Ryder Clark to Wrestle at NIACC

 

 

Ryder Clark signed to Wrestle at NIACC on Friday. Ryder's parents, West Hancock coach Mark Sanger and NIACC coach Steve Kelly were on hand for the signing.  Ryder had a great career as an Eagle and will head to college as a Trojan.  Good luck Ryder!



 

 

Ryder with his parents, Coach Kelly and Coach Sanger

 

Ryder with Coach Kelly and Coach Sanger

Fine Arts

March and April have had many great opportunities for our fine arts departments to show off their talents!

Our Coffee House Concert was excellent as our band and Chorus did selections from famous movies.  The music was great and you could really tell the students had fun with their pieces!

The Speech Showcase was great entertainment as our students Pigged Out!  My two little girls still randomly shout out "I don't like Ham!" from time to time.  It was a very fun night!

The drama department took us back into the sixties last weekend with "Groovy!" It was a great show and the kids did a fabulous job!  The live music was a great addition to our program this year!

The band and chorus had their small group competitions this weekend.  I do not have results, but will post them when I do.  Great job guys!

Congratulations to all of our fine arts performers!

Kellie Schmit signs with Waldorf

Kellie Schmit has signed to play basketball with the Waldorf Warriors. Kellie's parents, West Hancock Coach Paul Sonius and Waldorf Coach Denny Jerome were all here for the signing.  Kellie had a very nice career at West Hancock and we wish her all the best in college!  Great job Kellie!

Kellie with her parents, Mr. Sonius and Waldorf Coach Denny Jerome

FC Co Op Grant

Mr. Hauge's Food Safety and Science Class recieved a grant to purchase materials for the class.  They were able to purchase a new meat grinder and a kit for making cheese. 

Thanks to FC Co Op for this grant!

Mr. Hauge's Food Safety and Science Class

State Speech!

West Hancock had a great showing at State Individual Speech at Starmont on Saturday.  The following students all received division I ratings: Kaylee Owens, Taylor Glawe, Emma Chizek, Lizzy Trulson, Rachel Francis, Krista Kruger, and Katherine Jamtgaard.

State Speech Qualifiers

Our speech team had a strong showing at individual district competitions last weekend.  Eleven students are advancing in a total of 13 events.  The following students will be headed to state competition on March 9: Emma Chizek, Leah Christ, Rachel Francis, Taylor Glawe, Katherine Jaamgard, Cassi Jackson, Krista Kruger, Brice Kudej, Tre Lehoe, Kaylee Owens, Lizzy Trulson. 

 

Good luck to all our individual speech events at State!

Foreman

In case you had not heard Mrs. Schoenwetter got a new addition to her class this year.  Foreman is a Ball Python Snake and resides in Mrs. Schoenwetter's classroom.  The students have really enjoyed working with him. He is kept in a locked cage when he is not working with students.

As I stopped in class this week, Mark Roth was hanging out with Foreman so I snapped a picture.

Parent Involvement Opportunities

Parents,

We have two up coming parent involvement opportunities. 

Our High School Parent Advisory group will meet on Wednesday night from 5:15 - 6:15 in the high school library.  As a reminder, this is a chance for parents to find out what is happening in the high school and ask questions about anything regarding the high school.  Even if you have not attended one of these meetings before, don't be afraid to come to this one!

Parent teacher conferences will be on March 12th and 14th from 4:00 - 7:45 pm.  This is a great chance to meet with your child's teachers and see what is happening in their classes.  Please mark your calendars for this date.

Have a great weekend!

Mr. Recker

1000 point scorers!

Congratulations to Anna Mallen and Kellie Schmitt on scoring over 1000 points in their careers. Both girls have had very nice careers and been a part of many great teams!  Great work girls!




Kellie Schmit and Anna Mallen

Anna was also named the NIC player of the year!

Matt Carver - February 20th

On February 20th Matt Carver will be at West Hancock to present information about bullying and how the laws have changed in Iowa.  Matt is the Legal Services Director for School Administrators of Iowa.  The other administrators and I are members of SAI and we work with Matt from time to time for legal advice.  Matt will present to our staff in the early afternoon and then will present to community members and parents that night from 5:30 to 6:15 in the high school lunch room. His presentation will include information regarding Iowa's anti-bullying law, common forms of bullying as well as best practices for parents and community members in relation to bullying.  We encourage all parents to attend.  Matt is a very good speaker and I am sure he will have a great presentation.

