By Trace Salzbrenner At the beginning of the school year each student is required to sign a paper in the back of the student handbook. The paper is a contract between the school that states that the student has read the handbook and agrees to the rules within, and to sign it means that they will follow those rules. For many years the handbook has had regulations on food, phones, and the use of computers, however the recent years have seen some changes in the monitoring of these rules. “There was some leeway given at the beginning of the year,” stated Holly’s superintendent Corey Doss when he was asked about the stricter system. Mr. Doss was referring to the leniency that was given to students in the beginning of the year which allowed students to use more privileges, most of which were already in place last year. Recently however, a stricter rhetoric was put into place. The new policy was mostly focused on rules centered around the use of cellphones, the eating of food in class, and the use of headphones. What caused this? Most teachers seem to agree that it started with the rule leeway. “Teachers were concerned with the consistency of the rules,” said Mr. Doss. According to one anonymous student though, the rules in Holly have always seemed to differ from class to class. In one classroom a teacher would allow something that another wouldn’t. Mrs. Weisenhorn, Holly’s music teacher, said that the “new” rules were because more and more students stopped following the rules that were in place. She also said, “Possibly students were trying to see if Mr. Doss had a different perspective on the rules.” The first comment that Mrs. Weisenhorn said was a common thought shared amongst most teachers. “I guess I can’t say enough about the respectfulness. I think when more respect happens we can go back to more leniency,” answered Amber Adams, Holly’s counselor, when asked about the recent increase in rule monitoring. This is another common belief that most teachers held. What about the students, though? A survey was taken of 30 random students that asked questions relating to the topic, and also asked students to give their own anonymous personal statements of the matter. When asked how they would rate the the school's strictness when it came to rules, most students answered “moderate” instead of very low, low, high, and very high. When looking at the spread of data for the question, it favors the high side by only one person. When the students were asked if there had been a higher level of disrespect and if there had been a high level of rule breaking, most students answered “no.” However, a considerable amount of students did answer “yes” to both questions (around 40 percent of the answers for both questions were “yes”).

Contents Page 2: “New” Rules cont./ Pre-State Wrestling Page 3: Boy’s Basketball/ Girl’s Basketball Page 4: Wildcat in the Water/Holly Lockdown Page 5: Knowledge Bowl/ Senior Spotlight Page 6: Saydnaya Prison/ Celebrity News Page 7: Ask Wanda Page 8: Who’s Who?

Lastly, students were asked if they had ever used their cell phones in class. 73 percent of the answers that students gave were “yes.” However the question was also answered with “like always” or “same as last year” written next to it multiple times. What does this mean? As an anonymous student said, “I do not think there was an increase, teachers just started paying more attention.” On the other hand, there are students who believe there is a problem that needs to be addressed. Senior Ashlyn Crossland said, “I admit I haven’t followed all the rules this year, but students have not given the teachers the respect they have given in the past.” She also talked about the “new” rules

and how they are, in fact, not new. “These rules aren’t new,” said Mr. Doss. He is correct that the rules aren’t new. The student handbook clearly outlines the rules that are now being better enforced in the school. However, the handbook itself isn’t perfect and the rules in it are not always followed. When asked about the handbook, Holly teacher Candace Frey said, “Most of the students should have known these rules, since they are in the handbook.” When asked if teachers were enforcing the rules in the handbook she stated, “As a new teacher I should have been enforcing those rules more consistently in the beginning of the year.” In the end, what is wanted out of the

increase of rule monitoring? Mr. Doss says that he wants to see less cell phones and more paying attention. He also said, “ I hope it brings up a discussion. I hope students go to Student Council if they have rules to change. That in itself is also a great lesson.” All in all, both the students and teachers care about the school they attend and both are working towards a common ground that gives students the perfect environment for learning and growth. After this, Holly High School will only improve.

By Kleat Benson This weekend the wrestling team from Holly wrestled at CSU Pueblo on the tenth and eleventh of February. Brendyn Nordyke of the team faced an opponent from Eads in his first round then another opponent from Rocky Ford in his second round. This was followed by another from Swink in his third and final round. Brendyn commented on his matches saying, “I felt confident. I wrestled well, I just had a few minor mistakes that I now have to learn from.” Brendyn placed 2nd at Regionals and advances to State. Austin Crum and Cody Crum also placed 2nd in their weight classes and will also go to the state tournament. Also getting the chance to go to State is freshman Grayden Flint who placed 4th at Regionals.

Ethan Burns placed 6th and will not be the Pepsi Center in Denver February 16able to attend state, but he experienced 18. a great season. The Holly wrestling team overall accomplished 4th place. The wrestling team will be wrestling at

By Taylor Neugebauer The two top teams in the state went head to head on February 9th. All of Southeast Colorado was in attendance and the atmosphere was so intense. The boys battled hard and didn’t seem to have a problem with the Cheyenne Wells Tigers. They were ahead by 19 at one point and didn’t ever lose their lead. Chandler Rushton said that the atmosphere was loud and exciting. He said that going into the game he knew it was going to be a tough game, but he knew we had the advantage. Sigi Avalos said that going into the game he just had to focus on the one game ahead and the atmosphere was electrifying.

