Corona del Sol
November 13, 2009 Vol. 36, No. 3
u l f w e N ona r o C
s t c e f n i ents d u st
1001 E. Knox Road Tempe, AZ • 85284
Corona administration offers ideas to help absences BY KELSEY LAWSON Life & Times Editor
ERIN BLEVINS
The H1N1 or “swine” flu has been affecting high school students at a higher rate than normally seen during the regular flu season. Corona experienced an increase of student absences for a time, but the number has dropped off again. According to Registrar Holly Secor, Corona is operating as normal. Teachers are not giving special concessions to students out with illnesses, although there are special circumstances given to students enrolled in dual enrollment classes. Students enrolled in those classes are allowed fewer absences to remain getting dual enrollment credit. A student would not be dropped from a class due to being sick. “We have rules, but we work with people,” Secor said. “We look into absences.” Teachers at Corona are noticing an increase in the number of students absent from their classes. “Before fall break I had ten to 12 students out in some classes,” Social Studies teacher Cheryl Jannuzzi said. See ABSENCES
Swine flu thrives Sickness, most prevalently the flu, is spreading around Corona, and students this year have been getting sick more so than in previous years. “There’s been an increase in young people in influenzalike symptoms across the Valley,” school nurse Sandra Young said. According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, 1,159 cases of the flu were confirmed from the week of Oct. 11 to Oct. 17: 471 of those people were diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu. The swine flu made headlines during the spring of this year when a widespread panic swept across the world. Swine flu is extremely
BY SARAH DINELL Opinions Editor
contagious, much more contagious than the regular flu, and at the time it was thought to be extremely dangerous. Some schools even temporarily closed down when a student contracted swine flu, like Chandler schools Tarwater Elementary School and Sylvia Encinas Elementary S c h o o l . However, since then, swine flu has been proven to be a
News Former Corona student, Lauren Tamburrelli found guilty Page 2
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normal strain of flu that can be deadly, but death is not common. Symptoms of swine flu include a fever, chills, runny nose, sore throat, tiredness, muscle aches, headaches and vomiting. The unusual aspect of swine flu is it’s survival in warmer temperatures, unlike the regular flu. “Typically students get sick from influenza starting in November, but this year they started getting sick in the summer,” Young said. “That’s what so different about the H1N1 virus.” At Corona, there are several different types of sicknesses present, from the common cold to more serious strains of the flu. “Some people are being diagnosed with the flu, (they have) coughs, sore throats, and that kind of thing,” Young said. See SICKNESS
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INSIDE Sunrise Sports
Corona diver also synchronized swimmer Page 8
KAELI LAW
Opinions Keith Wagner, journalist or critic? Page 6
2 • News
CdS Sunrise • November 13, 2009
SICKNESS: Influenza spreads through Corona campus CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Senior Caitlyn Desola was one student who had flu-like symptoms. Desola was sick over a weekend, but she still missed two days of school. “It was sad because I’m a senior, and I had to miss the choir concert on Saturday because I was sick,” Desola said. Sophomore Tadessa Smith was also sick with the flu. However, Smith became sick the Monday of fall break and her first day back at school was Friday, Oct. 23. Since Smith was sick for so long and
missed four days of school, she has a lot of homework to make up. “I’m still behind right now,” Smith said. “I still have a lot of tests to make up and stuff.” As we head into winter, the number of sick people is only going to increase. Young’s advice for staying healthy is to practice good hand washing, use lots of soap, eat good food, stay home when sick and keep hands away from eyes and nose. By practicing these techniques, students have a greater chance of staying healthy and avoiding sickness.
ABSENCES: Students miss school due to increase in illness CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
However, the increase in absences has not resulted in teachers being more lenient with students who have been sick. “I follow the normal district policy as long as the absences were excused,” Jannuzzi said. In an effort to keep classrooms a healthy environment, Principal Susan
Edwards bought hand sanitizer for any teacher who requested it in their classroom. Some teachers took matters into their own hands and had students bring in boxes of tissues and bottles of hand sanitizer. Secor advises students to keep in touch with their teachers if they miss school. “Be sick, get well, and face your make up work when you return,” Secor said.
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Tamburrelli convicted, Godson takes deal BY JESSICA HYDUKE Editor in Chief
After a three-day trial, former Corona student Lauren Tamburrelli, 19, was found guilty of two felonies and a misdemeanor on Nov. 5 at Mesa’s Maricopa County Superior Court. In March, then-seniors Tamburrelli and Laurin Godson, 18, called in false bomb threats, causing the school to close on Friday, March 20. The girls had created this plot because Godson had a court date that day and only had one more unexcused absence remaining. Wanting to use it for “senior ditch day,” Godson called the school and claimed she was being held against her will and being forced to call in the threat. The call had come in after a handwritten note was given to the administration with threats stating that “large parts of the school will be destroyed.” Six days after the call, on March 26, Godson was arrested at school and Tamburrelli at her home in Chandler after students had come forward with critical information that connected the two to the hoax.
