Issue 11 2012

Harbinger ISSUE 11 | SHAWNEE MISSION EAST | PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS | FEB. 21, 2012

STAFFER EXPRESSES DISLIKE FOR 3D MOVIES PG. 18

SMEHARBINGER.NET

THE CROSSOVER

Girls lacrosse team crosses onto new territory as they overcome stereotypes and prepare for a successful season

To read about the girls’ lacrosse team instantly on your smartphone, scan this code using a QR reader. photo by Grant Kendall and Jake Crandall

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

p. 6

Senior discusses the

p. 9

East grad Jay Sentar creates

opinion woes of being a sports features local news website PV Post

p. 17

a&e

Staffer reviews the new Ingrid Michaelson album

p. 21

sports

Winter sports participants review season

p. 24

photo essay

Former student Anna Ignatovich is a teen mom

THE

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK SCHOOL

NEWS IN BRIEF

written by Kennedy Burgess

StuCo prepares for spring fundraiser

Musicians practice for upcoming jazz concert

Anne Marie Oakley

JUNIOR BILLY SUTHERLAND and SENIOR HENRY SIMPSON fist-bump as they go through the gauntlet of cheerleaders at the Lawrence game on Feb. 3.

Anne Marie Oakley

SENIOR CAROLINE DODD, along with her dad, smiles as she awaits her forthcoming coronation as Sweetheart Queen at the Lawrence game on Feb. 3.

Spencer Davis

JUNIOR FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT ANNE WINKLE, from Germany, peers across the dance floor as she searches for her date at the Sweetheart Dance.

Wednesday, Feb. 29 marks the date of the East Jazz Concert. Students involved in jazz band have been working for months to perfect the pieces they will play. The concert, originally scheduled for March 1, was rescheduled for the 29th due to the all district concert the band will be participating in on March 2.

Not all of the pieces were specifically rehearsed for the concert, but jazz band members collectively decided on pieces they were comfortable playing in front of a large audience, based on their familiarity with the music.

“I am very excited about the upcoming jazz concert,” senior guitarist Lukus Holsinger said. “Everyone’s working really hard to get the new charts ready.”

The concert, which doesn’t have a certain theme, will be held in the main auditorium at 7 p.m.

Starting on Mon., Feb. 21, STUCO will host Pennies for Patients, a fundraiser to support the fight against Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hotchkins and Myelenoma.

There will be wooden crates for each grade in which students can place cash in their respective grade’s bin and coins in other grades’ bins to deduct points from that grade. Depending on which grade has the highest total of money at the end, the grade wins the title of “Best Fundraiser.”

During fifth hour, students can bring money. Whichever fifth hour has the most money by the end of the duration of the fundraiser wins a free lunch from Olive Garden.

Pennies for Patients will continue for two weeks straight to give the student body enough time to contribute to the cause.

COMMUNITY

Budget cuts may cause closing of three Johnson County libraries The Johnson County Library officials announced on Tuesday, Feb. 7, the proposition of reducing hours for three branch libraries and potentially closing them due to drastic budget cuts.

In order to finalize the proposition as well as suspected budget cuts, the Johnson County Library Board met on Thursday, Feb. 9, to discuss the staff’s overall budget. If cuts were to be made, they would affect staff and services at all libraries in the Johnson County area.

At the meeting, the staff presented options based on three levels of cuts issued by the Johnson County commissioners. The

three levels range from $1.6 million–$3.2 million.The proposed cuts include reductions in staff, collections and technology.

This meeting however, is not the first time budget cuts have been brought to the attention of the commissioners staff. Last month, the Johnson County Library cut hours due to the same budget cut issues.

If the library decides to cut $1.6 million, then the Cedar Roe, Oak Park and Edgerton branches of libraries would lose a total of 27 hours a week of service at each library.

Though, if the staff of commissioners chooses to cut $3.3 million, these branches would eventually close altogether.

PUBLIC LIBRARY USAGE Do you have a current Johnson County Library card?

How recently have you visited a JoCo library?

STATE

Program proposed to provide employment to illegal immigrants On Tues., Jan. 31, an alliance of business groups proposed Kansas initiate a new program to assist certain illegal immigrants to remain in the state. This would help immigrants hold jobs in areas such as agriculture and other industries that are suffering from labor shortages.

The program would initially be for illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. at least five years and who have also been cleared of no more than one misdemeanor, excluding traffic violations.

Reps of the business alliance proposing the program include agriculture groups and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.

Though the proposition has good intentions for some, it also complicates the debate over immigration issues in the state of Kansas. The proposition is very likely to strike more controversy in the Kansas Legislature and divide the Republican majority.

Supporters of the plan address the fact that they are trying to protect industries that rely on labor, especially agriculture. As of January, Kansas has an estimated 45,000 illegal-immigrant workers.

Supporters also believe the new program would be beneficial to commercial dairies and feedlots that are located in western Kansas, along with landscaping, roofing and some construction businesses.

Stats from December show that unemployment rates in most of the western half of the state were less than 4 percent, well below the state figure of 5.9 percent.

According to spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag, Brownback is not in support of the proposal.

What is the primary purpose of your library visits?

Within the last...

Yes

57%

Week

21%

2 | NEWS

21%

26%

Spencer Davis

OLATHE EAST SOPHOMORE DANIEL DONNELLY, forward for his school’s basketball team, is loaded into an ambulance after suffering a possible concussion at the game on Feb. 14. Donnelly was struggling to stay awake after being kicked in the head while going for a rebound during the JV game.

Leisure Reading

Month

Research

59%

No

43%

11% Other

Year or more

17%

Movies

6 Months

36%

9%

* Based on a survey of 184 students

calorie

COUNTER

Looking at the calories of a la carte items in the Shawnee Mission School District

BREAKING DOWN THE LUNCH Laws passed will change school lunches

written by Stephen Cook | sidebar art by Kennedy Burgess

cheeseburger 348 calories

chocolate cake 295 calories

pepperoni pizza 300 calories

waffles & sausage 430 calories

smsd.org

The United States Department of Agriculture approved new guidelines for healthier, more nutritious school lunches on Jan. 25, revising a system that had not been updated in over 15 years.

The changes are part of a revision to the school meal guidelines, which are set by Congress in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The new rules are based on the outcome from recent recommendations from the Institute of Medicine and designed to fit with the 2010 USDA/HHS Dietary Guidelines, according to Dan Glickman, a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and former secretary of the USDA. “These new rules will ensure that students are offered fruits, vegetables and more whole grains, along with low or no-fat dairy products, on a daily basis,” Glickman said in a released statement. “These foods are cornerstones of a healthy diet, and schools are one of several important environments that shape kids’ eating habits.”

Increased funding is also included in the legislation. Schools will receive six cents more for each meal that they make, which is considered by the USDA to be the first real increase in 30 years.

Also, for the first time ever, the new rules create the ability to manage and regulate standards regarding what snacks and drinks are sold in vending machines, allowing for foods that help create a healthy diet.

The Shawnee Mission School District has already been working to make food served at school more nutritious by adjusting portion sizes and using healthier recipes, but the new guidelines are going to push for even further improvements.

The new changes will start to be enacted this fall, implemented over a period of three years.

According to Nancy Coughenour, manager of SMSD food services, once the district learns more about the new national protocol, cafeterias will begin to adapt.

“We are still in the process of reviewing the new guidelines and asking questions of the state,” Coughenour said. “Our next step will be to review the menus to ensure we are within the new guidelines.”

One of the ways that the SMSD has tried to improve student options is by moving to more wholesome foods.

“We continue to switch to more whole grain items as they become available,” Coughenour said. “Currently all pasta, rice, dinner rolls, hamburger buns, hot dog buns and some entrées are whole grains. We also continue to modify our recipes to reduce the sodium.”

Although the district has been working to make a difference in the cafeteria, the new guidelines from the USDA are going to push things even further by requiring schools to serve more vegetables, non-fat drinks and whole grain bread products. According to Glickman, these guidelines are an important step in creating standards of healthier lunches.

At East, 70 out of 141 students surveyed believe that the meals served in the cafeteria are currently not healthy. Additionally, 64 percent of students bring their own lunches from home at least three times a week.

Senior Megan Metz chooses not to eat from the school cafeteria because she believes that she can make better, healthier choices by preparing her own food and going home for lunch every day.

“As soon as I was given the option of going out to lunch, I decided I was never going to eat in the cafeteria again,” Metz said. “I have always been concerned about my health and the choices I make. Currently, I am eating gluten-free — because roughly 98 percent of all wheat is processed, even whole wheat — due to the advice from a trainer I trust.”

Metz, who hasn’t had soda in two years, has grown up eating foods such as flank steak, wild rice, brussel sprouts and quinoa, a type of gluten-free wheat. Accustomed to eating healthy foods, Metz says that she finds the meals in the cafeteria “quite different.”

“School lunches are more geared towards teenagers and, although they try to be healthy, fail miserably,” Metz said. “I refuse to eat anything from the school cafeteria; some past swim coaches have told me not to eat anything there.”

However, Metz does think that even more changes could be made to further improve the quality and nutrition of cafeteria meals. For example, she says that fresh ingredients could be brought in and the unhealthiest options could be eliminated. Also, sauces could be made with less sugar and no preservatives in order to improve their freshness and taste.

“It all comes down to money — and good,

healthy food is always more costly,” Metz said.

“However, I think a few small changes could be made that could potentially improve the quality of the school food. This isn’t a problem with just Shawnee Mission East, this is a problem all over the United States.”

Making healthy choices at school is ultimately up to the student, Coughenour explains.

Often it is the little things that can influence a student’s well-being.

“Try to make small changes. Every change is a positive step toward making healthier choices,” Coughenour said. “Keep in mind moderation. If you want a cookie – then have one cookie but not three or four cookies.”

Sophomore Rob Simpson, who eats lunches from the cafeteria out of convenience, believes that previous changes made by the school haven’t made much of an effect.

“This year [the price of the pop tarts] decreased a little bit, but you get half the portion; or the cookies, you get two instead of three,” Simpson said. “On one hand it sort of helps with healthiness, but on the other it just kind of makes you spend more to get the same amount,” During football season, Simpson says that he solves the portion problem by going back for seconds or thirds. But according to the new national guidelines, the focus is on the quality of the items being served, not so much the portion size.

A sample menu from the USDA shows that instead of serving a meal consisting of pizza, tater tots and canned pineapple, the school would serve whole wheat pizza, baked sweet potato fries, grape tomatoes and apple sauce.

Next year, the SMSD is planning on introducing new cafeteria items to reflect the changes. A chicken wrap is an item which has already been tested and was well received at SM South and will be put on the menu across the district this fall.

According to Glickman, these new revisions are steering schools down the right path.

“A number of schools have already shown that menus can be updated in ways that provide tasty and healthy offerings that appeal to kids of all ages,” Glickman said. “We all have a part to play in improving the health of our nation’s children. The USDA’s new standards are an important step in the right direction.”

NEWS| 3

C NGR @SME_Harbinger

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ACCEPTABLE PLACEMENT?

School needs to create eligibility requirements for students planning to enroll in college level classes

When it comes to enrollment in advanced curricula, stu- many teachers employ the “scare tactic,” where on Syllabus dents at East have many voices trying to influence their de- Day, they are prone to hyperbolic statements about the difcisions, as the choice is ultimately left up to them to make. ficulty of their classes. This method is ineffective for two From older peers, students may receive the advice not to reasons: most students see right through the trick, and it take a class because of its difficulty. Alternatively, parents might scare off students who really do belong in the class. might encourage their children to “challenge themselves” There needs to be a more reliable system for teachers to enand to take the most rigorous course load they can. While sure that only students capable of meeting the expectations difficulty and course rigor are important factors in mak- set out by the College Board and IBO enroll in their classes. ing a decision, parents and other students are not the ideal Because the qualities of a successful math student are sources for the information. One voice that seems muffled different from those of a successful English or Visual Arts is that of teachers. student, each department should come up with their own Teachers, not students or parents, THE MAJORITY OPINION OF THE policy of determining eligibility for are the ones who know the time com- HARBINGER EDITORIAL BOARD enrollment in AP and IB classes. But mitments and difficulty of their classeach policy should be firm and exact, es — thus teachers should be given with few exceptions being made for greater influence on enrollment decithose who do not meet the criteria.

FOR AGAINST ABSENT sions for Advanced Placement classes As an example, a possible policy and the International Baccalaureate Programme. Teachers for AP classes in English would be the minimum requireshould come together to devise a set of qualifications for ment of a B in a previous honors English class or an A in a enrollment in these classes, and end the policy of open en- regular one. Along with the grade, the student would have rollment in AP and IB classes. to have a teacher’s signature confirming that the student It needs to be made clear that these programs are not contributed positively to class discussions and met or exjust for resume-padding, and that they are intended only ceeded all other class expectations. for those who are willing to make a commitment to learnFor a student to enroll to become an International Bacing. In devising a system, East needs to ensure that their calaureate Candidate, a suggestion for a policy would be to advanced classes meet the criteria that the College Board require a student to have a 3.6 unweighted GPA and recomand International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) sets mendations for the program from teachers in all six of the out for the classes. subjects the student will be taking IB courses in.

