heath is the school’s photography teacher.

Mr. and Mrs. Heath are a crucial part of Worthington Christian’s track success. They are an inspiration to the student body, and specifically to the track team. Mr. and Mrs. Heath prepare the team by means of conditioning and workouts prior to the season’s start. The upcoming 2009 season has brought hope for continued success.

A Night to Remember: Winter Event 2009

On February 7, 2009, WCHS students flocked to the Powell Grace Brethren church to attend the “Game Show Extravaganza”- this year’s theme for Winter Event. At the church, they ate various Italian food catered by Olive Garden, and coffee and hot chocolate by Caribou Coffee. Students participated in various games such as Family Feud, Don’t Forget the Lyrics, and Deal or No Deal.

At the event, students were dressed in semi-formal wear and the room was buzzing with conversation, along with spontaneous flashes from various digital cameras.

Professional pictures were also taken by Mrs. Gibson. As the event started, certain students had been previously selected to play the game, as was the case with Family Feud. Certain students were randomly selected to play a game throughout the night, which was the case for Don’t Forget the Lyrics.

Teams for Family Feud were broken down by grade, and the winning team received an out of uniform day for its grade. With Don’t Forget the Lyrics, the winners received a gift card if they could remember the lyrics.

Finally, those who volunteered for Deal or No Deal were competing for “Clash of the Classes” points, which functions as a competition to see which class truly has the most spirit.
Junior Luke Condon commented on his experience in attending and playing Deal or No Deal by saying that “It was fun being on Deal or No Deal, but it could’ve been better…..a lot better.”

So far, that’s the response most students gave. Junior and Student Council member Abby Camp said “Overall, I didn’t find it that fun, but there were parts that were funny. Watching people play Deal or No Deal was funny, but that was it.” Throughout the night, there was an air of disorganization and students were bored. Unless you or your friends were playing one of the games, there wasn’t much to do.

On a good note, unlike last year, the event didn’t run out of food (last year they ran out of Chipotle and had to do a “quick run” to save the night). However, even the food didn’t help this year’s Winter Event. It was clear; throughout the night, that many students opted to leave early.
Though Student Council does its best with planning such events, but this attempt of trying to be cute and light failed, from some students’ perspectives. Student Council gets points for creativity, but many hope the members do better in the future.

Remember: the freshman and sophomores only have Homecoming and Winter Event to attend (unless they’re asked by an upper classman to Gala): so please make these events memorable for them…in a good way.

Week long Warrior Spirit event: Clash of the Classes!

During the week of February 9th, Worthington Christian high school students compete against each other to win in the most anticipated spirit event of the year: Clash of the Classes!

Each day, there is a certain theme where the freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors try to outdo one another for the most participation points.

Every day, each class can earn points through the coin drive, class participation, a contest for best dressed students overall, and attending specific school events.

Monday’s theme was Warrior Spirit day. Wearing any Warrior t-shirt or the colors red, yellow, black, and white will earn you participation points for your class. Spirit day is the one day that receives the most participation. “Spirit day is my favorite day,” says junior Erin Szabo. “I like going all out with the face paint and glitter; I love to support the school!”

As far as Monday’s results are concerned, the sophomores led with the most participation points; with the freshman following close behind. Best dressed for girls was freshman Nicole Parsell, and for the guys it was sophomore LC Warren.

“Blast from the past” was the theme for Tuesday, where each class is assigned a certain time era. The freshman were 50’s; sophomores dressed in the 60’s; juniors were the 70’s; and seniors were 80’s. Blast from the past was a new theme for Worthington Christian and it seemed to be well liked: “I think my favorite theme was Blast from the Pat day: it was pretty cool,” said secretary Mrs. Dunn.

Seniors once again led Tuesday with Participation points, but the sophomores and freshman took best dressed. Juniors kept falling further and further behind as the other classes raced for the lead.

Wednesday was the day when you could wear whatever you want and it wouldn’t matter: in fact, it would get your class points. “Clash Day” was the theme, which meant wearing mismatched clothes and crazy hairstyles. Of course, this was easier for girls to do instead of guys, because obviously girls can do more with their hair.

Once again, seniors earned the most points overall that day. Andrew Protopapas won “best- dressed” for the guys, and the seniors had the highest participation as well.

On Thursday, everyone was supposed to wear his or her favorite sports jersey. It could be from any team just as long as it was a jersey. “Jersey Day” was popular among students and teachers: “My favorite was jersey day, because I didn’t feel like I was dressing up,” said freshman Daniel Jimenez. High school teacher Mrs. Fisher thought “It was a good theme.”

Junior Jazmine Keels won best-dressed for girls, and Tanner Singleton for the guys. After Thursday, the freshmen were leading with 1,715 points.
Friday, the final day for the Clash of the Classes, was color day: each class was assigned a specific color which came into play at the end of the day for the Clash of the Classes competition.

