Prep Volume 76, Issue 18
“If nothing else, value the truth”
News sluh.org/prepnews
St. Louis University High School | Friday, January 27, 2012 photo | courtesy of Joe Slama
Commons named
Cheating
The “Stephen Survey shows Isaiah Kincaid many shades ‘06 Commons” of dishonesty “SI Commons,” for short BY Jack STAFF
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SLUH students participated in the March for Life last weekend in Washington, D.C. See story, page 8.
Meyer ‘08 drafted by Los Angeles Galaxy 19th overall pick in MLS draft showed tenacity at SLUH BY John Webb CORE STAFF
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f you dribble a soccer ball near Tommy Meyer, ‘08, he wants to take it away from you. It’s what he’s done all his life. The central defender did it for St. Louis U. High and Indiana University, and now he’ll do it for the Los Angeles Galaxy, who recently took him in the first round of the Major League Soccer (MLS) draft on Jan. 12. Meyer will join the reigning MLS Cup champions and a program that looks to remain a premier team in the MLS for the immediate future. At the Galaxy, Meyer will have plenty of players to learn from since he’ll be teammates with Landon Donovan, arguably the most prominent American soccer player, as well as David Beckham and Robbie Keane. “That definitely sweetens the deal a little bit,” said Meyer. “Anytime that you get a chance to even meet those guys, it’s definitely pretty special.” As the 19th overall pick in the MLS draft, it comes as no surprise that Meyer was talented enough to make the varsity soccer team his freshman year at SLUH, with the size and speed to make his
presence felt on the field even at a young age. Head coach Charlie Martel tried Meyer out as a midfielder for a time, but he quickly found that Meyer was most comfortable and played at his best when guiding the back line. “I can still remember a game in the CBC tournament, which is early in the season, and he played wide in the back,” said Martel. “He was striking a ball with pace, he was putting the ball in places that left me absolutely amazed. You could tell right away that this guy was going to be something special.” When Meyer had an opportunity to train with the United States national team at his age level, he couldn’t pass it up. He missed his entire sophomore year at SLUH to train with the team in Brandenburg, Florida. When he arrived back on campus in the fall of 2006 for his junior season, Meyer came back with a reservoir of experience. He had played with the some of the best soccer players from around the US, and played against some of the best players around the world. “When he came back, I don’t know if I want to use the word nasty, but he was tougher. He was more mature,” said Martel. “He was already an excellent player when he left, but when he came back, it was like he took that final step to becoming a complete player in term of maturity, experience, continued on page 5
The weekly student newspaper of St. Louis University High School 4970 Oakland Ave. - St. Louis, MO 63110 (314) 531-0330 ext. 2241 online at sluh.org/prepnews prepnews@sluh.org ©2012 St. Louis University High School Prep News. No material may be reprinted without the permission of the editors and moderator.
hen the Danis Field House opened, the old gym never received a name, it was just referred to as “the Commons.” The Commons used to be one of the few places at St. Louis U. High without a name. Next to the Danis Lobby outside the Schulte Theatre in the Backer Memorial, the Commons was nameless. Those continued on page 5
Winter Sisyphus draws on overflow of submissions
Above: a print by sophomore David Greaves, one of over 90 student submissions in the next issue of Sisyphus. BY Sam Fentress REPORTER
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he winter edition of St. Louis U. High's literary magazine, Sisyphus, is hitting the shelves Wednesday. Emblazoned on the cover is a Van Gogh-esque engraving done by sophomore David Greaves. Sisyphus is the product of a long editing process led by a group of student reviewers and English teachers Rich Moran and Frank Kovarik. One anticipated piece in the upcoming issue is a poem and photograph by former English teacher Bill George. The photograph, which corresponds with his poem, was taken by George at
the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. The publication, as usual, will cost only 25 cents, and features a varied group of pieces, including a smorgasbord of poems, artwork, and fiction from over 90 student submissions. The publication will be 72 pages in length, and will be sold during Activity Period. Some other anticipated works are Basement, a piece of fiction by senior Kevin Cahill, and Safety, also fiction, by senior Andrew Jung. The magazine is mostly serious, but is flecked with bits of humor and fun. One good example is Puppy Love, written by senior Peter Myers, a story that starts continued on page 2
News
Sports
Light drive recycles 1,000 pounds SLUH’s Holiday Light Drive was a success, producing over a half ton of broken Christmas lights to be recycled. Page 2
A hectic, yet successful week for wrestlers Wrestling turned out a top ten tournament finish and a dual meet win, even without senior Joe Mungenast. Page 6
Mock Trial wins in first case In their first competition of the season, both SLUH Mock Trial squads emerged victorious. Page 2
Hockey defeats CBC, imminent playoffs Senior Night was a success against CBC, as the Jr. Bills charge into the playoffs with their eyes on the cup. Page 7
BY Adam Thorp CORE STAFF
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group that included students saw the results from a February survey of academic integrity for the first time this week. According to the survey’s designer, the results show St. Louis U. High students to be a little better than a typical high school on issues of academic integrity. The results of the survey, conducted by SLUH and the Center for Academic Integrity, were presented in slides compiled by Principal John Moran and were released to the Prep News on Tuesday. The administration and the school's Instructional Council recieved the information several weeks ago, and have been working with it over the last several weeks. The information was presented to the Advisory Comittee for Student Affairs Monday, the first time students saw the information from the survey. Dr. John McCabe, an expert on academic integrity who designed SLUH's survey and has collected similar data in high schools for the past ten years, compared the results to a public high school in the Midwest for the Prep News. According to McCabe, the results of the survey, filled out by SLUH's students February, showed that SLUH's position in terms of academic integrity is similar to other high schools. “Comparing SLUH to a major high school district in the Midwest, you'd like to think with SLUH's focus on academics and with its religious perspective, cheating would be a lot lower.” said McCabe. (SLUH) looks a little bit better (than a typical school district) but not terribly unusual. The trends are all the same. The amount of cheating going on is just a little bit lower. Just for example if I could continued on page 4
ACSA discusses what’s next for academic integrity An honor code? See story, page 4
Senior Project
Spotlights, part three For seniors, today is the final day of their month-long Senior Project. In our final installment of the Senior Project Spotlights, the focus falls on two more sites—St. Louis Arc and the International Institute. Senior Nate Heagney also sends a postcard from Loyola Academy. Page 3
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Prep News Volume 76, Issue 18
NEWS
January 27, 2012
Mock Trial prosecutes first case well Light drive recycles half a ton of broken decor photo | Sam Beckmann
BY Stephen STAFF
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Both the varsity and junior varsity Mock Trial squads, shortly before they took home a victory against Marquette. BY Kieran REPORTER
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t. Louis U. High’s Mock Trial team convened in the Clayton Municipal Courthouse on Tuesday night for its first meet of the year. The varsity squad took on Marquette High School, while the inexperienced JV team faced off against Pattonville. Both SLUH teams came out with a threeballot win, earning votes from the judge deciding the case, and the votes of the two jurors tasked with identifying the superior team. The case both teams argued is a civil case that centers on a question of alleged religious discrimination. The varsity acted as the prosecution, with their client a high school teacher who was fired after he had converted to Jainism. In their game, the junior varsity played the defense. The case, and the evidence used in it, was created by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, which runs the competition. The cases must be decided under Missouri law and, although they require a good deal of memorizing arguments and witness examinations, involve much onthe-spot improvisation at the higher levels. The varsity squad benefited from its experienced lawyers and witnesses, as well as hours of practice and the weakness of their opponents. Junior Justin Sinay, a varsity
team member and witness, said of their competitors, “Marquette doesn’t have a record as a good squad, but they were much better than we thought. However, it still wasn’t the caliber we were looking for.” The star of SLUH’s show against Marquette was senior and varsity captain Edward Rowles, who dazzled the other team with his rhetoric and examinations of witnesses. “Eddie had to cross-examine the principal, and he did a great job even though the witness really didn’t give him the edge in order to secure a question. The way he set it up and the way he structured his sequence of questions was very good,” said Mock Trial moderator Anne Marie Ludholz. Said Sinay, “Right at the beginning of the trial, someone from Marquette objected to hearsay, and (Eddie) just shot him down with an exception. He was like that all night.” The team did not run into many unexpected challenges Tuesday night. Sophomore Robert Hayes, a varsity lawyer, said, “Basically there was a lot of memorizing the scripts, and making sure that our scripts flowed into our bigger picture of what the trial was going to be, and keep a consistency throughout ... All of our (direct examinations) were memorized, and all our crosses went fine ... It pretty much went according to plan.”