The boys came out on top 60-50. It was a great game between the two top teams and now we know who really is number one in the state!

was also Senior Night and everyone’s emotions were all over the place. The seniors were recognized before the boys’ game and it was bitter sweet. We have seen the class of 2017 playing They then faced off against the Granatogether since 5th and 6th grade basketda Bobcats on Valentine’s Day. The ball and they just keep getting better team had overcame some bumps in the and better. road, as two of their starters sat on the bench the first quarter due to an acaNow we patiently wait to see who they demic incident. Yaniel Vidal and Sigi will face off in district play. The post Avalos knew that their teammates season is always intense and we can’t could get the job done just fine without wait to see how far the boys will get! them in the first quarter. The Wildcats beat the Bobcats 80-42. Chandler Rushton said that after the first quarter the game really got a lot easier. This game

By Jesus Perez The Holly girls played the Cheyenne Wells girls in an intense game on Thursday, February 9th at Cheyenne Wells. It was a very tough game but the girls managed to come out victorious with a score of 41 to 29. The lead scorer was Josie Cook. She made a total of 18 points with three threepointers. She went three for three on three-pointers. In the first quarter the girls were trailing behind Cheyenne Wells. In the second quarter the girls managed to outscore Cheyenne Wells, but they were still trailing by four points with the score of 12-16. After half time is when the Holly girls really picked up the pace. They came out on fire and scored 17 points in the third quarter. They completely outscored

the Cheyenne Wells girls who only managed to get two points that quarter. This made the girls lead by 11 points and the score was 29-18. In the fourth quarter Cheyenne Wells got a second breath but the girls were tough and still managed to outscore Cheyenne Wells. Player Saedee Davis had this to say about the game against Cheyenne Wells, “The game started out slow and I feel that we did not pick up the pace until the second half. I do not feel like I had my best game but my teammates had my back and we pulled off the victory.” Taylor Neugebauer said, “The game started out slow but we really showed up in the second half. Josie had a great second half and she set the momentum

for the team.” The Holly girls then played the Granada girls on Tuesday, February 14. The Granada girls traveled to Holly and did not give the girls much competition. The final score for the game was 3780. After a long season the girls ended up with a record of 12 wins and 7 losses.

By Adrianna Mares Marley Flint, a freshmen here at Holly High School is the only student that is on the La Junta Swim Team, and has been on the swim team since she was about four-years-old. Flint said she only enjoyed certain parts like swimming at the meets and swimming with her teammates, but she hated the practices because they were “brutal.” Her favorite stroke is the breaststroke, for those who don’t know a breaststroke is when the swimmer is on his or her chest and their torso does not rotate. It is considered to be one of the most popular swimming styles because the swimmers head is above water for a long period of time and at slow speeds it can be swam comfortably. Marley thought she has done better throughout the season than she ever had in the summer time, and after

breaking a few of her own records she feels pretty good. She thinks she can keep improving so she can continue to break her own personal records. When asked about making it to state Flint said she made the A relay team for the 400 free relay, PR’d in her 100 split time with a 1:06.23 and was 1.48 seconds off from making a state time in her favorite event which is the 100 breaststroke. Marley said, “I most likely am planning on joining the swim team again next year. I really want to try club volleyball, but based on how much I cried with my teammates on Saturday, February 11 while saying goodbye, I’m sure I’ll be joining again next year, despite the daily three hour practices and all the hours of driving back and forth.” All of us wish Marley good luck as she continues swimming for La Junta.

By Robert Gutierrez Last week, the Holly students and faculty went under lock down. The school had received a call from the Lamar police department, stating that there was someone dangerous in the school area, and that we needed to go into immediate lock down. As soon as this happened, the staff was informed, and the student and teachers went, “locks, lights, and out of sight.” The lock down took place for nearly 90 minutes. “The fact that we didn’t know what was going on made it 10 times scarier,” states Junior Luis Mendoza. “I didn’t know if anything could happen to me or even my little brother and sister. It’s just a scary

thought,” Mendoza adds. He’s not the only one either. Not knowing what is going on is a pretty terrifying thing. It’s a good thing that we’ve been practicing lock downs this year. Actually, it even caught the eye of 9 news. They wanted to report about the incident, considering we didn’t have any prior experience for this sort of thing. Former principal, Randy Holmen, even told 9 news a year before how we didn’t need the practice for lock down situations, which caused a lot of controversy. By saying this, he may have put a target on our back. Coming into the new school year, as a new superintendent/principal Mr. Doss

decided to action into his own hands. Over the course of the year we have had a hand full of lock downs and even fire drills. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Ever since the Columbine shootings that took place in 1999, there are a lot of new rules and regulations that have been passed to ensure the safety of students and faculty. Some of the things that schools do might be too much, but they’re there to keep everyone safe from any possible situation.

