Marion High School - Warrior Yearbook (Marion, KS)

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Foreigners Find Friends Picture this: a brand new school year, an unfamiliar building, strange faces, new surroundings, going home to a family that is yours only a year, coming into not only a new town, but an entirely different country. For Mathias (Mat) Nitschke and Henrik (Henry) Pederson, it was a picture col- ored new, exciting and educational. Both boys came to Marion in the summer of 1984 as pro- spective MHS juniors. They came from different countries. Henrik from Denmark and Mat from West Germany. When asked what they liked most about America, both seemed to agree whole-heartedly that American food ranked at the top of their list of favorites. Mat's favorites were B-B-Q chicken, steak and Pepsi, while Henrik enjoyed pizza, chili, western omelets, meatloaf and Mexican food. Henrik also bragged about Mrs. Janie Meierhoff's (his host mother) pizza, saying, Oh you should taste the pizza Janie makes, it's got lots of sauce and tastes mmmmmm sooooo good! Mat says his year in America is mainly just for the ex- perience, while Henrik plans on using his year here for col- lege credit. Henrik and Mat both participated in football in 1984 at MHS. Both were often seen at other sports events as well, cheering the Warriors to victory or suffering losses along with them. The guys have a good solid friendship. When asked to com- ment on each other. Mat stated, Henrik is a good friend of mine. Henrik said, Mat is one of my better friends, and I like his accent. I think its funny!” The two foreigners had both studied the English language for a considerable length of time before coming to America. Henrik studied English four years, and Mat five years, so they had few problems communicating when they arrived. However, the language proved a slight barrier when yearbook staffers tried explaining Homecoming activities to Mat. Sweats day and the snake dance were a bit confusing at first. Mat admitted he knew what a dummy was, but could not believe Americans would actually burn one! MHS students found two new friends in the beginning of the 1984-85 school year, and were sorry to see them go when sum- mer rolled around once again. Did you ever have one of those day8 when absolutely nothing went right? Henrik Pederson seems to be asking, as he allows the photographer to snap a picture on ‘Weird Wednesday’. Mathias Nitschke and Henrik Pederson together with English teacher Mary Griffith, discuss some of the differences between their native languages and . You dumb-crazy Americans! Mathias Nitschke teases as he looks up from his English. report on his country. 26 Feature

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Track Team Tests Faces were contorted with intense effort and sometimes pain. Bodies were pushed to the limit of endurance—and then farther. Muscles hurt, crying out for rest from the continual strain. Throats ached with the need for water. Rain or shine, stillness or wind, hot or cold, it was time to head out to the track for practice every day after school. Eleven girls and twenty boys comprised the 1985 MHS track team. Head coach Rex Wilson was assisted by coaches Marion Ogden and Brian Kraus, to hone the talents of each team member into a winn- ing edge. Wilson felt that sprints were the strongest area of the boys' team, supplemented with some success in the distance events. The girls' team was strong with returning stars Leann Snelling and April Ogden. Practice wasn’t all serious for the team, though. Swan dives into the track performed unintentionally by Carl Abbott and Sheri Bina provided painful but hilarious entertainment. For April Ogden and Richard Fine, practice brought special rewards. Both earned berths in competition at the state track meet, where Ogden placed fourth in the 1600 m and second in the 3200 m runs, setting new school rec irds in the process. Jo Shepek is caught in mid-leap as she concentrates on the finish lino at the end of the stretch. WARRIOR TRACK RECORD Meet Boys Girls No. of Teams Marion Quad 3rd 3rd 4 Berean Quad 3rd 3rd 4 Hesston Invitational 11th 6th 14 Little River 2nd 2nd 4 Halstead Invitational 9th 6th 12 Peabody Quad 2nd 1st 4 CVL 4th 4th 5 Regional 12 th 6th 16 State — 12th 64 Ryan Walker grimaces as he battles the wind. 28 Track