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Highlights Pages 10-11

THE BLUEPRINT COVINGTON CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

Much Ado About Nothing Still Fresh After 400 Years

October 2018 Volume XXXI Issue 2

Freshmen Enjoy Halloween Festivities

Spirit Week Traditions Live On

Game Club Going Old StyleGetting into the Halloween Spirit

Mitchell Franxman

Halloween came early this year to Cov-ington Catholic as the freshman class celebrat-ed the holiday on Saturday, October 27. The freshmen of both CCH and NDA gathered in the gym and showed off their creative costumes accompanied with their dance moves to their fellow classmates.

The night began with the freshmen en-tering the gym foyer to an assortment of tasty desserts and drinks. The freshmen then proceed-ed to the gym where they socialized and danced with their friends. As the night was closing, the winners of the raffles were announced as well

Joseph Taylor

Every year Notre Dame and Covington Catholic team up to put on several plays throughout the year. The plays are hosted at Notre Dame Acad-emy’s theater and performed by students from both schools. This year’s fall play was Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

This play is a romantic comedy based around the characters Benedick, played by Konnor Wilson; Beatrice, played by Ellie O’Hara; Clau-dio, played by Paul Reynolds; and Hero, played by Sara Spellman. Both Benedick and Beatrice claim they will never be married and throughout the story the audience watches the two fall in love. Claudio and Hero are destined to be married until Claudio is tricked into betraying her. In the end, to quote Shakespeare, “All’s well that ends well.” A few other featured actors included Luke Eisner, Michael

and Luke Hentz, Sebastian Ghering, Declan Black-burn, Grace Caccavari, Katie Crail, and Lainey Re-naker.

The actors and directors of these produc-tions work tirelessly to make this all happen, be-ginning auditions in August. On a typical week the actors and crew go in for two hours four days of the week. The week before the play shows is called ‘Tech Week’. During this week the whole cast goes in for six hours each night of the week. The cast and crew of these productions put in more work than most athletes and are working just as hard.

After the play showed for the last time they recognized the people that made it possible with a gift of flowers. In the end it was a spectacular pro-duction that was well done, and the cast and crew deserves to be recognized for it.

as the infamous costume contest. Five Coving-ton Catholic freshmen brought home awards for their impressive costumes. Coming in fifth place was freshman Peyton Krallman dressed as a deranged dentist. Finishing in fourth place was Alex Kramer and his costume choice of our principal Mr. Rowe in high school, including a yearbook picture of Mr. Rowe in high school as his ID. Winning third place was Joe Dames dressed as Dr. Frankenstein. Coming in second place was MingFaih Wong Burgess with his clever costume as a box of Chinese noodles. Bringing home the gold medal was Luke Knip-per and his impressive pilot costume.

Good work to the freshmen in showing

out and bringing with them some impressive costume ideas! Congratulations to those fresh-men who won the costume contest and won an individual raffle!

Colin Brungs

On October 15 to October 19, Spirit Week kicked off with a fun super hero-themed day. Students came dressed up as all sorts of su-per heroes, including Jedi, Superman, and any t-shirt with a superhero logo on it. On Tuesday, the whole school wore a t-shirt representing their columns. The Augustine Column wore a

t-shirt that was purple and gold to express their colors. Then all the other columns followed suit. The 1st annual Colonel Classic took place, and all the columns faced off in exciting games to see who would come out on top. Some the games--Dizzy Bat, Wheel Bar-

row Racing, Bball Shootout--were exciting and got the students on their feet. At the end of the games, Aquinas came out as the winner by a

close tiebreaker from a game of tug of war.

On Wednesday, the Colonels dressed up for a beach-themed day. Students wore their swim trunks and even brought their own tow-els. Some students even showed up in their shorts, and they did not even care about the cold. The Colonels never care about the cold. It is all about the spirit to them and finding a way to support Cov Cath. On Thursday, students came to school in blue and white and during lunch there was an ice cream-eating contest. Mrs. Guard participated in the ice cream-eating con-test and won against her own students.

Friday students came to school dressed in pink for breast cancer awareness. People

collected money for breast cancer and were able to raise a lot of money for this good cause. The school day started off with bingo, the numbers were announced and if you got a bingo then you would win a prize. At the end of the day the senior hosted the annual fall sports pep rally. The pep rally consisted of vid-eos representing the fall sports teams. After the videos, Dominic Taylor volunteered to have his hair shaved off in front of the school, which electrified the students. This was such a great way to end Spirit Week and it will be a time that no one will forget.

Green Ambassadors Crushing It

EDITORIALS

2

Mitchell Franxman

Would you sign a contract even if you did not agree with it? This is what the families of most college athletes are doing. They agree to the terms of the contract and sign it but later complain about how the university is making mon-ey “off the athletes’ backs” and the athletes do not receive any of that money. However, I believe that col-lege athletes should not be paid for an assortment of reasons.

One of these reasons is that they technically already get paid. College athletes get these “pay-ments” in two ways. The first is in their education. These student-athletes are students first, hence the reason many of them receive full four-year scholarships in which they are rewarded with free tuition, room and board, and books. For most col-leges, this is upwards of $20,000 a year. The second way these athletes get paid is in their meal money. Syracuse Men’s Head Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim stated previ-ously this week in response to pay-ing college athletes, “Let them keep their meal money.” In most col-leges, this already happens. Many

colleges give their players an ample amount of money to spend on food during a road trip. In numerous cases, these players do not spend as much as they receive and keep the rest of the money. These student-athletes getting full rides and being allowed to keep their meal money is definitely fair if not more than fair.

The biggest reason in which college athletes should not be paid is that there is no system of pay-ment that can be put in place that is fair across the board to all students, all sports, and all schools that par-ticipate in college athletics. Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972 says that colleges would have to pay all men and women athletes for every sport the same amount of money. Considering there are a lot of athletes at each school, this would not be feasible. Many people would say that these colleges could pay the athletes a low wage that is affordable to the college then. Once again, this would not be fair. These student-athletes would then go to the college that would pay them the most money, which would make the playing field uneven. This would then cause the NCAA to lose

To Pay or Not to Pay--That is the Question!money due to the fact that a good number of fans would stop coming to the games because it would be a blowout.

