December Issue

INSIDE THE ISSUE

feature 9

opinion 4

PRO/CON:

TESTING OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL

opinion 5

sports 14

a&e 8

the bull’s eye NEWS

•

OPINION

•

FEATURE

•

DECEMBER 13, 2017 VOLUME XXXVI, ISSUE IV ONLINE AT DBBULLSEYE.COM

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Counting down the minutes The Bull's Eye staff monitored a week of classes to find out how students really spend their time in the classroom.

AV E

RA

G

E MI NU T ES S PE

NT IN

At Diamond Bar High School, students spend a substantial amount of their time in class without direction.

Even when teachers are giving instructions, students spend a vast majority of their time working on their own in class.

It is common, then, for students to sit in class and count the minutes until the bell rings.

For the week of Nov. 27, that is exactly what the staff of The Bull’s Eye did in about 58 classes.

Classes were divided into five core subjects: foreign language, mathematics, English, science and social studies. Electives were omitted from the study.

Minutes were apportioned into seven categories for English, science and social studies: homework, lecturing and notes, tests and quizzes, videos and movies, presenta-

Student artists shine in contest TESS GUAN WEB EDITOR

CL

ASS

C E S O N T H E C LO

K

MINUTES ON P.2

Snapping up an opportunity

Talks tend to mental health

Aishwarya Rane qualified as a finalist in a national competition using a geofilter she designed.

Student speakers gave TED-inspired talks to promote wellness in the DBHS theater on Nov. 28.

ANGELA YANG ASST. NEWS Editor

CINDY LIU asst. News EDITOR A few weeks after submitting her entry for the #MyFutureMe competition hosted by Google and Snapchat, Diamond Bar High School junior Aishwarya Rane received a phone call.

She was chosen as one of the five finalists from the 22,000 teens across the nation who entered the competition.

“I didn’t expect to win at all,” Rane said. “I thought it was some telemarketer so I didn’t answer it.

I told my mom to answer first, and she told me—and her face was really surprised.”

In the first stage of the competition, participants were asked to design a geofilter and submit a short statement about their vision for the future.

Using drag-and-drop code, an application that allows users to select and arrange premade blocks of code, Rane spent around an hour

SPORTS

Two pieces among those displayed were chosen as Visual Arts Week winners.

CLA SS

BRIAN CHANG NEWS EDITOR

•

A geofilter designed by Aishwarya Rane, one of the finalists for the #MyFutureMe competition. creating the filter and writing her statement.

In her design, she used an image of a girl’s silhouette with flowers and the words “This is just the beginning.”

GEOFILTER ON P.2

Speaking on a variety of topics ranging from rugby to music, students of Diamond Bar High School took the stage to share their perspectives on improving mental wellness. The TED-inspired talks took place two weeks ago in the school theater.

An acronym for Technology, Entertainment and Design, TED is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to spreading thought-provoking ideas on a wide spectrum of topics through short talks in front of a live audience.

The event was hosted by the Wellness Center in an attempt to pioneer a different kind of Wellness Week campaign that included participants outside of the wellness program.

Junior Marissa Singh spoke about self love, beginning her talk with a personal story before transitioning into her epiphany on the

CINDY LIU

places in which people look for love.

“I’m a wellness intern so each day I was checking the topics and...I saw that no one was talking about self love and this is a topic that is huge for me because it took me so long to get to where I am,” Singh said. “So I decided, if I do a TED Talk, maybe I won’t impact everyone’s lives but I can definitely help more than a few people who are struggling with the same things as me.”

Another talk focused on the notorious tendency of DBHS students to overwork themselves while striving toward their desired academic scores.

Junior Wesley Lu reminded the audience to remember to enjoy their high school experience instead of constantly stressing about grades.

“All my friends in all my classes just feel so stressed out all the time and I just wanted a way to let them all know that I’m there for them and I want them to know that there’s more for them to do, because I know they’re all capable people and there’s more for them [than grades],” Lu said.

Junior Julia Hong discussed a

TEDx ON P.3

Art for art’s sake is the purest form of creativity, but a little competition never hurt anyone. At the first Visual Arts Week at Diamond Bar High School, sophomore Kelsey Liang and senior Melissa Khodr were selected as the winners.

The competition, which was held during the week of Nov. 13, was divided into art and photography and received 32 submissions in total. Participants entered with their interpretations of the “imagination is the beginning of creation” prompt.

All submissions were displayed in the upper quad where students had the opportunity to view and vote on their favorite pieces during lunch. Winners of each category were given prizes in correlation to their interests.

In addition, art teacher Coleen Gee also chose seniors Megan Lee and Gabriel Zamora and junior Aaron Ung as winners who best responded to the theme given.

Out of 25 artwork submissions, Liang won first for her painting of an underwater galaxy.

“I didn’t give a title to this piece, because I felt that it could not be described with only one phrase,” she said. “This piece was inspired by the word ‘creation,’ which I linked to the beginning of the universe. From there, I blended in an underwater scene to make it more abstract.”

Liang, who heard about the competition from her AP Studio Art class, initially planned to compete with a digital art submission. She ultimately decided to participate with a painting instead.

“I wanted to try painting because it’s my weakness… I wanted to improve at painting,” Liang said.

Despite preferring pencil, pen, copic marker and digital art pieces over painting, she won the fan favorite award and was awarded a sketchbook and a pack of ink pens as a prize.

Khodr was the winner for the photography division, which had seven participants.

She entered the competition with a photo she took of her friend, senior Angela Kieta.

The photo features Kieta in a bathtub filled with water and sunflowers. Khodr won camera lenses and a light for taking pictures on her phone.

2

NEWS

DECEMBER 13, 2017

THE BULL'S EYE

Brahma emerges as national design finalist GEOFILTER on p.1 “My vision for the future is to have greater gender, racial and social equality and increase representation for minorities,” Rane wrote in her submitted statement. “ I hope to…voice my opinions for those who may not be able to.”

In her statement, Rane also described how her involvement in the clubs Girl Up and Society of Women Engineers at DBHS led her on a mission to empower girls in STEM. “When I applied to the competition, I read the guidelines and it said [the winners] got to go to the TEDWomen conference, so I was like ‘that’s cool, I should plan to go there in the future,’ but then I actually got to go,” Rane said.

Prizes for the five competition finalists included complimentary tickets to the TEDWomen conference—valued at $5,000—at New Orleans on Nov. 1-3, round trip airfare to the event, paid hotel room expenses and a bonus of $1,000 in spending money.

“I watch a lot of TEDx videos… in my free time, so it was really cool to go to like an actual TED conference in person and be a part of it,” Rane said. “A lot of the speakers were really moving in real life.”

As part of the competition’s second stage, Rane and the other finalists had mentoring sessions with three Google engineers and worked with the Snap Design team to create their own Snapchat Lens. Their Snapchat filters will then be judged

to determine the Grand Prize Winner.

Rane spent about three hours creating her final design to submit for the Grand Prize judging, basing her creation off her initial submitted vision for the future. Her designed filter is a manipulatable Snapchat Lens where the user utilizes their rear view camera to activate a filter with a laboratory table and beakers with the words “future is STEM” and “empowerment.”

Rane had some experience with graphic design since she practices in her free time, designs flyers for clubs and has two parents working in computer science.

“It gave me an opportunity to learn about professional networking,” Rane said. “It was an eyeopening experience.”

News Editors Asst. News Editors

christina liu staff writer

Emily Jacobsson, Catherine Zhang Brian Chang, Hannah Lee Angela Yang, Cindy Liu

Opinion Editor Asst. Opinion Editor

Noor Naji Ted Yarmoski

Feature Editors Asst. Feature Editor

Emily Kim, Catherine Zhang Amelie Lee Emily Jacobsson, Pauline Woodley Amy Miyahara

A&E Editors Asst. A&E Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor

Ryan Chae Justin Prakaiphetkul

Photo Editor Asst. Photo Editors

Hannah Lee Ingrid Chan, Amelie Lee

Business Manager

Tess Guan Tess Guan Sophia Kim

Web Editor Asst. Web Editor Staff Writers

Diving into the shark tank Among the products marketed, PugMug came out on top in the FBLAhosted event.

the staff Editors-in-Chief

INGRID CHAN

From left to right, seniors Ryan Trinh, Kilik Ov and Jacky Chen present their product, called Click, to a panel of judges.

Catherine Liu, Christina Liu, Samyuktha Vellaiyan

Advisor

Doug List

contact us Diamond Bar High School, Room 563 21400 Pathfinder Road Diamond Bar, CA 91765 Phone: (909) 594-1405 x33563 Email: eye.editors@gmail.com Business Inquiries: thebullseyebusiness@gmail.com

editorial policy The Bull’s Eye is a public forum that welcomes the views of our readers. Letters to the Editor and Op-Ed pieces will be accepted only if they are signed. The author may, however, request anonymity. The staff reserves the right to edit letters without changing content. You may forward letters to Room 563 or submit them online at dbbullseye.com.

In an event based on the popular reality television show, Diamond Bar High School Future Business Leaders of America threw students into the “Shark Tank,” challenging them to pitch an innovative design to a board of judges.

In its second year, the competition gave students three days to create a product in groups of one to five members.

The groups then presented their creation before a panel of judges, with the presentation split into two rounds.

This year, students were allowed to use a PowerPoint presentation as a visual aid. DBHS staff members Kurt Davies, Mary Gaxiola and Patrick Murphy returned as judges for the second round while Matthew Brummett, Jon Hurst and Sabrina Ruiz-Emmons also joined the judging panel.

The first round was judged by the FBLA senior board officers consisting of co-presidents Rajvir Dua and Ashvini Bhupathiraju, vice president Kaitlyn Lee, director of competitive events Rishil Pansuria and director of communications Jefferson Chang.

Each team gave a two minute business presentation, which was followed by a four minute interview with the judges on their product.

“Last year, I was a participant in the competition itself and I still remember the heartbreak I felt when my team lost in the final round by four points,” Dua said via Facebook. “Acting as a judge this year, I gained new insight on business pitches as I was able to view it from a new perspective.”

Out of the seven teams that participated, only three teams made it

“...I gained new insight on business pitches as I was able to view it from a new perspective," Rajvir Dua past the preliminary round: Click, QuickCash Co. and PugMug. Click showcased their idea for a clothing app which would offers fashion style suggestions to customers based on their preferences.

QuickCash Co. came up with AutoWallet, a digital wallet that would dispense the amount of cash or card requested by the user, saving them the trouble and time of searching their wallet.

As a part of PugMug, freshmen Annoushka Bhat and Anna Chen designed a collapsible water bottle with digital screens on the top and

bottom of the cup where the user could upload pictures from an app of the same name.

During the second round of the event, each team had the chance to give a five minute business pitch, which was followed by a five minute interview.

“It was still a little daunting standing in front of judges and I shook a little bit, but overall it went well,” Anna Chen said via Facebook. According to Chen, the event went well since the product was better received than expected.

The designs were judged on a scale of one to ten on presentation, creativity, feasibility and financial information.

PugMug ultimately came out on top with 156 points. Click came in second with a total of 151 points followed by Quick Cash Co. with a total of 128 points.

“Most teams create apps or other technological software, but the winning team went a little off the beaten path by inventing an innovative twist on a classic water bottle, and it worked to perfection,” Dua said.

With Shark Tank being a relatively new event on the DBHS campus, Bhupathiraju expressed her hope for the competition to be publicized to a greater extent in the following years so that more students are given a chance to participate.

“Our Shark Tank event allowed students to start their entrepreneurial skills, and this is just the beginning of the idea,” Bhupathiraju said via Facebook.

Analyzing allocation of class time minutes on p.1 tions, group or classwork and nothing.

For the purposes of the study, “nothing” was defined as any time students were not explicitly directed to perform any specific activity.

For foreign language, a class discussion category was added, and for mathematics, an opening activity category was added.

In addition, a separate category for the TEDx speeches was added, though this does not show up for every subject.

The study does not attempt to provide concrete data representing every class on campus, since not every class is represented.

Instead, the data should be taken as a representation of each subject category in general. In addition, data from days when students were absent is omitted.

For foreign language classes, approximately 63 percent of class time is spent on classwork and discussions.

This distribution is expected due to the need for repetition in order

to learn a new language. Surprisingly, students spend about five percent of their time on doing nothing, more than double the time they spend on reviewing homework.

They spend even less time on quizzes and tests.

In contrast, lectures and tests or quizzes take up more than 40 percent of the time spent in mathematics classes.