By Alex Gutierrez On Monday, February 6th the Holly Knowledge Bowl team competed at the Regional Tournament in Eads. The top seven 1A Knowledge Bowl teams made it to state Knowledge Bowl meet. The Holly Knowledge Bowl team placed 13th, and so they did not make it to state. They felt like they could have done better though. The part that Brandon Wilson did not like was the written round. Jesus Perez also agrees with that. Perez says that he thinks the team could have done better in the written round by a lot. The team did decent in the oral rounds. The 2016-2017 Knowledge Bowl team had about 10 meets throughout the year. Being interviewed, Marley Flint said, “I think our Knowledge Bowl team definitely could have done better. We were a good team this season, but there

were a lot of things that we did not know. We did pretty okay during the season, but I thought the questions were really hard at regionals. I had a lot of fun this year because we had a lot of laughs and an overall good time.” One of the questions that was asked at the regional tournament was, “Simplify the square root of 45.” Wilson answered 3 square root 5. Although the reader questioned his answer the team was rewarded the point. Mrs. Frey said, “Although the team did well this season, we hope to be more competitive through the end of the season next year.” Next year, Mrs. Frey will make the students who want to try out take a written test to qualify for the Knowledge Bowl team, which has been done in the past. However, after a couple of practices, Mrs. Frey will deter-

mine then who she will want on A Team, B Team, and C Team. Members of each team may move depending in their performance at Knowledge Bowl meets.

By Diana Olague It’s crazy to think that we will be graduating in two months. Time sure does fly by. It’s time to start the Senior Spotlight. For the seniors, it is time to start thinking about what we will be doing for our graduation parties and what our invitations will look like. This week’s senior spotlight is on Sigi Avalos, Bryce Beaman, Ashlyn Crossland, Marie Gomez, and Nakayah Isley. Sigi Avalos is going to be attending Colorado State University but he is still undecided what he wants to major in. Sigi will for sure miss the high school sports and all his friends, but he is more than excited to experience the “real world” that all the adults talk

about. Bryce Beaman is still undecided where he wants to go and what he wants to major in but he will miss his friends and he is ready to be independent and to start his new life. Ashlyn Crossland is the one that is going to want to go to a big city to attend Regis University in Denver or go to Adams State University. She either wants to major in business or in education. The one thing Ashlyn is going to miss about high school is going to be the sports. What she is most excited about though is starting her new life and meeting new people. Marie Gomez, along with Sigi, will be attending CSU and she will major in ac-

counting. She will miss the sports as well. She is really excited to meet more people. Our last senior spotlight for the week is Nakayah Isley, she will be going to Fort Hays for nursing. She said she won’t miss anything because she is ready to see what she can do on her own. These seniors know that after high school they will be doing great things in their future, and will be able to accomplish anything they have in mind. Seniors, we will officially be adults and be all on our own in not more than two months. Let’s make the best out of the last days we have left.

By Sigi Avalos A smaller but similar version of the World War II holocaust has happened, taking place in the Saydnaya prison in Syria. Massive executions of prisoners and mostly civilians has gone up to about 13,000 people. People did not know what was going on, until the international amnesty found out. Many of these people were beat and tortured and those who came out of the prison looked nothing like when they first went in. Disease, starvation, and the beatings were the biggest factors of the deaths. The process was that about every week, late at night when the prisoners would be sleeping, guards would call about 50 of the prisoners and tell them that they would be leaving to better conditions.

As their hopes increased, the prisoners would be blindfolded, then they would take the prisoners to a basement called the white building. In the white building prisoners were beaten and the quieter you stayed the less of a beating you would get. After the beating, they were put into white delivery trucks called meat fridges and taken to their execution. They were put to stand on a platform and then they placed the noose to their necks. Some of them did not die as fast because they were so light that their weight could not kill them, so then the guards would pull down on the body of the prisoners to break their necks. Many said that they could hear them choking for about 10

minutes sleeping above. They would put their ears to the floor to listen better and once it happened more often they got used to it. Some people claim that it is untrue about the slaughterhouse, but victims tell about the horrifying truth about what the dark secret the prison actually holds.

