This year some of the Close-Up students got an amazing opportunity to go up to the state legislator. On February 25, 2010, the students arrived at the State Capitol to listen to a senate and house session, tour the Capitol building, and talk to some of the representatives. Katelyn Rowley said, “The atmosphere there at the State Capitol was laid back at first, we went and listened to some debates.

Payson Youth City Council members Marianne Carpenter, Corinna Michaelis, Sarah Webber, Teal Penrod, Kaitlyn Thomas, Stephanie Dimond, Kevin Saunders, Nikki, Chase Michaelis, and their Amazing Advisor Wendy Dimond attended the Annual Youth City Council Leadership Institute held at Utah State University march 18-20th. They spent an inspiring weekend learning what it takes to be a great effective leader, and growing together to become a better-serving Payson Youth Council. At their conference there was the world renowned keynote speaker Dan Clark who talked about the power of influence

With their Stethoscopes in hand Payson HOSA went up to Layton to compete in the HOSA state convention the 18th and 19th of March. Payson’s HOSA placed so much! Who would have thought that there so many events to compete in?! “You can compete in Nursing, First aid events, speaking, presentations, Medical Assisting and Medical Photography. There are so many events you can compete in, it’s awesome” said Ashley Byington. Speaking of the Devil, Ashley took second in her Extemporaneous Speaking event!

  By: Rachelle Whatcott This year I had the chance to run for Miss Payson. I decided to choose helping out a third world country as my platform and my catch phrase, “Every SOLE worth saving”. So I’m putting on a shoe drive to help the people in Ethiopia. About three years ago my parents made it possible for my whole family to go back to Ethiopia and visit where we came from. One thing I noticed was that no one had shoes and they would be running on sharp rocks and hard surfaces and it made me feel bad. I thought to myself, one day I want to help out over there.

Nicolas Ramon Solis Graffiti Art Featured Springville Art Museum By Sarah Rose Webber Nicolas Solis recently had his graffiti drawing “Ominous” featured in the Springville’s Annual Art Show. This is a very prestigious achievement, of the 936 entries received from 93 high schools across the state; only 313 were selected for the exhibit. Nicolas was the only Payson High School student to get into the art show this year. He paints because “I like to use my talents and express myself”. He drew “Ominous” because he “thought it was really cool.

Lion’s Roar Triumphs at Journalism Conference By: Audrey Miller On February 18th, The Lion’s Roar Newspaper staff joined 12 schools at the Deseret News Journalism conference held at Utah Valley University. This year, they came home with two major awards.  The Lion’s Roar took third place in Front Page Design. Layout editors, Kari Haskell and Zachary Quist were extremely happy that all of her long hours working on making the paper great paid off, “Whoo!

By Amanda Sonderegger             What’s the most wonderful time of the year? Duh, Christmas. Heaven’s no...THE TALENT SHOW!!! Yes, I did just have a conversation with myself. The magical talent show was held February 26, 2010, and personally, it really was the best assembly I’ve ever been to. With the variety of talents r­­­anging from singing to unicycling, it’s safe to say Payson High School has some awesome talent.         &nbs

  The Payson High School debate team cleaned house at the region tournament held last weekendat Payson High School.

Autumn Allinson took second place for her Original Oratory on gratitude, Jessica Smith took first place in the National Extemporaneous category, Destry McCoy took first place in the Foreign Extemporaneous category, and Ashley Byington took first place in the Lincoln Douglas debate.

Payson High School has witnessed history: the first back to back state championship!! Our wrestling team dominated in 2009, and they’ve done it again for 2010 baby! In fact, we had 16 wrestlers go to state, 13 placed in the top six, and 5 Payson High School wresters, Mitch Brown, Zac Loveless, Brock Brown, Colton Cannon, and Brady Loveless, placed 1st in the state by winning both their matches at state! Cannon had this say about the team and the championship, “As a team, we’ve been working hard together since we were freshman, and all that work has paid off.

Sweethearts’ week has rolled right back in and out already this year with all new competition: Poster making, cow milking, interview, and cake making were a few things involved in becoming the royalty for the annual FFA sweethearts dance. Monday started off with poster making. We had to somehow incorporate the theme LEAD OUT LOUD and in some way advertise for the dance as well. The winners for the poster making were Rachelle Whatcott, Nicole Mellen, and Saige Bertschi.