At the festival, there were many different activities going on, and there were a lot of people spending time with their friends and enjoying the great weather. It was a good way to kick-off the start of summer.

“I really liked playing frisbee with my friends,” said sophomore Brooke Bergeron.“And I love that What’s The Scoop? is here because its a local business, and it’s super good to eat!”

Kracklin’ Rosies food truck and What’s The Scoop? were definitely a hit at the field festival, and it was nice to be able to have a snack in-between playing games. Knocker-ball, which is a soccer game where you compete against other teams while inside a blow up ball, was a popular and competitive game to play.

“Knocker-ball was the best,” exclaimed freshman Patrick Lubben. “So was the food truck, they had really good apple pie tacos.”

Along with knocker-ball, other favorites were the dunk tank, and spike ball. Everybody enjoyed being able to dunk their friends by throwing a ball and hitting the target, or being the one dunked. It made for good laughs, and very fun memories.

“I really enjoyed dunking my friends in the dunk tank,” said sophomore Bari Flynn.

As next year’s Bison Field Festival is already in mind, there are a few improvements to be made. In order to improve attendance, some people have suggested more publicity for the event, especially because it is something you don’t want to miss out on. Along with that, hopefully, there will be more seating arrangements in order to relax, watch the games, and eat ice cream.

“Probably more publicity for it, like get some more people to know about it,” said Lubben. “I’ve told a lot of people about it to see if they were coming and they were like ‘what’s Bison Field Festival?’”

The Bison Field Festival was a fun way to spend time with friends towards the end of the school year. People were able to get out, enjoy the wonderful weather, and play many different yard games.

Photo by Carly Kauffman

This play is a recreation of the children’s book, and in some parts in the play, there are even direct quotes from the books.

“I was a passionate reader for frog and toad,” said Junior Jack Lanners, “there are so many similarities between the books and the musical, it’s very interesting.”

The cast has been very dedicated to the impact that the play has on people; they want everyone who comes to see it, to leave with the message of the play. Through the course of learning the play, they have found a sense of appreciation for what they are doing.

“The fact that I can make a difference doing something that I love is really exciting,” said Emilee Feldman.

This play, which is based on a children’s book, has a much deeper meaning than expected. It shares many smaller messages within the story that are able to make an impact on the community.

“I really hope the audience takes away the message of the show, because even though it’s a kids story, there’s a deeper meaning behind it in the relationships that people have within their lives,” Sophomore Jillian Elton said. “I think we do a good job of portraying that for the story of the characters.”

The Theatre Department has put a lot of time and effort together to make this show happen and as the play gets closer the cast has definitely become more anxious to show the work that they have put into it, but also more importantly just having a fun time putting on a performance for the audience.

“I think that the stress level definitely rises, for me personally, I get super nervous before the first show,” Senior Emilee Feldman said, “but after we start going, the minute that the music starts you just turn into somebody else and you’re not worried about what other people think of you.”

A Year With Frog and Toad is something that the BHS Theatre Department is really proud to put on, and the past couple of months has been an experience that the cast members won’t forget. Everyone is encouraged to go enjoy the show this weekend. Tickets are $3 for students and $5 for adults.

Photo by Carly Kauffman

On Wednesday, the track team had to walk the equipment back into the shed on Bison field West, and into the school after having been able to practice outside for the week before the snowstorm. They have been extremely limited in practice because they can’t be outside. Disk throwers have not been able to practice much at all because they cannot throw inside or outside with the current weather.

“We haven’t done a lot of outside throwing, I think we have gone outside three times because of weather.” Sophomore Eli Ostvig said, “We were supposed to go to a meet in Irondale last Friday, but they canceled it.”

Some sports are toughing out the melting snow and getting back outside to play. On Friday the boys and girls lacrosse team made their way out onto the field with shovels and started to clear the field of snow. They continued to shovel snow over the weekend in order to keep their season in full movement with a boys game on Monday.

“We were supposed to have scrimmages the first Saturday after tryouts, so for one of our practices, the night before on Friday, we had to shovel the field, and there was a layer of ice and then there was thick snow.” Senior Payton Johnson said, “But thanks to everyone that helped we were able to scrimmage which was nice, but we still had like snow on the sidelines so we’ve had both of our games here canceled now.”

Now that the snow has melted, sports have started to get back outside and practice, but there definitely was a concern for the conditions of the fields. Teams have persevered and have begun to reschedule games.

Photo by Carly Kauffman

Ryleigh Stenson started skiing when she was four years old. She grew up skiing because her father did it in his life. He was her first coach and helped her develop basic skills and techniques using the boom. When she was thirteen years old she started long line, which made her dad extremely proud. In 2015 or 2016 she became very dedicated and started to take bare footing very seriously.

Ryleigh has become very dedicated, and prepares for season by weight lifting, and exercising to keep in shape, during the winter. In the spring and summer months she goes down to the World Barefoot Center, a ski school in Florida for a few weeks at a time. At this ski school she practice from 8 am to 3 pm with a lunch break in between. The high quality coaching at the ski school has helped Ryleigh improve by great amounts. When she isn’t in Florida practicing, she’s on the lake everyday getting more practice hours in.

In the summer Ryleigh Stenson puts in long hours to improve her skills and technique. It takes hard and long practice to get new skills as a bare footer, because it takes a lot of mental strength to go for new skills. Bare footing can be a dangerous sport when your going 40 mph or faster, but nothing beats the feeling of getting a new trick, or making an improvement you have been working at for a long time.

