One-act

By Belen and Zoey

This year’s one-act troupe advanced to bi-district! This year’s one-act group has been incredibly good and prepared in a competition where everything is judged, from make-up and set design to acting and performing. This year’s play is called “Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon.” 

The group competed once more in Van Horn at bi-district on Wednesday, March 27. To get more insight we decided to interview some of the people in one-act.

We immediately thought of interviewing Ms. Lara, since she is the one who is in charge of it all. We started by asking her, “How did one-act come together as an extracurricular?”

She responded with, “Luis actually came to Mrs. Porter and I, asking if we could start one-act, since we were bringing theater.” That would’ve been three years ago, now.

We continued and asked, “What were your expectations for this year’s group?”

Ms. Lara thought about it then said, “I thought it was going to be a little more difficult because they wanted to do something more of a full length, which is something we haven’t done before, and it was going to be hard since they were used to the shorter length plays, and this is a full-length, three-act play, and they had to cut it down to a one-act play.”

We asked her what the play was about, and then she explained, “It’s about three people that are middle aged, and they all have something wrong with them physically, so that they haven’t been able to live by themselves. They live in a mental institution, and they pull their money together so that they can get out of the hospital and live their lives the way they want to.” 

She also stated that the public would be able to see it in mid-April, after the first round of STAAR tests, because of scheduling and sports.

Next, we interviewed one of the crew members, Katana, to get an inside look at the one-act play.

We started by asking her, “What do you think of one-act so far?”

She replied, “It’s lowkey our best program.”

Then asked her, “How far do you think y’all will go in one-act?”

She replied, “Honestly, yeah, we have a bigger theme, we are not doing something silly, and it’s more meaningful,” said Katana, who believes, as many do, that Marfa didn’t advance last year because their play was a comedy. So, with this more serious play, she considers our chances better than before.

We asked, “What do you do as crew members?”

She said that she works on the stage crew with Kiko, and we followed up with, “Is it hard?” 

She replied, “It’s not that hard once you get to know the things.”

She added that she could never be an actor due to the fact that she can’t remember lines at all.

The last person we interviewed was Luis Solis, who is a main character this year. We started off by asking what his character was like, he responded, “My character has a neurological disease that affects his whole body and the way that his muscles work. He also has a speech deficiency. He is in love with Junie Moon but dies before he is able to tell her.”

Next, we asked “What do you think of this play so far?”

He responded, “I really like it, and I hope we can advance once more. I really enjoy traveling and being able to compete with this wonderful cast.”

The last question we asked was if he liked traveling, he responded with, “I love traveling and being able to be with my favorite people.” 

Science fair

By Isaiah and Messiah

Last month in College Station, 12 students competed in the state science fair with the sponsors Mrs. Donaldson and Superintendent Mr. Alferez.

We decided to interview Mrs. Donaldson about how her experience on the trip over there was.

The first question we asked her was, “What was your experience at the science fair from your end?”

She responded, “This year went a little more smoothly since Alferez was there. He drove us and that really helped a lot and went a lot smoother. And when y’all were in competition, I was just reading and trying to pass the time waiting for you guys since this is all about y’all.”

The next question, we decided, was, “What were your thoughts about traveling to College Station?”

She answered back with, “It was such a long long drive, and on the way back it was very windy and we couldn’t go very fast ‘cause it’s dangerous to go fast. Maybe next year, that Thursday that we take off to leave, we travel half-way, and that way we can stay at a park or something like that and travel the rest the next day.”

After that, we decided to ask, “What was your favorite memory on the trip?”

She responded back with, “Going to the reptiles house! I loveeeed it so much, they had everything! Turtles! They had lizards, chinchillas, they had wombats, axolotls, they had sugar gliders, the blue-footed tarantula, and sooo much more. It was probably the funnest thing we did.”

Next, we decided to interview junior Tenessa Hinojos, who attended the science fair with her partner, Marisa Hernadez.

We said, “Going to College Station to compete at the science fair –– what were your thoughts on that?”

Tenessa responded, “Those homeschooled kids and their moms were scary, they really need to tone it down a notch. I mean shoving their kids to the front of the table and pushing us away was just not it for me.”

