The Kaw Tracker Perry-Lecompton High School is presenting Little Shop of Horrors for this year’s musical. This musical is full of drama, comedy and just about anything known to man. The first night the musi-cal is shown will be at the dinner theatre on Novem-ber 13th at 5 p.m. Tickets will cost $18.The next two nights, the 14th and 15th will be a regular musi-cal showing at 7 p.m. For premium seats tickets will cost $8 while general ad-mission tickets will only cost $5. The popular Broad-way musical Little Shop of Horrors deals with the main character, Seymour, a very introverted and soft-spoken man. He has a crush on his colleague

who works with him in Mr. Mushnik’s flower shop. That colleague is a ditsy gal named Audrey. One day Seymour buys an unusual plant which he names The Au-drey II. Audrey tries to lighten the mood when Mr. Mushnik is feeling down about sales. She suggests putting the plant, which Seymour bought, on dis-play. Soon the florist shop is booming with business. Little does Sey-mour know that the plant has a sinister idea… Come watch the musical to find out what happens! Now what ev-eryone has been waiting for… The Cast List! The cast includes The Voice, which is played by Toby Meyer; Crystal,

is played by Jenny Ro-driguez; Chiffon, Darian Eddy; Ronnette, Shelby Easum; Wino #1, Braden Johanning; Wino #2, Toby Meyer; Mushnik, Cam-eron Christman; Audrey, Anna Miller; Seymour, Scott Hirsch; Interview-er, Cheylin Ricley; The Store Customer, Rachel Hurst; The Chinese Plant Salesman, Domineq Ka-linichenko; Orin, Tyler Erickson; The Dentist Pa-tient, Kade Surface; Au-drey II, Max Kuenzi; Au-drey II puppeteer #1 and #2, Kade Surface; Audrey II puppeteer #3, Braden Johanning; Mrs. Bern-stein, Jessica Hurst; Skip Snip, Mason Fast; Mrs. Luce, Maggie Carver; and Martin, Kade Surface Featured Dancers

for “Somewhere That’s Green” are Max Kuenzi and Maggie Carver. Featured Dental Hygienists for “Dentist” are Savannah Tubby, Pau-lette Hays, Carlee Saric and Maggie Carver. Receptionists for “Dentist” are Charley Carver and Kayla Washee Featured Danc-ers for “Ya Never Know” include Tristan Damme, Max Kuenzi, Cole Kel-lum, Nathan Bays, Braden Johanning, Mason Fast, Mitchell Bond, Keeran Jones, Carlee Saric, Savan-nah Tubby, Jessica Hurst, Maggie Carver, Marigold Reumund, Harleigh Rob-ertson.

By Keeran Jones

ACT scores were ex-ceptionally high for last year’s PLHS students. The average score for the ACT in Kansas was 22. The class of 2014 had an aver-age mark of 23.5. That av-erage mark was the high-est score in the Big Seven League. When asked what Mr. Elliot thought about all of

this, he simply replied he was proud. He hopes that the class of 2015 will do the same and keep striv-ing for greatness. PLHS students in the top 10% of their class were honored at KU re-cently. This year the Perry-Lecompton High School Kansas Honor Scholars are Kerry Aldridge, Caleb Daniels, Brittney Hamer-sky, Alexander Haynes,

Scott Hirsch, Seth Surface and Taylor Wiyninger. These students received a collegiate dictionary and a certificate. This certificate was awarded to the stu-dents, for their outstand-ing academic success. These awards were pre-sented inWoodruff Audi-torium at the University

Students Earn Academic HonorsBy Keeran Jones

The Audrey II is the starring plant prop in the musical.

PLHS To Present ‘Little Shop of Horrors’

See Academic Honors page 2

Volume 17 Issue 2 October 29, 2014

The Kaw Tracker is published during the school year by the journalism class of Perry-Lecompton High School, Box 18, Perry, Kansas 66073. Issues can be found online on the USD 343 website at www.usd343.net

StaffEditor Nikki SeichepineBusiness Manager Nick Passmore Writers Isaac Christman, Alexis Hickman, Keeran Jones, Haley Piene, Caitlyn Robb, Dylan Schumann Adviser Carolyn Kaberline

of Kansas on October 1as part of The KU Honors program. This program recognizes the top 10% of the senior class for each school in Kansas. Those from Douglas and Jeffer-son counties were honored at this event. When asked how some of the scholars have kept up their GPA, Caleb

Daniels replied that he made school a priority. He also added that extracur-ricular activities aren’t as important as getting good grades to get into college. Alex Haynes said that he had to prioritize academic activities and his assignments above ex-tracurricular activities and his social life. He also gave some ad-

