The Friar's Lantern - May 2021

Class of 2021 College Map! The Friar's Lantern continues the tradition of the college map, indicating where each student will be continuing their academic and athletic careers.

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A Night to Remember: Prom 2021 Malvern sets an example for schools around the area, successfully hosting a senior prom.

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May 2021

Student Athletic Commitments

Malvern Hosts 2021 Geico Lacrosse Showcase

Commitment Corner: The Friar's Lantern highlights ten student athletes who recently committed to play at the collegiate level.

The second annual event consisted of two games that were nationally televised on ESPNU.

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Volume 22, No. 8

Malvern Preparatory School • Malvern, PA • friarslantern.news

CADEN ROGERS FRANZ BERLACHER

ERIC SPANOS

Mullet Mania!

Malvern Prep has had a long reputation of academic excellence, top athletic programs, and an incredible sense of school spirit, but one area that has not gotten the recognition it deserves is the expansive array of mullets that have graced this campus.

Ben Franzone '22 MANAGING EDITOR hether you are walking to your next class, sitting in the CSI, or just kicking back in the quad, you are bound to see someone everyday rocking a mullet on campus.

“A mullet isn’t supposed to look pretty, no one gets a mullet because it looks good, it’s all about the culture and everything around the mullet. My mullet represents something that no other haircut can, it’s business in the front and a party in the back,” junior Caden Rogers said.

Rogers has been rocking the mullet on and off since freshman year and is widely known for having the iconic look. Rogers, however, is just one of many at Malvern who have a mullet.

Fellow junior Robby DiFabio said, “I think a mullet is so great because it takes a special person to get a mullet, a lot of people would say I want to get a mullet, but not everyone's gonna do it.”

DiFabio got a mullet last summer, in the heat of the pandemic, and has had nothing but positive words to say about the look.

“Your hair is an accessory, but the thing is that you can’t just take it on and off every day, so you gotta just live with it until it grows back. What makes it special is it’s almost like you’re dedicating yourself to what some people call a stupid haircut for two months or however long it takes to grow back,” DiFabio said.

At the time, he was not too sure if he wanted to get a mullet, but since he did, he is glad he went through with it.

“For me, [my mullet] was a result of my quarantine haircut. My hair was really long and in quarantine, I couldn't get my hair cut and then it got to a point where it just looked stupid and a hat couldn’t even make me look better,” DiFabio said.

“I wanted to keep my long hair but the side of my hair [was] all messed up so I go into the barber shop and I'm talking to my hair cutter and I said, I just want you to clean [it] up a little, but leave the back [long],” he said. “It's like I just went to the barber shop, didn’t expect to get a mullet and then ended up getting one, and I walked out of it feeling like a new man and my confidence was through the roof,” DiFabio continued.

Pup Buono, a senior, is yet another example of someone who has a killer mullet, but it doesn’t stop there. Over quarantine, Buono even started a mullet Instagram, @PupsCuts, where he gave

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mullets to some of his family and friends.

“I gave all my cousins and brothers haircuts, so then as a joke I just made an Instagram for it and on the Fourth of July, I cut all my cousins' hair and their parents did not know,” Buono said.

While his cousins might have enjoyed a new cut, it appears that their parents were not as thrilled.

“My one little cousin, his mom wasn’t there and his dad was like yeah go for it and she saw [the mullet] first thing on Instagram and she was like what did you do to my son,” Buono said. “And then my other cousin had hair longer than me and I cut his hair and shaved an American flag in it and we went down to the beach and showed my aunt and she was not happy,” he continued.

The mullet craze at Malvern has gone on for a few years, but many still often wonder why so many Malvern students have a mullet.

“I remember when I was a freshman or maybe in eighth grade, seeing the baseball team all getting haircuts in the bathroom in O'Neill,” Buono said.

The O’Neill bathrooms are notorious for being a rowdy, high-energy place to be, backing up Buono’s story wholeheartedly.

He continued to mention how the hairstyle can be something very common for sports teams to take up, one reason why so many students might possibly have a mullet.

“I think a lot of sports teams always do something crazy for playoffs,” Buono said.

The senior lacrosse commit took it a step further explaining how he actually gave some of the lacrosse players mullets during the season.

“Yea, I gave a bunch of freshmen and sophomores mullets,” he said.

DiFabio agrees with Buono that mullets can be very popular with sports teams and are a way to bring all the guys together.

“Another thing about the mullet is how it can connect a team for sports, like lacrosse. I remember freshman year everyone got mullets for lacrosse and now they kind of did the same thing, and it's a fun hairstyle, it just shows you're there to have fun,” DiFabio said.

Rogers, on the other hand, has a different idea about how the Malvern mullet trend came to be.

“I’m gonna say it straight, I brought it here, I brought it from Lancaster to Malvern,” Rogers said.

“No one had a mullet when I walked in; I walked in with my mullet and everyone was like dang that kid looks good and I started the trend at Malvern, I’m gonna say it right now.”

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FRIAR LIFE

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DYLAN REGAN

SEÑOR KIRCHNER, 26 YEARS OLD

Spanish teacher, Señor James Kirchner also thinks that Rogers could have possibly brought the mullet to Malvern and explains the first time he met Rogers when he shadowed in eighth grade.

“When Caden Rogers was in eighth grade and he came to shadow, I had heard in advance that he was coming from Lancaster County and I have friends in Lancaster County so I went out in the hallway to introduce myself and speak to him,” Kirchner said. “And when I came back in the room, my students, their jaws were on the ground and they said, he has a mullet! So it wasn't popular four years ago, in eastern Pennsylvania, or at least in Philly,” he continued.

Even Kirchner had a mullet when he was younger, though at the time he said it was not called a mullet.

“I didn't learn the word mullet until years after the fact. My wife called it western Pennsylvania hair because she grew up in Springfield and I grew up in Pittsburgh,” Kirchner said. “One of my gifts that my father gave me was a receding hairline so this started going away very quickly in my early 20s, I guess I compensated and just let the back go,” he said.

Rogers said he grew out his mullet long during ninth grade and then cut it for wrestling season. After that, he began to grow it long

"I WOKE UP TO THE E M A I L S AY I N G T O SUBMIT A MULLET AND I WAS LIKE NO WAY…!

THIS IS THE GREATEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE" ROBBY DIFABIO '22

again, which eventually carried over into quarantine last summer.

While the mullet is a very unique hairstyle, DiFabio expressed how he doesn’t think anyone should shy away from the look and he even has some advice for those unsure if the mullet is right for them.

“If you are thinking about getting a mullet but are contemplating whether to get it or not, I say get it because I was the same way,” he said. “I just was sitting in that chair [thinking] do I get it, what's gonna happen, my mom's gonna kill me. And then I thought ya know, I should just get [a mullet],” he continued.

Rogers also has some advice for those unsure about their next hairstyle decision.

“It’s a bold statement, a mullet is not a subtle piece. It’s saying I’m here and I’m ready to party, I’m ready to do business,” Rogers said.

While DiFabio no longer has a mullet, he is eager to bring back the look sometime in the summer.

“This is the best haircut I've ever gotten and I still think that till this day. I want to go back and get a mullet; I just haven’t because my mom is like you are not getting a mullet. But once summer hits, the mullet [is] coming back because I want that confidence, that swagger, and just that fun type of look on my head,” he said.

PUP BUONO

PUP BUONO

ROBBY DIFABIO

JAKE REID

SAM COTTONE

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE MULLET CONTEST AND CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS! MR. RESCH

WILL ADOLPH

RYAN TRAYNOR

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Class of 2021

COLLEGE MAP Villanova

Davio BaDalamenti John Baran Christopher Buysse Dimitri Collias Joseph FriCker ian leBano riley mCCarry tuCker milhous eriC yaBlonski

Penn State

matthew Behrle miChael Behrle miChael Buono shane Devereux JaCk Fialko maxwell Fish logan giorDani patriCk gray ryan gray Daniel hisey JaCk kenneDy thomas klusarits Joseph lister kyle mathues eoin mCgill owen mChugh Jett neily sean neuman will peDen anDrew ragaglia peter sims Joshua smith Jake spaeDer matthew traynor sean Bettenhausen lonnie white

Maryland Loyola

luke CarDen Julian williams alexanDer Zavalny

UPenn

matthew Davis Daniel warD

Lehigh

Christian Curatolo Christopher krein kellen mathias

Scranton

DominiC ChieFFalo owen maul

Bucknell

sean hughes aiDan Catania

Grove City College John steinmetZ

Lafayette

ignatius hneleski

Millersville James kirk

Pitt

kyle keener

Ursinus

william Breslin

West Point ryan Durkan

BroCk DuDek miChael mCmahon

Fordham

Towson

Hofstra

rahDir hiCks

University of Maryland eriC spanos

California

West Virginia

Texas

Appalachian State

Pepperdine

West Virginia University

University of Texas, Austin

Davidson

San Diego State University

Washington DC

Southern Methodist University

UCLA

George WAshington

Rhode Island

James graDisek

kieran o’rourke patriCk wooD, Jr.

Ithaca College mason smith

Cameron Conley luke priCe

Joshua viarengo owen vietmeier

High Point

niCholas DellaveCChia Christopher o’graDy Connor street

North Carolina State FranCis taglianetti

UNC - CHapel Hill

Cooper Frankenheimer

Duke

FranCis osChell niCholas potemski

theoDore meehan

UC Berkeley

rayCe mCCool

University of Southern California samuel Bevevino

Florida University of Florida

Massachusetts

viCtor BuCCi gavin siDhu

ronan swope

sean mCCarthy

Catholic University matthew ForD

Butler University

University of Michigan

JaCk Connolly

wenye shang

University of Miami

Colgate

Collin munyan

South Carolina

Junior Hockey

Holy Cross

University of South Carolina

timothy mCClatChy

JaCk riley

peter kern JakoB voehringer alexanDer vu

Harvard

Virginia University of Richmond matthew DonatuCCi maCeo giampietro hans kiernan august mCevoy

University of Virginia gavin kane

Belmont

evan kent

Bennington College henry streitwieser

Christopher Blango JaCk CostaBile ryan samBuCo

Maine

Georgia

Justin turley

Ohio

Vanderbilt

Arizona State University

Vermont

University of Delaware

Tennessee

Arizona tyler roBinson

Colin mCgill thomas wang

Delaware

anDrew harDer

Virginia Tech

Dartmouth

Emory University

aiDan phillips steven rose george suCher v

James Davis

Michigan

Athletic Leagues

matthew CaCCese ryan rosenBerger

Providence College

sloan ZeBrowski

Christopher ayres Collin hess ryan kenneDy

Florida Institute of Technology

Boston University

ryan powelson

University of Alabama

Notre Dame

New Hampshire

owen Bergan timothy Brogan CormaC Delaney BrenDan mClaughlin

patriCk traynor

Alabama

Indiana

BraD Corsi CaDen kenneDy harry larson anDrew monteith JaCk mulqueen John oswalD Joseph walheim

Boston College

Jake Brownley

New York

FL

North Carolina

Colby College

Colorado

mingyu qui

Colorado State University henry heeB

Denison University Corey Brunner

Washington University of Washington harry hall

niCholas giangiulio

60% PRIVATE 18% CATHOLIC 34% athletic Commitments

39% Pennsylvania Class of 2021 Student(s) Attending a College in This State No Students Attending a College in This State

KEY

Pennsylvania

Drexel

FRIAR LIFE

May 2021

By Noah Buscaglia

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Alumnus of the Issue: Mr. Stephen Borish '10 With only a few years at Malvern under his belt, Borish has his hands full with countless clubs and classes that seek to make Malvern a better place for all.