“You go to different booths,” she continued, “and they give you a pin at each booth, and if you get all eight pins for your lanyards, they give you a special pin. So Mars and I were doing that, just for fun. And these homeschool moms were so crazy they were throwing their kids in front of us. Calm down! It’s not a Black Friday, they’re not giving away money.”

“What was your favorite part of going to College Station?”

“Probably just going shopping and eating. Also, being able to go to the reptile store, I liked the axolotls.”

After Tenessa, we decided to interview sophomore Avyen Pippen, whose partners were Christopher Huerta and Darren Campos.

We said, “Going to College Station and competing –– what were your opinions?”

“The drive there was long and treacherous. We saw a lot of cool things and saw a lot of Texas I’d never seen before, and competing in science fair, it was fun, there was just a lot of nerdy people around and they made us look really bad with doubledecker boards and a bunch of crazy stuff we never thought of, but all around I would say it was pretty good trip.”

“Traveling over and doing all the stuff we did, what was your favorite memory?”

“Probably competing, like standing there getting asked with all the judges and seeing everybody there, it was pretty cool.”

“Since you bought a snake on the trip, what are your thoughts about that?”

“I thought it was really fun, and I’m glad Coach Alferez and the school allowed me to get one and bring it home.” The snake’s name is Lola and she is a ball python.

New class pets

By Flavio

During the week before spring break, Mrs. Donaldson welcomed class pets into her classroom: two frogs and chicken eggs. Her first period biology class put together a cage for the frogs and put the eggs in an incubator for hatching. Then, unexpectedly, another new friend, a tiger salamander joined the class right after that!

I’m here to introduce the very special frogs named Michigan J. Frog and Maryland J. Frog. Michigan is the smaller frog and Maryland is the bigger frog, which is due to males being usually smaller than females. Ms. Powers took care of them and she taught them “The Michigan Rag” from Looney Tunes, who Michigan is named after. They are very talented dancers and get stage fright easily, but are very talented. They enjoy eating crickets and jumping around. It is really entertaining to give them food and to see the frogs jump around and catch them and eat them! People could really just stay hours and watch them doing their stuff, which is just usually jumping around or staying stagnant in place.

Mrs. Donaldson said that she likes the frogs and chickens and hoped that a lot would hatch. She also doesn’t have the ability to take care of the chicks, and they will be given back to Daniela once the time comes.

Ms. Power’s opinion about the class pets is that she loves them. I asked her if she loved training the frogs “The Michigan Rag.” She excitedly nodded her head, the frogs seem to have loved it too! 

Though to be clear, Donaldson asks (and it’s more of a demand) that you do not touch the frogs. Frogs are amphibians and respirate through their skin, and the grease and oils on your skin can mess up the system for the frogs to breathe, and we don’t want to mess up anything with the frogs. See with your eyes and not your hands!

Another new class pet are the 12 eggs that were gifted to Donaldson for hatching by Daniela Fernández. After their arrival, they were put in the incubator, and they are being kept at around 99 Fahrenheit and 50% humidity. These are perfect conditions for the eggs to hatch.

During the state science fair in College Station, when Mrs. Donaldson was traveling and when the eggs were expected to hatch, Mateo took the eggs and incubator home. After talking with Mateo, he has confirmed some are hatching and are doing well. He says he doesn’t want to bring the eggs to school until they are all finished hatching, or the ones that will hatch.

Zoey Salgado, a classmate that hatched eggs with me in third grade with Mrs. Enríquez, has an opinion about the eggs. We both agreed third grade was a nice time and Wonder (the name of our chicken) was an amazing class pet. (Even if it poo-ed on the hands of us 8-9 year olds.) The name “Wonder” originated from the book Wonder, which was a really good book.

Finally, there’s Bumble Bee, the new salamander Donaldson has now. MISD students found Bumble Bee in the sand pit while setting up for the track meet. Bumble Bee has found a new home in a tank watching the class and seeing what they’re doing. He likes hanging out in the water while keeping his head above water. He’s really cute! The name Bumble Bee originated since he is yellow and black, just like a bee.

With the new class pets, a lot of high schoolers are attracted to them like magnets. A lot of people are hoping for a lot of eggs to hatch and to see the chicks grow. I’m hoping everything goes well for them and they hatch well. In the meantime, it brings great energy to Mrs. Donaldson’s room to watch the frogs and salamander in their cool terrariums.

