WELLS PRESS

Pre-presidential address: Molly McConnell delivered her campaign speech to the Wells student body assembled in the gym for the student council campaign rally Sept. 30. Student and faculty voters elected her president the next day. [photo by Charles Pruett]

by Colton Schreck

Wells Middle School held its student council elections Oct. 1 to choose officers and five representatives each from the eighth and seventh grades. Sixth grade representatives will be brought in during the second semester for the elected representatives to mentor.

Voters elected officers Molly McConnell, president; Addison Smith, vice president; Josafath Sorto-Torres, treasurer; Andersyn Turney, secretary; and Sadie Goins, activities officer. All officers are eighth graders.

“I chose to run for student council president because I want to continue the great things that we started last year and build on them my own way," McConnell said. "I really care about our school and want to make it a place where everyone feels included, heard, and excited to be part of it.”

"I get to be more involved in the school and make sure that student opinions are heard," Smith said. "I also think it will be fun."

"I'm good with money," Sorto-Torres said, "and I believe in myself to make a positive impact on the school."

"I am very organized," Turney said. "I would also take this opportunity to motivate myself to be the best I can be."

Elected eighth grade representatives are Landen Yang, Maritssa Velazquez, Jax Smith, Sophia Moore and Briana Mauricio. Seventh grade representatives are Kenya Bernal, James Boyer, Bailee DeLeon, Bryleigh Hamby, and Jaylee Nunez.

Braggin' rights: Wells Principal Rex Langley addresses students at a recent all-school assembly. Mr. Langley has been bragging about student performance in math and reading on this fall's measures of academic performance. [photo by Bentley Richards]

by Bentley Richards

Wells Middle School Principal Rex Langley wants to brag about student performance at the start of the school year.

"Due to summer, kids completely forget about school work," Mr. Langley said, "and at the beginning of the school year the scores are low in the national average. But this fall all three grades -- sixth, seventh and eighth -- started right in line with the average score, which is a huge achievement."

Students take the MAP (measures of academic progress) assessment three times a year (fall, winter, and spring) to track their academic progress. While the test measures achievement, Wells focuses heavily on the "growth score," as Mr. Langley describes it.

"This doesn't just look at a final grade; it compares a student's current score to their last test to see exactly how much they have improved," Mr Langley said. "With two more testing sessions left this year, Wells students are already in a great position to keep growing."

Since state tests only happen once, MAP testing gives teachers a regular check-in to see what students have mastered and what needs to be re-taught and how to work with that. “The teachers are really connecting with the kids and working with the kids," Mr. Langley said. "It's a culture of learning and moving forward in their education.

“It's like a road map for teachers to show what students are learning and what they're struggling with to see where to start," he said. MAP scores use a color scale where red and orange mean a student needs extra support, yellow means they are in a good spot, and green and blue are outstanding.

"Right now, Wells' average is at yellow. That shows we are exactly where we are supposed to be, and we are good to keep going," Mr. Langley said.

Wacky Wednesday: Seventh graders Marley Vidana, left and Linnie Applegate, right, along with their geography teacher Shawnee Davis celebrate Twister Wacky Wednesday during Spirit Week '26.

[photo by Emily Avery]

by Sadie Pierce and Kooper Caldwell

During Spirit Week Sept. 28-Oct. 1, Catoosa skipped down the yellow brick road to a fun way of showing school spirit. Students and staff dressed up for each day of the week on themes, based on the beloved movie The Wizard of Oz.

“Because we all also have sports in our middle school, and inside the high school they all celebrate homecoming, of course," said Wells Counselor Luanne Guerrero, "and I like to do so for our middle school too because we eventually will be high school kids. Each theme day is just there to be fun, and not for you to go out and have to buy anything."

For Monday, the theme was "Lions, tigers and bears, oh my," for wearing animal prints or something that at least has the animal on it. For Tuesday, "Which witch is which?" matched a friend with a friend.

"Twister Wacky Wednesday" featured clothes mismatched, worn backwards or inside out. Thursday's "Color Wars" saw each grade would wear the color for their team to find out who has the most school spirit: sixth grade red, seventh grade yellow, and eighth grade green.

“I like that everyone gets excited about sports and homecoming and school pride and all the fun things about the school," Mrs. Guerrero said. "Just because we're not high school doesn't mean that we can't celebrate.”

Spreading the love: Reggie Dabbs who regularly addresses professional athletes in the NBA and NFL delivered his message of love and friendship to Wells students Sept. 2.

