From the Desk of Mike Gilbert:

It's been a great month so far for the Panthers. In the last week we have won five district championships (Boys and Girls Golf, Boys and Girls Tennis and Softball). Additionally, the yearbook staff received a national award, "The Pacemaker," in Seattle Washington. Less than 30 Pacemaker awards were given out from thousands of entries. The band continues to be an outstanding ambassador for Spring Hill High School with a Sweepstakes performance in Pleasant Grove. Other groups that are worthy of mention include The One Act Play cast and crew and our UIL Academic teams. We have Baseball, Track, Tennis, Golf and Softball still in season and Band members that will be going to San Antonio in May.

All the activities listed above are just a reminder that high school is a busy place, and it will not slow down any time soon. The next big thing on the calendar is TAKS! We will be testing Tuesday, April 19th, through Friday, April 22nd. Our students and teachers have worked very hard to prepare for this test, and I know they will perform well next week. If you are the parent of a 9th, 10th or 11th grade student please encourage them to be at school each day to take the exams. Considering all the preparation we have done, our students will not be better prepared to take the TAKS at any other time. The test schedule is as follows:

We are encouraging our students to be here on time each day and get plenty of rest.

Go Panthers!

Mike Gilbert, Principal

Sibling rivalry takes on a whole new meaning with sophomore DeMikel Shankle and his sister freshman Ashley Harris. The two have grown up together, shared many of the same friends, and have had their fights and arguments like most siblings. But if one of them is in trouble, the other is always there to help. They also share the same athletic talents. While Ashley is on the basketball team and DeMikel plays football and powerlifts, they share a common interest in track. Besides competing in the same events, they also have the same goal in mind while racing past their opponents.

"I plan on making it to regionals and placing in the top two so I can go to state," Ashley said. "It would be awesome if I could make it to state as a freshman."

Ashley and DeMikel both run the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter relay, as well as competing in long jump.

"DeMikel and Ashley fight and act like typical brothers and sisters," Coach Tammy Bailey said. "But when they are competing they are each other's biggest fans."

Although they do not compete against one another at meets, there is always a feeling of rivalry between the two. Each one feels that they should do as well or better than the other does.

"There is a lot of competition between me and DeMikel," Ashley said. "If he gets first place in a race, I feel like I should too."

The two are off to a great start this season and have already competed in six meets. At the last meet DeMikel placed second in the 100-meter dash and long jump and first in the 200-meter dash. Ashley placed first in the 100-meter dash, fifth in the 200-meter dash and her team earned third place in the 400-meter relay. Their latest competition was district, April 13-14.

"I am doing pretty good so far," DeMikel said. "I am going to regionals in the long jump and will know about running finals tonight."

DeMikel and Ashley both started running track when they were in seventh grade and have continued throughout junior high and into high school. They plan on competing in the sport in college as well.

"I want to get a track scholarship but I'm not sure to where yet," DeMikel said. "I want to go to a school where I can get a lot of playing time in football too."

Both he and his sister love the feeling that comes from winning a race and know the benefits from track are worth the effort.

"I love the feeling of beating my opponents," Ashley said. "But most of the time I am just trying to reach the finish line as fast as I can so I can breathe again."

Starting out in Longview, Texas, Jill Maguire may have grown up in a small town, but has since lived and seen the world through many perspectives in her quest to become an international lawyer.

Jill has been over-achieving through academics and school involvement since she was a teenager. Though she split time between athletics, where she was a member of the cross-country and track teams, music, where she was played clarinet in the school band, and student council, where she served as a class representative, Jill still found time to work part-time, study and graduate valedictorian.

"I just tend to work better under pressure," she said. "It's just more draining to me to be sitting around with out a lot on my plate."

After high school, Jill attended Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where she earned a degree in International Studies. With only 1200 students, Austin College was another small school in a small town, just 45 minutes north of Dallas, near the Oklahoma border. She quickly immersed herself in activities, serving as Treasurer and Program Director of the Delta Phi Nu sorority.

