Sep 26, 2016
One year ago, Coby Sanchez found himself being passed by dozens of runners only one mile into a three-mile race at the Battlefield Cross Country Festival in Port Hudson. The harder he pushed, the greater the pain. Eventually Sanchez had to stop and be carried off the course on the back of a motorized cart. The diagnosis was a fractured leg. Only three weeks in to his freshman year, in his first varsity race, his season was over.
At the time of his injury, Sanchez was consistently one of the top three finishers in Panthers practices, and the times he posted in JV races had him posting the third fastest time on the team. But, the season continued and Sanchez’s times were surpassed by his teammates.
Coach Wallace reflected on the situation, saying, “It was unfortunate. He looked so good in practice during the summer and in the first two JV meets, that had great expectations for what he could accomplish and how he could help the team. Then, it all just went away.” Coach Wallace quickly added, “But, Coby is a motivated kid, so we knew it would just be a matter of time before he was at the front of the pack again.”
It’s now a year later and Sanchez is healthy.
Saturday, Sanchez made his return to Varsity action on the same course he was unable to complete a year ago, the Battlefield Cross Country Festival in Port Hudson. The course was wet and full of hills. But on this day, the only thing that mattered for Sanchez was the joy of being able to be on the start line with his teammates and the elation of finishing what he started 363 days ago.
Sanchez finished the race as the fifth Panther to cross the line with a time of 21:33 on the three mile course. More important than the time was that he finished the race. Sanchez helped propel the squad to a 12th place overall finish, four places better than Woodlawn’s finish at the same meet in 2015. With Sanchez back in the lineup, and the consistent effort he and his teammates put in each week in practice and on the race course, this is sure to be just the beginning of a new chapter in the Woodlawn Cross Country Anthology.
Sanchez and the Panther cross country team will be in action again Saturday at Highland Road Park for the St. Josephs Invitational. Varsity girls begin at 8:00 am, followed by boys varsity at 8:45 am.
Sep 20, 2016
At the Thursday, September 15 School Board meeting, the board approved a revised calendar to recapture instructional minutes lost to the flood days. In addition, please note that beginning September 26, the school start and end times will be adjusted as follows:
Elementary schools begin at 8:20 a.m. and end at 3:31 p.m.
Middle and high schools begin at 7:05 a.m. and end at 2:31 p.m.
The revised calendar eliminates all first semester early dismissal days, including the ones planned for September 21 and December 16, 19 & 20. It also eliminates the Elementary Conference/Professional Development Day scheduled for October 7 and Fall Break scheduled for October 10. The calendar will make use of the contingency day on December 21 with students and employees scheduled to attend.
To see the revised 2016-2017 East Baton Rouge Parish School System calendar, please click here.
Sep 19, 2016
A wet race course usually equals a slow race. But don’t tell that to the 2016 Panther Cross Country team.
Saturday, at a very soggy Highland Road Park, the boys and girls competed in the LSU Invitational Cross Country meet. It was a huge day for Woodlawn as Senior Khidhr Al-Mustafa finished 10th overall and improved his three mile best this season to 17:50 on his way to a 5K finish of 18:20. It was an impressive run for Al-Mustafa as he mounted a major assault on the field climbing his way from 18th after the first mile to tenth at the finish.
Khidhr Al-Mustafa on the podium after the LSU Invitational.
Al-Mustafa kept this week’s success in perspective when he said, “I feel good about the result, but my expectation is to be better each week than I was the week before.” If he continues to improve each week, Coach Wallace believes that he will be the school record holder by season’s end.
Brandon Williams was the second Woodlawn runner across the line as he cracked the top 40, finishing 39th, and was the second Panther this season to run three miles under 20 minutes with a time of 19:36.
Senior Darmar Galvan was the third Panther across the line with a three mile time of 20:23.
Darmar commented that, “I feel like I did well this meet, a lot better than last week. We have improved a lot as a team this season and I believe will we see even more improvement in the future.”