Spring break

By Giselle and Dariela

This whole second semester, everyone has been waiting for spring break. This year’s spring break lasted from March 9 through March 17. Spring break was a long-awaited break for mostly all students and staff.

We began by interviewing Zoey Salgado, a freshman at MISD. Zoey said she went to San Antonio this year on spring break; she said she went to go eat and ate at some very nice places, she went shopping at the mall, she also went to the River Walk, she said it was really beautiful. She said she really enjoyed eating at Bubba Gump’s, she also said she bought new shoes that she really likes, AND she went to a water park and rode all the slides. Overall, Zoey really enjoyed her spring break, but now she is back to working at Dairy Queen.

We also interviewed Itzel, another freshman in MISD. Itzel went to El Paso for the weekend with Maryfer Martinez and Eric Martinez, they went shopping and they also went to a truck show. She said it was very cool but very very freezing.

Janayah, Jadian, Luis and Andres and their parents all spent spring break together in Mexico, and from the interview it was quite a trip! On Saturday, they went to Presidio and the plan was to stay in an Airbnb, but it turns out the Airbnb was a catfish (or, it looked a lot better online than it did in real life). It turned out that when they went there, there were only two beds and they were not sure who was going to sleep where. And there were also cockroaches. The fridge was open as soon as they walked into the front door and there were two rotten eggs left on the counter. After they saw all of this they just ended up leaving to go stay with Fernanda’s family in Ojinaga. The next day, they woke up early, got on the bus and headed to Chihuahua City, Mexico. They went on a trolley ride with a tour guide. 

After that night they headed to Creel, Chihuahua, where they went ziplining and they ate! That night, Jan and Andres got in the hottub, and Janayah claims that the whole time on her trip her and everyone else has some really bad diarrhea, “It was bad,” she said.

After that, they went back to Chihuahua City, and they had fun at the hotel and they walked around and ate sushi. Overall Janayah said that she really enjoyed her spring break with her friends, this was also Janayah’s first time going past Ojinaga in Mexico.

Finally, We interviewed Madison Cash, a freshman at MISD. She said that for the week she went to Austin, Texas, she went to an arcade with her family, and she also went swimming, she went ice skating and to a Texas Longhorns softball game. Madison said she really enjoyed going out with her family and being able to get away from Marfa.

Dustin, a senior at Marfa ISD, did not go out of town on spring break this year; he mostly stayed home. He said he really didn’t enjoy it because he had to work. Dustin made around $1,300 dollars because,“I just had to work the whole time,” he said, frustrated. Even though he didn’t go out, he was still able to take some time off.

Overall, this year spring break was very much longed for, even if some people didn’t go out of town, still we were glad to have the break off from school. The last couple of weeks were definitely very chaotic and crazy. Everyone seems to be happy that during spring break we finally got some time off from school. Is it summer yet?

Kiko is Headed to State VASE

By Janayah

I interviewed Junior Kiko Rosas about his recent experience at the art competition in Odessa and how he ended up advancing to state. Curious about everything, I asked him about what this art competition is exactly and what’s happening with his artwork that was entered to the art competition.

“So, VASE is an art competition for different kids from different regions in Texas who compete for their art pieces. It’s just mainly about drawing, and it’s pretty fun because of the trips and new experiences,” Kiko said.

I asked him what his art project was about and he said, “I drew myself in black, white and red pencils, which is me sewing up red hands coming out of my stomach. The hands represent my thoughts and emotions being held back by the thread. In general, the whole piece can represent someone afraid of judgment overall.”

I asked him how he did at regionals, he said, “I think I did really good at regionals. There’s really no placing, but I did get a perfect score for the drawing, which means that I advanced to state in San Marcos. Lots of people kept coming up to me and saying that they liked my art work, asked what it was about, how long it took, etcetera. I think I can take two kids with me to state, but I guess it still depends who.”

I then asked him what he planned to do at San Marcos for VASE, and this is what he had to say, “Whoever I take to San Marcos with me, I just plan to go to different places and just have fun with them wherever. We’re staying for three days I think, so I honestly think it’s a good experience to visit a new place with other friends and make new ones who also like to draw and make art just like me. I hope everything goes well for us down in San Marcos.”

Finally, I interviewed Junior Andres Solis, and I asked him how he felt about Kiko’s art piece and he said, “I think it’s a very complex piece of art with a wonderful meaning behind it.”

