Suarez Profile Quotes
Teacher of the Year, Sondra Suarez
“I like being around kids and I like helping kids discover what they can do and develop their skills.
I originally went in for engineering and there was an educational component to that, that you could select compared to an industry option. It seemed like a more creative outlet.”
What does it mean to you to teach? “To let people know what their skills and talents and interests are and develop them along those lines of what they are interested in so they can take pride in their work and discover what they are good at.”
Describe the feeling of winning teacher of the year “It was a surprise and it was a nice feeling to be recognized and appreciated.”
“I teach principles of engineering (and ‘Civil Engineering’ and also ‘Engineering Design and Development’). Its more like mechanical engineering and open ended problem solving. You give them a problem, something you have to design to accomplish a task. It is very hands on.”
“Everyone who takes civil engineering and architecture isn’t necessarily going to go in that field.”
“There are certain skills, pride, craftsmanship, and accuracy that they also learn, things that can’t be learned from multiple choice on a test.”
“I started teaching in 1981. I taught in spartanburg for several years, columbia, and chicago.”
“I graduated from Clemson in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree, Cum Laude, and from honors.”
“I was the one of the four Deans for the engineering school of study from 2009-2014. It was a grant funded initiative.”
[The topic shifted to that of her fight with breast cancer]
“When you first find out, you’re kind of in a daze. You have a list of things you have to do and appointments you have to make. You have to move heaven and earth to make sure you can still get to work and all that stuff. You have a real set routine of medicines you take, and doctor’s appointments, and chemotherapy. You meet a lot of other people who are doing the same thing and the people are very supportive. Your hair falls out, your eyebrows fall out, and eyelashes fall out. Its not pleasant but it does grow back. You appreciate more that forever is finite. So you want to make sure you do stuff you want to do rather than things you have to do.”
“Youre being systematically poisoned on a regular basis(laughed a little while saying this). Its not so bad but it’s the next day that you feel lousy. Its the treatment they have so thats what you do.
“Chemo was every two weeks so I would miss Thursday and Friday. It went from Spring and into the summer. Radiation was every week at 4 so I had to leave school immediately after it was over. (DId that for a year.)”
“Youre more conscious of the things you do or want to do or should do.”
Daughter to Ms. Suarez, Senior Marypat Suarez
“It was scary to think that your mom had something as serious as [cancer].
When she did have cancer she never once showed us that things were getting bad, she always puts on a strong face and continues to do that everyday.”
Daughter to Ms. Suarez, Senior Catherine Suarez
“I was scared, and I didn’t know what to think but I knew she was strong enough to get through it.”
3 year student of Ms. Suarez, Senior William Blanks
“I think Mrs. Suarez deserves teacher of the year because she’s very passionate about what she does and always has a good attitude about everything she does.”
“Mrs. Suarez is a good teacher because she’s always working with students and willing to compromise with any difficulties that may be happening in the class. She’s very interactive. She feels like someone you can be friends with.”
“I like taking her class because its always a calm atmosphere and very relaxed yet you still get a lot of work done. It’s always hands on work and stuff that I like.”
“You should take her class if you like a teacher who’s reasonable and can understand that if you’re having a bad day here or there and someone who is very likely to compromise with studies and what not.”
Business Education Teacher Gail Gallman
“I think she’s very dedicated. She has done some outstanding things for our department. She is a leader in helping the engineering program grow at Dutch Fork. They have the largest completers in the cate area. As well she has many students that earn college credit from the engineering program here.”
“Shes passionate about what she’s doing and she’s passionate about the students. Everything she does is always student-driven.”
“Shes a good person overall because she is willing to do and help anyone in our department.” “She’s very creative. She’s very helpful with making our department grow and for that we are very appreciative.”
“She’s made a difference just by being who she is like helping the students, helping the department grow and taking a leadership role. She served as the dean of the engineering here at Dutch Fork high school. “
“If we had more people like Mrs. Suarez here at Dutch Fork we would be an even greater place.”
Mr. Football Quotes
Varsity Running Back, Senior Mr. Football Matthew Colburn
“The selection [for Mr. Football] was made at the North/South all star game. It was in Myrtle Beach. At halftime of that game they had five finalists walk up to a little stage that they had at the 50 yard line facing the stands. On the scoreboard they had a screen that showed each one of our highlights and had little bits of things to talk about, what kind of persons we were and what we have done in high school.
