20th HS Reunion: Location Poll

July 3, 2009

Ready or not, our 20th high school reunion is right around the corner.

I’ve been asked to poll the class to help the reunion planning committee determine where everyone would like to see our reunion held so they can focus on finding a location. As you can see in the right margin, a poll has been added to the blog.

There are currently two options to choose from Slidell or New Orleans.

Please take a moment now to register your vote on the poll.

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I also wanted to remind all of our classmates that we have a NHS Class of 1990 Alumni group on Facebook. Currently there are 81 classmates/members in the group. I encourage everyone to join. There is an active discussion board to share your thoughts and ideas for the 20th reunion, along with old high school pictures and videos.


Sign-up & join the NHS Class of 1990 group.

Teacher, Teacher

May 3, 2009

In recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week (May 3-9), I wanted to pay special tribute to the faculty & staff at Northshore High School (1986-1990).

From our freshman homeroom class to our graduation ceremony, the faculty of Northshore High School were there to teach, to guide, to assist, to encourage, to discipline, to motivate, and to coach us every step we took along the way.

Even today I still recall most of my teachers and the classrooms they taught in. I was a pretty decent student at NHS, but I'm the first to admit I tended to focus more on athletics and the social aspect of high school than getting good grades. I did just enough to maintain a B/C average. Electives such as P.E. and Art always seemed to bring my highest grades and helped to lift the old GPA.

A few of my favorite classes were:
9th - Computer Literacy (Mrs. Ross)
9th – French I (Mrs. Battle)
10th – Geography (Mrs. Sanchez)
11th – Accounting (Mrs. Chabreck)
11th – Art I (Mrs. Landry)
12th – English IV (Mrs. Morris)
12th - P.E. IV (Coach Haaga)

These classes I remember the most because:

Computer Lit: This class sparked my interest in computers above just using it to play games on it. Our class blog and its content are both examples of how this class has made an impact on my life.
French I: Todd Weaver and I sat next to one another in this class, well at least until Mrs. Battle had to separate us a few weeks into the school year for clowning around in class. Despite the separation, Todd and I would still become close friends. Christmas caroling around the halls in French was also very fun.
Geography: The only class in high school I had with a particular senior cheerleader that I had a crush on. My older brother was also in that class, so I took it as a challenge to whip his butt on the map tests.
Accounting: Mrs. Chabreck was a great teacher and that class pushed me to pursue a career in accounting.
Art I: Mrs. Landry's classroom provided an opportunity to relax from the stress of homework assignments and tests by allowing us to just draw/paint/sculpt in all different styles of art.
English IV: Mrs. Morris was also my English I teacher. I always had a good time in her class from the spelling bees to writing in our journals. My favorite book she assigned was Great Expectations. Mrs Morris was also the only teacher in high school to call my parents in 9th grade when I acted up in class. My parents were not happy. Lesson learned. She and I never had a problem after that and she became one of my favorite teachers at NHS.
P.E. IV: P.E. was by far my favorite time of the school day. Whether Coach Haaga was teaching us Health & CPR or sports like Archery, Badminton, Basketball, Golf, Track, or Volleyball, Coach Haaga always did it with a smile on his face and made it fun. The only part I hated about P.E. class was dressing back in. I wish we could’ve spent the entire day playing sports.

What was your favorite class at NHS?
Who was your favorite teacher at NHS?
Feel free to leave a comment and share your appreciation.

We Are Northshore - NHS v. St Paul '88

April 5, 2009

Tues, Feb 9, 1988

I still recall the bus ride back across town from Salmen High School. We had just lost 60-47 to Salmen in a battle for second place in the district. The loss moved us to third place in district standings at (4-3) behind St Paul and Salmen.When the team bus arrived back at Northshore the bus lights came on, but as we prepared to exit the bus Coach Chimento jumped up from his seat and turned around to address the team. He told us that he had just figured out a plan how we could beat Salmen and that we would play Salmen again. His words were met by blank stares from most of the team. The team had already played Salmen twice during the season, we only had three games remaining to play this season and Salmen was not on our remaining schedule. As Coach began to convey his plan to the team, he became excited and his voice became raised as he said, “we’re going to win our final three games, Salmen will lose their last game to St. Paul, we will be tied again with Salmen for second place and we will play them again”. I’m pretty sure most of the team was in disbelief and just thought Coach was losing it. We all knew that our last game of the season was against St. Paul. St Paul was undefeated in district and had already beaten us 76-65 earlier in the season at their gym. Tired and disappointed by our loss less than an hour ago to Salmen, Coach’s vision seemed to be unattainable and was dismissed as just wishful thinking. I mean whatever happened to take it one game at a time, don’t look ahead to your next opponent? Coach was overlooking our final three opponents and placed all his focus on a tie-breaking game against Salmen that didn’t even exist on the district’s schedule.

Practice the following day was more of the same, Coach kept talking about playing Salmen again. That Friday night NHS defeated Amite and the following Tuesday we beat Pearl River. NHS now had a (6-3) record and was still in third place behind St Paul (8-0) and Salmen (6-2).

Friday, Feb 19, 1988

Over the past 10 days since our loss to Salmen the ‘87-‘88 NHS Boys Basketball team had begun to see Coach’s vision as it was becoming our reality. A win over St. Paul tonight in the final game of the regular season and a loss by Salmen in their final game would place both teams in a tie for second place and force a tie-breaking game just how Coach had envisioned.

The stage was now set:

Northshore vs St Paul
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: Panther Gym

What Happens in Vegas…

January 31, 2009

Note:
Due to the length of this video it may take a little longer to buffer and play when you first press the play button.

Todd “TJ” Weaver and I first met while at a summer soccer camp when we were both still in junior high, but we actually became friends during our freshmen year at Northshore. Having attended Boyet Jr High, I did not know too many people from Clearwood when school started, but Todd and I quickly became friends and teammates on the freshmen football & basketball teams. Throughout our four years at Northshore High we hung out countless hours in the lunchroom, after school, on the weekends, over the summer, and during holiday breaks.

After graduation Todd and I left for different colleges, but we still visited one another over the holidays and summer breaks. I made two trips up to Jackson to visit Todd where he attended Belhaven College and played on the baseball team. We also met up in Destin, FL for Spring Break one year. After I graduated from USM in Fall ‘94, Jerry Derigo and I flew to Las Vegas to visit Todd, who had been headlining the Las Vegas show “Country Fever” at the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas. Todd had come along way since that Christmas morning freshmen year when he called me up all excited that he had just gotten his first electric guitar. Just 4 short years after graduation, Todd was now a feature act in a major Las Vegas show, performing and closing the show six nights a week.

Todd and I still keep in touch, and we always share a few laughs when we talk about the good times we had at Northshore High School. Lucky for me Todd’s family also resides in the Houston area, so I still visit with them and have a chance to see Todd whenever he comes in town.

Todd currently resides in Henderson, NV. He and his wife, Annika, are the proud new parents of a baby boy, Taylor Jens.