Joshua Stephens, a junior, continues to look great and was able to push himself to a Personal best for the second week in a row.
To complete this task on a wet course is typically unheard of, thus proving what Coach Wallace says in practice, “There is no such thing as weather. There is no hot or cold. There is no rain or humidity. There is only hard work.” Joshua and his Panther teammates have stepped up to every challenge in their path so far and show no signs of slowing down now.
The Lady Panthers had some fun of their own as they tore up the turf with two team members finishing in the top 50. Junior Melissa Grant set a new personal record and was the first Panther to cross the line in a time of 25:18, followed three seconds later by training partner and school record holder Alexis Martin.
When asked about her PR run, Grant quickly brought up her junior teammate, saying, “I feel that I accomplished a goal just by keeping up with Alexis. And I know that I, and the team, will do a lot better as we keep getting better with every practice.”
Coach Wallace explained, “It is great to have two runners that can train and race together and it has been a joy to watch Lexie and Melissa encourage and motivate each other every day in practice. With these two out front and the determined youngsters we have chasing them, this is gonna be a fun season to watch.”
The Lady Panthers did not qualify for a team place as only three runners competed, but the girls are extremely excited about the upcoming meet at Port Hudson State Historic site. The girl’s varsity team will feature a full squad thanks to the emergence of sophomore Kelli Oubre, who will make her first varsity appearance, and the return of senior captain Shelby Sanchez, who has been out with an injury.
Sep 16, 2016
by Madisyn McAlister, Staff Reporter, ’18
In the aftermath of the tragic flood, Woodlawn High School rose up to provide support to victims of the flood.
Woodlawn High School faculty and students came together to help students, teachers, and the community affected by the flood.
“I instantly offered help,” says Heidi Fendlason, junior at Woodlawn, when asked about her experience with the assistance offered by the school. This assistance included offers of clothing, food, and gutting her house. The faculty even collaborated to create a check-in Google doc to assess need amongst faculty and students.
Morgan Watkins and Johnasia Smith help distribute food.
Starting the Tuesday after the flood, Woodlawn High School began handing out food to flood victims and quickly started collecting donations to hand out school materials, cleaning supplies, and basic necessities. At least 1,500 meals were donated by City Pork, The Chimes East, Cast Iron Kitchen, and Tramonte’s. Woodlawn’s own Mrs. Pearl and Mrs. Switzer also helped by cooking spaghetti. Donors of other food and supplies include the Stevens family, The Screen Shop, LSU History Department, the Jett family, Pelican House, University United Methodist Church, Dental College of Georgia at Augusta University, Peak Performance Fitness, Spectrum, Woodlawn Middle School, Kelly Slate, and Pam Brown. The school has received over $2,990.00 in total monetary donations. A large donation of $1,025.00 and cartloads of school supplies came from Jacksonville State University. A small go fund me account was also created to raise money to go towards supplies and collected donations from people around the country; this effort raised $1,965.00. The school has also partnered with local churches for assistance in handing out supplies.
Though every faculty member helped out any way they could, Ms. Heyer commented, “I reached out to Ms. Miller and Ms. Smoo on a daily basis” when talking about assistance regarding organization of the donations and making sure every student and teacher had access to anything they needed. This also included a ‘Panther Pop-up Shop’ set up here at school. This temporary clothing store provided high quality professional wear for the Woodlawn faculty who lost clothing in the flood.
Many clubs, teams, and other organizations within the school were heavily involved in flood relief efforts. Woodlawn High School’s football team spent many hours helping flood victims clean out their damaged homes. Panthrobotics accepted donations from other robotics teams throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas at their annual Red Stick Rumble event, as well as helped teammates clean out their homes. The school’s cheer team, Pantherettes, Beta Club, National Honors Society, and Youth Legislature sorted out the many donations and often helped pass out food to victims.
Although on-campus efforts ended August 19th, Woodlawn and the Old Jefferson community continued to provide meals on the weekends and supplies as needed.
