‘The Hammer’ Makes a Big Noise at Smith-Cotton Football Games
By Jordyn Thomas
S-C CAPS student and Townsquare Intern
Smith-Cotton High School has recently introduced a new burst of energy this season thanks to an original noisemaker created by a group of four high-school students in the Robotics and Queen City CAPS program.
The official name, “The Hammer” was chosen through the Queen City CAPS Facebook page where Sedalia residents were given the opportunity to suggest and vote for the best name.
The project began when Superintendent Dr. Todd Fraley took inspiration from Mizzou’s big bass drum, Big Mo, and made the idea more personal to Sedalia. Since Sedalia was originally a train town, he wanted the noise maker to be a train horn or whistle to show that heritage.
Work on the project started in January, when Dr. Fraley introduced the idea to Oliver Cunningham. Oliver accepted the challenge and recruited Jaimeson Severa and Nolan Frankum to help bring the concept to life. Nolan, as the new project lead, says “Rolling into this year Jaimeson Severa graduated, and Oliver moved on from the CAPS program, leaving himself on the project. I recruited Bridger Belnap, and we completed it in time for the second football game this season.”
While the full timeline stretches across eight months, the boys only worked on it for a total of 5-6 months. There weren’t many big roadblocks or struggles during the making of the project, however, Nolan explains ”The hardest challenge was identifying the parts needed for the horn…Other challenges we faced were attempting to meet deadlines and adjusting the fittings for easier operation.”
Bridger and Nolan during the process of putting the train whistle together.
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