The Harbinger: Issue 12

the harbinger.

SHAWNEE MISSION EAST 7500 MISSION ROAD PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS 66208

MARCH 5, 2018 VOLUME LIX ISSUE 12

FOREVER IN THEIR HEARTS Family, friends, coaches and others touched by sophomore Alex Carney’s giving nature have come together to carry on his legacy of a caring heart

COVER DESIGN E MILY FEY

2 CONTENTS

table of contents. editorial

Students taking action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

NEWS

News briefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 SMSD security changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Gun violence “Pop-up Postcard” event. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 STUDENT VOICES BOARD FORMED. . . . . . . . . . . . 8

THE HARBINGER

peek inside.

A more detailed look at a few stories in the issue

STUDENT VOICES

MORE THAN A COACH

RETURNING FOR REDEMPTION

PAGE 8 | NEWS

PAGE 13 | OPINION

PAGE 29 | SPORTS

Four students formed a new student board intended to create a transparent relationship with administration, and held an assembly last week

Coach Rob Cole has shown that a good coach is neccessary for success and team building

A look ahead as the golf teams seeks redemption after a second place finish at state last year

OPINION

Elon Musk appreciation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 School security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Youtube clickbait. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 ODE TO GREAT COACHES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

F E AT U R E S

Shooting Star Award candidates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Marine biology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Alex Carney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16/17 Kayla Starns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 DECA projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

A&E

Spring break fitness guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Prodcast breakdown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 A&E roundup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Concert venue review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

SPORTS

Andrew Moore marathons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Boys win swim state. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 New spring coaches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 GOLF PREVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

MORE

Gun violence pop-up photo-story. . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . 6 Figure skating photo-story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 .

Spring style alt-copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

editorial policy.

The Harbinger is a student-run publication. Published editorials express the views of the Harbinger staff. Signed columns published in the Harbinger express the writer’s personal opinion. The contents and views of the Harbinger do not represent the student body, faculty, administration or Shawnee Mission School District. The Harbinger will not share any unpublished content, but quoted material may be confirmed with sources. The Harbinger encourages letters to the editors, but reserves the right to reject them for reasons including but not limited to lack of space, multiple letters of the same topic and personal attacks contained in the letter. The Harbinger will not edit content though letters may be edited for clarity, length, libel or mechanics. Letters should be sent to room 521 or emailed to smeharbinger@gmail.com

| courtesy katie vahle

| luke hoffman

the harbinger staff.

PRINT EDITORS-INCHIEF Grace Chisholm Robbie Veglahn

ASST. PRINT EDITORS Emily Fey Lizzie Kahle HEAD COPY EDITOR Daisy Bolin ART & DESIGN EDITOR Katie Hise ONLINE EDITORS-INCHIEF Reser Hall Kaleigh Koc ASST. ONLINE EDITORS Annabelle Cook Will Tulp ASST. DESIGN EDITOR Grace Padon PRINT SECTION EDITORS Editorial- Gracie Kost News- Lucy Patterson Opinion- Ava Johnson & Sarah Wilcox Features- Abby Walker & Gabby Leinbach Spread- Caroline Chisholm & Lila Tulp A&E- Carolyn Popper & Grace Padon Sports- Elias Lowland & Meg Thoma

PAGE DESIGNERS Jackie Cameron Natasha Thomas Brynn Winkler Scout Rice Kaylin McCan Annabelle Cook Lucy Kendall Lucy Hoffman Allison Wilcox Julie Fromm Lydia Underwood Lauren West Sarah Bledsoe STAFF ARTIST Lilah Powlas

COPY EDITORS Mac Newman Madeline Hlobik Reser Hall Kaleigh Koc Annabelle Cook Will Tulp Alex Freeman Daisy Bolin Harrison Gooley Robbie Veglahn Grace Chisholm Emily Fey Meg Thoma Gracie Kost Katie Hise Maya Stratman Elizabeth Ballew Abby Walker Caroline Chisholm Lucy Patterson Lizzie Kahle Lila Tulp Anna Kanaley

STAFF WRITERS Lucia Barraza Miranda Hack Megan Funkey Liddy Stallard Kourtney Koc Clara Von Drehle PHOTO EDITORS Diana Percy Ellie Thoma Carson Holtgraves ASST. PHOTO EDITORS Grace Goldman Print- Lucy Morantz Online- Maddie Smiley SME PHOTOS EDITOR Izzy Zanone HEAD PHOTO MENTOR Izzy Zanone STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Tyler Browning Ellen Swanson Reilly Moreland Luke Hoffman Lucy Morantz Ava Simonsen Morgan Plunkett Katherine Odell Julia Percy Katherine McGinness Hadley Hyatt Ally Griffith Kate Nixon Camille Talkington

Aislinn Menke Avery Walker Kathleen Deedy Lena Heukelbach ONLINE SECTION EDITORS News- Alex Freeman Sports- Ben Henschel & Brett Wainwright A&E- Carolyn Popper & Grace Padon Homegrown- Kourtney Koc & Clara Von Drehle Opinion- Elizabeth Ballew Eastipedia- Miranda Hack Humans of East- Kate Nixon MOBILE MEDIA EDITORS Anna Kanaley Lucy Hoffman ASST. MOBILE MEDIA EDITOR Brooklyn Terrill VIDEO EDITOR Avery Walker ASST. VIDEO EDITOR Ian Schutt VIDEO TRAINING EDITOR Peyton Watts

LIVE BROADCAST EDITOR Peyton Watts PODCAST EDITOR Lucy Patterson INTERACTIVE EDITORS Will Tulp Annabelle Cook MULTIMEDIA STAFF Maggie Schutt Ryan Gossick Megan Funkey Georgia Cook Dalton Reck Brett Wainwright Sydney Williams Riley Atkinson Lawder DeSantis Cate Nearmyer EDITORIAL BOARD Grace Chisholm Robbie Veglahn Kaleigh Koc Reser Hall Katie Hise Daisy Bolin Lizzie Kahle Emily Fey Anna Kanaley Lucy Hoffman Madeline Hlobik Gracie Kost Alex Freeman Annabelle Cook Will Tulp

DESIGN GRACIE KOST

M ARCH 5, 2018

LET

EDITORIAL

W

hen children act like leaders and leaders act like children, you know change is coming.

In the aftermath of another tragedy where 17 lives were taken during a school shooting at Parkland, Fla. high school, it again seemed difficult to continue this unrequited fight for gun reform. Yet the sheer determination of the student survivors have restored our hope. They have reminded us of what we, as students, are capable of.

It is no longer a question of if change will happen, only a question of when. As our generation approaches adulthood, we will bring down this sexist, racist, elitist, corrupt hegemony that embodies our nation’s capital. We no longer have to be the victims of our neglectful predecessors. This change begins with us.

Although we are teenagers, we should not allow our age to prevent us from

US BE HEARD. We should not allow our age to prevent us from speaking up and making change

15 AGAINST 0 FOR

challenging the beliefs of our elected officials and the harmful foundations of our country. The student survivors from Parkland are proof that young age is not synonymous with ignorance. And their actions are serving as a rallying call for all of us.

At a Fort Lauderdale, Fla. anti-gun rally on Feb. 19, Parkland survivor

AGE NUMBER IS JUST A

18+ LEGAL VOTING AGE

DELANEY TARR

DIDN’T STOP

THE

and fellow classmates from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Emma Gonzalez called “BS” on common objections to gun control as a crowd of hundreds of thousands applauded her.

On the same day, high school students from the D.C. area staged a lie-in in front of the White House, surrounded by hundreds of other student protesters.

The survivors have put into motion more calls for gun reform in the weeks following the shooting than lawmakers have in decades. And their fight is not over. Students across the country are organizing staged walkouts to protest gun violence on March 14 and April 20. On March 24, the survivors of the Florida shooting are holding a “March for Our Lives” in Washington, while other students across the nation, including students from Kansas City, will be marching in their city to end gun violence.

There is a common misconception in our country that publicizing and politicizing these tragedies is innapropriate.

Following a mass shooting, it is deemed “not the right time” or “too soon” to discuss gun violence. The Parkland survivors have demanded differently: now is the time.

And it’s pitiful that these victims are the ones who have to start this conversation instead of our own legislatures. However, their voices have resulted in tremendous steps in the right direction for our country.

On Feb. 28, Walmart and Dicks Sporting Goods raised the minimum age for firearm purchases to 21 and removed assault rifles from their stores. Oregon lawmakers passed a bill banning gun ownership for people with domestic

3

violence convictions on Feb. 22. Major businesses have cut ties with the National Rifle Association, such as the First National Bank of Omaha, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Avis and Hertz car rental services, MetLife and more.

Yet, as they protest for the sake of student lives, there are the inevitable counter-protesters who seem to all have the same trivial argument: our age.

Bill O’Reilly tweeted on Feb. 20, “The big question is: should the media be promoting opinions by teenagers who are in an emotional state and facing extreme peer pressure in some cases?”

To which 39-year-old American DJ, Diplo, clapped backed: “So teenagers can own assault rifles but not have their own opinions?”

The voices of teenagers are just as valuable and worthy as anyone else’s, especially when we are the victims. As we approach adulthood, we also approach our right to vote, our right to fight for our country and our right to own guns. We had the option to scroll past this news and move on like those in the past, but we didn’t. The reactions of the Parkland survivors placed the strength back into our generation, reminding us of just how powerful we can be.

We encourage you to organize a march, inform those less aware about the dangers of gun violence and voice your opinions on social media. In the wake of change, we hope you choose to participate. And when change finally does happen, you’ll be able to say you not only watched it happen, but played a role in it.

While the students taking action aren’t able to vote, it doesn’t prevent them from expressing their voices and standing up for what is right

FROM TRAVELING

496 MILES to Tallahassee to speak with legislators and protest gun control laws

LAST MONTH,

CNN TOWN HALL

students at MSDHS conversation were making plans WHAT: Controversial hosted by CNN for prom WHO: Students, parents and teachers affected by Now they are the Parkland incident planning a protest march in Washington WHY: To debate with senators D.C. for and members of NRA board about gun laws NEXT MONTH

DESIGN LUCY PAT TERS ON

THE HARBINGER

NEWS in BRIEF

4 NEWS

BY SARAH BLEDS OE Staff Writer

NATIONAL Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resumed classes on Feb. 28 after the shooting on Feb.14 that killed 17 people.

Stoneman Douglas High School board is considering tearing down the school building and turning the space into a memorial park for the students who lost their lives.

However, it is assured that building 12, where the shooting took place, will never be reopened.

Thousands of students went to collect their backpacks and other belongings that were left behind during the shooting on Feb. 14.

Officials also invited students and parents to return in the afternoon for orientation and time to meet with counselors for the students and continue discussion about the plans for resuming classes.

East sophomore Grant Colvin thinks going back to classes is a good first step in the process in recovering from the tragic events that took place. But he thinks they should no longer attend school in the same building as the shooting.

The school contains such tragic memories according to Colvin and that is why he agrees with the administration at Marjory Stoneman High School and the school should be closed indefinitely and turned into a memorial site. “[The administration of Marjory Stoneman Douglas] needs to memorialize the school because it is simply not ethical to make children go back to school where their friends were murdered,” Colvin said.

The students did not have to enter the building to retrieve their items, they were all brought outside to them by teachers and other staff members. The building, however, was closed off with a chain link fence and covered with banners from schools all around the district showing support.

LOCAL

The Kansas House of Representatives have decided to endorse a deadline of 20 days to view all police body camera footage after a request is sent out involving legal cases, this took place Feb. 24 by voting on the presented legislation. This will cause legal battles to have solid proof behind police brutality lawsuits and the discussion is now sent to Senate for a finalized vote.

Body camera footage has been the basis of discussion for a few years now, however, according to The Wichita Eagle, the government is finally taking steps to solve police brutality.

On Feb. 7, the House gave the first steps of approval by requiring police to have any footage taken from their body cameras viewed within 20 days after a request is placed. As of now the people who are allowed to request access are the parents of children who are the subjects of the videos and any attorneys.

Around the country, controversy has arisen surrounding body cameras in police confrontations. The Kansas government is now taking action in response to mulitiple shootings by voting on this legislation, the tipping point to cause this bill to be passed is the details of the recent case involving police brutality in Overland Park. In response, sophomore Olive Henry believes this bill is the best solution and a stance should have been taken a long time ago.

“I believe this legislation will seek justice to those who have been victim to police brutality,” Henry said. “These cameras need to affect police behavior in hopes to prevent future violence and to be able to seek justice in a court of law for those who have died because of police brutality.”

In response to these incidents, the bill regarding body camera footage has been passed the Kansas House. This causes the bill to be sent to Senate for a finalizing confirmation of this new legislation.

According to U.S. Today, “[The bill] was a response to the inconsistent handling of footage in several high-profile fatal shootings by officers over the past six months.”

This legislation was one of the beginning steps to change how body cameras are dealt with throughout the country starting in Kansas, this is according to U.S Today. After this bill passed in the Kansas house it was sent to the Senate for a vote and a decision is still waiting to be voted on as soon as possible.

EAST One of East’s four varsity teams who competed in the Mock Trial State competition on Feb. 24, qualified to advance. East sent a total of 12 teams to the competition in both divisions. This gave them the chance to qualify because the other teams were in the novice division.

The team that qualified for state now has a shot at qualifying for Nationals if they place in the top three at State. This team has a total of six members: seniors Hazel Carson, Iman Jaroudi, Mary Beth Eddy, Jack Furla, Isaac Harnden and junior Luke Bledsoe.