The varsity team not only won all the ballots, but the individual team members also scored highly. From a score system with ten possible points per person, the lowest individual score for SLUH was a seven. Lodholz was particularly proud of the varsity’s witnesses. “They know how to be confident as witnesses and how to use the role of the witness to cause struggle for the other attorneys and yet also how to create a character,” said Lodholz. Even more satisfying than the varsity win was the admirable performance of the green junior varsity team. The squad’s captain, sophomore Sam Beckmann, was the only lawyer with experience, yet led his team to a win. “Since this was our first trial, we had to review all the rules and how to object, and they did very well learning all the rules. Once we had that down, we had to memorize all the scripts and work on our style,” said Beckmann. Individuals shone in the junior varsity competition. “One of our attorneys, (freshman) Jack Barbey, found out he was going to be a lawyer the day of the trial, and he had his address memorized by that time, said Beckmann. (Junior) Joel Ocampo had his first trial, and he had an amazing closing.” JV took home exceptional scores in addition to their three continued on page 5
he St. Louis U. High community wrapped up its first ever holiday light drive last Friday after 54 days. In the end, just over 1,000 pounds of broken holiday lights were collected in two red bins. One bin was at the foot of the stairs in the Danis Lobby, and the other was across from the main office, offering ease of access for students and faculty. “Those bins contain 175 pounds (of lights), and we collected over six of those, so it’s roughly 1,100 pounds,” said social studies teacher Anne Marie Lodholz, chair of the Sustainability Committee, which organized the light drive. This is the holiday light drive’s second year in St. Louis. It is organized by St. Louis Green, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help create sustainable lifestyles. The light drive helps fund St. Louis Green as well as Operation Food Search, a nonprofit food bank. Most of the money from recycling the lights comes from copper, which makes up 17 percent of an average holiday light strand. While the rebate for recycled lights varies with the copper market, St. Louis Green and Operation Food Search currently get 43 cents from each pound of
lights recycled from the Metal Exchange Corporation, the local company that processes and recycles the lights. St. Louis Green’s goal for this year was 50,000 pounds of lights. “I think we’re 100 pounds over our goal,” said St. Louis Green executive director Craig Jung on Tuesday. To advertise the drive, the Committee put up flyers around the school. Principal John Moran also sent out a message to the community via email and a phone-blast. According to Jung, SLUH was one of the top schools for donating lights, along with Jesuit rival DeSmet. As for the goals for next year’s drive, Jung said, “We do want to do some work statewide and move into greater parts of Illinois and even Kansas.” Lodholz hopes that next year, SLUH can work with neighbors, such as the Science Center, to collect more lights. “I was actually really impressed with the turnout. I think for the first year of having done it, never doing it before, I think the phone-blast and email worked exceptionally well. I just think as we continue this, having greater knowledge of it and people more familiar with it will make it a bigger deal,” said Lodholz. photo | courtesy of St. Louis Green
31,170 pounds of Christmas lights sit against the wall of the Metal Exchange Corporation, waiting to be recycled.
Winter edition of Sisyphus debuts Wednesday with student prose, poetry, art (continued from page 1) out serious, but as it goes on, the reader slowly realizes the story is about a relationship between two six-year-olds. The editing team has been at work since Jan. 1, the deadline for submissions to Sisyphus. Seniors and editors Nate Heagney, Greg Fister, and Brendan McEnery have been coming to SLUH even during senior projects. According to Moran, the group received more poetry submissions than anything else, which he attributes to the fact that those works are generally shorter than fiction. Because of the large amount of work submitted, there were some hard decisions to be made. “We had a lot of quality material,” said Kovarik. “It seems to
me that in this issue we had more material that we wanted to publish but didn’t have space for than ever before.” The editors agreed. “We had a lot of great submissions, so unfortunately we had to turn down some of them that we really liked,” said sophomore literary editor Gabe Miller. Another big piece of the puzzle were the five sophomore editors. In addition to Miller, sophomores Gabe Newsham, Noah Weber, David Greaves, and Patrick Conrey proved to be very helpful to the process. “All of the pieces were fantastic, like they usually are, but a lot of the art reminded me of how much talent I’m surrounded by every day,” said sophomore art editor Patrick Conrey, who was
happy to help with this issue of Sisyphus. Moran also liked the potential that the sophomore editors showed. “(The sophomore editors) are terrific. I’m not just saying that, they really are great,” said Moran, who was pleased not only with their editing work, but also their submissions. Two other projects are in the works related to Sisyphus: a podcast, and a website to display poems written by Bill George. For the podcast, seniors Sam Herbig and Matei Stefanescu will read a selection of their own poems, and engage in a discussion with junior Alex Greubel. The podcast is set to be recorded and released sometime next week, and a link will be sent to the school. The website, which will be
photo | Mr. Matt Sciuto
The editorial staff of Sisyphus gathers for a group picture on the roof of the Backer Memorial.
constructed by Kovarik, will contain a retrospective of 16 of
George’s poems dating from 1993 to the upcoming issue.
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Prep News
January 27, 2012
Volume 76, Issue 18
Senior Project Spotlights St. Louis Arc
International Institutue
BY Joe Kreienkamp REPORTER
BY Thomas STAFF
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ive seniors have been spending their days at St. Louis Arc as part of their Senior Project. The St. Louis Arc is a center that provides mentally and behaviorally disabled adults with support and services. The program allows for the disabled to help serve their community on a daily basis. Seniors Justin Ramacciotti, Greg Patton, Sean Sullivan, Jeff Ullery, and Joe Milliano have spent their time helping the adults at the St. Louis Arc. The seniors split up among the different locations. Jeff Ullery has been spending his time at the agency on Warson Road. Ullery works with adults who have behavioral and developmental issues, and he says he is “doing service by helping others do service.” For the past month, Jeff has been to many different locations, walking and traveling with the adults as they do community service. When Ullery walked into the facility, he felt he would be uncomfortable around the people that were so much older than him. But, he said, “after the first hour I had nothing to be worried about.” He calls the center and its environment “a different world,”
Senior Justin Ramaciotti poses with one of the adults at St. Louis Arc.
where the mentally disabled can really be themselves. Ullery has done different tasks every day. He has helped from topics concerning musical exercises to sorting materials into boxes. Thursday, the group of adults visited the Resource Center owned by the Science Center and located on Kingshighway. Ullery said that the adults worked to organize the pile of “random junk.” “(All of this) helps them with recognizing things,” says Ullery. The mental exercises are helpful for coping with the developmental disabilities. When Ullery was reminded that his last week was currently underway, he said, “I am kind of
sorry that I am not going to be with them next week. I have enjoyed every minute that I have been able to be with them.” As far as his growth from the Senior Project, Ullery said that it was “eye-opening” and that he realized that “there are parts of (society) that I have found that are really horrible, like how our world wants to interact with them.” Ullery says that he will not forget the people he has worked with, who have “awesome personalities.” “I am seeing a different part of the world that I have never been exposed to before,” he said.