Matt Hess ‘22 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF cience was always an area of interest for Borish. At the time, Malvern had a mandatory biology class freshman year, and that's when he fell in love.

“We did a huge project out by Blackfriar Pond where we collected specimens,” he said. “It was so much fun and I fell in love with [biology].”

During his sophomore year, Borish became the first Malvern student to participate in the Global Exchange Program.

“I did an international exchange and went to Panama. In my senior year, I went on a second exchange trip to Spain,” Borish said.

According to Borish, the exchange trips would turn out to be invaluable. Along with finding a love for Spanish, the trips played a major role in his journey of self discovery.

“I think those trips allowed me to experience myself in a different context outside of Malern’s campus, and I needed that,” he said. “I was living in a world that was more than Malvern, where I could be societal, and I could be myself and experience really good friendships with people who cared.”

After graduating from Malvern, Borish pursued two majors at Temple University: Spanish Linguistics and Simultaneous Translation and Molecular Biology.

“I love Temple. It is a fantastic community. It’s so diverse and financially accessible. There’s so much to get from it,” Borish said.

During his undergraduate studies, Borish worked in the International Affairs Office at Temple, specifically working in a program designed to teach English as a foreign language.

“We had a lot of people who were either in royalty and wanted to learn English, in government, or were required to understand it for a job. They would leave and have a very proficient understanding of English as a result,” he said.

Simultaneously, Borish was completing his degree in Molecular Biology. He joined a research group that was studying and trying to develop drugs to treat HIV. “We were trying to figure out if we could genetically manipulate the HIV genomic information so that it was no longer readable. As a result, it couldn’t be used to make more copies of the virus in a person,” Borish said.

The research group also researched if they could create a chemical that would look identical to the bases that make up the genetic material of HIV, causing the virus to make a copy of it, which will fall apart in time.

“When the virus uses those analogs to make its DNA or RNA, all the nucleotides fall apart. When you don’t have the nucleotides in the chain, you don’t have the message, so the information isn’t preserved and the virus is gone,” Borish said.

In 2016, Borish came back to Malvern to teach science, but did not limit himself to teaching classes. From his experiences as a student, he knew he wanted to change certain aspects of Malvern.

“I think part of the reason I came back was because I knew what needed to be fixed,” he said. “Since I got here I’ve tried to initiate that change in some form, from a place of love.”

During his first year, Borish taught freshman Biology, which he enjoyed greatly. The next year, he also taught Honors Chemistry.

“I loved Honors Chemistry. I thought that it was an amazing experience. I studied biochemistry in molecular biology, so it's something I love. Dr. [James] Fry was my chemistry teacher when I was at Malvern, so he and I go way back,” Borish said.

Later, he started teaching AP Biology. His proudest class, however, is one that he developed from beginning to end called Modern Medicine. It discusses medicine in the twenty-first century.

“We approach different topics that come up in medicine, such as how your identity influences the opinions you have about the medicine and care you receive,” he said. “We also look at the interactions you have with people that have different diseases than you and why.”

Overall, the course aims at studying the complexity of the health care systems and decisions people have to make in it.

“It’s about how we approach medicine in the 21st century, so that people are validated in some way, and not minimized because of the disease that they have,” Borish said.

Borish is also heavily involved in extracurricular activities at Malvern. He used to be head of both Christian Service and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Club, which he’s

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very proud of.

“I think if you are not adept at topics relating to equity and inclusion, then you’re out of place,” he said. “Hopefully, those types of discussions will be at the forefront of what we do in school, and they’re some of the most important conversations that we can have.”

ST@MP, which was also created by Borish, included multiple student-run workshops that discuss an array of social justice issues.

“After [the workshops], you go and discuss reflections from the day from the different sessions that you went to,” he said.

Borish then created the class Mosaics to allow the student ST@MP Committee to have a specific time to plan their events, however, the class formed into something different.

“It transitioned to more of a sociology class,” Borish said. “We talk about social issues and systems of power on campus and in [the student’s] own lives.”

Believing diversity awareness is extremely important, Borish also created SEED, or Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity.

“It’s an experience with many faculty and staff members talking about identity and the role it plays in your job on a school campus,” Borish said. “A lot of people have said that it has transformed them in some way.”

Courageous Conversations, which are regularly held with students now, used to be mainly for faculty. Borish started the conversations so that teachers could talk about certain subjects with complete honesty.

“Every session we would have like 15 people come, and it would be a talk about white privilege or something like that. A lot of people would come and discuss [the topic]. They would want to learn. It was a good time,” he said.

He also runs the Annenberg Medical Science Symposium at Malvern.

“A group of students pick a topic that they like about medicine and then they spend the year researching that topic.

They present in front of a panel of doctors at the end of the year on their topic.

It’s a cool experience,” Borish said.

Borish also used to be the Director of the middle school musical. He hopes to do it again when he has more time.

“I loved middle school students. They have a ton of energy and are so creative and can come up with the most amazing projects and lines,” he said. “It was such an awesome experience.”

With the help of Mrs. Wright, Borish helps run the Spanish Honors Society.

“It’s fantastic and Mrs. Wright and I love that.

We did Spanish Club too, which has evolved, but we’re hoping to bring it back to life next year,” Borish said.

Although Borish is teaching classes and runclubs at Malvern, he is also finishing his PhD at

ning Drexel University.

“I’m studying Molecular Medicine, which is a fairly new field,” he said. “I fell in love with it because I had done health medicine research in the past when I worked on diabetes and HIV. Being able to do research in a field that directly translated to helping people was something that I was interested in.”

Currently, he is doing a project on finding a vaccine for C. difficile, which infects about 500,000 people annually, and is responsible for over 20,000 annual deaths.

“Those are preventable deaths. Most of the time a person who has C diff got it because they needed to take antibiotics while they were in the hospital. As a result of depleting the bacteria that make up their microbiome, their gut takes over and causes really serious harm and diarrhea and lots of messy stuff,” Borish said.

Borish believes that the vaccine he is working on could be a large help for the patients and hospitals.

“The vaccine that I’m trying to develop would allow the person’s immune system to attack the C. difficile bacteria before it ends up producing toxins that cause disease in humans,” he said.

The vaccine would not only save thousands of lives, it would save the healthcare system billions of dollars every year.

“I want to say about $4 billion a year is spent on complications due to C diff infection,” Borish said. “A vaccine would be phenomenal.”

With a jam-packed schedule and countless responsibilities, Borish consistently proves that he is committed to making the world, and especially Malvern, the best place it can be.

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is a monthly student-run publication at Malvern Preparator y School. The website for the publication is friarslantern.news.

418 S. Warren Ave • Malvern, PA 19355 friarslantern.news Distributed free on stands at Malvern Preparatory School

Mission Statement The Fria r ’s L a ntern is t he s t u d e nt- r u n publication of Malvern Prep. The principal goals of the publication are to provide accurate and relevant information to the Malvern community and to offer a forum for intelligent dialogue on all things Malvern. The reporting for these student publications is conducted thoroughly and edited by student leaders to ensure this accuracy to the best of our ability. In order to fairly provide all points of view, contributions from all members of the Malvern community are welcomed and encouraged through letters of opinion, student reporting, and respectful commentary.

Editorial Policy T he u ns ig ne d e ditor ial re p re s e nt s t he consensus of the entire Editorial Board. As a team, we agree and stand behind every word.

The Editorial Board is a group of students composed of The Friar's Lantern editors-inchief, managing editors, section editors, a representative of the freshman class, and a representative from the Diversity Awareness Club. The group is meant to include a group of different students so all opinions and voices can be heard.

Submissions Letters to the editor are encouraged. Any reader may submit a letter via email to our Editors-In-Chief at mhess02@malvernprep.org and mpowers02@malvernprep.org. Anonymous letters will not be published. Editors reserve the right to contact writers or edit submissions for reasons of space or clarity. Our staff also welcomes feedback in the comments section of The Friar’s Lantern online, or via our social media.

Each comment is subject to review by a moderator or an editor-in-chief. Commenter’s email addresses must be verified, and comments are reviewed for defamation, profanity, obscenity, libel, and invasion of privacy. Not all comments are published.

FRIAR LIFE

May 2021

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Teacher of the Issue: Mr. Joseph Quinlan Six months ago, Mr. Quinlan became a new math teacher at Malvern. He also teaches Business Ethics with Dr. Quinn.

Patrick Smith ‘22 CONTRIBUTOR uinlan hopes all his students will leave his classes with skills they can apply to other courses and hopefully a future job.

“I have been working at Malvern for the last six months, and I previously taught science at St. Joe’s Prep,” Quinlan said.

He has gone from teaching a science course to teaching math, which has been a big change for him.

“I was used to teaching science with some math here and there but never a full math course. It wasn’t too hard for me to adapt to but it’s something I’ve never done before,” Quinlan said.

Quinlan taught a wide range of students at St. Joe’s, but now he teaches juniors and seniors.

“At St. Joe’s Prep, I taught classes for third graders and for seniors. I had to teach every class with a different approach. With a class centered more around juniors and seniors, it’s definitely easier to teach,” Quinlan said.

Quinlan has only been at Malvern for a short time, but he hopes that his students will gain valuable skills from his class.

“I hope to have all my students or at least the majority of my students do well and be able to leave this course with some good transferable skills that they could apply to either their coursework in college or hopefully a job later down the line, particularly when it comes to analytical thinking, or critical reasoning,” Quinlan said.

While Quinlan has only been at Malvern for half a year, he hopes that his students are successful and can apply their skills to the real world.

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Adver tising is at the discretion of student editors. The Friar’s Lantern reserves the right to refuse advertising deemed inappropriate for high school publication or not addressed to our audience of student readers.

