Da’Shawn Bibbs
Reporter

His high school coach is excited for him, as well.

“I’m happy Jaleel had the experience with other players in the country,” said head football coach Marcelle Carruthers.

Canty left December 31 to arrive in Phoenix and returned January 4. At the “combine,” which is a place to test your positions in football. Canty ran a 4.47 40, the fastest time out of all the 300 players. “I need to improve my footwork, leadership and overall football instinct,” said Canty.

Jaleel said that playing with others that have the same talent level as him or better was a unique experience.

“It was humbling. It shows where you are as far as how good you are, it’s very competitive,” said Canty. “No one wants to be out-shined; competition brings out the best of you.”

While there, he also did benches, shuttles, verticals, drills, 1 on 1 competition, positions and also attended The Semper Fideles Bowl Game to watch college athletes and was recognized during half time.

“The combine was run by Marine Corps, they preached about improving yourself as a man before football, because football doesn’t last forever. Core values such as honor, commitment, [and] courage,” said Canty.

If Jaleel makes it far, he plans to play for his favorite team the Philadelphia Eagles. Most importantly he learned that overall it was a great experience.

for Carruthers & Canty

Jaleel and Mr. Carruthers answer questions about their work together as player and coach.

What is it like for Jaleel on the team?

J: Sometimes it’s hard, [the coaches] expect a lot, not just on the field but setting examples and being a leader for my teammates.

C: [Jaleel is] very competitive.

What kind of player is Jaleel?

J: Best player in the area, aspirations for best in the state. There’s lot I need to work on. Every day I try to become a better person and athlete.

C: Very driven, gifted, intelligent player.

Describe Jaleel’s character.

J: It’s what’s in your heart. It’s what you do when nobody is looking. You can’t really explain character.

C: Good character; works well with others.

Where do you see the Everett football team next year?

J: Undefeated 9-0 and state title. Were going deep, state championship,

C: As far as the players work, they will need to be committed with themselves. If not, they will be very unhappy come October.

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Almost all sports from varsity football to JV soccer had successful seasons. The varsity soccer team took 1st place in the CAAC. The varsity football team beat grand ledge, who was an undefeated  team until that game. The JV volleyball team went all the way to the CAAC division III championship game. Here is wrap-up of all the fall sports.

Football
The varsity football team had the most successful season it’s have had in three years, winning five out of four games in their conference.They didn’t do as well as they would have liked, but still feel like they had a pretty great season and are even more hopeful for their season next year.
”We have a lot of juniors this year and I’m sure we will make the playoffs next season,” said coach Marcelle Carruthers.
The freshman football team took two out of seven in their conference and like the varsity team are making a lot of improvements. They are  excited to come back next year and play their sophomore year and have a better season than they did there freshman year.
“This season was terrible because no one [gave the game their all],” said freshman quarterback Rhett Blackmen.

Soccer
The varsity soccer team finished their conference 15-6-2. Even though their record was better in the past, players said that the fact that they were the youngest varsity team in the state put their performance ahead of last year’s. Losing the District Final only 1-2 to Forest Hills Central, the fourth best team in the state, the team is excited for next year.
“Next year we will be state champs,” said freshman defender Travon Rogers.
The JV soccer team finished their season 4-3-4. They feel like that  they could have done better at the beginning of the season; however, as the season went on they started playing like a team.
“We got better at the end of the season,” said forward Cameron Goedert.

Volleyball
The varsity volleyball team had a strong season this year, placing at many of their tournaments and even beating the Holt Rams for the first time in years. Varsity finished 2-5 in their conference this year, and the JV team finished their season 5-4. The team also made it all the way to the CAAC division III championship game but lost to Eaton Rapids.
“I loved spending time with my team and all of the bus rides,” said outside hitter Azalea Miller.
The freshman team has come really far since the start of the season and are very happy about all of the improvements they have made as a team.
“I loved getting to play and hang out with everyone,” said freshman setter Mikayla Dowell.
Volleyball hasn’t been known to well around the school but these lady Vikings are slowly making the name known.