Yet, once again, students spent more time doing nothing than

The Eye of the Editors addresses the results of the survey on page 4. reviewing homework, spending about 18 percent of their time on doing nothing.

As a comparison, they only spend 15 percent of their time on reviewing homework.

Classwork and lectures take about 56 percent of time spent in English classes.

In these classes, time spent working on nothing is the third-largest category, followed closely by tests and quizzes.

In science courses, classwork makes up about 33 percent of total class time, with notes following closely at 31 percent.

Here, the nothing category trails homework by one percent.

Every other category takes up less than 10 percent of total time in class.

Social studies classes, along with foreign language ones, are the only ones in which time spent doing nothing makes up less than 10 percent of total time spent in the classroom.

These courses are also the most balanced in terms of time allocation, as only the classwork category accounts for more than a fourth of total time at 28 percent.

The study indicates that overall, time spent doing nothing makes up a large proportion of time spent in class, making up at least five percent in every core subject.

Without considering foreign language, this number jumps to almost 10 for each.

Classes are also less focused on exams than one may expect, taking up at most 20 percent of total class time across all core subjects.

THE BULL'S EYE

DECEMBER 13, 2017

THE WEB:

DBHS Math Madness had a successful competition season despite moving to a harder division.

WAKING UP TO THE NEED FOR NAPPING

christina liu staff writer

Napping during school hours has recently gained momentum as a solution to the epidemic of sleep deprived high school students across the nation.

NOW SHOWING: WONDER

Based on the best-selling book of the same name, the movie takes its audience on an emotional rollercoaster, dealing with themes that both adults and children alike can relate to.

WRESTLING WITH NEW LEADERSHIP

DBHS wrestling heads into the season under new leadership. The team is now training under head coach Les Schaefer in preparation for this year's competitions.

SHOOTING FOR NEW GOALS

Girls soccer kicks off another season on the field in the Palomeres League. Looking forward to a successful year, the team continues to train hard after losing a number of valuable seniors.

visit

DBBULLSEYE.COM

Coding club programs competitive comeback

ted yarmoski asst. opinion EDITOR Students took on algorithms, forensics, reverse engineering and cryptography in a competition hosted by CSquared, Diamond Bar High School’s coding and computer science club.

In the event, Capture the Flag, 37 teams earned points by finding a “flag,” or solution, within challenges designed by code club officers.

Challenges were placed into one of five categories: cryptography, forensics, algorithmic, reverse engineering and miscellaneous. Each challenge consisted of a description, an unknown key and a hint.

“We got a lot of positive feedback from participants saying that the challenges were very interesting and fun to solve,” CSquared president, junior Kenneth Chen, said.

In cryptography, the objective was to decode an encrypted message. Algorithmic questions required the use of an algorithm to quickly solve a problem, such as finding the sum of the squares of 500 numbers. Forensics challenges consisted of a broken image, large file or some other complex item that students had to decipher. Competitors for reverse engineering had to analyze a malfunctioning program in search of the text string needed

3

Getting a taste of sweet 16

more on

DBHS's previously inactive CSquared club hosted a competition for 37 participating teams.

NEWS

to complete the challenge.

“For the unique challenges, you have to be very creative to think of problems that are unlike any of the others yet not so hard that nobody can solve it,” senior Justin Wu, vice president of the club, said.

As teams registered and settled in, they began solving challenges on computers in the library while officers walked around answering questions and dropping small hints. The event lasted until 4 p.m., but the competition lasted through Thanksgiving break. Teams were able to access their accounts and solve challenges during the vacation. The top three teams with the most points were awarded with Amazon gift cards.

Sophomore Ryan Zhu competed solo and achieved first place with 1700 points. Second place were juniors Chloe Huang and Frederick Yang along with sophomore Sean Chang scoring 1120 points. In third place was sophomore Keshav Sriram with 790 points.

Chen said that the club plans to improve future events by avoiding scheduling before holidays, creating additional challenges and assigning a mentor to each team to make solving the challenges a smoother experience.

CSquared had been inactive until it was rebooted last year. Recruitment and activity efforts began this year after the club became organized and operational. The club is planning workshops, competitions and tutoring in the near future and welcomes collaboration with other STEM organizations in and outside of DBHS.

Diamond Bar High School’s math team competed in the Open Division of the Math Madness competition for the first time, finishing the competition with a ranking in the top 20 nationally.

“I was very pleasantly surprised at how the team did this year,” senior president Matthew Ho said. “I knew that we had a pretty strong team.”

The team qualified for elimina-

tion rounds by being one of the 16 teams left out of more than 500 teams competing. During regular season, the math team defeated Webb 40-27, Harvard Westlake 38-33 and St. Andrews in Georgia 34-19.

In playoffs, the team won against Crean High School 31-24 in the first round, and against George School in Pennsylvania 32-23 in the second round, allowing them to advance to the Sweet 16.

Then, DBHS went against William G. Enloe Magnet High School in North Carolina, losing 39-21.

Each team member had 30 minutes to answer eight questions. The top five scores from each team were tallied up for a maximum of 40 points.

“At that level across the nation, when you are in the top 16, every single school is really good, so we knew that we were going to have a

really tough match,” advisor Jeff Brose said.

Ho stated that the main reason for their success this year was the implementation of weekly review sessions, led by math team officers.

Review sessions were held during lunch each Thursday to prepare for upcoming rounds, which were hosted on Wednesdays in the LINC. Each session lasted 20 to 40 minutes depending on the difficulty or quantity of problems from the previous competition.

“I think making it to the Sweet 16 was really tremendous, and this year most people thought we would be worse since we lost a really good participant,” Brose said. “We did better this year and it just shows that the strength of the whole program is what’s important.”

Invention catapults to success A team of two freshmen created a winning device for the annual JPL invention competition.

Emily Kim Feature EDITOR Diamond Bar High School freshmen Megan Ho and Joshua Chou, together known as “Project Defying Gravity,” won the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Annual Invention Challenge over 19 other teams from Southern California.

This year, the contest tasked participants with creating a device to launch 10 wiffle balls into a plastic tub located six meters away in one minute. To prevent disqualification, competitors had to use one

method to release the ball, launch against various directions and angles and avoid breaking the balls.

Chou began competing in the annual challenges in sixth grade when he was invited to be part of a team by his friend whose dad worked for JPL. Ho joined Chou’s team in seventh grade.

The pair started working on their device in mid-August when the prompt was released by JPL. They worked in Ho’s garage using materials they had on hand, coming up with different plans to best fulfill the requirements. They decided on a catapult as the best choice to send into competition after their original model failed.

“It wasn’t accurate enough because originally we used a leaf blower to power it. We used a surgical tube instead,” Ho said. “There was a rod attached to it with a cup

in the front where the wiffle ball goes, so when you release it the energy travels and the ball will keep traveling as the device stops.”

The team placed first at the Orange County Regional Competition held at Chapman University on Nov. 18.

Since they were one of the top five teams at the regional level, they automatically moved on to the final competition at JPL in Pasadena on Dec. 1. There they competed against 19 other teams and got eight balls in 29 seconds, taking first overall.

At the competition, there were also other awards such as heaviest, lightest and most artistic. Juniors Kenneth Chew, Ashley Pang and Parker Chu and senior Crystal Wai also competed in the event as their own team. They made it to the final round but did not place.

canning christmas spirit

AMELIE LEE

Shown left to right are senior World Line members Edison Chow, Evelyn Lee, Jack May, Isaac Kau and Hyunwoo Kim performing their percussion routine using aluminum trash cans at the winter sports rally on Dec. 8 in the gym.

Students speak out on wellness TEDX on p.1 similar topic, speaking on the need for students to realize that they deserve to dedicate time for themselves, away from the pressures of school. “[Speaking on stage] was really nerve wracking,” Hong said. “But I knew I had friends and my family in the audience to support me so I was able to keep on going even when I stuttered.”

Meanwhile, sophomore Karen Shao spoke out about the unreal-

istic nature of having the goal of perfection.

“Perfection was always something that I strived for but as I messed up more and more I came to a point of realization that nothing I'd do would be perfect, so I stopped trying to be perfect and then I was just Karen. I hoped to motivate people to do the same so they'll try to let go of things that make them sad and do things that make them smile,” Shao said.

In her talk, Shao asserted that although people tend to strive for

perfection in grades, reputation and appearance, the unattainability of this aspiration will only lead to unhappiness as people realize they cannot be perfect.

“It was super nerve wracking when I first walked on stage and my knees were shaking. I wasn't scared of the audience, I was scared of forgetting my lines,” Shao said.

“I definitely improvised a lot but as I talked more, I became very comfortable and I also knew that a lot of my friends were watching so that made me feel better too.”

4

OPINION

EYE EDITORS OF THE

OPINION: In light of data collected by The Bull’s Eye staff on the use of class time, it is apparent that classwork at Diamond Bar High School is being substituted for teacher lectures.

T

raditionally, students come to school with the expectation of learning through the guidance of their teachers. However, it has become apparent that teachers rely more on student-based learning than offering lectures and going through the textbook.

For a week, the Bull’s Eye staff recorded time spent in class in order to analyze how students are spending their school day.

The survey found that of the five core subjects, foreign language, English, social studies, math and science, four of them spent more time on classwork than on lectures and notes. This highlights the growing emphasis on studentbased teaching to replace the traditional lecture model that dominated classrooms for decades.

Although classwork can be viewed as a way to reinforce the lessons learned in class, when it surpasses the time spent on lectures and notes, it seems disproportionate. Worksheets or posters don’t match the firsthand instructions. When unnecessary assignments begin to substitute a teacher’s role in the classroom, the burden falls onto the students to learn the curriculum on their own time.

This is often translated into expensive tutoring centers or sleepless nights attempting to understand what the teacher failed to cover during school hours.

Additionally, many DBHS students take Advanced Placement classes. Considering that they are college level courses and, therefore, require more time, high school students are at a disadvantage due to the compounding effect of shorter periods and lack of guidance from the teacher.

Moreover, the Bull’s Eye findings illustrate that across all subjects, more time was wasted in the “nothing” category than in reviewing homework. On average, a student spends 44 minutes a day with no clear instructions from the teacher. It’s unacceptable for students to come to school and spend time meant for instructional purposes just sitting in class and doing nothing.

As depicted by the data, many teachers should reconsider the structure of their daily planning to find a more effective use of class time. By taking advantage of every minute, students will benefit greatly, instead of viewing the class as a waste of time and resorting to alternative resources.

From the Brahma Perspective

When we do nothing in class, it seems like a waste of time and there’s no point in being there.

JOSEPH CHEN (9)

There needs to be more guiding students through lessons instead of just giving them work to do.

ANOUSHKA SAHGAL (10)

Classwork is not a waste of time because it’s based on our tests and what we’re learning.

AVANTIKA JAIN (11)

We need more videos because we don’t really feel engaged in class, it’s always do this, copy that.

JASON JIN (9)

Artwork vs. classwork: close contenders?

amy miyahara asst. a&e editor

“T

his isn’t art class!” is something that many students have thought to themselves while being assigned an artistic project in their history or science classes. While it can be difficult for students to see the value in such assignments, these projects can be a beneficial way to help students learn.

There is a difference between creative projects and busy work.

Busy work assignments are those

DECEMBER 13, 2017

THE BULL'S EYE

that have no educational value, but are simply given for the sake of making students do work. This is undoubtedly unnecessary and should be avoided, but creative projects do not necessarily fall into this category.

Many teachers assign projects both as a way to reinforce material that is covered in class and to help students learn new information.

While these projects range from making posters to creating music videos, they all have the goal of trying to help students remember and apply their knowledge in a creative way. The work that comes with these non-traditional assignments may seem tedious and pointless for some students, but teachers often have a reason for assigning students these tasks.

Taking an example from my personal experience, one of my classes spent three weeks putting together

a play on several chapters of our curriculum. The time spent putting together scripts, backdrops and costumes could have been spent copying PowerPoint slides, and we likely would have moved through the material much faster that way.

However, I can say with confidence, that I remember the material that we covered in our play better than I remember most of the other material that we have covered.

While tests are beneficial in that they are an unbiased and standardized way to determine how well a student has learned material, they are not always an accurate reflection on a student’s comprehension and capability.

All students learn differently, and not everyone is cut out to do well on tests or write essays. Assigning a variety of project types allows students who are talented in other ways to showcase their

The rush for clubs

abilities and be graded on something other than just their ability to bubble in the correct answer on a scantron.

In addition to serving as an alternate form of assessment, projects can also be used as a means to help students perform better on objective tests. A study done by British education writer and mathematics professor Jo Boaler in 1998 followed students in both a traditional classroom setting and those in a more project-based environment over the course of three years. The study found that students in the project-based setting saw a higher pass rate of the nation’s National Exam than the ones from the regular classroom.