The College Board states on their website that the coursGrowth in both the AP and IB programs might slow es are supposed to be at the college level. According to the down, possibly hurting East’s in the Newsweek rankings, website, students in AP classes are supposed to engage in but we shouldn’t put the value of unofficial rankings above intense discussions, solve problems collaboratively, and safeguarding the success of our students. The fewer stulearn to write clearly and persuasively. The IBO states simi- dents will be surrounded by the best of their peers. They lar intentions in their Mission Statement for their Diploma will take the classes more seriously when it becomes a privProgramme. But not every student in an AP or IB class is ilege to take them. The students will develop ideas together, capable or willing to make a commitment to learning in with everyone focused on learning — not on the college such an environment — a commitment without which the credit they might earn. student is more likely to succeed in a standard-level class.

Another benefit of a new system would be for the giftAs a result of the open enrollment in advanced classes, ed-but-fearful students. When the opinions of teachers

8

Harbinger

Editors-In-Chief Kat Buchanan Toni Aguiar Assistant Editors Emma Pennington Evan Nichols Online Editors-In-Chief Jeff Cole Duncan MacLachlan Online Assistant Editor Becca Brownlee Art and Design Editor Chloe Stradinger Head Copy Editors Chris Heady Jack Howland News Editor Tom Lynch News Page Editors Katie Knight Editorial Editor Matt Hanson Opinion Editor Ian Wiseman Opinion Page Editors Morgan Twibell

Mixed Editor Tiernan Shank Spread Editor Andrew Simpson Assistant Spread Editor Paige Hess Features Editor Christa McKittrick Features Page Editors Haley Martin Leah Pack Emily Kerr A&E Editor Kennedy Burgess A&E Page Editors Andrew McKittrick Will Webber Sports Editor Anne Willman Sports Page Editors Adam Lowe Corbin Barnds Mitch Kaskie Freelance Page Editors Alex Goldman

3

0

a publication of shawnee mission east high school 7500 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS 66208 February 20, 2011 Andrew McKittrick Kim Hoedel Photo Editor Grant Kendall Assistant Photo Editor Spencer Davis Online Photo Editor Brendan Dulohery Jake Crandall Assistant Online Photo Editor Hiba Akhtar Copy Editors Evan Nichols Emma Pennington Kat Buchanan Matt Hanson Anne Willman Chloe Stradinger Toni Aguiar Chris Heady Jack Howland Tom Lynch Erin Reilly Will Webber Head Online Copy Editor

Matt Gannon Kim Hoedel Online Copy Editors Sami Walter Vanessa Daves Ads/Circulation Managers Erin Reilly Leah Pack Staff Artists Sam Stevens Matti Crabtree Connor Woodson Webmasters Chris Denniston Christian Wiles Multimedia Editor Thomas Allen Assistant Multimedia Editor Dalton Boehm Transmedia Editor Holly Hernandez Convergence Editor Alex Lamb Assistant Convergance

become a more important component of enrollment discussions, some talented students who might not have otherwise taken an advanced class would be encouraged to.

Teacher’s opinions are already taken into account when students select their math classes. Based on the student’s ability and performance, the student’s current teacher gives a recommendation for what course they think the student should enroll in. But the flaw in this plan is that the choice is still ultimately left up to the student. The teacher’s opinion should not be so easily discarded when it comes to the AP and IB Calculus classes; those classes carry the expectation of a certain work ethic. If a student fails to demonstrate that they value learning complex math and not just the extra grade point, they should be prohibited from enrolling.

Some would argue that making enrollment more stringent will deny the students who do not already possess the qualities of a successful AP student an opportunity to develop them. But that’s what the honors courses freshman and sophomore year are for. Students in AP and IB classes should be capable of working collaboratively and dedicating enough time to studying before they enroll in the course. Extra time is increasingly scarce, as The College Board is consistently updating their AP curricula, often adding more topics to the history and science classes.

Teachers shouldn’t be spending any time going over the basics of the Socratic Method.

Others might say that a new system would limit educational opportunity to only a fortunate few, but this isn’t true.

There would be no caps on how many students can enroll in a class. Everyone who has done the hard work to meet the eligibility requirements would be allowed in.

Ensuring that the right students end up in the right classes should be taken more earnestly by the school. Enrolling in an upper-level class needs to be much more difficult than writing on a piece of card-stock and getting a parent to sign it. The school should focus on making sure that students are in the classes that they will succeed in, and by doing this they will do a better job of preparing students for the future.

Letters to the editor may be sent to room 521 or smeharbinger@gmail. com. Letters may be edited for clarity, length, libel and mechanics and accepted or rejected at the editors’ discretion.

Editor Holly Hernandez Homegrown Editors Andrew Beasley Anna Dancinger Blog Editor Zoe Brian Video Editor Thomas Allen Eastipedia Editor Sami Walter Podcast Editor Sami Walter Live Broadcast Editors Duncan MacLachlan Assistant Live Broadcast Editor Connor Woodson Andrew McWard Online A&E Section Editor Zoe Brian Online Sports Section Editors Adam Lowe Patrick Frazell

Live Broadcast Producers Grace Heitmann Andrew McWard Nick May Thomas Allen Photographers Patrick Frazell Spencer Davis Connor Woodson Holly Martin Chris Denniston Emma Robson Anchors Christian Wiles Patrick Frazell Anna Danciger Marisa Walton AnnaMarie Oakley Morgan Twibell Molly Howland Emily Donovan Stefano Byer PR Representative/ McKenzie Swanson Business Managers Miranda Gibbs Joe Simmons Marisa Walton Staff Writers Maddie Schoemann Alex Lamb Multimedia Staff Greta Nepstad Andrew McWard Hannah Ratliff Haley Martin Stephen Cook Chris Denniston Maxx Lamb Christian Wiles Emily Donovan Drew Broeckelman Holly Hernandez Spencer Davis Julia Poe AnneMarie Oakley Jeri Freirich Miranda Gibbs Julia Davis Adviser Alex Stonebarger Dow Tate

THE HARBINGER IS A STUDENT RUN PUBLICATION. THE CONTENTS AND VIEWS ARE PRODUCED SOLELY BY THE STAFF AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE SHAWNEE MISSION SCHOOL DISTRICT, EAST FACULTY, OR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION.

EDITORIAL | 5

IRRATIONAL TRAITS OF A SPORTS FAN DESTROYING CITIES

12

Every team loses at some point. True sports fans like the followers of the Los Angeles Lakers know that there is only one logical thing to do when this happens: burn the city. Smash windows. Destroy public property. They did this after the NBA Championship loss in 2008. Now think about this: what if their team wins the championship game? Then what should they do? Answer: again they should burn the city. Smash windows. Destroy public property. This is what happened after the 2009 and 2010 Championship games. This is how real sports fans celebrate big wins and how they deal with tough losses.

This of course makes perfect sense because not only is it the city’s fault if the team won or lost, but smashing windows will make everything better.

HOURS OF RESEARCH

2

Learning how to do research is crucial to being a good sports fan. Many seniors would rather accept a “C” on their senior papers than do three hours of research for it, yet I know this March at least twenty of my friends will spend ten hours or more over two days researching basketball stats to prepare for the picking of their March Madness brackets. Not only do ridiculous fans need to do research, but if they are really planning on being a part of the tournament then they also need to download the “NCAA March Madness App” on their iPhone. This way they will be able to watch every single game at once. Intense fans feel like they need to be glued to their phone monitoring their bracket for the full three weeks of the tournament.

HOME OF THE (INSERT TEAM)

3

“For the Land of the free, and the home of the brave” Yes, those are the correct words to our national anthem, but try to tell that to sports fans. For the Chiefs fans, it’s “the home of the Chiefs”, and recently Lancer basketball fans have changed the song to “the home of the Hair”. This is just another way that fans show dominance over other teams.

Basically we are saying “hey, you’re playing in our stadium so you will sing the song our way...even though it’s our national anthem that’s been sung in America for almost 200 years.” Real fans think this makes perfect sense, because not only do they think their team is superior to the opposition but also they think their team is more important than the American national anthem.

6| OPINION

I have been a sports fan for years, 18 years to be exact. Throughout my years as a fan one thing has stuck out to me: sports fans are irrational.

Think about it — what is it about being a fan that makes us want to parade through the streets an opinion of showing off when our team wins when we didn’t ADAM LOWE even play the game, change the words of our own national anthem or camp out for days to score a few tickets?

The whole prospect of fanhood is ridiculous. Here are six irrational traits of a sports fan that I’ve learned, lived and observed over my years as a fan.

4

A FREEZING FAN

“Being a fan doesn’t mean being there from the beginning it means being there until the end.”

That is not at all true. All sports fans know that you not only have to be there from the beginning, but you actually need to be there way before the beginning if you want to get a good seat. Now let me ask you this: have you ever been camping? No, I’m not talking out-in-the-woods-pitch-a-tent-andlight-a-fire camping, I mean on-concrete-outside-of-a-basketball-arena camping. Last month, over 250 MU students camped outside Mizzou Arena for over two days leading up to the Border War game vs. KU. These die-hard fans sat out on cold concrete in 40 degree weather for two days waiting to receive tickets to a two-hour game. This shows exactly how important it is to be early is to irrational sports fans.

5 CORNHUSKER 5 NATION

2

I grew up in a family of Cornhuskers. Yes, Cornhuskers.

Not very many people really know what a Cornhusker is but in all seriousness a Cornhusker is a farmer. More precisely, a Cornhusker is a man in red and white Nebraska overalls who husks corn in the fields for hours each day.

The fact that I call myself such a ridiculous name shows the sacrifices I have made for my fanhood. True fans know that it is their duty to proudly respond to their teams mascot no matter how ridiculous it may be. Now yes, I live in suburban Prairie Village but feel free to call me a farmer whenever we are talking about sports.

6

LOVING TO HATE REFEREES 2

Rudeness is a virtue of sports fans. A sporting event is the only place where you can see a father and son together screaming profanity and insults at another group of people.

This is the only place where it is socially acceptable to do this. Once the game begins, the hatred of the referee is the only thing the fans of the two teams have in common.

All words that are usually known as “curse words” are free game when talking about referees. Yes, humans make mistakes, but referees are not allowed to. According to most religions, sins are forgiven; however that policy doesn’t apply to referees.

art by Matti Crabtree

Staffer reminisces on his Star Wars-filled childhood as first episode is re-released in 3D Few things have been as constant in my life as “Star Wars” has. I’ve loved the movies since before I can remember, watching the original trilogy over and over when I was little and an opinion of letting it set my imagination ALEX LAMB ablaze. It transported me to a dazzling universe of space heroes, alien creatures, Stormtroopers and of course, lightsabers. And no matter how old I get, I never have, and never will, leave that realm.

Early on, I became so swept up in it that, at least for a couple months, I traded in the Lamb name for Skywalker and would only respond to “Luke.” I even made sure to wear only one black glove, covering my robotic right hand that I got after my father accidentally slammed the car door on my normal hand’s fingers.

“Star Wars” especially held a huge stake in my landscape of toys–I was particularly proud to have a Millennium Falcon ship that doubled as a special carrying case for figurines. Anytime I was at Toys “R” Us during my childhood, I’d immediately rush to the SW section. My collection of SW action figures expanded as time passed, allowing me to increase the scale of the battles I orchestrated at home, sometimes recreating scenes from the films, sometimes making my own. And so what if I mixed different series together occasionally–Boba Fett and Iron Man made great partners in crime.

But it was my sixth birthday party that had me most excited for the series in my life. “Episode I: The Phantom Menace” was premiering shortly before my birthday, so obviously, I had to have a “Star Wars”-centered party.

My parents rented out an upstairs room at AMC Town Center 20, my friends all came and gave me SW gifts and we ate a SW cake. Then they all got seated in the theater as I received a tour of the projection area and was able to personally start the film. As soon as the first image appeared, I ran the hardest in my life to get down to the theater so I wouldn’t miss any of this monumentally important movie, not realizing there was 15 minutes of previews.

While more mature viewers were disappointed, I loved this new installment. Hell, I was even a fan of Jar Jar Binks; I was too young to know better. But at this point I was finally old enough to truly appreciate the real cinematic experience of something as awesome as lightsaber battles on the big screen. Before, the original trilogy had always stirred in me a love for the power of films and how they could take you to a whole different world, yet it was here that I really started to develop my definitive passion for movies in general.

My mom was the sci-fi lover who originally started me on “Star Wars,” and it was my pleasure to extend it to my little brother alongside her, as early as possible. While he was still learning to talk he wore a Darth Maul T-shirt everywhere, for several years, and I can’t really picture him at that age in anything else. He joined me in making the action figure battles even more spectacular for many of our childhood years, and to this day we’ll still have an occasional lightsaber duel.

