Kick Off to Year Seven

By: Bailey Myers

Basketball season is underway for the lady Indians. Head coach, Ross Timmermans, is feeling well prepared and is ready to begin his seventh year of coaching. Throughout the past six years, Timmermans was the assistant varsity boys basketball coach for two years, along with head freshman coach at Waverly. He then decided to come to Clarksville High School for his fourth year. He coached the boys varsity team for two years. Last year he was head coach for both the boys and girls varsity teams. He will continue his coaching career by coaching the girls varsity team this year.

Timmermans is very excited to have the position this year and is eager to see what the girls will do this season. “I think the girls are in position to be a better basketball team this year compared to last year. They return a lot of of experience at the varsity level. It’s all going to come down to preparation every day in practice.”

The girls are fortunate enough to have practice after school every day. “Having our baby at home and with Coach Jordan Myers’ schedule, it worked out that the girls can practice right after school every day.”

Timmermans is feeling hopeful and would love to see the team do what he thinks they are possible of doing. “I see us improving from last year and competing well against the top teams in the conference and continued improvement throughout the season and competing well against some of the better teams in the state.”

Both Coach Timmermans and the girls basketball team would like to encourage everyone to come out and support as they compete during their season.  

An Exciting Future for Jordan Myers and his Team

By: Kori Wedeking


The Clarksville boy’s basketball team will be beginning their 2018-2019 season on Monday, November 12 with new coaches by their side. Jordan Myers has taken over the head coaching position with Justin Jacobs, Al Lindaman, and Brandon Zelle as assistant coaches.

Myers previously coached the Clarksville Junior High boys for two years. He has also assisted Ross Timmermans at the high school level for both boys and girls, but this will be his first head varsity coaching experience. Justin Jacobs will be Myers’ main assistant. Jacobs has spent almost twenty years as a basketball official. Jacobs also has some football coaching experience at Waterloo East.

Although most people would probably feel a little nervous about such a big coaching opportunity, Myers does not.

“It’s obviously always a big jump from an assistant role to a head coaching job, but I’m a lot more confident than I am nervous. This is a very experienced group, and that helps obviously. Coaching under Coach Timmermans is about as good of training for a head coaching job anyone could ask for,” Myers explained.

After graduating just one senior from last season’s team, Myers and his assistants are expecting a great season from the nineteen boys that are out this year.

“This is a really experienced and talented group. These seniors have improved our win total every year they’ve been in high school, and we are really looking to take the next big step this year,” Myers commented.

Myers and his team have about two weeks to prepare before their first game at Rockford on Monday, November 26.

Wrestling for Wins!

By: Allyson Essink

Wrestling for Wins!

On November 12, the wrestlers of North Butler and Clarksville started their first day of practice for the season.

“I think this season will go well because we will have a lot of wrestlers to practice with that have the experience to help us get better,” said wrestler Isaac Backer.

“Hopefully this season is successful and we meet all of our goals, ” said wrestler Evan Sherman.

“ I think we will do well because the coaches have big expectations and we are all determined to work hard,” said wrestler Peyton Kielman.

Sophomore Cole Negan also had a positive outlook for the season.

“I think the season should be pretty good. There is a lot of uncertainty going into this year, but I feel there is just as much certainty as uncertainty so the season should play out nicely,” Negan said.

Teammate Sherman said he had some ideas on how to improve himself this year.

“This season I want to really focus on getting into better shape so I am more prepared for my matches,” said Sherman.

Teammate Kielman also said he wanted to work on some skills this season.

“I am going to do my best to get some moves down during this season so I am able to be better prepared when faced with a match,” Kielman said.

The team also has some goals they would like to accomplish by the end of the season.

“We are shooting to win our conference and dual meets,” said Backer.

“We won the east division last year so I’d say that would be a benchmark, but the skies the limit as far as what we can accomplish,” says Negan.

When the boys were asked who they thought would stand out this season, they each had someone in mind.

Sherman said, “I personally have confidence in Donnie Kielman to do some really big things this season.”

“I think all the seniors coming back such as Bryce Trees, who is a former state qualifier, CJ Niedert, Trever Brinkman and Teryn Joebgen will all stand out this season,” said Negan.

Overall, these athletes are ready to start this season off strong and hopefully come home with some wins! These boys are pretty confident in their skills and determination to succeed. The boys’ first meet will be on November 29th at North Butler.

New Machines in the Shop

By: Emily Wedeking




The Clarksville industrial arts classes have gotten new equipment in the shop this year. There are four new machines which are; the Edwards 40 ton ironworker, the Jet geared head bench lathe, and two new arc welders.

The Edwards 40 ton ironworker is used for cutting metal. It’s pretty much like a large pair of scissors that cuts metal. This will help the industrial arts program by making it easier for them to cut metal and for them to get more products out faster. They used to have to get the metal cut before it came, which took more time for it to get there. Now they can buy more metal and just cut it at the shop and use the leftover metal for other projects as well.