AMES School of Visual & Performing Arts BY Nate EDITOR
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veryone knows the old saying about elementary school: It’s all fun and games until someone tackles the student volunteer. Well maybe that’s not the exact saying, but it’s certainly a fitting one at AMES school of Visual & Performing Arts, where seniors Mike Dempsey, Ryan Shea, Austin Huelsing and Ben Thomas are currently doing their senior project. The school, which features students in pre-k through fifth grade. Each of the seniors is assigned to a different classroom. Thomas is working with the first grade and says students have
been known to tackle him if they need help and he doesn’t get there quick enough. “The hardest part is math class because none of the kids understand anything. So they’ll raise their hand—or they’ll just yell. And if I don’t help them in time, they’ll get up and tackle me,” said Thomas. Shea is working in the Art Room and says he loves spending time with the students. “I have two favorites: Joseph and Seth; they’re a blast. I will definitely miss the kids more than anything.” The majority of the students at AMES are African-American and there is a high number of hearing-impaired children at the
school. Huelsing, for example, works in an all-deaf classroom. But with all the kids, Thomas says, there are fun moments, recalling one story from a recent class. “The kids would get mad at me and one would say he wanted me fired. But then all the kids would hear I was getting fired and come up and hug me, until they get mad again. It’s a rough cycle.” While neither Thomas nor any of the other volunteers were ever fired, their time at AMES ends today. But it is certainly time they will look back on with enjoyment, even if they did have to deal with a few open-classroom tackles.
Postcard from Project
Generally during my time on Senior Project—I’m working at Loyola Academy, an all-boys middle school in Midtown—I use the time right after lunch to reenergize from an active morning working with kids and prepare for whatever afternoon activities they have in store. However, today I got offered the chance to go on a field trip with the seventh grade class to Busch Stadium, an opportunity too enticing to pass up. After loading all 20 kids into the vans (a task far more difficult than I expected), we navigated our way through the myriad Busch Stadium parking lots and finally found our way into the Media Dining Room, where our
program was set to begin. The staff took us through a bunch of educational, baseball-related activities and the kids were wellbehaved and did a good job participating. After one clip on angles which centered around three different Albert Pujols home runs, there was an awkward silence for maybe 15 seconds before one student spoke solemnly: “I still can’t believe Al did us like that.” Everything went relatively smoothly until the car ride home, where the sliding van door was left ajar, but not enough for it to slide completely open. This wasn’t enough to comfort Korrey, my favorite seventh-grader. Korrey
Riganti
eniors Tim Eidman, Jack Howe, and Connor Stinehart have each spent their Senior Project at the International Institute, an agency that serves refugees displaced from their home country. The Institute is one of more than 30 agencies nationwide that make up the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. The Institute offers English classes, job placement, and citizenship tutoring. Eidman assists an English teacher in the morning and tutors students in citizenship laws each afternoon so that the students can achieve full citizenship. One of Eidman's favorite moments while working has been helping an Ethiopian woman who has been at the Institute for 12 years and is applying for citizenship, a big step forward in her new life in the United States. “It was really rewarding to see the work that she is putting in is worth it,” said Eidman. The experience at the the International Institute has humbled Eidman and taught him to be grateful for what he has. “A lot of the people there are living at or below the poverty level, but they're happy,” said Eidman. “They're in an apartment that has a stove and a kitchen.
They have a lot of things that they never would have had in their home country.” Eidman also has learned about other cultures and the ways that they learn, which has helped him realize that his problems do not compare to the enormous issues people around the world face. While in college, Eidman hopes to volunteer his time at another institute. Stinehart also works a similar schedule, teaching in an advanced English class and tutoring citizenship. “It's really a challenge sometimes,” said Stinehart. “It's teaching me, little by little, that I don't really know anything about the English language.” Stinehart talked about a student who corrected him in his adjective and noun classifying. “I'm really humbled at how well I know my own language,” said Stinehart. “It's really gotten me up out of my comfort zone, trying to teach things I do naturally.” “I think if there's one thing that I am really going to take away, it's just to never assume anything about anything,” said Stinehart. “It's just really incredible to see how people can come from the worst places in the world (and) then come here and make a new start.”
cartoon | Tom Fields
cartoon | Maxwell Garr
began crying for help, begging the teacher to pull over. When he realized we weren’t stopping, apparently fearing his possible death, he began apologizing to all his classmates for various wrongs he had committed against them. At one point, he sunk to his knees in the van, threw his arms to the sky and yelled, “Please, Lord, grant me salvation!” Luckily, Korrey and the rest of the class made it back to school safely. I’ve heard no word yet on whether he took back any of his apologies, though. Cartoons do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Prep News or St. Louis U. High.