This year there are new teachers roaming the halls of Perry Lecompton High School. One of those new teachers unfamiliar with the territory of the Kaws is Ms.Rachel Fergu-son, who teaches all levels of Spanish. Originally from Greeley, Colorado, she went to the University of Northern Colorado, and

she also went to Friends University. She origi-nally taught at Shawnee Heights, and she taught there for two years. At Shawnee Heights, she was the Spanish teacher for levels 2-5 and also taught college credit courses. Mrs. Cooprider, who was friends with her at Shawnee Heights, told her about the open job op-

New Spanish Teacher Enjoys Smaller SchoolBy Alexis Hickman

vice to present and future PLHS students interested in being a part of this hon-ors group. Alex said stu-dents should take school seriously and remember the importance of aca-demics. Caleb also had advice; he said students should give themselves time for school. He also added that

sometimes sacrifices have to be made in order to have good grades. Caleb and Alex were asked how they felt about being in the program. Alex said it was cool and very helpful, especially when applying for col-leges. Both students said they are honored to be in this program

portunity for Spanish at PLHS. Because Ms. Fer-guson wanted to work at a smaller school, she took the job opportunity. Since her arrival, she has claimed that the faculty and students are absolutely great, and they are very welcoming. She is very in-spired by Spanish. She loves teaching the students

about her favorite lan-guage, and she just loves speaking it in general. In her spare time, she loves to go horseback riding, coach and play vol-leyball along with tennis, and she loves to read. She also has two daughters and one son, and they are all college aged.

Mrs.Ferguson teaches her class.

Academic HonorsContinued from page 1

Page 2 October 29, 2014The Kaw Tracker

By Nick Paramore Mrs. Caffey is one of the newest members of the PLHS teaching staff. Most might assume that she is a normal woman, but she is far from that. Her resume is filled with experience in many subjects and with almost every age group. Mrs. Caffey has been teaching for over twenty six years in many states and countries and has worked for an educational software company. She has taught English, math, and history and has taught classes from pre-school all the way to college and even other teachers in teachers’ education. Outside of Mrs. Caffey’s very busy career, she

enjoys reading, writing inspirational children’s books, and spending time with family. Being born and raised in Elkhart, Kansas, it’s pretty amazing to have taught in Kansas, Colo-rado, Texas, Virginia, and California and also dif-ferent countries as well, including Quatar, Oman, Libya, and Bahrain. Her education includes Okla-homa Panhandle State University for her bache-lor’s degree and Colorado Christian University for her master’s in Curricu-lum and Instruction. Mr. and Mrs. Caffey’s final home is being built presently between Perry and Oskaloosa where they

own a large plot of land; they plan to live out the rest of their years togeth-er and raise bison on this farm where they are build-ing their house. Mrs. Caffey plans to retire eventually but does not know when at the mo-ment. After retirement she plans on spending as much time as possible with her four grandchildren from her two sons, and she hopes to get more grand-children between now and the time she retires. Her plans involve spending the rest of her career here in USD 343 helping stu-dents of all ages succeed in school and see the true value in education.

New Teacher Is Well-TraveledPage 3

Twenty-one students were inducted into NHS this year. Those inducted this year are Ciana Bate-man, Nathan Bays, Sara Boyden, Jameson Brehm, Trisha Decker, Shelby Ea-sum, Darian Eddy, Mor-gan Eggenberger, Bjorn Funk, Anna Guess, Jolene Higgins, Sara Hotchkiss, Braden Johanning, Keeran Jones, Samantha Karten, Max Kuenzi, Vitaliy Pol-ovin, Brio Ratzlaff, Cait-lyn Robb, Carlee Saric, and Joshua Schmidt. They join Alex Haynes, Caleb DAn-iels, Seth Surface, Scott Hirsch, Kylee McAlister, Courtney Beckwith, Brit-ney Hammersky, Taylor Wyninger and Kerry Al-dridge. To be a member of the Nation Honor Society one has to be a student in good standing, as well as have a GPA above a 3.6. The student must submit an application with an es-say telling why he or she should be accepted as a National Honor Society member. Juniors must do at least twenty hours of community service and then to stay in the orga-nization during the senior year members must com-plete an additional ten.

NationalHonor Society Inducts New Members

By Hayley Peine

The Perry Lecompton Stuco has a new leader: Mrs. Packard has taken over the Stuco staff which includes Anna Miller as the Executive President and Alex Haynes as Ex-ecutive Vice President. Rachel Hurst serves as the senior class president and is joined by Scott Hirsch as the senior class secretary and Caleb Dan-iels as the senior represen-tative. Shelby Easum

is this year’s junior class president while Anna Guess serves as the ju-nior class vice president. Jamison Brehm is the ju-nior class secretary while Bjorn Funk is the repre-sentative. This year’s soph-omore class president is Hayley Piene; Nikki Seichepine is the vice president, with Harleigh Robertson as the secretary, and Tristan Damme as the class representative. Brenna Spurling

is the freshmen president, while Megan Fast serves as the vice president, with Marigold Reumund as the freshman secretary. Cas-sody O’Conner is this year’s freshman class rep-resentative. This year’s Stuco members went to a work-shop in Kansas City where they met other schools’ student governing bodies and shared ideas. They also listend to a speech by the creator of Dance Rev-olution.

