The TMI Times, Spring 2022

“Panthers Celebrate Founder’s Day 2022”

By the TMI Journalism Club

Founder’s Day

By: Katie Hendrick ’25 and Carolina Meneses ’25

Founders Day Recap – Katie Hendrick 

On Thursday, March 3rd of 2022, TMI’s students and staff celebrated Founder’s Day. The event started in the Johnston Amphitheater, where each team went on stage, performed an entertaining skit, and showed off their team spirit. After, the teams split up to conquer the individual events, including hula-hooping contests, checkers, chess, scavenger hunts, frisbee golf, egg toss, beanbag toss, and many other exciting activities. During the team events, such as tug of war and dragon’s tail, team members were required to work together to remain the last team standing. After a day filled with exciting events, all groups gathered on the bleachers to discover which team was the winner. Finally, the top five places were announced, and light blue came first! While orange and white tied for last place, they still shouted in excitement when their place was announced. Thank you, Mr. Allan Rupe, for another successful Founder’s Day!

An Interview With the Winning Founder’s Day Team – Carolina Meneses

I interviewed Master Sergeant Chad Gooding, the advisor of the Light Blue Baboons, to see how he felt about his team winning first place.

Q: How do you feel about winning Founders day?
A: “I was absolutely thrilled to see our group come together at the last moment like we did. It was really inspiring how they never gave up.”

Q: How did your group come up with the name/skit of the team?
A: “So, we struggled with the name. It was really difficult because we had so many different names.” Then he talked about how they came up with the skit, “we delayed putting the skit together, it was kind of like a last moment…thing that we had switched from our original plan.”

Q: Lastly, I asked him if he was surprised when his team was announced as the winner.
A: “So, I was tallying up our chances and based on our finishes on the different events, I did think we had a chance. Then when the second-place team was announced and ours still hadn’t [been]; that’s when it finally hit me that I think we may have done it. And of course, they read our name, and that was just like, ‘yes, touchdown!’” 

Military Ball 2022

February 19, 2022, was TMI’s annual Military Ball, a formal event celebrating the seniors in the Corps of Cadets. Corps and non-corps members enjoyed this tradition by learning from the inspirational senior cadets, spending time with one another, and enjoying a highly-energetic after party with quesadillas! Battalion Commander, Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Claire Rollwitz stated, “Military Ball was truly a memorable night that celebrated the years of work dedicated by the senior class to becoming strong leaders.” Once again, congratulations to our seniors and good luck to the Corps of Cadets on their future leadership journeys!

Women’s History Month

This month of March, we get the privilege to celebrate Women’s History Month, where we honor the women in our society who have made an impact in our world. Without women, the social and technological advancements we have today would simply not exist. Women like Katherine Johnson, one of the first African American women to work for NASA, and Malala Yousafzi, a Pakistani activist who fought for female education, paved the way for young girls today. Frida Khalo, a famous Mexican painter, once said, “At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” As women, it is important to stick together and build each other up, especially in a society where we may be overlooked. To all the young women in our school today, keep thriving. Keep growing, learning, and supporting one another. Happy Women’s History Month. 

Sports

Lacrosse

Coach Blake Skinner has been coaching at TMI for just around 12 years. He has experience playing the sport throughout high school and division 3 lacrosse in college. When asked how he came to coaching, he said, “It became something I did on the side for fun after college.” His enjoyment of coaching the sport has evolved over time, first it was for fun and was to work out his competitive side. Soon it became, as he said, “a passion and a love for developing kids, not just lacrosse players, but human beings as well.” His favorite lacrosse coaching memories at TMI include: state runs; district championships; and especially last year’s season, since there were so many trials they overcame. He said, “It gave us a new sense of gratitude” and that “they cherished every moment.” TMI is special to him because they boys have such a wonderful bond. He said that the team holds each other to high standards and keeps each other accountable. He says that even though they have talent, their bond is what makes them special.

Basketball

Last week, the boys varsity basketball team won against Woodlands Christian in the semi-finals. They played Mckinney Christian at the state championship, and after a very close game with a double overtime, unfortunately lost. Congratulations to these boys for their incredible season and hard work. 

Track and Field

On Saturday, February 26th, the track and field team participated in the first meet of the season. Carter McCray ’24 came 2nd overall in the entire division for the boys, finishing with a total of 22 points. The girls 4×100 relay broke the school record, consisting of Bernice Gitiche ’24, Chloe Odgen ’25, Kate Philbin ’25, and Calista Perkins ’22. Additionally, Noah Bregman ’23 came first in the Boys 100m dash and second in the boys 200m dash. Good job to the entire team!

Student Spotlights

The student spotlights of the week are two sophomores, Catie Miles and Aidan Notzon. First up is Catie Miles ’24 with her amazing home runs in TMI softball. Catie shared that she has been playing for about 10 years and has shown great leadership on the field and to her teammates. Catie not only won MVP last year, but is captain of her team this year. She is the only pitcher on the softball team and takes a heavy responsibility in each game to ensure the opposing team hits as little as possible.

Secondly, Aidan Notzon ’24, a member of the Corps of Cadets and Boy Scouts, dedicated his Eagles Scout project to a beloved member of the TMI community, the late Jackson Mohr. Aidan explained that it was his connection to God that really inspired him to carry out the project. Aidan created a memorial for Jackson down at the baseball field so that Jackson may be remembered from the sport that truly made him happy. Jackson’s kindness in the corps left an imprint on Aidan, which led the two to quickly become friends. The memorial consisted of a lovely speech from the parents, Father Scott Brown, and Aidan sharing the memory that lives on of Jackson Mohr.

Congrats to the both of you!!

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Questions?
Email gitber04@tmi-sa.org or c.hammonds@tmi-sa.org