The team spent around a month preparing for state and writing out the individual witness statements as part of the competition, according to Jaroudi. Mock Trial is two teams competing for the Jury’s vote on prosecution

of the defense. Each team provides their own witness acted out by team members and questioning for all witnesses presented. The team is making sure they have a strong chance of qualification through lots of preparation and practice. Jaroudi believes this same dedication will be put in for the National qualifiers.

“As long as we put in a lot of solid work in the next few weeks, we can definitely make it to nationals,” Jaroudi said.

If the team qualifies for nationals, they will be able to continue competing this season.

East placed third and secured the third and final bid for state. But, according to Bledsoe, the competition was tough and only the top three teams qualified.

TOP | Senior Guadalupe Garcia listens to music

and paints a picture during 2nd hour painting class. | izz y za n0ne

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

RIGHT| Sophomore Joseph Wagner plays the bass with his band Stan’s Fans during the Coalition Love Concert. | JULIA PE RCY BOTTOM | Freshman Quincy Cartmel and junior

Jia Self wait to receive plates of dumplings during the Chinese Club Chinese New Year party. | A lly griffit h

DESIGN ABBY WALKER

M ARCH 5, 2018

LOCKED IN SECURITY BREAKDOWN Current safety measures in place in the district and at East*

AROUND 100

digital video cameras in each high school

30-40

video cameras in each elementary

DOOR MONITORS

at the main entrance of the school is a camera so the officer behind the door can safely unlock the door

COMMAND CENTER

provides officials access to surveillance around the entire district

REMOTE LOCKING,

sensor-activated doors and imediate alert of time sensitive alerts

PERIMETER CHECKS

are completed by East’s SROs at multiple points throughout the day

ANNUAL REVIEW

of security procedures over the summer, including analysis of every building

*INFORMATION COURTESY OF SHAWNEE MIS SION

BY GRACE CHISHOLM Print Editor-in-Chief

E

ast and SMSD leadership are working to improve school safety in the building and throughout the district following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Feb. 14.

Principal John McKinney formed a new safety procedure committee, which met Wednesday, to discuss ways to refine security procedures and teach staff and students protocols more effectively, so people “instintincutally know what to do.”

According to McKinney, the committee is operating with a constant question in mind: “Are we doing all we can at Shawnee Mission East to keep our staff and students staying safe?”

The group, comprised of teachers, administrators, student resource officers as well as district and Prairie Village police officers, discussed ideas such as installing automatic door alarms or cameras able to identify student IDs. “What we were doing, we believe was working,” McKinney said in an interview. “But let’s do more, just to make sure.”

Senior Thomas Luger believes the safety procedure committee is a good idea considering recent events. He hopes students will be able to involve themselves in the conversation, too, a sentiment McKinney said was the eventual plan for the group.

“I think [safety] should be an administrator’s number one job,” Luger said. “I think you need people that meet on a regular basis that talk about safety.”

In addition to East’s leadership meeting, SMSD Executive Director of Emergency Services John Douglass met with district resource officers and district police captain Mark Schmidt on Monday to analyze security breakdowns in the Parkland, Fla. shooting, such as the shooter being let in a side door. They’re also reviewing SMSD’s procedures, looking for potential “weak points” to improve – none Douglass could specifically name.

Douglass reported to the Board of Education on Monday night that he’s already identified two tactics the Parkland shooter used to be more lethal, tactics SMSD is now strategizing to defend. He was unable to provide specifics due to the sensitive nature of the information.

“These events are constantly mutating,” Douglass said. “They do things a little bit different each time.”

Typically, the district updates its security protocol every summer, but events like the Parkland shooting prompt additional review, Douglass said.

Douglass and Schmidt stressed they are confident in the district’s current level of safety. Three years ago, security systems were updated across the district. In the “state of the art” system, cameras are viewed by six people at all times, and sensor-controlled doors send alerts when they’ve been open too long.

NEWS

5

East and SMSD discuss ways to better safety in schools following the Parkland, Fla. shooting

But the district’s biggest asset in remaining safe has been its students, Schmidt said.

Students have reported threatening Snapchats, text messages, even notes written on walls to administration which are then investigated by the district. Douglass told the board that the district has stopped three threats that could’ve become potential active shooter situations in the last three and a half years, as well as nine other “less-developed” threats. Douglass was unable to provide specifics, but he said tips from students allowed them to track down and investigate those threats.

“The student population has been very good about telling us what they hear and see, and that’s where it starts,” Douglass said. “If we know where to look and when to look, it is not a terribly difficult process to run [the threat] to ground.”

School Resource Officer Lacey Daly believes propping doors open is the biggest security problem East faces.

East has 42 entrances and exits. When kids run to grab their backpack or money from their car, they often prop open doors instead of returning inside through the main office.

Propping a door is “not just a temporary solution to a temporary problem,” and it could cause more harm, McKinney said.

“If they’ve got to run out to their car, maybe it’s just the inconvenience of having to walk all the way back around the building to come in the main door,” Daly said. “But if that’s what it takes to make us safe, then I think that everybody should be willing to do that.”

In order to discourage propping doors, McKinney hopes to invest in automatic alarms for doors.

Currently, campus security officer Shane Fries is alerted through the security system when a door has remained opened for too long, then passes that information on to administration. An administrator closes the door and assistant principal Britt Haney uses camera footage to see what happened and indentify who opened it.

But no significant changes will be made until the district finalizes its own plan to update procedure, Daly said.

Moving forward, the safety procedure committee will be reviewing the current crisis management guidelines, which include instructions for drills such as “code red” and “lockdown,” in the event of an emergency.

The safety procedure committee talked about creating informational posters to remind students what drills mean, McKinney said. For example, a poster may break down levels of security like a stoplight. Green may mean normal security, yellow a lockdown or secure perimeter situation, and red stop everything and find cover.

The team plans to meet next after spring break to continue brainstorming and forming ideas.

“Thank God, more often than not we get the best,” McKinney said. “But God forbid someday we don’t, we’ve got to be ready.”

DESIGN BRYNN WINKLERPHOTOS LENA HEUKELBACH AND M ADDIE SMILEY

THE HARBINGER

6 NEWS

ADVoCATING IN THE

Lancer VOICE

GuN DEBATE

Students state their opinion on recent gun control controversies

Students get involved in the push for gun control after recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

BY K AYLIN MCCAN Staff Writer

I see both sides. Because it is a second amendment right, and I’m not saying that people shouldn’t have guns, but I feel like there should be a lot more limitations on it.

Venus Gutierrez Senior

I understand where people are coming from when they say, ‘guns help us protective ourselves,’ but if we didn’t have guns, then there wouldn’t be a need for self defense.

Anna Gunderman Sophomore

M

ainstream Coalition, a group consisting of members of different political parties and Moms Demand Action, hosted “Step Up and Advocate Against Gun Violence” on Feb. 25.

The goal of the event was to provide an outlet for people to voice their opinions and concerns on the recent tragedy that occurred Feb. 14 in Parkland, Fla. where 17 people were killed.

“We organized what we call a Mainstream postcard pop- up party,” said Outreach Coordinator for Mainstream, Lesa Patterson-Kinsey. “We have them on different issues as they come up, and of course the recent shooting in Florida prompted us to say ‘we need to have our voices heard in the legislation.”

Approximately 150 people – ranging from high school students to retirees – attended the event.

Students from schools includign East, St. Teresa’s Academy and Shawnee Mission

South came together to write postcards to the Kansas Senate. Students and adults from around the Prairie Village area wrote to their legislators asking the Senate to promote sensible gun legislation and not reduce the age from concealed from 21 to 18, after the recent school shooting that took place.

A group of teens from schools around the area assembled outside of Panera in Corinth in a small circle, brainstorming ways to voice their opinions and obtain media attention to make a difference. The students came up with the idea to organize a protest and write to the legislature with concerns about gun legislation.

“I personally believe in gun control,” junior Lillian Selby said. “Not necessarily taking away guns, but controlling them and restricting the access that people have to them, I think that it would help significantly because I’m afraid to go to school nowadays.”

Lawrence Free State High School organized a 17-minute walkout with signs to showcase a peaceful tribute to the victims of the Parkland shooting. Members of the

Young Democrats Club and East students are attending walks such as the “March For our Lives KC” anti-gun rally on March 24 in response to the school shooting in Florida.

Senior Kirby Motsinger and fellow East students are responding to the shooting by setting up a Google form where people can submit videos, essays and podcasts about their thoughts and views on gun control for the march on March 24.

“We have over 10,000 RSVPs on Facebook already,” Motsinger said. “We’re trying to get as many speakers as we can for this march that are students because the recent matters affects us.”

Multiple walkouts will be held in support for the victims of the Parkland shooting and to voice concerns over gun violence. The National School Walkout will take place on March 14, planned by the Woman’s March Youth Empower Group. The March 24 rally, which several east students will be participating in, is happening in Washington and Kansas City. The National High School Walkout will happen April 20 which is also the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

STUDENTS TAKING ACTION

A timeline of upcoming events organized by U.S. students to protest gun violence

14 : #Enough Walkout I think there needs to be way more gun control, because right now I think it’s way too easy to get weapons that can do a lot of damage.

Keaton Duckworth

Freshman

One month after the Parkland shooting, teachers and students all over the country will walk out of school

20 : National Day of Action Against Gun Violence in Schools Another national walkout will occur on the anniversary of the Columbine shooting

MARCH

24 : March For Our Lives Survivors of the Parkland shooting will protest in Washington D.C. and push for gun control reform

APRIL

DESIGN ELLIE THOM A

M ARCH 5, 2018

Students and patrons work at “Step Up Advocate Against Gun Violence” on Feb. 25 BELOW | Shawnee Mission South senior Sydney Burns listens

as South junior Taylor Burns reads her the postcard she wrote to the Kansas senators. “Based on statistics from other countries that have control on accessing guns it clearly works, or would atleast improve how things are now,” Sydney said. “We need to do anything we can to prevent more shootings.

P H OTO STO RY

7

LEFT | Moms Demand Action

member Kristen Fromm speaks to the crowd of high schoolers to explain the ways in which they can get involved in the fight for gun control. “What I really want is for everybody to organize their high schools to attend the March for Our Lives in Kansas City, on the Plaza, on March 24,” Fromm said. “We want you to get media attention and spend your time making a difference.”

E L L I E T H OM A |

| E LLIE T HO M A

ABOVE | Seniors

Sam Fay and Robbie Veglahn discuss plans for East students to play a role in the gun control movement.

“We’re trying to bring up topics like gun control and mental health,” Fay said.

“This is in response to all of the terrible things that have been happening.” | DIA NA PE RCY

ABOVE MIDDLE | After the event, sophomore Sean Paddack

signs up to learn more about Kansas City’s upcoming March for our Lives event. “I went to the postcard event because I heard the most recent gun bill allows 18-year-olds to purchase weapons and carry concealed firearms,” Paddack said. “That just kind of terrifies me.” | LUK E HO F FM A N

ABOVE | Participants at the post card pop up event write to the senators to explain their stance on gun reform. These letters will be hand delivered to Topeka. | J UL I A P E R CY

ABOVE | Shawnee Mission South sophomore Taylor Burns explains

her opinion on gun control to KCUR reporter Elle Moxley. “Everyone should feel safe when they go to school, when they go to concerts, and when they go to anything,” Burns said. “It’s not fair that we have to think about how were going to exit a place if someone comes in.” | E L L I E T H OM A

DESIGN L AUREN WEST PHOTOS AVA SIMONSEN

8 NEWS

THE HARBINGER

Student Voices A new board was formed to allow students voices to be heard among teachers and administration

BY CAROLINE CHISHOLM Section Editor

J

uniors Lucy Morantz, Madisyn Wallin, Will Barreca and Simon McDonald created a new student board called Student Voices. The board will potentially hold quarterly open seminars at the school in hopes of creating transparency with the administration.

The four students teamed up with assistant principal Britton Haney and social studies teachers Curtis White and David Muhammad in late February to create a board of students and administrators that could answer student questions about their school, administration or relevant topics in the community and allow their thoughts to be directly heard, according to Morantz.

They wanted to create a system where students could express their opinions and ask questions without being avoided according to Barreca.

The goal of the open seminar March 1 was to get people to feel like they have a voice in their school. According to Morantz, they wanted to make sure every student who wanted to participate felt like they could use their voice freely and ask whatever they pleased.

“We are trying to make everyone as comfortable as we can so people aren’t scared to say whatever they want,” Morantz said.

The seminar’s structure was created by the group. They started the seminar with one main prompt of school safety and then

allowed students to ask questions afterwards.

Collectively, the board decided to discuss the topics of school safety and mental health during their first open discussion. They are prompting students with questions like how to optimize students’ safety and which mental health factors play into gun violence, according to Wallin and Barreca.

“For now, this first topic we will be discussing is school shootings and mental health, but as we go on we will discuss many more topics,” Barreca said.

The open seminar was very successful according to the board. Over 20 students stood up during the 45 minute seminar and discussed their opinions of teachers having guns, the drills set for safety measures, the school board purchasing guns for the district and mental health.

The discussion at times got heated with students giving their opinions about whether they feel safe or not at school and how guns come into play at East, but ultimately the board and Haney conducted the seminar so that only one student was speaking at a time and could give their full opinion on the matter.

The four student leaders expressed concern that the East area school board representative Mary Sinclair and at large representative Heather Ousley don’t fully know what students want.