Godson
Tamburrelli
Godson pleaded guilty to false reporting, a class 6 felony, two weeks ago and will be sentenced on Nov. 25. Tamburrelli will be sentenced in December for hoax, false reporting to law enforcement, and interference with an educational institution. The interference with an educational institution charge carries a minimum sentence of six months in prison and the hoax charges, a class 4 felony, comes with a minimum sentence of one and a half years. “Be careful of the choices you make,” Assistant Principal Dan Nero said. “There can be some huge consequences because of your actions. If you make bad choices, be prepared to deal with the issues that come of it.”
Occupancy signs cause confusion BY JANAE MARI Editor in Chief
As construction at Corona nears an end, signs have been added to classrooms that have raised several questions among staff and students. Maximum occupancy signs were posted in every classroom to reflect the number of people that should be permitted in each room in order to keep a consistent amount of fresh air. When the signs were first posted, some believed the numbers reflected the maximum amount of people allowed per room according to fire code. This was the method McCarthy Construction chose to use because the Energy Management System (EMS) was not operational at the beginning of the project. “My initial thought was that it was for fire code, so I asked,” math teacher Deb Faber said. “I was very concerned for the safety of my students and the safety of myself.” The building code requires that all buildings meet certain minimum standards, such as fire exiting and fresh air intake. “When we designed the fresh-air system that is now in place, we had two options for setting the amount of fresh air required,” district project manager Jack
Hofmann said. “The first method was to predetermine the number of occupants to design for and to post that number in each room.” The second method was to provide an EMS that would track the amount of fresh air needed at any time during the time of occupancy in classrooms. As part of the new heating and cooling system, McCarthy has installed the ability to monitor the CO2 levels in all classrooms, which allows there to be high quality fresh air in all parts of the building. “This allows for the occupancy of any room to be increased because it is monitored and tracked safely,” Hofmann said. “The current system automatically increases or decreases the amount of outside fresh air depending on the number of students and the amount of activity that is occurring in the room.” Even with this knowledge, senior Marlene Garcia is still uneasy. “I think its funny,” Garcia said. “We spent all this money on a new system and it seems like we’re still not following rules. If the machine could regulate itself there wouldn’t be a need for signs.” Despite a lack of communication about the signs, Faber doesn’t blame the administration. “I don’t think they intentionally didn’t tell us,” Faber said. “I don’t think they knew.”
November 13, 2009 • CdS Sunrise
Life & Times • 3
Song dedicated to student’s family after loss
Photo Courtesy of KEN BROWN
All five choirs performed the song “Will You be There?’ together at the Oct. 3 choir show. The song was originally intended to be dedicated to the late pop-star Michael Jackson, but when news of the death of sophomore Ali Blaser’s father on the second night of the show, they dedicated the song to Blaser and her family. BY PRESLIE HIRSCH Staff Writer
It was an idea started by senior Adam Burriel to remember the death of celebrity Michael Jackson that would ultimately bring 250 choir students together to move a crowd to tears. At the fall choir concert on October 3rd a song dedication originally intended for Michael Jackson was instead made to sophomore Ali Blaser and her family, whose father recently passed away. Burriel was the mind behind the song and set-up to make it work. The choir teacher, Greg Hebert said, “He (Burriel) picked the song and planned out a way that all five chorus groups could be a part of singing the song ‘Will You be There?’ together.” “It’s such a meaningful song. I thought that everyone would get it, and just make them open up their hearts.” Burriel said. All went well the first night of the concert, and the song dedication went to Michael Jackson just as it was planned. Then the following day, news spread of the tragic loss of
Ali’s father, and it was decided that the second night of the concert, the dedication would be changed and would go out to the Blaser family. This would be only the second time in Mr. Hebert’s 16 year career at Corona that a song has been dedicated to a student. “The whole stage was filled in the auditorium (during the dedication song for the Blaser’s). And, all of Ali’s friends were hugging her and she was crying.” Hebert said. He later went on to describe that a lot of emotion and support could be sensed from the audience. Many people got their tissues out and sniffles were heard throughout the entire auditorium. “The song (‘Will You be There?’) is very hard to memorize. The students were having trouble and I was yelling at them like, you have to get this.” Hebert said. “When they heard it was going to be dedicated to Ali, I think it really gave them the motivation and the extra drive to memorize the words.” Ali Blaser is very active in a lot of activities at Corona. She is in her second year of choir, and also participates in dance, cheer, and student council. Her comment to the choir was, “I just want to say thank you. Thank you so much.”®
4 • Life & Times
CdS Sunrise • November 13, 2009
Search S❂l
Ahmed Soussi
Graphic by Kiwi Conway
Corona junior travels to Portugal for piano master classes BY ERIC TILLEY Staff Writer
This collection of songs is really just a random compilation of how I was feeling over a three-day period. Thanks to my procrastination, it has helped create a wide variety of what I’ve listened to since I was a young kid. It has an overall laid back feel with a couple of flavorful songs to mix things up. Unfortunately, I could only choose ten songs to try and impress you all with but then I realized that nothing will impress you, Corona. Such a tough crowd… but I hope you enjoy it for what it’s worth.
