Student in the Spotlight
While most students have been spending their summer attending open houses or going to the beach, Senior Class President Ethan Davenport spent a week at Trine University for Hoosier Boys State.
From June 12 through 18, Davenport learned about how Indiana’s government works and was able to meet nearly 500 other incoming senior boys.
Hoosier Boys State is an annual event that is hosted by the American Legion Auxiliary. This year, five Portage students were asked to attend. Daveon Finley, Isaac Rodriguez, AJ Malenky, Brock McClellan and Davenport were selected by Portage’s American Legion to be delegates.
“I met a lot of fun people and I’ve kept in contact with several of them, we were busy establishing the government that we wanted to live in, but the way it was structured, we were still able to enjoy it.” Davenport said.
The boys spent the week split into six counties and each competed to have the best government. Davenport learned about how how Indiana’s government works and received some tips on how to govern Portage High School when he comes back.
Davenport believes he learned about how Indiana works and learned important tips about how to be a leader, but he especially enjoyed meeting new people.
“My favorite part was hanging out with all of the guys in my dorm late at night,” Davenport said. “We played games and that’s what really got us to know each other better.”
Along with competing and making friends, Davenport loved the law class he chose to take during the week. In the class, Davenport was able to listen to numerous speakers including a family attorney and a prosecuting attorney.
When Davenport went home on Friday, he returned with new information about government, new friends and new memories.
“I was lucky to attend because it provided me with the opportunity to meet great people and learn about how our government works.” Davenport said.
What’s Coming Up
Each year, the Indiana High School Athletic Association hosts a leadership conference for athletes across the state. Starting this year, Portage High School’s Athletic Department will host one for all Portage athletes.
Athletic Director Kelly Bermes has invited athletes from fall, winter and spring sports to come together on June 30 to learn about leadership as a school.
“I went to the leadership conference [hosted by IHSAA] and I was only allowed to bring about 15 kids,” Bermes said. “It was a great experience, but I always wanted to be able to bring more kids because I believe it would benefit everyone.”
After hearing that several other schools hosted their own leadership conferences, Bermes was inspired to host her own.
“I want to kick off leadership for all of our athletes.” Bermes said.
This conference will be held at the high school and will feature different speakers who are also Portage High School alumni. Police Chief Troy Williams, Varsity Wrestling Coach Leroy Vega and Varsity Cross Country and Track coach Tom Erickson are some of the alumni who will be meeting with the athletes.
The conference will consist of five different sessions where the athletes will hear from alumni and learn about nutrition, weightlifting, employability skills, setting and reaching goals and about being a college athlete.
Bermes has set up numerous different programs to help turn athletes into leaders, including Captain’s Council, a club made up of captains from every sport in order to teach about being a leader and to receive feedback about how to improve Portage Athletics.
“The leadership conference will be different from Captain’s Council, the focus of this is to bring us all together and to teach kids to be their own captain,” Bermes said. “I want this to make us all the best we can be.”
Although the athletes are told minimal information about what is going to happen at the conference, many are still excited. Varsity Cheerleader and Track and Field runner Jamie Valadez is excited to learn from Portage alumni.
“I am looking forward to the leadership conference because I think that our teams have very good skills and we’re good at applying them, so when it comes to working together with other teams,” Valadez said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun and a good opportunity.”
What’s Happening
Although it is only June, the dance team has been preparing for the upcoming football season. The dance team spent three days with the Universal Dance Company to learn new dances and bond. Junior Madeline Aldrich was excited to begin preparation
“The first day we learned our kick routine and our lyrical routine,” Aldrich said. “We also had a technique class. The second day we reviewed the routines, learned Pom, and also worked on more technique and also practiced drill downs which is a game UDA made. Then the last day, we reviewed all the routines, and had another technique class.”
During the UDA Drill Down game, Aldrich took home the title of Drill Down Queen.
While the girls spent the long days learning routines, the team was also able to create a bond.
“It made us closer because we learned so much in such little time in order to make [the dances] look good.” Aldrich said.
Each year, the dance attends a camp through UDA to learn new dances for their season and the team is not equipped with three new dances to unveil during football season. While camp is a big part of their preparation process, the team has been spending hours practicing by themselves too, according to senior Skylar Allen.
“We’re preparing several new routines and working on getting better technique as a team.” Allen said.
This season is approaching fast and the team is getting ready to show everyone what they spent the summer working on in August.
Staff in the Spotlight
Varsity Cheerleading Coach Laura Gaffney has spent a majority of her summer so far preparing her team for the upcoming season. Gaffney has also spent a large amount of time working 12 hour shifts at St. Margaret Health as a Registered Nurse and helping care for her five children while her husband Senior Master Sargent Drennen Gaffney is away at Grissom Air Reserve Base for work.
Starting three years ago, Laura Gaffney took the job as Varsity Cheerleading Coach and took on the challenge of coaching her two daughters Corina and Kristin. She was looking to take control of the cheer program after seeing it struggle for several years.
Many coaches at Portage High School are also teachers or work within Portage Township Schools, but Gaffney balances having a full-time job and coaching two or three times a week. Her daughter, Junior Kristin Gaffney is proud and inspired by her mother.
“My mom is actually a great mom because she actually watches out for me,” Gaffney said. “My mom makes sure I don’t get into the wrong groups of people and the things those people do. She’s not just a great mom, she’s also a great coach. When I first found out she applied for the job I was very uncertain because she had no idea what cheerleading was, but over the years she has learned so much about this sport and has made an impact on many people. She has helped the cheer team learn what giving back to the community really means.”
This past fall, Drennen was deployed for several months and Laura was the sole parent of the household and had to manage her five children ranging from ages five to twenty-one and coach a team of 19 girls. While many would see this as a great challenge, this is the typical life of Laura.
“She’s always supportive of the things I do with the Air Force,” Drennen said. “She never gets mad when I have to go to the base for the weekend or when I’m on deployment. No matter how long I’m gone, she is always there when I get back. If I send a text while I’m on deployment, she texts back within three minutes because as a military wife, she knows these times to talk don’t come very often.”
Although juggling two jobs, being a wife and a mother seems difficult and incredibly time consuming, Laura Gaffney has no plans to give up any of it any time soon.