On Thursday May 6, 2010, the special education students at Salem Hills High School had the opportunity to run with the Special Olympics torch. This is a yearly event for the special education students; however, when asked if they were excited special education Teacher Mrs. Wilider said “They are very excited, a lot of them haven’t had the opportunity to run with the torch.”                 When asked if he was excited, special education Student Chance Cloyd said “On a scale of 1-10 I was about a 6. It was cool because we got to hold the torch and we got to wave to everyone in the school.”                 Rachelle Grady, a peer tutor for the special education class, was asked which of the students was most excited, she said, “Its hard to say, they were all very excited, some were even nervous.”                 Officer Greg Gurney of the Salem Police department helped spearhead the project this year. When asked why he did it, he replied “Well it’s a yearly event, also all the special education students get a chance to be stars for the day. They always go out and support our school events and it was our chance to support them.” The excitement was clear in the faces of the students as they walked down the road holding the torch, with a thousand screaming Skyhawks cheering them on.

On April 29th and 30th Dance Company at Salem Hills High School held a concert showing off the vast abilities of all the dance company members. The concert was called On the Edge, and had near 300 attendants each night.                 The dance teacher Ms. Auger said, “I liked how the company danced as a unified team and not as individuals, I was happy the girls rose to the occasion and pulled together as a team.”                 They’ve been working on the concert all year; most of their efforts were put in during the fourth term, and spent the two weeks before the concert working on the stage getting the dances in flow with the costumes and sets.                 Ten of the numbers were student choreographed; all senior dance company members choreographed their own dances, one of which was Sammi Magoffin who said:                 “I put in a lot of hard work and was really super glad to see it pay off in the end.”                 The president Alisha Slade said, “I was so proud of my girls, they all did a great job and we all worked so hard putting it together.”                 Dance 2 also had two numbers in the concert and said they had a lot of fun, that they are also happy to just have it over with. Some said they enjoyed dancing so much they hope to make it on Dance Company next year and keep the tradition of great dancing going year after year.

On Tuesday May 4th 2010, Shelby Ainge was one of the lucky contestants in the Keys to Success assembly and WON THE CAR!!!! Whoa!!! Shelby says “It scared the crap out of me, I didn’t think I’d win.” But she did! She said it was a humongous surprise and feels good to win. She said she actually won a couple key cards all from Mrs. Wadley for good test scores and good citizenship. She’s planning on driving that car to Oregon to college to become a psychologist.  On top of that, there was Pursuing Victory with Honor awards given out. Blake Mservy for tennis, Buddy Adams for baseball, Trisha Christenson for soft ball, Braden Ashton and Erica Pratt for track. Congrats to everyone that won an award.

                The 2010-2011 new student council members have been chosen, and it is looking to be a promising year. The new members have very different personalities so when brought together they will be full of ideas to start some new traditions for the next year.                 “The way I see it, next year is gonna be my burrito, with each day being a bean, and as the days go by, the burrito will grow more full day by day until we have a wonderful meal, the other toppings will just be an added bonus from all the good times we will have,” says a young but rugged Trevor Williams.                 Or as Jordan Daniels put it, “This school is my baby, and I’m helping it grow into the mighty sorcerer that it needs to be to fight off our rival schools.” Jordan plays for the soccer team and is hoping the schools new found spells will be able to bring victories to not only the sporting teams, but to our hearts.                 So as you can see the new Salem Hills student council is full of enthusiasm and spunk and is ready to make the new year at Salem the best it can be. New Student Council Members: “Motherly” Mitch Howell, “Jiggly” Jordan Daniels, “Tacky” Trevor Williams, “No monkey business” Marissa Sainsbury, “All or nothin” Alison Reece, “Dubious” Dalen Ficklin, “Careful” Katelyn Burraston, “Marmalade” Marissa Christensen, Parker Dunn, “Crazy Keebler elf” Kaitlin Olsen, “Hulk Smash” Roberts, “Pedestrian” Megan Clark, “Real Super” Siale Vaitohi, “Malicious” Megan Wilson, “Avada Kedavra” Amanda Campbell, “Funky” Kyle Adams, “Donkey Door” Daniel Christensen, “Spot on” Spencer Davis, “Slappy” Stefani Dimond, “Leathery” Luke Haney, “Ostentatious” Aubree Head, “Keep your enemies Closer” Kaycee Jacklin, “Makeshift” Michelle Jones, “Courageous” Chrissy VanAusdal and leading the wolf pack is the one and only “Sharing is Crazy” Cheri Campbell, Student Council Advisor.

