Broad Ripple Senior To Swim On College Scholarship
By: Thomas Elder
Jessica Halsmer, senior at Broad Ripple Magnet High School, has been granted a full ride scholarship to Franklin college.
Halsmer said "I have been swimming all my life, and to go to college to swim is easily a proud achievement of mine. It might be a 3D [Division III] college, but I want to go more for the academics.”
Broad Ripple High School Swim Coach, and Halsmer's grandmother, Sandy Fencestimaker, said, “She is my granddaughter, of course I’m proud of her! I want to see her succeed. I have been coaching her all my life and knew she was going to swim in college. I’m so proud of her!”
Sandy Halsmer, Halsmer’s sister and teammate, said, "Yeah, I am proud of my sister, she's going to college with the sport she really enjoys. She has been a role model. But it's the beginning of the season so I want her to work hard, and hopefully we can win some relays!”
For more information about the Broad Ripple High School swim team, visit broadripplerockets.com.
How You Feel Rockets? You Know!
By: Tra'Chelle McKinney | Photo By: Tonisha Washington-Wilburn
Broad Ripple High School’s basketball team will be in action very soon. There are some newcomers that will be joining the team this year and there are some veterans who have played for Broad Ripple for years. They are all excited about the upcoming season and are hoping to win sectionals.
Winning the sectionals and going to the state competitions would be an enormous accomplishment for not only the players, but the school. But do they think that the team that they belong to will not only reach sectionals, but win?
Jaylin Street, 12, Nohom Kibrom, 11, and Jerron Overall, 12, were asked about their excitement towards the oncoming season. Their responses mimicked one another and shared everyone’s brewing elation. Street and Overall answered in the same enthused tone, “Yes! We hope to win sectionals and hopefully we’ll win state.” Kibrom agreed, “Yes, I think we’re going to win sectionals this year.”
There are five different kinds of positions in basketball: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center. Each play different positions or they just play one. Both Jaylin Street and Nohom Kibrom play either guard position and Jerron Overall play as a combo guard, the point and shooting guard.
Jaylin Street has been playing basketball since he was five years old and claims it helps him focus. Jerron Overall has been playing since the 8th grade thoroughly enjoys the tricks you can do with the ball. Nohom Kibrom has been playing since the 5th grade and he “just likes to play.”
For more information about the basketball schedule, visit broadripplerockets.com.
The first basketball game for the Broad Ripple Magnet High School team was a success! They went head-to-head against Shortridge Magnet High School, where Broad Ripple’s winning score was 67-35. The majority of the players displayed a favorable performance, while others played a bit carelessly.
Jonathan Akins, Senior, Matthew Henderson, Junior, were asked about their feelings toward the game and if they would have done anything different.
Akins and Henderson were asked how they think their performance was for the first game. Jonathan Atkins answered, “It was an okay performance,” he sighs, “I could've done more, though.”
Henderson’s response was very different, “I played an awesome game. I did my role as a player and helped my teammates get the win.”
The players were also asked what would they have done different to benefit the game and team overall. Jonathan Akins stated, “Yes, I could have done better by scoring more.” While Matthew Henderson said, “I mean, yeah, I could have done better at executing the offensive plays. This is only the beginning. The players have around twenty-five to thirty games left to advance in their performance. There's plenty of time”
For the game schedule and future scores visit www. Broadripple.com to see the basketball schedule.
Rockets Start Off Season Strong
By: Tra'Chelle McKinney | Photo By: Tonisha Washington-Wilburn
What Happened to Soccer?
By: Thomas Elder
For the last two years there has been an absence of a soccer team at Broad Ripple High School. Emmanuel Flores, sophomore, said, “Last year Coach Starnes, the former athletic director, said nobody was eligible, when we had enough eligible players who wanted to play.”
Chris Flores, senior, said, “Last year I was ready to play and make new bounds with everybody, then Starnes said nobody was eligible. I made many connections with the students off the field who wanted to play.”
The players tried many things to try to get a team together. Ty Brown, senior, said, “After the first time with no team I decided to get on the players on the team about grades because I wanted to play my senior year.”
Emmanuel Flores said, “Last year, my freshman year, we had a paper going around to players who we thought were eligible to play, including a bunch of freshman, but when he gave us the list he said the coach got fired.”