“It felt clouded like a dream, I was not expecting it. Once you get that far in something like [Mr. Football] you don’t expect it. You won, you love to have something to look back on, it was such a total surprise. I was in awe. “
“It is pretty cool to follow in the steps of Marcus Lattimore. Looking where he went after he won such an award. He had a crazy career in South Carolina, basically a hometown hero and he went onto the NFL. It is fascinating to look at everything that he has won”
“[my senior year] was alright, state would have been definitely the icing on cake. Teaches me, just a learning lesson for me not to let anything out of sight, not take anything for granted because when you’re at a stage like, that the players play and the losers don’t. Yeah it has taught me alot”
Josh Bristow Story Quotes
Senior Drama Preformer and Dancer Josh Bristow
“I auditioned for the Wiz my [sophomore] year in high school, and I got the lead role as the cowardly lion.”
“During the first rehearsal for dance I was really struggling with [it] and I asked Ms Haynes, ‘hey so what can I do to get better?’” And she said ‘take my class’ and I enrolled in her dance 2 class in the second semester and the rest is history”
“Its really difficult because the thing that I didn’t like was taking me away from the thing that I loved.”
“It came to a climax at the week of the state game. That week we had practice and in that same week we had dance concert rehearsal. It was really difficult because I missed all of practice that week but I still played in the state game. I had to talk to coach knotts like ‘hi this is my grade I am being graded on this and I’m a student before I’m an athlete. He said yeah ok, you can still dress’. So I ended up playing and still going even though I did not go to practice all week.”
“So going from dance concert to dance concert to dance concert to waking up the next day to the state game. It was really difficult to juggle and my mental capacity was at the negatives. but once I found out that once I got past it, it was smooth sailing from there. Loving my life”
“My parents were under the impression that I was still going to be playing football for my senior year. But I knew that I couldn’t let that happen.”
“I guess that several months went by and it was March or April and my mom was like ‘Ok you need to start going to workouts and conditioning and forced me to against my will and get a physical and a workout schedule and stuff like that.”
“I had a meeting with Coach Knotts and he was like ‘well if you don’t come to conditioning today then you are off the team’ and I didn’t go.” I didn’t tell my parents until much later and they were very adamant about [football] so I packed a bag and saved some money and when I tell them, if they kick me out then I’ll be ready. So I told them, and they were very very mad. and I’m sure that probably they still are. Once again the decision was done. it is made, you can’t do anything about it now. “And my passion is worth the consequences and I have to suffer with it.”
“Dance is the biggest change [to my high school life] without a doubt. Before, I thought I had a future in STEM, so I got involved in all these science oriented things and I lost a passion for it and I was freaking out like ‘what am I going to do’. Then I just auditioned for the Wiz on a whim and dancing has changed my life. I want to do something in the arts now and I know that for a fact”
“I am currently in Charlie Brown, I am president of the Drama club here, that is a lot of work, I dance at Dance Dept. for a competitive team, I am in Grease, which is a district musical, I work at sonic.”
“When I’m on the stage with my rehearsed lines and my well practiced dances my goal is to touch someone through my performance. If not, thats ok, but I know for a fact that I am going to do the best to my ability, to go out there and touch someone’s life with my performance. That’s much better than any touchdown.”
“It has given me a drive for life. I have a goal when I go out on that stage. ‘this is what you have to do. Do it to the best of your ability’”
“Well, from the inside it is really difficult, I’m not a tiny little guy who can flop around on stage. but at the same time, when I do leaps a majority of the time, I land softer than other people that are much smaller than I am. So I just have to keep telling myself ‘if I can land softer, that’s the goal here’ just because i’m bigger people are going to see me differently and it is something that you have to embrace.”
Well, Ms. Fichter is new to Dutch Fork high school and she wanted to jumpstart the drama program. So she started a club. The last time we had a drama club was years and years ago and I think she wanted to use it as a tool to start the drama program. So of course we had elections and everything that we need for an official club and I was voted president.
“I knew that [football] was not what I wanted. I was doing something that I was having to do, and dealing with it unwillingly and someone getting the benefit out of it that wasn’t me, it was really unfair. I almost couldn’t deal with it and that’s where I would be.”
“I made a bet with my dad that if I didn’t do anything related to sports my freshman or sophomore year, that I would have to play football. I didn’t know this. I guess he just pulled that out of his behind. He just conjured it up and he said that that was the reason I had to play.”
“He loves football with all of his heart, it is his one true love above everything else.”
““I have Ginny Haynes to thank for that. She is the best person I’ve ever known. She is the one that knew all of this information right as it happened to me. She was my confidant, she was the one that helped me through it. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know where I’d be.”
