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The Shield Online
The Student News Site of McCallum High School

The Shield Online
The Student News Site of McCallum High School

The Shield Online
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Lentz reflects on successful season, looks forward

Cross-country runner talks about keeping a good mentality, finding community within sport
Julia Copas and Callen Romell • November 8, 2024
Adele Seeboth
Julia Lentz races the five-kilometer course at the UIL District 24-5A Championship on Oct. 11 at Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park.
Julia Copas and Callen Romell

In the second episode of Friday Knight Lights, hosts Julia Copas and Callen Romell talked to junior cross-country runner Julia Lentz about her journey to running, keeping a positive mindset and being the only McCallum runner to qualify for regionals.

After her freshman year, Julia Lentz transferred to McCallum for the cinematic arts program from Summit Christian Academy. This past season, Lentz qualified for the regional meet by placing eighth out of 40 runners with a 21:21.40 run time at the district meet. At regionals, she finished 74th out of 164 runners by running  22:10.3. Despite not breaking her personal record, which was her goal for this season, she maintains a positive outlook on the season and what’s to come.

This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music here.

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For Margaret Dismukes Massad, the owner of Peter Pan Mini Golf and a McCallum graduate, the importance of Peter Pan Mini Golf goes beyond saving the business. As a child, some of her happiest memories are of observing her father, Glenn Dismukes, create the sculptures that still stand today at Peter Pan Mini-Golf in her backyard. “My favorite memories are just of my dad carving the figures,” Massad said. “We were the only kids with a dinosaur in the backyard.”
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AS EASY AS PB&J: At the blindfold sandwich-making station, senior Zane Wiggins and Kai Talebi attempt to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The activity allowed students to experience the mundane task without sight. Wiggins found that the simple activity turned into a challenge in almost every aspect of the process. "It was pretty rough," he said. "My bread wasn’t put together properly, and I put my jelly right next to my plate and not on the plate, it was really difficult. I was expecting it to be easier than it was cause I'd made sandwiches all my life, and I thought 'I can do this from muscle memory,' but it was a lot harder than I thought, and it makes you not take your sight for granted. Access to your sight makes things so much easier." Since students participating are used to having full sight, it was difficult to adapt to the sudden loss of a sense. "I had to kind of guess where things were and the plate was moving a lot," he said. "Every time I would reach for the plate it would be in a different location, so I kind of had to feel around for everything." Along with that, Wiggins had to work together with Talebi to communicate to communicate which ingredient he needed next. "I had to share the peanut butter and the jelly with Kai, so we had to coordinate with each other on who gets what first," he said. "I knew Kai was right next to me, but it was hard to know where her hands were. We had to find each other's arm and make our way up to pass the ingredients." Caption by Lillian Gray.
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ONE LAST BATTLE CRY: Seniors Joe Colaleo and Theo Northcutt dressed as Mario and Waluigi cheer hard as they win their last senior battle cry. “I was very excited and happy because we had just won,” Colaleo said. “Now that I look back on it, it feels a little sad knowing I can’t go to another one.” Colaleo said although the moment was bittersweet, it’s also nice to know other things in life are coming up. Colaleo and his two friends said they dressed as Mario characters because it was a simple and fun costume idea. “I decided on the costume because it’s so iconic and recognizable,” Colaleo said. Caption by Josie Linton.
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A CELEBRATION OF HISPANIC HERITAGE: Ballet Folklórico dancers Valeria Alcauter Robles (red), Carley Castro-Seiler (turquoise), Abi Peacock (black), Shirel Behar (green) and Mailyn Gil (periwinkle) perform this past weekend at the AISD Performing Arts Center, competing in AISD’s Fiesta for Hispanic Heritage Month. Gil has been a part of the club since her freshman year. Upon joining the group she had no idea what it was, but was inclined to join due to influences of her grandfather. “I joined because my grandfather loved the traditional dances and that it showcased all regions,” Gil said. “I wanted to honor him in a way, as well as learn more about my culture.” Competing in a small group ensemble during the Fiesta, Gil felt that the members as well as herself were very composed and performed their routine smoothly. “We were very comfortable in our pieces, enough to just get on stage and do what we did, and have fun,” Gil said. “The only difference between this performance and the past was that we had judges this time, so it was a little nerve wrecking since it was a competition.” Groups from different schools competed in a variety of categories, some being soloists, music groups, and bands. The groups each performed their pieces, and then the judges took 15 minutes at the end to go over scoring before they announced the winners. Gil said that even though the club did not win, they felt proud of their performance. “We were very positive and respectful, and even though we didn’t win we felt proud of our accomplishments,” Gil said. “I was proud of our newcomers because they learned everything so quickly and got the hang of it.” Caption by Priya Thoppil.
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Senior captain Greta Carlson celebrates point with her team after scoring a kill against the LASA Raptors on Oct. 11.
Raptors down, Knights up
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Junior Julia Lentz races the five-kilometer course at the UIL District 24-5A Championship, Oct. 11.
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The freshman A players who were on the court celebrate the last point of the Knights victory over Connally to start the Knight Freshman Tournament. After winning the first set, the Knights fell behind by 11 points in the second set before roaring back to complete the sweep of the Cougars. The Knights would go on to run the table defeating Manor Tech, St. Andrew's, LASA and Bowie to win the freshman tournament that McCallum Volleyball hosts for the first time ever.
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