By JIM BUTLER

On March 30 Northwood School District’s maintenance fund balance was $4.4 million. The Kolin-Ruby Wise balance was $19,000.

School Board member Sandra Franklin wonders if the system can correct what she considers a disparity demonstrated by those numbers.

Franklin is a Ward 1 member. The District 62 fund (Wards 1, 8 and portion of 2) had a $4 million balance at March’s end, according to board records.

Maintenance funds are generated by property taxes approved by voters in respective districts.

Those districts with commercial and industrial development generate more dollars per mill of tax than those without.

An example – Northwood’s 14.29 mills provides about $2.6 million; Plainview’s 19.05 mills yields $186,000.

But changing from district funds to parishwide is a touchy, and difficult, prospect.

Franklin is asking the board’s staff and counsel to at least provide basic information on how, if at all, it could be done.

There is one parishwide maintenance fund. It provides about $3 million annually, with 40+ schools provided for.

But the districts themselves basically carry their own water and the loads vary.

At the top end of the 15 funds are Northwood, District 62, Big Island (Buckeye), Rigolette (Ward 10) and Pineville districts.

The other extreme: Kolin-Ruby Wise, Forest Hill and Plainview.

Beginning balances (7/1/23), current-year revenue and budgeted 6/30/24 balances for the funds:

Rigolette technology: $583,000, $525,000, $160,000; Rigolette main.: $2.5 million, $3.2 million, $710,000; Forest Hill: $119,000, $165,000, $87,000;

Northwood: $3.2 million, $2.6 million, $2.9 million;

Glenmora: $290,000, $279,000, $241,000;

Buckeye: $2.2 million, $1.5 million, $2.2 million; Oak Hill: $679,000, $432,000, $80,000;

Pineville main: $2 million, $2.2 million, $1.6 million; Pineville technology: $381,000, $355,000, $119,000;

Poland: $66,000, $217,000, 59,000;

Kolin-Ruby Wise: $140,000, $180,000, 0;

Lecompte/Lamourie: $457,000, $421,000, $268,000;

Plainview: $293,000, $186,000, $87,000;

Rapides High: $1.8 million, $539,000, $824,000; District 62: $2.9 million, $7.2 million, $1.4 million.

Senator W. Jay Luneau announces a new partnership between SunGas Renewables and C2X.  The new partnership should create about 1,150 construction jobs and more than 100 local operational jobs for the $2 billion Beaver Lake Renewable Energy green methanol facility.

Construction on the facility is on the former International Paper site and expected to start in 2026.  Once the facility is constructed, the project should generate 400,000 metric tons of green methanol each year for marine fuel and chemical feedstock use.

Green methanol is becoming a fuel of choice for decarbonizing the global shipping industry,

By JIM SMILIE

Having earned national championships in gymnastics and baseball in the past year and football in 2019, LSU President William F. Tate, IV, recognizes Louisiana State University is well known nationally for its athletic teams.

“We have incredible teams at LSU,” Tate told members of the Alexandria Rotary Club Tuesday afternoon in Convention Hall in Alexandria. “They are not just in sports. We have academic teams, staff teams, and more.”

Tate, who is starting his fourth year as president of the LSU System, said he is focused on centralizing LSU’s Scholarship First agenda. That includes increasing enrollment and funding for research while ensuring students have the tools and support they need to be successful.

“We’re in the opportunity business,” Tate said, noting one of his goals is to ensure people have the opportunity to improve their lives through education. “I believe it is better to go to school and flunk out than never go at all,” he said. “In America, you can be born poor and have the opportunity to go to school and improve your situation to get on the positive side.”

Tate said he is constantly looking into communities for people who can be helped and working to find ways to give them the opportunity to improve the quality of their life as well as the community they live in.

So far, that approach is working in terms of enrollment as every school in the LSU system saw record enrollment this fall, with more than 55,000 students enrolled system-wide.

Tate specifically recognized Louisiana State University of Alexandria for its record enrollment growth and for achieving its goal of 5,000 students two years ahead of schedule. “Most schools set enrollment records in the fall,” Tate said. “LSUA broke its enrollment record in the spring – nobody does that. That’s taking an opportunity and being serious about it.” This year, LSUA posted a 35.5 percent increase over last year with more than 5,400 students, making it the fastest growing public university in the state.

