Category Archives: Departments

Patterson band performs at City Festival

Posted on by Leave a comment
(Photo: Ms. Williams)

(Photo: Ms. Williams)

By Lionell Green,

The Patterson band had been working hard all semester to perfect their songs, and they took their talents to City College High School on March 29, where they were in the yearly City Festival with several schools, including Carver and a couple of middle schools. It was not really a competition; it was more like a showcase of skills.

It was very entertaining to see the band do great in another setting. Multiple other schools praised Patterson’s band and the three judges were impressed. They played a total of three songs called “The Thunderer,” “Aftershock,” and “Chillaxin.”

Ms Williams was asked, “How did you feel about your band traveling to another school to play? She responded, “Traveling to City High School was  an amazing opportunity for our students to showcase their musician skills that they acquired during the year. They got to experience listening to other bands and perform their best at the City Festival! As their teacher, I am proud, but as a musician I’m even prouder.”

Here are some of the comments from the judges:

“Very strong playing today!”

“Good job with a small ensemble!”

“Let me congratulate the bands from Carver, Reginald, and Patterson;  I personally thought your students had great performances.  Many times even the students get wrapped up in the sizes of the group or the ability of the players, but I thought your groups were confident, well-rehearsed, and committed to making you proud.”

 

 

Patterson chess team ties with Mervo

Posted on by Leave a comment
A Patterson student (left) plays chess against a Mervo student (Photo: Mr. Baron)

“Patterson High Team Co-Captain Jeremaiah Lemmon (pictured on the left) plays Mervo’s top ranked player (Photo: Mr. Baron)

 

 

 

 

 

 

By John Dingzon

During their home game on March 21, 2017, the Patterson Chess team tied with Mervo.

Coaches Mr. Tola and Mr. Baron had trained the chess players and prepared them for what was coming.  All of their practices made the Patterson chess players look forward to this competition. Even though some chess players lost, they were still happy that they had the chance to participate in this competition.

Mr. Baron said, “I’m proud of how the team played. It’s a good reminder that every move in chess, just like in life, counts.”

Syncere Harris: Scholar-Athlete

Posted on by Leave a comment
Syncere Harris excels both on and off the track. Photo: Amadou Bah, Patterson Press)

Syncere Harris excels both on and off the track. (Photo: Amadou Bah, Patterson Press)

By Amadou Bah,

Syncere Harris is an 11th grader, an honor roll student, and a track team member who has been doing indoor and outdoor track for 1-2 years at Patterson High School.

He started doing track in middle school but stopped because his heart wasn’t in it. When he got to Patterson, he was more involved in his 10th grade year and became interested in track again. What motivated him to start doing track again is his love for running. When he was little, he ran a lot for fun. Eventually, he started running every day.

The track events Harris participates in include the 100 meter, 200 meter, 4 x 200 meter relay, and the 4 x 100 meter relay. Track is one of his favorite sports and he is thinking about doing this in his future and for college. He always come in 1st or 2nd place. Recently he won 1st place at Mervo in the 100 and 200 meter races.

Harris excels off the track field too. He is currently taking a digital electronics class with Ms. Ball. “He’s always busy because Coach Smith comes and gets him for a track meeting for two minutes but he comes back in 30 minutes,” said Ms. Ball. He does get his work done though, and he is passing her class with an “A”. He is an active learner. He answers all the questions and goes up to the board to impress everyone with his skills.

Overall, Syncere Harris puts education first, then sports. He makes sure he is passing all of his classes. If he is failing or doesn’t understand what he’s doing, he stays after school for coach class. He is very intelligent and self-motivated, a great role model for other Patterson students to follow.

AFJROTC participates in Color Guard competition

Posted on by Leave a comment

By John Dingzon,

On March 10, 2017, Lt. Colonel Jones and Technical Sergeant Smith took the Color Guard units to compete against other high schools in the Baltimore City district. It was a city wide Junior ROTC drill meet. There were sessions for unarmed and armed drill units, as well as unarmed drill sequence regulation, and unarmed drill inspection.

It has been nearly 10 years since the Patterson High School Air Force Junior ROTC competed against other high schools in a drill meet competition. The Color Guard team started practicing from the beginning of the school year. They practiced marching, and learning all of the techniques. The new students started learning the maneuvers, but the Color Guard did not practice hard enough until January 2017.