College athletes are given enough financial support from col-leges that they do not need to be paid like an employee. Most of these student-athletes receive four-year scholarships for tuition, room and board, and books from the col-lege they attend. On top of their free education, most student-athletes are able to keep the meal money that they do not spend. Along with student-athletes already receiving enough benefits, paying these play-ers would not be feasible to the col-lege or the NCAA. Title IX states that all men and women on every athletic team involved with the college would have to be paid the same amount. More notable colleg-es would be able to pay their play-ers more than the smaller colleges, which would make the playing field uneven. This would in turn drive fans out of the stadiums and further cost the colleges and the NCAA. All of these factors combined make the argument of paying college ath-letes not possible.

Luke Toebben

Soccer is one of the biggest sports in the world and its fan base is growing day in and day out. Vid-eo Assistant Referee (VAR) should be used in all leagues and all tour-naments. It makes the game cleaner and more enjoyable to watch for all ages and people of all nations.

According to an article by The Guardian, the video technol-ogy deployed during the World Cup was not taken up by the Premier League next season in favor of an-other 12 months of extended trials. After the introduction of VAR was postponed by the Premier League, the chief executive of the EFL said video technology is a “fair way away” from being used at Football League matches. In the 2018 World Cup, 29 penalties were awarded and 169 goals were scored in 64 games, compared to the 13 penalties award-ed and 171 goals scored. It is clear to see that after the effect of VAR, referees have better chances of call-ing the game better and keeping the players in line.

Some people will say that VAR slows down the game and is bad for the game. The VARs can only intervene on red cards, pen-alties, goals or mistaken identity - these are multi-million pound decisions that are being left wide open to interpretation; if governing bodies are able to add a safety net to these decisions, then what com-prehensible reason is there that they should not do so?

Whilst the implementation of VAR has not been flawless, just because it has not worked perfectly and immediately, does not mean it should be stopped and filed in the failed experiment folder along with the ‘Golden Goal’.

Cristiano Trojani

College basketball has shifted over the last 10 years. Athletes are going to college and playing only one season before going to the NBA at just 19 or 20. One of the most talked about topics is the dis-cussion if the NCAA should elimi-nate basketball players staying just one year.

The NCAA should change the rule that college basketball play-ers must stay at least two years. One reason they should stay is be-cause they are so young. If a player stays just one season, the player has not developed enough muscle and strength as a grown man that has played 10 more years of bas-ketball. Players, once they enter the NBA at 19, often get a serious injury because their bodies are not fully developed. Some of the seri-ous injuries could impact the rest of their career.

One and Done

It’s Time to Use VAR in Soccer

Another reason athletes should stay more than one year in college is the lack of financial knowledge. Most players that leave after one year are 19 or 20. At that age they are making well over $5 million. With that kind of money, some ath-letes do not know how to manage

their spending. They could spend all their money, or they could get

into trouble. Getting into financial trouble will impact their perfor-mance on the court and could po-tentially cost them a spot on a team.

Lastly, if athletes stay more than one year, college basketball will create a bigger spread of talent. Teams, such as Duke and Kentucky, always get a whole new team every year. This will increase the talent around college basketball and the viewers. Players that stay longer in college also feel more a part of the team than someone “stopping” by for one season. They develop stron-ger relationships with the coaches, the university, and make connec-tions with fans.

It is a big decision for players to stay or leave. The NCAA should make players stay more than one season so that they can develop their bodies to prevent serious inju-ries and to keep the young athletes out of financial troubles.

ARTS/REVIEWS

3

Venom Brings Entertainment

Khalifa Sets the Rap Standards

Joseph Taylor

Venom, a 2018 movie based off of the Marvel comic written by the one and only Stan Lee, takes place in modern day New York City and follows reporter Eddie Brock played by Tom Hardy.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Eddie is fired from his reporting job and then is later called upon to report on the illegal human trials done by the company Life Foundation. Once there he encoun-ters the symbiote Venom before escaping back into the city. At first their relationship is rocky, but the internal dialogue really adds some welcome comic relief to the story.

As far as the acting, dialogue, cinematography, and plot go I thought it was well done. Tom Hardy does a great job as Eddie Brock, and the supporting characters and villains are also well acted. The dialogue is more than you can expect from a typical superhero movie although that does not really mean much. The cinematography was also well done with its picturesque scenes featuring New York City as well as some neat forest scenes. The plot had a lot of different things all going on at once, but if you pay attention you should understand it easily.

Overall, I would give the movie a solid 9/10. With everything being very well done there was not much to criticize as long as you did not read Rotten Tomato’s review first.

Blake Helson

Hip Hop Music, normally known as Rap, originated in the United States during the 1970’s. It was first created by African Ameri-cans and according to National Geographic Hip Hop Review, rap is a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. Hip Hop/Rap did not ac-tually blow up until the 1980’s after “block parties” started popping up. As years went on Rap evolved into something new-- a modern style nothing like when Rap first started.

Wiz Khalifa, a prominent 21st century artist, falls into this col-umn of music. Khalifa began dating model Amber Rose in early 2011. They were engaged on March 1, 2012. Wiz’s debut album appeared on the charts in 2006, Show and Prove. After this, Wiz was on his

way to exploding in fame signing with Warner Bros. only two years later. Wiz Khalifa’s most famous song of his career would be “Black and Yellow.” This song is what he is mostly known for, becoming num-ber one on Billboard Hot 100. Fast forward to the present, an album of 25 songs known as Rolling Papers 2 made its showing on Billboard 200 with over 80 million streams after only being released during the 2018 summer.

In conclusion, Wiz as an art-ist from North Dakota put himself on the path of success from his ad-miration of music. His creation of music had a large impact on the Rap community and it still does today. Even as an older rapper compared to the newer 2017-2018 rappers, his music still holds planted in many people’s music selections.

