The Mariner Compass

By Mallory Drover

Winter has arrived in Homer, Alaska, and with it the usual abundance of snow. Students have reacted differently to the snowfall, with excitement for the fun snow sports or dread for the slick roads to school.

“I do skiing as an after school sport,” said freshman Benjamin Westphal. “And snowboarding.”

“I fall down whenever I try [to play snow sports],” explained senior Casey Parrett with a laugh. “I love snow. It’s just really cold, [and] was in my shoes this morning. I’ve been driving in it every day and nearly dying.”

While some students enjoy the snow, it can also be a problem. Student drivers are dangerous enough without the factor of slick roads, but accidents due to sliding wheels are a chronic problem in the winter.

“Well, it sucks! I turned my wheels hard left and went straight into the ditch,” Mick Wells said, throwing his arms up in demonstration. His friend Dylan Morrison, senior, had a similar story.

“I forgot to put it in 4-wheel drive, I was in 2-wheel drive, and my road has a curve in it. I just kept sliding, and I tried over correcting and I slid right into the ditch. We could have drove through someone’s yard but we didn’t. Mick was with me.”

Surviving an Alaskan winter through the cold, snow, and wind can be tough, but it can be worth it when viewed in the right light. Teacher Pam Newton adores the snow.

“The best first snow adventure of the year involves a screaming two stroke engine and some fine, beautiful fresh powder. Snow in your face and a temperature and scenery that take your breath away complete the day.”

By Kikilia Kojin

            The induction ceremony was Tuesday, at 6:30 p.m., where eleven new members were inducted to the current group of seventeen members. Advised by Dianne Spence and Lin Hampson, the National Honor Society (NHS) is a national service organization at Homer High to recognize students who excel in four different areas: scholarship, leadership, service, and character. “It’s a variety of services inside and outside the community, sometimes international causes,” explained Spence.

            There is a three week annual recruitment process where the NHS posts posters and announcements where anyone with a GPA of 3.5 or higher can complete and application. Then a committee of teachers reviews the forms and evaluates students based on the four areas of excellence. Then there is a ceremony for the inductees where they receive certificates and membership.

            The NHS organizes events like raising money for the Food Bank by selling raffles, clothing and food drives, and tutoring services. Share the Spirit where gifts and food is collected for family in need during the holidays. Classes compete to see who can collect the most cans of food. Another service they do is Feast or Famine is a food drive where during FOL, students buy a raffle and win food or a bowl of rice. It’s to make kids aware of our food situation and how well we are off and the money goes to charities

            The NHS meets once a month, unless there is a special event. A breakfast will be planned for the inductees to discuss what the plans are for the year including seniors Mallory Drover, Abby Little, and Matthew Jasper; juniors are Maggie Graham and Katherine Kirsis; and sophomores Molly Bowen, Maggie Koplin, Cassidy Soistman, Katherine Dolma, Mattea Peters, and John Walsworth. The current NHS members are seniors Traven Apiki, Madeleine Bowen, Lauren Cashman, Rayann Clutts, Lewis Koplin, Kathleen McNary, Alaine Miller, Dana Olesch, Emily, Kathryn, and Marie Schmidt, and Kirsten Swanson; and juniors Ethan Kizzia, Hannah LaRue, Hanna Mikols, Katherine Pitsman, and Samuel Reinert.

Students join to get recognition for excellence and it looks good on your resume so it helps out with college applications,” commented Spence.

“It’s important for all students to help with community service for people who are really in need,” concluded Hampson.

By Sam Reinert

Almost everyone has heard of DDF, Drama, Debate, and Forensics, but not many people know that it is becoming one of Homer High School’s most successful extracurricular programs. This year alone, DDF has traveled to Anchorage twice, and placed first both times this year. In their first meet, the team won by a landslide, and in their most recent meet, they beat South by 1 point-a culminating score of all the individual events- to claim the overall title. The team placed first in drama, second in debate, and first in forensics, and 18 out of the 19 participants placed.

