PN 77-24

Prep Volume 77, Issue 24

“If nothing else, value the truth”

News sluh.org/prepnews

St. Louis University High School | Friday, April 12, 2013

A new generation: 2013-2014 STUCO student body officers elected photos | Adam Lux

photo | Sam Beckmann

photo | Sam Beckmann

“I feel like next year is going to be a great year, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Josh Keil, President-elect photo | Adam Lux

“I am really excited about pretty much Far left: Josh Keil, above left: Joe Saloman, above center: Matt Whalen, directly above: Peter Salsich, directly to right: Brian Powers, above right: Eddie Howe, Far right: Larry Hoerr

Jacob Hilmes, Jack Godar STAFF, CORE STAFF

T

he junior class has elected seven executive officers for next year’s Student Council (STUCO).

“I am thrilled with the group.

I, in many ways, am sad that I

won’t be the one working with them,” said STUCO moderator Lauren Dickens, who is departing at year’s end. “The group of guys that stepped forward, (and who) want to be involved in student body and the class, are outstanding.”

Dispatch One iPad per student at Metro East Lutheran

BY John Webb EDITOR IN CHIEF

O

n Monday, I visited Metro East Lutheran in Edwardsville, Ill., a high school where all of the students have iPads. I spent the day at Metro East for the Prep News in order to see how the ubiquitous iPads change the change the classroom environment.

Principal Curtis Wudtke required students to have iPads because he wanted to create a more engaging classroom environment, increase student responsibility, and raise participation in the classroom. Three school quarters into the change, Wudtke recognized that iPads had not yet been fully integrated into the classroom. continued on page 4

Josh Keil will be Student Body President, with Larry Hoerr as Vice President. Filling the other five positions are Joe Salamon for Publicity and Communications Representative, Peter Salsich for Intramural Representative, Brian Powers for Secretary/Treasurer,

McQuaid Jesuit first Catholic high to allow same-sex dates at dance

BY Stephen CORE STAFF

F

Lumetta

ormal dances are hallmarks of American high school social life, but lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, and queer people have often not been allowed to bring a same-sex date to them at private high schools. McQuaid Jesuit High School—an all-male school in Rochester, New York— announced during Holy Week that it would allow two gay juniors to attend their junior dance together. McQuaid is the first Catholic high school to allow LGBTQ couples into formal dances.

The McQuaid decision began when two juniors asked the administration for permission to attend their junior dance together and were told that the issue would be brought up at the next administrative board meeting, according to McQuaid Director of Communications Sean Mullen.

One of the students, growing

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 ©2013 St. Louis University High School Prep News. No material may be reprinted without the permission of the editors and moderator.

impatient, went to a local radio station and assumed that the lack of response from the administration meant that the answer was no.

In a letter sent to McQuaid parents announcing the school’s decision on Wednesday of Holy Week, President Edward Salmon, S.J., said that the student’s claim was false.

“It is simply not true, as was reported and as many seem to have assumed, that a decision had been made by McQuaid authorities not to allow the young men in question to attend the Junior Ball. No decision had been made,” Salmon’s letter said.

After the radio station incident but before the letter was sent out—McQuaid received a lot of negative attention because of the false information. The school then made its decision to allow the couple to attend the dance tocontinued on page 3 News

What is that?

You are about to enter another dimension. Next stop—the secret room at the top of the science wing staircase.

Page 5

everything.”

Matt Whalen for Pastoral Representative, and Eddie Howe for Spirit Representative.

The field was whittled to ten candidates in the preliminary elections held in the Si Commons last Friday. On Monday, the remaining candidates gave brief

presentations to the junior class in the Danis Field House, followed by final elections at lunch.

However, some students running for executive office had already won by Monday morning. Salsich, Whalen, Hoerr, and continued on page 7

Courthouse battle leaves Mock Trial second in State drawing | Paul Fister

In this courtroom sketch taken from a photo by Sam Beckmann, junior Rob Hayes presents his argument to the jury.

Leo Heinz REPORTER

T

he St. Louis U. High Mock Trial team suffered through a heart-breaking loss to Clayton in the final round of the State

News

Sigfried Reinhardt’s lithographs What’s a lithograph? New basement artwork installment inspires the question, and an investigation of St. Louis’s river city past. Page 6 News

Larry Hoerr, Vice President-elect

For the Fairest St. Louis U. High faculty members weigh Apple iPad’s worthiness in the classroom.

Page 2

Sports

competition last Sunday. At first, the team thought that it had won State for the second straight year before learning, to their dismay, that they had lost, four ballots to continued on page 7

Wheeling and dealing Water polo hits the road, deals out punishments to top Illinois rivals York, Loyola and Fenwick; falls to Illinois’ #2-ranked Lyons. Page 11 Baseball takes a fall Jesuit tournament proves another winmaker for Howard’s Basebills, but Wednesday’s 4-0 heartbreaker against Ladue mars team’s once-lossless tally. Page 9

2

Prep News Volume 77, Issue 24

NEWS

April 12, 2013

Student-run study suggests SLUH has way to go in composting

BY Jack STAFF

Kiehl

S

cience teacher Bill Anderson’s AP Environmental Science class has once again sifted through the trash, compost, and recycling bins to analyze SLUH’s waste management in the fourth lab project of its kind over the past three years, this year with new analysis of the composting bins that are new to the cafeteria.

Throughout the week, students from the environmental science class weighed and analyzed the contents of each bin after lunch to see just how much SLUH wastes.

“The amount of untouched food is an abomination,” said Anderson. “It’s interesting to see (the students’) reactions.”

After analyzing the waste after two junior/senior lunches and two freshman/sophomore lunches, the class found that an average of 6.6 pounds for the juniors and seniors and 11.1 pounds for freshman and sophomores of trash were correctly disposed of, with previous labs showing 86.9, 70.2 and 59.6 pounds properly thrown away. Averages of 5.6 and 7.8 pounds of recyclables were found in the junior/senior and freshman/sophomore trashcans, respectively, as well as an average of .7 and 4.4 pounds of dinnerware, which includes plastic forks, knives, spoons, plates, cups, and bowls that are neither recyclable nor compostable. This is a

decrease from past years, where 86.9 pounds of recyclables and 16.7 pounds of dinnerware were thrown in the trash for the first lab and 38.9 and 15.1 pounds of recycling as well as 25 and 12.4 pounds of dinnerware were disposed of in the trashcan in the two 2011-2012 labs. More troubling were the 25.2 pounds (junior/ senior) and 40.9 pounds (freshman/sophomore) of food that could have been composted. The first year the lab took place, 115.6 pounds of the contents found in the trash were compostable, and in the two labs last year showed 90.5 and 102.8 pounds of trash that could have been composted.

“It was really quite eye-opening because we got to see how much trash we actually produced and how much compost that was in the trash bin,” said senior John Kissel.

In the recycling bin, averages of 6.6 and 11.1 pounds of recyclables were properly disposed of, while a total of 32.8 pounds of non-recyclables were found in the recycling bin over the course of the four days. In the two labs last year the mass of recycling increased from 90.5 to 102.8 pounds, though neither nunbers account for non-recyclables in the recycling bins.

The composting bin was difficult to measure, as it is the only one of the three waste bins that is not emptied between lunches.

The total weight of compostable substances over the four days was

Recent garbage inventory. All numbers are in pounds. For the 2010-2011 school year, single source recycling had not been implemented.

graphics | Thomas Riganti

A breakdown of SLUH waste (in pounds) and where it was placed by students over two lunch periods.

56.2 pounds.

Analysis of all four labs shows that since the first lab, the amount of recyclables found in the trash can has reduced by half as the total amounts found in the recycling bins, whether accurate or not, has greatly increased since the introduction of recycling bins in the cafeteria. The total amount of dinnerware has also decreased in the trash cans, though that is partly because of the cateteria’s institution of more recyclable and compostable dinnerware products. Strangely enough, even with the compost bin this year, the amount of compostable material in the trash cans has continued to increase, with nearly thirty more pounds of compost improperly disposed of since last year.

Though there have been some improvements in SLUH’s handling of recycling and composting, there is still a lot of work to be done, as shown by the numbers.

“We’re still missing tons of

recycling and we’re doing a horrible job of composting,” said Anderson. “We’ve made it easier to get rid of compost (with the new bins) but there’s more showing up (in the trash).”

The school has, however, taken a big step in lunches and school functions with composting and recycling.

“With Cashbah…all the cups and bottles, all the boxes, all the catalogues were recyclable,” said Kathy Hylla. “In our kitchen, we have two compost things in there every day.”

As in the past, Anderson plans to use the results from the lab to continue to improve SLUH’s waste management, especially with knowing what can and what can’t be composted.

“We need to make sure everybody knows what goes where.

We started off pretty good with signs and a trailer but there hasn’t been a follow up after that,” said Anderson.

Anderson said that a little

bit of planning can make a large difference in the rush from the Si Commons to class.

“You can put all of your stuff in your brown paper bag and put your trash in a zip lock bag (before you leave). You can be efficient and be accurate and be responsible and not waste a lot of time standing at the recycling bin,” Anderson said. “It wouldn’t take too long to do that.”

Other plans for the cafeteria are already being discussed, with hopes to greatly increase the amount of composted and recycled waste.

“We’re trying to get to the point where there isn’t any trash (apart from) some trash that kids bring from home,” said Hylla.

Anderson plans to continue with the lab for future AP Environmental Science Classes.

“We’ve got a long way to go before we get to what we’re capable of,” said Anderson.

Another app Gilmore has begun to use recently is called “Notability,” a note-taking app with many style capabilities that Principal John Moran suggested at a recent committee meeting. Gilmore said he enjoyed taking notes on the iPad after using it at one of his graduate school classes.