Social Media The Friar’s Lantern is on Twitter (@friarslantern1) and Instagram (lantern.news). The editors-inchief and chief designer manage the social media accounts in consultation with the adviser.

Members of the Malvern community are encouraged to follow us on social media for online posting and discussion of student news. Social media reporting is often fast-paced, but our editors do their best to ensure that posted content is accurate and verified. Any inaccurate information will be corrected, with corrections acknowledged.

Social media participants must remember that anything posted in response to Friar’s Lantern social media is public and reflects on both our publication and our school. Social media replies and comments will be screened for defamation, profanity, or libel.

Bylines Online bylines include the name of the lead reporter on the story. Additional contributors are credited as authors on each post, but attribution may not appear in the online byline.

All contributors are listed in the byline of stories that appear in print. Graphics, photos, art and illustrations, and all other creative work will be given attribution. Unsigned editorials feature the byline of the Editorial Board.

Updates & Corrections At times, online stories will be updated as new information surfaces. Verified inaccuracies will be corrected. When this occurs, a correction will be published at the bottom of the story with the date of the most recent revision and details of the change.

Joining our staff New contributors are welcome throughout the school year. The Friar's Lantern staff meets each morning at 8:10 AM in Carney 203. Please contact any member of the staff listed below for the most up-to-date meeting schedule.

Editors-in-Chief Matt Hess '22

Matt Powers '22

Chief Designer Noah Buscaglia '22

Managing Editor Ben Franzone '22 - Print/Digital

Kevin Miller '21 - Graphic Design

Section Editors Friar Life Luke Gueriera '22

Sports

Ryan Todd '23 Aidan Naughton '23

Media & Culture Matt Gallo '22

Graphic Designers

Max Bowman '22 - Social Media Peter Jones '24

Advisors

Mrs. Suzanne Berlacher

Mrs. Kathryn Wolstenholme

Student of the Issue: Colin Campbell ‘22 Colin Campbell is involved in chorus, God Band, Malvern Theatre Society, and acting. The past year brought challenges and he has shown resilience.

Stephen Bennett ’23 a radio play we did in the fall, War of the Worlds, and the other was A CONTRIBUTOR Christmas Carol which we did in the winter. Right now, we are preparing ecause of the pandemic, God Band has been struggling to set up for our last show of the year, A Broadway Review. We are very excited to performances this year. However, Colin looks forward to future bring this to the Malvern Community! I've been involved with MTS for 6 normalcy and encourages interested students to get involved. years now since I was in 6th grade” Colin said.

“God band has been really fun,” Colin continued. “We have been Colin has not only acted at Malvern but also in the professional struggling to get performances this year with the pandemic being here but entertainment business. He acknowledges that the pandemic has staggered things are starting to get back to normal and we just sang at two masses! opportunities, but does his best to stay positive.

I'd encourage anyone to try God Band if they wanted to, especially next “Acting has been a little slow during the pandemic. Everything has year since all of the seniors been shut down so all of are leaving. I've been involved my auditions have been with God Band since last year virtual. Slowly now, things and I'm excited to continue are star ting to open up with it next year!” again and I've been getting Apart from God Band, more and more auditions for he is heavily involved with things. I just recently filmed the chorus and has worked a commercial for American to adjust to singing in masks.

Red Cross and that was really “Chorus this year has fun. It's exciting to see what been very fun. It was a little the future holds for me in difficult at first with trying the entertainment business. I to get ever yone into the won't lie, sometimes it is hard classroom and singing with to manage time juggling all of masks on. But, we got used this. The best way to do it is to it and we are doing super just to reach out to all of your well right now. We usually teachers and let them know perform with the girls from everything ahead of time so Notre Dame but were unable they know what to expect. to do that this year. We've Also, always stay on top of had Stations Of The Cross Photo: Colin Campbell via Instagram your work, never let that slip and are having our Concert and cause you to fall behind.” on May 13th! I've also been involved with Chorus for 6 years since 6th grade. Colin said.

It has been an absolute blast with Mr. Liga and I can't wait to see what we For Colin, time management is crucial as he balances school and acting. will do next year” Colin said.

He looks forward to normalcy in the fall and taking on a leadership role in Additionally, Colin has been involved with the Malvern Theatre Society his chosen activities. and talks about how the challenges they have been overcoming throughout “The school year has been good so far,” Colin continued. “Of course it the pandemic. has been weird, I’m sure everyone else can agree, but things are starting to “Malvern Theatre Society is going very well this year. Despite the get back to normal. With MTS starting to do live performances and we're pandemic canceling everything we had planned, we adapted to it and starting to get concerts for Chorus and God Band things are looking bright overcame our challenges. We've done two shows so far this year! One was ahead of us.”

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A Night to Remember: Prom 2021 Malvern sets an example for schools around the area, successfully hosting a senior prom.

Matt Hess ‘22 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ith the help of students and staff, Malvern Prep hosted a lively on-campus celebration that left smiles on every student's face.

Experiencing their first prom, many seniors did not know what to expect when coming to campus on prom night. Assistant Head of School for Student Leadership Mr. Ron Algeo describes what the night looked like.

“They came and entered into the quad and it had this new lighting. So the tables were set up with table clothes. The sky was really beautiful at that time and it kind of cleared up, but the sunset was making the sky beautiful colors,” he said.

The quad was also filled with countless games and activities for students to experience, such as ring toss, skeeball, a billiard table, cornhole, and ping pong.

“There was a huge truck that had carnival lights and the sounds and teddy bears and all that,” Algeo said. “There were also food trucks around the top of the ring road.”

Andrew Reilly ’20, a beloved alum and talented magician circulated the quad, performing his tricks for thrilled students.

“Coming back to Malvern was like returning to home after being away for many years,” Reilly said. “I got to see the people that have taught me so much about life, as well as my younger brothers who always jokes around with me while also learning from them. It was an experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”

Alex Vu ’21 didn’t know what to expect for prom, and was not disappointed in the slightest.

“Prom was really awesome on campus. It was really different and rumour on the street was that it was going to be on a yacht,” he said.

The highlight of the night came at the very end, when the students watched as fireworks lit up the night sky.

“I wanted to hear their reactions and they were all so genuine. They were just shocked. One kid started screaming at the top of his lungs saying ‘I feel so alive’,” Algeo said. “They were just laughing and taking pictures with the fireworks in the background. I think they felt genuinely happy and joyful.”

Algeo believes that prom is a landmark experience for seniors and it was very important to host something that represented it.

“This idea of closing out your high school career in a fun, safe, celebratory way is something that people look at as almost a cultural marker,” he said.

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The achievement of hosting a prom during a pandemic was not without difficulty. A few months ago, a group of private schools met to discuss the possibility of celebrations, but did not expect Malvern’s commitment to host something.

“They were all floored. They just could not believe that we were ready to commit to [a celebration],” Algeo said.

With the help of the Director of Student Life Dr. James Fry, a senior committee was created with students who wanted to help plan the night.

“Within these restrictions that we had at the time, we knew we could do something that would be enjoyable. That was the mindset that [Fry] and the team went into it with,” Algeo said.

After difficulties with student coordination to plan the prom, Josh Smith ‘21 decided to find a group of trustworthy brothers and get the job done.

“I started texting my friends and all the guys in my grade that I thought would do a good job and have them help out. From there it was a huge success,” Smith said.

At first, the group tried sending out grade-wide surveys about what everyone wanted for prom, but had a hard time collecting helpful feedback.

“We realized that we had enough representation in the group, so we decided to do what we thought people would like based on our own opinions,” he said.

While planning, more strict restrictions were in place, so the group planned around maximizing safety.

“We were kind of going for hanging out at a grad party,” Smith said. “Walk around, have fun, not huge means but quick bites, and live music.”

Vu was grateful that the senior committee worked so well together.

“I loved how the students on the committee and faculty came together to put on a really good night,” he said. “There were fun activities and the food trucks were great.”

Algeo was also extremely impressed and proud of the sincere preparation that Fry and the senior committee handled.

“The result was the prom, but I’m more proud of the process that went into it,” he said.

Smith was very happy with how the night turned out. He loved seeing all the happy faces and reactions of fellow seniors.

“I didn’t need to play the games,” he said. “I could just sit up there and watch. The fact that people were having fun was enough for me.”

Photos: R. Colameco (2021)

An Un-bee-lievable Grant for the Beekeeping Club The Beekeeping Club has received a $1500 grant from the Chester County Beekeepers Association to put towards expansion of the wildlife on Malvern’s campus Luke Gueriera ‘22 FRIAR LIFE EDITOR rom the multitude of clubs that have begun on campus, the student-initiated Beekeeping Club has flourished since its relatively recent inception. Through the hard work of its moderators and members, the club has been recognized by the Chester County Beekeepers Association with a $1500 grant.

Dr. Jim Fry, Director of Student Life and a Beekeeping Club moderator, had an influential hand in securing this grant because he sought to help the club expand.

“Tim Ferris, a volunteer for the club and originally from New Zealand, is affiliated with the Chester County Beekeepers Association and was the one who really connected us with the opportunity for this grant,” Fry said.

“After filling out the application with Boccuti, it was about a two week turnaround time and we found out we had received the $1500.”

Now that the money was secured, the Beekeeping Club had plans for how they would beneficially spend it to help expand the hives and support the well being of the bees.

“The money will go towards sustainability beekeeping activities, giving us the opportunity to buy more NUCs if need be, replacement queen materials, or other things of that nature,” Mr. Matthew Boccuti, a fellow Beekeeping Club moderator, said.

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It must be noted that this grant would not have been earned if it had not been for the exceptional student leadership of the Beekeeping Club, which is currently led by seniors Tom Wang ’21 and Pup Buono ’21.

“I think they have done a great job and especially with the descriptions of COVID, they've been doing a good job managing getting students involved, while still doing the work of managing the hive. This has definitely been a challenging year for all clubs, and I think Thomas and Pup have done a really wonderful job of keeping progress going,” Boccuti said.

“I feel like the two of them are definitely passionate about getting a lot more use out of our natural resources on campus,” Fry said. “It's really been awesome to see something student driven and then reaping the benefits, for example in the past they harvested 10lbs of honey.”

With this grant and strong leadership of the club, both moderators are confident that the future of the Beekeeping club is bright.

“From a continuing expansion of the hives to an extension into raising American honeybees and other native insects are possible future projects the club can take on,” Boccuti said. “To understand what beehives are and the kind of nature of what's going on there would be a really beneficial activity for the club to do and I think it'd be beneficial for our campus community to understand the benefits that insects provide on a daily basis.”

