Volume LXXX, Issue XIV
Dooley Week sacrifices profit for message BY Galen STAFF
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Bacharier
fter a week chock-full of flipping hotcakes, selling hockey sweatshirts, dressing down, hearing a guest speaker and even a snow day, St. Louis U. High is trying to determine the amount of money raised in the inaugural Dooley Week, as well as evaluate students’ opinions on the changes instituted this year. Replacing the formerly named Mission Week, the name change came along with a change in focus: instead of centering on a variety of fun activities that sometimes blurred the charitable and mission-based nature of the week, the priority was shifted to focus more on the purpose of the week, while still including plenty of opportunities for donation and fundraising. They were catered more to the Jesuit aspect of the week. According to Vice President for Administration Joe Komos, who was tasked with calculating the money raised from the week, approximately $10,000 was raised. The money came from dress down money from students, laser tag on Sunday, the pancake breakfast before school on Thursday, and students raffling for spots in the Super Smash Bros and FIFA tournaments. The SLUH jersey auction in the Field House on Friday raised several hundred dollars, with dozens of students gathered around the auctioneers, shouting their bids for the chance to own part of SLUH’s legacy. The $10,000 raised this year—Dooley Week ran February 22 to 26—is significantly less than the over $20,000 raised in each of the past four years. A record $28,432 was raised in 2014, though that week included other revenue generating activities like a mixer and bouncy inflatables in the Field House. However, last year raised $20,000, without a Mixer. The $10,000 figure is not a final number, as money from the Challenge
sluh.org/prepnews
St. Louis University High School | Friday, March 11, 2016
Retreats, drug use, and tech discussed at ACSA
Robotics’s FIRST competition starts today BY Cade Dernlan CORE STAFF
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fter months of work and countless hours of man power, St. Louis U. High’s robotics team is finally ready to take on the competition at this year’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Tournament. The tournament kicked off yesterday with a runthrough for the robots and their teams at Chaifetz Arena, and will mark SLUH’s third year in the Saint Louis Regional competition. The tournament, which spans from Thursday through Saturday, is the culmination of hours of preparation that began in January. The work began as soon as the team learned of this year’s objective. This year, the objective includes a combination of both shooting balls into targets, as well as traversing over, under, and through “defenses” that have been set up by the opposing team. “We locked ourselves in 215c for about 4 hours on that Saturday (when we learned of the objective),” said senior Michael Hayes. The team brainstormed until they finally felt they had
BY Sam Chechik and Thomas Curdt CORE STAFF, REPORTER
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The wrapped robot prepped for the competition today.
an idea that would translate into success out on the battlefield. “This year they decided to throw a medieval theme into it,” said Robotics Moderator Tracy Lyons. “So you’re trying to defend your castle, and you’re trying to throw rocks at your opponent’s castle.” If the team were to succeed in the regional competition, which can attract teams
1980s: Aliste arrested during Chilean dictatorship BY Jack Schweizer REPORTER
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or many Americans, the word “revolution” is simply an overused Twitter hashtag that has little meaning. Growing up in one of the most prosperous countries in the world, it is often incomprehensible for one to even imagine a true “revolution” and what that entails. The right to vote, freedom of speech, and other rights are often taken for granted. However, for one teacher at St. Louis U. High, Spanish teacher Myriam Aliste, who has experienced a real revolution firsthand, these overused words mean much more. In Chile during the mid 1980s, Aliste was a sophomore in college when Chilean soldiers, under the orders of the brutal dictator General Augusto Pinochet, overran continued on page 4 the school, arresting her and
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many others. “The dictatorship took over in 1973, the coup,” said Aliste. “The military government took over a socialist government.” The president, Salvador Allende, was democratically chosen. However as opponents to his election closed in on him, Allende shot himself and was succeeded by the callous Pinochet. He went on to rule the country as a dictator for the next 17 years. “Close to September 11, 1973 is when they bombarded the equivalent to The White House, called La Casa de Moneda, and the dictatorship took over. That was the day of the coup,” said Aliste. For Chileans, the months leading up to September were a prominent time for protesting against the dictator’s rule. It was during this time that Aliste’s university, along with
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News
IBL creating Billiken B-Day Bash Ignation Business Leaders, led by four juniors, made plans to begin hosting birthday parties at SLUH to give kids the SLUH experience. Page 2 News
Rifle gains last gasp victory The SLUH rifle team beat Montgomery Bell Academy with its final shot, scoring a season high in the process. Page 2
from several midwestern states, they would qualify for the World Championships, which take place this year in April at the Edward Jones Dome. In past years, the robotics team has benefited from grants from NASA. However, Lyons explained that such grants are intended to get a new program off the ground, and are thus unavailable after the first two years of the pro-
gram’s existence. This year, SLUH received funding from a generous donor as well as from Ranken Technical Institute. “NASA is really big into giving teams grants to start a program. But really a lot of companies are happy to help teams out, so Ranken Technical has helped us get our grant this year to help us to participate,” said Lyons.
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Hopkins, ’12, balances rap career and college BY Sam Heagney and Jack Casey FEATURES EDITOR, STAFF
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t. Louis U. High graduate and brother of senior Ryan Hopkins, Jordan Hopkins, ’12—also known by his stage name, “J-Hop,”—has a hectic schedule at the Univer-
sity of Missouri Columbia as he balances his education and his rap career. Though Hopkins had the nickname “J-Hop” while at SLUH, many still knew him as Jordan. On December 15th, in the packed Mizzou
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photo | Leo Heinz
Junior Brandon McKissic in the game against Jackson on Wednesday night. The Jr. Bills play Timberland tomorrow at Lindwood University at 1 p.m. Page 5
News
Model U.N. models U.N. Students take on non-American countries at Civitas Model U.N. to gain different perspectives and learn political positions. Page 2 Sports
photo | Cade Dernlan
Impressive wins on Road to State SLUH basketball soundly beat both Webster in the district championship last Friday (55-39) and Jackson last Wednesday (57-37) to advance to the quarterfinals of the state tournament. Page 5
Sports
Lacrosse to face Chaminade With new head coach Tyler Gilbert and 19 seniors leading the squad, the team is confident of competing strongly this season. Page 5 Sports
Hockey looks to future seasons Despite the defeat by CBC in the state game, the hockey team is hopeful its young players can continue to develop and carry the team in the coming years. Page 5
fter being postponed twice, the Advisory Committee for Student Affairs (ACSA)—made up of eight students, five parents, and three faculty members— gathered in the Robinson Library on Monday for the second meeting of the 2015-2016 school year. Beginning with a short prayer, the group discussed topics regarding mandatory upperclassmen retreats, theology grading, drugs and alcohol, and technology. Assistant Principal for Student Life Brock Kesterson moderated the meeting. Martha McArthur, a parent, brought up the point about mandatory retreats for upperclassmen, who can currently choose from several optional retreats. Although the school doesn’t currently require juniors and seniors to attend retreats, Kesterson and Campus Minister Meg Beugg confirmed that an offshoot committee from Imagining 18 has been discussing the issue, finding a way to implement some sort of mandatory retreats or service in the next four years. “When I got here—that was also the first year of the freshman service program— it seemed that there had been this culture that had been promoted that there’s value in students choosing (to go on retreats),” Beugg said. “For St. Ignatius, taking time out was one of the main foundational things he established. These are formative experiences that we think everyone should have.” Senior Michael Wiley contributed experiences that highlighted his disappointment with both the Freshman and Sophomore Retreats. Talking about how mandatory retreats were not the right outlet for students and how some disinterested students could potentially ruin retreats, he advocated student
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INDEX 2-4 News 3 Credits Crossword 4
Continued from page 1
5-7 Sports 8
Around the Hallways
Calendar
NEWS March 11, 2016 Birthday parties to be hosted at SLUH Walsh caries rifle to win over MBA
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Prep News
BY Joseph Reznikov and Zachary Hennes CORE STAFF, REPORTER
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ho wouldn’t want a birthday party featuring bashball, a St. Louis U. High themed goodie bag, and a possible appearance by the Billiken? Billiken Birthday Bash can bring all of these things to you. The idea of hosting birthday parties at SLUH has been floating around the Ignatian Business Leaders club (IBL) for the last couple years. After the project was not completed last year, IBL moderator Kevin Foy decided to reintroduce the idea at the club’s first meeting this school year. Met with enthuiasm, Foy decided to host a competition to see who would get the rights to the birthday party idea. After reading six business plans submitted by different groups, Foy chose four juniors— Adam Kleffner, Eddie Reedy, Brandon Trusler, and Thomas Nordmann—to head the program. “There was an attempt last year to do this, but it kind of fizzled out and nothing really happened with it,” said Nordmann. “So we’re the first group to fully move forward with the idea.” “The team has very good chemistry and they exhibited a good amount of creativity,” said Foy. “There were a lot of great choices, but these guys stood out in terms of professionalism and chemistry amongst the group.” Since they were chosen, the group of juniors have been working hard editing their business plan and talking to faculty and staff in order to implement the birthday parties as soon as possible. The group met with Principal John Moran on March 1, and Moran gave the project a green light. “He seemed very excited
about the idea, and he also had a few ideas that we’re definitely going to take into consideration,” said Kleffner. “Mr. Foy said we seemed a little nervous at first, but that it was a good experience to prepare us for when we start talking to clients.” The group plans to send an email to the SLUH faculty and staff this weekend, introducing them to Billiken Birthday Bash and the idea of having their child’s birthday party at SLUH. Though the overall goal is to make money, the first few parties will be cheaper as the students get a sense of how the parties will run and fix issues that need change. “We want to see if there’s anything we can improve on or anything we just completely missed,” said Kleffner. “We think that faculty will be more forgiving as we work get our feet off the ground.” After the group makes adjustments to the program, they will open the birthday bashes to the public, specifically targeting faculty and alumni’s children. The target age for the parties is sixth grade or younger, but the group is also open to hosting parties for kids over sixth grade. “My kids go to about ten birthday parties a year, and they’ve each gone to one that’s hosted at one of their friend’s home. No one seems to want to host birthday parties at their house, so this idea of a full service party seems to be what people want,” said Foy. “SLUH has an interest in getting young kids on campus— we have great facilities, we have motivated students, and we have alums who also like to come back.” Beyond just making money, the leaders of the program also hope that the birthday parties will create public-
ity for SLUH, as well as get younger kids excited about potentially coming to SLUH. “We’re putting the idea in their heads and their parent’s heads of, ‘Wow this was a good party, these must be good kids. They have a whole business!’ It creates a good image for SLUH as well,” said Trusler. While right now the plan is to have the birthday parties in either the Danis Fieldhouse or the Joe Schulte Theatre, the hope is to potentially expand to other locations around the school. The basic birthday party will cost around $215, and the package includes goodie bags, meeting the Jr. Billiken, invitations, thank-you notes, tshirts, and other party favors. Other amenities such as cake, a bounce house, and more can be ordered for an additional cost. “It’s like the SLUH experience,” said Kleffner. “You get to play bashball, a SLUH created game, be in the fieldhouse, and be around SLUH.” While the initial plan is for all four of the team members to be at each of the parties, they hope that once they get a feel of what’s going to be done and what’s consistent with each party, they can start hiring workers. “We have a couple people in IBL who we’ve talked to who are interested in working, but we’re open to anyone who wants to help out,” said Kleffner. “We are going meet with them before and have some sort of interview process and pay them around nine to ten dollars per hour.” If anyone is interested in a party now or in the future, as well as working the parties, you can contact them at billikenbirthdaybash@sluh.org for more information.