Although there is speculation that iPads could end up in the hands of SLUH students and teachers in the next few years, Steingruby said there are specific drawbacks to the iPad among advantages. “(The iPad) can enhance (class time),” said Steingruby. “It can also distract from class time too, so we have to proceed slowly.

It’s got enormous potential, but at the same time it’s a little bit frightening.”

Gilmore agrees that the iPad has plentiful uses, but is unsure to what extent iPads should be used daily.

“Like any tool, it has its limitations,” said Gilmore. “But I’m going into it with an open mind, and I know more about the iPad now than I did 48 hours ago.”

O’Brien said his iPad is valu-

able to him as both a coach and teacher, but it rarely does things he wouldn’t be able to do with his phone or his laptop. O’Brien also said incorporating iPads into daily life at SLUH would require evaluation from each individual department, as iPads might be extremely useful to one department and not nearly as useful to another.

“I haven’t found too many apps that would radically transform my classroom,” said O’Brien, who noted that small, continual change (Kaizen) is important to keep in mind when dealing with new technology.

“Whatever we do with technology, there needs to be a really

big school-wide conversation as to what teachers really need in their classrooms,” said O’Brien.

“The English department might have another whole set of issues than the math department.”

Gilmore said being on the committee has been a learning experience and that he would be fine with iPads playing a part in the future of SLUH technology, but, like Steingruby and O’Brien, he said it will take time to see where iPads might fit into to SLUH’s technology program.

“I’m very comfortable with the possibility of where this is going,” said Gilmore. “Will it ever replace textbooks? I don’t know.”

Focus group continues to explore uses, limitations of iPad in classroom

BY Sam STAFF

A

Fentress

s St. Louis U. High continues to test and review ideas for its technological future, the iPad committee—a group of teachers who received iPads at the beginning of the year—and various teachers who own iPads are continuing to find innovative ways to use their iPads inside and out of the classroom.

“The latest thing that I’ve been using it for is to make some video tutorials of the topic of the day,” said math teacher Don Steingruby. “That way if a kid misses a class and needs to see something worked out, they can see it worked out and hear my voice.”

Steingruby said making videos is timeconsuming, but that they have helped students who were confused or who missed class. To make the videos, Steingruby uses an app called “Explain Everything,” the purpose of which is to “annotate, animate, and narrate explanations and presentations,” according to the app’s website.

The iPad has proved useful outside the classroom as well.

Several SLUH sports programs, including wrestling and football, have purchased athletic-related apps such as Coaches Corner and Hudl, both of which allow coaches to perform tasks like scorekeeping.

Wrestling coach Sean O’Brien, who uses Coaches Corner and Hudl, said the Dropbox app, which is akin to Google Drive, is also useful, although he often accesses it on his smartphone and not his iPad. “(The Dropbox app) is not iPad exclusive, but it’s nice in that if we have a wrestling meet, on my phone I have all the emergency cards, so now I don’t have to carry them around or worry about whether this or that happens,” said O’Brien.

Theology teacher Brian Gilmore said he often uses the Apple TV app for its projector capabilities.

“It’s basically a wireless projector hook-up,” said Gilmore.

“You can carry your iPad around the classroom and project onto the board with audio and visual and not be tied to the front of the room.”

Jr. Bills and Soviet dawn

From Volume 53, Issue 30 April 14, 1989 Twenty-four years ago this week, 15 jet-lagged students and 2 faculty members from St. Louis U. High were getting re-acclimatized to life in the United States after returning from an exchange program in the Soviet Union.

According to several reflections

from the trip, highlights of the trip included attending a press conference featuring the mayor of Moscow, riding the Metro around the city, experiencing Russian food and education, and inexplicably, receiving training in the how to assemble, disassemble, and use the famed AK-47 assault rifle on a rifle range in the school basement.

OPINION

April 12, 2013

Prep News Volume 77, Issue 24

3

McQuaid Jesuit first Catholic school to allow same-sex dance dates (continued from page 1) gether.

In his letter, Salmon quoted extensively from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Message “Always Our Children” in order to defend the decision in light of Catholic teaching about treatment of gays.

In “Always Our Children,” the bishops “call on all Christians and citizens of good will to confront their own fears about homosexuality and to curb the humor and discrimination that offend homosexual persons. We understand that having a homosexual orientation brings with it enough anxiety, pain and issues related to self-acceptance without society bringing additional prejudicial treatment.”

The bishops go on to say that “neither a homosexual orientation, nor a heterosexual one, leads inevitably to sexual activity. One’s total personhood is not reducible to sexual orientation or behavior.”

Salmon also noted that the school’s decision doesn’t mean it condones or supports gay sexual activity.

“With this decision I am not contradicting the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church with regard to human sexuality; I am not encouraging nor am I condoning homosexual activity just as I do not encourage or condone heterosexual activity at a dance,” wrote Salmon.

Mullen heard many responses from people and most of them were positive.

“We realize that we are a Catholic, Jesuit high school, but at the same time, I go back to what I heard from many people: you love the person, not the act,” said Mullen.

“You’re never going to please everybody with every decision that you make, but I would say the majority of people have embraced the decision,” said Mullen.

While McQuaid has allowed the couple to attend the dance, Mullen does not think that this policy will be codified in the

student handbook. And to his knowledge, the handbook does not already specify that dates need to be the opposite sex.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to have it be put into the handbook to say that we have to call them out specifically. I believe that if somebody comes up and asks, I would assume that it’s going to be the same answer, but it’s not going to be a specific thing that we’re going to put into our handbook,” said Mullen.

SLUH’s own student handbook says the following about dance policy: “We support and encourage these events … to introduce to the students a more formal, social setting and also to help formulate proper manners and behavior between males and females. Dates of opposite gender are required.”

A Prep News feature from 2003 (“Homosexuality at St. Louis U. High,” Volume 68, issue 15) reported that many faculty members thought that going to a formal dance implied a sexual or marital relationship or was geared toward a sexual outcome.

Jeff Harrison, S.J., wrote in a letter that SLUH was “freighting our dances with much more meaning and purpose than they can bear.”

Then-senior Dan Lieser, who brought a male date to Fall Ball (Lieser and his date were let into the dance after showing up unannounced, but the article only says he was dealt with later), agreed with Harrison in 2003.

“While I think it is important to socialize with women, I don’t think it needs to be the sole purpose of the dance. I think that you are also with your guy friends from SLUH and your dates are part of that experience, but I don’t see why (the dates) have to be women,” Lieser said at the time.

No one has asked for permission to bring a same-sex date to a formal dance in recent years, according to Assistant Principal for Mission Jim Linhares, and so the question remains abstract at SLUH.

“It’s such a hypothetical,” said Linhares on the question of reviewing the policy. “Nobody has asked. When somebody makes a point of asking for something to be thought through, SLUH is pretty good at responding.”

Assistant Principal for Student Life Brock Kesterson echoed Linhares’s statements.

“It depends on where as a school we are with a conversation like that. … I don’t know until that person came to talk to me how that conversation would look because we don’t know how that culture may have changed before that. Bottom line: it’s part of a conversation,” said Kesterson.

Linhares said he could not take McQuaid’s situation and decision and project it onto SLUH. “If we were to delve into the McQuaid situation, we’d find a whole story there, a history, a process they went through. And that’s a pretty worthy object of our attention: what happened at McQuaid,” said Linhares. “Then there’s the whole question of

SLUH. We haven’t even started a process … we’re our own community, they’re their community.”

If SLUH were to review its dance policy, it would not be a quick decision, according to Kesterson.

“I think we just have to be thorough and do our due diligence and not make any rash decisions, certainly. I think you have to talk to, and explore, whatever resources that are out there: counseling, Church documents, Church teachings, other schools, other administrators. You bring into account all those groups to see what is best for SLUH to move forward. If you leave somebody out, then the decision isn’t fully thought out and fully represented,” said Kesterson.

Today, it is common for public schools to allow same-sex dates to formal dances. Aaron Fricke broke the same-sex date barrier in 1980 when he successfully sued his public school for the right to bring a same-sex date to a dance in Fricke v. Lynch. Since

that landmark court case, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has successfully fought several court cases to ensure that LGBTQ couples enjoy the same access to dances as opposite-sex couples.

McQuaid’s announcement comes a little more than three months after the University of Notre Dame’s administration announced it would recognize a gay-straight alliance (GSA) as a student organization. The Notre Dame administration determined that the GSA was not in violation of Catholic teaching.

Said Linhares on recent events with Catholic institutions’ policies toward LGBTQ people: “What I think it means is that the conversation is about to enter another chapter. People are getting ready to restart this conversation, and it’s going to be the next round of open exchange. And I’m glad of that. I think it’s needed.”

photo | Joe Kreienkamp

Student Councilheld a blood drive this Wednesday. 56 students offered their veins to nurses. Above, English teacher Rich Moran donates while enjoying a good read.

Letter Our Little Haven thanks SLUH for contributions To the editors: Hello from Our Little Haven!

We wanted to send this note to offer you our thanks for helping us! The community has invited us to care for children—mind, body, and soul—and your gift has allowed us to continue these efforts. “Thank you” doesn’t seem adequate to express our appreciation for your support and consideration. But it is the least we can do! Please know we are honored and grateful for you sharing with these kids and families! We thank you for your gift of the $10,000— we will put your generous gift to good use!

We are excited about the future for these very special children, as you have allowed us an opportunity to make a significant, lasting, and positive impact. Your

gift of sharing will help to heal these children with broken bones and broken hearts, and help every child feel cherished and loved.

Your gift of caring allows us the opportunity to fix that broken spirit. And your gift of thoughtfulness helps build a strong foundation of love upon which these kids can base their future decisions.

Please know that your kind consideration will make a significant contribution to the children, and on behalf of the children we all serve, please accept our heartfelt thanks and best wishes.

Sincerely, Scott & Kathleen Hummel, Our Little Haven The cartoon does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Prep News or St. Louis U. High.