BY LUKE SAMUELS | Sports Editor
Sunrise Staff Playlist
This past summer, junior Karen Nguyen traveled to Óbidos, Portugal, for La Semana Internacional de Piano de Óbidos (SIPO), a series of prestigious master classes for pianists. “I was really looking forward to it,” Nguyen said. “This was definitely one of the biggest things I’ve done with piano.” In order to prepare for SIPO, Nguyen spent a significant amount of time practicing. Even though she has already been playing piano for about 12 years, Nguyen felt that she needed to prepare as much as possible to make the most out of this experience. “I usually practice for about four or five hours each
day,” Nguyen said. “It takes up a lot of time, but it’s definitely worth it. All of the time I spent practicing really paid off for me at SIPO.” On average, Nguyen and the other pianists at SIPO spent five to eight hours playing piano each day. This was essential for the students to apply the concepts that they covered in their classes. “One of the most interesting things I learned was how to project ideas in different ways,” Nguyen said. “It’s still a work in progress, but I have already improved a lot.” Nguyen was one of the youngest students at SIPO this year, as most of her peers were in their 20’s or 30’s. For Nguyen, this was slightly intimidating, but she eventually realized that she had enough skill to keep up with the group. “I was confident when we had to perform, but it was still a little scary,” Nguyen said. “Everything went well
though, so I was really happy in the end. It was a lot of fun to be around so much talent.” In addition to SIPO, Nguyen has been recognized for her abilities in several other events that she has attended. To name a few, Nguyen was a finalist at the World Piano Pedagogy Conference; she won a scholarship to Adamant Music School; and she won the Best Mozart award in a 2005 competition. “It’s really exciting when you work hard for a competition and it pays off,” Nguyen said. “It makes you even more motivated to keep going and try to do even bigger things.” In the future, Nguyen hopes to continue studying music and playing piano. “I want to eventually get into the Manhattan School of Music, or maybe a school in Germany,” Nguyen said. “It’s going to be difficult, but I think that I can do it.”
Corona’s Got Talent
Give Me One Good Reason Blink 182
Fell in Love Without You Motion City Soundtrack
Let Me Roll It Paul McCartney
Thank You (Falettinme Be Myself) Sly & The Family Stone
End
Seconhand Serenade
Sunshine
Lupe Fiasco
String Bean Bearhug
Making it Come Active My Favorite Highway
Ain’t No Other Man Christina Aguilera
Lucky
Jason Mraz & Colbie Callait
JANAE MARI
Irene Ashu, Ben Tsang, Christing Tang and Brandon Powell pose while performing in the Coronaʼs Got Talent show, sponsored by March of Dimes. To see more photos of the event, go to cdssunrise.com.
Life and Times • 5
November 13, 2009 • CdS Sunrise
Thanksgiving Traditions
Corona style
BY SARAH DINELL Opinions Editor
The weather is cooling off, and the holiday season is quickly approaching, beginning with Thanksgiving. For most students, Thanksgiving means eating too much food and watching football all day. However, some students have special traditions that their families participate in each year. Several families and friends celebrate Thanksgiving together, like juniors Debby Chiang and Katherine Li’s families. Chiang and Li’s families have a Thanksgiving party every year. “Every year, Katherine and I go to an Asian party and we eat lots of
food and watch a movie,” Chiang said. “There’s Asian, American and Mexican food there.” Other families are going out of town for Thanksgiving. Senior Sam Breiten is going to San Diego over Thanksgiving break. “We’ll go to the beach, and probably go to a restaurant to eat,” Breiten said. However, some people are tired of eating turkey year after year. This year they want to try something different. Junior Meghan Morrow’s family falls under this category. Morrow and her family are devi-
How
you
can help
ating from turkey to a radically different meal. “We’re going to eat spaghetti and meatballs this year,” junior Meghan Morrow said. Still other families are eating a traditional Thanksgiving meal, like junior Justin Zeiers’ family. “I’m eating dinner with my family,” Zeiers said. “We’re eating turkey.” Every family celebrates Thanksgiving a little differently, making it unique to themselves. These special traditions are important to every family, and help keep Thanksgiving special. ®
• Have you ever considered becoming a bell ringer? Volunteer sign up is at www.ringbells.org. • The Salvation Army also needs servers and set-up help at the Wyndam Phoenix Hotel for their Thanksgiving dinner and other programs. For more information on those opportunities, visit www.phoenixsa.volunteerfirst.org. • Perhaps one of the easiest and most direct ways to give is through St. Mary’s and donate a frozen turkey or another holiday related food item during St. Mary’s “Super Saturday” on Nov. 21 from 9 am to 1 pm. • For volunteering opportunities all year round, check out www.volunteermatch.org Compiled by Mary Kate Eckles
Volunteering is being thankful BY MARY KATE ECKLES Staff Writer
