Mustang News
December 2017
Public Ed Strong - Friendswood Teachers Go Above & Beyond
Administration
Counselors' Corner
FHS Buzz
National Speech & Debate Association Academic All American Award Winner
Congratulations to James and Elizabeth, the FHS National Speech & Debate Chapter, and to our sponsor, Ms Cheryl Ryne.
UIL Sponsor Excellence Award
Congratulations to Mr. Greg Dick for being chosen as a recipient of the 2017 UIL Sponsor Excellence Award. Mr. Dick is one of 16 teachers in the State of Texas selected.
We look forward to celebrating this great honor throughout the spring semester! Congratulations Mr. Dick!!
Tompkins Speech Tournament
December 9th, FHS attended the Tompkins High School Speech & Debate tournament. The results were:
- Elizabeth Chong--2nd place Championship International Extemp & 4th place Oration
- Garrett Shelton--1st place Novice Extemp
- Tyler Mitchell & Antonio Graffagnino--5th Place Novice Public Forum Debate
- Husnain Ali--5th place Novice LD Debate
CyberPatriot Results
Friendswood High School had five teams compete in the virtual qualification round of the CyberPatriot competition held in the Computer Science lab on December 10th for 6 straight hours. The students worked hard the entire six hours trying to boost their scores. Scores were posted on the board at 30 minute intervals in order to promote competition among the ranks. Teams could not share information between each each other.
All Friendswood teams will be competing on the State level at the end of January.
CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air Force Association (AFA) to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation's future.
The competition puts teams of high school in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with managing the network of a small company. In the rounds of competition, teams are given a set of virtual images that represent operating systems (Windows 7, 10, Linux) and are tasked with finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the images and hardening the system while maintaining critical services. Teams compete for the top placement within their state and region, and the top teams in the nation earn all-expenses paid trips to Baltimore, MD for the National Finals Competition where they can earn national recognition and scholarship money. This was definitely was an eye opening contest for all the students. They have learned a lot and some of them will be our future cybersecurity specialists!
Academic Decathlon
Academic Decathlon came in third overall at the Pearland Meet on Saturday, December 9th.
FHS won 45 individual awards.
- Math 5
- Music 10
- Economics 6
- So Si 8
- Science 4
- Lang/Lit 6
- Art 6
Individual Honors Overall
- Jaden Walker 4th in Scholastics
- Aidan Hernandez 3rd in Scholastics
- Sarah Thomas 4th overall in Honors
- Audrey Isaak 3rd overall in Honors
Recycling Club
Student "Recycler of the Week" is freshman, Jeremy Ninan, an MVP when it comes to saving the world!
Academics
English III & US History Collaborative Class
The English III/US History combined class spent their day walking students and teachers through their student-created war museum. They included every thing from meeting historical characters, to experiencing the war with virtual reality, to sharing the art, music and technology of the time period, to building the soldiers uniforms like paper dolls. The students put weeks of effort and research into their project which showed through the pride of their hard work.
IPC Christmas ChemisTREE Ornament Project
The chemisTREE is located near my room, 2046, upstairs in the science wing.
Fine Arts
Region Band Auditions Success
The FHS Band recently participated in the TMEA Region 17 District/Region Band auditions at Alvin High School. FHS had 46 students qualify for District, out of which 30 qualified for Region. Out of the region qualifiers, 12 advanced on to the Area Auditions to be held on January 13. Area is the last audition in the process towards earning All-State Honors.
Congratulations to the following students:
Students earning All-District Honors were: Allie Hansen, Caroline Bizarro (oboe), Sophie Rudd (Eb clarinet), Nick Polak, Emma Ritzberger, Priya Juarez (bass clarinet), Patrick Hicks (contra-bass clarinet), Zach Del Bello, Tanner Hill (trumpet), Faith Powell, Katie Smith (horn), Josh Rachita, Dawson Miller (trombone), Brian Knight (euphonium) and Alex Neagu, Keshav Ramchandran (percussion).
Students earning All-District and All-Region Honors were:Casey Dinh (piccolo), Emily Ulsh, Toby Okoro (Bb clarinet), Sia Ramchandran, Sydney Schumtz (bass clarinet), Daniel Nagle, Nicole Huning (bassoon), Caleb Sperry, Shannon McGill, Justin Ouyang (alto sax), Sarah McCullough (tenor sax), Daniel Turner, Evan Stepczyk (trumpet), Michelle Richardson, Katherine Ratliff, Jacob Wall, Kayla Huhn (horn), Andrew Pruitt (tuba).
Students earning All District and All-Region Honors, and advancing to the Area auditions for All-State were Julian Falco (flute), Lauren Patton-Hearne (English horn) Madelynn Mills, Eric Li, Price Moran (Bb clarinet), Alex Mata (horn), Matt Ryan, Connor Thurman (trumpet), Sam Mills, Colin Courtney (trombone), Austin Pitts (tuba), Jaxson Rives (percussion)
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The Region 17 Band will give a concert on Saturday, January 20, 2017 at 5:00pm at Santa Fe High School.