Benito Trojani

Recently, there have been a lot of good songs out there in 2018 from a wide variety of genres such as pop, hip hop, and rap. One song that has been a hit is the song “Everyday” by Logic. Logic has been a good art-ist as of late and has really made a big splash in 2018. “Everyday” is his newest song and might be his best song yet.

“Everyday” has some interesting lyrics that describe about how hard Logic works every day. He starts out the song with an interesting beat and then goes into a long rap. Straight after the long rap, he repeats over and over, “I work hard every day, day, day.” He then raps again with some-one else. The song continues to repeat these sequences over again and then the song is finished. Logic’s songs are usually very short, and this one is also. Another reason this song is so popular is that the lyrics are so power-ful and are very encouraging to teenagers and young kids. Even though it is a rap song, it is motivational and is a good song to listen to when you are feeling down.

“Everyday” has been named one of the best songs of the year; there is a big reason for it. The beat is good, and the song makes a lot of sense in the world today. Also, the song has been chosen to feature on ESPN for the college football season.

Logic’s “Everyday” a Big Hit

STUDENT LIFE

4

First Colonel Classic Competition

Nick Thelen

The fall pep rally took place on October 18th in the gym with all the students and teachers for all the fall sports teams

The fall teams include golf, soccer, cross country, and football. The pep rally fell on the day of soccer semi-final game against Dixie. The next day was the football game against Dixie. Both teams won their games. The pep rally started out with the cheerleaders Tyler Fleek, Nate Romes, Nathan Guenther, Michael Bishop, and Grant Neltner running through the halls getting all the students from their classrooms. The students ran into the gym with fog and strobe lights going off with music playing. Each team made a video for the students to watch; in between the videos we had

two seniors Jackson Blank and Harry Porras acting like ESPN announcers to talk about their seasons. We also had senior Logan Brake being an ESPN re-porter talking to the team captains. After they talked we had the leaders start cheers for the students.

The pep rally really gets the students involved and have a great time. With all the positive feed-back the Spirit Club has decided to have another pep rally for the winter sports.

Grant Hillmann

This year Covington Cath-olic hosted the very first Colonel Classic. The Colonel Classic took place at the end of Spirit Week on October 19th. The Colonel Classic is a series of games that pits the

columns within the column system against each other.

Grant Neltner

Mole Day has a been a deep tradition at Covington Catholic throughout Mrs. Hagedorn’s almost 30 years of teaching. In her last year as a teacher at Covington Catholic students were encouraged to par-ticipate in her favorite holiday of the year. Mole Day is celebrated on October 23rd every year. The mole is a unit of how much of a substance there is. The number of atoms in one atom of carbon 12 is 6.02x1023. Be-cause of this number, it is therefore being celebrated on 10/23 which is October 23rd every year. This num-ber is normally referred as Avoga-dro’s number.

The Colonel Classic was surrounded by school spirit and really got the student body excited. The contend-ers for each event were chosen at ran-dom. The events included tug o’ war, dizzy bat, basketball shoot-ing contest, gummy worm eating contest, and wheelbarrow racing. While everyone was competing, se-niors from each column led cheers to get their columns more excited.

Everyone wanted their column to win, but not everyone can win.

At the end of the day, the Aquinas Column came out victorious, p a r t i a l l y due to their tug o’ war team. Man-

nie Murrer and Warren Naber-haus at the end of the rope pulled the Aquinas team to success.

S a d l y, C h a m i n a d e column came in last place. However, it did not inhibit any-one’s school spirit. The Colonel Clas-sic brought the whole school together in friendly competition. Hopefully, this will be the first Col-onel Classic out of many more to come.

Pepping Up the RowdiesBen Wessels

The entire month of October the Augustine Column has been rais-ing money for the I Have Wings Foundation. These fundraising events have been occurring to raise awareness for breast cancer and donate money to the Foundation. After the Augustine column sold around 350 shirts, which is over half the student population at Covington Catholic, the students wore their new shirt to the home football game against Dixie, where the blue Colonels won 50-8. As well as this victory the Augustine column raised a couple thousand dollars.

The I Have Wings Foundation was found-ed by Janet Chambers, who herself is a stage II breast cancer survivor. The Foundation’s mission is to enrich the lives of families during a breast cancer diagnosis. Breast cancer does not just affect the woman/man that has been afflicted with it. The disease affects the en-tire family of the cancer patient. This is something that the I Have Wings foundation focuses on with their “No one goes solo” program. This pro-gram focuses on providing individual emotional support and emergency financial assistance on a one by one basis. Another area that the I Have Wings Foundation focuses on is endorsing breast cancer research and edu-cating young kids on the warning signs of breast cancer.

This foundation is a blessing to our tristate area and one that we all need to endorse. The event that the Augustine column and Covington Catholic put on overall was a great success. It helped to educate our stu-dents and society about breast cancer and raise money for a foundation that we know will make a great difference in the lives of others in need.

I HAVE WINGS

The chemistry students are invited to celebrate Mole Day by bringing in moles made of every material. This year’s theme was Harry Potter and students made potato moles dressed as characters

such as Harry Potter and Ron Weas-ley. Drew Laws said, “It is the great-est holiday we have because I got extra credit which I deeply needed in chemistry class.” Most students bring in a mole or mole-related

projects because quarter points are offered by the chemistry teach-ers. Potato moles are the most com-mon because of the easiness of them. Unique projects this year included wacka-mole, mole jokes, and a mole board game. One

Mole Traditions Continue in Chemistry Classesmole joke that was said included, “What do you call a 10th grader who takes chemistry? A sophomole?”

Overall, Mole Day is a holi-day at Cov Cath that every student remembers because they remember what they made and how much it affected their grade. Mole day is a day to remember for all chemistry students because it is the foundation of our society.

