Soaring with Spirit

EDITOR’S NOTE

Hello Lindbergh Flyers! Here in the new publications room, we are excited to kick off the new school year. We invite you to take part in the school spirit as we discuss the issues and events important to you. Join us as we talk about Lindbergh traffic, the ever-popular Pink Out Game, the LHS E-Sports team and the topic of fast fashion! For more stories and content not presented in our print edition, please visit lindberghlookup. com.

-Elizabeth Cleary (Editor-in-Chief)

PILOT POLICY

Pilot is a monthly newsmagazine published by students enrolled in the Pilot Publications class at Lindbergh High School, 5000 Lindbergh Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri, 63126. The publications office is currently located in Room 21.

Opinions of Pilot writers or the Editorial Board are not reflective of the opinions of the staff as a whole, the Pilot, or the administration. The Pilot welcomes responses and letters to the editors. These may be submitted by email to lhspilot@lindberghschools.ws or by signed letters brought to Room 21.

The Pilot reserves the right to edit submissions as long as their original intent remains unaltered, and to refuse to print material for any reason the Editor-in-Chief and adviser deem appropriate. More information about our editorial policy can be found on lindberghlookup. com.

Traffic Fueled Tardies

Construction’s impact on Lindbergh traffic is soon to come to an end

With Lindbergh High School under its continued reign of construction, parking spots have become more limited and the traffic situation has potentially gotten worse. With only one exit for cars to depart the parking lot at the end of the day, many students and teachers find themselves stuck in relentless traffic.

“The biggest challenge that we have right now is that we have one entrance onto the campus because of the work that’s being done on the lot here in front of the main building,” Dr. Eric Cochran, main principal said.

To navigate around the construction, Lindbergh has created a one-way route around the building, shutting down the entrance by the ECE in order to keep traffic running as smoothly as possible. However, a one-way in one-way out situation has resulted in a slow movement of traffic, notably during first hour as students arrive late to school.

“I have noticed a little bit of an increase [in first hour tardies] but we have to be flexible with students because it’s out of their control,” science teacher, Bryan Cintel, said.

Lindbergh is working to manage the traffic congestion by having security officers oversee and direct the traffic.

“It’s not easy, you’re trying to get everybody to go the right direction, trying to get people to not do things we don’t want them to do, like make left turns out on Lindbergh during high traffic times,” Dr. Cochran explained.

This being said, there is an end in sight. Lindbergh looks to return to a more open-traffic plan once construction subsides.

“Post-construction, we’ll have three entrances again; we will not have a one-way route around the building like we do currently,” Dr. Cochran said.

This change is rapidly approaching as Lindbergh plans for the main lot to be completed by December. Even sooner, a route that will allow for drop-off in front of the building is in the works, hoping to reach completion by mid-November.

“I’m hoping some of those things will help with the parking shortage we have and will help allow us to open traffic back up a little more like normal,” Dr. Cochran said.

Alongside these new lots, more parking spaces will become available, 520 spots, to be exact. Not only will this work to make the traffic situation run smoother, but it will also provide parking spots to a large part of the student body presently displaced from the current lot.

“I would be extremely excited to get a parking spot at the high school,” Gavin Carr (11), a student who currently parks in the Fitz’s South County lot, said. “...I wouldn’t have to take the 15 minute walk from the parking lot to the high school. That would also be nice because I might have a little more time to beat the traffic on Lindbergh [Boulevard].”

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News 10.26.23

Elizabeth Cleary Editor - in - Chief Contruction ensues on the main parking lot in front of Lindbergh. Workers make progress on the soon-to-be main lot.

How Lindbergh’s annual Pink Out Game contributes to national breast cancer awareness

TACKLING FOR

Football season– where Friday game days are filled with shouts from the Lindbergh High School student section, the clamor of jerseys and helmets, cheers and the occasional whoop from the Flyerettes and cheerleaders. The Pink Out Football Game is highly anticipated during the month of October, a night where people are decked out in pink attire in support of the treatment and research of breast cancer.

“Obviously the vibe’s a little different– there’s so many people at these games compared to every other home game,” said Jack Hessler (10), a player on the Lindbergh Varsity football team.

However, in the midst of all of the excitement, the real purpose and effect of Pink Out can get forgotten. While walking to the bleachers, junior varsity and varsity cheerleaders sell their pink t-shirts amongst the other concession booths. All of their sale proceeds are donated to Gateway to Hope, a non-profit organization based in St. Louis that advocates for affordable, efficient and quality healthcare for every patient living with breast cancer. Alongside these efforts, Pink Out events also raise awareness of the signs of having breast cancer and advocate for the importance of early detection through encouraging women to g get checked at a local hospital if experiencing early symptoms.

With these funds gathered from the game, alongside other efforts across the nation, progression is also made towards finding a cure.

