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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 2012)
10 schools march27 2012 LoggerBots Have Successful Debut at First Robotics Competition The Vernonia High School Log- gerBots enjoyed a successful and fun experience at the Oregon First Robot- ics Portland Regional Competition on March 8—10. This was the first time VHS has organized a team for the competi- tion. As a rookie team the LoggerBots finished 59 out of 66 total teams, but scored the most baskets of any of the ten rookie teams competing in the Rebound rumble competition. “It was very educational,” said VHS senior Brandon Krause. “the whole event has such a family feeling. All the teams try to help each other. The judges are very complimentary. It was just very friendly all around.” This year more than 2000 students from Oregon, SW Washington, Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii de- scended on the Memo- rial Coliseum for the Oregon First Robotics Competition. Compet- ing teams were tasked with designing and building and program- ing a robot from a ba- sic kit they were given. The robots compete in Photos courtesy of Daniel Mullikin. 90 second games on a cooperative team of three robots against another team of three. Points are earned for scoring bas- kets, balancing on a ramp and program- ing their robot to be run by X-Box Ki- nect. “The main ranking favors things that we did not concentrate on much, or at all, like the balancing, and using the X-Box Kinect,” said adult mentor Mitch Seibert. “Heck, speak- ing for myself anyway, I was thinking for this first year, it would be really great to show up with something that moved and maybe even scored a basket.” The LoggerBots did much more than that, finishing tied for eighth over-all in points scored from baskets made with 78 points as well as lead- ing all rookie teams in that category. “The results were excellent as we were one of the best at VHS Band Preparing for State Festival The Vernonia High School Band is getting ready to head to the State Band Festival for the second year in a row. The VHS Band will travel to Corvallis to compete on May 10th The Band will once again need some help from the community to make this unscheduled overnight trip. Band Instructor Rob Izzett has come up with a creative way to raise the funds for his students and for the community to sup- port the VHS Band going to State. Izzett has decided to run in the Vernonia Half Marathon on April 15 th. “It worked out great because we need 13 rooms so we can stay overnight before our morning performance in Corval- lis, and the rooms cost $89. ” explains Izzett. “There just happen to be 13 miles in the half marathon and since we need 13 rooms, what I’m shooting for is 89 people to sponsor me $1 for each mile I intend to run. And that would cover the total expense for chaperones and stu- Vernonia Community Reads 2012 Youngsters will be reading and partici- pating in an activity related to Addie Boswell’s book, The Rain Stomper. Ms. Boswell will be at the library Tuesday, April 10 at 3:30 PM to do an interactive reading, talk about how the book was made and lead a drawing activity on character development. Adults will be reading Craig Lesley’s books—especially The Sky Fisherman with Mr. Lesley reading from and discussing his writing Saturday, April 14 at 4:00 PM in the library. Funded by a joint grant from The Columbia County Cultural Coalition and The Friends of the Vernonia Library. dents.” The VHS Band qualified for the State Contest in strong fashion, winning their league competition with scores of 85, 86, and 87. “You need at least two judges to give you a score of 75 or high- er to qualify for State,” explains Izzett. “All three judges scored us well into the 80’s, so we qualified soundly.” Izzett says the VHS Band will be required to perform fifteen minutes of actual music at the State Contest. According to Izzett the Log- gers will be p e r f o r m i n g three pieces of music: a tran- scription from an overture to a French opera called La Bella Helena, (“It’s French opera and the kids just love it—it blew me away that the kids like it so much,:” says Izzett); a coral called Appalachian Aire, (“it’s s rendition of an old, old hymm called My God Will Supply All My Needs.”); and a three movement piece called Greek Folksongs Suite, ( A very difficult piece of music—if you’ve ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you can just picture that when you here this music.”). Izzett says he expects VHS to shooting baskets, which was always our primary objective,” said Jeff Ely, anoth- er adult mentor to the team. “We learned a lot that we can do for next year and it was great to have this level of success right out of the gate.” Krause noted that one of the vet- eran teams from Philomath gave the Ver- nonia LoggerBots a special award at the competition for “Most Genius Design.” be competing against six to eight other schools and that the top half are awarded trophies. Izzett and the VHS Band will warm up for the State Contest with a performance at a Festival at George Fox University on April 6 th . Following the contest the judges will clinic with each band to give them some pointers and help them work on improving their performance. This is also done at the league contest. “There is winning and not winning, but ultimately it’s designed to help the kids, and me, improve,” says Izzett. The VHS PEP Band recently traveled with the Basketball team to the State playoffs in Pendleton, where they received rave reviews for their per- formance. “We benefited from all the buzz around the basketball team and I just want to keep that buzz going,” says Izzett. Izzett says that parents or other Band supporters are encouraged to at- tend the State Contest in Corvallis. “It’s free and anyone is welcome to come down and watch us perform.” To sponsor Rob Izzett and help the VHS Band go to State you can email Izzett at robizzett@yahoo.com, call him at 503-780-0661 or sign up at Sentry Market. Winter Sports Wrap Up continued from page 9 named Most Inspirational, Jesse Edgar girls showed up to compete at the away was named Most Improved, and Byron game in Gaston and were in the game Weller was named Best Defender. right until the final minute, losing 39- 34. The Lady Loggers will say Girls Basketball—The Lady Loggers got off to a slow start this season under goodbye to several seniors including new head coach Victor Matoush, but three year varsity players Kim Allen turned things around and finished fifth and Shyla Tungwenuk along with Robin in the 2A Northwest League with a 8-8 Elliot, Laura Kaiser ad exchange student league record and a 9-16 overall record. Lea Mari. The Lady Loggers qualified for At the Winter Sports Awards the league playoffs where they faced junior Samantha Lindauer was named a tough Gaston team that had beat Most Valuable Player and Tungwenuk them handily both times they played was named Best Defensive player. previously in the season. The Vernonia