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Prep News Volume 76, Issue 18
NEWS
January 27, 2012
ACSA ponders the next step to address academic integrity BY Matt Cooley EDITOR IN CHIEF
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he Advisory Committee for Student Affairs (ACSA) spent its entire hour and a half meeting Monday night on one topic: cheating. This was the first time the academic integrity survey results had been released to students and parents, and most of the meeting was spent exploring ways to improve the culture of academic integrity at SLUH going forward. An honor code was widely seen as an idea worth adopting. For the first 20 minutes of the meeting, Assistant Principal for Student Life Brock Kesterson and history teacher Bob O’Connell, representing the Instructional Council’s committee on academic integrity, presented the slide show first shown to faculty two weeks ago. Following the presentation, the committee was broken into smaller groups to discuss the results. “It was pretty much what I expected,” said freshman Eric Pitlyk in one of the groups. Committee members pointed out flaws in St. Louis U. High’s current efforts to deal with cheating. Freshman Nick Perryman said that the language of the current policy, as stated in the handbook, was unnecessarily wordy and complex. In addition, some committee members wished that penalties for cheating were enforced more universally. “I think if cheating is really important, I think there should be a consequence every time,
and it should be uniform across the board,” said parent Tanya Daniels. “When you’re playing Russian Roulette—maybe I’ll get caught, maybe I won’t, this person has never gotten caught and they cheat all the time’—they’re more likely to do it.” O’Connell acknowledged that enforcement of the current policy varied widely, citing the statistic that over the past few years, only 80 reports of cheating had been sent to Assistant Principal for Academics Tom Becvar, and certain teachers and departments had disproportionate numbers of those reports. O’Connell also told the committee that a large number of students wrote in free-response sections of the survey that teachers were already very vigilant about preventing cheating in their classrooms. But students also were more likely to cheat on work that was considered of lesser value: while relatively few students cheat on exams, many cheat on homework. “There’s implications for us as teachers: make sure the work has value, make sure that students understand the value of the work,” said O’Connell. Some members of the committee noted a problem deeper than the implementation of the rules in the handbook: that survey results showed that a common justification for cheating was the pressure to get good grades or increase one’s GPA. “I just wonder culturally, just
how as a community we’re teaching students about what it means to be successful and how to define success because a lot of them do that through numbers,” said science teacher Mary Russo. Many committee members suggested that the topic of academic integrity needed greater emphasis, and they offered many concrete ideas to imprint the importance of honesty on SLUH’s culture. Academic integrity could be emphasized at Freshman Orientation, in homerooms with senior advisors, or even on the application for admission. Students could hear presentations like the one Captain David Fields, whom Kesterson invited as a special guest to the ACSA meeting, gave to math teacher John Ross’s classes. Information could be sent home to parents in the summer, encouraging them to discuss it with their children. O’Connell and Kesterson asked those at the meeting to consider the idea of adopting an honor code, a community agreement to uphold honesty and other values, at SLUH. Groups were provided packets that included a research report on honor codes— which stated that schools with honor codes in place tended to have less cheating—and a sampling of honor codes from a variety of other secondary schools. Most of the reactions to establishing an honor code were positive. Some students liked that honor codes were a positive re-
sponse to the problem of academic integrity, emphasizing the importance of being honest rather than punishing cheating—which senior Jimmy Griffard said was a habit that students would carry on beyond graduation. And an honor code could address more than just cheating, changing how the school addresses discipline as a whole and improving other disciplinary issues, like theft. “I found it difficult to find a reason why not to have an honor code,” said parent Cathy Pitlyk. Other students, however, pointed out challenges to establishing an effective honor code and were skeptical that adopting one would significantly decrease cheating. “A big part of it seems like it’s us policing ourselves, and I think that would be incredibly hard,” said junior Andrew Robinson. “Being able to tell someone else not to cheat or being able to tell on someone who cheated to a teacher, I don’t know if I can see that happening.” “Students have already made their minds up whether they’re going to (cheat) or not, and I don’t think an honor code would stop them,” said junior Joe Grady. But other committee members were confident that with the support of the entire school community, an honor code could be successful. Several committee members noted that establishing an honor code was creating a culture change that could take time to fully develop.
“One of my suspicions about the research (presented at the meeting) was that (schools with honor codes) would attract kids that believed in an honor code, in the same way we have great ACTs because we admit kids who test well,” said English teacher Barbara Osburg. “But all the more reason to create a culture over the next four to six years. Students who believe in integrity could be even more drawn to our school than in the past, and it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy in that way.” Fields, the special guest, offered some thoughts from his own experience: he noted that military service academies have a 15-word honor code, and he stressed that establishing a successful honor code would require students to take charge. “Honor codes fail unless the student body owns the honor code. The student body must teach the honor code, the student body must enforce the honor code. The honor code cannot—I can’t stress this enough—be the property of the administration,” Fields said. With this, the meeting ended. In his closing remarks, Kesterson said he was hopeful about the progress made at the meeting. “I think we are making strides, and I don’t know what those next steps are yet,” he said. “But I assure you that everything you guys have said and written is stuff that will go back to this continued on page 5
Academic integrity survey results: “It would be naive to be shocked” (continued from page 1) bring in that example school district I mentioned, it's definitely lower than there, probably in the range of five or 15 percent. What I did was take out a number of the offenses that I studied. On a couple of them SLUH was a little higher but most of them the public school was higher.” The survey tried to determine how, how often, and why students cheated. The survey also explored how students viewed the faculty’s response to cheating and student's views on how serious cheating was at SLUH. More than 70 percent of students had “more than once” been pressured to share work with another student, with more than 10 percent saying that it had happed only once. Almost 60 percent of students said they had allowed someone else to copy their homework “more than once.” A similar number of students said they had gotten questions or answers from a friend before a test. More than half said they had copied on a quiz. A smaller group, but still more than half, said they had helped someone else cheat on a quiz. On the other hand, a negligible number of students of students said the had used electronic devices during a test or exam, and fewer than ten percent had turned in a paper from an online paper mill. Students were asked about different types of cheating they had observed. Over 50 percent of
students said they had observed homework copying “often” or “very often.” Well over 40 percent “often” or “very often” observed assignment sharing, the next most-seen category. Of students who plagiarized or copied materials, more than 60 percent used the Internet do so, more than three times the next most common response, “paper and electronics equally.” The dominance of the Internet as a means of copying assignments has only recently emerged. “It literally started at zero,” said McCabe. “I had to readjust my scale at one point to pick up the (cheating on) the Internet. (Still), I'm not sure the Internet makes that many new cheaters.” The survey also asked students how fair and effective they thought faculty's response to cheating was. Most students felt teachers made it plenty clear what cheating and plagiarism meant in their class. “What I read in some of that data is that students are agreeing that teachers make it clear what cheating and plagiarism is. So this isn't, as far as students understand, an issue of misunderstanding,” said Moran. However, confidence in the faculty’s abilities to keep up with cheaters declined with each year students spent at SLUH. About 45 percent percent of freshmen responded “yes” to a question asking if teachers catch most incidents of cheating, but only around 10 percent of seniors responded
the same way, completing a slide in confidence that passed through the two intermediate years. “I think cheating goes up in most cases; people learn the ropes,” said McCabe. “They’re afraid when they first come in as freshmen and then they realize, ‘This guy's blowing smoke, he's not watching.’” A little less than half of students agreed or agreed strongly that faculty is vigilant in discovering and reporting cheating, more than the number that disagreed. The second most common response to the question was that students were “not sure.” “In several of those questions there was a large 'not sure,' which I think was natural because naturally in an element where someone has done something inappropriate, that might be handled with discretion by a teacher or the administration. 'Not sure' in many of those questions means ‘it's being handled, I'm just not sure how it's being handled,” said Moran. Most students said they were unlikely or very unlikely to report an incident of cheating, and were even less likely to come forward if the person cheating were a close friend. “They're afraid,” said McCabe. “They don't want to be ostracized.” The survey also discussed students' reasons for choosing to cheat or not cheat. Given a set of choices, most students cited fear of consuquences for the reason they did not cheat.
graphic | courtesy of Dr. John Moran
The most commonly selected justification for cheating was that, “It’s never justified,” a result that McCabe finds unreliable. “Gernerally, it’s interesting that it happens with some frequency that a student will go through, get to what they perceive to be the right answer and cross out the other ones they’ve had and select that one. That’s overstated, (the response that) “Cheating is never justified,” said McCabe. The second most common response, given by more than 30 percent of respondents, is that cheating is justified by pressure to get good grades. “That pressure comes from parents, it can come from students themselves, it can come from teachers, the college admissions process, any number of places. That’s common in every survey I’ve done,” said McCabe. Overall, Moran was not sur-
prised with the results. “I don't know if I had hard expectations (about the results of the survey) one way or another. We knew and we had heard loudly and clearly from students before that there were concerns about cheating and plagiarism, so it would be naive to be shocked,” said Moran. The survey is part of a broader process which may lead to policy changes for the next school year. The Instructional Council had an all-day meeting Thursday on the issue of academic integrity. The members split into four groups to discuss student involvement in any action, the student handbook, the curriculum, and faculty developement as they each relate to academic integrity.