4

Prep News Volume 77, Issue 24

NEWS

April 12, 2013

All iPad school has challenges, advantages and more of the same (continued from page 1) “We’re certainly not there yet, where I want to be with the use of iPads, … but we’re moving in the right direction,” said Wudtke.

Students could buy the iPad themselves, or buy or rent it from the school. Students receiving financial assistance were allowed to rent the iPad from the school at a reduced rate.

After I arrived in the main office, I realized that I was in an environment with unique challenges and advantages. The moment I walked into the office, a student asked the secretary, “Can I borrow an iPad charger? I forgot mine at home.”

English teacher Hope Thiesen-Claxton told me that she keeps an iPad charger with her at all times so her students can’t use a dead battery as an excuse for missing work. I was assured, however, that as long as students charged the iPad every night, they could be assured that the charge would last throughout the day.

Distractions, distractions I sat at the back in all of my classes so I could observe if the students were using their iPads constructively during class.

In my first class, a geometry class I immediately spotted the largest disadvantage: distractions.

In the front row, a kid was playing Big Win Sports, a basketball game, on his iPad. And throughout the day I saw students secretly work on their English essays for “The Bear” in history class, look up news about the South Carolina Gamecocks, and use Snapchat to send messages to people across the room. iPads represented a real and constant temptation even for students who wanted to pay attention.

Throughout the day, though, I didn’t find iPads to be much of a distraction. Sure, there were always a few students distracted by their devices during class, but there are always a few distracted students in any class. These iPad-

distracted students never numbered more than about three or four students at a given time, and senior classes seemed to be more on-task than classes with younger students. Students also seemed to use their iPads as a diversion towards the end of class, when they tired of the lecture or needed a break from working, patterns I’ve seen at SLUH as well.

At around 250 students, Metro East is a small school, so I observed a few classes with many of the same people. Students playing games in one class seemed to be the same culprits in other classes.

It seemed that the same students that wanted to pay attention were still able to do so without being too tempted by their iPads.

Metro East and its teachers have also taken some steps to limit distractions. The school firewall blocks Facebook and Twitter, as well as gaming websites. There were a few holes in the system, though. Snapchat, a popular new social networking app, seemed to have slipped through the firewall, and students can play games downloaded as apps.

Teachers who walked around the room were also more proficient in limiting extraneous iPad use. During pre-calculus, math teacher Tim Lorenz walked around the room and called out a kid who was working on his physics homework. By just pointing out one unwanted use of the iPad, he kept the rest of the class on track.

“There’s an eternal struggle between teacher and student, between what you want to do and we want you to do,” said Lorenz.

Lorenz also said that the way he deals with student distraction differs from student to student.

He said that he gives some students a little more freedom with their iPads because they use them constructively and benefit from thinking about two things at once, while for others the distraction can be destructive.

But ain’t it cool

The class where the iPads were best used in was English. In the class I observed, students were given a day to work on a research paper about a famous American author of their choosing. Instead of heading down to the library or pulling out a laptop cart, students were able to start working on their assignment immediately on their iPad. It’s probably no coincidence that English teacher Hope Theisen-Claxton was the most enthusiastic faculty member I met about integrating iPads into the classroom. She records her lectures and then sends them out to students who were absent.

“I like that students can never say, ‘I don’t have my books,’ because all of their books are on their iPads,” said Theisen-Claxton.

Theisen-Claxton also said that an underappreciated benefit of having iPads was the savings in paper. Instead of printing out copies of William Faulkner’s “The Bear” for the entire class, she just had them read the story on their iPads.

After taking a glace at my handwriting, Theisen-Claxton also said that having students type their notes was a better way to record information and ensure that they have it later.

I was concerned that typing on the iPads would be a major disadvantage. Most of the students I talked to said that while they could type faster using a keyboard, they had got used to typing on the iPad and said that it wasn’t too much of a hassle. A lot of the students’ cases also included a keyboard that plugged into the iPad. Students weren’t required to type notes using their iPads. In most classes about half the students used the devices to take notes. Numbers were lower in classes like math, where a lot of note-taking involved numbers and equations, which are more difficult to add on the iPad. Students seemed to find iPads the most useful for the classes in which they took the most notes.

Some students thought hav-

ing iPads in the classroom helped them, while others thought it was just a superficial, flashy change that made their school more attractive to potential students.

Most students that I talked to agreed that it hadn’t significantly altered the dynamic of the classroom.

A room without ebooks...

Metro East initiated its iPad policy this school year, and it was clear they were still trying to work out some kinks in the system. Currently, they use ebooks in less than half their classes. Next year, Wudtke plans to initiate a policy mandating that all teachers use ebooks, provided the book exists in electronic format. This year, however, is an odd sort of limbo between digital and print.

Some of this was not Metro East’s fault, since textbook publishers have been scrambling, and sometimes failing, to keep up with the emerging ebook market.

Even the ebooks they were using had their own anomalies.

For instance, the geometry ebook had some information missing from one problem, so the class had to look it up in a paper copy of the book. The geometry ebook also didn’t have an electronic teacher’s edition, so there was some trouble converting between the teacher edition’s page numbers and the ebook’s “location,” an ebook’s version of a page number.

The ebook did have some interesting advantages. For instance, the lesson was on the area of a circle. After I scrolled past the lesson, I found a multiple-choice quiz I could take and get immediate feedback on how well I was mastering the concept. Other paper textbooks have similar online quizzes, but the accessibility of the quiz was a really nice feature.

Some of the flashy advantages of ebooks fell flat, though.

Next to a word problem about tree circumference was a “RealWorld link.” After I clicked on the link it took me to a 15-second slideshow of trees that would add

little to someone’s educational experience.

Science teacher Katie Hanson told me that she was using an ebook for her chemistry class but couldn’t find an ebook for her forensic science class. She hadn’t been using too many virtual labs, because they required Adobe Flash Player, which is not currently compatible with iPads.

Another kink in the system were apps. Besides a few word processing and research apps the school purchased for every student at the beginning of the year, teachers basically only used free apps, which limited the range of apps they could use. Metro East is still in the process of assessing technology to integrate into the classroom by sending teachers to seminars and talking with other iPad-using schools.

Leaving Lutheran Metro East, I wasn’t convinced that iPads were a big, paradigm-altering distraction in the classroom, but neither did I discover any innovative uses of technology that really blew me away. In part, this is because SLUH already has access to and uses some of the same technology that iPads provide, in the form of laptop carts. The technology hasn’t changed, but its platform has.

School, with iPads or without iPads, still felt like school. It was merely another step in the technology evolution, rather than a revolution in teaching or a descent into chaos in the classroom.

I had expected both sides of the extreme to be more clearly represented, but reality was somewhere in the murky middle. That’s not to say that iPads don’t have their advantages, but those advantages don’t seem to be substantial enough to justify putting that technology in the hands of every student at the moment. The technology will eventually get to the point where it will become worth it, but I didn’t get the sense that it was there yet.

Medical Careers Club tours BJC cancer center, emergency room

BY David REPORTER

T

Schmelter

he Medical Careers Club kicked off the fourth quarter with a visit to Barnes Jewish Hospital on Monday, April 1. Six SLUH students and moderator Tim O’Keefe toured the Radiological Oncology Cancer Treatment Center and Emergency Room.

At the Radiology Center the students were walked through the radiology treatment process.

They learned about the physics behind setting up the systems, implementing dosages, making sure that the treatment hits a tumor but not the surrounding tissue, and analyzing the data.

“It was good for the guys to see all the jobs that are needed even for that,” O’Keefe said of the

radiology treatment process. “A lot of times people think that at a hospital it is just the doctors and the nurses.”

Rather, O’Keefe said, there are lots of technicians working behind the scenes, setting up the radiology treatments and analyzing data.

The club also toured the Barnes Hospital ER. They learned about all of the different roles that are needed: nurses, physicians, physical therapists, and assistants, who all handle the traffic that goes through the hospital’s ER on a daily basis.

“The first thought that everyone has about going into medicine is being a doctor. On this trip we didn’t even talk to one doctor, though,” senior Joel Ocampo said.

“The nurses showed us what they did in the ER, and as far as the Oncology Department goes, we learned about what different radiology technicians and the physics engineers did.”

O’Keefe provides club members with many opportunities to learn about what it is like going into different medical fields.

On Wednesday, April 17 during Activity Period, the club will host a guest speaker, Dr. Jason Young, ’98, who will speak about some of the orthopedic surgeries that he performs and will also talk briefly about his medical education. All interested students are welcome. “(It’s) a great club to discover what it truly means to work in medicine,” said Ocampo.

photo |Mr. Tim O’Keefe

The Medical Careers Club poses at a visit to Barnes Jewish Christian hospital.

NEWS

April 12, 2013

Prep News Volume 77, Issue 24

What is that?

BY Joe Kreienkamp CORE STAFF

E

very chemistry student has wondered about the small brown door on at least one of his climbs to the third floor science classrooms. Many students have gone up the narrow stairwell, maybe to knock on the door, or even to try to open it.

Upperclassmen and Gadfly Youtube admirers may recall when Will Bufe, ’10, conducted a “SLUH Paid for It” installment on an episode of Gadfly TV, in which Bufe looked to science teacher Charlie Busenhart for answers to the mysterious door.

The room, Busenhart said, was where illicit chemicals—the key to his retirement plan—were stored. Being a Gadfly stunt, though, all the information that Busenhart provided was false.

The Prep News decided to confront Busenhart about the door. Mr. B, what is it? Busenhart had an answer, and thanks to the maintenance staff, all students can now know what currently dorms

in the deserted passageway.

What is now an unused closet was once valuable to the school.

According to Busenhart, in the 1930s, a giant chimney led from the old cafeteria stoves. “(The chimney) ran all the way through the third floor, and here on the third floor was a huge fan and it had a big belt,” said Busenhart. “It was running all day and it emptied out all the smoke and the grease from the cafeteria.”