As part of the Scholarship First agenda, Tate said the university is focusing on five key topic areas, which he referred to as “the pentagon.” Those fields are agriculture, biomedical, coast, defense and energy. “People often ask me, where does English, or science or math fit into that,” Tate said. “Those are all a part of each of those areas.” For example, he said, history or math majors may be working in fields concerning coastal erosion while English majors may be in the military or working in the energy sector.

Tate considers each of those areas to be vital to Louisiana and he believes investing in those areas will benefit students and the state. “People ask me, ‘is education worth it?’ We’re pulling people out of poverty. We’re changing lives.”

As further proof of the benefit of higher education, Tate noted LSUA grads, for example, earn an average salary of roughly $67,000 per year compared to the state average of roughly $51,000 per year. He also noted 81 percent of LSUA graduates stay in Louisiana to live and work. “The taxpayers are getting a good bang for their buck when students go to LSUA,” he said. Across the LSU system, roughly 70 percent of graduates stay in the state, he said, reinvesting in the community.

In addition to focusing on the five key study areas in the pentagon, Tate said he wants to see greater emphasis on research to drive innovation.

A tool Tate uses to measure innovation is patent registrations. He showed the audience a chart highlighting the parts of the country with the highest number of patent registrations. The bulk were in California, the New England area and the upper Midwest.

“There is not a lot in Louisiana,” Tate said, noting minimal activity in the Gulf coast region. “We’re relying on other people to solve our problems.” That’s a problem, Tate said, because the leading patent-producing areas don’t face the challenges Louisiana faces, including hurricanes and coastal erosion. “You don’t have hurricanes in Big 10 country,” he said.

Tate recalled that when he arrived at LSU, one of his first observations was that research dollars were stagnant. He set a goal of increasing research funding by 10 percent each year and to get LSU into the ranks of the top 50 research institutions.

Last year, LSU set a record with $488 million in research funding, an increase of 14 percent over the previous year. Still, Tate notes they still have a long way to go as he estimates it will take $700-800 million in research funding to get into the top 50.

Research funding received a huge boost earlier this year when LSU was awarded the largest grant ever awarded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, providing up to $160 million to support Louisiana’s energy industry, create jobs and develop the energy workforce.

Louisiana’s team, called Future Use of Energy in Louisiana, or FUEL, includes private energy companies, universities, community and technical colleges, and state agencies that will work together to drive technology and workforce development in support of Louisiana’s energy industry.

Tate noted energy is one of the five “pentagon” programs of emphasis and that the program is driving innovation locally. “We need to encourage Louisiana-centric solutions to the challenges we face,” he said.

CHICKASHA, Okla. – After being no-hit in its first game in the NAIA Softball Chickasha Bracket Monday, LSUA won a pitchers’ duel Tuesday, edging Friends (Kansas) 1-0.

The teams were scoreless until the fifth inning, when LSUA (37-14) broke through.

Haley Fontenot singled and moved to second on a Bailey Layton sacrifice bunt to advance Fontenot to second base. Madi Baker delivered a hard-hit single up the middle to bring Fontenot home. 

Haley Primrose moved to 16-4 as she pitched all seven innings, allowing five hits and striking out two. Friends finished with a 34-19 record.

LSUA had five hits, two by Baker.

Next up, the Generals will play Baker (Kansas) at 1:30 today in another elimination-round contest. Baker beat Friends 3-0 Monday, but was topped 5-3 Tuesday by tournament host (Oklahoma) Science & Arts.

If LSUA prevails, it will play again right away, at 4 p.m., against the loser of the 11 a.m. contest between tournament unbeatens Science & Arts and Midland (Nebraska).

By BRET H. MCCORMICK

A’Shyria Burns added four more medals to her impressive collection at state competitions this spring. 

The only person faster than her on the track this season was Jakyra Edwards. 

Edwards, the Alexandria Senior High senior sprinter, clocked the top times in the parish in both the 100 and 200 meters this spring.

Burns, Menard’s junior superstar, had the top marks in the parish in both the long jump and the triple jump (as well as the 100 hurdles). 