The State Capitol

I attended the first two days of the State Wrestling tournament with my two oldest children.  They did pretty well for the most part.  On Thursday we had some time so I took them to visit the the Capitol building.  I had not been in the building since my 8th grade year.  My kids are in Kindergarten and 1st grade and they had a great time.  We walked around the building, looked at the architecture and took in some of the sights.  It is open to the public and is really something to see.  I ran into a Representative I know through NIACC named Josh Byrnes.  He took us down on the floor of the house and Brody and Callie even got to sit in the speaker of the house's chair. 

If you ever have your kids in Des Moines and are looking for some free entertainment check out the capital.  There are guided tours scheduled through the day or you can take some information and do a self guided tour.

I realize I am an old Government teacher, but it was a really fun experience!



On the steps of the Capitol

In the Iowa Speaker of the House's Chair!

Grades at the six week mark

Please have a conversation with your student about their current grades.  While many of our students are doing great, some continue to struggle to get done what needs to be done. Our Success Center numbers have gone up, but there are plenty of open seats.  Now that winter seasons are finished, students should have even more time to work on their studies.  All students will be given a paper copy of their progress reports and all of them can check their grades daily. 

We want to do everything we can to help all our students be successful!

A Honor Roll Supper

Our Student Achievement Committee hosted an "A Honor Roll" Supper on February 11th.  We wanted to do something special for those students who really go the extra mile in their studies. All first semester A honor roll students were invited.  Our committee of teachers put this together and served the meal.  We held it at the Summit House and catered in chicken.  It was a nice reward for our students and we hope to continue this in future semesters. 



End of Hex 4 is Wednesday

Parents,

The end of Hex 4 is this Wednesday.  The year seems to be flying by!  Teachers will submit progress reports and we will hand out these reports on Tuesday at lunch.  Have a conversation with your student and see how they are progressing in their classes.  No late work will be accepted after February 20th.

This is the link to JMC parent access: https://jmc.whancock.org:4430/Parent/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fParent%2fdefault.aspx


As a reminder, there will be no school on Thursday and Friday this week. 


Thanks!

Mr. Recker

Congratulations State Wrestling Qualifiers!

Congratulations to our five State Qualifiers! Ryder Clark, Gunnar Clark, Nathan Aitchison, Kevin Tlach and Chris Schleuger!  They will begin wrestling on Thursday morning at 9:00 AM.  Good luck to all wrestlers and coaches!

2013 IHSAA STATE WRESTLING TOURNAMENT  SCHEDULE

(these are only the 1A times)

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14

SESSION 1

(8 mats) 9:00am - 12:15pm Class 1A 1st round & 1st round consolations

Weigh-in for Session 1: 7:00am

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15

SESSION 4

(8 mats) 9:00am – 1:30pm Class 1A & Class 3A quarter-finals; then Class

1A & 3A 2nd Round Consolations

SESSION 5

(8 mats) 3:30pm – 6:45pm Class 2A quarter-finals, Class 1A semi-finals &

3rd round consolations

 

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16

SESSION 7

(8 mats) 10:00am - 2:15pm Class 1A, 3A, 2A consolation semi-finals & finals

SESSION 8

(3 mats) 5:45pm IWCOA, IHSADA & IHSAA Awards

6:00pm Grand march and Finals for all classes

Seth Goepel Signs with Iowa Central

Seth Goepel signed a letter of intent to play football for the Iowa Central Tritons. Seth had a great career at West Hancock as an offensive lineman, defensive lineman and a linebacker. We wish him all the best at Iowa Central!



Seth and his parents as he signs his letter of intent.



Seth and some of the West Hancock Fotball coaching staff.

Girls Basketball Wins the NIC!

For the third year in a row our girls' basketball team has won the North Iowa Conference!  Great job girls and coaches!  They have won 47 consecutive conference games!  They will open up tournament action against the winner of Lake Mills vs. Belmond-Klemme on Tuesday night at home, beginning at 7:00 pm.  Good luck girls!

Sectional Runners Up!

Congratulations to our wrestlers and coaches on a runner up finish at Sectionals on Saturday.  Seven individuals will be moving on to districts and the team will be moving on to wrestle Clarion at Clarion on Tuesday night at 6:00 pm.  Good luck to our wrestlers as they continue on the road to Wells Fargo!

The seven individual qualifiers were: Klayton Lamoreux, Drew Redenius, Ryder Clark, Gunnar Clark, Nate Aitchison, Kevin Tlach and Chris Schleuger.

