Sports

BY NICHOLAS MITCHINSON

Co-Editor-in-Chief of Print

Walking into the arena, the stadium lights beam down on the rodeo contestants tacking up their horses and getting their ropes ready. The spectators and the rodeo competitors are all dressed in jeans, boots, button-up shirts and Stetson hats. It isn’t one particular sound that makes the arena loud; it is the combination of the goats’ nickering, the horses’ neighing, the announcer’s voice, the music playing and the shouts of the rodeo contestants.

Kaneland High School students participate in a wide variety of sports, whether they are through the high school or not. While there may be more participants in basketball, volleyball, football and cross country, there are also students at Kaneland who compete in less widely known sports.

Rodeo, for example, is a sport that may not have as many participants as others, but there are some students here who compete. Senior Kaitlyn Swims began her rodeo career in November of 2020 thanks to the convincing of her friends. Starting to rodeo at this age is very late because most people are either born into it or start at a very young age.

“I started doing rodeo just to see if I would like it. I was very hesitant to join because everyone was so good and that made me scared and nervous, but once I started I fell in love with it instantly,” Swims said.

Rodeoing is a sport consisting of many different events that allow people to demonstrate their riding and roping skills. One event that Swims competes in and takes very seriously is goat tying. She trains in general almost every day, but she also specifically trains to get better at goat tying.

“When I go out and tie goats, it could only be fifteen minutes, or it could be up to an hour. It just depends on how that day is going. Before I finish the training, I usually try to make three good goat runs,” Swims said.

Rodeoing is not the only unique sport that requires serious and extensive training for improvement. Junior Ella Kuffel weightlifts outside of school in her family gym at home. She typically trains for about two hours a day and six days a week. Kuffel originally started to weightlift during March of 2020 due to all of the free time she had on her hands because of the pandemic. She is hoping to start participating in weightlifting competitions in May of 2022. The competitions are not through Kaneland and are open

Photo courtesy of Adam Gerlach Senior Adam Gerlach skates after the puck during a hockey game. Gerlach has developed new friendships by playing with students from other schools.

for anyone who wants to sign up.

“For my first competition, I am not necessarily worried about how well I do compared to the other competitors. I just want to see how it feels to compete and just get to see what the competition I am up against is like,” Kuffel said.

Kuffel also has experience playing other sports and is involved in wrestling, tennis and softball. Since she has experienced team sports as well as weightlifting, she has been able to see the variety of differences between team and individual sports. “I think I like weightlifting because it’s more of an individual sport, and it is not as stressful as team sports can be,” Kuffel said. Kuffel also realizes that having a weightlifting team at Kaneland is probably not possible, but there are other ways to get people together who all enjoy the sport. “We probably wouldn’t be able to have a team at the school because there are no other school teams to compete against. It would be nice to have a club to meet more people interested in lifting,” Kuffel said. Hockey is another sport that is less popular at Kaneland but still played by some local students. Senior Adam Gerlach has been playing hockey for the past 10 years and was introduced to the sport by going to his older brother’s hockey practices. When Gerlach was at one of his brother’s practices, one of the coaches saw him and asked if he wanted to give it a try, and from the beginning Gerlach was ahead of the competition.

“One of the coaches came up to me and asked if I wanted to skate. Usually when they do that, the coaches expect you to not be able to skate at all. But once I got on the ice they sent me right to the medium level skating, which never happens for beginner skaters,” Gerlach said.

Instead of having their own team, Kaneland hockey players can combine with students from some other nearby schools to form one. The team name is the Fox Valley Hawks, and it consists of players from five different schools: Kaneland, Saint Charles East, Saint Charles North, Batavia and Geneva. The team usually practices on Tuesday nights and Friday afternoons, and then they compete in games on Saturdays and Sundays at either the Fox Valley Ice Arena or the West Dundee Ice Arena.

Gerlach is one of the few Kaneland hockey players on the team, and because it is a combined group many people at Kaneland do not even realize this team exists. “Since it’s a combined high school team, a lot of people don’t actually know that we have a hockey team, which leads to no one coming out and supporting our team,” Gerlach said.

Photo courtesy of Kaitlyn Swims Senior Kaitlyn Swims starts her trail course event at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, OK. Swims qualified for Nationals during her first year of rodeoing and has made some of her best memories in these competitons.

BY NICHOLAS MITCHINSON

Co-Editor-in-Chief of Print

As you walk through the halls of Kaneland High School, it is impossible to ignore the existence of many high school relationships. While no two high school couples are the same, there are certain things that anyone can do to start or maintain a healthy relationship.

