Rifle
Team
By
Cadet Ray Jin
We
have 15 people on the Rifle team this season. Everyone on the Rifle team has to
pass the safety test about the safe practices. They must get 100 points on the test before they can practice.
After
passing the test, we go to the shooting range to start rifle practice. We
practice from 16:05 until 17:30 every Monday through Friday.
We
practice using 10-meter air rifle range target holders with targets placed at
the proper heights for firing from the prone（100 point, kneeling（100 point,
and standing positions（100 point). The Rifle team has three categories which
include: marksman, sharpshooter, and expert.
Marksman: shooting two positions, prone
and standing. Total score of 110, two positions together.
Sharpshooter: shooting two positions, prone
and standing. The categories division requires a shooting score of 130.
Expert: shooting all positions, prone, standing
and kneeling. The categories division requires a shooting score of 230.
A range officer (Major Fiora) or instructor is
in charge of firing on every range.
We
use the Air Rifle D-887(Co2) for the JROTC air rifle practices. We have to follow
the rules of safety every time we practice.
There
are 4 Rifle matches that we will compete in this season.
High School
Basketball
By Cadets Rose
Mendez and Taylor Jones
The high
school basketball season has started for both boys and girls. They started
their practices on Monday, November 3 in preparation for the winter season. The
girls’ head coach is Coach Marjorie Griffin, and the assistant coach is Coach Mike
McClafferty. They have been working hard to get the girls to work together as a
team. “A major goal for us is to learn to play “team” basketball. We have to
learn basketball fundamentals, offense, and defense while we try to understand
team concepts,” said Coach Griffin. “It
is much harder for WMA players than it is for the schools we compete against
because players don’t know one another’s strengths and weaknesses. Some players
have never even dribbled a basketball before the first day of practice.” The
girls have been doing lots of conditioning, and practicing really hard for
their first game coming up in December. When asked about how successful she thought
the team would be this season, Coach Griffin said, “Our
overriding strength as a team is our determination and drive. Nine girls are out for basketball -- all of
whom give 100% each day during conditioning and practice. They encourage one
another and push one another to be better today than they were yesterday. I’ll
take that any day over winning games; our players are learning how to win at
life!”
The boys
have also started their practices. The coaches are Coach Pat Lang and Coach
Tony Reed. “Always give your best, the team deserves it,” said Coach Lang. They
have also been working on a lot of different drills to prepare themselves for
their games coming up in a few weeks. They boys have been conditioning
themselves to play better and improve themselves as a team. The practice season
has started off well and the teams will keep working hard to improve as the
season goes on.
Wentworth Junior
College Basketball
By Cadet Guadalupe
Mendez
JC Men’s
Basketball
November
2nd was the first home game for the JC Men’s Basketball Team. The 135th Corps
of Cadets attended the game to support the Red Dragons. During the first half
of the game, the players hustled to the basket, stole the ball multiple times,
and made some points. But it was not their best game.The score at half was
39-38 with Graceland in the lead. Coach Hughes talked about how his team did in
the first half, "I was not happy about how we played in the first
half. We did not show offensive patience
in the first half. We were pretty much
one and done. And, we did not take care
of the basketball, whether offensively or defensively. We talked about taking care of the ball in
the second half," stated Coach Tom Hughes. The second half of the game was
totally different play. The guys took control of the ball. The Dragons took the
lead and ended the game winning 87-71.
This is what Coach Hughes had to say about the second half, "We
played much better in the second half.
We did a better job of taking care of the ball - we turned it over eight
times in the second half to Graceland's fifteen. We shot 50% from the field in the second
half, and out-rebounded them 26-24. We
have to learn from what we did well in the second half of play. I was disappointed in our first half, but
pleased how we reacted after the break.
It was a good opening win for us."
The Dragons
did an outstanding job overall. They worked really hard during practices and it
paid off.
JC Women’s
Basketball
Our new JC
Women’s Basketball Coach is Coach Troy Katen.
Coach Katen comes to Wentworth with 18 years coaching at the collegiate
level. He is coaching a young team with
10 freshmen and only 3 sophomores, but he says their talent, size, and speed
could cause problems for their opponents. “We are very young this year and have
a good makeup of talent. We have some
size that can be a presence inside and will be very quick in the back court. We
hope to set a good tone early on in the season and look to make a run in the
region tournament. A couple of our
strengths that will help us are that we are very competitive and possess above
average team quickness. This will be
crucial for the season as we are a defensive based team. Our quickness and anticipation should allow
us to cause a lot of problems for our opponents,” said Coach Katen.
“We will
have a good mixture of sophomores and freshman on the floor this year. Shakorya
Brower is a returning sophomore that averaged double figures for the team last
season along with Alexis Wells that is a shooter that can play on the perimeter
and inside. Our third sophomore, Keamber
Vaughn will be a utility player for us.
Vaughn has the ability to play the 1-4 positions for us and does a great
job of communicating on the floor,” he said about his returning sophomores.
Coach Katen is impressed with his team so far.
“Some of our top freshman this year will be point guard, Leaunna Hankins
(Oklahoma City, OK), who has done an excellent job of stepping in and leading
the team this fall. She is very quick on
both ends of the floor and does an unbelievable job of anticipating on the
defensive end. Forwards Olivia Ellis
(Hardin, MO), Kristin Vantrump (Richmond, MO), and Maddison Endsley (Orrick,
MO) will be looked upon to play a key role in the team’s success this
season. All three of these ladies are
very mobile and have a great touch around the rim. Their length gives us an
opportunity to stretch the floor out on the defensive end and will allow us to
have some size mismatches on the offensive end.
Freshman, Kerrigan Maddox (Richmond, MO) gives us great depth at the
point guard position without any drop-off.
She has a very high basketball IQ and has the ability to play an
off-guard as well. The combination of
Maddox and Hankins will provide us the ability to play two point guards a one
time if needed which gives us the chance to push the ball up the floor from
either side. We are excited about
getting the season started and moving the program forward this year,” stated
Coach Katen.
The Red
Dragons got their first win of the season, defeating Central Methodist JV 53-50. Congratulations!
