What’s recently happened?
Although New Prairie High School (NPHS) allows participation in many different state-classified sports under the Indiana High School Athletic Association, specifically basketball, a new style of exercise came to be a few years ago. Intramural basketball was formed in the school year of 2020-21 and has only grown since.
“Being a part of the competitive basketball team could be very stressful; it was always so intense. With intramural, I felt more relaxed, and it felt fun to play with my friends and even against my friends and people I know,” said Player Matthew Source.
With requests from numerous students and help from Mark Glassley, a sponsor teacher, the intramural basketball club was formed. Intramural basketball is a fun experience for students who may not have time to put into a full-term basketball season to go out and play friendly yet competitive basketball with their friends.
“We may not have opposing schools and their teams, but we have our school’s spirit, and the crowd’s aura at the games is so thrilling,” said Player Nate Vanheesbeke
Each team must have a minimum of five players and a team name, with some even having a team captain who is a part of the boys’ or girls’ basketball teams. After each team has a chance to have practices and a few warm-up games, the teams will be split into leagues and go into a bracket-style tournament.
Teams can have members from any grade, which has been beneficial for some teams like Cat Fox and Brick Layers who have been existing teams since the start of intramural basketball.
“If someone wants to join, I would say practice and make friends. It will be fun,” said Harrison Groves, a member of the championship winning team Cat Fox.
Even though the 2023-24 season has finished, NPHS students have the opportunity to create a team next year.
What’s coming up?
One of the biggest organizations at NPHS is the robotics team. Las Pumas 2197 is the NPHS pirate-themed robotics team that works hard all year round to prepare its robot for the theme of the year’s competition.
Each year, FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) holds events that escalate to higher levels of competition. At the start of the new year, teams will find out the objectives of the challenges and games the robot will have to manage, allowing the members of the teams to start modifying their robots.
There are many different working parts within the team such as a driving team, an operating team, and many other people to work.
While the work and making of the robot are a crucial part of the process when speaking to members of the team, there seems to be another overwhelmingly important factor.
“Everyone from every team is always kind and helpful. If you have any problems arise during competition, someone will step up and help you. Even once teams start competing against each other, we are always wishing one another good luck and just casually talking about robotics with students I’ve never met before as if I’ve known them for years. After a big win, we are all high-fiving and celebrating with these teams that may be against us in our next match. Overall the experience and atmosphere here are unmatched,” said Vice President Brayden Conley.
The teamwork and the energy shared between each member is what calls students to Las Pumas. Although its competitions last numerous hours on the weekends, and are often in long-distance places, the team has a bond that holds them all together.
“To anyone even considering joining the team, I would say do it and don’t be intimidated. We are just a bunch of fun, laid-back friends who like robots,” said President James Henning.
Las Pumas’ season has just got into the swing and many competitions are coming up so keep an eye out for those dates and experience the lively competitions for yourself.
Staff spotlight:
Kristen Barden is without a doubt a well-loved and well-worked teacher at NPHS. Barden has worked at NPHS for 11 years after graduating from Valparaiso University and has grown to develop many titles other than a teacher in her free time as well at the school.
Barden currently teaches AP Language and Composition, Mythology, and Yearbook. She is also the sponsor and club advisor for the school’s Academic Super Bowl team. This array of classes and teams may seem wide and sprawled, but Barden’s interest connects her with many different topics, including Dungeons and Dragons and Pokemon. Barden’s interests also help her connect with the students she teaches.
“My favorite part of my job is having discussions with students. Sometimes these are planned, but sometimes someone will say something interesting in class that sparks a discussion. My favorite part is when I hop onto Google and we all learn something new together. There's nothing better than spontaneous learning,” said Barden.
Yearbook is a large class that Barden has a special hand in helping with. While she is the teacher, Barden chooses to take a hands-off approach and gives her students/editors a large amount of freedom with the book. Although Barden does have to finalize the book before sending it off to the publishers and fix any little errors, she believes in her students.
“I think of myself as the CEO. The editors and staff make the decisions, but I give the final stamp of approval. I also manage the money and maintain a relationship with our publishing company. I try to do as little as possible because students should be making the book, not me!” said Barden.
While Barden has her least favorite aspects of the job, like paperwork, Barden truly loves her job and while sitting in her class students can truly tell she enjoys educating.
Student spotlight:
Jeffrey Huyvaert has made significant history in this community despite only being a sophomore. Huyvaert has not only been wrestling for NPHS for the past two years, he has also been wrestling for 80% of his life.
In this past wrestling season, Huyvaert has managed to double his accomplishments from his freshman year. When Huyvaert was a freshman, these accomplishments were already astonishing, but replicating them for a second year in a row is impressive. Huyvaert is now a two-time Northern Indiana Conference champion as well as a two-time champion at the Sectional and Regional level.
This has also been the second year that Huyvaert has qualified for State. In the 2022-23 school year, Huyvaert placed fourth at the State level, this year placing fifth. Huyvaert is one of the few in NPHS history to accomplish this record.
“Apart from my education, wrestling is the only thing I do, and I plan on continuing in my college career,” said Huyvaert.
Last year, Huyvaert broke the NPHS record for takedowns and broke that record again this season with 140. However, most impressively, Huyvaert recently broke the Indiana’s record of 398 takedowns. Huyvaert also holds NPHS’s school win record, near fall record, tech fall record, and takedown record.
“As a freshman, my record was 50-3. As a sophomore my record was 48-2; overall 98-5,” said Huyvaert.
Despite being as successful as he is in his sophomore year, Huyvaert remains humble and cherishes something more than just a record and a medal.
“My favorite part of wrestling is the atmosphere and the people. The sport itself is amazing, but the relationships you build in such a tough sport is something I’ll remember forever,” said Huyvaert.
As Huyvaert has had two fantastic seasons with NPHS and their wrestling team, he still has two years left in high school, making the entire community eager to see his future accomplishments.