State DECA

State DECA

Cody Goggin

5-2-2014  12:59 pm

OWENSVILLE, MO-This march, ten students from Owensville High  School received the opportunity to attend Missouri DECA State Career Development Conference. These student qualified for the event by medaling at the district competition that was held in February. Not only was this trip a competition, but it was a good time to meet new people and have a once in a lifetime experience.

            The Owensville students stayed at the Camden on the Lake Resort in Lake Ozark, Missouri. On their first night there, the student attended the opening cermony and listened to motivational speaker Eddie Slowikowski. On the next morning the students competed in their events and then attended a hypnotist show in which they got to see fellow state DECA members hypnotized. On the third day awards were announced. Taking home awards from the contest were Nathan Smith and Cody Goggin in Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan and David Weirich in the Principle of Finance event. Smith and Goggin finsihed in the top eight, but were not finalists. Weirich finished second in his event and now moves on to the international competition in Atlanta this May.

            Overall, this trip was a good experience for the kids as they received the opporutnity to network with students from other schools and have a great time in the Lake of the Ozarks. 

Divergent Review

Divergent Review
Zane West-Derby
5-2-2014  12:56 pm

OWENSVILLE, MO-Divergent is a new hit series that every teenager wants to read.  I recently watched the movie because I do not like to read books.  I was amazed at how much of a thrill it was!  I definitely rank it up there with the Hunger Games for the best movie of the year.

The world has had some sort of disaster, and there is a little land left unharmed in the US.  A community has set up a system of government with five factions.  Dauntless is the military and they are made up of brave people.  Erudite is made up of nerds that want to rule the world. Abnegation is made up of the common worker that helps out in the community.  Candor is made up of lawyers and the leaders of the government.  Amity is made up of peacemakers; people like counselors are in Amity.

Once a year the 16-year-olds take a test that gives them a suggestion on which faction to use.   Tris Pryor is told that she got sick and could not take the test, but she finds out that she is divergent.  When you are divergent, you don’t fit into a single faction.  You can fit into multiple factions.  The leaders kill Divergents because they think differently.  They think that is what causes war.  To find out who is divergent, everybody takes medicine that can control your body.  If you are divergent, it does not work.  

Erudite tries to overrule the government with science.  They inject medicine into the Dauntless faction and control them so that they  kill everybody,

Tris and her friend, Four, are Divergent and have to act the same as the others in Dauntless.  Even if that means killing your loved ones!  For and Tris want to stay alive, but they are also the only ones that can take out Erudite because they cannot control divergent people.  What will they do?

Top 5 Golf Courses in the United States

Top 5 Golf Courses in the United States
Zane West-Derby
5-2-2014  12:54 pm

OWENSVILLE, MO-
1.  Augusta National

2.  Cypress Point Club

3.  Pine Valley Golf Course

4.  Oakmont Country Club

5.  Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

Augusta National over the years has changed a lot.  It has changed for the good though.  The course used to have no rough and little trees.  Now Augusta has long, thick rough and some of the holes have been reshaped to not make the course as easy as it was.  The changes have made the Masters Tournament more competitive.

Cypress Point Club is right on the beach in Pebble Beach, California.  Holes 15, 16, and 17 are all along the Pacific Ocean and could arguably be the best view that you could have on a golf course.  If you walk the course, you walk under a huge tree between the 15th green and the 16th tee box.

Pine Valley is arguably the mecca of golf courses.  Hole number 8, a 319-yard par 4, is breathtaking.  Gary Player famously told his caddy to give him a second so that he could “soak it all in.”  Bobby Jones says Hole number 13, a 448-yard par 4, is the greatest par 4 in the world.  A month after 9-11, the course opened their doors to the public for two days with a $1,000 grounds fee per player, per round.  They raised $500,000 to the Twin Towers fund!  That has to say something about how many people want to play this amazing course.

Oakmont Country Club is known for its lightning fast greens.  The USGA made the stimpmeter because of this course.  A stimpmeter measures how fast a ball rolls by applying a known force to a golf ball and measuring the distance traveled in feet.  A slow green would roll about 4.5 feet, a medium green would roll about 6.5 feet, and a fast green would roll about 8.5 feet.  Oakmont Country Club greens have been measured from 13 to 15 feet.  

` If you like a links style golf course, then you will love Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.  It is thought to be one of the first links golf courses in the United States.  William Flynn designed the course in Southampton, New York.  It was remodeled twice by C. B. McDonald.  When the Depression hit the U.S., William Flynn took control of the course and the course has not been messed with for over fifty years.

