Arts & Culture

Last weekend, the Unalaska Raider Wrestling team competed in the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA) State Wrestling Tournament. Unalaska brought 9 wrestlers who qualified the week before at the regional tournament in Bethel. Unalaska got 8th place at state, narrowly edging out Mt. Edgecumbe School in Sitka.

Here are the state wrestler’s weight classes, names and records for the season, not including state:

113         Jeppesen, Curtis               10-7

120         Esnardo, John                      12-6

Last weekend, the Unalaska Raider wrestling team travelled to Bethel, Alaska to compete in the Great Alaska Conference Regional Wrestling Meet. The Great Alaska Conference consists of schools all across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and the Aleutians and there were 20 different participating teams, including Unalaska.

The Raider wrestlers had three regional champions this year:

1st Place – Dustin Ruckman (132)

1st Place – Alex Esnardo (138)

1st Place – Seth Henning (195)

They also had many individual regional qualifiers:

Last Monday, December 11th, the Unalaska Band directed by Kerry McNamara had their annual Winter Band Concert. The event featured the 6th Grade Brass Band, the Junior High Band, and the High School Band.

The 6th Grade Brass Band played eight songs, from classical excerpts like "Ode to Joy" composed by 

Beethoven to Christmas songs like "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Holiday Sampler."  The 6th Grade Band only meets for a quarter of the school year so it is especially impressive that they were able to play this variety of music.

Unalaska’s annual Poetry Out Loud competition took place last Tuesday at 6 pm in the high school auditorium. Poetry Out Loud is a nation-wide competition in which students pick a poem, memorize it, and recite it in front of judges and an audience. The competition is based on a student’s thorough and accurate memorization of the poem and their personalized and dynamic recitation.