“The representatives speaking for the students think they know what the students want,” Morantz said. “But this way each student is getting their own thought heard if they want to.”

ABOVE | Senior Ellie van Gorden asks a

Sinclair and Ousley both attended the seminar. The group even reached out to interim superintendent Dr. Kenny Southwick to see if he would attend the open seminar and be willing to answer students questions, however he was unable to attend. Ousley felt that the seminar went well and was successful in allowing students to be heard.

“I’m so proud and impressed by our students and how they are taking on challenges and seeing what issues affect them and what they can do to make a difference,” Ousley said. “We would like to have a forum like this for the community as a whole.”

SMSD’s Executive Director of Emergency Services John Douglas spoke on behalf of the districts safety measures and agreed with students that he feels sometimes that the district isn’t effective in getting students informed on safety precautions.

“If we can sit in the same room and talk to each other back and forth in a civil manner then that is successful,” Douglas said. “We aren’t all going to agree on everything, but the most important thing in America we are supposed to sit down and discuss these issues not scream at each other.”

Haney also addressed safety questions specific to East.

“There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ that we can’t give a definitive answer to, but we can talk about how we would plan and prep and practice so that if a real situation did come up we would be ready for it,” Haney said.

The idea of the board was created during third hour American History AP class by the

ABOVE | The Student Voices Council thanking

question to head security director John Douglas. the school board members for coming.

four students. Each hour, the class usually gets five to 10 minutes to talk about current events. On Feb. 16, the discussion lasted almost the whole hour according to Morantz.

Students spoke up about their thoughts on the recent death of sophomore Alex Carney and of the mass shooting at Mason Stoney Douglas High School in Florida.

Wallin added to the conversation saying that she thought that this discussion needed to happen with people who really could make a difference and to a larger group than just the third hour.

“The kids are just concerned about everyone’s safety and so we talked about having great communication together in the school, seeing each other as brothers and sisters and as a family,” White said. “We are all Lancers trying to do what’s right and enjoy ourselves at the school.”

White loved the idea of finding a way for the communication to be better and the students be more represented, so he took the group to the office during passing period. They went to Haney after their class to present their idea of the council and he jumped on board.

“I think it is a wonderful idea for students to have an opportunity to share how they feel,” Haney said.

Due to the high turnout and success of students sharing their thoughts at the seminar last week, Morantz thinks the discussions will become a quarterly occurrence so that they can periodically make sure that all students and faculty are “on the same page.”

ABOVE | SRO Wollen listening to students’ opinions about security at East.

DESIGN MEG THOM A

M ARCH 5, 2018

OPINION

9

IN MUSKW E R UST ACHIEVEMENT TIMELINE

SEPT

2000

First successful Falcon rocket launch

AUG

2006

Second rocket successfully launches and explodes

MARCH

2009

Sells PayPal for a profit of $1.5 billion to start SpaceX

MARCH

2006

Became the first investor in the company Solar City MARCH

2007

The first model of the Tesla was unveiled

SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, is making waves in scientific improvements, despite stipulation

BY BEN HENS CHEL Staff Writer

E

lon Musk is the epitome of p ro d u c t iv i ty.

SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and PayPal are among the many influential companies he’s created.

His constant innovative mindset has resulted in, among many other things, the creation of the most powerful rocket in the world and a vast increase in electric cars throughout it.

Yet somehow, news media, including NBC and The Guardian, have been relentlessly throwing shade at Musk.

They denounce his actions, criticizing his companies’ “waste” of money on groundbreaking and creative projects. They claim the $300 million spent on SpaceX’s most recent rocket launch should have gone to the poor and oppressed people in need.

While it’s honorable to donate money to help the downtrodden members of society, Musk should not be shamed for choosing to spend his money on technological innovation. These reporters should call on the billionaires who waste their money on yachts and mansions, and leave those who waste it on changing the world alone.

Through his constant drive to improve things, Musk is paving the way for children across the globe that live in a world where anything is possible. From rocket flights to selling flamethrowers for fun (yes, this happened) — being a scientist is finally cool again. In a world where it seems like it’s only cool to be a lawyer or doctor, these inspirations are a necessity.

SpaceX, one of Musk’s many genius establishments, has become one of the biggest privatized aerospace manufacturers in the world, and the most innovative company pertaining to space according to Fast Company magazine. Born out of Musk’s portion of the money from PayPal, he poured everything he had into the now

prospering company.

SpaceX is private, deviating from most space organizations that are run by countries, like NASA, EPA, JAXA and CSA. This means most of the money used

by SpaceX is funded by revenue (with the exception of loans) as opposed to a national administration that would use the country and taxpayers’ money.

The company recently test-launched their Falcon Heavy rocket, the most powerful rocket in the world, and included the reentry of two thrusters, which touched down in unison on landing pods. These reusable thrusters are another huge innovation by SpaceX, and seeing them work in a real launch was nothing short of spectacular.

In addition to the scientific and financial appeal, the launch furthered Musk’s appeal to youth (and anyone who likes to have a little fun in life) across the globe because of what the rocket actually shot to space.

These reporters should call on the billionaires who waste their money on yachts and mansions, and leave those who waste it on changing the world alone.

B EN H EN S C H EL SO P HO MO RE

The rocket, once out of orbit, shot Musk’s own private midnight cherry-red Tesla Roadster on coarse directly for Mars. With a mannequin named “Starman” at the wheel, and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on full blast, SpaceX is bringing badassery back to the space business.

If you think progress in space isn’t as important, Musk’s company Tesla Motors focuses on helping the environment here on Earth. It develops high-tech and efficient electric cars with the goal of ridding society of gas-powered vehicles,

and transitioning to ones that are powered by renewable energy. He believes that since the world will eventually run out, it’s better to get to renewable energy “before more environmental damage is done, not after.”

From semi-trucks and buses to the affordable, family, or luxury options it offers now, the company is making electric cars sleek and powerful — deviating from the ridiculous, cheese-wedge shaped monstrosities that other electric car companies offer. Tesla’s vehicles have also garnered top notch safety ratings, with the Model S receiving the highest safety rating the NHTSA has ever given out.

The world is overdue for Musk’s mindset and means for change. Groundbreaking electric cars through Tesla are leading the world to renewable energy-based vehicle use. With Tesla as an example of how electric cars can thrive in the market, the company may prove to be one of the world’s fighting chances to overcome carbon emission and global warming.

The wonder and curiosity SpaceX is sparking lead to new and inspired scientists and further development of rocket and aerospace products. We are all witnesses of a return to the age of scientific discovery that came in the wake of the 1960’s space race to the moon.

An age that led to the exponential rise in people making waves — waves that helped frame the world as we now know it — and it all started from seeing a rocket escape the earth, breaking the confinement of the lone world we inhabit.

I have something to say to those who believe that it is Musk’s responsibility to drop his ambitions and pour his money into charity. To those who believe spending money in space is a waste of time. To those who believe that the price of these innovations is too great.

Musk and his companies are leading the world to a brighter future, showing us that unreachable goals are now brushing our fingertips, inspiring future generations of world-changers in the process.

Put a price on that.

DESIGN GRACE PADON PHOTOS LUCY MORANTZ

THE HARBINGER

10 O P I N I O N

CODE DEAD

BY AVA JOHNS ON Section Editor

O

Code red drills are outdated and would be ineffective in a realistic situation

C O D E R E D S AT E A S T *

6.7%

30.3%

13.5%

62.9%

86.5%

If East were to have an intruder, 6.7% of students would fight, 30.3% of students would hide and 62.9% of students would run

86.5% of students surveyed think the code red drill is outdated, while 13.5% do not think the code red drill is outdated

*189 students were surveyed

nce a month, we are alerted by the intercoms to get into position. We turn off the lights and crouch in the corner of our classrooms, preparing for a possible code red. We whisper and check our Snapchats as a police officer rattles the door handle, checking to see if our room is locked. Yet in reality, we wouldn’t be laughing if it wasn’t just the friendly SRO officer standing behind the door.

17 people were killed and 14 were hospitalized on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. at the hands of a mass murderer. Any school, including Shawnee Mission East, could face the deranged attack of someone like 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who walked into Parkland’s doors that day with a legally purchased AR-15.

Like East, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had security, a school officer and code reds – but these precautions proved nearly pointless in the wake of 17 lives that were lost.

It is time to do more than hide in a corner.

Code red drills are not the right protection from an active shooter situation. Security filled, bulletproof classrooms with students that are educated on new and improved drills are the right protection. Code reds would become the back up protection plan if the security isn’t enough.

Ever since kindergarten I’ve been practicing code red drills in school “just in case” we were to have an active shooter or some other threat in the building. The teacher locked the door, turned off the lights and everybody crowded to the safest corner of the room as practice in case of a safety threat.

Code red drills are always performed in the perfect scenario: minutes into class when everyone is seated in their classroom. Students and teachers have not been prepared for other scenarios such as an active shooter during lunch, or a passing period.

Huddling away from the sight of windows and doors while a school shooter unloads his or her weapons is just as futile and pitiful as the “duck and cover!” drill was during the Cold War era.

Maybe a room with no windows and a

locked door could be beneficial during a school shooting – but what will happen to those who aren’t in this ideal hiding spot?

Updated drills such as the one that Southwestern High School in Shelbyville, Ind. are needed. SMSD needs to take notes from this school, who call themselves “the safest school in America.” The high school is equipped with bulletproof doors, panic buttons, cameras and smoke cannons, but not only that, they have also updated their safety protocol and drills.

At Southwestern High School, each teacher in the building has an emergency fob that he or she press in case of emergency, which sets off a school-wide alarm and notifies the local police. There is also a panic button in each classroom that allows the teacher to notify the local law enforcement their classroom is safe, signal they need medical aid or ask for help if they’ve seen the suspect.

After police are notified, the students are taught to barricade themselves with books and desks in a designated corner of the classroom that is the least visible angle away from the window.

The local law enforcement has access to live cameras in the building so they can see the shooter’s movements and if necessary, they can launch what they call “hot zones.” Hot zones are cannons that shoot smoke to distract and limit the visibility of the intruder in hallways.

According to USAtoday.com, the entire system was reported to cost $400,000. There isn’t a price tag for the loss of children’s lives so the $400,000 is well worth it.

East has multiple well-trained SRO officers, cameras that are managed all day and night, and sensors that notify officers when a door has been propped open for a long amount of time.

But is that enough?

SMSD has the resources to implement a security system just as the one in Shelbyville, Ind. matter of fact, on Feb. 15, SMSD approved $11 million to be spent on updating our technology. For the cost of updated Apple products, our school district could have 27 of 44 schools fully secured.

Administrators need to learn from the Parkland, Fla. tragedy that anyone can be an armed intruder – even someone that attends the school. And that the gun restrictions aren’t changing anytime soon.

The change needs to begin with the voices of us: students, administrators and parents. We can’t prevent these crises from happening, but we can control how we protect ourselves from them.

DESIGN JACKIE CA MERON PHOTOS AISLINN MENKE

M ARCH 5, 2018

OPINION OL NEW TIP

SHOCKED: does this really work?

I FOUND THE BEST BEAUTY HACK

1:20 / 5:43

CC

WHA WHAtH

I’M NOT ASHAMED

(DON’T) CLICK

CC

CC

11

:

CC

YouTube should be for sharing experiences, not making them up

BY LYDIA UNDERWOOD Page Designer

A

s soon as I type “www” on my computer, YouTube appears automatically.

I scroll through the YouTube homepage, and my eyes are immediately drawn to video titles: “You’ll never believe what he asked me,” “This made her cry” and “Storytime: My Psycho Ex Roommate.”

But when I click on the video and watch it, I find I’ve been swindled. In truth, he asked her to prom, she didn’t cry, and her roommate used her fork. I find have fallen victim to the ultimate villain: click-bait.

If catfishing had a twin, click-bait would hands down be her. Essentially, click-bait is a tool that YouTubers use make more money by tricking all their subscribers into watching their video. Whenever I watch a video with a deceiving title, I feel scammed and inexplicably disappointed. It’s similar to the feeling I get when I think a parking spot is open only to discover a smart car has taken the spot. It’s like a friend told me a story that “changed their entire life,” only to find out it was all a lie. I’m cheated from an out-of-this-world experience.

When YouTube was in its prime, people shared their lives and expressed themselves through videos, which only fed my curiosity to discover how other high schoolers, college students and young adults live and what they do each day. Now, YouTube is a world of click-bait.

All through middle school, I’d watch YouTubers

like Danielle Carolan and Jeanine Amapola while doing my homework. Their beauty and inspiration videos always motivated me. They gave me new ways to be productive and ideas about things to do for myself that could make me happy every day.

Amapola’s beauty and inspirational videos were often personal. She made a video about her ex-

But when I click on the video and watch it, I find I’ve been swindled. In truth, he asked her to prom, she didn’t cry, and her roommate used her fork.

I find have fallen victim to the ultimate villain: click-bait.

LY DI A U N DERWOOD SOP H OMORE boyfriend she’d secretly married then annulled the marriage. I was instantly hooked.

I was amazed by the way she shared everything from her dating life to her workout routine with 1.6 million subscribers. I can’t even play a harmless game of “never have I ever.” In a way, I was living vicariously through her. But like almost all wellknown YouTubers, she caught the fatal click-bait virus.

She started posting videos named “Opening Up” or “I Had One Shot and I Ruined It” that were

actually about what she did that day and an awkward conversation with someone in an elevator. By the end, I was only watching to see if I could bust her for using click-bait.

