Jul 28, 2016
by Damian Jackson
The last track meet Woodlawn High had was the District Meet on April 20th. For the District Meet, Woodlawn came in third place for boys and girls, which contained events in sections such as throwing, like shot put or javelin, jumping, and running.
Individually, Brandon Williams finished first for the boy’s 400 meter dash, Alexis Martin finished first in the girl’s 3200 meter run, and Samaria Newton came in first for the 100 meter hurdles. As a group, Jordan Donald, Nicholas Bradley, Khidir Al-Mustafa, and Brandon Williams took first for the 4×400 relay team.
With the results from the District meet, Woodlawn had a total of 12 girls and 15 boys qualify for Regional, which was held on April 27th. At the Regional meet, track member Calah Williams qualified for State, which took place May 7th. Although no students placed at State, having students represent Woodlawn at that event is something to be proud of. Good job to all the Woodlawn Track Athletes for finishing the year strong!
Jul 28, 2016
by Rebeca Aguilar
The softball season ended with their last game against Livonia on April 7, 2016. Even though the panthers lost 9-4, the team worked together as a family and they tried to do their best and never gave up on the field.
After watching the game, I had the privilege to talk to the varsity pitcher, Lainey Eastham. She said, “This season was a lot of fun for me, even though we did not win some games. I not only made friends, but it brought us together as a family and you could see that in the last game of our season.” This season a lot of students went to see the softball games and cheered them on, which was good for the team. The Woodlawn students are excited to see what the softball team has for us next year.
Jul 28, 2016
by Fabian Coleman
The school’s powerlifting team is starting its 2016 Campaign and they have added some new things. The season started with an invitational event here at Woodlawn on the February 9th. The team is pretty excited about the upcoming season. Brendon Ladouph is one of the freshman on the team, and he appears to be pumped about the sport, even though this is his first year doing it. Senior Tyrrell Lewis is one of the leaders on this team and is very passionate about the sport and the team. Coach Baronage (known as Coach B) is the new powerlifting coach and has a new approach to the season and how the team is going to practice and perform. “The team is full of talent and potential,” said Coach B.
Most people believe the powerlifting team members are the strongest kids in the school, but students do not have to be the biggest or strongest to join the team. The powerlifting team is full of kids who have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, a freshman probably cannot train and do the same weights as a senior or even a junior, so of course they are going to do lighter weights than some of the other guys and girls on the team. That does not mean they should not join, it just means they need some practice! If you want to join then go see Coach B in the gym anytime of the day cause the team needs more people.
Jul 14, 2016
by Alexis Martin
Cross Country is a mentally tough sport. It includes a lot of running and hard work. It may not seem as complicated as most sports; we do not have any equipment other than running shoes and clothes. However, the races consist of hard work and dedication. Effort is needed because being able to run the entire three mile race over hills is difficult. Determination is needed because you must have more guts than any runner around you, and you must continue running even when you are extremely tired.
Woodlawn High School’s cross country team includes Coach Wallace and a total of thirty runners. The runners work hard Monday through Thursday to hopefully obtain a new personal record each race; races are normally held on Saturdays. The varsity races are three miles long. On a long day at practice, the runners will run up to eight miles around the school. They do this so when they run a three mile race, it does not seem as long. On a shorter day of practice, runners have speed days. The cross country runners will do up to twelve laps around the track, but it does not stop there. Not only do we have to run twelve laps, but the runners need to be at every fifty meters in a certain amount of time. Group 1 normally has to be there in ten seconds, while group 2 has to be there in twelve seconds. We have had many achievements this year: the girl’s record for Woodlawn High School was broken by Alexis Martin, and now the best three mile time is 21:23 minutes. Khidhr Al-Mustafa is also very close to the boy’s record. It is clear that the Cross Country runners put in a lot of hard work into both their practices and races.
Jul 6, 2016
By Fabian Coleman
Do you know what a suplex, dusty finish, or flipping turtle is? Probably not, the sport of wrestling is not that well known to people. The sports that are talked about are football, basketball, baseball, and volleyball but never wrestling. And no, I am not talking about WWE with John Cena; Woodlawn’s very own wrestling team puts in a lot of hard work and deserves recognition for their dedication.
Wrestling is a physically demanding sport. Before practice can even begin, the team must go through a month long conditioning period from September 4th – October 1st. Conditioning normally requires the team to run laps around the tennis courts, perform pushups, sit-ups, and then finish with sprints. This helps to prepare the team for two, six minute long matches. These matches are nonstop; there is only a ten second break before continuing to the second match, making our conditioning incredibly important. After conditioning, the real practice begins. It usually starts at 2:45 p.m. and ends at 5:00 p.m.; during that time the team does numerous exercises to get ready for the upcoming tournaments. Practice consists of warm-ups, technique work, sparing, and cool down. The whole practice is very competitive but fun because the central idea of sparing is to help each other increase the skills of the team.
In order to join the team, it does not matter what grade you are in as long as you get a physical and do what Coach Lewis tells you to do. This takes some serious work and grit because at that point you are a student athlete and need to stay on top of your grades. I hope after reading this article it motivates you to go out and join, or at least watch, the Woodlawn Wrestling Team.