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Student Council Dedication As the 2020-2021 school year comes to a close, Malvern Prep welcomes a new Student Council Executive Board, all while honoring and giving thanks to the current administration for their hard work and dedication.

Ben Franzone '22 MANAGING EDITOR fter a year like no other, the current Student Council President and Vice President reflect on what this year has meant to them as they show their appreciation to all those helping them along the way. With the current executive board finishing up their final days at Malvern we look to our next Student Council President and Vice President and hear them reflect on the upcoming year and the exciting events they have in store.

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On behalf of the Friar’s Lantern, we would like to thank Fran and Josh for their tireless devotion to Malvern Prep and the community as a whole. We truly appreciate your hard work and dedication this past school year as you both put your best foot forward trying to maneuver the obstacles that came your way and doing your best to make the school a better place.

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Dear Malvern,

Dear Malvern,

“It has been a pleasure for the two of us to serve as the president and vice president for the 2020-2021 school year. Malvern has been a very special place for us over the last four years, a place that has become like a home away from home. From all of the friendships we’ve gained, knowledge we have accumulated, and all else that Malvern has given us, serving on student council has been one of the most rewarding experiences because it gave us an opportunity to give back to the place and all the people that have made these last four years so special for us. When the year started, we both had no idea what to expect, but we knew we wanted to give the students a feel of normalcy whenever we could. With safety being our first priority, we were limited in the activities we could initiate. However, we were able to successfully run events such as the dodgeball tournament and a free throw competition between homerooms. We would not have been able to have any of the success we had without the help of all of our other student councils members, the help and guidance of our moderators, Mrs. Peslak and Dr. Dlugos, and of course, the support and participation of our classmates.

"The two of us have been talking about running student council since our middle school days, and it’s amazing to finally see our dreams come to fruition. We couldn’t have a better time to be taking office with the end of the pandemic in sight and a clean slate to work with. We have both agreed on the importance of the traditions we all have grown to love, and it will be essential to instill these ideas into the underclassmen as we make our exit from the upper school. We are adamant about bringing back events like the talent show, homecoming, and amazing student sections, all things that make Malvern what it is. As we hope to bring back the fundamental traditions to our community, we will continue to implement ideas of our own. We will do our part to make our community what it was before the pandemic and more, and we couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity. Friar Nation, let me paint a picture for you right now. It’s the Friday of Spirit Week 2021 and Dougherty is packed to the brim, not a mask in sight. The lip sync competition just came to an end, as Bomberger exits victorious, after his rendition of 'Wild Ones' by Flo Rida captivated the entire crowd. Everyone is decked out in Malvern gear, patiently awaiting the start of the free throw competition. There’s a buzz in the air on South Warren, a certain buzz that hasn’t been felt at Malvern for over a year and a half. Quigley and everything surrounding it is covered in Navy Blue and Grey, in preparation for homecoming festivities and alumists to come back to their old stomping grounds. The Friars got the Churchmen coming to town tomorrow afternoon and everyone is having visions of storming the field after a huge win or making the big play to send the student section into a frenzy. The faculty is preparing for a rowdy group of young men to blow the roof off of O’Neil during the homecoming dance, through mosh pits and a robust amount of axe body spray. This dream will finally become a reality again this fall. We’re looking forward to seeing a normal campus again, and being able to bring back all of the fun events like homecoming. Both of us already have a bunch of new and creative ideas that we want to put into motion next year to make the school year unique and make up for the lost time over the past year and a half. We won’t let you guys down. Buckle up.”

Reflecting back on the past year, we want to echo the message. Maximize the time and opportunities you have at Malvern. We know that school can at times be boring and repetitive, but only having two weeks left in our senior year, we realize that those are times that you are going to miss when it's all said and done. Cherish every sports game, every theater production, and everyday on campus because as we learned last year, it can be taken away in a heartbeat.

After hearing that Sonny and Brennan would be taking over next year, we were both very excited. We can both honestly say that Sonny and Brennan are great fits for their positions and that they will do an excellent job. If there is any advice we could pass along to the two of them, it would be to use all of the tools at your disposal. Dr. Dlugos, Mrs. Peslak, and all your other student council members are great resources for you to use to accomplish your goals. To try to do everything on your own would be a nearly impossible task, so do the most that you can, but don’t be afraid to ask those people for help because they were a huge help to us all year.”

We wish you both the best of luck!

From, Sonny Petricca and Brennan Offshack Student Council President and Vice President 2021-2022

From, Josh Smith and Fran Oschell Student Council Vice President and President 2020-2021 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2021-22 STUDENT COUNCIL

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------On behalf of the Friar’s Lantern we would like to thank Sonny and Brennan for their enthusiasm and leadership of taking on these important roles for the Malvern community. It will be no easy task but under your leadership, we will be in good hands. We cannot wait to see what next year brings, but we know with you both taking charge our future will be bright.

Class of 2022 Robby DiFabio

Quinn Dougherty Luke Gueriera Kieran Sims

Class of 2023 Carter Deves

Jack Filograna

Drew Kennedy Bobby Mears

Carson Myers

Dillon O'Connor

Executive Board (Photo: @malvernprep via Instagram)

Class of 2024

Vice President: Brennan Offshack

Cade Heppelmann

Secretary: Jack Onderdonk

Leonardo Scarpato

President: John Petricca

Events Chair: Chris Datz

Danny Corsi Liam Horan

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May 2021

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Opinion: The pandemic may have influenced decreased student work ethic at Malvern Whether it be reliance on online calculators, lenient scheduling, procrastination, or plain cheating, Malvern students may be developing a bad understanding of what it takes to succeed.

Matt Hess ‘22 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF heating at Malvern has noticeably increased over the past year. Dean of Students Mr. Timothy Dougherty notes a large number of formal violations, which result from a serious offense.

“As of [Tuesday, May 18] there are 29 academic honesty violations so far this year. Then there are other sorts of discussions that happened that didn’t get an infraction,” Dougherty said.

Although cheating will never be erased from an academic environment, factors that came with the pandemic have allowed it to run rampant at Malvern. I believe that students are not intrinsically drawn to cheating, but the ease of having it as a backup plan influences its increased use at Malvern. Students may go into a unit believing that they will study and master the material, but push off taking notes or studying for other homework, telling themselves that they can use other resources during the test for the worst-case scenario. Unfortunately, this cycle continues, further crippling the student.

According to Dougherty, most of the cheating was from accessing resources off-campus that was not allowed.

The new online environment allows students to feel more in control of their actions. They feel that because they are online, they can access anything they want to.

Cade Heppelmann ’24 believes that cheating can only hurt the student.

“If you’re cheating, you’re not learning material. That’s going to overall hurt students in the long run,” Heppelmann said.

I tend to look at cheating like any other addictive action. At first, you allow it just for that one time. When that one time results in something good - a good grade on a test - you rationalize with its morality and effectiveness. The action will become easier and easier to do as you convince yourself of its usefulness. This, much like anything addictive, will create an unavoidable reliance on cheating.

The dependence on cheating destroys a student’s work ethic, constantly reminding themselves that they can always cheat to find the result. The flawed habits and work ethic will not translate into jobs and everyday life, where problems cannot be solved with a simple google search.

Theology teacher Mrs. Jessica Kenworthey believes the process is the most important part of learning, and cheating entirely takes away from it.

“If you’re trying to learn a process in math and you’re using Photmath, you’re not doing the

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process. I would not want to take my car to a mechanic who hadn’t been through the process of fixing the carburetor 100 times before,” Kenworthey said.

Motivation may be another factor in the possible diminishment of student work ethic. Many teachers have noticed a decrease in drive among students during classes. Dougherty believed that it may have something to do with the lenient schedule that students have. Some students don’t have their first class until 11:40, so they enter Malvern with the wrong mental preparation.

I believe that the lack of events and celebrations to look forward to may also have hindered motivation. Malverns celebrations and events were widely popular among the student body, but due to COVID-19 precautions, many of them could not occur on campus this year. Without many tangible things to look forward to, many students could have felt less motivated to excel in their studies.

Heppelmann noticed that online learning specifically hindered his ability to focus.

“I can tell my concentration has lowered a lot and my focus is lacking more in online classes,” he said. “There were a lot more distractions at home, like your phone.”

The temptation of accessing these stimulating devices and activities is too much to handle for many students, finding themselves glued to their phones during an online class. I empathize with people who experience this because it is extremely difficult to resist distractions. Our brains understand the rush of dopamine that comes from these devices, and it is unfair to expect students to choose difficult classes over TikTok. Member of the ninth-grade academy and English teacher Mrs. Susan Giordani believes that correctly using the tools online can create more student interaction, which hopefully has a direct correlation to motivation.

“You have that chat box so you can have a conversation with someone while something else is happening. You can also use the little polls or whatever to gauge the pulse,” Giordani said.

According to Dougherty, there are discussions of eliminating the virtual component for the next school year.

Taking advantage of the tools provided online is important, but we should also be wary of becoming reliant on online learning. While it has benefits, such as the increased amount of resources and access for sick students, Malvern should not make it their main way of educating.

THE FRIAR'S LANTERN WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT THIS YEAR! HAVE A GREAT SUMMER, MALVERN!

Photos: R. Colameco (2020/2021)

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Malvern’s Junior Ring Mass A look into the Junior Ring Mass from faculty and students, how it had to change from past years, and how it almost did not happen at all.

Aidan Naughton ‘23 SPORTS EDITOR alvern recently hosted their annual Junior Ring Mass which was a little different than years past. Through the efforts of Father Drennen and Mr. Algeo, the ring mass has helped bring a sense of normalcy to a hectic year.

Mr. Algeo, one of the coordinators of the Junior Ring Mass, spoke on how there are little to no events happening on campus with the ring mass being included.

“There's a lot of steps with the Junior Ring Mass that we went through that people don't know about. So, at first, when we entered this year, we did look at events and say can we run them or not and there's a lot of things we couldn't do…we went through a couple of different iterations, and we weren't able to do quite as much as we would normally like but it ended up working out pretty well to be able to have parents here and to do it with the juniors and the junior team here it was great. It's a great celebration.”

Father Drennen, working alongside Mr. Algeo, also spoke about how the ring mass was up in the air with concerns of COVID-19. As restrictions and safety concerns started to fade, the ring mass got the green light from the administration.

“We figured we were safe enough to [have the mass] and we didn't have anybody but parents who didn’t have any grandparents or siblings although people slipped in but they had to do the health waivers here and everything else,” Drennen said.

Working at Malvern for a long time, both Father Drennen and Mr. Algeo spoke on how it felt

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to see the juniors grow over the years.

