These girls have all been dancing since a young age and got started because their parents made them or they wanted to take a class. Every week they practice Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday for an hour and a half, but when preparing for a show, they add an extra hour to each rehearsal.

Dance is a way for one company student to get her emotions out. “I love to dance because it’s therapeutic for me. I can be completely mad at the world, but then I dance and all my troubles seem to go away,” sophomore Elizabeth Harris said.

The following clip bellow shows the company dancers, stretching and rehearsing for their most recant show.

With scores like these, Buford must have great football coaches. However, on Thursday, January 26th, Buford suffered a loss greater than that of any football game. Buford assistant football coach, Ryan Daniel, died at school of a heart attack. The fatal event took place at school in the morning, before the arrival of students, the district said in a public statement.

Daniel was only 30 years old, but heart attacks are hereditary. His father died of a heart attack five years ago. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Ryan’s family and with all who knew and loved him,” Buford City schools Superintendent Geye Hamby said in a statement.

Buford students, spefically athletes, are struggling to cope with his death. However, they have a very positive memory of him. “It was really sad,” student Steven Reese told Channel 2 Action News. “He was personally one of my favorite coaches on the team. His energy was just infectious.”

While Buford students are mourning the loss of Daniel, Decatur students are also feeling a sting of sadness. “I think it’s really sad,” said sophomore Kyle Drenner, a softball and soccer player. “I feel like if it happened to our school we’d be hurting just as much.  We need to take advantage of all the good things and good people at our school while we have them.”

Decatur will always have athletic rivals, and empathy will always come with the territory.

During the week of March 5, the Gay-Straight Alliance will sponsor a No Hate Week, an event designed to spread acceptance of the LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer) community at Decatur.

During the week, the GSA will sell t-shirts and baked goods. At the end of the week, GSA photographers will photograph students in their t-shirts. These photos will be displayed in a Facebook album, and some will be displayed as posters around the school.

The visual aspect of a photo campaign was particularly important to the GSA. “Decatur is already very much an accepting place, but it’s different when you can put it into a visual,” said Taylor Hammond, who has helped organize the campaign. “We’re hoping that having people from all around the school taking pictures and buying t-shirts will have an effect on all the students.”

Leela Goshorn, who has been one of the main t-shirt designers, drew inspiration from outside the box. The design incorporates the transgender sign (the male symbol, female symbol and a combination of the two) and the Zen circle.

“It represents going through life even with its challenges and its suffering and continuing throughout the entire thing,” Goshorn said. “I thought that was a really good representation of not only what we’re trying to do with the campaign, but what the GSA stands for as a whole.”

Not only are students encouraged to be involved in the campaign, but teachers are as well. According to the 2009 Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network school climate survey, 30 percent of students in Georgia had heard school staff making homophobic remarks. The GSA wants to get teachers involved not only because of their influence in school affairs, but also to make all students feel safe and accepted at Decatur, no matter what their orientation.

In the end, “all students” are two of the keywords the GSA uses to explain their goal. “It’s not really about the gay kids and the straight kids,” Hammond said. “It’s just a bunch of people coming together to show acceptance.”

Click here to read more about this incredible accomplishment.

Not only is Lynch new to Decatur’s lacrosse program, she is also new to Decatur. She recently moved here from Long Island, NY, following her fiance’s job transfer to the Decatur area. In New York, Lynch worked as a special education teacher and served as the girls lacrosse and field hockey coach at Manhasset High School for eight years.

“Up north, my girl’s main priority was lacrosse,” Lynch explained. “It wasn’t just a season for them. It was all year round. All they did was lacrosse.”

Here in Decatur, Lynch got a job at Clairemont Elementary as a ESS teacher and soon became involved with lacrosse. “Don Rigger reached out to me about a year ago, and I was also just looking for a good balance in my new life here,” Lynch said.

She went on further to talk about how Rigger’s passion for lacrosse and dedication for the program was one important factor in her choosing to coach.

One of Lynch’s most important goals is to establish a program that Decatur can be proud of, but her first goal is to get to know her players. “It hard having to start from scratch. I don’t know what the girls are capable of, and I’m worried I might push them too hard,” Lynch said.

“I am psyched to work with these girls. They have shown me that they are ready to have the chance to push themselves. I’m excited to teach the girls everything I know, and see how they take it,” she said.

“I want to open the doors to the game of lacrosse.”

Behind the stage, models quickly zip, button and fasten pieces of clothing into place: tonight they are showing off the fruits of three months of labor, a project by Decatur’s fashion club to incorporate ‘going green’ into fashion.

“It’s all about how you can look cute and be eco-friendly at the same time,” fashion club president Jessica Carr said. “Instead of admission, we take canned food donations and lightbulbs, so people can help the world instead of just paying money.”

Each piece was designed to be fashionable, unique and, above all, harmless to the environment- each incorporates recycled materials, and not just fabrics. Students have created a hoodie lined with bottle caps, a dress made out of duct tape and newspaper and a pair of jeans constructed from several pairs of jeans, among other things. After the show, each bit of clothing is auctioned off to those daring enough to wear them.

“I got the idea when ACE presented their interactive powerpoint to us early this school year,” explains co-leader Raven Scott. “Near the end of it, they were saying ways we could help our environment. They threw a lot of ideas out there, but the one that caught my attention was a eco-friendly fashion show. So I suggested it during a Fashion Club meeting, and it went from there.”

Even though the show’s over, Carr says the fashion club is already hard at work on their next project.

“We’re planning on doing this thing called Phresh-Week. It’s kind of like homecoming week, where every day has a designated dress up theme. For example, there’d be a wear-all-pink day, sweatpants day, 80s day, indie day… We might even offer prizes! I think it will be fun, something cool for everyone to get involved in.”

The show will run for three performances: March 22 through 24 at seven o’clock  in Decatur’s theater. Tickets will cost  five dollars for students and eight dollars for adults.

The play will feature junior Luke Wertz as Robin Hood, the protagonist of the story, and Spencer King as the Sheriff of Nottingham, the play’s antagonist. While these are two of the major roles, the cast is comprised of 19 other actors. Drama teacher and Director Lynn Hosking says that this play in particular is very ensemble, meaning that it requires the equal support of all the actors.  “No role really takes precedence over another in a production like this,” she said.

A play this size comes with challenges. “Scheduling has been our biggest conflict so far,” Hosking said. “It’s just hard to coordinate so many people.”

In addition to its large cast, the play also features a variety of fight scenes. Hosking hired Professional Fight Coordinator Drew Reeves from the Shakespeare Tavern to assist in the choreography.

Hosking will not face these challenges alone. Advanced drama student and senior Rachel Wansker will co-direct the play with Hosking. “Between the two of us,” Hosking said, “I know we can get it done.”

The official poster for the play.