Fall Edition, 2022

Marching band’s hard work to turn Ready Player One from virtual to a reality

by Logan Daingerfield

For years, the marching band has been a backbone in the community at Newton High School, as well as the community of Newton Township. Band members spend months practicing the music and choreography with the goal of putting on the best show possible. The people in marching band are passionate about their craft, and hours upon hours of effort, have culminated in this years set, titled Ready Player One.

Ready Player One is a show created by Drum Major Billy Widgren. It includes the songs “Daft Punk Medley”, “The Hymn of Acxiom”, and “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark.” Music was the first priority when creating the show, and while using that music, a narrative was constructed. Choreography helped portray that narrative in the band's performance.

Optional practices began in early summer, to give members who felt that they needed it a chance to get their bearings before the season began. Mandatory practice began in mid August, which is referred to as Band Camp. The band goes to every single football game, including playoffs and state games. In addition to the irreplaceable presence at the games, they also participate in competitions, taking second place in a competition at Vernon High School last year.

On October 8, the band wrapped up an exciting weekend with a 5th place award at the big competition of the year. “We debuted our new uniforms on Friday night at the football game versus Hackettstown,” explained Band Director, Mr. O’Toole. The band also “followed up with our best performance of the year at the Sparta marching band competition.” In the same competition Mr. O’Toole was awarded best band director.

In order to ensure the marching band's success, there is a hierarchy of students that oversee and assist the other students. At the top of the ladder are the drum majors. The drum majors oversee everyone in the band, and conduct during the shows. This year's drum majors are Billy Widgren, Yoshi Grasso, and Olivia Webster. Beneath them are the assistant drum majors, Eliza Halteman, Julian Tankel, and Teddy Mills. To become a drum major, students apply when they are sophomores, and after they are chosen, work under the drum majors their junior year, so when they enter their senior year they are fully prepared to take the reins. Each section also has a captain. Captains have more specific responsibilities, assisting the people in their sections, and making sure all of them know their music.

In addition to her role as assistant drum major, Eliza Halteman is the color guard captain. She has a hand in the choreography of the shows, and guides the other guard members to greatness. The guard starts practice at the same time as the rest of the band, where the new members spend time learning the moves, and the entire guard does drills in order to improve their synchronization, as well as their more advanced moves.

The members of the Newton High School marching band are determined to bring excitement to their community, and hours are spent perfecting their performances. “I find that marching band can be a very good thing in students' lives,” added Mr. O’Toole. Additionally, “they can gain a lot of success and a lot of positive skills out of it, and they can learn things about themselves that they didn’t know they could do.” The marching band is grateful for the response they have received from the community in return. With music and performance, the community of Newton High School grows stronger, and the marching band is largely to thank for that.

NHS marching band performing during half time at the homecoming football game.

JP Reyes , Olivia Webster, Teddy Mills, Stephen Schmitt
Photo by Jordan Short

Spring musical, 9 to 5, gears up for a successful season

by Allison Iliff

The Newton High School Drama Department has been a staple of the school for many years. From their fall plays to spring musicals, the students thrive on stage. Last year, for the first time in 22 years, the theater department had a sold out show. The Wizard of Oz was a show stopping production that left the town in awe of its performers. People who have never been in a production likely do not know the ins and outs of it. To get an inside look on everything there is to know about joining, we interviewed the most influential people behind the scenes. Mr. Scullin has been directing the Newton High School productions for 23 years. When asked what kept him coming back to it, he responded, “The combination of, I have very few theater opportunities, given my family and my job, so it is a way to continue to have theater in my life. Number two, I am very drawn to seeing my students have the same experience I had in high school because when I was in high school I absolutely loved it, and I loved that time, and I loved the comradery, and I loved everything about the process. So, when I have students who get to have that same experience, that's what I love about it. And then, there's just the magic of theater that no matter what aspect of it that you’re involved in, it’s a very intoxicating experience, and you just want to keep going back and sort of having that experience again and again and again.”