Now that most of the Halloween candy has been eaten, it’s time to begin planning for Thanksgiving. Like most holidays around the world, Thanksgiving’s true traditions have been muddled by corporate exploitation and advertising. Do people really need a 25-pound turkey and pilgrim and Indian hats to celebrate Thanksgiving? Could the pilgrims and Indians at Plymouth Rock really have even found a natural 25-pound turkey? To find the true meaning of Thanksgiving, look no further than the actual word. Thanksgiving day is set aside for the giving of thanks. “Especially around Thanksgiving, volunteering helps you appreciate everything you have and how you got to where you are,” said Jayelee Dorris, co-sponsor of National Honor Society and regular volunteer since 1992. Also, “by helping people, you give them something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving,” said freshman Alexis Doll, another regular volunteer. Volunteer help is needed more since this is the second year America’s been in the deep end of a recession. Even if you’re a bit short-changed this Thanksgiving, Dorris said, “You should still give. You never know when you’ll be in their shoes.” For as long as most people can probably remember there have been Salvation Army volunteers ringing a bell outside grocery stores during the holiday season. They’re part of the Salvation Armies “Red Kettle” campaign that was started in 1891 in San Francisco and is now used all around the world. That little bit of spare change people drop in goes to the fund that feeds four-and-a-half million families on Thanksgiving and Christmas. A little bit of change from everyone adds up to a lot. “What they (the homeless) need is someone who’s not going to treat them differently, or judge them because they’re getting their Thanksgiving dinner from the Salvation Army,” Dorris said.®
Have more time for texting, um, studying. When you ride the bus or light rail instead of driving to school, not only will you find yourself with extra cash (saving gas money, genius) but with extra free time too. On the way to and from school you can catch a few z’s, text with friends and if you have to, even finish your homework. It’s like a study hall on wheels, except we’ll let you LOL with your friends. OMG. In Tempe Tempe, people between the ages of 6 6-18 18 can ride for free with the Tempe Youth Transit Pass Pass.* To get one one, stop by the Tempe Transit Store at 200 E. Fifth St. with your parents. And to find bus routes, bikeways and light rail stops all around Tempe, visit tempe.gov/tim or call (480) 858-2350. *Must be a Tempe resident to qualify.
bus · bike · walk · rail
6 • Opinions
Grading Unfair
CdS Sunrise • November 13, 2009
CDSPN causes controversy POINT
WADE HOOKE Managing Editor
The current system used across the nation to judge prospective college students is one of trickery and injustice. It’s basically made of three elements: GPA, rank and SAT/ACT scores. Two of these are unfair. GPA (grade point average) is a cumulative measurement of semester grades a student receives. This tool can be changed to weighted GPA to take into account any honors and AP classes a student takes; however, this variation is rarely used by colleges. So a student who pushes himself and takes a rigorous course schedule can have a lower GPA than a slacking student who takes easy classes and never studies. Fortunately, the class rank can make up for this. It is a point system in which an B in an honors class is equivalent to a A in a regular class. However, the rank has a flaw. In the TUHSD it collects points for “core classes” first. Each student has 24 spots to earn points. First the core classes are added up, then any open spots are filled by weighted and regular non-core classes. The flaw is in the calculation. Core classes are defined differently between the NCAA and the Arizona Board of Education. For example, the NCAA does not consider arts core classes, while the School Board does. Very few people understand the calculation including some vital Corona staff members. Neither the GPA nor the class rank take into consideration the greatest variable: the teachers. How is it justifiable that two students taking the same class can have different teachers, tests, assignments, etc., and still be held to the same limitations of judgment? While there is no way to make all the teachers the same, we can easily make the system force more accordance. I propose a new system, similar to the current, but altered to be more objective. First, change GPA to FESA (Final Exam Score Average). Rather than stacking their grades during the semester, students would have to learn the material. However, these exams would need to become unified. It sounds difficult, but it would just be making a bunch of AP exams. Then, with the exams unified, high schools could make both the exams and the students’ grades available to the colleges. The final change would be to the traditional letter grading. Do away with it. Instead, use a system offered by Brown University, in which students can choose to receive a grade of satisfactory or no credit. This would make it easier for the students to stress less about the semester grade and focus more on learning the material for the exam. While I am sure this plan has its flaws and many people will disagree with it, I feel it would be beneficial. Throughout my high school career, I feel I have learned very little. And after three-plus years, I have found the cause. I have always been more interested in getting the grade than learning the material.®
ERIC SMITH Staff Writer
When senior Keith Wagner came on to [cdstv]’s sports segment, “CDSPN,” earlier last month people expected him to deliver a summary of Corona’s athletics. He then did something totally unexpected; he went and called out the football team in front of the entire student body. “I was super mad,” senior linebacker Kyle Benson said. “I was confused why a fellow student was bagging on us so bad.” I couldn’t agree more with Kyle. I myself am a member of the football team, and when I saw the segment in question I was shocked with the things he said. Wagner even went so far as to critique the fine points of individual units on the team including the defense’s tackling and the offensive line’s blocking. That is a privilege that should be left to the coaching staff, not a student. “He had no right to say what he said since he has never been on a football field,”
