![IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Junior Zalie Mann performs “I Love to Cry at Weddings,” an ensemble piece from the fall musical Sweet Charity, to prospective students during the Fine Arts Showcase on Wednesday, Nov. 8. The showcase is a compilation of performances and demonstrations from each fine arts strand offered at McCallum. This show is put on so that prospective students can see if they are interested in joining an academy or major.
Sweet Charity originally ran the weekends of Sept. 28 and Oct. 8, but made a comeback for the Fine Arts Showcase.
“[Being at the front in the spotlight] is my favorite part of the whole dance, so I was super happy to be on stage performing and smiling at the audience,” Mann said.
Mann performed in both the musical theatre performance and dance excerpt “Ethereal,” a contemporary piece choreographed by the new dance director Terrance Carson, in the showcase. With also being a dance ambassador, Mann got to talk about what MAC dance is, her experience and answer any questions the aspiring arts majors and their parents may have.
Caption by Maya Tackett.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/53321803427_47cd17fe70_o-1-1200x800.jpg)
![SPREADING THE JOY: Sophomore Chim Becker poses with sophomores Cozbi Sims and Lou Davidson while manning a table at the Hispanic Heritage treat day during lunch of Sept 28. Becker is a part of the students of color alliance, who put together the activity to raise money for their club.
“It [the stand] was really fun because McCallum has a lot of latino kids,” Becker said. “And I think it was nice that I could share the stuff that I usually just have at home with people who have never tried it before.”
Becker recognizes the importance of celebrating Hispanic heritage at Mac.
“I think its important to celebrate,” Becker said. “Because our culture is awesome and super cool, and everybody should be able to learn about other cultures of the world.”
Caption by JoJo Barnard.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/53221601352_4127a81c41_o-1200x675.jpg)
Emma Yeager takes the cake with new scoring record
Senior Emma Yeager got past a defender and the goalkeeper to score in the second half of a 5-0 victory against Lufkin on Feb. 14. The goal was the 108th of her career and her second one in the game. She surpassed the all-time scoring record, which was previously 106.
February 17, 2023
When senior Emma Yeager saw the bright green soccer field cake sitting on her kitchen table, she immediately turned to her mom Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s going to be real awkward if I don’t score tonight,” Emma told her mom, Kim Yeager. “What are we doing with it?”
Her mom had a ready answer although it was clear she had confidence in Emma’s ability to break a tie atop the girls soccer team’s all-time scoring list.
“I guess we freeze it,” Kim responded with a laugh.
Emma validated her mom’s confidence.
A few hours later, Emma was cutting the chocolate cake with the white letters “G.O.A.T.” after breaking the team’s career scoring record.
She scored two goals in a 5-0 win over Lufkin on Tuesday to finish the night with 108 career goals.
Her first goal of the night came off a cross from junior Victoria Jaimes. Yeager beat the goalkeeper as she drove it into the right corner of the net from just outside the 6-yard box.
The goal gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute and it broke Emma’s tie for the record with Vanessa Valadez, who scored 106 goals in her career from 2011-2014.
With only one goal needed for Emma to break the school record, Kim pre-ordered the cake from Walmart in preparation for the game.
“My mother has so much faith in me,” Emma said.
Kim gave her daughter the same pep talk before the past three games.
“This is the one,” Kim would tell the senior forward. “This game is the game.”
Setting a new school mark was a four-year process.
Breaking a school record was not on Emma’s mind entering her first season as a freshman. She was more concerned about whether she was going to make the varsity team in any capacity, considering the Panthers had won the previous two Region 3 titles to make the program’s first two trips to the state semifinals.
“Our program had just come off of state runs,” Emma said. “I was so nervous.”
She shouldn’t have worried. She started on the varsity team and scored 36 goals in her freshman season, which ended early due to COVID-19.
After the season was cut short, her mom helped her realize the school’s single season scoring record was in her grasp.
Then as a sophomore she broke the Kingwood Park girls’ single-season scoring record with 44 goals. Unfortunately for her and the Panthers, she hyperextended her knee and dislocated it seconds after scoring a goal during round one of the playoffs that season.
“She’s overcome some adversity,” girls soccer head coach Jess White said. “Elite athletes like herself have to have a phenomenal work ethic, desire – a lot of intangibles.”
She missed the rest of that postseason as the Panthers were eliminated in the second round.
Emma continued to battle her injury as a junior. She underwent surgery and rehab to help the Panthers reach the Region 3 semifinals.
“I’m so much more confident than I was last season,” said Emma, who signed to play at Missouri State next year. “I’ve stopped wearing my brace, and I did a lot of training over the summer to get there. I started focusing more on my confidence and my love for the game and working myself back up where I was sophomore year before I got injured.”
Emma Yeager has made it look easy since she made her debut as a freshman. In many ways it was, but she also overcame a lot of pain along the way.
“Just the physical and psychological toll of coming back through her junior year, she’s come back sharper, stronger physically and mentally,” White said. “Going from what was probably one of our best teams in 2020 as a freshman to being a leader on a very, very good team. We’ll see how the year goes.”
This story was originally published on Park Times on February 15, 2023.
