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Volume XXI, Issue 4 Tift County High School November 18, 2016

The Tifton Gazette xxFriday 18, 2016

Produced by the TCHS Journalism Class:www.tchsspeakofthedevil.org

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Devils Basketball will host Berrien County tonight in their season opener

The Blue Devils Bas-ketball team will hostBerrien County Rebelstonight for their seasonopener, coming off a 97-53win in their scrimmageagainst Crisp County lastSaturday.

The team, under the di-rection of Head Coach EricHolland, is looking for-ward to another win. “Theyhave had a great overall at-titude at practice,” saidHolland. “We have pre-pared for the season bytwo-a-days all summer andincreased [our] intensitywith CrossFit. We havemore guys that can dribble,pass, and shoot. We alsohave more leadership, notjust from the seniors, but

the younger players also,”Holland added.

The team is returningten players and threestarters. “The sen-iors have beenspending timewith the youngerplayers; they areleading by exam-ple. They areshowing theyounger playershow Tift Countyplays basketball,”said Holland.

According toHolland, theirstrengths goinginto the first gameare their patienceand maturity onthe court and as a team.

Senior Preston Horne

who is one of three return-ing starters has a great feel-ing about this year's team.“Knowing my teammates

and what they can do aresome of our strengths go-

ing into the season,” hesaid and added that he ismore ready than ever. “Mybig brother, DJ Bryant, and

Coach Hol-land havepushed meto be thebest playerI can be onthe courtand the bestman I canbe off thecourt.”

Hollandsaid thatthree of hisseniorshaveemerged asleaders this

year: Micah Johnson (#2),Preston Horne (#24), and

Fred Lloyd (#1).The team's motto going

into tonight's game is“Earn your stripes.” Withthe team switching fromNike to Adidas this year,they have a new look.Holland is optimistic aboutthe change adding, “With anew brand comes a newopportunity to accomplishan old goal, which is al-ways a State champi-onship.”

The Tift County BlueDevils have won two Statechampionships in their his-tory, in 1996 and in 2014.

Holland is heading intohis 8th season coaching theBlue Devils. He is assistedby Xavier Holmes, ChrisWade, and Anthony Bate-man.

TCHS’s debate team participated in last weekend’s Peach State Classic

The Tift County De-bate Team traveled tothe Peach State Classicin Carrollton, Georgia tocompete last weekend.

The team wasreestablished this yearunder the guidance ofliterature teacher Kim-berly Keen. All teammembers are rookies,with the exception ofsenior Mary KathrynHoward.

New national topicsare released each month.The topic of debate atthis tournament was“The loss of privacy dueto the internet ofthings.” The “internet ofthings” is a term used todescribe connectivitybetween devices to theinternet or to other de-vices.

The team had rough-ly three weeks to pre-pare.

According toKeen eight memberstraveled to Carroll-ton: one varsity pairconsisting ofHoward and juniorNykia Griggs andthree novice pairsconsisting of sopho-more Alyssa Maz-zuchelli and juniorIsabel Vo, sopho-mores Noah Millerand Kirsten Flinn,and seniors JackStrickland andMeredith Lucas.

Each pair com-peted in sixrounds, and everypair won at leastone round.

While they did notplace, Keen was proudof her students' perform-

ance. Many of theschools they competedagainst have a debate

class. “I felt like theywere as prepared as theycould be for not havinga debate class. We were

competing against someof the top nationallyranked teams, and I was

pleased with our per-formance.”

Howard also felt thatthat the team was well

prepared. She said thatthey split up duringpractices and conducted

individual re-search. Howardfelt the debatewent well andlooks forward tothe future of theprogram. “I hopethat after I grad-uate this year,people will like(debate) enoughto carry on theteam,” sheadded.

WhileHoward felt theywere well pre-pared, Maz-zuchelli wasn'tas sure at firstbut said that she

eventually settled in.“After the first debate, Iknew what to do. I felt itwent great,” said Maz-

zuchelli. She adores herdebate team, who sheviews as a family. “Youcan never stop smilingwhen you're with them,”she said. She viewed thewhole trip as a “greatlearning experience.”

Keen gives much ofher gratitude to Dr. Kay-lar Howard, MaryKathryn's mother. “Dr.Kaylar Howard is anamazing supporter ofthe debate team. Sheprovides snacks, advice,and moral support, andshe sees the benefit ofthe debate team growingbecause of what it cando for the students atTift County.”

Keen currently hasno plan to travel toweekend tournaments inthe future but insteadplans to attend local de-bates.