5 Meyer 19th overall pick in MLS draft, headed to Los Angeles Galaxy NEWS
January 27, 2012
(continued from page 1) and toughness. After he came back, he wouldn’t back down to anyone.” With his experience, Meyer naturally became a player his teammates looked up to. Whenever he was on the field, he was always focused on the game. “Just because of where he had been, I think all the players immediately and naturally looked up to him,” said Martel. “He really took that and ran with it. He became a great leader on the field. He was a pretty quiet guy, but his work ethic was so good. He worked so hard in practice, and he worked so hard in the game. I think that’s what attracted the players to him in terms of leadership.” Meyer’s favorite memory from his time at SLUH came in the CYC tournament final his junior year. SLUH, at the time undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the St. Louis area and No. 3 nationally, faced the No. 1 team in the St. Louis area, the Chaminade Red Devils. In a rowdy game in which two SLUH players as well as Martel were given yellow cards for various offenses, the Jr. Bills took an early 1-0 lead with a goal by Andy Weis in the 19th minute. Led by Meyer, the defense kept Chaminade from scoring. SLUH scored another goal in the 90th minute, going on to win 2-0 and earn a No. 2 national ranking. Later that year, the team scraped past districts but lost to Chaminade in the round of 16 after Chaminade scored on a penalty kick off a controversial penalty in the box in the second overtime. In his senior year, Meyer continued his commitment to the national team, playing in the 2007 FIFA Under 17 (U-17) World Cup in South Korea. Meyer missed the first three weeks of his senior year but got the opportunity to play against truly world class talent, players who now play for professional soccer clubs in Europe and the rest of the world. In the group stage of the U-17
photo | Zac Boesch
Tommy Meyer, then a senior, takes the ball up field from his center back spot.
World Cup, the United States lost 4-3 to Tajikstan and 3-1 to Tunisia. Due to goal differentials, the U.S. still had an opportunity to take second in the group and advance to the knockout stage with a win over Belgium. After the match against Belgium was tied 0-0 at halftime, Meyer still remembers his friend Kirk Urso scoring the go-ahead goal in the 63rd minute. The defense collected a shutout as the U.S. went on to win 2-0. In the knockout stage, the US lost to eventual third place champions Germany 2-1. “When you’re playing at a high level, the pace of the game is a lot faster,” said Meyer of his U-17 World Cup experience. “You can’t make mistakes or take a break because otherwise you’ll be punished for it.” Meyer jumped right back into high school soccer after returning to the states, helping propel SLUH to the State finals. Throughout the year, Meyer took his share of free kicks and even netted a few goals himself. His size especially helped
ACSA explores next step in academic integrity
(continued from page 4) committee, and—I don’t want it to seem like this committee made up of the department chairs and the administration is going to do something about it. I think we need to work with the students to try to figure out how to or where to go.” And in a meeting that was an unusual one for the committee in many respects—where small group discussions were used in addition to a roundtable forum,
committee members read research and watched a slide show, and one topic filled the entire 90 minutes—Kesterson suggested that perhaps it was time for students to do more than just advise on student affairs. “I want you guys to come to me, come to us so you guys can be the ones who are the architects of this,” he said. The next ACSA meeting will be held on April 16.
Mock Trial wins first case (continued from page 2) ballots. Most of the players took sevens and eights out of ten in their first competition. Barbey said of his experience, “You have to be able to dictate yourself well. You also have to be able to process your thoughts, too ... it’s a great logic game.” When they next enter the
courthouse, varsity and JV will switch roles, with varsity acting as the defense and JV the prosecution. The year looks to be promising for SLUH’s legal team, who last year made the State competition. Said Sinay, “We want state. We can get there, we just have to put in the work.”
him in the box on corner kicks. Even after playing with some of the top soccer players in the world, Meyer still impressed Martel with how coachable he was. “He could do anything you asked him to do. You could tell him once, and he would do it,” said Martel. “He had a great memory. He would always remember what you would say. He always kind of played with the same temperament the whole time. You never saw if he was tired. I think that’s the hallmark of a great player.” Meyer’s senior year, SLUH lacked a strong national ranking but was inches away from securing the State title against Rockhurst. After falling behind 1-0 in the 59th minute to Rockhurst, the team barraged the Rockhurst keeper with shots, but couldn’t come up with the tying goal. The Jr. Bill defense allowed only nine goals that year as the offense produced 108 goals. Meyer enjoyed his time playing soccer at SLUH and felt that it prepared him well for his college
Prep News
Volume 76, Issue 18
career. “The MCC is always a good league to play in, especially for high school,” said Meyer. “Not many cities have good competitive soccer like St. Louis.” Of Martel, Meyer said, “He was always the quieter of the two Charlies, but he always wanted to win. That was definitely something that he stressed to us.” After his time at SLUH, Meyer went to play for Indiana University, where he was a four year starter and studied political science. Indiana is consistently ranked as a top college soccer program in the nation and made appearances in the NCAA 24team tournament all of Meyer’s four years there. In Meyer’s junior year at Indiana, the team allowed 22 goals in 23 games, and in his senior year allowed just 19 goals in 22 games. “Our coaches always taught us that defending wins championships,” said Meyer. Indiana boasts a high pressure offense and tough defense, a style that Meyer says has prepared him well for his future at the Galaxy. And despite never advancing very far in the NCAA tournament, Meyer has enjoyed Indiana’s style of play. “Indiana likes to press the other team,” said Meyer. “That’s something that I think teams do at (the MLS) level too. They like to press the other team as soon as they get the ball. And it’s not just a low pressure, it’s a high pressure.” During the fall season, Meyer typically practiced between two and two and a half hours a day. Soccer remained a full-year commitment, with training in the spring as well as over the summer. “Indiana’s a hard-working team,” said Meyer. “We stress the fact that we outworked everyone else.” Meyer’s favorite moment from Indiana soccer came in his junior year, when they beat Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship at home. After falling behind 2-0, the defense
held strong with Meyer at the helm, and Indiana came back to win 3-2. Center back is not a position that comes with the fame and glory of scoring the game-winning goal, but the middle defender is instrumental in guiding the team through a game. In a sport without timeouts, the middle defender coordinates the movements of the back line and sometimes the entire team. “If your center-back is off at the start of the game, then sometimes that leads to the whole team being off,” said Meyer. “You have to be clicked in the whole game, making sure that nothing’s going wrong.” During his time at SLUH and Indiana, Meyer had to have strong mental preparedness, a trait that can often be learned only through experience. “The mentality that you have to have is basically that you can’t take any breaks,” said Meyer. “That’s something you learn from making mistakes, from having lapses of concentration during the game. I’ve grown a lot in that area of the game. You definitely have to stay concentrated the whole game, and you can’t let any slipups in.” Meyer began his first day of training in Los Angeles on Monday. While he hasn’t had time yet to explore the city that includes Hollywood, a Pacific coastline, and near-perfect weather, he looks forward to doing so in the future. “Other than the fact that it’s warm out, there’s a lot to do. Since the city is so big, there’s a lot of stuff to do while you’re out here,” said Meyer. A player with a strong work ethic himself, Meyer’s advice for young players is to outwork your opposition. “One thing is that you always have to put in the hard work,” said Meyer. “You have to put in time more than anyone else. There’s always someone trying to outwork you.”
