The student-run publication of Stuart Hall High School | 1715 Octavia Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
Volume 14, Issue 5 | Thursday, December 12, 2019
Knights end postseason strong
David Bianchi | With Permission
WINNING AT STATES Senior Marcus Williamson (number 391) competes at the CIF State Championship for cross country on Nov. 29. CIF was the last race for senior athletes, who will leave the team after graduating.
Cross-country takes 5th place at NCS
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Owen Akel
Reporter
V and varsity cross-country teams finished the season placing fourth and second respectively in the league championship on Nov. 8. Varsity runners continued on to the NCS Championship on Nov. 23 and CIF Championship on Nov. 30 in the postseason, where they placed fourth among all NCS teams. “I am really proud of how our athletes performed this season,”
varsity team captain Antonio Woo said. “A lot of our new athletes set enormous personal bests, and it is encouraging for the future.” Woo ran a personal best in his final race as a Knight during the CIF Championship, posting a 17:20 — an average of 5:35 per mile. “Cross-country challenges me both physically and mentally,” Woo said. “The toughness our team develops throughout our season is incredible.”
The Knights will lose many senior athletes due to their going to college next season, including five of the seven varsity runners. “We are really going to have to get the team working hard,” sophomore Asher Thomson said about the team’s loss of seniors. “Hopefully we’ll get some fresh legs from the incoming class and the current members will continue working hard. Thomson was the top JV performer in the league championship, posting an 18:41 and placing
17 overall in the JV race. “The end of a long, successful season is often bittersweet,” head coach Michael Buckley said. “I'm proud of what our team accomplished at every level.” Varsity runners say they were on track for a record-breaking season but were prevented due to injuries. “The talent on both the boys’ and the girls’ ends of the team is encouraging,” Buckley said. “We're looking forward to capitalizing on the fast ninth and
tenth graders that joined our team this fall and building to an even more successful season in 2020.” In addition to the team's success, many athletes say camaraderie and spirit is a hallmark of the cross country team. “I love our team,” Thomson said, reflecting on the season, “especially in the downtime like after Mount SAC. It's the most fun because I get to go on a trip with my boys, hang out and have fun.
Wrestling team to spend season rebuilding Knights lose first match of school year, say they know where they need to improve
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Henry Murray
Reporter
he wrestling team lost its first match of the season on Wednesday against Pinole Valley High School and Saint Patricks Saint Vincent High School, but wrestlers say this season is meant for the team to rebuild. “It was a good first match for us as a team,” captain Douglas Dawkins said. “We had some great individual wins, and we now have a good sense of where we stand.” After losing key wrestlers from last years’ senior class, the team is rebuilding its roster with promising underclassmen. “Our goal for this season is to get as many matches as possible and to establish a solid team culture that we want for the future,”
assistant coach Bruno Vetter said. “There are novice wrestlers and some with experience, making up a good group.” The team practices five times a week in the Little Theater on the Broadway campus and has an additional strength and conditioning practice weekly. “I’m looking forward to the season because I want to improve my skills and become a stronger athlete,” sophomore Zeke Noveshen said. “Wrestling in matches against other competitive high schools is a great opportunity to get physical.” With seven matches in the calendar, the team hopes to utilize the new talent of the experienced underclassmen. “I have been wrestling for around six years and participated
on a club team for three seasons,” freshman Joey Hubbard said. “I enjoy physical sports and am happy that I can contribute to our high school team.” In addition to having new wrestlers, the team took on Vetter as its new assistant coach this year. “For me, wrestling is very different from other sports because of the required technique and work to become better,” Vetter said. Vetter also has experiences with another grappling-based sport, which he says will offer him a different perspective when coaching the team. “For the past three years, my singular hobby has been jiujitsu,” Vetter said. “The sport has been immensely valuable for my
James O’Leary | With Permission
WRESTLING AWAY Captain Doug Dawkins wrestles with a Pinole Valley Spartan during a home match on Nov. 29. The Knights lost their first tournament of the season, but say they will focus on rebuilding the team by training promising underclassmen.
personal development and has replaced the activity of playing collegiate football.” The Hall competed in a larger tournament against multiple schools at Vallejo High School on Saturday.