IN THE SPOTLIGHTFlaherty--Everyone’s Hero

5

Evan Hanna

Joe Taylor is a senior at Cov Cath and over his past 4 years as a student, he has joined multiple clubs, taken any chance he has to get involved in the Colonel Nation. Joe has participated in lacrosse for the past three years, but will not continue his high school lacrosse career in the 2019 season to focus on college and increasing his knowledge of design.

Joe has done many designs at Covington Catholic, doing work for the Ski Club and the Economics Class. He has also collaborated with Notre Dame Academy to design their 2018-2019 logo.

In an interview with Joe Taylor, we discussed his plans for college. Joe plans to continue his design career throughout college and is working hard every day to perfect his designs. I asked Joe why he would not be participating in the 2019 Lacrosse season, and he said that it is a crucial time in his senior year and he wants to put all his effort into getting into the DAAP program.

I have personally witnessed Joe Taylor’s design capabilities and as an art student, I can tell that Joe Taylor has a special talent and wish him the best of luck in the future. If anyone is in need of a logo design for your club, contact Joe Taylor.

Robert McBride

Each morning the first bell rings, marking the beginning of the school day. Soon after the infamous bell, a long line (or in many cases, crowd) of students breaks through the front doors of the school and forms in the front office around one brave woman: Mrs. Lois Flaherty. Just like a frenzy of sharks being fed chum, this heroic woman scribbles out names and dates onto pink magnificent slips of paper and catapults them into the abyss of hungry students. They eagerly snatch their tardy slips, slam through the office doors, and frantically rush to class. After signing hundreds of late slips, the students desert the front office, and Mrs. Flaherty is, once again, left a hero. The early morning excitement has occurred every day throughout Mrs. Flaherty’s long Covington Catholic career. She says, “I will run up and down the halls screaming and yelling ‘hooray’ on the first day that there are no

tardies or absences.”

Before her dedicated time at CCH, Mrs. Flaherty went to school at LaSalette Academy, an all-girls school in Covington. She moved on from Covington and raised three sons in her home of twenty years in Villa Hills. She sent her sons to CCH and was able to see them through their high school careers. Mrs. Flaherty has worked through seven principals, many teachers, and years of stu-dents. When asked about the previous principals, Mrs. F. will simply say that “some were better than others”, but Mr. Rowe is, of course, her favorite. Some of the teachers who have worked at CCH as long as Mrs. Flaherty are Mr. Hartman, Coach Krumps, and Mr. Balskus.

Mrs. Flaherty has dedicated 31 years to CCH. Her first six years of work were spent in the guidance office, and the next 25 have been spent in the front office. Working in the front office comes with great responsibility. Mrs. Flaherty is relied upon to know everything about the school at all times and is often called and asked questions that she has no answer. Working in the front office also comes with years of stories. Mrs. Flaherty recalls a time that a student asked to go out to his car to retrieve something and burst through the office doors repeating “just punish me, just punish me.” He later explained that he had tried to go home, but unfortunately hit the telephone pole right outside of the parking lot. Mrs. Flaherty also recalls fistfights over the past few years, has heard the age-old rumor of a tunnel from CCH to NDA, and seen years of senior to freshman torment. Aside from the dramatic student activities, she loves her job and the people she works with. Who knows, perhaps you could become one of Lois Flaherty’s stories in the near distant future.

Joseph Taylor is a Name of Future Design

Jack Davin

I am pleased to be writing to for the first time to give financial advice. Many students have taken a particular interest in money and investments, including me. With all seniors moving on, money management is and will be huge in our lives. I am here to help you make some money and achieve financial freedom.

Investing Advice with Jack

1st Stock- Patriot One Technologies (PTOTF)

- This stock is currently sitting at $2.12 per share. Patriot One makes machines that can detect guns through their devices with the use of soundwaves. Patriot One only has prototypes out but when the first one goes out for sale expect a major increase in the price. Don’t miss out.!

2nd Stock- General Electric (GE)

- This stock is currently sitting at a low $11.40. Many of us are famil-iar with GE and the recent price drop. Don’t expect this stock to stay low for to long. Buy low and sell high.

See ya next time!!

STUDENT LIFE

6

For the Love of Candy Growing in GodGrant Neltner

Halloween is one of the big-gest holidays celebrated in North America because of the love for candy and dressing up in costume. Halloween is the one holiday where children can be their heroes for a night and can disguise themselves. Children also love this holiday be-cause of the free candy passed out by neighbors, but people need to re-alize that Halloween is much more than candy and a scare.

Halloween has become a large holiday for children trick-or-treating and/or Halloween parties.

Children dress up as heroes, villains and the latest fad such as an emoji. Trick-or-treating includes children going door to door asking for candy and treats. Common treats people hand out include candy bars such as Kit-Kats, Twix, and Hershey’s.

Halloween has also influ-enced horror movies and haunted houses as well. Every year horror movies pour out during the Hallow-een season to raise the Halloween

spirit. Haunted houses are always a thrill for many people, especially the teenagers and the diehard Hal-loweenies, like Mr. Cleveland.

The real intent of Hallow-een has lost its meaning over the years, because today the holiday is centered on fear and scaring people. People have forgotten that it was originally created to honor those who have died and not meant to just scare people.

As Halloween approaches every year, stores pop up every-where for costumes and decorations. Typically, houses have skeletons, smoke machines, and pumpkins. The theme of a graveyard is com-mon among those people who deco-rate their houses for Halloween be-cause of the spooky theme, which people assume is what Halloween is all about; however, Halloween was created to honor the dead and not to scare people.

The origin of Halloween started in the fifteenth century when people dressed as saints and went door to door asking for candy. They dressed as saints because they be-lieved the saints would pray for those who have died. The word Hal-loween comes from “all hallowed eve,” which means “hallowed eve,” because it is the night before All Saints Day. All Hallowed Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day all combine to form the Allhallowtide to honor those family members and friends who have passed.

So, just remember Hallow-een takes it origin from loved ones and honoring their spirits, not just about how much candy you can wrangle from your neighbors.