Every relationship has a beginning, a point at which two people decide they want to take their friendship and make the commitment of being more to each other. Every couple’s experience is different, and there is not a rule that dictates when you have to make it official. However, most good relationships form from a strong existing friendship rather than rushing in and becoming a couple right away. According to everydayhealth.com contributor Jessica Migala, taking time to figure out who you both are is a better choice than rushing into something you may regret. This will take away the pressures of dating and truly allow you to be yourself. If you rush into being a couple, you may be timid and scared to make a mistake and possibly lose your partner.

“When you first meet someone, you’re usually not your complete, full self with that person,” love and relationship coach Jennifer Spaulding said. “You stay on your best behavior and may also avoid being vulnerable.”

By both people being themselves, it will allow them to actually know whether or not they are the right person for each other. It also does not take an expert to realize this is a more appropriate way to transition into dating someone. Many high school students here at Kaneland have had a friendship that has developed into a relationship, and they too realize how well that worked.

Seniors Evelyn Taylor and Samuel Regelbrugge are currently dating but began as friends. They have been friends since sixth grade, but they did not start dating until their freshman year of high school. “Everyone has their quirks, and being friends lets you see those kinds of things before there is commitment and pressure. Spending time as friends allows you to be sure you know that the relationship will be something you both will take seriously,” Regelbrugge said.

Having this friendship before solely committing to each other will also allow time to develop communication and trust. According to thehealthy.com, in order to have a healthy relationship, there must be strong communication and trust, which takes time and practice to develop. Trusting each other and having good communication eliminates all the unnecessary arguments in a relationship.

To build trust and good communication, both people in the relationship must work together. For trust specifically, it does no good if one person is trustworthy and the other is not. Likewise, it is important for both people to understand each other and how they can communicate most effectively without creating a problem or making it worse. 2016 Kaneland graduate Larissa Aurelio had experience dating in high school and now is married to her high school boyfriend. Aurelio dated her now husband throughout high school and knows from experience how important communication and trust are in high school relationships.

“While I do believe communication is important in a relationship, I think that trust is of equal importance. You can tell someone something all day long, but if you do not trust what they are saying, then it does not really matter,” Aurelio said.

Beyond being able to trust and communicate in a relationship, it is important to show that you care about each other. While it may be hard to consistently do huge things for your partner, there are still many simple things people do to show they care, like day taking trips, surprising each other with gifts and going to special events. When Aurelio was still in high school, she and her husband would do certain small things for each other. “[We would offer] simple gestures that showed the other that we cared about them. We would write each other notes, we had inside jokes and we supported each other in everything we did. The constant support from the other person really helps,” Aurelio said.

Along with not being able to do all the things that may come with adult relationships, the life of a high schooler is very busy even without a significant other. There are so many things that go on in the daily life of a high school student, and being able to realize that both you and your partner have other responsibilities is key. Understanding that you need to make time for everything else in your life aside from them will lead to a healthier and stronger relationship. “I think my relationship lasted through high school because we understood that we were not the only thing going on in each other’s lives. While we made time for each other, we also made time for friends, family, school and work. It is important to keep a balance between those; do not focus too much on one,” Aurelio said.

BY PAIGE WHITESIDE

Editor

As society progresses, our collective and much-needed acceptance and respect for transgender individuals also continues to grow. However, there is still a lot of misrepresentation and confusion about these people, causing bigotry and hostility towards them. With so many members of modern society feeling more comfortable with coming out and expressing their unique identities, it is necessary for others to understand all the aspects of gender in order to respect one another.

For a long time, the idea of being transgender or presenting oneself as a gender that did not align with the gender assigned at birth was strongly looked down upon. However, in more recent years, society has started to become more accepting, allowing transgender individuals to express their true identities.

The rights trans people have in the U.S. today are still in need of a lot of improvements. Their legal protections are sparse, Photos by Paige Whiteside tor Rachel Giles, a cisgender woman, has seen the effects of a lack of understanding of trans people, especially at school. Though many people experience incidents of transphobia at school, there are also a lot of accepting and welcoming students and teachers who are there to support them.

“I have friends and former students that I have witnessed [misgendering and transphobia] happen to. I think this is more prevalent in a school environment. On the flip side, I have also seen people at school be very supportive of gender non-conforming and transgender people,” Giles said.

