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The Viking Saga

The Student News Site of East Lyme High School

The Viking Saga

The Viking Saga

The Viking Saga

Jen Wallace

Jen Wallace, co-editor-in-chief

Hi readers! This year I’ll be taking on the role of co-editor-in-chief along with Sophie Vandermealan and James Ambrosini. I’m super excited to help leave my mark on the saga and make sure all voices and communities are heard. I enjoy hiking, playing softball, traveling, going to concerts (especially Noah Kahan) and spending time with my friends and family. Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any ideas for articles or want to respond to an article I’ve written! Happy reading!

 

Jen Wallace

All content by Jen Wallace
PHOTO BY BETH TEUTSCHMANN ON UNSPLAS

Journalism takes on EL Walk of Horror

SOPHIA VANDERMAELEN and JEN WALLACE
November 8, 2024

Scariness: 5/5 With people jumping out at you at every turn, you never know what to expect. Every time you turn down a new path, the scenery changes. From a haunted gingerbread house meant to resemble...

PHOTO BY MARIUS GIRE ON UNSPLASH

‘Irish Goodbye’ Says Hello to the Big Screen

JEN WALLACE
October 24, 2024

The crowd settles into the packed theater, the lights dim, and the piano from the song plays its last note; the projector turns on, and familiar faces begin to flash across the screen. ELHS students...

2024 FALL SPORTS LEADERS

2024 FALL SPORTS LEADERS

JEN WALLACE
September 19, 2024

Boys’ soccer: Ryan Wargo “What’s unique about our team is the transition we will have to go through in order to be successful. We lost nine of our 11 starters from last year. I believe we have...

Stock Vault Photo

Q&A WITH MR. OLSEN: HEAD OF SECURITY

JEN WALLACE
September 11, 2024

Q: Students have shared that the last fire alarm of 2023-24 seemed unorganized because it happened during a passing period. Does the security team have a more organized plan for when an alarm goes off...

New in Sports: Meet ELHS’s New Football Coach and Assistant Athletic Director

New in Sports: Meet ELHS’s New Football Coach and Assistant Athletic Director

JEN WALLACE and KASEY LAMBERT
April 25, 2024

Coach Kleine: ELHS’s New Head Football Coach “The group is engaged…this is something they want to be a part of, and their excitement is contagious,” new head ELHS football coach Tom Kleine said. While...

Q&A With ELHS Scholar Athletes: Riddhi Venkatesh

Q&A With ELHS Scholar Athletes: Riddhi Venkatesh

JEN WALLACE
April 1, 2024

Viking Saga(VS): What is your biggest motivator? Riddhi Venkatesh(RV): I would say my teammates keep me motivated and I always put in my 100% for them. I love the feeling of accomplishment and being...

Q&A With ELHS Scholar Athletes: Nathan Bergman

Q&A With ELHS Scholar Athletes: Nathan Bergman

JEN WALLACE
March 21, 2024

Viking Saga(VS): Tell me some of your future plans. Nathan Bergman(NB): I would like to combine my efforts for academics and athletics, music too if that’s possible. It depends on where I go. If I...

Football Fans are Swift to Whine

Football Fans are Swift to Whine

JEN WALLACE
February 26, 2024

Global pop-superstar Taylor Swift has been angering many football fans as of late. Swift has recently made her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs football star, Travis Kelce, public. Being a supportive...

Streaming Shakes Up Sports

Streaming Shakes Up Sports

JEN WALLACE
February 1, 2024

Family and friends gather to watch the weekend’s “big game,” but since sports started being televised, many sports changed to revolve around what TV networks want. When sports are televised or...

Leftover Money Funds Athletic Department Extras

Leftover Money Funds Athletic Department Extras

JEN WALLACE and FIONA SAMUELSON
January 26, 2024

A loud BOOM reverberates around the small stadium of East Lyme High School on a Friday night. Smoke pours from one end of the field and fireworks shoot off as players run out and greet the roaring crowd....

Words with Wallace

JEN WALLACE
November 1, 2023

If you’re anything like me, you play or train for one sport all year round. Having an undying love for what you do is important, but what happens when being excited for practice turns into I can’t...

