There is a large rising number of girls playing football in just the last year. Football remains a male-dominated sport, even though there are lots of girls now playing football, with no women in the N.F.L.  In Utah they now have a football team just for girls, “the Utah girls tackle football league” created by Sam Gordon. This inspired another all girls football team, the Indiana Girls tackle football league. Both of these teams show that there is a space for girls in the game of football.

Asheville is now recognizing this, in Asheville City Schools we have the first girl on the Asheville Middle School team, Gaby Harper, number 1. Gaby told me that even though she's the only girl on the team, she feels just as included as everyone else on the team. She decided to join because she had always enjoyed the sport while growing up, but something that stuck out was in 6th grade when she was playing flag football in P.E.  and a couple of people noticed how great she was at playing football, and said that she should try out. So she took it into consideration and look where she is now!

There have been incidents where girls have to sue certain football teams because the coaches would not allow a girl to play. It can be really hard to get onto a football team, especially if you are a female.

Gaby loves playing football because it helps her deal with pent up stress and anger on the field instead of in school where she could get in trouble. Also, she has taken inspiration from lots of male football players. She has learned a lot from Sam Gordon who created The Utah Girls Tackle Football League.  She is unsure if she will continue to play in high school, but only time will tell. There are people that do doubt her ability to play football and ask questions like “do you actually play, or do you just sit on the sidelines?”

You'll just have to go to a game and see for yourself! 

Story by Olivia Crosson 

Source: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/girls-play-football-females-teams 

March 14th, the day of the national student walkout for gun control, students all around the country walked out at 10:00am. This national protest was student led and not many adults were involved. Students used it as a platform for voicing their opinions on gun control and gun violence against youths. This walkout was created because of the recent spike in school shootings, especially the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 lives were taken.

Asheville Middle School had lots of students involved in planning this event, although the 3 main people planning and orchestrating this event were Kate Buys, Ginger Hanlon, and Alana Kendrick. This event was extremely hard to plan because we had to take into account safety and time. The three of us started to plan the walkout at the end of February. We made an instagram account  to communicate the details of this event with the AMS student body, we worked with teachers and school resource officers to make this event as safe as possible. We got lots of student support, but we did face a few issues. Because of safety concerns we were unable to disclose a location to anyone until the day of the walkout. This was a struggle because it made it hard to make sure students knew what was going on and where it was going on. We also had to take into account the students who didn't feel comfortable walking out and students who didn't want to walk out. Although teachers were not allowed to walk out and could face consequences if they did because of State law, there was still a concern that teachers might. If a teacher walked out, what would happen to the students in the classroom. These were all obstacles that we needed to work around and find answers to. The largest issue that we faced was when we found out school was canceled on the 14th. This was a huge struggle, because we still wanted to walk out and we knew that others wanted to walk out too. So we decided to change the date of the walkout for the next day. We didn't have a way to get the information out that quickly so we posted something on our instagram and hoped for the best. A few hours later we checked our instagram and were shocked by what we saw, our word was spreading fast! On almost everyone's instagram was the new information! but it still worked out.
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On the 15th the walkout went just as planned, just a day late! Students walked out at 10:00, we had 17 minutes silence to honor the 17 victims of the Parkland School shooting and during these minutes students also had the chance to write letters to congressmen, senators and representatives. After the 17 minutes of silence we had a few 8th graders read off speeches and poems they wrote. The turnout was about 500 students. This experience was incredibly rewarding because it gave many students a chance to stand up for what they believe and help to make a change.
 
Story by Ginger Hanlon, Kate Buys, and Alana Kendrick

​Go AMS lady cougars basketball team! Thank you for bringing home another championship!                       
As most of you know, our lady cougars basketball team has brought home the first conference champ and regular season champ banner/award for the first time in 8 years (2008 was the last time). 
 
The ladies had an awesome undefeated status of 16-0. They wouldn't have been able to do it without their coaches, Mike Watkins and Lauren Powell. These coaches are the best coaches anyone could ever ask for.
 
This is an incredibly special group of talented girls that were once strangers but are now sisters. Their team captain Porsha Carter stated that; "This season has brought us together so well, but not in a friend way. We have created a sisterhood that is greater and stronger than friends. No one can break this bond!"
 
Every game they brought their all and didn't give up. They fought through the toughest battles together as a team. They reminded the other schools whose territory they were in, at every home game. They also made new territories at away games. The most important thing is that they stuck together, and became one big family.
 
I was a proud manager of the team. I looked forward to every game and enjoyed watching them take a dubb every Monday and Thursday, (some tuesdays and Wednesdays)! This is one special group of girls and there will never be another one like it!
 
Story by Amelia O'Halloran

The Asheville Middle School choir is currently preparing for a performance later this month. The students will be performing at The Grant Center on January 23rd from 7:00 - 8:00pm after the Asheville Middle strings. After several mishaps just before winter break resulting in cancelled and improvised performances, this will be a chance for the students to properly show what they’ve been working on for the months since school started.

The performance will take place for a very special audience. The school board and superintendent will be attending the performance as well as any parents, friends, or family that would like to support the event. The chorus has picked two songs to perform out of the many they have learned this year. It will begin with “Hold Back the River”, a mellow alternative tune, featuring wonderful soloists from the choir which is then followed by “White Winter Hymnal”. The song “White Winter Hymnal” is an acapella holiday song that the students have performed previously which includes their own clapping and stomping beats. The performance is open to anyone wishing to see the students display their talents and they hope to see you there!        ​

Story by Krislynn Hawkins