Now, I can barely stand to support someone who is manipulating me. Whenever I go on YouTube, I choose to watch Danielle Carolan and Eva Gutowski because they are among the few creators who don’t use click-bait.

Popular YouTubers that once genuinely cared about their content, like the story time queen and vlogger, Taylor Skeens, titled her video “My Family Poisoned My Boyfriend Over Christmas” when really he just got the flu. They lie just to make money while still claiming YouTube is their passion. YouTubers get paid per view, so by using click-bait they can make way more money and earn sponsorship deals.

Click-bait turns YouTube into an unfair playing field. With the overly dramatic titles such as “I Got Trapped in a Mall for Hours” and “My Mother InLaw Caused my Divorce,”people will be more likely to click on them, even though they are not true. The YouTubers who are actually using YouTube to share their lives with a group and don’t use click-bait are at an unfair advantage because they are getting less views, and ultimately, less money. The fact that people who are lying can make more money shows how corrupt YouTube has gotten.

So next time you are scrolling through YouTube’s video recommendations looking for a video to watch, I would suggest avoiding titles in all caps, thumbnails with people holding scissors up to their hair and anything involving the words “storytime.” They are just lies and exaggerations to draw you in.

LYDIA’S DON’T CLICK GUIDE

Avoid the words “psycho” and “storytime”

If you doubt its authenticity, don’t watch it

how to spot YouTube click-bait

The title “My first time” is usually click-bait in disguise

Beauty hacks are a trap for click-bait

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M ARCH 5, 2018

DESIGN S COUT RICE PHOTO REILLY MOREL AND

O P I N I O N 13

more than just a Coach The importance of a good coach is neccessary for success and team building

BY MIRANDA HACK Online Section Editor

I

feel like I’m writing a breakup letter. It’s like I’ve ended it with my first long-term boyfriend after being with him for so long that I barely know who I am without the relationship — except this proverbial ex is a balding 50 something year-old and my (former) swim coach, Rob Cole.

Rob was the first person who told me I could be good at something — not something I was already good at — something that I was completely, terribly average at. I’m still not sure what he saw in my lanky, awkward 11-yearold self, but to this day, I am thankful for his words. They shaped my high school athletic career for the better.

Back in those days, getting down the pool and back felt like a marathon for my scrawny limbs, so I stayed hidden in the back of lane three, hoping Rob would never learn my name.

Much to my embarrassment, he did, and he used it. Frequently. For nearly my entire middle school career, all that came out of his mouth were cries of “stop breathing off the wall, Miranda!” or “you cannot stop at the wall, Miranda!”

I entered my first year of high school swim with my stomach churning at the sight of Rob’s black Jeep pulling into the junior lot. Practice left me bone-achingly tired and hungry

enough to eat a meal meant for four. My entire body was sore every day for three months. But somehow, Rob made those practices worth it.

After years of cowering in the back of a lane, three hours of daily practice brought us closer together: I began to look forward to practice, to hearing him laugh too hard at his own stupid inside jokes.

And sophomore year? I spent more time with Rob on a day-to-day basis than I did with my own father. He watched me cry, saw me throw up, pushed me until I nearly passed out.

He was the one cheering when I finished my first 500-meter race, the one screaming when I got my state cut in the same event. When I added five seconds to my time at state, he was the one there, telling me “it’s okay,” and “there’s always next year.”

Not anymore, there isn’t.

Our team — once the center of his attention — has been resigned to the sidelines of his love and affection. After 18 years here at East, he’s leaving. He’ll be coaching for Blue Valley North while wearing a shirt sporting the state titles he won with us. Singing Katy Perry and making pancakes for them on Saturday morning practices. Writing them a hype poem before the Sunflower League meet.

Not us. Not me.

Rob taught me technique, yes, and the value of hard work, too. He fixed my lopsided flutter kick and my atrocious breathing patterns, and hours of his underwater sets gave me a lung capacity that once felt nearly unattainable.

But mostly, Rob taught me passion— to love

the sport no matter how much pain it put me through. To not just swim another lap when my legs begin to cramp, but to smile while doing so.

Maybe it’s my own lack of experience that makes me feel this way. I’ve had a grand total of two head coaches in my competitive swimming career – one of them barely knew my name and the other was Rob. And maybe it’s selfish, but I don’t know if I can be the athlete that I was without the coach who got me there. I just don’t know who I am as a swimmer without him.

That’s what they always tell you when you’ve been in a relationship for too long, right? That you need to ‘find yourself?’ Well, I find myself panicking when I picture a Saturday morning practice without hearing Rob bellow “Randy, pick it up!” from across the pool. He is the one person I trust to motivate me, whether it’s through fear or love or an inexplicable combination of both. I never knew how much the coach that I was once terrified of could mean to me.

So: Dear Rob, If I see you with another girl(s swim team), I’ll try not to get too jealous. But I ask in return that, just for me, please don’t sing “Dancing Queen” with them. Or write them a poem.

That’s ours, and it’s sacred.

Give them close to what you gave us.

Just not enough to win state.

Love, Miranda

PROFILE

ROB COLE Years at East

17

State Wins

6

Characteristics SME Notorious trash talker

Writes poem to the team Makes the best pancakes

Miranda’s Nickname

Randy

DESIGN GRACIE KOST PHOTOS IZZ Y ZANONE

THE HARBINGER

14 F E AT U R E S

SCHOLARSHIPS

FOR THE

Seniors nominated for the Shooting Star award share their unique paths in the program

BY KOURTNEY KOC Staff Writer

ISABELLA KLOSTER

S

enior Isabella Kloster has been filling out the many journals that lay around her house with poems and illustrations since her junior year.

Kloster has always found herself writing poems that fall into two categories – emotional and empowering. When an idea pops into her head she types a note in her phone and writes them in one of her journals later.

Kloster has always been drawn towards literature and decided to incorporate pictures to go with her poems.

“The artwork is meant to enhance the poem by using an image that meshes well,” Kloster said.

Kloster, along with 11 other seniors in Johnson County, is a finalist for the literature award. She was nominated by her art teacher, Adam Finkelston, and has the opportunity to win a scholarship up to $1,400 for first place because of her poetry. She wasn’t going to turn the opportunity down to win the Shooting Star award.

Kloster doesn’t typically like to share her

S

enior Bri Jantz was ready for the audition. She filled out the finalist form, perfected her resume and sent photos her playing her cello. She practiced at least an hour a day for weeks leading up to her audition. She would be playing the first and second movement of Sonata by Vivaldi.

But the morning of the audition, she realized she wasn’t going to get a chance to perform. Jantz had fallen ill with food poisoning.

“I was in a mini panic because I knew the policy, and I was scared they wouldn’t let me make it up, which turned out to be the case,”

poetry with others because how personal some of them can be.

“You tell people you write poetry and they immediately ask to read it, but most of my poems are connected to different parts of my life,” Kloster said. “I can go back and read them and instantly know what was going on then.”

But thought of having the judges and other finalists read her poems hasn’t been a big worry of hers. Two people Kloster does share her poems with are seniors Caroline Edge and John Gorman.

“With [Edge] I’m used to bouncing ideas since she sometimes helps me write songs,” Kloster said. “And with [Gorman] we had a poetry swap where I got to read all of his in exchange for him reading all of mine.”

Kloster’s friends believe that her nomination is well-deserved because of her hard work and dedication. Edge says that Kloster has an ability to procrastinate, but when she sets her mind on writing a poem, she’ll get it done. Edge also feels like she

Jantz said.

Since Jantz was unable to inform the organization earlier about her absence, they told her she was not able to make it up, disqualifying her and making her ineligible for the scholarship.

“It’s out of my hands, so I just have to keep moving forward,” Jantz said. “I’ve never been the type of person to dwell on failures. I try to just learn from them.”

Still Jantz knows the hours of practice she put into perfecting her audition song – and doesn’t want her hard work to be a waste.

She decided to sign up for a solo and

PREPARATION:

LITERATURE

Carries around a notebook for her poems and drawings Kloster has been writing poetry for two years

STARS

STRINGS

Practiced for her audition for an hour every day Jantz has been playing cello for seven years

ensemble competition that is coming up.

Instead of just performing her rehearsed song from her missed Shooting Star audition, she also opted to be a part of the group performance with her East classmates.

“I get really nervous when I have to play alone because if I make a mistake then everyone can hear it,” Jantz said. “But in a group competition if you mess up it’s harder for the audience to hear you.”

Although things didn’t go as planned with the Shooting Star Awards, she still plans to use her cello talent to make money in the future playing for people in the KU quartets.

has earned the finalist position because of the passion and expression she puts into her poems.

“When she is super overwhelmed she focuses that energy on making something productive,” Edge said.

Gorman appreciates how easy it is to relate to her poems.

“I can connect with [her poems] because they’re emotions that I’ve felt,” Gorman said.

“And I believe these poems showcase and express emotions and ideas that everyone goes through at some point.”

He also enjoys how he can connect to what she writes and how she conveys her thoughts in her poetry. Gorman believes Kloster uses poetry as catharsis.

“All the poems I read are personal, but at the same time relatable, and I think that’s the best form of art – when it’s so raw and touches everyone,” Gorman said. “Not many people can do that using words and images.”

BRI JANTZ

DESIGN LUCY HOFFM AN PHOTOS COURTESY OF JULIA K APROS

A MARINE DREAM

F E AT U R E S

15

Students spent the last year saving for a marine biology summer camp, a field they wish to pursue

BY CAROLYN P OPPER Section Editor

S

enior Julia Kapros couldn’t stop thinking about the ocean.

Her family vacation to the Caymans wasn’t just a getaway, in fact she knew she had to get back after snorkeling everyday and seeing the underwater life.

On the way home, she searched for summer camps by the ocean and found Broadreach, an educational program that offered three weeks on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada from June 24 to July 15. At the program, high school students study behavioral patterns of whales, kayak and swim with a sting rays — all for the whopping price of $6000, a price she would have pay on her own.

After watching videos featured on Broadreach’s website of teens living her dream of sailing on the ocean while experiencing marine wildlife, Kapros immediately texted her friend, senior Gibson Hoefgen. She remembered being assigned lab partners to Hoefgen in middle school, and despite how often they argued, they uncovered how neither had grown out of loving animals, or the ocean.

Hoefgen was sitting shotgun to her sister when her phone started to alert her with text notifications. She opened her conversation with Kapros to videos of teenagers snorkeling, pictures of ocean animals and articles of a camp that was unfamiliar — Broadreach. It reminded her of the veterinary camp in Fiji she had considered last summer that was too expensive to attend, and Hoefgen was drawn in and read on.

Following the string of messages was Kapros’s suggestion.

Hoefgen read the last text in friend’s voice: “We should do this!”

But almost as soon as the excitement came, it halted when Gibson read the $6000 admission fee. Despite her nannying and constant babysitting jobs, Gibson didn’t think it was in reach. Eventually, Julia realized the same.

Neither of them felt they could ask their parents for money. Kapros’s parents were already taking on her sister’s medical school bills. Hoefgen knew the weight of college tuition and how much it affected her parents.

But a little persuasion changed their minds. Kapros’s

friend Allison Benson saw Kapros light up when she talked of swimming with the stingrays. Hoefgen’s parents wouldn't let their daughter who grew up befriending neighborhood pets miss out on an opportunity to know for sure if she wants to become a vet, or marine biologist.

Once it was decided, the two gave up Friday night basketball games and sleepovers to work. Kapros spent night shifts at T. Loft washing dishes, and picking up as many babysitting jobs as she could, while her friends ate ice cream and went night swimming.

“I remember I’d just keep telling myself, ‘Canada, Canada, come on, just do it,” Kapros said. “[It’s] probably the only reason I worked there.”

When taking out what seemed like the 100th bag of trash made her want to quit for good, Kapros thought of snorkeling with the stingrays and sailing. Every deposit felt like a mile closer to Canada. Gibson goes to school for five classes a day, so she can make school pickups for her nanny kids, and spend the rest of the evening with them. She feels like a part of the family, but playing dress up doesn’t always appeal the way a nap does.

They fundraised, too. Kapros and Hoefgen stayed up until 1 a.m. baking cupcakes embellished with blue whales, each bag of cookie dough tied off with a blue ribbon to accent the ocean. They hoped people at their friend’s horse show would be feeling generous and maybe donate to get them to Vancouver.

Kapros and Hoefgen sent out letters to relatives and family friends explaining the program, asking for donations as well. Every penny was split between the two of them.

Finally, a year of saving and skipping nights out with friends, Broadreach was a reality, and they could find an opportunity to work in the field of their dream jobs that would hopefully carry on the help their future careers.

Hoefgen sees herself traveling to Africa, working in an animal sanctuary as a large animal veterinarian. She wants to help animals recover from injuries so they can be set in the wild after studying nature and conservation at K State.

Kapros and her parents have already discussed completing her Bachelors of Science degree in biology at UMKC and completing her graduate from the University of Manoa in Hawaii, or possibly marine biology or an animal science. She sees herself starting her life there — building a family.

steps to the sea: beach prep Raise money for the trip by bakesales, then make a deposit

Apply to the program and answer marine biology questions

TOP | Julia and Gibson selling homemade treats that go Buy textbooks, fill out doctor's forms, and book a flight

towards thier marine biology fund.

MIDDLE | A whale cookie that Julia and Gibson sold in their bake sale.

BOTTOM | A tray of treats the girls made in order to fundraise for their dream trip.

