Monthly Archives: April 2011

On the week of the 18th, the Cowboys were informed that they had to win 3 of the next 4 games to be able to move on to the next level. Two of those games were on the April 22nd. Unfortunately the Cowboys were not able out their losing streak and lost by the mercy rule twice…Again.

Though the game wasn’t completely fair. The umpire had some bad calls at the Meeker team.  Twice the umpire called a 3 balls 2 strike count on pitcher Alex Smith when everyone agrees that the count was 2 balls 2 strikes.  Another time, 2nd basemen Jose Villalpando hit a ball out to left field and  the ball was fair and bounced foul. Under all laws of baseball that ball was fair. The umpire called it….foul.

The JV team had many games scheduled and none of them have taken place. There was suppose to be game today the 25th but the rain of Meeker, Colorado has put them out of business again.

The last baseball game of the year is on Wednesday the 27th but it is in Meeker so the rain may be the cancellation of the game.

Shall we count down the days until the end ladies & gentlemen. On may 26th, 2011 Meeker high scholars will be released for summer vacation. So counting every day until then we have exactley thirty one days and four hours, while only counting school days we have 23. However summer doesn’t officially start until June Twenty-First. We have exactly fifty-five days thirteen hours and fourteen minutes. So be sure to keep checking the cowboy round up for updates on the countdown.

“They are ridiculous, a waste of time, and I don’t wanna take them!” says Tala Atoafa when asked about the MAPs testing that will take place next week.

I think that most students at Meeker High school would agree with Tala’s opinion when these long and rigorous computer tests are mentioned.

MAPS tests will be next week, and the high school has said that they are trying to get all students to complete the tests in one week instead of two.

Another student has said, “it would be a very efficient if teachers would use the information gained from the MAPs to further improve their academic skills. However; most use it as an end of the quarter grade in order to avoid assignment planning and grading.” This student wishes to remain anonymous.

Wednesday April 27th the Rio Blanco Masonic Temple is providing lunch for all of the community. They will serve a loaded baked potato, salad, dessert and drink all for only $8.00. The lunch will be from 11:00-1:30 at 7th and Park Street. All proceeds will go to the Meeker FFA Chapter so come up and support your FFA chapter and get an amazing lunch!

On Thursday, April 14th, the Meeker High School Band and Barone Middle School Band traveled to Steam Boat Springs for a large group contest where multiple bands from schools around Western Colorado came to perform in front of judges and hope to beat their own personal scores.

The week before the contest, the bands were rehearsing under extra pressure to sound the best they had all year. Some practiced harder than they ever have this year as well.

They arrived at the high school at around 6:45 a.m. so that they could depart at 7:00 a.m. Through out the day they warmed up, performed, site read and listen to other bands striving to do the performance of the day.

After a long day of bus rides and music, they came home at around 9:30 that night.

The high school band got a 3 in the performance, which is an average score. The middle school got a 2, which is equivalent to being second place.

MHS Staff, Meeker School District Administration, Members of the Meeker Ag. Education Advisory Board, and Mrs. Franklin –

Thank you to everyone for your support of the FFA Western Slope Career Development Events yesterday. We had approximately 250 people involved with these events, offered competitions in the following areas: Floriculture, Job Interview, Business Managment, Crops, Ag. Mechanics, Livestock Evaluation, and Horse Evaluation – and utlilized the Ag. Shop, the Alt. School, the Fairfield Center, and the Fairgrounds.

Everyone should be very proud of the students from Meeker High School who either competed or helped with the events; they represented our School District and the town of Meeker very well. There were approximately 35 MHS students involved in these events yesterday.

