Senior Night

At 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 30, the FHN Boys’ Swim team celebrated their two seniors, Sean Pirrone and Jacob Bell, during Senior Night at their last home meet against Liberty High School at the Rec-Plex. Senior Night has been going on since 1997 and has been happening ever since. Half way through the meet, the seniors walked down the bulkhead delivering a rose to their mothers, and then received a medal from Head Coach Steve Kelly to honor their participation.

“I think the most rewarding thing has been realizing the impact that swimming has had on my life the last four years, whether it be the people it brought into my life or the things it taught me,” Pirrone said. (brief by Lauren Pike)

Off to Districts

On Sept. 22 and 23, Varsity Girls’ Tennis won first place at this year’s GAC tournament at Holt High School. The team had multiple players achieve first place in their event, including senior Risa Takenaka and junior Yuri Takenaka.  On Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 the team competed in Districts. As of press time, results are unknown. The team will compete for State on Oct. 16-18.

“I’m really excited about our win, because last year we lost by a few points to Howell, but this year we won by like 20 points,” senior Rachel Mecklenburg said. (brief by Michal Basford)

The Great and Growing Goonies

At almost every basketball and football game, the crazy, themed outfits of the FHN Goonies, the “Official Unofficial Cheerleaders,” will catch anyone’s eye.

Seniors Mike Butterfield, Sam Ritchie, and a few other leading Goonies choose a theme, like “America,” for each game located close to FHN, and spread the word to all the fans. With the new dress code rules, the “cheerleaders” aren’t allowed to wear certain things, like showing their painted stomachs or wearing morphsuits at games.

“The dress code rules definitely make themes harder,” Sam said. “We’ll have to maybe design T-shirts instead of painting our chests.”

The group has gained a lot of attention throughout the years due to its growing amount of members. By cheering and doing their signature ‘roller coaster’ in the fan section, the Goonies have earned recognition from the FHN community. The faculty appreciates the students’ drive to cheer on their teams.

“I think the Goonies are a positive thing,” Activities Director Mike Janes said. “To have our own students and their peers cheer them on is always exciting for them.”

The group hopes to gain more supporters to improve crowd involvement at games this year.

“Anybody can be a Goonie,” Mike said. “Everybody is a Goonie if they come to the games.” (brief by Alex Arger)

Sabers to Swords

Blue and red slicing majestically through the air. Beams of light cutting through doors, and battling the darkness in the universe. This is how junior Logan Grier viewed the world of Star Wars and light sabers. This eventually led to Logan’s entrance in the sport of fencing.

Logan fences with the team called the Buckaneer Blades in Wentzville every Monday, Thursday and during the weekend for competitions. At these competitions, Logan fights in a group with around 30 other competitors, fighting against everyone in it. Based on his performance, he is ranked on his wins and losses. Depending on how Logan does, he will fight against the person either above him or below him, until he is eliminated.     

Fencing uses not only uses the body, but also the mind. It is a constant game of thinking and knowing of what to do next, it can be difficult, but Logan knows how to pull it off.

“You have to be not one with the sword, but one with the brain,”  Logan’s coach, Chris Menne said.

Many people may find this an unusual sport, but Logan likes fencing not only for the swords and weaponry, but also because of the style and technique he and other people use in the sport.

“I like to be powerful, not fast or swift or anything,” Logan said. “ I like to be powerful and knock the blade out of their hand.”

His love for fencing started when he was little. When he was younger, he was obsessed with Star Wars and wanted to battle, using lightsabers in real life, like Luke Skywalker did. In seventh grade his parents signed him up at the Rec-Plex. He started at the beginner level and slowly moved up the line. He did stop for a little while two or three times in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade but always came back to it. He has been fencing now for around four

years.

“Everything as a kid was lightsabers and then when we saw that the Rec-Plex offered fencing, you know, we showed him and he got really excited,” Logan’s mom, Jessica Grier said. “I guess they’re connected but it wasn’t like he was trying to fence, he was trying to be Luke.”

Logan plans to fence play in college and possibly even professionally one day. He hasn’t really looked at many colleges, but Westminster College is on his radar. It can be hard to find a college with fencing, because many do not offer this sport.

“As long as he wants to fence, he will do nothing but improve,” Menne said. (brief by Jaime Hetlage)