James Madison Memorial Poms team, is a great energetic group of girls, who perform their pom pon dances at half time of the football and basketball games. This year the Poms team has 19 girls, and they have been practicing since the beginning of summer 2011. So far this year they have performed their Open, Kickline, Competition, and Funk routines for the basketball games. They perform at boys games, and girls games as well. The poms team will also be performing their junior routines, which are two dances choreographed by the juniors and sophomore of the poms team. Last weekend they performed their routine choreographed by Kelsey Knutson and Madda Udvari-Solner. This weekend for both the boys and girls games they will be performing the routine choreographed by Autumn Battaglia, Cora Collins, and Madeline Haut. All of the girls on the team are very excited for the rest of the basketball season, and hope that we will make it to state so that they can dance in the Kohl Center!
posted by Cora Collins
The MSCR basketball season is upon us once again. Currently, the underclassmen boys are playing their insignificant season. On February 5th, the real season begins, once the upperclassmen get their turn. As expected, the Madtown Wolfpack will be back to defend their consolation championship they won in last years tournament. This year though, they hope things will end a little differently, One of the Wolfpack’s integral leaders, David Whayland says, “Last year, during the regular season we had a rough time of winning games, but once the tournament rolled around we some how flipped a switch and won the whole thing. This year, we hope to start with that same intensity and win the tournament once again, only in the winner’s bracket.” The Wolfpack are not the only MSCR to wander the halls of Memorial, there are several other teams that students have formed. Most notably, the BTS Boys, although I am not exactly sure what the abbreviation stands for, I’m sure it is quite appropriate. Regardless of what team is in the way, the Wolfpack promise to deliver a show says Nate Kipfer, “even if we’re winning or not, we always are fun to watch.” The team is coached by MSCR employed Chaz Jones, who was not available for interview but is undoubtedly looking forward to another season with the team. The Wolfpack roster for the 2012 season looks a little something like this:
• Zach Amiri
• Ben Anderson
• Jordan Black
• Isaias Colegial
• Joey Dybevik
• Max Genin
• Nate Kipfer
• Rob Sanchez
• Jaden Thompson
• Alex Thiede
• Casey Tubbs
• David Whayland
Posted by Joey Dybevik
Back to school and winter running...
After running in conference and sectionals at Yahara, (and state and Footlocker Championships forJonah Weisse) the cross country boys and girls of the Memorial cross-country team maintain their fitness in the off season by running long distances outside in the low temperatures. Running through the chilled air, snow and ice in different neighborhoods and streets in Madison, it is necessary to stay warmby wearing hats, mittens, long sleeves and long pants Maddy shows off her winter running attire in photo shown. Some JMM runners are training for the up coming track season in the spring, wanting to get a future personal record time and others are just trying to stay in shape for next fall’s cross country season. Feel free to join them after school. You can find them in the hallway by the trainer's room.
Posted by Sara Normington
Winter break is gonna rock! I can’t wait to go skiing, make hot chocolate, sit by the fire, and spend time with the fam. Those of you who are staying around town for break should keep in mind that there are many athletic events still taking place!
8:00pm Hockey:Boys Varsity Game vs. Madison West @Madison Ice Arena Have a great winter break! Enjoy yourself! And make good decisions! 
Posted by Kayce Smith
Girls basketball has taken its first couple steps into the season with determination and a positive attitude. Tryouts began in late November. The early mornings and tough workouts pushed the girls to the limit but they stuck it out and pushed through it. This year is the first year that administration has enforced a rule on girls basketball to keep freshman on the Freshman teams and sophomores on the Sophomore team. This leaves all upperclassmen on the Varstity squad. Even though Varsity had a tough time with their first couple games they are optimistic about the season. "Even though our record isn't the best, we work just as hard as the next team, actually even harder. We fight for every point we put on the scoreboard knowing that each one brings us closer to greatness. We have been put down time and time again but that just stirs up more desire to prove everyone wrong," captian, Marissa Hoyer, a junior on the team says. The girls are all excited for the rest of the season and are fired up to win some games. On the other hand the Sophomore and Freshmen teams have started the season off with a bang showing the other teams what they got. Sophomores are 2-2 and the Freshmen3-1. Our underclassmen show a bright future for Spartan girls basketball. So, come on out and cheer on all the teams as our lady spartans work hard and get some wins! They play Sun Prairie Thursday, December 22 and Waukesha South on December 29th. Both games are at 7:30pm in the main gym.
