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By Spencer Durrant

          On Monday, November 12th, Payson High School had its annual Veteran’s Day Assembly.  Former Green Beret medic and holder of two Bronze Stars Kyle Hill gave a presentation, and it was the most moving presentation Payson High School has ever heard.

                                  Hill talked about his experiences in war, and how it changed him as a person. More with emotion rather than words, Hill was able to communicate his love of country, of freedom, and of doing good in a rapidly regressing world.

                        Hill’s presentation was screaming at the audience to understand that we all have potential to do greatness. Hill’s achievements that he shared with us are incredible; fighting and serving as a Green Beret, he was part of one of the greatest special forces groups in the world. But he himself said that his own greatness paled in comparison to the greatness that he knows we all have.

And that is the message he wanted us to hear and too feel. The message of how bettering ourselves will often better others as well.

            I want to add my voice to his and thank him for his service. And remember, there isn’t anything you can’t do if        your put your mind to it and better yourself.

             Also at the assembly, the winners of the Social Studies essay contest were announced. Keaton Evans took first, Brigham Flint took second, and Taylor Brown took third.  Evans wrote about voting.

                         “I belive that voting is an issue, that everyone should be involved, and everyone that can vote should vote,” Evans said.

Flint also wrote about voting.

“                      It’s an American right,” Flint said.

Evans won the 50 dollar grand prize, Flint won 25, and Brown won 15.

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By Ciera Lundberg

TJ Tucker: the ultimate Payson High fan. Although this awesome senior once started out as a sophomore (poor kid) he has slowly progressed during his senior year to obtain the honorable title of Fan of the Month. TJ’s love for PHS started during his sophomore year when the seniors told him to dress up as crazy as he could for the games.

                “I love Payson ‘cause we’re awesome and we try hard,” said TJ. TJ believes that dressing up for the football and basketball games  is a necessity for our teams to do well.

                “The more PHS cheers and gets crazy, the more pumped up our team gets and we do better,” TJ said.

                TJ plays baseball here at Payson High and he loves when the students at PHS come and support, but he doesn’t think that they need to get all dressed up and cray cray for baseball.

                “It might get a little weird,” said TJ.

                So there you have it. TJ Tucker is an amazing example of pure Lion Pride. But someone can always do better. So who’s it gonna be next month? 

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By Jenna Haroldsen

Ranked 1 in State going into the season, Payson’s Wrestling team is playing for keeps this year. Their first tournament of the season, the Millard Ironman, was November 30 and December 1.  With only 4 seniors, all of which are Captains, they are expecting to do well this season.

                “We have a strong team this year and we seniors have a lot of experience,” said Wrestling Captain, Devan Judd.

                The majority of this year’s team consists of sophomores and juniors. The 4 captains this year are KK Loveless, Taris Schramm, Jed Melon, and Devan Judd. The new PHS Head Coach replacing Chris Loveless, is Jeb Clark.

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PAYSON — What was a nail-biter heading into the fourth quarter ended up being a solid victory for Provo's boys basketball team.

Down the stretch, the Bulldogs ratcheted up their defensive pressure and made plays at the offensive end of the floor to open their 2012-'13 campaign with a 40-30 road victory over Payson Tuesday night.

A season ago, Payson won the Region 12 championship in 3A, while Provo finished second in Class 4A's Region 8. The Bulldogs ultimately advanced to the 4A semifinals in 2011-'12, and now, legendary Provo coach Craig Drury hopes this year's squad can rise to the level of last year's successful squad.

“Last year we were pretty good," said Drury. "I’m just trying to get these guys into the same category as the last team was."

It's still very, very early, but so far so good.

Provo succeeded against Payson by producing an incredible defensive showing. Payson was known last year for its potent offense, which was due in large part to senior guards Clint Bateman and Tanner Newbold. Payson managed only 30 points against the Bulldogs, however.

Provo raced out to a nice lead, and really put the pressure on the Lions to make plays offensively. Provo is a very long team, and that length prevented Payson from easily getting into its offense.

Taking an 11-7 lead into the second quarter, the Bulldogs gave up a 5-0 run, which was initiated by Payson sophomore guard Brycen Wood. He looked to be a very bright spot for Payson fans; he played hard, kept his head up, distributed the ball very well and knocked down a couple shots as well.

Provo took an 18-16 lead into halftime behind a buzzer-beating floater from junior guard Wesley Bosco.

Tuesday's game got tied up at 19 with 5:00 left in the third, but Provo grabbed a 2-point lead and didn’t look back. The Bulldogs pushed the ball hard on the offensive end, and made Payson commit a lot of fouls. Defensively, the Bulldogs picked up their effort and really disrupted the flow to Payson’s offense.

The game got a little heated toward the end, as both teams started fouling more on defense. Payson had plenty of opportunities to make a run, but kept committing offensive turnovers while losing rebounds on the defensive end.

Bosco scored 14 points to lead Provo offensively and Cole Gordon added 11 points. Bosco also had four assists and two steals, while Jordan Maw contributed six rebounds and three steals.