September is known as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Kearney High School has spread awareness for this important cause, by offering counseling services and putting up informational posters on the topic around the building.

Suicide Prevention Month has been a national occurrence since 2008. It is a proactive time to bring attention to the sensitive subject, share stories, and hopefully encourage those who may be struggling with their mental health to reach out and get help. 

One of the top three causes of teen deaths is suicide. 20% of high schoolers have reported thoughts of suicide, and 9% have attempted suicide. Schools across the nation have started addressing the “taboo” topic in the past decade, since the uprising of teen suicide statistics.

KHS has several ways to get in contact with the counselors, such as the school website or going to the front office to ask about getting a meeting. They are available for any student who feels as if they need to talk with someone. Suicide Prevention Month is an important thing to acknowledge, especially in high school.

Stay Informed, KHS Blogger, Jolie Conner. 

Two weeks ago, Kearney High school had its annual homecoming. While some might think the homecoming spirit started on Friday, Kearney High School had it going all week! Homecoming is a big deal for the little town of Kearney, Missouri. Not only do we have our traditional Homecoming game, we have a parade, a dance, and many school events to generate school spirit. Homecoming was curated by many people; one main contributor was Mrs. Starzl. Stazl sponsors the student council, Kearney’s leadership program, and is responsible for the Homecoming dance. Mrs. Starzl and Kearney's student leaders did a wonderful job creating a safe, fun, and spirited homecoming dance. 

Before the dance, three significant events take place that kick-off and make homecoming what it is. The first is the powderpuff game. Kearney boys take the sidelines cheering on the girls in an intense game of flag football. This year all three grades played well, but the sophomores came out on top. The second event is the town parade. This is a time honored tradition that brings the community together. Friends and families gather around downtown Kearney to watch all of the floats, many being homecoming royalty, school sports, and activities. The third and as many would argue, the most important homecoming tradition is the home football game. Friday night Kearney Bulldog fans filled the stands with anticipation and excitement to watch their home team take on the Raytown South Cardinals. The Bulldogs defended their territory well and destroyed the Cardinals with a final score of 53-12. 

Homecoming week was a great success, both the students and the residents of Kearney had a great time! A big thank you to all who made Homecoming so fantastic. It truly was a great week to be a bulldog! 

   With lots of Bulldog spirit, KHS Blogger, Britta Nielson.

Kearney High School’s production of “The Plot, Like Gravy, Thickens” ended last Saturday night just as successfully as it began. The show was performed from Tuesday the 18th to Saturday the 22nd each night at 7 pm.

The play itself was a murder mystery that was told by Walter, the playwright, who describes the show as “how he would commit a murder.” He starts out by introducing each character and how they all relate to one another, then he starts the show and plays out a fancy dinner party. More specifically, a birthday party for a millionaire named Edward Worthington III. Events of the night led up to the murder at the end of Act 1, then Act 2 was all about how the murder was solved. The show seemed to be quite the comedy and received many laughs during all five performances!

The different thing about this year’s play was that it was during the fall. Usually, the play is in the spring, and the musical is in the fall. The shows were switched around because Kearney High School was supposed to be getting a new auditorium, but the construction was delayed during the summer. The directors, cast, and crew threw this production together in a matter of 6 weeks, rather than the usual few months that they get to prepare for a show. The hard work that everyone involved put into the show really paid off!

Hopefully, you got to attend the show yourself! It was reported by many staff members and even the administrators of our school district to be an “amazing” show!

Stay Theatrical, KHS Blogger, Jolie Conner.

With the fall season coming to an end, so do all fall sports. Each and every athlete gave it their all this season; especially the seniors. After countless hours of pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into their sports the seniors have learned many lessons. A few senior leaders share through the lessons they have learned their best advice to future athletes. 

Swim - Jake Zingermen (Captain) 

“Advice I have for future swimmers is to work on your underwater and your dives because it's the fastest part of the sport.” 

Cross-country - Abby Elam (Girls Captain)

“The advice that I have for future runners is to keep going, sometimes it feels hard, but just remember that mentally is the toughest part. You can always physically do it and keep pushing yourself no matter what, because this team has a really great support system. So I'd say just stick with it.”

Volleyball - Carlee Clawson 

“Listen to your coaches and really enjoy the whole season. Just enjoy every moment of it and don't take things too harshly.”

Soccer - Kale Scheel (Co-Captain)

“Really soak in all of your time. You always hear people say it goes by quickly, and really does in your senior year. Just really value your time with the players, your teammates, they're gonna become some of the best people you have in your life.”

