The ReMarker | March 2017

Even though it’s illegal and dangerous, possessing a fake ID has become easier than ever. And through advancing technology, it’s even harder to get caught. The vast network of buying and selling fake IDs is a prevalent business at college and beyond — and as underage high schoolers and college freshmen — some Marksmen are taking major risks involving themselves in the fake ID network.

|THE REMARKER | St. Mark’s School of Texas | Dallas, Texas | Volume 63, Issue 5 | March 10, 2017|

THE REMARKER

Managing editor Rish Basu, deputy managing editor Rett Daugbjerg, research director Reece Rabin and issues editor John Crawford explore the hidden network of fake ID’s. page 6

New texting and driving laws aim to protect | page 3

The fourth industrial revolution | page 16

Legendary throwing coach returns to the ring | page 27

|THE REMARKER |news| March 10, 2017|

2

BAKE SALE

My grandma tried to eat wifi My grandmother’s life; changing the definition of home to me

M

imi had the genius idea driving me home in fourth-grade. As she would do every day, Mimi would help carpool three or four kids home from school.

She looked back and laughed at the mayhem in her back seat: screaming arguments and flying peanut butter sandwiches filled the back of her car.

That’s when she saw it. Passing by Chick-Fil-A, she noticed a sign plastered onto the door of the home of the chicken sandwich: Come in and enjoy our free Wi-Fi! She whipped her head around excitedly, nudging my leg to get my attention.

“Alec look! They have free ‘wee-fees’ now!” she said. “I’ll go get some for you guys, I’ll be right back.”

She slammed the door shut, cutting off my explanation of the mistake. My friends erupted in laughter, rolling on the floor of the car until tears streamed from their eyes.

But for me this was no laughing matter.

I knew where my grandmother came from, what she’s been through, the obstacles she had overcome.

If there was ever an excuse for thinking that a wireless connection to the Internet was a tasty after-school snack, my grandmother had it, she didn’t deserve the ridicule and embarrassment that awaited her.

Sure, maybe on the surface level she was Mimi, a grandmother known for her Cuban accent and foolish mistakes. But to me, she was a living example of the maximum amount of character a human being can have.

You see, Mimi’s real name is María del Carmen Astiazaraín. She was forced to change it.

When María was 15, her mother hurriedly rushed her out the back door.

It was time.

A group of revolutionaries under ALEC the leadership of DEWAR Fidel Castro had News Editor been successful in overthrowing their terrible dictator Fulgencio Batista. The wealthy Astiazaraín family knew that while Batista was bad, Fidel would be worse.

Fear and secrets filled her neighborhood. People faked injuries to get out of the country, had a sudden stroke or needed to visit family in Europe. People monitored their neighbor’s actions so as to be rewarded for turning their friends in.

You could trust no one. t is for this reason that 15-year-old María grabbed her bag, slipped out the back window in the middle of the night and boarded a tiny plane. Pretending to be a member of the church on a community service mission in America, she left everything she had ever known: even her name.

Alone and in a new country with no money and a strange language, the newly named Carmen found a home with her aunt.

For three years, she learned the English language and tried to integrate herself with the community, working on the side to stay off the street. For the next 20 years of her life she toiled to become an American, learned the language, and the pop culture references. She had found a second home in Miami.

But somebody else forced her to leave her home and change her name again.

The only difference was that this time it wasn’t a murderous communist regime that changed her life forever: it was me.

After hearing that my mom had no one to take care of me that she trusted, my grandmother uprooted herself from her community and took care of me. She went from Carmen to Mimi, sacrificing 20 years of her life to make sure I could be raised the right way.

I peeked through the window of the car, anxious to see the look of embarrassment on my grandmother’s face and comfort her.

To my surprise, she didn’t look fazed.

She walked out with confidence and a slight smile on her face. I knew why she wasn’t embarrassed. And so did she.

After overcoming an ordeal as difficult and horrifying as what she had to overcome, she had a valid excuse for trying to dine on wireless internet connection.

Or as we call it, wee-fee.

I

NEWS

Fifth grader Dawson Yao mans the table at the Free the Children club bake sale held on Feb. 24; the money raised will benefit children of an underprivileged village.

a peek INSIDE

at a GLANCE

Inside the news section

A brief look at the news events on campus

3

DANGEROUS DRIVING An example of the dangers of teenage distracted driving

4

NED PRICE How an alum quit his CIA job because of policies in President Trump’s administration

EIGHTH-GRADERS RETURN FROM CAMPOUT Members of the Class of 2021 completed their penultimate test in the wilderness on the eighth-grade campout Feb. 22-24.

Their trip to Lake Texoma was not too physically challenging but rather a shorter version of their upcoming trip to Pecos.

Wilderness Program co-director Nick Sberna suggests keeping a positive attitude regardless of the weather, getting accustomed to their gear and bonding with each other.

“Obviously we want the boys to gain more comfort and familiarity with their equipment and the general nature of backpacking,” Sberna said, “but we also want them to come together as a class and to develop a mindset of environmental stewardship, among other important goals.”

FAKE IDs The effects of

IDs on the members of 6-7 fake the school community.

8

BODY IMAGE Why body image issues are becoming a big problem for young men

Around the CORNER • VERNON FISHER: THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

Where: 5020 Tracy St., Dallas, TX 75205 When: Today and tomorrow, 10 a.m. through 5 p.m.

What: A showing of paintings by Fort Worth native Vernon Fisher that combine workings of modern pop art with his own personal style

• LET IT BE

Where: 909 First Ave. Dallas, TX 75210 When: Daily until March 18, 7:30 p.m.

What: An ultimate celebration of the Beatles music inlcuding live covers of their greatest hits and much more

CELEBRRATE EVENT ENDS IN SUCCESS Over $200,000 was raised during the annual Celebrate St. Mark’s event Feb. 18 in Spencer Gym and W. W. Browning, Jr., Great Hall.

Six hundred parents, faculty, staff and other guests participated in silent auctions and a casino night.

The leftover money from the playground will

go to the construction of the Winn Science Center.

Celebrate co-chair Abigail Williams was very pleased with the success of the event.

“With over 600 parents, faculty and other St. Mark’s community members in attendance, we feel Saturday evening’s Celebrate St. Mark’s event was a tremendous success,” Williams said.

SCIENCE INSTRUCTOR GOES TO WORKSHOP Over the past year Eugene McDermott Master Teaching Chair John Mead participated in three separate evolution workshops around the country.

The goal of these workshops is to instruct teachers on how to better present the topic of evolution in communities where it is more unfamiliar.

“When we worked with 20 teachers in Lubbock, that was certainly eye-opening,” Mead said. “The world they are dealing with as far as resistance to teaching evolution is greater than we tend to see here.”

On April 19-22, Mead, who sits on the Education Board of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, will attend the 86th annual AAPA conference to present new methods of

teaching evolution. His presentation will include instruction on how to teach evolution through stories of discovery, such as Darwin’s expedition, and attempt to connect researchers and educators through a new online forum.

The overall goal is to improve evolutionary education across the United States.

GREEN CLUB KICKS OFF LATEST PROJECT The Green Club, sponsored by Dan Northcut, has begun the annual food waste audit in the Great Hall.

Volunteers separate food waste from regular trash into separate garbage cans and weigh the food waste.

Northcut has been the sponsor of this club since 1987 and believes that this is vital to the club’s purpose.

At the end of the month the total waste will be tallied and presented as an example of preventable waste products in our community.

“Every time we’ve measured how much food we throw away every day at lunch, we remind students to pay better attention to the amount of food they take,” Northcut said.

“Because of the awareness, we always see a significant reduction in food waste.”

— Michael Lukowicz, Lyle Ochs, Gabe Bankston

say WHAT?

comments made by students, faculty and staff around campus

“

“

Rejection is good for the soul.

Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair David Brown

“

How do people eat their cereal without pouring bread?

sophomore Alex Baker

“

Dab it out, Reece. Dab it out.

English Department chair Michael Morris to junior Reece Rabin

“

Drew {Whigham) es el rey de dormir en clase.

Spanish instructor Consuelo Puerto

Wait, Harry Potter lives in England?

senior Nick Chaiken

J

ust like any other day, he was exhausted after crew practice.

The only thing keeping him awake was the blaring music from 106.1 KISS FM. Just like any other day, he drove 35 miles per hour down Preston Road, his regular route home, and merged into the left turn lane to get onto Desco Drive.

Just like any other day.

But this day was different.

He didn’t realize that the car ahead of him in the turn lane was stopped, and by the time he did it was too late.

Slamming on the brakes, all he could do was hope that everything would be okay.

It was not okay, but there was nothing he could do. The 2001 Lexus sedan did not have the power to change what would happen next. As he crashed into the car in front of him, he could not think.

The radio stopped playing. The airbags deployed. The smell of sulfur and burnt plastic filled the car.

As soon as he crashed, the car recoiled and clipped another car in the middle lane. It all happened so fast.

All at once, the music turned back on. He realized what he just did. All he could think about was whether or not someone was hurt.

••• Then-sophomore Brian Buckenham’s car ride home started off as a drive no different from

| March 10, 2017 |news| THE REMARKER |

3

SAFE DRIVING

WITH HOUSE BILL 62 AND SENATE BILL 31 IN THE TEXAS CONGRESS BOTH PROPOSING BANNING TEXTING AND DRIVING, IT HAS DRIVEN CONVERSATIONS SURROUNDING THE CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECT.

IT CAN WAIT. any other. A mere late reaction to noticing the stopped car in front of him caused an accident that totaled two cars and clipped another.

For Buckenham, driving was once a common, care-free activity, just a small part of his daily routine.

The car crash, however, quickly changed his perception.

“It makes me more aware that my actions have consequences,” Buckenham said. “I was driving along, and everything was fine, then all of a sudden I’m changing lanes and then boom. It’s a wreck.

A seemingly insignificant thing like changing a lane.”

Buckenham’s experience was far from unique. In Dallas, 31,094 crashes occurred in 2015 alone.

“You don’t expect anything bad to happen, and then when it does you’re shocked,” Buckenham said. “You never expect anything to happen, especially not to you.

Afterwards, you realize that everything you do has the potential to go bad. You have to recognize that every action you do has a consequence. Whether you suffer from it or not is completely up to chance.”

Buckenham understands that mistakes can easily be made by

anyone, but he says that when you are in a car, safe driving is very important and there is no room for error.

“With a car, there’s a much more significant impact of any action you do,” Buckenham said. “If you’re in a car, every little incident is magnified greatly. Running your car into another one or even a pole could be fatal.” ne of the most common ways for people to cause car crashes is by texting and driving, which is why a law banning texting and driving is currently being debated in the Texas Congress.

Although the Texas Congress has rejected the law on numerous occasions in past years, lawyers and advocates across the state believe that the ban is a necessity, especially since Texas is one of four states that doesn’t have the law in practice.

Personal injury lawyer Gary Arsenault believes that texting and driving is a serious problem in Texas that needs to be addressed on a statewide level.

“Distracted drivers and accidents happen every day because the driver was texting,” Arsenault said. “Instituting legislation that will prevent texting while driving will significantly help in reducing

auto accidents in Texas.”

Although the law has not yet been passed in Texas, Arsenault has noticed that juries are always harsher towards people who were texting and driving.

“There’s nothing that inflames the jury more than someone that was texting, voiding safety precautions,” Arsenault said. “Those are typically the largest rewards made because someone was doing what they were not supposed to be doing. They were not supposed to be texting and driving.”

According to the Texas Department of Transportion (TDT), there were 476 people killed in crashes involving distracted driving in 2015 alone.

“Texas is one of the highest states in the country for auto accidents due to distracted driving,” Arsenault said.

In 2015 alone, distracted driving has caused 10,564 accidents across urban areas in Texas.

Understanding this growing problem, Buckenham has grown from his personal experience and encourages others to do the same.

“You need to pay attention while driving,” Buckenham said.

“Everyone’s cautious about consequences, but not everyone realizes that it could be them.”

O

STORY KAMAL MAMDANI, ANDRE ARSENAULT PHOTOS KYLE SMITH

EVERY

EVERY

EVERY

HOURS

MINUTES

SECONDS

2.5 2.1 someone dies in a motor vehicle crash.

someone is injured in a motor vehicle accident.

61

a reportable motor vehicle crash occurs.

SOURCE: Texas Department of Transportation

NEWS

4

|THE REMARKER |news| March 10, 2017 |

NED PRICE LEAVES CIA

AFTER WORKING WITHIN THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (CIA) FOR MORE THAN EIGHT YEARS, NED PRICE ‘01 TURNS AWAY FROM HIS DREAM JOB IN LIGHT OF THE NEWEST DIFFICULTIES HE HAS FACED WITH THE POLICIES OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION.

DONE WITH IT Ned Price walks away from his dream job as a CIA analyst after feeling that, with the new administration, his position as an intelligence officer has been rendered useless.

N

ed Price ‘01, anxiously looks on as his newly elected commander-in-chief speaks at the memorial for the fallen men and women of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Surrounded by the graves of hundreds of fallen comrades, Price’s mind wasn’t supposed to be focused on the rhetoric of his President. He went to the service to remember his best friend and mentor, Jennifer Matthews.

Matthews was killed in an attack in Afghanistan in 2009 and Price was there to honor her and others who sacrificed their lives for their country. It was supposed to be a day of mourning, remembrance and celebration for those that gave so much to their country.

But Trump changed that.

Standing in front of hundreds of CIA officers looking to honor their fallen, Trump chose to speak about the greatness of his campaign, the size of the massive crowd he had at the inauguration and the shortcomings of the Clinton campaign.

Price was crushed, so this was when he decided to leave the job that had given him years of happiness.

“Jennifer [Matthews] taught me about what it means to be not only a good CIA officer but also a good colleague and frankly a good human.” Price said. “And to see the commander-in-chief obscure her star while speaking to the size of his inaugural crowd was really something that I never expected to see, I never wanted to see and I really never want to see again.”

The decision to leave his beloved job as a CIA analyst was not easy. Price had loved the job since his first day working for the CIA and had wanted to work for the CIA ever since his freshman year in college. He felt a calling to be a public servant after he witnessed the events of 9/11.

It happened right at the start of his freshman

year at Georgetown.

The phone rang in his dorm room. Price, expecting that it was his father calling to inform him that his nine month pregnant sister had gone into labor, eagerly snatched the phone.

“There’s been an attack on the Pentagon,” his father said. “You need to leave the dorms and get to safe ground right now.”

Price sprinted up to the roof of his dorm and saw a thin black trail of smoke rise from the Pentagon two or three miles away. He watched the news and saw the reaction and resilience the CIA showed in desperate times In that moment, he felt the pull that led him into his future dream job.

“The CIA was a place where I would be able to find my calling, where I could pursue my interest in foreign policy,” Price said, “but more importantly I could serve my country and serve the American people in a way I thought I was best equipped to do.”

Price worked as spokesperson in the Obama adminsitration in his last year of service, giving him a broader perspective of the agency that he had known for several years.

“As a CIA spokesperson, you have visibility into CIA analysis and CIA operations into our engagement with Capitol Hill, of course our engagement with the public and the activities of the senior leadership team, including the director,” Price said.

Slowly, Price felt a growing distaste for the Trump administration. Each time President Trump disregarded his advice and criticized the CIA that he loved so much, he felt as though his job was being rendered useless, and he was wasting precious time doing a job where he could now not accomplish anything. He felt forced to make a choice.

“I could have returned to the CIA and accrued a very generous salary as a senior CIA analyst, writing reports and assessments and providing my analysis

to this administration, only to see them fail to regard my work, go to the White House and gather dust as it sat on some shelf.” Price said. “Or I could resign and find another way to fulfill the same mission that I signed up for in 2006. And that was to serve the American people. I ultimately concluded that it would be a disservice to remain with the CIA. I would be taking taxpayer money and providing input that would have little to no effect on U.S. policy.”