Cisgender individuals identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, while transgender people do not identify with their themselves as disconnected from the boundaries of strictly male and female identities.

Freshman Zero Niemeyer finds that they don’t have a definitive decision on what their gender is, falling under the gender non-conforming category. Using she/he/they pronouns, she gives people many options to refer to her.

“I just feel more comfortable with letting other people decide how they want to perceive me since I do not really view myself as any specific [gender], to be honest,” Niemeyer said.

In order to understand gender

re sulting in a large amount of violence against them. In 2015, the U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) found “disturbing patterns of mistreatment and discrimination” against transgender individuals when it came to the basic elements of life, such as getting a job, finding a place to live and accessing proper medical care, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE).

The majority of the problems transgender people face are due to a lack of education among the population. Misunderstanding the proper meanings of different gender identities and the purpose of pronouns are issues that can be resolved by research, but many people do not educate themselves on these topics.

English teacher and theater direc-

From left to right, English teacher and theater director Rachel Giles, senior Nolan Allen, freshman Zero Niemeyer, senior Mason Rogers and sophomore

Gianna Walgren hold signs displaying their pronouns. To truly respect each other, it is important to understand everyone’s gender identity.

birth-given gender. Transgender people are either . male or female, like cis people, depending on how they transition. A majority of transgender people experience gender dysphoria, a sense of discomfort due to a mismatch of one’s biological sex and gender identity. After experiencing this, many trans people take action to be able to present as either more masculine or feminine, taking steps such as getting surgery to change their anatomy, changing their name or changing their appearance with the way they dress.

A range of gender identities fall under the umbrella label of non-binary, or gender non-conforming. Non-binary people do not identify as exclusively a man or a woman but as either a mixture of genders or no gender at all. There are many different labels to describe gender that are under the umbrella of non-binary genders, but the main characteristic of gender non-conforming identities is that people who fall under this category view identities fully, it also helps to have an understanding of the usage of pronouns and their relation to gender.

Everyone has pronouns, though many people do not realize this. Pronouns are words that refer to someone who is being talked about. For example, “She went to the store” is a sentence that could be said about someone who uses she/her pronouns. For someone with they/them pronouns, you could say, “They celebrated their birthday.” Some people even have multiple pronouns that they are comfortable with. When someone says that they use he/they or she/they pronouns, or any combination of them, this means that when speaking about this person, one should switch between pronouns.

Sometimes the pronouns that people use may not match how they present themselves. These people do not owe anyone masculinity or femininity.

“People need to educate themselves on how to respect one another,” senior and transgender student Mason Rogers said. “If we all listened to each other and understood what everybody is going through, we would be able to achieve respect in society, which we all deserve.”

Photo by Kevin Sigrist Christina Staker is a teacher in the English department, teaching classes such as English 10 enhanced, AP Literature and Composition, creative writing and occasionally communication studies. Because of this variety in classes, she encounters a range of students and tries to put herself in their shoes in order to remain understanding. “I think we just have to remember what it was like to be a student, and I think that gets harder as the years progress. But one of the big takeaways I had from college was when I had a professor say, ‘Never forget what it was like to be a student,’ and I think I’ve tried to keep that mindset in the 14 years that I’ve been teaching. To know that there are times where I feel overwhelmed by grading, then [the students] have to feel bogged down and overwhelmed by schoolwork,” Staker said.

According to massadvocates.org, “An analysis by the Review of Educational Research of 46 studies found that when teacher-student relationships are strong, improvements are seen in key areas, such as student academic engagement, attendance, grades, disciplinary actions, and school dropout rates.” For many students, coming to school every day is not exactly ideal, and it can be hard to feel connected to the people around them. However, the more positive relationships we’re able to build, specifically with teachers, the better school can be for everyone. 12 Centerspread

Photo by Ashley Vanderhoff

Kenneth Dentino teaches math, specifically enhanced geometry and pre-calculus. He is also the coach of Kaneland High School’s chess team. Dentino is very well-known for his approachable personality and how he makes his subjects very easy to understand. When asked what he thought was important in making a class that students can be successful in and understand, he made the analogy of teaching a class being like a game. “I think putting your stuff out there and saying, ‘This is what [our class] is going to be,’ needs to be known. As complicated as your system is, whatever your system and however it fits into the jigsaw of what the school requires you to do and what your colleagues want you to do for that class, you’re still going to have your own little quirks, and students need to know that. If they know the game, then it’s a fair game to play,” Dentino said.