The Jet geared head bench is used to turn steel into smaller diameters. This will help the industrial arts program by making it easier to change steel diameters to the size needed to be used. They are using it now for a project of making the heads of a hammer, and they are planning on doing many more projects with this machine.

The two new arc welders are machines that are used to weld things together. They already have two welders, but getting these two will make production time faster and will allow more welders to work at the same time.

The machines will be used in almost all the industrial arts classes available at Clarksville. They will be used in manufacturing metals, welding, tech, woods, and any independent work class. When asked how these machines are a good investment for Clarksville school Mr. Longus, the industrial arts teacher, said, “ These machines are the same type of equipment as the students would see in a manufacturing setting, so if they go into the workforce they will already know how to run them. They are used at Hawkeye as well, so if they go there to continue their education then they would already know how to run the equipment and would be ahead in the class.”

The machines will improve production and make time to make a product a lot less than it was before. When asking Mr. Longus if there were any other machines that he thinks the school should invest in one came to mind. “Another machine that would be a good investment would be a large rapid prototyper. Mrs. Tiemessen has a small one, but for cad and metals it would work better to have a bigger one so we can see the product and then produce it.”

PBIS Celebration

By: Kylie Smith




At the end of each quarter, Clarksville High hosts a celebration for their successful students. This includes all students that have a passing grade within both the high school and middle school. Although the event is typically held by the PBIS Committee, the high school Student Council took the lead this quarter! The council decided on a competition between the classes this quarter, and the idea really took off.

Cora Lundgren said, “The PBIS celebration wasn’t really on our radar, but it really spiked within the students.”

Most students really enjoyed this activity and wish that it will make another appearance throughout the year.

Allyson Essink said, “I really thought it was a cool, new idea. The games were really fun and easy to take part in.”

The competition was composed of a carjam, a blindfolded makeup challenge, a blindfolded eating challenge, and a chair race. These games were particularly popular and were really enjoyed by the student body. Although these games sound pretty simple, Emma Poppe explained how hard they actually were.

Poppe said, “It was pretty difficult to complete these challenges because I was not able to talk or see during the makeup challenge.”



All in all, the celebration went over pretty well. The student council has a lot more exciting things to come, so stay tuned!

A Visit With a Twist

By: Hannah Freerks





On Tuesday, November 6th, two students from Clarksville High School visited NIACC for college workshop visit. This, however, wasn’t any normal visit. When the visit an end the was a private concert from country singer Raelynn. She came to the stage at NIACC and gave the students and staff from that day a preview on what the concert would look like that night.

The students from Clarksville that went were Cora Lundgren and Hannah Freerks, they are both seniors in high school. They also both plan on attending NIACC once they finish there schooling at Clarksville. We asked how the visit went Cora Lundgren said, “ I had a great time, I a lot of things in the workshops, but they also reinforced things that I already knew. I also had a great time at the concert,” she added, “It was a very beneficial, it helped to know that NIACC is indeed where I want to go.” My opinion was very similar to Cora’s I learned a lot of things from going on this visit, it helped reassure me that I want to go there and what I wanna go there for. I would highly recommend students to go and check NIACC out.

It is really a great thing that Clarksville High School allows students to get out of school to go and check out their future options. A lot of students would be unsure about things if that had not been able to go out and see what is happening outside of the building they go to every day. I would like to thank Mrs. Poppe for making so that students have these opportunities.

Girls Basketball Gets Off to an Early Start

By: Janet Borchardt


On November 5, the Clarksville girls basketball team started their first practice of the season, called Midnight Madness, right away at 12:00 A.M.

“The girls were amped up and ready to get better as soon as the clock hit 12:00 A.M.!” stated coach Ross Timmermans.

Before the actual practice, the team gathered to go over the rules and watched the movie Coach Carter together.

“The expectations and vision for the season are communicated before the actual Midnight Madness practice. This allows each individual to wrap their mind around the team identity and team mission. We set the tone and begin to make memories,” coach Timmermans said.

The practice began with stretching. Then, they went through some transition drills to get the girls’ heart rates up and minds back into the basketball mode. Next, they had a team scrimmage. To end the night, the team had some shooting competitions including hot-shot, knockout, three point, and half court. There were a lot of smiles and laughs in their first practice of the 2018-2019 basketball season.

The members of the team really enjoyed taking part in this special tradition with teammates.

“It’s something that’s very unique and that other teams notice,” junior Chloe Ross commented. She also shared a thought on the upcoming season. “We are all experienced and ready to work together.”

Sophomore Katie Stirling added, “I am looking forward to playing a great sport with great teammates.”

Timmermans commented on the upcoming season. “We want to approach this season day by day and play by play. Basketball season is a marathon, and we want to use our experience to help guide us along the way. Our experience will be our foundation for our successes.”