[photo by Bentley Richards]

by Faith Yang and Khloe Barnoskie

Wells Middle School welcomed motivational speaker Reggie Dabbs Sept. 2 who added Wells to the multiple schools he visited in Oklahoma.

When addressing a school assembly, Reggie talks to the kids in a humorous style about choices each of them has when faced with drugs, alcohol, suicide, etc. Reggie gets in kids' faces and tells them that he never smoked a cigarette, never did drugs, never drank alcohol because he chose not to. He assures them that they can make the same kinds of choices.

Reggie talks to kids about family and how thankful they should be that they have families. Most of all, Reggie drives home the fact that “You can never change your past, but you can change your future.”

“Reggie Dabbs was a motivational speaker that I was aware of, and had a time frame that he was going to come to Oklahoma," said Wells Principal Rex Langley. "His agent had sent out a lot of emails to local schools to see if we would be interested in him coming to the school.”

Dabbs had his Wells audience cheering and singing with him. “My favorite part is how he tried to connect with his audience,” said eighth grader Montana Rodriguez.

“He inspires me,” said eighth grader Braxton Thornton.

Dabbs spoke at length about his guardians who took him in after his birth family had abandoned him as a small child. “My favorite part was when he talked about his guardian comforting him,” seventh grader Jackson Mott said.

“He showed us that you are loved by everyone in this world," said eighth grader Maritssa Velazquez. "When things get hard you always have somebody to go too. Someone to comfort and someone to get comforted by.”

by AnnaLea Holden

Get dressed up for Red Ribbon Week: Be a hero and say no to drugs.

For Monday, Oct. 26 is "Dressing up, not messing up": Teachers dress like students, and students dress like teachers. On Tuesday, Oct. 27 be a hero/community helper, and keep your community drug-free.

Then on Wednesday, Oct. 28 wear your pajamas for comfort or jerseys for pride: Relax and feel proud that you are drug-free. Thursday, Oct. 29 is two days before Halloween. So wear your Halloween costume and scare away the drugs.

One more time: Middle School Band Director Destin Steward leads intermediate band musicians during a third period rehearsal. [photo by Liberty Sweet]

by Liberty Sweet and Olivia Tuell

Wells Middle School's intermediate band will perform its first concert of the school year Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 4:30 p.m. It will take place in the gym/multi-purpose room at the middle school during parent-teacher conferences.

Band directors Caleb Jones and Destin Steward have been getting the Intermediate band ready for this and future concerts. “I like all the different personalities that come into the room everyday," Mr. Steward said.

“Learning how to read notes is the best thing I've learned,” seventh grader Wyatt Jester said. “and how to become a better musician, how to get better at playing the clarinet in general, and learning how to play music.”

“(I'm) trying to get better at the high notes because I’m not very good at those yet,” seventh grader Hunter McDowell said.

Mr. Steward said his goal is for the intermediate band to “learn music, keep everyone in band, have a good time and make sure band is enjoyable for everybody.”

On the line: Eighth grader Braxton Thornton takes his place on the Catoosa Tribe's drum line during Catoosa High School football's home opener Sept. 25. [photo by Bentley Richards]

by Peyton Hurst and Presley Strength

Catoosa's band directors say the marching band is very grateful for the middle schoolers it has, and the same goes for the color guard.

The marching band and color guard include eighth graders Bentley Richards, Braxton Thornton, Brianna Gonzalez ,Logan Michener, Montana Rodriguez, Ryan Henley, and Joseluis Saldivar in the band and eighth grader Khloe Barnoskie and seventh grader Preston Creasey in color guard

The band directors are Caleb Jones and Destin Steward. ”The middle schoolers do a great job," Mr. Jones said. "There are a lot of new concepts and information thrown at them pretty quick, but they do the right job at learning drills and learning the music.”

The marching band performs for halftime shows at Catoosa home football games and at four different contests throughout the fall. Their first contest was on Sept. 19 in Oolagah, followed by one Oct. 3 in Bixby, and Oklahoma Bandmasters Association championship contest Oct. 10 at Bartlesville, plus an OSSAA contest the following week.

“Middle schoolers in the band are very valuable, one, because they help us fill out our numbers so that we have plenty of people on the field," Mr. Jones said, "and, two, investing in their training early for their freshmen are sophomores years. So they have more training than most high schoolers would if they started their freshmen years.”

Ben Sprieter directs Catoosa's color guard and winter guard teams. “I think it's a great thing for us because it allows them (the middle school students) to grow more skills so that when they're in high school they can actually be really amazing in color guard,” Mr. Sprieter said. ”The middle schoolers in color guard are doing really well. If they didn't have the skills, I wouldn't have taken them in the high school guard.”