BY Grant REPORTER
Ludwig
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he St. Louis U. High rifle team traveled to Nashville, Tenn. last Saturday to shoot against rival Montgomery Bell Academy on their home range. MBA visited SLUH earlier on in the season, winning by a margin of nearly 25 points. MBA led the match late with 2297 points and 121 center shots while SLUH had only 2288 points and 119 center shots. Senior Chris Walsh, SLUH’s final shooter, needed to score a ten with his last shot in order to take the win. Any less than a ten would have resulted in either loss or a tie, and the advantage would go to MBA for their higher center shot total. Taking his time to go through his pre-shot routine, Walsh fired a ten, securing the win for the team and finalizing the team score of 2298, the highest the team has shot all year. “I had no idea my final shot was so important,” said Walsh after being told about the win. “In the end, everyone’s score was what led us to
Fink to perform at Powell Hall Matthew Fink ’16 will be featured on the drum set in Bernstein’s “ West Side Story” during the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra Concert at Powell Hall on Friday, March 18 at 7 pm. Tickets are available through Powell Hall Box Office. photo | courtesy of Mrs. Wendy Fink
photo | Twitter
Model UN contines to grow BY Nathan Wild and Alex Sembrot
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The Billiken Birthday Bash logo will apear on the t-shirts that are being distrubted to the party-goers.
man record of 580, which was set in 2003. “Lately in practice, I’ve been focusing on my standing position. My overall score would not have been so high if not for all the hard work I put into it,” said Stemmler. Not to be outdone, Steingruby’s 574 was the fourth highest SLUH freshman score ever. This is also the first time in SLUH rifle history that the team has had two freshmen shooting in the 570’s. This is very promising for this summer at the National Championships, as well as for the future of the team. The SLUH white team, composed of sophomores Joe Weber, Eric Schnelker, and freshmen Gavin Sprague along with Stemmler, had a combined score of 2172, the highest the white team has shot all year. The away meet with MBA was the final match of the regular season for the Jr. Bills. The Riflebills’ next match is in April for the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) Regionals Match, where the team is looking to qualify for this year’s National Championship.
The rifle team after its win over Montgomery Bell Academy on Saturday.
REPORTERS
artwork | Ian Mulvihill
our win. I just happened to be the last shooter.” The advanced scoring system that MBA uses—the same scoring system used at the 2012 Olympics— allowed for team members as well as parents and coaches to watch each shot in real time. “This match may have the only range we compete at in which rifle is actually a spectator sport,” assistant coach Zach Brooks said. “MBA has monitors up so that we could all see what Chris shot as he shot it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rifle match end with half a crowd erupting in cheers.” SLUH’s varsity team, known as SLUH blue, consisted of Walsh (who scored 569), fellow seniors Grant Ludwig (576) and Sean Wohlstadter (579), and freshman Hayden Steingruby (574). Wohlstadter shot a 579 with 32 center shots, earning him second overall out of 20 shooters. Freshman Adam Stemmler, who played for SLUH’s second team, SLUH white, shot a personal high of 579 with 33 center shots. Stemmler shot just below the SLUH fresh-
iplomats are charged with the communication of public relations among foreign countries. These men and women are part of organizations such as the United Nations that strive for peace and justice to all the countries on Earth. The United Nations holds many conferences debating on how the problems of the world can be avoided or solved. At St. Louis U. High, the Model United Nations Club offers students a basic introduction to this exciting lifestyle. “The club offers opportunities to speak publicly, to express and defend opinions, and understanding of current events,” said social studies teacher and club moderator Lindsey Ehret. “You take on the persona of the country that you have been assigned, and so you have to behave in ways that your country would legitimately support,” said Ehret. When solving the issues, one must act reasonably. At the conference only serious and well-researched topics will be debated, so you have to be completely developed to your topic. “One of the conferences
we went to in the past had canceled their model UN. We were mostly working with the events that an organization called ‘Civitas’ organizes,” said Ehret. “Civitas produces a fun but a pretty informal model UN, so we hope next year we can plan for new opportunities at different universities. We are looking to expand our opportunities to actually compete because the Civitas conference was more for practice and fun.” Students were urged to choose countries besides America in order to gain a better perspective about foreign topics. These students were given a month to prepare a political position on a certain subject and gather real statistics backing up their respective positions. Topics are kept formal and pertain to current issues. In the fall of 2015, ten dedicated SLUH students went to a mock United Nations conference, representing the countries of Syria, Turkey, and Russia. “These are huge countries with relevance to global events right now,” said Ehret. “At the conference these students debated topics relating to issues in the world today.” “This year’s model UN focused on ISIS and the numerous crises that it caused
across the globe. Everyone present collaborated in constructing one large proposal together,” said sophomore Jordan Nazemi. Students also debated other topics such as the banning of funding to the Syrian rebels, which was debated by Nazemi. The students spent about six hours reviewing other topics and voicing the opinions that would correspond to their country’s real opinions. Because of the informality of the conference, there were no winning or losing propositions this year and the conference was not as indepth as past conferences. One member of Model UN, sophomore Rodolfo Gomez, said that Model UN is a great activity to “take a global stance as a country and to talk to people who were as passionate about global events as I was.” “Skills like persuasion are important in Model UN and translate into real life skills. Also, communication is a big part of Model UN as you need to clearly state a stance and be able to convey to people why you feel a certain way about a topic,” said Gomez. The club members enjoyed this year’s conference and are looking forward to the more competitive conference next year.
Prep News 3 Hopkins opens for Crossword Apology Chief Damage Control Officer addresses mistakes Bryson Tiller at Mizzou
NEWS
March 11, 2016
BY Nick Messina CORE STAFF
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ello, friends. It’s me, your Prep News 80 Chief Damage Control Officer. I know that it’s my job, but something about reporting our mistakes to the general public always leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. Let me just come out and say it: we messed up another crossword puzzle. To be exact, there were seven clues missing from the ‘down’ column last week. Now, some of you may say, “Well, gee, that’s unfortunate, but at least you didn’t miss a headline like you did six issues ago.” First, quit rubbing it in. We already said we were sorry (Editor’s Note: No we didn’t). Second, we treat every part of the Prep News as equally important, so whether we missed a comma or a column, you can expect the same level of impressive
professionalism and tactfulness in our response. With that out of the way, let’s dive in and take a deeper look at the problem. Thankfully enough, even though we missed seven clues, the puzzle was still able to be completed, provided that you answered every other clue. If you weren’t able to finish the puzzle, then you were left in what I would assume was a void of confusion and unfulfillment. This was not our intention. When we decided to implement crossword puzzles into the 80th volume of Prep News, all we wanted was to make you, the readers, feel comfortable and happy. No one could have ever suspected that the puzzles would bring this much pain. But never fear! As Chief Damage Control Officer, I’m also responsible for rectifying these mistakes, at least
to the best of my ability. So, for all of you who kept your copy of the Prep News 80.23, waiting for this exact day, I’ll run through the missing clues. Unfortunately, those clues have been lost to the cruel and relentless passage of time, so I’ll just give my best approximation as to what those hints might be. For 39 down (while also missing 50 across), you’re left with ‘Yes_s’. As it turns out, the clue is: Maineiac artist Peter. Of course, being the cultured SLUH students I know and love, you’ll know that this clue is talking about Peter Yesis. A similar situation arose with 43 down: you’re left clueless with only ‘s_ga’ to guide you. You might be thinking that ‘saga’ is the answer and the clue is something along the lines of Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. This is a well-educated guess; however, it is wrong.
