Seven questions with counseling student aid Michaela Jamison

What made you decide to be counselor Erin Hayes’ student aid?

I feel that I am an extension of Mrs. [Erin] Hayes, therefore [being her aid] only seemed fitting. I am like a Mrs. Hayes in training. I follow her around [a lot.]

What do you usually do for her?

Sometimes I write notes from the tooth fairy [to her kids] and heckle other teachers. We also follow Mr. [Jack] Johnson aro und everywhere and I make a lot of copies.

What is the best part about spending time with Mrs. Hayes?

She acts like a 12-year-old so she’s quite entertaining. She really does.

What is the funniest thing that has happened between the two of you?

One day we were going to be dumb and write on Mr. [Jack] Johnson’s white board. When she unlocked the door, we found Mr. Johnson getting off the floor in the back corner. It scared us so badly that we sprinted all the way back to the counseling office. We have looked up Despicable Me 2 trailers and memorized them. We have looked up fun facts about alpacas. One time I even stole her office chair and hid it in Mr. Johnson’s room and made her go find it.

How has your relationship changed since you have worked with her?

[Now] we are more friends than teacher and student.

What are your plans for next year?

Attending a four year college and going to law school.

What will you take with you for the future from this experience?

How to have fun no matter how stressed out you get and to always have a smile on your face because it can make someone’s day.

Seven questions with leaving staff member Deb Johnson

How long have you been at Mill Valley, and where are you going?

I’m starting my 12th year and I am going to the Facilities Department.

What are you most looking forward to at your new job?

I think learning something new, the new challenges.

What brought about this job change?

I haven’t been looking for a job, but Amy Turner left and we talked about the position, so I applied for it.

What was it like having two kids enrolled in Mill Valley?

It was fun because they would come down and visit me. I think it took them awhile to warm up to me in the office; but then I am afraid they used me as an excuse to get out of class.

What will you miss most about Mill Valley?

The staff, just the friendships I’ve made, we’re like a family.

Do you plan to stay at your new job as long as you have at Mill Valley?

Sure, I enjoy working for the district.

Do you have any last words you would like to say to the Mill Valley students/staff?

It has been my pleasure to work at Mill Valley and meet and work with many wonderful people. You are my family and I will definitely miss you.

Fondness of high school came after realizing what was missing

This is the last opportunity I will ever have to share my opinion through this publication and, at first, I had absolutely no idea what to write about. There are so many things that I want to say to my teachers and friends, but I simply don’t have enough space for it. In fact, many things about my high school career have been defined by not having enough of something.

As a freshman, I didn’t have enough maturity. Everyone viewed my classmates and me as immature, goofy freshman who could only hope to be as cool and successful as the older students.

As a sophomore, I didn’t have enough influence. There were tons of clubs I wanted to join and changes I wanted to make but I hadn’t proven myself just yet.

As a junior, I didn’t have enough freedom. The days of curfews and being grounded seemed to be well behind me but the freedom of college was still far out of reach.

And as a senior, I haven’t had enough time. It’s funny how drastically my perspective has changed throughout the last four years as I grew from an awkward, unsure 15 year old to a confident 18 year old with plans and expectations for my future.

But despite all of my preparation for the years to come, I can’t shake the feeling that I didn’t get enough time at this school. I have enjoyed my career here so completely that I almost, almost hate to leave when I’m just being able to appreciate it.

It is hard to see, when you are still an underclassman, how truly lucky we are to attend a school with teachers who really care about their subjects and students, athletic and academic programs that see success year after year and a community that keeps us safe and shows us so much support.

I wish that I could spend more time enjoying those things and forming more memories here, but the future calls. Pretty soon I will be a college student who doesn’t have enough money and, after that, an adult who doesn’t have enough fun. But until then, what I have is just enough.

Baseball team beats Bonner Springs Braves 10-0, 24-2

The varsity baseball team beat Bonner Springs High School in both games of its doubleheader on Friday, April 20. The first game was a shutout, with a final score of 10-0 and the second game ended with a score of 24-2.

With scores of that magnitude, the players said the playing environment of the game changes slightly.

“When you’re up by that much you become really relaxed,” senior pitcher Luke Knehans said.

Teammate senior catcher Tyler Moore agrees.

