Senior Sarah Monesmith warms up with her fellow teammates at the Jasper High School tennis court before a match. Both Junior Varsity and Varsity played against Bonneville that afternoon.

On Sunday, April 29th, Jasper High School senior Sarah Monesmith and junior Amelia Kiefer got invited to Indianapolis for the IndyStar Sports Award. Sarah Monesmith was honored for her achievements in tennis and Amelia Kiefer for bowling. The awards ceremony honored hundreds of high school athletes across Indiana with 28 awards for specific sports, such as the male and female athletes of the year. These were all for students of the 2017-2018 school year. The keynote speaker of the event was the former Colts receiver Reggie Wayne.

Picture of Mel Kiefer provided by Robert McCarty photography.

Monesmith received two complimentary tickets: one for her and one for a guest of her choice. Kiefer was offered the same thing, and she has been bowling since 6th grade, since she was three years old. She was named a finalist for Girls Bowling.

Kiefer did not attend the event due to a bowling tournament. She was wishing to go, but due to being a finalist, the game had to be played as a top priority.

The tennis nominees were all recognized, but the winner will not be announced until July when the sport is over, as this is the same with all spring sports. Both the tennis player and the bowler claimed that they were very happy to be nominated. Kiefer claimed that she has been nominated for bowler of the week two times of her three years playing at Jasper. Kiefer claimed, “I feel like I had a really good season this year and it felt good to be commended for that. I am also good friends with Kennedy Craig, the recipient of this years IndyStar High School Bowler of the Year, and I could not be happier for her and the year that she had!” Kiefer is planing to further her bowling career at the collegiate level for a NCAA DI or DII school. Both Kiefer and Monesmith were happy to be nominated for this award and appreciated everything that had happened.

Johnny Verkamp sat out for the majority of his junior year due to an eye injury. “I definitely don’t see as well as before, so almost everything I do is affected by it, whether it be fielding or hitting. However, I’m trying my best to cope and adapt as I go,” said Verkamp who is now a senior.  Photo by Tegan Johnston

The boys varsity team will play their first scrimmage against Northeast Dubois on March 22. The team’s past record has been very successful, with five state wins. Baseball is like another child for the varsity coach, Terry Gobert. The field is a second home to Gobert who spends much of his time devoted to the team and its success. “Every season we just try to do the best we can in every ball game. We don’t set a goal to win a certain number of games, our goal is that we want to advance as far as we can in every tournament. So that always comes down to winning conference, sectional, regional, semi-state, and hopefully state. So with that being said, every game we just get out there and work hard. This way we can put our best team on the field when it comes to tournament time,” said Gobert. “I’m most excited to spend time with my teammates one final season and to contribute to my team in any way possible,” said Verkamp about the upcoming season.

During last year’s season, a JV player slid to third base.

The baseball team will play their first scrimmage held at Ruxer Fields this Thursday. Continuing their practices over spring break, they will have two more home games on Monday, March 26th and Tuesday, March 27th. On Monday, Junior Varsity will face Mt. Carmel at 5:30 p.m. at the JV fields and varsity will also play against Mt. Carmel at 5:30 p.m. at Ruxer Field. Tuesday, varsity plays Shakamak at 6 p.m., also at Ruxer Fields.

The girls softball team has a few upcoming games in the week ahead. Wednesday, March 21st, the team will play Floyd Central, at Floyd Central at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 22nd, both varsity and junior varsity will play Apollo, at Apollo at 6 p.m. On Saturday, March 24 the girls will play at Jasper against Pike Central starting at 11:00 a.m.

Both boys and girl’s track will have an away meet over break on Thursday, March 29th at Tell City. The meet will begin at 5:30 p.m.

Although the weather isn’t up to spring expectations, come out to home games and meets to support our Wildcats as they take on the 2018 spring season.

Senior Lydia Shepherd performs the hip hop dance during half time at a basketball game. The hip hop routine was created to honor Frankie Ebenkamp, one of the Wildcats most loyal fans. Photo by Maggie Getzin.