Lt. Colonel Jones started the selection of students who will be on the events and began the training for the actual competition. The real competition did not start until the month after the event. They all work hard to get prepared for the competition and even, the Color Guard took on new maneuvers and drill sequences.  They worked hard and did a great job, all the way through the finish line.

The ROTC faced the challenged of finding the time, and created the Color Guard team as the extra-curricular or co-curricular activity and did not have consistent attendance, and that’s because many of the students are part of extra-curricular or co-curricular activities, including the varsity athletics.  So they are pulled in different directions. So the biggest challenged this year for the ROTC is for them to come to practice. They had to also use some class time to be able to practice, but this was limited so it did not take away from the academics.

Lt. Col Jones goal was to able to find a time for practice after or before school, so they were not interrupted from their studies. The next event for Junior ROTC is next year again. So anyone who want to can able to participate and also be part of an annual event. It’s also part of Junior ROTC, and what they’re calling the CEO’S Cup, and the Chief Executive Officer for the district. It’s also basically like the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy with the military academy. So the team who wins more events throughout the year will earn this trophy of ROTC in the units.

There were also individual awards. There’s what they call individual drill or Knockout. It’s basically like Simon says. They give commands and people are ask to dropped out if they do the commands incorrectly or if Simon doesn’t say the commands correctly. Patterson High School ROTC made a great showing, but Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (Poly) won the overall event.

It was a great, fun-filled event. In the city this event will happen again next year. Lt. Col Jones hopes the ROTC will participate more in other categories next year. “This year Baltimore Poly won 1st place in the Color Guard, but I think the other schools know we are the school to be watched for next year,” said Lt. Jones.

 

 

 

 

[PHOTO]

Where is Patterson’s New School Building?

Posted on by Leave a comment
The current building, constructed in 1959, will be demolished after the new building is finished. (Photo: http://baltimore21stcenturyschools.org)

The current building, constructed in 1960, will be demolished after the new building is finished. (Photo: http://baltimore21stcenturyschools.org)

By Alvaro Flores & Amadou Bah,

In 2013, funding was approved to replace the whole Patterson High School building with a brand new one, but little progress has been made since that time. Patterson High School has a poor facility condition which means that the school is pretty run-down and is now getting worn out. The Patterson Press decided to investigate the reason for this delay and discover what the plan is for the new building.

Back in 2013 a bill was passed and the General Assembly agreed on a financing plan to allow Baltimore to spend roughly $1 billion dollars on school construction to repair or replace broken-down buildings over the next seven years. The plan is known as the 21st Century Buildings fund. The plan requires Baltimore, the city school system, and the state to put up $20 million a year each to help pay back this loan over the next 30 years. Patterson High School is among the schools scheduled to benefit from this money.

The Patterson High School building is currently 303,582 square feet. The original building was built in 1960 at 230,000 square feet. Additions were built in 1968 with 49,634 square feet and in 1977 with 23,948 square feet. In 1977, a 9,211 square feet renovation was completed. Science lab renovations of 10,800 square feet were completed in 1995 and locker room renovations of 9,225 square feet were completed in 2001. This means that in previous years, instead of building a new school building, they were adding more space to the school.

Not only are we going to get a new building in the near future, we are also going to be pairing up with a Special Education school called Claremont Middle/High School. Also, there are some really special features planned for the new school, such as three additional basketball courts, two additional tennis courts, bleachers for visiting teams, a press box and scoreboards for baseball and softball fields.

According to Jessica Clark, “In 2013 the Government Association approved for the construction of the new Patterson building to occur and will be complete in 2019.” This proves that the new Patterson building is guaranteed, but no updates have been made since that time. The Class of 2017 seniors were all wondering why they won’t see the new building before they leave. It’s coming, Seniors! You’ll just have to come back as alumni.

Patterson High School’s program contains several education programs which will impact the design of the building and the space requirements. These programs are: AOP program, Life Skills, Academy of Engineering / Project Lead the Way / Design Technology, Advertising and Graphic Design, Allied Health, Emergency Medical Technician / Homeland Security, Business Administration / Finance and Accounting, Cosmetic Services, Child Care, and ROTC.