“We have guys here that are juniors who I haven't been able to kind of like, be with, and celebrate public with some parents in well over a year...It's kind of jarring to think whoa, wait a minute, these guys are juniors and when you do it [the mass] in the spring they're almost seniors,” Algeo said. “It's such a strange, almost like transport, through time. So it was very surreal that way.”

In the Mr. Algeo fashion we all know and love, he also reflected on how excited he was to finally shake hands again and give the patented “dap”.

“I definitely thought more comfortable with people who are vaccinated to give the old dap, you know, and a hug and high fives. I've been able to do that a lot more... It's that connection, right then come camaraderie for me, that I feed off of,” Algeo said. “So, I am ecstatic, and we're gonna be able to get to do this more and more. There's no doubt a lot more high fives and daps no doubt.”

The Malvern community looks forward annually to its rising seniors having the opportunity to come together and celebrate being a step closer to their final year on campus.

“I look at it as an advancement for juniors who are going to be taken over as leaders,” Drennen said.

Junior and ring mass participant, Jack Onderdonk, commented, “The ring mass was very well done this year. It was great how Malvern recognized the importance and significance of the event and made it happen this year for students and their families.”

Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Algeo and Father Drennen the Juniors were able to have a nice celebration as they approached their senior year.

Mr. Mark McLaughlin, and the impact he made Mark McLaughlin is retiring from Malvern Prep after 26 years, and the loss of his presence will affect Malvern greatly.

Matthew Gallo ‘22 CONTRIBUTOR cLaughlin oversaw the Duffy Arts Center, helping with theatre productions, concerts, art shows, and maintaining the building itself. He will be missed as a vital staff member, but moreover as a valued member of the Malvern Prep community.

Dr. James Fry, Director of the Malvern Theatre Society, said, “He [McLaughlin] was “phenomenal, [and] an individual that [he] considers [himself] lucky having had the opportunity to work with him, and to have him as part of [his] life.”

McLaughlin helped Fry whenever he needed help with the Malvern Theatre Society, whether it was helping with the sets, lighting, or sound, he was always “willing to step in and help, and his easy-going personality made him that much easier to work with”, Fry said.

Fry explained how throughout his time at Malvern, McLaughlin was always able to improve or perfect what he was working on, “He's very particular in a good way, wanting everything to be perfect and look its best. He's got a great eye, and as he walks through he adjusts or fixes [things], helping to keep the building looking its absolute best and professional.”

McLaughlin was always involved in various types of arts, whether it be performing in a band on the keyboard or supporting his sons in their high school theatre productions.

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He has used this knowledge that he has acquired over the years to become “a renaissance man” as Mr. Rob Muntz likes to put it.

Muntz has worked with McLaughlin in stage crew, sculpture, the talent show, and many other activities in Duffy, and they have gotten to know each other well over the years.

“As somebody that worked in the maintenance department here and with me he was able to work with a lot of our students when we put on these productions, he is basically a secret teacher; I've never seen somebody so naturally be able to work with and help students,” Muntz said.

“He’s just so humble, he does a lot of work behind the scenes that nobody knows about, and there is going to be a big gap to fill when he moves on,” Muntz said.

Ms. Jackie White, 9th Grade Academy Leader and visual arts teacher, began her time at Malvern the same year McLaughlin joined the Malvern community. White also had praise for McLauglin, and admired and appreciated his work ethic.

“He is a very fun guy to work with. He's also very meticulous about what and how things should be done,” White said. “Especially with sound and lighting, and keeping all the equipment together, his meticulousness is awesome.”

McLaughlin was praised by every member of the Duffy arts team and Malvern staff. His amazing work ethic and character will be missed on campus.

Student COVID-19 Vaccinations As COVID-19 vaccines become more widely available, students are taking the opportunity to get themselves vaccinated.

Brennan Offshack ‘22 CONTRIBUTOR n December 11, 2020, the FDA approved the first COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, paving the way to the end of the pandemic. Just over six months later, the vaccine has disseminated across the world, and students are joining in on the vaccinations.

Phase two of the Pennsylvania coronavirus vaccination program opened on April 13, 2021, allowing for the inoculation of any person over the age of sixteen. Weeks later, the Pfizer BionTech shot was eventually approved for individuals ages twelve and older. These vaccines are becoming increasingly easier to acquire as the vaccination rate across the state and country has increased drastically.

In a survey answered by 139 Malvern Prep students, 102 of them confirmed that they have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, accounting for almost three-quarters of the responses.

Malvern recently conducted its own vaccination clinic on campus that many students chose to participate in.

Sophomore, Kevin Jackson, found the on-campus clinic as a great opportunity, stating “I’m glad that Malvern was able to put something like this together. I was also impressed by the student showing, and it gives me a lot of hope for this summer and the upcoming school year as more people get their shots.”

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Unsurprisingly, Malvern distributed the Pfizer vaccine, as it is currently the only approved option for people under the age of 18 looking to get vaccinated. Out of the vaccinated students, 89% have received Pfizer. Of course, all vaccinations on and off-campus for minors rely on parental consent for the student as the FDA requires.

Carson Myers, class of 2023, is another younger student who is fully vaccinated. He focused on the prevalence of the vaccines, stating “I think it’s great that anybody who wants to get a vaccine is

able to do so at this point. I think that soon, we will be able to take away things like masks, social distancing, and limits on gatherings, which will be very beneficial for students.”

There remain groups of students who would rather not receive a vaccine at the moment for any number of reasons. The CDC has made it clear that a certain level of protection exists after contracting the virus, as a number of students have experienced throughout the school year.

Junior Will Gosselin said, “I just had COVID this spring, and I know that I am immune for at least the next three, possibly six months. I didn’t see a need to get the vaccine just yet, so I decided to wait.”

Gosselin also had some input on what he believes the future of vaccinations in our greater community may look like.

“I think at some point within the next year, we will be required to get vaccines to be able to go to certain places or attend larger events. It may even become a requirement for people to go to school in the future... If we don’t get the shots, I believe that we will be required to wear a mask until we do. We even see this starting now, as some restaurants and stores are allowing vaccinated people to enter without masks,” Gosselin said.

As restrictions start to peel away, people both with and without vaccines have been able to appreciate the approaching sense of normalcy.

Kevin Jackson expressed his eagerness, stating, “I just wanted to get the shot so I didn’t have to worry about getting the virus or quarantining again, as I’m sure most of our community has experienced something like that. I’m excited to be able to go into a larger crowd and not have to worry about getting sick.”

The future is certainly bright not only for Malvern’s community but the entire country. Almost half of the population has received one or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of May 2021.

After almost a year and a half of the pandemic, the light is finally forming at the end of the tunnel.

Kevin Jackson agreed, stating, “My arm hurt for a few days, but in the end, I think it was worth it.”

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A look back on the 2020-2021 schedule The 2020-2021 school year has gone through many changes, but with a daily schedule that was new to everyone there was bound to be some challenges and controversy.

Ben Franzone ‘22 MANAGING EDITOR eachers, students, faculty and staff all have their own opinions of the daily schedule as well as the topic of term versus semester. Each of them have expressed their thoughts on how these changes have affected them and what they hope to see in the future.

After feedback from teachers of various subjects, students from each grade and the administration there is a clear consensus that a term based schedule is preferred over the five block day semester schedule that was used in the previous school years.

While it appears that this year's term schedule is more favorable than the schedule of previous years, both teachers and students alike have expressed a number of areas where they felt the schedule has fallen short or have had difficulties adjusting to.

“From feedback that I've heard, a lot of the students seem to really like it. From what I'm hearing, there are at least a lot of students who have said ‘I like it’, because they can focus on four classes,” Mrs. Susan Giordani P'21, English teacher and ninth grade academy leader said.

Rising senior Jack Walter agrees that he is a fan of having terms as opposed to semester, explaining how having only four classes is preferred.

“Having only four classes allows me to focus on less at a time, which can help me understand and learn my different subjects more thoroughly. Also, it allows me to participate in more after school activities and gives me more time to workout,” Walters said.

Current senior Julian Williams expresses the same idea; he feels that the terms are more helpful for him rather than the semester based schedule that was in place for the past few years.

“I actually really enjoyed this term based schedule that we had this year. [It] gave me more time to focus on a specific class that I may or may not be struggling in, and having it everyday uninterrupted helped,” Williams said. “Being able to put my all into one to four classes every couple of months is way better than having to disperse my efforts over a semester based system in my opinion.”

Mrs. Molly Morse, upper school Latin teacher and curriculum coordinator for the language department, who taught virtually for most of the year, feels that the terms allow her to devote more time to each of her classes, a bonus that she really enjoys.

“I personally have really enjoyed the term schedule, because I think it gives everybody more time to focus on individual classes. My situation is unique because all of my classes are different, but that kind of mimics a student's schedule in some way. So I really appreciate having that time, to really give intense attention to classes at a time,” she said.

Mathematics teacher Mrs. Heather Canavan P’19, ‘24 also expressed how she favors the terms as opposed to semesters for her classes.

“I like meeting with the students every single day. I think that gives me continuity that I didn't have before,” she said.

As a parent, Canavan feels that she likes the schedule even more than as a teacher and really sees the benefits of terms when thinking about her son.

“I actually think from a parent perspective I loved it even more than as a teacher perspective. I really thought it was nice for him to be focusing on those four classes, then get a break and then come back to those four classes,” Canavan said.

Giordani, also the parent of a senior, agrees that she really loves the idea of terms from that perspective.

“As a parent, I like that too because I feel like my son can focus on those four classes and get absorbed in them and not have everything else to juggle and to manage, especially right now with the whole world we're living in,” Giordani said.

While some teachers and students have felt that the break between terms one and three and two and four were very difficult to handle, Canavan actually feels that her students have benefited from the break between terms.

“I actually liked the break that we had, I think it gave students a chance to refresh and take a break from those subjects, and I felt when they came back they were ready to go,” she said. “To be honest, I planned a big review for that [first] week [back], but the students were so ready to just jump back in, I didn't even have to do it,” she continued.

While Giordani understands the difficulties students face with the gap between terms, she feels that for her English students the break is helpful for them to grow as writers.

“I think sometimes it's good to step away from certain subjects because then you can focus on others and see through a different lens,” Giordani said. “For instance, say that you have an English course and then you switch to a Social Studies course where you're still getting the writing that you need, but you're just seeing it through a different lens.”

“It's really neat to see when the students come back how they've taken what they learned the first term … and really applied it. They're so much better at it with the next term because they're applying it to their other classes,” she said.

Morse expressed that while the big gaps between her classes are not too difficult she realized that it can be very challenging for other teachers in the language department.