By Isaac Christman

Stuco Has New Leader for 2014-2015

October 29, 2014 The Kaw Tracker

“You win by playing one ball at a time,” says Coach Scrimsher. Seniors Savan-nah Tubby and Caitlyn Robb both agree that the 2014 tennis team has com-peted very well against all competition this year. This season the PLHS tennis team has welcomed a new assistant coach, Ms. Ferguson. Coach Fergu-son has coached at many

different levels previous-ly. Her coaching experi-ence ranges from college volleyball, high school volleyball, and club vol-leyball. Although she does not have any tennis expe-rience she is an excellent motivator and a quick learner. When traveling to Sea-men for a tournament of ten teams, the PLHS tennis team took second place.

Tennis Season Comes to a End By Caitlyn Robb

Also at the Hiawatha tournament the team took third. Nikki Seichepine battled against De Soto’s number two singles and returned home with a third place medal. The JV tennis team traveled to De Soto and one doubles consisting of Nikki Seichepine and Hayley Peine walked away with a first place medal.

This year the Kaw ten-nis team invited Highland Park for a JV dual. Coach Scrimsher hopes that within the next few years PLHS will be able to host its own tournament. A total of 15 athletes, two coaches, four courts, and two teams have made this 2014 tennis season one of the best.

This year has been an experimental year for the volleyball team. With los-ing all their starters from last year and having un-derclassmen fill in the ranks, the teams under the circumstances are do-ing well: their varsity re-cord is 7-7 so far and they are ranked 2-4 in league action. The only returners on the team, who received any varsity time last year, are Kylee McAlister, Joelle Shifflebein, and Brittney Hammersky. Although Hammersky is now on the injured list, she will hope-fully return by mid-Octo-ber. “October will be a cru-cial month because that’s when we play the rest of our league teams,” Coach Shelbie Glissman said, “We have a really com-petitive team this year

which is great; there are not many changes from last year, ,just different expectations .” When asked what the players thought of this year these were the re-sponses: Junior Sam Mal-lonee said, “For how young almost all of us are and having to play up, we are doing really well.” Sidney Davis stat-ed,” For how many se-niors we lost, we are try-ing really hard to achieve our goals, and I personally think this year we are do-ing a really good job of that.” “We lost a lot of our starters and for losing our entire varsity team from last year, we have won over half our games so far, and I’m really happy to be a part of this team,” said Sara Boyden, junior. When she was

asked for her thoughts on the team this year, Abbi Folks, freshman, replied, “I am so proud of every-one on the team. These girls are like my family, and I am really excited to be playing with these girls this year.” Senior Courtney Beckwith said, “We’re a smaller sized team than most, but the girls have all been working hard to make the team better and compete at the highest level. With the hard work the girls and coaches are putting into the team, we are confident we can have a successful season and we appreciate everyone who comes out to support us!” The team went to a tournament at McLouth on the 6th of September, placing third. The Kaws hosted sub-state here on Saturday,

Volleyball Team Works Together By: Hayley Peine

Varisty volleyball members talk before their game.

Taylor Ball serves the ball.

Page 4 The Kaw Tracker October 29, 2014

Many teachers at PLHS do not just stop at teaching their everyday classes. Students aren’t the only ones who have things going on in their lives. Many teachers also coach, have side jobs, or various other things go-ing on in their lives. too Many teachers go above and beyond when it comes to their jobs. Mr. Cooprider is one of the many teachers and coaches here at PLHS. He teaches chemistry, gen-eral science and advanced chemistry. He also puts in hours after school as the assistant high school foot-ball coach. Mr.Cooprider is now also the new assis-tant high school basket-ball coach. He also helps out with middle school and high school track. So every season, he tends to stay busy. We also can’t forget that he stays busy

with his new baby daugh-ter too! Mr. Dunnaway is the ACT prep, English, CPC and speech teacher. He is also the assistant coach for volleyball and baseball here at PLHS Many students fail to re-alize that coaches have to remain as dedicated to sports as the athletes do. Outside of school Mr.Dunnaway is involved with the local Masonic Lodge in Perry. He spends much time training his hunting dog and is with his family as much as he possibly can be. He says he is capable of doing all these activities, while also having a child, because of the support of his wife.

