I never thought it would be like this. I was always so excited for the day. I held everyone in suspense as I made my decision. I always looked forward to this moment, but there were so many choices. Which one to choose? So many ways I could go toward my future and everyone is telling me something different. But the time is here, the big day. I have to commit to the next four years of my life, leaving the only place I have ever known and restarting.
Let me give you a little background. Hi I’m Trey. I’m a senior trying to figure out my next steps. I can either go for sports, or I can go for my studies, or I can go for comfort, but one thing I won’t go for is to please the people around me. Yes I’m talking about college choices. All I know for sure is that ever since I was young I knew I wanted to go to college. I would be the first one in my household to actually go to a college. This feat is definitely not the only reason, but also I wanted a better life. I wanted to say, I went to college and got a degree in whatever field I chose. Thankfully, I had a family that backed me all the way and showed me that they would support me with whatever choice I made, within reason of course. Not only was it my family but my best friends that I have been consulting with the whole process. Even with this support, I knew I couldn’t go far due to the help I still needed to give to my family as well as the money side of the decision. So as I grew and matured, the closer my “dream college” became, going from Florida, to North Carolina, even Tennessee and Kentucky weren’t off limits, but eventually ending in my own home state. Although I’m considering landing in-state, that doesn’t mean I’m staying only 30 minutes away. I’m planning to go on with my life, opening a new chapter and escaping the void of my small city, which I resented when I was younger, but grew to love due to the people who also dealt with the struggle of this no-man's-land of a city. I have my eyes set already, only allowing those closest to me to know which door I will choose. When I ended my junior year, I was a mess on where I wanted to go and even what for, but as I spoke with many colleges and sat through many forced speeches, it became more clear to me the route that works best for me. Now that you know a little more to the story I have to go to my signing day. Thank you everyone for being here. We have all of our seniors, and we are so proud of them, starting with our Trey. He will be attending.
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HAPPY FAMILY: Multiple sets of siblings run cross country as well as the entire team celebrate the success of the girls first state championship.
Kerrigan ‘25 and Finton ‘27 Chaney, Josh ‘25 and Caleb ‘28 Miao, Harry ‘25 and Peter ‘27 Anderson, twins Madison and Olivia Ball ‘29, all ran for the varsity this year. The Ball’s ran with younger brother Gavin ‘30 on the Middle School team. Last year Alex ‘24 and Gabe Dickenson ‘29 shared workouts on the cross country team spanning seven years, the boys and girls team. Not many people were aware of the coincidence of the amount of siblings that inhabit the team. Kerrigan and Finn’s mom, Darcy McGrath, suggested that someone in the newspaper should talk about the amount of siblings on the team. This opened not only my and the team's eyes but fellow journalist and cross country teammate, Kaitlyn Perkins ‘28. “I don’t really notice because on the team like siblings would,” Perkins said. “We push each other and compete to get better.” The wave of eighth graders got to shine on the varsity and assisted on the first ever win for girls cross country in the history of NCS.”It was a team effort from beginning to end,” Head Coach Ed Dickenson said, “reflecting the character and heart that our girls' team has shown all season. Amazing performance!” Twin troubles: Olivia Ball ran a 21:51, the fourth fastest time among the Raider girls and cementing the championship with her 24th-place finish. In only her second varsity race, her sister Madison came in at 23:33, putting her at 63rd overall. More than 150 girls ran in the Div. II race. Another sibling duo that seems to fly under the radar is Josh ‘25 and Caleb ‘28 Miao. “It’s been pretty fun to be able to run with Caleb this year because even though we’ve been on the same team before . . . we haven’t, you know, both like been varsity, like running together, so that’s been a pretty cool thing,” Josh said. “It’s also been cool to see how much progress he's made, because the last couple of years he’s been in middle school, and I’ve been in high school, so we’ve been running together in practices but never in a race.” Caleb finished his season at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, running a very solid 21:27. Running a sub-20 minute top-five time for the team, Josh has not finished his season and high school career yet. He and his teammates are eager to go out with a bang at the Foot Locker meet, Nov. 30th in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the majority of his fellow senior runners. Finishing third overall in the race, the boys were paced by Spencer Britton ‘27, who placed second overall, and Finn Chaney, who placed 10th overall. Meanwhile, Justus Horner ‘28, whose sister Lydia ‘24 ran with the team for many years, placed 20th. Those three Raiders earned all-state honors. Five seconds after Justus, Harry placed 21st. Maidah Ahmad ‘27 (right) and Anna Ciccozzi ‘26 dress up with their bowling team as Scooby Doo and the Mystery gang.
Friday night December 6, was a night to remember for many NCS students. Oliver Lacy ‘26 held a fundraiser through the bowling night to raise money for his Eagle Ecout project of building a masthead kiosk for a river in Franklin County. “All of the money raised went to wood and screws,” Lacy said. With NCS taking up almost half of the lanes at Lee Hi, that covers a good amount.In addition to an entry fee of $12.50, many brought donations to give an extra helping hand for Lacy’s project. To nobody’s surprise Leyton Sturm ‘25 won best bowler. This is Sturm’s third time winning best bowler of the NCS bowling night. “The threepeat was awesome,” Sturm said. “Overall I had a great time with my team that night so it was a lot of fun.” He still happened to grab this feat despite having a smaller team with Alejandro “Bob” Almenas ‘25 and Cesar Suarez ‘25. Leyton took home this prestige title for the third time with a score of around 180. Hunter Basile ‘25 and Jahanvi Patel ‘25 also won very different awards. Basile brought home second place best bowler and Patel won best worst bowler. Hunter had four strikes in a row. One of which was for Anna Ciccozzi ‘26 as she was away, but still a feat nonetheless. Basile’s including classmates Thomas Greer, Tyler Bloomfield, Henry Schumm, and Henry Lugar. This band of brilliant bowlers took home the best bowling team. “I would say it was a fun night with my friends and classmates,”new student Jonas Koegl-Wallner ‘27. “Even though my bowling skills need some improvement, I have a lot of fun.” Joining Koegl-Wallner on his new adventure at NCS was Nikheel Sherigar ‘26, Ameer Albishah ‘26, Anderson Ratliff ‘26, Thomas Frieben ‘28, and Walker Reel ‘27. Coming back to school the next Monday SCA advisor Susan Wenk shared a heartwarming video of a compilation of pictures and videos from the bowling night on the Friday night before. Many laughed throughout the video reminiscing on the fun times shared with friends and classmates, whether a good bowler or not. |
Jacob JohnsonAbove is a picture of me participating in retro day for Homecoming spirit week. Were an Allen Iverson 76ers jersey. Finding myself enjoying the small things before life gets real. Archives
January 2025
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