Working on projects also allows students to develop important skills that they would not use in a traditional classroom setting. Critical thinking skills, cooperation and creativity, which are essential when entering the workforce and real-life situations, are not learned by spending the entirety of the classroom experience taking notes.

That’s not to say that notetaking should be eliminated. Lecturing is the most direct way of teaching and is often necessary to get through all of the material that needs to be covered. However, projects can be an exciting break from the monotony of typical schoolwork, all while helping students better remember their material and learn to think outside the box.

E-mail BullsEyeEditorial@gmail or use the QR code below to respond to any of our editorial articles. Be Heard.

Cartoon Courtesy of MEGAN LEE

Noor in a Nutshell

College rankings promote inequality

T

noor naji opinion editor

he U.S. News and World Report is a familiar name to students as their rankings of universities allows students to compare and contrast a school’s academic quality. However, these rankings reinforce economic disparities across campuses in the U.S. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation reported that 72 percent of students in the most competitive schools were from the top 25 percent of income earners, whereas only 3 percent were from the bottom 25 percent. Higher education has become for the elite and the U.S. News rankings perpetuate this trend.

Among the factors for a high U.S. rankings are high standardized test scores, low acceptance rates, and high financial and faculty resources, all of which favor wealthier students. And since, according to Politico, universities “have built them into strategic plans,” they create a type of incentive for universities to accept more economically advantaged students.

For example, SAT and ACT scores correlate strongly with economic class, according to College Board. One of the most obvious explanations is that less advantaged students have less access to tutoring centers to prepare for the tests.

Instead of looking at GPA, which is a better indicator of academic achievement, U.S. News chooses to focus on scores, which say more about the student’s affluence.

Financial and faculty resources make up about 10 percent and 20 percent of the rankings respectively. According to U.S. News, this is reviewed as “generous perstudent spending indicates that a college can offer a wide variety of programs and services.”

However, as University of California, Berkeley chancellor Carol Christ suggests, if a university wants to boost its spending per student, they would accept more affluent students, as they require less financial aid, allowing the school to use the extra money on hiring more faculty to keep classes small, yet another quality U.S. News rewards.

Furthermore, the rankings also harm universities who are willing to take an extra step to help less wealthy students. For example, Georgia State plummeted 30 spots in rankings after it reduced emphasis on standardized tests, increased its economic diversity, accepted more students on Pell grants, and increased its graduation rate. On the other hand, Southern Methodist University jumped up six spots in the rankings by accepting students with higher SAT scores, fundraising and, according to the Equality of Opportunity Project, accepting fewer low income students.

The rankings not only harm universities who take initiatives that should be taken across the country, but also reinforce inequality in something that used to be an equalizer for those who wanted to climb up the ladder and fulfill “the American dream”: education.

THE BULL'S EYE

DECEMBER 13, 2017

OPINION

5

California high school proficiency Exam the exam acts as the equivalent of a high school diploma; if a student passes, they are no longer legally bound to attend high school as long as their parents approve would have the chance to find a career as early as possible.

In addition, students would have more time to pursue passions not found in a traditional high school classroom setting. Early graduates have the option of devoting entire years to working toward their dreams instead of being limited to summer internships. They have the chance to work closely with professionals in a field of their interest for longer than a traditional high school brian chang student would be able to, and this may land news editor them a job or future research opportunities.

High school, while billed Students could use the remaining two by some as the best four years they would normally spend in high years of one’s life, can ofschool as gap years. This would allow stuten feel like just the opposite. Students may dents to explore potential careers or mafeel as if they are wasting time in class when jors and get a better idea of what field they they could be pursuing a passion instead. would like to study than would be available Thus, it should be no surprise that students through a traditional high school education. occasionally choose to test Other than internships, out of high school. Instead, students can also look for it should be more shocking volunteering opportuni“Students graduating that more do not. ties abroad in order to early are likely to be The test is open to stulearn more about foreign much more motivated dents who are at least 16 cultures and help commu...and would likely or in the second semester nities. be fueled by a desire of their sophomore year.

This work can give them While they are not guaran edge in the job market to learn outside the anteed admission to color when applying to colclassroom.” lege, the exam nonetheless leges, since they will have opens up numerous doors much more experience for students. than their peers.

First of all, students can reduce the time Some may argue a gap year is detrimental they spend in formal education. High school to students because they would lose guidstudents with enough credits to attend colance and motivation, ultimately falling short lege early, gained through courses at local of their goals. Yet, students graduating early community colleges or online, can potenare likely to be much more motivated than tially graduate college years in advance and their peers. Their decision to test out of high save money. school would likely be fueled by a desire to Students can attend community college learn outside the classroom, and they would for two years immediately after passing the have a clear plan in mind to follow. exam, saving two years worth of a college In the end, the choice to graduate early is tuition. They would also have more time to a strictly personal choice. While this path gain experience in the job market than their out of high school may not be right for evpeers, and those that see higher education eryone, it is not be as detrimental as some as a gateway into the professional world believe.

PRO

Students who desire to enter such a university would have to attend community college to complete their prerequisites, defeating the purpose of beginning their higher education earlier. Additionally, most universities do not see early graduation as a positive.

Skipping a year of school may not seem like much, but students will enter college socially unprepared. Students will be facing catherine liu a whole new level of freedom and confronting issues that they have never encountered staff writer before. It is not a secret that college is the time where people discover their limits with Whether it is being on the drinking and try to experience new things. sports team, playing for Early graduates could face peer pressure the school band, attending and, due to their immaturity, may fail to prom or even graduating with your friends, make rational decisions in compromising high school offers many shared experiences. situations. Another factor worth considerThose who decide to graduate early will be ing is that they could feel out of place due to missing out on all of these. the age gap between them Although the option of and other students, which getting out of school earcan make them social outlier is available with the “Many students who casts.

California High School are geared toward Also, some students are Proficiency Exam, it is not taking the road to just not ready for the level necessarily the best choice. graduating early fail to of independence needed in Many students who are college. While teachers in geared toward taking the recognize the benefits high school have around road to graduating early of staying in high 40 students per class, colfail to recognize the benschool.” lege classes can be as large efits of staying in high as 200 students, leaving school. little one-on-one time with While many students teachers. This quick transition can be difgraduate early eager to start working on ficult for students at a young age, as some projects they are passionate about, the realstudents require the extra push that high ity is that many of the dreams and aspiraschool teachers provide compared to the tions they had will start to fade as they beindependent work that college professors gin to realize how hard it is to work without expect. any real deadlines or structure. People start While the state’s early graduation proto get lazy due to lack of self motivation, a gram opens up options to students who skill learned through high school with time. want to graduate and take on the college Graduating early also limits a student’s life earlier, there are many drawbacks to choice of colleges. For example, the UC consider. Students should take their time to system requires fifteen college preparatory fully mature in high school to avoid making courses in the “A to G” courses, such as four hasty decisions and see what truly benefits years of English and three years of maththem in the long run. ematics prior to application.

CON

Winter dance: a formal request to USB

amelie lee asst. feature editor A letter to USB: Month after month, Diamond Bar High School’s desperate plea to you has been ignored. For years, we have begged and begged for a simple event and have been faced with abject rejection.

Our request is clear: more than anything else in the whole school, USB should spend their time and money on adding a Winter Formal to the yearly activities list. In the midst of preparing for finals, stressing over semester grades and awaiting early decision acceptances, the thing we need most is an extravagant dance to distract us.

Now I know what you are thinking, “Didn’t you beg for a Sadies, only to have it cancelled?” While your concerns are understandable, I can guarantee that our request for a winter formal dance is entire-

ly different.

First of all, Sadies takes place far too close to prom, only two months away from the monumental event.

In contrast, a winter formal would take place in December, a whole two and a half months away from homecoming, giving students more than enough time to start anticipating another dance.

Secondly, while Sadies provides a refreshing contrast to the stereotypical expectation of a boy asking a girl out, a Winter Formal would

provide nothing of the sort. We’re not looking to make a statement or provoke any sort of social change; we just need another dance to add onto the list of cute photos on our wall.

Being frugal and sparing with your limited budget shouldn’t be on our minds at all, as nothing else you plan holds any weight against the importance of having a dance in the middle of December. After all, Walnut High School has a winter formal, and their social media

posts make us feel inadequate and spur the desperate need for us to post something similar.

As students yourselves, you will understand that we are desperate to find activities other than studying to take away from the stress and pressure of our everyday lives.

Instead of looking to healthy forms of dealing with our issues, we would rather spend a single night acting out and grinding on a dance floor to solve our problems.

We look forward to your seri-

SINCERELY SATIRICAL ous consideration of our request.

Hopefully you will understand that as high school students, our priorities lie in complaining about a lack of unnecessary activities. After all, we have a complete mutual understanding that if you were ever to announce a Winter Formal dance, we will all go to Disneyland instead upon finding out the event takes place in the gym.

Sincerely, A Hopeful Diamond Bar Student

Cartoon Courtesy of SARAH SEIF

6

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

THE BULL'S EYE amy miyahara asst. A&E editor

Now Showing:

TAKE TWO

News for a new generation

Emily Jacobsson & Pauline Woodley A&E Editors

N

ewspapers just aren’t cool anymore. Trust us, we’d know. But even with countless copies of our paper thrown around every distribution day, we still stand by the importance of being a well-informed member of your community. Being informed goes beyond just world or local news.

Learning to process information and form your own opinions on current events can begin with something as simple as reading articles about your various interests.

Here are a few examples of our favorite online publications that help keep us in the know.

The Hollywood Reporter The Hollywood Reporter covers all entertainment news. Not only do they offer the latest on upcoming movies and TV shows, but they also have an amazing video selection that incorporates the articles they’ve written about certain celebrities with video interviews and roundtables.

The Hollywood Reporter provides fresh, modern takes on film and entertainment through their op-ed pieces and their reviews for newly released media.

Teen Vogue When you’re looking for a publication that caters to a younger audience, check out Teen Vogue and their numerous articles about fashion, beauty and celebrity gossip. But what is especially unique about Teen Vogue’s approach is their focus on politics and current events.

Within the past year, Teen Vogue has transitioned from a magazine that only talked about boys and lip gloss, to a smart publication that highlights a variety of voices in its articles on everything from healthcare to presidential elections. For those that are scared of the more serious news websites, such as CNN or MSNBC, Teen Vogue is the perfect middle ground.

Wired Through its monthly print magazine and its online articles, Wired offers an interesting angle on culture, politics and economics through the lens of technology. Its articles, which range from topics like video gaming leagues becoming like the NFL to, most recently, California’s wildfire problem, are extremely well researched and thought provoking.

One thing that is guaranteed about Wired articles is that bringing them up in conversation will make you sound both interesting and well-informed.

The Onion Notorious for its ridiculous click-bait headlines, The Onion is more valuable that it seems on the surface. Self-declared as America’s Finest News Source, the online satire publication seems to have found just the way to make young people interested in news: by making fun of it.

With each satire about politics, sports or entertainment, The Onion challenges its readers to consider the message behind it. While some of their articles may not hold a goal beyond comedy, for the most part, The Onion offers an entertaining view on world news.

DECEMBER 13, 2017

‘Coco’ teaches its audience about the unbreakable bonds between family. Its exciting storyline and stunning visuals ensure that it will become a favorite of both kids and adults.

WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS

Since its beginning, Disney Pixar has been known for films that tug on people’s heartstrings, and their newest release, “Coco,” is no exception. With an exciting yet tear-jerking plot, gorgeously vibrant animation and memorable characters, “Coco” ranks among the company’s finest work.

Co-directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina, the film focuses on Miguel Rivera (Anthony Gonzalez), a twelve-year-old boy who dreams of following in the footsteps of renowned musician Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), despite his fami l y ’ s generation-long ban on music.

When Miguel gets swept into the whimsical Land of skeletons of people who have passed away, he needs the blessing of a deceased relative to return home and pursue his musical ambitions.

With the help of Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal), a skeleton who is in danger of being forgotten, Miguel journeys to find his great-great-grandfather to receive his blessing and send him home to the living world, learning lessons on the true role of family in the process.

Before its release, many questioned whether or not “Coco” would be seen as a rip-off of the 2014 20th Century Fox film, “The Book of Life.” While the two films share similar colorful aesthetics and lead characters who wish to pursue music despite their family’s wishes, the two are complete-

ly different stories. “The Book of Life” is a love story and adventure film about following your heart, while “Coco” is a coming-of-age film that highlights the importance of family.

