This week marks our first official football week! It started off with a great pep rally put on by the high school cheerleaders. We have enough players this year to have a JV team which gives some of our younger guys some extra experience. These boys really showed up against Smokin’ for Jesus. Case Koerner scored our first touchdown of the night followed by the PAT by Jeremiah Wakefield. The opposition answered back with a touchdown of their own. Wyatt Smarr scored the next touchdown and was met with a responding touchdown. Smarr scored again with the PAT from Wakefield to Tatum Shanklin. Wakefield scored a touchdown on a kickoff return. The back and forth continued. Smarr scored once again followed by the PAT by Wakefield. The final score was 41-33 with the Indians taking the win.
The varsity team also played Smokin’ for Jesus in Burnet. Gunner Baugh, Joel Valdez, and Rode Ligon were score board contributors, but every player had a hand in this win. The final score was 60-14 in favor of the Indians.
Ms. Sharkey has some words about some of the things we are looking forward to this year.
Here are some words from the principal: For a good chunk of my life and my career, I have been involved in athletics. I was either a part of a team, coaching a team, or both. An important part of athletics, whether we like it or not, is statistics. On a daily basis, millions of people scroll through the internet searching for box scores no matter the season. The thing about box scores is they do not tell the whole story. They miss the key role players that make things happen for those who make the highlight reel. They miss some of the small wins that take place that lead to large victories in the end. They miss the big picture. In education, we, too, have a box score of sorts. We have txschools.gov where schools are measured based on certain criteria. On August 15, the new ratings came out, and Cherokee ISD maintained a B rating in a post-Covid era where many schools have been struggling. We made some gains in almost all areas of STAAR and EOC results as is evident by the school report card, but the truth is that is just scratching the surface of the growth we have made as a district since Covid. Last year, we increased in Industry-Based Certifications from zero to 22. Eleven of those were in Engineering AutoCad and eleven for Texas State Floral Association. This year, we are looking to add an additional level certification from the Texas State Floral Association on top of many more level ones. We are also looking to add certifications for AutoDesk Inventor through our growing Engineering program. Outside of certifications, Cherokee has added a Culinary program, and they are already off and running and looking forward to being a part of a growing program. Last year, our athletic programs saw quite a bit of success at both the junior high and high school levels as well. Our junior high tallied several district championships, and our high school programs advanced beyond district level at almost every sport we offer and we even had a student earn gold at the state track meet. The exciting news is that all this is just a starting off point for this year. So, again, I say there is so much more that goes into building a successful program than a scorecard can measure. And, there is so much more that happens inside a school to help facilitate opportunities for students to experience success in areas where they are interested. All of which contributes to the overall success of a district. And, all of which are happening in Cherokee ISD.