These courses that I have chosen are totally opinions.  If you would ask 10 people their top 5 courses, you would get 10 different answers.  Most definitely, though, these are some of the greatest courses, not only in the U.S. but also in the whole world.  That is why golf is so amazing!  If you play a lot of courses, you get to see the beautiful parts of the world.

Dutchgirls Soccer

Dutchgirls Soccer

Kelsey Kern

5-2-14  12:51 pm

As spring sprung into step, so did all of our Dutchmen/Dutchgirls sports teams. The newest one being your Owensville Dutchgirls soccer team. After many years of working on getting the team, it was finally accepted by the school board at the end of the last school year. Jordan Palmer was assigned coach of the new team, with assistant coach Beth Swooba, (who coaches the Gerald Club soccer team.)

                The Dutchgirls started off their season playing Pacific High school; it was a cold, snowy hard fought game that, unfortunately, ended in the Dutchgirls defeat with JV 10-0 and Varsity 7-1. Marissa Jett, however, kicked her way into Dutchgirls history scoring the first ever goal for the OHS girls soccer team.

                The next game for the Dutchgirls had them facing the 5- time district champions, Union High school, both games were very long and hard fought, but both teams for the Dutchgirls ended in a 10-0 defeat.

                Then finally, capping off the season thus far, the first Dutchgirls home game was a success, with a 4-0 victory over Bell High School. Despite the rain, and the past two defeats, the girls certainly showed that no one would beat them on their turf! The girls continue to work hard and improve to ensure victory at their next game. 

Snow Day Meditations & Ruminations

Written and submitted by Mr. Barry Johnston

2-17-2014  12:50 pm

Snow Day Meditations & Ruminations

Winter is harsh, but so is summer.

Winter is quiet, but summer is loud.

The abrasion of the shovel on the agglomerated firmament the only sound save for the sound of the wind sweeping sinuously around the obstacles arrayed in its path by the trees, alone protrude on one’s awareness.  In summer the sounds of the birds suppress and mask these solitary sounds, providing distraction from one’s meditative thoughts.  Even though it is commonly thought that snow degrades sounds, you can hear two plow truck drivers talking half a gridiron away indicating that the lack of distracting tumult arises from the lack of sources not the absorption of the snow.

The ablutions of the snow day foster a meditative opportunity in the stillness and silence of the experience.

The pathway to thought reached many forks and options for considering the experiences of the day.  Clearing the access to one’s abode arises from juvenile activities fostered during when snow days were celebrate, not dreaded, for the increasing the days before summer’s respite in May.  Greeting the harsh and bitter day as one proceeded from home to home fulfilling the responsibility engendered by parental promises to their elders that lived in town.

The fortunity, through personal interaction with the meteorological phenomena of winter, to discern that harsh is relative, 40 degrees is cold to someone who has not felt -20 degrees for a few months, while earning resources to support one’s personal aspiration, minor though they be, creating the impetus for the exercise .

Is the chance becoming rarer due to the emigration of one’s elders to warmer climes or to communal residential structures where the need to have a local youngster clear your sidewalk is taken care of by professionals with no need of scores of middle and high school aged students to complete the process?

Removed from the occasion to live through winters might; are we creating a generation lacking in the full appreciation of the opening winter gives us to access and pursue the mental gymnastics of creativity when we have little choice.  After completing exercise and collecting the fruits of our labor, we returned home to an environment lacking engaging options.  The evasion of boredom drives a person to create distractions and employ in the creative processes finding something to do to fill the time between completing the ablutions of the snow day to the retirement for the night.

Today young persons have a plethora of distraction, some good some not so good, to fill their time  So much so that they do not see the chance to enjoy the interactions and lessons gleaned from facing the harshness of winter.

This consigns us to hope that the saying change and thing staying the same is true this time too.

Do you have something you would like to submit? Email it to otownspectator@gmail.com for review.

Owensville DECA Goes to New York City

Owensville DECA Goes to New York City
Cody Goggin
12-17-2013  1:05 pm

OWENSVILLE, MO-This November, some DECA students, myself included, had the opportunity for an experience of a lifetime. Owensville High DECA students traveled to New York City for five days between November 20^th and November 24^th. Along the way we saw some pretty amazing sights and places filled with history. This trip was filled with fun, but also educational as the DECA students received some tips and a look into how the business industry works from Planet Hollywood, Madam Tussaud’s, and in the SoHo Fashion District. In all, 11 people went on this trip from Owensville: Mrs. Whelan, Mrs. Moritz, Cody Goggin, Nathan Smith, Ben Angell, Dakota Souders, Kristen Bauer, Maddie Havelka, Ariel Walsh, Kayla Woemmel, and Kymberlyn Borgmann.