COUNTERPOINT
STEPHEN KULURIS Online Editor
Journalism is the art of conveying news to the public via media. This includes newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. Though journalism has much freedom to research and write stories, it still has regulations in order to keep the public’s trust. Some of these rules make sure that a piece of journalism is accurate and unbiased. In newspaper, you can’t put your own opinion into a piece of news because you are supposed to be reporting the facts, not analyzing them. However, there is a certain section dedicated to stories that can have the writer’s opinion in it. That’s this page, or the opinions page. The writer can insert their own opinion in the piece,
Benson said. Senior Ben Jimenez said he was most upset by the fact that Wagner “pointed out the mistakes that we already knew we needed to improve on.” The team members knew they had made mistakes and were trying to improve upon them. However, Wagner crossed a line because he spoke as if he were a coach. He seems to have forgotten that he is a student, not a coach. He also spoke as if he were a reporter for “ESPN,” and picked the play apart as if the team were professional athletes. The truth is the players are out there because they love the game and want to be there. “They are high school student athletes,” Coach Cory Nenaber said. “They aren’t getting payed to play, and there’s enough negative in this world that a school publication should focus on the positives.” Wagner also didn’t seem to consider how the football players, his friends and
fellow students, would feel. Since Wagner is a Cross Country runner, he should have considered how he would’ve felt if a member of the football team had gone on air and had pointed out flaws in the cross country team’s running technique that they had already heard multiple times from their coach. Since Wagner’s segment the football team has beaten both Desert Vista and highly ranked Basha, and are two wins away from a playoff berth. Senior quarterback Chase Cartwright said regarding the team and their feelings now, “Our team has moved on.”®
hence the name. The rules of journalism can change from section to section in a newspaper, or broadcast to broadcast on TV. The differences in broadcasting regulations differ from ESPN to Fox News. ESPN analyzes certain games and says what went wrong for a certain team. The same game displayed on Fox News would only state the score and highlights of the game. Some people were quite offended by a recent piece of journalism that was broadcast over Corona’s CDSPN. Senior Keith Wagner wrote and narrated this piece about the football team and the recent losses it had endured. Some looked at this the wrong way saying he “called out” certain players rather than analyzed the game. Because of this, Wagner had received many comments from various players about how it was totally uncalled for and was definitely not appreciated. But why are they so mad? It is a piece of journalism. He did absolutely nothing wrong. He pointed out the facts of the game and analyzed what has been going wrong for our team. And for that he deserves to receive negative comments? Wagner put
in plenty of time for the broadcast making sure his facts were straight, and he did it without an error. There was nothing unfactual about the broadcast. I was faced with a comment in an argument about this broadcast that said he should have considered how he would have felt if one of the members of the football team had gone on air and criticized the team. But being on the cross-country team along with Wagner, I would not be alarmed. We run in order to try and bring home a city, region or state title. We enjoy all the support that we can get, and have an open mind to what went wrong in a race. So I would simply take in what was said and keep it in mind the next time I race. Wagner’s comments about the football team were part of an analytical piece of journalism, which he has done many times before. It is shameful that some took it the wrong way and gave the reporter threatening comments. Wagner had completed his job of reporting about the game and for that he gets flack? I think it was a piece of journalism and the complaints about it showed just how foolish people can be.®
NISHAT BHIYUAN
Sunrise Staff
1001 E. Knox Road • Tempe, AZ • 85284
Editor in Chief | Jessica Hyduke & Janae Mari
Managing Editor | Wade Hooke News Editor Opinions Editor Life & Times Editor Special Projects Sports Editor Photo Editors
Digital Editor Online Sports Editor Copy/Briefs Editor Business Manager
Tatum Hartwig Sarah Dinell Kelsey Lawson Bree Purdy Luke Samuels Erin Blevins & John Magana Kiwi Conway Alex Bernal Kaitie Edel Bailey Wiegand
Staff Writers Photographers Cartoonist Adviser
Online Editor | Stephen Kuluris Leah Daley, Mary Kate Eckles, Preslie Hirsch Eric Smith, Ahmed Soussi, Eric Tilley, Anthony Valderrama, Kathryn Valentine Alex Bernal, Kiwi Conway, Kaeli Law, Kathryn Valentine Nishat Bhuiyan, Alyssa Gerwig Kris Urban
The Sunrise is an open forum for student expression and welcomes letters on all matters. The staff reserves the right to edit as required. All materials submitted for publication must be signed. Views and opinions contained herein are those of the author and not considered to be the opinions of the Sunrise staff, the adviser, the Corona del Sol administration or the the Tempe Union High School District. Unsigned editorials reflect the views of the editorial board. Some material courtesy of American Society of Newspaper Editors/MCT Campus High School Newspaper Service.
