Stories from Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The brightest standouts of the Rector High School athletic world were honored last Tuesday during the annual athletic banquet. Students and family members gathered in the Rector Community Center to enjoy a meal and show their support for the Cougars...

Seventy-one Rector High Schools students shared a night of fun -- and four lucky teens walked away with grand prizes totaling $7,021 -- when the Rector ACE Youth Leadership Committee held its annual Project Aftershock after-prom party at the Rector Community Center...

Rector High School faculty, students and parents gathered in the new gymnasium Tuesday, May 8, to recognize outstanding scholars for the 2006-07 school year during the annual Honors Day assembly. The event began with the Invocation delivered by Valedictorian Josh Vangilder. Fellow valedictorian Jordan Cornelison followed with a performance of "Anyway."...

Rector High School will welcome some new teachers next year. Nicki Wicker of Piggott will teach junior high math and Elliot Jacobs of Jonesboro will be the new head football coach and physical education instructor. Wicker is a 1993 graduate of Piggott High School who recently graduated from ASU with a BSE in math. ...

The events which matter most in life often are made more special by the presence of loved ones. In the cases of Sgt. Johnny McCarroll and his daughter, Abbe', the proof of such a sentiment was evident to an entire community. Called to serve in Iraq as a member of the Army National Guard's 875th Engineering Battalion, Johnny has been required to be literally a world away while his daughter went through her senior year of high school...

Witnessing small town life at its finest, the hundreds who attended Friday night's graduation ceremonies at Rector High School watched as the school's 41 graduates stood arm-in-arm near the ceremony's end to sing the Alma Mater and their class song, most smiling broadly while also blinking away tears...

Nominations for our first-ever PHS gym Dream Team are starting to come in from all points. We'll continue to accept nominations for the next couple of weeks, and then try to assemble a roster. Some of the interesting e-mails this week included a note from Roxanne (Gower) Argo, suggesting that we add cheerleaders. She, as the former captain of both the junior high and senior high cheerleaders back in the mid-80s, had the following nominations...

Friday night the top senior high school volleyball players in Northeast Arkansas gathered at the Valley View gym for a charity match. The event was billed as the "Queens of the Hardwood," and raised over $2,600 for the Jonesboro City Youth Ministry. At the conclusion the "East" squad had held on to beat the "North" in five sets; 25-20, 25-17, 20-25, 17-25, and 15-6...

This week featured special graduation issues in several of the years we highlight in this column, so best wishes to the classes of 1967, 1977, 1982 and 1987. 1967 Nearly eleven inches of rail fell on the Piggott area the second week of May in 1967. Some of the worst flooding occurred in the Big Slough, and Central Clay areas. Large hail also caused damage south and east of Rector...

I don't like mice. Actually, I don't like most rodents, not even squirrels. Yeah, I know that's nearly blasphemous in this neck of the woods. I've eaten squirrel, too. I that statement doesn't carry the same sort of weight as it did, say when I was in California--you should have seen the reactions from them--but many of our younger generations around here have never tasted it...

The PHS gym was alive with music last Thursday evening, as the band department hosted their annual spring concert. The event featured performances by the beginner's band, sixth grade band, junior band and the senior high wind ensemble. Band Director Jon Fulkerson hosted the event, along with Assistant Director Brian Pearson. The evening also included performances by the "Swingin' Mohawks" Jazz Band...

For the current members of the Piggott School Board, the 2006-2007 school year will be one to remember; sadly most of the memories are bad. The board, including past-member Cliff Winberry, has been faced with a host of difficult projects, several unique incidents, and a messy divorce from superintendent Bruce Evans. ...

The PHS gym was packed last Wednesday afternoon, for the 2007 "Manly Miss Mohawk" pageant, which raised over $350 for the Lady Mohawk softball team. Twenty contestants were featured in this year's pageant, representing all four grades at the high school. ...

Better dig out those sunglasses for this weekend, the ninth annual Heritage Park Rod Run and SuperCruise will be here complete with shiny paint and sparkling chrome. This year's festivities kick off 7 p.m. Friday night, May 18, at the Piggott Community Center with the new event featuring MTV award winning Elvis impersonator Dave Jenkins...