“The cons of course are the big gaps in between the terms. I think for my particular subject, it affects Latin less than the other languages, but within my department, I know that's a big concern because with modern language in particular, you have to practice it with consistency,” she said.

On the other hand, from a students perspective, the gaps between terms seemed to be one area where it was quite challenging to retain the information from classes between terms.

“I think that a con would be that I just forget things. Over the period of the other term, I felt that I forgot much of what I learned and what I needed to have in my other classes to prepare for the next term,” sophomore Jack Filograna said.

Williams had similar thoughts about this topic and even brought up one of the positive

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areas that a semester based schedule could bring.

“Not saying that we forget everything between terms, but the fact that a review class is needed takes up time that could have been used to learn a new subject,” Williams said.

“This is where I see the positives to semester based classes. It’s more streamlined, allowing for a constant pace between units.”

Giordani acknowledges the difficulties students are facing, particularly with the rigorous course load many upperclassmen have. Given that she is also the ninth grade academy leader, Giordani has worked with Mr. Patrick Sillup and the other academy leaders to construct the schedule for next year, trying to improve the schedule as much as possible.

“I do hear that struggle and I know that next year we're really working on balancing. The other complaint that I heard was that some of the kids get frustrated because, especially if you're taking AP courses you might have a big, heavy load one term, and then you're really light the next term. So if there's a way you could even that out, which they're working on doing,” Giordani said.

Walters and Filograna can both attest to the challenges of having an unbalanced schedule and the difficulties that have come with it.

“The only tweak I would make to this schedule is to distribute the classes more evenly.

One term I had one challenging class, two electives, and an open,” Walters said. “It was nice to have a lot of freedom during this time, but my next term I found myself having four pretty challenging classes that took up a lot of my time.”

Similarly, Filograna said “[One con] is that I have two of my hardest classes in one term, and without a study hall, it’s somewhat difficult to manage.”

Due to the change of semesters to terms, many teachers found themselves having to adjust how they used their time in class and what exactly they had to teach within the time frame.

“I feel like I've streamlined it where I'm picking and choosing what's really important.

I feel like when I came to Malvern, that's one of the big things that I noticed the changes I noticed that the teachers really give assignments that apply to what the students are learning and really want to enhance their learning and it's not just do this to keep yourself busy and practice at 100 times,” Giordani said.

As for a science class, Mr. Matt McDonald’13, also had to make some changes to how he conducts his classes and what he does in class versus out of class.

“We have had to make it a lot more asynchronous. I actually teach the same course, Integrated Science II, with Mr. [Louis] Osinski and Mrs. [Anna] Geider and we started doing notes completely out of the classroom. So we'll record the notes videos, and we'll say, you guys can go and copy your notes at your own leisure at your own time,” McDonald said.

On top of the extra work that is needed to be given outside of class, McDonald also had to make some changes due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With COVID, it's been difficult to do more hands-on activities which are a lot more engaging; next year, I don't think that'll be quite as much of a concern,” McDonald said. “So it's affected what we spend class time on, and we give students a little more responsibility at their own time at home. Aside from that, it hasn't really changed other than the pace of it, the pace has definitely quickened up.”

Even with all of the difficulties that had to be taken on, McDonald still prefers terms over semester. He sees one of the benefits of seeing his students everyday, especially when it comes to doing science labs.

“With labs, it's very important to do that every day, [if] we're doing a lab with a live specimen in a biology classroom, you can't wait. If you're doing a dissection, waiting is an issue. So, in that sense it's great. I think there's a lot of benefits to seeing students every single day,” he said.

In addition to the schedule change in regards to the structure of terms, there were also many other changes that affected the daily schedule which included Brotherhood Days, homeroom, lunch, and start and end time of each day.

In the beginning of the year, each grade came onto campus for Brotherhood Day about twice a month, but mid year, it was changed to coming in once a month with thirty minute morning classes each Wednesday.

While Canavan does find it somewhat challenging to utilize the thirty minute Wednesday blocks, she feels that the change mid year to have classes on Wednesdays as opposed to being entirely off was an effective decision.

“I think it's better for you guys to have that continuity of getting up every single day, it was almost like previously there was a weekend in the middle of the week, and I felt it really made it tough to get you guys moving,” she said. “I would notice that on Thursday mornings, It was almost like it was Monday morning for the students and so I think that continuity for you guys is really important.”

With students, it appears that Brotherhood Days have really worked well and many students have enjoyed a little break during the week.

“I think that Brotherhood days are a break in the middle of the week and I can catch up on my work if I need it,” Filograna said.

Walters agrees that Brotherhood Days were a success.

“I thought that the Brotherhood Days on Wednesday were nice, especially when you are on campus. Having different events or meetings on the afternoons of these days while still having shortened classes was a nice break from our regular schedule,” he said.

Both as a parent and teacher, Canavan is also a huge fan of having a later start time in the morning.

“I think the start time is good; we're a little later this year. And there's a lot of studies that show that kids do better when they have a later start time so I think that's been good for everybody to have that later start time. Kids are awake when they're in first period, they're not just sitting there,” Canavan said.

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Having school start late has been a huge hit with students, allowing them to sleep later and get ready for their day.

“I love that homeroom starts at 8:45. This allows me to wake up at 7:45 every morning.

Sleep is something you can get enough of, so waking up 45 minutes later than last year and the year before is a nice luxury,” Walters said. “This also allows my Catholic Athletes for Christ club to have meetings in the morning before school starts, which I believe is something that works and isn’t too early to do,” he continued.

Not only did the school day start later, it also finished earlier than in previous years. While it seems that it has been very popular among students and faculty, the end time can interfere with sports practices, causing a large gap of time for students.

“One problem with this is most coaches weren’t able to adjust to this new schedule and practices were at the same time so some kids were waiting for about an hour for practice to start,” Rooney said.

One of the other major changes this school year included the change in homerooms with the addition of home bases. The change allowed each grade to have a space designated for them to be a communal area for open periods, virtual classes, and lunch.

“One change that I felt helped the school was the addition of home bases. It was nice having all the freshmen in one spot as a kid just coming to the school. It allowed me to easily build friendships and get closer with some,” Cormac Rooney ‘24 said. “In addition, having a lot of the freshman teachers there throughout the day made it easy to ask questions or meet with them about your performance in class.”

The added time between classes seemed to get mixed reviews with teachers and students all feeling differently about how effective they were.

“I thought the time between classes was a little useless. There isn’t much someone can get done in ten minutes and I found myself usually just talking to friends or waiting in the classroom of my next class for it to start during this time,” Walters said. “I understand that the time is supposed to be a little break, but I would honestly much rather have a longer lunch period than a ten minute break between classes.”

While Canavan doesn’t mind having the time between classes, she feels that it might not be as necessary next year, given that the hallways will be easier to maneuver with less stick COVID-19 protocols.

Thought the time between classes was fine, maybe, maybe, now that if we get to a point where the hallways are, you know, I don't think we would need that much time between classes On the other hand, some of the teachers really enjoy the time between classes.

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I think one thing that's really worked is that time between classes. I think there's a nice little time to shift gears for students and for teachers, also like a little mini conference you can fit in there too so students stay after you can have a few minutes, or even, you know, if you want to go early, the kids can meet up with you.

Given the wide variety of thoughts amongst students, teachers, parents, faculty and staff, the task of creating a new schedule was a challenging one.

“All of that information sort of went into the pot, if you will, and you start to mix it up and see what's going to happen,” Sillup said. “I worked with our academic leads who oversee and supervise all of our faculty, so that's running to them - what would you like to see, how would you like to see it.”

The process of composing a schedule that would work for everyone was neither a quick, nor easy task.

“It was a multi month process where we designed multiple schedules, each of the academic leads came up with one. We then paired it down and said based on what you've offered, let's condense some of these, let's add some of these, let's get rid of some of these,” Sillup said.

After meeting with multiple members all across campus, from Mr. Ted Caniglia (Director of Financial Affairs) to Mr. Tom Gray “from a lunch service perspective,” and understanding what needs to happen in terms of transportation, Sillup said they were able to get a better understanding of what needed to be done.

“Then we came down to a couple more, and said these are sort of schedule A, schedule B, what do you think, and then we worked together with those academic leads and we edited it one more time,” Sillup said.

Next year's schedule includes the same start time, something very popular amongst students and teachers, extended time for lunch, and the return of community time to allow for more flexibility during the day. While the start time has not been changed, the school day has been extended back to its normal time (pre - COVID-19) which gives students time to meet with teachers at the end of the day. The time in between classes has been extended from ten minutes to fifteen minutes which now gives everyone time to conduct meetings or discussion in between classes.

After everyone was on board with where the schedule landed, it was taken to the Caritas Committee and the Leadership Team to be finalized.

Sillup said “I think what students can expect for next year is that the schedule itself feels familiar; I think there's some new wrinkles, in a good way, that I'm looking forward to based on the feedback and I think it was a really thorough process, but I feel good about where we landed.”

Ghost in St. Rita’s: Part II After extensive ghostly investigation, there is more to ghost stories in St Rita’s than first thought.

Ben Franzone ‘22 MANAGING EDITOR rs. Beverly Gordon, Dean of Faculty Coaching and Development and Social Studies teacher, has been teaching at Malvern for well over a decade and did not shy away from divulging a few ghost stories that thicken the plot of the ghost in St. Rita’s.

“When I first started here, sixteen years ago, I came in very early; I was an early bird. I would get in as early as five o'clock in the morning and I would go to St. Rita's and grade because I always had grading to do,” Gordon said.

Getting to campus as early as she did, Gordon was often the only person on campus, well, the only living person.

“I found I would be the only one in [St. Rita’s], and I would go to the second floor. I would go to the second floor and do a lot of my work because there was a printer up there and just for some reason I sat up there early,” she said.

Though her office space was on the first floor of St Rita’s, she would typically go to the second floor to do her work in the morning. When she was on the first floor, everything seemed to be fine, but the second floor is where it really started to get strange.

“I'll tell you, when I was on the first floor, everything was great, [but] when I was on the second floor, something was up there,” Gordon said.

W hile most people would be freaked out or terrified about the abnormal behavior that she experienced on the second floor, Gordon offered a different take.

“Maybe I'm nuts, but I would talk to the air and I'd be like, ‘Look, I'm taking care of these kids, don't get crazy up here,’” she said. “And nothing really happened as much as it was a feeling, or even like a creaking, … but on that second floor, man, I never felt like I was alone,” Gordon continued.

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Gordon expressed that the feeling she felt while in St. Rita’s was not anything horrifying or scary, but rather a friendly, and amiable spirit watching over the building.