Opinions • 7
November 13, 2009 • CdS Sunrise
Recruiting, pt. 2: the visits One year BY KELSEY LAWSON Life & Times Editor By this September, I thought I had the whole recruiting process figured out. I was confident in the five schools I had chosen to take visits to. My five official visits that I was allowed to take per NCAA regulations were to Louisiana State University, James Madison University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Iowa and DePaul University. I was sure of which school fit into which spot on my favorites list. I started my visits under the impression that a school would immediately click and everything would perfectly fall into place. That was not the case. Many people told me that the visits were the most important part of this process. Without meeting the girls on the team, seeing the campus and watching a practice, I would have no way of knowing what life was like at the school. Even if I had already picked favorites in my head, I still had to take a visit to see if that was what I really wanted. These visits proved to be a great learning experience for me. I am a naturally shy person, who tends to stick to people I know rather than go out and meet new people. On these visits, however, I knew nobody. I had to learn how to show my true personality in two days, rather than wait months to come out of my shell. I had two days to show the coaches and the teams who I am, so they could decide whether I would fit in at their school. Once my visits were over, it was all in the coaches’ hands. They would either decide to offer me a scholarship or not. Overall, my first visit did not go as planned. I had gone into it with a closed mind, already having made up my mind about the school. The visit was to my then favorite school, LSU. I headed into the visit knowing nothing more than that I liked the head coach. I knew nothing about how the entire school revolves around the football games and tailgating for those games. I didn’t know their tennis facilities were not what I was looking for. I didn’t know the entire team and I had very different personalities. I also didn’t know just how big the campus was. My feelings about LSU changed drastically. But I am very glad I took that visit. Had I not, I would have not known any of these things. I would not have learned to keep an open mind and not form favorites for my remaining visits. I learned that having a closed mind would have disastrous results. During my first visit, I knew I was very shy. I observed more than I should have. I asked hardly any questions. I probably did not make a very good impression. The whole “being outgoing in front of people I
don’t know” deal was something I picked up as I continued to take visits. By my second visit to JMU in Harrisonburg, Vir., I was starting to be more vocal. I made an effort to ask more questions. I can’t say I did it alone, though. For this visit, I had another recruit with me, a girl I knew from playing national tournaments. I felt a lot more at home at JMU than I did at LSU, and it quickly rose on my list. It is amazing what an open mind can do. By the third visit, I was definitely getting the hang of this. I went to UK in Lexington, KY next. This visit I had no choice but to go into with an open mind. I had never even met the head or assistant coach. I had not talked to them for months before my visit, and I hardly knew anything about the school or the tennis program. But what I found out, I loved. From the moment I saw the tennis courts, I knew I loved the school. UK had by far the best tennis facility of any school I had seen. Their outdoor courts were set up like a country club, plus they had indoor
wanted to feel comfortable with my future coach. Instead of going to Iowa, I took a visit to the University of San Francisco on a whim. The coach emailed me out of the blue and offered a visit, so I took it. I never thought the decision through. It ended up being a weird visit. I ended up leaving USF feeling that I wanted to continue to explore my options. I wanted to wait a little bit longer to make my decision. I had one last chance to look at a school. By the time I left for Chicago, I was a pro at taking visits. I knew what questions to ask, what I should see on campus and what I was looking for in a school. I was even prepared for the cold and rainy weather. DePaul was the right size. The girls on the team described all the athletes at the school as a family. The coach was dedicated and intense. Practice was efficient and loud. Every five minutes, one of the girls or a coach would be shouting, “Let’s go, Demons!” or “Let’s go, girls!”