Commons named for SI Kincade, ’06 (continued from page 1) days are gone, however, and the Commons are now the Stephen Isaiah Kincaid ’06 Commons, or colloquially, the SI Commons. The Commons was named by Sarah Trulaske and her son and Stephen “SI” Kincaid, ’06, and is “dedicated to the spirit of St. Ignatius, the Society of Jesus and faculty who continue to ground the young men of SLUH in faith, intellect and values as a foundation for success in life,” according to a plaque that will be in the SI Commons. Trulaske and Kincaid, as well as Trulaske’s late husband, Robert Trulaske Jr., are the lead benefactors for the Commons and got to name the Commons as part of a verbal agreement with former President Paul Sheridan, S.J., in exchange for being the lead benefactors for the project. As lead benefactors, the Trulaskes gave over one million dollars towards the Vision 2000 campaign. “They were (major donors)
early in the campaign,” said President David Laughlin. Though the agreement was made some years ago, Trulaske and Kincaid did not decide the official name for the Commons until recently, according to Laughlin. “The family had made the lead gift a number of years ago, but the formal name was determined this year,” said Laughlin. Trulaske and Kincaid attended the floor-lifting ceremony last May. Laughlin said that Kincaid and Trulaske had seen the plans for the Commons and were excited with what they saw. Vice President for Advancement John Rick has met with Trulaske three times, and Kincaid four times. Rick said that he has enjoyed working with both Tru-
laske and Kincaid, a recent graduate of St. Louis University. In his meetings with Rick, Kincaid impressed Rick, who described him as very approachable, calling Kincaid “just one of the guys.” “He is a fascinating person,” said Rick. “He's a very cerebral, creative person.” Though Trulaske will be unable to attend the Commons dedcation on Feb. 8, Kincaid will attend and make a few remarks. Laughin is grateful for the support Kincaid and Trulaske have given to the school. “It's such a blessing to have benefactors who provide things for the young men who go to school here,” said Laughlin.
“Maybe one day it will be cheering to remember even these things.” —Virgil
6
SPORTS
Prep News Volume 76, Issue 18
January 27, 2012
Wrestling endures grueling week, Mungenast still out with concussion BY Clark REPORTER
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DeWoskin
he St. Louis U. High Wrasslebills fought their way through a grueling week that included a 20-team tournament at MICDS, a dual meet at DeSmet, and a trimeet at Eureka. Despite injuries, the team came away with success and confidence for the upcoming district tournament, with a top ten finish at MICDS, a victory at DeSmet, and a split at Eureka. After a blowout victory over MCC rival Chaminade on Senior Night last Thursday, the Jr. Bills traveled to MICDS for the annual Eric Lewis Invitational tournament, one of the largest tournaments of the year that features 20 teams and wrestling across six mats in Country Day’s massive gymnasium.
Though the tournament lacked the excitement of last year’s power outages that delayed its start, the Jr. Bills wrestled with more excitement on the mat this year. Four Jr. Bills wrestled into the top five in their respective weight classes, leading the Jr. Bills to a top ten overall finish despite five holes in the lineup. Senior Joe Mungenast, who normally wrestles at 170, remained on the bench with a concussion. He hopes to return in time to make a run at districts. Heavyweight Alec Abeln and junior Sam Wilhelm, at 220, also didn’t wrestle; Wilhem sustained a hand injury on Friday that prevented him from wrestling the second half of the tournament. The Jr. Bills didn’t wrestle at 195 and 160.
Sophomores Brandon Bollinger (113 pounds) and Sean Mulligan (120 pounds) both wrestled to third place finishes. “They both wrestled well,” said coach Sean O’Brien. “Great finals matches.” Mulligan got himself in a tough spot in his third place match, but rather than panicking, remained calm and regained control of the match to earn the victory. MICDS was the third medal finish for both sophomores this year, who have stepped up as underclassmen. Fellow sophomore Jim Onder finished fifth at 132. “He’s really figuring it out,” said O’Brien of Onder. “He’s doing what he’s supposed to do and doing it well.”
Senior captain Will Whitney also wrestled to a fifth place finish, defeating the eventual tournament champion along the way. Meanwhile, freshman Collin Arroyo stepped up for the varsity team, wrestling with grit despite his inexperience. The Jr. Bills topped rival DeSmet, the final MCC dual meet of the season, and a decisive factor in the final conference standings. “We needed as many points as possible,” said O’Brien. “Guys came out and wrestled for the pin, even though we had a few mental mistakes that cost us some extra points.” The team and coaches are unsure of who the MCC champion will be, though it appears that SLUH has an even shot at earning the title.
The Jr. Bills also competed in a tri-meet Wednesday night at Eureka, where they handily defeated Oakville and lost to home team Eureka. Only one dual meet against Pattonville remains before Districts, which will be held at Lindbergh High School this year and is two weeks away. “At this point in the season, we want tough matches,” said O’Brien. “Guys need to get healthy and shore up their weaknesses.” The team will take the weekend off to recover from the busy week while the JV and freshman squads will compete in the MCC tournament, the highlight of their season.
UNDERCLASSMAN SPORTS REPORTS photo | Guiseppe Viterallo
C Basketball Blue (8-2) 1/21 W 63-38 vs. Oakville
—Joe Godar
C Basketball White (6-3) 1/21 W 43-39 @ St. Mary’s
—Jack Witthaus
JV Basketball (9-2) 1/21 W 53-37 @ St Mary’s
—Tim Lally
JV Hockey 1/21 L 2-6 vs. Marquette
—Jack Robinson
JV-D Hockey 1/22 W 3-2 vs. Lutheran South C Wrestling 1/25 W 72-12 vs. Oakville 1/25 L 66-3 vs. Eureka photo | John Kissel
Above: Sophomore Andrew Slaughter drives to his right in a 51-37 loss to Chaminade. Left: Junior Sam Martel serves for the JV 2-1 racquetball team. Below: A freshman wrestler goes for a pin on the back leg of an opponent.
—Sam Fentress
—Matt Whalen
JV 1-2 Racquetball (3-5) 1/25 W 4-1 vs. CBC JV 2-2 Racquetball (1-5) 1/18 L 2-3 vs. Vianney 1/24 L 2-3 vs. Chaminade
—Thomas Riganti photo | Mark Rieke
SPORTS
January 27, 2012
Prep News Volume 76, Issue 18
Hockey takes season rubber match from CBC, 2-1 BY Justin REPORTER
Sinay
L
ast Friday night, the St. Louis U. High varsity hockey squad made its way to home ice at Affton for Senior Night and a crucial date with the CBC Cadets. The Cadets are in the driver’s seat to earn the first seed in the MidStates Hockey playoffs and currently lead the Metro Catholic Conference, one spot ahead of the Jr. Bills, likely the second seed in the playoffs. In this clash of Missouri titans, the Jr. Bills rose victorious, 2-1. The Jr. Bills also squashed the Vianney Griffins this week, defeating them 5-1 last Tuesday. The Jr. Bills and Cadets had split their previous two meetings
during the season. Hoping to continue their recent trend of scoring first, the Jr. Bills netted the first goal of the game with 3:16 left in the first period as junior Nick Walters slid the puck between the legs of the CBC goalie on a pass from senior Dan Warnecke. Senior Trent Lulow was also credited with an assist. Walters said, “It’s really easy to score when I’m on a line with two guys as good as Dan (Warnecke) and Trent (Lulow). I really can’t describe how amazing it feels to score in a game like this.” The Jr. Bills extended their lead to two in the second period when Warnecke tapped in a loose puck in front of the net with just over eleven minutes to play in the
period. CBC scored early in the third period, then attacked senior goalie Thomas Place with a barrage of shots, but Place held his own. “Thomas (Place) and the defense were excellent,” said head coach Charlie Busenhart. Junior defenseman Tommy Croghan added, “Thomas was the real difference in my opinion, especially late in the game, when they had a bunch of good scoring chances.” Place saved 23 of 24 shots. Busenhart said, “(CBC and SLUH) played like the number 1 and 2 teams in the playoffs,” and that he “can’t recall beating CBC twice in a season.” Busenhart said, “After two ties (against Chaminade and
DeSmet), we were trying to emphasize team play throughout the entire game. Individual play can win games, but team play wins championships.” The Jr. Bills didn’t have long to celebrate their victory over the Cadets, as they had to play again last Tuesday against Vianney. After a scoreless first period, the Jr. Bills held a 3-1 lead by the time second intermission rolled around. The final score was 5-1, as junior Chase Berger notched a hat trick, with Warnecke and senior Joey Luongo also tallying goals. Busenhart praised senior Tim Coleman, saying, “Several goal opportunities were created by great screening of the goalie by Tim.” The last game of the regular
7
season is tomorrow night at 7:45 at the Affton Ice Rink against Fox. The playoffs start on Feb. 2. The Bills have been in the state semifinals each of the past four seasons, and this year doesn’t appear to be any different. Despite their deep runs in the playoffs, the Jr. Bills have only had a taste of the Challenge Cup Championship atmosphere at the Scottrade Center once, in 2009 when the Jr. Bills lost to CBC. Walters said, “Going into the playoffs, we’re confident we can play with anyone. When all of our lines are playing as well as they are, and (Place) is stopping everything, we’re a tough team to beat.”
