Today is the senior’s last official day of classes.  

In honor of this day, I would like to take a moment to publicly recognize the 13 Eagle Eye staffers that are among the Tyrone Area High School Class of 2016. This has been a year of tremendous growth and success for the Tyrone Eagle Eye News, in large part due to the hard work and dedication of these seniors.  

In the four years that I have been the Eagle Eye adviser, I have never had a group of seniors this large. Some of them have been with me just one year, while others have been involved since nearly the beginning of our online news site.  

It will be very difficult to replace this group of seniors. I will miss them all.  

I’m very proud of what these students have accomplished and I would like to thank each one of them for their unique contributions to the Eagle Eye and Channel T:

Scott Goss, on behalf of myself and Mr. Feather, thank you for keeping Channel T running smoothly each and every morning. Without you the morning announcements would not happen. Thanks also for your computer skills and lending your design talent to our new Channel T logo.

Ryan Stringer, thank you for your coverage of Tyrone boys basketball and baseball. Your passion for the game came out in your writing which improved tremendously over the past two seasons. Please keep writing, I know you could have a future in sports writing if you put your mind to it.

Chelsea Miller, thank you for being our live videographer for Tyrone football games, both home and away. Your “inside the red zone” Periscope broadcasts brought live video of Tyrone football to fans and alumni across the country for the first time ever.

Michael Eyer, thank you for your exceptional writing. Your video game reviews are as good or better than anything that can be found on professional websites. You also hold the record for the most Eagle Eye stories published on the Best of SNO website.

Madison Noll, thank you for your positive attitude and willingness to help wherever you were needed. You took care of the Athlete of the Week for much of the year, and your assistance on the promposal contest and many, many other projects and stories was much appreciated.

Anthony Politza, thank you for your multi-sport coverage of soccer, basketball and baseball.  It’s no exaggeration to say that without you many games this season would have gone unreported. If something happened and a game that you were involved in was uncovered, all I had to do was say the word and a story on that game would appear. You have a tremendous attitude and I appreciate your willingness to do whatever is asked of you.  

Kendra Wertz, thank you for your exceptional photography and photo editing. We have some of the best sports photography of any student publication that I’ve seen, and many of our very best photos are yours. Your willingness to travel to away games and help by taking photos at other outside of school events were very much appreciated. You have also really improved your writing over the past two years as well, as evidenced by your Best of SNO story.

Erika Voyzey, thank you for your exceptional photography and writing. I don’t think you missed a football game this season and you got some really great shots. Thanks also for your exceptional track coverage and your ability to write many different kinds of stories. If we had a tough story I always knew that if we sent it your way you would get it done. Your Shakespeare project story, which was published on Best of SNO is a great example of your writing. Your positive attitude, awesome personality and reliability will definitely be missed.

Kendra Walker, thank you for your help with cheerleading, wrestling and many other stories throughout the year. Your contributions are especially remarkable considering that you weren’t even officially enrolled in the Eagle Eye. I’m so grateful and very impressed that you were willing to write and take photos for the Eagle Eye, not because you had to in order to get a grade, but just because you wanted to. What a fantastic example you set by doing that!

Finnley Christine, thank you for your awesome coverage of girls basketball.  You never missed a game, even after your season was cut short by injury. The growth in your writing over the course of the year was remarkable. You are also such a dependable, positive and hardworking person, always willing to go the extra mile to make something better than just “good enough.” Your senior plans spotlight story at the end of the year was such a great idea that I’m sure it will become an annual feature. While many seniors were looking to do as little as possible in the last several weeks of school, you came up with and executed a huge new project that involved photographing, editing and formatting over 100 senior plan stories.  That says a lot about the type of person that you are. Thank you!

And now, three extra special “thank yous” to three exceptional seniors.  These three individuals were all involved with the Eagle Eye for at least two years and were a huge part of the Eagle Eye’s success.  Without them, the Eagle Eye would not have have grown into the successful and nationally recognized student news site that it is today:

Anna Baran, thank you for everything you have done over the past two years.  It would be impossible for me to list them all because you have done so much! I have never met a more conscientious and organized student than you. You have put a tremendous number of hours into Eagle Eye over the past two years, and it shows in the quality of your work. Sports coverage has been key to our success and your meticulous attention to detail in making sure that schedules and rosters and scores were up to date helped to make the Eagle Eye a reliable source of information for our readers. You organized the sports department and made sure every sport had coverage. You also covered softball for two years.  And if that wasn’t enough, our annual promposal contest (which has been one of our most popular stories) was your idea from beginning to end. Your creativity and hard work has made advising the Eagle Eye the most fun I’ve had in my twenty year teaching career. Thank you Anna! I’m so happy that you chose Juniata. I know you will have a great experience there. You will certainly be missed here!

Adam Zook, I don’t think I’ve ever met a student with more energy, passion, enthusiasm, and maturity than you. Your positive attitude and dependability are unmatched. Anytime I ever asked you to do something, I could bank that it would be done, and done well. The fact that in two years of covering Tyrone football, you maybe missed two games is incredible to me. In two years you probably live tweeted a hundred or more Tyrone sporting events. You made the Eagle Eye something that is followed not only by our students and the community, but also by professional journalists and sports fans across the region. I have had several local sports reporters tell me what a great job we do and many of those compliments are due solely to what you have contributed. Of course I will also miss our daily conversations about sports, politics, the school, or whatever the topic of the day happened to be. Your contributions and leadership will be impossible to replace. You will be so missed! I know that you will be successful in whatever you choose to do, and if it does end up being some form of broadcast or sports journalism, please don’t forget about the start you got here with the Eagle Eye News!  

Carly Crofcheck, you have been with the Eagle Eye longer than anyone on this list. The funny thing is, when you started on the staff three years ago neither of us really knew what we were doing. Being a social studies teacher, not a writing teacher, I pretty much had no idea how to teach journalism and you probably didn’t know a thing about journalistic writing. But what makes you such a great person is that more than anyone else in that room, you were willing to learn. You were determined to not give up until the job was done right. I will never forget the story you wrote on Mr. Salamy. It took us forever. Probably a month and a half.  But several interviews and multiple rewrites later we had a very good piece about a remarkable individual whose story most students and staff were unaware. That became our first “Best of SNO” published story. It was then that I realized that this website could do some really good things for both students and the community. Your growth as a writer and as a leader for the Eagle Eye has been tremendous. In three years you’ve done it all, from photography to social media to writing and editing stories. I haven’t counted, but I am certain that you hold the record for the most stories published in the Eagle Eye. I think it will be a hard record to beat. You have developed into such a mature and reliable person. I am so proud of all you have accomplished and I can’t thank you enough for everything that you’ve done. You (and your incredible laugh) will be greatly missed!