10
The Bear
Futsal League proves successful soccer fundraiser
Elliot Hinkhouse
Journalism 1 Writer
WB’s soccer coach Ted Miller
hosted a futsal tournament for age groups
of 3-6 graders, 7-8 graders, and 9-12
graders. The games were played on the
gym floor at Hoover Elementary and
went on through the whole month of Feb-
ruary, having teams play every sunday.
The league was very successful and is
planned on being repeated every Feb-
ruary as a fundraiser.
Futsal is played on a small in-
door field with a special futsal soccer ball
that is slightly heavier and smaller than a
normal ball to reduce bouncing. Futsal
rules are the same as soccer, in which you
cant dribble the ball out of bounds, you
score points by shooting the ball into the
other team’s net, and you can't use your
hands.
Ted Miller brought the sport to
West Branch and hosted the league be-
cause he wanted to give the soccer
players a chance to fine tune their skills
in the off season. He also started this be-
cause the popularity of soccer has gone
up by quite a bit and more players want
to play the game. All of the money made
from the league went to buying the high
school soccer members game bags and
warm up gear.
Ted started the league by con-
Trivia Night contributes to
Dance Marathon funds
Brady Knoop
Staff Writer
The student government, led by
Sponsor Abby Noelck, hosted its first
Dance Marathon event since 2019 on Fri-
day, March 25. After a two year absence
from the fundraising event due to Covid,
the group had high hopes of raising a lot
of money this year after a previously suc-
cessful 2019 campaign. Throughout the
fundraising process that year, the pro-
gram had amassed over $2,000 in dona-
tions for the University of Iowa Dance
Marathon, which supports the Children’s
Miracle Network; $350 of that money
was donated to the Leukemia and Lym-
phoma Society.
One fundraiser created by stu-
dent government members was a Trivia
Night competition. On March 10 in the
Bear Den, 12 teams (nine student teams
and three staff teams) competed for first
place. Noelck said, “$101 was raised and
went to our Dance Marathon donation.”
Sophomore Olivia Naber was responsible
for coming up with the categories and
questions for the night. She also played
host. Student government members Pey-
ton Braddock, Karley Staker, Nina Tor-
kelson, Evan Striegel, and Will Bridges
graded each team’s trivia answers.
The winning team, called “The
Rebellion,” consisted of Beth Gallagher,
Noelck, Terri Zumbahlen, Mike Ander-
Students follow Zumba Instructor Abby Noelck’s lead during the Zumba portion
of Dance Marathon. Photo by Grace Mundell.
The Down Under
Food & Beverages
102 W. Main St.,
West Branch, IA 52358
(319) 530-9006
Clubs &
Orgs.
tacting our A.D and asking him to reach
out to other schools A.D to advertise the
league. After several weeks of posting on
facebook and twitter, people started reg-
istering, and then more people found out
via word of mouth and they registered as
well. The League is planned on being
played every february to serve as a fund-
raiser for the West Branch High School
soccer team.
A large majority of the players
who played in the futsal league are play-
ing in the normal soccer season, and reg-
istered for the league for various reasons.
Some played just for the enjoyment of
playing the sport, some played to get
ready for the soccer season, and others
played it to enjoy playing a sport with
their friends.
All the players had a similar
idea of why they enjoyed the league, and
that's because they enjoy playing the
game and having it prepare them for the
soccer season. After asking some of the
players how the league could be im-
proved for next year and many different
suggestions were made.
Some of the suggestions on how
to improve the league for next year is to
play more games, or try to make the
teams more even. Some of the players
were left feeling unsatisfied or wanted
more games, because of the length of the
games being shorter and only having one
son, and Joe Betts. The IT Overlords
placed second.
Karina Krall, member of “The
Budreaus + 1” team (with Amy Budreau,
Kristen Westpheling, and Amanda Bud-
reau) said, “This was a really fun night
and very well attended by students and
faculty alike. There was a lot of laughter
and smack talking between teams…all in
fun, of course. I hope it’s an event that
continues and happens more often,
maybe monthly.”
“The Budreau’s + 1” team was
in the lead until the very final question,
where teams could wager their points
earned. The team made the choice not to
bet any of their points, hoping the ques-
tion would be really difficult and cause
people to lose points rather than gain
them. Unfortunately for them, even
though they came up with the correct an-
swer, playing it safe and not wagering
anything caused them to fall down the
line as other teams also answered cor-
rectly and bet everything.