According to the coach, Ms. Christianson, the program is consistently growing in both size and dedication, and always improving. “We restructured practices, so there is more critiquing going on from coaches and other students.” Ms. Christianson said. “This means more feedback from the rest of the team, and more opportunities to improve pieces before the meets.”

Whatever has changed, it’s working so far. This is the first year the DDF team has placed first in several years, let alone twice in a row. Almost all DDF meets are held in Anchorage because of its central location, but the group pulled through with a win despite the trip. This season promises an even stronger team in the future if the team can keep up this rate of growth and improvement.

By Matthew Meyer

Most people at Homer High believe that the green house outside of the vocational hall isn’t used by anyone, while in reality it’s full of life.

Mrs. Roberts Natural Resources class has been growing various amounts of plants since the start of the first quarter. Students are assigned their own garden beds inside the greenhouse, and they learn how to grow their own food, and some odd ways doing it, like how to grow the plants without soil. These plants would include Lettuces, Radishes, and Mums.

“Some of the plants we’re growing, like the Mum plants, will be sold at the nutcracker fair,” said Mrs. Roberts.

The class adopted some rabbits and they are taking care of them inside the greenhouse.  This class is teaching them agriculture (farming of plants and animals) and the class teaches you about

The students taking this class agree that they’re having a fun time. “It’s an easy class, but you learn a lot from it,” said Traven Apiki.

By Kikilia Kojin

Coached by Dennis Welch, the girl’s basketball’s first practice starts November 28th everyday after school and the first game is December 10th against Nikiski at home. There are not tryouts, since no one gets cut. So far there are twenty four girls interested in playing on the basketball team and there will be three different teams: Varsity, JV, and the C-team, but there will only be one practice.
The girls basketball team is young, so Welch plans to prepare for it. Pre-conditioning – after school on Mondays and Wednesdays and 2-3:30 p.m. on Sundays – pressing, and defense are just a few things he is planning to concentrate on. “We’re looking to get better, get in shape, and I hope to keep improving. I hope to keep improving. It’s the number one goal,” Welsh reported. Basketball tournament and trips have been planned, including to Nome and Seward, but money will need to be raised to pay for all of this.
Fundraising this year will include a banquet and auction on November 19th. The girls basketball team raises enough money during this time to pay for all expenses, including bus travel, referees, and hotels rooms, which comes to a total of $8,000.
The team will be in the same division, 4-A, this year and next year they will move down to 3-A. “4-A is for a school with 500 or more students. We wanted to go in a lower division for a while, but they wouldn’t let us because it just takes a long time for change,” explained girls basketball coach, Dennis Welch.
Their most challenging competitors this year are Wasilla, who are defending state champs, and Soldotna. “I want us to get better in every game, in good condition, and have success,” Welch concluded.

Parker and Kyle Wentz work on the Senior food bin.

The Physics class is rebuilding the food bins, from last year, over the next couple of weeks in the last bay port behind the school. The students are repairing the bins that did not work by attempting to make them similar to the bin that did work last year.

Tuesday the physics class got to move the bins from their resting place over the summer into the shop, where they began deconstructing the bins so the students could salvage the materials and begin to construct the other three bins to be like the senior bin. Wednesday, the students were diligently cutting carpet and removing the materials from inside of the bins. Thursday they had a day off because they are still looking for the plastic that they will use in the flaps, and repair the old flaps in the senior bin, which they hope to have Monday.

When asked what the school would use if the bins were not there Mrs. Thompson replied “They would have cardboard boxes about the size of a washing machine, that wouldn’t even get half filled.” The food bins will all be working in time for the annual food drive December 5^th through the 15^th.

By Isaebelle De Armoun

It’s that time of year again. Time for the FFA take off! The “Take Off” is an overnight sleepover with bonding activities, games and food. Students will also get the chance to learn what one would do in FFA. The Take Off will start at 4:30 and go until 11:00, Students can also chose to spend the night.