As I aged, my interest in the saga continued to grow, and

sources like Wikipedia became my wise teachers. I remember spending hours reading through the extended canon of the SW universe, learning everything from the species names of the different Jedi Council members to what Luke Skywalker did after the final film, and the names of his children, his grandchildren, etc.

I came to appreciate the fact that my VHS copies of the original trilogy were the theatrical versions, not the special editions that George Lucas altered for the worse (Han Solo shot first, damn it!). When limited edition DVDs of the theatrical versions were released back in 2006, they were the first items on my Christmas list, and you can bet I’ll keep those over the further-revised, recently-released Blu-Ray versions.

And as far as the video games go, there’s still no beating the two “Star Wars: Battlefront” games. Actually getting to play all my favorite battles from the movies and many more, as a soldier on an expansive battlefield, was a dream come true. I can’t think of any other activity that my brother and I shared together, for hours upon hours, that we enjoyed more.

Since entering high school, I haven’t stayed as intensely knowledgeable about the SW extended universe, but I’ve still kept the saga close to my heart. I’ll jump at any chance to make a nerdy SW reference or joke, like using “rancor” on a vocab test as “Luke Skywalker killed the Rancor in Jabba the Hutt’s Palace.”

So even though I now recognize “The Phantom Menace” as the worst entry in the series, it is still “Star Wars.”

Because of that, I was so ecstatic to see it on the big screen that I went to the 3D midnight premiere carrying four lightsabers with me. Remembering my exciting first time seeing it, I made sure to bring along a friend who’d never seen any of the movies, so to initiate the wonder of “Star Wars” with the best possible viewing experience.

Plenty of detailed costumes populated the audience, from a teenage girl in Sith garb to a fully plated Stormtrooper outfit, and the theater was filled with a general air of such enthusiasm that, immediately upon entrance, I felt like that six-year-old birthday boy running to the movie again.

I hadn’t watched “Episode I” in years, and quite frankly, it was much worse than I remembered. Jar Jar Binks was annoying as hell, and the dialogue oftentimes felt stilted and cheesy. There were too many scenes of boring politics, several of the alien species were incredibly racist stereotypes and I realized how many other great child actors would’ve been better to play Anakin. However, the podrace had my pulse pounding and Darth Maul remains one of the coolest villains I’ve ever seen, so the battle with him seriously kicked ass.

Despite all the flaws, I still loved going to see it, mainly because “Star Wars” is that cross-generational pop culture icon that allowed me an instant connection with anyone in the theater, of any age. A nerdy sophomore kid in front of me put me to shame with his vast knowledge of everything “Star Wars,” and I felt an overload of geekdom half an hour before midnight. I couldn’t have enjoyed it more.

Winning my lightsaber duels after the show was just the cherry on top.

FAVORITE MOVIE MOMENTS 1

Alex explains his top 4 scenes from the Star Wars saga

MUSTAFAR LAVA BATTLE EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH

Of all the saga’s lightsaber battles, none are cooler or more intense than the epic fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin as volcanoes erupt around them.

2

klot.altervista.org

LUKE VS. VADER VS. EMPEROR EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI

In the series defining moment of good vs. evil, Luke triumphs over Vader and the Dark Side, but as the Emperor then bests him, Vader finally fulfills his destiny.

3

DADDY ISSUES EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Many consider this the best entry in the saga, and the twist at the end has a lot to do with that.

The Vader and Luke confrontation is absolutely classic.

4

gameinformer.com

klot.altervista.org

DARTH MAUL IS AWESOME EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE

The whole movie builds up to this point, and when Darth Maul finally faces Obi-Wan and QuiGon, it’s one of the saga’s most electrifying battles.

manilovefilms.com

OPINION | 7

For Herself

photo illustration by Spencer Davis

Senior plays piano for the simple joy of music

8 | OPINION

Joined East’s jazz band and Village Church’s youth band

2012

Performed in the Multipiano Festival in Lawrence with dozens of other pianists

2010

Switched teachers and began taking hour-long lessons

wards playing the piano are a good sign of my comfort with myself. When I was blissfully ignorant of social norms in elementary school, I was open about my piano — I played the theme song from “Lord of the Rings” in our fifth-grade talent show proudly for the school to hear.

As I grew more aware of the fact that I couldn’t wear running shoes and skinny jeans, and that I couldn’t play basketball at recess while wearing a V-neck cableknit sweater, I realized this: piano isn’t cool. So I didn’t tell anyone I played.

For my mom to innocently suggest that I practice while a friend was over was the emotional equivalent of having someone reveal, for example, a fierce love of Nickelback or a collection of American Eagle polos. It was as if a horrible secret had been uncovered.

I never quit because it never really seemed like an option. As a self-proclaimed people-pleaser, I was too afraid to go to my teacher and my mom and quit. Never in my life have I been more happy that I chickened out. I grew to love piano, to not care about what people think. And, maybe, piano was what made me learn to disregard their opinions.

But piano playing has never been something that I’ve made publicly known. I like having it to myself. After years of over-committing myself to things that I want to do, things that I have to do, things that my friends want me to do, I’ve finally figured it out. You need something to geek out about, something that has no other purpose than making you happy, even if it makes you feel like a fifth-grader most of the time.

2008

1994

A look at her piano career

Began lessons over the winter of first grade

2001

Toni’s Timeline

Scarlatti sonata or a Chopin prelude, the voice in my head is whispering, “You’re a nerd. What if people saw you humming classical music like an 80-year-old cat lady?” — but it’s much quieter than usual. And so I’ll drive quietly, happily back to my house with my Pandora set to the “Piano, Romantic” station. It’s almost like I’m sedated.

And I think that’s because playing the piano allows — no, encourages me to pour out all my emotions — stress from the newspaper, frustration at my last, useless semester of high school, anxiety for the upcoming track season because of the standard I set for myself last year. That’s what piano’s there for. When I play, I can feel myself swaying back and forth on the bench like some kind of old Russian pianist, but I don’t stop. There’s a strange kind of satisfaction when my forearms burn after playing the first movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata and all of its huge, handstretching rumbling chords all the way through. It’s gratifying to hear each melody resolve itself.

What makes it more gratifying is that piano is mine in a way that nothing else is. I don’t do it for a class. I don’t do it as a part of a band. My brief stint with the Blue Knights jazz band showed me that I don’t like depending on other people for music. I got flustered, I got bored playing the same chords over again. I mindlessly chatted to my fellow rhythm section, causing a red-faced director Mr. Harrison to splutter in our direction. I would much rather go home, hoist up the top of our baby grand piano and pound out chords by myself.

I almost quit playing piano in middle school, and later again during freshman year. As I see it, my emotions to-

2004

I always feel like a fifth-grader when I say it: “Sorry, I can’t. I have a piano lesson.” The response is always the same: “You still take piano lessons?”

Yeah, I still take piano lessons. an opinion of No, my mom doesn’t make me.

TONI AGUIAR No, I don’t have grand aspirations of majoring in piano performance and making a living off piano. No, I don’t do it for my resume.

I play the piano because, however embarrassing it is to sit on my teacher’s floral-patterned couch while a first-grader finishes up her lesson, however annoying it is to have to practice piano at midnight after I’ve been copy editing for hours, however seemingly useless in my future life piano may be, I like it.

So every Thursday, I wake up groggy from my afternoon nap at 4:40 p.m. and make the 20-minute trek from my Leawood home to my piano teacher’s peach-colored bungalow in Brookside — this is when my love for piano is really tested. In the car, I’ll blast electronic, new-age punk or guitar-heavy, retro Black Keys in an attempt to wake up. I swear at drivers that insist on going the speed limit on Ward Parkway. Most of all, I curse the existence of piano and its malicious intentions, namely to interrupt my naps.

But even though my route is the same coming and going, the ride home couldn’t be more different.

When I get into my sloppily parked car after my lesson (usually after having my lesson run over by a quarter of an hour), I’m quieter. As I continue to hum a portion of a

KEEPING us

POSTED East graduate Jay Sentar runs the PV Post, an online newspaper

written by Andrew McKittrick | photo illustration by Emma Robson Jay Sentar, who was a manager of in game promotions for the Royals, had just arrived at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. It was the 81st home game for the Royals. Sentar had attended every one.

This was, however, the moment that Sentar realized that he would rather spend his life doing something other than writing ads and running promotions. This was the moment that Sentar decided that he was spending too much time and not earning enough. This was the moment that Sentar decided to start working on a career in journalism. This career would eventually lead to the creation of the PV Post, a neighborhood news publication.

“I liked working for the Royals — it really was a dream come true,” Sentar said.

“But it’s a hard business to make a career in. There are literally thousands of people who would love to work in the front office for a baseball team, so teams don’t have to pay much. And the chances to move ahead are few and far between. Plus, as much as I like baseball, seeing 81 home games a year bordered on too much of a good thing.”

After deciding that he would rather work somewhere other than in a Major League office, Sentar decided to return to his roots.

He decided to return to college and major in journalism, something he loved in high school. To do this, he decided to enroll at the University of Kansas journalism school.

While Sentar was at KU, he realized that print publications were starting to fail. He realized that the Kansas City star was losing readers and the Sun was going under. He realized that the future of journalism wasn’t on print publications, it was on the internet.

“The organizations that used to be able to devote resources to real community coverage have had to cut back,” Sentar said.

“The Sun went out of business. The Johnson County Bureau of the Star is a shell of its former self. There was no place to get reliable information about what was happen-

ing in the area on a day to day basis, and the Web provided a great delivery system.”

After receiving a masters degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, Sentar became a freelance journalist for different websites including Yahoo! Sports and KCFreePress.com.

Along with his wife, Julia Westhoff, and daughter Olivia, Sentar moved back to Prairie Village. He decided to start a website, the PV Post, based around news and journalism from around the area. Along with covering government, sports and news, they also try to upload as much multi-media content as possible.

One of the key reasons that Sentar decided to start the PV Post was because he felt a need for reliable news.

“There really isn’t anywhere for people to find out what’s going on in their communities,” Sentar said. “Our goal is for the PV Post to be a reliable, daily source of information for people who live in the SM East area. If it weren’t there, I don’t know where people would find out about the things that are happening in their community.”

Although Sentar works on the website along with his wife, he was able to build up the website and get it running by himself.

“I bought the domain name and started tinkering around with site designs in Wordpress,” Sentar said. “Within about two days, the site was ready to launch. The total cost to launch the site was about $50.”

Sentar runs the majority of the day‑to‑day operations of the publication; however, Westhoff also works on the website.

“I will help Sentar out by taking pictures or covering something if he’s not available,” Westhoff said. “I also write a food column every Friday. Sentar is the primary publisher, editor, writer and designer of the site. He does pretty much everything!”

One key reasons for starting the PV Post was his love for journalism. He was first introduced to journalism when he joined the

Harbinger staff and met Bob Dillon, the former newspaper adviser.

“I still consider Bob Dillon, the journalism adviser who retired in 1997, the most influential teacher I ever had,” Sentar said.

“He made me fall in love with writing and reporting.”

Sentar’s journalism class was not the only thing that shaped his writing. From doing calculus homework to playing tennis, sports and classwork helped shape both Sentar’s life and his writing.

“Having played JV, he really enjoyed the competition,” tennis coach Sue Chipman said. “He also really liked the social aspects, with practices you get to know people and achieve a sense of camaraderie and yet you get a bit of competitiveness as far as duel matches go.”

Although they might not have been his favorite classes, Sentar was still able to learn about what subjects he did and did not enjoy.

“I didn’t like [calculus],” Sentar said. “My mind just isn’t built that way. I don’t remember which part about it was my least favorite... Suffice it to say, once I’d completed that requirement, I wasn’t itching to take more.”

One of the main factors that influenced Sentar to move back to Prairie Village was how much he liked the area when he was growing up.

“Well, I moved back here, so I must have liked it alright,” Sentar said. “I think that as high school students move away to college and maybe a first job, they’ll realize that the sense of community we have here is very special —something you’d want your own kids to get to experience.”

Moving back to Prairie Village has allowed Sentar to get back to writing again, something he truly loves.

“The best part is that you get to explore new topics all the time,” Sentar said. “You get to know the people who make up the fabric of the community.”

FEATURES of the

PV POST

Food on Fridays Every Friday Jay’s wife, Julia, posts a new recipe.

Some recent recipies include chocolate pudding and Tex Mex Corn Chip Chili.

Events On the website there is a virtual calender with local events. Readers can submit their events by emailing events@pvpost.com.

Where is That At? Every week a picture of a location in Prairie Village is posted. Readers can then guess the location of the photo.

Polls Frequently The PV Post will offer polls for their readers to vote on. Polls range from town issues to fun, seasonal topics.

FEATURES | 9

Winter

ROAD MAP FOR COLLEGE

written by Paige Hess

Preparing for college or post-secondary school is really preparing for adulthood. Without guidance from parents, school will become a full-time job. Rewards will be based entirely on what students produce. Make your voyages of self-discovery now, while your teachers care about your personal growth—and while you have the time to learn from mistakes. It is important to start looking towards college as early as possible, especially with colleges putting more emphasis on what a student does before senior year. With careful planning, students can gain admission into their dream schools based on their hard work and involvement in high school.

