October 2011 web.indd - U-32 High School

By Stu Laperle
After a disappointing season last
year when the Raider football team
finished just 4-5, new head Coach
Brian Divelbliss looks to get back on
the winning track.
After commencing the season on a
0-4 record, the playoffs may look like a
lofty goal, yet that does not discourage
Divelbliss from salvaging the season.
“We’ve been getting better as each
game goes on,” Divelbliss said. “We
just got to start finishing on both sides
of the ball.”
The Raiders have struggled finding
the end zone this year, scoring only 15
points in their first 4 games. Sophomore
Adam Gowans said, “Although offense
has been our prominent problem, our
defense has been doing a good job
making stops and rallying to the ball.”
In order to win games, “everyone has
to do their 1-11, everyone has to do
their own personal jobs every play,”
said Divelbliss.
At the beginning of the season,
some members felt wary with the absence
of long-time Coach Mike Law.
When asked about preparation tactics
for this season, Divelbliss responded,
“We try to prepare before the season,
having everyone coming in over the
summer not just for workouts, but
also for team building.” Gowans said,
“Coach Divelbliss did a good job of
transitioning to the new pistol offense,
Concussion from page 2
difficulty remembering new information,
more emotional, nervousness or
anxiety, sleep less than usual, feeling
tired, having no energy, balance problems,
fuzzy or blurry vision.
According to Bolduc, “There’s
a lot of stuff that’s happened that I
don’t remember. My memory is just
gone.”
While there are a total of eight
concussions on the football team alone,
other sports are affected, though not as
severely. We noticed that junior Metta
Sairs was “spacey”and “disoriented”
after being hit in the head with a field
hockey ball last week, forcing her to
take a trip to the emergency room.
Sophomore Cheyenne Smith was
described as “sluggish,” “confused,”
and “not acting like herself” and was
forced out of play on the soccer field
THE U-32 CHRONICLE
ACTIVITIES
Friday, October 7, 2011 • Activities Editors: Rose Wunrow, Conner Winkeljohn • Page 4
Annual U-32 cross country
invitational hosts 1000 runners
Coach Divelbliss (third from right) poses with players.
Football coach hopes to
salvage remainder of season
while moving away from Mike Law’s
under center winged T.”
Divelbliss uses“character” as a focal
point in his philosophy, while also
adapting methods from Law. Divelbliss
said, “Even with the 0-4 start, the guys
have done a great job staying together
and united as a team.”
Sophomore Grady Wimble said,
“From the past years that I knew Coach
Divelbliss, he has always had a positive
attitude while encouraging his players.”
Gowans said, “Coming into the season
I had a lot of trust in Coach Divelbliss.
He has plenty of experience, and I am
glad that after the rough start, he is
putting pressure on the team.”
“We don’t have one guy,” said
Divelbliss. “We rely on everyone to
make a difference. We have the talent;
we just have to apply it.” Wimble said,
“With a very young team with low
numbers, it puts a lot of pressure on the
head coach, trying to make corrections
to a team while working towards the
future.”
Sophomore Paul Beling also noticed
the sense of urgency among the
team and coaches. “In order to salvage
the remainder of the season, we got to
keep the integrity up throughout all
the practices and games.” With all the
injured players soon returning, Beling is
confident that they will have an impact
on the remainer of the season, while
also boosting the team’s morale.
for a while. And we can all remember
last year’s graduate Angie Aseltine’s
frighteningly severe memory loss from
last year’s soccer injury.
Athletic trainer Jennie-Beth Kruger
said she is “not 100 percent sure” why
such high numbers of concussions are
being recorded this year. “I think it
might have something to do with the
heightened awareness around concussions
and head injuries because of
the new concussion law passed this
summer.” The bill, which Governor
Peter Shumlin signed into law in July,
requires more education about the issue
in school athletic programs. Shumlin
has been criticized by many concerned
citizens regarding this law, saying that
it is “too weak” and “not effective,”
compared to other states that require
more in-depth medical evaluations, and
Photo courtesy of u32.phanfare.com
By Sam Merriman
On Saturday, September 24, U-32
hosted an invitational cross country
meet with 1000 runners, making it one
of the biggest cross country races of
the season.
U-32 hosted its annual invitational
for cross country running and included
students from 3rd to 12th grade who
ran a one- to five-kilometer course. The
elementary schools ran at 8:00 a.m.
and 9:00 a.m., followed by the middle
school girls and middle school boys.
The JV girls then ran at 11:15 a.m.
and JV boys at 11:45 a.m., followed
by the varsity girls and varsity boys.
The middle school ran a 3-kilometer
race (or around 1.8 miles) and the high
school athletes a 5-kilometer race (or
around 3.1 miles).
