Story and Image by Dawn Anderson

Posted 12/27/24

This year is coming to an end and here's how our OHS students and staff celebrate their Christmas and New Years. 

Crisa Seals, OHS business teacher, has many favorite holiday traditions with her family.

“I love to watch Christmas movies, shows like classic ones, cooking traditional meals, building gingerbread houses, matching pjs with my family, going to look at Christmas lights, drink lots of hot chocolate, and to play with our new elf on the shelf, Snoop on the Stoop, and our baby elf,” Seals said. 

Seals favorite side dish is cheesy potatoes and sugar cookies. Her favorite Christmas song is “Hallelujah” By Pentatonix, which she listens to while playing games with her family.

Donnavynn Southall, junior, celebrates his New Years by hanging with family and friends. Top of his list is to play Fortnite and get a victory royal. 

Southall wishes, “To get better grades and get better at fortnite,” for his New Year’s resolution. He is also looking forward to both becoming a senior and turning 17 in 2025.

 Adalyn Dietrich, freshman, goes to her dad’s for Christmas in Mississippi with her older sister Maranda Dietrich, senior, and her youngest brother, Wyatt Dietrich.

Jacey Brown, sophomore, goes to the Fun House Pizza place in Independence around Christmas time to see everyone in her family. 

OHS students and staff sound like they will be having plenty of fun this holiday season. 

Kids adore going to a Unified Prom because it gives them somewhere to be themselves and not be worried about being judged. 

“Only certain people, special needs kids because it gives them [a place] to be able to be themselves and dance how they want and not be worried about ´normal´ kids,” Victoria Murphy-Maun, junior, said when asked who would be in attendance. 

Unified Prom has become an annual event. It is a project organized by DECA for Odessa students as well as students from area schools.

“It’s good for special needs kids to have a space for them to dance, to be themselves and have fun, not having to be worried about getting judged,” Samuel Kelley-Horton, senior, said.

Murphy-Maun enjoys helping students who attend Unified Prom to do this.

“I can hang out with friends and dance around with them, we can act funny and take pictures with each other and keep the pictures forever," Murphy-Maun, said.

Murphy-Maun also enjoys getting a break from schoolwork and classes to spend time with her friends.

“It is fun to get out of school. You don't have to deal with the drama at school or the class work you get one day free of doing no work,” Murphy-Maun, said.

Students like Kelly-Horton and Murphy-Maun participate in Unified Prom to bring all types of students together in a celebration. Kelly-Horton was present for one of the more entertaining moments of celebration with his friends.

“One of my friends fell over cause she was dancing really crazy and it made me smile. Cause she was acting crazy,” Kelley-Horton said.

The dance was held December 12, 2024. A special thanks to all students and staff who helped make this event a success.

Freshman Academy is a new program at OHS during Bulldog Block.

"Freshman Academy is a new program we are trying out this year to help teach freshmen important skills that will help them successfully manage their high school careers," Amber Deaton, ELA teacher and Freshman Academy advisor, said.

Jillian Martin, freshman has found herself enjoying Freshman Academy so far this year. "At the beginning of the school year, it helped us learn more about the school and where things are."

Alivia Davis, freshman, had a different perspective. "While doing Freshman Academy it prevents you from going to different classes to do assignments or work on projects."

Deaton said she prefers Freshman Academy over regular Bulldog Block. "The structure we provide them and te specific lessons we teach them that they won't necessarily receive in a regular classroom due to lack of time and not being content-specific for most teachers," are a few of the things Deaton appreciates.

"Our teachers wanted to have a curriculum that helped freshmen become better acclimated to high school," Robbie Shephard, principal, said.

There are currently 10 Freshman Academy advisors this year.

The Chamber is not the only group preparing for the lighting ceremony, Jaida Starchman, junior, is also preparing with the high school choir.

“I believe we started working on them [song] in the middle of August, if not at the start of school, but one of them we didn't start until a month or so ago,” Starchman said.

While choir is busy preparing and for many choir members, this marks the first time they have performed at the lighting ceremony since elementary school. 

“Typically the concert choir doesn’t perform in the lighting ceremony, so I haven’t sung in it since 5th grade choir,” Rylie Shonfelt, junior, said.

Natalie Doney, sophomore, learned that she will perform in the lighting ceremony very early. 

“I have known that we were going to perform in the lighting ceremony since we got our first piece for it, which was at the beginning of school year,” Doney said.

Starchman has performed in two lighting ceremonies with the band and has had the same favorite song to perform each year.

“Still, Still, Still because it's the song we perform every year and I was introduced to it my freshman year and have loved it ever since,” Starchman said.

“I'm kind of nervous but only because I know Chicago soon after but I think we are ready for the Christmas parade, it's one of the easier ones I feel like,” Jaida Starchman, Junior, said. 

The band for the parade started playing at the old creamery on Dryden Street and ended at railroad park. 

The band members such as Amber Salcido Garcia, Sophomore, Makayla Cole, Freshman and Norah Eaton, Freshman, said they are excited but also scared for the Christmas Parade and they all agree that the Christmas Parade is the easiest and funest parade that they have to do.  