“There’s really no pressure on you,” Moore said. “You just go out and have fun.”

These games were particularly exciting for Knehans. As a pitcher only, PO, he does not get the opportunity to hit very often. Because the pitcher who played before was not a PO, Knehans batted twice.

“Even getting up to bat was pretty crazy. I made contact with the ball,” Knehans said. “I was ecstatic. I had the biggest smile on my face. It was from ear to ear.”

His first hit was a hard ground ball that popped over the Bonner Springs third baseman’s head. The second was a line drive over the third baseman’s head that hit the foul line but it was called fair.

Moore also felt he played a successful game.

“My strong point was hitting,” Moore said. “I went six for nine in the two games. No homeruns, but I came close. I hit the fence a couple times.”

In addition to the standout performances from Moore and Knehans, senior left fielder Jacob Spring hit a home run in the first game.

Moore thinks these wins have set up the team for the remainder of their season.

“I think they do, we were really playing well as a team during these games,” Moore said. “I think if we keep playing like we did during those games we have a good shot to have a successful season.”

The next varsity baseball games are on Thursday, April 26 at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the 3&2 Baseball Club, Field 24.

Prom king and queen candidates announced at assembly

The Prom king and queen candidates were announced at the last pep assembly of the year on Thursday, April 11.

Seniors Drew Smith, Austin Ross, Austin Gebhardt, Brayton Young and Greg Mason were nominated as the king candidates, and seniors Carly Granato, Emily Johnson, Haley Grigsby, Morgan Ottesen and Chloe Wistuba were the queen candidates.

The assembly featured a candidate game of charades.

“I enjoyed the candidate game and getting to see all of them do ridiculous things,” senior Austin Becker said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of time to plan [the assembly] but they found a way to get everyone involved.”

Junior dancer Jillian Mullin agrees with Becker after seeing the reactions to the silver stars and silver studs dance, which was performed at the pep assembly.

“I thought it was really fun and a really good crowd-pleaser to have the guys there,” Mullin said. “This was the first time we had the guy-girl dance at a pep assembly and I thought it was successful. It was a great pep assembly to end with. We had a lot of school spirit.”

Custodian shows dedication after 12 years with school

Here since the opening of Mill Valley, custodian Khamla Malathip has made an impact on both students and staff with his upbeat attitude and work ethic.

“I’ve worked with Khamla for about five years and I really like his attitude,” fellow custodian Mary Willhite said. “He’s really into being a team player and makes working with him really fun. He always has a good attitude.”

Malathip has been a custodian for 12 years. Since then, he has seen the school go under many changes.

“Sometimes it’s different. Mill Valley has grown a lot,” Malathip said.

Malathip moved to the U.S. from Laos in 1990 to be with his family. Before working as a custodian at Mill Valley, Malathip worked as a custodian cleaning a church and schools.

“It’s too hard to find a job with my English,” Malathip said. “But I have fun cleaning.”

Born and raised in Laos, Malathip’s native language is Lao. Malathip says that his language barrier doesn’t interfere with his work.

“I try to, you know, speak English really well. I want everybody to understand what I say,” Malathip said. “I try to work hard. I want everybody to appreciate what I do.”

In his free time, Malathip enjoys shopping.

“I like to shop at Kohl’s and Buckle,” Malathip said. “I like to go to the mall.”

Malathip’s coworkers enjoy working with him because of his hard work and dedication.

“I’ve worked with Khamla for about 8 years. He is just hilarious. He is just a good person, a hard worker, a team player,” fellow custodian Rhonda Johnson said. “I enjoy coming to work just to see him everyday, ‘cause he makes my day.”

Defining generations becomes harder as technology expands

Generations are typically defined as twenty year periods in which the individuals are about the same age and have similar ideas, problems, attitudes, experiences, etc. In the past, this seemed to make sense. Events like the world wars, the Great Depression, the hippie movement, space exploration and others throughout the 1900s were drawn out and easily supported the twenty year definition.

Today, this definition is outdated. Beginning in about 1990, the world changed so much that the way we specify generations may never be the same. Because of the rise of interactive media, the current generation is unique from all generations before or after it.