This year, the NHS stage is showcasing 9 to 5 written by Patricia Resnick and composed by Dolly Parton. According to Mr. Scullin, “9 to 5 was a movie that was created in the 1980’s to bring attention to the inequality of women in the workplace. And, at the time it was a very, very big film; Dolly Parton was in it and it had a lot of other actors that I know, but I don’t know if you guys will know. But, it was a very popular movie at the time. As we look to choose plays, we sort of look at the program and we look at the people that we have, so if we have 98% women and 2% men, it doesn’t make sense to look for a show that has a male protagonist in it. You find that you lose an enormous amount of opportunity for the large majority of your cast. The problem is that there are very few pieces out there that feature female protagonists, so your list becomes very restrictive in terms of finding ways to feature the majority of your student body when there’s just nothing out there that is for them. So, we certainly felt that it was topical in terms of empowering women; we looked at our program and said, ‘Hey, this is a show that actually has female protagonists’, and we felt like given the makeup of who we had in our program that this would be a good route to go.”

There are a lot of moving parts to a production. While what's happening on stage is integral and important, there are other factors that often go overlooked. Mr. O’Toole is the conductor for the musical. Each year, he finds talented student musicians who are willing to put in the work to make the show come to life. You may be asking yourself, “Why should I join the pit?” well, Mr. O’Toole has the answer. “Because it’s awesome. I mean, no matter what role anyone else plays in the musical, we are the only ones that are visible the entire show; from beginning to end. Nothing starts without us, nothing ends without us. It’s great!”

The final moving piece behind the scene is Mr. Malloy. He is new to the Newton Stage, with this upcoming musical being his third. As the choir director, his job is to make sure that the show comes alive through the songs that the students perform. His favorite part of putting on a show is watching his students grow throughout the making of the production. Mr. Malloy had an interesting answer when asked why students should join the musical. “Why not? It’s so much fun! There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing else like it that you can do here, and musicals you can do the rest of your life so this is a great opportunity to get a really good experience. But also, for most people their high school musical is the biggest kind of production they will ever do! It’s hard to do these things; you can’t just do them on your own. This is a very limited opportunity that everyone should take advantage of if they like to sing, if they like to dance, if you like musicals but you’re not sure if you’d be good in them, come try it. You don’t have to be the star; you can just hang out in the chorus and really learn from everyone else and see where it goes.”

Don’t believe the teachers? That’s fine! Take it from someone just like you. Thaylor Sibblies is this year's Butter Award winner. The Butter Award is an award that was created by students in 2008 who felt that people would rather watch butter melt than watch them on stage. The students instead needed to bring the butter to the show and let their energy melt it. From there the Butter Award was created and would be presented to the actor who brought energy and positivity to the process. Thaylor describes the Butter Award as “[An award that] is given to someone who shows the most spirit, goes in everyday motivating everyone to do better!” Thaylor decided to join the musical for two reasons. He wanted to step out of his comfort zone, and he wanted to be with and make more friends. He achieved both after joining the musical. We asked him what he would say to students who are on the fence about joining, and this is what he had to say. “Oh my gosh they should totally do it; it’s so much fun! Don’t think of it as doing it for other people, do it for yourself! You can build other connections off of that. That’s why you should join.”

All of these participants have been a part of the musical in some way or another in their own personal lives. They know the ins and outs from both an outsider and insider's perspective. They describe it as a magical and an intoxicating experience that you only get with musical theater. If you want to be a part of something much bigger than yourself that excites and entertains others, then join this year's production of 9 to 5.

Newton Robotics builds their way to the top

by Logan Daingerfield

A new school year brought with it a new beginning for the Newton High School robotics team, Aperture. After Mr. Hoffman's retirement, Mr. Casqueira stepped in to take his place as advisor for the team. With his leadership, and the innovation of both new and returning members, the team shows promise as they continue to build their way to the top.

Several robotics competitions take place over the course of any given year. No two robotics competitions are exactly the same, usually asking for a number of different things, including shooting basketballs, to racing other robots. Competitions can take anywhere from a week to months to prepare for. The members spend hours building and perfecting their robots, innovating with often limited materials. A single competition can take days to complete. Competitions are chaotic, and are often stressful environments. Even so, the experience is rewarding, as teams are rewarded for their efforts, and have an opportunity to expand their knowledge on the craft.