The Dance Marathon itself also
drew a big crowd of students. “The dec-
orations and good music made for a
pretty fun time,” junior Andy Henson
said.
Senior Jonah Baylor, who was
the DJ for the event, has been a popular
DJ choice and was said to be a big reason
for the large turnout and great at-
mosphere.
April 21, 2022
game per week. This issue can be re- others just enjoyed the league as a whole.
solved in the future if more people want At the end of the day, each and
to participate in the league, to have more every person, playing in the games or just
than one game per week. spectating, had a blast at the league.
The second complaint of having Players got to experience a new type of
uneven teams is a tough issue to fix. game and got to prepare for their soccer
Other problems can arise if we try too seasons, and spectators got to enjoy the
much to solve it, and no one has any clear sight of competitive games without los-
cut solutions as of now. The focus might ing the piece of fun that makes watching
just have to be shifted from worrying and playing the game entertaining. All in
about winning or losing, to just having all, the league raised a good amount of
fun. As Jacob Swisher stated, the reason money for the high school soccer team,
he signed up for the league was, “For and everyone had a blast at the futsal
fun.” league.
Moving on to some of the state-
ments gotten from the players who par-
ticipated in the league, many of the most
interesting things they thought about the
league was the scores of the games. Dilan
Kazlauskas says, “How many goals
people can score.”, and a similar state-
ment from Timmy Hosier saying the
most interesting thing was “How high the
scores got.”
Other things people found inter-
esting or funny were things like, “Watch-
ing Elliot cat dive into a whiteboard.”,
said by Timmy Hosier, or personally in-
teresting and enjoyable things like beat-
ing another team.
Represented very well by Jo-
seph Hamann, “That time we whooped Peyton Miller and Luis Hinkhouse get
the other west branch team.”, players re- some extra practice. Photo contributed
joiced at their personal victories, and by Gregory Norfleet.
Students dance all night to fundraise for the University of Iowa’s Dance Mara-
thon. Photo by Grace Mundell.
The 2022 Dance Marathon had came to share her son’s story. Her son
the highest donation total in its history, died of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma
surpassing the $2,000 en route to a in March of 2021.
$2,275.57. Senior AnDee Atkins said, “It Noelck said, “Our total tells me
is awesome to see the amount of money the students cared about this cause. I
we raised, and to know that it is going to hope through this they realize that every
a great cause is even better.” person with cancer has a story, and a lot
On Thursday, March 24 during of those stories involve the students and
IS time, the student government offered staff right here in this school. For DM
a guest speaker to students to get them to 2023, I'd love to see even more students
realize that cancer affects many around come to the dance and donate throughout
them, and those people all have stories. the week!”
Darcy Schaefer, Tate Schaefer's mom,
“The Rebellion,” (with teachers Terri Zumbahlen, Joe Betts, Abby Noelck, and
Beth Gallagher) takes first place on Trivia Night. Not pictured: Mike Anderson.
Photo by Karina Krall.
NHS Takes a Field Trip
Issue 4 to SpareTime
Correction:
Robotics
Lexi Klinkkammer
Staff Writer
The National Honor Society
went on a field trip to SpareTime in
Article Cedar Rapids on Friday, April 1. This trip
Keaton Norfleet served as an end of the year team build-
Staff Writer ing activity.
“I think it was great that we had
The Bear staff would like to the opportunity to do some team bond-
acknowledge a mistake that was made ing,” said Mrs. Westpheling, NHS advi-
in the March 31, 2022, issue four) of sor.
The Bear on page 10. Members arrived at noon and
The article headline was “Cybears ro-
botics team competes after 2 year hi-
got to bowl, play laser tag, and each got
a $5 credit for the arcade. While bowling,
atus,” written by Keaton Norfleet. the group received pizza and drinks.
The error was in the follow- Senior AnDee Atkins said, “The
ing statement: “The robot’s drive trip was super fun and my favorite part
team consisted of seniors Colbert (as was riding the motorcycle in the arcade.”
Drive Coach), Luis Hinkhouse and Senior DeLaynie Luneckas said her fa-
Kollin Kettler (Safety Captain), and vorite part was, “Beating the red team in
an interchanging member as Techni- laser tag.”
cian.”
The correction is as follows:
“The robot’s drive team consisted of
seniors Colbert as Drive Coach, Luis
Hinkhouse and Kollin Kettler as driv-
ers, senior Tanner Harrison as Safety
Captain, and an interchanging
member as Technician. “
The software bugged while
transferring the article to the page,
cutting out the original text. The Bear
regrets this error.