Kiko, Mrs. Donaldson, Piper, Ms. Powers, and Kily will be traveling to state VASE in San Marcos at the end of April to see the artwork that advanced to state from all over Texas.

The yearbook

By Sam

This year’s yearbook class consists of 11 kids. Probably only two of those kids do their work in that class, in terms of actually formatting and putting things in the yearbook. Everyone likes photoshoots and taking pictures, but the design part has really just a few kids working on it. I am not in the yearbook class, but let me tell you I have been working on the yearbook more than the people in that class have been the whole school year! This is because I’m in journalism and I come into Ms. Powers’ class a lot, and I upload photos to her computer and then just work on the yearbook if I have nothing to do.

Because of that, I have basically thrown myself into every page of the yearbook, and since I’m also basically in every program, it’s not even weird. But, I mean, don’t complain when you could do the same. Ms. Powers is so desperate for help and sick of yelling at her actual yearbook class that she’d let anybody add to the yearbook. So, throughout the yearbook you will find multiple pages of me and two of my friends.

I personally think the sports pages are the best they’ve ever been this year. Ms. Powers put a lot of thought and time into it, and the yearbook class and her did design the layouts early in the year. Normally, it feels like we wait until prom happens, and then that’s when the big rush of finishing the yearbook starts. That’s when Ms. Powers starts to get frustrated and tells every kid in that class to get their assigned pages done. This year the yearbook is due 4/20/2024. The yearbooks should then be here by May 13, which means that you’ll be able to buy one the last three weeks of school. With prom being this weekend, which is kind of the last big thing we photograph, that means times are just getting closer and closer! We have less than a month! That being said, if there are any pictures from this school year that you’d like to put in the yearbook PLEASE send them our way. We will most likely put it in, as long as it’s appropriate it will be put there! Anyone can email Ms. Powers pictures, and even easier, if you have an iPhone you can come to her room and AirDrop photos to her yearbook computer!

And, seniors, if you have not submitted your senior quote or baby picture please do so. Let’s not say how we’ve been tracking Oscar down since school started to take his cap and gown picture and he still hasn’t. He missed the summer photoshoot and, somehow, he still hasn’t materialized for his retake. Currently, he has Gonzo from the Muppets as his portrait picture. But Oscar, if you’re seeing this, we need you to retake your picture, like now. Bring a black suit jacket to school for crying out loud.

Finally, the senior collage is still missing some pictures, but hopefully prom will fill that up. We are in desperate need of golf and softball pictures as well, so if you have any of these send them our way.

Recently, the yearbook class has been in charge of taking the sports pictures for the winter/spring programs. They did photoshoots for powerlifting and basketball. And we did a few other pictures, like of white caps and gowns photos for the seniors, and all of the retakes and photographs in the yearbook this year are done with nice lighting, against a real backdrop, unlike in some years when retakes have kids up against a wall like a mugshot. In these ways, and with a new company publishing the book, the yearbooks are getting better than in years past.

Finally, finally, if you’re a senior and you want to put an ad in the yearbook, email Ms. Powers ASAP. She’s opening up ad space to businesses soon, so if you want one, act fast!

Little Dribblers and the art of coaching

By Darren and Ayven

Little Dribblers is a program to help elementary school kids get interested in basketball. It’s like Little League or t-ball, but for basketball. There are two boys’ teams and one girls’ team at Marfa Elementary, and Darren (this reporter) and Ayven’s dad (Ayven is my reporting partner) are the coaches of one of the boys’ teams, which consists of six second- to sixth-graders.

The Little Dribblers play teams from around the area, like Presidio, Alpine and Fort Davis. Their season begins toward the end of high school basketball season. I got involved in coaching because Ayven’s dad asked if I wanted to help him. He asked Ayven first, of course, but he didn’t want to because Ayven needs “free time.” I said yes because I thought it would be a really cool opportunity to help kids and to get them ready to participate in middle school sports. Sports have always been really important to me and my family, and I like passing that on to the kids I coach.

I think my team did a really good job this year, and I think the sixth-graders coming up to Marfa Junior High have a lot of potential. The only issue that I find is that they really struggle to listen, but once they fix that I truly believe that they can go far!

We asked some of these young players how they felt about this year’s Little Dribblers season, and here are some of their answers to our questions.