In order to enhance her international experience, Jill took every opportunity to travel and study abroad, spending her junior year in Spain. In the fall, she studied Spanish culture and economics at the Institute for European Studies in Madrid, where all of the courses were taught in Spanish.

"The constant Spanish made the first couple of months a constant headache," she explained, "but it taught me to live as a Spaniard."

For the Spring semester, Jill studied international security and modern history at La Complutense, also in Madrid.

"It was truly eye-opening to be there studying modern history and see the Kosovo crisis unfold from a perspective other than the standard American, and realize how many different ways there are to look at events," she said. "It's something you just don't get from studying [in the U.S.] alone."

During her senior year, Jill spent a month in Patagonia, Argentina as part of an advanced Spanish immersion program. Traveling throughout the country's cosmopolitan and waterfront areas, she gained yet another perspective on Spanish culture from the South American viewpoint.

After college, Jill entered the job market working as an antitrust paralegal at the Washington D.C. offices of Vinson & Elkins. It was during this time that she accomplished what she considers to be her greatest achievement, completing the Marine Corps Marathon. In October 2001, she made the 26.2 mile trek around the nation's capital and past the Pentagon, just weeks after the September 11 attacks."I'd wanted to run a marathon for a long time," she explained. "After all the training, it was incredible to do it here, especially after that kind of an event."

Jill arrived at Mason Law in 2003. Continuing her trend of immediate involvement, she was elected as a Student Bar Association (SBA) class representative for the first-year day class. As a representative, she helped organize the first annual Casino Night, a service project at the Nature Reserve in Arlington and a Spring Break service trip to Camden, New Jersey with Catholic Charities.

Jill has also been actively involved with the Association of Public Interest Law (APIL). Along with her help at the annual auctions, she was a recipient of one of the scholarships for her work at Ayuda, Inc. last summer. At Ayuda, a non-profit legal clinic, Jill worked with Spanish-speaking immigrants on domestic violence matters, an experience she would like to have again after graduation.

"I'd never worked for a non-profit before, and coming from a big firm, it was quite a shock," she said. "It was incredible to see that everyone who walked through the door received immediate help, despite anything else any of us might have been working on."

In her second year at Mason, Jill has continued to thrive. Academically, she is a member of the Law Review and Moot Court Board, where she recently won the Upper Class Moot Court Competition with partner Robert Bruce (2D). She continued her participation in the SBA, and was elected Vice President of Social Affairs, where she organized the Fall Gold Cup, ice cream social, Barrister's Ball and other happy hours. In the time left over, Jill serves as the President of the International Law Society, is an active member of APIL, participates in Judge Klein's legal clinic, and is a member of the Inn of Court. Also a member of the Jessup Moot Court team, she will compete in oral arguments with the team on February 19 at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.

This summer, Jill will be working in Tyson's Corner at Smith, Pachter, McWhorter & Allen, a firm dealing largely in government contracts and construction litigation

(Article taken from The Docket online, February 8th, issue.)

2005 District Academic Meet
submitted by Pat Gatons

The Region II, Conference AAA, UIL Academic Meet will be held on the campus of Texas A&M University on Saturday, April 23rd. Spring Hill students qualified for this regional meet by placing either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd at the district meet held on April 1st at TSTC in Marshall.

Students from Spring Hill qualified for regional competition as individuals in the following contests: Accounting, Current Issues and Events, Feature Writing, Headline Writing, Mathematics, Number Sense, Ready Writing, Social Studies and Spelling and Vocabulary. In addition, the following teams will also participate: Calculator Applications, Current Issues and Events, Mathematics, Number Sense, and Spelling and Vocabulary.

The Spring Hill High School Theatre Department competed in the UIL One-Act Play Competition on March 31st at R.E. Lee High School in Tyler.

