Staff and Student Features 

Sam T. Lacrosse Interview 

By: Julia Duncan

Sam Thibodeau is an 18 year old senior lacrosse player at Hilton Head Island High School this year. Sam is planning to further his lacrosse career after high school at college. He says he has been looking at many schools to play at but is undecided on where yet and is looking at mostly D2 schools and some D1. 

Sam has been playing lacrosse for 14 years since he was 4 years old. He says that he is looking forward to winning this season and thinks the team will do well but they are currently in need of a “hard working goalie”. Some things that him and his team do to prepare for games is putting a lot of effort in and focusing at practice, also playing motivating music to give them energy right before games. Some things he thinks him and his team could work on is putting in a lot of work on the field and in the classroom “to make sure we are good student-athletes." 

He is very hopeful that this season will go well and that their team works hard towards winning and working their way towards their goals. 

Zoe Lucas: All Star Cheerleader

by: Holly Heiens 

Zoe Lucas is a competitive and sideline cheerleader for Hilton Head High School. Zoe has been cheering since her freshman year. The cheer coaches for the varsity competition and sideline teams are Coach Lee and Coach Rion. Coach Mariah is a tumbling coach from PEA Cheer who helps the varsity girls improve their tumbling, stunts, and prepares the girls for their competitions. Zoe’s role on the team is a bac kspot for stunts, and she tumbles on the sidelines as well as during their competitions. Zoe back spots this year but has based many stunts and has helped teach other girls how to back spot and base stunts in the past. Zoe has been tumbling for a while. 

Zoe’s favorite part about cheerleading is that she enjoys being with her teammates. Many factors drove Zoe to begin varsity cheer; she has always enjoyed tumbling, and switched to Hilton Head High School from Hilton Head Prep and learned that there was a cheer program with a tumbling coach, so she tried out during her freshman year. Zoe believes that the cheerleading team can improve on their communication skills, talking and helping each other at practice as well as communicating during competitions. A lot of the girls on the team have been cheering together for multiple years, and have learned how to effectively work together and communicate through years of practice. 

The cheerleading team prepares a lot for competitions. According to Zoe, they practice multiple times a week, and work hard together to improve their stunts. 

Meet Our Seahawk from Italy: Anna Scalercio!

By Juan Leyva Perez

Mostly you see movies with exchange students from other countries, this is actually a program we have for our district called the: Student Exchange Program.

Meet our student from a different country, Anna Scalercio! She is from Italy. Her experience in the US is, “so far, very good,” Anna spoke. Is her living here, difficult? “Actually, no. … I'm getting too used to the majority of things here” Anna responded.

Her student life in the US is slightly much different than in Italy. Anna stated that the US, “don't have, like, um, sports training after school and we have just six hours of school.” Anna added, “We have six different subjects every day,” in Italy, which means they do not do the four subjects every day.

Anna reminded people that, “everything can be an opportunity to learn something new.” We are so happy to have you, Anna!

The New Faces at HHIHS 

by: Elizabeth Monzon 

This year at HHIHS we have eleven new faces that are teaching at this school. I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Morrisroe, Coach Perry, and Mrs. Andis. 

Ms. Morrisroe is a chorus teacher at HHIHS, this is her first year. I asked how her experience has been ever since she started here, she said “it's been a really pleasant experience, I’m really enjoying my experience here with my colleagues and I love the students.” Before she came to Hilton Head she was in New Jersey, and before New Jersey she was in college at Ithaca, NY. 

Coach Perry is a Basketball coach and a Cross country coach at the school, during school time she is a gym coach for the special Education and other gym classes. Coach Perry in the beginning didn’t plan on becoming a coach she was planning to be in law but she said “My gym teacher in high school told me something and it stuck with me.”  Her coach said “you can do great here and help a lot of people.”  When she got to college she chose a different path. Coach Perry moved here 6 weeks ago, right before school started. Her experience here has been interesting and she has been transitioning from a small town in Georgia to a crowded Island but she loves it here.  

Mrs. Andis is the librarian at HHIHS, her experience here has been great because she has met new students and faculty. She said “it's a nice and lovely community that is here.” Before here she was in Switzerland teaching at an IB school but she was born and raised in the Appalachian mountains  in Virginia. Mrs. Andis never planned to be a librarian but when she was a Veterinarian it was too much for her because she loves animals too much. She said “it’s a different dynamic in the library, especially meeting new people. 

Meeting the new teachers were lovely and I hope they enjoy this year.

Students from other countries (with jose valasco)

by: Kimberly Valladares

Today I will be interviewing Jose Velasco. He is a student that came to the United States last year. Jose says that there are a lot more opportunities in the United States than in his home country. Jose said “I mean I got more opportunities over here than my original country where I am from so it’s good.”  I feel like being a part of something new is a weird change and you feel like people will judge you at first but you have to strive for the goal you were here in the first place. 

 I also wonder if the United States is hard to adjust to because usually there are people that adapt pretty fast to the environment we live in but for others it takes a while. Jose said “Language when I came here I didn’t know nothing of english so it was kind of hard for me to adapt to the new language. “ I felt like the language was very hard to adjust to because I think English is pretty hard even as an English speaker. English is really complicated and it’s really complex and I also know Spanish so Spanish speakers could easily get confused also since we have differences in the languages.

I also wanted to know if the school routine is different because in different schools they have different routines. Jose said “Well the schools in Venezuela are so small and sometimes the teacher doesn’t go for don’t go to teach the class cause they don’t pay so it’s different.” I also thought that the schools in other countries were different because my family is from Honduras and they also have basically the same system as Venezuela, just a bit different.

I also asked what are the pros and cons of the United States and Venezuela. Jose said “It’s more big the school here and we have lights here and in Venezuela sometimes we don’t have electricity in the school and the services are better  and we also got bus and in Venezuela you have to walk and you have to come back walking to your house or someone can pick you up so we have more transportation over here and the teachers are better over here. Jose gave us some of the pros and cons about the United States and Venezuela but he was mainly saying that there are better opportunities here than in his country.

Finally, I would like to know the advice you would give someone if they were new to the United States. Jose said “get to focus on there studies, don’t get in trouble, be respectful to the teachers, be respectful with the people around you and just focus on your studies.” The advice Jose gave us was really good. I think it’s good advice for students who come here for a better opportunity.