On Saturday, September 18th, the East Peoria Marching Band placed second in their class with an additional caption for Best Winds at their Pontiac competition. This year’s show titled “Angels and Demons” featured clarinet and color guard solos, unique themed uniforms, and a woodwind feature. After being forced to take a break from competitive marching due to Covid-19, this year is especially important for the East Peoria Marching Band.

Bryn Osborne, clarinet soloist, section leader, and senior, was both “proud and nervous” about her solo which she performed beautifully. She describes her section leader position as “going back to what it was before” only now she is both “older” and “wiser”. Lainey Campbell, another senior at East Peoria Community High School, describes Covid as “leaving a huge gap since our last competitive season”. Lainey describes the new requirements for marching band such as indoor instrument masks, weekly testing, and social distancing. She is most excited for the U of I competition because it is “always one to remember and it’s super cool to see what all the other bands are doing in their shows”. All members of the band this year have been taking advantage of getting to know their peers, compete, and, most of all, enjoy marching band.

Tennis is one of many fall sports available at our school. It begins in August and goes until October. EPCHS girls tennis is an inclusive, beginner-friendly, fantastic after-school sport! Our team this year is full of wonderful girls and is looking to add many new players every year. Two players were interviewed below about their experience on the team and how the season is going.

If you are interested in getting into tennis there are open gyms over the summer and practice starts in the fall!

An Interview with Mr. Fleming

• How did you become interested in hosting Key Club for our school?

  • I used to lead Project Graduation for the seniors here at the school for several years, but gave that up years ago, and still coach wrestling, and was kind of looking for something to get involved with besides that. The position opened up and Mrs. Laredo actually approached me about it. It sounded great and getting students involved in volunteering is awesome! I went to Peoria Notre Dame and volunteering was actually a graduation requirement so it was forced on us to actually volunteer. We had to do 100 hours by the end of 4 years. I think it was such a great thing! Giving back to your community and specific groups is so essential and creates such a ripple effect! I agreed and have been doing it for 2 years now.

• What has been your favorite part of Key Club so far?

  • My favorite part is seeing the effect that the club's service and volunteering has on the groups in which it serves. Our time and effort goes a long way and can make such a huge difference in people's lives. That is amazing and so powerful!

• What are you looking forward to the most for Key Club this year?

  • Getting back to more in person events and weekly meetings! We missed out on a lot last year! The meetings are better in person seeing everyone and actually getting out in the community and seeing those that we are volunteering for!

• How can students get involved with Key Club?

  • Key Club is completely voluntary and on your time... whenever you can make it. The best way to get involved is attending our weekly meetings Tuesday mornings at 7:30 in the library. The google classroom code is CLVSPGC..... join that for all information and updates on what we are doing! Then if something interests you, you want to help, come out and join us!

• Is there anything else you would like to mention about Key Club?

  • I love that Key Club is completely student driven! That means that you guys as students steer the ship! We do activities that you are interested in, serving organizations that you are passionate about, and give back to groups that you choose in our community! (I am just here to make suggestions and give guidance)

If you would like to learn more about upcoming opportunities regarding Key Club, come to the meetings on Tuesday mornings at 7:30 before school in the library!

On Friday October 18th, Austin Siegrist competed in a two-day golf competition held at Weibring Golf Course. Austin says, “ Even through rough conditions, I played pretty good.” He also stated that his favorite part of the event was, “Simply being out on the course and having a great time!”

On Friday, October 11th, the East Peoria Raiders faced off against the Morton Potters for one of the regular-season games. It was frigid and windy. The North Pole stood pale in comparison to the field’s icy wind. Unfortunately, the Raiders couldn’t clutch the dub, and Morton defeated them on the field. Despite the size of the Tribe not having record-breaking numbers, the hype could be felt reverberating throughout the stands. The final score of the game was 54-20.

On Tuesday September 17th the boys had a pre-conference cross country meet at Black Partridge park in Metamora. Leading the boys team was Keaton Vandel, a junior, who took 2nd place overall, running a 15:31 for the night. Kolby Miller, Matther Gray, and Caleb Alt all came in a 13 second gap, showing our prominence in varsity races. The boys took fourth place in the team rankings for the night, and the rest of the season looks extremely promising!

The girls also had a strong night at the pre-conference meet on the 17th. The girls were led by junior Rileigh Fortune who ran a 21:12 followed closely by sophomore Tressa Tucker with a 21:49. The rest of the girls team ran as a strong pack, with 5 of the 7 fastest runners all coming within 14 places of each other.

Overall the rest of both team’s seasons looks promising as younger runners keep coming in helping our teams grow and rise through the conference.

The girls tennis team demonstrated fantastic sportsmanship this Tuesday after a difficult game vs Morton, but the student body can do better showing our Raider Pride. There were no students there besides parents! Despite their unfavorable situation, they were able to play solid games with sportsmanlike conduct and learned from their losses as a team. Although the varsity coach, Shane Smith, seemed upset about the loss, they’re excited to move forward and see what the future has in-hold.

The highlight of the match was a win in Junior Varsity from Morganne Aaron taking a dominating victory of 8 to 2! Congratulations, Morganne.

With girls tennis being a socially distant sport, we have been lucky to be given our season. We have taken many precautions to keep people safe. This tennis season is like never before and we are all still adjusting to the rules and guidelines. We have to wear masks when we are not playing and the coaches have to wipe everything down at the end of practice. During matches we have a designated spot where we have to stay and we have to have our own tennis balls now that we can not share them. We also do not have any home matches anymore due to ICC not letting us use their courts for matches. Luckily, we still are able to have practices there. I interviewed some of my teammates to see how they feel on how this season is going.

Though COVID-19 has affected our season in many ways we are still happy to get the opportunity to play.

The Lady Raiders started this season with a lot of tough match ups. Even with this rough start, the Raiders pulled through securing two wins (beating Canton and Normal West). The other six games did result in losses, however the lady raiders played great games and kept all the scores close. The East Peoria Lady Volleyball team this year was projected to be 4th in the conference. With their current record, they are fifth but are still in a strong place to achieve that goal. Some players to look out for this year are Brook Huff (#9) at the right side with 34 kills total, Monique Hoosen (#7) at the left side with 23 kills, Skylar Bouillon (#2) as a libero with 20 digs, and Olivia Astbury (#4) as the setter with 52 assists.