Sometimes, people would be sent down the chute to clean grease from the air ports.

In the 1980s, when the ventilation system was installed in the alley, the room lost its use. However, Bob Overkamp, a SLUH math teacher and computer guru at the time, kept computer parts in the abandoned room.

“When we ran out of computer space, or didn’t know what to do with the stuff, it got carried all the way upstairs,” said Busenhart.

In the ’90s, most of the computer parts were moved, and stu-

5

photos | Joe Kreienkamp

dent council used it for storage.

After 2000, though, the room was hardly visited.

After Busenhart tried to provide access with some of his old keys but was unsuccessful, the Prep News was assisted by the maintenance staff member Mike Harlan, who opened up the door, which had clearly not been opened in quite a while. Once opened, a thick sheet of dust on the door was immediately visible.

In order to enter, you have to squat to fit through the short opening, but once through, the room opens up. Directly in front of the entrance, stretching about nine feet back are two bookshelves filled with old books, teaching materials, and Mac and Microsoft boxes. The rest of the room is dimly lit and about nine feet deep and ten feet wide, with an opening in the side that looks like a fireplace, and an opening above that leads to the roof. On the inside of the wall that is visible to students, there is a blocked-up window.

Top right: The brown mysterious door, rarely seen open, looms over the science classrooms. Bottom right: Upon entry into the room, one is greeted by two bookshelves. To the right of the bookshelves, there is a space (see photo to the left). The bookshelves contain old science magaizines and books. Most of the books date from the 1970s. Left: On the right side of the bookshelves, there is a space filled with books and computer parts. The Microsoft box, sitting in a crevice, blocks a wall of the shaft. Above the shot taken, a hole in the ceiling leads up to the building’s roof.

Quiz Bowl fourth in field of eight

BY Sidarth REPORTER

S

Iyer

t. Louis U. High’s varsity Scholar Bowl team competed in the Parkway West Varsity Invitational Tournament last Saturday. Seniors Dominic LaMantia, Kieran Connolly, and Nathan Mackey played for the Jr. Bills, alongside juniors Noah Weber and Sidarth Iyer.

The tournament included seven other local high school teams and featured an unusual layout in which each team played all other comers. To win, the top team needed two more wins than the next best team at the end of the preliminaries. If this did not occur, the two top teams would play for first and second place.

Despite the absence of three strong regulars, the Jr. Bills only

suffered losses to rivals Priory and Lutheran South. Lutheran South pummeled the Jr. Bills by over a hundred points. A tournament highlight was beating DeSmet in their head-to-head match.

With five wins and two losses, the Jr. Bills did not qualify for the championship match between Lutheran South and Priory. SLUH had achieved the same overall record as DeSmet, and the third place position was decided based on which team had achieved a better point differential throughout their seven-game day. Both teams waited tensely in Parkway West’s library while tournament officials ran the statistics to decide third place.

The announcement came down that DeSmet had won third place, having bested SLUH by a mere one-and-a-half questions.

“Though getting fourth place in a tournament of eight teams doesn’t sound that impressive, it’s a really weird grading scale,” pro-

visional team captain LaMantia said.

“It was nice beating DeSmet, though it would have been nice to beat our traditional rivals, Priory,” Mackey said.

Another highlight for the Jr. Bills was senior Kieran Connolly’s standout individual performance.

Connolly was recognized as the tournament’s top scorer, averaging roughly 70 points a game.

Corrections In the St. Ignatius Prep box (page 9), the photo was taken by Leo Heinz, not Luke Miller.

In the article about SLUH students going to China (page 2) last week, it said that students are supplied a scholarship from the Chinese government. Scholarships are not supplied by the Chinese government, but by Dr. Ching-Ling Tai. The Prep News regrets these errors.

iFree Day Campus Ministry will hold iFree Day next Friday, April 19 (right after Car Free Day). All electronics will be banned from Campus Ministry offices, with puzzles, board games, newspapers, and other non-electronic entertainment in their place. Students can also relinquish their cell phones to Campus Ministry for the day if they so choose. Contact Mr. Gilmore for more information.

6

Prep News Volume 77, Issue 24

NEWS

April 12, 2013

Reinhardt lithos depict scenes of Missouri’s past, grace basement hall photos | Ben Banet

BY Keith REPORTER

Thomas

T

here has been a change of scenery in the St. Louis U. High basement hallway. Old paintings have now been replaced by lithographs by Siegfried Reinhardt, a German-born artist who lived in St. Louis for most of his life. Lithographs are produced by

drawing a picture or writing on a flat, specially-prepared stone, with an oily substance, and drawing over it in ink.

Tim Drone, ’68, donated all of the paintings. He has also donated most of the artifacts now located in the library.

“It’s trying to get art out to the students,” said former princi-

Fair trade expert meets with Pax Christi in wake of survey

BY Will STAFF

T

Smith

he recent online survey on fair trade conducted by a group of student organizations (see last week’s Prep News) has prompted Pax Christi to invite Dr. Shannon O’Neill to meet with the group Monday to discuss what St. Louis U. High can do to promote fair trade.

O’Neill is the coordinator of St. Louis’s Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America (IFCLA), a nonprofit organization that works for social justice in Latin America.

O’Neill came to SLUH last February to help promote a letter-writing campaign to encourage action on sweatshops. This time, she met with Pax Christi at its meeting Monday and helped the group reflect on courses of action after the Jim Keady presentation on sweatshop labor, and the survey on fair trade.

“We had some momentum from the survey and we wanted to keep the ball rolling on fair trade because it as taken a lot of work to

get this far and we still have more to do,” said sophomore Rick Garner.

O’Neill and Pax Christi members discussed the survey during the meeting to assess where SLUH students stand on fair trade. At the meeting, the group also debated whether it would be possible to implement fair trade apparel in sports. They acknowledged that it might be difficult for sports teams to have fair trade jerseys, because for some sports there are only a few companies that sell the clothes needed for that sport. The meeting also addressed what other Jesuit schools across the country are doing with fair trade and how SLUH could learn from them.

“She suggested that we contact the United Students Against Sweatshops and maybe they could help us,” said Pax Christi moderator Rob Garavaglia.

The United Students Against Sweatshops is a national student labor organization fighting for workers’ rights.

pal Dr. Robert Bannister, ’54, who now oversees the school’s art collection. “(The drawings) are much more historical, and so I think that was one of the reasons why the donor did it.”

The lithographs focus on St. Louis’s industrial era and its national importance as a bustling port on the Mississippi River.

With Reinhardt’s St. Louis influence, the drawings seemed to be a perfect fit for the downstairs hallway.

They also depict figures such as Sarah and William Edenborn

and various inventors and railroad giants. One drawing depicts the Edenborn Line, a railway in Louisiana with a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt with a Teddy bear on his back. The drawings offer a historical feel and a chance to look back on the history of St. Louis as a whole.

The drawings also tell a story of how St. Louis and New Orleans were prominent trading centers, and how they helped the young country grow. One drawing features the riverboat Natchez, one of the main riverboats of the mid-

19th century, which was named after the tribe of Indians native to southern Mississippi.

“I really hope that students can focus on the artwork and appreciate it,” Drone said. “My goal is to try and get artwork out to the SLUH students so that they can learn from it and admire it.”

Reinhardt also painted the still life by the new elevator near the old cafeteria. One of his murals about the history of aviation is prominently featured at Lambert Airport.

Prep News “Subjects We’d Write Songs About” Volume 77, Issue 24 Credits Editor-in-Chief John “Dumb Math Jokes” Webb News Editor Adam “Travails of My People” Thorp Web Editor Mitch “Twine!” Mackowiak Sports Editors Brian “Ballad for Adam Wainwright” Dugan Clark “Mr. John Mueller” DeWoskin Core Staff Jack “Hot Dogs” Godar Stephen “Feminism” Lumetta Joe “Taylor Swift” Kreienkamp

Staff Kieran “Making First Changes” Connolly Sam “Ben Folds” Fentress Thomas “Graphing Calculators“ Riganti Jack “Parking Cars” Kiehl Will “Bel-Air” Smith Jacob “Webassign Blues” Hilmes Reporters David “Movies” Schmelter Cullin “Hot Air Balloons” Tripp Leo “Ketchup” Heinz Keith “Myself ” Thomas Sidarth “Punctuality in Physics” Iyer Jack “Being Original” Robinson Mike “Gossip Girl” Sit Justin “Mr. Baud” Jellinek

Staff Artist Tom “Cartoons” Fields Staff Photographer Ben “Green Checkmarks” Banet Contributing Photographers Sam “Special Effects” Beckmann Mr. Matt “Run DMC” Sciuto Adam “Cuddling” Lux Leo “Cereal” Heinz Advisor Mr. Jim “Mr. Moran’s Desk” Santel Moderator Mr. Steve “Friendly Mutton Chops” Missey

NEWS Prep News Volume 77, Issue 24 Courthouse battle leaves Mock Trial second in state to Clayton April 12, 2013

photo | courtesy Sam Beckmann

photo | courtesy Sam Beckmann

Above: Senior Kyle Krause makes his case.

Left: The team gathers for a photo with the Catherine D. Perry, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the eastern district of Missouri. She presided over the state final match.

(continued from page 1) three.

The team took part in four trials en route to the finals against Clayton. On Friday, April 5, they passed up Blue Springs South, playing the prosecution.

The following morning, they faced off against Hickman High from Columbia, Mo as the defense. The victory against Hickman allowed SLUH to advance to the State bracket.

After those two first trials, they reached the quarterfinals. There,

as seventh seed, they took on second-seeded Villa on Saturday afternoon. After getting the win there, they then squared off against Kirkwood on Sunday morning in the semifinals. SLUH played the defense in each of these rounds.