I have it on good authority that the answer is Small Business Growth Alliance (SBGA), and the clue is: The opposite of large fun decline disunity. To those of you who also guessed this correctly, “props” to you—that’s your education doing work for you. In addition to a few other of these types of errors, there was also a three-bythree grid that was unable to be completed. As far as I know, with these types of puzzles, you can just fill in any answer for this scenario, so for 44, 45, and 46 down, the answers are ‘sbj’, ‘qzf ’, and ‘dog’, respectively. I can’t say that I enjoy my job, but when the rubber hits the road, you can always rely on your trusty Chief Damage Control Officer to pull you through the tough times. And as always, the Prep News regrets these errors.
PN Pocket Puzzle 1
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Across: 1 Clothing 7 Treelined 8 Quiet on the ___ 9 Before the PAT 10 Hospital hotspot 11 “yes”-Robespierre 12 The Onion 14 The backs of ships
Down: 1 ___ the situation 2 ___ ___ pack 3 Ink 4 In your wallet 5 Come back 6 Bauer and Murphy 11 “to hear” in spanish 13 QB, ___, WR
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Editorial Policy The Volume 80 Prep News opinion section serves the purpose of being the vehicle of the personal opinions of students, faculty, or others. All topics discussed in the section will be related to St. Louis University High School. Nothing published either as an editorial or as a letter to an editor should be considered the opinion of the school, the administration, or anyone other than its author or authors. A Prep News editorial is the opinion of all six editors on a particular topic. A commentary or column is an opinion of one member of the Prep News staff, not of the Prep News itself. A perspective or notebook, like a commentary, is the opinion of one person, often a Prep News staff member. Unlike a commentary, such a piece is often intended primarily to convey a personal experience rather than to provide a viewpoint on an issue. Unlike a letter, such pieces are usually developed at the request of, and sometimes under the guidance of, the Prep News editors. Every member of the SLUH community is welcomed and encouraged to submit a letter to the editors. Every letter
Prep News
received by the editors will be read and given consideration. All letters must be signed, but the author’s name may be withheld from publication by request and at the discretion of the editors. The Prep News editors reserve the right to edit any submissions for publication in order to meet grammatical standards, but they will not skew the author’s original intent. Also, the editors reserve the right to withhold from publication any submission if it is deemed vulgar, tasteless, or otherwise inappropriate. Authors should be available for the editors to contact them before publication to address matters of concern. All authors wishing to have letters published must submit them by 4:00 p.m. the Wednesday before the letter is to be published. Letters should be e-mailed to prepnews@sluh.org, and if possible a signed copy should be given to a Prep News editor or moderator or mailed to the Prep News courtesy of St. Louis University High School, 4970 Oakland, St. Louis, MO 63110.
Volume 80, Issue 24
Editor in Chief Core Staff Leo “Campaign events” Heinz Sam “Melee, baby!” Chechik Cade “What Sam said” News Editors Dernlan Nolen “Quinoa” Doorack Patrick “Tree nuts” Enderle Connor “Remembering that John Michael “Mr. Bish” Donald Trump is a joke” Fitzgerald FitzGerald Nick “Beard” Messina Charlie “Breathing” Mueth Sports Editor Joseph “Confessional” Tim “Cane’s” Nile Reznikov Jack “Aquatic animals” Sinay Features Editors Sam “King McKlemore” Staff Heagney Galen “The Bern” Bacharier Ethan “Photoshop” McIntyre Billy “Faith” Balossi Jack “Juan Carlos” Casey Liam “Steingrubyisms” Con-
Credits
nolly Andrew “Hibernating on the weekend” Modder Andrew “Playing cards” Pluff Reporters Matthew “Stacking paper” Book Will “Will Ferrell” Farroll Nick “Sushi” Gima Matt “Star Wars” Godar Sam “Ted Cruz” Goedeker Zach “My brother’s clothes” Hennes Grant “Rifles” Ludwig Sam “Sandstorm remixes” Perry Jack “White Vans” Schweizer
“What I didn’t give up for Lent”
(continued from page 1)
Theater, the only shouts of “Jordan” were from his closest friends, while the rest of the crowd roared for “J-Hop.” Hopkins was opening for Bryson Tiller, whose first T R A P S O U L album debuted at number two on Billboard’s US R&B/Hip-Hop charts. Hopkins was chosen to open for Tiller after someone on the College Music Committee at Mizzou—the same one that hired Tiller to perform—named him while they were searching for an opening act. So they emailed Hopkins asking for his Soundcloud and other music. The group was blown away by his music, so they sent it along to Tiller’s manager to give the OK in order for Hopkins to open for Tiller. Luckily, Tiller’s manager was impressed as well, telling them, “we definitely want him to do it,” according to Hopkins. “The concert felt just like a basketball game. You might have a little butterfly in your stomach, but I had practiced this so much that I didn’t have any doubt,” said Hopkins. “When I went out there with all those people, the screen was so dark and the light was right on me; I really couldn’t see all those people, so it was almost like how you feel when you’re in the shower just rapping to yourself… I was in my own zone up there.” To find out where the hype that garnered Hopkins attention from magazines like Mass Appeal and Elevatormag originated, you need trace his experience back to SLUH. Hopkins’s lyrical motivation started his senior year at SLUH when he worked with poetry in English teacher Frank Kovarik’s African American Voices course. He started to get good grades on these assignments and realized reading and writing poetry was one of his skills. Hopkins didn’t fully realize the impact these poems had on him until his college years at Mizzou, when he began playing around with rhyme schemes during freestyles with friends, and people’s heads began to turn. Charles Lauste, a friend of Hopkins and producer of many of his songs, took a video of his freestyles and sent them to his music connections in Chicago. After giving good reviews, the Chicago producers asked Hopkins if he would make songs with them. Hop-
kins released songs for free on sites like Soundcloud, and began to build a solid fan base, garnering attention from people across the nation. At Mizzou, Hopkins settled into a routine: Lauste would make the beats, and he would rap over them. After working together on a song titled “Wrist Watch,” which Hopkins released onto his Soundcloud, he felt inspired to make a more complete project. This led to his first album, TRVP HOPPER (read Trap Hopper; Hopkins switched the “A” in TRAP to a “V” to demonstrate his unique twist on the norm). “TRVP HOPPER exceeded my expectations mainly because it was the first project I released, so you never know how people are going to receive it, and it was a different feel than I was accustomed to, so I was taking a chance to try to get noticed,” said Hopkins. He describes his unique rap style as “life music” because of its versatility and wide range of purposes. He wanted to make music for everyone and their different moods. He has upbeat songs for fun times and a lower, more reflective vibe for when he just wants to think in his room alone. Though Hopkins’s process of creating a song—receiving a beat from Lauste, recording vocals in his dorm room, and then sending it to a musical engineer in Chicago who makes it “crispy”—is quite uniform now, his approach to coming up with the lyrics driving his rapping is just the opposite. Sometimes he’ll already have a verse made that fits a beat he gets, while other times he won’t be able to work on a beat for months until inspiration hits him in class and he scribbles lines down in his notebook. “It’s unpredictable,” said Hopkins. “I associate my music with colors, so the type of color I get in my head is what helps me write the raps for that song.” Although rapping is his desired career path, Hopkins has kept school as his number one priority. His plans for what he’ll do after school are still in the air, and since rapping isn’t his only option he’s made sure to take advantage of the educational opportunities at SLUH and Mizzou. He is currently studying business, which could end up coinciding with his musical career.
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Nathan “Snakes” Wild Staff Artists Joe “Calling bluffs” Fentress Ian “Inline” Mulvihill Staff Photographer Brendan “Sunset snapchat stories” Voigt Moderator Mr. Steve “Greek salad” Missey Guest Moderator Mr. O. Adam “The Fountain of Youth” Cruz
photo | courtesy of Jordan Hopkins
Hopkins (right) backstage with Tiller.