Enrollment

Spring

Pick realistic classes. Colleges would rather see that a student is trying in one or two harder classes than barely staying afloat in multiple hard classes. Think about what interests you and what you may want to do as a career, and plan accordingly. Students should also look to take a challenging, well-rounded high school course schedule. This does not mean that all students should take Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses if they are not completely ready for the material and the work load.

Standardized Testing Try reading a couple of the hundreds of emails for colleges.

You may find something worth while.

According to the ACT’s website, the average high school student has taken the ACT twice during their high school career, once during their junior year and once during their senior year. Every high school student has the opportunity to take the ACT, the most widely-accepted college admissions exam, up to twelve times during his or her high school year. So, stay calm and relax. There are classes to prepare you and improve your scores such as GetSmarter Prep.

Money, Money, Money

Getting accepted into the right college isn’t the only factor determining where a student can go. While they may get in to their dream school, private schools such as Harvard University and Yale can cost upwards of $50,000 a year. For those looking towards further education after college, public schools provide a cheaper alternative, allowing them to save money that would otherwise be spent on a more selective school. Scholarships for Ivy leagues and other private schools often do not provide enough, causing the student to choose between taking on massive debt and turning down the school of their dreams. For those needing larger scholarships, some colleges offer full tuition waivers to those who have received awards based on standardized tests such as National Merit and Presidential Scholars programs.

College is expensive, but there are ways to receive financial aid.

T N A W E W

YOU

ing you..

ep email

Get Involved

Summer

Students who are looking to get involved should do so early during their high school career. This leads to not only the opportunity for leadership positions later on, but multiple years of involvement shows dedication and a long-range work ethic. Colleges (and employers) may look at what kind of extracurricular and community service activities students have been involved in—it tells them a lot about who the student is and how well they’ll fit in.

Self-Assessment

Fall

A student should determine their strengths and weaknesses and plan accordingly. Their parents might both be MIT grads urging them to carry on the family tradition, but that C they got in Pre-Calculus isn’t helping their chances. And just because their parents liked that atmosphere does not mean they will feel the same. Students should find the college that fits them best. Look at the programs and try to match them up with your own interests. Take a good hard look at who you are, what you are good at, and what you want.

10 | FEATURES

e we will k

1 G.P.A/Class Rank 2 SAT or ACT Score 3 Extra-curricular Activities 4 Community Service 5 Reference Letters/Interviews 6 Legacy/Relationship to school

IMPORTANT ADMISSIONS FACTORS According to DoSomething.org

Expand Horizons Look outside of what everyone else is doing. You may

be set on going to an in-state school but there’s no harm in finding other options. If you have a particular interest, look into which colleges specialize in it.

For creatively types students, Columbia College in Chicago is a little-known institute that provides an intensive course of study for artists. Though it may not be well known, its list of famous alumni is already longer than some state schools. Look for colleges that may fly under the radar. Often they offer a better education for a lower tuition.

Take a Gander It is never too early to start visiting. Not only do colleges keep records of who has made the extra effort to visit, but it also helps students realize what they are looking for in a college. Looking at going to school in the South? Visit in one of the warmer months to see if you can stand the heat. Do the pictures on the school’s websites show a beautiful campus? Visit to make sure they aren’t photoshopped. Some colleges could put up pictures featuring the only two nice spots on campus, while in reality much of the school may look run down and dingy. Visiting allows the student to get a feel for the community and atmosphere, as well as the look of the campus, all of which are extremely crucial to the decision process.

There are colleges outside of the norm—K-State, KU and MU.

Be Studious

If students have a particular college in mind and know that they want to apply there, they should begin planning classes early.

Some schools, especially those that are out of state, may have different admissions requirements than those that are close to home. Additionally, certain programs may have different admissions policies than the school itself, such as a higher grade point average, additional classes in math or science, or a higher score on standardized tests.

Decision Time

This isn’t a choice to make the day before applications are due. Give yourself time. Think carefully over why you are choosing a college and what draws you to it. Try to narrow down your options too. Just because you got a letter in the mail does not mean its the right choice for you. Apply to four or five schools you would love to attend. After seeing where you’re accepted, the decision is up to you. College is what you make it but it sure helps to know you’ve made the right choice for the next four years of your life. Make sure you think it over carefully.

GIRLS versus

BOYS

lacrosse

THEY’VE GOT THE

EQUIPMENT

‘LAX’itude

Unlike BOYS, GIRLS do not wear pads and helmets. Instead, they wear goggles.

FOULS

Girls’ lacrosse team prepares for their third season after overcoming doubts

written by Hannah Ratliff | photos by Grant Kendall & Hiba Aktar The new players sit nervously around their own equipment and aren’t allowed to the library. The coach begins to describe use the weights room unless accompanied exactly what they’re getting into. The other by a school-sponsored sport. Until this year, girls have been through this, some even for they couldn’t play home games on East turf. two seasons; the terms and positions don’t On top of that, the team’s only got two seasound as foreign to them as they do to the sons under their belt. girls who haven’t played yet. The new girls “We got killed our first few games and are learning about a sport that is like nothing the majority of our first season,” creator of they’ve ever played before: lacrosse. the team and East graduate Marissa Horwitz “It’s a challenge to play something that said. “I don’t think we won a single varsity is completely different and no one knows game... We were the newest team with the anything about,” Lancer Girls’ Lacrosse least amount of experience.” coach Jill McDonald said. “When someone As one of the youngest teams in their first asked me to play [lacrosse], I was like, league, the Lancers had to start completely ‘What’s that?’” from scratch. Not only did they have to find This is not the first year that East has girls who were willing to play and fields to had a girls’ lacrosse team, but it is the first practice on, but they also had to learn the that the team is really focusing on getting basics of a complex and confusing game. At lacrosse sponsored by the school. Getting the beginning of their first season, less than the team sponsored would help them re- a quarter of the team could teach those funceive benefits like increased school interest, damentals. more players and more field time — but the “[The first few practices freshman year process is much more complicated than you were] awful,” Worner said. “It was cold and might think. muddy and we played really late at night, According to co-captain Jocelyn Worner, like 5:30 to 6:30, sometimes 7:30, and at the sponsorship requires that each school in that time in the winter it’s really cold and the district has enough interest in the sport dark out. We had a hard time seeing the ball to start their own team. Getting sponsored because it was so dark and we didn’t have is a difficult task since it would require the lights and nobody knew how to play except district to purchase each teams’ equipment, for five people.” which can cost around $100 per player, and The games themselves didn’t go much requires that each school in the district have better. The team knew they were disorgait’s own team. nized. They knew they had next to no expeSince the team is not yet sponsored by rience. They knew that people laughed at the the district, the players have to purchase idea of a girls’ team and said it was impos-

Meet the CAPTAINS caroline WOOLDRIGE

sible for a girl to play lacrosse. But they also knew that they had already jumped through a million hoops just to get the team started, and they weren’t going to stop trying now that they were finally there.

“People made jokes... said that we were too girly or that cheerleaders couldn’t play lacrosse,” Horwitz said. “But I think [the girls] kind of liked the challenge of people saying... ‘you won’t last a day.’”

But the team did last. First days, then weeks. A season later, they had made it through the team’s starting year. Though it had been one full of tough losses, they knew that they had nowhere to go but up. “[Our very first few games], nobody knew what they were doing,” Caroline Wooldridge, co-captain of the team, said. “There were fouls, some yellow cards... but the next season, my junior year, we got 4th overall, so we did a lot better.”

After being ranked last in their league, they rose to 4th place in their second season.

Veteran players from the season before were able to teach the new girls. The varsity and junior varsity teams were becoming more organized and developed, not only allowing the advanced girls to get down techniques and skill instead of just reviewing basics, but also allowing the smaller teams to bond.

This year, the team says they have established even stronger leadership with Jocelyn Worner and Caroline Wooldridge as new co-captains. The two have been a part of the program since its beginning three years ago,

SENIOR

Years playing three Position midfielder Pre-game music Sam Adams, Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa

Because GIRLS wear less equipment than BOYS, there are more potential fouls. GIRLS cannot hit other players with their sticks and if their stick comes too close to another player’s head, a foul is called.

FACE-OFF

BOYS face off with the ball on the ground and two players battle to pick it up. GIRLS face off holding the ball between two players’ sticks and they both try to flick it up. and are setting new goals for the team’s improvement this season.

This year, the team is going to continue to try and become school-sponsored in hopes to get more school involvement. The team is counting on their new Board of Directors, a group of parents created this year, to provide structure and keep the team organized. They are also anticipate becoming more prominent in the community simply by stimulating school awareness through playing their home games at East.

Though the upcoming season will no doubt bring challenges to the Lancer Girls’ Lacrosse team, they’re confident that the leadership system they’ve established this year will help the team be more organized.

And Mcdonald, who feels lacrosse doesn’t have to be expensive, thinks they’re on their way to becoming a school sanctioned sport.

“It’s cheaper to set up a girl’s lacrosse team than a basketball team,” Mcdonald said. “I don’t think [getting school sponsorship] is that far off.”

JUNIOR

jocelyn

WORNER

Years playing three Position attack wing Pre-game ritual Puts gloves on, takes them off, then puts them on again

COACH

coach jill

McDONALD

Years coaching six Key to winning Practice the way you expect to play. It starts at our practices.

FEATURES | 11

WIRED WITH GOOGLE COOLEST PLACES TO USE GOOGLE FIBER

LIBRARIES

HOME

COFFEESHOPS 12 | SPREAD

FAMOUS INTERNET COMPANY TO REVAMP KC WITH COUNTRY’S FASTEST INTERNET

written by Emily Donovan | photos by Stefano Byer

Thin glass fibers the width of human hair are prepared to stretch from utility poles to private homes; the Kansas City metropolitan area and local businesses are ripe for the latest and greatest technology. Google Inc. has begun construction in Kansas City, Kansas on Google Fiber.

Google Fiber, an infrastructure of fiber-optic cables, will allow Internet connections at about one gigabit per second -- approximately 100 times faster than the average American broadband connection and 20,000 times faster than dial-up. This connection speed estimates feature-length movies to be downloaded in five minutes and 3-D video to become easily accessible.

Google Inc. is a leading international Internet and software corporation -- google.com is the single most visited URL address on the Internet. The company recognizes the importance of broadband capability to economic growth and innovation and is launching the Google Fiber project to bring innovation to the technology behind the Internet.

This ultra-fast technology is an experiment for Google. The company hopes to explore fiber networks as a new development technique, which will create opportunities for third parties to create new inventions, and operate under an “open access” network to allow Google Fiber users to choose their service provider.

Junior Helena Buchmann is enthusiastic about this new technology and what it means for the future of Kansas City. While her dad lives in Prairie Village, she spends about half of her time living in Kansas City, Kansas with her mother.

“I peed a little when I found out we got it,” Buchmann said Buchmann was one of countless Kansas Citians to e-mail Google to help capitalize on the opportunity to bring higher speed Internet to her hometown.

On Feb. 10, 2010, Google sent out an open-call, hoping to find a population of anywhere between 50,000 and 500,000 people where this technology could give the community a technological jump.

Local governments and members of the public, like Buchmann,

jumped at the chance. City governments and citizens alike contacted Google in efforts to attract affordable high speed Internet: Topeka, Kansas was temporarily renamed Google, Kansas in an effort to attract the multi-billion dollar company.

Of the 1,100 cities across the nation that submitted a bid, rallied or posted YouTube videos, Kansas City, Kansas had the ideal essentials: proficient utility poles and infrastructure. Additionally, Google hoped to develop relationships with the community, local government and community organizations.

Google has launched an initiative to build a relationship with the public. Its Google Fiber Blog posts updates on the project’s status in layman’s terms, making details of progress easily available to Kansas City and national audience; Kansas City residents can become involved in technological innovative ideas and keep updated on Google Connects KC, a website led by local organizations.

“A lot of companies wouldn’t do that,” Buchmann said.

In May 2011, Google announced the system’s expansion into the Kansas City, Missouri, covering the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Google Inc. recently signed an agreement with the Board of Public Utilities in Wyandotte County stating that it will pay $10 for each utility pole where fiber cable is installed in Kansas City, Kansas. Google will also pay $10 annually for the first 200 poles and an additional $10 for each pole thereafter. In Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City Power & Light has entered an agreement which will allow Google access to its utility poles and existing fiber infrastructure.

These agreements with local government and businesses that allow Google access to existing electrical infrastructure will reduce cost and time spent gaining permits and constructing, ultimately benefiting the public.

The Google Fiber project has brought Kansas City into the headlines and is expected to draw developers to Kansas City.

“It’s awesome that we’re more on the map because of it,” Buchmann said.

BRINGING YOU UP TO SPEED Larry Page and Sergey Brin decide on the name “Google,” for their search engine a play off of the word “googol,” a mathematical term used for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.