Compared to last year’s Statewinning team, this year’s team had far less experience overall.

Moderator Anne Marie Lodholz described this as a rebuilding year, though she still believed that

7

this team could have won State.

They were one ballot away.

“We had a young team.

They put their heart into it,” said Lodholz. “They learned a lot about the roles of evidence, they learned about, as witnesses, how to craft a response. They really acted as a team. This year it was all about being a team.”

Senior co-captain Justin Sinay said, “I was really proud of the way that everybody performed. It’s just disappointing when you’re so close, especially a split decision.”

Both Sinay and Lodholz agree that this year’s state finals

trials have really provided experience to this year’s junior members. They think that this experience will be key to next year.

Sinay explained, “All of the juniors made a lot of progress this year, and I think they’ll be ready to make another run at State next year.”

Another positive from this year was the addition of coach Jim Dowd, himself an attorney. Dowd has two sons currently at SLUH and graduated from SLUH himself. Lodholz thinks that he was a key part to Mock Trial’s success in this season.

Lodholz said of Dowd, “I

can’t say enough wonderful things about him. He gave up hours and hours of his time to help these guys. He comes to Mock Trial with years of corporate trial experience.”

Sinay agreed that Dowd has been a tremendous help.

The SLUH Mock Trial team completed a successful season.

Although they were not able to capture the top title, they still had many positives.

Looking ahead, it looks as if SLUH will field a more experienced team, a team that knows how it feels to come so close, but have to settle for second.

A new generation: 2013-2014 student body STUCO officers elected (continued from page 1) ran unopposed. Or, as Howe said in his speech, he was “already a winner in this election, and in life.”

Howe said that he decided to run for STUCO because he wanted to get involved in SLUH beyond the soccer team.

“I wanted to run for STUCO to represent our class and have a lot of fun and create a lot of good memories,” said Howe.

Howe said that he plans to continue in the tradition of other spirit reps, attending many sporting events, and holding pep rallies.

Salsich needed the suggestion of a fellow STUCO member to get him to run for Intramural rep.

“Larry Hoerr told me I should run for it, and that I would be a good fit,” Salsich said. “I thought it’d be fun and I thought I’d be able to do something to help the school.”

Salsich plans to return the SLUH intramural program to its once-vibrant heyday through improved communication, notifying students of events well ahead of time and updating the schedules in homerooms. Outside of intramurals, Salsich is also looking forward to ensuring that STUCO fundraisers run as smooth as an old Cadillac.

Several positions, including vice president, attracted only one candidate.

“Many of them thought that there were more people running in the first place, and they thought that they wouldn’t win and didn’t put their name in,” said Dickens.

“From a moderator’s perspective, that’s sad to me, because if you recognize yourself as a leader, you should always stand up and be

one.”

Voter turnout was also low, as only about half of the junior class voted in the elections. Last year voter turnout was 70 percent.

“It’s frustrating to read articles in the Prep News and then hear students say things like STUCO doesn’t represent the student body well, or it doesn’t speak to what you want,” Dickens said. “When you have so few people that are expressing interest in even being part of the group, that’s frustrating and presents a challenge.”

Nonetheless, the candidates gave their joke-filled, inspiring, and confident speeches on Monday, generating big laughs and high hopes.

Students with no competition had no need to give any variation of a ‘Vote for me!’ speech.

Rather, each of the four students was allowed to discuss his plans for next year. Some used this freedom to give lighter speeches with a broader range of humor.

After laying out his goal of stimulating more coordination with clubs, Hoerr emphasized his missions of giving the janitorial staff live jaguars, making weights in the weight room lighter to feel better about ourselves, and turning the current parking lot into a bowling alley.

Others kept their statements relatively simple.

Salsich said, “I hope we can have fun in intramurals,” while Whalen articulated his desire to “raise enthusiasm for drives” and remind students that “we can always be better.”

Salamon went for the role of Publicity and Communications by references to his sense of humor, energetic personality, and intention to reach out to the entire

student body. Iyer, another candidate for Publicity and Communications, insisted that diversity was a necessary if not important factor in communications.

In one of the few contested positions, Powers defeated John Sullivan in the Secretary/Treasurer race, despite Sullivan’s claim of typing 30 words per minute when typing only the word “the.” Powers said that he thought STUCO officers should go above and beyond their requirements in his speech. He said that he decided to run because of his facility for organization.

“I wanted to get involved and have an impact on the school,” Powers said. “I feel like I will be able to organize well and keep everything tidy so we can coordinate new events that everyone will enjoy.”

Dickens was pleased with the quality of the speeches.

“I thought (the speeches) were great,” said Dickens. “I thought that the guys did a really good job of articulating their goals and what they’d like to see happen next year, and why they think they’re a good candidate for the position. At the same time, I think they did an exceptional job allowing their personalities to come through.”

“It’s been an honor to be STUCO (junior) class president,” said Keil, who has been on STUCO for one year. In his speech, Keil pointed out his experience in STUCO, reflecting that he hopes to help more as Dickens leaves STUCO, encourage people to collaborate with him, and work with the Prep News by providing a weekly notice of upcoming events.

Hoerr also voiced a desire to get more people’s opinions next

year.

“We really want to bring this sense of unity, that everyone is working together on (STUCO),” Hoerr said.

Kiel is the first STUCO president from the class of 2014 to hold the office of president two years in a row.

“I really enjoyed being on STUCO this year,” Kiel said. “I

feel like next year is going to be a great year and I wanted to be a part of it, and I wanted to be a leader for the school.”

Hoerr is also looking forward to his final year on STUCO next year.

“I am really excited about pretty much everything,” Hoerr said.

Car Free Day Car Free Day is April 18.

In preparation, here is a brief primer on the rules of the road for cyclists and the drivers who will encounter them.

–Cyclists follow red lights and stop signs exactly as cars do.

–Always ride in the direction of vehicle traffic. Ride as near to the right of the roadway as is safe when moving at speeds below the posted limit.

–Bikes should not be ridden on sidewalks within a business district, and cyclists who ride on sidewalks elsewhere should give right of way to pedestrians.

–Be sure to signal with right and left hands for respective right and left turns.

–Check traffic, then signal before slowing down, changing lanes or changing your position within a lane.

–If you plan on riding before sunrise, a front-facing light and rear-facing reflective materials or lights are required.

–And although not required by state law, a sturdy helmet and a good sense of caution are strongly recommended.

Drivers should also be aware of the rules of the road regarding bicycles: –Motorists must treat bicycles as they would any other vehicle. Pulling out in front of a moving bicycle, cutting off a cyclist, and passing a bicycle unsafely are forbidden.

–Bikes may ride on the shoulder when possible, but they are not required by law to do so.

–If you are following a bicyclist and need to make a right turn, yield to the cyclist.

–When passing a cyclist, leave a safe distance and give a full lane width if possible.

–If the traffic lane is too narrow for bicycles and cars to share, cyclists may take the center of the lane to prevent unsafe passing.

-Excerpted from Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation’s handy flyer, which can be downloaded at: http://mobikefed.org/files/bicycle-statutesflyer.pdf. Additional tips can be found at http://mobikefed.org/ content/missouris-bicycle-andpedestrian-laws

8

UNDERCLASSMEN SPORTS

Prep News Volume 77, Issue 24

April 12, 2013

photo | Leo Heinz

B-Team Baseball

Home Away 4/1 SLUH 5 Parkway West 4 4/2 Lindbergh 3 SLUH 6 4/5 Rockwood Summit 0 SLUH 1 4/6 Webster Groves 4 SLUH 9 4/8 Affton 0 SLUH 20 4/10 Westminster 0 SLUH 7 C-Team Baseball 4/1 4/2

SLUH 16 SLUH 6

DuBourg 0 Valley Park (JV)

3

JV Golf 4/3 4/4 4/8 4/10

Vianney 290 CBC 280 DeSmet 302 SLUH 258

SLUH 272 SLUH 269 SLUH 267 Lindbergh 274

JV Volleyball 3/20 3/27 4/1 4/2 4/3 4/5 4/10

Pattonville 2 SLUH 1 Chaminade 0 SLUH 2 Parkway South 0 SLUH 2 SLUH 2 Webster 0 Desmet 2 SLUH 0 SLUH 2 Parkway West 0 CBC 2 SLUH 0

JV Rugby 3/2 3/7

A JV lacrosse player charges downfield.

Tin Can Tourney 3rd Place Priory (V) 35 vs

SLUH photo | Mr. Matt Sciuto

JV Lacrosse Home 3/15 SLUH 10 3/18 SLUH 8 3/27 SLUH 7 4/3 MICDS 7 4/6 CBC 2 4/7 SLUH 9 4/10 SLUH 8

Away Rockwood Summit 1 Vianney 6 Webster Groves 2 SLUH 2 SLUH 7 Shawnee Mission 4 Eureka 1

C Lacrosse

3/9 SLUH 3 3/20 SLUH 3 3/22 SLUH 9 4/3 SLUH 6 4/6 CBC 5 4/10 SLUH 8

DeSmet 5 CBC 1 O’Fallon 4 Vianney 0 SLUH 2 Eureka 2 A freshman baseball player lines a ball to center.

JV Water Polo 3/12 3/13 3/19 3/21 3/26 3/27 4/3

Parkway South 1 SLUH 3 SLUH 13 SLUH 17 SLUH 20 SLUH 12 Lindbergh 5

photo | Mr. Matt Sciuto

photo | Mr. Matt Sciuto

SLUH 14 Lafayette 3 CBC 6 Ft. Zumwalt West 4 Marquette 0 DeSmet 4 SLUH 11

JV Tennis 4/3 4/4 4/5 4/8 4/9

Chaminade SLUH win SLUH Vianney tie Webster SLUH win SLUH Parkway South tie SLUH DeSmet win

Two golfers think about their strategy on the tee box.

