Why Whitewater?
19-08-2019
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Every year the Whitewater High School Tennis Team hosts a JV tournament to fundraise money for Gilda's Club of Madison. Gilda's Club is a nonprofit organization founded by Gene Wilder, in memory of his wife, Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer. "Gilda's Club of Madison creates welcoming communities of free emotional and social support for everyone living with cancer – women, men, teens, children and their families. Our innovative program is an essential complement to cancer care, providing support groups, educational lectures, healthy lifestyle workshops, and social activities. No one should face cancer alone." On behalf of the Whitewater Girls Tennis Team, we would like to thank all of the businesses, community members, former players, and parents of players who attended our tournament. It was nice to see so many people at the UWW courts and WHS courts. We would like to thank the following for their donations and raffle items that make all of this possible: Animal Medical Center, Anytime Fitness, Bellezza Hair Design, Coburn and Co., Culver's, Dalee Water, Dale's Bootery, Dental Perfections, Domino's Pizza, Fero's Auto Service, First Citizens State Bank, K9 Dog Care, Ketterhagen Motors, McCullough's, On Time Tees, Premier Bank, Quiet Hut, Rocky Rococo's, Soffa & Devitt Law Firm, Tincher Realty, and Whitewater Family Dentistry. Special thanks go out to Frank Barnes, Gary Harms, Tim Nelson, Jim & Claire Stewart, Sophie Olson and Family, Tom Ganser, WHS maintenance staff, along with all of the former student chairs and players that have sustained this tournament for over 13 years!
Ferradermis, Whitewater High School’s FIRST Robotics Team #6574, wrapped up a busy summer by hosting their second annual Boot Camp for new members from August 3 through August 10, 2019. Twelve veteran team members and nine of their adult mentors led fifteen new members through the basics of FIRST Robotics and guided them through designing, prototyping, manufacturing, wiring, and programming a fuel (whiffle ball) shooter capable of playing the official game from the 2017 season. The 2017 Steamworks season was Ferradermis’ rookie year in the competition, but their first robot was not complex enough to play that portion of the game, so this was a new challenge for both the veterans and the rookies. New members included not only incoming freshmen, but also sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have made the commitment to join. Entering their fourth year this year, Ferradermis will be 43 members strong. Additional students are welcome to join the team this fall. The team began each day of Boot Camp with a team-building activity. Over the course of the week, students completed the reverse cup stacking challenge, the marshmallow challenge, the nail stacking challenge, the balloon launch, and the blind object challenge. Students and mentors also maintained a memory wall to share their best memories of past robotics events and the current week. All of the challenges were designed to promote communication within and between sub-teams and alliances as well as the importance of understanding and interpreting rules. New members were introduced to FIRST Robotics with a game of Ferradermis Bingo. In order to bingo they had to learn and be able to share information such as the number of teams on an alliance, the colors of the alliance, the Ferradermis team number, the definition of Gracious Professionalism, and the role of a mentor. On day one, new members also rotated through short sessions that served as an introduction to the various sub-teams within Ferradermis: CAD/Mechanical, Electrical/Programming, Competition Logistics, and Business. They were then presented with their challenge for the week. Throughout the week, veteran and new members worked side by side to complete their challenge, and by the end of the day on the 10th, they were able to successfully test their robot by shooting fuel into a makeshift goal. Although their aim wasn’t perfect, they did achieve their goal of building a functional robot. Boot Camp is meant to model the first week of the six-week build season so that new members have an understanding of how the team will operate once the new season’s challenge is introduced. The Business team used this week as an opportunity to launch their 2019-2020 fundraising campaign by preparing a mailing for our current and prospective sponsors, developing a campaign at DonorsChoose.org, submitting multiple grant applications, and writing thank you notes. Ferradermis will have a busy fall as they are planning to participate in two off-season competitions with their 2019 robot in September. The first will be at the Milwaukee Maker Faire on Saturday, September 14. This event is open to the public. On the weekend of September 28, the team has been invited to travel with Round Table Robotics from Oak Creek High School to IndyRAGE in Indianapolis, a competition where the drive team and the pit crew are to be all female. The team is also working to help start and mentor FIRST LEGO League Teams involving students from all three elementary schools in Whitewater as well as help another area high school launch an FRC Team.
Pictured are Alyssa Schumacher (left) and Morgan Gransee (right) holding their certificates for making the All-District softball team this past season. Schumacher made the team as a catcher while Gransee was selected as an outfielder. Both players also made first team all-conference along with Bryce Hibbs and Sara Johnson. In addition, Whitewater put three softball players on the Academic All-State Team. To be considered for this award the players must be seniors who have a 3.50 or higher cumulative GPA. Receiving this honor in softball were Jocelin Beecroft, Sara Johnson, and Catherine Yang.
The Whitewater High School Class of 1955 held their reunion on July 27, 2019, at 841 Brewhouse. The group photo includes the following: (Front Left to Right) Jim Stevenson, Jerry Grant, Donna (Stradinger) Scharine, Donald Scharine, Jack Rapcke, and (Back Left to Right) Dorothy (Kramer) Moyer, Jeanette (Church) Johnson, Bob Paynter, Ken Kayser, Sherry (Nelson) Plucinski, and Jim Christbaum. Photo courtesy of Tom Ganser.
The WHS Class of 1959 held their 60th reunion on August 10, 2019 at The Real MacCoy's. The group photo includes the following: (Front Left to Right) Karen (Taft) Althaus, Eileen (Schoppe) Dempsey, Karen (Hapke) Schneider (currently living in Arizona), Marie (Frodl) Glass, Necia (Mayer) Schinke, Kathy (Graham) Sturzl, Carmen (Peyer) Marsh, Donna (Bigelow) Lewis (currently living in Michigan), Bonnie (Uglow) Stanley, and Arlene (Paynter) Kearney, and (Back Left to Right) Tom Dosemagen, Ed Hamilton (currently living in Iowa), Fred Lawton, Mary Beth (Pior) Pidcock (currently living in Nevada), Jerry Sennet (currently living in North Dakota), Eileen (Snyder) Brown, Carol Phelps Cobb, Don Kiernan, Charles Washburn, Kathy (Rowland) Sweet, Patti (Charles) Brabazon, Sylvia (Fadness) Gleiter, and Bill Fuerstenburg. They remembered 30 classmates fondly. Photo courtesy of Tom Ganser.
The Whitewater High School Class of 1984 held their reunion on August 3, 2019, at the Second Salem Brewing Company in Whitewater. Classmates came from as far as San Jose, California to New York City and all the places in between to touch base and reminisce about their time at Whitewater High School. A total of 57 guests and 41 WHS graduates were able to attend the reunion. The class would like to thank all of the faculty and staff, past and present, that created the memorable experiences they had for their four years at Whitewater High School.
Junior Brianna Staebler won the National Wrestling Championship at 180 pounds at the prestigious Fargo tournament on Sunday, July 14. This is largest national tournament for high school male and female wrestlers. Brianna won the championship with a late takedown to clinch it 3-2. She continued to participate in the Fargo Freestyle tournament after winning her national title, this time competing in the age group above her. She is a Cadet (16), and she bumped up to Juniors (18U). Tuesday she lost her first match of the week but then went on to have big wins to lock up All-American status. She then got a rematch with her only loss of the week and defeated the girl badly. Wednesday afternoon she had the opportunity for one more match but dropped it. Therefore, she comes home with the National Championship for her age group (16U) and a 4th place finish in the Junior Division (18U). It was a very successful week; she wrestled all those matches with only two losses and one she was able to avenge.