Eagle Wrestlers after Sectionals!

Post Season Schedules

Parents, Students and Eagle Fans,

The post season pairings have been released and we wanted to make everyone aware of the dates and times. 

Large Group Speech will perform this Saturday at Dubuque Senior.

Wrestling - Sectionals will be this Saturday at Lake Mills beginning at 12:00 pm.  Districts will be February 9th at Jewell beginning at 12:00.  Information about the state wrestling schedule can be found on the IHSAA website. 

http://www.iahsaa.org/

Boys Basketball - We will host first round district action on Monday February 11th at 7:00 pm.  We will play CWL.  There will be no passes accepted.  The remainder of the tournament schedule can be found on line. 

https://www.iahsaa.org/secure/bracket.php?year=2012&sport=bb&class=1A&district=3

Information about Sub State and State can be found at http://www.iahsaa.org/

Girls Basketball

The girls will have a first round bye. They will host the winner of Lake Mills vs. Belmond-Klemme at West Hancock on Tuesday February 12th at 7:00. No passes will be accepted.  The remainder of the tournament schedule can be found online.

http://www.ighsau.org/IGHSAUwebsite/132aregional.html

Information for State Basketball can be found here: http://www.ighsau.org/

Good luck to all of our students and coaches!

Mr. Recker

Coaches versus Cancer 2013

The North Iowa Conference put on it's annual Coaches versus Cancer night on Friday. This is a group effort to help raise money to cure cancer.  There are four host sites, this year West Hancock was one of them.  We played Lake Mills and there were several activities to help raise money and awareness for cancer.

Our elementary, middle and high schools all brought in change to help raise funds.  The elementary was the winner by a long shot.  Nice work for our little eagles.

The tumbling recital held before Christmas donated all of their proceeds.  Thanks to Angie Johnson for her coordination of this event.

We had a silent auction and sold many items.  Thank you to all the people who donated items.  Thank you to all the people that bought the items.  Thanks to Mrs. Verbrugge, Carol Madsen and Brenda Smith for helping with the silent auction.

T-shirts were sold leading up to the event and buckets were passed among the crowds at halftime.  Thanks to all who supported the cause that way.

Mr. Peterson and the conference Athletic Directors are the people who put this on every year.  Thank you to them for their efforts.

Our site alone raised $5241.63.  Once we get a conference total we will let you know.  It was a great event and our community did a great job supporting it!

The final numbers have came in and our conference raised over $26,000.00!  What a great event!

Charity Bowl 2013

This year we tried a new activity for our advisory program.  We decided to have a "Charity Bowl." It was designed as a fun activity with two purposes. First we wanted to bring attention to several charities that our students and staff may not be aware of.  Secondly we wanted to raise some money to give to one of the charities. 

Each advisory group had to work together and pick a charity.  My group chose to donate money to breast cancer.  I had recently watched a documentary about Stepahnie Speilman and her husband Chris.  She had died of breast cancer, but before she did, she established a large charitable organization.  Her husband Chris is a sports announcer and former linebacker for the Lions, so I was familiar with their story.  It was very touching and they have a great charity.  Our group decided to give them the money if we won.  Every other group picked a charity and had each member of the advisory groups donate $1.00.  All of the money raised by the school would go to the winning teams charity. 

The competition was set up like a large group Jeopardy match.  Each advisory group had a spokesperson who explained what charity their team was playing for.  This way all of the students and staff were able to learn about the different charities.  Another student would answer questions for the team.  We then began the competition.  The students answered several questions about a variety of topics.  In the end Jacob Hejlik and Zach Paulus representing my advisory group, were the victors. (it was only a coincidence, I was in no way involved with the judging:) )  We will be sending a check for $183.00 to the Stefanie Speilman Fund for Breast Cancer Research.

This was a neat event and a worth while one. 

Jacob and Zach with the check to the Stefanie Speilman Breast Cancer Research Fund

The contestants at the Charity Bowl

 

 

Zach Paulus Discusses the Charity Mr. Recker's group will be playing for

 

Did you know?

We had an assembly today to celebrate some of the excellent things that are going on at West Hancock.  I added information from the assembly below.

 

West Hancock did you know?

-         We had 32 students achieve the A honor roll during first semester!

 

-         We had 40 students achieve the B honor roll during first semester!

 

-         We have students enrolled in 62 college courses for the second semester!

 

-         We had 28 students qualify for Large Group State Speech!