“It’s interesting because it's not a scary story, it's almost comforting, not mean or bad.

When I was in [St. Rita’s] and I was doing my work and taking care of the kids, trying to teach something, it was almost like ‘Okay, keep going, I hope you're taking care of these kids because that's your number one priority,’” Gordon said.

As a history buff, Gordon worked in historic buildings before coming to Malvern. She described the feeling she felt while in St Rita’s as similar to that of the old buildings she used to be in.

“I've worked in historic houses before I came here: really old spaces, attics of churches and all different really historic buildings. I was used to this feeling and it was the same feeling, which was interesting to me, but it was almost like a creaking … I definitely felt like sometimes you feel somebody is watching you,” Gordon said.

A ver y unique aspect of this story goes back to when Mrs. Jessica Kenworthey explained that she was previously told that a nun died in her bed in St. Rita’s many years ago. Just as in most houses, the bedrooms are on the second floor of a home, which Gordon explained was the only place where she experiences these ghost-like encounters.

“What's interesting is, as a historian, I've always been intrigued by ghost stories and things like that, but I never really went in on them and been like, ‘Oh yeah, definitely, this is happening,’” Gordon said. “I'm not someone who [thinks], ‘yeah, there's a ghost in every corner,’ but it was enough that I remembered it all these years.”

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Commitment Corner Commitment Corner Ryan Todd '24 SPORTS EDITOR

Ryan Davis: Lehigh University Baseball

Throughout the commitment process, Ryan had to make many choices, but people like his coaches and teammates made it easy. Many Covid-19 restrictions didn’t allow college coaches to come to games, so the recruiting process relied on videos and the coach’s words. “My baseball coach, Coach Hilliard, has good connections with the Lehigh coach and he helped me out by getting my name out there and showing the coach that I'm a good player and that I can compete at the Division I level,” Ryan said. His favorite part about committing was continuing the connection with a Malvern teammate. “Ryan Cochran, a junior, who plays here at Malvern and plays on my summer baseball team also committed there. It was great to grow a connection with him then I’ll go to college with him for the next four years,” Ryan said.

Chris Blango: Lone Star Brahmas Junior Hockey

Deciding to play in the Junior hockey league instead of going right to college was a different commitment experience for Chris. “I think it's different for every kid. It’s different because I wanted to play hockey before going to college, so it was skating with junior teams versus talking to colleges,” Chris said. Malvern’s head coach, Bill Keenan, helped Chris throughout the commitment process by talking to college coaches and answering their questions. “I think my club coach, and Bill, who is our head coach at Malvern, helped to get my name out there by talking to coaches and answering questions about me,” Chris said. Since he was young, Chris knew he wanted to go play in the Juniors saying, “It's something that I've wanted to do from the jump, I think, so it was pretty easy for me to pick juniors. I've always wanted to play hockey in college, and this is probably the most common way to do that, Chris said.”

Ryan Sambuco: New Jersey Rockets Junior Hockey

The commitment process was unique for Ryan because before he made the decision to play in the Junior Hockey League, he met with junior teams and practiced with them instead of meeting college teams like many athletes. “This year it was talking with junior teams and going to different places to skate with the team during their practices. During practices, you figure out where you fit in and whether you belong with the team. Some teams may want you and some teams may want to pass on you.” Although Ryan is choosing to play Junior Hockey that doesn’t mean college is not always an option. “One of the hardest decisions was choosing between whether or not to go to college for academics this year doing junior hockey. It was pretty easy as well because I love the game, but you're always gonna have college to fall back on later in life and get a degree. You can't have juniors forever, you age out at 21, so it's something I definitely want to take a stab at and see what it has to offer.” Ryan’s biggest word of advice is to keep working and he will strive to keep that mindset in the future. “It's a grind, it's what you do away from the rink and also at the rink. You just got to work day in and day out and you’ll accomplish your goals. It's a mental game for sure and it takes a strong mind to achieve something, especially in hockey.”

Aidan Catania: Bucknell University Football

Aidan would like to thank his family, teammates, and coaches, especially Malvern football head coach, Dave Gueriera. “First and foremost I would like to thank my family. My family has done so much for me to put me in the position I am in today and I wouldn't be the same player nor person if it wasn't for them. I would also like to thank Coach Gueriera, he did so much for me during my recruitment process and I can't thank him enough. Also, I would like to thank all my teammates, coaches, and friends who have helped me through my long journey at Malvern.” Although Aidan did not get early offers from Division 1 colleges, he was patient and offered by Bucknell. My commitment process was a little out of the ordinary. “I didn't get recruited to play Division 1 football until late March, usually most kids have signed by then. I waited it out and luckily got a couple of calls. It was stressful not knowing where I was going to play next year, but luckily it all turned out great and I can't wait for what's in store for me at Bucknell.” Even though Aidan committed recently, he has already set goals for the future and is eager to get to work. My goals are to win a Patriot League Championship at Bucknell. I also want to graduate in 4 years with a degree.” Aidan’s advice to younger players like him is to keep grinding. “You're going to get your shot, you just have to be patient and don't let it slip away,” he said.

Steven Rose, Jr: University of Delaware Football

Steven appreciates many people from Malvern, as well as his family for helping him get where he is today. “I would like to thank Coach G for taking me in at Malvern, helping me adjust, and showing me nothing but love. I would like to thank my parents for believing in me and making the sacrifices that they made for me to succeed. Lastly, I would like to thank Coach Coles and Coach Lev for helping me better my craft and helping me adjust to Malvern,” Steven said. While choosing between schools, Steven considered many factors and believed that Delaware would help him achieve his goals. “I chose Delaware because it’s close to home, the coaches there recruited me the hardest and would call me every week. I asked myself who wants me the most, what school can I make a big impact on right away.” To play college football is the next step for Steven, but he has big plans ahead of college. “My goals for college are to become an All-American safety and to ultimately make it to the NFL,” Steven said.

Ryan Cochran: Lehigh University Baseball

Ryan was able to commit before junior year after finding the right fit in Lehigh University. “Coach Hilliard really helped me out with reaching out to my target schools, especially Lehigh. My process was all done in the summer after my sophomore year, with the help of Coach Hilliard, and a Malvern Alum that played baseball at Lehigh, Chris Butera. I talked to him a couple of times and it seemed to be a good fit for me," Ryan said. He would also like to thank all of his coaches and brothers for their time and effort. “ I would like to thank Coach Hilliard, Ken Elkind, Coach Nagy, Chase Miller, my parents, and my Malvern brothers have all helped me get to where I am today. All of them have had a huge part in my growth and development as a player and as a person.

Thanking all of them is not enough considering all of the hours and work each of them has put in to help me,” Ryan said. In the future, Ryan will continue his career with his fellow Malvern brother, Ryan Davis, and strives to play baseball after college. “I am pumped about my recruiting class, and to have my teammate Ryan Davis joining me there. I would like to get on the field as early as possible at Lehigh. Hopefully, I am able to play baseball after college, that is my goal,” Ryan said.

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Commitment Corner Aidan Naughton '23 SPORTS EDITOR

Ronan Swope: West Virginia University Football

Ever heard of “Kicker U”? That's the name for the Malvern football team kicker factory that has pumped out one such recruit, Ronan Swope. This year, Swope decided he’s taking his talents to West Virginia to compete in the Big 12 Conference at the D1 level. After playing in showcases in the summer and even traveling to Tennessee for a national showcase, Swope received official offers from Navy, Sacred Heart, and West Virginia. “I wanted the biggest program I could find, the biggest atmosphere, just big-time football, and West Virginia was my best opportunity to do that,” Swope said. Despite recruiting being hindered, Swope was still able to commit to West Virginia this past year commenting, “I didn't have any official visits and we were supposed to do some summer camps and some different schools. It just didn't pan out the way it was supposed to but that's why I was so happy when West Virginia came knocking because they were finally an opportunity for me to play somewhere.” With Swope playing for the Mountaineers next season, lookout for a new threat on special teams in the years to come.

Quinn Hall: University of Washington, Rowing

Quinn Hall, a rower for Malvern, recently committed to the University of Washington, the number one rowing team in the country, who recently won their 4th consecutive Pac-12 Championship. After receiving offers from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Washington, Quinn chose the University of Washington because of their stellar record for rowing and good mechanical engineering school. As Hall puts it, “I ended up choosing Washington and what I want to do is become an engineer, and their engineering school was a pretty good mechanical engineering school which is what I want to do and, unlike the Ivy Leagues, they offer much more academic help and everything for the team, like private tutors private sessions because it's an NCAA D1 sport for a state school and there's obviously a lot more funding than the Ivy Leagues...the Washington rowing team it's kind of like the Clemson and Alabama football team.” Quinn also talked about how he feels playing such a prestigious program saying, “It's definitely gonna be hard work. For the first two years, and then hopefully I'll be in the top boat and then competing nationally.” Washington’s Coach Michael Callahan is also the coach of Team USA and Hall hopes to “get his foot in the door” for the US national team which he hopes to compete for in the future. “I just have pretty simple goals. I think Team USA, and then Worlds and then Team USA for the Olympics, maybe once or twice but the Olympics would be kind of a stretch, but we'll see where it goes. It's kind of early right now.”

Collin Munyan: Colgate University Rowing

Beginning to row crew freshman year, Collin Munyan rowed all through high school and now will continue to row at Colgate. “I wanted a small college and Colgate has a student population. So, and I wanted to like, Well, I was looking at some cities but I think I probably wanted a rural setting more. So it's like a big campus and it's like a nice campus with just a small student body, so that's pretty much what I'm looking for.” Colgate competes at a Division one level and is currently ranked 19th nationally by the Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA). “[I] Pretty much just reached out to a bunch of coaches and Colgate was one I've settled on.” Erg scores and race times aren’t the only things that college Coaches care about. According to Munyan, “Just continue to train hard and reach out to coaches and seem really interested in, show your interest in the school, and yeah, just the more commitment and interest you show into the school and the faster you are pretty much coaches will like to see that.”

Matt Caccese: Boston University Lacrosse

A starter on Malvern’s lacrosse team, Defenseman Matt Caccese committed to Boston this year. Caccese began playing lacrosse in third grade and continued through to play at Malvern. “I really wanted to play at the next level, and I think Malvern will be that place, and then being a Catholic Augustinian school and it was a great place to be.” Caccese commented on his commitment to Boston saying, “I've always loved the city up there, that we've gone up there a bunch of times. I knew I kind of wanted it to be like a city school environment...So I kind of wanted to change scenery to be really cool to be in the city and I definitely didn't want to be super close to home. I wanted to be away and start something new so I'm really looking forward to it. And then of course the program and the coaches, they're also really awesome.” Caccese looks forward to taking his talents to play Division 1 lacrosse at the collegiate level. “No matter what is thrown at you and comes your way, whether it be a global pandemic or an injury or something. Don't lose that kind of, like, hope that you're not gonna be able to do it because no

The Inaugural “Malvern Masters” Tournament Ryan Powelson ‘21 takes home the green jacket in the first ever “Malvern Masters” on-the-quad golf tournament.

