This article was written by the staff of the Eagle Talk Newspaper:
On Saturday, November 17, members of the Waurika High School speech team attended the Marlow Speech Tournament.Of those attending, freshman Kaytlyn Williams and sophomore Regena Bradley both placed in their respective categories.
Williams, a first-time speech participant, competed in the Dramatic Interpretation event and placed third.Bradley, a second-year speech club member but a first-time competitor, placed 2nd in her event, Original Oratory.
Both girls will continue to practice their pieces in preparation for regionals, which will take place in the spring.Other speech members will begin competing again in January when the team travels to their next meet.
“I could not be more proud of these girls,” speech coach Jessica Cornelison stated.“We really haven’t had a lot of quality practice-time, and both of these girls worked hard on their own to prepare.To be first-time competitors and to step out of their comfort zone is a big deal, to begin with, but qualifying for regionals and bringing home trophies just proves how dedicated and talented these students are.”
Waurika first grade students are participating in the Oklahoma City Thunder Reading Challenge. We are proud to announce Landon Brackett and Juan Garcia are the winners for the month of January!
Waurika honored their seniors at the last home game of the season this past Friday evening.
Here are their profiles.
Gatlin Black (Basketball) was escorted by Wilma Rickard. He is the son of Chad and Miranda Black. He has attended Waurika schools his whole life. His school activities included, Football, Basketball, FFA and Student Council. His fondest memories of his school days are hanging out with his friends in the parking lot. After he graduated he plans to go to college in Louisiana and get a degree in Petroleum Engineering.
Zachary Brown (Basketball & Powerlifting) is the son of Michele Salazar. He has attended Waurika Schools his whole life. His school activities/awards included, baseball, basketball, football, new comer of the year in football, and all conference outfielder in baseball. His fondest memories of his school days would be football season, and the boys winning the prank war, not the girls. After he graduated he plans to play baseball at Murray State or taking over the Richardson Ranch.
Colton Byant (Basketball & Powerlifting) is the son of Michael and Heather Bryant. He has attended Waurika School his whole life. His school activities included, Football for 4 years, Track for 4 years, XC for 3 years, Basketball for 3 years, and Powerlifting for 2 years. His fondest memories of school days are making it to the State Quarterfinals his last year in football and freezing in Mrs. Allen’s classroom. After he graduates he plans to attend college and major in Education and become a coach.
Austin Dyer (Basketball & Powerlifting) is the son of Bobby and Lisa Dyer. He has attended Waurika Schools for two years. His school activities included, Baseball, Basketball, Football, FFA, and Yearbook. His fondest memories of his school days were freezing in Mrs. Allen’s class everyday. After he graduates he want to become a game warden, and go play baseball somewhere.
Oliva Ralls (Powerlifting) is the daughter of Danny and Jacinda Ralls. She has attended Waurika Schools for two years. Her school activities included, Track, FCCLA, Powerlifting, Cheer, and Softball. Her fondest memories from her school days were moving here and making memories and friends that could last a lifetime. After she graduates she is going to college at Cameron University to get a degree in Nursing.
Aaron Nitka ( Basketball) is the son of Daniel and Sloan Roberson, and Michael Nitka. He has attended Waurika schools for eleven years. His school activities/awards included, Baseball, Football, Basketball, Beta, NHS, FFA, All-State eight man Football, Oilfield All Conference Baseball, ad All- District Football. His fondest memories from his school days were stealing the Smart Board Remote from Mr. Brown. After he graduates he plans to be a Physical Assistant.
Madison Roberson (Basketball) is the daughter of Kasey Elliot, Daniel and Sloan Roberson. She has attended Waurika Schools for four years. Her school activities/Awards included, Southern 8 Conference MVP, Daily Oklahoman honorable mention Allstate, Valedictorian of Class 2019, Scored 1,000 career points as a junior, cross country, student council, NHS, OHS, and gifted and talented. Her fondest memories from her school days included, spending the summer going to camps with the basketball girls, and making Lexie do hilarious things to strangers. After she graduates she plans to become a Radiology Technologist.
Katelyn Washburn (Basketball) is the daughter of Becky and James Washburn. She has attended Waurika Schools for two years. Her school activities/awards included, basketball, FCCLA, yearbook, and All-American Cheer. Her fondest memories from her school days were when some of us students were having a war on sarin wrapping, and putting stuff on our vehicles, Boys vs. Girls. (Girls won). After she graduates she plans on going to NOC to cheer and get her degree in English.