Photo by Kevin Sigrist

Kenneth Paoli teaches the three levels of chemistry and also coaches the wrestling team. He is very liked amongst students and is known for his ability to connect with them by having open communication. When asked how he builds relationships with his students, he discussed finding a medium between building bonds and staying efficient with the material. “I think when teaching a class, the absolute most important thing is that students are engaged in the material. I think my way or my method of engaging students in the material is by building relationships, by trying to make the material relatable and by having fun and joking around in class even during those lecture times. There are some kids who just do not want to be in class, but I think most of the students that I have look forward to and want to be in my class,” Paoli said.

Photo by Kevin Sigrist Mark Meyer is the Kaneland boys golf coach, and he teaches psychology and AP human geography. He is very liked by many students and is praised for being kind and organized. When asked how he is understanding of his students and shows that he cares, he discussed the balance of establishing genuine bonds with students while staying efficient.

“Forming a relationship with the students and showing them that the teacher genuinely cares about them [is really important]. I tend to be very organized, and I do tend to get down to business faster than other teachers, and sometimes I think that sacrifices some of the relationship building I could be doing with students and helping them understand that I really do care about them and what they’re doing outside of school as well. So it’s about finding that balance,” Meyer said.

HOW KANELAND TEACHERS CAN HELP THEIR STUDENTS

BY KEVIN SIGRIST

Editor

High school is a very busy and memorable time in most people’s lives. You learn important lessons and information, make new friends, discover who you are and find your interests. You are also tasked with maintaining a healthy balance between school, extracurriculars, jobs, a social life and many other things that may be specific to an individual. Because of this, it is really important that within the realm of school and the work that comes with it, teachers are understanding of students’ need to balance their responsibilities and take measures to ensure their class is not a disproportionately heavy burden. One of the ways teachers can do this is by having a comfortable class environment. Teachers who have fun decorations that exhibit their personality or organize their desks in unique ways rather than just in rows make the environment more exciting and welcoming. “Presentation is very important. Having a classroom filled with things that are enjoyable to look at is a lot better than just having a plain white classroom because when you walk into an undecorated classroom, you think, ‘Wow, this is not going to be a fun class.’ A classroom that has good decorations makes you think, ‘I want to be a part of this,’” sophomore Louis Blickem said. Class environment does not stop at decorations, however. It also pertains to the teacher’s personality and attitude towards a student. A teacher who is too focused on the curriculum and does not spend time to get to know or form genuine bonds with the students is something that can make or break how much a student enjoys a class, and by causation, how well a student performs academically in that class. Senior Andrew Ryan understands the importance of the relationship between class difficulty and the teacher’s attitude towards students and how much it can change the enjoyment of the class. “To me, the most important thing with a teacher is having a good attitude towards the students,” Ryan said. “I’ve had teachers where the work has been near unbearable and they had been really strict, but they were at least nice to be around, and they still helped you with your work even if you were behind. They were still nice towards the students, and doing that helps every other aspect of teaching.” Teachers spending time to make their class environment friendly and welcoming and building strong bonds with their students makes the class more comfortable, and this generally leads to better experiences in the long run.

While the in-class environment is a heavy portion of a student’s perception of a course, the work assigned outside of class is something that can cause the most problems for students as they juggle extracurriculars like clubs, sports, arts and jobs. Junior Caitlyn Grobe is a student taking the Foundations of Education class and has developed opinions on how teachers should assign homework. “I have a problem with homework every night because, especially in high school, people have their emotional needs they need to attend to, a lot of people are in sports or band, they have jobs and they also need to spend time with their friends and their family. If every teacher is assigning homework every night, then [students] have to start sacrificing one of those things, or they have to start sacrificing sleep,” Grobe said. “That is going to ultimately affect their grade. [Teachers who] assign homework on Wednesday or Thursday and have it due on Monday, or teachers who assign projects and have it due in a few weeks [do it right].” Blickem also runs cross country and feels the schedule he has to balance during the fall season is difficult to manage. “A class can be fun while sticking to the curriculum by giving less out-ofschool work because [I have] band for [three hours], and the two-hour gap between school and band is filled by cross [country],” Blickem said.

During the fall, the marching band rehearses from 5:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, and the cross country practices are every weekday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

It is very important that teachers understand and care about their students by creating a comfortable environment and a manageable class. They can do this by developing a good classroom culture and a positive attitude, not assigning too much homework and having clear communication with their students to ensure that no one is falling behind.