In addition to our students, the following members of our community were invaluable to the success of this event:
Ben Rogers (brought a pen of bulls, officiated the contest, took beef reasons)
Blaine Franklin (brought a pen of heifers, officiated the contest, took pig reasons)
Clint Shults (brought a pen of steers, officiated the contest, took sheep reasons)
Tom Walsh (brought 2 pens of pigs)
Forrest Nelson (brought a pen of goats)
Lenny Klinglesmith (brought 2 classes of horses)
Grant Edinger (brought 2 classes of horses)
Becca Nielsen (brought 1 class of horses)
Kevin Amack (judged the Job Interview contest)
Brenda Purkey (coordinated & judged the floriculture contest)
Tera Shults (data entry, ran reasons room)
Cassie Powell (made copies in extension office)
Bill Jordan (set up and took down fairgrounds, gave us use of Fairfield center)
Janelle Urista (officated the contest, took horse reasons)
Eddie Langfeld (officiated the contest, took horse reasons)
Quentin Smith (event coordinator and superintendant)
In addition, the following advisors and out of town guests were also invaluable help:
Teresa Burns (Hotchkiss)- data entry Horse evaluation
Erin Franks (Olathe)- superintendant Horse Evaluation
John Haddan (Moffat County) – superintendant Livestock Evaluation
Crandal Mergelman (Rangely) – brought sheep
Jerry Allen (Delta) – operated Farm Power portion of Ag. Mechanics
Will Nelson (Walden) – operated Farm Power portion of Ag. Mechanics
Ryan Hudson (Fruita) – operated Mig Welding portion of Ag. Mechanics
Phil Anderson (Walden) – superintendant Ag. Mechanics
Rick Murr (Moffat County) – operated land leveling & surveying portion of Ag. Mechanics
Jennifer Hudson (Moffat County) – proctored Ag. Mechanics Exam
Jamie Brown (Walden) – judged Ag. Sales event
Brenda Brown (Walden) – proctored Floriculture Exam
Lori Haack (West Grand) – data entry Horse Evaluation
Jay Whaley (SoRoCo) – superintendant Job Interview & Ag. Sales
Students competing in the FFA Organization are only recognized as “placing” if they are in the top 45% of the students competing. The top 45% of students is then broken down into thirds. The top 15% of the students receive Gold, the students placing in the top 16-30% receive silver, and the students placing in the top 31-45% receive Bronze.

There were 27 students competing in Horse Evaluation; only 13 of those students were recogized as placing. KayLynn Dunham (Silver) and Alyssa Davis (Bronze) were included in those top 13.

There were 28 students competing in Floriculture; only 13 of those students were recognized as placing. Jessica Palmer & Stephany Joos (Silver) and Jessica Moyer & Taylor Morris (Bronze) were included in those top 13.

There were 40 students competing in Ag. Mechanics; only 18 of those students were recognized as placing. Ethan Overton (Gold) was included in those top 18.

There were 6 students competing in Business Management. Denee Chintala won the contest and received Gold

There were 3 students competing in Ag. Sales – all three of these students (Tristan Nielsen, Bailey Atwood & Kacey Collins) did a great job. They were not ‘placed,’ per sea because all 3 students were on the same team from Meeker. The judge said they were well prepared and offered them advice on how to excel at State.

I will compile detailed competition results within the next few days and will email that information out to everyone as soon as possible.

All of the students who competed in State CDEs yesterday have been working very hard in their ’spare time,’ as each team works at least 1 to 2 hours after school and during lunch hours throughout the week. We have been holding CDE practices every day after school since February 28th – so these students have definitely devoted quite a bit of their free time to learning how to succeed in these events, and learning the knowledge necessary to be successful.

Thank you for all of your support. It is much appreciated.

Trina Smith,
FFA Director
MHS

As the mid season sets in the Meeker Cowboys keep runnin’ strong. This last weekend they attended the Coal Ridge Invitational. Speed demon Toby Casias ran in the 200 and 100 meter dashes and placed second in both, while the runnin’ fool Jake Boesch ran in the two mile and earned 13th in the state in the 2 “A” classification. Kathryn Doll not only ran the 200 and placed, but also jumped in long and triple and did magnificent. We can’t forget about the thrower, of cours,e as Baily Atwood placed in shot put. The end of the season is getting closer and closer but I don’t believe the Meeker Cowboys will be slowing down any time soon so we’ll be expecting nothing less at this week’s meet in Rifle.

Many students sat down in the computer lab awaiting to take the Accuplacer test. This is a nationally known test to place each student in the classes that are the best for them. The test consists of reading, writing, language skills, and mathematics. All of the questions were multiple choice, besides the essay question.