According to Price, the job of the CIA intelligence community is to inform the administration, and if the administration disregards their information, he feels that his job is useless.

“Until this administration demonstrates that it is willing to accept the unvarnished, unbiased assessments of the CIA intelligence community,” Price said,“I think there is little utility in analysts like me doing the jobs for which we signed up.”

Although Price never had to give a political opinion, he worked fluidly with President Obama’s policies and decisions. Price emphasized the importance of political independence in his job and not feeling tied to one candidate.

“Never once was I pressured at the White House to tow the line of Democrats, of the Obama Administration,” Price said. “It just so happened that I almost always agreed with the inclination of the Obama White House when it came to foreign policy or national security.”

Price hopes to continue his mission of being a public servant without the obstacle of the Trump administration.

“I hate to say it. I hate to say it. Joining the CIA had been a dream. It was an absolute honor to work there for 11 years.” Price said. “But I concluded that I could not serve this administration because this administration was not allowing the CIA to do the job for which we had signed up for, which is being a public servant to the American people.”

STORY ALEC DEWAR, SAM SHANE, MICHAEL LUKOWICZ PHOTO COURTESY OF NED PRICE

Annual STEM conference speakers give valuable insight

by Antonio Ivarra ill Ferenc ’09, Amy Patrick, Jeremy Ginsberg ’96 and Dr. Lydia Pyne were among this year’s group of accomplished professionals that took part in the annual STEM conference held on March 3.

The conference, headed by seniors Vikrant Reddy, Andrew Chuka and junior Kabeer Singh underwent preliminary planning as early as the beginning of the school year.

“One of the first things we like to do is we go to the Alumni

W

NEWS

Development Office and...learn a little bit about what some of the younger alumni are up to,” Reddy said. “So we’ll see who’s visited, who’s spoken, who we know is a good speaker and who we think would be a really engaging guest for the conference.”

Reddy and the other cochairs also decided to involve the Middle School students more by finding speakers relevant to their current courses.

“This year, we decided that we’re actually splitting... [fifth through eighth grades]

up among three guests,” Reddy said. “We’re splitting them up based on what’s relevant to the sciences they’re learning in class.”

As for the goals of this year’s conference, Reddy hopes to see students gain insight from speakers they find interesting and apply it to their own career aspirations.

“What I’m looking forward to the most is probably seeing some genuine interest from the students,” Reddy said. “I know that a lot of these guests are

in fields that a lot of students are also passionate about and something that they could see themselves working in in the future.”

Above all, Reddy looks at the conference as a tool to help inspire students and show them the possibilities after leaving 10600 Preston Road.

“I want students to leave the conference seeing what’s possible after graduation and gaining some inspiration to strive for their own goals and aspirations,” Reddy said.

EXPERT ADVICE Jeremy Ginsberg ‘96 educates students on how to make it in the STEM fields.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT GET FILLED IN ON WHAT PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS DONE IN HIS TIME IN OFFICE SO FAR

In his first 49 days in office, President Trump has been very busy — issuing 18 executive orders, a near record number for an incoming president. Here’s a summary of some of his key actions: Travel Ban

Obamacare

ON JAN. 17 President Trump signed an executive order suspending immigration from 7 muslim-majority countries while his administration reviews the vetting process.

This highly controversial order sparked outrage and mass protest at airports around the country, leading to the ban being deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge and then lifted.

THIS ORDER allows agencies to ignore any portion of Obamacare that causes financial burden on the individuals, states and healthcare providers.

The Trump administration plans on dismantling the existing Obamacare benefits and systems already in place and replacing them with a free market based system.

Fine details of the proposed replacement have not been announced as of yet, but the Trump administration will continue to deactivate Obamacare.

Transgender Rights AFTER THE Obama administration made steps for transgender rights, Trump revoked rights that allowed transgender students to use public school restrooms that match their gender identity Feb. 22.

The administration ordered all of the nation’s public schools to disregard all of the changes involving transgender rights the Obama administration made during the past two years. The Trump administration reasoned their decision with saying the changes lacked legal analysis.

H

Michele Santosuosso, Upper School history e needs to have a rhetoric on whether he is putting a ban on all immigrants, is he putting a ban on a particular type of immigrant from a certain area, or is he saying it’s a religious ban?

I think there should be some rhetoric on that.

There is, of course, talk of his wall. Is it going to become a fence? Is it going to become a wall?

Will it take troops to guard such structure?

H

Mark Adame, Upper School biology ’m not a fan, and I’m very upset about his pick for the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] because the man he picked, Scott Pruitt, fought the EPA for years. I know he’s supposed to create jobs, but I don’t think he has the environment or our long term goals for the future of this country or the world in mind. Everything else you just have to wait and see. You have to give him a chance.

I

Abortions

Australian PM Call TRUMP CALLED Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about a refugee deal made with the Obama administration.

The U.S. promised to take in 1,250 refugees from Australian detention centers on Pacific islands. He ended the scheduled hour-long call in 25 minutes.

Business TRUMP SIGNED an executive order in the Oval Office in front of business owners outlining his new initiative to take away many of the business regulations put in by the Obama administration.

This change is supposed to support small businesses, but the lack of regulations should also help bigger businesses as well.

FIRST INTRODUCED by Ronald Reagan in 1984, the Mexico City Policy is a federal ban on U.S. funding for international health organizations. Trump reinstated the order, sparking women protests throughout the world. The order was highly controversial, blowing up on social media after Trump signed the order in a room surrounded by men.

The federal funds which Trump had reallocated were used for family planning services such as access to contraception and abortion services.

The Mexico City Policy has a worldwide effect on women’s ability to plan their families and tend to their health.

Border Security THERE ARE TWO different parts to this order. The first one calls for “the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border.”

The second part says that we will hire 10,000 more immigration officers to improve border security, while taking away federal funds from “Sanctuary Cities” that refuse to deport undocumented immigrants. Trump said that they are already planning the wall, and the building of it could start in the coming months.

744 HOURS Breaking down how Trump spent the first 744 hours of his presidency

William Haga, Sophomore e’s made some very controversial decisions and I don’t agree with all of them.

There’s nothing preventing him from turning it around. I definitely don’t agree with the immigration policy. I question his decision making process with conflict of interest.

75%

23%

of this time Trump has spent in Washington D.C.

of this time Trump spent at the Mar-A-Lago club in Florida

199

18

total number of times President Trump has tweeted in his time in office

number of executive orders isued to date.

STORY MATEO GUEVARA, LYLE OCHS, JAMES ROGERS GRAPHIC NAFTAL MAUTIA

Senior Magee leads chess tutoring program for local students

by Zoheb Khan

W

hile some students head to sports and other extracurricular activities on Wednesdays, others head to elementary schools in the Dallas area to teach basic chess tactics.

This chess tutoring program, or Chess for Humanity, was founded last year by Akshay Malhotra ’16 who expanded the program to offer workshops for military veterans and local Dallas students.

“Akshay Malhotra, who graduated last year, contacted me back in freshman year, asking if I was interested in tutoring chess at a local elementary school,” Senior Patrick Magee said. “Since running multiple chess clubs takes a bit of work,

he decided to split up the work between two co-chairs after he left, which ended up being [senior] Kaden Han and I.” Although most community service tutoring is related to math and science, Patrick hopes that chess tutoring will impart important life lessons, rather than just chess tactics, to the elementary school kids.

“On paper, our goal is just to teach kids chess,” Magee said. “But what we really hope is that the students will learn the life lessons behind the game. Most people who play chess don’t go on to become regular tournament players, so while we do teach basic tactics and encourage regular studying, we really hope that the kids will take away the bigger lessons from the game when they leave

the classroom every Wednesday.”

Magee believes the two most important lessons that volunteers teach students are focus and patience, as they are essential qualities for any chess player – young or old.

“Chess is real-time problem solving,” Magee said, “and as such, it necessitates focus and patience – two increasingly absent qualities in our attention-starved age. Perhaps more importantly, [chess] teaches kids to deal with their mistakes, lose graciously and grasp for victory when it seems impossible. These are the real lessons we hope to teach every week.”

Magee also believes that the tutoring programs allows the volunteers to develop their teaching skills while still having a positive impact on the community.

“Elementary school kids think and perceive things very differently than we do,” Magee said, “and it takes some time and a good deal of effort to learn how to explain things in an effective way to them.

Personally, my teaching style is almost unrecognizable from what I did freshman year, and it is infinitely more effective.”

As the year progresses, Magee hopes to hand over the program to the upcoming class in hopes of expanding the program into other elementary schools in the next years.

“Especially after getting so many new volunteers following Winter Break,” Magee said. “I think we have more than enough resources to branch into new schools while maintaining a high-caliber program.”

NEWS

| March 10, 2017 |news| THE REMARKER |

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TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS

|THE REMARKER |news| March 10, 2017 |

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WITH THE NUMBER OF FAKE IDENTIFICATIONS SPREADING FASTER AND FASTER WITH ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY, MARKSMEN AND BEYOND ARE INVOLVING THEMSELVES IN A VAST, DANGEROUS AND ILLEGAL NETWORK.

STORY RISH BASU, JOHN CRAWFORD, DUNCAN KIRSTEIN, RETT DAUGBJERG, REECE RABIN PHOTOS FRANK THOMAS

Brandon* calmly walks into the Texaco gas station on Inwood Road.

His white SUV is parked directly in front of the gas station — still running and holding two of his friends.

Brandon, a former Marksman, follows his usual routine.

He scans the station for familiar faces. Heads to the glass refrigerators in the back to grab a three-pack of 24 ounce cans of Bud Light. Walks to the checkout counter.

Brandon is 18 years old — underage. But that shouldn’t be a problem.

Having recently graduated from high school, he’s hoping to spend the night drinking with a couple of friends.

The middle-aged woman behind the counter peeks at Brandon’s friends sit-

ting in the Wrangler before looking back at the scruffy teenager in front of her.

“May I see your ID?” Brandon expects the question, and with a practiced ease, he pulls out his fake identification (ID) from his wallet and hands it to the cashier.

The cashier takes a glance at the plastic rectangle.

But the glance turns into a drawnout stare, and Brandon’s mind begins to race.

It’s never taken this long.

The cashier looks back up — remembering the others waiting in the car — and asks to see all of his friends’ IDs. Brandon knows the legality of the request is dubious at best — but he doesn’t know what to do or how to react.

Will she call the police?

Nervous for what might come next, he takes his ID back and exits the Texaco, wordlessly climbing back into the driver’s seat of his car.

The three-pack of Bud Light remains on the counter.

“Even though [the cashier] can’t really do much,” Brandon said, “in the moment, it’s pretty scary.”

Brandon isn’t the only one who has

THE NUMBERS BEHIND UNDERAGE DRINKING | PERCENTAGES OF FAKE ID OWNERS

32%

of college students possess a fake ID

7%

of high school students possess a fake ID

51 percent of college students across the nation believe it is “very easy” to obtain alcohol underage on campus SOURCE: The National Library of Medicine and Health

NEWS

engaged in the purchasing of alcohol underage.

According to the US National Library of Medicine, seven percent of high schoolers have been reported using a fake ID to purchase alcohol. Furthermore, 14 percent of college students possess a fake ID. BRANDON BELIEVES that as kids want to experiment more with alcohol, especially in college, they will begin to more heavily consider buying a fake ID. “It’s just a product of the environment I think,” Brandon said. “When people go to college, I would say they want to start experimenting with alcohol if they haven’t already, and so you got to have a way to get it.”

Student Steven*, who used to order fake IDs for himself and friends, initially dealt with fake IDs out of personal convenience.

“A group of friends and I were looking to get [an ID], and there was, at the time, another person who was willing to help us out,” Steven said. “That person time and time again just couldn’t help us out. So I took it into my own hands, figuring it must not be that difficult, so I just did some research online, and it

turned out to be an incredibly easy process. So I just got some for myself and for that group of guys just as a favor.”

According to Steven, the process of buying an ID takes place entirely online, requiring just a name and photograph.

Additionally, he doesn’t fear the legal repercussions as the bulk of the crime is in creating the ID rather than owning one.

“The legal ramifications are on the side of misdemeanors, at least for owning and obtaining one, so as long as I’m not making them, the charges I would face would be minimal.” Steven said.

Dr. Jann Gumbiner, author and expert in adolescent development, believes fake IDs represent a dangerous window for teenagers to become associated with much scarier outcomes.

“I think obtaining a fake ID is a really bad idea for several reasons,” Gumbiner said. “First, it is illegal and the teen will be associating with some sketchy people who may be violent or already watched by the police. They will be buying alcohol, getting drunk, hanging out with a wild crowd and may even get in a car accident.”

For 7-11 Vice President of Government Affairs Keith Jones the gas station

take a look into how fake IDs have facilitated illegal, underage drinking

20 PERCENT

People aged 12 to 20 years drink almost 20 percent of all alcohol consumed in the U.S.

30 PERCENT

of fake ID users have been caught using them

83 PERCENT

of Americans who first used alcohol in the past year were underage

15 PERCENT

of underage students have reported weekly use of alcohol

70 PERCENT

success rate of teenagers purchasing alcohol

10.8

MILLION underage teenagers between the ages of 12 and 20 have had at least one drink in the past month

57

PERCENT of underage college and university drinkers have reported paying less than $1 for a drink or have received an unlimited number for free

| March 10, 2017 |news| THE REMARKER |

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does what it can to prevent selling alcohol or tobacco to minors.

“Well, here in Texas, and the rest of the country, you have to be 18 or over to buy tobacco products and 21 or over to buy alcohol,” Jones said.

“Our policy as a company is, however, that if you look like you are 30 or younger, we’re going to ask for a government issued ID.” BUT JONES believes it is becoming harder to catch fake IDs, as the producers are becoming smarter. As technology advances in the production of fake IDs, it is becoming harder and harder to identify fake IDs that are now able to scan.

“Folks under 18 who make their own fake ID have become more sophisticated with computers and printers,” Jones said, “and it can sometimes be difficult to tell whether or not the ID is real.”

Jones has, however, seen the training given to employees to catch fake IDs evolve alongside the fake IDs themselves.

“It’s really like an old fashioned arms race,” he said. “We get good

at training our people, and then the people who make fake IDs get good at making those and then we get good at spotting fake IDs.” DR. JANN GUMBINER believes the drinking age should be lowered to 18

Jones talks about the extensive training employees undergo in order to be able to catch fake IDs — even when it scans.

“The training is a whole module where we tell employees what to look for in fakes,” Jones said. “The state seal, or if it’s a state that has laser monograms on it, look to see if it’s been doctored or altered in some way.”

Gumbiner believes the drinking age should be 18 years old, matching the legal age to perform most other “adult” activities.

“I think probably one of the problems in California is that you have to be 21 to buy beer,” Gumbiner said.

“The age could be reduced to 18. Then college students, who are already living away from home and unsupervised by

adults, would not need to lie and get fake IDs. If they are old enough to live on their own, vote and serve in the military, they should be able to buy beer.”

However, Steven believes the drinking age should remain at 21, as he sees the legal age as a blurred line owing to 18 year olds already having adequate access to alcohol from older peers.

I don’t think the drinking age should be changed,” Steven said. “The best explanation I found about why the drinking age is what it is, s not to prevent 18 year olds from obtaining a drink, but that if 18 year olds could drink legally, then it would be an easier gateway for 14 and 15 year olds to obtain drinks. It’s very dangerous to get into the system early.”

GUMBINER BELIEVES alcohol is a problem at any age, and fake IDs just enable younger people to become susceptible to these problems sooner.