On Saturday March 10, the Dance Team competed in the IHSDTA state competition and placed 5th in their varsity pom routine and 3rd in their hip hop routine. This year the team was composed of 4 seniors, 23 competition members, and was coached by Jill Wigand and Jordan Beach.

This year their hip hop routine was a tribute to Frankie Ebenkamp and revolved around school spirit. Dancers felt a great honor when performing this dance because it was not just a dance, it was a tribute to a great figure in Jasper spirit and sports. Senior, Hannah Welp states, “We aren’t a team, we’re a family and the dance inspired and motivated us because we wanted to honor someone who was such an asset to our community.” With their season coming to an end, the team walks away with their heads held high and with great determination to come back stronger next year. Tryouts for next year will begin on April 2nd.

Jason Fleck, junior, lathering up the head of Alec Erny, senior, in preparation to completely shave it for Sectionals the next day.

They do not shave their legs consistently during the season, because the drags slows a swimmer down and creates a separation in timing at the end of the season with cleanly shaven legs.

The boys swim team takes it to a whole other level. The week of girls Sectionals they dye their hair the opposite of their natural hair color. Then, the day before Sectional Preliminaries, the entire boys team gathers at one teammate’s house and have a “shaving party.” They take turns shaving most of the hair off each other’s heads with a hair clipper and then go back with a razor to remove the rest. Nolan Henke, a senior who has been swimming for five years, has experienced this tradition a lot. “It’s more a mind thing, you think you can go faster,” said Henke.

It is not just the boys who have traditions either. Any girl from the team who moves on to State dyes a small strip of their hair in the back of their head. There isn’t a scientific reason behind it, they just do it for the memories.

Friday, February 23rd, Jason Fleck and Max Henke move on to the State prelims. Max is swimming in the 500 freestyle and Jason is swimming in the 100 butterfly.

Freshman Leah Haas was among the five to advance. She has swam since she was a little girl. She expresses her love for swimming all the time, stating, “I do swimming because the feeling when you are in the water racing there is no other feeling. I have

“I missed my teammates and the competition. Hard work pays off in the end. I was burnt out. I missed it and decided to come back.” – Lindsay Mehringer

swam since I was six and I have never once considered quitting. I love it.” This was her first year competing at state for swimming and she absolutely loved it, and we can all expect to see her there competing the next three years. On the other side of the spectrum, it was senior Lindsay Mehringers’ last year to swim at state. This was her third year swimming for Jasper, as she didn’t compete her junior year. She decided to come back due to missing her teammates and the competition. She competed in the 200 free and 100 free, and she swam in the 200 and 400 free relays. All of them had an amazing time.

Their hard work paid off in the end. The girls work six to eight practices every single week for four months straight. A lot of time, work, and energy was put into this rewarding sport. Competitions and friendships turned into lifelong memories and the girls love to swim. It is their life. The following seasons will be just as important, and all of us can’t wait until these girls approach the water next year.

Senior, Summer Herzog, and sophomore, Brooke Nottingham laughed together as Brooke escorted Summer onto the court during Thursday’s Senior Night.

With Sectionals creeping just around the corner, the Lady Wildcats ring in another win on Thursday’s (25th) Senior Night, against the Boonville Pioneers. Senior, Summer Herzog had a thrilling shot, shooting a three pointer with a couple seconds to go in the fourth quarter. This year was quite different than years in the past, with only one senior, Herzog, the team is rolling in the victories. On Thursday night’s game, students dressed in “Summer” clothes and held cut outs of Summer’s face to show their support.

In previous years, the team has had multiple seniors who’ve played together since their middle school years, however this year Summer reigns as the only senior.

“I thought being the only senior was going to be boring and I was a little nervous to be excluded,” Summer stated, “but I absolutely love it. We’re really tight and I don’t even notice that I’m the only senior.”

Summer has been playing basketball since she’s been in fourth grade, and loves the support from the basketball program and parents. The team has created a close bond and they always have fun on and off the court. Fellow teammate Reagan Egbert said, “Summer is always so enthusiastic and makes us laugh no matter the circumstances.”