For their efforts, Edwards and Burns have been named the Runner of the Year and Outstanding Female Field Athlete on the Rapides Parish Journal’s inaugural All-Parish Girls Track and Field Team.

The complete team rosters for girls and boys will be unveiled in Thursday’s RPJ edition. Today, the top competitors are recognized.

Edwards was the only female sprinter to break the 12-second barrier in the 100, clocking in at 11.97 seconds to place fifth at the Class 5A state meet. Edwards also had the top time in the parish in the 200 (25.24) and ran legs on the Lady Trojans’ state runner-up finishes in the 400- and 800-meter relays. 

Burns won the 100 meters and 100-meter hurdles at the Class 2A meets while finishing second in the long jump and triple jump. She added those four medals to the three gold medals she won at the state indoor meet and the three golds and one silver she won last year during the outdoor season to bring her impressive total to eight individual state titles and three runner-up finishes. 

Burns made the All-Parish team for her top marks in the long jump (18 feet, 7 inches) and triple jump (38-2). She led the Lady Eagles to the Class 2A outdoor team championship.

On the boys side, Edwards and Burns are joined by Tioga senior hurdler Maximus Kadrmas and ASH senior thrower Hunter Rivet. Kadrmas had the top times in the parish in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, while Rivet had the state’s top mark in the discus and the parish’s No. 2 throw in the shot put. 

Rivet has been named the Outstanding Male Field Athlete, while Kadrmas is the Male Runner of the Year. 

Kadrmas, who dueled with senior teammate Wyatt Smith all season, brought home two medals from the Class 4A state meet, winning silver in the 300 hurdles and bronze in the 110 hurdles, to help lead the Indians to the team championship. 

His times in Baton Rouge – 15.12 in the 110 hurdles and 38.37 in the 300 hurdles – were fast enough to distance himself from Smith and claim the top times in the parish in both events.

Rivet broke the ASH school record on multiple occasions this season and unleashed the state’s longest throw on his final attempt at the Class 5A state meet to claim the gold medal with a throw of 179 feet. He also broke the 50-foot barrier in the shot put during the regular season but had a 47-11 qualifying throw in the postseason, good for second behind teammate Jeremiah Jeffers-Wright.

TOMORROW:  The full All-Parish Team roster.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — The fifth-seeded Louisiana Christian University baseball team is among three clubs still kicking in the NAIA Tournament’s Lawrenceville Bracket after sending third-seeded Ottawa (Arizona) home Tuesday by posting a 9-4 victory.

That’s the good news. The daunting news is the Wildcats need to beat tournament host Georgia Gwinnett today to stay alive – the same team, ranked No. 2 nationally, that pounded LCU 26-2 Monday evening.

That elimination game starts at 11 a.m. local time (10 CDT) this morning, with the winner advancing into a 3 p.m. (2 CDT) championship-round game to play second-seeded Faulkner, which shocked Georgia Gwinnett 6-3 Tuesday.  Faulker can win the regional Wednesday but if it loses, an 11 a.m.. winner-take-all game will be played Thursday.

LCU (34-20) stayed alive Tuesday thanks to the arms of  Andrew Yuratich and Kade Linn while getting clutch at-bats up-and-down the lineup card, including four doubles.

Yuratich tied a season-high with seven full innings and set another by striking out eight batters as he used his arsenal to surrender only two earned runs (four total) on four hits and four walks. Linn pitched the last two innings and held the losers scoreless, striking out two.

Luke Morgan picked the right time to have a career outing at the plate, notching his first-ever three-hit game (3-of-4) with an RBI.

Chris Kelley, the Wildcats’ pinch-hit wizard, struck again in the winners’ five-run sixth, coming off the bench to rip a two-RBI line-hugging two-bagger.

Braden Trull was the other LCU hitter to collect multiple base knocks, going 2-for-4 with a double, two RBI and a run scored.

Arrests are accusations, not convictions.

May 9

Nicholas Nash, 29, Clarence — OWI 1st, possession, contempt, 1:55 pm, $7,500 bail.

