Poplar Bluff, Missouri - The Poplar Bluff Trap Team is holding a membership drive in an effort to get more students involved at an early age, and ultimately keep the sport alive and strong.

“Americans haven’t had an Olympic bunker trap shooter since 1996,” said head coach Josh Wesemann, a Junior High social studies teacher. “Some countries can’t have an Olympic team because their laws don’t allow it, so we have to teach the next generation coming up [an appreciation].”

This is the third year Junior High students are able to participate on the team, after the Board of Education approved the expansion of the program to allow students to gain two more years of competitive experience.

Classified as an emerging sport under the Missouri State High School Activities Association, Poplar Bluff Trap was established in 2005 under the direction of then FFA sponsor Darla Nunn, who presently manages the ICU program at the High School. Nunn said the Friends of the NRA initially donated $2,000 in equipment and shooting gear.

When Nunn’s successor Charles Kinsey, now the Technical Career Center director, took over the coaching position two years later, he helped secure some more NRA funding to do concrete work at the Poplar Bluff Gun Club, building multiple trap houses. The Midway USA Foundation also supplied an endowment of about $120,000 to establish a budget for the team to cover the cost of entry fees and traveling expenses for meets going forward.

Kinsey said he can recall when Poplar Bluff had the only trap team in the area, besides Doniphan. Today there are several additional teams throughout the region that practice at the Gun Club. “That is a direct result of the Gun Club improvements and our school’s lead,” he said.

Trap is open to male and female students, grades 7-12. “Once you get your feet placement down and learn some other technicalities, it basically comes down to mental focus and consistency,” Wesemann explained.

Over the summer, PBHS senior Hannah Cash was named to the Missouri All-State Trap Team, among the top five in the state, and went on to compete at the Scholastic Clay Target Program nationals in Ohio. Hannah shot her first perfect 100 score at practice in recent weeks, simply attributing her motivation to a sibling rivalry with her brother Joseph, a trap standout from the PBHS Class of 2015. “I have to outdo him,” she said, half-jokingly.

There are opportunities beyond high school available to trap shooters who excel. “We’ve worked to get our Gun Club certified which means we can start hosting ATA (Amateur Trapshooting Association) events since our clays are considered registered targets. This helps kids get scholarships,” explained assistant coach Sandy Pike of the R-I Instructional Technology Department.

Katelyn Campa, currently a first grade teacher at Lake Road Elementary, graduated in the PBHS Class of 2010 with a scholarship to Lindenwood University in St. Charles, where she participated in trap, skeet and sporting clays. “It wasn’t a full ride, but it was definitely helpful,” Campa said.

The first trap meet of the 2017/18 season will take place next month at the Gun Club. For more information about the Trap Team, contact the coaching staff on social media at www.facebook.com/PoplarBluffTrapTeam. The cutoff date for students to sign up is Thursday, Sept. 21.

Pictured are Hannah Cash, Poplar Bluff’s own Annie Oakley, aligns her sight to shoot a clay target at practice.

Photo and article submitted by Tim Krakowiak, Communications/Marketing Director, Poplar Bluff R-I School District

Poplar Bluff, Missouri - Buffalo Wild Wings and Pepsi MidAmerica recently teamed up to donate patio tables, chairs and umbrellas to create an outdoor dining area in the previously unutilized breezeway at the Poplar Bluff Junior High School.

Principal Candace Warren put the request out over social media this summer and BWW Regional Manager Becky Johnson reached out.

“It was a coincidence – I saw the post on the day of renovation at our Farmington store. Back when we remodeled our Poplar Bluff store, we made donations to the Farmington community, so it made sense,” Johnson explained. “I think it looks fabulous – like a bistro.”

Warren later contacted Tom Orosz, on premise rep for the Pepsi distribution center, and requested picnic umbrellas to complement over a dozen table sets.

“As a company, we just strive to do anything we can do for the schools,” Orosz said. “We’re happy to help.

 

So far students who are being quiet and otherwise making good choices during lunchtime are invited to eat outdoors when the weather cooperates. Warren said she is striving to make school a place where students want to be.

Pictured: (From left) Becky Johnson of Buffalo Wild Wilds, Candace Warren from PBJHS and Tom Orosz of Pepsi MidAmerica visit students as they eat lunch outdoors.