posted by Sara Purdy
Madison Memorials girl’s gymnastics team starts off their season on December 8th, 2010 with a big meet against Middleton. They ended losing but they didn’t go down without a fight. Caroline Smith, a gymnast for memorial, ended up winning 2 events and all around at the meet. Caroline won the Balance Beam with a score of 9.00, the Uneven Bars with a score of 9.3 and the All Around with a final score of 36.95. This put Memorial up with a chance to win, but they just fell short. They lost with the score of 131.7 while Middleton ended with the score of 137.575. Even though they didn’t win this meet they set a new personal goal for themselves. Last year the gymnastics team goal was to score as a team above a 130.00, and this year they not only reached that goal but they reached it on the first meet. This means only great things for the girl’s gymnastics team.
The gymnastics team is coached by Michelle Fuller and Jordan Smith. The captains are Mckenna Goetz and Hannah Aeschlimann. They practice every day from 4-6, have dual meets every Thursday and occasional Invites on Saturdays. Gymnastics is a sport filled with great coaches and friendly gymnasts excited about doing their best! Go support your Spartan gymnasts!
Posted by Mikayla Johnson
After winning the 2011 Division 1 State Championship the boys are back in the pool to initiate their 2011-2012 season. They went into last season favorites to finish in the top 5 at state and obviously finished on top. After continuing to work hard in the off season they have come into the 2011-2012 season as huge favorites to win the State Title. After asking team captain Patrick Franken on how he feels about having a target on their back he said "It's something that is really an honor the more you think about it. It means people respect who we are and what kind of potential we have. We just need to live up to that potential which i know we can do with hard work". He also went on to talk about their season last year and how they have prepared to win this year. I then went on to speak with one of the other team captains Ben Anderson about the same topic and he went on to say "Having a target on your back is never really a good thing but it's something we're going to have to deal with. I know that with hard work and focus we can be right back where we were last year." They began their season last Friday (12/2) with a win against the Lancers and have yet another meet today (12/6) in Brookfield. Hopefully the team can stay healthy, work hard and keep their eye on the prize of yet another men's swimming State Championship for Memorial.
Posted by David Whayland
Yesterday, December 3rd the Madison Memorial Varsity poms team had a competition at the Bradley Center, also known as the Bucks center. They competed in three different categories in the division one session: kick line routine, funk/street dance, and pom. The Madison Memorial girls took home FIRST PLACE in the funk category and placed very high in the kick and pom category as well. They will be preforming at an upcoming Milwaukee Buck’s game (stay tuned for the date) which is very exciting for them. Poms wants to continue to be one of the Best in the Midwest, so they will be attending “The Best In The Midwest” tour which will be held in Orlando, Florida. There they will be in the Disney parade, and preform on many stages. If you’d like to watch the poms team sometime, they will be preforming at almost every boys and girls games during halftime, so make sure you stay and watch them! See the competition videos below!
Posted by Grace Wang
Many of us at Memorial are looking forward to this long Thanksgiving weekend; spending time with friends and family, sleeping in and especially the FOOD. Unfortunately there are a lot of families in Madison who don't have any food to eat this Thanksgiving Day. This is where the Captains/Leaders club and the Allied Center stepped in to help. The two groups have been making Thanksgiving baskets for families in need for 11 years. The baskets include all the necessities to a Thanksgiving dinner such as turkey, stuffing, potatoes etc. The captains and leaders purchase the food from money they collected from their teammates. The captains all loved helping out the cause; "I was really proud of my team for helping put it all together," said Julia Cullen, captian of the Poms team. "It felt good to give back to the community and I was really proud to be apart of this group of leaders," Cameron Nankivil, captain for boys volleyball. The boys swimming captains said, "It was fulfilling to give these families a good Thanksgiving dinner." The club's leader, Joe Frontier, has been doing it for 8 years now and he says this year was a new high with 31 baskets, beating out the old high of 27. Just think how much money Spartans raised for the cause! Frontier says that each basket is worth around $75, that multiplied by 31 comes to $2,325, which is crazy considering all of us athletes only gave a simple $5 dollars towards the cause. So as you're sitting down to your turkey and pumpkin pie just think of all the families JMM helped to make the same meal possible for this year and be proud to be a Spartan.
Posted by Rylie Sarbacker
