March Madness Ends Outstanding Eagle Season
 The NorthTech Golden Eagle season ends during the "March Madness" basketball playoff quarter finals against Macon.
The North Tech Golden Eagles entered the Class 3 quarter finals riding high on its most successful regular season record (20-5), a Class 3 district basketball championship, and a thrilling come from behind post season win over Bowling Green. The Golden Eagles’ new found success raised enticing questions as to how far George Meritt’s girls would be able to drive into the post-season brackets. The Hannibal High School gymnasium was the location of the high stakes quarter finals game that would pit two schools with similar win-loss records, but which had never met or seen each other play all year. No doubt the importance of this March playoff round became clear to the Eagles as they entered Hannibal gymnasium and saw it packed with the largest crowd they had seen all year. Although the North Tech contingent of fans who drove 170 miles to be at the game was significant, it was clear that the overwhelming number of people filling the Hannibal High gymnasium were cheering for the squad from neighboring Macon county which lies only 60 miles away. Facing a 25 win Macon team in the midst of a sometimes thunderously loud crowd of over 2,000 Macon supporters would no doubt be a challenging test for the girls from North County.
After the opening tip-off, the Golden Eagles would lead just once in the very early part of the first quarter. However, once the Macon girls took over that lead, they would never relinquish it to the Golden Eagles again. Macon doubled the scoring output of the Golden Eagles in the first quarter of the game, pouring in 18 points to Tech’s 9. Brittany McNutt did much of the early scoring for North Tech, keeping the Eagles in the game until Macon began pulling away for good. Coach Merritt said that his girls were never able to get into their usual rhythm, as he watched Macon double the scoring output of his girls with a final game score of 59-28. It was a very different outcome for the North Tech girls who only three days previous pulled off an amazing 4th quarter come from behind victory against Bowling Green. Although the season did not end as coach Merritt had hoped, it was nevertheless an amazing season. The leading scorers for North Tech were Brittany Mcnutt (10 points), Angie Randall (8 points), and Brandi Riddle (7points), with Yelena Rosado adding 3. Though the post season came to an abrupt conclusion in Hannibal, coach Merritt is still very proud of his Golden Eagles and their many first time accomplishments during this 2009-2010 basketball season. With his team remaining mostly intact for next year, the expectations will be very high for the 2010-2011 basketball season. Congratulations to the Golden Eagles and coach Merritt on an exciting and outstanding season.
Rosado Among STLToday Area Athletes of the Week
 STLhighschoolSPORTS.com
March 10, 2010
A 5-foot-8 junior guard, Rosado poured in 33 points to lead the Golden Eagles to their first-ever district championship, a 58-50 triumph over host Whitfield. Rosado led the Golden Eagles in scoring in all three district-tournament games. Rosado, who was named all-tournament at Eureka and all-district, averages a team-best 13.9 points to go along with 5.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 3.2 steals.
aClick here read the STLToday article.
Golden Eagle Rally Lifts NorthTech to Playoff Victory
 STLhighschoolSPORTS.com
March 10, 2010
Class 3 sectional • Golden Eagles come back from 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to claim their first playoff victory in school history.
ST. CHARLES — The North County Tech girls are making history. The Golden Eagles trailed Bowling Green by 10 points early in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s Class 3 sectional basketball game at St. Charles West High School. But North Tech rallied, despite missing nine free throws in the final four minutes, and defeated Bowling Green 64-61 with an impressive late charge to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinal round. “We’re excited,” guard Angela Randall said. “This is Tech’s first time winning districts and going on. We have to bring our fans out to support us. Nobody really supports Tech like that — they think that Tech is just a small school. We have a lot of potential at our school. People just don’t know. We’re trying to put us on the map this year.”