SLUH shores up shots in Haselhorst, sophomores show success over St. Marys promise for JV hockey BY Brian REPORTER
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Dugan
or most of the season, the St. Louis U. High basketball team has struggled to make its shots. This past Saturday, that finally changed. Thanks in large part to sophomore guard Austin Sottile’s 24 points and senior guard Matt Clark’s 18 points, SLUH defeated the St. Mary’s Dragons 6958, snapping a five-game losing streak that dated back to Dec. 29. “It was a tough game because it was just a physical game,” said junior forward Zach Greiner. “But it was a good one to finally get because we should’ve beaten them pretty badly, which we did.” After failing to post a shooting percentage higher than 40 percent during its losing streak, the Jr. Bills made 58 percent of their shots against the Dragons. From the opening few minutes, when they jumped out to a quick 16-2 lead, the Jr. Bills seemed to score on each possession. Sottile’s show from beyond the three-point arc was perhaps the most impressive performance of the afternoon, as he made five of his six attempts en route to an overall shooting line of nine for 11. “I made my first couple shots, and then I just kept shooting,” said Sottile. Clark also put forth a spectacular game, falling just two assists short of a triple-double as he finished with eight assists and 13 rebounds to go with his 18 points. “He was coming off the injury, just getting healthy again, so it was good to have him open up a little bit,” said head coach John Ross. “His numbers were respectable for anybody.” Senior Daniel Schmidt also provided one of his best games of the year as he carried the Jr. Bills down the stretch. Taking advantage of his 6-foot-5 frame against a short St. Mary’s team, Schmidt
grabbed 10 rebounds and put up 17 points, mainly off of layups. Schmidt also sank five of his seven free throws. The team did have a few challenges to overcome, however. Whenever it seemed that SLUH had a chance to put the game away, St. Mary’s found a way to nick away at the lead. In each of the first and third quarters, the Dragons rode 7-0 runs to the buzzer, diminishing leads of 14 and 19, respectively. The Jr. Bills also got into foul trouble, as they let the Dragons enter the bonus with over five minutes remaining in the second quarter. They calmed down in the second half, however, recording only six fouls. Two injury scares made Jr. Bill fans antsy. In the second quarter, Sottile was poked in the eye and immediately went down with his hands covering his face. Fortunately, though, Sottile managed to stay in the game after a brief delay. “I thought I lost my contact, but it just got knocked around,” said Sottile. “But I’m good now.” Toward the end of the game, Greiner was knocked down near the basket as he drove in for a layup. After staying on the floor for a few seconds, Greiner gingerly got up and limped around beneath the basket. Thankfully, Greiner stayed in the game to shoot his free throws and play a few more possessions before resting his ankle. With the injuries causing minimal concern, SLUH hopes that it can continue to shoot well this week, the Jr. Bills travel to the state capitol to take on Jefferson City tonight at 7:00, and then host the Kirkwood Pioneers on Wednesday night at 6:00. “If we can shoot the ball like we did at St. Mary’s, we can beat a lot of teams,” said Ross. “That’s the biggest issue right now: how well we can shoot.”
photo | Mr. Matt Sciuto
A JV hockey player battles along the boards. The team was on a five game winning streak until falling to Marquette.
Jack Robinson REPORTER
C
oming up on the halfway point of the season, the St. Louis U. High JV hockey team (711-2) looks to continue its recent success and build on its impressive five-game winning streak. The season got off to a patchy start as the Jr. Bills put up a modest 1-2-2 record for the month of November. Junior captain Ben Modde said, “At the beginning of the season we were still struggling to find a groove with our very young team. Catching fire recently, we
are still practicing hard and looking forward to our last couple games before the playoffs.” Though young, the sophomores on the JV squad have played a key part of the Jr. Bills’ recent success. Sharpshooting sophomores Liam Fitzgerald and Stan Palow have had no trouble finding the back of the net throughout the first part of the season. Sophomore goalkeeper Brendan Hazelhorst has kept the Jr. Bills’ net clean, posting an impressive record of five shutouts in regular season play so far.
After winning five straight from the end of December to the middle of January, the JV Jr. Bills lost 6-2 against Marquette and look to bounce back in their last two games of the year. The JV team faces CBC and DeSmet on back to back nights starting Jan. 29. “We’ve started to pick it up and are on a run that will hopefully carry on throughout the playoffs,” said sophomore Mitchell Clauss. The team is focusing its energy on the playoffs, which are coming up in February.
Racquetball Nightbeat BY Fritz Simmon REPORTER
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LUH dropped two, but managed to hold on to defeat Parkway West last night. Both junior A.J. Cirillo and senior Rob Laurentius lost in very close matches. This was
Cirillo's first loss and Laurentius's second of the season. The Jr. Bills were able to rebound, though, and win the other five matches. The highlight of the night came from a 14-15, 15-14, 11-8, win in a marathon match between the SLUH and Parkway
West doubles teams. Though SLUH won, this was the first time they had lost two games in one match all season. Parkway West is definitely proving to be SLUH's top competition for State.
8 Basketball team collects shoes for drinking water SODAPOP
Prep News
Volume 76, Issue 18
BY Jack Kiehl REPORTER
W
hile the St. Louis U. High basketball team may be busy as the season progresses, they still have time to sponsor a fundraiser to collect shoes for the Shoeman Water Project. The Shoeman Water Project is a non-profit charity founded by George “the Shoeman” Hutchings in 2008 that collects shoes which are then resold around the world. The funds that come from the shoes are used to build wells for clean drinking water in countries such as Kenya. In the past three years, the project has collected over 1.5 million pairs of shoes, creating more than 250 wells, enough to have helped over 200,000 people. “Every fifteen seconds a child dies in the world from contaminated water,” said Director of Donor Relations Rich Kim. Just one well that is drilled in a community can have a positive effect
by providingv healthier conditions and helping the economy. The project, which was founded in St. Louis, has gained support from all over Missouri. The Shoeman Water Project was the St. Louis Cardinals’ fundraiser for Green Week, and when Mizzou held the project they broke the world record for the longest chain of shoes, which they set on one of their soccer fields. Basketball coach John Ross heard about the program and felt that it was a good cause and something that many families could easily do. “Everybody has extra pairs of shoes lying around that they never wear,” said Ross. Since there are so many people that have extra shoes, the project can collect thousands from one fundraiser and can export them to places like South America and Haiti. “(The shoes) will probably just end up in a landfill” if they’re not donated, said Kim.