DESIGN LILA TULP PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALEX’S FRIENDS AND FAMILY

ALEX, YOU MADE US SO PROUD WITH THE GOOD THINGS YOU DID IN A SHORT LIFE, WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE MAN YOU WILL BE - LOVE MOM, DAD AND CADEY

BROTHERS ON AND OFF THE FIELD UNTIL WE SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN, #41 & #83 - KADEN BORNHOLTZ

ALEX, YOU WERE MY BEST FRIEND AND WERE ALWAYS THERE FOR ME NO MATTER WHAT. I’M REALLY GOING TO MISS YOU MAKING ME LAUGH AND SMILE ALL DAY LONG - ANNIE GORMAN

REMEMBERING STUDENT, CLASSMATE, TEAMMATE, FRIEND, BOYFRIEND, BROTHER, SON, GIVER: REMEMBERING THE LIFE OF ALEX CARNEY

4 • 5 • 02 A

lex Carney played football – varsity by his sophomore year. He loved watching Disney’s “Starstruck” with his girlfriend, sophomore Kenzie Born, on the tan sectional in her basement. He went out on the weekends and occasionally rebelled against his parents, just like any other teen. He went to church every Sunday.

He gave his energy. He gave his time. He gave his presence. Alex gave a lot – it was his specialty.

He gave a lonely girl someone to talk to on the first day of school, morale to his football teammates and the Upward basketball players his entire Saturdays. *** Alex died on Wednesday, Feb. 14. He was announced brain dead the night before. There was hardly time to mourn because they needed to save his organs for donation, according to Chris Carney, Alex’s father.

“We knew we weren’t going to get our boy back,” Chris said. “Once we got the news, the only thing to do was something Alex would want. Something

2 • 14 • 18 selfless, just like he was. So we stopped fighting for his life and started fighting for his organs.”

He gave his heart to everyone he knew, even after his death. A 16-year-old boy in the southeast United States now has the chance to live because Alex gave him his heart. Just as he did with all the people he knew.

Everyone he had given to went to his funeral on Feb. 20 to give back to Alex one last time: football coach Derrick Rider, his best friend, sophomore Kaden Bornholtz, neurosurgeons who did everything they could to save his last bit of life, Prairie Elementary fifth grade teacher, Rachel Campbell.

The right section of the sanctuary was flooded with black and blue – the lancer football team crammed into each row. The team presented the number 41 varsity jersey to his parents after everyone else sat down.

Alex has thrashed four East football jerseys since fifth grade. 41 was the jersey he wore during every Friday night game and sitting in the back of a truck on Lancer day this year.

When he wasn’t on the field, he’d sit in Born’s basement and make her watch his Hudl film analyzing

HEY DUDE, MISS YOU LOTS. IT’S HARD NOT HAVING YOU HERE TO MAKE YOUR DUMB JOKES, LOVE YOU FOREVER. - MADDIE REED

his every juke and block, looking for ways to improve as a running back.

“Every other day I would pick him up from practice,” Born said. “Then we would go back to my house, eat dinner and he’d make me watch every play from practice 20 times from four different angles.”

Alex worked hard enough on scout team to make his way into the starting varsity rotation by the end of his sophomore season.

“He was a great player, but he had more heart than anyone else on the field,” varsity running back coach Matt Jacobsen said. “He was a leader too.

Everything he did was for the team, not his own personal glory. He wanted us to be the best, not just himself.”

His good hands and ability to take hits weren’t the only thing that led to his football success. No one looked forward to sweating in full pads in the August heat – Alex changed that.

“He had a swagger and lightheartedness about him that always brought the morale up,” Rider said.

“He was the one I could joke around with, but still would play his absolute best every play, whether it

was giving a good look for the varsity or real varsity reps.”

The trust his teammates had in him didn’t always carry over into his family. He was able to trick his dad for weeks into taking him to a new friend’s house, when in reality, he was going to the house of the girl he liked. Once Alex set his mind to a decision, he couldn’t be deterred from it. Chris admits Alex wasn’t a perfect kid, but that didn’t stop him from being proud of him.

“Alex was stubborn,” Chris said. “We weren’t as close as I wished we could have been the past couple years. He was a teenage boy, everyone goes through that phase. But, no matter what, I loved that kid so much.”

Chris and Beth, Alex’s mother, loved him as any parent would, but they were even prouder of his giving soul. When Alex’s name was drawn as the winner of a Razor scooter in a basketball raffle when he was younger, he decided he wanted someone who deserved it more than him to have it. He spent days searching for that perfect person, according to Chris.

People loved Alex because of his thoughtfulness.

During a summer enrichment camp visit to Oceans of Fun, Alex thought of his dad as the smell of sugary funnel cakes filled his nose. Weeks before, his dad jokingly told his family at dinner that he had skipped work to eat funnel cakes at Worlds of Fun. Alex carried a funnel cake with him through the park the entire day to surprise his dad. By the end of the day the funnel cake was cold and the dusting of powdered sugar it came with had seeped into the cake, but Chris was no less grateful for the gift.

He gave to everyone, including himself.

Alex fought for his life for a week, just as he fought for his varsity spot and to get Born to say yes when he asked her out. He wouldn’t let his body give in. He fought through a four-hour brain surgery. He fought to breathe. He fought to survive, and he never gave up. Chris wrote a note on Alex’s arm cast: “Alex - keep fighting - Love Dad.” Alex was one neuron away from being brain dead. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t open his eyes or wiggle his fingers. He couldn’t even breathe on his own. Even then, Alex drew people in. Nurses fought to work on him and give him the time he relentlessly gave everyone else.

Even though Alex couldn’t tell them, the Carney’s knew he would want to donate his organs. If he couldn’t live, Alex would want someone else to.

“This was Alex’s last way of giving,” Chris said.

“He’s able to save 70 to 80 lives. We wanted our son, but knew we couldn’t have him back. So we wanted to give life to others.”

It took three days to complete the donation process after he died. Alex’s lungs were given to a 62-year-old woman and his liver to a man in his 50’s. One kidney and his pancreas were received by a man in his 40’s – he will no longer be diabetic. His other kidney was given to his minister’s brother, Don Funderburk, who had been in line for a kidney for five years.

Whether it was under the Friday night lights, sitting next to a lonely girl in the lunchroom at Indian Hills or reffing Upward basketball games, Alex brought a smile to everyone around him. He gave them his compassion. Although he’s no longer able to carry on his legacy – and his smile – himself, the 70 plus organ recipients will keep him alive.

I’M TRYING TO STAY STRONG, THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOICE IN MY HEAD TELLING ME TO SHUT UP EVERY TIME I START TO LOSE IT. YOU NEVER FAIL TO MAKE ME SMILE, EVEN STILL. I WILL MISS YOU FOREVER BUDDY. - CAMILLE TALKINGTON

17 AS EACH DAY GOES BY, I MISS YOU MORE AND MORE. YOU WERE MY BEST FRIEND, AND I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER ALL OUR GREAT TIMES WE HAD, REST IN PEACE BROTHER. - ALEC STAMATI

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DESIGN AVA JOHNS ON PHOTOS REILLY MOREL AND

18 F E AT U R E S

THE HARBINGER

Junior travels to Los Angeles, Calif. once a month to pursue her passion of tap dancing Up until freshman year, she was paranoid about what other dancers would think and spent her time dancing in the back corner of the studio to avoid attention. Starns thinks that the different “homework assignments” given to the dancers while in Los Angeles is what made her break out of her shell most.

Homework assignments included posting an improv video of her favorite song along with an explanation of why she found it inspirational.

Starns’s tap instructor at Liberation Dance Company, Crystal Robbins, said she enjoys having Starns in class because of her dedication and passion to improve, even when class is filled with burpees and crunches.

“She works hard and it's always just nice to have her in class,” Robbins said. “She has a very positive attitude and has fun while [dancing].”

Starns mother, Melonie, thinks that in addition to becoming a better dancer, being apart of such a prestigious company in Los Angeles with dancers from different states has taught her many important skills including confidence, stage presence and persistence.

“I think dance teaches perseverance,” Melonie said. “You have to keep at something until you get it.”

Whenever learning a new step, it’s important to never miss a sound, as well as be able to perform in sync with your group to the beat of the music, according to Starns. For this reason she would catch herself performing new steps down the bread aisle of the grocery store until she knew the step by heart.

Starns agrees with her mother and thinks the company has achieved their goal of bringing more confidence into her every day life by no longer caring about what people will think when she makes a bold move in an improv or gives a fierce facial expression.

She says being able to perform in front of an audience has given her a confidence boost.

“I really just like how you are able to express who you are through dance and movement,” Starns said.

“I’m not very vocal about anything, so it’s really a cool way to express who you are.”

Starns said that she is able to show who she is through dance when a song is played and she just lets her body move through the music, allowing herself to dance the way she feels.

Although Starns isn’t planning on pursuing dance after high school, she will continue dancing for the next year and a half.

While Starns’s tap dancing will be coming to a close when she goes to college, she will be still flying across the country and tap dancing on Sunday afternoons just to spend her last few classes doing what she loves.

BY ALLIS ON WILCOX Page Designer

I

TRAVEL NG for TAP

t’s 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning and junior Kayla Starns and her mother are heading to LA for tap.

The two have been traveling once a month since January this year for Starns to tap dance in the Sole Talk Company for five hours and return the same evening.

Whether it’s in the studio or under a desk at school, Starns always finds herself practicing kickbacks and wings. Over the past 10 years, she has promenaded across the dance floor as well as tapped to the beat of “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman. This year Starns decided to quit competition dance and perform with a Los Angeles-based tap company known as “#NoFilter Sole Talk."

Starns is not only taking technique classes at Liberation Dance Company, but also traveling to California for the company to further her training.

Towards the end of November, Starns found a post on Instagram about the Sole Talk tap group.

The company is semi-professional, meaning a part time position for experienced dancers. This offer was instantly appealing to her because she’d been looking for a way to continue tap dancing after quitting competitive dance in July.

A month after the video audition submitted to Sole Talk in early December, Starns received an email from the company. Taking a deep breath, she opened the email and immediately an urge of excitement rushed into her body. “Congratulations!” was written in bold across the screen, with the rest of the email detailing how the company would work.

Once in LA, the select group of 40-50 teenagers learn a roughly two-and-a-half minute long routine during the five hour practices.

After just two practices, the group already has an upcoming performance. Starns is looking forward to performing at the D.C. Tap Festival with the company, which takes place March 23-25 in Washington, D.C. At the D.C. Tap Fest, Starns will dance a total of 20 hours in a single weekend. The first night she will perform alongside the company and the rest of the weekend will be a tap convention, which is a series of classes taught by professional dancers.

With practices only being once a month, Starns said that it’s important that members of the company continue to practice on their own while they’re back home. In order to stay on par with the team by perfecting the new routine, Starns has continued to take technique classes at Liberation Dance Company so she stays in a routine of dancing six hours every week.

A BREAKDOWN OF KAYLA'S NEXT TRIP:

22 WASHINGTON, D.C

HER TRIP WILL BEGIN ON MARCH 22

KAYLA WILL TAKE A 2.5 HOUR FLIGHT

DESIGN LIL AH P OWL AS PHOTOS GRACE GOLDM AN

M ARCH 5, 2018

F E AT U R E S 19

A DIFFERENCE Three competition groups talk about their state DECA projects

BY BROOKLYN TERRILL Assistant Mobile Media Editor

One hundred thirty eight Marketing students represented East at the DECA State competition at the Overland Park Marriott this past weekend.

In order to compete, student groups created projects in a variety of categories from community service projects to advertising campaigns.

These students have been working on their projects since the beginning of the year and some were started over the summer.

Marketing teacher Mercedes Rasmussen has been supervising them and has seen the real world application of creating DECA projects.

“DECA is beneficial to students because it allows for them to see if they are interested in going into the business world,” Rasmussen said.

“It allows them to have hands-on experiences and actually conduct business presentations and puts them in professional settings and how to present themselves well.”

BEE POSITIVE INTO THE ZOO HEALTHY YOU When planning their DECA project, seniors Caroline Blubaugh and Caro Bush wanted to make their ad campaign something “meaningful and uplifting” according to Bush.

After their week-long brainstorming process, the pair landed on their final idea, a campaign for Burt’s Bees Natural Products titled “Bee Yourself.”

“It focuses on beauty through simplicity and having a positive self image,” Bush said. “With this campaign we wanted to mass market to fully carry out the idea of allencompassing and natural beauty, while promoting the Burt’s Bees brand.”

As part of that focus they created a commercial that starred Joe Webster, a male ballerina, and assistant principal Susan Leonard, who plays the dance judge.

“Before the show, he is at first really nervous and then puts on his Burt’s Bees chapstick and does well in his dance and ‘is himself,’” Blubaugh said. “We finished the commercial with the company’s logo and a screen that says ‘Bee Yourself’ to highlight the importance of self love, confidence and individuality in natural beauty.”

Bush and Blubaugh also created promotional materials and print advertisements along with a detailed, 11-page marketing plan. When they arrive at state in March, Blubaugh and Bush will have a 15-minute presentation in front of a group of judges that will critique them on their advertising schedule, budgets, creativity and a variety of other requirements.

Seniors Sydney Pearson and Sophia Barreca chose to bring koalas to the Kansas City Zoo for their Sports and Entertainment Promotion project for DECA state. Most teams chose to create marketing strategies for the Royals or the Chiefs, but these girls went a different route, promoting the Kansas City Zoo. The goal of their hypothetical proposal is to bring two koalas to the zoo through a series of fundraising events throughout the summer. They wanted to stray away from the typical projects but still promote something they were both very familiar with.