1997

“PC Magazine” reports that Image Search launches, offering Google “has an uncanny knack access to 250 million images. for returning extremely relevant results,” and recognizes the site Google forges a partnership with as the search engine of choice in Yahoo! to become their default Google’s index of web pages search provider. the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998. reaches 8 billion.

1998

2000

2001

2004

Senior Aidan Connelly is excited that this technology improvement is coming to the Midwest.

“It’s bringing Kansas City into the future,” Connelly said. “It will be a positive trend for everybody.”

To complete the project, Google Inc. has partnered up with local businesses like the Kauffman Foundation and KCP&L. Engineers and entrepreneurs around Kansas City are vying for the chance to work with Google -- around 100 Google engineers have been surveying the Kansas City metropolitan area, measuring and counting telephone and utility poles.

Blake Miller, a 2003 SM East graduate, is a partner with Think Big Partners, a Midwestern collaborative network of entrepreneurs.

“We’re really trying to put Kansas City on the map,” Miller said.

“It’s one of the most entrepreneurial cities in the country.”

In 2011, Think Big Partners opened The Gigabit Challenge, a business plan competition of innovative technology ideas inspired by the high speeds of Google Fiber. Three winning companies were rewarded business investments and financial support.

“We afforded the opportunity for businesses from all over the world to relocate to Kansas City to be able to take advantage of Google Fiber,” Miller said.

Google Inc. estimates that Google Fiber will be connected to homes and running early this year. While prices have not yet been announced, Google hopes to offer a cost competitive with traditional broadband.

“Our Internet goes out all the freakin’ time,” Buchmann said.

“My mom and I are definitely going to be taking advantage of the fact that [Google Fiber is] at a competitive price and like a billion times faster.”

When implemented, this unique, high-speed technology is expected to inspire innovations in education, entertainment and in attracting developers to Kansas City.

“Google Fiber gives Kansas City a leg-up in the ever-growing page of entrepreneurial cities,” Miller said.

FOR MORE INFO ON GOOGLE FIBER, VISIT

WWW.SMEHARBINGER.NET

STUDENT VOICE FIRST THING YOU WOULD DO WITH GOOGLE FIBER?

JUNIOR | David Martinez “I would download and watch a movie in class.”

SENIOR | Atiyeh Samadi “I would hack Mrs. Birt’s Facebook account.”

After the State of the Union, U.S. President Barack Obama has a The first Google Super Bowl ad is Google+ Hangout to answer questions directly from citizens. Google Fiber is being installed in shown. our very own city.

Gmail opens to everyone.

2007

2010

2012

NOW

ASSISTANT PRINICIPAL | Jeremy Higgins “I would download dozens of classical albums to stimulate my new son’s growth.”

SPREAD | 13

WIRED WITH GOOGLE COOLEST PLACES TO USE GOOGLE FIBER

LIBRARIES

HOME

COFFEESHOPS 12 | SPREAD

FAMOUS INTERNET COMPANY TO REVAMP KC WITH COUNTRY’S FASTEST INTERNET

written by Emily Donovan | photos by Stefano Byer

Thin glass fibers the width of human hair are prepared to stretch from utility poles to private homes; the Kansas City metropolitan area and local businesses are ripe for the latest and greatest technology. Google Inc. has begun construction in Kansas City, Kansas on Google Fiber.

Google Fiber, an infrastructure of fiber-optic cables, will allow Internet connections at about one gigabit per second -- approximately 100 times faster than the average American broadband connection and 20,000 times faster than dial-up. This connection speed estimates feature-length movies to be downloaded in five minutes and 3-D video to become easily accessible.

Google Inc. is a leading international Internet and software corporation -- google.com is the single most visited URL address on the Internet. The company recognizes the importance of broadband capability to economic growth and innovation and is launching the Google Fiber project to bring innovation to the technology behind the Internet.

This ultra-fast technology is an experiment for Google. The company hopes to explore fiber networks as a new development technique, which will create opportunities for third parties to create new inventions, and operate under an “open access” network to allow Google Fiber users to choose their service provider.

Junior Helena Buchmann is enthusiastic about this new technology and what it means for the future of Kansas City. While her dad lives in Prairie Village, she spends about half of her time living in Kansas City, Kansas with her mother.

“I peed a little when I found out we got it,” Buchmann said Buchmann was one of countless Kansas Citians to e-mail Google to help capitalize on the opportunity to bring higher speed Internet to her hometown.

On Feb. 10, 2010, Google sent out an open-call, hoping to find a population of anywhere between 50,000 and 500,000 people where this technology could give the community a technological jump.

Local governments and members of the public, like Buchmann,

jumped at the chance. City governments and citizens alike contacted Google in efforts to attract affordable high speed Internet: Topeka, Kansas was temporarily renamed Google, Kansas in an effort to attract the multi-billion dollar company.

Of the 1,100 cities across the nation that submitted a bid, rallied or posted YouTube videos, Kansas City, Kansas had the ideal essentials: proficient utility poles and infrastructure. Additionally, Google hoped to develop relationships with the community, local government and community organizations.

Google has launched an initiative to build a relationship with the public. Its Google Fiber Blog posts updates on the project’s status in layman’s terms, making details of progress easily available to Kansas City and national audience; Kansas City residents can become involved in technological innovative ideas and keep updated on Google Connects KC, a website led by local organizations.

“A lot of companies wouldn’t do that,” Buchmann said.

In May 2011, Google announced the system’s expansion into the Kansas City, Missouri, covering the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Google Inc. recently signed an agreement with the Board of Public Utilities in Wyandotte County stating that it will pay $10 for each utility pole where fiber cable is installed in Kansas City, Kansas. Google will also pay $10 annually for the first 200 poles and an additional $10 for each pole thereafter. In Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City Power & Light has entered an agreement which will allow Google access to its utility poles and existing fiber infrastructure.

These agreements with local government and businesses that allow Google access to existing electrical infrastructure will reduce cost and time spent gaining permits and constructing, ultimately benefiting the public.

The Google Fiber project has brought Kansas City into the headlines and is expected to draw developers to Kansas City.

“It’s awesome that we’re more on the map because of it,” Buchmann said.

BRINGING YOU UP TO SPEED Larry Page and Sergey Brin decide on the name “Google,” for their search engine a play off of the word “googol,” a mathematical term used for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.

1997

“PC Magazine” reports that Image Search launches, offering Google “has an uncanny knack access to 250 million images. for returning extremely relevant results,” and recognizes the site Google forges a partnership with as the search engine of choice in Yahoo! to become their default Google’s index of web pages search provider. the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998. reaches 8 billion.

1998

2000

2001

2004

Senior Aidan Connelly is excited that this technology improvement is coming to the Midwest.

“It’s bringing Kansas City into the future,” Connelly said. “It will be a positive trend for everybody.”

To complete the project, Google Inc. has partnered up with local businesses like the Kauffman Foundation and KCP&L. Engineers and entrepreneurs around Kansas City are vying for the chance to work with Google -- around 100 Google engineers have been surveying the Kansas City metropolitan area, measuring and counting telephone and utility poles.

Blake Miller, a 2003 SM East graduate, is a partner with Think Big Partners, a Midwestern collaborative network of entrepreneurs.

“We’re really trying to put Kansas City on the map,” Miller said.

“It’s one of the most entrepreneurial cities in the country.”

In 2011, Think Big Partners opened The Gigabit Challenge, a business plan competition of innovative technology ideas inspired by the high speeds of Google Fiber. Three winning companies were rewarded business investments and financial support.

“We afforded the opportunity for businesses from all over the world to relocate to Kansas City to be able to take advantage of Google Fiber,” Miller said.

Google Inc. estimates that Google Fiber will be connected to homes and running early this year. While prices have not yet been announced, Google hopes to offer a cost competitive with traditional broadband.

“Our Internet goes out all the freakin’ time,” Buchmann said.

“My mom and I are definitely going to be taking advantage of the fact that [Google Fiber is] at a competitive price and like a billion times faster.”

When implemented, this unique, high-speed technology is expected to inspire innovations in education, entertainment and in attracting developers to Kansas City.

“Google Fiber gives Kansas City a leg-up in the ever-growing page of entrepreneurial cities,” Miller said.

FOR MORE INFO ON GOOGLE FIBER, VISIT

WWW.SMEHARBINGER.NET

STUDENT VOICE FIRST THING YOU WOULD DO WITH GOOGLE FIBER?

JUNIOR | David Martinez “I would download and watch a movie in class.”

SENIOR | Atiyeh Samadi “I would hack Mrs. Birt’s Facebook account.”

After the State of the Union, U.S. President Barack Obama has a The first Google Super Bowl ad is Google+ Hangout to answer questions directly from citizens. Google Fiber is being installed in shown. our very own city.

Gmail opens to everyone.

2007

2010

2012

NOW

ASSISTANT PRINICIPAL | Jeremy Higgins “I would download dozens of classical albums to stimulate my new son’s growth.”

SPREAD | 13

I EXPEDITIONPOSSiBLE

Lindsey Haymond uses her experiences from her time on the TV show Expedition Impossible as a source of inspiration in the classroom

HAYMOND struggles to coax a donkey up a hill while trekking through the blistering heat of the Sahara.

Team Kansas is made up of Overland Park sisters KELSEY FULLER, LINDSEY HAYMOND and MACKENZIE FULLER.

written by Erin Reilly | photos courtesy of Lindsey Haymond It was the first day of high school and the show, Haymond and her sisters were freshman Clark Doerr sat in his first hour required to complete horse training, rowing World Geography class. He was looking at training and were expected to be in peak his teacher Lindsey Haymond when a sud- physical condition. She woke up early and den realization sweeps over him: he had swam laps for at least an hour every day seen her before. His blond, five foot eight before her teaching job. After school, she teacher is instantly transported to the mid- would run around three miles and then dle of the Sahara, trekking up a sand dune go hike for several miles. She’d climb at a the size of around five football fields. climbing gym twice a week, and on Sun“She told us she was kind of like a celeb- days she rode horses for a couple hours. rity,” Doerr said. “And I was like ‘you were To prepare for the required 50-60 pounds on “Expedition Impossible” on ABC! Team she would have to carry in her backpack Kansas, right?’” on her trip, Haymond even resorted to put*** ting bricks in a backpack when she went on Haymond and her two sisters, Kelsey hikes in the nearby Sam Houston National and Mackenzie Fuller, are Overland Park Forest. natives.

After months of training, Haymond took “When people look at me and my sis- a “mysterious” leave of absence from her ters, probably the last thing they would de- teaching job, during which time she went scribe us as is ‘outdoorsy,’” Haymond said. to film the show. Rumors began to fly like But her students will tell you that Hay- crazy. Her students back in Houston wormond overcame that stereotype when she ried that she up and left them to go live in competed with her sisters Kelsey and Mack- Kansas again, while others thought she enzie Fuller against twelve other trios for a went and joined the circus. grand prize of $150,000 and three Ford Ex“I couldn’t tell my students anything, plorers on ABC’s “Expedition Impossible: I just kind of left one day,” Haymond said.

Morocco.”

“When I came back, there were bruises all Haymond stumbled across the post ad- over my body. The people in my aerobics vertising tryouts for the new reality show class were extremely concerned, and were on ABC, prompting Haymond to send in an coming up to me like ‘Is everything alright email describing why she and her sisters at home? Is everything ok with your huswould be prime candidates for the show. band? Do we need to get you some help?’

Several phone interviews and an audition It was really funny because I still couldn’t video later, Haymond was invited to fly to tell them what was going on other than that L.A. for four days for fitness and psycho- ever.” logical tests for the show.

The training paid off because it pre“It was fabulous,” Haymond said. “We pared them for the extreme conditions of went because it was a free trip to L.A., even the first stage of the competition, during though we still didn’t think we were going which Team Kansas had to climb for two to get on the show.” and a half hours to the peak of a “mounAfter a series of tests, the producers tain of sand” in the 105 degree heat of the treated the Haymond sisters to a surprise: Sahara, their feet sinking in the blistering they had made it. sand with every step.

To be ready for the rigorous nature of “You couldn’t stop and shake the sand

THE PROGRESSION OF PAIN 1 DESERT DISASTER

HAYMOND hikes up a snowy peak in the Atlas Mountains to reach a checkpoint on day five of the expedition.

out of your shoe or you would never finish the challenge,” Haymond said. “I had several toenails fall off just from that. Several people threw up just on the journey up. I could have hiked for years and still wouldn’t have been prepared for that climb.

I just kept thinking ‘If this is only the first trial on the first day, how am I going to finish this competition?’”

From the outpost, the team had to coax a train of three stubborn camels for ten miles before reaching another mountain. They then climbed 30 stories to repel straight down the other side of the cliff. Haymond said this was one of the coolest parts of the expedition, even though it started as one of the scariest.

“You dangled over the side of a cliff, and you had to step over the side and lower yourself down,” Haymond said. “My sisters and I went down from youngest to oldest, so there was no one up there for encouragement when it was my turn to go down. But after I got over the initial shock, it was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had.”