Jackson Sora

On October 12 through the 14th, the annual Youth 2000 retreat took place at Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills, Kentucky. Eighth graders from all over the Diocese of Covington attended this retreat in preparation of their confirmation. This year’s retreat chaplain was Father Andrew Young, Vocational Director at the Cathedral Basilica in Covington. Other leaders of the re-treat included Father Nick Rottman, who gave a talk on the Blessed Vir-gin Mary, and other various priests from all over the United States.

Along with the adult leaders of the retreat, the Youth 2000 core team was there as well. The core team consists of high schoolers from

all the high schools in the Diocese. They led the younger participants in song, dance, prayer, and fellowship. Covington Catholic was well repre-sented on this core team. Sebastian Ghering, Jackson Sora, Bryan Wal-ter, Gabe Wainscott, Adam Fortner, Kevin Finke, Ben Hail, and Warren Naberhaus were the seniors that represented Covington Catholic. Many juniors also attended the re-treat. Warren Naberhaus had a par-ticularly special experience at the retreat. “Saturday night when they exposed the blessed sacrament to all the participants and they could come face to face with Jesus was re-ally powerful.” All of these seniors invite the students of Covington catholic to get more involved with their spiritual life by attending re-treats such as Youth 2000.

Jackson Sora

On Halloween, the Kolbe Column hosted the first annual Hal-loween Costume Contest. Each col-umn creates an activity to get the spirit going among the students, and Kolbe felt the festive season of Hal-loween was sure to raise the spirit, literally.

Students and teachers alike were invited to come to school in a costume of their choosing, indi-vidually or as a group. The teach-ers were judged and voted on by the 12 House Captains. Honorable mentions include Mr. Hansman as a horse jockey, Mrs. Seal as Malf-icent, and Coach B dressed as Mr. Rowe in his younger days. The winners were a faculty group from

Aquinas who called themselves Al-ice and the Wonderlands, a made-up rock band: Ms. McDonald as Alice in Wonderland, Mr.Schneeman, Mr. Hertsenberg, and Mr. Gastenveld. Kolbe Column were a little upset that none of the captains even knew who The Village People were. “I think seeing Mr. Schneeman as a hard rocker in spandex threw the voters into a spin. We didn’t have a chance then.”

The students came in cos-tumes as well, but were voted on in their respective lunch mods. Win-ners included Nathan Moon dressed as a moon, Daniel Andrew, Grant Hillman, and Jude Kiely. Thanks to all the students who showed out and participated and even took a few points for their columns.

Kolbe Sponsors Contest

Who Could This Costumed Faculty Be?

CLUB NEWS

7

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Drew Laws

The NKYAB wrapped up their backpack collection drive on 10/19. This backpack collection was an initiative undertaken by the teacher leader, Mr. McQuade. He organized a backpack drive for the needy people of the area. He aimed to combat a little known problem that exists for the less fortunate and homeless. When a homeless person visits a shelter, they are often blessed with many different types of canned

Colin Brungs

One of the most fun and entertaining clubs that Cov Cath has to offer is Art Club. Mr. Haders is the leader of the club and has been a teacher at Cov Cath now for over 30 years. Art Club is all about finding your creative self and getting to learn all about art. The club gets to decide where they want to go and the theme of the event.

Recently the members decided to visit the Cincinnati Art Museum, and they picked the theme Sleepy Business. You were supposed to wear

pajamas or a suit hence the name Sleepy Business. After the muse-um, the members went to a res-taurant, and this week they went to Waffle House.

Another time they went mini-golfing at Putt-Putt World with a theme of Halloween cos-

tumes. So, everyone showed up to mini-golf wearing Halloween costumes. What a great way to express their Halloween spirit. On November 2nd Bo-hemian Rhapsody came out and everyone went to the movies dressed up as Freddy Mercury.

Art Club is all and all a fun environment and definitely something that more people should consider joining. If you are looking for a great opportunity then you should join Art Club.

Drew Laws

The Cov Cath Game Club is in full swing this year, meeting ev-ery Friday immediately after school. The moderator is Mr. Thaman, and the club is led by its president, senior Declan Black-burn, who is a 4-year member. The club has only a few members, including senior twins Michael & Luke Hentz, senior Jude Kiely, and senior Will Pikar. Blackburn has introduced a new game, which the club has focused on this year---the pop-ular fantasy board game, Dungeons and Dragons.

Dungeons and Dragons is a board game where each player has his own char-acter. Each member is either a fearsome orc, wizard, knight, or even the king. In an interview with member Michael Hentz, he said that many of the players have already been killed in game, but with the fun nature of the club, they have just made new players and continued. The Cov Cath Game Club is off to an excellent start, and they will continue on with their intense fantasy game throughout this year.

Jack Davin

The Culture Club has been a great club that has given Covington Catholic students of all grades the chance to experience other cultures. The club meets monthly, with the last meeting October 23.

The club spiced up the food and went for Mexican food during the October meeting. Mrs. Ruth and the club members travelled to Valley Plaza Parkway to MiTierra. MiTierra offers a great variety of Mexican food ranging from the classic burritos and tacos to Frijoles Fritos. When asked about how the food was Mrs. Ruth said “Always Good. This was one of the first restaurants the club visited when we first started about 10 years ago.”

The club and especially Mrs. Ruth provide the Covington Catholic students with great opportunities to see what others in our world live like. Any students interested or want to add some flavor to their lives can con-tact Mrs. Ruth about joining and going to the next event.

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Fantasy, Anyone? Youth Advisory Aims at Servicegoods, toiletries, and clothes. Un-fortunately, these people often do not have anything in which to carry all of these items. Therefore, Mr. McQuade decided to collect items that would allow for people to carry around these new belongings.