“Substance abuse at any age is a serious problem,” Gumbiner said. “It ruins families and people’s lives. Fake IDs are associated with substance abuse and high risk behaviors: that means

auto accidents, alcohol poisoning and even rape. It is way too easy to obtain a fake ID and the penalty is relatively low.”

Brandon suggests that as kids want to experiment more with alcohol, especially in college, they will begin to more heavily consider buying a fake ID. But in high school, Brandon suggests that it is not worth it to have a fake ID, and sometimes in college, you do not need one.

“I think it’s kinda based on the culture where you go to college,” Brandon said, “especially because there are some places that are in a small town and all of the parties are on campus and in houses.”

Gumbiner suggests a healthy relationship with alcohol begins at home, and its long-lasting effects are caused by its role in daily life.

“A lot of drinking and [purchasing of IDs] starts at home,” Gumbiner said.

“Responsible parents teach their children about safety and responsibility. If alcohol were not so romanticized by the media and more a part of daily life, it may seem less taboo and less exciting to teenagers.” *Because of the subject matter, ‘Brandon’ and ‘Steven’ will not be identified

WHAT THEY BUY the most commonly purchased items that underage teenagers buy with their fake IDs 1. Alcoholic beverages Whether it’s at a bar or a gas station, the number one item that underage teenagers purchase with fake IDs is alcohol.

2. Cigarettes Easily found at any gas station or convenience store, cigarettes are a common purchase for high schoolers and college students.

3. Chewing tobacco Although uncommon, chewing tobacco is the third most purchased item with fake IDs.

4. Electronic vaporizer Vapes and e-cigarettes have recently increased in demand amongst high schoolers and college students.

IF I WERE A JUDGE, I WOULD GO RELATIVELY EASY ON THE MINORS BECAUSE I WOULD NOT WANT THEM TO HAVE A FELONY RECORD ESPECIALLY WITH A FIRST OFFENSE, BUT I WOULD ALSO TRY TO SCARE THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE ASSOCIATING WITH THE WRONG PEOPLE AND STARTING DOWN THE WRONG PATH. THEY NEED TO TURN THEIR LIFE AROUND. PARENTS NEED TO GET INVOLVED AND HELP THEIR KIDS. — DR. JANN GUMBINER

|THE REMARKER |news|March 10, 2017 |

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Student Council executive office elections to take place April 5

by Kamal Mamdani Student Council executive office elections will be held the week of April 3, where students will vote for next year’s president, S vice-president and secretary.

As of last year, anyone who holds a leadership position and is involved in an extracurricular activity is eligible to run for Student Council.

“Before this, you essentially had to be on Student Council to run,” Student Council advisor Casey Gendason said. “We changed that because our thought was that the parameter severely limited the number of students that are eligible to run.”

Student Council President Christian McClain said running for Student Council is about taking risks and opening up to criticism.

“Putting myself out there, being vulnerable and the chance to make my peers along with my own experience at St. Mark’s better was an opportunity I am

so glad that I took advantage of,” McClain said. “There are always going to be people out there who trash your ideas or try to knock you down just for the sake of getting attention or because they’re negative. An officer has to be able to take constructive criticism but also know when to shrug off some of the negatives and know that he tried his best.”

Executive officers have a wide range of responsibilities from planning events to representing the school.

“Planning for weekly meetings and weekly assemblies is a significant part of the job,” Gendason said. “But it’s also embodying our school’s values and carrying them on your sleeve and showing them in every interaction, in every classroom, in every sporting event on campus and off campus. It’s being a stellar representative of the school and student body.”

The Student Council’s primary focus is finding ways to

improve the school, and it meets weekly to come up with and improve campus life for the student body.

“The Student Council is always working on the next thing,” McClain said. “Whether it be Homecoming, the Gift Drive, Spring Fling, pep rallies, or assemblies, the Student Council is constantly working on ways we can improve the school and make going to St. Mark’s an even more amazing experience than it already is.”

Gendason is looking for strong qualities in the future Student Council members which set standards for the rest of the student body.

“An executive officer of Student Council should have a passion and desire to serve our school and its students,” Gendason said. “I look for students who are tone setters and who understand that Student Council is more than planning Homecoming, pep rallies and assemblies.”

Five steps to running for student office

Executive officer duties

1. Pick up a form from the Upper School office.

President • Plans pep rallies and Homecoming • Speaks at school events • Meets with Upper School Head • Serves on committees as requested by administration Vice President • Represents the voices of the student body in Student Council meetings • Assists president in planning events • Serves as lead student operator of the concession stand at home football games Secretary • Records all Student Council meetings • Writes thank you notes to administrators, teachers, parent volunteers and vendors • Assists at concession stand at football games

2. Participate in an election workshop that improves your leadership skills.

3. Campaign once you are an applicant, being mindful of all campaign rules and regulations.

4. Give a speech to the Upper School April 4.

5. Students vote for their officers in English classes April 5.

Current officers President — Christian McClain Vice President — Andrew Lin Secretary — Canyon Kyle

BODY IMAGE

THE BODY ISSUE An issue that seems to affect women more frequently, eating disorders and body image problems are becoming very prevalent in men as well, necessitating a change in mindset from the average American to prevent these dangerous psychological disorders. think ‘How could I ever have been that comfortable with that body?’”

Working out makes Chavez feel truly happy, but some chose a different way to push their bodies. ale dissatisfaction with their bodies has increased over the past few years, and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder have all become much more prevalent.

“One in four individuals with an eating disorder is male,” Director of Counseling Barbara Van Drie said. “It was historically more prevalent in white women, and now it cuts across all races, ethnicities, and one in four is male.”

The reason that these numbers have skyrocketed over the past few years is the rise in media and social media use across the country, as people now more easily see celebrities and their slim bodies. “[People] get a lot of messages from the media in terms of what it is they think they’re supposed to look like,” Van Drie said, “from society as a whole, and they start comparing themselves with whatever their perception is. For guys, it is often that hyper masculine, muscle magazine, having a six-pack kind of message. That’s not a normal body image though. In cultures that haven’t been exposed to our media or celebrity culture, those aren’t the ideal body images.”

Dr. Andy McGarrahan is a clinical psychologist at Children’s Medical Center, who specializes in eating disorders.

What fears him the most is the hesitation of people to admit that they have body issues.

“It’s difficult because a lot of times people with eating disorders don’t necessarily recognize that there is a problem,” McGarrahan said. “In fact, they may say ‘Oh, there is not a problem, I’m just eating healthy. I needed to lose weight, so that’s a good thing.’”

With eating disorders being falsely perceived as a woman’s issue, men often struggle more to recognize that they have

M

CASE LOWRY

T

wo years ago, the skinny sophomore Daniel Chavez pushes through a set of dips with 90 pounds of weight wrapped around him.

He can’t take it any more. He needs his confidence back.

He needs to look like the ripped men in the fitness magazines, he is tired of being less athletic than his friends.

“I wanted confidence so I created my own,” Chavez said.

And, after countless workouts and long nights, he got it.

••• Although society often believes that women are the only ones who pressure themselves to have fit bodies, according to the National Eating Disorders Association, ten million men will suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some point in their life in the United States.

Senior Daniel Chavez is one of these young men who have attempted to change the way their body looks in order to please both himself and the people around him.

“I wasn’t satisfied and I wanted to become more popular,” Chavez said, “I was attention hungry, I wasn’t happy with my body.”

Through working out, Chavez has acquired not only a stronger body, but also more confidence in social settings.

“It improved my own confidence, and it also helped me gain an upperhand in social settings,” Chavez said. “It elevated my social status. I went from being Daniel Chavez to Chavesthenics.”

For Chavez, working out has become almost an addiction, as he will never be satisfied by what he has done so far.

“I couldn’t see myself not taking care of my body,” Chavez said. “Most people before they work out, they are comfortable with their body, and they’ve never really pushed it that far. But once you get a taste of how far you can go and how much you can truly achieve, its addicting. And now that I have perspective, I

an issue.

“I think some of it is that there can be a generalization of that these [disorders] are not things that guys get,” McGarrahan said. “Well you might be a guy thinking, ‘Well guys aren’t supposed to have this, so either I don’t have it, or I’m too embarrassed or ashamed to tell anybody.’”

Disorders are often connected with human emotions, which is another reason that males do not want to disclose that they might be suffering from an eating disorder.

“In this culture, it is not always acceptable for guys to express emotions,” McGarrahan said, “because guys aren’t always thought of as, ‘Hey, we are supposed to talk about guilt and shame and sadness and fear and anxiety’ because there is this big stereotypical view of what it is to be a guy, and that doesn’t al-

STORY SAM SUSSMAN, ANDY CROWE ILLUSTRATION KAMAL MAMDANI

NEWS

ways include things like that. It’s normal and okay to talk about things you are worried about or things that make you feel sad.”

••• For Van Drie, the key to stopping this surge in body image problems across this country is to stop believing what the media defines as “in shape.”

“You need to understand what being healthy is versus holding yourself up to some typically unrealistic ideal about what being healthy is really about,” Van Drie said.

With more people dying from eating disorders than any other psychological disorder, it is crucial that people recognize their issues, so they can get help before it is too late.

“It’s the kind of thing where you have to speak up,” Van Drie said. “You really could be saving someone’s life.”

DEAL BREAKER? WITH COLLEGE COUNSELING GETTING INTO GEAR FOR UPCOMING SENIORS, HERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLEGE INTERVIEWS

QUESTION TIME Senior Rohil Rai represents the typical Marksman in a college interview, with an alumnus from both St. Mark’s and the college in question.

Zoheb Khan: Is there a go-to topic or questions that’s always addressed during these interviews?

ZK: Do you have any tips for students on how to make a positive impression in an interview?

Antonio Ivarra: What do you pay attention to most while interviewing a potential student?

Casey Gendason: So, I think it’s safe to say “why you applied to the college” and “where your interests lie” and “what you want to study” are some of the big ones.

What kinds of activities have you been a part of and what types of activities you might want to pursue in college? I think those are three typical questions that come up during interviews.

CG: I think it’s important to practice answering questions and thinking about how the student will take his responses one step further, which is Casey Gendason what we encouris one of two asage before the sociate directors student goes into of college counthe interview. seling with years It’s so importof experience. ant to try and create a conversation with the interviewer, and so practicing that skill before the student enters the interview can be very helpful, and we offer and do mock interviews before students go to the interview for that reason.

We also encourage students to think about the questions they want to ask the interviewer about his or her experiences at the university.

Jon Langbert: The school gives us four main areas to look at: personality, academics, extracurriculars.

We then do an overall evaluation where you put it all together and look for unique things, extenuating circumstances, compelling reasons to admit.

It’s not that any one is any more important than the other.

Very rarely are kids showing up that are unqualified that couldn’t do the work at the school.

They are all very impressive when it comes to the test Jon Langbert scores, when they ‘83 interviews do come up into on behalf of conversation.

Harvard and father of sophAI: What are the omore Carter most common or Langbert. bad mistakes students make during college interviews?

ZK: Do you think having quirks or anything funny or interesting qualities might help in the interview process?

CG: I do think that anything that can distinguish a student can help in the college process. So if a student is comfortable sharing a unique hobby or interest or tradition that their family has, that might be planted in the interviewer’s mind and they might write about that in the write-up, which could help a potential student.

ZK: What’s one of the common mistakes you think students tend to make during college interviews?

CG: I think the student gives responses that they believe the interviewer wants to hear and pats the university on the back often during the interview.

They think the interviewer wants to hear how great their alma mater is, but in fact, they are trying to assess how are you going to add to the life of that school and what is it about that college based on your needs, interests and personality that make it a good fit.

Students may focus on the “let me tell this person how amazing their alma mater is.”

ZK: How important is it for the student to research qualities or aspects of the school before the interview?

CG: It’s very wise and very important for the student to be able to walk into an interview with three reasons, ready to go and in his back pocket, as to why he wants to go to that school that are specific to that school: a program, a tradition, an activity, a professor that’s doing research in an area that maybe interests him.

Being able to say, “I’ve done my homework” is a valuable interview skill for college or for a job.

JL: There are a litany of things I would love to see kids stop doing. One of my pet peeves is overusing filler words like, “you know,” and those sorts of things.

I have kids that are high-scoring, high-achieving kids, but they sound like idiots when they use ‘like’ every third word.

That might be great when you’re talking to a fellow 17 year-old, but when you’re talking to an adult and you’re trying to convince them that you’re a good fit for great school, you don’t come across well when you do that.

I think another big issue is lack of

| March 10, 2017 |news| THE REMARKER |

9

COLLEGE INTERVIEWS

preparation. You can impress an interviewer by doing your homework. You can impress an interviewer if you know stuff about the college, you’ve gone on the website and done your research.

AI: What things can a student do to impress an interviewer?

JL: Let’s say you’re interested in oncology and you research the college and there’s a nobel prize winner in oncology at the schooI. I want to go to and you memorize their name and you do a little research on what they’re doing in terms of research right now.

Are they working on compounds? Are they working on medical procedures?

How you fit with that person and, say I’m really looking forward to taking this course that they teach.

But when you can’t say any reason why you want to go to that school, it’s the exact opposite of impressionable.

AI: Do you have any tips for students looking to make a positive impression in their college interview?

JL: My recommendation would be do your homework and practice. I offered a number of people, my kid’s friends that have older siblings.

I’ll say it: “if you want I’ll conduct a practice interview with you.” And not many people take me up on that, I’m surprised.

AI: Are college interviews important in the college admissions process?

JL: When someone’s on the borderline, the cusp, yes. But there are plenty of kids that are automatic admits and automatic declines and the interview’s not going to change that.

STORY ZOHEB KHAN, ANTONIO IVARRA PHOTOS LEE SCHLOSSER

JUST CHILLIN’ Standing near the bus stop, junior Avery Pearson waits for his ride home..

NEWS

|THE REMARKER |news|March 10, 2017|

10

MALECALL

SPRING BREAK

VACATIONS AROUND THE WORLD STAYCATION IDEAS BRACKETOLOGY

Taking you back to the basic fundamentals of all things manly

STAYCATION VS. VACATION

Spring breakers

MAN SCHOOL

“OH THE PLACES THEY’LL GO...” ON SPRING BREAK 2K17.

MARKSMEN WILL TRAVEL AROUND THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD FOR THE GLORIOUS WEEK AWAY FROM SCHOOL. HERE ARE THEIR DESTINATIONS:

How to make a bracket With March Madness upon us, everyone needs to know how to make a bracket. Here’s how: Make the bracket

Even numbers are ideal, but worst case scenario give the outlier a bye. Start with lines for every player you have, then connect them until there is only one left.

Look at the bracket below for inspiration.

Gather your opponents

To make a bracket, you definitely need a group of guys you’re competing against.

Having a bracket for your tournament makes it official, no matter what the occasion.

Winner moves on

After every game, the loser is eliminated, and the winner moves on to the next section of the bracket. No matter how long it takes, there can only be one winner. Period.

CHRISTIAN McCLAIN

ORLIN WARE

CONNOR PIERCE

JACK KATZ

RANDALL FOJTASEK

Grade: Senior

Grade: Junior

Grade: Sophomore

Grade: Sophomore

Grade: Freshman

Location: Cancún, Mexico

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Location: Paris, France

Reason: Hanging out with most of the Senior Class.

Miles from Dallas: 1,020

Location: Harbour Island, The Bahamas Reason: Trip with friends and family.

Reason: Going to the World Baseball Classic.

Reason: Family vacation.

Location: Beaver Creek, Colorado Reason: Ski trip with friends.

Miles from Dallas: 1,288

Miles from Dallas: 6,454

Miles from Dallas: 4,927

Miles from Dallas: 898

Most excited for: Make memories with his classmates.

Most excited for: Spending time at the beach.

Most excited for: Seeing baseball in Japan.

Most excited for: Visiting Versailles.

Most excited for: Waking up early and snowboarding.

