By Eli Solomon

The last time I wrote about AG, I went over how close they were as a community, but in this article, I have the privilege to talk about the AG team’s activities. On September 29th, nine FFA members made their judging debut at the Arkansas-Oklahoma State Fair, where they placed 6th overall. One of the judges, Nate Doshier, said that “The experience was amazing; I got to learn a lot of new things about judging livestock!” The floriculture (flower judging) team was the 3rd placed Oklahoma team and they placed 7th overall; good job, judges! Congratulations also go out to the Poteau Red Team who are state qualifiers in Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and the Poteau White Team for their fifth-place finish. Recently a group of AG students showed summer livestock at the Tulsa State Fair, Brooklyn Morris won the title of Reverse Division 1 AOB, Cord Clem placed 2nd, Whitney Reece placed 8th, and Wyatt Reece placed 13th. Kaylee Ward won 2nd place for the Greenhand quiz, qualifying her for state. As for upcoming events, from October 26th to the 30th the FFA officers will be at the National FFA Convention; Poteau’s very own Ashlyn Barnes and Brooklyn Morris will be part of the National FFA Chorus. Next month the skeet shooting team will be going to the Southeast Area Sporting Clays contest on November 3rd. On November 6th there will be a cattle show in Wilburton, then on the 17th, the skeet shooting team will meet once again for Sporting Clays State Finals. In December there will be a sheep and goat show on the 3rd. There will be an MFE leadership conference in Tulsa from the 4th to the 5th, and another one in Midwest city on the 11th and 12th.

By: Kaylee Rorabaugh

Photo Cred: Tom Brennan

Our high school academic team is off to a quick start. The competition are like a football game: it has four quarters, starters, and a winning team. Our Varsity team consists of seniors: captain Kenny Ni, Jahn Ocampo, Nina Zheng, and Amanda Zheng. Junior Jim Brennan, and sophomores Cooper Gilliam, Ethan McBee, Daniel Zheng, Beau Flanagan, and Grant Thomas. Varsity is 19-2 so far and have placed 4th out of 60 in the last two years at districts. The academic team covers just about every subject and are very quick thinkers. There are four quarters: the first and third quarters are called toss-up rounds, you answer 20 questions and anybody can buzz and answer the questions. The second and fourth quarters are lightning rounds, players try to answer 10 questions in one minute on one topic. They have 4 different tournaments, district seeding, regionals, area, then state.They go to district seatings October 11th, then regionals November 13th. The academic team has three matches every Thursday until December. Their coach is one of our history teachers, Tom Brennan. Mr. Brennan has been teaching at Poteau for 22 years and the coach for six. They meet during lunch time and after school to practice. Good luck to our academic team as they compete this evening in the district tournament.

By: The Pirate Log Staff

Congratulations to Stefany Snipes, a teacher at Poteau High School for being chosen for the Arvest Teacher Award. This is the sixth consecutive year for Arvest Bank to honor educators with their "We Love Teachers" campaign.

Arvest does this to show appreciation for the work teachers do, especially during a time of exceptional challenges in and out of the classroom.

Mrs. Snipes received a five hundred dollar prize to be used for classroom needs. Congratulations, Mrs. Snipes!

By: Colin Lynch

Poteau High School Choir has been around since the 1960’s and Mrs.Smedley has been the Choir Director for 18 years. “What do you like the most about being Choir Director, and what do you dislike about being Choir Director?” “My absolute favorite thing about choir is the variety of students that choir attracts. Choir is made up of kids who live for choir for sure, but also a lot of kids that just enjoy singing and want to be a part of a group. They come from different backgrounds and have a host of different talents and abilities that have nothing to do with singing, but for 45 minutes a day we make some music together. The only things I dislike about choir are fundraising and saying goodbye to seniors at graduation.”

Throughout the year the Choir will have events and activities such as All State Auditions, Fall Follies, Christmas Pageant, Circle the State With Song, District and State Solo and Ensemble, Spring Sing, and Spring Concert. All District Honor Choir Auditions are Saturday, September 18, 2021 at Muskogee High School. Recently, PHS students auditioned for the S.E. All-District Honor Choir. This Honor choir is for students willing to work in class and outside of class to learn two pieces of music and then audition alone in front of a group of judges. The audition fee is $10, which is the student’s responsibility. This group is a big part of PHS culture and Mrs. Smedley embraces the chaos. “Choir is the most hectic, but loving community of students I have ever been in.'' “The best thing about choir is getting to show our love for music, and the worst thing is practicing for the All-District and All-State.”