Skylar Bell digs during a game against NFA.

Skylar Bell Breaks EL Volleyball Record

JEN WALLACE
November 1, 2023

Three-time All-State athlete and senior Skylar Bell broke the East Lyme volleyball record for amount of career digs. At a Oct. 4 game against Simsbury, Bell had 30 digs bringing her total to 1,049 over...

The Giants play at MetLife stadium in New Jersey.

The Dark Reality of the NFL

JEN WALLACE
October 5, 2023

Football. The American pastime. What families gather to watch every Sunday in the fall. What every high schooler’s Friday night revolves around, but has anyone dared to look deeper than what’s plastered...

Torres races against various schools in early September.

A Euphoric Feeling: Runner’s High

JEN WALLACE
October 5, 2023

“It’s this feeling of you can do anything. You’re on top of the world. You feel like you can go forever,” senior boys’ cross county captain Kai Bakilana-Ritz said. According to Johns Hopkins...

Veronica Castro (left) and her teammates, Keegan Stadler (center), and Maya D’Aquila (right) celebrate outside ELHS after a race.

ELHS Tackles Time Management

JEN WALLACE
October 5, 2023

Kai Jolly-Ballantine “Properly fuel your body,” Kai Jolly-Ballantine a junior at ELHS said. Jolly-Ballantine rows year round for ELHS crew. He describes how he manages time with homework while also...

Mr. Marcoux and one of his golfers at
Killingly High school.

New Athletic Director Joins ELHS

JEN WALLACE
September 13, 2023

“I’m evolving my career and moving it in a different direction, but it’s exciting,” Kevin Marcoux, ELHS and ELMS’s new athletic director, said. After working at Killingly for 16 years, five of...

EL’s 12u boys prepare for an exciting
game in the dugout.

EL 12u Boys Went the Distance

JEN WALLACE
September 13, 2023

East Lyme Little League’s 12u boys’ team decided that this year they would take home the State Championship title. They put in the work and became the first 12u baseball team from East Lyme to take...

The Hernandez family attended a Cleveland Guardians game this summer at Progressive Field.

Team Hernandez Takes A Swing at Visiting All 32 MLB Parks

JEN WALLACE
August 27, 2023

A father-child relationship is one of the most important in many people’s lives. History teacher Hamilton Hernandez and his dad, Hersh Hernandez, are no different. While they don’t always enjoy...

EL runners hold the championship banner after winning their conference in 2022.

ELHS Rising Seniors: Fall Sports

ZACK BARTH and JEN WALLACE
August 27, 2023

Rising Seniors: Kai Ritz - Boys’ XC After a remarkable 2022 season, the EL cross country team is preparing for another dominant season this fall The 2022-2023 cross country season was one for...

Upcoming Local Concerts and Festivals

JEN WALLACE
May 23, 2023

Noah Kahan New rising rock artist Noah Kahan will be performing not just at the Boston Calling Music festival in May, but also at his own concert at the Hartford-HealthCare Amphitheater in Bridgeport...

How to Avoid Fast Fashion and Micro Trends

JEN WALLACE
May 3, 2023

Cheap, low quality clothes fill up our landfills. Clothes from fast fashion companies such as Shein, are poorly made with synthetic materials that are unable to decompose. While these clothes may be in...

Boys’ and Girls’ Lacrosse: Same Name, Different Rules

JEN WALLACE
May 3, 2023

Same sport. Different game. Though boys’ and girls’ lacrosse can be defined similarly, they are very different in execution and play. Pounds of padding accompany boys’ uniforms and the physicality...

Restaurant Review: 7 Napkins

Restaurant Review: 7 Napkins

Jen Wallace
February 2, 2023

Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5.  Chef/Owner He is classically French-trained, judges food competitions, and the creator of the 7 Napkin Burger: he’s Mark Vecchitto. 7 Napkins is a burger joint that...

Team Traditions

JEN WALLACE
November 15, 2022

Volleyball “Pasta parties are a time where we can all be together and talk about something other than  volleyball,” said the varsity captain Chloe Vaglio. The ELHS volleyball team is an extremely...

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