The team is hoping to collect over 5,000 pairs of shoes, a goal they feel could even be doubled if they receive enough support. The fundraiser begins next Tuesday, Jan. 31, when SLUH basketball plays Kirkwood at home. During the game, freshman players will collect shoes as people arrive. Everyone who turns in a pair of shoes will also receive a raffle ticket, which could win them a gift donated by the SLUH basketball team. For the rest of the week, the basketball players will go to classrooms during homeroom to collect shoes. “I just think that it’s something that’s very easy for everybody to do,” said Ross. Kim will be at SLUH on Monday to talk in the theatre during activity period about what the organization does. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend to learn more about the fundraiser.
Pro-Life marches through cold and confusion BY Mitch STAFF
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Mackowiak
wenty members of the Students for Life Club, led by moderator David Callon, president David Laughlin, and Richard Brennan, father of junior Kevin, journeyed to Washington, D.C. last weekend and participated in the slightly more disorganized than usual March for Life. Since the group arrived in the district Saturday afternoon, they had roughly two days before the actual march scheduled for Monday, and Callon did not see this as wasted time. Callon organized a dinner presentation with two speakers on Sunday night. One of them was the president of the Consistent Life Network, an organization of Christians, nonChristians, and non-believers who are committed to understanding the links between issues like euthanasia, nuclear weaponry, abortion, and capital punishment. “That was a group that wanted to share a perspective on how really to be pro-life means to look at all the ways our culture seems to think of life as something pretty cheap,” said Callon. “We didn't all agree with that speaker.” The other speaker worked for the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (NHCLA). The NHCLA's mission is to amend the Constitution to grant personhood to an unborn child, as the Fourteenth Amendment granted personhood to all African-Americans. Saturday was spent with a little sight-seeing of the monuments around the National Mall. “What's kind of cool is that a lot of the sight-seeing is about people who have given their lives to protect our freedoms,” said Callon. “Abraham Lincoln talking about what makes us great, and Martin Luther King talking to us about how important it is that we stand up to injustice, and how important it is that we speak against vio-
lence, and it's funny because the messages of Washington D.C. themselves all kind of enforce the message of the pro-life movement.” The group also held discussions and evening prayer at their hotel. “Dr. Callon was good in preparing us so that we had our nighty discussions to prepare for the march and to analyze our pro-life views and how we've grown to truly believe in our pro-life ideals that we have,” said junior Joel Ocampo. On Sunday, students split into groups and visited the various museums. The group also had the opportunity to visit Georgetown University for a pseudo-college trip, where the underclassmen and juniors were conducted on a private tour by SLUH alumnus and 2010-'11 ASC volunteer Tim Huether. On Monday morning the group attended Mass at St. Aloysius and met up with other Jesuit schools that came for the march. A student from one of the other schools spoke to the assembly about how his mom was going to abort him, but she was convinced by pro-life supporters outside the Planned Parenthood building not to abort him. The weather for the march was not ideal: cold and rainy. But the group's morale did not flag. “We started singing songs and got other people to join us, actually. It was a really fun time even though it was kinda rainy and cold,” said Ocampo. “Dr. Callon also led us into some chants and he made some improv verses for 'This Little Light of Mine.'” Normally, the marchers would congregate on the grounds in the National Mall, but they were closed due to construction, so confusion ensued. “People were just going wherever they could go,” said Callon, “and we did spend about thirty minutes wondering, 'Is this—are we marching? Is this the march?'”
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The lack of grounds also shortened the normally two to three hour march to something around one hour. “There were tons of people, and most people had some kind of banner. Some people were giving out signs for everyone—everyone had something to show that they were pro-life,” said sophomore Patrick Mooney of his first experience of the march. “There was a band that was playing 'Hail, Holy Queen,' so we joined in and started a pretty large group singing, 'O, Maria.'” “Sometimes we'd be walking above everyone else on a platform as we tried to get to where we were going in the crowd, and it was awesome to look out and see everybody with their different signs, but all saying the same thing, which was, 'Life,'” said freshmen Joseph Slama. Junior August John thought some of the signs were a little too intense for the march. “There were signs of aborted children. That was really graphic and, I thought, kind of classless. I thought it would be sort of classy, the sort of march where they wouldn't resort to just trying to scare people, but to try to really urge the issues instead of the signs,” said John. Junior Justin Seaton initially expected more of a vacation. “I went into (the trip) thinking it was mostly a trip to see DC and see the sights, because I'm new to the whole pro-life club deal, but it was a lot more powerful than I expected it to be,” he said. “It was just cool to see everyone around us actually feeling really passionate about the cause, and it was kind of infectious. So (the march) was a bigger part of the weekend than I expected it to be.” Said Callon of the trip, “I describe it as a pilgrimage, and that's really a journey that you take that removes you from your everyday world, and in doing that heightens your awareness about what it is you're traveling for.”
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January 27, 2012
Friday, January 27
Schedule R
Last Day of Senior Project AP Freshman Class Mass Snack—Apple Strudel Sticks 5:30pm B Basketball @ Jefferson City 7pm V Basketball @ Jefferson City Lunch Special—Chicken Strips Healthy—Country Fried Steak
Saturday, January 28 9am C/JV Wrestling @ MCC Tournament 7:45pm V Hockey vs. Fox @ Affton Ice Rink
Sunday, January 29 7:45pm JV Hockey vs. CBC @ Affton Ice Rink
Monday, January 30
Schedule R Seniors Return AP Shoe Man Presentation Snack—Mini Burritos 4pm C Basketball (Blue) vs. Gibault 5:15pm C Basketball (White) vs. Gibault 7:45pm JV Hockey vs. DeSmet @ Queeny Rec Plex Lunch Special—Bosco Pizza Healthy—Cheddar Cheese Omelet
Tuesday, January 31
Schedule M
Senior Project Return Ceremony AP Rosary Snack—Pretzels 4:30pm B Basketball vs. Kirkwood 6pm V Basketball vs. Kirkwood Lunch Special—Chinese Healthy—Country Fried Steak
Wednesday, February 1
Schedule R
AP 1818 Registration for Seniors Snack—Turnovers Lunch Special—Chicken Wraps Healthy—Lasagna Roll-up with sauce
Thursday, February 2 AP
Truman State University—M115 Sustainability Committee Meeting Snack—Bosco Sticks 6pm C/JV/V Wrestling vs. Pattonville Lunch Special—Papa Johns Pizza Healthy—Chicken Parmesan
Schedule R
Friday, February 3 AP 5:30pm 7pm Lunch
Schedule R Kansas State University—M115 Senior Class Mass Snack—Mozzarella Sticks B Basketball vs. DeSmet Columbia College (Sign up in Naviance) V Basketball vs. DeSmet Special—Chicken Bites Healthy—Chicken and Dumplings
photo | Mr. Matt Sciuto
Junior Joe Archer (in foreground) and other White House retreatants sit in contemplation.