Her improvements over the years have led her to do exceptionally well in competitions. Ryleigh is on Team USA through the World Barefoot Center, and went to worlds last year. Her team competed in Canada last year for worlds and got gold as a team. Along with doing well as a team, she took third in a couple of the events she competed individually. Her dedication has led her to be sponsored by the ski school. Being sponsored comes with additional pressure of doing well. Ryleigh has done an outstanding job of adjusting to this added pressure and is currently ranked fifth in the world for junior skiers.

During season, Ryleigh will participate in tournaments all around the country, competing in three events. The three events include, jumps, tricks, and slalom. Her strongest, and favorite event is tricks, and the hardest event for Ryleigh is slalom. Slalom is the hardest for her because the faster speed of 43 mph is more challenging, and results in much harder falls.

Being a bare footer comes with many challenges, because of how brutal of a sport it is, when falling is inevitable.

One of the hardest things about this sport is, “taking fall after fall, and still trying to get back up, to learn your skill or get better” said Ryleigh.

This sport can be extremely frustrating with the continuous effort of learning and improving. Ryleigh is supported by her Florida teammates, and her team is one of her favorite things about bare footing.

“In the community of barefoot water skiing, everyone is super supportive and they know what’s it’s like to be a bare footer” said Ryleigh Stenson.

Ryleigh’s strong relationship with her teammates, love and dedication for bare footing has helped her improve greatly in the past few years, and she plans to do it for as long as her body allows her to. The variety of tricks, and the ability to constantly improve, leads to there being something new everyday. She’s currently fifth in the world, and is working hard to improve for the upcoming season.

Photo by Ryleigh Stenson

From the very beginning of the season, freshman Antonio Bluiett has shown hard work and competitiveness on the basketball court. He worked hard in his off season to improve his skills and earn his spot on varsity for his freshman season.

During tryouts he was noticed right away for “how competitive he is, he is probably the most competitive person in this school” said Mr. Ortmann.

Having a freshman starter on a varsity team is uncommon, but not unprecedented. The Boys Basketball team coaches don’t label any kids based on their grade.

“We [the coaches] just put the ones [athletes] out that will give us the best chance of winning” said Head Coach Josh Ortmann.

Antonio has adjusted to playing on varsity extremely well, and the team has been very welcoming to him. He enjoys being apart of the varsity team, and fits in well. The team has the common goal of winning, and Antonio’s competitive mindset has helped him establish a strong bond with his teammates.

“He goes hard all the time on the court, and wants to win. He is a great teammate to have” said junior Brandon Maatz. 

Being on varsity comes with a high amount of pressure on the court. Antonio has done an amazing job on adjusting to this pressure and playing to his full potential on the court. The big crowds that attend the games can be very exciting and motivating.

His favorite thing about being on varsity basketball is “playing in front of the big crowds” said Antonio.

He has made a great impact on this team, by leading on the defensive end and bringing energy to the court.

“He has brought great defensive energy this year” said Coach Ortmann

Antonio has continuously worked hard to improve during the season, and is working on improving his offensive play. He has done a great job of learning and developing further skills in the point guard position.

This season has been an exceptional experience for Antonio. He has led the Boys Basketball team on the defensive end, and brought enormous energy to the court. With continued growth and confidence, he could have a huge impact on the team through leadership.

Photo by Alana Hartman, Tatanka Yearbook

The Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose school district has a yearly operating budget of fifty-five million dollars that must cover all spending for every schools’ needs. This includes teachers salaries, classroom supplies, and school necessities. Of this fifty-five million, about two percent goes to middle and high school activities. This two percent is about 1.1 million, and how it gets dispersed among all of the activities is determined by their individual fundamental needs.

A sport needs six different things in order to run, coaches, transportation, supplies, workers, referees, and general maintenance, and all these things cost money, but each sport has different needs. For example, cross country doesn’t need referees or much general maintenance. Football, on the other hand, needs all of the above six things in order for the sport to work. Therefore, it isn’t necessary for cross country to receive as much money as football.

A Booster Club plays an essential role in helping the activity run to its full potential. Booster clubs consist of parents, businesses, and community members who donate money, time, or supplies to support an activity. Although the activity would still be able to run without a booster club, they wouldn’t be nearly as effective.

“The Booster Club enhances the sport,” said Bauman.

For example, the school would supply the sport a school bus to go to an away game or meet, but the Booster Club might decide to pay for a coach bus in order to keep the kids comfortable on longer trips.

Some booster clubs are more effective than others though, and it simply boils down to the fact that some sports have more kids, therefore a wider reach to the community. Football and track and field have about 100 kids each, with 100 kids and their parents all fundraising, they are likely to raise more money than a sport with 30 kids.

Sports funding can become very controversial very fast.

“It is a controversial topic because people are uneducated [about it],” said Bauman.

Many people do not understand the whole concept of money management for school activities because of a lack of knowledge. This topic can frustrate many people because of the simple idea that  sports are not funded equally, but with good reason, as the money is dispersed logically. When people are more open to learning and accepting this fact, they can understand the idea of sports funding and what goes on behind the scenes.

Overall Bauman said that the BHM School district wants kids to have the best experience possible.

“We want kids to find a connection through traditional sports and other activities that they enjoy,” said Bauman.

This connects with the district’s motto of ‘doing what’s best for kids’. Through extreme consideration of every sports need, and how much money they require, the sports program is thriving.

Photos by Lilly Ragab and Alayna Mills, Tatanka Yearbook