 

-         We had 4 young men who were conference wrestling champions on Saturday! Ryder Clark, Gunnar Clark, Kevin Tlach and Chris Schleuger.

 

-         Our girls’ basketball team has not lost a conference basketball game since 2010 they have won 44 consecutive games!

 

-         Our boys’ basketball team has had a very exciting season and done many great things!

 

-         We had three students qualify for NCIBA honor band in January. Lucas Collins, Natasha Peterson and Paige Thompson.

 

-         Natasha Peterson qualified for the Meistersinger honor band at Wartburg.

 

-         We sent 4 students to the Dorian choral festival at Luther College!

 

-         We have over 20 students that will be performing in “Groovy” our spring musical.

 

-         The Coaches vs. Cancer night raised $5241.63 just at our event.  There were three others!

 

There are over 25 adults who care about each of you and come here every day for the sole purpose of helping you to improve and working with you to have success! 

 

We have a great school here let’s keep working hard every day to make it better.

New Microscopes

The Hancock County Foundation gave West Hancock High School a $2500.00 grant this year.  Part of the funds were used to purchase new microscopes.  We purchased six new microscopes in all.  Thanks to the Hancock County Foundation for this gift!

Mrs. Schoenwetter and Ms. Carlson with some of our new microscopes.

District Speech Participants

These students participated in large group district speech last week at Garner.  Great job!

Missing from photo: Rachel Francis, Cassie Jackson, Emma Chizek, Lizzy Trulson, Taylor Glawe and Elizabeth Eckels

State Speech Qualifiers

Congratulations to the State Qualifiers in Large Group Speech!  They will perform on February 2nd in Dubuque.

Choral Reading (e.e.)

Katherine Jamtgaard

Dusty Kraft
Madison Cook
Kaylee Owens
Emmorie Stokka
Natasha Peterson
Leah Christ
Alyssa Wood
Mallory Becker
Macey Harms

Radio (KTJS 92.3)

Brice Kudej
Broderick Trulson
Jordan Savoy

Ensemble Acting (VonHefflehorn)

Kaylee Owens
Kelly Anderson

Ensemble Acting (Dud Wars)

Mallory Becker

Leah Christ

Short Film (Express Yourself)

Rachel Francis

Cassi Jackson

Musical Theater (Annie)

Cassi Jackson

Katherine Jamtgaard
Alyssa Wood

Group Mime (Sneaking into the Band Room)

Kelly Anderson

Lizzy Trulson

Improv

Haley Hiscocks

Abby Paca

Improv

Tre Lehoe

Taylor Glawe

Semester Grades

Parents,

Grades should all be updated and finalized for first semester.  If you go on JMC parent access and click on the report card you will find your son or daughter's final grades.  To avoid any confusion I wanted to explain something.  Some of you have asked why the final grade in the online progress report or grade book might be different than the grade on the report card.  The answer to this question is the impact of the semester test, project or assessment.  Some of the teachers included these in the grade book and some did not.  Based on weighting and how the semester test was figured, each class could be a little different.  Semester assessments can be up to 20% of the final grade, some teachers figured the final regular class grade (which you see in the online grade book) and then added the semester final on after.  For those classes you would see an exam grade and then a final grade on the report card.  I hope this clears things up. 

As always if you have concerns about a specific class or grade the teacher is the best source of information.  Don't be afraid to ask teachers about the grade, exam or anything else.

Thanks!

Mr. Recker

End of First Semester

The first semester is over.  Grades have been posted and can be viewed online.  We will not hand out report cards, but if you would like a paper copy, please contact Peg in the office. Some students may have Incompletes, these need to be taken care of by Friday.  All grades will be final after Friday. 

Second Semester began on Monday.  We were able to get schedules in order and everything seems to be going smoothly.  If you have any questions or concerns about your students new classes do not hesitate to contact their instructor.

We look forward to a great second semester!

Lions Club Supper and Queen of the Court

This Friday we will host Forest City in a quad basketball game beginning at 4:00 pm. 

The Britt Lions Club will be hosting a pulled pork sandwich supper from 5-7 in the high school cafeteria.  There will also be hot dogs available for the kids.  There will be a meal option or a la carte selections available.  Please come out and support the Lions!

The after prom committee will also be hosting their "Queen of the Court" night.  This year adults from the school and community will be dressed up in elegant outfits.  Teachers, Parents, Coaches and Administration will all be involved.  It should be a great evening!