May 11

Stacey Means, 40, Vicksburg, MS — OWI 3rd, 2:58 pm, $40,000 bail;

Brandon Morgan, 34, Pineville — OWI 1st, open container, 5:09 pm, $1,100 bail;

Michael Ross, 66, Alexandria — OWI 1st, improper driving on left, open container, 12:56 am, $1,200 bail.

May 12

Elder Izaquirre, 24, Union City, NJ — DWI 1st, running stop sign, 3:11 am, $770 bail;

Jacob Joffrion, 30, Pineville — OWI 1st, speeding, 1:14 am, $1,100 bail;

Tori Nolen, 24, Echo — OWI 1st, speeding, expired plate/registration, 1:30 am, $1,200 bail;

Angela Williams, 43, Alexandria — OWI 1st, suspension/revocation, improper left turn, 5:18 pm, $1,200 bail.

Arrests are accusations, not convictions. 

May 13

Adrian Chandler, 46, Deville — sex offender failure to renew registration, domestic abuse battery, contempt, $2,500 bail;

Colby Deville, 28, Alexandria — battery of dating partner, $5,000 bail;

Jeremy Sampract, 37, Alexandria — unauthorized entry inhabited dwelling, contempt 2 counts, $10,000 bail;

Secory Smith Sr., 24, Alexandria — theft of identity 49 counts, theft, violation protective order, $25,600 bail. 

This date: 7 arrests, including 5 with one or more contempt counts. 

By JIM BUTLER

Lopez Henderson Jr. is back, held under $900,500 bail after his arrest Sunday.

Henderson’s Mother’s Day was non-traditional, allegedly including stalking, home invasion, aggravated domestic abuse battery strangulation, domestic abuse battery 2nd degree, resisting arrest and five counts of contempt.

Henderson, 26, of Alexandria had been out of custody since December when he was released from a September 30 arrest for alleged stalking, unauthorized entry, burglary of inhabited dwelling and criminal trespassing.

His booking record since an arrest in 2014 for alleged sexual battery is, based on the accusations, one of trouble looking for a place to happen, including:

April 2020 – attempted murder 2nd degree; October 2020 – firearm possession by convicted felon, firearm with drugs, illegal possession stolen firearm, possession with intent, paraphernalia, CDS in presence of person under 17, probation violation; October 2022 – possession with intent, firearm with drugs; December 2022 – felon with firearm, firearm with drugs 2 counts, stolen firearm, possession with intent, possession, criminal conspiracy, obstruction evidence tampering, theft of motor vehicle, felony flight, hit & run, aggravated assault home invasion, aggravated domestic abuse battery, criminal trespass, resisting, contempt 5 counts; May 2023 – traffic charges.

NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers once made a sarcastic remark about Alexandria when Craig Nall told him that was his hometown.

“Joking with me, he said, ‘Ah, Alexandria, the armpit of Louisiana,’” said Nall, who was Favre’s backup quarterback with the Packers for several years.

That’s OK, we can laugh at being roasted. We can dish it out, too. Favre’s Mississippi hometown of Kiln is a place where the most popular sightseeing is at Dollar General.

Seriously, this is a column about taking pride in our city, and our sister city, Pineville, which recently received recognition in the Rapides Parish Journal for being named by the Louisiana Garden Club Federation as the state’s cleanest city in mid-size category G. It competed with Broussard, Crowley and Reserve for the state title.

Well, the La. Garden Club also has named Alexandria as the state’s cleanest city for category H, the second largest division, beating Monroe for the title. Yvette Hebert, who keeps records for the Alexandria Garden Club, said the club started the statewide competition in 1958.

Sid McDaniel, the club’s chairperson for the cleanest city competition, accompanied the judges as they rode through Alexandria for about an hour on a trolley a few weeks ago. The judges look at various things such as approaches to the city, hospitals, municipal buildings like city hall, parks and recreation areas, business establishments, streets and sidewalks.

The judges like to see evidence of city involvement, too, and they were impressed when they approached the city complex, and “many city workers came out, jumping up and down and cheering with a lot of enthusiasm.”

Long story short, the judges were impressed with the so-called “armpit of Louisiana,” and it goes back to people caring about the community and doing their part to make a difference. I was inspired to do so by taking part in the “Team Up to Clean Up” project a few weeks ago put on for the 16^th straight year by the South Alexandria Revitalization Organization, founded by Roosevelt Johnson.