When everyone returned this 2016-2017 school year, grades were desperately trying to be raised. Unfortunately, Coach Starnes, the former athletic director, had some unfavorable news. He didn't even bother to set up a season or hire a coach for the could-have-been team and the students who wanted to play were understandably upset.
Ty Brown, said “I thought I was going to play my senior year but Starnes didn't bother setting up a season and we were not going for that. So we had a group of guys pass around a paper for us to sign to show that we wanted to play.”
Chris Flores said, “When he said there was no team my senior year I was frustrated and wanted to do something about it so I talked to Ty and we tried to do something to help get a team together.”
There's is a new athletic director now and many of the students that want to play next year hope that he will allow a soccer team. As Emmanuel Flores said, “This game is my passion, and two years without playing with the school is too long. Hopefully next year we will have a team. But I will keep my grades up and practice to have a great season when we do.”
Broad Ripple vs. Heritage Christian
By: Tra'Chelle McKinney
The Broad Ripple Magnet High School Basketball team beat Heritage Christian High School on the legendary game of January 6, 2017 with a score of 46-44. The Rockets Varsity Basketball team outscored Heritage Christian in the third quarter with 13 points to 4 which gave them an outstanding boost.
Seniors Jonathan Akins and Patrick Wilburn gave their individual insights about their performance in the game and how they prepared for this specific winning game.
Akins and Wilburn gave their thoughts on their performance that Friday. Both Akins and Wilburn had similar answers which was that they both believed that “they could have done better but their performance was not bad it was okay.”
Both Atkins and Wilburn imparted their feelings on the team’s collective energy and how if it differs from last year.
Akins believes, “the team’s energy is good and it is different from the previous year.”
Wilburn answered, “the energy is good but we could bring a lot more. The energy is certainly different from last year.”
When asked what this year’s basketball coach is doing to help them improve, and if it works; They’re answers were similar. Akins and Wilburn said, “the coach wants us to work hard and push one another to make each other better and yes, it's working.”
Inside Look at BRMHS Wrestling
By: Thomas Elder
The Broad Ripple High School wrestling team has been in season for quite some time now, but they are training hard and getting ready for their upcoming meets. Their next meet, The Manual Invitational, is Saturday, January 21st and head coach Derek Butts is making sure the team is prepared.
Daniel Connor, freshman, stated, “The coaches are there when I want to give up, and help us when [training] gets challenging.”
Maciah Schumpert, a fellow freshman on the team, said, “The coaches show me attention when I'm not doing something right, and help me improve.”
The wrestling team has put in the work, and they hope they will see it pay off. Connor said, “ I joined to stay in shape and ended up loving it. I can't wait to see what I can do for the rest of the season.”
Even though there are only four meets left this year, the wrestlers are keeping their heads in the game. It’s just like Connor said, “You might win, you might lose, but it's all worth it in the long run.”
To find out when and where you can watch the Rockets’ final wrestling meets, visit www.broadripplerockets.com.
Rockets Win Rivalry Basketball Game
By: Tonisha Washington-Wilburn
The question was, could we have won? After speaking with Patrick Wilburn and Sam Colbert, the two head captions of the Broad Ripple Rockets basketball team, the consensus was that the loss came due to a lack of confidence, teamwork, and "horrible" defense. The captains said, "The team didn’t believe in themselves, and with them not believing it caused us to have low confidence and a horrible game."
Wilburn reflected on his own performance, "I played hard tonight and to eat and feed Sam at the same time." By the end of the game Wilburn had scored 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists.
The team tried to get riled up again during halftime, where coaches Piper, Hicks, and Fields told the team "This is our game its up to us to win it and move on, or lose it and go home."
The halftime speeches did not seem to work, however, because the rockets appeared to play even worse during the second half.
Colson said, "We didn’t give completely up, but we were not playing our best."
The captains also felt that despite losing, it was a really good and close game until the team slacked off and started to not play well.
In a final statement about the game, Colson said, "we could have won if we just played like we wanted to. I think the problem was that there was a boy on the other team who was really tall and strong. But we’ve played teams with players the same height as us and won, it was just the fact that we didn’t play hard."
