A Hobbit adventure begins
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Take an outside look at Sheldon
Super Bowl turns into sibling rivalry
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7 a student newspaper
the Talisman
Sheldon High School 2455 willakenzie Rd., Eugene, Or 97401 vol. 48 Issue 4 Jan. 24, 2013
Sheldon chess players are primed The Sheldon chess tournament is shaping up to be extremely competitive as former top finishers prepare to possibly face off again
Tim Lawrence staff writer
Chess is quite a complex sport. One might think that it is just a simple game where pieces are moved until ‘checkmate’ is said but it is more than that. All the strategies and inside-outside game plans are enough to make the average chess player sit down and think about his or her next move. Sheldon High School’s chess tournament will be underway soon, and many of last year’s contestants are back to redeem themselves for a shot at being the 2013 champion. Senior Tyler Williams, a contestant in last year’s chess tournament, had a few words to say about the game of chess. Williams stated, “I’ve been playing chess for over a year now. One of the most important skills I’ve gained is having patience when I play. It’s a big skill to have.” The intensity of a chess game can put each player in an adrenaline rush as it comes down to the wire. “The most intense chess game I played was against this redhead, who
was kind of new to chess too. I had my ‘N’ game down on him and just fluked at the end.” Inspirations play a big role in Williams ‘chess talents. “A big chess inspiration for me is definitely Grandmaster Yugoslav,” said Williams. Yugoslav happens to be a recent pro chess champion. Senior Brandon Hawks, who is a top contestant in this year’s chess tournament as well as the Mr. Irish pageant, talked about his discovery and passion for chess. “My dad taught me how to play chess when I was seven,” said Hawks. “Ever since then, I could not stop playing.” When asked about his future plans, Hawks stated, “I plan to take my chess skills to college and dominate the competition there.” Hawks, further revealing his infectious sense of humor, said, “Chess is my favorite sport to play. Why? Because it’s a game of strategy…not physical endurance.” While Hawks is currently reigning champion of Sheldon chess, senior Cole Bruns isn’t far from taking his place. Bruns competed against Hawks in the finals last year and fell to 2nd place. Knowing what went wrong at the finals Bruns stated, “If I could improve my mistakes from the championship game I would work on my ‘N’ game.” Bruns has been an active chess player for over ten years, and said, “I started playing chess because I needed some activity to do and my mom signed me up for chess classes. I have loved the game ever since.” While Bruns is doing chess for fun, he plans to dominate the upcoming tournament. The tournament this year is looking quite interesting. Many contestants have been working on their games during free periods, lunch time and even at their houses. Seeing the return of last years finalists Brandon Hawks and Cole Bruns will put some pressure, as well as difficulty, onto the other contestants.
Jackson Darland photo
Senior Brandon Hawks examines the chess board.
Perceived threats keep some at home Recent shootings and December 21, 2012 uncertainties are met with reactions of fear, caution, and grief in the Sheldon community Carly Gough staff writer Across the nation and world, acts of violence are on the rise. Ranging from mall and school shootings all the way to stabbings in other countries, crime is getting out of hand. There is no longer the same sense of security that once existed, as people everywhere have started to fear what those around them are capable of.
According to the FBI crime statistics, “The United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world,” with over fourteen times more guns for every 100 Americans when compared to numbers in England and Wales. This is believed to be connected to a larger amount of murders. England generally experiences roughly 550 murders each year. The most recent FBI statistics show that there were, “12,664 murders in the U.S. Of those, 8,583 were committed with firearms.” Interestingly enough, although it seems as though violence has been rapidly increasing, crime rates have actually decreased. The reason that issues seem to be worsening is simply because the media has chosen to show the occurrences more frequently than it used to. In fact, recently the news has been drenched with reports of school shootings, which have been met with reactions of fear, anger, and grief. There have even been threats of violence at nearly every high school in the Eugene-
Springfield area. Many unsubstantiated threats, born on the internet, combined with fears surrounding the Mayan calendar’s prediction of the supposed “end of the world,” made many students feel unsafe and uncomfortable showing up to school. Senior Sara Firth said, “I wasn’t allowed to come to school on the day the threat was for. My mom didn’t want me to be at risk, so I was excused all day.” Junior Tristan Mehlhaff said, “All of the stuff going on recently… it’s really scary. It’s crazy to think that people are even capable of doing this sort of evil thing to each other, let alone consider the fact it’s actually happening.” Many threats have been shown to be no more than empty words, making it difficult to take effective action. The police presence in and around schools in the area increased during the weeks when the violence was at its highest, but besides this, there have been little to no changes regarding safety policies.
Mr. Irish contestants pay a visit to the NICU What is Mr. Irish all about, and where are the contestants on their journey to save the babies? Holly Ford backpage editor
Mr. Irish candidates have been busy doing many fundraisers in order to help save the lives of premature babies in the NICU at Sacred Heart Hospital. Recently, the contestants and their coordinators took a trip to the NICU to see just what cause they were working towards. The NICU is a place in the hospital where families, even those
who don’t have a lot of money, can place their premature newborns while they grow and try to recover from being born before they should have been, or from being sick. Mr. Irish raises money to help support the NICU and the babies the pediatricians and nurses watch over. This trip really impacted the Mr. Irish hopefuls and seeing the babies made fundraising money a much more realistic and enjoyable task. Senior and Mr. Irish candidate Joe Ricken said, “I’m surprised by the fact that we do so much. All of us have so many things to do so we’re prepared for March 2nd. I expected mostly everything because I have been anticipating being a part of Mr. Irish ever since I was a freshman.” After going to the NICU, the seniors left with a different perspective. Ricken stated, “We got to see one of the little babies that was in one of the cribs. You think of the babies as a whole instead of looking at every individual child. It was very impacting.” Every year, every candidate has a certain money goal they aspire
to raise, and to help. Ricken said, “Just me is $1500.” Lots of events are put on so that Mr. Irish can raise funds easily. Ricken said, “My favorite event was the Irish Showcase. The guys all had fun playing basketball and it was a good bonding time.” Later, he added that coming up, “We have the classic Mr. Axeman versus Mr. Irish basketball game being held at Sheldon this year. I hope we can achieve a win . . . obviously, and also raise some more money for the Children’s Miracle Network.” The Mr. Irish versus Mr. Axeman game will be on February 13th. Mr. Irish was the first amongst other high schools to do a program like this, beginning in 1993. Last year, Mr. Irish raised over $50,000 and all eighteen schools in the area raised $390,000. Since then, this program has spread to other states such as James Martin High School in Texas (named Mr. MHS). Sheldon High School has started a tradition that high schools all through the nation can participate in to help advocate for babies in need.