Color guard performs with the marching band during football halftime and for contests. After the football season is over, they switch to winter guard and have their own competitive season.

Right down the pipe: As the junior high Lady Indians take the field for the first inning Sept. 24 against Salina, pitcher Jacey Hernandez starts her warm-up tosses to catcher Lucy Slocum.

by Ariana Cozart and Danika David

Jr. high softball earned its first win Sept. 15 at Liberty. The score was 16-1. The Lady Indians followed that with a high-scoring home win Sept. 25 against Salina, 19-5. They had a lot of improvement throughout the season with good hitting and pitching.

“They did really good collectively, really good,” said Head Coach Michael Haus. “There was more effort than there has been in any game. We just need to have a better attitude and effort every game,” he said.

“We definitely showed a little growth throughout that (Sept. 15) game, coming off of not being able to have a lot of summer practice," said Assistant Coach Nathan Snuffer. "You're never sure what you're gonna get, but I thought that we grew, we came unified as a team, and we really improved throughout that first game.”

Both the varsity and jr. high teams had to accept abbreviated seasons this fall, which resulted from former varsity Head Coach Todd Henshaw both failing to secure the softball schedules and to communicate that before his retirement last spring. Despite the situation, the Lady Indians persevered.

“Our work ethic really improved, we really came in and got serious about practice immediately," Coach Haus said. “Our pitching was really good this year. We had three good pitchers Brianna Gable, Jacey Hernandez and Lucy Slocum. They all pitched pretty well.

"Hitting really improved throughout the year," he said. "We went from swinging at balls that are high to now hitting good contact. We had really good hits this year, and we hit one or two home runs this year as well."

Come on, STRIKE! Wells sixth grader Rory Turner and his mom Hannah Wilkinson watch as Rory's ball rolls down the center of the lane during Special Olympics competition Sept. 12 at Broken Arrow Lanes. [photo by Bentley Richards]

by Marcos Matute and Samuel Esquivel

The Wells Special Olympics team is coming off a massive win at its recent bowling tournament Sept. 12 at Broken Arrow Lanes where the team completely dominated the lanes and took home both first and second place in the singles division.

It was an awesome day for the athletes, and “they are going to do pretty well moving forward,” Head Coach Justin Gibson said. “Since they already proved they can take the top spots, I am very confident they will be able to do that again, and that the next competition is going to go just as well.”

Bowling is just one part of what they do, as the team competes in basketball, cornhole, and horseshoes throughout the season.

This year marks Mr. Gibson’s third year coaching for the Special Olympics, and his second year leading the middle school program.

“I dedicate my time to the team because I love making a difference,” Mr. Gibson said. “I want the kids to feel included because they are the same as us. The absolute best way for students, teachers, and families to back the team right now is to simply show up to the competitions, pack the stands, and cheer them on.”

Hold the line: Catoosa's seventh grade team defends against a play by the Waggoner offense.

[photo by Danya Shields]

by Arelia Prall and Danya Shields

Catoosa seventh grade football has won six games in a row, and the highest the team has scored is 54 points.

“I think our seventh grade football team is competing well," said Head Coach Chase Stookey, "winning a lot of football games and really beating the defense pretty handily. A lot of those boys have played together for a very long time, and they are real familiar with each other.

"They are all on the same page; they know what the other person's thinking," Coach Stookey said. "They know where to be; they know what to do. A lot of those guys have been playing together since kindergarten or first grade, and they have that chemistry across the board. That really lets them be successful."

"There is more than one MVP," said Assistant Coach Rick Alexander. "I would say we need the whole team to win because without the front line, the back field cannot do what they can do so. The whole team is working together as a team.”

"I think every practice we try to out work the competition," said quarterback Jackson Mott. "When we are there, we give one hundred percent every time.”

Wells Press staff: Emily Avery, Khloe Barnoskie, Kooper Caldwell, Ariana Cozart, Danika David, Samuel Esquivel, AnnaLea Holden, Peyton Hurst, Joseph Kloepfer, Marcos Matute, Sadie Pierce, Arelia Prall, Charles Pruett, Khloe Replogle, Bentley Richards, Colton Schreck, Danya Shields, Presley Strength, Liberty Sweet, Olivia Tuell, Kaztro Xiong, Faith Yang ... Inquiries to:

kmcanany@catoosa.k12.ok.us