Depending on what classes students are going to take, they either took reading and writing, math, or both. Starting with twenty sentence skills questions. Knowing how to correct sentences and construction shift. Also reading comprehension had twenty questions. Students had to read the sentence paragraph, or story then answer questions and compare sentence relationships. The math or arithmetic test contained seventeen questions about: operations with whole numbers and fractions, operations with decimals and percents and applications and problem solving. The twenty questions of college level math were about algebraic operations, solutions of equations, and inequalities, coordinates geometry, and functions and trigonometry. The last part of the test was the written essay. It is graded on focus, organization, development and support, sentence structure and mechanical conventions.

The first part, the multiple choice, is not timed; you can take all the time needed. The essay may be timed or not timed, depending on what the school decides.

The students that took this test had to remember these things: relax, get plenty of rest and eat properly before testing, pay attention to directions, understand that it is an adaptive test, if you don’t know the answer, try to eliminate 1 or 2 of the choices, bring your photo identification.

Grease is a 1978 Musical Romance about two teenagers who fell in love over the summer and then later find out they are going to the same high school. Greaser Danny has to keep his “look”, but still show the good girl sandy he wants to relight the flame that had once before.

Meeker High School Drama Club will be performing Grease starting the 22 of April at 7:00 p.m. and an encore presentation the 23 of April at 7:00 p.m.

Directed by Gary Zellers the stars of the play is Kaylyn Edwards playing Sandy, and Collin Cochran playing the role as Danny.

Follow the excitement, and come on up to the Meeker High School Auditorium on 550 School Street.

Admission Prices: Adults- 7$

Students-5$

What is senioritis.  Senioritis is the the word senior plus the prefix itis, meaning illness. But what are the symptoms?

Symptoms of senioritis include, but are not limited too:  Procrastination, lack of motivation, drop in academic performance, desire to drop out of school, and coasting.  Senioritis is usually at its peak when the person is finishing their last year in high school, but side affects are often seen toward the end of junior year, and sometimes (in the most extreme cases) at the end of sophomore year.

There is really no way to overcome the sickness that is senioritis, other then kicking your own butt into gear, but many times the disease is too powerful and the student can not pull himself out of the undercurrent of procrastination.

Last week’s student of the week was Cole Steiner. It wasn’t announced but you could tell it was Cole because you could see his huge Chevy truck parked in the parking spot. It  is unknown if he got his candy bar or not but he did take advantage of the parking spot.

This weeks student of the week didn’t even know she was the student of the week until I came and asked her, “How does it feel to be Student of the Week?”

“What? What are you talking about?” she replied. “I’m not Student of the Week!”

Sure enough, she was. This week’s recipient was Talia Rosas.  The first non-Senior. No, she does not have a car to park in the parking spot but she was pleased that she was recognized.

Just last week Aubrey Walsh, Lindzey Patterson, Sydney Boes, Amanda Kendall, Tracy Roybal and Dakota Giao went to district Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) competition in Grand Junction.

Walsh, Patterson and Boes were all on a team and talked about the pros and cons of social networking. They talked about how businesses should use different social programs such as Facebook and Twitter.

Kendall and Roybal were also on a team and they presented about the pros of businesses going green. Giao competed the FBLA test. Kendall and Roybal finished in 6^th and Walsh, Patterson and Boes took 2^nd and qualified for State. They will be leaving Sunday the 17^th and head to Vail to compete to go to nationals.

Future Business Leaders of America is an organization that was created to help students gain leadership and skills that will help them in the business world. FBLA was established in 1937 by Dr. Hamden L. Forkner of Columbia University. FBLA has grown since then and is now a national organization.

Good luck FBLA team!

If you attend Meeker High School, one thing that you definitely know is that we have the most incredible and genuine woman as our counselor. Elaine Collins.

No matter what it is that you are struggling with in your life, Mrs. Collins will do everything in her power to help you out. It makes no difference to her what color hair you have, if you’re wearing cool clothes or if you have tons of friends, she will help you the absolute best that she can.

