Special agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency spoke to Bowie High School students during Red Ribbon Week activities last week. The DEA’s In The Air helicopter and four agent/pilots brought the aircraft for students to see up close. They also talked about their careers, as did members of the City of Bowie Fire and Police Departments. BHS Principal Joanne Keeler had her photo taken with the crew. (courtesy photo)

Bowie High School’s Mighty Marching Maroon competed at regional marching contest last week, but unfortunately it did not advance.
Director German Torres said the students did very well and they were proud of their work this season. The band had advanced out of area from the weekend before.
“We came in 16th place (3A region) and the students were a little disappointed, but that is to be expected. We are now setting our sights on our Veteran’s Day program alongside the Christmas program,” said the director.
Nocona High School’s band will compete at area contest in Mineral Wells High School at 3 p.m. on Nov. 2.
The Pride of the Tribe is directed by Randy Brooks. Marching contests are open to the public to attend for an admission price of $5.

Bowie Independent School District Trustees were happy to meet a new canine friend at Monday’s school board meeting.
Bowie Elementary School principal Kathy Green brought her dog, Cooper, who volunteers his services two to three times a week at the school as a therapy dog to uplift spirits of both students and staff alike.
Cooper is a three-year-old Shih Tzu/Schnauzer mix who began training as an emotional support animal. He passed his canine good citizenship test in September and was certified as a therapy dog through the Bright and Beautiful Therapy dog organization.
“He’s working with kids in the morning who have separation anxiety and stuff like that and just helps calm them down a little bit,” Green said. “Some of my frequent fliers that have some self-regulation issues tend to calm down a lot faster if you promise them they get to pet the dog.”
Bowie High School principal Joanne Keeler presented a plan for her school to start an E-Sports Club, or a competitive video game team, with the goal to start competing in January after prepping all of this fall to try and get both interest and equipment up and running.
Kids would practice after school from 4:15-5 p.m. in a variety of games and genres. The competition would be through TexSEF, which is a teacher run Texas Scholastic E-sports organization.
While many in the room were a bit baffled at the prospect of kids playing more video games than they already do, several people pointed out how there are many scholarship opportunities for students in college as well as professional opportunities.
A short list of games potentially offered in the club are: Mario Kart Deluxe, Fortnite, chess, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Street Fighter 6, League of Legends, Splatoon, Rocket League and Overwatch 2.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.