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Prep News NEWS ACSA discusses retreats, follows up on drugs, alcohol, iPads (continued from page 1)
choice. This year, the school has taken steps to reduce the amount of missed school time with retreats, extending certain weekends in the months of November and April. Wiley said that this change “should be coupled with more promotional activities” for retreats like Kairos or White House. “I think that the answer to this is not making (retreats) mandatory. I think this is entirely something that needs to be drive by promotion, by some sort of media that the school has to put out,” said Wiley. Many other group members compared the Freshman and Sophomore Retreats to the junior and senior optional retreats, citing a lackluster experience at Sophomore Retreat following a betterviewed Freshman Retreat as a reason to not attend later retreats. Senior Jake Lepak talked of spreading out mandatory retreats over a student’s time at SLUH. “If you’re going away on school days, then teachers need to make accommodations for that because going away for a couple of days shouldn’t hurt a student academically,” said parent Chris Leritz. Even with these extended incentives from Campus Ministry, students have not been consistently biting. Their priorities tend to remain with academics and extra-curriculars—especially athletics. “I know there are juniors that miss multiple Fridays during the school year to go play triple A hockey in Minnesota, Chicago, and New York. I never hear them saying ‘I can’t miss. I have to study.’ So I kind of feel like that’s a little bit of an easier
photo | Leo Heinz
Students and parents at ACSA on Monday evening.
excuse,” said parent Dan Cierpiot. “One of the expectations—one of the things we’ve liked about SLUH since we got here—was the culture of Catholicism and ingraining it into what we do.” Senior Leo Heinz compared mandatory retreats with the implementation of iPads. “My sense is that (extending some weekends) hasn’t really done much, even not missing any school. So I think requiring people to go on some form of retreat might be a good thing,” said Heinz. “I think that if the school has taken the step to require people to get iPads because the school believes that iPads are a thing that people need to learn how to use, then there can more easily be made a case for requiring people to go on retreats, especially if you’re not missing school.” “In addition to that being who we are as a Catholic institution, then I agree and I think [retreats] should be
required,” said parent Martha Staley. “I think there’s so little opportunity just to find time without all this stimuli that we deal with everyday. Learning how to listen to that voice inside because that’s going to be so important for the rest of their lives.” The discussion was not one-sided, however. Some parents and students disagreed about the contradiction of mandatory retreats through conversation about the energy of students who wouldn’t want to go overtaking the energy of students who do. “I think that if the ratio of students that don’t want to be on a retreat with students who do want to be there is too great then they kind of ‘win the environment,’ and it becomes somewhere where people aren’t comfortable being open,” said senior Sam Heagney. Following the discussion on mandatory retreats, the group discussed whether to
soften the theology grading system from an A through F range to a pass or fail course. Because the parent who originally voiced the idea, John Ceriotti, was absent from the meeting, the conversation was sparse. Speaking on the grading scale, theology teacher Deacon Boedeker said, “We try to make it as rigorous as any other class. We feel we owe it to (the students)—this is a Catholic school.” After the brief discussion on the theology grading scale, Kesterson brought forward an expected bombshell of a conversation starter: a follow-up to the November meeting on drugs, alcohol, technology, and the changing of an ingrained culture. Kesterson started with the mention of a small group of students that has met continually after the November ACSA meeting. Although he confirmed that students were involved in helping combat the drug culture at SLUH,
some parents remained skeptical of the administration’s handling of the first semester drug incident involving five students. One parent, Dan Cierpiot, questioned Kesterson on the lack of a communitywide email that would have informed students, parents, and faculty that SLUH was handling the issue at the time. Parents alluded to the Prep News issue 16 article on the first semester incidents, and some parents asked for more communication from the administration about the current drug policy. Some didn’t know that the school does not punish students who come forward seeking help for drug abuse before they are caught, for example. Beugg asked about the use of the term “culture” to describe the problem, saying that SLUH should “also promote that not every student is involved in that. How do we also promote that the high percent number isn’t actually true? How do we hold up that there are people that are choosing to not do drugs?” The high percentage number she is referencing comes from a rumored statistic concerning the number of kids that do drugs. Giving students a way to stay away from drugs was the priority of one parent, John Vacca, and one student brought up the idea of drug testing at SLUH, which could possibly stop the current inflow of drugs due to the fact that it would be an out for students. “I think it is really important to publicize the supportive role that the school is willing to supply for someone, because all it takes is one kid to have a positive experience, and the word of mouth is
March 11, 2016
huge,” said Staley. “To know that it’s not just us against them, that we’re here to help you not just in your education and your faith, but to support you in your struggles.” McArthur asked if students were leaving school to go down to that lot and using marijuana and come back to school, and if students were coming to school in the morning under the influence of the same drug. One student and Kesterson explained the new parking procedure to prevent the first event from happening, but admitted that the morning situation was quite probable. Others asked about the number of security guards and cameras in the lot. “That mentality of ‘Oh, it’s high school; that’s just going to happen, so let it happen’ is really toxic,” said Lepak, talking of the morning situation and finding chewing tobacco in locker room sinks. Half-truths didn’t stay within the drugs and alcohol conversation, as a rumor surfaced in the final discussion of Monday evening—technology. Staley, concerned about iPad usage and grade point average correlation, mentioned a rumor that the current freshman class has been underperforming in comparison to previous classes. This follow-up from the November ACSA meeting echoed many concerns brought up at that meeting, like gaming in class, the slipping to phones and iPads during lunch (which was banned earlier in the school year), and silent homerooms. Wiley brought up a new concern: the pool hall. After walking through there recently, instead of the usual shouts of “Nickel!” and clatter of ping pong paddles and pool sticks,
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Aliste’s arrest in the midst of revolution
Dooley Week
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many others, protested by writing a letter to the police expressing their disgust with the dictator. “Some of our representatives, the STUCO for you but at the college level, presented a letter to the police,” said Aliste. “Well, the police didn’t like it.” In response to the protesting, the police approached the university and started chasing people. Some of them had time to get out, but Aliste, who was in the school’s cafeteria located in the basement, did not have time to escape. “We tried to get out...but the military, we called them the GIJOES, almost like the SWAT team with machine guns, surrounded the school and we were not able to get out,” said Aliste. Realizing they were trapped, the students quickly tried to get rid of anything that went against the dictator. “If I had anything that said ‘I hate Pinochet’, or ‘I love the other president before’, whatever that was against him, to them it meant that you had to get rid of it,” said Aliste. “The next thing was to go to lockers and get rid of anything like that and throw it in trash cans. So at least they
could not say, ‘Well, that was yours because it was in your backpack.’” With about 70 students left inside, the police stormed in, checked their stuff, took their names, and brought them outside. The students, with their hands behind their heads, were separated by gender and put into trucks. “There were a lot of girls crying. I remember saying to some of them, ‘You need to be quiet because we don’t know where they’re taking us and there’s no windows so we might suffocate in this thing,’” said Aliste. After what felt like an hour in complete darkness, Aliste and the students were brought out of the truck and into a line up. Another woman, who was also studying to be an English teacher, had been a well-known protester. The soldiers confused her with Aliste and arrested Aliste instead. “I got mistaken for her and ended up getting arrested,” said Aliste “They released all my friends but they didn’t release me.” Later, she even discovered that one of her friends was a spy working for the government, and was not arrested. Aliste was forced to
stay in jail, which should have only been for a few days but was extended to a week because there was an attempt to assassinate the dictator. “It smelled like urine; we had to sleep on the floor,” she said. “At night, the president of student council was a girl at that time, [and] they were interrogating her. You could hear her screaming…By the time she came out she was very thin.” At one point, Aliste was also interrogated but was not tortured. However the soldiers tried to push her into turning in some of her friends by telling her lies. “They were trying to put people against each other. They worked your mind,” she said. “Here when they arrest you, you have the right to remain silent...We did’t have those rights [in Chile]. You’re guilty from the time you arrive.” About one year after being released from jail, Aliste was inspired to continue protesting and even came face to face with dictator Pinochet as he passed through the city of Valparaiso. Fighting for the right to vote, Aliste and her friends decided to walk down a street away from the main protest. It was then that she
spotted Pinochet’s caravan of army trucks, jeeps, soldiers with machine guns, and Pinochet himself smiling smugly at the crowd. After booing and shouting at Pinochet, Aliste realized the danger in which she had put herself. “After we were done, we realized ‘Oh my gosh we could have been shot here and nobody would have seen us,’ because everybody was on the other side of the city,” she said. “I could have died there.” A few years later in 1990, Chilean citizens earned the right to vote and the country successfully became a democracy. Then, in 1998, Pinochet was indicted for human rights violations, and eventually died in 2006 waiting for more court convictions. “That’s what I’m proud of, because I know I’m not the most brave person in the world but I know I had a part on getting rid of the guy,” said Aliste. Reflecting on the experience, Aliste hopes that Americans don’t take for granted their own rights to vote and to elect a leader whom they see fit. “It’s your right and it’s your duty,” said Aliste. “You have to stand against injustice.”