Shoot For the Stars

By: Credance Lundgren

Over the school year the freshman class have been building rockets to shoot off. In this, every student had a partner to build the rocket with. The class that the freshmen were building this in is physical science.

In this project all of the group had pipes to be the middle of the rocket, they then attached that to the point of the middle of the rocket to make the top of the rocket. At the bottom of the rocket were three wings that they glued on the bottom. The groups then had to write up their logo for the individual rocket that they had made. After that was all done, they were allowed to color and decorate the rocket. Lastly they were all able to put on the logo after it was printed.

Now it was the time that the class had been waiting for the whole time, time to shoot off the rockets. Right before the class could do this they had to put a parachute in the rocket in order to successfully follow to see where the rocket had dropped.

The day came to shoot off the rockets. They shot off three. The first rocket landed in the tree after being shot off, the second rocket was lost and was not able to find it after it was shot off, and the last rocket was shot off and landed on the side where we were standing. Finally a successful shoot and a very happy class.

The First Song

By Hannah Freerks

On Thursday October 25th, the Clarksville High school and Junior High Band and Choir had their first concert of the year. This was the first concert under the direction of Mr. John Sundet. Mr. Sundet took over the choir program after known to students Miss Johnson, now formally known as Jill Walker. Mr. Sundent is now the band and and vocal teacher.

When asked how he thought the concerent went he said, “I think that we were really good for it being our first concert.” he added “We have been really improving over the few weeks. I am really proud of how far they have come since the first vocal practice.

I also interviewed Senior Allyson Essink on how she though the concert went, “ I think that we did great, we have a lot of incoming students, and they are fitting in very well with the vocal veterans.” Allyson is a Soprano 2, and she is the oldest Soprano 2, she is also the only veteran Soprano 2. Allyson added “ The younger and new kids are fitting in well and seem to be learning a lot.”

The Clarksville High school, will be performing at the Veterans day celebration on November 10th.

Cross Country Comes to an End with a Bright Future

By Bri Roe

As cross country comes to a close, Mr. Longus would like to share few words with our community about our seniors that are leaving this spring and to the incoming freshman next year. Here is some advice that Mr. Longus has for the seniors, “Try and continue to stay physically fit in whatever activity you chose it just helps you stay healthy and allows you to eat whatever you want.” Mr. Longus will miss the seniors leaving this spring very dearly. They allowed him to be able to take part in coaching them by getting this program started three years ago so Clarksville was able to have one. They were a part of Mr. Longus’s first cross country team here at Clarksville. They have brought Mr. Longus many memories and he encourages the freshman for next year to look into cross country even if you don’t think that you are a long distance runner. Mr. Longus says, “We are always looking to increase the number of athletes for cross country. We have a good base of athletes and we would like to increase the numbers of runners we have."

Spooky Season

By Kylie Smith

The Clarksville seniors teamed up with the kindergarteners this week to decorate Jack-o-Lanterns! The program started this year with a simple idea from some of the seniors. This idea sparked interest and turned into a really fun and enjoyable activity!

This program was held during Tribe Time on Friday the 19th with both Kindergarten classes. The senior class split themselves in half and made their ways throughout the two classes. They then chose which kindergartener they would partner with. Some even had family members within the class!

Senior James Jacobsen commented, “My cousin and I were automatically partners. We’re pretty close outside of school, so it was nice to be partners with him.”

Although some of the partners knew each other, a lot were made right on the spot.
Senior Drew Kromminga said, “My partner came right up to me and asked if we could be partners, so I immediately agreed and we got to work.”

All partners were found, and everyone began their work. Some kindergarteners even had ideas planned!

“We partnered up, and he knew exactly what we’d paint. Half of our pumpkin with filled with Iowa State and half was filled with the University of Iowa,” said senior Danielle Ison.

In other cases, the partners let their brushes paint for themselves! “We had no idea where this pumpkin would take us. But it turned out pretty cool!” said senior Hannah Freerks.

Either way, all sets of partners made amazing designs on their pumpkins. With blends of color and creativity, there was no way they could have faltered.

Although the designs turned out phenomenal, some had some interesting stories to tell after leaving the kindergarteners. James Jacobsen told us, “My partner told me he had a girlfriend!”

Senior Kylie Smith agreed, “Mine said some of the colors looked disgusting! After everyone laughed she immediately whispered, ‘Man, I should not have said that.’”

Funny moments aside, everyone really seemed to enjoy this activity. Senior Cordelia Lundgren even made a comment on how much she loved working with the kids.

Cordelia Lundgren even told us, “I think this is a great idea, and I think it should become a tradition every year.”

All in all, this small activity really made the kids’ day. Also, a special thank you would like to be sent to the Schild family for donating the pumpkins. Thanks again!