Congratulations to the following players:

Dawson Seabourn

-20 touchdowns for the season

(8 pass & 12 run)

- 5 Individual Game MVPs

- West All Star Team Selected

- Coyotes Freshman Team Over All MVP

-PBYFL Division 2 Freshman Offensive Player of the Year

Corbin Zeigler

-12 touchdowns

(9 pass & 3 run)

-3 Individual Game MVPs

-West All Star Team Selected

- Coyotes Freshman Team Offensive Player of the Year

Brody Pahl

-7 Run touchdowns

- 1 Individual game MVP

-West All Star Team Selected

- Coyotes Freshman Team Defense Player of the Year

Braxton Tarpley

- 1 pass TD

-West All Star Team Selected

-Coyotes Freshman Team 110% Award

Aden Bedoy

-West All Star Team Selected

- Coyotes Freshman Team Most Improved Award

Jacob Porras

-Coyotes Freshman Team Most Improved Award

Jayvian Contreras

-West All Star Team Selected

-Coyotes Freshman Team Lineman of the Year Award

Again, congratulations, and the community is excited to see what next year has in store for the Crane Coyotes!

One act play is exactly what it sounds like. It's one act inside of a play. Many people don't know the difference from a regular play and a one-act play. The difference is, in a one-act play, the plot is focused on one fragment of a story. This creates a mood and produces a single effect, rather than a full play that produces many.

A one-act play is very short. This makes it very challenging to create a play because you have to produce scenes that flow with the plot and make sense, while making sure it fits in your time limit. 

This also means every character in the play needs to be important. Every word in the play needs to develop a situation, reveal a character, or create a mood.

Here at CHS, there is a one-act play group. It consists of grades ranging from 9th to 12th. 

Vanessa Velasco is the director for the group this year. She was very considerate of her group when deciding on a play. 

"After thinking about the students I had working and who was really involved, I decided on a play that would be fitting towards those students."

Velasco is really new to all of this, considering it's her first year here at CHS. She is working through the hardships though, and learning to enjoy it. 

"It's kind of a hard process. I think that everyone who is in theater participating in one act are really contributing to the formation of the play."

One of these students is Samantha Mathis, a sophomore. She contributes a lot to the group by creating designs and sketching up sets for the scenes. 

Mathis believes one act helps her and everyone around her express their emotions. 

"It helps people express their emotions, their creativity, and all sorts of cool stuff."

One act is actually a competitive group! They build up their play over a couple of months, and when the time comes they head over to a school to compete with other theater students. 

Samantha Mathis is ready to take anyone on. 

"Competing?" "I'm all for it!"

The one-act group is organizing and setting up their play for the spring. They're putting in everything they've got, and I’m sure they'd love it if you'd show some love at their competition!

Also, the town shines bright as Christmas lights surround the town during a traditional event where people join each other for Shop Crane Night. Shop Crane Night gives the Crane community an opportunity to express their joy and passion for the holidays by rubbing elbows with the local vendors in town. Many of the vendors put out cookies, hand out hot chocolate, and just spread the Christmas spirit for all to enjoy.

I caught up with junior, Arianna Escobedo, who attended Shop Crane Night. She explained her favorite parts of the event.

“My favorite part was being able to ride in the parade with my cheer team, and seeing everyone join as a community to celebrate a town tradition.”

Escobedo said that she’s no stranger to Shop Crane Night.

“I’ve always participated in Shop Crane Night, ever since I was a little girl. My family and I would walk around buying snacks and hot chocolate. It’s always been something I looked forward to every year.”

This year's Shop Crane Night and Christmas parade proved one thing to everyone: Crane does Christmas right!

Houses in Crane are always decorated with lights and inflatables to show their Christmas spirit. 

A brief drive around Crane will make you feel the Christmas spirit in the air.

 
Mitzy Jacobo, a sophomore, said she likes to see how creative people are with the lights and likes how the streets are lit up. 

Brad Pettit, CHS journalism teacher, said that he enjoys seeing how people decorate according to their own personal tastes.

"Some people are very over-the-top with how they decorate, and you're practically blinded with Christmas when you drive past their houses. And yet, other folks have a more understated approach to decorating. They might place a wreath on the door or an inflatable or two in their yard. To each their own. The key thing is, it's cool to see Christmas cheer. Because, to me, we should all be happy. We should be happy because what we are really celebrating is the day that Jesus was born!"

Whenever you find yourself bored one of these nights, take a drive around town, and that is sure to cheer you up!

Merry Christmas!

In the first home game of the season, the Lady Birds went into halftime with a slight lead over the Lady Cats. About midway through the third quarter, the score was 22-19. Makenna Willis drove in for the layup, stretching the lead to 24-19. Nayelly Sanchez grew the lead to 26-19 shortly after that, but the Grady Lady Cats answered right away with an easy layup, closing the gap yet again.

Sanchez, a junior who plays the post position, is a key member of the Lady Birds starting offense. And she was having a great game until things took a turn for the worse when she went down with a season-ending knee injury, tearing her ACL and meniscus. 

“I am not sure exactly what happened. After we took possession, my teammate passed me the ball. As I went up to shoot, I got fouled. I shot my first free throw and missed. My second shot I missed also and ran to rebound the ball. Once I got possession of the ball, I planted my right leg to turn and a girl from Grady fouled me. I just remember falling to the ground with pain in my right knee. At that moment, I just felt defeated since there was no way I could continue playing in the amount of pain I was in." 