North Tech (20-5) advances to play either California (23-2) or Macon (24-4) in the Class 3 quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Saturday at Hannibal High School. California is ranked third in Class 3; Macon is ranked 10th. “Hopefully we can make a run that can put us on the map,” coach George Merritt said. “North Tech has a hard time finding a map, so just to be on there would be nice.” The Golden Eagles were led by 21 points from guard Yelena Rosado and 19 from Randall, who gave North County Tech its first lead of the night with a steal and a layup with 1:32 remaining. Alarra Bill-Binder added 10. Bowling Green (24-4), ranked fifth in Class 3, led 13-11 after one quarter, 31-24 at halftime and by as many as 12 in the third quarter.
 “Their athleticism is so much better and they get after it a whole lot more than what we normally see,” Bowling Green coach Bobby Spoonster said. “As a group, they are just so much more athletic than we normally see on an everyday basis.” The Bobcats ran into trouble late in the fourth when their top two players — 6-foot-3 McDonald’s All-American and University of Texas signee Anne Marie Hartung (18 points) and forward Talia Brown (22 points) — fouled out in a two-minute span. With Hartung and Brown out, North Tech held Bowling Green to four points in the final two minutes. North Tech missed seven straight free throws at one point but scored seven points in the final two minutes to pull out the Golden Eagles’ first playoff victory in school history. “It would have been really sad to lose this game because of free throws, but we did some other big things that came through for us and some doors opened up at the end,” Merritt said. “Getting those two players out definitely helped.”.
aClick here read the STLToday:STLhighschoolSPORTS.com article.
Rosado Roasts Whitfield in District Title Game
By Brett Auten  Suburban Journals
March 10, 2010
NorthTech junior guard Yelena Rosado scores 33 points in the district title game.
You name a shot and Yelena Rosado had it in her repertoire Friday night. Aside from dunking it, the North Tech junior guard did everything else in the Golden Eagles' 58-50 Class 3, District 5 championship victory over Whitfield. Rosado exploded for 33 points and pulled down six rebounds. Now, with that momentum, North Tech (17-5) enters Wednesday's sectional showdown at St. Charles West against Bowling Green.
"It's been a good season but we're going to keep pushing and try to win a state championship," Rosado said. "We play good together, we have chemistry and like to talk." The 5-foot-7 Rosado, who is the North County Journal Athlete of the Week, can be as inconsistent as she is versatile. There have been stretches throughout the season when she has scored four, six, eight points. Prior to Friday's blowup, she was averaging 12 points a game. But coach George Merritt has always been able to count on her to play well at any position. "I can put her anywhere from one to five and she is going to do a great job," Merritt said. "It's about where we need her in a particular game. She goes where we need her." That fact was on display against the Warriors. After a putrid first quarter, the Golden Eagles were down 9-1. "It seemed like there was an invisible person up there knocking the shot out," Merritt said. "Once we got into a rhythm, things kind of fell into our favor."
In the second quarter is when Rosado heated up. Trailing 13-5 with 5:26 to play in the first half, Rosado scored eight unanswered points, including two 3-pointers to give the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game. "She is a phenomenal player. I told her before the game, a true player wins games at the right time," Merritt said. "She has had games where she has scored two buckets. I told her I needed her tonight." Tyler Iuten's layup at the buzzer put Whitfield up 23-21 but Rosado had scored 17 of her team's 20 points in the period. "We were stopping everybody but she just hit a wave and got hot," Whitfield coach Melanie Marcy said. "She is a heckuva player but you can't let one person score that many points. She caught fire."
Rosado started the third with a pretty fake pass and layup and followed an empty Warrior possession with a nice baseline bucket to make it 27-23. With an 18-13 run, North Tech went into the 4th quarter up 39-36. "At first, we were a little sluggish but we picked it up. We came into the locker room and talked about what we needed to do and came out and did it," Rosado said. "Once one player scored it broke the seal on the basket and we all flowed." Rosado finished the night 12-of-20, including 3-of-6 from the 3-point line. She also drained six of eight free throws. "She came through when we needed her the most," Merritt said. "She can do great things at the right time."
