Lacrosse

Olathe Northwest students have picked up the sport of lacrosse over the past several years. Senior, Ethan Wall and Junior, Audrey Ash are two star players on their teams. Ash plays for the Lady Ravens lacrosse team. Wall has played on OLAX and is continuing to play next year at Colorado State University- Pueblo.

ONW vs. BVW wrestling recap

Evan Pardue [Photo by Katie Halterman]

Last meet, the Ravens wrestled their normal lineup.

This meet, head coach, Steve Mesa gave two people the chance to prove how they compete on a varsity level.

The results were mixed as they lost to Blue Valley West by one point on Wednesday.

The team was defeated 35-36 to the Jaguars.

“I wanted to give more of a chance to different people,” said Mesa.

This could have been the reason for a lost meet, however there were still a few standout wrestlers.

Senior capitans Doug Newcomb and Evan Pardue wrestled especially well along with freshman, Kavian Kalantari. They won against their opponents and got additional points. They scored the maximum amount of points they could individually.

The next meet is Saturday in Wichita against Mt. Carmel High School.

Things to love about where we live

Kansas: the bread basket of America,

…but Kansas has so much more to love than it’s wheat, especially the area we live in.

-Everyone in the area (including myself) has become a barbecue critic whether they’ve noticed or not. Going out to BBQ restaurants when on vacation, it’s just not the same. Places like Kansas City Joe’s (previously Oklahoma Joe’s)and Zarda Barbecue attract many residents and visitors. Us locals have discovered more hole-in-the-wall places like Smokin’ Joe’s which is almost better than bigger, more well known of restaurants. Forget bread basket, Kansas City is the barbecue capital of the midwest.

Plaza lights

– When it’s below freezing temperature outside it’s kind of hard to be thankful for the seasons. However, we have something that our sister time zones do not. States like Florida and California get to live comfortably all year round with temperatures barely dipping into what we consider winter. Here we get to experience hot and cold extremes (which sometimes aren’t fun) but we do have very distinct seasons to enjoy throughout the year.

-The Country Club Plaza is about a 30 minute drive out of Olathe to over 100 stores and over 40 restaurants. The Plaza is an upscale district that makes Kansas feel not so Kansas-y. KC is nicknamed the City of Fountains for a reason, with around 200 registered in the metro area, with many on display at the plaza. The Plaza during Christmas time is a whole reason to go in itself, with the Plaza lights which light up on Thanksgiving.

-Crown Center Ice Terrace  is perfect during the holidays as well. There’s several indoor rinks around the area, but Crown Center just adds a cheerier vibe to your ice promenade.

Top Hat Mercantile in the west bottoms

-Downtown KCMO is THE place to be during the first weekend of every month. First Fridays includes the antiques the west bottoms along with the art and night life the Crossroads has to offer. The west bottoms gives off a more old school feel while the crossroads brings in an urban atmosphere.

-The Kauffman Center of Performing Arts is a stunning architectural feature perfectly complementing the beautiful arts performed in the two halls within the center. Since 2011 the center has held countless presentations of the Kansas City Symphony, Ballet, plays and other arts.

-Our sports teams haven’t always been the best, but over the past several years, they have grown into something to be proud about. Everyone, sports fans or not, paid close attention to the Royals during their World Series run. After crowning themselves as the ALCS champions and making it so so SO far in the World Series, the Royals put the spotlight on KC. The Chiefs have been on and off this season, like most, but the city never does resist to show their pride. Sporting Kansas City has been a huge attraction since the Sporting Park was built in 2011. After winning the MLS championship title in 2013 soccer fans in the area have grown exponentially.

-Kansas City is actually a popular place for artists to come on tour. Artists like Ed Sheeran, Miley Cyrus,  The Black Keys, Justin Bieber, Childish Gambino, have came to venues like the Sprint Center and The Midland Theatre. We live in a great area to go to popular concerts as well as smaller less known groups. The Granada in Lawrence has shows supporting more off the wall bands and artists, usually at a much cheaper price than big concerts at Sprint Center.

-Kansas City Missouri at Liberty Memorial houses a special museum dedicated specifically to World War One. For around $15 one can learn all about the war and see artifacts donated to the memorial. It’s a great piece of history to our area unlike many others around the country.

Nelson Atkins – Shuttlecocks

-Another museum we are lucky to have in the area is theNelson Atkins. Just adjacent to the Plaza, the gallery offers free admission and includes many features from different eras of art.

– Olathe isn’t very far from several great universities. Regardless of if you’re decked out in crimson and blue, purple, or gold, KU, K-State and Mizzou have so much to offer. They’re all within three hours driving time of Olathe Northwest and continue to gain more and more ravens every year after they leave ONW. Of course there are many exceptional colleges around the nation, but these offer very affordable tuition and are close to home.

