Monthly Archives: October 2010

Hearts pounding, tears falling, and gasps from the entire audience. Some could not even handle the empty feeling of the loss of family, friends, or others. “It made me feel sad because it was ridiculous to see how irresponsible people are and it’s just dissapointing to me.” said Taryn Kohls.

The pictures and stories hit everyone close to their hearts. “I thought it was very powerful, and that it affects a lot more than the people who just do drugs and drink alcohol.” -Katlyn Harmen.

37,000 people die each year in car accidents, 63 % were not wearing seatbelts. One local, Celena Miner, and her brother Michael were going to Vernal to pick up a gift, but on their way home, they lost control of the car and were involved in a terrible crash. Their injuries consisted of: Michael’s eye came out of his eye socket, he lost half of his ear, while Celena broke her neck, suffered minor brain damge and lost the use of her arms and legs. She now has the use of her arms, but cannot open her hands. However, Celena can not even live a normal life without the help of her mom and sister.

Another of the accidents involved drugs. On April 29, 2009 Austin Stoner, a Rangely school graduate, went to a party with his friends. His friends brought morphine to the party, and Austin said he had found a safe way to mix it with alcohol on the internet. Austin died that night his friends leaving his body in the cabin at the party site. One year later, Austin’s “friends” had a party including alcohol and morphine in his honor on the one year anniversary of his death.

Drinking is the number one cause of teen death between the ages of 14 and 17. In Rio Blanco county, since March, there have been five unattended deaths. Sherriff Kenney investigated them all, to determine the cause of death, as well as “clean up the mess”. Sherriff Kenney said, “I do not mourn for the people who make bad decisions, I mourn for the families of innocent people, doctors and everyone else who is affected by one person’s bad decision.”

On Sunday the Denver Broncos played against their biggest rivals, the Oakland Raiders. The final score was 59-14 with the Raiders win. Then Broncos now have 2 wins total this season and 5 loses. They have lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Indianapolis Colts, the Baltimore Ravens, and the New York Jets. Not including the 1 win in the pre-season with 3 loses to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Detroit Lions, and the Minnesota Vikings.  Are Broncos fans done? Fed up with the losing? After the past few years even people who are born and raised around the Broncos have gone to other teams. “It’s not good enough — it’s not even close to good enough. I apologize to (Owner) Pat (Bowlen) and the organization, all the fans and everyone else. It was awful.” Coach McDaniels said after the game. “I am embarrassed, everybody is embarrassed, and we have a lot of work to do.” Quaterback Kyle Orton added about the game. Will Broncos fans come back or are they just going to wait until next season?

The parade on Main Street was not as most people would expect it, it was cold and raining, but most people did not let that bother them as the parade went on. The usual the people of Meeker were still committing to being present at the parade.

“The parade was really cold and wet, but that’s what you should expect from living in Colorado.” says freshman Emilee Kohls.

The Pep Rally’s quality was out stricken by the content in the parade from the class cars to Homecoming royalty. October 22, 2010 was obviously an intense and competitive day for all the high schoolers. As Coach Palmer got up in front of the audience and tried to get everybody pumped up for the game that night, he gave an encouraging and impressive speech. He was very encouraging towards the athletes and the community. There was alot of people that supported both volleyball and football games. Thanks Cowboys for the fabulous display last Saturday night against Hayden.

“Filled with excitement, you never know what will happen.” said freshmen Ariah Adams.

Starting with the American flag, the local veterans walk the street with pride.The music booming in the distant background, marching closer, approaching the thrilled crowd. Meeker citizens yelling “Here they come!” Each float slowly make their way down Main street with clowns, tigers, elephants, and all of the colors, along with the banners screaming “Smoke the Tigers”,”Whack a Tiger”and “Tame the Tigers.” The mini pom squad waving their plastic pom- poms, reciting their cheers of pride, and how they are proud to be a cowboy.  With the final float making its way to the end of the street the crowd begins to make the final applaud. Following the last class float is the football boy float.Then finishing off the parade the firetruck, representing our local fire department, strolls down the street, booming his horn and sounding the siren. People start to gather, reaching the court yard for the big pep rally.