“Ten years ago breast cancer was one of the leading causes of death in women, and since then [the upcoming of Pink Out] it’s dropped to number five,” said Shea Bowen, the JV head cheer coach. “It’s been really interesting to see that that is because of the awareness that’s been created through Pink Out events.”

The cheer team is in charge of setting up this sale, which starts in the beginning of the week from a booth in the commons all the way to Friday night. They were also responsible for design via a vote of how they would like the t-shirts to be styled. This process started in the middle of the summer, before the school year, via the team filling out a Google Form. In addition to this, the team also made tweaks to their uniforms in support of the cause.

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The Lindbergh Football team lined up, waiting to get on the field (Raof). The Lindbergh Cheer team prepare for their sporadic routines with a smile

10.26.23 o

Lavia Raof and Carley Reichart

A CURE

“We have lots of additions that we’ve made to our uniforms with pink bows and pink poms to recognize the event,” said Bowen.

All of this combined with them performing during the game gives the Lindbergh cheer team a hefty to-do list, but they enjoy the process nonetheless.

“It’s really fun because we’ve done it every year,” said Bethany Goodson (12), the head cheerleader on varsity. “It’s reassuring to have something that’s constant every year, and it’s exciting.”

As for who’s actually playing at the game, the Lindbergh Football team’s perspective on the game was a bit more casual– not being any different to how they prepared for most of their other games– and varied from player to player. Some players said they try to match with the theme of pink to show support, but avoid being too flashy while on the field. No matter their pre-game ritual, it’s a known fact that Pink Out is important to contributing to cancer awareness within the student body.

“Everybody knows about pink out,” said Norman Lane (12), a player on varsity. “A big impact is definitely doing [Pink Out] every year.”

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The Flyerettes standing beside the bleachers, waiting to perform (Raof). Views of the student section as players on the Lindbergh Football team cool themselves down (Raof).

10.26.23

The Lindbergh student section-- all ‘flyped’ to see the Pink Out game unfold (Raof).

The Trials of E-Sports

The current outlook on the E-Sports season.

Gavin Berry & Skyler Daubendiek Staff Writers

The E-Sport season has kicked off, games such as Overwatch 2 and Rocket League hosted tryouts this fall. Focusing on the Overwatch 2 gameplay, let’s dive into how this season has started up with team tryouts, technology issues and plenty of competition by getting a few words from Brian Jacob, Kaylin Kim (11), Brian Gretzchel (12) and Dylan Rice (12).

Before getting into the specifics, it is crucial to know what E-Sports are. E-Sports (Electronic Sports) is a team of players that compete in multiplayer video games of a competitive nature and are played in competitions or for pure entertainment. Large organizations, such as schools like Lindbergh, may have their own teams; these teams may often compete against one another in a tournament-style competition. While here at Lindbergh, there are two E-Sports seasons with Overwatch 2 and Rocket League in the fall semester, then Valorant and Super Smash Bros in the spring. The E-Sports meetups are open to anyone, but the specific teams are very competitive and selective. “We went from two teams to three Overwatch teams this year because the popularity and skillset have both grown,” E-Sports coach, Brian Jacob, stated.

At the start of September, tryouts lasted for two weeks as participants who attended meetups were assigned into teams that coaches could watch over and analyze.

“...I feel like more important than just raw numbers is more qualitative stuff with game sense, are they making good calls? Even if you’re losing, how do you cope with that or how do we try to problem solve or get around that?” Jacob said.

These tryout weeks determined how good of a player the participants were individually and as a team. Of course, connections are more easily created among team members who have a common interest.

“I enjoyed playing the game, and I wanted to have that experience with other people where it’s more teamwork based instead of just playing by myself,” Junior Varsity Co-Captain, Dylan Rice, stated.

Although, alongside the good there is bad. The E-Sports teams have been encountering a variety of technological difficulties such as speaker and microphone issues, sharing the space with Rocket League players and getting locked out of the Blizzard (Overwatch 2’s developing company) login interface.

“How it works is Blizzard has some pretty strict security re-

quirements, and you gotta remember that we have lots of students on one network and Blizzard only sees one [IP] address. [Blizzard] sees a lot of failed login attempts, so from their point of view, that’s someone running a farm trying to hack somebody, so they ban the entire address so no one on the network can access Battle.Net,” Game Announcer, Brian Gretzchel, explained.

This issue often led to players being locked out of their accounts for anywhere between 45 to 60 minutes, severely limiting the amount of practice time during the tryout weeks.

With three weeks of the E-Sports season having passed as of October 6th, 2023, there are some intriguing statistics on our teams. The Lindbergh Varsity team has been in a fierce competition with rival teams, but they have been working hard to overcome the challenges.

“The varsity team is looking to improve their gameplay, team synergy and communication,” Kim said.