We asked sixth-grader Nathaniel how he felt about his Little Dribbler season.

He said, “It’s alright, I think we need to work more.”

We then asked how he felt about the tournament that took place at Alpine Middle School, he said that he really didn’t know about it.

Next we asked Matthew, a fifth-grader, “How do you feel about your season?”

“Good, it was fun!”

“How do you feel about the tournament?”

“I mean this is my second year [in Little Dribblers]. Last year we didn’t make it, so I’m pretty flattered.”

Next, we interviewed another fifth-grader, Aiden Salgado. He’s a great kid to coach, because he was the best listener on my team and took coaching and direction really well.

We asked, “How do you feel about your season?”

“It’s good, it’s fun!”

“How do you feel about the tournament?”

“I’m really excited! We played good against Presidio!”

Then we got the perspective from one of their coaches! It’s me, Marfa high schooler Darren Campos. Ayven interviewed me, and I said, “I think the team did really well, they definitely have a lot of room for improvement. And I think if they work hard enough they can make it really far for basketball in the future! Your little brother was definitely the biggest challenge to coach, but he’s a talented player!”

“Now that their season is over, would you want to coach again next year?”

“I definitely would take the chance to coach again! I think it was a really fun experience, and I think it’s really cool how you can build a bond with with your team really fast and sometimes coaching is a really stressful thing, but having the opportunity and knowing that I can help kids and that I am helping kids improve in something they are really passionate about is really cool,” concluded Darren. 

Track season

By Austin

MARFA –– In Late February, spectators witnessed the conclusion of the 2023-2024 high school basketball season. Over the next few weeks, the Marfa Athletics Department put all their efforts into getting the student runners, throwers and jumpers as conditioned as possible for the coming track season.

On February 24, Marfa High School athletes had their first official meet in Fort Stockton.

The next week, there was a meet in Alpine. Then, a track meet in Monahans. The next week, on Wednesday, March 21, the first track meet held in Marfa in years took place for middle school students. Our new track, which was installed two years ago and cost almost a million dollars, was finally put to use. The old track was subject to years of negligence as the athletes ran on asphalt. It had been over 10 years since Marfa had had a home meet.

In order to celebrate the track meet, locals came to participate and watch a new MISD program called the Great Comeback, which looks back at old Marfa High athletic achievements and seeks to honor those athletes. Last year, we celebrated a bi-district volleyball team from years ago. At this track meet, we celebrated three athletes who brought Marfa to a state track meet and competed in Austin as a relay team and as individuals 12 years ago.

Coach Ojeda, who had taught the students, gave a speech. Zach Madrid, one of the athletes, gave a talk expressing the importance of Marfa High School athletics on his success as an adult. Then, the track meet began. The middle schoolers were all on the track, running, thowing, and jumping alongside coaches and parents. The police grilled hamburgers. The track meet was great, because, unlike a football game, at a track meet everyone is not separated. Athletes and spectators and parents and siblings are all standing on the pitch. Everyone was together, and it felt like a big parade. Bringing that feeling back to Marfa’s field was a great experience to be a part of as a reporter, and to witness as an observer.

“The best part about track meets is seeing people,” said freshman Zoey Salgado, who placed second in the mile in the Alpine meet.

“Running is hard, but you have to do it, and I’m pretty good at it,” said Zoey.

Itzel Urrutia is a freshman on the Marfa Girls’ relay team. She said, “This is my first year in track for high school, I’m very glad to be on the relay, and me and my team work really hard.”

“Every Monday, we run three 500-meter races,” said Itzel.

In Alpine’s meet, the Marfa girls’ relay team got second in every race. In Rankin, they got third place in the 4×100.

“I’m fast, I’m second leg. This is the last track meet before district. Next week is district, in Balmorhea, that’s crazy!” said Itzel.

Finally, we interviewed Marco and Zach, two former track athletes who are abruptly no longer on the team.

Zach said, “I get hurt too much, I’m very fragile.”

Marco said, “And I am going to Spain to play basketball in two months, and I just want to be focusing on that, on being in the gym every day. I’m just not feeling track this year.”

So far, Marfa has placed okay at the meets, especially as a relay team, and the team will continue to sacrifice countless hours to have a great remaining season. As Itzel said, the season is almost at its end, with only one meet before district, regionals and area competitions.