Quote of the Week #2 Sophomore Peter Lynas watches a putt roll.

“I am bored; the great things are done. The German Reich is made.”

—Otto von Bismarck, 1888

SPORTS

April 12, 2013

Prep News Volume 76, Issue 24

9

Stellar pitching not enough Lacrosse knocks off CBC, goes to Indiana to push baseball to lucky 13

photo | Mr. Matt Sciuto

BY Clark DeWoskin SPORTS EDITOR

Y

esterday afternoon, the St. Louis U. High Baseball team (12-1, 1-0 MCC) was looking to ride the momentum of a 4-0 Jesuit Tournament to a win over the Ladue Rams, ranked third in the area by the St. Louis PostDispatch.

Hours later, the Jr. Bills—and senior ace Brian Howard—suffered their first loss of the season as Ladue senior Rob Ewald held SLUH to one hit in 6 2/3 innings pitched. He also struck out 13 Jr. Bills and threw 119 pitches before he left the mound with a 4-0 lead that would last the game.

Howard left the mound after the fifth inning having thrown only 77 pitches. He gave up just three hits, walked one batter, and allowed two unearned runs on the day while striking out five.

The Rams plated their first run in the second inning when Ladue’s five hitter doubled deep into the left field gap. The hit scored the previous batter who had reached on an errant throw by senior shortstop Matt Binz.

Howard managed to retire the next three batters in order to keep the game within reach.

Ladue tacked on another run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly.

Senior right-hander Andrew Quinn replaced Howard on the mound to start the sixth inning.

He allowed two runs on four hits in his two innings of work.

Jesuit Tournament Sheridan Stadium hosted a pitching clinic this past weekend in conjunction with the annual Jesuit Tournament. Three starters went the distance as the Jr. Bills went 4-0, taking two games each from St. Ignatius and Loyola.

Both teams travelled from Chicago for the weekend, only to be outscored 27-5 by SLUH over the four games.

The tournament began for the Jr. Bills with a Friday afternoon matchup against St. Ignatius. SLUH won 5-3 after taking an early 4-0 lead heading into the fourth inning. Senior Kaleb King became the first starter of the weekend to throw a complete game, striking out two and allowing three earned runs on 11 hits.

The start was the first of King’s career.

“My offspeed pitches weren’t really working that well,” said King. “But I was locating my fastball, so I was able to kind of keep guys off balance with some offspeed stuff and then get outs with my fastball.”

“He gutted that one out,” said head coach Steve Nicollerat. “It was a hot day and it wasn’t easy but he did a good job.”

Senior right fielder Ryan Hurston continued to smack the ball around, going two for two against Loyola with a walk, a double, an RBI, and two runs scored.

Hurston was led the team with a .522 batting average heading into last night’s game against Ladue.

He and King were also leading the

team in doubles’ with four each.

The nightcap of Friday’s doubleheader saw the Jr. Billikens grind out a 1-0 win over Loyola.

Howard (3-1) struck out nine in seven innings of two-hit baseball.

Both hits stayed in the infield.

Howard has yet to allow an earned run over his 23 innings pitched in four starts. He’s allowed just eight hits and held opponents to a .085 batting average prior to last night’s game against Ladue. The complete game was his second of the year.

The lone run of the ballgame was scored in the bottom of the first. With two outs in the inning, left fielder Kaleb King doubled down the left field line. Junior designated hitter Luke Robinson followed with a single to left that scored King from second, giving Howard all the advantage he would need.

“Robinson’s been good all year,” said Nicollerat. “He’s got quick hands, he hits the ball hard and he’s earned whatever he’s got.”

After a night of rest the Jr. Billikens took the field for their second doubleheader of the weekend. Senior Andrew Quinn (4-0) took the mound for the second matchup against Loyola. Quinn threw the third and final complete game of the Jr. Bills’ weekend, allowing only two runs to score.

The Jr. Bills managed to score ten runs on twelve hits as juniors Robinson, Alex Webb, and Charlie Nester contributed two RBIs apiece.

“I thought my stuff was working for me that day,” said Quinn.

“I got a lot of ground balls which was good.”

SLUH took home the win with a 10-2 final score. Loyola notched a run apiece in the first and second innings due to some sloppy fielding. The Jr. Billikens committed five errors in the game’s first two innings and both runs were unearned.

The fourth and final game of the weekend pitted SLUH against St. Ignatius for a second time. Junior Mark Elbert held Ignatius hitless in his four innings of work while striking out four.

“The wind’s blowing and Elbert goes out there and throws strikes and he commanded his pitches and changed speeds real nice,” said Nicollerat.

Elbert handed the ball off to sophomore Bryan Nolan, who finished out the five-inning mercy-rule victory. Robinson led the team with three RBIs in the 11-0 win. “(Nolan) had nice command of his pitches, had a nice offspeed pitch,” said Nicollerat. “I think he’s gonna be a good pitcher for us. Good poise, good command, he just needs a little more varsity experience.”

Junior Eric Bell beats a CBC defender during SLUH’s 8-6 win over the Cadets.

BY Brian Dugan SPORTS EDITOR

T

he St. Louis U. High lacrosse team (5-2) bounced back from a 7-6 loss to MICDS last week with an 8-6 win over CBC, No. 2 in Missouri, and a 9-4 win over Kansas’s top team, Shawnee Mission.

Senior Justin Mayfield said that, despite the CBC game being closer than it should have been, the Jr. Bills came away with a strong win.

“We played well,” Mayfield

said. “Our energy was good.

Our effort was great. We won the ground ball game, which was good. We got a big road win, and it’s always good to get those.”

After the win at CBC on Saturday, April 6, SLUH turned around to host Shawnee Mission from Kansas on April 7.

SLUH defeated the No. 1 Lancers handily, winning by a five-goal margin for the first time in three games, when the Jr. Bills beat Webster 9-2.

“We had a lot of confidence

coming out of the CBC game,” senior Pete Hummel said. “It was a good booster before going out of town.”

Today the team travels to Indiana for a tournament. Tonight at 8:00 they play Indiana’s Carmel High School, a top ten team in the Midwest. The Jr. Bills then play the Midwest’s No. 8 team, Ohio’s Worthington Kilbourne, on Saturday before taking on Pickering North, also from Ohio, on Sunday.

photo | Mr. Matt Sciuto

Inline hockey results Team record: 0-5-1 3/5: Lafayette 10-4 SLUH 3/7: SLUH 5-6 Affton (OT) 3/27: Vianney 7-6 SLUH 4/6: Fort Zumwalt East 4-3 SLUH 4/6: SLUH 0-10 DeSmet 4/7: Affton 6-2 SLUH

SLUH inline player chases a puck in a game against Fort Zumwalt East.

10

Prep News

SPORTS

April 12, 2013

Volume 76, Issue 24

Track wins MCCs, Gateway; Wingo and Groesch shine at Belleville

photo | Leo Heinz

Tennis proves stingy in opening weeks before tight loss to CBC

BY Stephen CORE STAFF

T

Freshman Thomas Caputa (middle right) and sophomore Alec Garcia (middle left) sprint in the 100-meter dash at the JV/C meet Wednesday.

BY Michael REPORTER

Sit

T

he track and field team emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the past two weeks, competing in over eight meets.

On March 26, St. Louis U. High dominated the Gateway Invitational and won the entire meet. The following Wednesday, the Jr. Bills dominated the Metro Catholic Conference (MCC) relay meet. The team took first place in the majority of the events both on the track and on the field. The special relay team composed of pole vaulters and shot-putters performed particularly well. “(At) MCC relays, I think we looked pretty good,” said senior and long distance captain Matt Nicholson. “We won the meet, and it’s always good to beat everyone in conference, especially (DeSmet). While we won, there were still some things that we can do better. So I’m looking forward to improving as the season goes on.”

Last Saturday, the team visited Belleville, Ill. in place of the annual U. City meet. Although SLUH didn’t place at the meet, junior Raymond Wingo matched the Belleville record for the 100-meter dash.

“Our big highlights from last week were Raymond’s 100

meter time of 10.64,” said head coach Joe Porter. “(Senior) Alex Groesch also ran a top time of 11.04. David Bosslet had a great day with two large (personal records) in the jumps.”

Today, the track and field team will head to Blue Springs after first period.

“I have high hopes for Alex Peraud, and I think he will be vaulting higher than his current personal record of 12-foot six

inches,” said senior pole-vaulting captain Joe Hancock. “I think he can clear at least 13 feet and most likely 13 feet and six inches.”

“As for Blue Springs, we probably won’t get to race a lot of teams in the KC area after this until the State meet,” said Nicholson, who hopes it will give the team a chance to check out some of the competition outside the St. Louis area. photo | Leo Heinz

SLUH came in first with 186.16 points on Wednesday’s JV/C Meet Top scorers: Junior Alex Peraud Long Jump - 17’11” Junior Nathan Dalaklis Pole Vault - 10’06” Freshman Thomas Caputa 100-Meter Dash - 12.3 sec

Freshman Andrew Groesch passes the batton to freshman Thomas Caputa. at the JV/C meet Wednesday

Ultimate pounds Parkway South in opener

BY Justin REPORTER

T

Seaton

he St. Louis U. High Ultimate Frisbills kicked off their season last Sunday in magnificent fashion with a 15-1 win versus Parkway South.

After a cancellation the previous week, the Discbills were raring to throw on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. After scoring the first point early, SLUH allowed Parkway South to strike back, tying the game at one.

“We came out a little shaky for sure, first game of the year,” said senior captain Joe Reardon.

Despite this minor defensive lapse, the Jr. Bills came back to score 14 straight and dominate a

sloppy Parkway team.

“That second point was a dogfight,” said coach Andrew Schroeder. “We gave that one up, and then we rolled off fourteen straight.”

