Boy Cross Country
With the school year fast approaching, the boys’ cross country team has already begun preparing with off season training.
Getting ready to enter his senior year, Michael Kovacs is looking forward to the upcoming cross country season and believes that the biggest obstacle the team faces is self-motivation.
“It’s hard to say what our biggest obstacle will be, mostly because most of us are still getting into running again, but if I had to say right now, based off of things from the previous year and how things seem to be shaping up now, the biggest obstacle would have to be making sure we believe in ourselves and in the training we are getting," Kovacs said.
According to Kovacs, the off season training differs from previous years.
"Off season practicing is different from last year, mostly due to some scheduling conflicts that require our coach to only have practices two to three times a week, so it is on us to make sure we are getting our run in on the other days of the week," Kovacs said.
However. this change is not preventing the team from getting the necessary practice.
“We have taken it upon ourselves to meet up with the younger guys and run on those off days so that we know everyone is running what they should be," Kovacs said.
His personal goal for this upcoming season is to help bring the team closer together and to make sure that he is doing his part in helping the team succeed. This also lends a hand to teaching the teams overall goals.
"Our overall goal for next season is to make it to the state finals, but we are more focused on the smaller goals like making sure our team is running closer together and making sure we are giving it all of our effort," Kovacs said.
Teacher Shoutout: Carrie Martin
Carrie Martin is a junior English teacher at PHS, but her duties expand past the classroom. In her past 18 years of teaching, Martin has been involved with Thespians, Speech Team, and Distinguished Young Woman (DYW). However, due to family obligation, Martin has narrowed her involvement to focus purely on DYW, a program that is very important to her.
"My heart belongs to the theater and the stage, and what I love most about teaching is that I get to share my passion for performance with the students," Martin said. "I get to encourage them to find literature that excites them and not to feel silly about reading out loud using different voices in order to make it come alive."
Martin participated in the DYW program during her time as a student and jumped at the opportunity to get involved again as a faculty member.
"I believe any college bound girl should participate when the time comes," Martin said. "Any opportunity to earn money is awesome, but I also believe that trying new experiences, getting out of one's comfort zone, and interacting with a group of other like-minded girls and forging new bonds is important." Martin said.
Despite the amount of time that past, DYW still has an important impact on Martin.
"To me, DYW is about being your best self and presenting that to the audience and judges," Martin said." It's the opportunity to showcase all of your strengths and why your uniqueness is awesome."
Student Shoutout:
Zoe Spencer Incoming senior Zoe Spencer decided to make the most of her summer by studying abroad in France.
For her trip, Spencer is staying with a host family along with one other study abroad student.
"My family is the bomb," Spencer said. "My host parents, Laurent and Nadine, are sweet and constantly ask if Maria and I have eaten, slept well, taken our medicine, if we are okay, and how school was."
One of her parts about the trip so far is the traveling and the food.
"While we eat a lot, we walk a lot too," Spencer said. “That is basically life in France. Eat, walk, eat, walk, apply sunscreen, eat."
While in France, Spencer is still taking classes.
"School begins at 9," Spencer said. “I have 4 classes: culture, literature, grammar, and linguistics."
As her trip starts to get underway, Spencer has already begun to get connected to the cultural side, and visited the site of Normandy.
"Words do not exist in any language to describe the way that I felt when I heard a mysterious trumpet in the distance play taps or when I could see thousands of white crosses and the sea and the American and French flags all at once with my own two eyes," Spencer said.