The Seahawk Times - Seahawk Scoop

Parris Island Field Trip

By: Lilly Friday and Jessica Staigar

Last Wednesday Hilton Head Island High School’s ROTC went on a field trip to Parris Island, a military core training depot, to see how fire fighting works. Fire fighting is a part of Parris Island that nobody talks about. ROTC is a class where students can learn more about the military and fitness, it focuses mostly on the navy part of the military. While they were there they did a lot of activities involving firefighting. According to Branson Green, “We got to tour the fire station and see how they use the hazmat equipment and their oxygen tanks.” They were also able to go through a course that involved fire hoses, ladders, and weighted dummies. On this trip they learned “more about teamwork and discipline while working with dangerous items.” According to Branson Green, “The trip was informational and I wouldn't mind going again.”

(Possible photo)

Hilton Head's NJROTC Program Shows Off Skills

By: Alex Coley

These skills learned by the cadets were demonstrated in this annual inspection, which was entirely student-led. The cadets have trained for the last month for this inspection and on Wednesday they showed the fruits of their hard work and dedication. The goal of this inspection is to evaluate the skills and progress made by the NJROTC students. The students are split up into different platoons (or groups) based on the skills that they have to demonstrate for the gathered inspectors. For this inspection, there were three platoons: the drill team, the upperclassman platoon, and the NS1 platoon. NS1s are the students taking their first semester of ROTC. The show put on by the NJROTC unit was incredible. Their head instructor, Lieutenant Commander Mathew Pheiffer, said “I am really proud of the cadets and proud to be a part of this. We have wonderful students and we couldn’t have done this without our cadet leaders.”

The students who led the platoons all had positive things to say about the performances. Lucky Mayers, who led the NS1 platoon, explained that “our success at AMI really shows that despite the cadets all being in separate blocks, we are still a unit and even though we have the pandemic we can all still come together and celebrate the fact that we are one big team.” Jack Pavelka, former Commanding Officer within the NJROTC program at HHIHS, said in his evaluation of the outcome of AMI that the team “beat down” on all that they had hoped to accomplish with their demonstration and that all in all AMI had a “fabulous” result.

Faculty Tennis Match

By: Caleb Spangler

The school tennis team is putting on a faculty match, it is a duo match that involves one teacher and one tennis player. They do it every year and it is always very competitive but is always very fun for the students and teachers. Caleb is one of the students that is playing in this match and he is very prepared, and also excited for this special occasion. Being prepared is a very important thing for an upcoming sports event. He said,” I am very prepared, I have been practicing every single day.

I hope that I don't let Ms. Stauffer down when playing.” It was all up to the student to pick the teacher that they would be playing with. Caleb chose to play with Ms. Stauffer, the Human Geography teacher. He had Ms. Stauffer for Human Geography this year and really likes her. Caleb said,” She's one of my favorite teachers, and she told me that she was decent at tennis so, I think it would be a good matchup compared to the other teachers.” Although the competition will be hard, he will try his best. Caleb being a freshman puts him below all the other upperclassmen tennis players.

He said, “The hardest team we will go against is Brent and Willard because Brent is very good.” When Caleb described Willard he was saying he had an amazing athletic ability and positive attitude. Ms. Stauffer and Caleb want to take home the win very badly. Although the competition is very good and this will be hard to accomplish. Caleb said, “I hope that we get first but because of the good competition, I hope we come top 3.”

When it comes to winning, confidence is key to taking home the win. Caleb coming in first place would make him and Ms. Stauffer is very excited. It would take a miracle for them to come in first because of the difficult competition. He said, “If I came in first place I would be very happy because it would show that I am good enough to compete with the upperclassmen.” This tournament was made for everyone to have a fun time but if you win you will still be excited about the victory. In the end, Caleb and Ms. Staifffer placed 3rd in the whole tournament. Caleb was very surprised and happy about these results.