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Golden Eagles Win First Ever District Championship
 STLhighschoolSPORTS.com
March 5, 2010
The visiting North Technical Golden Eagles overcome the host Whitfield Warriors 58 to 50 in the Girls Basketball District Finals.
The North County Tech girls basketball team overcame a wobbly start to win its first ever district championship over host Whitfield 58-50 on Friday. Junior guard Yelena Rosado poured in 33 points and the No. 2 seed Golden Eagles, who are just in their fifth year of existence improve to 17-5. "This is big for our school. We just go hard," North County Tech Coach George Merritt said. "Tonight, just had a better team. They're not as good as we are. They could have won the game because (Whitfield coach Melanie Marcy) made some great adjustments with what she had to work with."
North Tech led 39-36 to start the fourth quarter but a quick 7-2 run, keyed by a three-point play by senior forward Alarra Gill Binder gave the Golden Eagles some cushion. Whitfield's standout freshman Stephanie Anderson pulled her team back with four unanswered points. But North Tech was proficient enough from the free throw line, making 5-of-8 down the stretch. "At first we were a little sluggish but we picked it up. We came into the locker room and talked about we needed to do and came out and did it," Rosado said. "Once one player scored it broke the seal on the basket and we all flowed."
 The No. 1 seeded Warriors, who started two freshmen and a sophomore finished the year 13-7. "I just think there were a lot of crucial moments and whoever made the last move was going to take it," Whitfield coach Melanie Marcy said. "We still had a shot until the end. It was just some big, athletic play with three or four minutes left that turned the tide their way." With Anderson leading the way, Whitfield led 9-1 at the end of the first quarter. "It seemed like there was an invisible person up there knocking the shot out," Merritt said. "Once we got into a rhythm things kind of fell into our favor."
In the second is when Rosado heated up. Trailing 13-5 with 5:26 to play, Rosado scored eight unanswered points, including two 3-pointers to give the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game. "She is a phenomenal player. I told her before the game, a true player wins games at the right time," Merritt said. "She has had games where she has scored two buckets. I told her I needed her tonight." Tyler Iuten's layup at the buzzer put Whitfield up 23-21 but Rosado had scored 17 of her team's 20 points in the period. Rosado started the third with pretty fake pass and layup and followed an empty Warrior possession with a nice baseline bucket to make it 27-23.
After Whitfield tied the game at 32 on a drive by Tyler Ituen, Brandi Riddle nailed a 3-pointer and Angela Randall's field goal put the Golden Eagles up 37-32 with 1:35 left in the quarter. With an 18-13 run, North County Tech went in to the 4th quarter up 39-36. Randall finished with10 points and 14 rebounds.
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Students Participate in Achievement Days 2010 Event
 On March 1st-2nd North Technical TREND members, Health Science students, and Culinary Arts students reached out to students with special needs in the 5th annual Achievement Days 2010 Event. In cooperation with the Special School District Character Plus Program, over eighty North Tech students served in a variety of roles helping to make this a day to remember for special needs students in both our cooperating schools as well as our SSD buildings. The theme of the Achievement Days event was to “Pave the Way for 4-H”. 4-H is a youth organization with the stated mission of "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development." The four focus areas of 4-H are head, heart, hands, and health. This is embodied by the 4-H Pledge which states "I Pledge my Head to clearer thinking, my Heart to greater loyalty, my Hands to larger service, and my Health to better living, for my club, community, my country, and my world." (4-H.org, 2009). Some of the roles carried out by our North Tech students at this event include exercise routines, pillow making, scrap-booking, puppet making, a food toss, a blood pressure measuring table, a food education table, and many other hands-on activities. It was a wonderful opportunity for North Technical students to develop leadership qualities and to enrich their lives by helping special needs children. Students found that reaching out to others can be a rewarding, gratifying, and enjoyable experience.
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