Pulse Hosts Second Dodgeball Tournament
After an extremely successful Halloween dodgeball tournament in late October, economics teacher Vince Lewis and The Pulse, a club led by assistant principal Russ Marcinek hosted a Holiday-oriented dodgeball tournament that raised nearly $1000 for charity.
19 different teams participated in the tournament, each trying to win money for the charity of their choice. Sixteen teams participated in Division I while three teams competed in Division II. The Division I pool played in a double elimination bracket while the teams in Division II played a round-robin. The Division II winners, the Snowflakes, were given the opportunity to play the winners of the “loser’s bracket”, the Santas, for a chance to play in the tournament’s main championship series.
The tournament was held inside the CPHS fieldhouse, which was split into three different courts with bleachers set up next to the two end courts.
The all-freshmen Jingle Ballers won the winners’ bracket, while the all-senior Santas defeated the Snowflakes to set up a thrilling championship affair.
The Jingle Ballers came out quickly and stole game one of the best-of-three series. However, the Santas responded and took game two, setting up a decisive game between the underdog-freshmen and the crowd-favorite seniors.
A frenzy of eliminations in the game’s early moments set up a 1-on-1 situation with the winner taking the crown for their charity.
The Jingle Ballers would end up pulling it out for their charity, St. Jude House, who will take all of the proceeds raised by the contest. Lewis said he was pleased with the turnout, and that the club is looking forward to hosting future tournaments sometime in the spring.
“I was very happy with the turnout,” Lewis said. “Both in terms of the number of the teams that signed up and the number of kids who signed up. More importantly, (I was pleased with) the atmosphere.”
Students, Faculty Look Ahead to Winter Break, Final Exams
While many schools around the region and nation take their finals during the week before the start of winter break, CPHS waits until the middle of January to put the stresses of finals week on students, teachers and parents.
Despite some seeing this as a nuisance, waiting until after winter break puts finals week right in the middle of the school year, which allows the semesters to be balanced. Schools such as Lake Central, who took finals this past week, have to make their first-semester shorter than their second one in order to fit finals in before the holidays.
Winter break started on Friday afternoon for students and teachers, who receive two weeks off before coming back to the high school to restart classes on Jan. 4. The break gives students the opportunity to catch their breath for the rest of the 2015-16 school year.
When finals week does roll around on Jan. 18, students will not begin testing until Wednesday of that week, allowing Monday and Tuesday to be study days for students.
Student Shout Out: Brandon Dwyer Excels at CPHS
Senior Brandon Dwyer is thankful for the opportunities that CPHS has given him, and the acceptance that he has received.
“I like the atmosphere (at CPHS), and I like the diversity at the school,” Dwyer said.
Dwyer also ran for Homecoming King earlier in the year but was beaten by senior Artie Equihua. The senior also enjoys the different groups of students at the high school and is appreciative of the opportunities they have created over the course of his high school career.
“Throughout my high school career I’ve been in several different groups,” Dwyer said. “As a journalist, I use that knowledge from each of the groups to work on yearbook, and it gives me inside connections in a sense.”
Dwyer came on the Excalibur staff at the beginning of the school year and has since fallen in love with journalism. Due to his new found passion, Dwyer will be joining the Inklings newspaper staff at the start of the second semester in January.
“Last year when I took photojournalism I found out that this (journalism) is something that I am pretty good at. I know what a lot of people are up to, so why not be a journalist? It’s easy for me, I guess. I’m a very talkative person, so I just go out and try to become a better journalist,” Dwyer said.
Dwyer plans on beginning college courses at Ivy Tech Community College next year, before transferring to Ball State for the second semester to study communications.
Teacher shoutout: Science Teacher Brian Elston Looks Toward Finals, Second Semester
Science teacher Brian Elston has spent 12 years at Crown Point High School, teaching several different courses for students over the years, but two stand out in particular.
“My favorite course is either the AP Biology, especially the first semester of the course and Anatomy Physically,” Elston said. “It’s not even close.”
The reason these courses stick out to Elston is due to their use in the real world, and to the fact that high school chemistry can be boring to teach.
“To me, high school chemistry is kind of boring. Sometimes I don’t like it,” Elston said. “When we’re writing formulas, stuff like that, you can’t relate it to everyday concepts. The kids are bored with it too, which doesn’t help the teacher.”
Both of Elston’s daughters graduated from CPHS and have had success in college. This has only grown Elston’s appreciation to the work his colleagues do throughout the school.
“I would say the facility is high quality. My daughters both went through here, and both of them are having no problem in college,” Elston said. “The courses they took got them prepared for college,”
Overall, Elston said he has enjoyed his time teaching at the high school.
“I like the subjects that I teach. The kids look like they want to be taught, and they want to learn it,” Elston said. “You can see the excitement in their eyes, and that helps me with my excitement. I enjoy it.”