In addition to competitions, Aperture is also involved in a number of community events. In early October, the team went to New Jersey Manufacturing Day. This is an event for manufacturers and industry workers, and it gave Aperture a chance to get a feel for the career opportunities a club like this provides for them.

Thanks to robotics, students are presented with a number of opportunities after high school. Being in robotics gives students a chance to learn a variety of skills that will serve them well in their careers. Mr. Cas makes an effort to make sure that during a student's time in robotics, they learn several skills, such as coding, as well as how to properly use certain tools. Additionally, the members partake in networking, grant writing, graphic design, and public outreach. These are skills that will assist them in any career, whether it has to do with robotics or not.

The team has already participated in their first competition of the year, an offseason event at Bridgewater Mall. This competition was one of many events hosted by FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” FRC hosts many of the competitions that Aperture participates in. Starting in January, the team will have six weeks to prepare a robot for FRC’s design competition.

Mr. Casqueira is new to the school this year, and he has taken the mantle of robotics advisor. “I’m very fortunate to have a well-established team, because they are helping me learn the in and outs, and the normal procedures.” Mr. Casqueira said about becoming the advisor. He continued with, “That’s not saying that I need to adopt all of the traditions that we have. Of course I’m going to take all the data and history that I’ve been learning from the team…and either continuing on with it, or if I feel like something can be done better, I am going to have that conversation with the team as well, to see if that’s a route we want to take.”

At the end of October there is a competition called the Power Racing Series, where the team races a small electrical cart. In addition, on November 12, Aperture will be competing in the Brunswick Eruption event. The robotics team continues to show promise for the coming season, and many more, as they build upon their skills and experience, in order to achieve new heights.

Have you heard about the YERDS?

by Jordan Short

You are probably wondering what a Yerd is. According to the yearbook staff they are the coolest people around.

YERD–Yearbook Nerd

Mrs. Cuozzo is the head artistic director of the yearbook with 19 years of experience. She has been the advisor for the Newton High yearbook for 16 years. Yearbook is a year long team effort in all aspects. The yearbook staff help create the design and assemble the yearbook. Mrs. Cuozzo stated, “That it takes a lot of brainstorming and researching to create the cover and theme of the book” and her team helps develop it.

The 2021 yearbook cover design was ranked in the top 1% of the Herff Jones catalog with the theme: Pivot. “We had to turn or pivot our approach to how we created that year's book, so we turned that into our theme,” Cuozzo added.

This year's theme is serve. “We were coming up with ideas about food, diners and acts of service so we incorporated it into our high school and turned it into this year's cover,” Mrs. Cuozzo adds. If you see any of the Yerds in the halls make sure to congratulate them and thank them for all the hard work they do to help us document our high school journeys.

Newton High School's 2021 year book photo that placed in the top 1% in the Heir of Jones catalog.
Courtesy of Mrs. Cuozzo

Newton High School Book Club continues to thrive

by Shannon Rittie

The book club at Newton High School is continually growing. This great club was originally created at Halsted Middle School by Mrs. Marmara in 2013. She originally started the book club because in the middle school there were enthusiastic readers. There were two book clubs because there were so many people who wanted to be a part of it. When Mrs. Marmara moved to Newton High School in 2017, she had students who had been in the book club at Halsted that wanted a book club at Newton as well. Originally, the book club was for the students and then teachers started to want to join the book club. Ms. Gilchrist joined first, and then Mrs. Moretz. As the years went by a lot of staff joined. As of right now, the book club consists of about 10 students, with the potential of up to 18. The book club reads one book per month.

The members read on their own and then get together usually once a month and talk for about an hour. At first, Mrs. Marmara chose the books, but now choosing the books is a joint effort between the members. “The good thing about book club is it's flexible and it's a nice way to add an activity to a resume without it being a huge time commitment if you're busy,”stated Mrs. Marmara. The main goal of creating and continuing the book club is to encourage reading for fun and to build relationships.

In the middle of COVID, the club was mostly staff. Few students joined. However, during this time, one student asked to meet every week because it gave them something to do in the midst of COVID. Overall, the book club is a great way to read some great books as well as build great relationships between students and teachers.