Parkway came out with a rough 2-3-2 zone defense, which the SLUH handlers quickly figured out how to break. From that point on it was all SLUH. “We were swinging the disc back and forth really well,” said Schroeder. “There were a couple of end zone sets we ran to perfection … almost. We’re going to face a lot tougher teams, we’ve got a lot to work on, but it was definitely a good start to the season.”

The junior varsity squad began the season with a tough doubleheader, losing 15-2 at Priory and then 15-11 at Parkway South.

When asked for his thoughts on the rest of the season, Schroeder said, “It’s still early. We have a good core of returners to work with, we just need to stay focused.”

“We’re definitely on the rise,” added Reardon, “and I’d say we have the best team in the state right now.”

Varsity and JV Ultimate both have doubleheaders this Sunday at SLUH starting at noon against CBC and Kirkwood.

Lumetta

he St. Louis U. High tennis team (5-1, 3-1 MCC) has had a good week on the court with wins over Vianney, Webster Groves, Parkway South, and DeSmet. The Jr. Bills lost their first contest of the season to CBC in a squeaker.

Last Thursday, SLUH hosted Vianney, a team they easily beat last year 7-0. The match wasn’t much different this year, with SLUH winning 8-1. Both No. 1 singles player Mike Essma (Sr.) and No. 2 singles player David Mayhall (Sr.) won 6-2, 6-1, and Nos. 3 and 4 singles players Kyle Schnell (So.) and Danny Schneller (Jr.) each only lost one game. No. 5 singles player David Lord (Fr.) lost 3-6, 6-4, 5-10. No. 6 singles player Vinny Bartholomew (Fr.) won 6-2.

The doubles teams only gave up a total of seven games. The No. 1 team of Schnell and Mayhall won 8-5, while the Nos. 2 and 3 teams—made up of Essma and Schneller, and Sean Philip (Sr.) and John Sullivan (Jr.)—each won 8-1.

Head coach Mark Hoppenjans had high praise for everyone on the team, especially freshman Bartholomew.

“Vinny Bartholomew played with a lot of confidence,” said Hoppenjans “He played aggressive and used the whole court in his match. (He was) clearly much more comfortable in his match (Thursday) than the close first match he played against Chaminade (last Wednesday).”

On Friday, the team headed to Webster for a district matchup.

SLUH barely got a 5-4 win, with the outcome of the afternoon coming down to the final match.

The doubles teams led off the day, and Schneller and Essma won 8-6. The No. 2 doubles team of Mayhall and Schnell won their match 8-3, but Philip and Sullivan weren’t as fortunate at No. 3 doubles: the 5-8 Webster loss has been their only loss of the season so far.

Webster and SLUH split the singles matches 3-3 in several tough battles. Essma rolled over his opponent 6-0, 6-2 at the No. 1 singles spot. No. 2 singles player Mayhall did not fare as well, losing 5-7, 3-6. No. 3 singles player Schnell lost by two points in a tiebreaker, and No. 6 singles player Bartholomew lost by four points in another tiebreaker. Lord won his first career match 6-3, 6-0 at No. 5 singles.

The outcome of the day came down to Schneller’s match.

Schneller took the first set 6-1, but his opponent forced a tiebreaker after winning the second set. With both teams watching their players battle it out, Schneller prevailed 7-4 to keep the team undefeated.

“Schneller closed out the fifth point. He just stayed calm and finished the match,” said Hoppenjans, adding that it “was an

outstanding match. It was wellfought.”

SLUH hosted Parkway South on Monday, and the Jr. Bills came out fighting, demolishing the Patriots 9-0. Notable matches included 6-0, 6-0 wins at No. 2 singles from Mayhall and at No. 4 singles from Schneller. Overall, the team gave up less than 20 games to Parkway South, a remarkable feat for nine matches.

Last year, SLUH got a solid 5-2 win over DeSmet, but the team didn’t lose any matches this year against DeSmet in a 9-0 rout on Tuesday. No. 1 singles player Essma struggled a little early on, but he won his first set in a 7-5 tiebreak and then chipped away at his opponent in the second set, winning 6-3. No. 3 singles player Schnell also had a slow start but still won the first set 7-5. He then won the second set 6-0.

SLUH went into Wednesday’s match against CBC knowing that it would be a tough day on the court. They were right, and the Jr. Bills fell 4-5 to CBC in their first loss of the season. No. 1 singles player Essma fell 1-6, 4-6 while No. 2 singles player Mayhall fought hard but couldn’t come up with what he needed to win the match as he lost 5-7, 4-6. No. 3 singles player Schnell lost 3-6, 0-6.

The bottom three singles seeds did better than the top three.

No. 4 singles player Schneller won fairly easily 6-2, 6-0. Lord got the W at No. 5 singles 6-4, 6-3, and No. 6 singles player Bartholomew won 6-3, 6-2.

The No. 1 doubles team of Essma and Schneller lost 3-8, and Mayhall and Schnell lost 5-8 at No. 2 doubles. The No. 3 doubles team of Philip and Sullivan won 8-3.

“It was a really hard-fought match top-to-bottom,” said Hoppenjans, of the match against CBC. He was not disappointed because CBC came in as the favorites to win. Still, Hoppenjans is happy that his players are getting more aggressive.

“This team is becoming more and more scrappy … they’re fighting for points,” said Hoppenjans.

While there is still work to be done, Hoppenjans is pleased with the state of his team. Some strong points include the reliable No. 3 doubles team of Philip and Sullivan, who have only lost one match all year. Hoppenjans likes what he sees in Essma, whom he described as “very mentally tough.”

The team will face MICDS next week. MICDS has traditionally had a strong tennis program, but after getting a taste of all the other MCC teams, Hoppenjans is already thinking about the MCC tournament, which takes place April 27.

“I think our toughest test will come against CBC,” said Hoppenjans. “You’ll see some quality tennis from this team.”

SPORTS

April 12, 2013

Prep News Volume 76, Issue 24

Water polo takes 2nd at York Invitational

BY Jack Robinson REPORTER

T

he St. Louis U. High water polo team (8-1) made its annual trip to suburban Chicago last weekend to face off with other premier teams from the Midwest, where they went 3-1 and finished second in the York Invitational.

After a full day of classes and a four-hour van ride to York High School, the Jr. Bills hopped into the pool to face the hosting York Dukes, who are currently ranked No. 22 out of 90 teams in Illinois.

Ten seconds into the match, senior forward Tom Critchfield drew a hard personal foul that got a York player ejected. On the ensuing powerplay, Critchfield and senior Darrian Castro found the York net with assists from sophomore goalkeeper Arthur Larson.

The quarter ended with a 3-0 lead and the attack only picked up as SLUH found their way to a significant 14-4 win over the Dukes.

Sophomore Colin Derdeyn dominated the stat sheet with two goals, two assists, two blocks, and five steals. The defense showed impressively once again with goalkeepers senior Cullen Gerber and Larson combining for nine saves.

The outlook for the next game against the Ramblers of Loyola wasn’t much different.

Enjoying the momentum from the York match, the SLUH attack netted six goals in the first quarter alone. Ball distribution was a large contributor to the 16-8 victory, with eight players finding the net and nine players assisting them.

Passing combinations from 2-meters senior Michael Sigman and sophomore Jack Brauer to defenders junior Joe Shaugnessy and Derdeyn led to a number of goals later on, as well as an outstanding performance by senior Kevin Brennan.

In the next match, the Jr. Bills came out with something to prove. After losing two years in a row to Fenwick High School, they were ready to show the number one team in Illinois who is best in the Midwest.

At the end of the first quarter, SLUH was down 3-1, but after a powerplay in the second quarter they managed to find the Fenwick goal twice with the 6-on-5 advantage, and once more before

the half closed out, putting them up 4-3.

Fenwick turned up their offense in the third quarter after senior captain Justin Jellinek committed his second personal foul.

Sigman contributed a hat trick to the offense as he battled it out with the Fenwick offense in the third quarter.

In the fourth, Jellinek dropped in a perimeter shot to go up 8-7, but a turnover with ten seconds left led to a quick Fenwick equalizer and the game went to overtime. After the defense fended off two Fenwick shots, Derdeyn fired a shot into the top corner to finish off the Friars.

After three exciting wins on the day, the mentally depleted and drained squad faced Lyons Township High School, who defeated Fenwick in sectionals in 2012, and were ranked second in the state.

“The last game against Lyons we came in on an emotional high after beating Fenwick and were tired and unprepared,” said Brennan.

The tired Jr. Bills went down 2-1 at the quarter, and found themselves down 4-1 with 2:30 to go in the second quarter. In the waning minutes of the quarter, the Lyons offense cranked up the pressure, scoring five unanswered goals to make it 9-1 at halftime.

“I think it took a lot out of us physically and emotionally,” said head coach Paul Baudendistel.

SLUH’s offense made an attempt to fight back, but to little success. Victor Castro did manage to score his first two goals, but the difference in energy levels was apparent as the team humbly took its first loss of the season in a 14-5 beating.

“They were the better team in that game and deserved to win, but we took a lot away from it,” Brennan said. “We’ll carry these successes and failures over into the regular season and playoffs.”

The Jr. Bills settled for second in the Chicago tournament and look to carry their success into the DeSmet Invitational.

“We definitely have some things to work on,” Baudendistel said. “That’s one of the best things about that tournament. It showed us there are some areas we can clearly improve.”

Beckmann leads volleyball over CBC

photo | Adam Lux

Junior Jack Pazderka gears up for a spike against Parkway West.

BY Cullin REPORTER

Tripp

T

he Volleybills (5-1) have had a nice run in the past week.

After easily sweeping Parkway West at home on Friday, the team headed into the Vianney Tournament on Saturday with a lot of confidence. St. Louis U. High took out St. Dominic’s, St. Mary’s, and Webster en route to a title game rematch with Vianney. Unfortunately, the Jr. Bills dropped two games to the Griffins and finished second in the tournament.

