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Titusville High School Winter 2016

THS Boys Basketball Team Region 4 Co-Champs!

Rockets Celebrate Winning Season!

By Logan Nosko The THS boys basketball team can be very proud of themselves this year. They had a strong start to their season and they continued strong to the end. The Rockets are 2016 Region 4 co-champs! The team had a lot of support from the student body. The final game of the regular season against Northwestern was white out night. The Rockets lost by two, but the student section showed great support for our team. The student section kept it up wearing all black for senior night in the Rockets’ overtime win against North East. After the last hand shake of the game everyone stormed the court.

Making it to the District 10 playoffs is something every team hopes to accomplish. Sadly they lost the first game in playoffs to Wilmington. However, it was a hard fought battle. Team captains Tyler Gates and Kai Skinner lead the team through a great season. Kai scored his thousandth point this season. This is a huge accomplishment being one of only eight players in Rocket history and being a junior!

Congratulations to the entire team on a great season!

Rocket Stop Open for Business

By Kait Proper

The FBLA school store, also known as Rocket Stop, continues to offer students snacks and refreshments for their afterschool hunger cravings.

The store is open from 3:10 to 3:30 p.m. every day after school. The store offers a number of products including diet sodas, half and half tea, Capri Sun, and Powerade. Food items are Rice Crispy Treats, Fruit by the Foot, Doritos, Cheetos and Nutrigrain Bars. We also sell THS merchandise including sweatshirts and t-shirts as well as some school supplies.

The store is very convenient for the athletes and students who want a snack before practice or before heading home for the day. At the school store you can only pay with cash which is most of the time good because everyone has loose change lying at the bottom of their backpack. All proceeds support the Future Business Leaders of America club. FBLA is currently raising money to send five of our THS to the State Leadership Conference in Hershey this April.

So stop in after school and buy a snack to support the THS school store and the THS Future Business Leaders of America.

Kait Proper models THS Rocket apparel available for sale at the Rocket Stop.

Photo top: 2015-16 THS Boys Basketball Team Photo middle: THS cheerleaders get the student section pumped up for another exciting basketball game. Photo bottom: Students celebrate another win at the Launch Pad.

Future Business Leaders Excel By Daria Fink

The FBLA Regional Leadership Conference was held on December 7, 2015 at the Radisson Hotel in West Middlesex. Our students competed with eight other area high schools in the region including Franklin, West Middlesex, Neshanock, and Laurel. Five THS students qualified and will be completing at the state level. They will be travelling to Hershey, Pennsylvania in April to compete at the FBLA State Leadership Conference. Students who will be completing are Kait Proper, Chris Wig, Logan Nosko, Noah Ongley, and Patrick Howard.

Photo left: FBLA members and adviser, Mr. Axton, participated in the RLC in December.

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Winter is here By: Caitlin Tucker

Enjoy your winter and have fun outside! Don’t forget to dress warm! We can help!

Start with thermal underwear and warm socks. It may be really cold, so wear an additional fleece layer on top of that. Maybe even another pair of socks would help. That way you can keep your feet warm! Wear very warm pants. And don’t forget a scarf to keep your neck warm and gloves that will be keep hands warm. Slip on your winter coat and your hat, and last but not least, your boots and enjoy the winter weather!

Interested in snowboarding, skiing, tubing? There are many special features and fun activities to do at Peak n Peak Resort. There are many different shops for you to visit if you are looking for new gear! Visit Peak n Peak Resort where there are many skiing trails, places to snowboard and even tubing.

Even Closer to Titusville! Pithole is a great place to go sled riding if you are interested in

fast and furious rides!

There is also a museum at Pithole with many things to look around at while your kids are sled riding. So have fun this winter everyone!

THS Well Represented at PMEA District 2 Band By Noah Ongley

From January 28 to January 30, District 2 held its yearly District Band Festival at Cameron County High School in Emporium, Pennsylvania. Titusville High School sent five students from the THS Symphonic Band to represent them at the festival. These five students were:

April Gibbs – Clarinet, Not moving on to Regions Randy Devlin – French Horn, Moving on to Regions Bethany Moore – Alto Saxophone, Not moving on to

Regions Jared Drake – Trumpet, Not moving on to Regions Emily Niedbala - Flute, Not moving on to Regions

Their rehearsals were led by guest conductor, Mr. Christopher Gankosky from Saint Mary’s Area High School. The students all did an exceptional job of representing the THS band at the festival. The students and everyone at the District Festival gave an amazingly impressive performance on the 30.