We met early on a Saturday morning at Antioch Baptist Church, about 100 of us -– a notable increase from the nine people who participated in the first year. We dispersed as small groups with gloves and garbage bags and trash grabbers to various streets in the area to clean up. That was after Roosevelt and several other citizens and sponsors revved up the crowd with pep talks and reminders how important it is to have a clean city to attract industries and businesses and improve morale and the general quality of life.

The day’s mantra was “Love the Boot” and it became Johnson’s organized group cheer, in keeping with the Keep Louisiana Beautiful slogan, “love the boot, don’t pollute.” And what should our work crew find along the route but a single black rubber boot, sitting by a stone step-up to nowhere. Call it our “morale” compass.

Some of us followed that duty by going to another volunteer work project at the Huie Dellmon Home, a 127-year-old Colonial Revival house on St. James Street in downtown Alexandria. The original owner was Henarie Huie, who co-founded the Town Talk newspaper with Edgar McCormick on March 17, 1883. It was donated in 1993 to the Rapides Parish Library, which has administrative offices and a meeting room for the public and the library board.

Unfortunately, vines and plants were vastly overgrown in the yard and climbing the fence, and, with help from a $2,400 “Keep Louisiana Beautiful” grant, volunteers from the Alexandria Garden Club and Blue Cross helped restore the grounds at the site that seven years ago was added to the National Historic Register.

A day or two later, inspired by all this, I bought my own trash grabber and took it with me as I walked around the neighborhood with a plastic grocery bag. Thankfully, that one bag was all I needed, but I needed all of that bag.

If we’re going to profess to love the boot, we all need to team up to clean up, and not just on one day of the year.

By JIM BUTLER

The School Board has put off consideration of an increase in school secretaries’ pay until its June committee meetings, allowing the superintendent and staff to look for funding.

Meanwhile the administration is dealing with correcting school secretarial-level issues noted by its auditors.

Wilton Barrios Jr. said at last week’s board meeting he believes secretaries are underpaid in relation to what they are asked to do and thinks the system can find the $160,000 or so to implement a pay plan drafted two years ago, with or without differences based on school enrollment count.

Linda Burgess and George Johnson asked for a specific funding source, an answer neither Barrios, Supt. Jeff Powell nor CFO Elizabeth Domite could provide.

Sandra Franklin questioned what other employee categories might need attention and Domite called attention to potential impact on the

schedule for other secretaries’ remuneration.

Powell noted some school systems have hired specialists to deal with the accounting duties that fall at many schools to secretaries.

With those duties sometimes come issues, as Rapides’ auditors have found.

Their report in January for the year ending last June 30 found fault, again, at Mary Goff Elementary, Tioga Jr. High, Peabody Magnet High, Alexandria Senior High and Northwood High.

And, for the initial time, pointed out flaws at Bolton High, Hayden Lawrence and Arthur F. Smith.

Powell’s corrective plan includes more training for the personnel, secretaries or otherwise, involved. He also notes some systems have gone to cashless transactions.

It is cliché. 

A cartoon character will be in the middle of an ethical conundrum. The cartoonist will picture an angel on one shoulder and a demon on the other. Both are vying for attention and to direct the future behavior of the character. Have you felt that your bad side is trying to convince your good side to do something? We preachers talk about this matter as a paradox or as one author put it, “human polarity in Biblical perspective.” 

I had a preacher friend who described it as “people who are too bad to be good and too good to be bad.” The Apostle Paul wrote, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” That is one of the super-saints of the church describing his inner struggle and he was an Apostle! 

We all have struggles with good and bad behavior, with doing what is good and doing that which is wrong. You don’t have to ponder the great truth of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; you simply need to tell a toddler not to do something and watch what happens next. The Bible portrays us as saints and sinners simultaneously. The good news is that Jesus loves sinners, and He also loves saints. You can’t lose with the radical grace of the cross. Are you getting this, Jesus loves you and there is nothing you can do to change that.