“Coco” is Pixar’s first film with a person of color in the lead, and the first with a cast almost entirely composed of people of color.

This is a long-overdue, refreshing break from its tradition of focusing on either white characters or inanimate objects.

With a score composed by Michael Giacchino, who also worked on “Up,” and songs by “Frozen” writers Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, the music of Coco perfectly matches the heartfelt tone of the film. In particular, “Remember Me,” which is used in the film as a bridge between generations, has simple but touching lyrics that convey the unbreakable bond between family members.

Even if the storyline of “Coco” isn’t Pixar’s best, the film most definitely has the best visuals.

Scenes of the Land of the Dead are breathtaking, packed with multicolored lights and uniquely painted skeletons from top to bottom. “Coco” is one of Pixar’s most heartwarming films, as Miguel must decide whether to follow his heart or listen to his family, ultimately finding that the two are not mutually exclusive. While the film touches on the power of a family’s love, a typical theme in children’s movies, it also addresses death and legacy, which are not as common in animated films. It does so with a genuineness that adds a layer of depth to the film, while still being family friendly and entertaining.

Overall, “Coco” is a fantastic film that people of all ages will enjoy. Exploring a culture not often put into film while telling a timeless tale of the importance of family, “Coco” proves to be an instant classic.

Singing for the season catherine liu Staff writer

dience was able to join in on “Up on The Housetop,” by clapping to the beat and vocalizing, “Ho ho ho,” and “click click click.” The audience’s participation made the song more enjoyable and brought an energetic mood to the crowd.

After intermission, the choir changed into more formal outfits to match the classical Christmas pieces that they were performing.

After “Christmas Carol,” Lee, Emily Tran, Myra Mayr and Katelyn Duenas performed several solos. Lee, who sang “I Guess There Ain’t No Santa Claus,” stood out because of her raspy voice, which matched the jazzy feel of the song.

Then, Danielle Sy opened a segment of the concert where Marquis members sang a “Sacred Carol Medley,” which consisted of traditional carols that encompass the religious reason behind the holiday season. One of the numbers that really stood out was “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” by the senior males of Marquis, as their baritone voices complimented the dark undertone of the song.

Before wishing the audience a good night, the choir ended on a cheery note with “It’s That Time of the Year.”

Kicking off the holiday season with some Christmas cheer, Diamond Bar High School’s Marquis sang a wide variety of holiday tunes–from classic carols to high-energy pop songs–at the Winter Wind Concert on Dec. 1 and 2 in the DBHS theater.

Starting with the upbeat song “It’s Christmas Time,” all of Marquis sang together before moving into a solo medley. With a mix of happy and solemn songs, the solos allowed students to showcase their skills to the crowd.

A memorable performance was the duet between John Romero and Nastassia Marantz, who sang “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” The pair harmonized beautifully together, with Romero’s deep voice complimenting Marantz’s high-pitched parts in the song. Another notable piece was “Christmas Song,” sung

by Jayden Wang, whose smooth voice resonated throughout his performance.

After the solos, the choir sang ”We Need a Little Christmas” and “Let it Snow” together before leaving the stage as senior Kaitlyn Lee reentered as a country gal named “Daisy.” With her Southern accent, she encouraged the crowd to shout “Howdy!”

During this part of HANNAH LEE the perfor- Larry Chen (left) and Kaitlyn Lee (right) perform with the rest of the mance, the au- DBHS Marquis during their final production of Winter Winds.

HANNAH LEE The DBHS Marquis sang ‘Carol of the Bells’ at the most recent choir concert on Dec.7-8.

christina liu Staff writer The Diamond Bar High School choirs came together on Dec. 7 and 8 to celebrate the magical season through their annual Winter Choir Concert.

To begin the show, Marquis gave the audience a taste of their recent Winter Winds Concert with their “Home for the Holidays Medley.”

The vocalists quickly established a cheerful atmosphere with a hearty call and response between multiple singers.

After, the choir department officers gave brief introductions before opening the curtains for Chamber Choir. With vocal coach Matthew Davis conducting, chamber choir mesmerized the crowd with soothing hymns such as “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”

Following Chamber, Diamond Tones sang “Festive Processional”

by Audrey Snyder, accompanied by a drum beat. In “Bright Star Shining,” the audience clapped along enthusiastically as soloist Aidan Nelson captured the stage with his clear, distinct sound.

The concert was split so that half the solos would be performed

on Thursday, while the other half would be performed on Friday. During the Thursday performance, a memorable solo included “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve,” performed effortlessly by Solitaire vice president Stephanie Tang, as her smoky voice perfectly complimented the melody.

The Solitaire girls came out dressed up in red and white dresses with a festive Santa hat to capture the holiday feel, as they sang the enchanting Latin piece, “Gloria.” The piano accompaniment in “Winter Wonderland,” gave the audience the illusion of falling snowflakes with a twist of “Deck the Halls” incorporated in the melody.

Next to take the stage was Marquis in their “ugly” Christmas sweaters, as they enraptured the crowd with “Carol of the Bells,” using their vocals to imitate the heavy gonging of a bell. The traditional Jewish song “Mi Zeh Hidlik” lulled the crowd with gentles tones, which was contrasted by the upbeat song “It’s That Time of the Year” that followed.

To close the night, choir department alumni were invited to come onstage and join in their final song, “Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah.”

THE BULL'S EYE

DECEMBER 13, 2017

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

7

Alexie Montoya Ballet dancer and student of the American Ballet Theater hopes to dance professionally catherine liu Staff writer From twirling into dance at age three and first competing at five, junior Alexie Montoya has progressed from performing in small recitals to ballets hosted by the American Ballet Theatre, the ballet school she currently attends.

“Since my first recital, once my mom saw me walk on stage, she said that my face lit up and she thought ‘she’s born to perform,’” Montoya said.

Before Montoya joined the ABT, she had danced for multiple studios and competed at competitions such as Star Systems and CAR. Her mom helped with her final decision after she considered the outcome of commercial and ballet dancing. She was told that with commercial dancing, she would have to stop at 18, but with ballet dancing, she could become a professional and perform for thousands.

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. But after my mom gave me that speech, my answer was super easy. I chose the ballet route,” Montoya said via messenger.

Afterwards, Montoya attended a month-long ballet summer intensive program in San Francisco, an experience that helped her improve in both technique and skill as she danced for ten hours a day. In total, she has attended five summer intensives, with her most recent one in Austin, Texas.

“It was such an amazing experience for me, I met so many people there and they’re from all over the world,” Montoya said.

She found out about

ABT opening in California during her performance in “Sleeping Beauty.” Once her mother saw the ABT flyers posted at the center, she signed her up.

“I didn’t really have to audition because it was the first year so we just had to go to the orientation and they put us into levels.

But, if I were to drop out right now I would have to audition to get back in,” Montoya said.

Along with “Sleeping Beauty,” Montoya has been in ABT’s “The Nutcracker,” which has been held at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Costa Mesa in December for the last two years. During her second year in “The Nutcracker,” she did not originally have a role, which she says was devastating.

“The reason why I didn’t make it was because of my body type.

When you’re a ballerina you have to be completely flat and skinny,”

Montoya said.

“I was obviously more developed than the other girls cause they were nine to thirteen. I just felt a little bit awkward. My mom basically told me that I can’t change anything about it, it’s feminine to be developed.”

Photo Courtesy of ALEXIE MONTOYA H o w e v e r, Alexie Montoya dances at a summer intensive program in Montoya was Austin, Texas, which she attended this past summer. able to get a spot as a polichinelle when her from her mom and Misty Copeballet teacher noticed that she was land, the first African American not in the play even though he said dancer at ABT to be a principal she had the skills. For this year’s ballerina. She states that she performance of “The Nutcrackplans to pursue ballet professioner,” Montoya will again dance as a ally in the future and join a suitpolichinelle. able company such as the ABT or Montoya receives inspiration the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

deck the concert halls

This holiday season, a number of shows and events are bringing the Christmas spirit to Los Angeles.

Maggie liu contributing writer

WHERE

Segerstrom Center of the Arts

Amy miyahara Asst. A&E Editor Although Diamond Bar may not be filled with snowflakes and spectacular neighborhood lights, Christmas cheer can still be felt from a variety of nearby concerts and shows throughout the month.

The world renowned American Ballet Theatre will perform thirteen shows of the beloved Nutcracker starting Dec. 7 at the Segerstrom Center of the Arts in Costa Mesa. This holiday favorite features choreography by Alexei Ratmansky and costumes and sets crafted by Richard Hudson.

The Nutcracker chronicles Clara, a young girl on a mystical journey from a mundane Christmas Eve party to the Land of Sweets. This ballet captures childhood wonder and is quintessential holiday event. Tickets can be purchased on the Segerstrom Center of the Arts website, starting at $29.

Another cherished holiday classic is Charles Dicken’s insightful “A Christmas Carol.” This year, the Tony Award-winning theatre, South Coast Repertory, will tell the story of Ebenzer Scrooge and his adventure of self-awareness and redemption through a play.

Scrooge, an old and unappreciative cheapskate, is visited by the ghost of his old business partner Jacob Marley, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

The South Coast Repertory embellishes the original Dickens story with a few simple details that add depth and a distinctive flair to the time-honored plot. The tickets for the play can be found on the South Coast Repertory’s website with prices starting at $29.

The Winter Fest OC is an outdoor festival that has everything

WHEN

Dec. 7-17

PRICE

Starting at $29

WHERE

Los Angeles Zoo

WHEN

Nov. 17-Jan. 7

PRICE

Starting at $14.95

LOS ANGELES ZOO

SEGERSTROM CENTER OF THE ARTS

WHERE

South Coast Repertory

WHEN

Dec. 7-24

PRICE

Starting at $29

WHERE

Walt Disney Concert Hall

WHEN Dec. 16

PRICE

Starting at $33 LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

SOUTH COAST REPERTORY

WHERE

OC Fair and Events Center

WHEN

Dec. 21-Jan. 7

PRICE

Starting at $17

WHERE

The Curtis Theater

WHEN

Dec. 16-17

PRICE

Starting at $18 THE CURTIS THEATER

WINTER FEST OC

from carnival rides to the world’s largest rocking chair. The whole family can enjoy the plethora of activities including a petting zoo, an ice rink, a snow play area and a meet and greet with Santa Claus.

The ticket prices start at $5 and can be found on their website.

Another fun outdoor event is the annual Los Angeles Zoo Lights display. With stunning animal-themed displays made up of thousands of LED lights, it is no

wonder that the L.A. Zoo Lights display has become a favorite of Los Angeles residents and visitors alike. The display will be open nightly until Jan. 7, except for Christmas and Christmas Eve, and adult tickets start at $14.95.

One of the most endearing aspects of Christmas is the season’s jolly and fun music. The Los Angeles Philharmonic will be leading their annual Holiday Sing-Along at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Dec.

16. Classics like “Silent Night” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” will be overall performance.

The tickets start at $33 and can be found on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s website.

For those looking for a more local option, the Alley Cats, an award winning Doo-Wop a capella group, will be performing “Christmas with the Alley Cats” at Curtis Theater in Brea. The group, which has performed all over the world

with stars such as Frankie Valli and Conan O’Brien, will perform a mix of traditional Christmas carols and classic Doo-Wop tunes.

Doo-wop is a soulful genre of vocal music that reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but is not performed very often today, so the Alley Cats’ performance will be a unique experience for all listeners. The show will run three performances from Dec. 16-17, and tickets start at $18.

8

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

DECEMBER 13, 2017

THE BULL'S EYE

An A&E

Gift Guide The most wonderful time of the year can also be the most stressful. Holiday shopping is no easy task, but for those of you who still do not know what to get your best friends, these are some of the best arts-and-entertainment gifts of the season.

Ukulele $25.49 from target For those who have always wanted to learn to play an instrument, ukuleles are easy to learn and fun to play while singing along to your favorite christmas carols.

“Turtles all the way down” $11.99 from walmart John green is one of the most popular authors of this generation, and his latest book, “Turtles all the way down,” Is the perfect gift for the book lovers in your life.

Fujimax camera $59.99 from best buy while on the more expensive end on the gifts on the list, instant cameras are a fantastic gift to allow your friends to capture all of your meaningful memories.

“Reputation” $19.99 from target

One night ultimate werewolf

Taylor swift’s recent album is one of the biggest of this year. For any swifties that you know, the target edition comes with exclusive magazines.

