The start of a new season

By: Brendon Freeman

Girls basketball starts January 23, and they are excited to get their basketball season started. Girls basketball is important to the girls and head coach of eighth grade Mike Phillips. There has been open gym already for the girls and I am sure Coach Phillips has his eye on a couple of girls. About 14 girls will make each team for the seventh and eighth graders this year. Last year the eighth graders went 4-8, but had many close games. The seventh graders went 9-3 with one game against Grand Haven White Pines going into double over time and ending up winning.  Every girl isn’t going to make the team so don't give up try harder next year. “I like basketball because it has become something that's become natural to me,” seventh grader Madelyn Spaniola said.

Choir, band, and orchestra put on a holiday concert

By: Brendon Freeman

The holidays are filled with joy, cheer, music, and  love, and in the holiday concert they brought a little bit of that to our school. The holiday concert was played in front of the middle school on December 14 and it was filled with all types of songs including Jingle bells, Charlie Brown’s Christmas and Frosty the Snowman. This concert included members of the choir, band, and orchestra and all of them played a song together. “ I liked how they played a song with the choir band and orchestra all at the same time,” sixth grader Alyssa Neiser said. This song was called the Holiday sing along and it sounded different, but interesting. They all worked very hard on all their songs and had fun playing them.

Mona Shores Middle School hits the slopes

By: Mackenzie Quinn

Ski Club is a fun way to interact with friends outside school. Every Wednesday for six weeks, the members of the club get onto a Cardinal Charter bus and head to Cannonsburg, which is about a 45 minute drive. Ski Club has been at the middle school for nine years and was started by sixth grade teacher and ski club advisor Steve Trautner.  The ski club is for students who want to try a sport that is new to them or just go and have fun with their friends including skiiers and snowboarders of every ability level. In the past, the group would take an additional trip to Crystal Mountain, but it is still up in the air if they will do that this year. “The best part about ski club is finding random new people and making new friends from different schools,” eighth grader Andrea Majeski said.

Swim team falls to East Grand Rapids

By: Mackenzie Quinn

Although the Mona Shores Middle School swim team lost to East Grand Rapids on December 15, they pushed through the whole time and kept a harsh fight. Both the boys and girls came in 2nd in the mixed 200 yard medley relay. Seventh grader Mackenzie Ralston and eighth grader Jackie Seward came in 1st and 2nd respectively in the mixed 200 yard freestyle. EGR beat the boys in the mixed 100 yard IM, but seventh grader Annika Cotner came back and placed first for the girls with time of 1:13.15. Eighth grader Dava Lakatos placed 2nd in the 1 meter dive scoring 119.10 from the judges. Seventh grader Lexi Studabaker came in first for the mixed 50 yard butterfly beating an EGR swimmer by five seconds.  Cotner beat out three swimmers from EGR in the mixed 100 yard breaststroke to take another first place. The Sailors then fell to East Grand Rapids in the mixed 200 yard freestyle relay by 26 seconds. Although the Sailors fell to East Grand Rapids 217-115, they put up a fight the entire meet. “We had the feeling we might lose since we lost to them last time, but it just pushed us to work harder,” Cotner said.

Another successful year in the Toys for Tots campaign

By: Mackenzie Quinn

Between the dates of December 5th and December 14th, all students of Mona Shores Middle school were encouraged to bring in toys, for the kids who are less fortunate during this holiday season. All of the toys go to the Toys for Tots program that has been going on for 64 years. From 1947 through 1979, the Marines collected and distributed new and used toys for kids of any age that don’t get a chance of having as many toys as the kids more fortunate than them. In 1995, the Secretary of Defense approved Toys for Tots as an official activity of the U. S. Marine Corps and an official mission of the Marine Corps Reserve. Mona Shores Middle School participated in this years campaign, bringing in 350 toys. Mona Shores Middle School had a contest to see which class could bring in the most toys with the top three class getting pizza parties as a reward for their participation. First place, went to Mrs. Brink’s 7th grade class, 2nd place to Mr. Bush’s 7th grade class, and 3rd place to Mrs. Sailor’s 8th grade class. Toys for Tots has been going strong at Mona Shores Middle School for over ten years and will continue to do so while bringing kids holiday cheer. “Toys for Tots benefits the kids and it really shows them what giving is,” student congress adviser Leah Kern said.     

For more information you can visit the Toys for Tots website at www.toysfortots.org