By Riley Holtzclaw
It is currently 2026. Resolutions are being made, to then be broken within the following months.
We have 12 new months in the year, but let’s hit the rewind button back to January 2025 and go through the year and see what happened. From the Super Bowl, to Delta’s new teachers, to various world events, this is the 2025 Rewind,
January 2025, the start of what was then, “the new year.” Donald Trump became president again, the second ever president to have two nonconsecutive terms. Tiktok was temporarily banned in the U.S. for a few days.
For the Eagles, they returned to school in early January to begin their third quarter. The wrestling team had a successful performance at the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association Team State. They won two-thirds of their meets and got fourth place at the HHC in Yorktown. The boys’ basketball team had a rough time in January, losing game one of the County Tournament and only winning two games the entire month. The girls had a much better time, winning the county tournament for the second year in a row and winning five of eight games in January.
February was an extremely successful month for the winter sports teams.The swimming and diving teams had an excellent run, with the boys getting third at sectional and the girls remaining undefeated the entire season and getting first place at sectional. This would put them at three sectional championships in a row. Wrestling got first place at the Fort Wayne semi-state. Girls’ basketball ended up winning sectional and regional. The regional title was the first time in Delta history that the girls team had won.
Super Bowl LIX took place within the Superdome in New Orleans. It was the Chiefs vs the Eagles, a rematch of Super Bowl LVII. Kendrick Lamar performed at the halftime show, singing songs such as “Euphoria,” “DNA,” “Humble,” “Not Like Us,” and “TV off” with DJ Mustard. This halftime show beat the record of Super Bowl XXVII, which had Michael Jackson as the headliner. The Eagles were victorious, finishing the game 40-22. This was a major loss for Chiefs fans and Swifties.
March was fairly slow. One notable exception was boys basketball, which won sectionals, regionals, and semistate for the second season in a row. Notable events were SignalGate, when high ranking U.S. officials had a group chat leak from the messaging app Signal in regards to missile strikes in the Middle East. SpaceX’s crew-9 returned to Earth after being in space for nine months.
April was a bit of a slower month, but had some moments. There were many tornadoes on April 2, including an EF2 just south of Eaton before dissipating, an EF0 in Yorktown, and many others. Delta wasn’t in session the following day due to tree limbs blocking roads and other damages from the storms.
In international news, The Liberation Day tariffs crashed the stock market on April 2. Pope Francis, who had been at the Vatican and head of the Catholic church since 2013, passed away on April 11.
May was the conclusion of the 2024-2025 school year. The seniors left to pursue the rest of their lives in a new chapter, while the juniors filled their vacant seats. Before that though, a new event was underway for the seniors. Dubbed “Senior Assassin,” it was a game where you are given a target by random through an app. Your objective was to take the target out with a water gun without getting hit yourself. The last person standing would win the game, receiving a $50 gift card. The last two seniors remaining were Chris Rench and Lane Norton. Lane managed to avoid getting hit and eliminated his target, winning the event. Overall, it was a fun event, and some hope the tradition will continue on.
Other notable events were the Unified Track party on May 14, where Chick-fil-A Leaders had a bunch of people from the Blue Crew come to one of the unified track meets to help cheer on the runners.
June through July was spent over the summer, with teachers and students relaxing and enjoying the break from the stresses of school. The rest of the world had other plans, though…
There were ICE protests on June 6 and the Trump administration sent the National Guard to Los Angeles. The attorney general of LA filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for unlawfully sending federal agents to their city. The FIFA World Cup took place from June 14-July 13 in the United States. The first EF5 tornado since May 20, 2023 occurred on June 20 at Enderlin, North Dakota. A large earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.8 Earthquake occurred in Russia, issuing Tsunami warnings in Japan and Hawaii.
Tennis coach Tim Cleland ended up crashing one of the Del-Com short buses while with the team at an event in Jasper, Ind. In fact, he crashed two of the buses because he wrecked the bus he was driving into one of the other buses that was in front of him. Both buses were out of service for the first few weeks of the school year.
August is the start of the new school year. An influx of freshmen came from the middle school. The new seniors became the top of the food chain.
The week before school started, the Delta band held a camp to help get the students prepared for the school year.
Some new sights were the new staff members. John Finley filled in the role of the weightlifting instructor, and Derek Novsek was the new physical education teacher. However, he left early in the year when Tyler Gilland became the full-time substitute for P.E. II. Lynde Bratton started her tenure as the new athletic director, filling Tilmon Clark’s spot after he left for Hamilton Southeastern High School. Billy Lynch became the new head football coach for the team. Chris Overholt began his first full year as the assistant principal, while Ms. Joey Gossett became Delta’s second ever female principal after Chris Conley departed to accept an open superintendent position at Cowan.
September was an exciting month for the Eagles. It was the annual homecoming event, with festivities for the whole week. PowderPuff, boys’ volleyball, and of course, the homecoming picnic were highlights. There were some concerns that with Mr. Chris Conley leaving for his superintendent job at Cowan in August, that the picnic would have some bumps in the road. However, it went very smoothly, and even had some exciting new events planned.
One of the notable ones was that the Eagle Zone News class held a live broadcast on the football field to open up the ceremony. It was the first time EZN has done something like this, and on short notice. Mr. Tim Cleland, journalism teacher, received an email around two hours before the scheduled time. The news crew brought out some desks and chairs, and even got some microphones.
The homecoming football game was an exciting evening for the Eagles, who ended up winning the game within the last seconds of the final quarter, finishing the game against New Castle 27-20.
Some other events were the release of Sora AI, the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel, and the end of AOL.
October was a sad time for Delaware Community Schools. On October 21, middle school teacher Mr. David Reade passed away after a tough 3-year battle with cancer. The Eagle Zone News crew pumped out a memorial video for his funeral that featured songs chosen by his wife, Kim Reade.
In positive news, the Eagles’ boys’ tennis team won the regional title against Westfield High School in Indianapolis. The girls’ soccer team finished an incredible season with 15 shutouts and being the champions of the IHSAA sectional and regional. The boys’ soccer team had similar success with a final record of 15-3 and winning their IHSAA sectional tournament in Mississinewa.
Cross country runner Peyton Engle made it to the state finals, with a blazing 16 minutes and 28 seconds, and placed 110th out of 250 runners. He ended up running the second fastest time for a 5K in Delta history.
November saw the death of Corporal Blake Reynolds. He was struck by a semi-truck while helping another semi driver on I-69. He was a Delta graduate, and his funeral was held within the Delta High School gymnasium. Many police officers from around the state came to this funeral, and some sporting events had to be cancelled or moved to other areas due to the funeral.
The cheerleaders ended up winning a state championship for the second year in a row. This time they won in game-day routine in the event that was hosted at Greenfield Central High School.
Other events that occurred were the end of the longest government shutdown in the U.S. and also the last penny minted before being discontinued by the federal government.
December was the last month of the first semester. The finals schedule was slightly different from years past. The main difference was that on the first day, Dec. 17, there were three different finals to be taken in one day.
Another tragedy struck within Delta High School as beloved teacher Mr. Kurt Griffis passed away unexpectedly on Dec. 17 during finals week. The death was sudden, and his missing presence is still felt around Delta. Mr. Ron Curry, a retired industrial engineering teacher, filled his spot for a few weeks.
Overall, 2025 was a pretty wild year with various ups and downs, twists and turns. It’s like riding The Beast at King’s Island. But one thing can be said for sure, it wasn’t boring. And if your year didn’t go as planned, that’s okay, because it’s a new one, and you have 365 days to make a difference.
