It’s been a great start to the 2016-2017 school year! Whiting has just completed the first quarter of the year, and it has been packed with events. The freshmen have finally settled into their new home and have had their first taste of the unique environment only found at Whiting High School. Despite losing the senior class, things have taken off as if nothing ever changed.
A prime example of this is this year’s football team. With the exception of the 2015-16 seniors and a few others, Whiting had their State Championship finalist roster return, with the addition of the new freshman class, who sport impressive size and strength not too common for younger players. The stacked roster had their performances reflect their strength, earning a 9-1 record, with two being to Boone Grove, having succeeded in defeating them in week three and the first round of 2A sectional 33.
The Homecoming game and dance came a little later this year, arriving in week seven, but it was still as lively as ever with a win over Calumet in football and the annual parade featuring the class floats. This year’s theme for the floats were countries, featuring the likes of France, Greece, Mexico, and of course, the USA. The next week featured another win in their season with the defeat Bishop Noll, but that win for the Oilers wasn’t specific to just football. That weekend, Whiting’s cross country team had also beaten rival Noll in both the boys and girls teams at the conference meet.
Also at the conference meet, varsity girls were one point off from a tie with 1st place, Hanover Central, and ended up with a tie with 2nd in points, but placed 3rd in the tie-breaker calculation. Although stopping just short of conference champions, Whiting had qualified its entire girls team to advance to the regional competition.
Boys had placed 7th in Conference, which although might not sound too impressive at first, it actually is the best scoring Whiting’s boys have had at Conference ever before. They even finished with one boy, Ivan Lopez, advancing to regionals, though three others were mere seconds from qualifying with him.
Coach Buell of the cross country team is highly satisfied with their performance, seeing the increase in ability from previous years to now, and optimistic about her highly talented freshman improving on their already impressive times and leading the program into a new level of achievement. She believes the team has really taken its biggest step and drew some attention after their performance this year. She says Whiting cross country is now officially “on the map.”
With each team succeeding in season, it’s not hard to overlook the other teams; however, they have been actively working hard behind the scenes. Whiting’s Science Olympiad, basketball, and wrestling, amongst several others, have been working for months, some in the summer or even as early as last winter, in preparation for their upcoming seasons.
Away from the seasonal teams, Whiting’s year-round clubs and programs have been active throughout the school and community. The National Honor Society and its new members have helped many of the town’s events since last school year’s induction ceremony, including the annual Pierogi Fest and St. Baldrick’s events.
Whiting’s Human Rights Activists (also referred to as HuRA) attended a world conference for students to discuss events going on around the country and around the world and to discuss how to help. They have also been very active within the school with their “Mental Illness Awareness Month” projects. Each day they have implemented a fact or statistic to help the students better understand what some mental illnesses are and how life changing they can be. The high school hallways have student-made posters featuring many common, and some not so well-known, mental illnesses, accompanied by quick facts to know about each.
Whiting has also just performed their first band concert for the year, once again conducted by Patrick Pecher. The band could also be seen performing on October 21st, when the city of Whiting had its official groundbreaking for their upcoming Mascot museum, featuring the likes of several notable mascots, even the city’s baseball team’s mascot, Oilman Stan.
Pecher has also supervised the students for the last few months as they gathered to put together three plays for the annual senior-directed One Acts. Having been performed on October 22nd and 23rd, the students continued the tradition of having the plays directed by seniors who had spent several years acting in them up to that point. Some of the plays even featured directors as well as other seniors who wanted to participate in the fun one last time, or perhaps give it a shot before graduation day rolls around soon enough.
With just a week left, October is drawing to a close, and there is still much more in store as the football team advances to round two of sectionals, the basketball team laces up their shoes for their official preseason conditioning, and the NHS and HuRA continue their charity throughout the school system and the community.