$14.19 from target

Record player $39.99 from walmart

Similar to the popular game mafia, but ten times more intense, one night ultimate werewolf is an exciting party game to play with friends and makes a fun gift.

retro Record players are back in style, but ones from trendy stores like urban outfitters can be pricey.

Several stores offer them for a much lower cost.

Design by Amy Miyahara

DECEMBER 13, 2017

THE BULL'S EYE

FEATURE

9

A united student body Angela yang asst. news editor Behind the scenes of every event where Brahmas bleed purple and gold lies one of the most spirited groups on campus, working for hours on end to ensure everything from Homecoming game night to school rallies runs smoothly.

While these students are often the brunt of jokes from both other students and teachers for getting out of class to set up for events or carry out other duties, they aren’t recognized enough for the effort it takes to participate in this group.

On a typical night, Diamond Bar High School’s United Student Body can be found setting up for an upcoming event or attending a function hosted by one of the numerous extracurricular organizations on campus.

USB, under the supervision of Activities Director Van Horn, is constantly at the scene of football ,volleyball, and water polo games.

Athletics aside, USB members attend drama productions as well as choir, band, orchestra and dance concerts. At the end of the year, the group also watches the drumline and color guard showcase performances.

“We also like to show our support for the new events that different programs provide. I know that the USB as a class [attended] Ted Talks,” said senior Janice Lee, USB commissioner of Assemblies and Rallies. “We do our best to attend as many events as we can.”

However, it takes more than student support to keep school spirit up throughout the year.

Event planning is a time-consuming task, often beginning several weeks or months prior to the day of the occasion.

“Essentially, all events are planned by a commissioner pair,” said Hampton Douglas, senior class president. “They present the event to USB with a general plan [and] ask us for ideas for activities, themes and poster ideas. From there, the commissioner pair will work on execution for the day while everyone else will help make posters for advertisement,

Photo Courtesy of MELODY LEE

The 2016-2017 USB plans school activities such as the Branding Iron and the performing arts rally, pictured above. props or whatever else is necessary.”

Preparation for most activities include creating and distributing

“USB has been amazing, it was the best decision I’ve made throughout my high school career to apply.”

CARISSA MARTINEZ

flyers, setting up audio and ordering appropriate props from various companies.

Among the common events USB plans throughout the year are Spirit Weeks, with at least two occurring per semester. A relevant event outside of school may also prompt a spirit day, such as the Pink Out Day in October to support those affected by breast cancer. Ideas for spirit days are influenced by what students request, as members of USB bring in ideas they have heard their peers suggest to

In

ro u n d t abl e s - - eve n t - p l a n n i n g brainstorm sessions.

According to senior rally and assembly commissioner Carissa Martinez, rally planning starts two to three months ahead of the event. After hosting a roundtable discussion to determine the theme, Martinez works with Lee to lead the preparatory work. The night before the rally, USB members spent five to six hours setting up the gym and then add any additional finishing touches the following morning before school starts.

“In USB, we truly do form bonds that’ll last a lifetime. We spend hours together on a daily basis so it would make sense why we can get so close,” Douglas said. “However, sometimes I wish I wasn’t behind the scenes so much.

Sometimes, I just want to enjoy the event rather than make

r i e Th

sure nothing goes wrong.”

Aside from the more common events scattered throughout the year, annual dances such as Homecoming and Prom typically require planning to begin six to seven months ahead of time.

Most of the work for these formal events are taken on by the special projects commissioners, who search for venues and plan the activities. They also communicate with numerous companies to search for suitable provisions for the themed dances. “[Participating in USB] was the best decision I’ve made throughout my high school career, and it has

s e Ey

taught me so many things like how to be the best leader possible, responsibility and organizational skills” Martinez said. “I’m honestly really sad because USB has been a huge part of my life since second semester of sophomore year and I’ve met so many amazing people that I won’t see everyday anymore.”

The seniors, some having been in USB for one year and others for all four, will be retiring from their duties after the 2017 semester ends. The last project they worked on was the rally last Friday.

“This is the one group that I’ve been constantly dedicated to,” senior USB president Hailey Shi said. “It’s very bittersweet [to leave] because even though it’s a lot of work, it taught me a lot and I think that it’s going to be a little empty inside because as a second semester senior you’re watching other people in USB doing what you’ve been doing for so long.”

As the end of the 2016-2017 term is approaching, USB recently added new members.

Every year, freshman, sophomore and junior apply for the group’s 18 to 20 commissioner positions and are chosen through a series of interviews with the new E-board staff.

Royce Park, Junior “Joining USB has been my greatest achievement so far. USB is like my family and has filled my Junior year with so many great memories I wouldn’t have made otherwise.”

Melody Lee, Junior “USB has really shaped me to be the person I am today. I’ve met people I never thought I would ever be friends with, and now, I can’t imagine my life without them.”

Hampton Douglas, Senior Cami Kuruma, Senior “I’m super sad [that] it’s my only year to enjoy it and that it’s almost over, but I’ve made so many incredible memories with everyone this year.”

Design by Amelie Lee & Emily Kim

“I’ve been in USB for four years as Class of 2018 President. It’s been a ride to be able to be the back bone of the school’s activities all my high school career.”

Rishil Pansuria, Senior “Being one of the people in charge of the whole USB has also allowed me to develop as a leader, and it’s been a joy guiding USB this past year.”

INGRID CHAN

Recently elected USB president Melody Lee (left) and senior Cami Kuruma help out at an event held at lunch in the lower quad.

10

FEATURE

It’s roses for DB Girl Scout Sophia kim Asst. Web editor After ten years of dedication to Girl Scouts and serving her community, Diamond Bar High School senior Meghan Shen will be making her mark on national television.

On Jan. 1, Shen and the other chosen Girl and Boy Scouts will be marching in the Rose Parade as representatives for the national organization.

After finishing her Gold Award project in October, Shen applied to the organization to be a part of the Tournament of Roses Troop.

The troop consists of around 50 Eagle Scouts and 50 Gold Awardees between grades 10 and 12 from the Los Angeles area.

“It’s pretty incredible because it’s been a childhood dream,” Shen said. “It’s nice to be able to represent Diamond Bar.” After Shen submitted her application and interviewed on-the-spot over the phone, she was soon notified of her acceptance. She, along with others chosen, attended two mandatory practices to learn formation.

Before achieving her dream of becoming a part of the tournament troop, Shen completed her Gold Award project by teaching art to children at a local elementary school.

“Since I really like art, I wanted to combat the lack of emphasis in art, especially fine arts in elementary level,” she said.

For three days a week, over a span of eight weeks, Shen visited Quail Summit Elementary School to teach children about color theory, sculpting basics and drawing techniques.

“Your honor, this is an exception to hearsay, and it is an admission by the party opponent.” Courtroom procedures may seem foreign to many high school students, but Diamond Bar High School’s Mock Trial team has made it their job to understand and argue the law in an actual courtroom.

The team consists of 20 students, led by head coach Latitia Thomas and assistant coach Margaret Ku. The team consists of eight attorneys, eight witnesses, one clerk, one bailiff and two alternates.

“We have a really great team environment, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this level of camaraderie in any of my other clubs or organizations,” senior Cecily Deng said.

Mock Trial is an academic organization that imitates proceedings in an actual legal court system, and teams across California spend two months rehearsing and editing the given case trial. Each year, teams are given a standard case trial, which they study in detail. The members then go to the Los Angeles County Courthouse to compete, with professional judges and attorneys scoring each round.

“I was able to step out of my comfort zone and spend loads of time practicing subjects that interest me like law and public speaking,” senior Jeremy Barajas said via Facebook.

During a mock court hearing, both teams give their opening statement, direct examination, cross examination and closing statement with the judge conducting the trial.

During the court case, attorneys score the teams, and the results are

Decking the Halls With a shortage of live Christmas trees this holiday season and increasing prices, it is time to try new ways to enjoy the holiday spirit without hauling a large sapling into your home. Here are some ways to create your own holiday trees.

Coffee Christmas Tree Materials: Photo Courtesy of MEGHAN SHEN

Girl Scout Meghan Shen teaches kids basic art skills at Quail Summit Elementary School for her Gold Award project. She volunteered there for eight weeks.

Leading hands-on art projects, she had to plan ahead to create engaging activities, as well as to gather volunteers and art supplies.

One unique project she led was “Create-A-Book,” in which the children each illustrated a scene from a short story they wrote together.

“Working with the kids was really fun because I would come from a long day of school, and they would always brighten my day,” she said.

Since elementary school, Shen completed a number of troop projects including hosting a car wash fundraiser for victims of the Japan earthquake and a self-defense workshop to educate girls on safety against domestic violence.

In addition, she and Girl Scouts troop member, senior Emily Ong, planted a garden at a local packing house called Isaiah’s Rock to provide the cooks there with freshly grown herbs to season the foods.

Although she originally joined Girl Scouts as a light-hearted activity in elementary school, Shen stated that she has learned to ap-

preciate the skills she’s developed as part of the team.

“Back then, it was more of a fun thing for me, but as I got older, I’ve gotten to do more projects where I’m actually making a difference,” she said. “It’s more meaningful to me now, and it allows me to take on more different types of leadership roles.”

Shen stated that being part of Girl Scouts taught her to manage her time, plan in advance and deal with people of all ages. Currently, Shen is also secretary and commissioner of academics in USB, president of Key Club and a team member of Mock Trial.

Although her high school years in Girl Scouts comes to a close, she hopes to continue to be involved with Girl Scouts as a young adult.

“I spent a lot more time with Girl Scouts as I get older because there’s a lot more to plan and learn about the world, especially as a young woman,” she said. “I definitely still want to stay in Girl Scouts and possibly when I get older, lead a troop.”

Team’s skills put on trial christina liu staff writer

DECEMBER 13, 2017

THE BULL'S EYE

released a day later. In their most recent competition, the team made it to playoffs, ranking 24 out of the 100 teams competing.

“We did get far but we could have gone a lot further,” senior Pablo Martinez said via Facebook. “Our third round, we went against an extremely powerful team but we put up a very good show, and in the end, we lost by a slim margin of 1 to 2 percent of the total points.”

Tryouts for the team are held at the beginning of the year for students to make it on the team. When conducting tryouts, Thomas said that she looks for courage, speaking ability and students’ ability to think quickly.

“Courage is easy to see,” Thomas said. “Can they make eye contact, can they look at me when I ask them questions, can they answer or do they instantly shut down?”

After tryouts, the prosecution and defense side is formed. From there, the team holds daily practices for the two months leading up to their trial, memorizing their lines, constantly editing and focusing on finding the most important parts of the case to argue in the courtroom.

During practice, the team analyzes the case booklet, makes questions and performs official run throughs. Through practices and competitions, members not only gain legal skills, but also deep connections with each other.

“It had given me new found confidence and a disciplined work ethic,” Barajas said. “The Mock Trial team has also become a second family to me.”

Although Mock Trial season has ended, students from the team continue to meet up for the Moot Court competition that takes place in the spring.

Moot Court is held in Duke University in Carolina, where teams argue constitutional law in front of a panel of judges.

“I’ve definitely had my doubts about Mock Trial, which was partially due to how my peers and teachers saw me—a typical STEM student,” senior Irene Chang said via Facebook. “But I didn’t let that stop me; there’s something about public speaking and debate that I love, and I hope to use the skills I’ve learned in Mock Trial to further me in my journey.”

-Coffee filters -Green food coloring -Water -Bowl -Unsharpened Pencil -Circular Foam Block -Paper towel -Gloves -Hot Glue

Instructions:

1. Fill a bowl about ¾ of the way with water. Add in about 5 drops of the food coloring. Wear gloves and soak the coffee filter for as long as you desire. Place the coffee filters on a paper towel to dry. (You can soak the coffee filters for different amounts of time if you desire to create a gradient colored Christmas tree).

2. Stick one end of the pencil in a circular foam block.

3. Cut some of the coffee filters into small and medium sized circles.

4. Starting from the largest circle, stick the middle of the filter through the pencil and push it down to the bottom. Continue the process of stacking coffee filters on the pencil until you reach the top.

5. Glue the smallest coffee filter circle on the top with a drop of hot glue.

Jingle Books

Materials:

- Stacks of books

Instructions:

1. Taking the largest and heaviest books you have, place the books in a ring, creating a circular base with an open middle.

2. Continue to stack books on top of and over the cracks of the circular base.

3. Slowly use less and less books as you continue to make your way to the top to create a cone shape.

4. Once you cannot create a circle of books, stack the books on top of one another to create the desired height of your book Christmas tree.