Mrs. Powell is the choir and singers teacher at PLHS. She also teach-es middle school choir classes. Mrs. Powell is an assistant coach for cross

country as well as track. She is also in charge of the entire musical pro-duction. She spends ev-ery day from 6:00-8:30 p.m. at play practice. She also spends a lot of time working with students and their solos or duets. Mrs. Powell also works hard to make sure that Singers are prepared for district, regional, and state com-petition. She is also in a band herself; the name is The Lost and Found. Also, she has choir concerts for both the middle school and high school. Mrs.Packard has taught for nineteen years at PLHS. She has been able to coach middle school girls basketball, middle school boys basketball, middle school cheerlead-ing, high school girls bas-ketball, middle school and high school cross country, and middle school and

high school track. Also, she has been involved with yearbook and newspaper in the middle school. She also has helped with high school and middle school Stuco too. With all this, she also tries to make it to her son’s school events, and she also has a side job. She has also been a fill-in bus driver when needed. These are just a few of the many teachers who put in so much work into our education and ex-periences. We, as students, need to learn to appreciate them more. Teachers have lives just as the students do. Many of the teachers dedicate the majority of their time to teaching us or being our coaches. We must learn to be thankful for all the work and dedi-cation they put towards making sure we have an education.

Teachers Work Hard By Nikki Seichepine

Noah Scrimsher and Joelle Schiffelbein work together on an experiment in Mr.Cooprider’s room. Lia Jones studies the water she got from the creek.

Page 5The Kaw TrackerOctober 29, 2014

It was a great week of running for the Perry-Lecompton High School cross country team at the Hiawatha Invitational on September 18th and the Bonner Springs Invita-tional on September 20th. Coach Packard reports that many run-ners had personal bests as well as medal-winning results. In the Hiawatha Boys Varsity 14+ 5k run, Bjorn Funk came in 13th with the time of 18:56.12. In the Boys Junior Varsity 14+ 5k Run, the top five finishers were all Perry-Lecompton High School runners. The best time of 20:38.37 belonged to Josh

LeClair. Top runner in Girls Varsity 14+ 3k run was Lexia Jamison with the time of 16:04.09. At the Bonner Springs High School In-vitational on September 20th, Josh LeClair had Perry- Lecompton’s best performance in the Boys C Team 5000 Meter Run with a time of 21:11.15. In the Girls JV 4000 Me-ter Run, Tory Hamon had Perry Lecompton’s best run with her time of 20:49.10. In the Girls Varsity 4k Run Lexia Jamison came in fifth with a time of 16:30.71. In the Boys JV 5000 Meter Run

Josh Schmidt was Perry Lecompton’s best finisher with a time of 22:02.71. Coach Packard was proud of each and every one of the runners. Packard said, “We have to keep moving forward and pushing ourselves more each and every day.” The Rim Rock Classic on September 27th “should be another great meet with positive results,” said Packard. Re-gionals are just one month away. October 2 was the Perry-Lecompton cross country invitational at Lake Perry. The participants

were Basehor-Linwood, Bishop Miege, Bonner Springs, Eudora, Holton, KC East Christian, Shaw-nee Mission East High Schools. Middle Schools participating were Holton, KC East Christian, Royal Valley, Shawnee Heights, Wamego. Perry-Lecomp-ton had 9 middle school and 16 high school run-ners in the competition. There were 23 girls and 27 boys on these teams. Ms. Packard said she really appreciated the support of the fans at the home meet.

Cross Country Continues Moving Ahead By Dylan Schumann

Nikki Seichepine strides to finish the end of the race.Tory Hamon starts the race out well.

Page 6 The Kaw Tracker October 29, 2014

This year’s seniors may have their photos taken out-side of school for inclusion in the senior section of the yearbook if the following requirements are met: A BUST SHOT IS NEEDED. Background may be a studio shot or an outdoors shot—as long as the stu-dent is the focus and it is a simple background. Photos taken on or near railroad tracks will not be accepted for the yearbook as railroad companies consider photos taken there trespassing. Color photos are preferred since the senior por-trait pages are in color; however, black and white pho-tos are also acceptable. A billfold/wallet size photo is needed. (This is approximately 2 3/8 inches wide by 3 3/8 inches tall.)

The photo must be a vertical portrait and of pro-fessional quality.. Be sure that your photographer knows that this photo will be used in the yearbook. All photos submit-ted to the yearbook must be accompanied by a written release from the photographer. Photo must be submitted by the end of the day Friday, March 27, either digitally or on photo paper. There will be no exceptions to this date. If the photo submitted for yearbook use does not meet all of the requirements listed above, the photo taken by the school photographer will be used in the yearbook. Photos used on the composite will be those taken by the school photographer.

Senior Photo Guidelines for Yearbook Listed