Madison Christian (Manager & Powerlifting) is the daughter of James and Amy King. She has attended Waurika Schools for five years. Her school activities/awards included Powerlifting, softball, cheer, track, and All-American Cheer. Her fondest memories from school days were having Melissa come to school here and having all the friends that I have. After she Graduates she plans on going to the National Guard.
Getting ready for a productive fall are the 2020-21 Waurika FCCLA officers. Serving this year are (back row) Trinity Barnes, Treasurer, Brooklyn Barnes, Vice President of STAR Events, Hannah Lamons, Reporter, Landry Forsyth, Vice President of Community Service, Kaitlyn Williams, Vice President of Public Relations, Grace Hill, Secretary, (front row) Hope Cummings, President and Mallory Adkins, Vice President of Fundraising.
STATE BOUND: Waurika’s girls cross country squad finished seventh in the team competition at last Saturday’s Class 2A Regional meet held in Waurika and that qualified them for the state cross country meet. Pictured from left to right are: Jasmine Henry, Niecsa Camarillo, Jaden Adams, Coach Joe Masoner, Liberti Simmons and Jaci Gholson. Not pictured is Harleigh Loftis and Aubree Showalter, who did not compete in the regional because of an illness. (Photo provided)
The Waurika girls cross country team has overcome a number of obstacles during the 2022 season.
For most of the season, the Lady Eagles did not have enough participants to qualify for the team race in the majority of meets they participated in.
But, in the last few weeks, the Lady Eagles have had additional participants that have enabled them to be part of the team standings.
While still battling some illness, the Lady Eagles managed to finish seventh in last Saturday’s Class 2A Regional Cross Country Meet and that put the Lady Eagles into Saturday’s state championship meet.
The Class 2A State Cross Country Meet will be Saturday at Edmond Santa Fe High School. All classes will be held at the same location.
The Class 2A races will begin with the girls at 11:45 a.m., while the Class 2A boys will race at 12:15 p.m. An awards ceremony for Class 2A will follow at 1 p.m.
The top three teams will be awarded medals and 15 medals will be awarded to the top individual finishers.
Lucas Boyd, who has had an outstanding freshman season for the Eagles, qualified for the state meet as an individual and will be competing Saturday as well as the Lady Eagle team.
The Lady Eagles finished with 181 points – which trailed sixth-place Hobart that finished with 172 points. Riverside won the team title with 55 points.
Aubree Showalter, who has competed for the Lady Eagles in recent weeks, missed the meet due to illness and that meant other runners had to step up to enable Waurika to qualify for the state meet.
Waurika’s Jaci Gholson led the way for the Lady Eagles as she finished sixth in the meet with a time of 13:42.04 – which is her top time of the 2022 season.
The Waurika junior has had an outstanding season and she received a silver medal for her performance in the regional meet on the Lady Eagles’ home course – Harmon Park.
Also playing a key role in the Lady Eagles qualifying for the state meet were Harleigh Loftis, Liberti Simmons, Jaden Adams, Niecsa Camarillo and Jasmine Henry.
Loftis finished 67th in the race with a time of 16;24.74, while Simmons was 71st with a clocking of 16:34.71. Adams was 87th with a time of 17:32.15 and Camarillo finished 109th with a time of 20:16.18. Henry was 118th recorded a time of 23:05.23.
The top five finishers from each school figure into the team standings.
A total of 126 runners competed in the Class 2A girls’ race.
Boyd finished 11th in the boys’ competition and he was the fourth best individual that was not part of the team competition and the top seven individuals not on a team qualify for the state meet.
Boyd earned a bronze medal with his time of 19:28.45.
Alex Gomez and Trent Arellano also ran in the regional for the Eagles.
Gomez finished 17th with a time of 19:39.67 – just two seconds behind the last individual qualifier for the state meet.
Arellano turned in a time of 23:25.29 and that was good for 80th place among the 112 runners in the Class 2A race.
Class 2A had considerably more participants than the Class 3A and Class 4A races.
Class 2A Girls Regional Results
TEAM STANDINGS: Riverside 55, Goodwell-Texhoma 58, Velma-Alma 59, Hollis 92, Walters 146, Hobart 172, Waurika 181, Konawa 197, Mountain View-Gotebo 245, Santa Fe South 273.
TOP FIVE INDIVIDUALS: 1. Karliey Parker (Riverside), 12:03.89; 2. Reese Coleman (Watonga, 13:07.14; 3. Jessie Foster-Anderson (Velma-Alma), 13:09.21; 4. Kayla Meason (Walters), 13:24.24; 5. Isabel Bush (Carnegie), 13:30.99.