 “I’m super excited! The Christmas parade is my favorite parade of the year! The song we spin to is one of my favorite Christmas songs and I love the choreo the guard does,” Lily Heflin, Junior color guard member, said. 

Every year the Christmas Parade and Lightning Ceremony is a good way to bring the community together, and we look forward to seeing what other events are going to be happening. 

Tmoblie Friday Night Lights

By Kyleigh Tye 10/30/24

One million dollars in prizes is what OHS is competing for in the T-Mobile Friday Night Lights competition this fall.

This is a nationwide contest that T-Mobile has created to give away money and market their service. Jessica Wade, Marketing teacher, and DECA sponsor, gave the opportunity to her Sports Marketing class to get OHS the money.

“It was our project in marketing that we did trying to promote the school to get money for our football fields and we are trying to share how our Friday Night Lights are great,” Kaylyn Seals, sophomore, said.

Seals and Lily Bellis, a sophomore, decided to take on the responsibility of making videos and sharing the news about this competition with the community. Although this began as a project for the Sports Marketing class, anyone can create videos and participate. 

Crest Ridge is one of 16 finalists for the large prize. 

To spread the news, “you can tag T-Mobile in the posts that are made, repost, and share the videos that have been made,” Seals explained. 

Crest Ridge is in 4th place at the time of publication with 67,955 likes.

Homecoming candidates express excitement and doubt at their nomination and likelihood for winning. 

Content created by Gracie Harget and Claire Fieth

Floats kept with this year's theme while still being original “We want it to be its own kind of thing; we don’t want it to be exactly like the senior float”  said Makayla Cole, freshman class president. 

Many people helped out with the creation and planning of the floats. “Ms Sanders is like our lead helper,”  said Makayla Cole, “she's a good teacher, and she likes planning things”. Ms Sanders assisted with planning and making forms to see who wanted to help out with the freshman float.

By: Izzy Smith

Pictures by Yearbook and Growler Staff

10/31/24

Under the Sea themed dress up days built up the Homecoming dance hosted by OHS on Saturday, October 5th. 8 pm to 10 pm in the gym. 

Multiple people such as Kara Smith, a history teacher and the Student Council sponsor at OHS, Grace Smith, senior President of Student Council, and Adrienne Cole, Biology teacher of 17 years at OHS, and many others dressed up for this year's dress up days. Smith and the rest of the student council chose the Under the Sea theme because they thought it was a fun idea and would be a nice change from the themes in past years. It took 1 hour during bulldog block that week and 3 hours on Homecoming day to set up for the dance. 

“I am excited for the ‘Under the Sea Scholars’, I can't wait to see what teachers dress up like students and what students dress up like teachers,” Smith said. 

“The dress up days for this year are great and they are easy to participate with and promote school spirit,” Cole said. 

Cole's daughter Makyala, freshman, said her eyes hurt after dressing up like her mom because she isn’t a cheetah print or dress person, but she did think it was fun to dress up like each other. 

Cole said she thought it was fun and unique and she was comfortable. 

Monday 9/30 dress up day was Fin-Tastic Duos; dress up with friends to show unique styles and make a splash. Tropical Tuesday 10/1 dress in bright, beachy colors with Hawaiian shirts! Wednesday 10/2 Under the Sea Scholars dress like a teacher or student. Thursday 10/3  Bikers vs. Surfers channel your inner teen beach Movie. Friday 10/4 School Spirit/ Under the Sea dress in either Bulldog Gear or Homecoming Gear. 

"Homecoming is always a hit,” Smith said. “The hardest part about being a teacher and the student council instructor is maintaining everything at once, trying to balance out school and student council. The separation of home life and school life.” 

Participation this year was at an all time high for Homecoming. We look forward to seeing what students come up with for Courtmat.

Micah Boyer senior decided to paint her parking spot yellow with a hazard sign saying “warning hazardous actions” with black footprints around it. 

“I am a very clumsy person by nature and tend to act, well hazardous. Before I came up with the painting of the bottom of my shoes to create footprints, I already accidentally did it with the yellow paint,” Boyer said. 

Some seniors painted their parking spots after things that helped them through high school.

“The album cover for the color and the shape by the Foo Fighters,” Jackson Baker, senior, said. “The Foo Fighters are my favorite band in the world and the songs on the album got me through high school,” Baker said. 

Senior Kayla Hesterberg painted Winnie the Pooh. “School can be stressful, but when I have a character from my childhood telling me I’m strong enough it gets a little better every day,” Hesterberg said. 

Senior Aiven Miller plays on the football team. He did his parking spot centered around football. “It has a black background with two red end zones. One says 'ATM' and the other says 'Miller.' It has an 'O' in the middle with the number two,” Miller said. “I play football and I am number two. I put 'ATM' in the top end zone because that’s what the guys on the team call me.”

Haley Burke, senior, did a Spotify cover of her senior year. “I made it on Canva and I really like music. I wanted to include a lot of things that represent me in the album cover section,” Burke said. 

Abigail Bainbridge, senior, made her parking spot a Hollywood star sign.

“It’s pink and It’s an inside joke with my family because I’m the dramatic one,” Bainbridge said. 

The senior parking spots were a great turnout for the history club.