The Pine Needle
By Wells Baylor ’11 Junior Contributor
October 2009
Richmond, Virginia
Volume XCI
Number 1
On Model the Teacher RoadTakes Again to his Model T
This summer, Mr. Billy McGuire crossed the Great Plains, trekked through the Rockies and journeyed through the desert in a restored 1909 Model T. Temperatures ranged from the low 40s to upper 90s. And his Model T didn’t even have heat or air conditioning. Mr. McGuire explained all this in a blog about his trip. He mentioned how the Simon and Garfunkel song “We’re All Off to Look for America” applied to his journey to find the essence of this country. He wrote in the blog, “Each day, I’ve tried to capture my observations not in a romanticized or patriotic shrouded guise, but objectively working to figure out just what this country is and how it works.” During the summer, the St. Christopher’s science department chair participated in a 54-car trip across the nation. The journey, which spanned more than 4,156 miles, marked the 100-year anniversary of a Ford advertising gimmick where many of the world’s most successful car companies entered a cross country race. Ford raced alongside these early automotive giants, though at the time Ford was a relatively small car manufacturer. The Model T beat out many of the more expensive luxury models and won. The victory shoved the Model T into the public’s eye and rocketed Fords sales into unprecedented numbers. Since 1984, the 75th anniversary of the event, Mr. McGuire had been planning to participate in the 2009 race. When that date finally came around, the Model T Ford Club International president and owner of six Model Ts was
Wittenauer Commits to Yale By Patrick Delaney ’11 Senior Editor
ready. The trip began in New York City. More than 50 slow-moving Model Ts accompanied by a police escort crammed into the already congested New York City streets. After the brigade of Fords had freed itself of the city, the Model T’s were off and over the Catskill Mountains. The group eventually traveled through the rust belt, across the plains and into the Rockies. Along the way, the parade of Model Ts saw some amazing sites. They saw dizzying mountain peaks, scorching deserts and some of the world’s most developed skylines. But for the
majority of the trip, they just saw miles and miles of corn, Mr. McGuire said in his blog. Seeing the nation this way truly revealed the diversity of natural wonders and manmade marvels that make up our country’s landscape. The Model Ts were completely exposed to the elements, but according to Mr. McGuire, this was a good thing as there was “no better way to see the country.” Back in 1909, the cars had no air conditioning to keep the desert air out, no heat to prevent the mountain’s frost from entering and no side windows to protect
John Asare Receives Highest Honor at Boys State
By Ben Resnik ’11 Junior Contributor
John Asare did not start out as a major contender. When Asare, ’10, arrived at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, he had no plan in mind for what he was going to do. Over the course of the next week at the Boys State program, a new state would be formed, and its leaders chosen. Asare knew he wanted to be one of them. Personal drive aside, he was immediately at a disadvantage. “When I came, I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “I had no idea how Virginia was split up.” Asare saw the party divisions and felt like he was the right person to help unify the state. “Right off the bat I decided to run for governor,” he said. “If you’re going to run for something, why not go big?” The decision did not map out an easy week for Asare. The Boys State program pulls in 800 high school seniors representing the entire state of Virginia each year, every one of them ambitious and proactive. In a scenario with this much motivation and very few elected offices, it was clear to Asare that his work was cut out for him. The Boys State program is organized like a tiny democracy.
