Cougar Times

A common misconception with the word  "forensics" is that it only refers to scientific tests, but forensics has multiple meanings. Our middle school team participated in a competition of public speaking and formal debate, another meaning of the word forensics. This competition took place on D ecember 14th at St. Elizabeth Catholic School. It consisted of about two hours of public speaking in two different rounds. It works like this: T he speaker picks a piece to speak about in front of a room of students their age. They receive the script or piece a few weeks before and practice tones and voice levels to get the best sounding speech they can. The script they choose has to fall under the  c ategories of Prose (meaning a plain writing), Drama ( a dramatic script), Declamation ( a declarative speech), and Multiple Reading (a group of multiple people reading a play-type piece). Along with these there is the category of Extemporaneous. In this category you are given a...

“The TRIB Live highschool sports network is proud to present from Carlynton high school tonight, girls basketball, East Allegheny against Carlynton!” The commentator announced our game as we all watched our Lady Cougars take down East A with a score of 40-38. Starters Jada Lee (#11), Jelly Diallo (#10), Haley Williams (#5), Kendall Kline (#14), and Naima Turner (#13) made the victory clear when they splashed a three in the first 20 seconds of the game. Though this moment brought hope, the lead wasn’t evident in the halftime score. With the game at 24-24 Coach Dorrien “Ace” Robbins encouraged players to get it together and take a win for sectionals against a team they hardly ever won to. His encouragement worked; before the end of the third quarter our Lady’s had a lead!  Soon after, though, things got bad, as star player Jada Lee was injured and taken out of the game after an aggressive foul from #23 on the opposing team. Her teammate Kendall Kline took two foul shots ...

On December 11, the 11th grade CIS (College In High School) Chemistry class went to Robert Morris University to survey the campus and conduct experiments in the Science Wing.  During the experiment, students mixed various liquids to determine their concentrations and potency, as well as how the liquids reflect blue light. As they measured the liquids, the students learned how to use different measurement tools, such as a “ repeater pipette”. The repeater pipette allows one to measure a certain amount of liquid by turning the dial to the desired number, then pressing the button until all of the liquid is inside the repeater pipette.  Afterwards, the button is pressed again to release the liquid. Since the CIS Chemistry students are currently  working on their midterm in the lab, one student stated, “It was a nice change of pace to try a different experiment, since we’ve been focused on getting the results we need back at Carlynton.”  I hope that t...

The Carlynton JV Basketball team defeated the Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles 29 to 28. In the first quarter, the score was 2 to 7. In the second quarter it was 9 to 16. The Cougars were struggling a bit before halftime. After halftime, they started to gain on the Golden Eagles.  The last minute of the game the Cougars were down by one point. Then, #30, Joshua Aldrige (8th grade), made the winning two-point shot and won the game for the Cougars! Their next game is on Thursday, November 12th, at Carnegie Elementary. Come and support the 8th grade basketball team and cheer them on!

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending Carlynton's Fall Play “Our Town. ” The play followed events taking place in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire,  mainly focusing on the lives of the Webb and Gibbs families.  The first act, titled “Daily Life,” opened with Stage Manager, Camryn Kwiatkoski, walking from the audience and up onto the stage to open the show. She gave insight into the daily lives of people in the town, calling characters such as Mr. Webb (Zachary Holderbaum ) and Professor Willard ( Zavier Helbig) to give accounts on the population, history, and typical events in Grover’s Corner. Characters such as Doc Gibbs (Reece Smith)  were also placed in the audience and would interject with questions for the Stage Manager and commentary on life in the town. The act allowed for the fourth wall to be  broken , giving a unique, interesting opening to the show. The act then showed a typical day in Grover’s Corners, giving viewers a basic ...