Sentinel High School - Bitterroot Yearbook (Missoula, MT)

Page 11 text:

Will Emerge Independent Schools... Sentinel Marching Band pours through the gates after half-time performance. Like other music groups, it lost members for the formation of duplicate Hellgafe organizations. and Sentinel While the familiar names and fifty-year-old traditions remain at Sentinel, its students realized this year the impact the division was to have on them. Organizations found many members gone, and fewer students from which to draw. Teams and sports fans learned that the newly formed Hellgate teams not only had weakened Sentinel’s strength, but could present a serious threat to the Spartans long unchallenged place. Fields south of Sentinel were expanded, and a 220 yard straightaway plus high jump, broad jump, and pole vault facilities were added, to ready this area for the track and football work of both schools. Extra storage and classroom space in the form of a small annex is being planned. After years of taking top teams and activities for granted, Sentinel discovered rivalry from within its own school system could be a healthy and stimulating force.

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This wing constructed in the former student parking lot provides space for speech, drama, English, music, and physical education facilities. Hellgate Medieval history will guide the creation of new names and traditions at Hellgate. From Knights, Squires, and Pages for the teams to Chevaliers and Chansonettes for singing groups to the Lance for the school newspaper, the names characterize the separate spirit developing at Hellgate. Added classroom and athletic facilities enable Hellgate to offer its students the same opportunities Sentinel will. During the year active, self-sufficient speech and drama groups developed; music organizations multiplied. A training journalism class advanced from putting out a page in the Sentinel paper to a paper of its own by December. Student government and class councils worked independently at Hellgate. Students, faculty, and administration alike spent much of this transitional year dealing with preparation for the division. Sentinel speaker Don MacDonald defends the case begun by his partner, Damon Gannet, in a challenge debate against Dan Zirker and Charles Briggs of Hellgate. Damon heads the Sentinel National Forensics League, and Dan is president of the Hellgate Speech Club. ...Next Year the Two Units

Page 12 text:

But for This Last Year Sentinel and Hellgate Remain One School One senior class, the last to graduate from Sentinel and Hellgate as a single four-year school, attended at Sentinel this year. But even after the division is accomplished, both units will remain part of the Missoula County High School system, and both will represent the same community. Silver Spartan Day emphasized that the Missoula spirit still comes before school loyalties. Students of both units backed the Spartans with floats, marching groups, and cheers on the traditional holiday. Hellgate and Sentinel students shuffled silently out together after the 16-13 de- feat. Two major perfonnanccs were presented in December and March by the combined music and drama groups of Hellgate and Sentinel. First die serene Christmas Cantata, and later a musical comedy, The Music Man, were vivid examples of accomplishments possible through the combined efforts of the two units. These joint school activities and the single senior class represent the underlying unity which pervaded during this last year before division. The Go Missoula Go float of Hellgate Student Council typifies the feeling which hopefully will always dominate Missoula students. Both Spartan and Knight crests were carried by the float, with the motto Missoula — Best in State. Hellgate and Sentinel students cry out in protest against a Spartan fumble during the Silver Spartan Day game. 8