Kathy Fisher directed the play, The King Stag. The cast and crew included Michael Barnhart, Joanna Capehart, Caleb Cavaliere, Justin Comer, Ashley Darnell, Melissa Eades, Courtney Francis, Mitchell Graves, Lindsey Harding, Jessica Harris, Kristen Harter, Samantha Howes, Erin Magerl, Chennell McGriff, Nancy Palencia, Courtney Rooney, Harrison Sarran, Megan Shafer, Blake Simmons, Blake Smith, Chris Smith, Jordan Stith, and Jennifer Williams. Chennell McGriff and Chris Smith were named to the All-Star Cast, Samantha Howes was named to the Honorable Mention All-Star Cast, and Jordan Stith and Jennifer Williams were named to the Honor Crew. The students also performed The King Stag at the Teen Court benefit, ACT ONE, at Pine Tree High School on April 3rd, and for the public on April 7th.



Boys' Golf Team Continues Winning Tradition
submitted by Stephen Lamore

The boys golf team won the 16-AAA golf tounament for the 11th time in the last 12 years. The panthers had a two-day total of 626, beating Center by six strokes. The golf team, who also ended their regular season with a win in the Lindale Invitational Tournament at Hide-A-Way Lake, will next compete in the regional championship April 25th and 26th. The golf team has won the regionals the last three out of five years and placed 2nd once. The regional Tournament will be played at Tanglewood Resort located in Pottsboro, TX.



Prince Earns 1st Place
submitted by Debbie Carter

Sophomore Melanie Prince earned $200 and first place in the first annual Women in Longview essay contest. She read her essay March 17 for guests at the Women in Longview Day luncheon at Maude Cobb Convention Center.

The contest, open to all sophomores in Longview area schools, required students to write a 500-word essay about a woman in history who has had a significant impact on society. Prince wrote about talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. Entries were judged on content, creativity, and appearance.



Spring Hill HS Band Earns Sweepstakes
submitted by Mike Barnes

On Wednesday April 6, 2005 the Spring Hill HS Band competed at the UIL Concert and Sight Reading Contest at the Pleasant Grove Fine Arts Complex in Texarkana. The Panther Band was one of only two bands at the contest to earn a 1st Division Rating from all six judges. Some of the adjudicators comments were:

"Very nice soloists!! Wonderful technique & fluency presented. Super technique & rhythmic presentation. Very exciting performance!!" Concert judge Danny Prado, Grapevine HS

"Excellent use of dynamics. Great technique. Very musical group!" Concert judge Rick Baker, Arlington HS

"Very nice band sounds. Many fine players in this ensemble. Congratulations, lots of fine teaching and learning going on here." Concert judge Rusty Lay, Jasper HS

"Great ensemble sound. Very Good style! Good dynamic contrast Great Performance." Sight Reading judge Robert Hesse, Arkadelphia HS.

"Good ensemble sounds. Good job!" Sight Reading judge Harvey Durham, Longview HS

"Good balance within sections. Nice performance. Very musical!" Sight Reading judge Virgil Beene, Tyler



Latin America Makes a Visit
submitted by Kerry Bailey of The Panther's Paw

World Geography students created a children's books about Latin America to introduce key facts about this region to second grade students. D'Lee Reagh's class started the project March 14 and are currently reading the end resluts to Primary classes. "It's a great idea. Reading to the second graders is a great chance to try to enrich their knowledge about other countries and their cultures," freshman Paxton Cass said.

Reagh is using cooperative learning to study the different countries. She believes it is more interesting for the students. "They are in groups of three or four depending on the class size," Reagh said. "They must decide the storyline and how the story will be illustrated. They have to research to give more factual information about a region, country or ecosystem."

Most students believe this project is more fun than doing the normal daily work, and it's an intresting way to make a good test grade. "I think this project is great, its more fun than book work and I'm learning more and actually taking the initiative," freshman Jared Easley said. "We are writing an acoustic song to go along with our story. After all, what would catch a kid's attention better a song or some old boring story."

The geography class visited with the kindergarten through second grade classes.



Captain Alexander Visits School
submitted by Mary Lou Berlin

Teacher Jack Davis ("Coach Davis" to Clinton) personally delivered the student-made walnut Freedom Pens to Captain Clinton Alexander when he made a visit to the high school. Captain Alexander and his family were in our school and community recently visiting family and friends since his return from Iraq.

Captain Alexander also greeted and thanked the National Honor Society for their participation in the Soccer Balls for Iraq project that was completed in December.

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