The band playing those encouraging songs as the football boys and volleyball girls stand in their place in the front, for the crowd to admire. It begins, with the lead team members speaking those words of wisdom. People applaud and shout after they finish.

The student council president Charlie Adams gets the crowd to participate by including everyone in rowdy cheers, including the well known one “Who’s house?! Cowboy’s house!” To finish it off,  the football coach gives an inspirational speech encouraging the town of Meeker to be there at the homecoming game to root on the cowboys.

And the results are in.

Your Homecoming King and Queen :    Alema Atoafa & Denee Chintala.

Your First Attendants :  Jake Nieslanik & Annie Cook.

Second Attendants:  Cameron Tegeder &  Kathryn Doll

Homecoming court was announced at half-time during our homecoming game. The crowd was tense as the announcer was introducing the nominees. As he began to announce the court everyone had a slight idea into who would be King, Alema Atoafa,  but the race for queen was tight and unpredictable. ” And your Homecoming Queen is” said the announcer. “…  Denee Chintala.” The Crowd roared.

It was also reintroduced at the dance.  After they announced it, the court danced to “Don’t Take the Girl” by Tim McGraw.

Homecoming week is under way, things seem to be running smoothly or so it seems dunt dunt daaaa. Freshmen are preparing for their first homecoming and they are anxious as ever and can’t seem to wait till Friday but there still enjoying this weeks festivities. Sophomores, being the prop crew for this event, seem to be handling pressure quite fine, as  they are required to decorate for the dance and from a little inside peek, it looks spectacular. Of course we can’t forget those ever spontaneous juniors and their daring attempt to beat the seniors in this week’s homecoming. The Juniors are close behind but Seniors seem to remain ahead. Last but not least, the Seniors seem to be doing a wondrous job of showing there school spirit. Not only that, the class seems to be lead by very vigorous hooligans who really know how to get “funky”. Well the week’s not over there’s still time to get down with it, everyone put your hands together and show them what Meeker High School is all about.

Christy Marquette wrote an article about the relationship between her and her father.  This article was picked out of  thousands of articles to be published in the Denver Post. It was published on  Sunday, October 17th, 2010. The article was called a “A Teen’s View Of Hell” and was on the first page of the editorials. Marquette’s article has had 13 comments, some good and some bad. One man that post a bad post was going under the code name Moeski. He said that Marquette was acting like a 5 year old and was being very rude. Many other people agreed with her and even said that they listen to Green Day which is the main topic of her article. Comment to tell us what you think. Go to this link to find the article.

“I haven’t missed many games since 1948, when I got out of the Navy”, says Dale Frisby, a man dedicated to his community and the youth of Meeker.

Mr. Frisby, a WWII veteran returned to Meeker after the war and opened a greenhouse, with his wife Emma Lou, across from the fairgrounds. He also had a flower shop. Mr. Frisby was a bus driver for many years, and afterwards ran the transportation department for our school district for many years. With the confidence of the Rio Blanco County voters, he became the county assessor for twelve years and then was a county commissioner for 4 years.

Mr. Dale Frisby graduated from Rio Blanco High School in 1945. Mr. Frisby was the student body president in 1945; in that same year he was the senior class vice president. He was the captain of the basketball team, where he led his team to many victories. He was raised on a farm; therefore it was only fitting for him to be the President of Future Famers of America.

Mr. Frisby and his wife Emma Lou raised two children who were very involved in school activities: Lance Frisby and Vicky Frisby-Tate. Now he has four grandchildren, Amanda who is married to Will Watson and has recently had a child, and her sister Kelsey who lives in Meeker today. Also there is Alex and Christina who also has a son named Keenan, who both live out of town.

The 2010 Homecoming Parade Marshal is Dale Frisby, a man dedicated to the small community of Meeker, Colorado. He has become a familiar face in the grandstands.

The Homecoming Parade will be held on October 22, 2010 on Main Street at 2:00pm. This year’s theme is “Circus”. The students have been waiting for this week, and they will all enjoy everyone coming to show support for Meeker High School.