In the mid-1970s, the first computers began being sold commercially, although they were not the computers we think of today. From that point, technology slowly began to develop and expand as the years went on.

In 1991, the Internet as it is known today was just beginning to form and become widely used. Quickly, the number of people utilizing the Internet and the things it was used for began expanding. Because of this, children who were born in the 1989-1999 time period are very unique from others before or after them.

Before 1989, kids would have grown up separate from the Internet, growing independently from it. After 1999, children started experiencing constant technology interaction at birth and have grown up very connected to it, but those born within the time frame have seen its evolution and grown alongside its development, separating their experiences from all other youth.

Now, thanks to massive technological advances, specifically in communication, things can change rapidly and easily. Generations can no longer be defined by lengthy, society-altering events because they no longer exist. The generation born between 1989-1999, growing up parallel to the rise of technology, may have been the first generation to last only a decade and the last real generation.

Junior shooting guard enjoys team atmosphere

Junior shooting guard Tanner Tripp has come a long way in her basketball career since she started in the Itty-Bitty Basketball league she started playing in at age four. She now starts for the varsity team and earned a letter her sophomore year.

Tripp dedicates her time to playing year round. She also plays volleyball in the fall. She’s managed to make a lot of friends through her experience with basketball.

“I play AAU year round with people from other schools and I’m friends with a lot of them,” Tripp said. “I also get really close with the people at school that I play with because we’re with each other all day, every day.”

Tripp has been a part of the Mill Valley basketball program since her freshman year.

“We have a good program, amazing coach and fun girls to be around,” Tripp said.

Tripp has played with the same group of six girls since her seventh grade year, including her good friend junior Stephanie Lichtenauer.

“One of my best memories is when Stephanie Lichtenauer made the buzzer beater against Bonner our sophomore year,” Tripp said. “It was crazy because we won and it was an intense game the whole time.”

Being able to play with her same group of friends for five years now has made basketball that much more enjoyable for her.

“I like that we have another whole year to play together,” Tripp said.

Despite an unsuccessful start to the season, the team has been able to improve its playing.

“It’s been fun, and our team’s really learned how to stick together,” Tripp said. “We started off 0-3 and going on a 13-0 winning streak just showed we weren’t going to give up.”

Tripp has a few superstitions she follows before every game.

“I have to wear white Nike socks for each game,” Tripp said. “And Stephanie [Lichtenauer] has to roll up my sleeves before every game.”

Tripp plans to play again next year and has thought about continuining her basketball career after high school.

“I kind of want to play in college at a small school or something on the coast,” Tripp said. “That would be sweet. I haven’t really looked into too much though.”

Photo of the week

Monday, Feb. 6 to Friday, Feb. 10

Junior forward leads team on 12-game winning streak

Junior forward Stephanie Lichtenauer has been a member of the varsity girls team since freshman year and is one of the top scorers currently. During the El Dorado tournament, on Thursday, Jan. 26-Saturday, Jan. 28 she had one game where she scored 27 points, her all time best.

The team has a record of 12-3, with a winning streak of 12 games. The season started off with three losses, but the team has improved since then.

“I think that we’ve been playing really good and playing together and we overcame a lot of struggles we had early in the season,” Lichtenauer said. “We limited our turnovers and we’ve been playing stronger with the ball.”

The varsity team this year is predominantly junior girls and Lichtenauer has been playing with many of them since before high school, some of them since second grade.

“It’s fun because we’ve all been playing together for years and because we get to spend our whole high school basketball career with pretty much the same people,” she said.

The team’s winning streak has been a positive experience for Lichtenauer.

“Well it’s always fun when we win. We’re always really excited,” she said. “It feels good to know all your hard work really paid off.”

Lichtenauer’s experience with high school basketball has overall been a good one. Not only has she had a chance to continue to build on lifelong friendships, but she’s also been given the chance to improve as a player.

“We have really good coaching. Coach [John] McFall is really awesome,” Lichtenauer said. “We have fun but we still work hard every day.”

In order to be successful though, Lichtenauer has a few rituals she has to complete before every game.

“I always eat the same meal before the game, a turkey sandwich with bread my dad makes,” Lichtenauer said. “I always have to roll [junior] Tanner [Tripp]’s shooter shirt sleeves up before every game.”

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