By Paulina Rodriguez Paulina is back with celebrity cheese. So a little birdy told me that Beyoncé is pregnant. SAY WHAT! AND TWINS! Double trouble. More like double the fame and money. Beyoncé posted her maturity pictures that came out beautiful. Blue Ivy was in the pictures and she did not seem so happy but when does she look happy? The pictures were something I would not do but celebrities tend to do weird things. Justin Bieber is back on Instagram. I missed him so much. He deleted his Instagram after his ex Selena Gomez and him got in a fight. I am sorry Justin but I am team Selena. I am still your number fan though. Who watched the Grammy’s on Sunday, February 13, 2017. Who was best dressed? In my opinion the best dressed

was Carrie Underwood. She wore a beautiful red dressed that fit her body perfectly. Demi Lovato also rocked the Grammy’s with a golden looking dress that showed her back. The worst dressed was Joy Villa. It said “Make America Great Again.” No you don’t wear that to the Grammy’s. Who paid her? Adele had a successful night winning five Grammy’s. Beyoncé performed a great show and wore a beautiful sparkly dress that fit her belly. Selena Gomez and The Weekend though. They have been spotted a couple times together. Rumor says that they are dating and Abe’s ex-girlfriend (Victoria Secret model) is not happy. Selena and Bella were good friends but she deleted her off of Instagram. The weekend sure does move on fast.

Fifth Harmony becomes fourth harmony after Camilla decided to go solo. She made a great song called “Bad things”. If you haven’t heard it, I encourage you too. Well that is it with Celebrity news! I hope you all enjoyed the latest cheese.

What’s your favorite TV show Well, my favorite TV show would probably end up being Supernatural because the plot is amazing and the actors are on fire. Not to mention the rich taste of drama with the satisfactory comic relief. I also love the structure of the layout of the season. It sort of makes it predictable but it is okay because it’s Sam and Dean, and Sam and Dean are the goats. Favorite NFL Team. Well considering I am an all knowing being, I don’t exactly have a favorite NFL team but the Cowboys are pretty cool. Favorite Color? I do not have a favorite color that you humans can see. I have complete access to the color spectrum so I can see things that regular human eyes don’t pick up. However if you must know my favorite wavelength pattern is 2734823012 if that answers your question. It’s roughly the waves of sound which would probably be closest to black. Goose Bumps or Harry Potter Even though I am all knowing I still like a good plot. Goose bumps is just random stories of fictional nonsense that gets old and repetitive time after time. So If I absolutely had to choose, I would go with Harry Potter. Because the plot is on fire and I am obsessed with all the movies. What is your favorite food? When I visit the state of Texas with my all-knowing powers, I like to get a steak. The way it is atomically structured tastes really good. I prefer to get it medium-rare to well done. I like getting A1 steak sauce with a little bit of mash potatoes and dinner rolls. Why do some people get in trouble for wearing leggings and others don’t? Well you have to make sure that you wear a shirt long enough to cover any inappropriate areas for a professional environment, such as the school. What do you do on Valentine’s Day when you’re single? Here’s what you got to do little homie. You have to dress up nice and fancy and go out and buy some flowers, make sure to be nice and clean. Then you have to approach a really pretty male/female and ask them this. “Can I ask you three questions? Are you in love? Are you in a relationship?” And if both of these are no then you hit them with the big one that says “What would be your excuse to not accept these flowers and be my valentine?” After you tell them that, it’s history. You have a valentine.

JUNIOR HIGH

HIGH SCHOOL

FACULTY

Dream Vacation? Puerto Vallarta

Dream Vacation? The Slums in Compton

Dream Vacation? Beach

Favorite Movie? Central Intelligence

Favorite Movie? Scott Pilgrim VS The World

Favorite Movie? Top Gun

Favorite Food? Pizza

Favorite Food? Steak

Favorite Food? Anything but Vegetables

Favorite Color? Pink

Favorite Color? The letter C

Favorite Color? Purple

Biggest Fears? Heights

Biggest Fears? Being alone with my thoughts at night

Biggest Fears? Heights

Pets? 2 dogs

Pets? 4 Dogs 13 Roosters, 2 GOATs

Pets? Lots of cats

Favorite drink? Gatorade

Favorite drink? Shirley temple

Favorite drink? Diet Coke

Favorite Sport? basketball

Favorite Sport? Extreme Ironing

Favorite Sport? Swimming

Favorite Super Hero? Batman

Favorite Super Hero? Spiderman

Favorite Super Hero? Wonder Woman

Favorite Song at the Moment? Company

Favorite Song at the Moment? Car Radio

Favorite Song at the Moment? Play that Song

Favorite hobby? Watching Netflix

Favorite hobby? Jewelry making

Favorite App? Netflix

Favorite hobby? Being alone with my thoughts at night Favorite App? Twitter

Best Friend Bob

Best Friend Leo

Best Friend Renee

Favorite App? Bejeweled Blitz

Bring your answers to Jesus Perez or Trace Salzbrenner for your chance to win a candy bar!

Need advice? If so, you can now ask Wanda of the Wildcat Word. Wanda will answer questions submitted in Mrs. Frey’s room. Answers will be published in the next issue of the Wildcat Word.