Mrs. Collins is also a very genuine person. She means every single word that she says and truly cares about the students of  Meeker High. What many people do not know about her is that she lives an hour and thirty minutes away from Meeker. She makes an extremely long commute to Meeker every morning and every night just to help us. She is dedicated.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Collins announced that this is her last year counseling here. She says that she wants to spend more time with her husband. While every single person here will miss her, we will never forget how she has helped us all in different ways. Make sure you let her know just how much she means and tell her thank you before it’s too late to do so.

We will miss you dearly Mrs. Collins and we hope that your life goes wonderfully after your time here at Meeker High School.

Recent snow fall and weather has created problems for the Meeker High School baseball team. Games on April 12th and 14th have been cancelled because of the weather. The Cowboys have been forced to having nothing but indoor practice for the majority of the week.  When the players are allowed to play outside, the field must be dragged and bases must be replaced. Will the baseball team have weather to actually have a outdoor game this season?

Although the regular season of basketball is over, summer basketball is coming fast around the corner.  The Meeker girls basketball teams first meeting was April 13th at 2:15. Coach Henderson wanted to see who was going to attend the Mesa State camp that is going on June 13th-16th. The camp will cost $205 and a $45 dollar deposit will be required by May 2nd.  There will be 7-8 players per team so everyone will get plenty of playing time.

The smell of the fresh leather hangs from my hand. The metal spikes on the bottom of my shoes cut through the tan dirt. Once set, all worries outside the ball park float away and new one rise from the field. Before the pitch is thrown, my explores every possibly of plays fly through my mind so when the ball is hit, I know exactly what to do. At the crack of the bat slamming against the ball, my feet move, false alarm, foul ball. Now I want it, I want to make the play. The next crack of the bat, means I have to react. Grounder to the right side, time to do the back-hand. Still running, I bend my knees so far down that almost touch the ground and my glove catches the ball down by my right foot. Feels good to be somewhere between second base and first base for a second basemen.

For any player, coach, umpire, or even fan, baseball is one of the greatest things in life. Baseball is always there and will always will be. Baseball is not just for the Major League player but for the t-ball player, the dad playing catch with his son in the backyard. In America, baseball is everywhere and baseball is the king of sports.

“Baseball was, is and always will be the best game in the world.” -Babe Ruth

” I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.” -Pete Rose

“I was born to play baseball.” -Roberto Clemente

“Baseball is one-hundred percent of my life.” – Ty Cobb

“Maybe I was born to play ball. Maybe I truly was.” -Willie Mays

The last day of school for Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors is May 26th!

Not counting today, April 5th, there are 36 days left of the 2010-2011 school year! This means that we have 36 days to make our grades as awesome as possible!!!

Monday, April 4th, marked the first day of the fourth quarter. Third and fourth quarter grades are combined at the end of the year to form the grades that will go on your transcripts.

Let’s all make sure that we’re in school, on time, and ready to finish out this year strong!

Please celebrate the artistic accomplishments of our talented Meeker High School students!  Bring your family and friends!  If you can’t make it to the opening this weekend from 5 to 7 pm at the Meeker Hotel, then you can drop by anytime during the following week.

Art of the Week is back and the student who has recieved the achievement this week is Aubrey Walsh!

“I picked this sculpture, because it is very difficult to depict a human face and she did a great job. Her sculpture is an interesting depiction of Albert Einstein. I enjoy her use of texture and the stylization.”- Ms. Burnell

Great job Aubrey!

The big rumor around Meeker High School’s baseball team was that they may not come back after last year’s 0-18 losing streak. After a bunch of hard work and determination, the Meeker Cowboys won 3 out of the 4 games they played in Denver. Meeker lost twice to Fruita High School. They killed the Grand Valley Cardinals in a 2 in 0 swipe. Both of the games ended in the mercy rule.

” We played good as a team,” said 1st baseman, Trevor Matrisciano. Overwhelmed, Matrisciano was not sure what to say about the wins.

Shortstop Cole Steiner said, “The games were okay.”

Jose Villalpando says that he was just glad not to strike out or make any errors.

With five wins and three losses, it’s eight down, eight to go.