The Salem Hills Baseball team has gone 13 and 2 so far this season, only losing against Spanish Fork and Juan Diego. The Skyhawks are currently batting .350 which, for those of you who don’t play baseball, is a very good average. The team’s ERA (earned run average) is just under 3.00.             The Skyhawks have had an impressive season so far going 13 and 2 and they shut out Maple Mountain twice.             When asked about his team Head Coach Scott Haney said “We have had good team unity, that has helped us to win.”             Coach Haney also said that they were excited for their game against Payson High Friday, April 23rd.              There are only 6 games left in region 8 play; Spanish Fork High is currently in first place for region 8 the Skyhawks right on their tail with a close 2nd.             There are only a few games left with the last home game on May 3rd against Springville High, so make sure you get out support your Skyhawks and help them send the Devils packing.

Wednesday, April 12th the Salem Hills High School Spotlight Players gave a preview of the spring production of “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown.” When asked if his cast was ready for the show, director Justin Bills said, “You’re never really ready, you just have to take a deep breath and go for it.” Zach Heywood, who plays Schroeder, the piano playing aficionado, told us that the show was “fandanamazing.” Lexi Brown informed us that the casts have worked very hard over the past few weeks, developed characters, and she thinks they’re well prepared to perform. The show choreographer, Kandalyn Russel said, “It was interesting to work with them. They had lots of personality and I think they’re ready.”   The cast performed like a well-oiled machine that night, doing the classic play of Charlie Brown justice. After the show, Skyhawk Ben Stone was asked how he liked the show. “Oh my gosh! They deserve an Oscar,” he said. Rylee Locke informed us it was “phenomenononal!” (no, that word does not exist).   Truly, creator Charlie Schultz must be proud.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 : Salem Hills High Skyhawks Varsity Soccer Team was victorious against the Payson High Lions 5-0. They were well in the lead with the halftime score at 4-0. Goals were made by Tannon Bradley, Jordan Daniels, Payden Pemberton, Mason McCallister, and Sam Metz. Assists were by Payden Pemberton and McKay Eccles. Goalie Brandon Williams had a shutout game for the Skyhawks.   The Skyhawks Junior Varsity team also came home with a win against the Lions 4-1. Janson Brockbank, Matt Strong, Michael “Chin” Christensen, Justin Kilmer scored with an assist by Ryan Christensen.

April 13th and 15th Salem Hills baseball beat Maple Mountain Eagles. Though Maple Mountain fought a good fight, they were no match to the coaching abilities of Coach Haney and his Soaring Skyhawks.                 On Tuesday Buddy (Gerald) Adams pitched all seven innings with 9 stike outs. Tanner Raulston hit a glorious home, when all was said and done Skyhawks won 7:1.                 “Our team is really good this year, we’re 10 and 2, hoping for not only the region but also state championships, we’re playing super hard and really want to win,” says Buddy Adams.                 Thursday’s game’s first four innings were pitched by the ingenious Taylor Peterson, the last inning was pitched by the young yet devilishly handsome Colton Hill. The Salem pitchers pitched a no- hitter, with Taylor Peterson pitching 6 strike outs and all of Colton’s outs were by way of Strike outs. Another honorable mention: Tyler Rollins hit a home run.

This week Salem Hills had its second annual art show. Held in the library, it ran from April 12th to April 16th. It had a lot of great entries and showed some real talent from the student body.                  The Best of Show award went to Rebecca Jones for her painting of a grapefruit. She says her inspiration for the piece was “inspired by nature” and she loves the lighting of it.                 “Have faith in yourself and you can be great like me,” Becca says sarcastically.                 Overall 1st place went to Alicia Money for her Stylized Phoenix painting. She likes painting birds and liked the colors and how beautiful it turned out.                  “You can express yourself in art, it can help cope with things, it doesn’t matter what kind of art, you can make it beautiful,” says Alicia.                  Trevor Nelson took 2nd and won the faculty favorite for drawing 69 year old cowboy, and Rikee Wing got 3rd for her painting of a girl crying. Trevor says it his was challenging because of the lighting and it was hard with only blacks and whites, but he stepped up to the challenge well. Rikee says different looks good, and we can see why.                 Some say this year’s art show was better than last year’s, like Alicia Money who said this year was much better, especially because of the larger amount of entries. Let’s hope next year’s artists can step up to the tradition of great art for the show.