Cross Country
The varsity cross country team beat Sexton High School at the Tri-City meet. They were really close to becoming the city champs, but lost to Eastern. This season was different than last season in more ways than one. With new coaches and teammates, the cross country team improved because of harder practices, running longer distances and working out more. Some runners feel that cross country is a challenging sport that encourages you to give it your all.
“I’m going to miss being on a team in  general, but I’m [especially] going to miss cross country. It’s a really tough sport that pushes you to give it all you got,” said senior Antonio Flores. “I’m going to miss the feeling you get when you’re in a race and your body is telling you to stop but you ignore it and keep going.”

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Jeff Walker

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The Viking swim team has a new look this year. The team has combined with two other area high schools it is now a Division One swim team that goes by The Lansing Legacy. The Legacy is led by seniors Blake Howe and Chase Moreno.
The team looks to improve the 2011-2012 season after a strong finish last season.
“The fact that we’re combining teams will help improve from last season as a team,” said Howe. “What we lack as a team, Eastern and Sexton will make up for.”
With The Legacy being a Division 1 team some swimmers have mixed feelings about it.
“It’s okay,” said senior swimmer Connor Bilodeau.  “The times are going to be faster so everyone has to step up their game, but I am confident we will do big things this season.”
Coach Nate Burchfield has high expectations for this years team.
“I expect the swimmers to attend all the practices on time and give 110% in and out the pool,” said Burchfield.
Last year, Howe won the teams MVP award and was the only swimmer from Everett to make states.  He holds the school record for 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly and looks to improve those times even more this year.
“I want to break more varsity records and be state champ in both fly and back,” said Howe.

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After going 0-9 last season, the Viking football team was more hungry than ever for a win. And playing Waverly, it showed.

The Vikings defeated the warriors, 41-13. Scoring touchdowns were third-year starting juniors Jaleel Canty, Anthony White, and Javon Moore.

During the summer, the team developed a family bond. They ran together in the morning and lifted weights afterwards. They also participated in several seven-on-seven’s.

“The difference between this season and last season is we play more as a team,” said senior Derrick Foy.

“We don’t go into games thinking we’re going to lose,” said sophomore quarterback Lucas Barner

Along with becoming closer as a team they also know that to make it to playoffs they need to work harder.

Although they have made progress they still have a way to go. They suffered two close losses to Okemos and Holt.

“We need to get the offense going like the defense,” said Montel Windham. “If we can do that and not lose any more we can make it to playoffs.”

This year, a student section was started by the seniors. No matter if the team is winning or losing, you can always hear them cheering.

“I am ecstatic about the outcome and attendance at our games and the student pride that our fans are showing,” said junior Jaleel Canty. “It’s something to be proud of.”

After a big win against Grand Ledge, an undefeated team ranked number three in the state, Coach Carruthers said he feels that the team is making gradual improvement.

“We just need to continue doing what we’re doing going into the Sexton game,” said Carruthers

Before the win against Grand Ledge, play-offs didn’t seem like an obtainable goal.

But Barner explained that if they win the last two games and gain enough bonus points they can still make it to play-offs.

Regardless of if they make it to play-offs or not, EV Nation made a complete turn around, from an 0-9 team to a team that the players are proud to be a part of.

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Imagine waking up at four o’clock in the morning and coming to school. The building is dark, and no one else is around. For members of the girls’ swim team, that describes about two to three days a week since the beginning of the swimming season.

When the team has double practices, they get to school before anyone else to practice, and then they go to their classes like everyone else. Where will you find them after school? Most likely back in the pool practicing, along with girls from other Lansing schools.

The girls’ swim team is what you call a Legacy Team, which is a team made up of players from multiple schools. Schools participating on the Lansing Legacy team are: Everett, Sexton, and Eastern.

Junior Malana Fuentes said that Sexton, Eastern and Everett all did not have enough swimmers to make up a complete school team. So they decided to conjoin all the girls into one team, called the Lansing Legacy team.

As for any rivalry with the other schools, Fuentes said “we get along, there are some cliques, but every team has that.”

Any divisions haven’t affected their performance, as the team is doing well. One effect, though, is the size of the team.

“We have such a small team compared to other [competing teams], ” said Fuentes. “Not so many people [swim].”

Because the team is so little, they do not have any divers, which means less points are given to the team at meets. Everett cannot get the same amount of points as the other teams do, as they lose all the points from the diving competitions.