“We had a good day, but Vianney is a very good team, a very well-coached team,” said head

coach Jim Gioia. “They have some heavy servers, and when they have a good day they have a chance to beat us … and they beat us.”

Although they dropped the championship to Vianney, the Volleybills took a lot of positives out of the games and used a wider rotation for the tournament to give bench players more playing time.

The big story of the week, however, was an emphatic win at CBC, one of the best teams in Missouri. After dropping the first game 22-25, the team fought back with 25-20 and 25-23 victories. It was an all-around fantastic perphoto | Adam Lux

A Message for STUCO: STUCO: WE CHALLENGE YOU TO A GENTLEMEN’S CONTEST, EVEN THOUGH WE DON’T REALLY CONSIDER YOU GENTLEMEN. THIS CONTEST IS BASHBALL. WE WISH TO RESUME THE RIVALRY OF YEARS PAST, A RIVALRY WITH AS MUCH TRADITION AS THE FALL BALL. BUT UNLIKE THE FALL BALL, LET’S NOT HAVE IT IN THE LOGE. HIT US UP IF YOU’RE GAME, BROCHACHOS. SINCERELY,

YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE (THE PREP NEWS, IN CASE YOU DIDN’T FIGURE THAT OUT.)

11

Senior Aaron Buettner makes a serve.

Quote of the Week

formance for the team as a whole as well as a few key individual performances. Senior Tom Beckmann dominated above the net, recording 16 kills.

“A lot of people are saying that I led the whole team, just because I had sixteen kills,” said Beckmann. “But for every kill I had there was a great dig and a great set, and those guys have the credit too. It was definitely a team effort.”

Senior Jack Walsh had great net play as well, finishing with seven kills and five blocks. Sophomore Ryan Abeln racked up 21 assists on his birthday in one of his best varsity performances this year. Juniors Eric Ottenlips and Nick Venhaus worked the Cadets from the serving stripe, each recording seven service points.

“I wanted to focus on a high toss and hit as hard as I could every time, and my confidence would eventually get there,” said Ottenlips.

Consistency for the team is still a work in progress, but they are making strides every game.

“I’m excited that this year, even in our losses we still battle.

We’ve only lost five sets this year: two by three points, and three by two points. We’ve been very tight in every set, and we keep fighting,” said Gioia.

The Killbills suit up for their next game at Marquette at 5:30 today, and then the Parkway Central Tournament on Saturday.

Home is where you come to when you have nothing better to do.

-Margaret Thatcher

12

Prep News Volume 76, Issue 24

Friday, April 12 STUCO Senior Speeches AP Senior Class Mass

Snack—Buffalo Fries 3:30pm V Golf vs. Pattonville 4pm V Track Gary Parker Invitational

C Baseball vs. Farmington 4:30pm C Lacrosse vs. Parkway West 4:30pm JV Volleyball vs. Marquette 5:30pm V Volleyball vs. Marquette 8pm V Lacrosse @ Carmel Lunch Special Country Fried Steak

Healthy Pasta Con Broccoli

WELCOME BACK, HAMMIE Schedule R

Monday, April 15

Schedule Block 1 Mother’s Club Women of SLUH 9am V Golf Webster Cup AP Snack—Egg Rolls 4pm JV Volleyball vs. St. Mary’s 4:15pm B Baseball vs. Kirkwood

C Baseball vs. Kirkwood

C Baseball vs. Marquette 4:30pm JV Water Polo vs. Kirkwood 5pm V Volleyball vs. St. Mary’s 5:30pm V Water Polo vs. Kirkwood 6pm Advisory Committee for Student Affairs Meeting

C Lacrosse @ Vianney Lunch Special Sweet and Sour Chicken

Healthy Vegetable Stir Fry

April 12, 2013

Wednesday, April 17 7am AP 4pm

4:15pm 4:30pm

5pm 5:30pm 6pm Lunch

Schedule R

JV Golf Pattonville Invitational Snack—Onion Rings JV Track @ Webster Groves V Tennis vs. MICDS JV Tennis @ MICDS C Baseball @ MICDS V Baseball vs. Belleville West JV Water Polo @ Parkway West B Baseball vs. Belleville West JV Volleyball vs. Vianney V Water Polo @ Parkway West V Volleyball Vianney Special Chicken Bites Healthy Baked Potato

Thursday, April 18 Saturday, April 13 V Water Polo @ DeSmet ACT Sophomore Dance Theater Tech (through April 21) 9am V2 Track All Catholic 1pm C Inline vs. DeSmet 2pm V Baseball vs. St. Mary’s

B Baseball @ St. Mary’s

JV Inline vs. DeSmet 3pm V Inline vs. DeSmet

V Lacrosse @ Worthington Kilborne

Sunday, April 14 10pm 11am 2pm

V Lacrosse @ Pickering North V Inline vs. CBC V Inline vs. Seckman

Tuesday, April 16

Schedule Block 2 Sophomore Conversations (through April 24) STUCO Junior Forms Due AP Snack— Cinnamon Rolls 3:30pm V Golf vs. CBC

JV Golf vs. CBC 4pm C Track vs. Kirkwood

V Tennis @ Parkway Central

JV Tennis vs. Parkway Central 4:15pm C Baseball vs. Fox 4:30pm V Baseball vs, Vianney

B Baseball @ Vianney 8pm JV Inline vs. Seckman 10pm C Inline vs. Affton Lunch Special Brunch

Healthy Brunch

Schedule R

NCAA Signing Day Care Free Day STUCO Junior Primary Mother’s Club Maintenance Lunch AP AP Registration

Snack— Bosco Sticks 3:30pm V Golf vs. DeSmet

JV Golf vs. DeSmet 4:30pm JV Water Polo @ Parkway North 5:30pm V Water Polo @ Parkway North 7pm V Rugby vs. Eureka Lunch Special Papa Johns

Healthy Italian Chicken

Friday, April 19

Schedule R

STUCO Junior Speeches/Final AP Freshman Class Mass Snack—Nachos 3:30pm V Golf vs. MICDS

JV Golf vs. MICDS 4:15pm C Baseball vs. Kirkwood 4:30pm B Baseball @ Farmington 7:30pm Dauphin Players Production Lunch Special Chicken Quesadillas

Healthy Turkey Franks

calendar | Jack Kiehl

Who wears shorts? Maybe everyone, if it gets too hot, Kesterson says

BY Jacob STAFF

W

Hilmes

hether the blame falls on climate change, global warming, or kyriarchy, St. Louis U. High students can agree that St. Louis weather is not always consistent. Students sloshing through icy sidewalks one week might find themselves lying on a warm and breezy upper field the next.

With this constant flux of climate comes a question: “When can we wear shorts?”

Assistant Principal of Student Affairs Brock Kesterson may have a solution for students sweating in their slacks. Throughout the year, with the aid of senior Ryan Trenter and theology teacher Danielle Harrison, Kesterson has been discussing what actions would need to be taken if weather were ever to get too drastic. Kesterson is currently considering reducing next year’s limitations on shorts, depending on what weather the 2013-14 school year has in store.

“If we move into next year, and the forecast is gonna be hot all the way through December, we can say okay. Just because it’s December, doesn’t mean it has to be pants. If it’s a hundred degrees or more, or it’s ridiculously hot, I’ll work with that,” said Kesterson.

That’s right. The sixth-graders in all of us might finally reach their cool-kid dream of wearing shorts in December. The prospect prompted wildly different reac-

tions.

“A: students don’t live up to the dress code now. B: we’d have those idiot students wearing shorts in the winter,” said AP physics teacher Paul Baudendistel.

“I love shorts. I think you should wear them all the time: pastels, all the colors of the rainbow, anytime you want,” said junior Eddie Howe. “Who cares about fashion? Break the rules, be a rebel, and I don’t think kids are really dumb enough to wear them during the winter. I think it’s selfregulating. Most kids, if it’s cold enough, will wear pants. And it’s not like legs are unattractive or something.”

“Do I think most students would be responsible with it?

Sure, but, you know, dress for success. When we dress better, we pay attention better. We perform better. I’m not saying we need to wear a coat and tie, but shorts are ... unprofessional,” said Baudendistel.

Of course, it is not all happy times and jolly moments, as Kesterson’s potential decision is constructed by the student handbook and relies on the current schedule of mandatory pants from the end of September to the beginning of May. “I’d say it’s just a wait and see.

I wouldn’t put anything that says, ‘We’ll extend it through October and that’s the new deadline.’ I

think September is good, I think May is good, and we’ll be depending on how things are. If it’s a hundred degrees in the forecast starting next week, I’ll bump it up a little bit,” said Kesterson.

Some think there’s no time for shorts.

“When I started teaching at SLUH, we did not have central air-conditioning—in warm weather, the building would be quite excruciatingly hot,” said Greek teacher Mary Lee McConaghy. “However, with the advent of AC, and with the very powerful system that our AC seems to be, the reason to wear shorts has become obsolete. In fact, on some days my students seem to look quite cold.”

Some seniors are clamoring for an extended period of springtime shorts, as a part of senior privileges already stunted by the denial of off-campus lunch. This may soon become a possibility, as seniors have only one week of May to flaunt their vernal fashion.

“I wouldn’t care either way.

If that’s the way the administration would want to go, I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but I also see some benefit in making sure the students look nicer by wearing pants,” said Latin teacher Jim Gioia.

“I love pants,” said junior Gabe Miller. “But I respect guys that want to wear shorts, too. You know, let them eat shorts.”

Pullin’ a Wehner

photo | Mr. Matt Sciuto

History teacher Bob O’Connell (left) and Assistant Principal for Student Life Brock Kesterson (right) sported Hawaiian shirts last Friday. Most of the teachers wore the gifts, which they received as part of Catholic Schools Week.