Class 2A Boys Regional Results
TEAM STANDINGS: Riverside 71, Sweetwater 95, Earlsboro 118, Christian Heritage 125, Santa Fe South 134, Merritt 134, Goodwell-Texhoma 162, Apache 170, Hollis 192, Wynnewood 237, Hobart 243, Konawa 261, Stonewall 345.
TOP FIVE INDIVIDUALS: 1. Brayden Cowan (Watonga), 17:32.62; 2. Asa Worthington (Carnegie), 17:59.28; 3. Andrew Moore (Earlsboro), 18:09.90; 4. Tice Seewalker (Riverside), 18:29.73; 5. Riley Herndon (Merritt), 18:37.03.
TOP FIVE INDIVIDUALS: 1. Katie Bosley (Okla. City Christian Aca.), 13:00.84; 2. Baylee Tapley (Bethel), 13:14.43; 3. Kylie Nunneley (Bethel), 13:19.90; 4. Canon Russell (Lindsay), 13:48.92; 5. Brilee Combs (Comanche), 13:53.89.
Class 3A Boys Regional Results
TEAM STANDINGS: Heritage Hall 60, Bethel 76, Lindsay 106, Silo 132, Lexington 145, Marietta 148, OC Christian Academy 159, Lone Grove 178, Comanche 180, Kingston 215, Frederick 236.
TOP FIVE INDIVIDUALS: 1. Jackson Fowler (Heritage Hall), 17:19.64; 2. Brycen Ward (Kingston), 17:43.68; 3. Daniel Ponce (Lindsay), 18:19.28; 4. Brycen Lassley (Comanche), 18:26.29; 5. Luis Garcia (Marietta), 18:40.84.
Class 4A Girls Regional Results
TEAM STANDINGS: Cache 40, Pauls Valley 45, Madill 115, Sulphur 131, Marlow 139, Plainview 141, McLoud 144, North Rock Creek 241, Tuttle 243, Tecumseh 265, Harding Charter Prep 289.
TOP FIVE INDIVIDUALS: Kenzie Readnour (Pauls Valley), 12:54.47; 2. Cora Lane (Cache), 13:14.07; 3. Amidat Olokunola (Cache), 13:15.43; 4 Kara Daniels (Cache), 13:21.12; 5. Isabella Gutierrez (Pauls Valley), 13:32.65.
Class 4A Boys Regional Results
TEAM STANDINGS: Cache 42, Plainview 64, Tecumseh 78, Sulphur 117, Marlow 121, Madill 168, Harrah 206, McLoud 228, Tuttle 230, Harding Charter prep 236, North Rock Creek 269, Pauls Valley 288.
TOP FIVE INDIVIDUALS: 1. Jordan Coody (North Rock Creek), 17:26.18; 2. Anthony Radke (Cache), 17:54.48; 3. Logan Haworth (Tecumseh), 18:00.17; 4. Cooper Phillips (Plainview), 18:02.01; 5. Cade Parks (Plainview), 18:16.64.
A special school board meeting was held Monday evening in the Waurika Library at 6:30 pm.
The subject of the meeting was to discuss any possible board action with regard to proposed teacher walkout.
Roxie Terry, Waurika Superintendent started the session saying that the teachers have not had a raise in nine years.
He also stated that their had been a decrease in school funding.
He said the teachers across the state feel that their back is against the wall. He said something has to be done. “We are losing teachers across the state.”
Terry went on to say that it was the Oklahoma Education Association who called for the Walkout scheduled for April 2, 2018.
He said the decision to participate in the walkout was not up to the administration.
A week ago the teachers voted 19-14 to stay in school and not participate in the walkout.
Someone had suggested that the vote was not fair. Mr. Simmons said later in the meeting that the vote was fair and teachers had not been influenced in anyway. He said he believed the teachers deserve a raise.
There was another vote taken. The second time 17 teachers voted to participate in the walkout and 14 teachers voted not to walkout. Two teachers didn’t participate in the second vote.
Terry went on to state that with 17 teachers being absent it wouldn’t be possible to have school.
He further stated that they needed to decide whether or not to support the teachers by passing a resolution stating such and allow them to leave without loss of pay and what to do about the extra-curricular activities left on the school calender.
Terry said that the OSSAA would probably not change the sports calender just because the teachers had participated in the walkout.
Nobody could say how long the walkout may last.
This became a concern the board wanted to discuss because of the need to fulfill the number of days required to complete the school year.
Terry informed the board the length of the teacher’s absence was up to the teachers.
The last time there was a walkout, Terry said that the teachers were only absent from school for about four days.