Cup hoodies has yet to be added, and the fundraising events haven’t stopped with at the end of Dooley Week. “We are rescheduling the Talent Show, and plan on doing some other activities during fourth quarter that will help with the overall amount,” said STUCO moderator Danielle Harrison. STUCO is also hoping to replace the former Mission Week mixer, moved as part of the shift to focus on the actual events of the week, with a ‘Spring Fling mixer’. The money raised from Dooley Week is going towards several charities including SLUH’s Honduras Project, the Today and Tomorrow Foundation of the Archdiocese, and the Friends of Jennings Foundation, dedicated to helping raise money for the Jennings School District. Although the calling off of school due to snow on Wednesday was welcomed with open arms by students, it forced the cancellation of bubble soccer, which was a raffle-to-enter event scheduled to happen during Activity Period. The first Dooley Week Talent Show, was also cancelled and will now happen sometime in fourth quar-
ter. The snow day also had the side effect of interrupting the flow of the week, and the event cancellations were detrimental to the end results. “I would’ve loved to be here on Wednesday,” said junior class president Thomas Leeker. “It was awesome anyway, but bubble soccer was going to be fantastic, and the talent show was going to be super funny, and hopefully raise a lot of money as well. It was unfortunate … I feel like if we’d have had that, it would’ve tied it all together.” While the change of focus felt necessary after several years of drifting away from the core of Mission Week, it didn’t necessarily resonate with students as readily as some had hoped. “I think some guys were still unsure as to why a change was made,” said student body president Jack Perryman. “And for me, that was frustrating, because I wrote the letter in Prep News, and it had been mentioned in prayer services.” A few bumps in the road are to be expected with change, and Perryman hopes that in coming years STUCO can assist in students’ understanding of the changes, and why they’re instituted.
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Prep News
Sports
March 11, 2016 Issue 24
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Nester leads basketball to decisive victories over Webster and Jackson
photo | Brendan Voigt
Senior Matt Nester in last Friday’s game against Webster. BY Sam Perry REPORTER
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ast Friday night the Jr. Bills defeated the Webster Groves Statesmen in dominating fashion, 55-39, to capture a District Championship. They followed with another dominating performance in a 57-37 win against Jackson on Wednesday night at Jefferson Community College. The Jr. Bills easily managed a win against Webster, averaging their previous meeting in which the Jr. Bills were nearly run out of Roberts
Gymnasium by the Statesmen in a 62-50 loss. Off the tip, senior captain Matt Nester was fed the ball and laid it in. The Junior Bills momentum rolled on after this initial layup. At one point in the first quarter they led by a score of 13-3. The Jr. Bills were pushing the ball up the court in transition and limited Webster’s second chance points with a solid performance on the defensive glass. The quarter ended with a score of 15-9. “We told ourselves that
we were going to come out strong in the first quarter of the game, play good defense, and make sure that we score,” said junior Brandon McKissic. In the second quarter, the Statesmen cut the lead to four points, the closest they’d get. SLUH then regained the momentum off Nester’s first of four consecutive made three pointers. Nester had 21 points on the night. “It was our gym, and I’m really used it,” said Nester. “I was letting it fly that night, and it felt good.”
Following a McKissic layup and a Webster miss, Nester dribbled down the floor, rolled off a screen, and nailed another three to send the SLUH half of the Fieldhouse into a frenzy. The half ended with the Jr. Bills leading 28-16. “We (were) really sound on the defensive end, and we didn’t really let them score a lot,” said McKissic. The second half started with yet another “Matty Ice” Nester three pointer. After SLUH and Webster traded
Hockey reflects on successful season BY Will Farroll REPORTER
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photo | Dominik Skroska
Junior Luke Gassett in January 22 game against CBC.
espite their loss to CBC in the Challenge Cup Finals, the St. Louis U. High hockey team finished the season off with a record of 236. With the season over, the team looks toward the future as they graduate ten seniors and begin preparation for next year’s season. The season was not without its ups and downs. After beating CBC for the first time in two years at the Top Hat Tournament prior to the start of the regular season, senior defenseman Andrew Ott quit the team. Later in the season, another senior defenseman,
Joey Pinkowski, quit the team, followed by senior goalie Joe Warnecke only one game later. “Having figures leave shows a little instability with the team,” said senior captain Patrick Pence. “But overall at the end we came together as a group and it made us stronger.” “Obviously there’s going to be talk around it,” said junior Luke Gassett. “As a team you have to move forward with those things, and I thought our team really responded, well not making it a distraction.” Freshman goalie Bren-
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Lacrosse goes undefeated in jamboree BY Matt Godar REPORTER
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he St. Louis U High lacrosse team kicked off the 2016 season with an undefeated performance at the DeSmet jamboree last Saturday. Though the thirty minute jamboree games have no bearing on the overall season record, they offer a glimpse at how the players and teams hold up against each other. “The jamboree is all about getting everybody some playing time, and seeing how everybody did, and I think all of our guys stepped up and
did well,” said senior defensemen Jeremy Konzen. The Jr. Bills played in the eight-team morning session of the jamboree, facing and defeating Fort Zumwalt, DeSmet, Eureka, and Vianney. The team managed to shut out every opponent but DeSmet. “The competition was a little up and down, but we stayed relatively consistent,” said head coach Tyler Gilbert. “The jamboree went well.” However, the jamboree is only a preview of what’s to come. While last year’s team held an impressive overall
record of fourteen wins and six defeats before losing in overtime to CBC in the state semifinal game, the team this year has even greater aspirations. With 19 seniors leading the way, including captains Patrick Durnien, Michael Hall, and Jack Perryman, the team is poised to be one of the strongest teams in the Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association (MSLA). “We have a lot of senior and juniors, a lot of experience, and that’ll help with the younger guys also, so I think we’ll do pretty well,” said
Durnien. While many players are returning, Gilbert is starting his first season with team. Prior to coming to SLUH, Gilbert coached in California at various schools for ten years. “Our old coach was very conventional and kind of oldfashioned, but Coach Gilbert’s bringing in a lot of new offenses and defenses that we haven’t seen at SLUH, so I think we’ll be really unpredictable in a good way,” said Konzen. “I’m kind of the new kid
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possessions, junior sparkplug Anthony Hughes rose up and dropped in a powerful layup to put the Bills up 35-21. “Just like on the defensive end, we want to put pressure on them on the offensive end, so we wanted to keep attacking, keep going to the rim,” said Hughes. After yet another transition bucket, Webster was forced to take another timeout as it looked as though the Junior Bills could be running away with the game. Then, after a couple con-
secutive baskets by the Statesmen, Webster sophomore Courtney Ramey hit a beautiful fade away three pointer to bring the score to 37-28. However, the Junior Bills let it get no closer. They began to take more lengthy possessions and got to the free throw line more often. After trading possessions, the third quarter ended 39-28 in favor of SLUH. To start the second half, Nester got to the bucket with a confident lay up which was
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Water Polo back again in quest for state BY Matthew REPORTER
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fter defeating Lindbergh in the state championship last year, the St. Louis U. High water polo team has high aspirations for this coming season. The Jr. Bills are returning ten members of last year’s team, two of them starting players. This year’s 18 man roster is the largest since 2003 and includes eight seniors, seven juniors, and three sophomores. It is unusual for three sophomores to be on varsity, but Joe Jellinek, John Burke, and Nick Mattingly are very talented for their age. All happily accept their addition to the team. “I’m happy with them on varsity, I don’t mind them being there,” said senior captain Dan Walsh. “They seem willing to work and happy to be there, so it will be a good learning experience for them. It is especially important for them because many of them will probably be starting next year.” Jellinek played on varsity his freshman year; he is excited to learn from upperclassmen throughout the season. The seven juniors of
this year’s roster are Brandon Trusler, Thomas Nordmann, Luke Smith, Connor Flack, Kyle Irvine, and Matt Milburn in the field, with Mike Harris in goal. Although the junior class may seem lacking in talent when compared to the stacked sophomores and seniors, head coach Paul Baudendistel and the captains have plenty of confidence in last year’s JV captains, Nordmann and Trusler. “I see them being in that first group of subs off the bench,” said Walsh. Seniors Chris Kreienkamp, Dan Walsh, Michael Krause, Michael Niese, Thomas O’Brien, Patrick Schuler, and Mark Franz hope to make significant contributions during the upcoming season. Competition will be tough, as these seven vie for the six starting field positions, though it was a safe bet to see Kreienkamp, Walsh, and Niese in the pool first. Once Franz begins practicing he too will be starting. Senior Jimmy Hogan will start in goal. Although SLUH will only technically be returning two starters, Kreienkamp and Franz, last year’s bench was so good that nearly any of the current seniors could
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SPORTS
Prep News
March 11, 2016
Mixed inline ties one, loses two in preseason Baseball uncovers the Ethan McIntyre The first game of the markably well against junior games on Saturday (and into tarp for another season tournament on Friday night Jared Westcott of Lindbergh, Sunday Morning), recording BY FEATURES EDITOR
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he St. Louis U. High Inline Hockey team kicked off its season last weekend with the Tour Breakout Tournament and will begin the regular season tomorrow afternoon against Lafayette. The annual Tour Breakout Tournament traditionally kicks off the Missouri Inline Hockey Association (MOIHA) season. This year, the club played three games, losing two and tying one. The roster for the tournament was made up of a mix of both varsity and junior varsity players, giving some ice hockey players the week off and also allowing some JV players to gain varsity experience. “Coach (O’Neil) had stressed through the week that those were preseason games and results weren’t as important,” said senior George Baldas.