Baseball Conditioning Is Underway
By: Thomas Elder
Baseball season hasn't even started yet, but the team has been conditioning since the beginning of school. The players that have attended conditioning go to improve themselves and get ahead of everyone else when season starts.
Trent Riggins, junior and first baseman, said, “I have been going to conditioning since the beginning of school to improve in the game.”
Freshman Brice Thomas-Cook is in a different situation than Riggins. Thomas-Cook said, “I have been going to conditioning since August, [but it is because] this is my first year playing and I want to learn baseball before the season starts.”
Everyone on the team seems to want to improve and achieve their goals by going to practice before the season even starts.
Riggins, said, “My goal for this season to get at least a 75 percent obp (on-base percentage) and get 5 runs.
Head Baseball Coach, Jason Guist, said, “We want to build from last year and get better.”
Thomas-Cook said, ”I want to get 3 runs and improve on the game I want to play. I want to start practicing outside of school to get better.”
Coach Guist and the team seem to agree that grades are also important to being a student-athlete. Riggins said, “Coach is pushing us in practice to get better and he is pushing us academically to do better in school.”
The season may be a few months in the future but the players love the sport and keep practicing year round to get better.
Like Riggins said, “I play because I enjoy baseball and want to get better. That's why I practice.”
Find out more about the upcoming baseball season at broadripplerockets.com.
Senior Signs NLI to Swim at Franklin College
By: Thomas Elder
Jessica Halsmer, senior, signed to swim on scholarship at Franklin College. She will be swimming DIII (Division Three) at Franklin. Jessica said, “I need the money because the school is private, and when the opportunity approached me I had to take it.”
Coach Fencestimaker, Broad Ripple's Head Swim Coach and Halsmer's grandmother, said, “I’m very proud of her. I have been coaching her since she was little and seen her grow up in and outside of the pool.”
Sandy Halsmer, sophomore and Halsmer's sister, said, “It's great to see that my sister committed to Franklin. I want to follow her steps and swim in college.”
Halsmer said, “I want to go into the swim season strong next year. I want to get better times and I want to gain new experiences with my new teammates next season.”
Fencestimaker added, “Some advice I would give her is to focus on school and try her best during swim.”
Audree, junior and fellow teammate said, “I wish her luck and I advise her to focus on school. I will try to make it down and watch her swim."
Most of Jessica's coaches have been with her since she was a young child and Jessica. About them, Halsmer said, “My grandma was one of the coaches that helped improve me the most. She has pushed me to do better throughout the year. I think she was one of the coaches I want to thank the most.”
Rockets Take Hard Loss in Sectional Basketball Game
By: Chelena Meadows | Photos By: Kenyon Tobin
Sophomore, Cameron Hicks says, “It was a very interesting game. Our played battled it out and got the dub. The atmosphere was loud and energetic. You could feel all the energy off the crowd. If you wasn’t at the game, you missed a heck of a game.”
Junior, Xavier White says, “ It was the craziest game I’ve played in. I think I did good helping my team, I handled the ball well. As a team, we knew what we had to do and executed that. I love the support and wish every game was like that.”
As most of you can imagine this was wildest game of the season. Nows come out Feb. 22, 2017 for senior night. Our seniors will play at Broad Ripple against Crispus Attucks. Let's Go Rockets!
The rivalry between Broad Ripple and Arlington has gone back for generations. And the most recent game that took place Feb. 10, 2017.
This game will be remembered as one of the best ones of the season. Two players from Arlington were expelled at the beginning of the first quarter.
Following that, Sam Colbert had got a technical foul for dunking, which led to his expulsion from the game during the middle of second quarter.
At the end of halftime both teams were tied at 39. This caused the team to pick up the extra weight, because they fell through, the Rockets won (83-82).
For some of our new members this rivalry was new to them. Caleb Brown, Cameron Hicks, and Xavier White had a lot to say about their experience.
Junior, Caleb Brown says, “It was a good, intensed, pack game. The referees couldn’t hang with the competitiveness. I believed I played well and the hard work we put in as team paid off at the end.”
Rocket Football Plays Final Homecoming Week Game
By: Calvin Campbell, Dajuana Meals and Lexie Quintana
Scroll down on the image below to see the Rocket Football Homecoming Game recap.
