WA-HI News
Next week is Spirit Week (May 10-14) - join us in bringing some fun to campus! (all clothing choices must be within our dress code requirements)
- Monday: Class Colors
- Tuesday: Snooze Day (Pajama Day)
- Wednesday: Wipe Out (surfer themed)
- Thursday: Hoe Down Throwdown! (Western)
- Friday: Tie Dye!
Here's a video to inspire you!
- Buff Puff/Powder Puff
That's right! We are doing Buff Puff (men playing volleyball) and Powder Puff (women playing football) this year! Powder Puff will be at 7pm on Martin Field and Buff Puff will be at 6:30pm on the soccer field (outdoor volleyball). If you're interested in playing, sign up here: https://www.familyid.com/walla-walla-high-school/2021-powder-puff-buff-puff-game
FFA much anticipated annual plant sale:
Wednesday, April 28 - Friday, April 30
Hours: 6:30am to 6pm
The sale will take place outside in the grass where plants will be spread out in a safe and socially distanced pattern. Parking on Abbott Rd with easy access to the plant sale area.
Cash, check or credit card will be accepted.
Students in the Community Based Instruction and Independent Living Program at Wa-Hi are teaming up with the STEP Program to make, sell, and deliver organic dog treats and pupsicles.
The rifle team shot 3 seperate matches on Saturday in Spokane, nearly 6 hours of competitive shooting, winning 2 of their 3 matches.
Press release written by Cadet Major Shaunia Marek. Photo credit goes to Cadet Corporal Sara Justice.
Congratulations to the GO BLUE students of January and February! Eight students were selected each month by their teachers as GO BLUE students. Nominated students were recognized for the exceptional examples they provide as model students, especially during this challenging time with Distance and Hybrid Learning. Below are what they had to say about being chosen.
Blue Devil Cadets Win Washington State Junior Olympic Air Rifle Match
The Blue Devil JROTC Precision Team claimed the Junior Olympic Air Rifle Washington State Championship at the Spokane Rifle Club on Saturday. The match was held in 3 different locations in Washington State in February and March, with nearly 40 shooters from 7 different rifle teams across the state represented. Individual athletes in this match may receive invitations to the Junior Olympic National Championship held at the Olympic Training Center at a future date to be determined by the match host, USA Shooting.
In Junior Olympics, shooters compete in a pair of matches, both scored separately. The first is a smallbore .22 rifle match fired from the kneeling, prone and finally the standing positions at a distance of 50 feet. Each position has a possible score of 200, for a total of 600 points. The smallbore match is followed by a separate air rifle match, 60 record shots, all fired from the standing position at a distance of 10 meters.
WAHI’s top shooter in the smallbore match Saturday morning was Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Lopez-Gutierrez who fired a 545 out of 600, followed close behind by Cadet Captain Jazmyn Paul with a 523.
“We have only had 2 smallbore practices this year.” Said Lopez-Gutierrez after the match Saturday. “All things considered, we shot surprisingly well in that event.”
That afternoon the Blue Devils competed in the air rifle match with Cadet First Sergeant Nicole Hunter taking 3rd place overall in the women’s division with a 572 and Cadet Sergeant First Class Cassidy Hanson taking 5th behind a 566. In the men’s division WAHI’s highest score went to Lopez-Gutierrez with a 557 finishing in 4th place statewide.
“572 is a new personal record for me.” Said Hunter “Last year I shot a 563 and was invited to Nationals, but the event was cancelled because of the pandemic. I have been doing a lot of work in the standing position because I really wanted to qualify this year again.”
“Hunter’s and Hanson’s scores will almost certainly qualify both of them for the Junior Olympic National Match in Colorado.” Said Mebes “There is also a very good chance that Lopez-Gutierrez will receive an invitation as well. These cadets made a phenomenal showing considering that they have only been able to practice for a little over a month this year.”
Once the scores were tabulated on Sunday evening after the last teams had completed WAHI led the state by a score of 1695 over the second place team, the Vancouver Grizzly Bears’ 1666.
The Blue Devils return home this week to train for their next contests, including the JROTC and CMP Virtual Rifle Championship that they will conduct on their home range in April.
Press release from this weekend's rifle match
Wa-Hi Precision Team Wins Junior Olympic State Championship
By Cadet Major Shaunia Marek
On February 11th, Wa-Hi’s precision rifle team claimed the title of Washington State Junior Olympic Champions at the 2021 Washington State Junior Olympic Air Rifle Championship match. Battling five other teams across Washington State, Wa-Hi was able to win first place with a comfortable 32 point lead over Capital City Gold.
The match was conducted virtually with targets being scored with Orion scoring technology developed by the company Shooter's Technology. With Orion, rifle teams from different locations from around the state can send images of scanned targets to be scored at a sanctioned central location. The algorithm for Orion can pinpoint the center of a target and the center of a shot down to the thousandth of an inch. The distance between the two points are then measured to help calculate the score.
"Orion is an extremely accurate system," said Rifle Coach SFC Mark Mebes. "It has been under constant development and improvement for over a decade and we are glad that we are able to make use of it during this pandemic when travel is limited for most rifle teams. It allows our shooters to compete in matches alongside other teams when we would otherwise be stuck at home."
The five cadets that competed as part of Wa-Hi’s rifle team were Cadet Captain Jazmyn Paul, Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Lopez-Gutierrez, Cadet Captain Daniel Girardin, Cadet First Sergeant Nicole Hunter, and Cadet Sergeant First Class Cassidy Hanson. Of the five cadets that competed for Wa-Hi, three managed to be ranked among the top four highest scoring shooters in the match.
With a career high score of 581 points, Hunter was the top marksman for Wa-Hi. Among her targets was a 100 point prone target, a 96 point standing target, and a 98 point kneeling target. She also scored 26 center x ten shots which is a shot that scored 10.2 or higher out of a possible 10.9 points. Her performance placed her second statewide for this match, just 7 points away from Alexis Kunze from Oak Harbor’s first place score.
The second highest scoring Wa-Hi marksman was Hanson with a score of 580 points. With 28 center x ten shots, she was just able to beat out Lopez who matched Hanson’s 580 score but shot only 27 center x ten shots. With one center x ten shot less than Hanson, Lopez came in as Wa-Hi’s third highest scoring marksman on the team and fourth statewide out of all the shooters competing in the match.
Team scores were calculated by combining the scores of the top 4 marksmen from each team. Out of a total possible 2400 points, Wa-Hi finished with a final score of 2298 points. With the title of state champions under their belt, cadets on the team are hoping to have a chance to compete in nationals later on in the year.
"Junior Olympic state champions normally receive automatic invitations to the national championships in July," said Rifle Team Captain Jazmyn Paul on Monday after final scores were in. "We assume we will receive an invite, but you never know until you get that email. Still, this is a nationally competitive score, so we are optimistic that if pandemic conditions allow travel and competition this summer, we will be there."
"Washington is a power-house state in the sport of precision air rifle," said SFC Mebes. "The last time we won the state Junior Olympics as a team was in 2015, six years ago. Our training time has been severely limited this year due to COVID conditions, but it looks like our cadets have risen to the challenge. I am excited to see what the rest of the season will bring."
Wa- Hi Drama Club members are creating a new production of Robin Hood. Drama teacher Kristin Hessler with help from Kristin Vining, who has been involved with many Wa-Hi Drama productions in past years, are using the online Zoom to devise the new play. Students meet weekly to work on concepts, characters and script. Eventually they hope to compose music as well.
View article by JEREMY BURNHAM of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Feb 18, 2021 here.