Each class competes against each other in the following games: tug-of-war; the chair game; table game; trivia contest; and the clothespin game. Senior girls and sophomore boys won the chair game; juniors took the points in the trivia contest; sophomores won the table game for both guys and girls; sophomores took the win for tug-of-war as well; and freshman Kyle Wade won the clothespin game.

In the end, the sophomores won the whole competition, but it was still an enjoyable week for everyone. Dressing down was definitely the number-one perk to Clash of the Classes: “My favorite part was dressing down,” said Matt Anglea, and sophomore Trent Smith agreed: “Definitely dressing down.”

Boys’ Tennis Heads into a New Season

The Worthington Christian boys’ tennis team is preparing for a new season with head coach Alex Schmidt. Coach Schmidt is new to the position of head coach of WCHS Tennis, but he has experience coaching the players on the team.

Alex Schmidt was born in Wauseon, Ohio. He played many sports in high school, including tennis. He was raised in a strong Christian home and continued to grow in his faith throughout college by participating in Campus Crusade for Christ.

One of the main reasons Coach Schmidt got into tennis was that “just before high school…I started playing tennis with my dad.” He started playing for his high school his freshman year and “just kind of ran with it.” He really enjoyed it; so he stuck with tennis his whole high school career and showed no signs of stopping after that.

He also loves coaching people in tennis, which is evident in how the team responds to his instruction. Junior Curtis Hahn of the team said “Coach Schmidt is just a great guy: he has our respect and he teaches a good work ethic.” The whole team is unanimous in its respect toward its coach.

Coach Schmidt has a few simple goals he wants to accomplish this season: “1. We are going to work hard; and 2. We are going to have fun.”

Coach Schmidt’s second goal is going to be easy to accomplish due to the humor of junior RJ Murray. He really holds the team together through his random acts of comedy. Last season, for example, RJ would run laps while singing. As he has said of himself: “I am just goofy!”

The team is also hoping to do very well this year. Junior Andrew Kistler said “I really think that we are going to have a good varsity team this season.” The team lost only one player last year to graduation, which will work to their advantage as they have all, for the most part, played together before.

The team is also getting some new players, including freshmen and guys who haven’t played with the school before. All of these factors should add to the team’s momentum.

The team is also hoping to get great support from fellow students. Coach Schmidt said “I hope that this year we can get some more of the student body to come out and cheer us on… it’s your friends and peers out there who are representing your school.”

The team is ready for the challenge of a new season. Their first home match is April 6th against Granville at 4:00 PM: so come out and support your team!

The Death and Life of Larry Benson; A WCHS Play Directed by Dave O'Roark

The Death and Life of Larry Benson, a Worthington Christian High School play, will be showing this weekend, both Friday and Saturday February 13th and 14th, at 7 P.M. in WCHS’ auditorium.

Within Reginald Rose’s play, Larry Benson has been missing in action in the 1970’s for over three years, and his family and friends have nearly given up hope of ever seeing or hearing from him again. When a stranger comes into town, claiming that he is Larry, nobody believes him.

However, the townspeople become worried and confused because this stranger somehow knows everything about Larry Benson. The dramatic play is said to be one of Rose’s greatest pieces.

Dave O’Roark, the director of the play, says he picked The Death and Life of Larry Benson because it was a “strong challenge, had emotional ups and downs, and a good element of suspense.” He also says that “The cast did a great job.” They worked on it just a little over
three weeks and put all their effort into it.

“It’s very emotional,” sophomore Andrew Siders, an actor in the play, says. “Larry comes home, but it’s not Larry. It’s somebody else, but he has the same memories as Larry. It’s interesting, in a way, that no one knows what’s happening and the characters are all in a process of accepting it.”

“It’s very fun and it’s very dramatic,” sophomore Annie Barlow, the actress who plays Larry’s first grade teacher, says: “I think people will enjoy it, but it’s not a comedy. It’s kind of sad…but it has a happy ending.”

Larry’s family and friends later discover the truth after a development of dramatic experiences and conversations with this stranger. Towards the ending of the play, everyone changes.

Many of the people who have seen the play consider it to be a heartbreaker. However, the ending of this story is heart-warming and unexpected.

Larry’s sixteen-year-old sister, Jessie, played by sophomore Shelby Hamrick, starts to believe that this stranger in their house might actually be her brother. She has mixed emotions and doesn’t know exactly how to act in his presence.

“We have had a blast working on it,” sophomore Danny Nathan, the actor who plays the stranger, says. “I think it’s a sad play that may make a few cry. A lot of great actors are in it. I think it’s very well directed.”

The Death and Life of Larry Benson may change your views upon having a family. It’s a play about accepting the truth, even when you don’t want to; and loving the ones who need to be loved.