The challenges in the following days proved just as strenuous. By day four, Haymond and her sisters were incredibly banged up. Haymond had sustained heavy bruising to her ribs after being bucked off of and stepped on by a camel, the footage of which made the commercial for the episode. Mackenzie, who hadn’t wore socks with her watershoes, had blisters that were “gushing blood” by the time they reached camp.

Contrary to Haymond’s initial belief that they would recover each night in a hotel, the expedition was shot day by day, with only one break day for scenic filming. This, plus the added discomfort of spending every night in an open-sided tent through which sand constantly blew created what

was “the hardest thing Haymond had ever done in her whole life” that much worse.

One night even brought snow to the camp, much to the surprise of Haymond, who had originally thought that they would sleep in hotels between stages of the competition.

“The fifth day was rough,” Haymond said. “We hadn’t slept that night because it snowed, and we hadn’t eaten because the locals had brought in a goat and roasted it, which did not agree with me.”

Even though “Team Kansas” only lasted until the fourth episode, Haymond still remembers the experience as an extraordinary one. She takes pride in that fact that her all-girl team consistently performed on par with a team of fully-grown, professional football players, saying that the experience was “one of the best moments of her whole life.”

“We still keep in contact with people from the show, especially with the ‘Fab 3’ and we recently went to the wedding of a member from No Limits,” Haymond said.

“We have a special group on Facebook that we use a lot. It’s good because no one else really knows what we’ve been through.

They can watch it on TV but they won’t really know.” *** Doerr said that Haymond’s insight into geography from her experience with “Expedition Impossible” made him especially excited to return to class the next day. He says that her anecdotes have been especially relevant to their current topic: Africa.

“Being able to apply what I had experienced in class not only makes the subject matter more interesting to the students, but it also gives them a connection to what they’re learning,” Haymond said. “Being able to make that connection was really special.”

FOR ADDITIONAL PHOTOS, VISIT

A LOOK AT THE INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT CHALLENGES

There was a particularly harsh sandstorm so strong that if you opened your mouth to talk, your teeth would be black with dust.

2

3 One challenge required Haymond to walk

SNOWY SITUATION

WWW.SMEHARBINGER.NET

4

CAMEL CATASTROPHE PADDLING UPSTREAM Haymond’s camel bucked her 12 feet several miles through a valley in freezing in the air and then stepped on her. She water. At one point, the water was up to her continued with severely bruised ribs. neck and it was snowing.

After assembling a raft, Haymond had to paddle three miles against wind and the current. “At one point our cameraman said ‘Uh, you know we aren’t moving, right?’” Haymond said.

14 | FEATURES

M XED

A PAGE ABOUT THE OSCARS

AND THE AWARD GOES TO..

on Oscar night.

OSCAR PARTY TheWithstarsthesearen’tfive items,the onlyyouonescanwhothrowcanancelebrate award-winning party.

POPCORN

This traditional movie snack is an easy and cheap way to provide food during the awards.

FAKE OSCARS

Find fake oscars at U.S. Toy to give to your friends as party favors.

THE OSCAR BRACKET

The Harbinger recognizes Oscar worthy performances from the East community BEST SUBSTITUTE TEACHER

EDWARD C. WILLS FOR HIS MEMORABLE STORIES

BEST PERFORMANCE IN THE VIDEO ANNOUNCEMENTS

WILL & NICK FOR THEIR SHOW ‘SPORTS PICKS’

Make your bracket while watching the red carpet to predict winners. Place a bet if you dare.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

FRIENDS

These are an obvious necesity for any party, as there’s no party with no guests.

RED CARPET

Create a red carpet out of red wrapping paper to give your guests an entrance fit for the stars.

THE PANEL

LOCAL TALK FOR THEIR ORIGINAL SONG “ELECTROCUTION”

STARS Write the names of your guests on these stars, lay them on the ground and pretend its Hollywood Boulevard.

BEST HALF-TIME PERFORMANCE

THE VARSITY LANCER DANCERS FOR THEIR DANCE AT THE VARSITY ROCKHURST VS. EAST BASKETBALL GAME

Best Actress VIOLA DAVIS

Best Actor GEORGE CLOONEY

I was pleasantly surprised with this adaptation of my favorite book. The story about petty women during the 60s was The actors did a fantastic job portraying characters from the ol’ south. Ya’ll should see this one.

Davis deserves this for playing the heavy role of the loving maid Abilene.

She fit the part perfectly with her reserved manner and wise. Plus, she was an amazing fake cryer.

George Clooney will always be a winner in my book.

CHRIS HEADY

“THE ARTIST” Far and away the best picture this year,

MICHELLE WILLIAMS

SOPHOMORE

“THE DESCENDENTS”

Staffers discuss their predictions for the Academy Awards

JUNIOR

CHLOE STRADINGER

Senior

MORGAN TWIBELL

Best Picture “THE HELP”

The Artist captivated me from the very beginning, even without words. Most shied away from the silent film from intimidation and worries they couldn’t be “engaged” enough, but it’s going to win the Oscar, and well deserving of it, so go see it.

Let’s just say, I laughed, I cried, I screamed and I saw it three times. It was an emotional experience for me, probably one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s definitely going to win Best Picture and if it doesn’t....I might just die a little inside.

“THE HELP”

“MY WEEK WITH MARILYN”

Everyone who saw “My Week With Marilyn” can attest to falling in love with Williams, who portrayed Marilyn Monroe. She’s enchanting and lovable and deserves this Oscar over the other nominees.

ROONEY MARA

“THE DESCENDENTS”

JEAN DUJUARDIN

“THE ARTIST”

If you can make people laugh with a simple smile, cry with a gesture and smile with a little jig, you deserve an Oscar. Jean Dujardin did all of the above in “The Artist,” and he deserves it.

BRAD PITT

‘THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO’

‘MONEYBALL’

In the Girl with the dragon tattoo she did an excellent job portraying a dark disturbed character, I applaud her for her performance and for the sacrifices she made for the movie.

To be honest I never saw Moneyball but I think he will win based solely on his looks and his charm.

FOR MORE OSCAR COVERAGE, VISIT

WWW.SMEHARBINGER.NET

MIXED | 157

SIX

MOVIES YOU GOTTA SEE BEFORE YOU KICK THE BUCKET | WRITTEN BY CHRIS HEADY | PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALLMOVIEPHOTOS.COM

When it comes to movies, my friends can sometimes suck. For the longest time I was always “that guy” in my group of friends that hasn’t seen “this” movie or “that” movie. First it was Inception. Then it was (500) Days of Summer. Then it was Memento. But over the past year, I’ve done a lot of catching up on movies I’ve been basically peer pressured to see, and after seeing these movies and eventually become “the other guy” by hounding my friends that haven’t seen “this movie” and “that movie,” I decided to give you this: A list of 6 movies to see before you die, so you can avoid any situation I was put in, and to also expand your knowledge on what a good movie is.

Hate to burst your bubble, but just because a movie has Channing Tatum and/ or Megan Fox in it, doesn’t make it a good movie. So here it is.

The 6 movies to see before you die (in no particular order.)

MUST SEE MOVIES BY GENRE

1 2 3 4 5

ADVENTURE | RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

WAR | APOCALYPSE NOW

WESTERN | THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY

DRAMA | REQUIEM FOR A DREAM

GANGSTER | GOODFELLAS

ETERNAL SUNSHINE | 2004

DONNIE DARKO | 2001

PULP FICTION | 1994

Though Jim Carrey stars in this movie, this is no Ace Ventura. In a world where the technology exists to erase memories, Joel Barish (Carrey), decides to erase his exgirlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet), after finding out she erased him. The movie follows the degradation of the couple from his most recent memory to the first time they met, and mid-way through, Joel realizes he doesn’t want to erase the memories, he wants to keep them. Never have I felt so captivated by a couple in a movie, and so heart-broken, yet, so happy while watching a movie than I was while watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Instead of popping in “The Notebook” for the 13 time, ladies, take a journey through the mind of a romantic, and learn the true meaning of love.

This psychological mind-bender is a must-see. Donnie Darko, played

by Jake Gyllenhaal, is a depressed teenage high school student, who becomes possessed by a giant bunny who tells him the world’s end is soon near, and the only way to save the world is to do random acts of violence around his town.

Now, reading that sentence, I’m sure “giant bunny” stuck out like, well, a giant bunny, but I promise you, it’s not what you think. I was reluctant to see the movie at first for that very same reason, but trust me, once in the movie, you’ll be fascinated by the entire ordeal.

The ending of this movie will give you the “Wait... no... wait... what?

No... but the... wait...” expression, and can almost guarantee a second viewing.

Guys: If you watch one movie in your lifetime, make sure it’s this.

Director Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece Pulp Fiction is a beautifully written, incredibly violent and twisted movie that revolves around two hit men, John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, a boxer, Bruce Willis, and a kingpin’s wife, Uma Thurman. The movie follows a day that changes each of their lives, and views on the world, all revolving around a drug deal. Tarantino brings out all the stops in the movie, even starring in it himself. This bizarre and sometimes disturbing epic will have you at the edge of your seat until the final scene, and have you both grimacing and on your knee’s laughing.

FIGHT CLUB | 1994

UP | 2009

MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL | 1974

The first rule of watching Fight Club, is you have to see it twice.

The second rule of Fight club, is you have to see it twice. This mindbending drama blows all other gore, action movies out of the water. Played by Edward Norton, the story follows an insomniac who’s life is in shambles as he tries to differentiate between sleep and reality, and finds himself engrossed in an underground fight club. The ending of this movie will shatter your brain, and you’ll have to try and resist watching it again, and again and again. Caution: It will also make you have a mild urge to go hit some people.

This charming Pixar film is a testament to what all animated movies should be like: Children can enjoy the movie, and adults can relate to them as well. The movie tells the story of Carl Fredricksen, a balloons salesman who loses his wife to old age. After her passing, he discovers their “Adventure Book,” and remembers their dream to find their dream-land called “Paradise Falls.” After taking off from his house via balloons, Carl finds a dog a young “ wilderness explorer” named Russell. Beware: The culmination of this movie will have you in tears of happiness, and sadness. Also, a great movie to cuddle up with a loved one with.

The story of King Arthur has been told time and time again, but not like this. This goofy, low-budget comedy has humor unlike any other. Arthur travels around England to find brave knights for his round table, and to accompany him in his quest for the Holy Grail. The reason why you should watch this movie instead of “The Hangover” again is because this film’s humor is actually funny.

Not “that’s so ridiculous” funny or “that’s so raunchy” funny, but legitimate, good humor funny.

Watch this with your friends and you’ll be quoting it for years.

16 | A&E

I

ngrid Michaelson is most well known for her charming tunes like “The Way I Am,” “Be OK” and “Everybody.” She strums her ukulele, hums during the choruses features and handclaps in the background.

The 32-year-old indie-pop singer/ songwriter released her fifth album “Human Again” on Jan. 24, but the majority of the 15 songs on the album are not her signature smooth sound.

When listening to Michaelson’s new album, the first thing that hit me is how her style has changed to a more pop-appealing sound. Gone are the ukulele chords and piano ballads and handclaps. In their place are string quartets, countless overlapping beats and somewhat cliche lyrics.

There are very few songs on her new album that resemble her old sweet and sentimental songs. Instead, songs like “Do It Now” and “Black and Blue” produce the feeling that they’ve been manipulated by producers. So basically, they sound like they belong on 95.7 or 93.3, rather than 90.9. This is a bad thing.

It’s a demotion.

It’s hard to picture Michaelson with her thick-rimmed glasses and jeans singing “Black and Blue” — the lyrics are good, but her voice can’t even be distinguished as her own because she sounds like she’s singing through a megaphone. The beats are quick and sometimes sloppy, producing a sound that is artificial.

This doesn’t mean that she can no longer be taken seriously as an indie artist -just differently. Admittedly, a few of her new songs actually sound good. They’re catchy and appealing, but most of the instrumentation is fake and studio-made, making her sound like she’s lost her natural acoustic sound. I could easily hear auto-tune in some of her songs, which she didn’t use in any of her past albums.

Her past four albums are compilations of songs about love and hope and relationships and sometimes even death. They project strong messages to the public about acceptance and living life to the fullest. Up until “Human Again”, Michaelson’s music was generally happy and she didn’t sound concerned about topping the charts or ap-

“ NO SIGN OF HUMAN

LIFE written by Greta Nepstad

photos from trueendeavorsblog.com

Ingrid Michaelson’s latest album lacks the charm and originality of previous work

pearing on the top ten hits on iTunes.

“Human Again” is not a happy feeling album. It’s sad with songs like “Ghost” and intensely eager with “Fire.” “Fire” starts out strong with rapid strings and a jumpy alternation of piano notes — but then it hits the chorus. The orchestra fades, the piano halts and the acoustics are gone before a loud beat competes with Michaelson for the upper hand. “Ghost” is a bit more like Michaelson’s previous music. It’s sad, but it sounds more like her with the piano chords throughout the song and no drastic switches from verse to chorus and back to verse.