Parke JohnsonBlue & White Staff

On Wednesday, HOSAhosted its annual fall blooddrive, collecting nearly100 units throughout thecourse of the day.

Members and advisersfrom Skills USA and FC-CLA along with Red CrossAssociation volunteers, Dr.Tonja Tift, and CassandraThomas worked withHOSA to make the drivesuccessful.

According to HOSAco-adviser Lynn Blalock,they did not collect asmany units as they did atlast fall's drive. Blalocksaid that the Red Crosswas shorted handed by fivestaff members, and as a re-sult they had to turn away

about 60 students.“The only way we

couldhave donebetter wasif we hadmore staffmembersto drawblood,”saidBlalock.

“Westill had agreatturnout,”sheadded.Becauseeach pint can save up tothree lives, Blalock saidthat the 97 units collectedwill help tremendously

during the upcoming holi-day season.

According to Blalock,the TCHS HOSA chapterpurposively hosts theirdrive later in the year to

ensure the hospitals haveblood on the shelves to

supply for themost traveledholiday of theyear.

HOSA hastheir nextdrive sched-uled for April2017. Theyhope it will beeven better. “Ihave a verypersonal con-nection to theblood drive, asmy motherwas diagnosed

with leukemia and theblood that was taken fromthe students at the blooddrive kept her alive for an-

other 8 months,” saidBlalock. “I am apprecia-tive of ever pint of bloodthat these students andteachers donate.”

Blalock said that sheand co-adviser DenaNelms and the members ofHOSA would personallywould like to thank everystudent and teacher thatsigned up to give. She saidthey are also appreciativeof each of the various clubmembers who volunteeredtheir service to this greatcause as well as the RedCross Association workers.Lastly, she thanks theteachers, administratorsand staff members ofTCHS for their coopera-tion and support.

HOSA hosts their annual fall blood drive, collecting nearly 100 pints for holiday season

Senior Aolani Martinez gave blood at this year’s annual fall blood drive. Overall, HOSAcollected 97 pints of blood.

Connor StephanBlue & White Staff

Alicia WeathersbyBlue & White Staff

The Tift County High School Debate team traveled to Carrollton to compete in last weekend’sPeach State Classic Debate tournament.

Last Saturday, theGeorgia 51st AFJROTChosted their 22nd An-nual Southeastern Re-gional Drill Meet com-petition, earning a totalof 5 trophies.

They placed 2nd inunarmed exhibition, 3rdin armed inspectiondrill, 5th in armed colorguard and 5th in botharmed and unarmed ex-hibition drills.

“Even though wedidn't come in first overall, we still have heart,and that's what reallycounts in life,”said senior Cadet Sec-

ond Lieutenant WilliamAsante. “If everyonehad fun that's the realtrophy.”

In addition to As-ante, Drill team com-manders included Lieu-tenant Colonel CarmenSpringer (senior), ChiefMaster Sargent MellisaRockmore and MasterSargent Michael Smith(juniors), and SeniorAirman Seth Hoover(sophomore).

The team did haveother factors to worryabout besides compet-ing. “We hosted thisone which is really ex-tra pressure for us,”said Major Peter Can-delario. Not only didthey have to worryabout the operation ofthe event, but they hadto make sure theirteams were prepared.“We have to make sure

our teams are in placeto get going, so therewere a lot of parts andpieces, but we did agreat job,” he added.

While the task ofhosting is laborious,students enjoyed havingother teams competehere. “It's always atreat to see what theother schools come upwith,” said Senior Air-man Connor McMillan(sophomore).

According to Can-delario, the wins were abig accomplishment forthe team that is com-prised of several fresh-men, and he commend-ed them for a job welldone. “A top notch jobto all!” he added.

ROTC hosted annual drill meet Saturday Moore takes 3rd in Geography Decathlon

On November15, Jake Moore (sec-ond from the left)placed 3rd in the Ge-ography Decathlon.

The GeographyDecathlon is hostedby the Optimist Cluband the Tift CountyFoundation for Edu-cational Excellence.

The contest is agreat opportunity forstudents to showcase

their knowledgeabout ten areas ofgeography.

First place re-ceives $500; secondplace receives $250;and third place re-ceives $100.

There is qualify-ing round, whichleads to a Jeopardy-style final round.

Moore said, “I’vebeen doing this com-

petition for threeyears, but this onehas to be my fa-vorite. The Tiftareastudents were reallyprepared, making thecompetition fierce.”Moore added, “I ac-tually won in my in-dividual categoryand then finished 3rdoverall, earning methe $100 scholar-ship.”

Jessica GibbsBlue & White Staff