The team is currently practicing at Everett because Everett has the better swimming pool than the other schools. The team also practices at Hill, where the students from Eastern, Sexton, and Everett go to practice after school sometimes.

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Volleyball is a sport mostly overlooked by Everett High School, but the Lady Vikings have improved over the years in the volleyball program to what it is now, a competitive, talented team. Three years ago the program struggled to beat any team, but now their true competition comes from the teams at the top.

“Varsity and all levels are progressing,” said varsity coach Jube Falcon. Falcon believes the day it will all pay off has not come yet, but it is very close. The varsity volleyball team took third place out of 12 teams September 10 at the Corunna Invitational. It was a moment the team took pride in, the furthest the team had gone in years. October 9, varsity attended the Ovid-Elsie Invitational and became an animated up-beat team as soon as they arrived, singing and dancing throughout the day.

“I have never seen girls with such a diverse team get along and play together so well,” said the coach from Ovid-Elsie.

Being recognized was the least of their accomplishments.

“Playing hard and taking second place almost felt the same as taking first because of how hard we played,” said defensive specialist Jacklyn Ho.

Players said that working their hardest brought the team closer and created trust in the team.

“Each season has been better than last, we work together, we trust each other and we have a family bond,” said senior Sierra Shepard. Shepard also said that taking third in the Corunna Invitational’s gold bracket was a great accomplishment and it motivated her to play that way every game.

Many of the players agree that their recent change to a “Man Up” defense is making a difference in their performance. “Man up” is when the back right player moves along the ten-foot line and the middle and left player split the back row.

“Man Up defense works well because you always have someone there to pick up tips and it creates a more affective defense and games,” said Ho.

“In regular games we don’t always play to our potential because we don’t have a warm up team, but at tournaments we have a warm up team so as we play, we get better,” said setter Cheyene Houghton.

Though many students don’t realize the team is having success, other schools are noticing.

“We are better known to teams and coaches and we are being recognized as a team to look out for,” said JV coach Julie Baker.

Shepard said that she is grateful to the varsity coach that stirred up the change and helped make the team’s recent successes possible.

“We all love volleyball; it’s a place where we go to overlook our everyday lives, and have fun and forget about everything,” said Shepard.

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The Viking soccer team is one of the best in the area, lead by All-Conference goalkeeper Brett Dawsey.

“The soccer team deserves more hype than they get,” said senior Blake Howe. “The football team gets all the hype, when their record isn’t as good as the soccer team.”

The Vikings are devoted to their sport and will do whatever it takes to win.

“We work extremely hard everyday,” said head coach Steve Horn. “These guys come to practice ready to work hard everyday.”

Win or lose, the players maintain their positive work ethic.

“In our program we preach “Hard work equals success,” and these players buy into it fully,” added Horn.

With the season’s end near, the Vikings are finishing the season strong with a win Thursday over Jackson to win the CAAC conference. This week, they begin their bid for the district title and a trip to States.

“I knew that we had to put in hard work during the summer because we lost so many seniors,” said senior midfielder Chase Moreno. “We had to re-group and focus.”

The team had very high expectations for themselves this year as well.

“Coming into the season, I had very high expectations for our team, if I didn’t believe in them to succeed then I shouldn’t be coaching,” said Horn.

The team isn’t willing to simply settle for a winning season; they have their goals set high.

“Finishing at the top of the conference or at least top three is key for the season,” said Dawsey.

As the season progressed, the team lost a few games, but never became down on themselves. Having a record of 10-5-2, the Vikings know it is time to step it up.

“We should have won every game that we lost; we are a way better team than our record shows,” said senior midfielder Taylor Wysack.

Everett has had many positive things come out of the season thus far. Knowing they were young team many people were nervous to see what the season would bring.

“We are a lot closer of a team this year compared to teams in the past, and all of the young players have really stepped up and played well,” said Dawsey.

The team travelled to Grandville Tuesday to fight for a first-round win in the district title competition

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Over a year after the cheerleading team was turned into a club and the coaching position was made volunteer, the squad is still struggling, according to members of the squad.