I have arrived at my point now. If you are struggling with good and bad, right and wrong, being a saint and a sinner, do you suppose that person who so aggravated you this morning might also be struggling? The truth is all people are incredibly broken and beautiful simultaneously. Out of our acknowledged brokenness grows our unique beauty. Are we seeing others as Jesus sees them? 

Are we treating others as Jesus would treat them? Remember that Jesus said, “As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it unto Me.”

CHICKASHA, Okla. –  Midland (Neb.) pushed across two runs in the third inning and Aliyah Rincon held LSUA hitless Monday to hand the Generals a 2-0 loss in the NAIA Softball Tournament Opening Round.

Second-seeded Midland improved to 43-10. Third-seeded LSUA dipped to 36-13 and will play an elimination round game late this afternoon at a time to be determined against Friends (Kansas), a 3-0 loser Monday to Baker (Kansas).

In her no-hitter, Rincon (27-6) struck out five and walked three for Midland, which also benefitted from some excellent defensive work. The Generals threatened after drawing a pair of walks with one out in the seventh but a line drive turned into a game-ending double play.

LSUA rolled to the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament championship to earn its berth in the NAIA Tournament.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.  – Louisiana Christian got a fast start Monday morning at the NAIA Lawrenceville Bracket, then found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Wildcats scored four runs in their second at-bat and held on to dispatch Bushnell (Ore.) 6-4 in a game that opened the regional at 9 a.m. local time. That advanced LCU into a late afternoon meeting with the regional host, Georgia Gwinnett, the No. 2-ranked team in the NAIA Baseball Top 25, and the Grizzlies lived up to billing, pounding the visitors 26-2.

LCU (33-20) will get some welcomed recovery time before playing this evening at 6 CDT. They’ll meet the survivor of Bushnell and Ottawa University (Arizona) in an elimination-bracket contest. Faulkner (Ala.) beat OUAZ 3-0 Monday in the other opening day contest.

The Wildcats got a pair of two-run singles to fuel their early lead against Bushnell. Adrian Aguilar opened the scoring and Braxton Cooksey doubled the margin. The Beacons chipped away with single runs in the second, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Luke Morgan singled in a fifth-inning run before Nick Lorio’s sacrifice bunt gave LCU a 6-2 lead.

Cy Fontenot limited Bushnell to two runs in the first five innings. Jayden Drake earned his first career save by limiting Bushnell to just one hit in the last two innings.

Climbing on the team bus to head to the ballpark at 6:30 a.m., and then taking the field 11 hours later to play the No. 2 team in the country turned out to be too much for LCU.

Georgia Gwinnett clubbed four home runs among 10 extra base hits, adding 12 singles while scoring 4 in the first, 5 more in the second and leading 12-0 after three innings. The Grizzlies posted an 8-run fifth inning.

Pinch-hitter Brady Sers delivered a two-run double for the Wildcats in the sixth inning. There is no run-rule in NAIA Tournament play, so the game went nine innings. LCU used seven pitchers,  each working an inning and nobody throwing more than 1.1 innings

Arrests are accusations, not convictions. 

May 12

Weapons charges

Damichael Drane, 22, Boyce — illegal carrying weapon, misdemeanor possession, $1,500 bail;

Other 

Lopez Henderson Jr., 26, Alexandria — aggravated domestic abuse battery strangulation, domestic abuse battery 2nd degree, home invasion, resisting, stalking, contempt 5 counts, $900,500 bail. 

This date: 11 arrests, 3 that include at least one contempt count. 

Henderson jailed again, facing huge bail after alleged Mother’s Day violence

Arrests are accusations, not convictions. 

May 12

Franklin Neal III, 42, Boyce — possession, contempt, $12,500 bail;

Lavelle Tullis Jr., 48, Alexandria — possession with intent child 12 or younger present, aggravated domestic abuse battery child present, $10,000 bail. 

People with humble beginnings can achieve great things.  Henry Louis was born on February 5, 1934.  Henry became interested in baseball when he was a child.  His family was too poor to afford a baseball bat or even a baseball.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  Hank practiced his batting by hitting bottle caps with broomsticks.  He used anything he could find to use as bats and balls.  With his makeshift gear, he could hit harder and farther than any of the other kids.