Team 4

Team 3

Team 2

Team 1

Make the most of your staycation

WE PROMISE DALLAS ISN’T AS BORING AS YOU THINK. CAPITALIZE ON YOUR WEEK-LONG STAYCATION BY HITTING THESE PLACES UP.

iFLY Dallas

SpeedZone

Team 4

Team 1

This place is awesome.

Spend a few hours indoor skydiving and you won’t regret it.

Why jump out of a real plane when you can just pretend?

No need to speed in the real streets and run the risk of getting a ticket. Spend a day of your staycation racing friends in go-carts.

Zero Gravity Amusement Park Team 4

NEWS

This amusement park offers five crazy rides you won’t find anywhere else. This makes Six Flags look like a playground.

STORIES RETT DAUGBJERG ILLUSTRATIONS RETT DAUGBJERG

Klyde Warren Park Parks are very underrated, especially park with all kinds of food trucks. This park over Woodall Rogers Freeway offers food trucks every Saturday for lunch.

11

Kenneth Owens ’89

| March 10, 2017 |life| THE REMARKER |

DR. ALEX MCDONALD

HANGING OUT WITH

Willard E. Walker ’76 Visiting Scholar Alex McDonald plays in a concert with Upper School orchestra Feb. 2.

If you were to take one of those “Which element would you be” online tests, what do you think you would get?

Vanadium. It does lots of different and cool things, and you can see the results from them.

Driving. I love to drive, and I love the road.

What’s different about St. Mark’s now versus when you were a student?

It’s more crowded. By a lot. Also, the different classes talk to each other more.

The sophomores talk to the juniors, and the juniors talk to the seniors. There wasn’t much of that when I was here.

Can you tell us the story about you and one of the former teachers, Kennith R. Owens?

Yeah, we’re not related. We basically have the same first, middle and last names. I never had him as a teacher, but we enjoyed sharing the name a lot. We thought it was really funny.

He was the admissions director when I came here, so when I walked to him as a 10-year-old with my clip-on tie and said “Hi, I’m Ken Owens.” He said “Hi, how are you? I’m Ken Owens.” I said, “No you’re not,” and he showed me his driver’s license. Sure enough, we both had the same name.

a peek INSIDE

at a GLANCE

Life stories on the inside

A brief look at the events around campus

12

POWER OFF an in-depth account of the Lower School’s Screen Awareness Week

13

A RAY OF LIGHT a look into senior Eddie Yang’s passionate involvement with Rays of Light

15

A NOBLE FIGHT a profile on sophomore Cole Arnett’s battle with Burkitt’s Lymphoma

19

ON TOP OF THE WORLD a story recounting David Wood ’82 and his band’s summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro

If you could meet one scientist, who would it be?

His name is Hubert Alyeah. He is why high school teachers do demonstrations. He was a professor at Princeton who started the “teach by showing” method. He was quite a character, and I would’ve really liked to meet him.

What’s your catchphrase?

“Nimrods.”

LIFE

PHOTO COURTESY MATT FREEMAN

What are the funniest things that have happened to you as a student and a teacher?

VISITING SCHOLAR WORKS WITH MUSIC STUDENTS Willard E. Walker ‘76 Visiting Scholar Alex McDonald, a celebrated pianist, worked with students and performed for the school during his stay Feb. 1-2. While on campus, he held master classes for piano and orchestra students, performed in a concert with the Upper School orchestra and held a presentation for the Upper School on ‘Music in Wartime.’

McDonald looked back at his experience fondly, viewing it as another opportunity to showcase his greatest love — music.

“I always love showing people good music,” McDonald said. “I loved how people listened and were receptive to what I had to say about such a complex topic. Overall, it was a very positive experience.”

SPANISH CLASSES VISIT MEADOWS MUSEUM Spanish instruc-

THROW, GLAZE A single piece from junior Matt Freeman’s collection of pots and other ceramic pieces.

artists in ACTION

3

weeks to complete a normal project

tor Isabel Toledo’s advanced Spanish A and Marsha McFarland’s advanced Spanish A-honors classes attended the Meadows Museum Feb. 2-3 as part of the students’ study of Spanish and Hispanic artists.

One of their main goals is to allow students to apply their vocabulary and knowledge of the language outside of the classroom.

Toledo and McFarland requested bilingual tour guides to give all the tours in Spanish but answer some questions in English.

“It just depends on the museum’s exhibits,” Toledo said, “making sure that the artists are the artists we were studying and hoping that the majority of them are on campus.”

DADYO CLUB TO LEAD UPCOMING CONFERENCE DADYO club members will lead an upcoming DFW-area meeting on March 21, featur-

ing eight different schools. The topic of discussion during the meeting has not been announced yet.

“We’re going to be doing various activities that pertain to school diversity,” DADYO club sponsor Marjorie Curry said.

Over 80 students are expected to participate in the meeting.

NATIONAL SPANISH HONOR SOCIETY TO INDUCT STUDENTS The National Spanish Honor Society will induct members April 19.

The group reognizes students who excel in the study of Spanish.

Students are eligible for induction starting in the tenth-grade, according to Cecil and Ida Green Master Teaching chair Marsha McFarland.

“It’s not only students who make good grades but students who show a passion for the language and really enjoy it,” McFarland said.

—Zach Gilstrap, Eric Hirschbrich, Jason Peng, Albert Luo

MATT FREEMAN

10

hours spent on ceramics per week

“Ceramics is the best way to find your artistic side. Going into it, I’d never done arts before, but once you get into it, anything you see in nature becomes something you want to try. If you see something, you get a piece of paper out and draw it, and then you try it later in class. It brings out the artist in everyone.”

— junior Matt Freeman

RILEY SANDERS PHOTO

What’s your most favorite thing in the world?

I was well-known for breaking glassware during chemistry labs. In reality, my partner broke everything, but he always blamed it on me, and everyone believed him.

As a teacher, I had a student set fire to a trash can once. He was doing the glass lab, and a hot piece of glass fell on some paper towels and caught them on fire. He smothered it with more paper towels, and they caught on fire.

Then he sweeped all of that into the trash can with more paper towels, and they all caught on fire. Everybody just stared at the fire, and I yelled, “What are you doing?” They just pointed at it and said, “Hnngg!”

FRANK THOMAS PHOTO

DYLAN LIU PHOTO

He may have been your chemistry instructor, he may have been your class sponsor — but now, prepare to know the man behind the viking helmet.

12

|THE REMARKER |life| March 10, 2017 |

LOWER SCHOOL SCREEN FREE AWARENESS WEEK

TURNED OFF TUNED IN

FROM JAN. 29 TO FEB. 4, LOWER SCHOOL BOYS CHALLENGED THEMSELVES TO PUT AWAY THEIR SCREENS IN OBSERVANCE OF THEIR ANNUAL “SCREEN FREE AWARENESS WEEK.” THE REMARKER SAT DOWN WITH SOME OF THEIR STUDENT LEADERS.

PLUGGED IN On their devices, Lower School boys (left to right) third-grader Reagan Graeme, fourth-graders Shyam Maddukuri and Henry Estes, third-grader Andy Browne and first-grader Sam Keon “play” on the playground. Screen Free Awareness Week hopes to encourage Lower School boys to stay off technology and play with family and friends outside.

W

ith the goal of teaching the boys in grades one through four a lifestyle free from addiction to technology, Lower School administrators, teachers and students have worked together to create posters, raise awareness and organize a competition for the boys.

By staying off iPhones, Xboxes and Macbooks, each Lower School boy earned points for his classroom.

The classroom with the most points at the end of the week received a free dress day and the promise of another secret surprise from Lower School Head Sherri Darver.

“I hope this brings family-time to the forefront,” she said about the goals of the program, “and keeps us all aware that family is truly more important than anything else.”

ericans spend 10 hours and 39 min a day on screens

Why is Screen Free Awareness so important to you?

Well, it’s really easy It depends on for me, I’m not the person. If it’s allowed to watch someone who’s in TV on weekdays legendary arena in anyway.

Clash Royale and We wanted to get can’t stop playing, the points to win the its really hard. My free dress day, but brother was supwe didn’t. It was kinposed to do it, but da like the Falcons he kept arguing and Americans spend 10 hours and 39 min losing the Superbowl. arguing, so he got utes like a day on screens a super small amount of time to Teens uselike screens 9 hours a day play five minutes a day.

Third-grader Andy Browne

First-grader Sam Keon (far right)

What happens if you win the competition?

How hard was it getting your entire class to participate?

What would you do if your best friend really wanted to play on his screens?

I’ll tell you how I motivated them: bribes.

I only know one family member who participated who wasn’t a parent. My classmate’s sister.

He convinced her by saying, “Do it, or I’ll whack you in the head.”

I would tell him it’s Screen Free Awareness Week, so he can’t do it.

If you win the competition, the top four homerooms get a free dress day, but [Interim Lower School Head] Sherri Darver surprised us with a free dress day for everyone who got 100 percent.

She was just awarding them for what they did. There is another surprise coming, but we don’t know what it is.

What about with a girlfriend?

I’d say, “Hey, I can’t because it’s Screen Free Awareness Week and that is more important.”

A look at the numbers behind the issue — how Teens Check Social Media 100 Times A “addicted” we are to our screens.

BY THE NUMBERS

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50% of teens feel addicted to their devic

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How hard was it getting your entire class to participate?

Fourth-grader Henry Estes

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ns useonscreens s a day screens 9 hours a day

3 people check phones during of teens aretheir addicted enough ay r meal

Third-grader FourthReagan Graeme grader Shyam (far left) Maddukuri

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5 feet away from them at all times

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hours annually spent playing videog es by males

Teen males spend 676 hours a year playing videogames.

Americans spend 10 hours and 39 min utes a day on screens Teens use screens 9 hours a day 53% of tweens -- kids 8 to 12 -- have their own tablet

676 hours annually spent playing videog ames by males Teens Check Social 100 TimesteenA Half of Media all American One third of all Americans interrupt agers feel “addicted” to every meal with their devices.

Source: CNN and folkrebellion.com their devices.

50% of teens feel addicted to their devic STORY DAVIS BAILEY, MATTHEW ZHANG PHOTOS- OWEN BERGER

67% of teens are addicted enough to feel “phantom vibrations”

of people keep their cell phone less rce: CNN and folkrebellion.com 5 feet away fromLIFE them at all times -

1 in 3 people check their phones during Daymeal their

The average American spends 10 hours per day “plugged in.”

Source: CNN, thefolkrebellion.com

13

| March 10, 2017 |life| THE REMARKER |

EDDIE YANG RAYS OF LIGHT

Shining bright SENIOR EDDIE YANG’S CONTINUED AND DEDICATED SERVICE TO RAYS OF LIGHT — ONE OF HIS LIFE’S PASSIONS — EARNED HIM THE TITLE OF VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR.

L

ike his other freshman classmates, he needed the community service hours to fulfill the minimum requirement.

He joined to be with his friends, just as many others would do. To him, it seemed like a fun time.

But as he put more time into volunteering with Rays of Light, spending time with the disabled children, making a lasting impact on their lives — it became something much more.

To senior Eddie Yang, Rays of Light has become something more than just four hours on a Friday night. More than just a way to get those extra hours.

It has become a central part of Yang’s community service career — and as a result of his dedicated service to the program, Yang was named the Rays of Light Volunteer of the Year. “[The award] was really amazing, and I had no idea going into it,” Yang said. “Once they called my name up, all I could say was ‘Wow.’ It’s just really cool to be one of the hundreds of volunteers who go there and dedicate their time on Friday evenings and take care of the mentally handicapped kids. It’s really cool to be acknowledged and thanked by the organization.”

Rays of Light is a program dedicated to providing respite care for families STUDENTS with special needs CAN FIND children. Yang THEMSELVES credits the develTHROUGH opment of his love COMMUNITY of the program to SERVICE. the relationships THAT MAKES he’s formed while IT SO MUCH working with the BETTER. children and the — EDDIE administrators.

YANG “I think the more times you go, the more people you get to know,” Yang said. “You take care of different kids every time you go. You get to know a lot

of the kids. Even when you aren’t paired up with one of the kids, you might have had another one of them before, and you can say ‘hi’ to them, and they’ll say ‘hi’ to you. They remember you.”

While recounting the memories he’s had with the program, a specific moment comes to the forefront for Yang — the time he spent with one of the children, Miguel.

Throughout the entire night, Miguel was trying to get into the staff refrigerator, but Yang wouldn’t let him. Eventually, Miguel got upset, and Yang felt as if he’d done something wrong.

“He started kicking me, and I was like ‘oh man, this kid really hates me, like I’m not doing a really good job’” Yang said, “but at the end of the night when his parents came to pick him up I was like, ‘I’m so sorry, I really don’t know what happened’ and then [his mother] asked him ‘Did you have a good time?’ And he’s like ‘I had a great time,’ and then he gave me a hug at the end.”

JORGE CORREA believes community service is important for personal growth

Yang felt that his time spent with Miguel was gratifying and, in the end, he feels he made a real connection.

“I finally felt like I was on the same wavelength as him when he gave me a hug and expressed his gratitude for me taking care of him for four hours and that was really cool,” Yang said.

Rays of Light director Debbie Solomon sees Yang as a capable and personable worker with the children, and thus saw him as a worthy selection for Volunteer of the Year.

“I give [Yang] the more challenging children because I know he can handle them,” Solomon said. “Overall, we just wanted somebody who exemplified what we do and who we are. He’s just an

SERVANT LEADER Yang, standing with Rays of Light chairman Thomas Rachal, is recognized as the volunteer of the year at the Rays of Light volunteer appreciation dinner. ecognized as volunteer of the year at the Rays of Light volunteer appreciation dinner.

all-around nice guy and I think it shows through and the kids really like him. He was just a good pick.”

Community service director Jorge Correa believes that Yang has exponentially grown the Rays of Light program at school through leading by example.

“He’s not pushy,” Correa said. “He’s not asking people in the wrong way. If he goes there, he invites other people and those invite more. We started from zero and now the same organization started with a second site and now they have a third site. “ In addition to leading Rays of Light, Yang has also led projects like Genesis Women’s Shelter and Austin Street Bingo during his time on the community service board.

Correa feels Yang has grown as a student and has become more and more involved and dependable throughout his years as board manager for the community service board.

“There are many things that all I have to do is tell him and he will take care of organizing the boys, communicating with the boys or asking people to get more involved,” Correa said.

Correa encourages other students

to get involved with community service and participate in an activity that they are passionate about.

“The main thing I would say is, look at his certificate,” Correa said, “But don’t stop there. Eddie wasn’t looking for that, I know. Those things come your way when you’re doing the right thing, when you care about others and you’re sincere about it or even if you’re not sincere about it, just do it.”

Throughout his journey with community service, Yang sees a common thread of benefits from his involvement.

To Yang, it’s more than just community service.

It’s more than just the hours. It’s a venue through which he can change someone’s life — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“In community service there is this stigma that we are over here on a high up place and we’re helping people down lower who are ‘inferior’ to us and I don’t think that’s it at all,” Yang said. “It gives us a venue to interact with people we probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet or interact with and it’s really cool meeting those people and getting to share in those experiences.”

STORY SAHIT DENDEKURI, ZACH GILSTRAP PHOTO COURTESY JORGE CORREA

Choir performs in last Evensong, marking transition for new members

by Dylan Liu he school’s choir performed in its last Evensong of the year in the chapel March 5.

This last Evensong was particularly special for two groups of people for two completely different reasons.

For the seniors, it was the last time they would ever participate in an Evensong at the school as a student — an undoubtedly monumental affair.

For the fourth-graders, however, this Evensong marked the first time they sang as part of the school’s choir rather than as novices, symbolizing their transition into higher roles in the choir community.

T

Choirmaster Tinsley Silcox says that in each Evensong, which is short for “evening song,” there are certain procedures that must be followed every time, such as starting with an introit, a psalm sung while the priest approaches the altar and sings an anthem.

“The choir sings an introit, a lot of prayers, a psalm, two canticles and an anthem during Evensong,” Silcox said. “Every time we have a Saturday rehearsal before Evensong, the fourth-graders come and observe the rehearsal. When Evensong comes along, they sit right behind the choir and listen throughout the whole service.”

However, in this last Evensong,

the fourth-graders participated in an important induction ceremony.

Having learned the basics of singing together as a choir and the fundamentals of all the services that the choir does under organist Glenn Stroh, they are ready to step up and join the full choir.

“At the beginning of the service, the novices will come in at the front,” Silcox said. “They’ll be wearing their red robes, called cotta, and when their names are called, they’ll be given their red and white robes, which goes over the cotta. Now that they’re officially new members of the choir, they sing the anthem at the service rather than just

watching the service too.”

Because of the departure of the seniors and the arrival of new fourth-graders to the choir, Silcox has mixed feelings of sadness and joy for this last Evensong. To Silcox, Evensong symbolizes the opportunity to revel in the glories of music and song.

“This is definitely bittersweet for the seniors, since it’s their last Evensong, and that can be really tough,” Silcox said. “It’s always an evening of real excitement and joy for me because I’m so lucky. I get to stand there and listen to the choir sing this glorious music that we’ve worked so hard on practicing.”

LIFE

14

|THE REMARKER |life| March 10, 2017 |

JASON YOO SELLING SHOES

FRESHMAN JASON YOO GOT HIS FIRST LOOK INTO THE SHOE INDUSTRY WHILE HE WAS BUYING ON A WEBSITE CALLED GRAILED — AND FROM THEN ON, HIS PASSION FOR THE SHOE MARKET TOOK OFF.

NICE N’ YEEZY In his signature Yeezy Boost 350’s, one of the most popular shoes on the market, Yoo shows off a selection of his latest Yeezy pick ups.

Albert Luo: Tell me your story of how it started, and how your business has changed from then.

Jason Yoo: I went on a website called Grailed, a website mostly for shoes. I made purchases and I was pretty lucky, because I got to meet the sellers in person, and these people had connections.

They had access to pre-releases and brand names, and through these connections I actually got the shoes for retail price.

Once I started stocking up on these shoes more from retail price, I went to a website, Flight Club.

I would look up prices on that website, how they fell and increased, and at the end of every month I’d do a couple of sells, maybe seven to nine per month.

I started off spending around $1,500 in total, but by the middle of December, I had a deadstock inventory of around $17,000.

AL: What are some common misconceptions people have about what you do?

JY: I don’t do this because I want to make money; I don’t do this because I want to

show off. I do it because I really have a real love for selling and buying. It’s looking at a collection and knowing that I’ve completed it that really makes me happy.

AL: So how do you balance your hobby with school life? What are some sacrifices you’ve made on either ends?

JY: A lot of kids come to me and have been surprised at how I manage both this and my extracurriculars, as well as school work, and I admit that recently, the shoes have been distracting me from my schoolwork.

I have a lot more schoolwork to do than when I started in the beginning of the year, and I definitely prioritize schoolwork over the business.

I won’t sacrifice anything school-related just to increase any aspect of my business in shoes or fashion.

AL: Looking back, do you have any regrets?

JY: I sacrificed my grades a bit, that’s obviously regrettable but easily recoverable.

I do regret the money aspect of it. It

becomes less of you wearing what you like to more of, “Oh, what’s the trend now? what should I wear can I go along with the current style?”

Although I don’t worry too much about money, profit or what’s in style, it has definitely influenced me, and basically now I feel like I need to be in the current style.

AL: What’s the most important takeaway you’ve gotten from it?

JY: I’ve been scammed more than almost a dozen times in this business, and although I’ve recovered every single time, one thing I’ve learned is that you really need to ask for everything: the picture of the shoe, the quality, and that goes for anything.

People online — don’t ever take them for what they’re saying.

On a more positive note, I think I learned that based off of the profits that I’ve made in the past four months.

I truly believe that anyone can pursue what they like to do, and you don’t need to be stuck with a job that you’re just doing for a paycheck.

You can actually just choose what you

STORY ALBERT LUO, JASON PENG PHOTO RILEY SANDERS

LIFE

want to do and just spend time on it, and you can make a living off of it.

AL: What does success mean? What is most rewarding about this hobby?

JY: Success in this passion is definitely not about showing off, the profit margin or how much I earn from this. I really measure my success on how many collections I can finish of shoes that I actually wanted.

Success is also that I’ve gained a lot from this business. In my time management I’ve managed to succeed pretty well.

And, even in the quantitative aspect of things, I think my biggest achievement, in my opinion, is copping the very first Yeezy that Kanye West released, the high top — they’re called the 750 greys.

AL: What plans do you have for the future? How will you fulfill those goals?

JY: I gravitate a lot towards shoes, but I’d like to control it. I’ll maintain this level of interest for shoes because new things will come out, I will still be interested, I will still be into the fashion and I will be wanting to wear and collect them.

15

S

ophomore Cole Arnett woke up extra early that one March morning for a baseball game he was going to play in the afternoon. He ended up winning the game, but he felt a sharp pain near his lower stomach.

It wouldn’t go away, and it wasn’t getting better.

Later that day, he would be doubled up in pain on the hotel floor.

It wasn’t indigestion, like the UrgentCare clinic told his family.

It wasn’t the stomach bug, like his father originally thought it was.

It was a tumor.

One that doubled in size every 14 hours and was metastasizing to his different organs at every moment.

And just two weeks later, April 1, 2011, Cole was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma, one of the most aggressive forms of cancer known to man.

••• Cole was diagnosed with lymphoma when he was just ten years old. He was playing in a baseball tournament in Oklahoma when he began to feel a deep pain in his lower abdomen.

“It first started with stomach aches,” Cole said, “and I went to the ER from there, and they thought it was indigestion, so they ended up giving me Tums – to cure my cancer.”

As Cole’s pain worsened and it became clear that he didn’t have indigestion, his father, Chris Arnett, took him to Medical City, where the doctors discovered what was causing the abdominal pain.

“We went back to the ER and did some scans,” Cole said, “and they realized my large intestine had engulfed my small intestine. They did a few things to try and pop it loose, and they went in for a full surgery, and they found a tumor, which was the source that caused all of that blockage.”

After the surgeons removed Cole’s tumor, a full pathology report was conducted on it, which confirmed that Cole had lymphoma.

The doctors told Chris the tumor was malignant and had most likely metastasized to other parts of Cole’s body.

“The doctor called me into the hallway because he didn’t want Cole to hear that diagnosis,” Chris said, “so he called me out and said, ‘Your son has cancer,’ and I was just kind of shell-shocked. I was really taken aback and didn’t know how to react for a good ten minutes.”

After overcoming the initial shock, Chris urgently called Katey Arnett, Cole’s mother, and informed her of Cole’s diagnosis.

“I didn’t even really know technically what [lymphoma] meant,” Katey, a school teacher, said, “and [Chris] just said ‘You just need to come and we’ll talk about it.’ I was in my classroom with 13 eight-year-olds, having to play it cool.

Hard fought, hard won DIAGNOSED WITH BURKITT’S LYMPHOMA AT 10 YEARS OLD, SOPHOMORE COLE ARNETT RECOUNTS ONE OF THE GREATEST BATTLES HE’S EVER FOUGHT AND HOW IT HAS CHANGED HIM TODAY.

POST RECOVERY The cancer has come and gone, but his love of sports remains the same as Arnett holds the same football at age ten and now as a sophomore.

I couldn’t really freak out in front of an entire class of students, so it was hard for me to put on a brave face.”

Once Katey arrived at the hospital, the doctors informed her of her son’s diagnosis, which had gradually brought her to tears.

“I got to the hospital,” Katey said, “but I don’t even remember getting there, my mind was racing, and I got there and Chris stepped out in the hallway and told me some more information, and of course my heart fell apart.”

Cole only found out about his lymphoma after seeing his parents break down in reaction to the word that kept coming out of his doctor’s mouth: cancer.

“I was playing Candy Crush on an iPad,” Cole said, “and I remember just kind of half-listening, and then I heard

him say cancer a couple of times, and I understood immediately what he was trying to say. I look over at my parents, and my mom’s crying and my dad’s giving her a tissue box. I waited until the doctor left the room, and then I started crying.” lthough Cole’s diagnosis made his father feel helpless, Chris knew he had to put trust and faith in the people who were going to treat Cole.

“For the first period of time in your kids’ life, you’re always protecting them,” Chris said, “and then you just feel so helpless because there’s nothing you can do at that point. You have to leave it to the healthcare professionals to make your son well, and there’s nothing you can do other than sit back and watch.”

Fortunately for the Arnetts, Cole’s

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| March 10, 2017 |life| THE REMARKER |

COLE ARNETT’S LYMPHOMA

lymphoma reacted violently with chemotherapy, resulting in a relatively brief treatment time of two months.

“It was a really fast-growing cancer,” Katey said, “but the doctors said that it responds great to chemo. Everything we heard from the doctors was very positive, and they really had a lot of faith that we were going to get through this.” o help cope with the weight that chemo had on Cole, Katey and Chris always made sure that Cole never slept alone in the hospital. They traded shifts to ensure that he always had a family member by his side through the night, an experience that has further strengthened the bond between Cole and his extended family.

“There were a lot of children at Children’s who did spend chunks of time by themselves because their parents couldn’t do it,” Katey said. “They couldn’t leave work, they couldn’t have this long absence, so we were really fortunate in that we could juggle things around with the support and help and love other people.”

And now having beaten cancer, Cole is glad that he has gone through an experience that has changed him as a person – and made him stronger.

“It is interesting to be able to look back and think about though something might have sucked for you at the time,” Cole said, “but it was ultimately an experience that changed you for the better.

If I look back, I don’t know if I would remove that part of my life. It was bad, but I learned a lot through it. “ ••• Overall, both of Cole’s parents learned a lot from the experience of having their son go through cancer.

For Katey, the importance of hope and looking forward to the other side of a bad situation was very important to Cole’s recovery.

“You hear cancer and you think ‘death sentence,’ but there’s another side,” Katey said. “We made it to the other side of it, which was miraculous, but it happens. It doesn’t have to be a death sentence. There’s hope in that, there’s people that could sure use that message of hope.”

For Chris, the importance of building the support of a community was an important message that he learned from the whole experience, and that reaching out to people and letting down your guard is most important — and it can lead to a good recovery.

“Find your people,” Chris said.

“Find people that are really going to rally around you because you can’t do it alone. People want to help, by nature, and it’s easy to be strong and guarded and do it all by yourself, but if you let those people in and let those people help, it’s gratifying for everybody, for you and for them.”

T

STORY MARK TAO PHOTOS OWEN BERGER, COURTESY COLE ARNETT

Senior Cameron Bossalini leads musical for final performance

by Duncan Kirsten fter months of rehearsal, the winter musical “Beauty and the Beast” premiered the weekend of Feb. 3 with all three performances selling out.

Among the slew of performers is senior Cameron Bossalini, who returned

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to play the lead in his fourth and final, musical.

In the musical, Bossalini acts out the role of the Beast. However, in order to play this part, Bossalini found himself having to wear a large, bulky costume and mask.

“The mask was one of the most difficult parts of the play to deal with as a whole,” Bossalini said, “as it presented several problems.

The most difficult obstacle to overcome was my ability to project, as the mask muffled nearly everything I said.”

Bossalini believes that despite the mask, performing was one of the best experiences he has ever had.

“While I enjoy singing to myself,” he said, “or working on music project in my free time, there is something irreplaceable about knowing that my acting can cause people to feel emotion.”

Bossalini has found a stronger bond between the cast and crew of “Beauty and the Beast” than in past musicals he has worked in.

“Not much changes year-to-year in terms of production cycle,” Bossalini said, “as there will always be music rehearsals, dance rehearsals, blocking and ‘hell week.’ However, I have felt a much stronger connection to the rest of the cast as I feel that every person in the musical truly wants every other member of the cast to succeed.”

At the same time, Bossalini believes that this bond made it difficult to finish

the show and strike the set as he feels he’s made so many memories with all cast members, memories he never will — or would even want to — forget.

“I’ve never been good with saying goodbye. In years past, I’ve often felt somewhat emotionally cold during the final few moments of these shows, as I would never get teary-eyed at the loss of my colleagues. However, this year, I was simply overwhelmed with emotions at the end of the performance. As this was my last musical with Hockaday, and potentially the last of my life, I felt like I had lost something after taking my final bows. Sure, there would always be the option to try another musical later on, but I would never be able to perform again with a cast as amazing as this one was.”

LIFE

|THE REMARKER |perspectives| March 10, 2017 |

16 17

FOURTH INDUSTRI

S The Fourth Industrial Revoluation is a new era that builds and extends the impact of digitization in new and unanticipated ways.

ophomore Kyle Smith has innovation in his blood.

Take a walk through his house, and you’ll see it. A robot lab full of new gadgets and inventions. Computers connecting each room. Prototypes scattered on the floors.

When the U.S. landed the Viking Project on Mars in 1976, his grandfather was responsible for building it.

When the internet began to explode in 1993, his father brought it to Dallas.

And when he came to the school, naturally, Kyle Smith followed in his family’s legacy of innovation — joining the computer science class.

Ever since he was a kid, Kyle Smith’s dad, Jeff Smith — who holds a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence — has pushed him towards the “world of technology.”

“He forced me to code even when I hated it, which I did at first,” Kyle Smith said. “[My dad’s] a big influence. He gives me opportunities to meet a bunch of people that are really influential in technology, and he also helps me develop ideas and challenges me with complicated problems that I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of.”

But even though every room in the Smith house is filled with robots, artificial intelligence and other new technology — technology that will change the way we all live in the next decade — the Smith family has never approached it with fear.

Because when people like the Smiths look at these technologies, they see what scientists have called “The Fourth Industrial Revolution,” the revolution that will make robots, artificial intelligence and nanoscale technology all commonplace by the year 2027.

Ten years ago, when you called your phone company, a person was on the other line. Today, it’s artificial intelligence. Today, computers invest your money, create art and even diagnose diseases. And today, experts

are reporting the revolution could put as many as 80 million U.S. jobs at risk.

But the question remains. Are we ready for it?

James Sharp ’12, strategy manager for Sparefoot — an online marketplace geared toward finding rates for storage across a wide variety of providers — is in the middle of the movement working toward technology advancement in the workplace with this revolution in mind.

“I’m trying to build a smart platform that will move the manager out of the equation from monitoring and move him more into the action side of things,” Sharp said. “Instead of a person having to sit there and look for that deviation against the trend line, the machine automatically alerts you whenever there is a deviation across your entire business so managers spend a lot of time acting on issues instead of looking for issues.”

JAMES SHARP ’12 wonders if the American political institution is ready for the revolution

This topic of the future of the work dynamic is at the forefront of conversations in places like Silicon Valley. Startups like Sparefoot are thinking of ways to replace human tasks in the workplace as part of the progression towards the revolution.

“The next step of enabling people to work smarter is soon you’re going to make that person not work,” Sharp said. “The more and more you remove tasks from people’s work and give them to machines, pretty soon people won’t work. That’s where the true revolution comes. You are going to see bits and pieces start to get eroded at the task level and at the individual job level and pretty soon you’re going to wake up and whole functions have been replaced.”

Sharp predicts that the resistance and

You open the door, and the light the moment you step into the ho You walk into your favo and your waiter isn’t ev You get in your car to get to sch you never touch the wheel.

THE REVO HAS BE the impact for this revolution will be similar to the First Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s — however, according to Sharp, the American political system is not ready.

“If history is to be a guide, I think there is likely to be a big shock to the American social and political system,” Sharp said. “I don’t think we are prepared for it. I don’t think enough people are talking about it and at the highest levels to make sure we are prepared for it.”

Sharp believes the progression made in technology is not being matched in the American political world, and as a result, he predicts the revolution’s effects will be that much more significant.

“I think technology is moving at a rate that politics and sociology is not keeping up with,” Sharp said. “Especially when you look at the political system in the U.S. right now, I do not think the system is ready for massive disruption of the American workforce.” nd as an artificial intelligence innovator, Jeff Smith says the rapid changes in the workplace will affect all kinds of fields, even ones not traditionally linked to technology.

“Nowadays, coding is a part of all jobs,” Smith said. “That’s why it’s so important. It’s not necessarily that you’re going to become a programmer, but a lot of the things that we do are very programming-ish.”

For many, these innovations stand directly against traditional liberal arts subjects like

A

English and But acco Chair Micha intersection o worlds.

Morris s technology a in many of th “Even in have a numb menting the ris said. “We way that cou to present th when they co place and the build on it.”

Morris, h tions when it controls the w beyond Engl face-to-face i rooms so effe “I shudd lost if we we ence of readi appreciating Morris said. knowledge. I person.”

In the ev in technolog English class

STORY ZACH GILSTRAP, BLAKE DAUGHERTY, GOPAL RAMAN, KOBE ROSEMAN, KAMA

IN THE FUTURE

6%

take a look into how emplyment opportunities will look like in the coming years — especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics

of all U.S. jobs will be replaced by robots by 2021

Occupation

Employment growth, projected 2012-22 (percent)

Employment 2012

Projected 2022

Median annual wage, May 2013

Typical entry-level education

Information security analysts

37%

75,100

102,500

$88, 590

Bachelor’s degree

Operations research analysts

27%

73,200

92,700

$74, 630

Bachelor’s degree

Statisticians

27%

27,600

34,900

$79, 290

Master’s degree

Biomedical engineers

27%

19.400

24,600

$88, 670

Bachelor’s degree

Actuaries

26%

24.300

30,600

$94, 340

Bachelor’s degree

Petroleum engineers

26%

38,500

48,400

$132, 320

Bachelor’s degree

Computer systems analysts

25%

520,600

648,400

$81, 190

Bachelor’s degree

PERSPECTIVES

RIAL REVOLUTION

ts turn on ouse. orite restaurant, ven a person. hool, but

OLUTION EGUN

history. ording to English Department ael Morris, there’s promise in the of the two seemingly separate

says there are already signs of the and arts worlds melding together he English classes in the school. n the English department we ber of teachers who are impleflipped classroom format,” More’re trying to use technology in a uld be advantageous by using it he information to students, so that ome to class, that learning is in en you have the opportunity to

however, also has his reservat comes to the extent technology workings of the classroom, even lish. He believes that the natural, interactions are what make classective. der to think of all that could be ent without the shared experiing and discussing literature and g each other as human beings,” “It’s beyond the acquisition of It’s more about developing as a

vent that these advancements gy eventually actualize in the sroom, Morris believes that the

liberal arts and technology can work together beneficially.

“Research into the brain is giving us more and more insight into how we perceive emotions,” Morris said. “I think people who study the liberal arts have a lot to add to that process. The contributions and the insights of people who have read literature and appreciate language are essential to understanding the human experience.”

Dylan Clark ’14 lives in this intersection of the computing and humanities worlds. He was deeply involved in the humanities his whole life, but the fall of his sophomore year at Harvard, when it was time to declare his major, he chose coding.

I THINK TECHNOLOGY AND CODING WILL ADD TO WHAT ALREADY EXISTS. I THINK IT MIGHT CREATE MORE JOBS THAT MIGHT OFFSET HOWEVER MANY GET LOST. I THINK IT’LL BE REALLY GOOD OVERALL. — DYLAN CLARK ’14 “A number of my friends had taken the introductory computer science class, and they recommended it to me,” Clark said.

“I was taking that sophomore year, and I realized that the types of problems that could be solved with computer science were really attractive to me, and I enjoyed doing the work for that more than I did with any of my other classes. At the same time, I’m still taking humanities classes outside.”

Although he switched his life’s trajectory

towards the sciences, Clark, like Morris, believes that humanities will still be an essential aspect of a functioning society.

“I don’t think humanities and science are opposed to one another,” Clark said. “I think they work really well together. They inform you in different ways that complement each other. I still think there’s no replacement for the types of jobs that require interacting with people, because people place a high value on those occupations. Humanities provides the foundation for interacting with the world and shaping a worldview in a way that computer science doesn’t at all.” ccording to Founders’ Master Teaching Chair and robotics team sponsor Doug Rummel, the school’s current standing in both STEM and arts subjects show promise for the next generation of Marksmen — the Marksmen who will drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“Ever since the McDermott science building, we’ve always kinda had an engineering look at things,” Rummel said. “And now that our arts programs our flourishing — now that we have nationally ranked writers and poets and ceramicists — that has to come with it too. You can’t just be math and science because frankly you need to have the other part too.”

But whether it’s teaching artificial intelligence to his Information Engineering class or helping a committee draw plans for the new Winn Science Center that Rummel says will “embed coding into everything,” Rummel thinks Marksmen will have the skills to succeed in the revolution.

“If you’re fearless in your ability to just try new stuff and engage, I mean, that’s one thing at St. Mark’s — for the most part, we are relatively fearless when it comes to trying new stuff,” Rummel said. “We aren’t afraid to try. And we are hungry. And put those two together and that’s really what we’re trying to do with the new Winn Science Center.”

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AL MAMDANI, CORDAY CRUZ PHOTO ILLUSTRATION FRANK THOMAS, KOBE ROSEMAN

What have been the best inventions of the

PAST DECADE? DYLAN CLARK ’14

Sophomore industrial studies major at Harvard

1

2

iPhones and smartphones It completely changed how we communicate, work and socialize on a global scale.

online education

Anyone with internet will be able to learn new skills without having to spend thousands of dollars or put work or family life on hold.

3 social media

Not only has it changed the way we interact, but it has radically altered how companies target consumers, with a major loss of personal privacy.

learning and 4 machine artificial intelligence It lead to huge innovations like everything from self-driving cars to medical research.

5 renewable energy

It has the potential to create huge economic growth while also beginning to shift our relationship with our planet away from exploitation.

KURT THOLKING

Computer Science Instructor

1

data storage

With storage options like iCloud, Dropbox, and other clients, working from anywhere is easier than ever.

2 the internet

Anyone with internet will be able to learn new skills without having to spend thousands of dollars or put work or family life on hold.

3 artificial intelligence

AI has given opportunities to replace repetitive jobs with machine work and accomplish simple tasks.

(graphical user 4 GUI interface)

With the innovation of GUI, images and visual can be included to break up text-based interface. They are also commonly used with video games, and smartphones.

d

5 blockchains

a distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of ordered records called “blocks.”

What do you hope to see in the

FUTURE? JEFF SMITH

Venture capitalist, tech enthusiast

1

organic petri dish a petri dish that grows steak

2 AR contacts

powered by a blink to view other settings and work remotely. Enhanced capabilities allow for repair on machines from the home.

3 VR earbuds 4 3D-printed medicinal pills used to talk to other people instantly. and connect to anyone around the globe.

a pill printed by a evaluation done remotely.

The pill is then 3D printed and swallowed to target DNA sequences and mitochondria.

5 haptic robot exoskeleton an exoskeleton that assists with walking, especially climbing. The exoskeleton is controlled by touch and pressure.

SOURCE: CNBC and The National Bureau of Labor Statistics

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|THE REMARKER |life| March 10, 2017 |

FELLOWS

A revolving door FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS, THE FELLOWS PROGRAM HAS GIVEN YOUNG PROFESSIONALS AN OPPORTUNITY TO ADJUST TO INSTRUCTING FULL-TIME.

THE SPOT If you walk by fellow Audrey Lane’s office at almost any time of the day, you’ll find various students packed in the room working on homework, chatting or just having fun.

Where are they now?

Andrew Farrar

After leaving 10600 Preston Rd., Andrew Farrar moved to Richmond, VA and worked as executive director of Virginia USA Wrestling for two years. Last April, he began working for ARMS Software, a Richmond-based company that builds recruiting software for NCAA athletic departments.

PHOTO ARNO GOETZ ’16

Former fellow Emmett Gilles moved to Jerusalem, Israel to continue his studies at the Mayanot Institute, specializing in Jewish law and philosophy, which he will continue to study at the Yale Law School Starting in January 2016, he began his new job as news editor at WestRay Communications in New York.

Myles Teasley

PHOTO ARNO GOETZ ’16

PHOTO ANDREW GATHERER ’14

a look at what former Fellows are doing.

Emmett Gilles

Last year’s fellow Myles Teasley moved to the San Diego area and currently works as a history instructor, advisor and coach at Pacific Ridge School in Carlsbad, CA. He also coaches volleyball for San Diego-based Wave Volleyball Club.

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ou’ve watched the name on the door, the decorations on the wall and the titles in the directory change. They’ve come and gone over the years. Easily recognizable by the overwhelming number of students flooding their office, these are the men and women in the fellowship program.

The Fellowship Program, introduced in 1991 by then-Headmaster David Hicks, has since offered nearly 20 young teachers the experience of teaching here.

Many of them, such as former fellow Emmett Gilles, who just graduated from Mayanot Institute in Israel, and Myles Teasley, now an instructor at Pacific Ridge School in Carlsbad, CA, have used the skills they learned here to advance in other careers. For incoming fellow Audrey Lane, the fellowship program offers a chance to enter the realm of traditional teaching.

“I majored in English and environmental science,” Lane said, “so I like the idea of a dynamic learning environment, but I didn’t necessarily have traditional teaching requirements and I didn’t have experience in

student teaching or anything like that. I didn’t have a whole lot of experience so I wanted to be able to learn how to teach and get work experience at the same time.”

After graduating from Davidson College, Lane applied to a recruiting agency that matches teachers with private schools. After sending her file to 10600 Preston Rd., an opportunity presented itself.

“St. Mark’s sent me an email to see if I wanted to interview,” Lane said. “So I flew down to interview and I found out through that Carny Sand Recruiting Agency.

I graduated from college and then the next day I flew down to interview.”

Upon hearing the news, Lane described her initial reaction as “exciting [and] terrifying.”

“Mr. Ashton called me and told me I had the position,” Lane said, “and I was like ‘Can I think about it?’

I called him back maybe 30 minutes later and was like ‘Okay I’ll take the job,’ but then I realized I would have to move a thousand miles away to Texas. So, kind of terrifying.” ane was selected for the program through a rigorous process. After landing the job, Lane began shadowing Trustee Master Teacher Lynne Weber, attending classes and attentively taking notes. Through her observational experience, Lane learned basic tasks, such as “how to create objectives, how to structure lessons.”

“I would not have had any of that [experience] and I think without the support from the mentors that I have had, I would never had

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known certain classroom procedures,” Lane said. “I think it’s helped to give me a solid foundation and work experience. I think it’s easy to sit in a classroom and learn about what you are supposed to do, but it’s a whole other thing to be able to be in the moment and have to make those decisions.”

With a good teaching foundation under her belt, Lane hopes to continue teaching after her fellowship, if possible.

“I like teaching, I like learning,” Lane said. “If it’s in the cards for me to continue teaching, then I’ll continue teaching. If I have an opportunity to go back to school after this, I would love to go back to school and maybe get my master’s – anything where I can continue to learn.”

STORY ANDRE ARSENAULT, AUSTIN MONTGOMERY, KAMAL MAMDANI PHOTO FRANK THOMAS ADDITIONAL REPORTING ERIC HIRSCHBRICH

Physics instructor Houpt releases two albums

by Naftal Mautia hysics instructor Stephen Houpt recently released two albums on iTunes, called “Sweet Green Mystery” and “Hey Neighbor.”

It all started with a notebook and a love for Chinese dynasty poems.

“I had always been interested in Chinese poetry, and I’d written poetry myself,” Houpt said. “I always keep a notebook in my back pocket. Whenever I think of something interesting or inspiring I’ll write it down.”

Up until two years ago, they were just poems. But all of a sudden, Houpt decided to start turning his poems into songs, igniting his passion for making music.

“I’d only written two total songs and all of a sudden, I started writing a bunch of songs,” Houpt said. “Now I think I’ve written 60 songs. They’re not like normal songs, they don’t have verses and chorus. I’ve taken my own poetry and just set it to music.”

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LIFE

One of the biggest obstacles Houpt faced was losing his singing partner. He went from barely singing to doing all of the singing.

“I was a little uneasy about singing because I don’t have a classically trained voice or anything,” Houpt said.

“But I’m pretty much over that now.”

Houpt faced the whole process of not only performing in front of people, but also putting his music out there for everyone to listen to.

“By nature, I’m a severe introvert,” Houpt said. “Getting out there and performing in front of an audience is something that took me time to be able to do.”

Houpt feels that publishing his music is something he needs to do.

“I’m getting pretty old, and I’m not going to live forever,” Houpt said. “I just want to leave something of myself behind for people to listen to. Maybe they’ll enjoy it, maybe they won’t, but it’s out there.”

Admission Office administrator Johnson travels for volunteer trip

by Eric Hirschbrich he weekend of Feb. 10, Barbara Johnson and 270 members from Prestonwood Choir went to New York to both serve the community and perform at a concert as part of their church’s outreach program.

This opportunity is part of Prestonwood’s efforts to expand its service outreach to try and offer to help in other communities besides Dallas.

While the youth groups are already operating on the international scale, the adult volunteer projects are hoping

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to expand.

Due to a blizzard, most members arrived in New York by Saturday. Those who arrived on Friday were greeted at First Baptist Church in New York with a Jazz concert. The choir was divided up into groups to do service work.

“We had 17 groups that split up that kind of canvassed the New York city area between the homeless, soup kitchens, different ministries with cleaning out basements, washing windows and just walking

around and talking to shop owners,” Johnson said.

In the evening after they finished volunteering, the members of the choir watched a few Broadway shows. The next day, they listened to the Boston Tabernacle choir before heading back to Carnegie Hall for a practice before their performance. The concert was held that evening. “[It was a] full house, It held 3,500 people,” Johnson said. “We accompanied Michael W. Smith, it was his concert.”

While Johnson has volunteered around Dallas with her church, this opportunity to volunteer in New York to help the shop owners and homeless people allowed her to make a difference for people outside of Dallas.

The service opportunity was Johnson’s first time traveling to sing and volunteer, but she is very active in the Dallas area. She sings with the Prestonwood choir and has been an active member in her church and adds to the community wherever she can.

“I spent 12 years in the

church and 10 years in the choir,” Johnson said. “I am in the choir ministry and also volunteer in the pregnancy center as a client advocate.”

Despite the poor weather during the trip, every singer was able to participate in both the service opportunities and choir concert.

“I think we kind of felt like the postal service, through rain, sleet, snow and ice we made it to our designated trip because there were a lot of hindrances,” Johnson said, “but we all made it there and made it back safe.”

DAVID WOOD KILIMANJARO

Summiting for a cause SCALING MOUNT KILIMANJARO FOR HIS SECOND TIME, DAVID WOOD ’82 JOINED AN OLD FRIEND ON A RECORD-SETTING JOURNEY TO HELP STOP POACHING IN AFRICA.

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avid Wood ’82, father of sophomore Landon Wood and senior Gray Wood, had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro once before, 19 years ago.

Last time, he slugged up the grueling mountain for himself and a friend– just to say they could.

This time, though, he climbed that giant mountain for something bigger than himself. With 400 people climbing alongside him, Wood would go on this journey with an old friend not just to break two world records but also to support an organization aiming to eradicate poaching.

When Landon heard about his dad’s plans for the trip, he wasn’t really surprised.

“My dad’s a really adventurous guy,” Landon said. “ He’s been to every continent and to a lot of places around the world, so he’s a real traveler. He goes on spontaneous trips all the time because that’s the kind of thing he likes to do.”

While his dad’s travels are frequent, Landon still thought that this trip was particularly interesting.

“They made this trip for charity too, in order to raise awareness to stop elephant poaching,” Landon said. “I thought it was really admirable to go up there to do that.”

David decided to take the trip to Mount Kilimanjaro when one of his old college friends asked him to accompany him to a concert on the highest point in Africa.

“My friend Tom Maxwell is the manager of a band in California called Tunnel Vision,” David said. “He had an idea with another trip organizer to take the band up to Kilimanjaro to do the world’s highest concert and to raise money and awareness for the poaching of elephants.”

Maxwell himself has a foundation called the Wildlife First Foundation, which focuses on anti-poaching. For him, this concert would help raise awareness for his cause.

“Elephants are down to around 400,000, and one gets killed for its tusks every 15 minutes,” David said. “We’re trying to put an end to that. Only elephants need elephant tusks.”

In addition to helping the environment, the concert also helped raise money for a school in order to help educate local Tanzanian children.

“Getting up on a mountain for a 52-year-old guy is a little harder than when I was younger,” said David, “but it was definitely more fun compared to last time when I climbed, since this time I climbed for a cause.”

Maxwell first thought of the idea for a trip to Kilimanjaro around a year ago in Nepal and discussed it with one of the organizers of the trip. Eventually, Maxwell proposed his idea to David.

“I probably got roped into this

SETTING IT UP Taking a break at Gilman’s Point on Mt. Kilimanjaro, David Wood and the members of the band play a few tunes on their instruments.

event by Tom around six to eight months ago, and I had a chance to do a little training,” Wood said, “but nothing really prepares you for being at high altitudes with little oxygen.”

Since Wood had climbed Kilimanjaro before, he thought that revisiting the mountain would be a great experience, especially since he knew that the landscape would look different due to the effects of global warming.

Because of the trip, Wood was away from Dallas for around two weeks. It took him, his friends and his guides five days to climb up the 19,000ft. mountain and two days to climb down.

“The climb wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s definitely up there,” Wood said. “The mountain itself is one of the only tall summits that you can walk up to without any special gear, but even then it was a very hard walk. It was cold and there was almost no air, but it was a great experience.”

Along with Wood and Maxwell, several hundred other people climbed the mountain with them as well, including 350 of the local natives, known as Chagga, and the saxophone player from the band Slightly Stoopid.

“The Chagga, who served as porters, guides and assistants, helped carry drums, guitars, amplifiers and speakers, and we had the whole sound system up there,” Wood said. “The saxophone player played with the band and also did the world’s highest sax solo up there. I think we might have

gotten the Guinness World Record for highest live-streamed concert and highest saxophone solo.”

David’s favorite moment during the entire trip was when he saw the chemistry between the Californian band and the African tribes.

“The band was performing their warm-up concert to practice getting their gear set up at altitude,” David said.

“There’s a couple of great songs that the Chagga tribesmen sang about Kilimanjaro, so the band basically played the Kilimanjaro song with the tribesmen. There were hundreds of people singing these great African songs and the band was playing with them. It was magical.”

Looking back, David felt that the eight hour hike and thin oxygen made the journey towards the summit a tough physical challenge, but that the feeling of being on top of the mountain and being able to watch the concert later made all of the work worth it.

“I think I really learned that a lot of the challenge is in the mind,” David said. “You think you can’t climb the mountain, but by just pushing ahead, one foot after the next, you can reach the top of your mountain, whatever your mountain is.”

ABROAD Preparing for the last leg of their trip to Tanzania, Wood (third from left) and Tunnel Vision band members convene in Doha International Airport in Qatar.

STORY DYLAN LIU, DAVIS BAILEY PHOTOS COURTESY DAVID WOOD

LIFE

| March 10, 2017 |life| THE REMARKER |

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|THE REMARKER |life| March 10, 2017 |

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STUDENT WINTER PLAY

It did happen here.

THE ENTIRELY STUDENT-RUN PRODUCTION OF SINCLAIR LEWIS’S PLAY “IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE” TOOK PLACE IN THE BLACK BOX FEB. 17 AND 19.

PICNIC Junior Sunny Agrawal and Hockaday senior Cameron Giles act out their vacation picnic in the play’s opening scene.

ENSEMBLE The cast of the play gathers for a group political discussion early in the first act.

RALLY Victor White Master Teaching Chair David Brown delivers a speech as his character, Presidential Candidate Berzelius Windrip.

OLYMPIC STATUS Pushing through to the finish line, Cope competed in the preliminary round of the Junior Olympics.

MONOLOGUE Senior director Zach Cole opens the first act by explaining his vision and purpose for the play.

CHECK UP Hockaday senior (left) Abby Fuller acts as the prison doctor and attends to junior Sunny Agrawal and Hockaday senior Kristen Romano.

PHOTOS FRANK THOMAS, RYAN NORMAN

LIFE

GET OUT HEADLINERS

Reviewing the best of the best — and the worst of the worst.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Lucky Charms

PHOTO FRANK THOMAS

Battle of the breakfasts

A cereal as dessert? That’s the charm of Lucky Charms.

Snacking, brownies, breakfast?

You must be craving Crunch.

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fter a grueling fight with a leprechaun, I finally procured myself a bowl of Lucky Charms, and they are indeed magically delicious.

I had expectations for this cereal, and they were certainly met.

It would be kind of disappointing if a breakfast that was 30 percent dessert failed to taste good. But this ratio of marshmallow to cereal is a curse too.

Once you have picked out all of the magical mallows, you are left with a pretty bland, regular cereal. So you obviously have to go get another box.

The amount of money you find yourself spending on getting more of this cereal, despite the fact that there is still half a box left at home, is the only real magic here. There is of course a way to avoid this unintentional shopping spree.

You can buy the marshmallows by the pound on Amazon.

As I discovered this last bit of information, I was a little disappointed to find out that the marshmallows are not in fact the food of God. They are simply dehydrated marshmallows.

They are still amazing though. For years I wondered why the little leprechaun in the commercials never shared his cereal with the kids. I get it now.

Sharing is caring, but not sharing is not only economically advantageous, but you also get more cereal.

On top of all of this, the deliciousness, the magic, the fun shapes, you get a cheap cereal box toy. What more could you ask for? The answer is nothing.

REVIEW DUNCAN KIRSTEIN

MOVIE REVIEW

hen I first heard that Jordan Peele was making a horror film, a guy that had done comedy for the bulk of his career, I was confused.

I always liked the Key and Peele show, and I remember loving their sketch comedies on MadTV, but they never struck me as the versatile types. I walked into Get Out expecting a passable, but uninspired horror flick with some race jokes thrown in.

I didn’t expect it to be anywhere near as awesome as it was. This movie has guts like few others do, not because it’s touching on racial politics or stereotypes in society and movies, but because it doesn’t care at all what you think.

It’s a film that was designed to make you cringe, it wants you to feel nervous, it wants you to feel agitated and afraid—just like the main character.

Despite its “comedy” tag, it’s more abrasive and bone-chilling than almost any pure horror film of the past decade.

This movie messes with racial tensions because it’s actually something worth addressing when it comes to the horror genre. Why is the main character always an idiot? Why does the black guy always die first? Why are stereotypes a thing in horror?

This movie ignores all of that, thrusting the viewer into a situation where they never feel quite welcome, hence the title, ”Get Out.” True horror is at its best when it deals with themes that come close to home, and despite a lack

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of experience, Peele has used his comedic gifts and sharp insights to orchestrate one of the most creative psychological horror shows in years.

The film is buoyed by a powerful, tightly written script—not only is this movie disturbing, but it’s hysterical. Equal parts hilarious and horrifying, the writing bleeds with Peele’s vision—the social commentary on the modern state of race relations is biting, but never too preachy, and the film is littered with homages to previous genre greats.

Bits of foreshadowing sprinkled throughout the story pay dividends later, and trying to piece together the mystery on your own is almost as fun as watching the movie itself. While occasionally predictable, it’s smart, humble and fun.

The cast is equally integral to the film’s success, particularly the film’s two leads. Daniel Kaluuya (of Black Mirror fame) deserves particular note, as we watch his slow realization of the truth of his situation culminate in a bloody, adrenaline-stuffed final act, as does Allison Williams’ Rose, who acts out the “supportive girlfriend” trope with humor and a surprisingly hard edge.

Get Out is a unique little project, dragging the viewer along on a wild ride of emotions- you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be terrified and you might even find yourself cheering at some scenes, but more than anything, it will make you think.

Whether or not you agree with its final message, Get Out is a clever film with a lot of things to say—and a lot of those things are things that all of us need to hear.

REVIEW AUSTIN MONTGOMERY

REVIEW AUSTIN MONTGOMERY

Head iners

Get Out races into theaters with scares and laughs alike

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here are many contenders for the title of the ultimate breakfast cereal. But there is only one cereal that brings such joyous memories of childhood nostalgia, only one cereal that leaves a bowl of sugary goodness after the cereal is gone, and in an increasingly divided political landscape, there is only one cereal that can bring left and right together.

Of course, I am talking about Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

The finest of General Mills’ products is a rare breed—a cereal that is just as good dry as it is in milk.

The cinnamon and sugar meld perfectly with the squares of wheat, and it has range like few other cereals do—you can put it in a bag and take it with you as a snack or crush it up and bake it into brownies (weird, but good—try it sometime). Or you could do what six-year-old me did—take the bag from the box, plant yourself in front of the television, and scarf down three week’s worth of sugar in two hours.

Let’s be honest—you’re not eating cereal because you want a balanced breakfast. You’re eating it because you overslept and/or you’re feeling too lazy to make actual food.

And despite what the heathen worshippers of the tiger, the bee and the leprechaun may tell you, the best of the effortless breakfasts is incontrovertibly Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Concerts

Big Sean

March 18 at 8p.m.

South Side Ballroom

Randy Rogers Band

March 31 at 8 p.m.

American Airlines Center

Ariana Grande

April 9 at 7 p.m.

American Airlines Center

Josh Turner

Albums

Deep South March 10

Trace Adkins

Something’s Going On March 31

Bob Dylan Triplicate March 31

2 Chainz

Pretty Girls Like Trap Music April 7

Movies

Kong: Skull Island

March 10

Beauty and the Beast March 17

Power Rangers March 24

Ghost in the Shell March 31

LIFE

| March 10, 2017 |life| THE REMARKER |

BUZZ

THIS ISSUE CEREAL

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THE REMARKER

EDITORIAL

EDITOR IN CHIEF CASE LOWRY

MANAGING EDITOR RISH BASU CREATIVE DIRECTOR GOPAL RAMAN ISSUES EDITOR JOHN CRAWFORD SENIOR CONTENT EDITOR CORDAY CRUZ MAGAZINE EDITORS CRAWFORD MCCRARY, KOBE ROSEMAN DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR RETT DAUGBJERG GRAPHICS DIRECTOR NAFTAL MAUTIA RESEARCH DIRECTORS WASEEM NABULSI, REECE RABIN HEAD PHOTOGRAPHER FRANK THOMAS PHOTO EDITOR OWEN BERGER COMMENTARY EDITORS NICK MALVEZZI, JIMMY RODRIGUEZ NEWS EDITORS BLAKE DAUGHERTY, ALEC DEWAR NEWS WRITERS ANDY CROWE, MATEO GUEVARA, ANTONIO IVARRA, ZOHEB KHAN, MICHAEL LUKOWICZ, KAMAL MAMDANI, NAFTAL MAUTIA, LYLE OCHS, JAMES ROGERS, MOHIT SINGHAL LIFE EDITORS DAVIS BAILEY, ZACH GILSTRAP LIFE WRITERS SAHIT DENDEKURI, JOHN GUNNIN, ERIC HIRSCHBRICH, DUNCAN KIRSTEIN, DYLAN LIU, ALBERT LUO, JASON PENG, MARK TAO, MATTHEW ZHANG SPORTS EDITORS WILL FORBES, MIKE MAHOWALD SPORTS WRITERS C.J. CRAWFORD, JOSH DANIELS, PARKER DAVIS, NATHAN HAN, ZACH LANDRY, JAHAZIEL LOPEZ, CONNOR PIERCE, NICK WALSH CAMPUS COORDINATOR SAM SUSSMAN REVIEWS SPECIALISTS PARKER MCWATTERS, AUSTIN MONTGOMERY BUSINESS MANAGER CARSON CROCKER COPY EDITORS ANDRE ARSENAULT, SAM SHANE CARTOONIST CHRISTIAN MCCLAIN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS MATEO DIAZ, GRAYSON FEICK, WESLEY HIBBS, JAYAN JOSHI, ADNAN KHAN, RYAN MCCORD, CHRIS MCELHANEY, RYAN NORMAN, TUCKER RIBMAN, CHARLIE RUBARTH, RILEY SANDERS, KYLE SMITH, KABEER SINGH, MO SINGHAL, JAKE YARCKIN STAFF ARTISTS JOON PARK, MATTHEW COLEMAN ADVISER RAY WESTBROOK ONLINE VIEWING. Each issue of The ReMarker, along with archival copies, can be viewed on the school’s website, www.smtexas. org/remarker.

READER INVOLVEMENT. The ReMarker encourages reader input through letters, guest columns and story ideas. Contact the appropriate editor for submissions.

Suggestions will be given due consideration for future publication. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words.

ADVERTISING. Contact the business staff at 214.346.8145. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement. Inclusion of an ad in the newspaper’s pages is not an indication of an endorsement by The ReMarker, any of its staff members or faculty or staff members of St. Mark’s School of Texas.

DISTRIBUTION. Press run is 3,800 copies. Copies are provided free of charge to students, faculty and staff at various distribution sites on campus.

More than 2,600 copies are mailed out to alumni courtesy of the school’s offices of External Affairs, Development and Alumni divisions.

MEMBERSHIP. The ReMarker maintains membership in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, New York City, NY; National Scholastic Press Association, Minneapolis, MN; and the Interscholastic

League Press Conference, Austin.

Word on the

STREET Students and faculty share their opinions on issues in the news and around campus.

I don’t think they should be able to force you to take posts down. But it should have consequences in school if you’re posting things that aren’t appropriate.

Judson Dommer freshman

MATTHEW COLEMAN

|THE REMARKER |commentary| March 11, 2017 |

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Student Council should be given more freedom

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hroughout the 2016-2017 school year, the Student Council, together with the administration, has produced some wonderful events and has organized great opportunities.

Under the direction of Student Council President Christian McClain and faculty advisors Casey Gendason and Bruce Westrate, Homecoming weekend was a huge success once again, and the pep rallies this year have been excellent.

However, there is more to the Student Council than just pep rally organization and planning events like Homecoming and Spring Fling.

Even in the day-to-day and week-to-week operations, the Student Council and individual grade representatives have tried to come up with fun and innovative ways to keep the class engaged and help out their fellow students.

The Student Council, as a whole, has been trying to introduce more helpful and fun initiatives, but these ideas are often rejected. This year, there have been two ideas in particular that have been either rejected or stalled: • Patriotic Pep Rally. For the USA-themed pep rally in the fall, the Student Council proposed that each grade wear a different color: Freshman would wear red, sophomores would wear white, juniors would wear blue, and seniors would wear a combination of the three. We fully support this idea and would have loved to see a subtle change in the daily routine to show support for our fellow student-athletes.

• Daily Snapchat Update. The Student Council has also proposed the creation of a

I think it depends on the situation. I think if it’s a class group or a secret group they shouldn’t be able to be involved with it, but if it’s a public post that someone posts, they should be able to know about it and possibly take it down.

