What’s recently happened?
As students closed in toward the DJ booth, cheer team members read off the name of the 2024-2025 school year’s Munster High School (MHS) Turnabout King – Senior Colh Igue – at the dance on Jan. 25. Cheers rang out and friends and peers lifted Igue onto their shoulders as “Feel So Close” by Calvin Harris played in the background.
“I was happy when they announced it,” Igue said.
Additionally, the MHS Girls Swimming team competed in its Sectionals competition finals on February 8, placing fifth.
“I swam the absolute hardest in the 200 freestyle relay at prelims and found out we were seeded in the Top 8,” Senior Alyssa Torres said. “It was one of the best feelings ever, especially since I got to experience it with some of my best friends.”
What’s coming up?
Boys Swimming will compete in Sectional prelims on February 20 and finals on February 22 at home.
“I hope for each and every member of the team to be better than they were before walking into that building,” Senior Nico Sanchez said. “I’ll miss the moments of bonding with the team, like team parties and toilet papering night.”
The MHS Girls Dance team also heads to Nationals on Friday, February 14 to compete in Orlando.
“I’m super excited to take the stage with all 15 of my teammates and show everyone what we have been working towards our whole season,” Junior Emma Meyers said. “I want to see how far we can push ourselves and feel how rewarding it will be coming off that stage after a performance.”
The team’s Pom routine’s theme is “Characteristics of a Mustang,” while the jazz routine is to “El Tango de Roxanne” from “Moulin Rouge!” The gameday routine’s theme is “Respect the Mustangs.”
“We have been working on dancing cohesively, all 16 of us on that floor at once,” Meyers said. “We want to show off the different styles and look like one when we are out there.”
Staff spotlight:
Head Dance Team Coach and Instructional Aide at MHS Elyse Skalka is in her fourth year of coaching at the high school.
“Because our season is so long, we make so many amazing memories,” Skalka said. “One of my favorite memories was placing first and receiving Grand Champion at our NDA Midwest Regional this season. It really set the tone for the team and we knew that we had a really good thing going.”
At about this time every season, Skalka begins to brainstorm ideas for routine concepts, costumes and songs for the next competition season. The process of creating the dances and costumes needs to be completed months before the season begins. As each season progresses, moves and ideas can quickly change.
“We have amazing parents who spend countless hours rhinestoning the costumes,” Skalka said. “It takes a good amount of research to make sure our routines are following trends in terms of content. When you are competing in front of a subjective judging panel, anything you can do that helps you stand out and create a memorable product will increase a team’s chances of placing higher.”
After dancing for MHS and then Purdue University, Skalka wanted to continue her life in the dance world and knew her next step would be to become a coach. Skalka coached her first team in Illinois for six years before taking a break and then moving back to Munster, ultimately returning to her roots to do what she loved.
“I danced here at Munster and my high school coach Heidi May, now O’Rourke, showed me that it is ok to be passionate for your team,” Skalka said. “She let us be authentically ourselves, and we loved what we were doing because of the judgement-free zone while still working hard.”
Along with having a great inspiration as a coach which helped inspire her to pursue her own coaching career, Skalka’s drive to continue also lies in the girls that she coaches.
“There are so many parts of coaching that I truly love, but overall I would have to say the girls are my favorite,” Skalka said. “No matter what happens in our routines or at practice, they are the reason I do all of this. They are the most inspiring group of young women who make me want to be a better coach and a better person. They are genuine, hilarious, dedicated – just the most hardworking kids around – and they love each other.”
Student spotlight:
After fifth period each day, Senior Caitlyn Companik changes and makes her way across the street to the Munster Community Hospital for her hospital internship, an opportunity offered to seniors at MHS.
“With there being 28 people who applied, I’m truly grateful that I was one out of five interns selected for the internship during the second semester,” Companik said.
Companik plans to attend Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) as a biology major and then go on to med school in hopes of becoming a physician assistant.
“The internship can be overwhelming at the hospital, but it’s truly an essential experience for people going into the medical field,” Companik said. “It allows young students who are undecided on their career or lack experience in the field the opportunity to shadow doctors and nurses at Community Hospital to learn the different departments and duties.”
The internship has rotations on each service which students will go through during the semester they are participating.
“My favorite part of the internship so far was working in the emergency department because the environment was much faster than the others. I was not only able to see nurses and doctors treating patients but also assisted the nurses in some of their tasks such as taking vitals, blood sugar levels, and transferring a patient,” Companik said. “I’m most looking forward to experiencing the mother/baby department because I’ve always been interested in that department and hope to see how those nurses take care of the mothers and their babies.”
As the third quarter wraps up and her senior year begins to close off, Companik looks back fondly on her years at MHS.
“I’m going to miss knowing everything about where things are in the school and mostly the people I’ve been going to school with since elementary,” Companik said. “I’m also going to miss the dances – like Homecoming, Turnabout and Prom – and most importantly, my volleyball seasons.”