The project included “Kick it for Koalas,” a summer program where parents can work out while their children tour the zoo. They also created ZooVenture KC, an app based off of Pokemon Go – but with zoo animals. Pearson and Barreca also create ZooPals, similar to WebKinz, with an online counterpart.

“We think it would be successful because the special events will raise money and the amount of people who come to the zoo,” Barreca said.

Barreca and Pearson participated in state last year as well and enjoy the applicable skills that could transfer to the business. These include interview etiquette and thinking outside of the box like they did when brainstorming for their project.

Seniors Max Maday and Alyssa Vuillemin put together a workout on the East turf field with the goal of raising awareness for mental health and its correlation to exercise. On Nov. 4, they raised $650 through donations at the event and through a GoFundMe page. All of the research they did and the details about their event will be part of their presentation on the day of state.

Maday and Vuillemin partnered with Julia Harkleroad, a local fitness instructor, and You be You, a city-wide campaign to raise awareness for mental health. Vuillemin and Maday donated the money they raised to the branch of You be You that provides therapy for children who can’t afford it.

Vuillemin came into contact with Harkleroad through her photography business and decided to use her previous event planning experience as a SHARE executive, applying it to her senior DECA project.

On the day of the event, an estimated 60 people came to participate in the workout and enjoy the free Chick-fil-A provided afterwards.

To prepare for their project, Maday and Vuillemin researched the benefits regular exercise can have on overall mental health and found that the brain releases endorphins, or “happiness hormones,” when you work out.

Maday and Vuillemin aren’t nervous to present their project at state because for them it is just like another competition.

“State is honestly not too much different from a regular competition,” Vuillemin said. “It’s just a lot bigger and longer.

To me, it’s not more stressful or anything because at the end of the day, I do DECA because I think it’s fun. So if I don’t do well, it’s not a big deal.”

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M ARCH 5, 2018

A&E

IN SHAPE FOR SPRING The best apps for getting into shape before spring break

BY GABBY LEINBACH Section Editor

A

h, spring break — the time of year when I get to trade in my North Face puffer coat for my brightly-colored Target bikini collection that has been crumpled up at the bottom of my drawer since August.

Though the idea of a sunny beach was one of the only things making these frigid winter months bearable, the thought of wearing a swimsuit right now is frightening. It’s easy to grab another one of my mom’s peanut butter cookies, justifying it with the infamous, “I’ll go to the gym tomorrow.”

After lounging in an XL sweatshirt for the past two months, I’ve realized a two-piece is much less forgiving.

With March 10 rapidly approaching, I’ve decided my laziness needs to end. I actively searched for three workout apps that can motivate me to leave my beloved bed and make a bikini-bod a bit more in reach.

Whether you want a confidence boost to look good in your family’s holiday card or to “wow” your Instagram followers with some Pinterest-inspired beach photos, clear a space in your basement and find some pump up music — it’s time to sweat.

GABBY’S FAVORITE WORKOUTS

1

Best exercises for a spring break body

SQUATS: GLUTES AND THIGHS

21

SWORKIT Sworkit is my go-to app if I’m looking for an intense workout, full-body stretch or even yoga to de-stress. Scrolling through the numerous workout categories is overwhelming at first, but the titles and pictures make it simple enough for my scatterbrain to eventually pick my favorites.

There are general categories of strength, cardio, yoga and stretching, but users can opt for a custom workout. To my relief, Sworkit has workouts of varying intensities, since I admittedly get winded after climbing to the fifth floor every day.

Each move is accompanied by a video demonstration and audio instructions, which provides much needed explanation to the “wag your tail” move in the “toned body” workout.

For me music and working out go hand in hand. I often spend too long finding the perfect workout playlist, so I love that Sworkit has playlists already prepared.

During the 30 second breaks, I danced to “Feeling Myself” on Sworkit’s rap playlist instead of resting.

The only downside of Sworkit is that there’s no free version of the app, but you get a one month free trial. So like the cheapskate I am, I’m planning on bailing after spring break — perfectly timed before the bills start rolling in. For those less stingy than me, I would highly recommend Sworkit for meeting fitness goals.

7 MINUTE WORKOUT This app reminds me of the Shakespeare quote, “And though she be but little, she is fierce.” In line with the name of the app, each workout is only seven minutes, but my heart was racing faster than after downing three cups of coffee by the time I was finished.

Of the three levels of intensity, I was at medium. As someone who is a firm believer that the words “push” and “up” should never be used together, my shoulders were sore after the 30 seconds of non-stop push-ups.

Only two workouts on 7 Minute Workout are free. For $1.99 you get a workout log and other features, and it’s $0.99 for each new workout.

The workouts are similar with basic moves, so I was bored by my second time using the app. A voice recording indicates

when to switch moves, but the app doesn’t do much else.

However the simplicity of the app makes it perfect for squeezing in a workout before a shower or during a rewatch of “The Office,” while simultaneously avoiding the hassle of timers. The only equipment needed is a chair or step, so this workout is doable in the comfort of your home or somewhere like Loose park — at the risk of getting weird looks.

If you’re satisfied with a simple workout or don’t mind spending $5 on an app instead of Starbucks, 7 Minute Workout is an easy way to break a sweat on a time crunch.

DAILY WORKOUTS FITNESS TRAINER

2 FOREARM PLANK: CORE AND ARMS

3 SIT-UPS: CHEST AND LOWER BACK

Daily Workouts Fitness Trainer is easy to maneuver and perfect for targeting specific body parts. The workouts are separated into arms, legs, butt, cardio, abs and full body.

Each targeted workout can be five, eight or 10 minutes long while full body workouts can be set to 10, 20 or 30 minutes.

The moves are easy to follow with videos as well as text instructions for when it’s hard to tell which leg is in front during the side plank.

There are no breaks built in, but you can pause and resume the workout as

soon as you feel the first drop of sweat. Not my proudest moment, but I definitely took advantage of the pause button during the ab workout.

However, a lot of moves include weights, so if you don’t have weights at home, you may have to visit the gym to get the full effect of the featured workouts.

The app itself is free, but with strings attached. The full version costs $9.99, is adfree and has a wider variety of workouts and customized routines. But based on the nosudden-movements soreness of my abs and legs, I’m satisfied with the free version.

DESIGN ROBBIE VEGL AHN

THE HARBINGER

22 A & E

For those who love storytelling, these podcasts are sure to captivate

BY K ALEIGH KOC Online Editor-in-Chief

I love storytelling, and NPR’s “This American Life” masters this art.

Ira Glass, the program’s host, asks all the right questions. Glass cracks the exterior of every guest – you can hear tears through their choking voices. Glass is genuinely interested in his subjects, and his passion for the story spreads to the audience – I feel like I am sitting in the room with them.

Typically, each episode discusses a central topic, broken in to three different “acts” that tell stories related to that theme – whether it be breakups, coincidences or regrets.

Other times the episode tells one in-depth story. One of my favorites, “360: Switched at Birth,” tells the story of two newborns who grow up in the wrong families after being accidentally switched in the nursery. Unlike the ABC TV drama, the podcast is 100 percent

real. The episode follows both families and dives into the perils that came out of growing up with a child, and parents, who weren’t biologically their own.

Since episodes are only available on the podcast app for four weeks after being published, I decided to buy their app for $2.99 so I could access their entire archive.

With over 600 episodes, it’s difficult to find the right one, but the app has features that make it much easier. With playlists ranging from “New to This American Life” and “Funny Stories” to monthly staff picks and recommendations, the app makes finding the perfect episode for your mood a lot less overwhelming.

“This American Life” has something for everyone — it’s a podcast about life, after all — and that is why it’s the first one I recommend.

until last year, the Podcast app sat neglected in my “Extras” folder along with the other pre-installed apps like “Stocks” and “Calculator” – until I finally opened the app after getting sick of my Spotify playlists.

Once my penny-pinching self realized podcasts were completely free, I was

A few of the best episodes from each show this american life

630: Things I Mean to Know i found “Everything Happens” by scanning the Podcast app’s recommended list. Usually, I use podcasts to fall asleep, but this one kept me awake for an entire 30-minute episode, and after it was over, I laid in bed thinking about it..

“Everything Happens” is a newer podcast release hosted by Kate Bowler, a young mother and professor who was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35.

Since its launch in January, Bowler has released five episodes, and I’ve listened to every one of them religiously.

Bowler interviews people about what they’ve learned in dark times, and does so with compassion and humor that lays a foundation for honest and sometimes difficult conversations. Her experience with cancer allows her to relate to her subjects, which makes them feel comfortable to tell their own soul-gripping stories.

In “Lucy Kalanithi: Costly Love,” Bowler talks with widow Lucy Kalanithi about love and her final moments with her former husband. They talk about how life is not

defined by one’s last days, and how that understanding helped the widow cope with losing him.

In the mere 30 minutes it took me to listen to “Costly Love,” I can honestly say my life perspective changed. Kalanithi recounts asking her husband if he wanted to have kids, and she was surprised when he said yes. She points out that leaving kids behind will make dying harder than it needs to be, and he responded with, “Wouldn’t it be great if it did?” This encounter is heartbreaking, but I came away with a refreshing reminder that life is finite, which in the midst of senioritis and depressing winter cold, was very important for me to hear.

Each episode puts the stress of college, schoolwork and other problems into perspective and gives inspiration to listeners. If you’re in need of inspiration, a good cry or some thought-provoking conversation, “Everything Happens” will not disappoint.

634: Human Error in Volatile Situations 241: 20 Acts in 60 Minutes everything happens

Ray Barfield: This is Going to Hurt Just a Little Lucy Kalanithi: Costly Love modern love

19: Friends Without Benefits 59: The End of Small Talk 94: How The ‘Dining Dead’ Got Talking

hooked. Whether I’m listening while falling asleep, driving to pick up my sister or in need of inspiration, it’s hard to hit pause on my new discovery.

Since there are thousands of podcasts available, I’ve outlined some of my favorites that entertain, love and inspire to enlighten the podcast-deprived.

what i love about “Modern Love,” a podcast produced by NPR and the New York Times, is that it goes beyond the traditional idea of love. There are plenty of gushy, sometimes cliché love poems, but this program dives into something much deeper.

Each episode is a true poem from submissions by regular people, read by famous actors and actresses. The host, Meghna Chakrabarti, introduces the episode, and then steps back to let the actor read the poem, allowing the story to be told with conviction and passion that draws listeners in.

From “My Husband Turned into My Wife,” a story about a woman’s experience standing by her husband as he transitioned into a woman, to “A Heart of Gold,” a story about a woman and her unlikely pet, the podcast explores every aspect of love – including a lack of it, which is nice for those of us who aren’t always in perfect relationships.

“Friends Without Benefits” is devoted to the familiar romantic obstacle of falling in love with a best friend who doesn’t reciprocate, and it refreshingly (spoiler alert) doesn’t end with them falling madly in love. It’s real.

At the end of most poems, the real-life author answers a few questions about the poem. Hearing how the author’s love life has evolved since the poem was written is my favorite part — it’s refreshing. The where-arethey-now conclusion brings the audience back to reality.

Even if you typically hate romance and cringe at the slightest PDA, you’ll find something in “Modern Love” to relate to.

DESIGN LIZZIE K AHLE

M ARCH 5, 2018

NETFLIX

HULU

Netflix is like an old friend to me – I’m certain I’ve spent enough time on the service to last a lifetime.

Because Netflix has been my go-to for years, I know how to work it well. Netflix separates their movies and TV shows into categories, like “Popular On Netflix” and “Trending Now.” As long as you know what category your show or movie falls under, you can find it quickly.

The minimalist setup makes navigating the system easy.

But Netflix has one major flaw: the range of movies.

Netflix offers hundreds of shows, but I’ve never stumbled upon a movie that intrigued me. I’ve never found myself wanting to watch “The Emoji Movie.”

A subscription to Netflix costs a reasonable $7.99 per month but the options for what to watch are dwindling: they have gotten rid of 50 shows and movies this month alone. But I’ll never be able to give up my favorite platform to watch, “Friends.”

BY JULIE FROMM Online Section Editor

AS A LIFELONG music obsessor, I’ve turned to Spotify for everything from early morning One Direction jam sessions on the way to school to my late night playlist making, looking for the newest songs. But I decided to take a look at other music apps that I haven’t given more than a second glance because I wanted to find an app that would make it easier to find the newest releases, and a better way to keep track of my favorite artists.

MUSIC

I initially subscribed to Hulu because they updated their shows more often than Netflix did, and I wanted to keep up to date on Grey’s Anatomy. Not having to wait months to watch the newest season of your favorite show is a relief from the anticipation of waiting to see what Miranda Bailey will do next.

Like Netflix, Hulu has categories to help you find a show or movie to watch, but they also have a category titled “Exclusively on Hulu.” The category includes shows that Netflix doesn’t offer.

The subscription cost is $7.99 a month, the same as Netflix, but out of all the services that I have, I use Hulu the least. Because I use Netflix so much, every show that I watch is on there, so if I was going to unsubscribe from any of these services, it would be Hulu.

THE BEST

BANG

FOR YOUR

BUCK

TIDAL

iTUNES

When Tidal music came out in 2015, I wasn’t interested in buying yet another music app. However, I finally dropped the $15 to see what all the hype was about – and it was worth it.

The app’s music feature was my favorite. It allows users to watch music videos of artists they are interested in and recommended ones. It made me reminisce on my elementary school days when I had an obsession with Taylor Swift music videos.

