Sports

2024-2025 PAHS Competitive Spirit Team

Photo contributed by Kara Leslie

Chucktastic Cheer Team

Written by: Shumaker, Nathalie - Reporter

February 26, 2025

The cheer team recently won their first D9 Championship in the history of PAHS. Because they won the D9 Championship, they are now going to States! These young ladies worked very hard for this victory and are amazing cheerleaders. I interviewed Head Coach Kara Leslie about this great news.

1. How excited is everyone to go to States?

“The varsity cheer team is extremely grateful for the opportunity to advance to the state championship. This is PAHS's first District IX Competitive Spirit title and only the second bid to states in school history. The team is excited to represent the school and showcase their hard work and dedication to the sport.”

2. Is there anything you would like the team to know?

“As the coach, I would like the team to know how impressed I am with their determination to be the best athletes they can be. They work hard and deserve recognition.”

Leslie also has advice for anyone who wants to join the cheer team. “My advice for anyone who wishes to join the cheer team is to do it! Cheer is a challenging, exciting, and intense sport. Oftentimes, many people only see what the cheerleaders do on the sidelines; Competitive Spirit is more than that. We will hold rec practices beginning in the spring and encourage any and all interested students to try it out!” 

Anyone can join the chucktastic cheer team. We hope our cheerleaders have a fun time at States!

London and Toven take on Hershey

Written by: Wisnesky, Emily - Editor-in-Chief

December 17, 2024

Lady Chucks Tennis players Addison London and Olivia Toven traveled to Hershey on Friday, November 1st to represent their team in the State Doubles Tournament. The pair lost their first match 0-6 and 0-6, but the sport is about much more than winning for these girls.  

“We take it as something that is fun to us, rather than something that is so serious we lose our minds,” Toven says.

This is London and Toven’s first year playing together in doubles. Two key factors in their success are teamwork and communication. They adjust to each other’s strengths and weaknesses day by day to be the best team possible. 

“Sometimes, depending on the day,” Toven says, “if [London] was stronger in the back and I was stronger at net, we would have her stay in the back and I would stay in the front as much as possible. If both of us were struggling up front, we would come back. We’d just try to play to how the day was going.”

Both girls have seen strides in their personal growth this year. London claims that her hits are much harder overall; Toven has seen improvements in the consistency of her serve.

After dominating the D9 AA Doubles Tournament, the girls knew the state-level competition would be a whole new playing field. They watched as players Emily McMahan and Chloe Presloid had been bested by the competition years before them. 

London hopes to see the team grow in future years and to “get further in states, possibly win.” 

Toven says, “Next year, since I lost in the singles final this year and got second, I would like to get first, but I’ll have to fight for that. I hope that we could go for doubles again and not have to play the returning state champs,” she says jokingly. 

Girls Wrestling: A Student-Led Initiative at PAHS

Written by: Brownlee, Avrey - Reporter

December 10, 2024

Sports are an important part of student life here at PAHS. One of the longest standing sports offered at the school is boys wrestling. However, until a student-led initiative on September 5th, 2023 took charge, there never was a girls wrestling team.

The Punxsutawney Area School Board approved the creation of a girls wrestling team after student wrestlers Jael Miller, Ellie Bodenhorn and Evelynn Neale attended the meeting and proposed the program.

Miller is a current senior at Punxsutawney and a PIAA state champ in girls’ wrestling. When asked what the most difficult part of getting the high school’s team approved was, Miller answered, “Getting the interest for wrestling up. We had to tell the girls that you don’t have to wrestle with boys if you don’t want to, and in the end just show them it’s not as bad as they think.”

Wrestling is a traditionally male dominated sport. The push to create this program has shown that girls are also interested and able to wrestle. Miller, Bodenhorn and Neale advocated these feelings with passion for their sport, while breaking stereotypes in the process. 

The girls on the team are a very close-knit group. Bodenhorn, a sophomore, was asked what gave her a passion for wrestling. Bodenhorn answered, “My whole family wrestled which is why I started, but I stick with it now because of the people.”

The team started with just a few girls wrestling with the boys team, which has now grown into Junior High and JV/Varsity teams of 14 girls. None of this would have been possible if the students did not have the determination they did to get the program started.