THS Swim Teams Successful By Angie Benner The THS Swim Teams have had successful seasons

this year. The record for the boys is 14-2. The record for the girls is 14-7. The boys have 10 district qualifiers. The girls have 2 district qualifiers. Overall, the season has been great.

I had a chance to get some comments from some of the team recently. Senior Sam Feely said this season has been the best one yet. Her best event to swim is the 500 freestyle. When asked if she was having fun swimming this year, she said “Yes, it has been the best year I have ever had!”

Amy Bleday when asked how she feels about qualifying for districts, she said “It is very exciting!” Her favorite part of swimming is “swimming with my team and swimming the 100 butterfly with Cara H. and Angie B.”

There have been many records broken this season, including the 400 freestyle by Shane Steffy. Sophomore, Ryan Sines, has been swimming for 8 years. His favorite event is the 200 Individual Medley. Matthew Leach was inspired to start swimming because of his family. His favorite stroke to swim is “all of them.” Now that it is time to begin preparing for Districts, we want to wish all the swimmers much luck and success in the next step of the season.

2015-16 THS Swim Team

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Lady Rockets Basketball By Corenne Burrows

Throughout the years at THS, we have had many generations of girl’s basketball teams. Each year has always been a memorable one.

This year, the girl’s basketball team of 2015-2016 had a rocky road but never gave up. After the last few seasons’ records the girls are always looking to improve and show the other teams in their region that they are a force to be reckoned with. Although the Lady Rockets bench was comparably small this year, with only 13 players, the Rockets weren’t letting that one small factor get in their way.

I talked to sophomore Bethany Moore and asked her what her favorite thing about playing basketball was. She told me that she enjoyed the team bus rides to and from the away games and when the team listens to music and gets prepared to play.

As the girls prepared for the rest of the season they knew they would be saying goodbye to their two senior players, Jasmine Moore and Shianne Donovan. Both girls have played all 4 years of high school basketball. The Lady Rockets fought hard this season and continued to the very end of the season. The final game of the season was against the Meadville Bulldogs. The Lady Rockets beat the Bulldogs 57-28.—not a bad way for our two seniors to end their final season of basketball at Titusville High School.

Rockets See Success Under New Leadership by Chris Wig

Wrestling is a sport in which to be succsessful, ath-letes must not only put in hard work during the season, they must also be commited to working on their craft.

Over the summer our Rockets participated in the Kevin Dresser Team Camp at Virginia Tech. The 2016 Ti-tusville Rocket wrestling team is having a very good start to the season with a current record of 10-5 under leadership of first year head coach Joel Stearns and assistant Cody Brunst.

This year’s team captains are Chris Wig (113) and Luci DeRose (145). Our Rockets are a relatively young team with only two seniors Isaac Donavan (138) and Chase Acker-man (145/152) and three starting freshmen Hunter Thompson (106) Parker Harvey (170) and Kaleb Dunlap (285). At the end of February, the Rockets will take the mat at the AAA District 10 tournament where they will attempt to qualify for Region-als.

Last year the Rockets had success on the mat at Dis-tricts with three Regional qualifiers Chris Wig (2nd), James Johnson (4th), and Logan Nosko (4th). In 2014 Hunter Wagner (132) qualified for the Regional Tournament as well. We wish our Rocket wrestlers good luck as they blast off into the post season.

2015-16 THS Lady Rockets Basketball Team 2015-16 THS Wrestling Team

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FCCLA Stays Busy Throughout the Year

By Ralph Turchio THS provides many clubs for its students. One of the clubs that may catch your interest is in the Family Consumer Science department. This club is called Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). We interviewed Mrs. McFarland, who is the advisor of FCCLA. We asked her what her plans were for the rest of the year. She responded “The club still has a lot of activities coming up including the monthly Ida Tarbell teas, ECLC Reading Nights, and PA FCCLA competition in March.” We asked if there were any future plans or activities in the FCCLA club. She answered “The FCCLA members prepare activities and snacks for all of the ECLC reading nights as well as participates in the Rodeo Puppet Show. We also help with the holiday celebration night at the ECLC and any fundraising events that they have. Some of our members work with the Ida Tarbell house to help prepare and serve the snacks for the community. Three of our officers attended the regional meeting in November and we have nine affiliated members that will be competing in the STAR events which will be held March 16-18 in Gettysburg.” The member deadline was in November, but they are looking forward to receiving new members next year. When asked what they look for in members, the club responded “FCCLA members should enjoy working with children as well as be dedicated, creative, and show good leadership skills.” Last year the FCCLA got one gold medal, two silvers, and one bronze and were hoping to do better this year. We asked if she thinks that FCCLA is prepared this year for competition. She responded with “The students have been working hard on attending the after school activities and we are getting ready to begin working on our displays and portfolios. The students have a lot of work to do yet, but I know that they will get it finished.