was against Clayton, a newcomer to the ranks of MOIHA. SLUH played well, scoring five goals with the mixed roster. However, with senior goalie Dan Hirlinger resting after the ice hockey season, senior forward Jeff Cooley filled the crease for the game. Cooley gave up five goals and, due to the tournament rules of no overtime, the game ended in a tie. In the game against Lindbergh on Saturday night, SLUH fell 7-4 to a revamped Lindbergh team. Hirlinger returned for the game. Coach Tim O’Neil shifted lineups for the start game, deciding to give guys experience in new positions. The shifted positions left holes in the defense and an unaggressive offense, giving Lindbergh an early lead and eventually the win. The team held up re-
De Smet transfer, who led the league in points last season, tallying 62 points over 17 games. Westcott lead the charge for De Smet as they knocked SLUH out of the playoffs last season. In Saturday’s game, Westcott took advantage of tournament rules and ran the clock down the closing minutes of the game. The final game of the tournament against Northwest began after midnight on Saturday night and ran into the wee hours of Sunday. The tired Jr. Bills fell 5-0 to Northwest, ending the tournament early for the team. While the results were not outstanding, the mixed team held up well against other schools who played with their full varsity teams. Baldas ended his SLUH Inline Hockey career last weekend. He played two
two goals. Baldas will be missing the rest of the season for a planned knee surgery later in March. His experience and speed will leave a hole in the Varsity roster. “I was just trying to celebrate the five years I’ve spent with the organization,” said Baldas. “The lineups were great—I played with some of my close friends and guys I’ve played with for awhile. Also, we got the student section to come out which was a lot of fun to play with.” Looking towards the season, SLUH will have two teams this year instead of the traditional three, giving both teams a larger roster, and allowing players to swing from the C division to the Varsity division.
Returning hockey players will make for future success (continued from page 5)
dan Rasch stepped up after Warnecke’s departure, getting the nod in the Challenge Cup semifinals and finals this year—a big stage for the young freshman. Despite his late entry into the net, Rasch played admirably. “He’s a very skilled goalie, and he’s got three more years of this,” said goalie coach Alex Effinger. “He’s going do big things, I can tell you that.” Despite the loss of a few key players, the Jr. Bills were able to able to win 23 games in their 2015-2016 season,
outscoring opponents 15755. Gassett was able to break alumni Chase Berger’s, ’14, record for most points in a single season, racking up a stunning 45 points, eight more than the record set by Berger. “I had a great season, but Chase is a great player,” said Gassett. “His accomplishments might not have been statistical, but he was a truly amazing player and it’s an honor to be in the conversation with him.” Sophomore Joe Winkelmann was second on the team
Junior Luke Gassett takes on CBC.
photo | Dominik Skroska
with 35 points, followed by senior assistant captain Connor FitzGerald with 28. FitzGerald, along with seniors Steve Lockwood and Dan Hirlinger, played in the 2016 Senior All-Star South Game this past Sunday. “It was pretty fun,” said FitzGerald. “I had two goals and it was a pretty high scoring game. It was a lot of fun to be out there.” After losing to CBC in the Challenge Cup Finals, the Jr. Bills look to take a break for the spring as some players finish up their club team seasons. They will get back together this summer to prepare for next season with a series of exhibition matches and “summer skates.” “We’ll play in the summer league at Kirkwood again,” said head coach Kevin Fitzpatrick. “We’ll do the summer skates we’ve always done in the summer and get ready for next year.” Having graduated four senior starters this year, Fitzpatrick will be looking to underclassmen and incoming freshman to step up to the challenge of filling these spots. “The outlook is pretty good for us,” said Fitzpatrick. “We did play four freshman
and five or six tenth graders. So half the guys are tenth graders or younger.” “I think we have a lot of younger guys who are hungry,” said Gassett. “I really like the way our team is shaping out to be: a lot of skill, a lot of speed, and I think we have guys who truly care and put it all out there. It’s gonna be a good year next year.” “I feel like our freshman and sophomore classes are much better than others,” said freshman Christian Berger. “The program’s got a bright future right now and I think it’s going to be a fun three years.” Despite the harsh ending to an impressive season, the Jr. Bills modeled the true essence of what it means to be a team: persevering in the wake of instability and coming together to accomplish a goal they came so close to attaining. “In terms of the fans, I really appreciate all the support,” said Effinger. “They were great this year and it really made an impact on the team. I want to say thanks to all the fans and classmates. They did a great job coming out and supporting the team and that’s what SLUH hockey is all about.”
Racquetball wraps up another victorious season BY Andrew STAFF
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espite having more competition than previous years, the St. Louis U. High varsity racquetball team had a very successful season, finishing with state and national championship victories. Entering the season, just three players on the team had any varsity experience, and adjusting to the new difficulty of play is usually very hard. “It was very normal to not have many players with experience,” said senior Charlie Mueth, who was one of the three with prior varsity experience. “We kind of had a lot
to prove because SLUH racquetball is always filled with seniors, and our class really didn’t have a sophomore who played varsity.” The transition did not take long for these new SLUH varsity players, as they all took part in producing an undefeated 10-0 regular season record for the team. SLUH faced several tough opponents throughout the regular season that tested their strength and depth as a team, especially early. Their first big test came against Kirkwood, who finished second at State and third at Nationals. In their
first matchup with the Pioneers, the Jr. Bills prevailed 5-2, fueled by the strong play of No. 1 seed junior Chris Schulze and No. 5 seed senior Jacob Longinette. “It was really important for us because it told us what kind of competition we had this year, which was a lot compared to last year,” said Mueth. About three weeks later, the Jr. Bills took on Lafayette, a team that SLUH believed would be their biggest competition of the season. However, the Jr. Bills throttled Lafayette 6-1 in their first matchup. The only loss came from No.
2 seed senior Tim Juergens, who lost to his personal kryptonite Kyle Westendorf. Another challenging match came from the Parkway West Longhorns, who battled back and forth with SLUH but eventually fell to the Jr. Bills 5-2. “They were the surprise team of the year,” said Mueth. “They were very young with lots of good underclassmen, and (the match) warned us of the talent level we were facing.” The most important match of the year that really showed SLUH’s depth was their second match against
BY Nick Gima REPORTER
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he St. Louis U. High baseball team reached a milestone last season with its 25th straight district title, but ended their season (16-9) in the next game with a 7-4 loss to the Eureka Wildcats. This year, the Jr. Bills hope to rebuild their team and are aiming for a state title. The Jr. Bills enter the season with several returning players, including senior first basemen Truman Stephens, senior third basemen John Brinkman, senior catcher Joe Warnecke, and junior shortstop Donovan Ditto. The entire SLUH infield will be returning with the exception of graduated second basemen Corey Renaud. “We got a good core group of guys back,” said head coach Steve Nicollerat. “So trying to build something around the guys we have from last year is always fun.” But the outfield and pitching staff experienced the loss of numerous seniors, including starting pitcher Bryan Nolan and outfielders Nathan Schweppe and Ryan Krippene. SLUH also lost two returning seniors. Ty Frederking will not be able to play due to his commitment to St. Louis University for soccer, and senior Sean Kelso was knocked out of the season due to an arm injury. “Anytime you lose two pitchers like Ty and Sean, it’s a big hit, but it just means all
the guys who were there last year have to work even harder to pick up the slack,” said Stephens. Despite their losses, the players believe they have all the necessary parts to make a run this year and chase after its 26th consecutive district title and a state title. “A conference championship, a district championship, and a state championship,” said Ditto when asked about the team’s goals. Standing in the way of these goals will be a challenging schedule, specifically in the Metro Catholic Confrence (MCC). The Jr. Bills will have to face the defending state champions, the CBC Cadets, as well as the Vianney Griffins, who are ranked sixth in the preseason rankings. “I’m not worried about it because the current upperclassmen have been on the team for a couple of years now and know what it means to play key roles for winning teams,” stated Stephens. As of this week, tryouts are still going on, and the final roster has not been set. “We’re trying to make sure we’re giving the kids a look and trying to be open to seeing what we have,” said Nicollerat. The team is scheduled to play in a jamboree, including Fox and Festus, this weekend at SLUH, but inclement weather may postpone the event. The regular season will start on March 18 against Farmington.
photo | Mrs. Beth Kissel
Senior John Correa against Parkway West.
Kirkwood. Even though the end result was a 7-0 sweep victory, many of the games were close and tested the physical and mental endurance of the Jr. Bills. Once they got past this difficult match, the Jr. Bills cruised through the rest of the season, sweeping three of their last four matches, giving them lots of confidence going into the State tournament. In the State tournament, SLUH was led by Mueth, No. 6 seed senior Rich Helfrey, and senior doubles pair Andrew Thomas and Vince Freeman. All of these players won their respective brackets.