NKYAB stands for North-ern Kentucky Youth Advisory Board. This is a student-led group that aims to do service for the Greater Cincinnati area. This is Mr. McQuade’s first year being head of NKYAB. There are only 3 active members this year: seniors Grant Neltner and Evan Moon, and ju-nior Mason Brewer. However, the group does not let this small size slow them down. They belong to the regional group of NKYAB that has over 500 student members. The Cov Cath Chapter has only com-pleted one major project this year, but aims to do at least 2 more, in-cluding the winter canned foods drive. The NKYAB is doing a great job of helping the less fortunate in our community and representing Cov Cath’s mission of service.

CLUB NEWS

8

Going Green Day by Day Academic Team Coming BackColin Brungs

The Academic Colonels finally got off to a start in their 6thseason under new leadership, new teacher Mr. McQuade. He gave some feedback on the season so far and said, “It’s going to be a rebuilding year because most of the seniors gradu-ated last year. We need more people to sign up which would make it more competitive, but I’m still pleased with the team.”

The team’s first match was supposed to be against Pendleton, but it was canceled so that week was counted as a bye. The second match was against Highlands, and the Colonels beat them for their first win of the season. When asked about the team and who stands out he answered, “People that are competitors are Jim Scola and Trenton Martin, AKA: Bill.” The Colonels are 3-2 since they lost to Simon Kenton and Villa.

Jared Darwish

The Robotics team, led by Bob Lind and Tom Rowe, meets every Wednesday morning to work on and discuss the robotic devices they are creating. It is a club for students who want to learn more about engineering and the design process that goes into it

The team does many things during the year other than building robots such as competing in robotic competitions, taking field trips and ex-ploring the field of engineering. The team competes in these robotic com-petitions frequently through the year. During these competitions the team faces many other schools all over the country. The goal of these matches is to teach the team members how to work together and be problem solvers so that their robots are better than the other schools they face. Whenever they are not in competition, the students are usually working on their robots and brainstorming as a group in order to make them run smoother and work

better. Mr. Lind and Mr. Rowe sometimes take them on field trips as well so that the members can see how engineering and robots are used in the real world. Many of the students involved love being in the robotics club because of the friends they make and hands on experience they get in the engineering field while doing it.

The club has been very successful since its started at Cov Cath and is growing in num-bers every year. Mr. Lind and Mr. Rowe feel they have a very promising team this year and are excited to see what the robotics season has in store for them this year.

Robert McBride Order in the court! The CCH Mock Trial teams have just held their tryouts and will now begin preparing for the upcoming competitions. The members of the Mock Trial compete in a game of memo-rization, quick-thinking, and speak-ing ability. This year, each team in the state of Kentucky is given the same case: a civil case which is based around a deadly injury. The teams prepare for this case with the help of the coaches Mr. Jon Connor, Mrs. Sharon Gronotte, Mrs. Stepha-nie Dietz, Judge Jim West, and Mr. Jacob Punch, along with Mrs. Ruth helping with dramatic skills. The teams in Kentucky must prepare to represent both the plaintiff and de-fense sides of the case. Each side has the burden of proving their cli-ent not liable for the mentioned ac-cident. There are two CCH teams: the Blue Team and the White Team. Both teams have several lawyers

Max Dierig

The Green Ambassadors is a group that is designed to help the school get more involved in re-cycling. The club has been put to-gether to make this school and the environment a better place.

Mrs. Ruth does an excellent job in coordinating the Green Am-bassadors. She coordinates every-thing along with her 30+ members; Mrs. Ruth makes everything hap-

pen. Students volunteer to help sort bottles after big events that happen at the school, such as football games, as well as daily from lunch. Green Ambassadors meet regularly to dis-cuss ways to make the recycling in the school better. One thing that the

Green Ambassadors do to motivate the school about recycling has been becoming involved in a nationwide competition. The club entered in the competition through Pepsico. In the recent tally, Covington Catholic moved up in the rankings to 33rd. Another school in the region, Ryle, participates as well; this creates a little friendly competition between the schools. Another great thing the Green Ambassadors did to promote recycling around the school was to

incorpo-rate red bins in ev-ery room as well as new de-positories in the caf-eteria. The club re-cently just r ece ived big blue bins for the lunch-r o o m ,

which allows students to identify the right place to recycle. “Getting everyone to recycle is not an easy task,” said Mrs. Ruth. “Every day we still pick out garbage from out recycling bins.”

Mock Trial Readies for Battleand witnesses who must know the ins and outs of the case by heart. The witnesses are essentially ac-tors, portraying their characters and representing their side of the case. This year, Mock Trial is worth a Pass/Fail credit for the students, so they have an incentive to try their best. The two teams meet twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays from six to 6 to 7:30. Each practice is spent rigorously preparing for the NKU, regional, and state-wide competitions. The regional compe-tition will take place on February 1-3 and the state-wide competition is set to take place on March 1-3. Preparation for the competitions will take many hours and weeks of meetings and memorization. Thanks to great support like Adams, Stepner, Woltermann & Dusing, PLLC, the teams have a chance to travel to different compe-titions. Good luck to the 2018-2019 CCH Mock Trial Teams!

Colonel Bot Battles

CLUB NEWS

9

National Honor Society Induction Revving Up for Ski SeasonGrant Neltner

The National Honor Society is one of the most prestigious orga-nizations at Covington Catholic. The National Honor Society is a nation-wide club for exceptional students at each school around the country. The club is centered on its four pillars of leadership, scholarship, service, and character. These four pillars are taken into consideration when admitting new members to the organization. The requirements to be admitted to NHS include a minimum 3.5 weighted GPA, service hours, and no disciplinary issues at the school. The officers this year include Johnny Graf as Presi-dent, Nathan Guenther as Vice President, Harry Porras as Secretary, Ben Wessels as Sargent at Arms, and Michael Bishop as Treasurer.

The induction ceremony was help in the gym this year due to con-struction. Mrs. Hagedorn as the teacher moderator of the club organized the ceremony and started the night with an introduction about NHS. Father Kidaagen, the pastor of St. Pius X was present and gave a short homily about excellence in service, leadership, scholarship, and character. Then the student officers echoed his homily by describing what each pillar means. Next, the names of the inductees were announced and the families were invited for desserts and drinks in the gym foyer.