Mark Chaplin, the high school cross
country coach, believes that the team is
doing well. He believes the upcoming
girl’s team looks promising with so
many sophomores and freshmen. He is
pleased with the boys team this year and
hopes there is room for improvement.
Ten runners will graduate this school
year. Since last year, seniors Charlie
Hoffert and Larissa Kehne have been
captains of the varsity squad, being the
fast runners on the team. The entire
senior class alone makes up over a
By Jessica Symonds
As of this season, there are now
nine athletes from Harwood playing
on the U-32 football team.
Athletic Director Amy Molina
said that the Vermont Principals’ Association
(VPA) rule allows schools
that don’t have a certain sport at their
home school to reach out to schools
that do, allowing them to give their
athletes an opportunity to play that sport
elsewhere. This rule is what has allowed
the nine athletes from Harwood to play
on the U-32 football team. This does
not apply to the middle school level so
traditionally players from Harwood,
Senior Larissa Kehne finishes
second at U-32 Invitational.
third of the runners. As this is their
last year at U-32, the seniors say that
they will try hard to win states.
Cross country runner Larissa Kehne
said that running a 5k race “feels like
the most exhilarating pain I’ve ever
felt. Like sitting in a river and being
pushed down by the current.”
The posting of the team’s placement
can be seen on the bulletin board
outside of Chaplin’s office. The points
are given according to placement in
the varsity race (first place – 1 point,
Main Street Middle School and U-32
all play on the same team. However,
once players from Main Street Middle
School reach high school level, they
play for Montpelier High School.
Last year, some of the Harwood
players played for Montpelier and some
played for U-32. “That was a very,
very special situation,” said Molina.
“It will never happen again. The longterm
solution is to play with U-32. It
is working really well because they
all grew up playing together,” said
Molina.
U-32 sophomore Paul Beling said,
“They (the Harwood players) are all good
Photo courtesy of.u32.phanfare.com
second place – 2 points, etc.). Winning
teams are decided by which team has
the fewest total points of the first five
varsity runners. The schools’ placing
of the first three teams plus U-32’s
placing are as follows:
Girls School Placing:
First Place Middlebury- 65 Points –
Total Time: 1:57:30 – Average Time:
23:30
Second Place Bellows Academy- 80
Points – Total Time: 1:58:57 – Average
Time: 23:47
Third Place North Country- 113 Points
– Total Time: 2:01:15 – Average Time:
24:15
Fifth Place U-32- 185 Points – Total Time:
2:06:40 – Average Time: 25:20
Boys School Placing:
First Place Middlebury- 47 Points –
Total Time: 1:32:48 – Average Time:
18:33
Second Place U-32- 78 Points – Total
Time: 1:35:50 – Average Time:
19:10
Third Place North Country- 113 Points
– Total Time: 1:38:11 – Average Time:
19:38
The entire U-32 team finished the
course. Junior Ben Merrylees said his
race “didn’t go brilliantly, but better
than I expected.” When the outcomes
of Saturday’s meet were posted, he
said, “Our team did really well.”
Harwood consolidates with U-32 football
a longer period of time on the bench
after an athlete suffers a concussion.
Kruger said that the school is doing
what they can to prevent concussions
in all contact sports. U-32 requires
every high school student involved in
a sport with a risk of a concussion to
take a baseline concussion test at the
beginning of the season, and in the
event that they receive a head injury,
they are not allowed to return to play
until the score after impact matches
or exceeds the baseline score. Kruger
said the test is a compilation of digital
questions that measure hand-eye coordination,
reaction time, and memory
skills. Kruger added that the school
offers numerous concussion education
materials provided to student athletes
and their parents. There is a concussion
education program for all coaches, as
well as the football team watching
a video on concussions and proper
tackling.
While Kruger said she believes
that concussion reports are particularly
high this year, she feels confident in her
own abilities as an athletic trainer to
deal with the head injuries this season.
With previous experience dealing with
hockey players’ concussions and brain
trauma, Kruger said she used to be
scared about this medical issue, but
kids, and there is a good relationship
between us and them.” When asked if
he thought the nine players take away
playing time from U-32 students, he
answered, “No, they don’t. There just
aren’t enough numbers this year, and
we need them.” Beling also said, “It is
cool how last year there were four and
this year there were nine. They kind of
like recruited each other to come and
play.”
With the number of football players
from U-32 in the last four years
slowly dropping, members of the team
hope that the number of players from
Harwood keep rising.
now believes “I know what I’m dealing
with.”
“I don’t know if it’s a problem,”
she said.
“I’m scared. If it happens again,
they told me it’ll be twice as worse as
the last one, and I keep having symptoms;
like if I was to get hit again, my
symptoms could be a lot, lot, worse.
It’s changed my life now. I don’t ever
want that to happen, I don’t want to
take risks,” said Bolduc.
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