In addition, Longinette aided the overall team effort with a runner-up finish, as did Juergens, who once again lost to Westendorf. Although players like Schulze and No. 3 seed senior John Correa had off days, the rest of the team showed great determination, picking them up and winning the State tournament by a margin of 130 points. Even though things did not go as well as planned at State, the Jr. Bills still took a lot of positives out of it heading to Portland, Ore., for Nationals.
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SPORTS
March 11, 2016
Prep News Racquetball looks forward to 2017
Basketball to face Timberland tomorrow (continued from page 5)
followed by an “And-1” courtesy of senior David Jackson, and the Jr. Bills began to secure their lead. A couple of bad possessions later, the Jr. Bills were again only up by eleven, and ended the third quarter that way, with the Jr. Bills on top, 48-37. In the fourth quarter, the Jr. Bills were forced to break down Webster’s trap defense, which they did almost every time down the court. The Jr. Bills continued to go to the line and sink free throws. With forty seconds left, junior center B.J. Wilson threw down a colossal one handed jam which was eerily similar to the dunk Webster senior Chris Gordon threw down at Webster earlier in the season when the two teams played. The game finished 55-39, as the SLUH student section stormed the court. This Wednesday the Jr. Bills faced Jackson. Jackson knocked off the top seed in their district, Poplar Bluff, to meet SLUH in the sectional round. The Jr. Bills repeated their performance against Jackson from last year as they sent Jackson packing; this time, however, SLUH dominated in a 57-37 win. The first quarter started slowly, as the Jr. Bills were sloppy offensively and allowed a relatively small Jack-
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The crowd celebrates at Friday’s game against Webster Groves.
son team to get into the paint far too often. However, the Jr. Bills showed signs of offensive life late in the first quarter. It appeared to be only a matter of time before they broke the game open. The Jr. Bills led 17-15 at the end of the quarter. “We were trying to get into the rhythm of things, and it was kind of tough defensively. Offensively, we knew we had to follow the gameplan and attack them,” said David Jackson. The Jr. Bills extended that lead in the second quarter. A combination of several missed shots by Jackson and a few Jr. Bill layups helped to allow SLUH to open up the game. “We always love to get layups; it’s the easiest shot in the game. If you can get there,
it’s always a better shot than a jumpshot,” said David Jackson. In the third quarter, the Jr. Bills made another run as David Jackson, who finished the night with fifteen points, put in a couple of second chance buckets and sharpshooter Nester rained in another three from deep. Jackson simply couldn’t handle everything that the Jr. Bills were throwing at them offensively, and the SLUH boys continued to pound Jackson in transition. The third quarter ended with SLUH leading 48-27. SLUH milked the clock for the fourth quarter, and Jackson was forced to try to trap and later resort to fouling. “It’s definitely something
Water polo prepares for success
photo | Nolen Doorack
Coach Baudendistel at last year’s State match.
(continued from page 5)
have started with little dip in quality. The friendship that has built up within this group will be one of their greatest strengths going into the season. “Our communication in the pool is great,” said Walsh. “Having played together for so long, our understanding of each other is really good right now. That will be really helpful
moving the ball from defense to offense.” Right now the Jr. Bill’s biggest area of concern is being able to score after getting the ball into the opponent’s end of the pool. “Our focus this year is going to be on our offense, because we are a pretty defensive minded team,” said Kreienkamp. “We’re going to have
to find a way to produce goals. During winter season that was our biggest weakness. We were only scoring on maybe half of the opportunities that we created”. Last year SLUH water polo lost only two games— both to Fenwick, a team from Chicago. With little competition in Missouri, SLUH captured a ten-goal victory in the 2015 State Championship game against Lindbergh. This year Marquette will be SLUH’s toughest competitor, though no one is too concerned. “During winter league we beat their club team pretty easily,” said Walsh. The York Invite in Chicago this April will offer the toughest competition, especially, Stevenson, another Chicago team. Although little is known about them, they may be the toughest team the Jr. Bills will face this year. Everyone agrees that this will be a year of learning. The sophomores have strong upperclassmen to emulate, the seniors will have to work on getting the ball in the net once it is moved to offense, and juniors will need to find their place on the team as they ready themselves to lead next year. All this will transpire while the boys in blue (speedos) storm their way to SLUH varsity water polo’s eighteenth state championship.
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photo | Brendan Voigt
we’ve been working on, being able to possess the ball, especially at the end of the game, to be able to run the clock out,” said Hughes. “We just wanted to get the win. It was kind of a messy game, kind of an ugly game, but we got the win, and that’s all that matters,” said Nester. Looking forward, SLUH will play Timberland at one at Lindenwood tomorrow. Timberland is an impressive 21-6 on the year. However, SLUH players remain confident that they will be able to match up with and outplay the Wolves. “The only people who have really beat us this year are ourselves,” said Nester. “We’re our own worst enemy, so if we play our game that we usually play, we can beat anyone.”
The Jr. Bills performed extremely well at Nationals, with bracket victories from Mueth and sophomore James Storgion in singles, as well as the pair of Correa and Helfrey in doubles. “My favorite moment of the year was the last game of Nationals between Mueth and his Beaverton opponent,” said Correa. “When Charlie won, all the SLUH boys rushed him and chanted his name. Racquetball is an individual sport, but your teammates help you grow and become a better player.” “We mobbed him and he was so happy and it was a great moment for the team,” said Juergens. Going along with these victories came a runner-up from Juergens, who lost to Westendorf once again. “I really don’t have any regrets against Kyle,” said Juergens. “I’m just happy I played with him and know I gave it my very best effort. Hats off to Kyle for an amazing year on his part and it was fun playing with him.” There was also a third place finish from doubles pair seniors Justin Martin and Michael Bub, a fourth place finish from Longinette, and absolute domination of the sixth singles bracket as all four of the semifinalists represented SLUH. “It really showed the
depth we had this year and the improvement of our younger guys, as well as the depth of our senior class,” said Mueth. Looking ahead to next season, the Jr. Bills are losing all but one player, Schulze, as the other six seeds will graduate. The Bouncyballbills will face challenging opponents like Kirkwood and Lafayette next year, but Parkway West will most likely be their biggest threat. “Their varsity team is very young and they are only losing a few players,” said Correa. “They will some provide some tough competition the next few years but it’s nothing the SLUH underclassmen can’t handle.” Underclassmen performance at Nationals makes next year look very promising, especially if the incoming varsity juniors and sophomores work hard in the offseason to get better for next year. “I’m going to hopefully be working with some of the sophomores and freshmen over the summer getting them ready for next season,” said Schulze. “Experience is really important,” said Mueth. “Varsity is a whole other animal; it takes lots of skill and mental endurance. It’s a chess match, and you have to win through talent, how smart you play, and how you adjust and outlast opponents mentally.”
Lacrosse goes 3-0 in jamboree (continued from page 7)
on the block,” said Gilbert. “I have anonymity on my side.” A major benefit of the large amounts of upperclassmen on the team is fantastic depth. Both the attack and middie lines are more than solid, and, even with the loss of number one defender Hunter Schmidt, the defense
is strong as well. “We could legitimately run nine or ten middies and not miss a beat. We’re deep at every position, and it’s a really nice luxury to have,” said Gilbert. Despite how the team looks, Gilbert wants the team’s focus to be in the now, rather than on the state champion-
ship.
“I want to put it in our head, but not obsess about it,” said Gilbert. “Obviously we hope to win state, but first and foremost is to take it one game at a time,” said Durnien. The team’s first official game is this Saturday, at 12:00 noon vs Chaminade.
Now senior Patrick Broughton against Vianney last year.
photo | Patrick Enderle
Wrestling Achievments Both junior Danny Trittler and senior Henry Munganast made the 1st Team All Conference.
