Willis Middle School - Phoenix Yearbook (Chandler, AZ)

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V'0 Y Thrasher Ffndfysuccess ' R 'g . OuTsTandingl ThaT word besT describes The performance of QTh grader Vicky Thrasher during The cross counfry season. Occasionally she ran for Willis, buT since mosT of The Time There weren'T enough runners To field a Team, she spenf The majoriTy of The season running for The Chan- dler High VarsiTy. The highlighT of The season was Vicky's ninTh place finish aT The AAA sTaTe championship meeT in Glendale. Vicky said she was es- pecially happy abouT her perfor- mance aT The sTaTe meeT be- cause she beaT Mesa Hlgh's ChrisTy Darvas, The only girl who had beaTen her The week before aT The divisional meeT. lT's kind of scary in The big races, Vicky said. You're afraid To geT Trampled: You goTTa fighT To geT up There. Compefing on The varslTy level, Vicky had To run againsT many older runners. ThaT didn'T hold her back, Though. lf I can beaf someone who has run a loT longer Than I have, iT feels very good, she explained. Vicky was moTivaTed To sTarT running because her sisTer and broTher were runners and she wanTed To be jusT as good. ln ad- diTion To cross counTry, she also was one of The Top runners on The Willis Track Team. As a resulT of her cross counTry efforTs, Vicky, was named The ouTsTanding runner for The CHS Team. She was also honored as The Top aThleTe for all fall sporfs sporfs aT CHS. Vicky doesn'T infend To sfop running. She wanTs To keep going and see how well she can do. This year iT was The Firebird Flame she was chasing, buT who knows? Some day maybe iT will be The Olympic flame. ABOVE LEFT: Vicky sprinfs for The finish line aT The sTaTe meeT. ABOVE RlGHT: AT The awards ceremony Vicky shows her medal To her CHS TeammaTes. BELOW: AfTer re- ceiving her medal, she poses for a , ' wiTh one of her 'fans', 2-year-old Riggs.

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ith Girls Basketball-Front row: Heather Verlinger, coach Anna Ayala, Monica Delvaux, Jennifer Cutler, Dina Escobedo, Sandra Careaga. Back row: Naomi Bell, Nakisha Walker, Anissa Munoz, Kendra Oli- ver, April Shetlar, Michelle Clampitt. tl i Girls Basketball-Front row: Heidi Wer- , Andrea Racine, Stephanie Vincent, Lopez, Maria Hinojosa, Back row: Pam Mills, Abby Bergum, Balinda Emrich, Branda Faulkner, Ginger Adams, Summer Rayla. Nlinth grader Jenny Ludden releases a shot :luring a pre-game warmup. Driving for a layup while practicing for the first 9th grade game is LaRae Parris. The 9th grade girls basketball team started the season off with a bang! They won their first game and were hoping for more wins in the season. 'iTo be able to accomplish this, the girls must use all of their skills and talent along with a huge dose of hustle and desire to suc- cessfully compete with the other teams, said Oth grade coach, Paul Schanaker. The 8th grade girls basketball team, however, didn't start off very well. Eighth grade coach Anna Ayala commented, 'iWe need to shoot more. The 8th grade girls have a lot of speed, coach Ayala said. With more practice and learning fun- damentals, this year, they will definitely be ready to play Oth grade ball next year. With a new coach and players who were new to the game, it was hard to predict how the 7th grade team might do.

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