“I don’t know” “I can’t give you a very good answer on that because once again it just comes back to ‘Im a big guy, I don’t fit the script of your typical dancer.”
“My bucket list dream job is to be a backup dancer, that would be the coolest thing ever. Traveling the world, its not very practical but again it is on my bucket list.” “Im also auditioning for a spot at Carowinds to be a performer for the summer for different shows they have there. I am going to a college that I don’t know of yet where I can study communications and work on a television set. ”
“There are sometimes where I see myself on broadway, but there are sometimes that I don’t because its really stressful. I would say personally that is way more stressful than being a performer because there is always someone who is better than you.”
“If you don’t already make sure you come and support the arts, You’d come to a football game but you can’t come to a show. But at the end of the day you are seeing the same set of people ty to perform the same task every single friday night. But, with the arts there is never the same dance concert, there is never the same show performed. There is more variety here and most times it is cheaper as well. You should really support the arts. ”
“Talk to me or talk to Ginny Haynes and sign up for a dance class. Her class changed my life. It is very instructive. I learned a lot of different styles of dance, but you have to be prepared to work.”
Norris Profile Quotes
Girls Varsity Basketball Coach Faye Norris
“When I was in college I coached my church league, I liked it then so I ended up coaching girls basketball”
“This coming year I plan on just moving forward. That is the main theme for the team every year is to just keep moving forward.”
“We have a motivational quote every practice, something that helps inspire them every game”
Her quote of that day was: ‘when there are no enemies within the enemies on the outside cannot hurt you’
“We are going to have enemies on the outside so we have to keep united on the inside”
“[This is how I was coached] is to take it one game at a time. One season at a time.
I always tell them whatever happened the season before has ended. Now we have to start a new season fresh and new and move forward. One practice at a time. One game at a time”
“We break our seasons up into four different types of seasons. We have non-region games, thats a ‘season’. We have our christmas tournament, thats a season. We have our region games, that a season. Then we have post playoff games. So we take it like that”
(asked her why she split up her season into smaller ones. Thought it was interesting) “Region games is what will get you into the playoffs. Regardless of what we did in the christmas tournament, regardless of what we did in the non-region games. These are the games that will count. The non-region games count for nothing there unless you have a region tie”
“Johanna Gibbs, aiken high school, she is a legend there (Yearly athletic award given at Aiken High school is named after her)”
“She coached me in volleyball and basketball. She was also a coach at USC Aiken and she recruited me”
“I try to be very supportive, I graduated in 1975 and my coach still calls me and she pays a visit every state playoff game(said with a lot of emotion in her vioce) and also she said “I’m so glad that you came back to South Carolina” She did not care where I was in South Carolina. She said “because South Carolina kids need coaches like you”
Varsity Center, Senior Morgan Williams
“Coach Norris is an interesting person. She has her mixture of very disciplined but she is also laid back. She is understanding, she is very loving also. I love her”
“Each day we have a motivational quotes and for me it helps set my mind and it gets me ready for practice and I apply that and it helps me do better and it pushes myself to become better.”
“I know that there is an expected pressure[to go to state]but as far as I am concerned I don’t look at is as a pressure, I look at it as a goal. That is what I want to accomplish and that is what I want my team to accomplish.”
“I love coach Norris, respect her”
HB Matthew Colburn wins Mr. Football award
Hard work is the key to success for senior running back Matthew Colburn. During his time at Dutch Fork, he has gained the reputation of a hard working and successful running back. His football career was solidified as he was named 2014 Mr. Football.
“Once you get that far in something like [Mr. Football] you don’t expect it,” Matthew said. “You love to have something to look back on, it was such a total surprise. I was in awe.”
The award of Mr. Football is a prestigious title, declaring the winner as the best player in the state. After being selected as one of the five finalists, Matthew made his way out to the North/South all-star game.
“On the scoreboard at halftime, they had a screen that showed each one of our highlights and had little bits of things to talk about [like] what kind of persons we were and what we have done in high school,” Matt said.
Marcus Lattimore and Jadeveon Clowney have also received Mr. Football in the past. Matthew makes history as he is the first running back since Lattimore to win the award.
“It is pretty cool to follow in the steps of Marcus Lattimore. Looking where he went after he won such an award. He had a crazy career in South Carolina, basically a hometown hero and he went onto the NFL,” Matthew said. “It is fascinating to look at everything that he has won.”