THS enjoys an evening with friends while dancing the night away at the

Sadie Hawkins dance.

l-r: Raiven Payne, Ally See and Katie Haux are puppeteers for the ECLC Reading Rodeo Nights.

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Dates to Remember March 5 SAT @ Titusville 7:30-1:00 7 Spring Sports Begin 11 Act 80 Day – No Students 22 End of 3rd Quarter 23 Professional Day – No Students 24 – 28 Easter Break

April 5 Q3 Report card Distributed 9 ACT Test 28 Career Day 2016 29 Prom

By Jade Wilson

A New Year’s resolution is a goal many people throughout the world try to set. In today’s society, the different goals are often a fun challenge for the New Year. Whether or not anyone actually stays committed to their resolution is a different story. Let’s check in with some students to see what some of their resolutions are this year!

Kelsee Dowling- To be happy Blaise Bromley – Quit drinking pop Nadia Prenatt- Not complain as often Ralph Turchio- To lift more Kait Proper- to not get injured all the time

Jackie Wright- to be a better person

PMEA Region 2 District Choir By Noah Ongley

On Wednesday, February 3, choir students from around Dis-trict 2 met in the Corry Junior-Senior High School Auditorium for the start of the festival. Chair auditions were held on Wednesday night to determine who would move on to the PMEA Region Choir Festival to be held in March. Seven students from Titusville attended the District Choir Festival and four of these students will be moving on to the Region Choir Festival. The students who attended the District Choir Festival, their voice part, and their chair placement are as follows:

Katheryn Frazier – Alto II, Third Chair, Will be moving on to Re-gions

Joseph Fitz – Bass II, Fourth Chair, Will be moving on to Regions Noah Ongley – Tenor I, Thirteenth Chair, Will not be moving on to

Regions Mary-Katherine Masiker – Soprano I, Tenth Chair, Will be moving

on to Regions Caleb Smith – Tenor II, Fourteenth Chair, Will not be moving on to

Regions Benjamin Roberts – Bass II, Thirteenth Chair, Will not be moving

on to Regions Katherine Elan – Soprano II, Third Chair, Will be moving on to

Regions

These students spent all of Thursday and Friday rehearsing, fixing, and fine-tuning their pieces for their upcoming performance. These rehearsals were led by this year’s guest conductor, Dr. Christopher Kiver from Penn State. While he was mostly business during the two days of rehearsal Dr. Kiver incited excitement in the students with both auditory and visual comedy, and won over the students with his zany and energetic personality. During the two days of rehearsal, Dr. Kiver helped the students to perfect their pieces before the big concert on Friday. The concert went extremely well and an amazing performance was given by all students participating.

Spring Fashion Trends by Jackie Wright According to Vogue Magazine, some of the upcoming trends this spring are simplistic florals, tropical prints, long “shoulder duster” earrings, and bold graphic bags. Florals are great because they can be worn anyway you want, from cute dresses to bold clutches. Similarly, tropical prints are just as versatile, with palm fronds and tropical flowers. Long earrings can be either simplistic or intricate, but no matter how you wear them, you can be sure to make a statement. Graphic bags can also be expected to be very popular this upcoming sea-son. Different patterns and prints can be expected to be a big hit this spring as well. Seventeen Magazine predicts that pastels will make an appear-ance in Moto jackets and flats. Seventeen also predicts that Gingham will be big this upcoming spring. Gingham can be incorporated into dresses, crop tops, and skirts. As the weather heats up, A-Line shorts will be more popular. They are easy to style, comfortable, and flattering on any body type.

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Do you want to start saving your money??

If you said “yes” come on into the THS In-School Credit Union branch and open an

account today. One of our student representa ves will be glad to assist you!