On June 7, 2010 cheerleaders at tryouts were told that cheerleading as a sport had been cut and turned into a “club” sport. This means that the group cannot compete in CAAC events, and that the role of coach would no longer be a paid position. Coach Becky Joyner told the girls that she would stay on as a volunteer coach. Over a year later, Joyner has resigned her position, and the squad is being coached by a parent.

The change from CAAC team to club meant other changes, as well. In the past, the cheerleaders were allowed to attend freshmen, junior varsity and varsity basketball games for free. Now, they have to pay to attend any games they’re not cheering for.

“I feel that we support all the teams at Everett even if we are not varsity, just because we wear a cheer uniform and don’t play to win every other night, we are still considered a sport,” said Dixon.

Since Joyner was no longer being paid, she scaled back her involvement to two nights a week. This caused problems when the squad tried to practice after school without supervision. Cheerleaders do not practice skilled gymnastics at the school because there is no insurance. They go to Okemos to Capital Cheer, where they pay $5 every Tuesday.

Cheerleaders say that the squad is no longer organized, and there’s no consistency in the coach, which has is reflected in the attitude of the cheerleaders.

At one practice, Joyner told the girls that she felt they didn’t give their all at practice, and that whatever she says always ends up a argument.

Some cheerleaders don’t dispute that they argue at times.

“We never had the chance to voice our opinion, and even if we try, coach feels that we are getting sassy when we speak, sometimes we do get smart but then again its to get our point across,” said senior Victoria Smith.

This season, coach Joyner quit again because cheerleaders weren’t showing up or participating.

Due to instability and lack of a salary at Everett, Joyner took a paying job as the cheerleading coach at Mason high school. She still volunteers as Everett’s coach, but is only able to help out two nights a week, and her duties with Mason make it so that she cannot be at all the games with her girls.

Even though the members of the squad do understand that she needs a job to pay her bills, they always felt second to the Mason team.

“I feel that Coach put us on the back burner, her Mason teams seem to come first because they pay her and not Everett,” said junior Des’Manique Day.

Coach Joyner had a parent supervise the squad at the first game of the season, a decision the girls didn’t know about until game time.

“We were so excited to cheer the first game even our coach, but we were distraught that coach didn’t come with her presents of being there and our hair bows. This means they didn’t have a list of all the cheers and its like breaking one of the rules which is to have a hair bow.

As of October 5, 2011 Becky Joyner has now resigned as being the Everett Viking cheerleading coach. With that being announced Robin Smith is a parent coordinator and the new cheerleading coach.

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After going 0-9 last season, the Viking football team was more hungry than ever for a win. And playing Waverly, it showed.

The Vikings defeated the warriors, 41-13. Scoring touchdowns were third-year starting juniors Jaleel Canty, Anthony White, and Javon Moore.

During the summer, the team developed a family bond. They ran together in the morning and lifted weights afterwards. They also participated in several seven-on-seven’s.

“The difference between this season and last season is we play more as a team,” said senior Derrick Foy.

“We don’t go into games thinking we’re going to lose,” said sophomore quarterback Lucas Barner

Along with becoming closer as a team they also know that to make it to playoffs they need to work harder.

Although they have made progress they still have a way to go. They suffered two close losses to Okemos and Holt.

“We need to get the offense going like the defense,” said Montel Windham. “If we can do that and not lose any more we can make it to playoffs.”

This year, a student section was started by the seniors. No matter if the team is winning or losing, you can always hear them cheering.

“I am ecstatic about the outcome and attendance at our games and the student pride that our fans are showing,” said junior Jaleel Canty. “It’s something to be proud of.”

After a big win against Grand Ledge, an undefeated team ranked number three in the state, Coach Carruthers said he feels that the team is making gradual improvement.

“We just need to continue doing what we’re doing going into the Sexton game,” said Carruthers

Before the win against Grand Ledge, play-offs didn’t seem like an obtainable goal.

But Barner explained that if they win the last two games and gain enough bonus points they can still make it to play-offs.

Regardless of if they make it to play-offs or not, EV Nation made a complete turn around, from an 0-9 team to a team that the players are proud to be a part of

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1. Big wins rebuild football team’s confidence Victoria Smith Reporter After going 0-9 last season, the Viking...
2. Soccer team wins conference bragging rights, competes for District crown this week Jacob Venable Reporter The Viking soccer team is one of...
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