IHS High Arrow hard at work
As the 2023-2024 school year begins, the IHS High Arrow staff is hard at work preparing for the latest articles.
This year, quarantining has been a big issue. When you are exposed to COVID-19 you are not allowed to attend your sports practice. That has been affecting some of the sports teams and their games outcomes.
Not being able to play and practice gets you out of shape for your sport meaning, your skill level decreases. When it comes time to participate in a game, your skill is not as good as it was before if you can’t attend any practices.. That affects your whole team’s performance and the outcome of the game.
According to senior IHS Swimmer Loughlin Pagnucci, the swim team has not been greatly affected by quarantines. Though they had many quarantines, they did not affect the outcomes of their meets. Pagnucci states, “No-one is qurantintined right now, but a few weeks ago there was a case of COVID which required a few swimmers to be quarantined. We had no meets during that time, but many swimmers missed practices. I don’t think that it has affected the team. We have been having a successful season, which has continued. Hopefully we will not have any more cases before the end of the year with the Mark Hess Invitational and the WPIAL championship.”
When you play a sport that has everyone doing something at the same time, like dance, being quarantined can have a big impact on your performance. You have to be able to attend the practices to learn the routine and practice it. One dancer missing from the dance can mess up the whole thing. Junior Maycie Lorelli, a member of the IHS Dance Team, comments, “Thankfully no one on the dance team is quarantined right now. However, if the basketball team were to have a covid outbreak, it would affect us just as much because we dance at the games as well as come close to the basketball teams. If someone on the dance team were to get quarantined, this would interrupt formations and kicklines so we are staying as safe and covid friendly as possible!”
For some sports you need to have as many players as possible to be able to play efficiently, like basketball. You have a certain number of players on the court then some on the bench. When many students are quarantined from the basketball team, it can affect the whole outcome of games and practices. “Currently we do not have anyone quarantined however we have in the past. When we experienced some members of our team quarantining it was difficult to have a full practice since we were limited to a few players. We also had a game during that time period. We lost one of our starters and had very few players on the bench who were used to playing varsity. It is hard for it to not affect the team. With players who we typically rely on missing it puts different expectations on people that they are not used to.” Senior Girls Varsity Basketball player Hope Cook explains.
In cheerleading, it is also a big deal to have people quarantined. When you have multiple people getting sick and having to quarantine it can affect the whole routine. Sophomore Cheerleader Dakota Sparks comments, “Many of my teammates have been quarantined, but I don’t think any are at the moment. However, two of my teammates are sick and probably have COVID. When there aren’t enough people we can’t go to the games. We also can’t do anything during practice. It affects the outcomes of our routine because during practice if we can’t stunt we will forget everything we have to and it becomes dangerous.”
As the 2023-2024 school year begins, the IHS High Arrow staff is hard at work preparing for the latest articles.
By ELLA MOSCO After 33 years of teaching and coaching, Mr. Scott Mossgrove will be retiring from IHS this year. Mr. Mossgrove bids adieu to an illustrious and meaningful teaching career. “I’ve been a teacher, athletic director, and assistant principal at the junior high. Along with that I was a varsity football coach and a varsity track coach,” stated Mossgrove, who has been an inspiring and motivating figure to all of his students and athletes. Although having many great accomplishments, Mr. Mossgrove describes one of his greatest, “I coached a Pennsylvania State Champion in the discus by the name of Melissa Stewart. I was fortunate enough to have two of my athletes inducted into the Indiana County Hall of Fame. I’ve coached a lot of kids and to me the most important thing to see is students go on to do bigger and better things.” While Mr. Mossgrove sees his
By ADDISON MOSCO Mrs. Linda Schwartz has been working here at the high school for eight years. She works in the administrative office and she enjoys working here. She is retiring this year after a successful career. “I will miss my IHS family and seeing them around, but I’m excited to get to do new things.” In this new chapter of her life she is planning on going on walks, kayaking, cooking and trying new things. She will miss working at IHS and miss the students and staff. She’ll miss working here at this level and she might come back next year to work in the office sporadically. “I’ll miss having a routine. I have a routine now but after this, I’m going to have to make a new routine, like going on walks and not sitting on the couch the whole time. I’m going to miss being here very
By EMMA SHEERAN Four IHS students: Joey Baunoch, Sean Kelly, Sam Knepper, and Xav Ferguson–make up the barbershop quartet that is “Chord of the Rings!” (TikTok – @chordtinsoc, youtube.com/@chordoftherings). They are quickly gaining popularity in the IHS/Indiana community, having already made appearances at many IHS events with many more coming up. They recently performed on April 30 at IUP: Guerell Hall. They are also performing at Baccalaureate on May 28 and Levity Summer Festival on June 10. The four friends have been making music together for years. Music really is an outlet for people, and these students are using it as just that. “There’s something about four friends making music together and forgetting our problems that really makes me feel alive and loved,” says junior Joey Baunoch. In rehearsal or at performances, they can leave their worries behind and lean on each other. Something I found interesting while interviewing the
By GABI ISENBERG It’s spring, and that means it’s baseball season. Since the end of March, the IHS boys’ junior varsity team has been taking wins left and right. This season, the IHS JV baseball team has won nine games and lost one. They were undefeated until recently, losing a close game against Punxsutawney. Having an undefeated season up until then motivated the team as a whole. Freshman Hunter Kunkle stated, “We knew that we could win a game and that we worked so well as a team. It also brought us together so that we could play better. When one person had a bad day, we knew that we could count on someone else to make it right.” This season, the baseball teams have proven that this sport is more than just a sport – it’s a family. In March, Todd McGee, a close family member of the program,
By ELLA BARLEY Seniors at Indiana High School decorate their lockers to express their interests and hobbies. Many seniors involved in sports and extracurricular activities express that onto their lockers. Sports teams also have underclassmen from their team decorate the seniors’ lockers. Senior Abby Huey states, “My underclassmen decorated my locker for my senior night of volleyball. This was really sweet of them to know they went out of their way to create an amazing locker I get to call my own. I feel like more students here at IHS should decorate their locker to make it more their own and to brighten up our hallways.” Many seniors decorate their lockers to express themselves. The decorations often show what sports they play or what school activities they participate in such as clubs or extracurricular activities. The lockers show school pride around IHS. They have a positive impact on students at