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Prep News Around the Hallways SLU professor returns for after-school Arabic session Foreign language department chair Rob Chura set up an hour-long meeting after school on Wednesday for SLU Arabic Professor, George Simon, to lecture SLUH students on the Arabic language. Nine students from all four grades attended the meeting, which focused on the Arabic alphabet. Simon taught the students the pronunciations for each letter, how they were written, and the quirks of the alphabet. He brought along a SLU student from Iraq, and compared his Lebanese Arabic dialect to the student’s Iraqi one. Foreign Language students take national exams Over 200 students took the National Latin Exam in the Old Cafeteria on Tuesday during activity period. Latin levels one, two, three, four, and AP tested on four different levels—Latin I, Latin II, Latin III, and Latin III-IV prose. The NLE usually consists of 30 multiple choice grammar, history, and culture questions and ten multiple choice reading comprehension questions on a certain historical Latin passage. French students from all grade levels took Le Grand Concours national French test yesterday and today. This is the second year that French students are taking the test, but this year’s test featured a new online format. The test is broken into two parts: a listening portion and grammar portion. STARS meets to discuss The Hidden Cost of Being African American About 20 students met in M105 this past Wednesday to discuss The Hidden Cost of Being African American, the club’s new book they’re reading for this semester. Led by senior Brendan Underwood, the group examined how wealth can perpetuate inequality in African American communities. They also delved into their favorite quotes from the book, and used them to spark new conversations related to St. Louis. Lodholz holds mock election for history students History teacher Anne Marie Lodholz gathered her students for the
“I’m always gonna move forward with music so if something comes along with it I will pursue it,” said Hopkins. “But I’m never gonna put all my eggs in one basket and give up on school.” Hopkins’s focus on his education has been strongly supported by his parents— though they have also grown to support his rapping interests as well. “There’s always a connotation that comes along with being a rapper … so obviously at first there was a level of skepticism,” said Hopkins. “But once my parents saw the amount of effort I was putting into it and the ideology behind my music, they started to support it.” Looking forward, there are a couple of big things happening within the next year. Hopkins has a new project in the works called 70 Visions, which he hopes to release in early June. He also has plans to travel to New York City to visit Mass Appeal Records, found-
Hindu practitioner speaks to World Religions classes Theology teacher Rob Garavaglia’s three World Religions classes spent activity period on Monday listening to a speaker’s experience of Hinduism. The speaker, Bryan Wagner, grew up Catholic before converting into Hinduism. He spoke of the importance of meditation in his life and of his travels throughout India, learning and teaching meditation. Patricia Hurford, M.D., speaks to Science Club and Bio Classes Dr. Hurford met with interested students this past Wednesday during Activity Period and presented on the importance of the Microbiome, the collective ecosystem of bacteria living in our bodies. Biology teacher Nhan Pham set up the event for his classes and motivated students to learn about a new field of study and a new approach to medicine. Dr. Hurford, mother of senior Ian Hurford, talked about how everything from our diet to our sleep schedule can dictate the diversity of the Microbiome.
Symphonic Band earns high honors at state festival The Symphonic Band participated in the State Band Festival this past weekend and earned an ‘Exemplary.’ The band, which has 47 members from all grade levels, played “O Magnum Mysterium” and “Fortress Variations” for three judges earning a one (highest honors) and two twos. Then, the band sightread a new piece of music for which they only had six minutes to prepare. After earning a one on the sight reading portion of the festival, the Symphonic Band earned an overall ‘Exemplary’ rating.
Michael Kaminsky talks pharmacy to Medical Careers Club Michael Kaminsky, ’11, a student in the Creighton School of Pharmacy, talked to about 20 students from the Medical Careers Club this past Wednesday in S202. He spoke about his process in becoming a pharmacist, and gave tips on the right classes to take if interested in pursuing pharmacy. He also described the difference between retail and clinical pharmacy. Kaminsky hopes to get involved with researching new drugs in his future career.
Gadfly to release 7.3 today After over a two month wait, Gadfly TV released episode 7.3 today during both lunch periods. The episode features a skit that hosts auditions for a new Mrs. Maurer—with a somewhat somber ending—along with a few hilarious musical skits. During the long gap since their last episode was released, the Gadfly crew shot so much footage they decided to make two episodes instead of one long episode. They could be releasing 7.4 by the end of the month, according to Gadfly TV member and senior Kevin Strader.
A late winter choral concert There was a choral concert last
Regular Schedule
AP Snack—Cinnamon Rolls Lunch Special—Handmade Pizza Vegetarian—Mac ‘n Cheese night, which featured renditions from varsity, concert, and zero hour chorus. The concert began with zero hour chorus singing “Niska Banja,” accompanied by senior Matthew Fink on the tambourine. Later on, concert chorus sang “Bonse Aba” a capella, followed by a some pieces prepared by only underclassmen since the seniors were gone during the month of January. Afterwards, varsity chorus sang a number of pieces they have been preparing for their trip to Nashville at the beginning of April, where they will perform in the McAfee Concert Hall of Belmont University. There was also a quartet featuring juniors Trevor Scott, Tim Moritz, and Zachary Hennes, as well as senior Michael Brennan, before an octet sang “Poor Man Lazarus.” The concert ended with all choruses combining to sing the African hymn of “Tshotsholoza.”
ed by Nas, to meet with some professionals and give them the full rundown on who he is and where he’s headed. Hopkins also will be working on videos for TRVP HOPPER and other songs. The videos are part of his efforts to promote his sound and reach further audiences until his next project comes out. “With videos, you have to put a lot of money into them, and it takes a long time, especially being in school,” said Hopkins. “It gives people a chance to not only see my face, but to get a taste of how we have fun.” Other than that he will be working on a video blog to give people a chance to see the process in making some of the songs, and how he curates the music. It’ll let the fans see Hopkins and his friends’ personalities. With his first video coming out today, for the song “Wah my Wrist,” it should truly be a happy birthday for Hopkins—who is turning 22.
March 11, 2016
Friday, March 11
annual 1912 mock election this past Thursday. Students were put in groups to campaign for the runners in the election: Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and independent Eugene Debbs. Each group made a propaganda art piece to advocate for their runner, and developed a set of questions to interrogate other candidates and defend their own. To end students voted on the candidates based on their presentations.
J-Hop kicking off rap career at Mizzou (continued from page 3)
O. CRUZ 2016
Saturday, March 12
Regular Schedule
Basketball Quarterfinal 6:00pm Mother/Son Trivia
Monday, March 14
Half Day Schedule Archdiocese Jazz Festival (after school)
Tuesday, March 15 Third Quarter Exams
Wednesday, March 16 8:15am Lent Adoration Third Quarter Exams
Exam Schedule Exam Schedule
Thursday, March 17
Exam Schedule Third Quarter Exams Basketball Show-Me Showdown @ Columbia, MO (until March 19)
Friday, March 18
Spring Break Begins Mission Appalachia (until March 25) Grading Day/Exam Make-up Day
Thursday, March 24 Holy Thursday
Friday, March 25 Good Friday
Saturday, March 26 Holy Saturday
Sunday, March 27 Easter Sunday
Monday, March 28 Easter Monday Spring Break Ends
Tuesday, March 29
Regular Schedule STUCO Executive Board and Senior Class Platforms Due AP Sophomore Class Meeting
Wednesday, March 30
Regular Schedule
STUCO Blood Drive 10:00am Grades Due
Thursday, March 31 Parent-Teacher Conferences
Friday, April 1 AP Late Registration Closes STUCO Primary Election and Speech Practice
calendar | Liam Connolly and Sam Chechik
Shooting targets: Robotics compeition starts today
—Sam Chechik, Nolen Doorack, Connor (continued from page 1) The past two seasons, SLUH’s young program has impressed, managing to place in the top half of teams last year. Perhaps an even greater ode to their achievements came when they were chosen by a team to become an ally, something that tends to be an acknowledgement of one team’s strength, ac(continued from page 4) other,” said Heinz. cording to Hayes. he saw freshmen and sophoKesterson, as usual, was “Ideally you would want to be able to pick (your allies),” mores laying on the pool and impressed with the content of he explained. “Because then you can choose teams who comping pong tables just hanging this meeting and is planning pliment your weaknesses.” out on their iPads. He said that to continue the conversation This year’s robot has been built by a group of about ten he wanted to revive the social in the future on issues like “core members,” according to Lyons. These students have aspect of the pool hall. drugs, alcohol, and technol- stayed everyday after school since January, and even come “I think that we need to ogy. in on the weekends in order to get this project done on time. really ramp up what’s going on “When I walk away from Now, the time has come for their efforts to be recognized. in the pool hall, you know, dif- these meetings, I always walk The team hopes to place higher than they ever have, ferent events, things that keep away amazed and inspired at meaning they would have to place amongst the top half of the pool hall the place to be,” the care and concern and level competitors—no small task, but something that the group is said Wiley. of investment and interest that hopeful for. Hayes stated that to qualify for the World ChamMany of the group mem- people have in our school and pionships would be a “dream.” bers agreed that iPads have our students,” said Kesterson. After a run-through today, the official competitions start been “hampering social interThe next ACSA meeting tomorrow, and will continue through the weekend. Students action” of SLUH students. will be on Monday, April 18, interested in watching robotic teams from around the region “You need face time; you and the plans for discussion are encouraged to support the RoboBills, team 5176, while need to talk to people, you include academic integrity— taking in the sights and sounds of a robotics competition. need to have conversations which was cut from this past with people at lunch. They week’s meeting—and the efdon’t need to be sitting right fect of pornography on stunext to each other Snapchat- dents. (continued from page 4) ting each other, texting each “I think going forward, Student Council just has to keep informing people that ‘we’ve made a change, and this is why, this is what this means to us as a school, as well as a student body,’” said Perryman. Perryman insists that in light of these alterations, it’s vital The Cashbah Online Auction is coming March 14! to keep those same values fueling the week in mind throughWatch your email for further information. Items include out the entire year. a 1993 Mercedes Benz, tickets to the NCAA Final Four “Dooley Week really shows that it’s important to live a with hotel, and tickets to the US Mens’ Soccer World Cup lifestyle that reflects our education, and using that education Qualifier in Columbus, Ohio. for the right reason,” said Perryman. “I hope guys can take hold of that, especially when it comes in a format like Dooley Week.”
ACSA will talk academic integrity in April
Mission week reformat
Cashbah Online Auction