ALYSSA GERWIG
courts on campus, something no other school I was looking at had. The coach ended up being one of the nicest and most intense coaches I talked to. I was looking for a coach who wanted to improve me and take my game to the next level and that coach wanted a player willing to take that jump. The weird part about my UK visit was the coach asked me if it would be possible for me to graduate early. The coach wanted to know if I might be willing to come to school in January. I was shocked that anyone would ask me if I could graduate early to come to college. I told the coach I would look into it. I was keeping all of my options open. After that bombshell of a revelation, the process changed dramatically. I received a message from a friend that the coach at Iowa had resigned. This was news to me. My visit to Iowa was scheduled for the following week and I had been planning on going. I ended up calling the athletic director, after the coach never answered my calls, to find out what was going on. It turned out that the coach had indeed left, but I was still able to take the visit. I did not end up taking a visit to Iowa. I felt that if I didn’t know who the coach would be, I should not waste a visit on the school. I
The girls acted like a team and a family. They went everywhere together and enjoyed each other’s company. They lived together and ate together. It was the sense of family and community I had been looking for. The campus itself was also a good fit. Everything was close by. The tennis courts at DePaul, despite being off campus, were a closer walk from the dorms compared to the walk from the dorms at UK to their oncampus courts. The dorms at DePaul were apartment style with full kitchens and living rooms. They were also just a 10-15 minute train ride from the heart of Chicago. Plus, being on a quarter system, their winter break started at Thanksgiving. I loved the possibility of spending Thanksgiving at home, rather than in a dorm. DePaul was the first visit where the coach told me the girls spoke very highly of me and were impressed by the questions I asked. He would not tell me where I fell on his list of recruits, so I have only one option left. I have to wait. I have to wait now on five different schools to make up their minds. Now that I am done with my visits, all that is left to do is be patient. I have done my part. It is up to the coaches now to do theirs.®
later
BY MARY KATE ECKLES Staff Writer It’s sad to think it was only a year ago that I could actually sit down and have a discussion, not an argument, about Barack Obama. Nowadays, since he is such a horribly touchy subject, I avoid mentioning any new political developments, in fear that the person I’m talking to will bring him up. This is the curse of being politically neutral; I disagree with Republicans and Democrats. I find it’s impossible to have a discusion about him without offending someone. I really don’t feel the need to align myself with one party or the other, becuase both of them have vailid points on different subjects corncerning the president. I used to be totally swept up in Obama-mania, so I forgot that he’s only human and that campaign promises aren’t always kept. When he became president, he went from a rock star to just a politician and politicians have faults. When that reality set in, I gave up my hardcore liberal staus and took up being open to logic from both sides. After a little less than a year in office, Obama has started working on lots of things like health care, closing Guantanamo Bay and fixing the economy, but he hasn’t actually fully accomplished anything-yet. I support the policies the president preached in his campaign, but it’s still up in the air as to whether Obama is going fulfill any of those promises. A year in power isn’t a long enough period of time to judge a president. I feel bad for the man because he was extremely optimistic with his goal timeline and now his policies keep running into roadblocks called Republicans. I’m not talking about all Republicans, just the ones who will stop at nothing to criticize the new presidents every move, like the ones who got all up in arms about something as trivial as Obama’s school speech or Republican senator Joe Wilson’s outburst during Obama’s Senate address. Their pettiness is not helpful to anyone, in fact it only build more roadblocks for progress. The public hasn’t been too helpful, either. Healthcare has a silent majority of supporters and a very vocal minority of opponents who call themselves the Tea Party Protesters. These protesters, at several town hall meetings, have carried signs with Obama on them with a Hitler moustache. I don’t care how socialist the universal health care bill is, that is completely uncalled for and no American president is history has ever deserved that. Barack Obama could be a great or not-so-great president; in the meantime we should give him our respect and a chance to try to fulfill his promises.. If he succeeds, America will be a lot better for it. ®
8 • Sports
CdS Sunrise • November 13, 2009
Diver also a synchronized swimmer BY TATUM HARTWIG News Editor
There are athletes who are swimmers, dancers and gymnasts, but one Corona junior competes in a sport that uses skills from all three, synchronized swimming. Heidi Liou began swimming for the Arizona Aqua Stars, a competitive synchronized swimming team, once she was no longer able to continue competing in gymnastics. “I started synchronized swimming after my ankle started hurting from gymnastics,” Liou said. “My mom saw an ad in the newspaper for a team in Chandler and I decided to go and try it out.” Now, Liou practices with her team almost every day of the week, with the exception of Fridays and Sundays, at Kino Junior High School in Mesa. During practice, Liou and her teammates do many different types of physical training in preparation for their competitions. “We do a speed swimming workout for about an hour, then a move on to synchro (synchronized swimming) skills,” Liou said. “In the beginning of the season, we focus on conditioning and writing routines. Around February, we start cleaning up the routine and perfecting it.”