By: Kaylee Rorabaugh

Even though it is pretty early in the school year, The PHS drama program is in full swing. Heather Slater who took over the program last year and is ready for a productive second year has told us so much.

Mrs.Slater became the drama teacher because she “ loved drama growing up and encourages people to come pledge and be a part of the fun!” A pledge is for new people who want to do drama. So much goes into being in drama, They have a state officer, state officers are elected by the State Thespian Board Members. Those applications for becoming a state office take place in the spring during the State Thespian Festival.

They do a one-act competition; A one-act is a short play that has multiple scenes but not more than one act. It is shorter than a full-length play. However they decided not to do it this year so those dates on our list of forensics events can be crossed out; however, they play to present around two different one-acts for audiences this year and are looking for more pledges. To be inducted into the Thespian Troupe, a student must have been involved in at least 100 hours of theatre (either on stage or helping with behind the scenes).

Anyone interested in theatre may become a pledge, but only those who have invested time in theatre may be officially inducted into the society.

By Colin Lynch

Ms.Hopper has been teaching the art class for thirteen years, and also graduated in 1998 from Poteau High School. Teaching art is challenging in a normal year, let alone during a pandemic. It helps to focus on the positive aspects. “My favorite thing is developing relationships with the students and sharing new ideas with them.” Ms. Hopper likes to remind students that art is universal and that there is a large community beyond our town. She likes to focus on “New ideas about art and how to express yourself and that there is another world out there besides Poteau.” However, art in any school is not without its challenges. “What I dislike is not having a big enough room to do bigger projects, and when I win the lottery I’m going to build a computer lab for art.” She did give some insight on what might be accomplished if there was a larger, more modern space for the program. She would make “sculptures, ceramics, large scale paintings, and other things that require a large space for working” her priority.

The Art Club will be decorating for homecoming which is October 1st, and they will also be making the visuals for the Christmas Pageant this year. “Anyone is welcome to join the Art Club. If you're interested at all in art or the community, come check it out and be a part of us.” In her final parting wisdom, Hopper noted, “Yeet” “Yeet this year into the sun, but in a good way.”

It’s obvious that her colorful personality and quirky sense of humor keeps the mood in her room light. “I like art, because I like Mrs.Hopper. The best thing about art is Ms.Hopper, and the worst thing is when Ms.Hopper yells at me for laughing,” says sophomore Kyleigh Ramirez.

by Eli Solomon

Poteau High School has many new teachers this school year, one of those being our new science teacher, Ms. Karla Cook. She applied for the position after visiting friends and family in this area. While this is her first year teaching at PHS, she previously taught at Bentonville High School for six years. Ms Cook’s inspiration to become a teacher came after seeing students' excitement during her presentation while working for the City of Rogers. As a teacher, Ms. Cook’s goal is to “share her passion for science with students.” She also stated “I want to spread the love of science to everybody.” When asked what her favorite part of teaching is, she replied, “The interaction with the kids and getting to see that lightbulb moment it’s the best feeling in the world.” Outside of school, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, floating, yoga, hiking, and reading. When asked if she is enjoying her time at PHS, she stated, “Yes, it has revived my love of teaching.” Welcome to PHS, Ms. Cook!

Tuesday, September 14th, 2021

By Eli Solomon

PHS has added a staff member to its Agriculture Education program, Mr. Tanner Jarrett.

His hobbies include golfing, fishing, and building his new home. Since his junior year, he has always wanted to teach to help improve students’ lives and watch them grow through the National FFA organization. He chose to teach Ag Education because there are many opportunities for students, not just showing livestock and farming. Mr Jarrett enjoys “Seeing the progress students make toward their education.” When asked if he was nervous about his first year teaching, he replied, “Not at all; I have heard from multiple sources how great the students at Poteau are. I have seen over the last few weeks how true this really is. I’m beyond excited to keep this great year rolling. He went on to say “the student base as well as the teachers have welcomed me with open arms and have given me the best experience possible for my first year.” Thank you, Mr Jarrett, for your kind words. PHS is honored to have you!