Evan Jordan is the Homecoming Dance DJ.  Jordan says he is going push play because the playlist is already set up. There will be 75 songs that night.  Dakota Giao, Amanda Kendell , and Evan Jordan have all picked the songs for the big night. There will be more fast songs than slow ones.The genres will be all different  between Hip-Hop, Country, and Rock. There will be music videos during the dance. Evan says he doesn’t know the order of the songs and that Amanda Kendall will be handling that. Jordan says to prepare for a great night.

Cat in the Hat?  No! It was Lathrop Hughes decked out in a Dr. Seuss Green and White top hat.  Mr. Henderson in a….dress?No! He was tromping the High School halls in an over-sized night shirt.

Monday the school was flooded with spirit when everyone was wearing there crazy hats and pajamas on the first day of school spirit week. Mrs. Kelley glided through the classroom in an elegant straw hat with a long trailing silk scarf, looking quite sophisticated. Kevin Eli was in his red pajamas and his homemade crazy hat with an antenna made of foil.  Tala Atoafa was in his space footy pajamas and in his furry snow hat.

Laura Fonseca was in her pajamas with little boys and girls on them, and Maxime vanDijk had blue pajamas with flowers on them.  Jr Crawford was in his pajama bottoms and a black top hat.  Charlie Adams was in his pajamas showing his school spirit as student body president.  Jared Frantz, Ryan Wix, and Jake Nieslanik were all wearing their white bath robes.

Monday there was a ton of school spirit so lets keep it up Meeker High School.

Last Friday our mighty Cowboys traveled all the way to Leadville to face the Lake County Panthers in their homecoming game. Meeker Cowboys didn’t have all their starters going into the game, but we had backup who played like angels. It was 7:30, which only meant one thing: game time! The game started off with the Cowboys receiving the kick. Jake Nieslanik caught the ball in our end zone but still had the the agility to hustle the ball down field to the 50 yard line and gave our mighty cowboys a good field possession. Alema Atoafa started off the drive running the ball down field to get the Cowboys a 1st down. The Cowboys had many chances to score on the drive, but were driven back by many penaties and fumbles. There were also many missed interceptions by our defense, but they pulled it together after Jared Frantz returns a huge punt to their goal line. On the very next play Nate Walsh handed the ball to Alema Atoafa as he rushed to the outside and walked into the endzone for the Meeker Cowboys first touchdown!

We kicked off and stopped the Panthers on their 20 yard line; our defense was unbeatable as they gave the Panthers the roping of life time. The linebackers blitzed like war machines and shot their backup quarterback down a few times. The Panthers starting quarterback was taken completely out of the game by Reno Roybal. The defensive line attacked the Panthers offense like animals that could not be tamed. The Cowboys cornerbacks were playing well, as the Panthers receivers could not break free from them.

Cole Steiner scored the last touchdown and ended the first half with the Cowboys leading by 37 points. The cowboys were in their bus for halftime, when Ryan Wix shouted “THAT’S WHAT THEY GET FOR ASKING US TO PLAY THEM FOR THERE HOMECOMING!!!”WOOOOOOO!!” as the team shouted it out with extreme intensity. The second half came and the Cowboys lost a little focus as the Panthers forced their way down the field. However, the Cowboys got their focus back and continued to gun the Panthers down once again. Alema Atoafa scored after a bad kick by the Panthers as Alema caught it right at their line and returned it for a touchdown. Jake (The Snake) Nieslanik intercepted the ball and brought it in for another Cowboys touchdown. “The players played great,” coach Palmer said after the game. The game ended with a score of 58-0 with the mighty Cowboys taking the win. ‘HAVE A GREAT DANCE PANTHERS!” the Cowboys shouted out with laughter. The Panthers had a homecoming they will hope to forget, and the Cowboys gave out a beating they will always remember.  The division 1 Championship was just down the road. The laughs are over and it is crunch time for our stunning Cowboys.

MIP Law:Any person under twenty-one years of age who possesses or consumes ethyl alcohol anywhere in the state of Colorado commits illegal possession or consumption of ethyl alcohol by an underage person. Illegal possession or consumption of ethyl alcohol by an underage person is a strict liability offense.