FFA is an organization that students join to learn about growing food and agriculture for the future. At the end of every season there is a state convention called the Envirothon. Students learn these skills by doing different activities like visiting peony farms, dairy farms, gardens and cannoning.  

Traven Apaki said FFA has helped him become a better leader, as he is chapter President, helped him with public speaking. Last year Traven joined and became treasurer, and since then he has worked up to president.

 Traven says joining FFA  has opened up many options like being able to get jobs associated with agriculture, being able to apply for scholarships for FFA members and being able to have the opportunity to meet new students from all around Alaska that compete in the envirothon.

Misses Roberts the head of FFA ,and said that FFA not only teaches you how to be a responsible grower but also teaches parliamentary pro. Another part of FFA is fundraising. Every year FFA sells candy canes at Christmas time, Rosés on Valentines Day and also sells Alaska grow products. Traven Apaki says FFA is truly a great experience and all students interested should attend the take off.

                    Scholarships and Admittance forms are one of the many issues on a senior’s mind during their last year at high school. This big decision will affect the rest of their lives. It determines what job they will have, and where they will live. So this process of finding the perfect college for them and finding available scholarships is a big step towards the rest of their lifes.
                    Seniors at Homer High School will soon be going through the process of finding scholarships that fit their needs and choice of school. The most applied for scholarship in Homer is the Elk’s scholarship. It is the most popular scholarship, because it’s open to a wide variety of people and the requirements are universal.  The scholarship allows people to use the money for a variety of different schools in Alaska.
                    Mrs. Hampson school counselor said, “There are two kinds of scholarships. First there are scholarships that come from the school itself and you would turn in that application when you applied to the school. Second there are local scholarships and those deadlines to apply usually come up in late March and throughout the month of April.”
                    How many seniors actually plan on going on to college after high school? Mrs. Hampson said,”Probably 40 to 45% of the seniors plan on going to college after high school. Right now I have had about ten seniors come in and apply for scholarships and schools. These are seniors who want to go to a specific school, or just like to get things done early.”
                    One last thought from Mrs. Hampson to the seniors is “I know it’s still early but it’s time for you to get on board and start applying. When you finish that you need to start thinking about where you would like to go. This will make your life so much easier if you start thinking about that now.”

By Akane Fujimura

  Alaska State Swim and Dive Championships took place in Bartlett on November 4th and 5th and many swimmers broke school records.

  The boys 200yd free relay team (Kyle Wentz, Nathanael Hardy, James Reid and Richard Ginter) broke the school record with a time of 1:30.11, earning 1st place which they already broke at the Region meet.

  Marie Schmidt also broke the school record in the 500yd free with a time of 5:22.51, earning 4th place. “I was pretty happy because it was my goal since sophomore year to break the school record. Especially this State Championship, it was the last time to swim in my high school career,” Marie stated with a big smile after the meet.

  Richard Ginter, who broke his own school record in the 50yd free with a time of 21:82, earning 1st place, said “I broke the school record my senior year, which was cool, and couldn’t ask for anything more. Well if I did, I’ll be a selfish.”

  Four boys and two girls swimmers made it to State and the boys took 5th place in the 200yd medley relay. Nathanael Hardy took 4th place in 100yd breast and 5th place in 50yd free, James Reid took 8th place in 100yd breast, Richard Ginter added a 2nd place in 100yd fly, Dana Olesch took 8th place in the 100yd fly.

  “State was definitely great and I had a lot of fun,” said Nathanael Hardy. Richard Ginter agreed with his teammate. “It was an amazing meet and we all did our best.”

  There were also three boys and three girls divers who went to State, Lindsey Seneff took 3rd place, Garrett Hall took 5th place, Brian Rowe took 8th place and Jasmine Lewis took 8th place each in 1-meter diving events.