Tom Knotts plays a role to Matthew’s success, coaching him throughout his high school years, helping him to surpass national averages of running back stats and placing well above every category on the website MaxPreps.
“He’s a great student, athlete, and a tremendous leader. He’s just an overall good football player who does things the right way,” Knotts said.
Finishing the game in second place marks the end of Matthew’s high school football career but Matthew has yet to reach the pinnacle of his career. Verbally committing to Louisville, Matt takes his accolades and talents to a higher level. He passes his legacy on to his younger brother sophomore Christopher Colburn.
“[Matt has] matured over the years. We just kept challenging him to grow up and accept more responsibility, and he did,” Knotts said. “He accepted his role as leader of the team, [and] he will be greatly missed next year.”
Profile: Coach Faye Norris
You see it all over social media first. All the hype, all the excitement. Another title under the belt of the girls basketball team. However, there may be one person that you forgot to mention in your congratulations tweet, the coach behind it all: Faye Norris.
She has lead the girls’ basketball team on a series of wins, totalling a record of 76-10, boasting an undefeated season to boot. However, it did not start off with rings on rings for Norris. It started back in her high school days in Aiken with her own basketball coach, Johanna Gibbs.
“[Gibbs] coached me in volleyball and basketball,” Norris said. “She was also a coach at USC Aiken, and she recruited me [to play there].”
Gibbs was, as Norris put it, “A legend at Aiken High, no one there has topped what she did,”. Norris and her coach continue to stay in contact years after Norris’ graduation from USC Aiken and remain an encouragement to each other.
“I graduated in 1975, and my coach still calls me. She pays a visit every state playoff game,” Norris said with a lot of emotion in her voice. “She said ‘I’m so glad that you came back to South Carolina because South Carolina kids need coaches like you.’”
Norris’ coaching style has made an impact in the lives of her players. One of the ways she’s done this is by always giving her team inspirational quotes before every practice, driving them to go the extra mile to win.
“For me [the quotes help] set my mind, and it gets me ready for practice. It pushes me to become better,” senior Morgan Williams said.
In order to calm the ever-present nerves and pressure of going to state or upholding the outstanding reputation of the girl’s basketball team, Norris takes each day one step at a time.
“[I was coached] to take it one game at a time. One season at a time. I always tell them whatever happened the season before has ended,” she said. “Now we have to start a new season fresh and new and move forward. One practice at a time. One game at a time.”
While the pressure of upholding a dominant reputation may seem like a heavy burden to bear, Norris’ positive attitude is constantly reflected through the dedicated members of her team.
“I know that there is an expected pressure [to go to state], but as far as I am concerned, I don’t look at it as a pressure. I look at it as a goal,” Morgan said. “That is what I want to accomplish, and that is what I want my team to accomplish.”
Despite the external pressures, Norris’ main goal remains to unite the girls as a team. As one of her motivational quotes once said, ‘When there are no enemies within, the enemies on the outside cannot hurt you.’
“I try to be very supportive,” Norris said “We are going to have enemies on the outside, so we have to keep united on the inside.”
Norris always has her eyes set on the horizon, hunting for the team’s fourth consecutive state title.
“This coming year I plan on just moving forward.” Faye added “That is the main theme for the team every year is to just keep moving forward.”
*Statistics provided by maxpreps.com.
Profile: Josh Bristow
Senior Josh Bristow is living a story of the ages, stuck in a war between two worlds; one on the fifty yard line, the other, center stage.
“Dance is the biggest change [to my high school life] without a doubt,” Josh said. “Before [dance], I got involved in all these science orientated things, and I lost a passion for [science].”
He found himself asking, “What am I going to do?” It was at that moment that he discovered ‘The Wiz’–a theatrical version of Wizard of Oz–and history soon followed suit.
“I auditioned for the Wiz my [sophomore] year in high school, and I got the lead role as the cowardly lion,” Josh said. “During the first rehearsal for dance I was really struggling with [the dance] and I asked [dance instructor] Ms. Haynes, ‘Hey so what can I do to get better?’ and she said, ‘Take my class.’”
And that was the start of what Josh now describes as “his passion.” But there was just one problem. Josh was still on the varsity football team.
That issue became a bigger and bigger problem the more Josh missed football practice to go to dance recitals. His absences caught notice of the varsity head coach, Tom Knotts.
“I had a meeting with Coach Knotts and he said, ‘Well if you don’t come to conditioning today then you are off the team,’ and I didn’t go.” Josh said.
