Save the Date for Steppin’ Into Spring
The Spring semester is always a time of excitement for the HAPA dance majors. As they focus on their school work and attend their daily dance classes, they are also preparing for the upcoming spring dance recital.
This year, Steppin’ into Spring has a fancy twist to it. Act I of the show will mainly consist of student work by the eighth-period choreography class. Apart from this, there will be a swing dance number performed by the Swing Dance Ensemble and a piece performed by the Ballet/Modern I class. To conclude the night, members of the HAPA Dance Ensemble, Jazz, and Choreography classes will be performing throughout Act II, which is heavily inspired by the 60’s music label Motown.
The Motown piece, choreographed by Ms. Dominiak- Treasure, consists of twenty-six hit songs from the 60’s Motown Record label. Songs such as, “My Girl,” “Ain’t Too Proud,” and “The Tears of a Clown,” will be featured during Act II.
The dancers at HAPA have been working diligently these past few months to put together a stellar show. It is a must-see performance. Steppin’ into Spring will run on Friday, April 27th, and Saturday, April 28th. The performance will start at 7 pm on the HAPA Mainstage, located inside of Morton High School.
Outdoor Track
As indoor track season comes to an end, the boys and girls of the Morton Track Teams are preparing for the outdoor track to start. The outdoor season is always a wonderful experience for anyone who participates.
“One thing I look forward to every track season are those long after school track meets, surrounded by a group of individuals who have become your family as you're all sharing a blanket, cheering on your team members as the night gets colder,” remarked one of the track runners.
Although the weather has been cold the past few track seasons, it is always a motivator for the runners to persevere and come out on top. The first outdoor meet of the season will be Tuesday, April 3rd, at Lowell Senior High School. Come out and support the boys and girls track teams at 4:45 as they compete against Lowell and other schools!
A Well Deserved Break
Over the first half of the semester, the student body has been extremely active with Basketball season, the dance team competing at state, and HAPA performances. With so much going on, the students have been extremely busy. Luckily, Friday, March 24th ended the first grading period of the second semester. In doing so, Morton students are now on Spring break until school commences again on April 2nd.
Indoor Track
Athletics are always one of Morton's strong points, especially in the Spring. With the boys and girls track teams conditioning all winter, there's always talent blossoming by the start of the first indoor meet of the season.
Each day, the track teams meet up after school at 3:30 to practice. Due to the weather, most of the practices have been held inside of the building with workouts in the gym and running in the hallways. Fortunately, the team was able to go outside and practice on the track a few days this indoor season.
As the indoor season comes to an end, the track teams will spend their first day of spring break at Bishop Noll Institute competing for the Indoor City title.
Teacher Highlight: Marie Herring
A major influence in the lives of the girls on the Track team is their head coach, Marie Herring. As a coach, Herring does everything in her power to ensure that her athlete's excel and make the most out of each race they run.
As the track coach, Herring has guided the team to several consecutive GLAC Conference 1st place awards. Despite the often cold weather during track season, Herring expects her athletes to persevere any obstacles that appear. In fact, she constantly tells her runners, “the faster you run the faster you are done.”
As an educator, Mrs. Herring is the students with special needs teacher at Morton. As a teacher, she focuses on community involvement and helping her students assimilate in day to day tasks. In doing so, she has students from the Morton community come into the class as “Peer Tutors.” As peer tutors, the students help Herring’s students with their class work and go out with them to local stores and places in the Hammond Community.
Student Spotlight: Aaliyah Clopton
There are many members of the girl's track team. However, only a select few are distance runners; among these distance runners is Junior, Aaliyah Clopton.
Aaliyah first joined the track team her sophomore year, form the very beginning it was duly noted that she was gifted. In fact, she was part of the girls 3200-meter relay team that qualified for regionals last year.
This year, Clopton started off the school year by competing in Cross Country- another one of her successes. She was fortunate enough to be All-Conference and compete at regionals as well. However, her hard work doesn’t solely exist on the track, she is also a phenomenal student.
“I work hard to maintain above a 3.0 GPA,” Clopton remarked.
As a student, Aaliyah is someone that is a friend to all as she inspires others to be successful. She is admired by her teachers as one of the most respectful students that they know.
Through her leadership skills and work within (and outside) of the classroom, Aaliyah is becoming a prospect for many colleges. She definitely has a bright and successful future ahead of her.