Their hard work pays off by allowing them to travel across the nation to compete against teams from the United States and even teams from around the world. “I have traveled to New York, Ohio, Nevada, Oregon, California, Florida and Hawaii,” Liou said. “My favorite competition was in Hawaii. It was US Opens and there were teams from Canada and China. It was awe-inspiring to watch international teams swim. Although my team didn’t get to see any sights besides the hotel and the pool, we did go to the beach on the last day.”
Photo courtesy of HEIDI LIOU
Heidi Liou takes skills from other sports to be a competitive synchronized swimmer. Liou began sychronized swimming after a gymnastics injury.
Synchronized swimming competitions are judged by five technical scores and five artistic scores. Technical scores are based on the difficulty and synchronization of the swimmers and artistic scores are based on the creativity of the choreography and the way the swimmers can connect to the music. This past summer, Liou competed at the Age Group Nationals meet and added to her list of of awards by coming home with not only one gold medal, but two. “I had been training very hard for that competition and the work finally paid off when I won first place in the solo and duet categories. There were more than 40 routines in both categories,” Liou said. “Age Group Nationals was definitely the highlight of my synchronized swimming career.” As for her future, Liou doesn’t dream of the Olympics, but she does want to compete at the collegiate level. “The top synchro colleges include Stanford University, Ohio State University and the University of the Incarnate Word,” Liou said. The hard work and determination is all made worthwhile when it comes time to perform. “I love being able to make people smile by just swimming a routine,” Liou said. ®
Corona hockey player committed to his sport BY KAITIE EDEL Copy Editor
Neville
Although not recognized as an official sport at Corona, ice hockey is becoming increasingly more popular amongst students. Corona junior Quinton Neville is one student who has
been playing long before starting his high school career. “I started playing hockey ‘cause it’s sick and it’s fast,” Neville said. “You can get up to 25 to 30 miles per hour at top speed.” Also influenced by his uncle, who played hockey and was the mascot for the Phoenix Roadrunners, Neville began playing when he was eight years old. In the past, Neville played for the Chandler Polar Bears and the Arizona
Hockey Union. Currently, he plays defense for the Coyote’s Amateur Hockey Association Jr. Coyotes with which he competed in the Nike/Bauer International Hockey Tournament in Chicago. So far the U16 AAA team has compiled a team record of 10-6-4. Neville commits 10 hours a week to hockey. He and his team practice at the Scottsdale Ice Den three times weekly and Neville hits the gym to train on his own the other four days of the week.
“[Quinton] has played a key role in the team’s success. He’s a big, strong kid and has the ability to play with an edge, which is needed at this level,” Neville’s coach Dennis Leclair said. Neville has traveled around North America pursuing his hockey passion. He has competed in Detroit, Boston and even Canada, where he helped his team medal in an international competition. Neville plans to play in college but is unsure which school he will attend. ®
Sophomore cyclist’s practice schedule pays off BY TONY VALDERAMA Staff Writer
Cycling isn’t a major sport in the United States, but that definitely isn’t because it’s too easy. Competitive cycling is a difficult sport. In order to be a good cyclist, one must possess an incredible amount of endurance and willpower. It requires a lot of dedication and a whole lot of practice. And when speaking of dedicated cyclists, Corona sophomore Michael Atkins has to come into the conversation. “I got started in middle school when my dad got me a racing bike,” Atkins said. Cyclists usually practice comopetitively for long amounts of time and Atkins is no exception. Atkins does solo rides (individual practices) of twelve to fifteen miles a day on the weekdays and team rides (cooperative practices) of thirty to sixty miles on the weekends. Solo rides usually take an hour and team rides can take two to three hours. Considering he practices every other day, Atkins bikes over 100 miles a week in only six hours time. “Competitively, I’ve been riding for two years,” Atkins said. Atkins should be struggling because of his late entrance into competitive cycling, but his start has been anything but rocky. With the pressure on, he continues to excel. Atkins competes in the Junior Category, which is designated for teenagers aged fifteen and sixteen. There are usually about twenty other riders per race. He
has competed in twelve races (of twelve to fifteen miles) so far and he has placed in the top three riders in every single race. Atkins has some lofty aspirations as well. He is aiming to reach the Nationals in California, which would be his first time attending. Only the top 50 riders in the nation, per category, are invited to Nationals. “My best time for fifteen miles is 52 minutes,” said Atkins. Given that the top time for each race is usually 45 minutes, Atkins has a little more to go, and reaching Nationals is no easy feat. But considering the immediate success he’s found over the last two years, he has a legitimate chance at reaching them this year. ®
KAELI LAW
Michael Atkins hopes to be a top cyclist in the nation for his age.