Athletics
Wrestling
The Mustang wrestling team represented Friendswood with great pride at the Falcon Classic. Out of 19 teams our varsity team placed 3rd overall with multiply wrestlers placing in their weight classes.
Congratulations to the following athletes:
- Bowdy Jarvis 5th place
- Cole Chase 2nd place
- Bowdy Jarvis 5th place
- Dylan Gustafson 4th place
- Manuel Elizondo 1st pace
- Brody Beckman 3rd place
- Ryan Aamodt 5th place finish
- Caleb Anslow 3rd place
- Kayla Molina 4th place
Volleyball
Friendswood Volleyball will be featured in the KHOU ch 11 inside sports holiday show. It will air on January 6th at 8am on channel 11. It highlights our great season even after hurricane harvey.
Basketball
Basketball Highlights from 12/15
Mustangs welcomed the Dobie Longhorns to Walter Wilson Field House. The Mustangs, who were down two key players, were looking to finish the week 2-0 as they head into district play. The first quarter featured a slow start by both teams, as shots finding the nylon were few and far between. At the end of one, the Mustangs and the Longhorns were tied 8-8. The sluggish start continued for the Mustangs in the second quarter, which allowed Dobie to start finding a rhythm on offense. Heading into the half time break, the Mustangs were down 26-19.
In the third, the Mustangs' combo of Tanner Bandini (18 Pts.) and Alex Dehoyos started to come alive to help the Mustangs outscore the Longhorns 12-8. The Mustangs entered the fourth trailing the 34-31. If you arrived in the gym for the fourth quarter, you were right in time to see the action unfold. With two minutes left in the game, the Mustangs were down six and looking for a rally. With 1:40 left on the clock Alex (24 pts.) hit a huge three to cut the lead to three. On the ensuing Dobie possession, the Mustangs got a trap at half court and Alex got a steal to cut the deficit to one. On the next possession, with the Mustangs scrambling trying to get the ball, Tanner deflected the ball to Gracen McGregor who then threw it ahead to a sprinting Tanner who made the layup to give the Mustangs their first lead on the night with 53 seconds remaining. After everything seemed to be going right for the Stangs, Dobie came down and hit a dagger three, to go up two with 41 seconds remaining.
Instead of calling a timeout, Coach Owens urged the Mustangs to push, and called the same play that got Alex and Gracen open for a three on the previous possessions. The Mustangs ran it to perfection, and Alex came off and hit a DAGGER Three and 1 to go up one and head to the line for a free throw. Unfortunately, he missed the FT, but the Mustangs got a stop on the other end, which led to a Dobie on Alex who then made both to put the Mustangs up three. After a missed three as time expired, the Mustangs were able to escape with a 50-47 win to push their record to 13-6 heading into district play. After the game, Coach Owens credited the boys who came off the bench for not having a drop off when they came on the floor. Everyone who stepped on the floor played their hearts out and didn't give up.
The Freshman B was the only other sub-varsity team who won, as the JV, A, and Sophomore teams all fought hard, but ultimately came up short.
Basketball Highlights from 12/12
Last night, the Mustangs made the short trip down the Beltway to take on the Mavericks of Pasadena Memorial. After a long weekend in Corpus that was a bag full of mixed results on the court, the Mustangs were excited to get back on the hardwood and continue to work out the kinks.
The feature game of the night had the (11-6) Mustangs trying to bounce back from a 2-2 record over the weekend. In the first quarter, the Mustangs got a three from Alex Dehoyos, Tanner Bandini, and Elijah Martinez to get things started on the night. Alex added a couple of two point buckets to give the Mustangs a 13-12 lead at the end of one. In the second, Alex was from behind the arc, hitting 4 threes to give him 19 points heading into halftime. Jake Yurachek had a scoop and score to round out the scoring, and give the Mustangs a 27-24 lead heading into half.
In the third, the Mustangs cranked up the defense and only allowed two points to the Mavericks to help push the lead to 13 heading into the fourth. Gracen McGregor hit two big threes, and was the second leading scorer on the night for the Mustangs. In the final frame, the Mustangs outscored the Mavericks 13-10 to give them a 52-36 win on the road. After the game, Coach Owens was impressed with the way the Mustangs cranked up the defense in the second half, which was led by them rebounding the ball well.
The JV started off slow, but ramped up the intensity in the second half to cruise to an easy victory. The Freshman B and Sophomores both had great wins, and got great play from everyone who stepped on the floor. The Freshman A team fought hard, but ultimately came up short.
Lastly, the boys wanted to recognize Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Malone for all the work they have done in making the classroom great! Thank you for all that you do for our boys!
Alumni News
- Ryan Russell Friendswood HS Graduate was recently initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines.
- Jade Bailey, a University of Houston (UH) communication sciences and resident of Friendswood, Texas, made the dean's list in the fall 2017.
Substitute of the Month
Congratulations to Valentine Gibson, our December 2017 Substitute Teacher of the Month! Thank you for all that you do!