“I love this team so much. We all have each other’s back on everything. We love joking around and we have lots of inside jokes like ‘muzzle’ and ‘hoodieSzn.’” Summer says she is so thankful for all the friendships she made and will miss it once the season comes to a close. The girls will face Evansville Harrison in the first round of Sectionals on Tuesday, January 30th.

Senior Lydia Shepherd dances to “YMCA” with one of the residents at Brookside Village Nursing Home. “”It is very rewarding for me to dance with the residents,” Shepherd shares, “I leave there knowing that I have impacted their lives just a small amount that can go a long way.” The dance team has been visiting Brookside for the last three years.

Tuesday night (January 23), the Jasper High School Dance Team took stage not on the gymnasium floor, but at Brookside Village Nursing Home in Jasper. As the residents gathered around in a circle, the team took their formations in the center of the main lobby to perform. Brookside often holds performances for their residents, such as singing acts, magic shows, and the occasional karaoke night.

The dance team performed many of their numbers, such as their halftime dances that they do at basketball games. They also danced out to some classic songs, like the YMCA and the Chicken Dance, that the residents loved so much that a few even got up to dance along with them. “We have been dancing at the nursing home for three years now,” states senior Lydia Shepherd, who had the pleasure of dancing with a couple residents. “Every year, I have made it my priority to dance with resident.”

Shepherd has been a part of the dance team for the last four years. “Being on the dance team has definitely impacted me as a person,” she says, “I have gained a lot of new friends and have developed a family within the dance team.” 

Ashley Ortiz, Striker and #30 on the team.

As the Girls Soccer team goes to sectionals, we saw Girls JV’s last game against Southridge. The girls team won 12-0 and the striker, Ashley Ortiz, scored a goal with an assist from Kylie Vaal. Ella Hubster and Annie Donato also scored goals for Jasper. Ashley Ortiz, Striker and #30 on the team, says “I felt like this season was a privilege to my high school career because I was defender, and now I’m a striker which gave me the opportunity to score goals”. And she did get the opportunity because out of the whole season, she scored 5 goals. Good luck at sectionals girls!

Kate Weaver, Riley Sample, Carmina Armstrong, Madison Matheis, Sarah Smith, and Emma Hopf, all make up this years state team and will head off this Friday for prelims.

On February 2, the girls swimming and diving team set the stage in their preliminary finals. Prelims had an important role when it came to whether or not the girls would be able to pull off a sectional win for the tenth year in a row. With the team only having ten girls, they were in for an uphill battle from the start.

This year the girls swam “lights out” during prelims knocking out teams with multiple girls in top 8 and seating themselves up top. When the time came, February 4, the nerves were skyrocketing and no one was able to sit down. Then time came, shaking with nerves, the first relay walked out to start their event. Placing sixth, the team was scared of what else was to come, but in the next event, consider it a saving grace, freshman Madison Matheis, and junior Rhegann Weisheit went one and two, in the 200 yard freestyle, setting the tone for the rest of the meet.

Everything seemed to be going their way with senior Sarah Smith pacing first in diving and sophomore Zoe Biggs close behind in third.Sarah has had an very successful season this year beginning with her breaking the six dive record and ending with beating the three year reigning champion, Angelica Morrison, and finishing only 4 points away from the 11 dive record, she hopes to break at regional or state.

This is Sarah’s first year of diving, and she has broken a record, beat the 3 year reigning champion, and could very well break another long held record in 11 dives.

With only one event left, the Jasper Swimming and Diving team was in the lead by two points, Heritage Hills close behind them. At the start of the race it did not look the best for Jasper, Bedford North Lawrence keeping up with starter Kate Weaver, but when sophomore Riley Sample jumped into the water, it was all over, Jasper pulled ahead and stayed ahead with, senior, Emma Hopf swimming her hardest and pulling even farther ahead, then sophomore, Carmina Armstrong finishing the race with a time of 4:32 and a first place ribbon.

Not only was the team surprised by the outcome of the meet, but as were the coaches, Jenae Gill and Kristen Gutgsell both shed tears when they saw the results. With only 12 girls, the Jasper Girls Swimming and Diving team pulled of a miracle that no one thought possible.