Amidst the songs about heartbreak and suffering through relationships, there are some light tracks. Songs like “How We Love”, “Always You” and “Keep Warm” are sweet little melodies that contrast with the majority of the album. But three good songs out of 15? It was a letdown.

In “How We Love”, Michaelson’s voice is alone with a guitar. This is her sound.

Her voice is raw, beautiful and the guitar tweaks when changing chords.

It’s a natural sound that is rarely heard on this album.

“Always You” is also one of the rare Michaelson classics on “Human Again.” Michaelson sings a run of high notes while a piano accompanies her.

The one thing Michaelson’s fans might miss the most is the ukulele. Michaelson has relied heavily on this instrument in all of her past albums. In “You and I” she strums the entire time without any other instrument. The ukulele also helps make the song “Everybody” such a happy and well-known song today. The only song on “Human Again” that the ukulele can actually be heard on is “This is War”.

Michaelson has always been a talented artist, and it’s only in the songs that use auto-tune that she loses the natural acoustic sound that made her so appealing. Her experimentation with auto-tune dashes what could have been another great album. In future albums, she will hopefully abandon auto-tune and return to the ingenuity that has earned her a spot in the music industry.

There are very few songs on her new album that resemble her old sweet and sentimental songs.

”

CLIMBING THE CHARTS Michaelson’s albums have consistently risen on Billboard

SLOW THE RAIN

NOT CHARTED

2005

GIRLS AND BOYS

#63 2006

BE OK

#35 2008

EVERYBODY

#18 2009

Primetime

Michaelson’s music has appeared in numerous television shows.

SKIP IT

GREY’S ANATOMY ILLEGALLY DOWNLOAD IT

ONE TREE HILL BUY IT

PARENTHOOD

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES GRAMMY CONTENDER

UGLY BETTY

A&E | 17

WE’D RATHER THEY

3-DIDN’T

AN UNSIGHTLY VIEW Senior discusses his dislike of 3D movies and the reasons for producing them

The first time I became enthralled by 3D was at Disney World. I was a young and iman opinion of ANDREW SIMPSON p r e s s i o n a b l e toddler, eagerly waiting in line to watch Buzz Lightyear blast his way through Zerg’s minions, out of the movie screen and into the theater. And it was awesome. When Buzz turned on his jet pack, the theater seats shook so hard that the trademark 3D glasses almost fell off of my face. The (then-new) surround sound had me looking in all directions for laser fire. But it was the 3D movie that grabbed all of my childish imagination and thrust it into an action and explosion filled reality that day.

But times have changed. That was the only time I was allowed a glimpse into what the 3D experience should really be. Today we have corrupt entertainment moguls forcing 3D technology onto consumers in a sort of twisted form of capitalism. They remake my childhood favorites for pure profit, and instead of fulfilling my wildest expectations, they end up just hurting my eyes. This is not what 3D was supposed to be like. 3D has become lackluster in quality and is being shoved in consumers faces, and because of that, 3D has to go. *** First 3D was truly a rare spectacle, actually saved for places like Disney World.

Every now and then, a movie would be released with a 3D counterpart. But then Avatar happened. James Cameron’s tale of an alien Pocahontas was the one of the biggest movies ever, and undoubtedly attempted to turn movie 3D into the wild fun 3D is in

HOW it

WORKS

18 | A&E

1

Two images are displayed on the screen with either differing colors (red and blue) or differing polarizations (vertical or horizontal).

theme park rides. It was the best selling movie of all time, and made Hollywood and the 3D idealists 760 million dollars.

But it was that money that sent everything downhill for us consumers. They confused best-selling-movie-of-all-time-because-itwas-a-pretty-sweet-movie with best-sellingmovie-of-all-time-because-it-was-in-3D. What happened was an explosion in 3D technology that everybody expected. Movie after movie pushed out in 3D, and the 3D industry thought it would be a good idea to try and make every movie only in 3D, and making us pay an extra three dollars a ticket for the rest of our lives. Broadcasting and hardware companies started to get together to make 3D TV’s and 3D channels.

The channels came free, or at a low price, so why not buy a new 3D TV, 3D home glasses and a new 3D Blu-ray player? It’s just another two thousand dollars out of your pocket.

So really, why not?

It’s not that idea of people being able to enjoy 3D in their own homes that bugs me. It’s that movie makers, TV broadcasters and TV makers (like Samsung) are trying to make 3D the only option. Not only does this make everything more expensive, it completely ignores any health risks caused by 3D, such as nausea, seizures, and possible irreversible damage to eyes of children under six (according to 3dvision-blog.com).

On top of that, much of the 3D programs currently available at home are lackluster themselves (such as most 2D movies or shows poorly converted to 3D). If companies want the want the only option to be more expensive, it better not cause health problems and it better actually look good.

But it doesn’t stop there. Movie makers have decided to not only try and force 3D into our homes and all future movies, but

2

Both images are projected towards you from the screen, with the different colors or polarizations mixed together in one image.

3

they’ve started attacking my childhood favorites as well. Prime example: Toy Story.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that they love Toy Story. I wouldn’t say that you don’t, I would just point out that I took loving Toy Story to the next level. When I was 4, I wore a Woody outfit 24 hours a day for 365 days straight. Bluntly, you can’t top that.

Now how do you think I felt after buying a ticket to see Toy Story 3, when they played Toy Story 3 3D instead. Not a person in the theater had glasses, and instead of a heartwarming family movie, we were all left with a half red-half blue headache inducing nightmare. Everyone left, including a very disappointed me. Now someone could say this was honest mistake on the theaters part, but I blame the 3D industry for even considering, let alone actually making and selling, a version of Toy Story 3 that made it anything less than the tear-jerking masterpiece it was meant to be.

Now old famous like George Lucas are joining the 3D bandwagon, with the recent release of Star Wars: Episode 1 3D. I am in no way saying that “The Phantom Menace” is in any way as good as Toy Story, but come on, its Star Wars. And based on the reviews of the original Episode 1, I don’t think many fans were screaming for a 3D version. And with the idea of a 30 foot Jar Jar Binks popping out of the screen, you can be sure that none of my money will be lining George’s pockets. He even plans on releasing the other five movies in their 3D forms over the next five years, remaking two bad movies, and ruining the original trio.

Seriously George? Until you can project your movies like those awesome holograms we see in Star Wars, you and your 3D buddies better stop forcing yourself into my theaters and my home.

The 3D glasses separate the different lights, letting the blue image go through the red lens and vice versa; likewise for polarized.

4

Your binocular vision and brain will correlate the two images into one that appears to be three dimensional. Voila!

A 3D movie.

Movies that shouldn’t have been made in 3D

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

While making old movies into remastered 3D editions is a move to create revenue, the special effects take the focus away from the classic story.

HARRY POTTER

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is strong enough to stand on its own as a two-part film. The only thing that the 3D added to this was a bit of excitement in the final duel between Harry and Voldemort— and a headache from wearing the glasses for two hours.

STAR WARS: EPISODE 1

Rumor has it that George Lucas is planning on re-releasing not only Episode 1 but the rest of the Star Wars saga in an attempt to breathe new life into the classic series. photos courtesy of allmoviephotos

3 WISHES CAME TRUE

that

Three sophomores audition for and land places in Kauffman Center production of “Aladdin”

written by Leah Pack | photo courtesy of smsd.org

T

aking a break from jumping up and down to “Look At Me Now”

by Chris Brown in the dressing room with three other girls, sophomore Maddy Heigele takes a few sips of water and goes over her memorized dance steps and lyrics in her head.

Meanwhile, sophomores Alec and Justin Armer, are pumping themselves up by smiling big and shaking off their nerves.

“It’s different every time, but somehow I like to get my energy up.” Alec said.

It’s minutes until showtime now, and the cast runs backstage prepared for the opening number, “Arabian Nights.” Heigele and the Armers were three of the eight teens cast in the production of “Aladdin” at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, which ran from Feb. 1-5.

A month before rehearsals began, Heigele and the Armers warmed themselves up on a dance floor in the Starlight Theater. The directors came into their warm-up space to explain the process of the audition and remind them to have fun.

“At Starlight they are more like, ‘It’s fine. Don’t even worry about it. Just have fun.’ It’s not about if you mess up or anything,” Heigele said. “‘If you smile, you’ll be fine.’”

The teens auditioning were taught two dances, one from Aladdin and one from Narnia.

The dancers were expected to learn two 30-second-to-aminute dances within a timeframe of about 10 minutes and perform them for the directors.

The directors deliberated on who should be called back, and those who did were expected to have 16 bars of a ballad prepared.

“It’s all these weaseling down processes to see if you’re

a good enough dancer, if you’re a good enough singer, and then if you can act,” Alec said.

The Armers awaited their phone call from the director nervously after seeing on Facebook that Heigele had made the cast. A month later, the rehearsals began. The cast had one week to learn the entire show.

“I think our first rehearsal we learned most of the songs and right after one of them our director was like, ‘Okay we are going to block this,’ and the whole cast was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we don’t know any of this at all,” Heigele said.

Rehearsals took place Monday through Saturday at Starlight, and then two final tech rehearsals at the Kauffman Center. During the tech rehearsals there was a lot of free time.

“Things that would take five minutes to work through tech at school,” Justin said, “would take close to an hour at the Kauffman Center because everyone is learning new things about how to work the system there.”

Tech rehearsal on Monday was the first time the technical directors along with the performers had practiced working in the Kauffman Center. Both the directors and performers had to take time to figure out their placement on stage and how to use the theater equipment.

During free time Heigele and close friend Erik Sobbe, who played Aladdin, liked to explore the Kauffman Center.

“We just started going around the whole Kauffman and looking around, and then we started rapping the “Bon Qui Qui” rap — and the guy who played Jafar, Martin, started rapping with us too,” Heigele said. “It was just really funny.”

Heigele, Towns Person #3 and Chorus Member, Justin,

Chorus Member and Alec, Chorus Member and Dancer, all agree that the experience gained from a professional show and the reassuring fact that the show will be completed well and on time is a pro to being in a professional production.

“I just love working with Starlight people,” Heigele, who has been in numerous Starlight productions, said. “They are so nice.”

The cast members got the opportunity to bond throughout the few weeks of rehearsals and performances. In between shows on opening day the teen cast went to AMC Main Street downtown to see a movie.

“That was eight hours when we were all just...with each other,” Justin said.

The Armers realized much more was expected of them when it came to being in a professional show, but with that extra effort they also got much more knowledge out of the experience.

“Working on such a professional level was really rewarding because a lot of the adults who were getting paid were really nice and fun to interact with and talk to — especially about their experiences in theater,” Alec said. “It’s encouraging to hear all these people who are at least somewhat successful in professional theater and are getting paid for it.”

Heigele and the Armers were extremely excited to get to perform on the Kauffman Center stage because of all the hype it gets.

“You look out to the audience from the stage and you see a balcony and then you see a balcony and then you’re looking straight up and you see there’s a third balcony and it’s incredible,” said Justin.

MEETING THE ACTORS A closer look at the actors in Aladdin Maddy Heigele

Justin Armer Chorus

PAST PERFORMANCES

INTO THE WOODS ALADDIN SEUSSICAL

“I really liked the little kids’ laughter at the matinees during the week that we got to miss school for — a double bonus.”

Chorus

Alec Armer

PAST PERFORMANCES

XANADU ALADDIN GREASE

“I really liked getting to know all the professionals, it was really cool to meet people who act for a living.”

Chorus

PAST PERFORMANCES

INTO THE WOODS ALADDIN SEUSSICAL

“The bows and reactions of the first public performance on Friday night and seeing every seat nearly full up to the fourth balcony.”

A&E | 19

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THE

SPORTS

ROUND-UP

RaeEHLY

Jack HAVERTY

written

by Jeri Freirich | photos Marisa Walton written by Jeri Freirich | photos Marisa Walton

Q Was the season what you expected?

A It wasn’t what I expected. I had no idea that I would feel so close to the team. We are such close friends and this is the most fun I’ve ever had playing basketball.

Q Was the season better or worse than you were hoping for?

GIRLS’ A It was better than what I was hoping for.

BASKETBALL I was hoping to make varsity but I didn’t think I would impact the team too much.

But I really feel like I help the team in certain ways and really feel [like] a part of the varsity squad. My goals were to enjoy the season, but also step up my game and become a varsity player.

Q What was your favorite event of the season?

A My favorite part of the season every year is the trip to Emporia or Topeka. It’s [the] only three days where you are with your team. It is major team bonding and bonding with the coaches. We get to know our coaches by doing activities during the day. When we went to Topeka we visited

the Capitol, the Brown v. Board of Education museum and went out to eat. Everyone gets to know each other a lot better by spending a lot of time together.

Q What are your favorite memories from this year?

A My team and I have too many great memories this year. We are all super close and have a million inside jokes. One of my favorite jokes is about Mrs. Kurle who is our assistant coach and she’s pregnant.