After Sanchez's injury, the Lady Birds began playing with a lot of ferocity, as did the Lady Cats, sinking a three and tying it up at 26-26. The Lady Cats put in another layup to take the their lead to 28-26 for the first time since the half. 

Another three pointer brought the Lady Cats to a 31-26 lead. Willis drew the foul, but also made the layup, where she quickly tacked on the extra point to tighten things back up to 31-29, the Cats still leading. The Lady Birds tied it up with a jump shot to go into the fourth quarter tied. Some back and forth in the fourth quarter saw the Lady Cats steadily pulling ahead, however, and despite keeping it close for most of the game, the Lady Birds came up short, with a final score of 51-40.

The Lady Birds next game will be against the Tornillo Lady Coyotes Tuesday. Make sure to clear your calendar and cheer on these ladies!

My personal favorite song is “Superhero.” It has a very upbeat flow and keeps a great tempo. A song I would like to also recommend is “Feel The Fiyaaaah.” It’s very similar to Superhero and isn't just a rap song. It has some pretty good vocals in it as well.

I would give this album four out five Golden Cranes. It is a great album by Metro with great flow, beats, and lyrics. Possibly one of the best albums he’s released in a long time.

Tune in next week to see reviews for books, movies, and more!

Once football and volleyball season is over, cheer practices become strictly geared towards preparing for competition. Cheerleaders spend hours in the gym, practicing very hard. When others are relaxing after school, these cheerleaders are grinding to make sure that they can put Crane on the map with regard to competitive cheer.

Junior, Maria Lomeli, said that she absolutely adores competitive cheer.

“I’m really excited! This is one of my favorite parts during cheer season! We put in a lot of hard work this season, and I can’t wait to compete and show it off to everyone.”

Lomeli stated how this year will be better than last year because the team has already done this once, and so therefore the first-time jitters will be behind them on the next go-around. 

“I’m sure we'll go out there with more confidence now that we have experienced what it feels like to be on the mats. And now with more girls added to the team, hopefully we’ll make it to finals after all the hard work we have been putting into the routine.”

Lomeli said that making memories is an awesome experience that she will remember forever.

“My favorite thing about competition is making memories with my cheer friends and just spending time together doing something we all love. These are definitely memories I will cherish!” 

Competition for everyone on the team is a bit different; however, all of them have the same end goal. Winning! 

Lilly Piñon, a senior on the cheer squad, echoed Lomeli's sentiments. She also said that she is feeling super pumped about the competition and is very excited to compete one last time with her best friend.

“I feel very excited, although practices are tough! The best part about competition is being able to cheer and compete with my best friend, Maddie Bernard!”

Piñon claimed that having more girls will most likely give the cheer squad more of an advantage this year. 

“We now have more girls for spirit, and the volume will be ten times louder. Our team is also stronger now!” 

Loud, huge crowds are Piñon’s favorite! She loves the rush of adrenaline from competing in front of people excited to watch cheerleaders do what cheerleaders do best: CHEER!

"My favorite thing about competitions is the big crowds. I've always loved being out in front of a lot of people and the spotlights shining into my eyes. Those three minutes of competition are super intense, and I love every second of it!"

Behind every good cheer squad is a good coach...or coaches. Without head cheer coach, Terra Wills, along with assistant cheer coach, Jessica Pettit, the cheer squad wouldn't be where it is today. Willis and Pettit have overseen the many hours of practice, working on stunt groups, formations and choreography.

Willis states that the choreography is so much better than the previous year. 

“I feel like it’s definitely better. It is much better than having to do it through zoom like last year. I also learned how it is completely different from all-star cheer, which I am used to. We learned that it is more about spirit and props and more people rather than actual cheerleading ability.” 

A difference Willis knows will benefit the team will be having more people and props.

“It’s going to help having twenty people on the floor rather than 13. I think that adding more people and more props will help us show more spirit.”

Willis said leading up to the competition is actually better than the competition itself.

“I think that leading up to the competition is the most fun part of it. It’s all the time you spend together before the competition that is special to me.”

Willis hopes the team sees some success because it has worked so hard this year.

“I would like to place, but my goal out of 60 teams is to make the top twenty and advance to finals. We want to show that all of our hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. We want to prove that the cheerleaders are not just cheerleaders, but also competitive athletes.” 

The CHS cheer team hopes to get the outcome they have been working towards. This year's competition takes place in Fort Worth on Jan 12. 

Make sure to wish these young ladies and gentleman some good luck as they continue practicing for the big day!

District MVP - Manuel Aranda

Offensive Co MVP - Keaton Sena, Brian Galindo

Defensive CO MVP - Tavian Bustos

Co-Offensive Line Player of the Year - Donavan Clark

Co-Newcomer of the Year - Carlos Garcia

1st Team Offense
Running Back - Blake Rodriguez

Receiver - Trey Larsen

Tight End - Kevin Iniguez

Offensive Line - Terrence Godette, A.J. Rodriguez, Jonathan Tarin

Utility Player- Carlos Alverez

2nd Team Offense 

Kicker - Kevin Iniguez

1st Team Defense
Defensive Line - Ivan Martinez, A.J. Rodriguez

Inside Linebacker - Elijah Hernandez

Outside Linebacker - Blake Rodriguez, Carlos Alvarez

Cornerback - Angel Reyes

Safety - Trey Larson

Cornerback - Kyle Duran

Outside Linebacker - Dominic Torres