Black History Month at HHIHS

Hilton Head Island High School has been promoting Black History Month for the school. Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, which it is also known as African-American History Month. Black History Month started in the year of 1976 when it was officially recognized to honor the accomplishments of multiple Black American who had greatly contributed to the United States in different areas. Ms. Fory said, “This celebration has been kept for years and it is not only to highlight activists and civil rights pioneers, but also other Afro Americans that have given their best to make Afro Americans be recognized as equal.” Hilton Head Island High School has been promoting Black History Month by creating a learning environment through bulletin boards, video clips and holding a couple of events in which students and staff can enjoy a little bit of the Afro Americans contribution. Ms. Fory stated “The school will also be showing a movie which history could inspire our students to be brave and team workers to meet their goals.” HHIHS has a display of a painting of Lisa Rivers’ at the media Center. The school chose to promote this meaningful celebration in the U.S. history by holding activities that show some Afro Americans contributions through the music, the art and the food. Black History Month ends on March 1st of this year. Ms. Fory said “ The ideas for celebrating Black History Month in our school came up from a small number of staff members who worked hard to have a little bit of this celebration in our school. HHIHS tried to highlight the Afro Americans history through daily videos in the News Show and the decoration of some bulletin boards in the halls, and on the other hand we integrated the local culture by appreciating and enjoying their art and music inside the school. In the past HHIHS used to bring a Culture Presentation on the SCC before the pandemic. Ms. stated that “Afro American teachers from our school also used to provide a special lunch for the staff, so they could taste and enjoy a little bit of a different culinary.” Most of the food was made from Afro American staff who wanted to share a taste of a Soul Food. Ms. Fory said “ but it is even more important to recognize that we are all players of the same team, we live in the same world, we breath the same air and we all need from each other no matter the race or culture.” Ms. Fory thinks that having multiple activities to honoring our Afro American History and Culture is important for her. We could all contribute in order to have a community built on values like acceptance, respect for diversity and mutual understanding.

Hilton Head’s NJROTC Program Shows Off Skills

By Alex Coley

HHIHS’s Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Core (NJROTC) program had its annual military inspection on Wednesday, February 23rd. The company was inspected by Commander Kenith Rice and Ensign Locklear, both of the US Navy. They are the heads of the Navy ROTC program at Savannah State University, and came to Hilton Head to check out how the High School’s cadets are doing. In his speech to the NJROTC cadets and gathered community members, Commander Rice spoke of how the mission of the Jr. ROTC program is not to recruit students into the United States armed forces, but to teach them skills that will be valuable to them as US citizens. These skills learned by the cadets were demonstrated in this annual inspection, which was entirely student-led. The cadets have trained for the last month for this inspection and on Wednesday they showed the fruits of their hard work and dedication. The goal of this inspection is to evaluate the skills and progress made by the NJROTC students. The students are split up into different platoons (or groups) based on the skills that they have to demonstrate for the gathered inspectors. For this inspection, there were three platoons: the drill team, the upperclassman platoon, and the NS1 platoon. NS1s are the students taking their first semester of ROTC. The show put on by the NJROTC unit was incredibly impressive. Their head instructor, Lieutenant Commander Mathew Pheiffer, said “I am really proud of [the cadets] and proud to be a part of this. We have wonderful students and we couldn’t have done this without our cadet leaders.” The students who led the platoons all had positive things to say about the performances. Lucky Mayers, who led the NS1 platoon, explained that “[our success at AMI] really shows that despite [the cadets] all being in separate blocks, we are still a unit and even though we have the pandemic we can all still come together and celebrate the fact that we are one big team.” Jack Pavelka, former Commanding Officer within the NJROTC program at HHIHS, said in his evaluation of the outcome of AMI that the team “beat down” on all that they had hoped to accomplish with their demonstration and that all in all AMI had a “fabulous” result.

Ms. Mazur’s Science Field Trip to Pinckney Island!

By: Meghan Carrington

On Thursday, February 24, 2022, the Marine Science, Hospitality, and Tourism classes took a field trip to Pinckney Island. This trip was conducted by Ms. Mazur, a science teacher at Hilton Head Island High School. They explored the saltmarsh and maritime forest ecosystem. Ms. Mazur explains, “We completed a population ecology study on periwinkle snails, and also a biodiversity study of the plants and animals that we saw.” Though, the study of ecosystems wasn't the only topic she wanted the students to grasp, declaring, “I hope they take away some experiences about what it’s like to do field work and an appreciation for the ecosystems we visited.” Ms. Mazur goes on to say, “This is a science trip but great for all subjects and reveals science is everywhere.” A similar field trip was planned by Ms. Mazur a few years ago. Though, due to COVID, it wasn’t able to happen. She explains, “I planned a similar field trip a few years ago and each time to Pinckney has been different. Pinckney is a wonderful example of the ecosystems unique to Coastal South Carolina and I think it is really important that students are able to get out and experience it.” Overall, the trip was made to be a great experience for children interested in ecology. If one is interested in this subject, consider taking the Marine Biology class. To take the next step, meet with your student guidance counselor to discuss said class.