The Year Just Closed A Very Successful One

HIGH POSITION

The Year Just Closed a Very Successful One

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE

In Competition With Other High Schools-The Promise for Next Year is Rosy

The year just closed has been a very successful one for the Ann Arbor high school. In every way she has shown her supremacy; and the statement that we have now the leading high school in Michigan is no idle supposition, it is fact. We have a highly paid and efficient faculty; our text books are of the latest and best; our laboratories are stocked with the most modern apparatus; the students are hard, earnest workers, and we are fortunate in having a principal whose highest interests are the schools, whose efforts to make the Ann Arbor high school first in everything are untiring, who possesses qualities that endear him to the students and make his life an inspiration to all.

But the fame of the school does not rest entirely upon the work done in class-room and laboratory, nor yet upon the excellence of the teachers. The records that have been made in athletics and literary work are such that no student can look back upon them and feel anything but pride. To recount them all would be a long yet pleasant story to tell.

The football team was the first agency to spread the fame of the school. It won victory after victory and Marshall, Ypsilanti, Detroit Western, Mt. Clemens, Charlotte and Alma high schools went down before its awful onslaughts. At last everything in the lower peninsula of Michigan save Benton Harbor, had been vanquished. The first game with that school was played on the Benton Harbor grounds, and resulted in a tie, 0-0. Everyone was confident that our school would win on the Saturday following, when the game was to be re-played on Ferry Field. But Pfeifle and Butler, two of Ann Arbor's best players, were protested on the eve of battle, and without them the home team was defeated by a score of 10-6. Thus it was that Ann Arbor did not win the championship, although its record was an enviable one.

The element of bad luck seemed to be present also with the track team, notwithstanding its good record. At the indoor inter-scholastic track meet in Waterman gymnasium last winter, Ann Arbor won second place, being defeated by Detroit University school. At the Michigan inter-scholastic meet at Albion, May 16, Ann Arbor won by a great number of points. The interscholastic on Ferry Field occurred a week later, and it was hoped that our school would carry off first honors. But the Lewis Institute, of Chicago, which does not belong in the category of high schools, and the University School of Detroit, were pitted against Ann Arbor. Our team was further handicapped by the loss of Warren, the champion long-distance runner of the school. Yet Ann Arbor made a fine showing, winning out over all other schools but the two above mentioned.

The baseball record was also good, and until the final game the team remained undefeated. Cleary Business college, of Ypsilanti, successful elsewhere, was defeated, as well as other large schools. Ann Arbor high school also won the class series in the University, securing the final game handily by a score of 15-0, and earning sweaters from the U. of M. Athletic association. The last game of the season resulted in a defeat for Ann Arbor at the hands of Howell high school, the score being 4-2. But the Howell boys refused to play another game, acknowledging their inferiority.

The standard of literary excellence has been well maintained, and this has been due in large measure to the work of the Clenadeum, the school's literary society. The influence of the Clenadeum can hardly be overestimated, and its members have been leaders in the school during the year. Last year the Clenadeum debated with Detroit Central House of Representatives, and won. There were no debates this year, but H. A. McNitt, a member of the society, represented the school in the Peninsular Oratorical league contest, at Pontiac. Seven leading schools of the lower peninsula were represented, but McNitt won by a large number of points. S. W. Crane, of West Saginaw, who represented his school in another league contest last year and carried off all the honors, this year found Ann Arbor a different proposition, and could secure only a poor second. Our great success along this line has led many to believe that there were several others in the school who could have won, and had either Howard, Todd or Parry represented Ann Arbor, the result would probably have been the same. There is no denying that this efficiency is largely due to the training gotten in the Clenadeum.

Another factor in the upbuilding of the student is the Christian association, the oldest organization in the school. Its weekly meetings have proved of great value to the students, and its frequent socials have drawn the young men and women into a closer fellowship.

An article touching on the work of the students would be incomplete did it not contain some account of the Omega, the senior class annual. The principal editors of the '03 Omega were L. C. Todd and J. W. Parry, two brilliant young men who deserve much credit for the work they have done. This year's annual is larger than ever before; it contained more and better half-tones, group pictures and drawings than any previous edition; its literary tone was higher; it faithfully chronicled the work of the school during the year. No more eloquent advertisement for the high school could be found than it.

The future of the high school seems to be as rosy as the past. The city will send its share of bright students to the school and much good material will continue to flow in from outside. Many of those who led this year will not return, but as they climb still higher they will occasionally look down to see others fighting the school's battle as heroically as did they.