Check out dbbullseye.com for photos

Deck the Walls Materials:

- 40-50 feet of tinsel - Push pins/wall hooks - Ornaments - Lights

Instructions:

Photo courtesy of LATITIA THOMAS

Members of the Mock Trial Team pose in front of the L.A. Courthouse before their first competition. The team made the top 24 teams competing.

1. Start by pinning one end of the tinsel about seven feet up on a wall.

2. Zig zag the tinsel down the wall in even drapes, placing a pin every time you switch directions. With every layer, make the line of tinsel longer to create the Christmas tree shape.

3. Continue down the wall until there is no more tinsel left.

4. You can decorate the tinsel by hanging ornaments directly on the tinsel or hanging up Christmas lights in a similar way to the tinsel.

THE BULL'S EYE

DECEMBER 13, 2017

DBHS ALUMNI EST. 1982

FEATURE

11

Piloting a career to new heights

CINDY LIU ASST. NEWS EDITOR Operation Iraqi Freedom III. Fort Hood. Camp Humphreys. In the 17 years she has served in the United States Army, Diamond Bar High School class of 1995 alumna Ashley Lee has risen through the ranks. Her most recent promotion elevated her to lieutenant colonel, the sixth highest rank in the military.

Lee works as part of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, where she reviews test plans and acquisition strategies for the Army. Her current office life is a sharp contrast to her position only a year ago: sitting behind the cockpit of the AH-64 Apache Longbow, one of the most lethal attack helicopters in the U.S. Army.

Lee decided to join the military in her sophomore year at UCLA, after she passed by the campus’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps buildings. She initially noticed the striking uniforms and the soldiers undergoing training exercises on the display photos, but a familiar face among the photographed soldiers soon caught her eye—DBHS 1994 alumnus Vincent Lai, who had been on the wrestling team with her brother in high school.

Seeing Lai in the picture showed Lee that it was possible for her to join the army; before, joining the army was never considered a feasi-

ble option.

“During that time, the career options for young Asian-Americans weren’t really centered on pursuing one’s own passions or pursuits, but rather on building a secure and financially viable future,” Lee said via email. “Seeing Vince in the picture that day resonated with me about how important visibility is for minority groups and women in different professional fields.”

The following weekend, Lee attended a field training exercise that cemented her decision to join the Army.

She went on to attend Basic Camp at Fort Knox, which involved six weeks of basic training for ROTC cadets, and Airborne School at Fort Benning. More recently, she attended Army’s Command and General Staff College and graduated with honors last year. She also underwent 18 months of training at Fort Rucker, where she spent her days inside the classroom learning about a variety of topics including tactics as well as training for terrain flights and hovering techniques in the Apache.

“I didn’t have any friends or family members who were in the U.S. military. I just didn’t have any exposure to it,” Lee said. “But from the first training exercise to now, it’s always been clear that the Army is a perfect fit for me.”

Since her first introduction to the U.S. Army, Lee was sent on a range of assignments that have

A master in the art of checkmate Ingrid chan asst. photo editor For Diamond Bar High School junior Queena Deng, the art of playing chess is more than just a hobby—it’s a family tradition.

“It’s a mental sport, a psychological game to see if you can outsmart your opponent,” Deng said via text message. “I love the complexity and various strategies involved. That’s what keeps chess interesting to me.”

Both of Deng’s parents have a history in competing and are currently chess instructors. It was only natural for Deng and her little brother to develop into the talented players they are today.

As of right now, she has earned a Masters title--Woman FIDE Master is given only to girls who have a rating over 2100--and has won her division of the North American Youth Chess Championship. She also competed in the World Youth Chess Championship Her parents taught her the basics from a young age, as she first stepped into the realm of chess when she was only four years old.

Deng steadily improved her skills throughout the years, constantly practicing in clubs and at home.

In elementary school, she was a member of the Arcadia Chess Club and competed for them. Now, she plays mostly for the chess school run by her parents: “Beyond Chess.”

Her most memorable experience in chess was during her freshman year when she decided to participate in the World Youth Chess Championship in 2015.

She had already been qualified to participate in the championship when she was younger, but never took the opportunity since it requires too much time and money.

That year, however, her parents en-

Queena Deng plays chess in competitions, earning a Masters title for having a rating over 2100. couraged her to play because they wanted her to experience it at least once.

The championship was also to be held in Greece, which meant Deng would not only be exposed to competing internationally, but also to a completely different culture.

Although she didn’t place at the competition, she states that it was the most unforgettable three weeks of her life.

“There were a lot of people participating, and at times it did feel intimidating. I honestly kind of knew that I might not place anyway, so it wasn’t too much of a disappointment when I didn’t win,” Deng said. “Ultimately, I thought it was really cool just to meet other players from around the world.”

Deng is currently taking a break from chess in order to focus on school, but she intends to keep playing even in the future.

However, she plans to keep chess as more of a hobby because she isn’t very fond of the stress that comes with playing chess professionally—though she hopes to participate in tournaments in the future to keep her skills fresh.

Photo Courtesy of ASHLEY LEE

Alumna Ashley Lee (center) with her fellow soldiers in Iraq in 2005.

shaped her military experience.

In 2005, in the middle of a routine counter mortar reconnaissance interdiction mission, a task involving flying in unpredictable

restaurant review

patterns to stop mortar rounds from targeting the base, Lee and an accompanying Apache helicopter on her team were called to respond to a situation in which a civilian he-

licopter was shot down. As the first coalition force on the spot, Lee remembered witnessing the destruction of the scene.

“I remember looking down at the crash site and seeing the dead bodies of the passengers staggered in all directions about 500 meters from the crash site,” Lee said.

“That was the day that the dangers of flying in combat really hit home for me.”

The Apache helicopters that Lee pilots are among the most technologically advanced helicopters in the world. In the cockpit, Lee is constantly multi-tasking. While wearing a helmet that controls sight systems for night vision and target identification with thermal systems, Lee directs the helicopter’s automatic M230 Chain Gun with her line of sight. At the same time, she monitors the aircraft status with a helmet mounted display over her right eye—all while piloting the helicopter with her hands and feet.

“My favorite part about flying the Apache is knowing the capabilities the aircraft has to influence an operation and support the ground troops,” Lee said. “The mere presence of an Apache in an area can act as a deterrence for the enemy because of its sheer firepower.”

At age 30, Lee was assigned to the U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys near Pyeongtaek, Korea as

ALUMNI ON P. 12

Rendezvous with Quality

Ingrid chan asst. photo editor Located in Chino Hills, Rendezvous Cafe blends two cultures by offering its customers a variety of both French and Chinese pastries, in addition to more typical selections of sandwiches, paninis, coffee, and tea—all of which are within a $3 to $10 price range.

Outfitted with dark wood walls and matching furniture, the cafe has a sleek, polished ambiance. The store’s many glass windows make the interior seem spacious, allowing plenty of natural light to filter in and giving customers an opportunity to enjoy the scenery outside.

The secluded corner where the cafe is located gives it a very relaxing quality, making it an ideal spot for customers who want to work or study peacefully. Not only does the cafe possess a calming atmosphere, but it also has great service.

Because my mother and I arrived during the early evening, there were only a few people inside, and we were served quickly after ordering. However, what I appreciated the most was the staff’s friendliness and generosity. They immediately greeted us, asking us to sit wherever we wanted to. One of the owners also personally described a variety of the dishes on the menu and gave us plenty of recommendations.

I ordered a Chicken Pesto Panini Combo with a side of salad for $8.99, while my mother decided on a plate of Liege Belgian Waffles and berries for $5.99. We shared a small Matcha Tea Latte for $3.75. Though the cost was a bit too pricey for me, the quality of the food and the pleasantly tranquil ambiance completely made up for it. I was even more delighted by the fact that Rendezvous Cafe gives a 10 percent student discount when you show them your school ID card.

The chicken panini provided a generous amount of pesto and

chicken, as well as a great deal of savory, melted cheese holding the sandwich together. I was especially happy with how hot the sandwich was served, as it oozed with cheesy goodness. The panini bread not only had the ideal amount of crunch on the outside, but also possessed a deliciously soft interior that gave character to every bite. Complete with a slightly zesty dressing, the side of salad perfectly complemented the hearty chicken dish. The lighter, more refreshing course was a great way to cleanse my palate after chewing through the greasier sandwich Topped with whipped cream, a variety of berries and a drizzling of chocolate sauce, the Belgian Waffle was also very satisfying. Though crunchier than I expected, the waffles had a very consistent texture all the way through. I do wish the inside of the waffle was softer in order to better contrast the crunchy exterior, but the taste stood out more than the lack of chewiness.

I appreciated how the whipped cream and chocolate sauce weren’t overdone; instead of being completely smothered in cream and other sugary toppings, the dish was just the right amount of sweet.

The Matcha Tea Latte, on the other hand, was a new experience

DETAILS

CUISINE: Bakery

ADDRESS: 5751 Pine Ave, Chino Hills, CA 91709 PRICE RANGE: $4-$7 for me. Although I’ve tried a handful of other tea lattes before, this one stood out the most. Instead of the usual, lightly bitter flavor I’ve become accustomed to, this Matcha Tea Latte had a strikingly rich taste. It was a mixture of hot milk, cream and green tea with a dusting of matcha powder on top.

Despite the strong taste of cream, the flavor of green tea still came through nicely with its mildly bitter tang. Served hot in a cute, white-handled cup, I felt the need to order more even after I finished all of it. Regrettably, I had ordered the small instead of the regular.

Rendezvous Cafe is undoubtedly among one of the better cafes I have visited. The prices are reasonable compared to other cafes of the same quality, and I was very pleased by the exceptionally hospitable staff and the quality of their food—both of which warrant a visit from anyone who needs a good place to relax.

INGRID CHAN

Rendezvous Cafe in Chino Hills serves breakfast and lunch foods all day long.

12 FEATURE

THE BULL'S EYE

DB alumni moves up in Army rank ALUMNI FROM P. 11 a company commander with the enormous task of managing eight Apache Longbow helicopters and more than 40 pilots and aircraft mechanics.

“My time as a company commander in Korea was the most challenging time of my career,” Lee said. “The responsibility that the Army places on its young company commanders is pretty daunting.”

Out of the numerous awards and decorations Lee received, the one that she is most proud of is her Bronze Star medal—an award honoring heroic or meritorious service in a combat zone—from her assignment in Iraq. Her other achievements include being inducted into the Order of Saint Michael and receiving the Defense Meritorious Service Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal.

At her recent promotion ceremony at the Pentagon, Lee’s family members, friends—including several alumni from DBHS—and mentors watched in the audience as presiding officer retired Colonel Kevin Berry named her Lieutenant Colonel.

“I felt grateful, blessed, humbled and honored for everyone’s show of support,” Lee said. “The coolest part about the promotion ceremony was that it gave my family an occasion for a reunion.”

In the time Lee spent serving in

the U.S Army, the challenge that comes with moving every two to three years for different assignments is also one of her favorite parts of her job.

“It’s difficult to have to move every 2-3 years,” Lee said. “The stress of physically moving at that frequency can be challenging.

However, having an opportunity to live in a new area, to really integrate into a new community at that frequency, also makes you really appreciate the great things that highlight each American city.”

Lee remembers her time at DBHS as an experience that helped her gain a deeper appreciation for community in her life. At DBHS, she was involved in the student council, Academic Decathlon Team and played on the varsity tennis team.

“The teachers, the students, the sports, student activities, school pride, sense of community were all critical to my sense of confidence and responsibility,” Lee said.

With her experience as a DBHS alumna and a military commander, Lee advises students to keep a positive attitude and be active in finding ways to solve challenges in life.

“My advice is: A.C.E.—attitude, creativity, and effort,” Lee said.

“Give an honest effort in even the smallest tasks throughout the day.

Excellence is not a part-time job.”

DECEMBER 13, 2017

13

FEATURE

THE BULL'S EYE

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Humans of Diamond Bar High School

Noor Elkobaitry, Freshman

Tong Xie, Freshman ““When I have some struggles, I’m not really depressed about those struggles because I see that many people are also experiencing the same things.”

George Jin, Sophomore “I learned from my parents that if you treat people well, they’ll treat you well too. No one really wants to be mean for no reason, so if you’re nice to them and respect them, they’ll eventually choose to be nice.”

Jolene Goudeau, Senior

Jonathan Erazo, Sophomore “I don’t like anything about myself. I have a good outlook on life, but not towards myself.

I made a lot of mistakes that I regret, so now I don’t really like myself anymore. I don’t know how I’m going to work on that, but I’ll figure something out.”