The new building has been delayed for a number of reasons, including disagreements about how to spend the money that has been allocated for the new school (for example: we currently have a pool but a new pool will cost millions of dollars that could otherwise be spent on technology or other things). With that being said, the plan is finally moving forward. Construction on the new building will start this year. It is expected to be finished in the school year 2020-2021. This will be the 3rd Patterson High School building. This new school building will be the future.

 

Enrollment projection:

Source: http://baltimore21stcenturyschools.org/schools/104

Softball team having “best season ever”

Posted on by Leave a comment
The Patterson Lady Clippers softball team (Photo: Ms. Mahoney)

The Patterson Lady Clippers softball team (Photo: Ms. Mahoney)

By Alvaro Flores-Villegas,

The varsity girls softball team is still continuing their dominance against all the other Baltimore City schools in the 2016-17 school year, resulting in a 13-2 record for the season so far.

 

The softball team suffered a loss against Benjamin Franklin on April 18th with a final score of 11-18, ending their undefeated streak. But they did not let that affect how they played, because soon after that loss, Patterson won several complete blowouts, including a 20-5 win over Lake Clifton and a 26-0 win over FAET.

“It’s our best season ever!”, declared Coach Mahoney.

These victories wouldn’t have been possible without the softball team’s hard work. According to Coach Mahoney, the team practices daily. They complete several drills use a pitching machine and they scrimmage during practice.

Four seniors on the team are graduating this year: Morgan, Naydean, Justist and Damanique. “We are sad but wish them the best in their future plans.”, Ms. Mahoney said.

Patterson wins state championship

Posted on by Leave a comment

Coach Martin and the basketball team celebrating their State Championship win (Photo: Patterson High School)

By Christian Pietrowski

and Lionell Green

Patterson’s varsity boys basketball team defeated Century High School on March 11th in the Division 2A State Championship. It was a hard-fought game and our own Patterson Clippers came out strong with the win. With a final score of 49-43, the Clippers finish the season with the 2A championship title.

The whole season has been hard but the Clippers fought their way through and put their heart into the game to win the championship. Century High School was winning with six minutes to go until Patterson stepped up their game up to win the State Championship.

“You come down here and they don’t give away state championships,” Coach Martin said. “It’s not easy. You have to battle and fight. We battled and did enough.”

The Patterson basketball team made nine free throws in the last 1:38 to secure the title and Gerard Mungo hit six of them.

Darrion Pitts, a Junior on the basketball team said ” It felt amazing to win the State Championship. Its great to be known as a person that won. The hard work, practices and close games [all paid off].”

Pitts described how the team felt during the game. “Every game we took it step by step, getting inches closer to it and when we where playing the game, looking at the scoreboard every time making sure we had the lead was like [having] a heart attack. When the clock struck zero, joy, happiness and excitement just spread to the floor. Getting that gold medal, taking the picture with my team, holding up the state title, is a memory and forever will be a memory.”

Always put your heart into everything you do. That’s what the Patterson basketball team did to win the State Championship.

The team roster consists of

#        Name                   Position   Grade

1 Daesean Jones Guard So.
2 Harrison Brandon Guard Sr.
3 Marvin Price (C) Guard So.
5 Gerard Mungo Guard So.
12 John Thomas Guard Sr.
15 Rico Lang Forward Fr.
20 Byron Easter Wing So.
23 Christion Adams Forward Sr.
24 Isaiah Clemons (C) Guard Sr.
30 Darrion Pitts Forward Jr.

 

Lacrosse team defeats Reginald Lewis 6-1

Posted on by Leave a comment

By Alvaro Flores-Villegas

The varsity boys Lacrosse team defeated Reginald Lewis High School on March 30, 2017 with a final score of 6-1, achieving their first win of the season. The goals scored against Reginald Lewis were made by John Thomas with three goals, Alvaro Flores-Villegas with one goal, Jonathan Amaya with one goal, and Antonio Laster with one goal. During the game, there was an altercation between a player from Patterson and a player from Reginald, but ultimately, the Clippers helped focus their teammate, and motivated him to keep playing, resulting in a win. The team fought their hearts out and worked hard to get their win. Hopefully there will be more wins in the near future, and Patterson will finally have a successful season and bring home a City Championship.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »