Class of 2024 Newspaper | October 2019

Lion Pride Newspaper

1st Edition Friday, October 11, 2019

School Section The hype is real On September 15, Jordan Feldman created the Lions 2024 Sports (@2024lionsuperfanmen) Instagram account, modeled after the St. Mark’s Super Fan Men account (@superfanmen), to post about the class of 2024’s sports teams and to tell others how they did. So far the account has 8 posts and 128 followers, so I decided to ask Jordan a few questions about how the account has done and what the future could hold for it.

LP: What inspired you to make this account?

Jordan: The upper school's Super Fan Men account. I saw this, and I saw it as an opportunity to stretch the media to the 8th graders and the rest of middle school.

LP: How do you feel about its quick growth, with over 100 followers only a few days after you started it?

Jordan: The quick growth was amazing. I'm glad to see that so many people are interested, and therefore I will keep up the account. The support and the shout-outs have been great and positively benefit the account.

LP: How often do you plan on posting?

Jordan: I try to post once or twice a week, and try to get to as many of the games as I can so I can take pictures. I will usually post after a meet or a game, and will also post on the weekend sometimes.

LP: Anything else you want to add?

Jordan: Thanks everyone for the great support!

Far out!

“Far Out” Fun Day this year took place at the St. Mark’s campus, mainly on the Quad, on September 27. The 1st through 6th graders from here and Pre-k through 6th graders from Hockaday attended, along with 7th and 8th graders who were volunteering. The theme this year was outer space, and the event was held outdoors, as opposed to last year. Some of the rides included the classic ziplines and slides as well as some new rides. Jobs for the volunteers included running carnival games and other rides. A popular ride among the younger children was the spinning teapot, which went surprisingly fast for little ones. The food was served from Easy Slider, Ruthie’s, and another taco restaurant. The experience was fun for the lower schoolers, but disappointing for us, as we cannot participate anymore.

For the 7th and 8th grade volunteers, it was a bittersweet experience as we miss the fun of Fun Day, but it was nice to see the younger ones having a great time. A great Fun Day memory for all Lower Schoolers is probably singing the “Fun Day” song with Doc. Overall, Fun Day was a great and FUN experience for everyone involved.

Side Note: After volunteering, many 8th graders went to the 8th-grade volleyball game.

After three very, very exciting sets, the 8th-grade fans rushed the court to celebrate the volleyball’s team first win. Congrats volleyball team!

Lion Pride Summer Photo Contest We had many great submissions to the contest. Here are the placings.

First Place By: Henry Sun Beach Painting

Second Place Oliver Peck Whistler Mountains

Third Place Akash Manickham Hong Kong

Thanks to everyone who submitted!

Sports Section MLB Outlook It was an amazing MLB season this year in the Year of the Homerun. Since 2014 the total home runs have shot up from about 4,000 to 6,776 this year, smashing 2017’s record of 6,105. The total team home runs were broken as well, going from the Yankees’ 2018 record of 267 to the Twins’ record of 307 this year.

Although the single-season HR record wasn’t broken, 57 players hit 30+ HRs, 6 players hit 44+, with two of them being injured for the last few weeks (Trout, Yelich), and a rookie for the Mets, Pete Alonso, hit 53, the most ever by a rookie.

Although there were a lot of HRs, that came with a lot of whiffs, as for the second straight year there were more strikeouts than hits.

Stats aside, it was an exciting year, dominated by three great teams, the Astros (107W), Dodgers (106W), and Yankees (103W). The Twins surprised a lot of people on their way to 101 wins, the young Braves (97W) handled their division, and the Cardinals (91W) eeked out their division two games over the Brewers. The wild-card races were much more exciting than the division races, which were won by an average of about 9 games. In the American League, the A’s (97W) beat out the Rays (96W) for the #1 wild-card spot, leaving the Indians only a few games out. In the National League, most teams were in it for the entire year, with many hot and cold streaks. The Nationals, Cubs, Brewers, Mets, Diamondbacks, and Phillies were in the conversation the whole year, but eventually, the Nationals (93W) and Brewers (89W) pulled away to take the final two playoff spots.

The Texas Rangers had a much better season than expected and stuck around in the wild-card hunt for the first half of the season before injuries, bad

luck, and a tougher schedule caught up to them. They finished 78-84 and enjoyed Joey Gallo emerging into a star before the injury bug got him in August. Rougned Odor, Nomar Mazara, and Elvis Andrus all had okay seasons mixed with flashes of brilliance, but disappointed fans in what was supposed to be a jump into stardom year for them. Mike Minor and Lance Lynn carried the pitching staff and were considered to be one of the best pitching duos in the MLB. The rest of the pitchers floundered as expected, but young arms emerged at the end of the season to give hope. Young callups Nick Solak, Willie Calhoun, Jose Trevino, Kolby Allard, Joe Palumbo, and various bullpen arms impressed a lot of people and should be big pieces for the Rangers’ future.

In the wild-card games, the Rays knocked the A’s out with 4 runs in the first 3 innings en route to a 5-1 victory, and the Nationals scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to beat the Christian Yelich-less Brewers 4-3. Then, in the divisional round, the Yankees swept the Twins, and the Astros beat the Rays 3-2 in a much closer than expected series. The Dodgers have made the World Series the last two seasons, and have won their division now 7 years running, but once again, they couldn’t win their main prize, and lost their series to the Nationals, 3-2. In Game 5, Clayton Kershaw allowed back-to-back home runs in the 8th inning, then Howie Kendrick hit a grand slam in the 10th, leading the Nats to their first ever playoff series win since they moved to D.C. (2005) In what was probably the best series so far, the Cardinals outlasted the Braves in 4 very close games, then scored 10 runs in the 1st inning of Game 5 to run away with the game, winning 13-1. In the League Championship Series (semifinals) we should see an amazing series between the Astros and Yankees, two of the best teams all year. Then in the National League, expect another great series from the Cardinals and the Nationals. My predictions would be 4-2 Astros and 4-3 Cardinals, then 4-2 Astros over the Cardinals in the World Series.

College Football Returns It has been a fairly uneventful season in college football as the usual suspects keep winning. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, and

Oklahoma have dominated the top 6 AP poll spots and are all undefeated. #2 Clemson barely survived a massive scare against North Carolina, preventing a two-point conversion that would’ve won it for North Carolina. Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Penn State have cruised through their easy schedules so far, and Georgia, LSU, and Florida have notched big wins to build up their resumé. Texas, Auburn, and Notre Dame have all lost but healthily remain in the race.

The SEC is primed to put one team in if not two, as 5 SEC teams are currently ranked in the top 12, and 3 in the top 4. The rest of the conference isn’t so good, with most of them losing 3+ games already. The Big 10 has 3 contenders to make the CFP, and although #3 Ohio State looks like the best of them, they’ll have to play both of the others, #8 Wisconsin and #10 Penn State, then probably Wisconsin again in the Big 10 Championship. Once again, Oklahoma is the class of the Big 12, but #11 Texas is having a nice year besides their loss to LSU. The two will play tomorrow, October 12, in the biggest Big 12 game of the year. The rest of the conference is very deep, including an improving Kansas, and #22 Baylor remains undefeated. The ACC is very weak again, besides the defending national champion Clemson. #19 Wake Forest is still undefeated but has played a very weak schedule. The Pac-12 has great depth but lacks an undefeated team, with one-loss #13 Oregon being their only remaining contender. UCF’s undefeated regular season streak came to an end against Pitt, then they lost to #25 Cincinnati to continue a disappointing season. #14 Boise State is the best Group of Five team left, although hometown team #21 SMU is having their best season in forever, already 6-0 with an incredible win against Tulsa last Saturday.

Oklahoma transfer Jalen Hurts is the Heisman frontrunner, flourishing under offensive mastermind Lincoln Riley’s system and has already broken a few records at Oklahoma. Tua Tagovailoa has also had a great year so far at Alabama, and Joe

Burrow ( LSU) remains in the race with big games at Texas and Vanderbilt.

Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor is the leading non-QB in the race, as Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence has disappointed people who thought he would continue his outstanding freshman season from last year.

On October 12, watch out for the annual Red River Showdown at the Cotton Bowl here in Dallas between rivals Oklahoma and Texas, and a big game of LSU and Florida in Death Valley. On October 19, make sure to tune in to pivotal conference showdowns of Baylor at Oklahoma State, Michigan at Penn State, and Arizona State at Utah. Then, on October 26, get ready for Wisconsin at Ohio State, and Auburn at LSU.

NFL Review

The NFL season through 5 weeks has been an exciting one so far. As expected, the Patriots and Chiefs have been dominating so far, the Dolphins and Redskins have been stinking it up along with some other teams. Surprisingly the Bills are 4-1 and the 49ers are 4-0. The Packers, Seahawks, Raiders, Panthers, and Lions are all doing better than expected, and the Steelers, Browns, Chargers, and Falcons are all doing a bit worse than expected. There haven’t really been any big upsets so far, and generally, the better teams have beaten up the worse teams so far.

The NFC North (Bears, Vikings, Packers, Lions) are a combined 9-3-1 outside of the division and have undoubtedly been the best division. On the other side of the spectrum, the AFC North (Ravens, Browns, Bengals, Steelers) are a combined 3-11 outside of the division. The 3-2 Rams have experienced a small hangover from their Super Bowl appearance last year, but I bet they will be back to form soon.

Patrick Mahomes, the defending MVP, and Christian McCaffrey have been having amazing seasons, and lead this year’s MVP race. Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, and Deshaun Watson are all close behind. Quarterbacks have been dominating football recently, leading the Heisman race in college and the MVP race in the NFL. Many other players have been doing really well, these players have been playing especially well.

The Cowboys have been receiving hate for beating upon terrible teams such as the Giants, Redskins, and Dolphins, then losing against much better teams such as the Saints and Packers. Dak played really well in his first four games, and Zeke has played at about the same level of previous years, but just not getting as many carries. New offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has made this offense work better than it has in a while, and the defense is stout as always. I think that by the time the next Lion Pride issue comes out, the Cowboys will be 5-2 with wins over the Jets, Eagles, and Giants. The rest of the season should be very exciting, and I can’t wait to see what happens.

Soccer ‘Round The World EPL Title Race: Man City and Liverpool: With no change from last year, these two teams will compete for the Premier League title once again. The difference is now Liverpool has the upper hand. Liverpool currently is sitting with 7 wins, 0 losses, and 0 draws.

Surprise Team: West Ham: The previous season, West Ham finished in the tenth place, with 15 wins, 7 draws, and 16 losses, combining to a total of 49 points. This year they have started with fierce intensity, winning 3 games, drawing 3, and only losing 1 against Manchester City, 5-0.

Surprise Player: Teemu Pukki: An unknown forward from Finland has taken the league by storm, scoring 6 goals and assisting 2 in just the first 7 games.

Disappointing Team: Manchester United: Last year they achieved 6th place in the Premier League, and their Champions League run ended in the round of 16, to Sevilla where they lost the aggregate 2-1. They are now well below 6th in the Premier League and not even in the Champions League.

Champions League Group Stage:

Group A: PSG are the favorites for first, but it will be a great race for second place. Club Brugge is sitting in second right now, but Real Madrid will probably overtake them if they beat Galatasaray.

Group B: Bayern is probably going to finish first, and Tottenham will take most likely take second place. Tottenham needs to improve to finish in second though, otherwise, Olympiacos might take their place.

Group C: Man City will most certainly come out on top, but the race for second is on between Dynamo Zagreb, Shakhtar Donestk, and Atalanta. All three of the teams have the capability to finish second, but two of them will not advance.

Group D: Juventus and Atletico Madrid will both easily advance in this group; it is a matter of who will finish first. Meanwhile, Lokomotiv Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen have almost no chance.

Group E:​ Group E is extremely close, with Napoli currently sitting in the top place due to their four points. Napoli is fighting to remain in their spot with Liverpool and Red Bull, each with three points. Genk is in last place, with only one point.

Group F:​ Both Dortmund and Barcelona have four points, while Inter Milan and Slavia Praha have one each. Most likely Dortmund and Barca will advance, but Inter and Slavia Praha each have a chance to come back in their next four games.

Group G:​ Both Zenit and Lyon are with four points, RB Leipzig is trailing only one point behind. These three teams will fight for the two spots, while Benfica is in the last place with no points.

Group H:​ Ajax is leading the group with six points. Chelsea and Valencia will continue to battle for the second place. Ajax is heavily favored for first place, and LOSC is predicted for fourth, sitting currently with no points.

MLS Playoffs Matchups: East: #1 NYCFC - Bye #2 Atlanta United vs. #7 New England Revolution #3 Philadelphia Union vs. #6 New York Red Bulls #4 Toronto FC vs. #5 D.C. United West​:

#1 LAFC - Bye #2 Seattle Sounders vs. #7 FC Dallas #3 Real Salt Lake vs. #6 Portland Timbers #4 Minnesota United vs. #5 LA Galaxy FC Dallas Playoff Preview: In the past, FC Dallas has finished at or near the top by the end of the regular season, but then always seem to barely lose in the playoffs. Now they are at the opposite end of the spectrum, barely squeaking into the last seed of the Western Conference with a very young team. Can this young, mostly homegrown team win the MLS Cup Playoffs against the likes of Carlos Vela at LAFC, Zlatan Ibrahimovic with the LA Galaxy, and Josef Martinez in Atlanta? It looks a lot better after they beat Sporting KC 6-0 in the last week of the season, but winning 4 away playoff games is going to be ridiculously hard. With the new playoff format, all rounds are single elimination and played at the better seeded team’s home field.

FC Dallas is the worst seeded team in the West at #7, so they will be on the road every playoff game they play, starting against the #2 seed Seattle Sounders at CenturyLink Field. This will be one of the hardest games they play this season, period. Not only is Seattle one of the best teams in the league, CenturyLink Field is the hardest place to play in the MLS, especially in the playoffs. FC Dallas will need to focus on this game and not look ahead at all, because nothing matters if they don’t win in Seattle. If they do manage to scrape out a win in Seattle, it will probably be because of two of the youngest players in the MLS: Paxton Pomykal and Jesus Ferriera. These two star teenagers, that both grew up in Dallas, have taken the league by storm this season and have been a crucial part of this FC Dallas team. Good luck to FC Dallas in this playoff run!

Jokes, Riddles, and Comics Section Comics

 Jokes and Riddles In a religious country, a conductor had a habit of driving fast. One day, he drove so fast that he hit a car and killed one person. He was sentenced to death by

electrocution. There was a law saying that if the person survived the execution, they were to be released because the gods had interfered to save that man. It has only happened once. The man ordered a single banana as a final meal and slowly peeled it. The executioner strapped him to the chair. He pulled down the switch.

The man survived! The law said he must be released. Somehow the man got his job back as a conductor. He promised himself he would never drive fast again. He drove fast…. again. This time he killed two people. The same process was repeated and the man wanted two bananas. They strapped him to the chair and did it again.

He survived it again! He was released. Somehow he got his job back again! This time, he swore that he would never drive fast. The next day he drove super fast *NEEYOW*​. He hit a car and killed three people. The same process was repeated and this time he wanted three bananas. The executioner had enough and strapped him to the chair and pulled down the switch. He survived again! The executioner said that bananas and asked him why. He said…. I’m not a good conductor.

Two fish are in a tank. One turns to the other and says “I’ll man the guns, and you drive.”

What does an Engineering major say?

"How does it work?"

What does a Science Major say?

"Why does it work?"

What does a marketing major say?

"How can we sell it?"

What does a liberal arts major say?

"Would you like to try our new Angus mushroom swiss burger?”

What did the two Egyptians say when they passed gas at the same time?

We have Toot-In-Common!!

Why did the kid cross the playground?

To get to the other slide How do make a lemon drop?

You let it fall What kind of tree fits in your hand?

A palm tree What did the little corn say to the mama corn?

Where’s popcorn?

What was the first animal in space?

The cow that jumped over the moon What did the astronaut say when he found bones on the moon?

I guess the cow didn’t make it all the way over.

Comedian Tim Vine: I’m so lazy I’ve gotten a smoke alarm with a snooze button.

I went to buy a watch, and the man in the shop said “Analogue?” I said, “No, just a watch.”

I rang up my local swimming baths. I said: “Is that the local swimming baths?” He said: 'It depends where you’re calling from.

More of Time Vine here → “This room smells like updog.”

“What’s updog?”

“Nothing much.”

Why did the scarecrow win the Nobel Prize?

He was outstanding in his field.

What gets wet the more it dries?

A towel (or a sponge) What building in New York has the most stories?

The public library

Technology and Entertainment Section New Devices Come To The Surface

The Microsoft keynote on October 2 announced multiple game-changing products that are bound to compete with Apple’s. The first, the Surface Laptop 3.

The Surface Laptop 3 is an everyday laptop that comes in a 13-inch and 15-inch model. This laptop is perfect for anyone who wants a work machine that has a touchscreen and weighs only 3.4 pounds (13-inch model). It comes in two new colors, cobalt and sandstone, and boasts the new AMD Ryzen Surface Edition processor. Compared to the MacBook Pro 13 inch, this laptop has some amazing features that Apple should really consider. For starters, a full touchscreen display and front-facing cameras. This laptop is a major upgrade from its predecessor, the Surface Laptop 2.