Brennan Offshack ‘22 CONTRIBUTOR As the 2021 Masters came to an end with Hideki Matsuyama being crowned champion, a new winner emerged on Warren Avenue. Ryan Powelson took home the green jacket in a nailbiter finish.

When asked about his championship run, Powelson was elated, stating, “It feels great to win. I saw that green jacket and knew there was no way I was losing.”

The tournament consisted of a series of mini golf rounds during the April senior brotherhood day followed by a championship chipping round the next week. Mr. Sillup and his team were able to organize the delivery of a portable mini golf course onto campus during brotherhood day. It provided hours of entertainment for the seniors and some stiff competition.

“I was up against some really great competitors. Kids like Jack Fialko and Pat Traynor are single digit players. But the course (Malvern Quad) really plays to my strengths,” Powelson said.

New traditions like the Malvern Masters tournament are welcomed by the Malvern community, and provide great opportunities for students to gather in a fun and competitive atmosphere.

“I’ve been training my whole life to win something like this. It was definitely worth the long hours on the range honing into my game,” Powelson said.

Photos: K. Wolstenholme (2021)

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Malvern Hosts 2021 GEICO High School Lacrosse Showcase The second annual event consisted of two games that were nationally televised on ESPNU. The Friars handily took care of The Lawrenceville School (NJ) 16-3, while Brunswick School (CT) barely edged out The Haverford School 9-8.

Matt Powers ‘22 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF osting an event of this magnitude is no easy task. Athletic Director Jim Stewart Jr. had his work cut out for him once he received a call that ESPN would be traveling to South Warren Ave in less than a month.

“There was lots of planning involved - meetings, answering questions via emails and phone calls, helping their producers get to know our community and lacrosse team, coordinating the flow of traffic on campus at that time, coordinating guests/fans with the other schools involved, marketing the event, and a lot more behind the scenes. It was all worth it as it was a fabulous event” Stewart said.

Stewart adds that some of the pandemic concerns were lifted off his shoulders due to ESPN’s stringent COVID-19 protocols, but Malvern still had to enforce their own protocols as well.

“I believe things would have been a bit less hectic if it were a normal year,” Stewart said.

“ESPN has strict protocols in place for their employees and we had to accommodate them. We had the challenge of making sure that we didn't have an overflow of people trying to attend the game so that we could stay within our Covid protocols. But, perhaps the greatest challenge was being accessible for their last-minute needs, but this was a wonderful learning experience for our athletic department.”

Not only was this event great for student-athletes to showcase their skills, but it also gave the school tremendous exposure on a national level.

“Given the beauty of our campus and nice cooperation from Mother Nature, we had a terrific showcase for all viewers to see,” Stewart said. “The fact that we were dominant in our game definitely helps our program from a marketing standpoint. They also had a couple of clips of our Rugby and JV Baseball games during breaks, which was a nice ‘plus’ that marketed our athletic program.”

With his mind locked in on the game, Head Varsity Lacrosse Coach Mr. John McEvoy ’86 was happy to hear the positive feedback from the community following the event.

“I haven’t seen the TV production yet, only the game tape, but I’ve heard that Malvern showed really well, the campus looked warm and welcoming, and the entire event was well run,” McEvoy said. “Obviously, we ran away with the game and it reflected well on our program, but it’s also good for Malvern to be represented like this in front of a lot of people.”

To keep his players calm before the game, McEvoy advised them to stay level-headed, focused, and play their game.

“Our goal as the team was to not make the game any bigger than any other game this year and to treat it normally,” said senior midfielder Cooper Frankenheimer. “Keeping a level head is something that Coach Mac [McEvoy] and the captains keep saying because if we get caught up in the spotlight, we could end up not playing our game.”

Frankenheimer, pleased with the team’s dominant win, describes the event as a dream come true and a memory he will never forget.

“It was such a special time having my family from all over the country texting me that they were watching me on national TV, it’s a memory I’ll have forever,” Frankenheimer said. “It was even better since we had a great team win, it’s hard not to be happy when you win 16-3 against a really tough opponent.”

Frankenheimer, who will continue his lacrosse career next year at the University of North Carolina, believes this experience will be very beneficial when the Tar Heels compete on the national stage for years to come.

“I think this awesome experience will help prepare me for the future playing on TV much more often,” Frankenheimer said. “It will help because I will not need to think about all the outside distractions that playing on ESPN brings, and can just think about it as a normal game and prepare just like I would for any other game.”

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Like Frankenheimer, senior attackman Eric Spanos will be playing on ESPN quite a bit over his next four years. Spanos is committed to the University of Maryland and made this announcement back in eighth grade.

Instead of becoming nervous before the game, Spanos was eager to get out there, compete, and play the game he loves.

“I was not nervous at all, rather excited because everyone was wishing me luck and had high spirits for me to be playing,” Spanos said. “We [the team] talked as a whole before the game about blocking out all of the extra stuff that could distract us like the nerves that came with a big game like this. We knew if we stuck to our brand of lacrosse and played our game, we would be just fine.”

After a five-goal performance that tied the tournament record, Spanos was presented with the game’s MVP award. However, his favorite aspect of the entire event was creating a life-long memory with his brothers.

“This game was definitely one of my favorite moments at Malvern because it was just genuinely fun seeing all of the guys on the team just cherish the moment,” Spanos said. “As well as being a senior, it was amazing to see some of our younger guys get out there on ESPN and just ball out.”

For senior leader Jake Brownley, his approach before the game stayed the same despite the high stakes and national spotlight.

“I made sure to tell the team that it is just another day at the office,” Brownley said. “Even with the cameras, commentators, and TV timeouts, my mindset and the team’s mindset stayed the same. No moment is too big for this team, not even being on ESPN changes the way we approach the game.”

Because of his experience, Brownley doesn’t get nervous before big games and mentioned that the only distractions he faced were the frequent TV timeouts.

“As soon as the game started I completely forgot that we were on ESPN, my mind was fully on the game,” Brownley said. “For better or worse, ESPN reminded me that I was on TV by having TV timeouts and big microphones on the field. Besides these distractions, I was able to have my mind completely focused on the game.”

For members of the junior class who are still in the recruitment process, which was limited this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, this game provided a chance for them to showcase their talents on the national stage.

“The exposure in this event was huge for players who haven’t had many opportunities to get seen,” junior Jack Irish said. “ESPN and Malvern did a great job promoting the event, and we were really able to display our talent on national TV. It also showed what we are about as a team and how competitive and well we play together.”

Instead of worrying about all the people watching, junior defenseman Chris Datz approached it as a regular game, going out there and competing to the best of his ability.

“It was a great event and one that I really enjoyed. From an exposure standpoint, a lot of the younger guys played well and it was a great opportunity for coaches to see us play which has been difficult because of the pandemic. But at the end of the day, it was just a really fun event and we just went out there and played our hardest. We weren’t really worried about who was watching.”

Brian Ciarlone, another junior who is looking to play at the next level, saw this event as an opportunity for the entire team to get looked at by college coaches, especially the players who have struggled to get noticed during the pandemic.

“The national spotlight was great for players that are still trying to get recruited to a high division 1 team. The exposure at this high of a level is definitely a positive for our program because we have a lot of talented guys on our team who have had trouble with getting noticed during the pandemic. The event was great in that sense and it also reflected well on our program because of the big win.”

Malvern Wrestling is #1 The Malvern Wrestling team had 6 National Prep Champions, as well as being named the #1 nationally ranked team in the country.

Luke Gueriera ‘22 FRIAR LIFE EDITOR alvern athletics have dominated their opponents in every season and one of the most standout contributions to this powerhouse year was no other than our #1 nationally ranked wrestling team, who had 6 National Prep champions and 12 All-Americans overall.

Cole Deery ‘22, Nick Feldman ‘22, Caden Rogers ‘22, Jack Wehmeyer ‘22, Spencer Barnhart ‘23, and Jack Consiglio ‘24 were the six members of the wrestling team to become National Prep champions in their respective weight classes, which is truly an amazing accomplishment for the program.

“It really feels great to be a National Prep champ because a lot of time and effort was put in and the outcome was even better with being #1,” Deery said.

“It is a very cool feeling to see your hard work finally pay off for the whole team,” Feldman said.

As for any championship match, the stakes are high, but at the most important tournament of the year, the feelings before a match like this are elevated to an entirely new level.

“I felt nervous going into it but I knew I had to be confident in my abilities and relax to wrestle my best match. Also, I had to put it all on the line because this is what I’ve been working towards all season,” Barnhart said. “ I felt pretty good. We had like four guys win their championship matches before I did, so I had to keep the ball rolling - I didn’t want to stop the momentum,” Feldman said.

Not only did these champions succeed in their final match, but worked hard throughout the entire tournament by winning several tough matches to get to their end goal.

“I thought I wrestled a great tournament. My finals match was awesome as the kid was ranked

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higher than me and I stepped up in a big match,” Deery said.

“I think I wrestled pretty well throughout the days. I definitely could have wrestled a little smarter and more open but overall I think I had a decent tournament,” Barnhart said.

As Barnhart said, even though he and the others became champions, the mindset of a true winner is always rooted in dissatisfaction and the desire to continue to better themselves, regardless of the accolades.

“I felt like I could have scored my last takedown better. My last shot was kind of ugly. That was kind of my immediate first thought, but other than that, I was like, alright, time to get back to the room I guess,” Feldman said when asked about his immediate reaction after winning a National Prep title, exemplifying this desire to better one’s self no matter what.

Although there were only 6 champions, the team had 12 All-Americans, continuing to show the elite caliber that every wrestler performs at on Malvern.

“We performed to the max. We put in a lot of time this year and it’s been a long season. Our coach said to go out on top boys. I’m very proud of my teammates,” Deery said.

Luckily for all of the champions, they still have one or more years to compete again in National Preps, and if these championships have done anything for them, it has influenced them to work even harder to retain their titles.

“This [winning a championship] has motivated me for next season by pushing me to keep on working hard and hopefully win another one. All I can do is just keep competing and wrestle my best every match,” Barnhart said.

The Malvern Wrestling Team is currently the #1 nationally ranked wrestling team in the country and was honored for their hard work with a small parade in the quad this past week.