“People are really important. At the end of the day, they’re the ones that are there for you. I get attached to people very easily. I take a lot of inspiration from music and books, to know that other people go through the same things I do helps me.”

Alex Hong, Freshman “I’m really awkward. It’s not a good personality trait. It shows that I don’t have much confidence in myself or much self esteem. I have a low self esteem. I mostly just deal with it by binge watching Netflix or eating. It’s not a good way to deal with stuff.”

“I can start a conversation with anyone. You never know when you can make somebody’s day.

Someone could be having the worst day, and if you try having a conversation with them, it can change their whole mood. People should be positive. I just get up every morning and try to be as positive as I can.”

14

SPORTS

DECEMBER 13, 2017

THE BULL'S EYE

DB athletes commit to colleges Five Brahmas will take their athletic talents across the country as they play at the collegiate level.

HANNAH LEE NEWS editor As many Diamond Bar High School seniors wrap up their college applications, golfer Crystal Wang and swimmers Michael Lee, Kelly Cheng, Kelsey Lloyd and David Wang have all been recruited and committed to play at the collegiate level.

After four years of golfing at DBHS, Wang will attend University of Illinois in the fall for golf. Wang picked up the sport at the age of four, and began playing competitively by the age of nine.

Just last month, she set the best finish in DBHS history at the CIF Girls Golf State Championships, finishing as a state runner-up. She also shot a record breaking seven under par as a junior.

Wang’s recruitment process began during sophomore year, and

after considering other offers, she committed to University of Illinois last October. Wang is still deciding if she wants to play professionally past college.

“I like the coach, the teammates...I kind of wanted to go out of state, be somewhere different,” Wang said.

Cheng will be heading to the East Coast to swim for Northeastern University. Cheng began swimming at five years old and has been swimming competitively for seven years now.

Cheng spent her years swimming for DBHS and Brea Aquatics, breaking several school records during her four years.

She committed to Northeastern for its programs, coaches, team and city. Though still unsure about swimming professionally, Cheng sees this as another step toward the potential option. “[Recruitment] was really stressful...you were talking to colleges way before anyone else was; you were on your own in that kind of sense,” Cheng said.

Wang will be going to school in New York City, committing to swim for Columbia University. As well as

HANNAH LEE

Seniors Kelly Cheng (left) and Michael Lee (right) swam for DBHS for four years. swimming for Diamond Bar, Wang has also been a swimmer for La Mirada Armada.

He was named league MVP as a junior and a CIF swimming champion.

During his time at DBHS, Wang has beat multiple school and league records and was named Swimmer of the Year by San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

On the other hand, Lloyd and

Lee will both be staying in California.

Lloyd swam for Brea Aquatics as well as for Diamond Bar High School’s swim team, and has committed to attending University of the Pacific.

Lloyd is a defending CIF champion and has broken school records multiple times.

The swimmer has also been named to the San Gabriel Valley

Tribune All Area First Team as a junior.

While Lloyd will be heading up north, Lee will stay more local as he attends Claremont McKenna.

Lee swam for Diamond Bar High School, Brea Aquatics and La Mirada Armada as well, having spent the last ten years in the swimming pool.

Lee holds school and meet records, and has swam at multiple high level competitions, such as the Arena Pro Series swimming competition and North American Challenge Cup. “[Recruitment] was a mixture of anxiety and excitement. At the beginning, I had no clue where I wanted to go, and even when I did, I was still stuck. It seemed that every school was amazing,” Lee said via Facebook.

As for the future, Lee is currently only thinking about college level swimming.

“In college, I want to make new friends and learn new skills and ideas. When I visited Claremont, everyone there was genuinely interested in helping me do that and felt that this was a place that I could really grow,” Lee said.

IN HER GLORY DAYS BRIANNA WOODS AMELIE LEE

Juniors Bryan Reyes and Gavin Clements practice through 1-on-1 drills.

Brahmas start preseason strong BOYS BASKETBALL Starting 6-2, the boys look to carry their momentum into league.

Pauline Woodley A&E editor After last year’s solid season for the Diamond Bar High School boy’s basketball team, which included a strong start, sudden downfall and a spot in the playoffs, the players must find their stride yet again in order to live up to expectations.

However, the team’s successful start didn’t last throughout the entire season and was cut short after some tough losses, including seven consecutive losses to end the regular season.

“We don’t want to take any games lightly, like we did last year, which resulted in some defeating losses,” senior captain Kingston Ko said.

With expectations high and the pressure on, Ko plans on redirecting his focus from perfecting the skills of the players individually to improving the teamwork between the players.

“I plan to take on more leadership roles than I did last year, and I would also like to get more of my teammates involved on and off the court,” Ko said.

As their season begins, the team has worked on replacing the key seniors, who made up a large portion of their top players last year.

“The team has really stepped up,

and especially the juniors. They’ve really stepping into their role, and they understand that it’s their time now,” head coach Henry Frierson said.

Upperclassmen such as seniors Ryan Hahn and Connor Blakely have stepped up in order to replace key players, including last year’s captain Malik Corey, who led the team in both points and defensive steals.

“Since I transferred in last year from Ayala, it was hard for me to break into the court. This year, I hope to have a bigger role on the court and step up,” Blakely said.

According to Hahn, the team has not made any huge changes in their defensive schemes, and they hope to use last year’s winning plays to ensure success.

Frierson has been focusing on strengthening the team’s offense and improving on cutting and shooting.

Throughout the upcoming season, the team is not going to let success get in their heads, and instead continue to focus on improvement according to Ko. The boys are off to a good start, at 6-2.

“We are not going to let the pressure get to us, and we will take it one game at a time in order to stay more focused on the challenges ahead,” Ko said.

Frierson said he hopes to keep the intensity strong all season long.

“One thing I can say about the mentality of this team is that mediocrity is not the standard for these guys. Nobody is going to have higher expectations than us,” Frierson said.

The English teacher played competitive volleyball for seven years.

Justin Prakaiphetkul asst. Sports editor Following in the footsteps of her mother and aunts, Diamond Bar High School English teacher Brianna Woods discovered her lifelong passion for volleyball at an early age that still runs strong to this day.

With five of her aunts and her mother playing volleyball, Woods was exposed to the sport in elementary school. At age 10, Woods picked up a volleyball and immediately fell in love with the sport, frequently playing the game on family trips with her aunts and mother.

“All of my aunts and my mom played volleyball when they were in college and high school, so naturally it fell into my lap,” Woods said.

Woods began to play competitively during her middle school years at Hillview Middle School in Palmdale. During her time there, the team finished first in their division for three straight years.

At Highland High School in Palmdale, Woods was the starting middle blocker and would occasionally play the outside positions.

During her sophomore year, Woods switched back and forth between the JV and varsity team.

“I liked varsity more cause it’s more competitive, but then it’s hard too, as sometimes you can get discouraged more easily, especially when you’re on the JV team,” Woods said. “During the few games I was bumped up to varsity, the competition was a lot stronger so more mistakes could happen, but I enjoyed it.”

To remain at her physical peak, Woods practiced up to ten hours a week outside of school. At home, Woods played volleyball on her custom made court, in which one

end of the net was tied to a tree and the other end was tied to her patio wood post.

Woods’ greatest learning experience in high school stemmed from a coaching change that occurred during her sophomore year. The new coach and Woods did not see eye to eye and both argued constantly. Woods stated that the new coach showed favoritism towards certain players.

“My coach and I did not get along at all. I think she only kept me around because she realized I was somewhat of a decent player,” Woods said.

Despite the fact that Woods and her coach did not mesh well together, Woods was able to take away an important life lesson from the ordeal: to not care about the way others view you. Although Woods had the same mindset from a young age, her run-ins with the coach only strengthened this belief.

“Everyone’s going to have their favorites, and I just feel that basically, people shouldn’t go out of their way to try to be something they’re not just to please a certain person,” Woods said.

In spite of this, Woods still cred-

its the coach for having good techniques that helped her develop as a player.

Although Woods considered joining the club volleyball team at CSU Fullerton, she decided against it. Woods decided that working would be the best use of her time, as she had to pay for her college tuition. Woods majored in English and earned her credential at the university.

Woods also played tennis as a “free-time sport.” She began to play tennis during her sophomore year and soon found the sport to be a side hobby.

Last year, Woods was named assistant tennis coach, and she went back and forth between varsity and JV throughout the season. This year, Woods was named the JV head coach.

Woods’ main takeaways from her tennis coaching experience and her playing experience in volleyball are to accept others for who they are and to work hard to succeed.

“You’re not going to get along with every person in life and that’s okay, you just have to learn to somehow work around it with people,” Woods said.

HANNAH LEE

Brianna Woods played at both the JV and varsity level at Highland High School.

THE BULL'S EYE

DECEMBER 13, 2017

a few hours in full body suits and helmets. These factors, without a doubt, requires drivers to maintain high stamina.

There is a reason why NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson beat out athletes such as Roger Federer, Usain Bolt and Kobe Bryant to become the first and only NASCAR driver to win the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year in 2009.

Johnson, now 42 years old, still lifts weights four times a week while completing 10-mile runs and occasional triathlons. Johnson won his seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship in 2016, tying him with Richard Perry and Dale Earnhardt Sr. for the most championships in the sport’s history.

During races, drivers can also lose around five to fifteen pounds due to the amount of sweat released. This loss of water can negatively affect reaction times by up to 30 percent. If you have not grasped it yet, you need pretty quick reflexes to narrowly avoid crashes while driving at 200 miles per hour.

The split second decisions these drivers make every race can be the difference between life and death.

Although NASCAR may be distinctly different from the good old sports we love such as basketball, baseball and football, we cannot view these drivers as ordinary individuals. We should not view NASCAR as simply driving just because these athletes don’t run around in arenas or stadiums. It’s time that we stop dismissing NASCAR as “a group of people making left turns” and start acknowledging it as a sport.

Balancing the offense GIRL BASKETBALL The team looks to fill the void left by three key seniors.

Brian Chang News editor Fresh off a third place finish in the Wilson Tournament, Diamond Bar High School girls’ basketball team looks to find its footing before league games begin next semester.

With the loss of last year’s senior captains Juliana Gamboa, Candace Black and Lauryn Del Campo, the Lady Brahmas need to fill major gaps in their offense—Gamboa alone accounted for 20 points per game as the starting point guard.

In their absence, senior starting center Jessica Barrera said every player has become more active on offense. Head coach Tony McCabe said the team has become more balanced in scoring and ball-handling.

Senior forward Sabrina McNally views communication and teamwork as keys to the team’s success.

Individually, McNally wants to be a stronger force on the offensive side, as she has focused mostly on defense in the past.

“My expectations for myself is to become more involved in the offense [and] more vocal with the team,” McNally said via Facebook.

“As a senior, I have more responsibility because I have been on varsity for three years. I keep my teammates upbeat and positive as well as demonstrating leadership qualities on and off the court by leading the team in cheering and communicating on the court.”

Senior Jessica Barrera agreed, as she also views communication as vital to the team’s growth.

During practice, she and the other seniors on the team encourage their teammates to speak up.

AMELIE LEE

Senior Jessica Barrera (52) sets up junior Angela Hung (44) on a pick and roll.

“Communication is definitely one of our weaknesses right now,” Barrera said. “Communication is key to winning the game, and we’ve been doing a lot of drills for that.”

Barrera has also been a leader for the team. As the team’s starting center, she has played a bigger role this season in the team’s offense than in years past and said she tries to keep the team positive on and off the court.

“A leader, what they do is they pick up their team,” Barrera said.

“During the games, I’m always telling them, ‘You got this. You’re fine.’ When someone misses a shot they’ll look at me, and I’m like, ‘You’re fine. Just take the next one.

Just forget about that one.’”

McCabe has also pushed for teamwork, citing “overall team play, the development of key young players and the leadership of the senior class” as critical.

At the Wilson tournament, the

Lady Brahmas defeated the Wilson Wildcats and the San Bernardino Cardinals. However, the team fell 49-44 and 45-29 to the Schurr Spartans and the Rancho Cucamonga Cougars, respectively, to take third.

In their first non-tournament game of the preseason, they lost 5948 to Valencia High School on Nov. 29. Against the Anaheim Colonists on Dec. 6, the Lady Brahmas were able to tie a deficit of over 20 points in the fourth quarter, though they still dropped the game 69-61. They participated in the San Dimas tournament this week.

“For the preseason, it’s definitely been an uphill climb,” Barrera said. “We’ve been improving drastically. Our struggle at first was last year, we had three main players. Those players led the team, and now it’s a new team. We’re just trying to find how everyone fits in and how we can all contribute to the team.”