In terms of the two Junior Varsity (JV) teams, green and gold, they have gained quite a lot of competition. The JV Green Team has been undefeated in MOSEF (Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation) matches thus far, having won three matches and lost zero.

“I’m pretty proud that our team has yet to lose a match cause we are pretty much undefeated,” Rice said.

Meanwhile, the JV Gold Team had a rocky start; however, they have managed to gain traction again as they have now won a couple of games in a row (MOSEF and practice).

Even though teams have been chosen, that doesn’t mean students can’t still participate in E-Sports. The E-Sports group is happy to welcome anyone with an interest and/or a passion.

“Esports is not quite the same as football, you can literally just show up. Show up, play some games and have fun,” Gretzchel said.

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Feature 10.26.23

The Lindbergh Overwatch Varsity team prepared for a practice match on October 10th, 2023. The Lindbergh Overwatch Junior Varsity teams: Green (left) and Gold (right) prepared for an official match against each other on October 10th, 2023.

Low Prices, High Consequences

The effect fast fashion has on people and the world

Elliot Lentz

With so many people eager to be fashionable and have the best clothing items, there are bound to be stores that have some not-so-good practices and are just focused on making a profit. This is where fast fashion comes in. Fast fashion is low-quality, quickly-produced fashion that is made in response to the latest trends. Some big names in the fashion industry are accused of fast fashion practice.

Fast fashion has become such a big topic these past few years, so it is important that people are aware of the effects of it and are getting the full picture.

As a consumer, Caesar Galati (11) rarely partakes in fast fashion, but its rise in popularity has caused him annoyance during some of his shopping experiences.

“I don’t really like it because when you go to thrift stores, you see things from Shein and H&M on the racks that you saw people wearing like a week ago,” Galati said.

The quality of the clothing is a big reason that Galati tries to steer clear of fast fashion when in search of new clothes.

“Usually, the materials are cheap, it’s produced quickly and it falls apart really easily because it’s not made well,” Galati said.

While it may just be a slight inconvenience for him, a small business owner here at Lindbergh notes the inconvenience it is for his business.

“It’s fake goods being sold on the market, so it drives down the price. If someone were to buy fake stuff from a fast fashion supplier, then it would drive down the market for the authentic products I’m trying to sell,” said Gavin Runge (12), the owner of Runge Trade LLC and Lindbergh student.

Even then, one of the biggest inconveniences from fast fashion belongs to the environment, as fast fashion is the second biggest consumer of water and is responsible for 2-8 percent of global carbon emissions, according to the UN Alliance for Sustainable Clothing.

“Half of me wants to say, ‘no fast fashion.’ It’s bad for the environment, it’s bad for consumers, it’s bad for the workers, it’s not good quality,” said FACS teacher Whitney Vespa said.

Ms. Vespa teaches a fashion class here at Lindbergh which has led her to become quite familiar with fast fashion, but even she still has questions about it.

“I think I know a lot considering I teach fashion, but there’s just so much that the average person will never know,” Vespa said. “I know about the basics, but until I could maybe visit a factory or talk to somebody who is really in that industry, I will never know the ins and outs of it. A lot of it is secret.”

Being a fashion teacher, she is very familiar with how trends change; fast fashion plays a big part in how people keep up with them.

Staff Writer

“Trends just change so fast. You don’t want to spend $100 on a sweater that’s popular in 2023, and then next winter comes around, and you can’t use it anymore because it’s out of style. It’s so much easier to buy things cheaper and quicker,” Vespa said.

Vespa describes her opinion of fast fashion as “very split,” but notes some of the harm that fast fashion does.

“It puts fashion designers and big clothing brands out of business, especially individual and local designers who are trying to make a name for themselves and post their things on social media. It’s so quick for Shein to steal that design.”

On the other side, Vespa can not fully demean fast fashion since she often purchases from these kinds of stores. She describes the balancing act of trying to determine the best way to purchase clothing.

“I had to debate, do I want less for better quality or more for less quality?” Vespa said. “I get clothes dirty so easily, I grow out of them. I just thought I could get more for less money, that’s why I chose to do it,” Vespa said.

Fast fashion doesn’t only impact her personal life, it’s also a very important thing that she has to touch on during her classes.

“I do have to touch on fast fashion. We can’t always just talk about the high-end because most people aren’t purchasing high-end. It’s worth mentioning because I teach a lot of people who want to go into the fashion industry.”

Determining a set opinion on fast fashion isn’t easy, and Vespa makes sure to give her students useful information on the topic so they can make the best choices for themselves.

“I wish that they would know, and I think most people do know after taking fashion, that there are two sides to every story,” Vespa said. “I would never shame anyone for using fast fashion websites because I do too. However, they should know what they’re getting into and what they’re really supporting when they purchase those kinds of things.”

Do you think fast fashion is harmful?

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