The Surface Pro 7 and the Surface Pro X were the two main announcements at the yearly event. The Surface Pro lineup has the best 2 in 1 computer money can buy. The Surface Pro 7 has the same, familiar design as its predecessors, and was upgraded with a 10th generation Intel processor. The real standout was the Surface Pro X. Unlike the previous Surfaces, this new addition has curved corners, a slim, portable design, and the most connectability of a Surface Pro to date. With an all-day battery and extremely fast LTE connection options, this is the perfect laptop for someone who needs to be on the go with their work. Working into the new design, the new Slim Pen is rechargeable and fits right into the new keyboard (sold separately).

Â

More Advances in Tech Apple A couple of weeks ago Apple released the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and the Apple watch series 5. Not much has changed on the iPhone 11 compared to the XS the 11 just has more colors to choose from and a better camera (specifically a dual camera). The iPhone 11 pro has the three cameras that everyone is saying looks ugly but has improved the picture quality a bit. So I recommend that you don't buy this iPhone unless you have the five or six, it is too overpriced. The Apple watch series five has a new always-on display, monitors your sleep patterns and has a curved screen so you get more screen “real estate” for the same size. They also have released ceramic and titanium models of the watch instead of the classic aluminum. As usual, it is expensive for an upgrade but if you have never owned an Apple watch and are considering buying a watch this is a great time to get the watch. Apple is also soon releasing an extreme gaming capable PC, it is called the Mac Pro. It is rocking up to 28 cores (56 threads), 1.5 TB DDR4 ECC, 2933 MHz memory, two AMD Radeon Pro Vega 11 GPUs that can power eight 4k displays and four 5k displays, 4TB of SSD storage and 12 thunderbolt 3 ports. This is much more than what a lot of top gamers use, it has not officially launched so there is no price but when they put a price tag on that machine, it is going to be EXPENSIVE. Gaming For all the gamers out there that are interested in some new equipment and gear, there is a lot of new things that both Intel and Nvidia have released as well as Razer and Logitech releasing some new products. Intel released back to back the intel processor Logitech nine and ten which are very powerful as well as Nvidia with their new product line of RTX 20’s and extreme gaming video cards that can cost as much as a PC and are extremely powerful getting you as much as 300 frames per second on games like Fortnite, Apex legends and other games. Some other releases include the new Acer Predator X34 monitor. ​This 34-inch display packs nearly two times as many pixels as a standard HD monitor and gently curves to fully saturate your field of view. It's a first-person shooter's dream screen, with a special mode to brighten gloomy dungeons and a crosshair-bolding mode for snappier sniping. Oh, and there's no lag, so when you get blasted you'll have only

yourself to blame. It comes in at $1000 dollars. The next piece of tech is a new wireless mouse and mouse pad for Logitech, it is the Logitech G703 and Powerplay. You don't have to plug in this wireless gaming mouse to charge it—just pushing it around on Logitech’s Powerplay pad keeps it juiced up at all times. The mouse responds as quickly as my reflexes, and I don't have to worry about battery life anymore. That peace of mind is well worth the asking price: $100 for the mouse, $100 for the pad; so $200 bundle well worth it. Our next tech item is the Asus Rog Strix GL 12. This desktop PC is so powerful you won't need to overclock it to get stable and fast gameplay. The chassis is stuffed with cutting-edge processors like Intel’s latest Core i9 and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GPU. Plus three fans and dual isolated air chambers will keep things chill during your long hours of gaming. This PC comes in at a whopping $3000. Our final tech item is the razer Blackwidow elite.​ ​The Elite is a loot box of a keyboard, with dedicated media keys for controlling music, detachable wrist rest, and a digital dial that can control volume or whatever function you want. The customizable RGB lighting under each snappy, clicky mechanical key (comes in green, orange and yellow) can even be programmed to light up differently for every character in Overwatch.

Credits

We could not have done this without our sponsor, Mr. Mank, and our writers and editors.

Ben Adams: ​benjamin.adams06@gmail.com Daniel Deng: ​25dengd@smtexas.org Surya Dinesh: ​25dineshs@smtexas.org

Griffin Goodno: ​24goodnog@smtexas.org Henry Hoak: ​24hoakh@smtexas.org Asa McCaleb: ​24mccaleba@smtexas.org Nathan Meyer: ​24meyern@smtexas.org Peyton Militello: ​24militellop@smtexas.org Zach Olyan: ​24olyanz@smtexas.org Jaden Ouyang: ​jadenouyang@gmail.com Vivek Patel: ​24patelv@smtexas.org Reed Sussman: ​24sussmanr@smtexas.org Thomas Whitehurst: ​24whitehurstt@smtexas.org Neil Yepuri: ​25yepurin@smtexas.org Credits: Google Photos