Golf - Jojo Kutch 

“My advice is if you're thinking about joining the golf team I would honestly practice the entire summer, because it's a really difficult sport and maybe even get lessons so you are prepared for the season.”

Football - Kale Conway 

“My advice would be not to take everything for granted, because your senior year comes a lot quicker than you would think, work hard, and cherish every single moment you have.”

Tennis - Alayna Dostal 

“Stick with the sport, it's really tough at first; there's a lot of rules. It's very different from all the other sports because it's very complicated. I recommend sticking with it because it's super fun and everyone's really social and nice.”

Softball - Jadyn Barnes

“Always listen to your upperclassmen because they've had that experience and they've been through it already. Definitely just have a positive outlook and keep each other up.” 

See you next season, KHS Blogger, Britta Nielson.

On December 8th, Kearney High Schools NHS chapter held its Cookies, Cocoa, & Cramming event. This was Kendall Ernzen’s chapter project. A chapter project is an event that NHS hosts as an opportunity to help either the community or fellow students. 

“Cookies, Cocoa and Cramming was an opportunity for students to come to the library after school for three hours and get extra help on any missing assignments or homework,” said Samantha Swafford, NHS member. NHS Vice President Taylor Franklin stated, “ My favorite part of the event was mingling with friends but also getting some last minute studying done.” This event helped a lot of students with preparing for finals in a fun and effective way. Swafford continued, “I think that a lot of students benefited from this experience. I hope they continue this tradition because it benefited a lot of people who were too scared to ask for help, this kind of forced them to ask for help because everybody present wanted to help.” 

Happy Holidays, KHS Blogger, Britta Nielson.

   Kearney High Schools’ theater department just had their winter musical. They performed Newsies Jr. This show is a broadway award musical written by Harvey Fierstien and Alan Menken. It is based on real events and was originally a 90’s movie starring Christian Bale that was turned into a Broadway musical. 

   The story follows a young man in 1899 named Jack Kelly who leads his band of newsboys on a strike against the powerful Joseph Pulitzer for raising the price of papers. The boys sing many songs and go through a difficult and violent fight for their rights. There are many characters along the way that help them win their battle.

   Since the high schoolers did a junior version of the show, many roles could be swapped to include the many females that they have in their cast. This was useful because a majority of the theater program are females. They had performances starting February 14th that led up to closing night, which was February 20th. The show was quite successful, having had almost a full house at several performances.

   The directors, cast, and crew have worked since July to put this show together. There was lots of physical exertion happening with all of the jumps, flips, stage fighting, tap dancing, and choreography. So much thought, dedication, detail, and money goes into putting on a production, so having the community come and support their work was pretty great for all of those who participated.

Newsies Forever, KHS Blogger, Jolie Conner (aka Crutchie).

Last weekend, Kearney High School held Prom at the 1890 event center in Platte County. It was quite a success! Students showed up and showed out.

The dance itself is fun and all, but to me, prom is more about what you do before with your friends, dates, or whoever you’re going with. As for my group, we took pictures at the Kauffman Performing Arts Center and then had a nice dinner at Trezo Mare in KC. There were a lot of groups that went to Italian restaurants. Pictures and food are almost always included in everyone’s prom experience!

Prom Queen and King were announced about halfway through the dance. Jadyn Barnes and Landon Goepferich were the lucky winners. They collected their crowns and sashes, then had a very heart-warming dance together. Congratulations to them!

After prom was held at Powerplay, a lot of people went. The school reserved the whole place, and fun games were available for everyone to enjoy. It lasted until 3 am. I had to leave eventually but I still didn’t get home until 2. It was a very fun and tiring night, and I’m glad to have been a part of it. I hope everyone else who went had an awesome time!

Party it up, KHS Blogger, Jolie Conner

Kearney High School's broadcast news and BBN team took on the JEA convection this past April in San Francisco. JEA is the nation's largest and best gathering of scholastic journalists, advisers, and journalism teachers. Students who attend the convention, not only compete in competitions on and off-site but attend workshops to learn journalism from pros. From these workshops, students learned many valuable things about journalism. The team took home multiple national awards and recognitions from San Fran! 

San Fran was also a great opportunity for students to explore the city and see all of the sites. KHS students went on many bus tours to see and learn about the city, a hike in the legendary and beautiful Muir Woods, crossed both the Oakland Bridge and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, took a trolly across town, and toured Alcatraz. While in San Fran students bonded with their team; creating memories that will last a lifetime. 

With my heart left in San Fran, KHS Blogger, Britta Nielson