Unlike Spotify and Apple Music, Tidal has their own talk shows on the app. The shows feature different artists and bands talking about their music. This unique feature allowed me to listen to the lead singer of Screaming Females talk about her band while getting a new tattoo.

Tidal also keeps you up to date with artists by displaying their tweets on their page. This was something that made me think of saying goodbye to Spotify.

The preinstalled Apple Music app reminded me of my Pink iPod Nano phase from fourth grade, and I really didn’t want to remember that. So I stayed far away from it. I finally decided to give the app a second chance and I’ve fallen in love with what I’ve found.

Similar to Spotify, playlists and songs are right on the home page. iTunes trailers playlists for you based on music that you listen to, and lets you follow artists to keep up to date on their newest releases. The playlists they made for me were accurate, with a combination of old favorites and potential new ones.

Apple Music offers a significantly smaller amount of playlists in their moods and activities section than Spotify, which is one thing I don’t like. There are definitely not enough playlists on Apple Music to represent the amount of moods that someone has.

Seriously, who only has nine moods?

A & E 23

AMAZON VIDEO

Whenever I’m in the mood to spend the day on my couch in a sea of blankets, I turn to Amazon Video’s wide selection of movies. Amazon Video is like a gold mine for movies – I’ve never had a problem finding what I was looking for, and as far as I’m concerned, Amazon Video has everything.

When I use Amazon Video, I usually go right to the search bar,because I know exactly what movie I want to watch. Amazon Video is the perfect back up service if Netflix or Hulu doesn’t have what I’m looking for.

The reason I don’t use Amazon Video to watch shows is the same reason as Hulu: all the shows that watch religiously are on Netflix.

The subscription price is $8.99 per month, so it is more expensive than the other services. But if you are like me and want a reliable service for movies, Amazon Video is the one to use.

TELEVISION

EVERY WEEKEND, I find myself on my couch, rewatching Gilmore Girls or Grey’s Anatomy. I always end up using the same service: Netflix. But recently, I’ve wanted to try out some different services, because I want to see if there are other services that can offer me shows that I’ve never seen. Hulu and Amazon are right on Netflix’s heels with content, new releases and more. Above I’ve outlined different streaming services and their price, amount of shows available and other special features.

This music and TV guide helps decipher the strengths and weaknesses between popular apps

SPOTIFY Spotify is home base for me for a simple reason: it’s very easy to use.

Spotify offers hundreds of pre-made playlists for any mood that you’re in, whether it’s a roll-the-windows-down or pull-the-covers-over-your-head kind of day. Finding a relatable tune has never been easier.

With easy access to your music right when you open the app, it’s simple to get to your current favorites. I rely on Spotify to prepare me for parties, as they constantly update playlists based on trending songs. Spotify updates the Discover Weekly playlist every Monday, and a New Music Friday playlist every Friday based on what the user listens to.

The Discover Weekly playlist is the only reason I look forward to Mondays, and my Friday nights are always spent checking out the New Music Friday playlist. These two playlists make it easy to find the newest hits.

I love to try new things, but Spotify is something that I don’t want to change anytime soon.

DESIGN CAROLYN P OPPER

THE HARBINGER

24 A & E

THE

TRUMAN NEW IN KANSAS CITY

New concert venue, The Truman, provides a modern atmosphere while also being friendly for all ages

BY ELIZABETH BALLEW Copy Editor

I

t takes a lot to make me feel cool — my “awkward jelly fish hand dance” frequently makes my math class squirm in their seat with second-hand embarrassment.

But walking away from KC’s newest concert hotspot, the Truman, I felt like my dork card would be revoked.

Just being in the Truman around people from all walks of life and listening to “up and coming” musicians in a millennial’s architectural paradise made me feel like I was on trend. For once.

The Truman, which opened in mid-September of 2017, is KC’s newest small concert venue. To see what the buzz was about, I bought tickets for the 1,400 person venue to see rock bands, the Wrecks and Dreamers, who were opening up for New Politics at the Truman Feb. 24.

As a former warehouse, the Truman nails the garage band vibe with minimalistic, but modern design with navy walls decorated with white accent colors. The aggressive rectangulares of the outside of the building could be boring. But the art on the side of building and graphically pleasing white “T” on the front of the building gave it a subtle face-lift.

It’s not plain in a boring way, as the simplistic design is clean and allows you to focus on the music. The main concert area is no frills — navy walls, stage to the left, bars and restrooms. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was the upstairs VIP area, resembling a factory surveillance deck out of a crime boss movie.

The Truman is a venue for all ages, which is a godsend — finding smaller venues that allow minors is like finding a phone that doesn’t have the Snapchat update.

The first thing you see when you walk in is a big movie theater style marquee listing who is playing and what’s coming up, which sets the tone for classic aspects mixed into a modern design. In the lobby area, there is a main bar with tables lined up against the windows overlooking the city.

My weakness is restaurants with a view, so I wouldn’t be opposed to stopping by the Truman for lunch if they

The modern vibe with the Claritin clear sound quality in a refurbished area of KC is a recipe for a guaranteed popular spot in upcoming years.

ELI ZAB ET H BALLEW JUNIOR

offered food. In the main bar area there is also a coat check, which is nice during the winter when you don’t want to be schlepping around a coat when the band asks you to put your hands up.

I don’t claim to know a lot, but the low ceiling was making me nervous about the acoustics and how well the sound would travel, but that turned out to be a moot point.

I never knew sound could make my heart vibrate, but with the first strum of the guitar I could feel my organs bounce around in my chest. My ears were pulsing with burning

white noise so much that I didn’t need my white noise app that night to soothe me to sleep.

The farther back you go, the better the sound quality gets. So if you love live music but hate people, depending on how crowded the show is, you could stake out a table in the back and enjoy the music. Even though I was swaying in the back, the energy of the pit transferred back.

While the sound system was my favorite part, the overall cleanliness was a close second. It was impeccable with not a single piece of trash to be found, which stands out compared to the other venues littered with cigarette buds. The bathrooms were spacious and probably some of the cleanest public restrooms I have ever been in, which is saying a lot for a concert venue — I’m 95 percent certain concert venue bathrooms are where the flu had originated.

As someone who is irrationally terrified of getting the flu and a germaphobe in general, it gets my stamp of approval.

Even though the atmosphere is slightly retro with hints of modern minimalism, my exact vibe, the major downside I had to pay a service fee of $18 on top of ticket price. I know all the other venues do it too, but it seemed pricey compared to the $7 fee I paid for the Uptown. Whenever I check my bank account, the service charge taunts me.

My other complaint about the Truman is the source of all complaints: parking. But tell me when parking in the Crossroads doesn’t make you question going to the event after all? If you can find parking, I’ll personally pay your service fee.

Pay my service fee for me and I would go to the Truman again, easy. The modern vibe with the Claritin clear sound quality in a refurbished area of KC is recipe for a guaranteed popular spot in upcoming years.

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DESIGN NATASHA THOM AS PHOTOS DIANA PERCY

THE HARBINGER

Moore’s

26 S P O R T S

Marathon

Runner’s hard work and discipline contributes to the completion of his first full marathon

BY SARAH WILCOX Section Editor

S

enior Andrew Moore was on mile 19 of his marathon.

His legs ached from hamstring to calf, burning with every step up hill. But he ignored the familiar pain and kept moving to keep his even pace.

The 30 degree Sunday mornings in January he spent bundled in his North Face hat and gloves at 6 a.m. prepared him well. He jogged through the snow and brutal wind and because of his diligent training, Moore was prepared for the distance.

He completed the full 26.2 miles on Feb 24., beating his goal of four hours by 12 minutes. With parents and coaches cheering from stops along the way, Moore finished his selfmade marathon at his house. He scheduled his own marathon so it wouldn’t interfere with track and field season, which began Feb. 26, two days after his run.

There weren’t any packs of runners, no water stations, no official finish line to cross. Moore spent nearly four months training for a marathon he designed himself — all because he wanted to prove to himself that he could.

“Every step I took was one that I didn’t have to do again,” Moore said.

Finishing a marathon was always on his bucket list; once he put his mind to it in November, he wanted to see what he could accomplish and became determined to complete it.

Moore is a cross country and track veteran — he will enter in his fourth and final season this year. With IB and NHS in the classroom, running became an outlet where he could focus

ANDREW’S MARATHON

ANDREW MOORE QUINCY EASTLACK MADELINE HLOBIK GRIFFIN KEETER

on one simple task.

Brotherly competition also motivated Moore. His brother Will’s times overshadowed Moore his freshman year.

Although Will is faster, he hasn’t completed a marathon, even more reason for Moore to run 26.2 miles.

Since there weren’t any local marathons on the weekend he planned to run, he created his own route so that he could still begin track practice the following week. Moore’s custom marathon began at his house and made five-mile loops throughout neighborhoods, stretching from Nall Avenue to Mission Road. He enlisted senior Madeline Hlobik, juniors Joe Brown, Quincy Eastlack, Griffin Keeter and sophomore Eleanor Hlobik to run parts of the marathon with him to keep him company.

“I did the last two miles with him,” Eleanor said. “He was running well at a decent pace, and I was tired by the end, so I couldn’t believe he had done 24 miles already.”

Moore’s training began in the fall after finishing Cross Country season. Starting after the season would allow him to begin training while he was already in shape and practicing long distance. According to East cross country and track coach Tricia Beaham, Moore was willing to test his limits.

“It’s 80 percent mental,” Beaham said. “People like Andrew who have a desire to run a marathon want to push their body and see what they can do.”

Since November, he ran two four-mile runs during the week and a longer run on the weekend. The weekends leading up to the marathon, Moore’s long runs were 18, 20, 22 and 24 miles respectively. On the long runs that he wanted to walk and take breaks, he managed to keep his focus.

“I realized that if I wanted to run this marathon, I would have to train regardless of any conditions,” Moore said.

In the final miles, Moore gained speed when he recognized the roads he grew up running on and saw the finish — his house. He finished his marathon without an official reward or medal, just the satisfaction of completing the feat.

He returned to track tryouts Wednesday after taking the necessary time off, but running such a long distance had the potential endanger his track season because of the toll long distance takes on runners.

Moore may be able to run for four hours straight, but one mile track sprints take some getting used to. The two sports differ most in how they are run — track focuses on fast, explosive runs while long distance prizes pacing. Moore was warned that he could risk his short distance half mile and mile events, but was headstrong in deciding to run the marathon. Beaham thought his race could be at a better time, but expects his transition to be smooth.

“He has been smart about going about it gradually and not hopping into it,” Beaham said. “He will be able to recover better because of that and adequate rest.”

For now, he looks forward to starting his senior track season strong. Even though Moore doesn’t think he’ll run another marathon in the future because of the steep training commitment required, he is content knowing that he was able to conquer one.

“I have a lot of life yet to live so I won’t rule out the possibility of doing another,” Moore said. “Having completed one does make me feel better since I know that I am capable of it.”

Andrew’s friends ran different legs of the marathon with him

END

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DESIGN SARAH BLEDS OE

M ARCH 5, 2018

27

Boys swim and dive takes home the State Championship for the fourth year in a row

T

BY ABBY WALKER Copy Editor

he seven seniors on the Boys Swim and Dive state team stand on top of an eight-place podium after being awarded the State Championship trophy on Feb. 17.

The seniors Aidan Holbrook, Elias Lowland, Evan Root, Tyler Cunningham, Carter Kirkland, Brian Christian and diver Dante Stokes — didn’t lose a State meet in their high school careers.

This is the last time the seniors will swim for East, the last time they will look into the columbia blue crowd cheering for them, and this is the fourth and final time the seniors will be on the podium, proudly holding their

trophy proudly above their heads.

Winning State four consecutive years has only happened once before in East boys swim history, and five times before in Kansas history.

The boys did it together, for each other, and for head coach Wiley Wright.

“It’s overwhelming,” Holbrook said. “There’s no other way I would want to go out. It never

gets better.”

According to Holbrook, this year was different for the team as he thinks they were underestimated. Even going into the finals, they were seated second. However with 12 swimmers that reached a State qualifying time and three divers, they were able to rack up points.

At the State meet, the team got first place in just two relays out of 12 events. However they were able to earn points by placing in the top eight in 10 events, including two relays.

Without the depth of the team, winning State

would have never been possible.

The seven seniors have been in the water together since freshman year, dropping time alongside one another each year. Lowland dropped seven seconds off of his 100 yard freestyle; Holbrook was able to place top three in the 500 freestyle every time he swam it; Christian consistently moved up in the state, finishing a two-time State qualifier; Root was a part of two different State records.

“The seniors had a unique stretch of success because not only are they all extremely talented and tough-minded young men but they always had a great supporting cast of swimmers older and younger than them to help get them to their goal of winning all four years,” assistant coach Colby Dischinger said.

This year, the seniors asked the varsity team to give the team 100 percent, according to Lowland — if they didn’t win, but gave it their all, that was okay. The 3 months leading up to the State meet, the boys gave their all in the water every day, as did their coaches.

The newest coach, Hank Krusen, who was featured on the last issue of the Harbinger, specializes in technique work. He makes sure the boys know every little thing in their stroke that can be changed — anything from the turn of a hand to a quicker flip turn to shave time and move up a spot.

Dischinger is the pusher. Dischinger can

be seen quietly encouraging the boys behind the blocks to do their best, but then moments later turns into a different person, cheering for the boys as loud as his lungs allow during races.

33-year-tenured Wright brings the seniors to tears at the end of every single season. Holbrook’s eyes began to water as he described Wright as the leader, the one who is always there for the boys to look up to and be comforted by.