After Josh’s resignation from the team, he decided that telling his parents would be catastrophic. His dad breathed football.
“[Before, my dad] would come to every single game, he would be there early, stay late,” Josh said. “He would stop at the drop of a hat and leave his job and do everything to make sure that I had what I needed to be successful in football.”
However his family’s passion for Josh’s new hobby was less than stellar.
“I didn’t see him at ‘The Wiz’ until the last night because I made him go. I didn’t see him at the dance concert until the last night because I made him go,” Josh said. “You could tell that because I was not doing what he wanted me to…the relationship was definitely different.”
There to guide him through those now strenuous times with his family was Ms. Haynes.
“[Haynes] is the best person I’ve ever known. She is the one that knew all of this information right as it happened to me. She was my confidant, she was the one that helped me through it. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know where I’d be.” Bristow said.
Two years later, Josh reflected back on that transition.
“[It was] really difficult because the thing that I didn’t like was taking me away from the thing that I loved,” Josh said. “I would say I’m very happy [now], interestingly enough, me and my dad are better than ever. I’m loving my dance experiences whether it is in school or out of it.”
Although Josh dances competitively for the Dance Department, nothing quite compares to acting. Josh is currently the head of the newly founded Drama club, and has been in two school musicals just this year.”
“When I’m on the stage my goal is to touch someone through my performance.” Josh said. “If not, thats ok, but I know for a fact that I am going to do the best to my ability, to go out there and touch someone’s life with my performance. That’s much better than any touchdown.”
PC vs Apple: A review
For those of you who live under a rock, there are two tech giants here in America: Apple and Microsoft.
Both of these companies started out as a project worked on in their respective CEO’s garage, but now they are everywhere. They both make phones, tablets, gaming systems, personal computers and just about anything else that uses a computer chip of some kind.
For those of us who are off to college, we are faced with a choice. Which one do we throw money at to get a laptop? That’s where it gets more complicated. Apple fans (and probably any self-respecting hipster) will say that Windows should not even be compared to Apple.
Anybody who has not used Windows 8 yet would say just the opposite. So of the two options, is Windows (colloquially referred to as PC’s) or Apple (makers of all things Mac) the product you should buy?
All the following comparisons are made by comparing two products with similar specs (courtesy of bestbuy.com), and the only difference between them internally is the operating system.
The first and most noticeable difference between a Mac and a PC is the appearance. Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, always put appearance as a center point of his philosophy and thus made his Macs more sleek and modern than their competitors. The next noticeable difference is the price tag. Apple products are known to be way more expensive than PC’s. A standard desktop Mac would cost at least $1300 while a PC would be around $1000 with similar hardware.
“Oh yeah, thats WAY cheaper,”Apple fans say. Well it is. That was one of the more expensive PC’s there are plenty more under the specs of a Mac. Some go for as low as 400 dollars. There are plenty of cheaper options for any person who does not want to murder their wallet. For those people who really hate having excess money and/or love loans, the cheapest, brand new Mac is the $1300 one. Go crazy.
Now let’s say a person buys both a Mac and a PC with all the similar do daas. As these things gets old, their software becomes out of date. The company moves on to keep its products updated with new technology. For the Mac owner, this is a free update or at the most 20 to 30 dollars. For someone who wants to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8… It’s about $200.
Yeah. $200 bucks. For Windows 8. Not really worth it.
And then there are the viruses. Those pesky little bugs that are almost as annoying as the ads for the software that blocks them. PC is more susceptible to bugs than Apple products. Let me bust a myth here and say that Apple products can get viruses.
I repeat. Macs can get viruses. However, since the Macs operating system is less used compared with the PC’s (probably because of the price), most viruses are aimed at PC’s simply because there is a bigger group to target. So when you buy a PC you probably want to purchase a good anti-virus program with it.
For those who like to play games, PC is your best bet. This goes back to the whole “we need to reach more people to make more money” concept. When you go through the giant game library of Steam, which holds just about any game ever, you will find that Macs are incompatible with just about everything. They just aren’t used as much so most developers focus on the PC audience.
So who wins? Well, thats ultimately up to you. Despite what either side of the argument says, they are both pretty equal. Macs cost way more and have some better protection from viruses while PC’s cost way less, but you have some extra buying to do when you need to rid yourself of a viruses or update to Windows 10. I would say that if you are going to rack up some debt with some loans anyway, go ahead and invest in a Mac. But if you do not want to spend two whole house payments on a computer, consider a PC. Either way, you’re better than the other guy. Right?
Eddie Bates 