The National Honor Society induction night is a special experience for all inductees and their parents. It awards the students for their hard work and time they have put in at Covington Catholic.

Inductees:Chris Dames

Jared SilbernagelMatthew Allison

Paul AllisonSean Ballow,

Henry BennettLincoln Bent

Walter, BrunsmanDavid Brunson

John BrakeChristopher Cahill

William ClarkNicholas Clark

Lucas CurryNathan DarpalSamuel DierkerGrant DiskenLuke Eisner

Luke EliassenChristopher FitzJared GallagherEvan GardnerJohn Garvey

Nicholas GettelfingerNeil Green

Jerome HamlinJohn Jackson

Jackson Jordahl

Alexander KentJoseph KielyAndrew KinnGarrett KirpesJohn Lawrie

Jacob LehmanYifei Li

Peter MaierMax Myer-HoganAndrew MoliqueEdward Monohan

Samuel PaleyTruman Pierson

John PitstickPaul Reynolds

Thomas RoebkerPeter Roesel

William RyanStephen SchaeperDavid Schlachter

Jacob SchulteBrian Schutte,

Hunter SommerkampThomas VoetMatthew WeilEvan Wessels Gavin Zeck

Luke Toebben

Ski Club is open to all students of any skill level. Members buy their discounted passes for Perfect North Slopes each fall from our Cov-Cath Ski Colonels. Watch for announcements of the next scheduled outing and signup in advance. Learn to ski or board with our club. They have students who have never skied before to students who ski competitively.

They ski as a group four times in January. CCH provides one-way bus transportation to Perfect North Slopes for only $5 per trip. Their scheduling allows, Ski Club to travel to Winter Park, Colorado, (usually over President’s Day week-end). They spend three days skiing on 3000 acres of trails. The trip this year will cost around $1000-$1100. You are also able to purchase a sweatshirt designed by Joe Taylor for $25 from Mrs Stengles room.

Everyone is welcome to be a part of the Ski Colonels, aka shred-ders, regardless of when and where you purchased your season pass. If you have any questions about the Ski Club, you can ask the Moderator- Mrs.Stengle, President- Evan Moon, Vice President- Keaton Meyerratken, or Treasurer- Jacob Shumate

Chris Dames

Brad Fritz is an alumnus of the 2002 Class of Covington Catholic. When he attended here, he started varsity football as a freshman. This is a rare occurrence and an exceptional accomplishment. All this was soon ripped away from him in his sopho-more year when he had an accident that changed his life forever.

Brad visited Covington Catholic to speak to the sophomores about his story. He explained how he attended a party that ended up taking him to a cemetery. Once he got there he started drinking. He continued to make bad decisions as he got in a car with someone who had been drinking. They decided to speed around the cemetery, and on the last turn they hit a tree. Brad had many injuries and was rushed to the hospital in a helicopter. The doctors put him into a coma to save his life, but they were not sure if he would wake up or survive. After three months, he woke up and everyone was relieved, but recovery took years. Although he woke up, he is now not able to walk due to brain damage caused by this accident.

Brad wanted the sophomores to learn a couple different lessons from this story. He strongly emphasized to them to never drink and drive and not to drink until they are of age. He also talked to them about depres-sion, and how they should never keep it in. He made it clear to them that if they are depressed at all to talk to someone about it.

Fritz Shares His Message

SPORTS

10

Keeping on That Perfect Record

Get your House Points at Marquee

Events

Jared Darwish

The varsity football Colo-nels have gotten off to another great start this season after last years state championship run. The team is cur-rently 10-0 under the direction of 5th year head coach Mr. Eviston and are a lock to make it to the playoffs yet again.

With a state champion now under his belt Head Coach Eviston set the bar even higher for his team this year and they have respond with hard work and determination. The team started off the season with huge a 40-7 win over Ryle and haven’t looked back since. After the Ryle game the colonels rolled to an easy 6-0 with big wins over Lex-Cath, Cooper, Kings, Beechwood, and St. Francis DeSales. Following the DeSalles victory, the football team played in its closest game of

Joseph Taylor

October marks many things for people such as the beginning of the holiday season, fall, and football play-offs. For wrestlers, however, this marks the beginning of weight cutting, intense practices, and long weekends at wrestling meets. Wrestling has a relatively short season,

about three months, but it is one of the most intense seasons of any other sport. The Colonel wrestlers’ day consists of about an hour of conditioning fol-lowed by another hour of wrestling and technique. On the weekends their mornings typically start at about five AM to go weigh in at a meet, followed by about ten hours of on and off tournament wres-tling. Most tournament days you won’t be able to see the sun before you leave the meet. The point is that wrestling is not your typical sport, and the people that participate are not typical either.

The wrestling team continues to grow this year as more freshmen than ever come out to com-pete. The coach, Alex Smith, who helped start the

program says he he is never been more confident in his team than he is this year. With two wrestlers who qualified for state coming back and more than ten incoming freshmen as well as several new seniors, the future is bright for the wrestling program. With great coaches, a growing team, and a great community, the wrestler team starts their season on a great note. We wish the Wrestling Colonels good luck in their 2018-2019 season!

Max Dierig

The bowling team came off a record season for Covington Catho-lic in 2017. The team had won the 9th Region Title and advanced to the state tournament where they placed 7th. This year the team is not expecting anything less than that.

The team this year consist of one senior, Bobby Bennet. The team’s captain is junior Ian Ward who has led the team so far this season. Ian is the team’s number 1 at the moment, and they are expecting big things out of him this season. In an interview with Tony Li he stated, “You can expect great things from the team this year. We are working on finding our groove but once you do, better watch out. Big things up and coming.” Tony is looking to have a big year this year and is excited for the season to come and improving his game.