“Even though he would hate to hear it, we all really do it for him,” Lowland said. “Wiley is everything we’d want in a coach and a mentor.”

Without each of these specialized coaches, the boys think a four-peat wouldn’t be possible.

Winning State was never a given — the championship came down to the last hundredth of a second in the every event. But without ever losing hope, the boys did it for each other alongside each other.

On Feb. 17, the seniors jumped off the four foot podium and into the pool for the fourth and final time after being awarded the State championship trophy. Their tears mixed with the water, and their team was the only thing on their mind. They treaded water while belting out the school song with their teammates, their coaches, their friends. And God watch over SMEast.

LEFT | Senior Carter Kirkland cheers as his teammates win the 400-yard freestyle relay to secure the State Championship. | LUKE HO FFM A N

LEFT | Senior Aidan BELOW | Coach Wiley Wright shakes senior Aidan Holbrook’s hand as he hands him the team’s 200-yard freestyle relay first place medal. Holbrook swam with seniors Evan Root, Elias Lowland and junior PJ Spencer. | LUKE HOFFM A N

ABOVE | Seniors Aidan Holbrook and Elias Lowland

embrace coach Wiley Wright after winning the 400-yard freestyle relay. | K AT H L E E N DE E DY

Holbrook shakes hands with his opponent after his 500-yard freestyle race, where he finished third in the event with a time of 4:48.27. | LUKE HO FFM A N

DESIGN K ATIE HISE PHOTOS K ATHERINE MCGUINESS

28 S P O R T S

Girls Lacrosse Coach

BY E MILY FEY Assistant Editor

On the first day of the Shawnee Mission Girls Lacrosse tryouts, all 47 girls who came to showcase their stick skills and defensive positioning gathered around the coaching staff. Head coach Dennis Ehrich and assistant coach Kevin Krause stood with clipboards,

THE HARBINGER

sporting their matching SMGL hats. Coaches Joe Pindell and Molly Meagher wore athletic clothing and whistles around their necks.

But then there was new coach Anna Meagher. Not only was she an unfamiliar name to the team, but her lacrosse attire consisted of bright blue nurses’ scrubs and old tennis shoes. “[Coaching] is something I look forward to after a long day [at nursing school],” Anna said. “It is just two hours of fun where I don’t need to worry about studying, or clinicals.

I look forward to getting to talk to people outside of hospital talk.”

She now spends her days walking through the fluorescent lit halls of University of Kansas Medical Center, but if you met her three years ago, you would find her running down any turf field with a lacrosse stick in hand. She was introduced to the sport in fifth grade when she signed up for her first clinic.

After realizing her talent and love of the East Coast sport, she joined one of the first Prairie Village Outlaws Lacrosse teams.

“Kevin Krause was my first lacrosse coach on the Outlaws,” Anna said. “As soon as he heard I was going to KU Med for nursing, he reached out to me about coaching. He has

kind of been through it all with my lacrosse career.”

She traded the bright red Outlaw’s jersey for the blue uniforms of the Blue Lions Traveling Lacrosse team in middle school.

And when the blue was retired for the black and gold gear of the St. Teresa’s Academy Lacrosse team, her interest peaked in the sport. She started on varsity all four years of high school and was selected for MO 22, a highly selective team of the best lacrosse players in Missouri.

But when college came, Anna left her four different jerseys at home, deciding her last 10 years of lacrosse had been enough. She attended Kansas State University for two years before being accepted to the KU Med nursing program. When Krause approached her about a coaching position, Anna jumped at the opportunity, seeing it as a way to get back into her passion.

While immersing herself back into the world of goggle marks and stick checks, she had a more personal reason for wanting to coach – she now gets to coach alongside her older sister Molly.

“We are still sisters and steal each other’s clothes, but at the end of the day she’s my best

friend and I come to her for everything,” Anna said. “She’s my role model really. She got me into lacrosse in the first place.”

The sisters’ stories are almost parallel. As soon as Molly pulled up to practice, she would throw her own KU Med nursing badge into her bag during her first year of coaching SMGL in 2016. Both played on the St. Teresa’s team so the pair is taken back to their high school days every time they leave for a practice.

“My schedule and her schedule are packed between her working 12 hour shifts to me having classes, sim labs and clinicals,” Anna said. “Lacrosse is the only time we really see each other during the week.”

Along with her goal of graduating nursing school in 2019, she also has a dream of coaching the SMGL team to a city championship and beating her alma mater, St. Teresa’s, in the regular season.

“Even though it’s her first season, I know Anna is going to be a great coach because she has always been a natural leader,” Molly said.

“She is coaching for a sport she is extremely passionate about, so she is going to give it her best.”

Meet the three new spring sports coaches

Javelin Coach

How do you think your background in javelin will help you better coach this years team?

Hopefully I have enough experience so I can follow up with what Coach Steffen started with them. I can improve from there with the base that they have gotten. I’ve gone to clinics to catch up with what I have missed in the last eight years to refresh myself. I have a background in baseball as well. The javelin has a lot of the same motions that a pitcher uses. The hips work [in the javelin] just like a hit or a swing.

what are your goals for the season?

“

BRANDON MAY

“

The girls team has throwers that have done pretty well and last year there was a senior that did very well. We are going to be rebuilding from the boys end of the team from what I heard. We have some good girl throwers that are coming back who can help us place at meets and get points in order to get a good team finish. Hopefully we can send those girls, and hopefully some guys, to regionals and then state.

Get as many people personal records or improving compared to personal records last year. I would like to help the girls and boys individual teams win by getting points in the javelin.

How did you get offered this coaching position?

“

I have been coaching in the Kansas City area for a while and Jamie Kelly coaches for the same Fusion youth club that I coach in. We discussed what he was looking for and figured out I would be a good fit to help the team in the spring while Emily Flint [last year’s C-team coach] is on maternity leave.

SARA MATTHEWS C-team Girls Soccer Coach

What is the most important skill you have learned in your past coaching positions?

Soccer is about the well-rounded experience. It’s about enjoying the sport itself, enjoying your teammates and learning life lessons or being responsible and being on time. It’s about having them look back on their experience and thinking it was fun, worth it, and that they got better.

“

How has the javelin team done in the past?

“

What is your background with the sport?

I played college soccer at Baker University.

After I graduated I went on to be a graduate assistant at Washburn, so I was coaching and working on grad school at the same time. After I got my masters, I went to Baker University as an assistant coach for four years before being offered the head coaching job at Avila University, where I worked for four years. Now most recently I am coaching at Kansas City Community College. While doing all of this I have been coaching club soccer with Fusion.

“

returning for

M ARCH 5, 2018

DESIGN ELIAS LOWL AND PHOTO LUKE HOFFM AN

S P O R T S 29

redemption

A look ahead as the golf teams seek redemption after a second place finish at state last year

he Lancer Boys Varsity golf team lost the 2017 state tournament by three strokes to Blue Valley North last season. This year Lancers will focus on rebounding and winning it all.

“This year without question we should win state, in fact I would be surprised if they don’t set some records,” Boys Golf head coach Evan Scobie said.

East will be returning with the same talented and experienced team they had last year, which should give them a pronounced advantage over the other high school teams in the area according to Coach Scobie.

“Tournament experience, in golf a lot of it is about shooting a good number, we know Thomas [Luger] will show up and play at a high level,” Scobie said. “We know Owen [Hill] is going play at a high level.

Those guys will push the others to play their best and compete.”

The Lancers’ experience starts with seniors Thomas Luger, Joseph Brouillette,

Max Maday and Owen Hill, who all played at state last year. East will also be returning junior Andy Scholz and sophomore Will Harding from last seasons state team — all six golfers from 2017 state team will be returning this spring.

This year the Lancers number one golfer will be Luger, a role that he took over the previous season when he replaced 2016 graduating senior Andy Spencer.

In 2017, Luger took the position in stride and proceeded to average a state best 73.3 scoring average. He earned All-State and All-Sunflower League first-team, all while winning regionals for the second straight year and finishing as runner up at the state tournament.

However, Luger still uses last year’s disappointing state performance as motivation for the upcoming season.

“Definitely I have thought about it a lot, when you are out on the course and it’s a little chilly or a little warm and you don’t want to be out there, that is what keeps me going,“ Luger said. “That is the reason I am here, I want to win both, I want to win it for

BOYS GOLF

2

place at state in 2017

2017, Scholz recorded a 75 stroke low and placed second overall in the national Drive Chip & Putt competition in Augusta, GA. Meanwhile, Harding won the Shawnee Mission South Invitational tournament and also shot his lowest score, a 72, at Regionals.

The experience of all the returning players should give the Lancers the ability to beat even their toughest opponent, which should continue to be the team that beat them at state last year.

“Blue Valley North, it always seems that they just reload, they always have guys waiting in the bullpen. They should be our top competition,” Scobie said.

The Lancers will start their season with an unofficial tournament against Rockhurst High School on March 20. They won the Stateline Brawl last year, 11-5, and will look to repeat this year. East’s first official tournament will take place on March 26 at Lionsgate. There, they hope start their campaign for their second state title in the last three years.

2017 STATE TEAM owen hill

Statistics on last years team

ND

the team.”

With Luger’s drive leading the Lancers, the other three seniors should make use of their experience to provide stability for the team throughout their quest to win state.

Hill has played varsity for four years while Brouillette and Maday have been on varsity for three years. Last year, Hill won the Hutchinson Invitational shooting a two under 69 and was also the runner up at regionals. Brouillette’s best round last year was a 74 at state, which tied him for ninth place, and Maday’s best round was a 75 at the Lawrence Invitational.

Scobie believes that even though the Lancers have experience playing tournament golf, there will still be plenty of competition between his players, which should pressure his team to play their at best.

“We have some young guys that will push some of the older guys, Will Harding is a very good player and Andy Scholz is a very good player,” said Scobie.

Scholz and Harding will both seek to build upon their previous season. In

max maday

38TH PLACE

23RD PLACE

will harding 23RD PLACE

13

ANDY SCHOLZ

THOMAS LUGER

12TH PLACE

2ND PLACE

JOSEPH BROUILLETTE 8TH PLACE

*100 state golfers

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ranked team in the country *National High School Golf Association

Luger’s personal stats

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BY BRET T WAINWRIGHT Staff Writer

ROUND AVERAGE

73.6

state leading

2017 KENNETH SMITH AWARD WINNER 4

DESIGN CARS ON HOLTGRAVES

30 P H O T O S T O R Y

the

Final

Figure

Senior Whitney Peterson finishes off her figure skating career at the annual Carriage Club Ice Show after 13 years of skating

THE HARBINGER

LEFT | Senior Whitney Peterson puts

on her eyeshadow before her first performance. “You have to get to the Carriage Club an hour early,” Peterson said. “You’re getting makeup done while everyone is hustling around which makes it chaotic.” | CA RS O N Ho lTGRAVE S

BELOW | Smiling to the crowd, senior

Whitney Peterson skates to the song “Let’s Groove” by Earth, Wind, and Fire.

“When you get on the ice you see there are a lot of people there but once you get into the number and focus on yourself you aren’t really thinking about everyone else.” | E LLIE T HO M A

RIGHT |

Peterson lifts her skates to tighten the laces. “After so many years of tying your skates, you get used to the pressure of the skate on your foot,” Peterson said.

“It is something you don’t think about anymore.” | CA RS on HOLTGRAVES

FAR LEFT | Senior Whitney Peterson, St. Paul’s eighth grader Anna Peterson, and sophomore Katie Peterson wait in the dressing room to go on the ice. “They have grown a lot as skaters,” Peterson said. “I think that it is really cool to see that over the years since they were a lot younger when they started.” | CA RS O N HO LTGRAVE S

LEFT | During the theater performance, senior Whitney Peterson joins the skate line. “I loved this years theme, which was the ’70s, because it is fun and funky so that was a plus,” Peterson said. “My other favorite would probably be back in 2009 when we did a bunch of Michael Jackson songs, and did our theatre dance to Smooth Criminal, which was very sparkly and fantastic.” | DIA NA PE RCY

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THE HARBINGER

BODEN

SPRING BREAK GOLA

STYLE GUIDE

After cramming for chemistry tests and studying vocabulary Quizlets, a muchneeded spring break is long overdue. Whether you’re flying abroad or hitting the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, leave it to the Harbinger to provide you with outfit inspiration, no matter the destination. Packing just got so much easier.

BY ANNABELLE COOK Online Assistant Editor

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LULU’S Throw on these chic safari shorts after a day at the pool to complement your newly-tanned legs.

ZARA

ASOS

Trend alert! Winter puffball hats are very in, and the black and deep emerald color combo is unique. Not to mention it’s perfect for sipping on an aprés ski mug of hot cocoa in style.

THE caribbean

DF WIL

ASOS

EY

LOU & GR

Sloshing through semi-melted snow has never been so fabulous.

While these are durable and highly functional, they still provide style whether you’re sitting slope-side or taking a stroll through Vail Village.

J.CREW

Reminiscent of Gucci sunglasses with a similar style (but with a price you won’t have to take out a loan for), Wildfox’s round logo-etched sunglasses give off strong “IDGAF” vibes.

ROCKY MOUNTAINS

If you’re on the prowl for a coat that will protect you from harsh Colorado weather while remaining Insta-ready, this coat has it all.

Covergirl’s slogan, “easy breezy, beautiful,” perfectly embodies this emerald dress that strikes the perfect balance between puttogether and laid-back.