Even though  the penalties for MIP vary, and depend on the number of prior offenses do some people get break more than others? Does it depend on your family background? Do they only see who you are, or where you came from? These are some of the questions locals have asked wondering why this person didn’t get it as bad even though they had more MIPs then others. When some one is caught with a minor in possession they are usually issued with a ticket and labeled with minor in possession (MIP).

The person(s) charged with an MIP may be sentenced to juvenile court or charged with a fine of $100-$300 or 20 hours of community service. They may be placed in substance abuse services and rehabilitation services. Every teenager knows that this is not what they want to spend their time doing.

The meaning of MIP (minor in possession), will that be a friend someday, or will that be you? The choice is yours.

A recent survey done in the high school shows that 111 out of the 115 surveyed work better with music. That means only 4 of the 115 students polled do not like listening to music while working in an educational environment.  When the survey was taken, the students were told that they could listen to their choice of music.  ”Music helps me concentrate when I’m stressed out in school, so all the time!” said sophomore JJ Wyatt.  The survey also showed that 6 teachers out of the 10 enjoy listening to music while they work.  3 of the 10 said that it depends on the type of work and the type of music.  ”I don’t permit it in my class room.  Music can have a serious effect on concentration as it relates to reading and writing.  You can effect writing by the kind of music your listening to, and I use music when I’m writing but I’m very careful of the music I choose. I do not use music with lyrics, it has to be instrumental.” said literature teacher Kathleen Kelley.  So is it true that music actually helps kids work, could it be a possibility that in the future kids will be encouraged to listen to music wile working?  Take the poll yourself down below!

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On a vacation near the U.S./Mexican Border, a Colorado couple were jet skiing when they were attacked by Mexican Pirates. The man, David Michael Hartley was shot in the back of the neck and thrown off of the jet ski after being attacked by gunmen on boats. Tiffany Hartley was forced to leave her husband in the water as she was chased by the pirates. She was helped to shore by an unknown man who witnessed the pirates chasing her back to U.S. waters. There is still no word on the condition of Mr. Hartley, or if they have even located his body. Mr. Hartley was just 30 years old, only one year older than his wife. The shooting forced Texas officals to have boaters stay on the U.S. side of the sixty mile lake, but Aaron Pena, a Texas state representative, urges everyone to stay off the lake completely.

All newspapers have their faults, being spelling errors, grammar or even the writer.  Yet in some instances the paper may not be at fault but those who are reading it might be.

Please don’t stop reading; by no means is this article to offend you but yet to get a better grasp on what public respects, acknowledges and despises.

Sometimes what makes writing an article fun is to write about something arguable, but this  writer by no means tries to oppose the reader but make them think on a different level in which other articles have not  yet made them twist and turn.

This article is both an apology and statement to the readers of the “Cowboy Round Up”. By means of apology on my behalf and the entire journalism staff we apologize for any offensive material that was  posted recently.

On the other hand however being a journalist doesn’t mean sugar coat the truth but report the facts and what happened–not a candyland fairytale.  You the reader are what keeps the paper alive  and we greatly appreciate that more then you know. All journalists of the “Cowboy Round Up” would like to thank you for making this paper  a joy to right.

On September 11, 2001, the United States World Trade Center and the Pentagon were hit by airplanes controlled by Al-Qaeda terrorists. They attempted to hit the White House, but were unsuccessful. In the World Trade Center alone, 2,752 people were killed. Al-Qaeda terrorists are under the Muslim religion, who practice inside of a mosque. Now, just 9 years later and only two blocks away from Ground Zero of the World Trade Center, a mosque is going to be built. The developer, Sharif El-Gamal, says he has no plans to move it. The committee center has been there for quite sometime but the prayer room was just built. Donald Trump tried to purchase the site in order to have the mosque five blocks away instead of two, but the offer was declined. The Wall Street Journal did a poll, and came up with 78.6% of those polled opposed it. The neighborhood voted and said yes. What do you think?

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