By MACK NELSON
Moapa Valley Progress
Ethan Seely is the 2015 Student Body President at Moapa Valley High School. This is actually his first year participating in the Student Government at the high school, although he helped out during school activities quite a bit last year.
“I love getting involved in the school,” Ethan said about his experience in Student Council, “I hear a lot of people say that they don’t like going to high school, but I loved it, and I’m really going to miss it. I love being part of the community and being part of something. Getting involved was just a lot of fun.”
Ethan played a variety of sports during his time at MVHS. His freshman year, Ethan wrestled, and played football and baseball. The next year, he dropped football in favor of tennis, but still played baseball and wrestled. His senior year, Ethan joined the swim team.
He has also played in the band for his entire high school career. Ethan plays trombone in the concert, pep, marching, and jazz bands. This year, Ethan became the third member of his family to earn the John Phillip Sousa award, after his older brother and sister.
Ethan was awarded his Eagle Scout award this year, after finishing his project, a Frisbee-golf course at the Overton Park.
“This community brought me up and made me who I am,” he said, “I loved finding a way to give back.”
During the summer, Ethan is going to work in Arizona. Then he plans on attending BYU Idaho for a semester before going on his LDS mission. He wants to return to college and eventually pursue a career in marketing and communications.
Ethan has mixed feelings about leaving. “I want new experiences, and I’m excited to see new things, but this place has been good to me.”
“I’ll definitely come back to visit!” he finished off with a laugh.
Sports are a big part of Dani Elle Russo’s life. Not only does she participate in both basketball and softball, she has also competed in rodeo since she was only three years old.
Dani Elle has played basketball on the Moapa Valley basketball team for four years, and made varsity in her sophomore year. She has played basketball for nine years total as a power forward.
Her time in softball was much the same. Dani Elle has been a member of the MVHS softball team since her freshman year. And, like basketball, she made the varsity team by the time she was a sophomore. She has been a first baseman and catcher for eight years.
In her free time, Dani Elle says that she spends a lot of time training for her sports. The time has definitely paid off, as she has received several scholarship offers from multiple colleges for both softball and basketball. These include Yellowstone Christian College in Billings, Montana for basketball and McCook in McCook, Nebraska for softball.
Most of her time not taken by sports and school goes to the rodeo. Dani Elle competes in many events in rodeo including barrels, poles, goats, breakaway, and team roping.
She has been very successful in the youth rodeo, and she became the Clark County rodeo queen this year.
“Rodeo is different from every other sport,” she said. “Instead of another person being your teammate you have your horse. You spend countless hours late at night riding, perfecting whatever needs to be worked on. Then, when you go out to a rodeo and win, it feels great. There is just something about turning three barrels or roping a steer that’ll get your heart pounding. It’s a great adrenaline rush.”
Over the summer, Dani Elle plans on training as much as possible for her sports in college, and participating in as many rodeos as she can.
In the fall, she will take one of her scholarship offers and go to college. She wants to have a career in either veterinary medicine, or physical therapy.