We have an ongoing joke about her; one of the players rolled in with a wheel chair for her because she can’t be standing around and walking all over the floor. It was really funny and everyone was laughing. Everyone has a nickname for each person and there’s always someone who will make the team laugh at every practice either by missing a layup or just making a joke.

Q How long have you been on the swim team?

A I have been doing East swimming all four years and varsity for two. I have been swimming competitively for about 14 years and in the summer at Milburn Country Club. Being on varsity is definitely better because it’s more competitive and I have BOYS’ SWIMMING grown a lot by being on varsity.

Q What is your favorite memory from this season?

A I was anchoring in the relay and it was tied when I jumped in; I finished the race and looked up to see everyone cheering. I hadn’t seen the score board yet, but I knew that we had won by the way everyone was acting. It was a really cool moment.

Q What do you enjoy most about swimming?

A The sport itself can be boring because all we do is swim back and forth, but my favorite part is just being with the team — and winning is really fun. Having something to work for means a lot because I

hate not having anything to do. In swimming, I can work hard and enjoy it at the same time.

Q What is swim practice typically like?

A Most of the time we joke around, and we aren’t too serious, but State is coming up so we have to start getting prepared.

Usually practice is laid-back and we are always cracking jokes. Somebody on my team is nicknamed Stink Bug for no apparent reason, and every day we draw pictures on the white board of the stink bug.

Q What were your goals at the beginning at the season?

A My goals were to do really well at League and State. I think winning state is most important, but we have already accomplished that in the past, so I’m sure we can again. Another goal I had was to beat Blue Valley North, which we did twice out of the three times. We have more to accomplish still.

WRAP-UP {in photos}

ABILENE DUALS

photos by Grant Kendall and Marisa Walton

Q How long have you been wrestling?

A I’ve been on the team for two seasons.

All of the wrestlers go on diets where they eat half of what they are used to eating and can’t eat anything with too much sugar. It all needs to be pretty healthy.

During football season, I weighed around WRESTLING 210 pounds and now I only weigh 180 pounds. When I condition, I have to work out in sweat pants and a sweatshirt so I can sweat it all out. We don’t do anything that is unhealthy, we just have to really watch what we eat.

Q What do you enjoy most about wrestling?

A Hanging out with all of the guys and winning league was a big accomplishment. In the past we have tied, but this year we won single-handedly, and nobody expected us to win.

Q How do you describe your work ethic in wrestling?

A I am pretty serious about the sport. My coaches really push me and they have

taught me some good things and my teammates care a lot about the sport so it makes me want to give it my all.

Q What are your goals for the rest of the season?

A I want to qualify to go to State and see if I can place there if we get to that spot.

Our goal is to score around 18 points, and we have to win at least two matches to be able to qualify for state. It is just like any other match so we just have to get out there and do what we do. The last two weeks are the most important because it is what you have been preparing for all season.

Q What were your goals at the beginning of the season?

A I wanted to place at State at the beginning of the season because I made it there last year. It is my second season so I am a little behind on technique next to some of the guys on my team. I like to compensate with just doing my best and going out and winning.

Q How has the basketball season been so far?

A This season has been a great success so far. We are currently 12-4. Hit a little rough patch lately after starting 11-0, but we are still working very hard. Our goals at the beginning of the season were to beat the Shawnee Mission schools twice, Ryan Oettmeier JV BOYS’ BASKETBALL beating Rockhurst, and trying to go undefeated at home. Also, just being the best team in our league.

Q How does this season compare to those past?

A This has definitely been one of the better seasons. As I have told the kids, this has been probably the most enjoyable season because they have exceeded a lot of my original expectations.

Q Do you have any memories from the season so far?

A The two greatest memories I have for this season would be Cory Perkins hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer against Olathe South to send us into overtime (which we later won in OT). Also, beating Rockhurst

was very special for the kids. This is my eighth year of coaching JV, and only the second time we have beaten them at the JV level. For a lot of these kids, this was the first time they had beaten Rockhurst, so it was pretty great to see their excitement.

Q Were there any specific moments that brought the team closer?

A Not really. I think just playing together every day against the varsity brings them closer to each other. Also, out of the 11 guys that play JV, nine are juniors. So a lot of these guys have played together before.

Q What do you tell your players to prepare them for a game?

A At the end of every pre-game talk, I always tell them, “have fun tonight.” If they aren’t having fun, they won’t enjoy competing. I feel like I’m pretty close with the team. I can be hard on them at times, but I follow that right up with a pat on the back and words of encouragement.

Tyler NELSON

wins In December, the Lancers wrestled against five teams

DISTRICT DUALS

Lancers took first place

PAOLA SPORTS | 21 The Lancers took third place

LIVING ON THE MAT

Wrestlers deal with stint of skin infections

written by Anne Wilman | photos by Marissa Walton

T

hey try their best to stop it, but there is nothing that they can do. They scrub the mats, shower after practice and use medicated soaps. But it still does not prevent the spreading completely. The many infections wrestlers can contract seem endless -- staff infections, impetigo, tape worm. The East wrestling staff keeps the entire practice room clean, but that does not eliminate the possibility of a wrestler getting an infection from other places.

It goes with the sport.

“You can clean and clean and clean, you just have to take certain precautions and that is all you can do,” Ron Wollenhaupt, the Shawnee Mission East athletic trainer said.

According to Wollenhaupt, every season, there are dozens of athletes at East that are infected with skin problems.

Junior Max Hofmeister has had three different skin infections during this season alone.

“You can get them from touching other people,” Hofmeister said. “You usually go to the doctor for it and take antibiotics.”

Detecting the infection early enables the wrestler to get the specific help depending on the infection.

“The most important thing is that the parents of wrestlers are knowledgeable and know when their child has a skin problem,” Wollenhaupt said.

The wrestling managers clean the mats every day after practice to prevent the future spread of germs and infections. It is a priority to make sure that every piece of equipment is entirely sanitary after every use. They wipe the mats and use a cleaning solution that will kill the bacteria that may grow.

Occasionally, a wrestler will participate in practice with an infection. In this stage, the wrestler does not yet know if they have an infection or does not see signs of an infection yet.

“If a wrestler does practice when they are infected, we wrap the infected area to prevent future infections,” wrestling manager Ree Ae Jordan said.

According to Wollenhaupt, it is important to protect the wrestlers during practice so that they are able to compete in meets. Wrestling is different from other contact sports, since there is less clothing between the competitors.

“Skin infections are in all sports, they are just covered up by padding or the particular uniform of that sport,” head wrestling coach, Chip Ufford said. “The biggest reason for contracting skin stuff is due to poor habits.”

Every person on the team is encouraged to take frequent showers after every practice and get completely well before returning to practice.

“The main thing is that [the wrestlers] need to shower right after practice and not wait to take a shower when they get home,” Jordan said. “There is time for bacteria to grow if they wait.”

The wrestlers become healthy from these infections after taking antibiotics, using anti-fungal soap, antibacterial soap and frequent showers. The wrestling staff does not allow a person to participate in practice if they appear to have signs of an infection -- red blotches or lesions. “[The wrestlers] do a good job getting healthy again,” Wollenhaupt said. “They pay attention to their infections and take care of themselves.”

Problems occur when wrestlers from different school

Both JV basketball teams have proven as a bright spot for their programs written by Julia Poe | photos by Brendan Dulohery s the final seconds run off the clock and buzzer sounds the end of the game, the scoreboard reads East 44, Rockhurst 42. East fans are on their feet, practically drowning out the band with their cheering. The East players run off the court, saluting the crowd as they celebrate their hard-fought victory.

This celebration is unique, but it’s not just because it was a close, intense win over a rival. It’s not just because East hasn’t had a win over Rockhurst in years. It’s the fact that this isn’t a Varsity game. This is JV, the secondary team, the ones who warm the Varsity up and play defense for them in practice. Yet it’s the JV game that has fans on their feet until the final seconds, and the JV team that pulls out the first victory against Rockhurst in years.

“Beating Rockhurst was an awesome feeling,” junior guard Sam Stewart said. “They’re such a close rival, and the game and the atmosphere was so intense. We really outplayed them in the end. It was just spectacular.”

Both the girls and boys JV basketball teams are stealing some limelight from Varsity this year with nearly perfect seasons. The JV boys started out 11-0, lost three games in a row, then won at SM Northwest, while the JV girls went on a 9-0 streak, lost to Olathe South, and then continued on their winning streak. Although Julie Sparks, the JV girls coach, tried to ignore the streak, she admits that it gave her team a confidence boost.

“You know, I tried to never bring it up,” Sparks said. “It’s hard to ignore, though, when you’re 9-0, and they were excited, they were terribly excited.”

There was a definite confidence in the JV boys’ mind sets as well. Ryan Oettmeier, the JV boys coach, saw his team gain momentum and confidence as they continued to win game after game.

“We didn’t really think that we were gonna lose, ever,”

A

22 | SPORTS

wrestle with infections. While the East wrestlers do not compete in meets if they have an infection, there are other schools that do regulate the infections. “Kansas High School Athletic Association (KSHSAA) does not allow any wrestler to compete with skin issues but unfortunately sometimes the officials don’t catch every wrestler who has a skin problem,” Ufford said.

Some infections are unavoidable when a wrestler has to compete with someone who has an infection. In these cases, a wrestler has to go to the doctor and stop practicing to prevent giving the infection to someone else.

“Germs are everywhere,” Wollenhaupt said. “The athletes need to pay attention to lesions and keep them covered and clean.”

FOR ADDITIONAL WRESTLING COVERAGE, VISIT WWW.SMEHARBINGER.NET

TRENDING UP

said junior Jackson Sublette, a guard on the JV team, “There was a lot of pressure for us, but it was also really fun because we were just going into every game feeling like we could definitely win. We’d just focus on one game at a time and never really think ahead.”

The teams did finally break their winning streaks, but they didn’t let losing become a habit. After winning 11 games in a row, the JV boys sank into a three game “slump” of losses. The team came out of the slump after a win at SM Northwest and are focusing on going undefeated for the rest of their season.

“By far, I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t win the rest of our games this season,” Stewart said. “Every game that we go into, we know that it’s gonna be a dogfight, but we know that if we play our best, we’ve got it.”

The JV girls broke their nine-game streak with a close loss to Olathe South. Sophomore Molly Ross said that the team took the loss very hard but used their frustration to motivate them in practices and games. By the next day, they were going to Sparks with ideas in how they could improve their play to prevent any future losses. They won their next game against SM Northwest as well and were determined to continue winning.

“We all went into the gym and were really intense the next day,” freshman post Kaycee Mayfield said. “We don’t like losing, obviously, and we weren’t used to losing. We don’t want to lose another game like that.”

The teams play in a similar style, with quick, aggressive offense and a fast-paced, turnover-fueled defense. The main focus of the JV teams is still to prepare the Varsity team, especially in practices, and sometimes the JV players will be playing defense for half an hour of practice. Oettmeier admits that this can make it difficult for his team to give their all during practices, and he is proud when he sees

them practicing as hard as Varsity. Sparks sees a similar energy from her girls, but takes no credit for it.

“You know, I would love to say that I have to do with it,” Sparks said. “But they came to me with a fire inside of them, so I consider it my job to just corral that energy, to focus that energy.”

Sparks and Oettmeier are both confident that their teams can finish out their seasons without another loss, and are pleased with the promise that their players are showing.

“It’s very tough playing at the JV level, because it’s not about you, it’s about preparing Varsity,” Oettmeier said.

“It can be hard to show up and work hard, but these kids have done a really great job with that. I think we just have to express confidence in them, because they can easily get another streak going.”

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TEEN MOTHER photos by Grant Kendall and Emma Robson

Former East student Anna Ignatovich has spent her would-be junior year facing a situation uncommon to most girls her age. Nathan Tyler Ignatovich was born two months ago on Nov. 22, weighing 5 lbs, 10 oz. Anna has been taking the past few months to collect herself and adjust to her new life with Nathan.

A sleeping Nathan, above, sits in his seat while Anna participates in her bible study group at Heartland Church. “Church and God have helped me with this experience,” Anna said.

“God knows what he’s doing with my life.”

Anna, above, connects with her friends via texting while one-month old Nathan reclines in her lap. “Now, if I want to go out I have to fine a babysitter,” Anna said.

“Nathan is almost always with me so it’s harder to do things. A lot has changed!”

Anna feeds Nathan, right, just two days after he was born. The two had to stay a few days longer in the hospital because Nathan wasn’t eating as much as a baby his size should have.

Anna’s mother (left) watches on as her daughter holds Nathan. “[My mom] lets me know that everyone makes mistakes and to not be scared to.”

The background of Anna’s cell phone, left, is a baby picture of Nathan. “[When I held him] it kicked in that he was my son! Only I could make the rules and decided things for him.”

In November, the Harbinger published a story about Anna’s pregnancy. To read about her transformation from an East sophomore into a pregnant teen, scan this code using your smartphone.

24 | PHOTO ESSAY page24photoessay.indd 1

2/16/12 8:00 AM