Rising seniors are subdivided into a city, each named after a general, and from there attendees elected by their fellow program go into office. Elections span the entire week, with larger elections taking place towards the end of the program. At Boys State, holding an office is a badge of honor. “It was huge because people the people who voted you into office are the people who are seeing you every day,” said Asare. The election for governor was at the end of the week, and even though he decided to run for the top spot at the outset, Asare didn’t get a head start. “There were lots of people who came to Boys State already planning to be governor,” Asare said. These people were having ideas and forming connections and alliances from the moment they stepped off the bus. The first step in getting elected was making it to the top of one’s political party. The camp was divided into two factions, the Nationalist and the Federalist, not representing any political affiliation. “The two parties started from complete scratch,” he said. He was chosen as a Nationalist. Asare’s opening foray into the world of Boys State politics was no small step; he had to convince his entire party that he was the man who could beat the Federal-
ists. “The party convention in itself was huge,” he said. It consisted of 400 people. Asare’s primary opponent was Jeff Masse, a senior who had been laying the groundwork for election since the beginning. Since Masse already held the high ground in terms of time, Asare decided to go for a different tactic. “I made it a priority to present myself as a very honest person; I never backed down and I made people know that,” Asare said. Taking advantage of his natural speaking abilities and gregarious personality, Asare defeated Masse and became the nominee of the Nationalist Party. For Asare, it was here that the real test started. In Boys State’s two-party system, citizens typically vote along party lines, and the entire election depends upon swing-voters. Candidates at every level recognized this, and did everything in their power to bring members of the other party to their side by any means necessary. “There was a whole lot of backstabbing,” said Asare. “Emotions got so high; it was absolutely fantastic.” Here, Asare gained a better understanding of the pressures of running for elected office. He said that the hardest part of
campaigning was “the fact that you were in the public eye 24/7. You had to always be ready to talk to people. I did it for a week, but I imagine it must be pretty difficult for governors to do it for four years.” Asare’s new opponent was Travon Baker, a man who had successfully conquered the Federalist primaries. Because the parties did not have many ideological differences, (Asare’s platform was that he “strongly supported more sleep,”) the race was about the man. “Everyone wanted the same thing,” he said. “It came down to the candidate himself.” Though Asare was required to produce a new, original speech every time he stood in front of a different group of voters, his strategy remained very much the
Discipline, determination and drive—three words that describe senior Kyle Wittenauer. He plays tight end, linebacker and long snapper and has started for the Saints’ Varsity football for the last three years. “Ever since I can remember, I have always wanted to play football in college at a highly academic school,” said Wittenauer, a Pine Needle senior editor. “I have been focused on that goal and have worked toward it every day of my life.” Last spring, 26 college coaches visited Wittenauer on St. Christopher’s campus, most of them from D-1A and D-1AA schools. Their early interest in Wittenauer’s athletic skills brought schools like Stanford University, Boston College, Duke University and others to our campus for the first time in years, if ever. They liked what they saw in Wittenauer, and now they will likely return to visit future recruits from our program. The Ivy League schools showed up in full force with Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College and Brown University all among last spring’s visitors. They were initially attracted to Wittenauer’s skill on the gridiron; after they saw his academic profile they were hooked. There were several state universities (the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, James Madison University and the College of William & Mary) and regional schools (the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Liberty University, Elon University, the University of Richmond and Towson University) that also showed a great deal of interest. Liberty University offered Wittenauer a full scholarship, and numerous schools invited him to their spring junior prospect days and summer senior showcase days. The University of Notre Dame, a childhood favorite of Wittenauer’s, was one of those schools. The Fighting Irish ended up offering Wittenauer a preferred walk-on spot after he attended their senior showcase camp in June. Wittenauer’s summer was full of lots of hard work and travel after attending a dozen showcase camps including ones at Duke, UVA, Boston College, Harvard, Princeton and Yale. Boston College and Duke continue to express interest in potentially offering Wittenauer a football scholarship, but Harvard, Princeton and Yale have already offered him a spot on their teams. After an exhaustive recruiting experience, Wittenauer has made a definitive decision on where he wants to spend his next four years attending school and playing football.
See Page 3 Asare
See Back Page Wittenauer
from rain. Still, these little black cars were no pushovers. The Model T could reach speeds of 40 mph and boasted a ridiculously high 22 miles per gallon. That’s the same gas mileage of my car, which, coincidentally, is also a Ford. Out of the 54-car convoy, only six, including Mr. McGuire’s Model T, made the whole trip without needing any repairs. One car couldn’t finish at all, but for those that did make the whole trip, they saw something amazing. They experienced “a great and unbiased sample [of America].”