Our area isn’t so boring as most people would expect Kansas to be. Although we aren’t not an easy drive to a beach, we can experience many things other parts of the U.S. cannot. Times have changed since Dorothy and Toto, but hey they liked it even back then didn’t they? There really is no place like home.

Richardson Twins

       Olathe Northwest bands are put in more work than meets the eye. Morning rehearsals during the fall, parades and competitions are busy enough on top of performing at games. Jordan and Jarrett Richardson, seniors at Northwest, have spent many hours putting in hard work.

Jordan Richardson has taken on the roll of drum major this year. Standing on the podium and conducting the band has just been another way he helps out with the band. Jordan also plays the trumpet, contributing in a different way.

Jarrett Richardson leads the drum-line. By leading his section he helps the band and his own brother when he's conducting. Jarrett also has played percussion in symphonic orchestra performances.

Both brothers plan to keep music in their lives in different ways as the graduate and go into college.

#RavenDaily Scavenger Hunt

Final

This year has been a tough year overall being senior year and having college and other "bigger and better" things looming over my future. Within the classroom itself has not been an easy task either, especially with my individual time limit. The transition from Convergence Journalism to SID student has been challenging because I'm not used to doing stories specifically on sports. However I like working with the people I work with in SID because they have helped me better understand sports related stories and brought new ideas to the table.

Interviews:

Throughout the year I haven't really done any solo packages but I have helped on many other films. One of my favorite interviews was the collection of interviews for the football team. I liked working on this because it was such a large task. It was interesting to see what each senior football player had to say, but a challenge to find a way to intertwine and connect all their responses.

Individualism:

Although I am in a sports information class, I've enjoyed doing written stories about other things that interest me on my own time. Stories like my First Fridays and Things to love about where we live, reflect who I am and I enjoy spending my time outside of class doing them. My favorite aspect of my First Fridays story was the fact that I felt like the real deal. I interviewed employees and First Friday attendees on my phone while I came up with spur of the moment questions depending on what they were doing or how they connected with the event. It made me more confident working on stories where I don't really know the subjects, because most of the time I have pre-existing relationships with the people in my stories just by going to school with them. These projects have made me feel as if my individual story telling style is becoming more prominent.

Photography:

My most favorite aspect I have improved on this year is taking photographs. I started out learning the frustrating task to taking pictures of fast moving soccer players, but once I was able to get comfortable taking these photos it quickly became my favorite thing to do. I am currently undecided on a college for next year, but I have been looking into enrolling in journalism schools at my prospective universities. One of my key must haves is a course for photographic journalism. The euphoria obtained by capturing the perfect moment in a game or getting the perfect light has made me want to further my photography skills in the future and continue taking pictures for class this next semester.

Goals:

Next quarter one of my main goals would to do some solo stories for class instead of just helping others with theirs. Within the packages I will strive to make a more interesting story than just the necessary information. In the recent film we watched in class, the main guy talked about making the content of the story interesting and artful even though they were just supposed to make an informational piece. I believe I can make simple news/sports packages better by taking a little bit more time with setting up lighting and sequencing of shots to create a more visually appealing story instead of just having the basics.


A personal goal I have set is to make written posts more frequent. I feel I can do this at home much easier than this semester, for I will have a couple less classes that require more homework time. I want to make my written portfolio greater by the end of this year because I could quiet possibly see myself going into some form of Journalism in college.

Documentary Proposal

1. Working title: Meg

2. Ryley DeMaro, Jessie Payne & Ashley Couch

3. Our documentary is about a girl named Meg who has a learning disability and also manages the girls basketball team at Olathe Northwest. The main conflict in the story is her over coming her challenges and doing what she loves. We want the audience to feel inspired and understand that life has challenges and you can do anything you set your mind to.

4. Meg: Meg is a freshman at ONW who has joined the girls basketball team. She has a learning disability and is the main subject in our documentary. We have yet to interview her and learn more about the exact details of her life.

Meg's mom: She is Meg's mom.

Meg's brother: Bo is a junior at Olathe Northwest. He and Meg have grown really close over the years.

Branstrom: The head basketball coach.

5. Meg has to over come her challenges and learn how to be part of the varsity basketball team in their season.

6. Act I:
Introduction. Brief descriptions of Meg from her family's point of view. Some B-roll of her in school as opening shots.
Act II:
Branstrom can describe her roll on the team. Family could talk about how she's wanted to play basketball. Climax= Sitting on bench during game.
Act III:
Meg's life from her point of view. Start asking about how she wanted to play basketball- how she felt about sitting on the bench.

7. Meg will be happy and feel a part of the team. She will hopefully feel like she is fitting in. This should make the audience feel inspired and have positive vibes.