The bowling team practices every week on Mondays directly after school at Erlanger Super Bowl. For matches the team plays on Thursdays evening. The season had started at the beginning where they squared off in a match against the Simon Kenton Pioneers. In the match, the Colonels fell to Simon Kenton in the first match of the season 5-2. In the following week the team took on the Dixie Colonels where they put in a dominating performance and won 6-1.

The team looks for more big wins in their upcoming season, so get out and support your bowling Colonels.

the year vs Bishop Chatard. The of-fense could not quite get going in the first half and the defense strug-gled to stop Chatard’s offense ear-ly. But the Colonels where able to come away with the victory, thanks to the offense who had an all-around great performance in the second half. The defense was also able to step up enough in the 2nd half to stop the bleeding and give our offense the opportunity to lead the team to victory, which they did. The Colo-nels got back on track after Bishop Chatard game continuing their win streak with wins at Highlands and Dixie at home landing them at 9-0. In the final game of the regular sea-son the Colonels fittingly rolled against Campbell County, beating them 28-0 and sending the seniors home happy on their senior night.

One major reason for team’s success throughout the regular sea-

son can be attributed to the senior leadership on both sides of the ball which led them to many wins in dominating fashion this season. Key underclassmen, Caleb Jones QB and Michael Mayer TE/LB, made tons of big plays throughout the season to help the Colonels go unbeaten for the 2nd year in a row. The Colonels’ defense played stin-gy all-season causing havoc and turnovers for opposing offenses. This in turn helped our offense pull away and get big leads on teams early and often this season in most games.

With the playoffs now in sight, the team hopes to play its best ball yet so that they can get through the playoffs and more. The team’s ultimate goal is to win state again this year and by the looks of it; they are well on their way to doing it again.

Not Your Typical Sport

Bowling for Colonels

SPORTS

11

Soccer Colonels Battled Through a Tough Season

Finishing Strong at 7th

Ben Wessels

The Varsity Soccer Team this year started slow, but picked up and played well towards the end of the season. The Soccer Colonels lost eight starters from last year, so it was going to be a tough season from the beginning. This, along with having one of the toughest schedules in the state, is the reason the team had a rocky season.

Even with this rocky sea-son, the senior captains Ben Wes-sels, Nathan Deimling, and Reese Foster held the team together mor-ally the whole way. There were

Drew Laws

The Varsity Cross Country Colonels wrapped up their season on November 3rd at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. The team man-aged an impressive 7th place finish in a very competitive field.

The team was led by senior Will Tate in first, sophomore Dominic Taylor second and senior Ben Hail third. The Colonels raced in the large school AAA division. In a field of 300 runners, Will Tate placed an impres-sive 39th overall. The Colonels 7th place finish is a major improvement from the previous year, rising from 10th to 7th in AAA. The ultimate win-ner was Trinity High School in Louisville, their fourth 1st place finish the past five years.

The team had an impressive season overall as well. They aver-aged first or second place in all 13 meets. Seniors Will Tate and Casey Wolnitzek led the team in nearly every race. Coach Tom Arnold has had an impressive 10 year career as coach. He has gotten in the top 10 in state every year so far. The Cross Country Colonels look to continue their tradi-tion of success in the coming seasons.

times of success where they would win 5-6 games in a row, such as to-wards the end of the season before the regional finals, and there were times they would struggle and lose a few games in a row.

Nevertheless, the team still made it to the regional finals where they had a dogfight with the High-lands Bluebirds. In the first half, the Bluebirds struck first in the first 10 minutes with a goal, and everyone thought this game would be a blow-out. This was not the case, even after falling 2-0 in the second half, the Colonels rallied to score and

had Highlands under pressure for the entire second half. Although the Colonels fought hard, they ended up falling 2-1 and taking the Region runner-up. However, the Colonels did win the District Championship 2-0 defeating the Holy Cross Indi-ans at their field.

The Soccer Colonels had a successful season and the seniors on the team had a great 4 years with Coach Robertson and Hans-man. Even if they didn’t end their seasons exactly how they wanted, it was still a great experience that they will never forget.

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Purchase this Spot,

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The BluePrint StaffAdvisor: Mrs. Diane Ruth

Editors: D. Armbruster/J. SoraReporters: Harry Porras, Mitchell Franxman, Patrick Kennedy,

Jared Darwish, Blake Helson, Jackson Sora, Brock Anderson, Max Dierig, Ben Wessels, Noah Dames, Drew Laws, Logan Brake,

Joseph Taylor, Cole Davis, Grant Hillmann, Jack Davin, Kennedy Suraski, Nick Thelen, Colin Brungs, Cristiano Trojani, Benito Trojani, Luke Toebben, Grant Neltner, Robert McBride,

Alexes Rodriguez, Nathan DeimlingAccounting: Nathan Deimling, Brock Anderson, Drew LawsPhotography: Diane Ruth, Lifetouch, Mrs. Barb Hagedorn,

Joseph Taylor, Paul Allison, Brad Fritz

Editorials are the opinions of the reporters, not the CCH Administration/School.

Covington Catholic High School1600 Dixie Hwy Park Hills, KY 41011

859-491-2247

Frosh Football End with RyleChris Dames

The Freshman Football Colonels and Coach Shafii have had a great season. They started the season with 8 straight wins but lost their last game of the season to Ryle. The Colonels ended the season with an outstanding 8-1 record.

During the season the Colonels defeated many great teams such as St. Xavier in Cincinnati and Highlands. Starting Quarterback Connor Peak had a great season throwing and running for 22 touchdowns during the season. Jadon Stava, the starting running back, had a great season running for 7 touchdowns. At the beginning of October, the Freshman Colonels played Beechwood, which they have a rivalry with and they came out with a 31-13 win. After they played Beechwood, they blew out two teams: Connor and Boone County. They defeated Connor 9-0 and Boone County 37-0. After 8 straight wins they had a disappointing loss to Ryle to end the season with a close score of 7-12.

This season the Colonels may have not ended the way the wanted to, but they were certainly proud of their record. These freshmen plan to bring their talents to the JV and Varsity teams in the coming years.