Currently, Waurika has five days that they can use between now and the end of school that can be missed without having to have any makeup days.
Anything over those five days would require another day be tacked on to the end of the year for each day missed.
Waurika has 24 working days that have to be fulfilled starting April 2, 2018.
The walkout would affect support people Terry said. It could even possibly hurt their pay. (The board voted to continue to pay support staff if there is a walkout).
According to Mr. Terry, Red River VoTech will still be conducting classes and the school will continue to run a bus to Red River.
The special education bus that takes students to Walters will continue to run each school day.
An immediate question that was asked was “Who will take the students to the extra-curricular activities?” The answer was that some teachers had volunteered to take students to the scheduled sport activities that are on the schedule. This would become a point of contention later in the meeting.
The concern the board expressed was in essence that not teaching in the classroom and yet still participating in athletics was setting a bad example for the students— as if to say that sports is more important than education.
The board wanted to know what was meant by “work stoppage” and Mr. Terry said that it meant that all classroom instruction would be suspended. The teachers would not be in the classrooms.
The next question that was asked was “when will the walkout end?”
There was no definite answer to that question.
The board did vote to support the teachers and not penalize them financially for participating in the walkout. Board members expressed their support for the teachers having a raise and that they appreciate all that they do for our students.
Board members expressed that if the teachers were walking out that it should encompass all activities and not just classroom activities. Otherwise it defeats the purpose. Therefore, if the teachers walk out on April 2, there will be no further school activities until the teachers return to their contracted duties in the classrooms.
According to Mr. Terry, on Tuesday afternoon, the day after the emergency board meeting, 65% of the teachers decided to not participate in the walkout.
Mr. Terry felt confident that there should be enough teachers present to have school this coming Monday.
If the situation changes we will post it on our website at www.waurikanewsjournal.com.
This month the Waurika FFA has been very busy! Members have participated in the Jefferson County Free Fair, Ag in the Classroom Reading Program, and the officer team attended the 2019 C.O.L.T. conference. Several members attended all activities. The Ag in the Classroom activity consisted of Waurika Ag. Education students reading to the classes at Waurika Elementary School. Everyone had a great time and are ready to continue being active.
Winners in the tractor driving contest: (l-r) Evan Davis(Waurika FFA), Cody Ramsey (Waurika FFA), Caden Dobbs (Waurika FFA) Chloe Adkins reading to students at the Waurika ElementaryIsaac Gholson reading to students at Waurika Elementary
Ace Dyer served as “Principal” for a day this past Monday. He won the opportunity as a part of a drawing during the Elementary School Carnival.
Ace Dyer served as the Principal for the day Monday
He turns seven today!
It was the luck of the draw at the recent Elementary Carnival that allowed him to serve in the highest office of the Elementary School in Waurika.
It’s something that only happens once ayear.
Dyer said they began the day by greeting the kids with Principal and newly appointed Superintendent Cody Simmons.
After that they went to the gym and had Rise and Shine.
Dyer and Simmons then enjoyed a great breakfast together.
After their morning meal they went around looking at things that may need improvement at the school.
He said they looked for cracks in the walls and the condition of the ceiling tiles.
Dyer said he and Mr. Simmons had to go to the store to get a new radio.
Dyer looked comfortable setting behind the big desk. He was dressed in a pressed long sleeve shirt and a tie.
He is in the first grade and its his only time to ever get to serve as Principal for the day. Dyer said he was very lucky because this is the last year that Mr. Simmons will be the Elementary Principal.
When he grows up he may be a rancher and a principal. Although he said the principal has a lot of work to do.
At the end of the day they made announcements to all the students.
It was a great day for Dyer, it’s one he will never forget.
Kolt Morrison served at the auctioneer this year for the Waurika FFA fundraiser.
Photo by Dalee Barrick
The Waurika Ag Education Boosters (WAEB) collaborated with the Waurika FFA and 4H and hosted a premium fundraiser on Thursday, February 18 at 6:30 p.m. This event was assembled in order to raise money for the Waurika 4H and FFA livestock exhibitors at the Jefferson County Premium Sale.
Lexie Streeter
The premium fundraiser was a great success. There was an overwhelming turnout from the community in support of our Waurika Ag youth. A great amount of money was raised, and not one homemade dessert, silent auction item, or handmade fire pit was left after the night was over.
On behalf of the Waurika FFA, Waurika 4H, and WAEB, we would like to thank all the people that participated in making this event as great as it was. We would like to especially thank all the great men that voluntarily prepared the delicious hamburgers. It was a wonderful evening.