T F H O EM E T E

TH

SA

ON

ATHL

ith Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick, two of stock-car racing most famous drivers, announcing their retirements this year, I found myself once again asking: Is NASCAR a real sport?

After all, should a bunch of drivers racing around an oval be considered athletes, especially in the same tier as LeBron James and Tom Brady? After researching how these drivers prepare and train for races, along with the dangers they have to endure on the track, I have come to the definite conclusion that NASCAR is a sport.

According to oxforddictionaries. com, a sport is defined as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” Believe it or not, NASCAR meets all of these requirements.

NASCAR drivers have to train rigorously in order to endure the ordeals of the racetrack. These drivers have to keep their bodies in great shape to withstand multiple obstacles, such as the 3 G’s of force on turns--three times the force of gravity, the equivalent of a 40 pound support on a driver’s neck, according to ESPN Sports Science.

This constant strain on a driver’s neck results in their heart beating over 120 beats per minute throughout the entire race, which is comparable to that of a marathon runner when running.

Additionally, temperature inside the cockpit often surpasses 120 degrees. During every race, drivers endure these conditions for at least

with Justin Prakaiphetkul

15

M BLAZE

K

W

THIS JUST-IN...

Much More Than ‘Just Drivers’

SPORTS

Finding her love for soccer at the age of four, the DB captain has improved her game every year.

Catherine Zhang Editor-In-Chief Playing both varsity soccer and track since her freshman year and serving as captain for both sports, Diamond Bar High School senior Sam Blazek has held down one of the most important positions on the Brahma soccer team for the past three years—goalie.

“I’ve been told by a lot of my coaches that goalie is most important because they have to be the best player on the team,” Blazek said.

“They have to use both their feet and their hands and able to see the dynamic of the game.”

At the age of four, Blazek started playing soccer after watching her older brother and friends play at AYSO. Though she participated in a variety of sports, Blazek discovered her passion in soccer and wanted to play more than just the

games that AYSO offered; she began playing club soccer when she moved to California during middle school.

Straying from the traditional route of sticking to one club team, Blazek has played for various teams. She joined her first private club during eighth grade and has been playing ever since.

“It was a complete different game, and it was really intriguing.

I wanted to learn more and get better, so I kept going to where I am today,” Blazek said.

She had the opportunity to meet U.S. Women’s Team member and DBHS alumna Alex Morgan when the soccer star visited the school in 2012. Morgan became her inspiration, as Blazek found it interesting that both she and Morgan came from Diamond Bar, yet Morgan was incredibly successful.

Blazek became increasingly interested in soccer after reading

Photos Courtesy of SAMANTHA BLAZEK

Senior Samantha Blazek will continue playing soccer at the collegiate level for York University in Nebraska. about the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.

Over the years, Blazek has received numerous awards such as all-league honorable mention, second team all league and most saves in the Palomares League.

“Sam is a great leader by not only her words of encouragement to her teammates but also on the field and at trainings with her hard work. I believe we have two of the best goalies in the area with her and junior Alexis Nguyen. The best part about Sam is she supports our other goalie as well and doesn’t mind splitting time with Alexis, which is rare for a lot of goalies,” head coach Matt Franco said via email.

Although Blazek has accumulated 257 saves over the past four years, according to MaxPreps.com, she still feels the pressure of being the team’s main defender.

“You’re the last line of defense.

There’s a lot of pressure, and you have to be able to control your team and tell them where the best place to go to keep the attack strong,” Blazek said.

Despite her success over the last two seasons, Blazek hasn’t always been the one on the field helping the team, as she spent majority of her freshman year on the bench.

However, she wanted to improve, since the more experienced players were the ones who earned the chance to play. During the off-seasons, she gained more game experience by playing in club and focusing on her weaknesses.

“I wanted to keep seeing improvement in my game and keep challenging myself. It was a mental challenge in making myself wanting to get stronger and finding different ways to get better,” Blazek said.

Blazek has committed to York University in Nebraska to continue

playing soccer.

“It’s a small school, but it’s still a big team. I’m fortunate in that women’s soccer is pretty competitive no matter what division,” Blazek said.

Aside from soccer, Blazek is also involved with the DB track and field team in shot put and discus, serving in a leadership role for the team. Blazek has played on the varsity team for the past four years, and has even competed in CIF Preliminaries during her junior year.

Last season, Blazek won league for discus and also placed second for shot put.

Despite excelling at field, soccer is and will be her number one passion.

“Soccer differs from most other sports because of my teammates,” she said. “You know that your team is your family. They always have your back, and you always have their back.”

16

SPORTS

DECEMBER 13, 2017

THE BULL'S EYE

WARMING UP GIRLS WATER POLO

WRESTLING

BOYS SOCCER

GIRLS SOCCER

BOYS BASKETBALL

12/21 @ Bonita 01/09 Glendora 01/18 @ Claremont 01/23 Bonita

12/14 @ Bonita 12/21 Glendora 01/11 Ayala 01/18 South Hills 01/23 @ Claremont

12/21 Bonita 01/09 @ Glendora 01/11 Ayala 01/16 South Hills 01/18 @ Claremont 01/23 @ Bonita

12/21 @ Bonita 01/09 Glendora 01/11 @ Ayala 01/16 @ South Hills 01/18 Claremont 01/23 Bonita

01/09 @ Bonita 01/12 Glendora 01/16 @ Ayala 01/19 @ South Hills 01/24 Claremont

GIRLS BASKETBALL 01/09 @ Bonita 01/12 Glendora 01/16 @ Ayala 01/19 @ South Hills 01/24 Claremont

Team dominates deeper waters GIRLS WATERPOLO The Lady Brahmas start the season 6-1 and finish 4-1 in tournament play.

Sophia Kim asst. Web editor After reaching the CIF Finals for the first time in school history, the Diamond Bar High School girls water polo team was moved up two divisions in the Palomares League.

Now in Division 5, the Lady Brahmas are facing tougher competition this season.

Despite the change in opponents, the girls have started their season strong with a record of 6-1. Winning their first game against Temescal Canyon, the No. 1 team of Division 5 last year, the Lady Brahmas continued to show positive progress with a 4-1 record at the Claremont tournament. However,

the girls ultimately placed seventh in the tournament, as their loss to La Quinta by one point lowered their tournament ranking significantly.

“I think we played a lot better than the end score, but we kind of fell apart because we started getting tired,” senior Hannah Murray said. “The first and second quarter were really strong but our offense got a little sloppy, and we weren’t putting as many shots as we should have. It was little minor mistakes that led to major consequences.”

This season, head coach Alexander Matal has been rotating different players through two positions in the starting lineup.

In attempts to prepare the younger players for future games and even out playing time, Matal has been choosing different players based on their progress from practices.

In addition to changing the starting lineup, Murray, once the goalie for the team, has been placed as a

utility player to fill in any position needed during games.

Although the entire starting lineup from last year is still on the team, senior Phoebe Tsui stated that communication with new players has been a struggle.

“I just think we need to be better at communication because it’s just a new group playing together so we don’t really know each other’s [skills] as well,” captain Phoebe Tsui said.

To prepare against tougher teams such as Bonita and Claremont, the girls have been improving their individual skills, honing their passing and shooting. They have also been working in practice with “six on five” drills, focusing on competing with one less player on the field in case of such an incident.

This year, the offense and defense practice routines have become more rigorous, with forwards concentrating on shooting opportunities.

problems, finding the right person for the right position, and the right combination of players.”

Wells identified one of the main problems of the team as a lack of communication between players.

He stated that the boys had been playing too much as 11 individuals rather than as a unit. Lack of communication on the field has also contributed to the difficulty of keeping a play flowing and passing information to other players.

Finding an effective combination of players is also a task the team and Wells have been trying to accomplish.

With an influx of new players who have moved up from junior varsity and a loss of seniors, the preseason matches have been an opportunity for Wells to try different formations for the Brahmas.

“We are not sure who is going to be playing where, so Coach Wells

has been making sure that we all have a basic understanding of each position in case we are called onto the field in a position we are not used to,” Wong said via message.

Moving up senior co-captain Peter Larcheveque from defense to midfielder has helped the team offensively, but has caused a drop in the team’s defensive skills at the start of the season. Wells stated that Larcheveque had anchored the defense last year, and with the loss of a talented outer back to graduation, the team has shown a lack of defensive strength in their four losses.

“We still started with three guys on the backline that were very strong. We just need to find that right fourth [player],” Wells said.

The Brahmas will compete in one more tournament match before heading into their preseason games.

Finding their stride BOYS SOCCER The Brahmas 3-4 record in the preseason leaves room for improvement.

Emily Kim Feature editor The Diamond Bar High School boys soccer team have rebounded from a poor start, winning three games in a row after suffering four straight losses.

In the boys game against Los Altos, they were behind one goal in the first half but turned it around in the second by scoring three goals against the Conquerors. They went on to win their next two tournament games against St. Bernard and St. Paul, 14-2 and 5-0 respectively.

However, in the Brahmas’ first tournament match against La Serna, they were unable to score against the Lancers. In the following match against Arcadia, the boys pushed harder on defense, preventing the Lancers from scoring any goals in the first half. However, the Brahmas didn’t score either, and a tap-in by Arcadia in the second half led to a 1-0 loss for the boys.

“We have played below average.

Our expectations were higher than the outcome of the game,” head coach Kemp Wells said before the team’s winning streak began.

It took the boys three games before they scored their first goal against Mayfair on a shot by senior captain Nicholas Wong in the first half of the game. However, the Brahmas still lost 3-1. They were unable to turn their losing streak around in their next game against Damien High School, losing 1-0.

“The non-league games are just to prepare us so that we can hopefully win a league championship,” Wells said. “It’s more about solving

HANNAH LEE

Senior Ashley Yoo looks to pass in an 11-3 win against Santa Ana Valley.

“With the skills and fundamentals we’ve developed, I think it’s going to be a good match game and be really close,” Murray said.

“I’m looking forward to hopefully

R

Lords of the RIngless

ings have always defined the greats of sports history: Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Babe Ruth--the list goes on. At the same time, it seems like people have diminished the talent and accolades of those who were not part of a championship team. Heck, even LeBron, who won three MVPs before his first rings, was considered a failure by many for not winning a ring before age 28.

Superstars are bashed for losing a team sport while their individual numbers are carry less weight without a title. Here are the biggest stars that should stand among their GOATS, even without a ring.

The Forgotten Superstar

INGRID CHAN

Senior midfielder Colin Innis is one of the fourteen seniors on the team.

winning against them this year because we haven’t beat Bonita yet.”

The Lady Brahmas had their first league game yesterday against Ayala.

Before “The Logo” Jerry West and right after the late, great center George Mikan, the Lakers had Elgin Baylor, the most underrated and underappreciated superstar of all time. Drafted in 1958, Baylor had the tools of a modern day star: passing ability, athleticism, rebounding and a shooting touch.

Over his 14 years in the NBA, Baylor was an 11-time All Star, ten-time All-NBA First Team member and Rookie of the Year. In one season, Baylor averaged a ridiculous 38.6 points and 18.6 rebounds a game.

Though the Lakers reached the finals eight times with Baylor, they were never able to seal the deal. To make it even sadder, the year Baylor retired with a knee injury, the Lakers won a championship. Even without a ring, Baylor should be recognized as the ringless GOAT for he was the prototype small forward who players like LeBron James molded their games around.

Controversy’s Greatest

Barry Bonds is the only name carrying as much negative connotation in baseball as Pete Rose, but ignoring the perjury, obstruction of justice and steroids, Bonds’ numbers still show up as some of the greatest individual statistics of all time--all time home run leader, 14-time All Star games, seven MVP awards, the list goes on.

In his 22 seasons, Bonds secured only one trip to World Series, which culminated in a 4-3 series defeat for the Giants against the Anaheim Angels. Even if he’ll be remembered as the face of the steroids era, Bonds should also be remembered as one of the greats to never win a ring.

Dan The Man

From the coveted 1983 Quarterback Class, Dan Marino was the epitome of the gunslinger in the NFL. Marino was an eight-time All Pro member, five-time passing yard leader, three-time touchdown leader, former record holder for TDs and yards in a season as well as the former all-time passing yards leader. He was also named Rookie of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year and MVP during his career.

With Marino, the Miami Dolphins were a constant postseason contender, even making the Super Bowl in his sophomore season.

However, for the bulk of his career, Marino never had a solid run game, forcing him to put the Dolphins on his back for his 16 years. For his individual awards alone, Marino should always be in the same conversation as Brady, Manning, Favre, Montana and Elway.