Article and photo submitted by Tim Krakowiak, Communications/Marketing Director, Poplar Bluff R-I School District

Poplar Bluff, Missouri - Observing blood travel through a beating heart, dissecting a diamondback rattlesnake and assembling an automobile engine are all possibilities in a 3D learning environment that is being simulated for students through new technology.

A 3DAV rover, valued at over $14,000, was delivered this month to the Poplar Bluff Middle after a string of grants and donations were secured by the STEM department, which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“If kids didn’t have to come to your classroom, would they?” This is a driving question STEM teacher Cody Young often asks himself. While it is difficult to take a student body of 1,200 on a field trip, he noted, virtual reality has made these experiences possible.

The rover is a portable 3D projector and theater system built inside a wheeled AV cart, according to the website of Vizitech USA, which was founded by a retired brigadier general for the U.S. Army before he expanded the business to education. The holoprojected images are transmitted into the classroom through active glasses students are supplied 

At the end of last school year, Young landed a 50/50 grant through the Georgia-based company’s nonprofit foundation, Tek4Teachers. His former colleague Keri Jameson, now an instructional coach at Junior High, also wrote a successful grant for $1,500 through the Poplar Bluff Public School Foundation. The remaining funds came from a business donation by Whitworth’s Gift Chest Jewelers, the Parent Teacher Organization, and individual solicitations collected by the Student Council.

“Mr. Young has done a great job in bringing together community and school to show the importance and value of what the rover can do and how it will benefit our students,” said Dr. Brad Owings, Middle School principal. “This piece of equipment, along with the software, allows students opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t have.”

While the technology complements the 3D printer, Bloxel video game builders and Sphero robotic toys that are utilized to teach STEM concepts, Young says the mobility of the cart will allow the unit to be checked out to all Middle School classrooms. The rover comes with over 3,000 lessons broken down by grade level strand, according to the instructor, who believes it will help improve MAP test scores.

“This is how kids learn,” Young stated. “It brings lessons to life in a way books can’t, and increases their understanding about topics they’re learning.”

Pictured: Students (from left) James Gambill, Braden Belknap, Bryce Millner, Molly Maurer, Ian Pierce and Ava Kingree, and STEM teacher Cody Young stand behind the rover, sporting special 3D glasses.

Photo and article submitted by Tim Krakowiak, Communications/Marketing Director, Poplar Bluff R-I School District

Poplar Bluff, Missouri - Justin Darnell of Poplar Bluff, a Three Rivers College student, was awarded a $1,000 Rotary Club of Poplar Bluff scholarship for the fall semester, administered by the Three Rivers Endowment Trust.

Pictured are, from left, Club President Rozetta Little; Steven Lewis, a club member who is an instructor at Three Rivers College; Darnell; and Michelle Reynolds, director of development at Three Rivers College.

Poplar Bluff, Missouri - Decisions at the Poplar Bluff School District are intended to be considered with the betterment of students in mind. Now the Board of Education will get to cross-check with the actual student body when they conduct business.

High School juniors Sara Holland and Jackson Winters, and senior Sam Traxel have been selected to serve as the district’s first student liaisons to the school board.

“Decisions that impact kids’ lives are made at every board meeting,” said R-I Superintendent Scott Dill on Thursday, Aug. 24, at the monthly meeting. “I feel it’s forward-thinking from the board, soliciting feedback from the student body. It shows that their hearts are in the right place.”

The notion was initially brought up last year by board member Heather Tuggle. Tuggle had participated in the annual conference of the Missouri School Boards’ Association during which she learned that a school board in Ava, among others districts, had a nonvoting student advisor.

The PBHS Student Council chose Sara, Jackson and Sam as finalists from nominees, and it was ultimately determined that all three would serve since they are equally interested in politics and public policy, according to the StuCo teacher advisory.

 

Pictured: (From left) Sam Traxel, StuCo president Jayla Matlock, Jackson Winters and school board member Heather Tuggle visit before the monthly meeting in the Administrative Building. Not pictured is liaison Sara Holland.

Photo and article submitted by Tim Krakowiak  Communications/Marketing Director  Poplar Bluff R-I School District