“Everyone on the team has the potential to improve their skills and become better,” Dawkins said. “Although this season is primarily a rebuilding season, I feel that we can go a long way if we put in the work.”
The Roundtable | December 12, 2019 Owen’s Opinion
San Francisco needs to implement new cleanup policies By Owen Murray
S
an Francisco embodies the American tech boom, serves as a center of innovation, fosters strong markets and grows neo-progressive ideals, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore its filthy streets. The presence of human waste, used drug paraphernalia, trash and rodents on the streets are all legitimate health risks to San Francisco’s citizens. San Francisco has 24,500 “intravenous drug addicts” and 9,784 homeless, according to the San Francisco Department of Health. The streets are consequently covered in needles, human waste and trash, but the city of San Francisco isn’t doing much to abate this problem. In fact, the city is assisting in defiling the streets. The San Francisco Health Department hands out over 400,000 needles a month to its 25,000 people who inject drugs, 4,000 of whom are homeless. According to City Journal, about 40% of needles aren’t handed back or disposed of properly. The needle program was originally instituted to decrease the spread of infectious diseases like HIV, hepatitis and typhus, but by needles ending up on the streets more, it could have devastating impacts — more people who inject drugs will be picking needles off the dirty streets and using them, which could lead to a rise in disease. While San Francisco has pickup teams that collect about 12,000 needles a month from homeless
encampments alone, according to the "San Francisco Chronicle," it wouldn’t need these teams if it didn’t hand out needles in the first place. The city subsidizes both the needle program and the cleanup team through taxation. Families, pets and even homeless people are at risk of being exposed to disease-ridden syringes. NBC Bay Area’s investigation team found over 100 used needles discarded on the downtown San Francisco streets in one day. If a pet or pedestrian were to step on a needle, they could contract whatever infectious disease the original user may have had. Police officers in Los Angeles have been treated for typhoid fever they contracted while working needle-infested homeless encampments. As long as San Francisco and other cities use the public’s money to give out free needles to people who inject drugs without collecting them, the streets will pose serious health risks. If San Francisco really wanted to help abate the problem of filthy streets, it would not increase health and safety hazards on the streets by putting more needles into circulation without having a plan for proper disposal. Instead, it would use the money to prevent health hazards like human waste. San Francisco can easily prevent human waste on the streets by using budgeted money to build public “pit stops.” The city has a shortage of public toilets, with only 25 pit stops — self-clean-
Drumming away Junior plays percussion for youth orchestra Sartaj Rajpal & Nik Chupkin
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Staff
unior Shun Kodaira-Lopez plays the drumset for the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, but started his journey in music when he was just in preschool. “I was four when I started with piano,” Kodaira-Lopez said. “I really enjoy playing for the orchestra because it gives me a chance to learn ensemble skills and how to play with other people,” Kodaira-Lopez said. Kodaira-Lopez says playing the drumset takes a lot of practice and is a lot harder than it seems. “We look like we just hit things and that’s it,” junior Shun Kodaira-Lopez said. “Yes, we hit things, but we hit them damn well. Kodaira-Lopez says he also plays classical percussion instruments like marimba and timpani but prefers playing the drumset. “Drumset is my favorite be-
cause my favorite genre outside of classical music is rock,” Kodaira-Lopez said. Aside from practicing at home daily, Kodaira-Lopez rehearses for four hours with the orchestra every Saturday. “When the concert gets closer, we do more intensive rehearsals on Sundays and some practice on weekdays,” Kodaira-Lopez said. “We usually have four concerts every year, without holiday concerts.” The youth orchestra has taken Kodaira-Lopez on tour in major European cities like Berlin and Copenhagen, Denmark. “We got to walk around town and learn about the cities we were in last summer,” Kodaira-Lopez said. “I don’t think I’ll have a better tour in my life.” The tour ended in Budapest, Hungary, which Kodaira-Lopez says was a moving experience for him. “It was the last concert of our [former] conductor Christian