Madison Square Garden is one of the most historic venues in the world and has even been dubbed as “the World’s Most Famous Arena.” It has hosted events such as WrestleMania I, the Ali-Frazier “Fight of the Century”, Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration, and the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals. Opened in 1968, Madison Square Garden is the home of the NHL’s New York Rangers, the NBA’s New York Knicks, and the WNBA’s New York Liberty. There are also a number of concerts held here. Some of the most historical musical artists ever have performed here, such as Elvis Presley, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, and all four of the Beatles performed there solo at different times. MSG is the most active sporting facility in the New York City area and is third busiest music arena in the world. Our group had the opportunity to explore “The Mecca” this past week. We got to see the basketball court and all of the new renovations to the arena. We also had the opportunity to see the locker rooms for the Rangers and Knicks and the most expensive suite in the building. Seeing an arena with this much history was definitely a great experience. 

Kymberlyn Borgmann was asked to share her thoughts on the Empire State Building and this is what she said: “While in New York, one place we visited was the Empire State Building. This was once the tallest building in all of New York…The Empire State Building stands an incredible 1,454 feet tall. It took almost no time at all to get there, since it was right behind our hotel. When we arrived at the building we had go through security. After passing through all of that, we got on an elevator and had to go up 86 stories to reach the top. Me, being completely scared of heights, was having a bit of a hard time looking out the windows and going out on the observation deck. Although I almost passed out, it was an extremely cool experience”

When asked to talk about the Statue of Liberty, Kayla Woemmel described, “The Statue of Liberty has been around since 1886. It was given to The United States as a gift from France, symbolizing freedom and democracy. While on my trip to New York with my DECA sponsors and some of my fellow DECA members, we had the opportunity to visit this historic statue. Visiting The Statue of Liberty was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me. We took a Ferry to Liberty Island to see Lady Liberty. From the Ferry we had a great view of Manhattan and of The Statue. From far away she looked so small, but when we got up close it was clear that she was giant and beautiful. Once inside The Statue, we got to go as far up as the pedestal. From the pedestal we could see Ellis Island and also more of Manhattan. The view was absolutely breath-taking, Going to visit The Statue of Liberty is something that I believe everyone should experience at least once in their life.”

The last person that was asked about the trip was Nathan Smith. He was told to describe the trip to the 9/11 Memorial and he told me, “Ground Zero is a memorial in remembrance to the heroes who lost their lives in the attack on the twin towers on September 11, 2001. We went to visit and saw exactly where the two towers were before the attack and just how big they were. Looking around the reflective pools was incredible because of how many people were killed in terrorist attack. Also, we talked to a lady who told us all about the survivor tree.  The survivor tree is the only plant that survived the attacks and is still living today. It survived under hundreds of feet of rubble from the buildings, plane, and everything else [that fell on it]. Ground Zero is a must-see attraction. It is very sad because of how many lives were lost, but it also shows the strength that our nation has to get through these attacks. 

Just from the words of these students one can tell how great of an experience this trip was for the students who attended. Next year’s seniors may get the chance to go to New York, however, they may also have the chance to vote on going to somewhere else; such as Chicago or Orlando. The “DECA Experience” was an amazing thing and New York City is a city that everyone should go to at least once in their lifetime.

Stuff and Nunsense

Stuff and Nunsense
Anna Nicks
12-17-2013  1:03 pm

OWENSVILLE, MO-Recently, the OHS drama department put on a production entitled “Nunsense.”  The story was about a group of nuns trying to raise money through putting on a funny, musical production. The first two performances were put on for the high school students, seniors and juniors in the morning, and freshmen and sophomores in the afternoon.  Following that, performances were put on for the community.  The play featured several students as nuns, including Shelby Oberle, Ashlyn Steinhardt, Cheyanne Roach, Michal Sovar, and Katey Smith. 

As with any production, Nunsense took many rehearsals to perfect.  Michal Sovar, who portrayed Sister Huebert, said that her favorite part of the rehearsals was that since the cast was so small, it gave them the opportunity to get to know everyone.  Sovar feels that overall, it was a great experience.  When asked what the best experience was during the play, Sovar stated that: 

“During one of our school shows we went into the audience and we were telling jokes; when it came to my joke, I stared straight at a freshman and asked my joke.  When it came to the punch line, the entire crowd burst into the most laughs I have ever received during a show.”

Overall, the impression left by the play seems to be that it was a fun, enjoyable experience.  A big thank-you to everyone who helped to put on this production is due.