October 2022

From the editors

Dear Readers,

After an eventful past year, the Northern Light staff is excited to start bringing the news back to our community. With one of our biggest staffs yet, we have an array of talented individuals who are willing to explore, collaborate and deliver relevant content through our website, editions, and social media posts. The theme of this edition is rivalry. Throughout Octo ber, our fall sports teams take on Portage Central, so we thought it would be best to center the edition around the history of the rivalry and what it means to the players and school community overall. Ac companying the center feature are entertainment, feature, and opinion writ ings - some of them per taining to the school ri valry, and others just on relevant topics in general. The NL Staff is ecstatic to bring you this first edition and we hope you enjoy it!

Happy Reading, Jackson and Brie

On the cover

Portage Northern’ s defensive line gets ready to try and stop Portage Central’s offensive line in the annual PN vs PC football game. This year’s rivalry game was on October 7th. 2022, which was also PN’s homecoming week. “Getting a good picture was super hard because people kept standing in front of me,” said the photographer of this shot, sophomore Abby Hosler. “When I got this one I was super happy.” Visit the website and click on the “Media” tab to viewall of the photos that the NL staff took that night.

Policies

The Northern Light in print and online is the student-produced newspaper for Por tage Northern HS. It is an open, designated, public forum for student expression, and the newspaper provides staff members with in dependent reporting opportunities and indi vidual evaluation. Writing is based on a wide variety of research for a broad and diverse audience and topics of coverage are decided by the staff and editorial board with consid eration to what is timely, relevant, compel ling, educational, and important to the stu dent body.

In accordance with best practice for stu dent media, the Northern Light is not prior reviewed by administration. Building and district administration do, however, reserve the right to oversee the paper if necessary to ensure that the mission and vision of Portage Public Schools and the safety of students and staff are maintained.

As a MIPA, JEA, and NSPA publication,

the Northern Light adheres to the highest standards of journalistic integrity. Photos, art, and other visual elements are created by Northern Light staff, formally designated for free use or part of public domain. In rare circumstances, we may use other media with the owner’s written permission.

It is our desire that our readers join the dis cussion on our published work. We welcome letters to the editors and guest contributors, and the Northern Light will publish online all pieces received provided that they include the author’s full name and are appropriate for publication in a school setting. Letters to the editor are limited to 150 words in length and guest contributions are limited to 350 words in length. Pieces can be delivered to Amanda Thorpe’s room, 3.129, emailed to pnhsnort ernlight@gmail.com, or mailed ATTN: Por tage Northern Light to Portage Northern High School, 1000 Idaho Avenue, Portage, MI 49024.

Editor in Chief

Jackson Barnard

Editor in Chief

Brie Quick

Creative Editor

Annabelle Bartz

Feature Editor

Abby Hosler News Editor

Ella Morofsky

Opinion Editor

Kayla Malaski

Digital Media Manager

Lizzie Seem

Staff

Veterans

Mitchell Barnard

Avery Bogemann

Cynthia Brown

New Members

Jenna Abdulhak, Maya Ab dulhak, Trevor Anderson, Kennedy Barnes, Kennedy Beck, Trinity Christian, Kaitlyn Dulyea, Maelys Fayet, Everett Fields, Ashton Hall, Brad Ko vach, Emily Lynch, Mariah McCullough, Eliott McG lynn, Kayla Miller, Lexia Mulvey, Lauren Pernie, Aly Radford, Zoe Reuss, Lizzie Seem, Sam Snead, Eve Sykes, Chase Vander walle, Brooklyn Wade, Ash Weller, Dillyn Yokie

Sponsors

Kwong

Wedel’s

Huskie Headlines

Marching band prepares for state finals

By Lizzie Seem and Eliott McGlynn

With just weeks left in their competition season, the Huskie marching band is putting the final touches on their 2022 pro gram, “Remember Me,” which honors Dia de los Muertos. “It’s not an easy show at all,” said se nior drum major Dustin Briggs. “It has a high level of difficulty and a lot of potential.” The band is competing over the next two consecutive weekends, first at Jenison this weekend and then at Plymouth Canton on the weekend after.

As the calendar winds down, band members are feeling hopeful about how the season will end. “It’s exciting how spe cial the show is going to be,”

said senior trumpet player Max Pla. “The music is cool, but ev eryone works so hard every single day. Since the begin ning of October, we’ve had this focused, directed energy.” The band is adding new finishes at every performance, and some of them are very personal. “We painted props this week,” said senior color guard member Maddy Grabe, “and we included the names of people who are special to us that passed away on them.” The season will end for the band at the state com petition at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan on November 4.

Rosie Friedman spots friends in the student section while entering Huskie Stadium. Photo by Annabelle Bartz

Gym class students vie for ping pong tournament title

By Brad Kovach

On October 20, physical edu cation teacher Adam Cardo na’s gym classes vied for the title of ping pong champion in the second annual tourna ment. “I was given the option to get some ping pong tables

a couple of years ago, and the students have all loved it,” Car dona said. “We do it all for fun, and the students seem to really enjoy it, especially when they get to beat the teacher, maybe, in a game of ping pong.” The

classes competed by hour, and the winners were: Micah Nofs inger. Cardona himself present ed the coveted award - a Ring Pop - to the champion of each hour.

News Briefs

Drama department hosts denim drive

By Cynthia Brown, Emily Lynch, Lizzie Seems, and Elliot McGlynn

For the first month of school, the drama department asked students to donate various types of denim for use in their musical, “Footloose.” The de partment accepted anything and everything, but some spe cific items they were looking for were cut-off jeans, roll-up jeans, jean jackets, or jean vests in pin stripes, acid wash, or anything with an 80’s vibe to it.

When the student body comes alongside the musical staff to create costumes, it can do more than just offset costs. “I thought

it would be entertaining for a big group of kids, especially be cause some of these kids were the ones that missed their mu sicals due to covid,” said Mulay Koch. “I think the community will have fun.”

“Footloose” kicks off on No vember 11th and will run until November 20th. Ticketing infor mation will be available soon on www.pndrama.org.

The Denim Drive bucket overflows by the main office during collec tions. Photo by Elliot McGlynn.

Students start computer science club

By Zoe Reuss, Trinity Christian, Kaitlyn Dulyea, and Dyllan Yokie

Supervised by math teacher Patrick Greeley, senior Ari Block and sophomores Diego Arias and Ella Nilges started the Com puter Science Club this year. Though just starting out, the group has had some early suc

the coding platform known as Scratch. Greeley shares that he plans to “dive deep er into coding” using differ ent programming platforms other than Scratch at some point. Even though it has

Stronger Together

Coming back to school this year, our motto has been “Stronger Together.” While at rst it might have made some of us roll our eyes at how cringey it was, it has been a helpful reminder that no matter how weird things get - and with a predatory bus driver, a camera in a locker room, and changing principals twice, all before the end of rst quarter, things have been weird - we are still, and we are always, better together. In ways we can’t fully explain, and for reasons we can only guess, despite everything that has happened, this year feels markedly better than last year. Maybe it’s because it’s easier to feel connected to each other because we were fortunate enough to be on the other side of the pandemic and start the year fully in

person and able to see each other’s faces without masks. Perhaps it was the forced proximity of the homecoming dance, where we were all sharing energy in one indoor space versus last year, when it had to be outside and students broke o into separate groups. Maybe it’s the football team’s call to sweep the sheds, which increased our awareness that we’re all in this together and that we will have the school environment that we create. Whatever it is, it’s working: for the rst time we can remember, we have school spirit and a sense of community that we can feel and a con dence that no matter what comes our way next, we are strong enough together to face it head on.

the school’s cliche motto might be just what we need

HEARD it from a HUSKIE: What was your favorite thing about HoCo?

Smacking PC

Naomi Thorpe Aliyah Zufall Rayleeana Hayward Arya Sappidi Class of 2023

RIVALRY RIVALRY

by Abby Hosler, Brie Quick, Ella Morofsky , Kayla Malaski

For a total of 43 years, the community of Portage was one, and all students attended Portage Township High School. That was until 1965, when Portage Northern High School was founded and Portage Central took the place of the previously shared building. This break in the community led to a long standing sibling rivalry between Portage Central and Portage Northern that is still as intense today as it was the day it began.

Like all siblings, sharing was something that PN and PC had to work on. With the two schools just 3.2 miles apart, the district decided that both football teams would use Central’s McCamley Field. Having a common eld only added fuel to the re as the rivalry budded between the two schools.

To make matters worse, when

the two teams played each other, Northern students would have to sit on the visitors’ bleachers, a place they felt they didn’t belong. “It felt like we were stepping on their toes,” says former PN cheerleader and current JV cheer coach Taylor Cooper. “I mean [McCamley] was on their campus.”

Despite the tension, the district did what it could to make McCamley feel like home for both schools. One tradition that started early on was allowing the team that won the previous season’s rivalry game to have the goal post padding painted in their school colors. Students took pride in getting to see their school colors up on the goal post, but for quite a while, the goal posts were consistently sporting blue and yellow.

In 1999, Northern nally broke the 12 year win streak Central held by bringing home a win during the rivalry

game. Overly excited, PN students rushed the eld at the conclusion of the game. “[They] jumped on the goal posts and ripped the padding down,” recalled Central principal Eric Albertus. “It took years to heal from.” Northern students also notoriously vandalized the brand new Mustang statue after the rivalry game at Central’s newly-renovated stadium in 2019.

Northern nally got their own stadium in 2018 thanks to community-wide bond support. As might have been anticipated, tensions were high the rst time they played Central on what was now truly home turf and the game got out of hand when the Northern student section taunted Central with inappropriate and vulgar signs. “It was really embarrassing being a cheerleader because you had to read every single sign they would have up,” said Cooper.

Despite the intense rivalry, the two teams have also come together for the greater good. In 2020, both teams marched side by side from Celery Flats to Portage City Hall. where they took a knee together to protest racial injustice. Afterward, they even had a

For 45 years, the feud has rumbled on between Northern and Central. What started it?

PN and PC battling for the win at this year’s rivalry game held at Huskie Stadium. “[Winning] felt like being a little kid on Christmas,” says junior Avery Kucharski varsity football player. “The game was so close but winning it on on the last drive left an awesome feeling.” cookout together.

There is also the less serious, fun side of the rivalry. When a PN-PC game is coming up, there is a di erent energy in the air; they are always the most anticipated games and competitions that, although intense, students look forward to. “I think the rivalry between the two schools is exciting! It’s always so hyped during the lead up to the face-o s between the schools,” shares Northern senior and cheerleader Casey Conboy. “The games are always really fun to watch too because everyone takes so much pride in their particular school!”

Freshman Alexandria Smith agrees. “I love the rivalry between both schools. It gives us and PC something to look forward to,” she says. “I love how competitive both schools get. It keeps everything interesting and honestly more fun. Winning

a rivalry game is special, too: “We have kinda been beat up by PC,” says Northern senior Nick Jepson, president of Northern’s student section, the Super Fans. “So when we win against them it feels a lot sweeter, because we don’t do it a lot.”

The athletes also enjoy the chance to prove themselves to the community and bring home the Kavanaugh trophy. “Every week we put in the work, but [rivalry] weeks we are going to put in extra work because it’s important to us,” says Northern junior lineman Andrew Staples. The trophy was added to the rivalry game in 1966 in honor of Doctor William R. Kavanaugh, who was PC’s team doctor.

One thing is

for certain: Northern and Central never fail to put on a show against each other. Overall, the record is 40 wins for PC and 25 wins for PN, but the only number that mattered on this year’s homecoming night was 3: the margin of victory that the Huskies had over the Mustangs as the clock expired with a nal score of 25-22.

Alumni Anthony Tyus holds up the Kavnaugh trophy in joy two years ago after wining a game. Photo courtesy of Kurt Twitchell.

What does that mean?

By Annabelle Bartz

legislature, governor, secre tary

enact laws

least

term limits for state representative and state senator with a

those required for members of Congress under federal law;

any

-

Senate, with excep tion

House

to Senate in 2022 can be elected

a

number of times

elected officials in the state house and senate, the governor, the secre tary of state,

the

information about their finances

jobs

future job

/ if anyone outside of the government

them

given to them by lobbyists.

the term limit from 14 years in state house and senate positions to 12 years, allowing them to spend as much time in the house, senate, or a combina tion of the two that fits in that 12 years.

-

Prop 2

Constitutional Amendment to: recognize fundamental right to vote without harassing conduct; require military or overseas ballots be counted if postmarked by election day; provide voter right to verify identity with photo ID or signed statement; provide voter right to single application to vote absentee applications and ballots; require state-funded absentee-ballot drop boxes; provide that only election officials may conduct post-elec tion audits; require 9 days of early in-person voting; allow donations to fund elections, which must be disclosed; require canvas boards to certify election results based only on official record of votes cast.

What it means in less words:

- Require military and overseas ballots to be counted if mailed before election day

- Expanding what counts as voter identification

- Easier access to absentee ballots that are state funded

- Require 9 days of early in-person voting

- Allow donations to fund elections but the funding must be disclosed.

Prop 3

Constitutional Amendment to: establish new individual right to individual freedom to reproductive freedom, including right to make and carry out all decisions about pregnancy, such as prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilza tion, abortion, miscarriage mangement, and infertility; allow state to prohibit abortion after fetal viability unless needed to protect a patient’s life or physical or mental health; forbid state discrimination in enforcement of right; prohibt a prosecution of an indi vdual, or a person helping a pregnant individual, for exercising rights established by this amendment; and invalidate all state laws that conflict with this amendment.

What it means in less words:

- Protecting the right for a pregnant person’s control over their own pregnancy

- Protecting individuals from prosecution for providing or receiving reproductive care

- Allow the state to prohibit abortions when the fetus is old enough to survive outside the womb.

Making waves: Portage Muskies combine water polo athletes from PN and PC

By Sam Snead

Below: PC student Silas Koop (#14) takes a shot on goal at the Muskies last home game on October 13 against Chelsea while PC teammates Keenan Millar (#7) and Isaac Fichtner (#11) support. Photo by Nickolas Smith and courtesy of Tracy Arra.

Camaraderie can be a simple thing when coming from the same place, but when you take people from di erent places - especially when those places are two schools with an intense rivalry - and put them in a situation where teamwork is the name of the game, it can be more complicated. How will they put aside their beef and work towards a common goal? is is the task of the Portage Muskies water polo team, which is a co-op team featuring players from PN and PC. Watching the team play together, it is obvious that the players themselves have formed a common bond through practice and the games. “Most of them are seniors so they don’t

care,” said sophomore Nelson Smith, who is one of just two Huskies on the team.

“We rarely even think about the fact that we’re from different schools,” shared freshman Levi Arra, the other Northern player on the team.

“ ere is friendly banter and we are always in good spirits.”

Also helpful is their impartial coach, Greg Lowman. “He’s not even from Portage!” Smith shared. A neutral coach is more likely not to put more value on a player from one school over the other, leading to a more uni ed team.

Despite the fact that the athletes come from di erent schools, no sense of rivalry exists among teammates. e Muskies might be making waves in the pool, but it’s all calm waters between friends.

Avery Kucharski kicks his way to success on two varsity teams

Kucharski’s work ethic is certainly admirable, but he doesn’t credit his success only to his own determination. “ e teams are the greatest things I have been a part of in my sports career,” he says. “ e guys are always pushing each other and because of my love for them, I continue to work hard every day to get better with them.”

Junior Avery Kucharski kicks an extra point as junior Braylon Amos holds the ball steady. Photo courtesy of Jason Altweis.

His endeavors to be great have not gone unnoticed, as he was selected to be team captain of the soccer team. His coaches and teammates say it’s because of his energy: “His energy is contagious,” says varsity soccer head coach Justin Rhodes. “Everyone else sees him giving maximum e ort, then everyone else wants to do the same.” Cole Smith, a senior and fellow captain of the soccer team, has also noticed this energy. “Avery helps bring our team energy and passion,” he says.

Avery Kucharski is a junior and two sport varsity athlete. Excelling on both the football and soccer eld, he is the leading goal scorer on the Portage Northern soccer team and deemed as “an excellent prospect for college coaches” by Kohl’s Professional Football Camp - one of America’s top programs for college exposure of kickers, punters, and long snappers.

Playing two sports has proven to be strenuous - especially since high school men’s soccer and football have con icting schedules. “I have to make lots of sacri ces on and o the eld,” Kucharski explains.“ ese di culties have made and continue to make me a stronger person.”

Despite these sacri ces, he nds time to put in extra work for both sports, and his work ethic is one of his most notable traits. “ ere are not many days with halfway decent weather in the o season where you won’t nd Avery up at Huskie Stadium getting some kicks in,” shares varsity football coach Kurt Twitchell. “His work ethic is as strong as anyone’s.”

A er high school, Kucharski plans on playing at the next level. “Right now I’m trying to keep all my options open. My love for both sports makes it di cult to let go of one or the other,” he shares. “But right now I am planning on pursuing playing football at the collegiate level.”

Kucharski takes a shot on goal as a member of the soccer team. Photo courtesy of Avery Kucharski.

Summer is a ckle thing, it comes and goes quickly, as you never want it to end. You want to keep a hold on it forever and live in the calmness of the serene season permanently. In e Summer I Turned Pretty, a contemporary YA trilogy by Jenny Han, the main character, Belly, can’t let go: she wants to live in a state of peace forever, where nothing ever changes.

At the start of the rst book, Belly does change. e catalyst that ignites the main plot of the story is that her image changes: she becomes what she describes as “pretty,” and this leads to her relationships changing throughout the summer. While she previously was able to have friendshiptype relationships with the boys who were her childhood friends, these connections eventually turn more romantic and change in other ways that she hadn’t previously expected. She also goes through other changes that are not just on the outside: the way she views things di ers from before, and her whole life changes a er just one summer.

By the end of the book, things are markedly di erent for Belly, and you get a sense it’s never going to go back to how it was at the start of the book ever again. is idea

Quotable:

of growing up, changing, and having to navigate a new normal, is something that is super relatable at our age, and I felt deep connections to Belly as I read the book.

is summer, everything changed for me, just as it did for Belly. While I didn’t experience the kind of friend-to-romantic interests that Belly did, my friend relationships did shi , and the friendships I had were suddenly so di erent. While I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I changed as a person, I did spent a lot of time reecting on the idea that the thing about change is that you can’t stop it from happening, all you can do is adjust and adapt to whatever is going on and try to stay true to yourself.

To be honest, I read a lot of books, and this book in particular has stuck in my mind since I read it. I could nd myself in Belly: in how she thought and in how she reacted to the things happening around her. I needed a story about how change a ects someone, and I found it in this trilogy. I give this series four out of ve stars, and encourage readers, especially those of you going through a life change: to pick up at least the rst book and see if there’s a connection.

Rating:

I give this book 4/5 stars.

I liked how I could relate to the situations the characters went through, but the writing felt off from time to time.

Did you know?

--The book series has been made into an original series on Amazon Prime Video

--The author also wrote the acclaimed To All The Boys I’ve Loved

Before trilogy

roughout my life thus far, I have heard many say the phrase, “I hate politics,” but for me, it’s personal. Most people never get to the point of meeting me before forming their strong opinions about me. I have found that only in politics can you have your whole story written by others without being asked to speak. I wish I was judged based on what I’ve done, what I want to do, and who I am. Unfortunately, I’ve grown to hate the one thing I used to love the most. e political climate I came into in 2018 is not the same today. Because I am a Republican, people assume I love Trump, believe that abortion is unacceptable in all cases, and that I am a bigot on all social issues. None of these assumptions could be farther from the truth. I hate politics because people are not talking anymore and because most pressing issues - like clean water, good roads, investing in education, and safer communities - should not be political. Even on issues that should be, more o en than not, there is a middle ground. It is up to us to get there, and I will devote my life working to nd it.