Oct 6, 2022

The Norris Quiz Bowl Teams competed on Wednesday, September 14, at the Literature Bowl, with the A-Team winning first place. The Seward Civic Center hosted the tournament, which consisted of round-robin games in the morning and single elimination tournament games in the afternoon. Mrs. Becca Pair coaches the team.

“The best thing about quiz bowl is being able to have fun while also learning new things and the feeling of knowing something not many people know,” senior Autum Thurber said. “Everyone was contributing and the freshman pleasantly surprised me with their knowledge.”

The A-Team was captained by junior Pete Wasser and included seniors Mason Severson and Grayson Palermo and juniors Izzy Lewis and Miranda Davis. The B-Team was captained by Thurber and included senior Autumn Weaver and freshmen Hailey Crouse, Abigayle Parrott and Logan Bigford.

“The best thing about quiz bowl is definitely the inside jokes based around obscure questions and incorrect answers,” Davis said. “It’s that you develop with the other people on your team, as well as other schools that you see at competitions.”

Because it was Literature Bowl, it varied from regular quiz bowl tournaments in the sense that the questions were only about books, poetry, grammar and other similar content. The A-Team won all six of their games against other large division schools. The only game that was not a runaway victory for first-seed Norris was against second-seed Gretna in the championship match.

“The best thing about quiz bowl is the people and the chemistry that you build,” Bigford said. “If you are a freshman or even a senior, all our minds together make the team so extraordinary.”

Practices are held every Tuesday and Wednesday. The team reads through and answers questions in preparation for the tournaments. While there’s no real way to know what the questions are going to be, they can still prepare for what competition feels like. The more random knowledge a player has, the better they can potentially do in games.

“We are all crazy, so it's mostly us bouncing our enthusiasm for things off each other,” Parrott said. “We are all different kind of nerds, and I think it's amazing that we are able to come together and compete.”

After the first tournament of the year, the quiz bowl team continues to meet for biweekly practice. The team is competing again at the Women’s Club Bowl in Seward on October 5, which is a tournament just for the women competitors. And then it’s History Bowl at Concordia University on October 19, which is just questions relating to history. The quiz bowl will have matches spanning across the entire school year and will have an opportunity to qualify for state competition.

Norris Marching Band has officially begun their competition season, kicking it off with Capital City Competition at Seacrest Field on October 1st. Before lifting their instruments to compete, the band went to Pius X to show off their skills. On September 17th, Pius X held a clinic to help a few select bands get some feedback before the official start to their season. Besides Norris, Bennington, Pius X, and Lincoln Southwest performed for two judges. Each judge recorded their thoughts on their performances and scored them thoroughly. After each band performed, the judges began a critique.

Norris performed right as the sky began to cloud and the rain began to drizzle. Keeping their cool, the band performed two out of four movements. One judge commented, “Do something better today than you did yesterday,” so they did. Norris worked to follow every instruction given, even if that meant rolling on the ground for a few minutes! After the clinic, the band has worked to put together their third and fourth movements. Drum Major, Izzy Lewis, says, “It was such a fantastic opportunity for the band to be able to experience a mini competition of sorts, before the real deal. The clinic was super beneficial and it’s something we haven’t received as a marching band before, so everyone was extremely grateful to have the new insight.”. The Norris Marching Band’s theme for the year is “Empire City.”. The show is meant to represent the growing hustle and bustle of New York City. It’s all fun and games until Senior Heath Pummel yells “Eh! I’m wa’kin ‘ere!”

For years, Norris High School’s Student Council has met each Wednesday morning to discuss weekly agendas. The Student Council is a wonderful opportunity for the student body to freely share their input into everyday occurrences here at school. The beginning of the school year is always a busy time, with clubs and sports kicking off, alongside the adjustments every student must make to accommodate for simply being back at school.

The Norris Student Council presents many events throughout the year. One of their most notable events they assist with is Homecoming Week, occurring this year from October 3rd through the Homecoming football game on October 7th. During Homecoming week, there are various dress-up days with themes voted upon by the student body. From “Soccer Mom vs. BBQ Dad Day” to “Adam Sandler Day,” these themes are filled to the brim with Gen-Z flair. Hallways are decorated for each grade as Mario Kart tracks, with Bowser’s Castle for the seniors, Luigi’s Mansion for the juniors, Rainbow Road for the sophomores, and Moo Moo Meadows for the freshmaen. A district-wide parade includes floats from various clubs, activities, and sports. Most importantly, royalty is decided upon by ballots sent to the students. Homecoming week is an amazing opportunity to get creative and show your school spirit!

In addition to Homecoming, StuCo organized a breast cancer awareness fundraiser, where anyone could buy pink t-shirts, crewnecks, and hoodies, and all proceeds are donated to breast cancer awareness. At the varsity football game on October 14th, the theme is pink-out, and high school students are highly encouraged to wear pink to show their support! We are also lining luminaires by the football field, so bring yours by 7 p.m. to the game, or students can bring it to their building’s office by noon on the same day to participate.

As we enter the season of fall, we also begin to exit the cross-country season. The Junior Varsity and Varsity teams have both completed six meets, leaving just one more meet for JV and three for Varsity. The last meet both the JV and Varsity runners will compete in is the Eastern Midland Conference (EMC), which will take place at Bennington on Thursday, October 6 at 4:00 in the afternoon.

As a cross-country runner, I can attest that it has been a successful season. Justin McGill, the Norris High School Cross Country Team’s Head Coach and also a teacher at Norris High School, can also vouch for the strong performance the team has put on this year. He says, “It’s been a good season. I think we’ve achieved a lot of the goals we set and we’re looking good going into the final stretch of the season with conference, districts and state.”

Rachel Gorake, another of our coaches and Norris High School teachers, had only good things to say when asked about this year’s season. “I think it’s been pretty amazing. We have a great group of kids to work with and their work ethic is second to none.”

A big reason for such a positive season is the sense of community the cross-country environment provides. There have been many opportunities for team bonding throughout the season including, team dinners and the car wash fundraiser.

In fact, one of the best parts about cross-country is the friends you make while running and the supportive environment that is created. Chloe Jones, a senior on the team who has been running for the past six years, says her favorite part about cross-country is “spending time with friends and team dinners.”

Shea Sabata-Shreve, a freshman runner, says, “My favorite thing about the season has definitely been cheering on everyone.”

Unfortunately, the end of a fantastic cross-country season will pass us by quickly, but we have next year to look forward to, and as Jones says: “It has been a very good season full of good memories.”