ing, single-occupant public bathrooms — available in the entire city. This means that thousands of homeless people defecate, urinate and vomit on the streets every single day. Sixty-five people call the city every day to report stepping in or seeing human waste on sidewalks, according to the Chamber of Commerce. NBC surveyed downtown San Francisco and discovered 300 piles of human feces in one day. Nothing could be more embarrassing for a city the size of San Francisco. The problem has become so bad that SF Travel, the city’s visitor bureau, set up a hotline for tourists to report feces and needles on the streets. The bureau’s website states that it wants to make San Francisco the ultimate travel destination, and that the streets need to be cleaner for that to happen. Still, San Francisco only built three new public toilets this year, which are currently not open 24 hours a day, according to CBS Bay Area. No wonder pedestrians step in feces and urine — 9,000 homeless people do not have access to bathrooms at night, and compete for 25 toilets during the day. San Francisco needs to designate more of its massive $12.3 billion budget to building more public bathrooms. The solution for San Francisco’s streets is simple: stop giving out needles as long as they aren’t properly disposed of and build more public toilets. Doing Reif,” Kodaira-Lopez said. “It was sad that he left. He was a great conductor and teacher. We learned a lot from him.” While most of his endeavors in music take place out of school, Kodaira-Lopez participates in some of Convent & Stuart Hall’s music programs. “I played in the Jazz Band freshman and sophomore year,” Kodaira-Lopez said. “As a junior, I started doing some coaching for the Jazz Band. Sometimes I play for the school at Masses or big events.” Fellow Convent & Stuart Hall musicians attest to Kodaira-Lopez’s musical abilities. “Shun has extreme talent, and was always very dedicated every time he came into the classroom,” pianist Alex Di Napoli said. “He brightened everyone else’s mood by playing, and inspired us all to play music at a high level.” Kodaira-Lopez says he aspires to become a professional classical percussionist. “I would love to come back to San Francisco and play for the symphony,” Kodaira-Lopez said.
THE STREETS OF
24,500 intravenous drug users in SF SF intravenous drug users who are homeless
SF homeless* who are drug/alcohol dependent
*San Francisco’s expanded definition of homelessness includes individuals staying in jails, hospitals, rehab centers, Single Room Occupancy units or with friends/family.
SF distributes
400,000 syringes a month 246,000
38.5% Not Returned
Returned 61.5%
154,000 SF cleanup teams find about
20,640
syringes a month
25
Self-cleaning public restrooms
75,850
Citizen reports of human waste between 2011–2019
Sources: Addiction Center, Open the Books, San Francisco Department of Public Works, San Francisco Homeless Count & Survey Comprehensive Report 2019, The San Francisco Chronicle Nik Chupkin | The Roundtable The student-run publication of Stuart Hall High School | 1715 Octavia Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
so would make the streets safer from health hazards for citizens,
people who inject drugs and the homeless alike. Volume 11, Issue 2 | Tuesday, August 22 2017
The student-run publication of Stuart Hall High School | 1715 Octavia Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
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Carlin Ma | With Permission
HEAR THE MUSIC Shun Kodaira-Lopez practices playing the timpani. Kodaira-Lopez began his musical career when he was just 4 years old.
“I’m not really sure what I will become, but one thing I’m sure of is that music will always be with me.”
Owen Murray | Editor-in-Chief Sartaj Rajpal | Senior Reporter Nik Chupkin | Design Editor Owen Akel | Reporter Will Burns | Reporter Henry Murray | Reporter Tracy Anne Sena, CJE | Adviser Reviews and personal columns are the opinions of the individual author and are not necessarily those of Stuart Hall High School or Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco. Corrections and letters may be addressed to the editors at roundtable@sacredsf.org