Fire & Finesse Dances their Hearts out at Final Homecoming Pep Rally & Game
By: Aa'miya Carter & Ashanti Eckford
2016-17 School Year
Lady Rockets Play Rival Arsenal Tech
By: Tonisha Washington-Wilburn
Broad Ripple girl's basketball played Arsenal Tech girl's basketball on November 3, 2017. Every year except 2017, Arsenal Tech has won with significantly more points than Broad Ripple girl's basketball every year.
The game started off with Tech winning with 5 points, but the score kept going back and forth. A lot of time the score was tied. Although many of the Broad Ripple players were almost fouled, it was an intense game because the score was so close throughout.
The energy in the crowd was very loud, said senior boy's basketball player, Amil-Lion Wilburn, "It was more people there than expected. It was fun and it was a very close game.”
Girl's team captain, Madonna Meals, said, “It feels like towards the end we played more like a family.”
The Broad Ripple High School Athletic Director has high hopes for the girls this season, “I think the girls fought very hard, the value and effort ended up a little short but it’s still early in the season and I’m expecting big things from the girls later in the season.”
This last game against Tech was definitely one to remember for Broad Ripple Girls Basketball.
Check out the story below to see pictures and hear more from the players.
By: Dajuana Meals and Calvin Campbell
Broad Ripple's Last Men's Soccer Team
By: Delia Raygoza & Valerie Saldana
The 2017- 2018 Broad Ripple Men’s Soccer season was the first for many of the players. With is being the last year for Broad Ripple High School, many students wanted to join the team.
“When we won our first game we felt really happy,” said junior Danny Galán. Although only two games were won throughout the season, Galán said, “as the season went on and we were getting better, so was the season.”
Another challenge for the team was when they played their match against Howe, junior Luis Quintana broke his right leg.
“When the accident happened with Luis, we all felt bad, but we had to keep going, for him and the team," junior Thomas Elder expressed.
Through the ups and downs of the season the team managed to stay positive and play on. New coach Michael Carney shared his love for soccer with the boys. He tried his best to push the boys to success. Coach Carney tried to make the team the best he could in a short amount of time.
“If people just look at our record, they would see four wins. But I am proud of everything we were able to accomplish this season. We had so much work to do at the beginning of June and to see it all come together was amazing. Credit to the boys. If it wasn’t for them and their dedication, we wouldn’t have a team,” stated Coach Michael Carney.
The men’s soccer team excelled this season. They showed great sportsmanship through challenges, and made the final soccer season at Broad Ripple on to be proud of.
Fire & Finesse Fall Season Recap
By: Aa'Miya Carter & Ashanti Eckford
The 2017 Broad Ripple Fire and Finesse dance team has had many great highlights this season. They danced to multiple songs that the band played at games and during competitions. The fans were eager to see them dance in the stands and during halftime. Read more about the 2017 football season and what’s in store for basketball season.
One of the most memorable moments for the team was their first home football game against Crispus Attucks Medical High School. Before the game started the girls were so anxious to get out on the field. When their show was finally about to begin at halftime, something big happened. Out of nowhere the Crispus Attucks cheerleaders formed a circle around Fire and Finesse. Attucks cheerleaders started dancing and former student Brela Akers went in the middle and started dancing too.
“It came out of nowhere, but I was ready,” said Brela Akers, Fire and Finesse dancer.
“It got a little heated so I eased my way in there and calmed it down,” former Attucks cheerleader, but now Fire and Finesse dancer, Zaraiya Brown said.
That first halftime show had the crowd really hype. As soon as students heard the Beyonce song beat drop, the crowd was cheered even louder than before. The girls danced the night away.
The last home game was one of the best games of the season for the girls because they did their routine to "Shout It Out" for the first time of the season.
This football season was good for Fire and Finesse because it was their final year. Because of the school closing at the end of the year, each and every one of the dancers went beyond their limits. Every single game they were dripping sweat. Their attitudes, hard work, and dedication made them come a long way and made the season great.
Overall this season was unforgettable. The girls came a long way from the beginning. The girls say the basketball season is going to be even better. Basketball starts November 22, 2017. For more information about games, visit broadripplerockets.com.