Powerlifting Nationals to Stream Online!

Next week, the Woodward Academy Knights powerlifting team will travel to Denver, CO to compete in the USAPL High School Powerlifting National Championships. They will be defending their 7-year run as team National Champions. This year's event will be streaming live online for the world to see. So tune in next Friday as the Knights compete in the squat, bench press, and deadlift events. The competition starts at 9:00 a.m. and runs by weight class. The 114 - 165 pound classes will compete in the morning and the upper weight classes in the afternoon. The live streaming is not set up yet, but will be next week. The login information is below and you can directly link to the event from here.

http://www.rmlccolorado.com
All of the WA lifters will be in Platform II.

Woodworking Project -- Entertainment Center

Last September, we did a post about the new woodworking extracurricular at WA. The post outlined the goals of the group that included students receiving hands-on experience working with table saws, miter saws, drills and routers along with a variety of other power tools. You can read that post by clicking here. The extracurricular has taken off since that time and they are currently in the process of renovating their workspace. The projects that they have completed have been impressive. They include book shelves, adirondack chairs, and most recently an entertainment center for one of the dorms (pictured). We'll have more on the woodworking extracurricular and their projects in the future.

Road to Nationals - WA Hosts USAPL Meet

On Saturday, Woodward Academy hosted its sixth annual home powerlifting dual meet. The event is the final qualifying meet for WA lifters before the USAPL High School Nationals meet, this year held April 5-7 in Denver, CO. A team from Clarinda Academy has participated in the meet every year, traditionally bringing a strong team that also competes at Nationals. This year's Knights of Iron team has nearly been perfect in competition, winning in Lincoln and Peru State earlier this year. They go into Nationals as the 7-time (yes, you read that correctly!) National Champions and hope to continue that streak in a couple weeks.

You can see more of the images from the home meet on our Knight Pics website by clicking here. Check back in a couple weeks as we'll have a full breakdown of how the team did in Denver.

Basketball Honors 2013 // Video

The Iowa high school basketball season recently concluded and post-season honors have been announced. Woodward Academy guard, Gerante Rankin, was named 2nd Team All-Conference for his contributions on the hard court. He led the team in scoring with 16.5 points per game for a total of 379 points this season. That places him 3rd all-time for a single season in Woodward Academy history. He also put up impressive marks in steals (64) and assists (73), both leaders this season on the team. He is the latest addition to the growing athletic wall of fame located in the main education building. The wall showcases the accomplishments of WA students and includes representation from nearly every sport.

After the break, check out a recap of the season with a short highlight video.

Knowledge Bowl 2013

The annual Woodward Academy Knowledge Bowl took place on Friday, March 8. The competition pits dorms against each other in a single elimination tournament. It truly is one of the best days on campus with dorms getting themed and ready for the all day competition. At stake for the winner is a day trip to Omaha, NE for the entire winning dorm. After an initial toss up question, questions alternate back and forth between the two teams. When it is their turn, teams can wager either 1 or 2 points after knowing what the category is (i.e. Music, Pre-Algebra). The cool thing about WA's knowledge bowl is that all of the questions are written by WA teachers and originate from the student's classes. When a team gets a question wrong, the other team has a chance to "steal" the points with a correct answer. Read more after the break.

Off Camera Lighting

Woodward Academy's Multimedia class focuses heavily on photography and simple design elements in Photoshop. Taught by a member of the Professional Photographers of Iowa, the class offers real world experience in photography, using professional equipment that prepares students to use photography in the future. Examples of student photos are often seen on this blog or in Woodward Academy's quarterly newsletter: the Knightly Knews.

For you photography experts, the class uses Canon DSLR cameras and dives into many of its functions. Lessons include composition, focus points, and most recently how to shoot in manual mode. An understanding of the Exposure Triangle is needed with this as students are asked to control the camera's shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings.  New to this semester is examining the use of off camera lighting. Pictured are students taking portraits of each other using a LED light panel.