Maranatha Christian Academy

2 The Maranatha Association of Parents brought back an old tradition when 35 of our high school girls took the field on November 3 for a powder puff football game. MCA boys served as assistant coaches and cheerleaders for the game. A t Maranatha, one of the challenges we give our students and staff is a charge to impact our community. Beyond the Walls has a strong tradition of doing just that. Through the Beyond the Walls event, students request pledges and then spend a day at different sites working to benefit others. They may be at an assisted living home, a church, or a 501(c)(3) organization. Wherever they are, students are giving back to Shawnee, Johnson County, and beyond. This year, Beyond the Walls kicks off in March, with the day of service on April 3. For more information on this year's event, contact Kelly Wilde at wildek@ma-kc.org. impacting Our Community—Beyond the walls Robotics in the Classroom P ITSCO Education will donate $2,000 worth of robotic sets to our elementary classes. The company's TETRIX building system is a similar concept to LEGO Robotics, but students will use aircraft-grade aluminum elements for constructing their robots in the classroom. MCA Students Excel at KU Engineering EXPO With excerpts from Jina Kim and Niko Enna's reporting in The Hike. E arthquakes, Legos, and obstacle courses were all part of the October 25 KU School of Engineering High School Design Competition in Lawrence. Eleven MCA students formed four teams and signed up to compete in different engineering-related fields with hun- dreds of other high school students. Our students competed in three events: the Aerial Escape competition, the Island Shelter Civil Engineering competition, and the Lego Mindstorms Survival Vehicle competition. MCA's Future Gadget Labs team took home first place in the Survival Vehicle category, sharing the $2,000 KU scholarship prize. Students prepared for the competition, building and testing engineering projects with assistance from Mr. Cox. Even with the prep work, surprises on the day of the competition had to be addressed. "We had to adjust our robot's arm to reach Lego people in different positions. We even had to make programming adjustments for the sun shining on the obstacle course. Meeting those challenges was my favorite part of the event," said Ryan Fitzgerald (12). 2016 MCA KU EXPO Teams • Future Gadget Labs: Niko Enna (12), Jina Kim (12), Ryan Fitzgerald (12), Sam McGowan (11) • Future Gadget Laboratory: Ty Caffrey (11), Zak Oster (11), Mitchell Peacher (11) • Four Musketeers: Mariah Karley (10), Abby Wright (10), Grace Wojcik (10), Braden Lockwood (11) • FC4 (Four Fantastic Chinese): David Li (12), Stephanie Pang (11), Joey Zhou (11), Lydia Yan (12) seeing steM sports update Basketball Teams Show Growth This Season T he Maranatha girls basketball team has a new coach to our program this year. Coach Reggie Hines took over a program that last year had 10 girls participating and no wins for the season. Morale was low and the number of students planning to participate was questionable. Coach Hines rejuvenated the program and the girls are showing progress each and every time out. They currently stand at three wins and six losses this season, and those losses were narrow many times. The team recently participated in the McLouth tournament where junior Maggie Friesen was named to the all-tournament team. Kayla Crowder and Shelby Adcock are the lone seniors on this year's squad, with 12 girls participating. The girls team has provided excitement to its coaches and fans and had its first home win in almost two years. It's also wonderful to see our student body encouraging this rebuilding effort along the way. Good things are ahead for the Lady Eagles. Coach Travis Thompson is in his second year with the boys basketball program at MCA. He continues to build upon the foundation that he laid last year. He has a young group of players who compete hard every minute of each game. They currently stand with a record of 4-5 and won their last two games. The team has shown remarkable improvement and finished in third place at the McLouth tournament, with two players on the all- tournament team—sophomore Jax Holland and junior Roland Hou. The team has three players averaging in double figures for the season— Jax Holland at 13.1, freshman Andrew Fortin at 10.8, and Roland Hou at 10.1. Jax had a game where he hit his first six three-point shots, hitting eight for the game, and reaching 31 points overall. Coach Thompson is encouraged by the progress shown by his team and looks for good things going forward.

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