Jack Parolisi junior

Student Council Snapchat account. This tool would serve the Upper School extremely effectively because it would alert students to upcoming events, like activities during the 10:30 period and other special assemblies, presence of Visiting Scholars on campus and sporting events going on that night.

We would welcome this addition to the Student Council arsenal because it would be a very effective way of communicating important information in a very accessible format, rather than an email that students don’t always check.

The Snapchat account would additionally solve the problem of assembly communication.

Rather than students guessing about 10:30 activities and special assemblies because of a lack of communication, students would now have no excuse to miss any activity.

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dditionally, we feel that one area in which the Student Council should be given more control is Blue and Gold Day. We feel that this event would be a great way to get the Student Council involved in a fun opportunity at the end of the school year, ensuring an annual regularity of Blue and Gold Day, and well thought out planning from the student representatives.

If fun and innovative ideas like the pep rally dress-out and Snapchat creation continue to be neglected, we question the effectiveness of having a student-led organizing body at all. It is nothing short of hypocritical when members of the Student Council, who are elected each spring by students who like the ideas they share in their speeches, continue to be thwarted by the administration.

Personally, I don’t think they should be able to force students to take things down on their own social medias, but for official school social medias, definitely.

They should be able to control that.

Pretty involved.

They should know all the things about what the school’s doing. If they’re doing something special I think they should know that.

Reagan Graeme third grader

Austin Zang freshman

How involved do you think the administrators should be in what students put on media outlets like Youtube or Facebook?

Should they be able to force us to take some posts down?

Yes. I think we all have [first] amendment rights, but i think... when so many varied races are being attacked that it's like yelling fire in a crowded theater. You don't want to incite trouble, you want to incite people coming together. But what I'm seeing on social media is not that; it's very divisive.

“

Pam Elder Library assistant

COMMENTARY

I don’t think they should be really involved at all unless it’s offensive in a big way to a big group of people or some sort of cyberbullying. They can force you to take something down if it’s directly offensive to someone but not if it’s just something you want to say.

Chase Honaker sophomore

It’s a tough one. I think a lot depends on a case-by-case basis. I think as you look at things, especially if it involves practices of cyberbullying and stuff, then I think the school has to step in those situations.

That’s where I would say it probably plays a bigger role than otherwise.

John Mead Eugene McDermott Master Teaching Chair in Science

Unsung hero

LION TRACKS.pdf

Media: 1. ??

TIM DAVIES

SEVENTH GRADE HEAD SOCCER COACH

T

his year, the seventh grade soccer team went undefeated, finishing with a record of 15-0.

Head coach Tim Davies did a fantastic job with his team this season, as they dominated every other opposing team.

They played solid defense the whole season along with great offense, allowing them to be the second undefeated middle shool soccer team in the last three years.

In addition, their above average team chemistry helped the team complete the amazing athletic feat.

This season, Davies showed his team the results that come when they work hard to achieve a common goal, and how working together can go a long way.

We applaud Davies for leading his team to a dominating season and we hope to see another great season next year!

EDITORIAL

New policy needed for social media controversies

E

for the RECORD Seventh grade soccer’s success by the numbers

Record

15 wins

0 losses Goals

84 scored

10 allowed

Leading scorer: Ryan Rahimizadeh

24

attempts

22

goals

arlier this year, the Sophomore Class created a Facebook group for the members of their grade, a way for the students in the class of 2019 to be able to post notifications, news or other miscellaneous content for their classmates.

However, recent events led the administration to force the group admins to shut the page down indefinitely.

After a member of the class posted content that some other members found offensive, he was removed from the group. When they refused to allow him to re-enter, the administration got involved.

In an effort to protect the student from exclusion — an act that would constitute cyberbullying — administrators decided it was best to have the page removed entirely.

We understand that action was required, as the school has an obligation to protect its students from bullying of all forms and to investigate when there are complaints of bullying on campus.

While we agree that the school needed to take measures to ensure the wellbeing of one of its students, we believe there should be policies in place suitable for use in situations like this.

Upon reading Lion Tracks, the student handbook, we noticed that there are not, in fact, any policies that address social media or online presence, which means that the administration has to look at each case individually, and may not be consistent in different cases.

We urge the administration to institute a policy, which will assist in the following ways: • Consistency. Instead of acting on a case-by-case basis, there should be set rules that can be used in any given situation, so there is no confusion as to what should be done or in what manner it should be done.

• Evidence. Having a policy written down in Lion Tracks can be used as sufficient evidence as to why the administration

is taking action in a given instance and can eliminate any refutation of the measures taken.

• Consequences. When an instance like the one mentioned occurs, administrators can refer to the policy to decide an appropriate consequence and will not have to spend time debating with what severity to punish the guilty party.

W

hile we understand that there cannot be a policy detailing any exact situation, we believe that having a policy for online interactions should be in place, especially given the immense amount of time students spend online everyday.

We understand the actions taken in the case of the sophomore Facebook group, but we believe that a policy could have assisted both the class admins and the administration in the process of deciding what to do.

The St. Mark’s experience: it’s the little things

M

y old advisee!

Every time I run into Coach Phillips, he greets me that same way.

To me, that three word exclamation captures the essence of the St. Mark’s community, what makes it special. Six years ago, I was randomly JOHN placed into a CRAWFORD Issues editor small group of 11 people, and once a week, we chilled in Hicks Gym for thirty minutes munching on donuts before moving onto fourth period.

But hundreds of times since,

Coach Phillips has reminded me of how I was a member of that special sect of seventh graders, even if I don’t remember where we went for our advisory lunches or who else was in the advisory.

The St. Mark’s community, like any, is a Jackson Pollock of overlapping circles, whether it be the robotics team, people who study in the library during second period or Coach Phillips’s former advisees.

What sets the St. Mark’s community apart, however, is how its members hold such special value in the circles they belong to, and strive to grow their circles as much as possible.

A few examples: the Ice Bowl, and the intensity of competition the yearbook and newspaper guys have

for it; Coffeehouse, and the raucous applause from the packed audiences it attracts; Homecoming, and the cascade of handshakes, high-fives and hugs as Marksmen see their distant friends from every grade for the first time that night.

Of course, I don’t want to use my last column to simply observe what makes the community so special. I have something to add.

Readers, remember that you are a part of the giant circle that is the St. Mark’s community. You share a number of common experiences with thousands of people, past, present and future, and you share a sentimental education that only Marksmen have.

When you get out into the wide world, appreciate what it means

to have gone here, and appreciate a fellow Marksman if you ever encounter him, even if he graduated 20 years before or after you did. We’re all apart of a special group, and I urge you to remember that relationship long after you graduate.

I’d like to leave you with an image: after winning a big game, students storm the field and gather with the winning athletes; each Marksman locks arms in a circle, singing and swaying to the timeless tune of the Alma Mater to celebrate victory.

In that moment, we are all Marksmen before anything else — the one thing that holds us shoulder-to-shoulder is our common bond as classmates and brothers.

That’s the St. Mark’s experience.

COMMENTARY

| March 10, 2017|commentary|THE REMARKER |

23

Isn’t that car pretty feminine?

I

don’t know much about cars, but I know I should have a new one by now.

No, there’s nothing wrong with what I’m driving today. In fact, my hand-medown Subaru Outback works just fine. It has leather seats, it’s fuel efficient and when it comes to rap music, the Outback knocks it out of the park.

But the metallic-navy SUV does have one problem.

Pulling into the junior parking lot in the mornings, I can’t help but hear the Kobe Roseman words echoing in the back of my mind.

Magazine editor Kobe, isn’t that car pretty feminine?

No it’s not. Outbacks are built for the outdoors, and the outdoors are just about as manly as it gets, right? Plus, what makes you the car expert, and what makes your car so manly?

I’ll hear this all the time. Some cars fly under their radar, while for some reason, they chose my navy Subaru Outback as the “feminine” car.

So when my dad told me a few months ago the car’s lease was almost up and I would be getting a new car, I’ll admit, I was excited for months.

Finally — a chance to get off their radar, escape their jokes and get a car to make people respect me for the man I am.

But like I said, I don’t know much about cars. Plus, I’m usually pretty busy, so

GRID

THE

Second floor library behavior

Students have been very disruptive on the second floor of the library recently, causing the librarians to bar it from use completely. We need to be more respectful of the library and those who work there.

I asked my dad if he’d do the research for a new car and let me choose from what he found.

A few weeks later, my Subaru was washed, taken to the shop, appraised and ready to leave our garage.

Like a kid with the biggest, coolest present on Christmas, I told all my friends with a joke’s-on-you smile, “I’m getting a new car this week.” And like I had hoped, each time, I got that satisfying, “Oh, that’s cool” as a response.

But that Sunday afternoon, the Outback was still parked in front of our drink-andice-cream-only refrigerator in the garage.

Confused, I walked back inside to the kitchen and sat down on one of the black-leather bar stools next to the counter.

My mom’s working on her computer across from me, probably emailing some patients who need her help.

Like any other mom, she’s the heart of our whole family. Organizing our schedules, cleaning up after us and loving us when we just need someone to talk to. But unlike any other mom, she is somehow able to work five different part-time jobs and manage her type-one diabetes, for the most part, by herself.

She’s still typing on her computer while I situate myself on the leather stool, so I wait a couple seconds before I say what’s on my mind. Then, trying to play it cool, I casually ask the question.

What ever happened to my car? Wasn’t I supposed to get a new one by now?

My dad has always said my mom and

I tend to fight like an old married couple — even though we love each other, we know the perfect ways to get under each other’s skin. It’s not as if we’re constantly fighting, but like any teenager and his mom, we’re not always on the same page.

But sitting on opposite ends of the kitchen counter, we are marching into one of the bloodiest battles of the 17-year war waged between mother and son.

Well, we decided to just buy out the lease so you can keep the Outback…

What? Why did you do this without telling me?

We go at it for a solid five minutes, launching missiles across the kitchen counter, just waiting for one side to concede and wave the white flag. But I can only bend her so much before she snaps. Next thing I know, we’re putting down the artillery and she is crying in my arms. n between the panting breaths, she tells me how hard it’s been recently, how my dad’s back pain and impending surgery is dominating his entire life, and as a result, dominating hers. My dad has just been in too much pain to figure out my car, and even though she tried, my mom couldn’t pick up the slack.

The next thing I know, she is hiding the tears — realizing she doesn’t have all day to hug and cry. And with my brother nudging her to drive him to taekwondo, the red, puffy eyes that were just crying are now walking out the door.

But later that night, while I’m doing homework, she softly knocks on my door in

I

NOTICED Unexpected ice cream

After initially scaring students into thinking the trial phone policy was being revoked, head of Upper School Patrick Andrén and Student Council President Christian McClain terrifically surprised everyone with a much-needed random act of ice cream.

Sixth period lunch We are delighted to see the expanded options given to those who eat during sixth period.

With a large number of students having sixth period lunch this year, we are encouraged that students are able to enjoy both main options.

Other options for Lent During Lent, some students obvserve the tradition of not eating meat on Friday’s and Ash Wednesday.

The Cafeteria needs to ensure that there are Fish and other options for students on those days.

Outside chapel speakers Coffeehouse The 70’s themed Coffeehouse March 3 was successful, allowing students to express themselves in front of their peers.

Wi-Fi not working on PC’s The school Wi-Fi has been very sporadic on PC computers recently. It does not always work which hinders students’ abilities to do work at school.

an attempt not to bother me too much.

Thanks for letting me get emotional earlier…

She’s smiling as if she were in the wrong. As if she was apologizing for her actions. As if I was supposed to just ignore what she said just a few hours ago.

My mind is whirling around, and I’m not sure how to respond. I muster up a haphazard, “love you,” wrapped in a soft smile.

She closes the door and I sit there for a few minutes, overwhelmed.

That’s when I realized just how strong she has to be everyday. She doesn’t have time to be emotional, to make it all about her. In her mind, she has to be there for us, and that’s what matters. But sitting in the silence of my room, I knew I needed to be there for my mom. To be there for the woman who makes my home run.

So for the rest of high school, you’re likely to see me pull into school with the same navy Subaru, accepting all the jokes from my friends. And even though I may look a bit feminine behind the wheel, that’s okay with me. Because I’m doing it for my mom.

What kind of son and brother would I be if I had put my foot down on this one and not’ve been there when my mom — who’s always there for me — needed me for once.

So yeah, I’ll drive the Subaru and accept the jokes. And even if I do look feminine behind the wheel, that’s all right with me.

Because my mom’s feminine — and I want to be just like her.

TAKING

Our opinions on what’s going on around campus, all in one place.

BRILLIANT

BAFFLING

Rev. Stephen Arbogast has done an excellent job recently at finding interesting speakers for chapel homilies, such as Trustee Master Teacher Lynne Weber and Chase Park ’03.

OVERLOOKED

Looking at the rising and falling stocks around campus

STOCK New tennis coach Lance Hagan We’re very excited to see the Athletic Department bringing in an experienced and talented coach to lead the varsity tennis team. Under his leadership, the team is primed to improve vastly.

Spring sports attendance In a stark improvement from our football turnout, it is great to see students from the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools coming together to support our fellow student-athletes. We hope to see everyone at tonight’s game vs.

Cistercian at 7 p.m. in Hicks.

Low number of library checkouts This year has produced the lowest number of books checked out from the library in the recent history of the school. Don’t be afraid to use the resources afforded to us!

Parking The parking situation, especially during sporting events and other special occasions, is atrocious.

We encourage greater parking availability on the northwestern field, near Preston Road.

SENIORITIS | CARTOON CHRISTIAN MCCLAIN, KOBE ROSEMAN ght, All ri next? ’s who

2017! f o s s a l C

IPS

CH

COMMENTARY

Se Vacniorit cin is e

|THE REMARKER |commentary| March 10, 2017 |

24

Bleacher point of view

MAKING PLAYS

Sports editor Mike Mahowald discusses the community he has found in the student section.

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G

RYAN NORMAN PHOTO

still get goose bumps just thinking about it.

Less than two seconds on the clock. Junior Matthew Placide inbounds it to classmate Parker Dixon.

His shot goes up. My hand goes up.

In an instant, the eerie silence in ESD’s basketball gym was shattered by sheer, relentless, unreserved chaos.

Our 61-59 win over Episcopal Dallas was hands down the most unforgettable sporting event I have witnessed in my entire life. The circumstances, the players, the buzzer beater—it was incredible. But the one thing that made it truly special was our student section. Our sea of white t-shirts unleashed an eruption more powerful than Krakatoa in 1883.

A student section is an electric oasis of school pride.

It’s a breeding ground for agonizing defeat and overwhelming MIKE MAHOWALD triumph. It’s a Sports editor place I’ve even felt confident enough to wear a penguin costume.

Most importantly though, our student section is a community more passionate, more energetic, and more welcoming than I have ever experienced.

When I walked into my first varsity football game as a high school freshman, I had no clear idea of what to expect. I wanted to distance myself from the uncomfortable junior high social atmosphere, so I wandered over to the large column of students standing on the bleachers at Hunt Stadium.

I was intimidated. The sophomore, junior and senior classes stood together as one unit, rooting our squad on to a victory against Cistercian. My buddies and I tentatively joined in, handing out a couple high fives here and there.

Then, everything clicked. A junior called my name out and invited me to the front row. It was the first time I really felt like I belonged in the St. Mark’s Upper School community. It was the first time I realized just how special this student section was. uys separated by three years, mountains of math assignments and stacks of English papers could all unite on Friday nights to cheer our team on in the north end of the bleachers.

Now as a Sports editor, I’ve embraced the unofficial responsibility of attending as many Lions sporting events as I can fit into my disorganized schedule.

At each game, I find myself striking a conversation with a guy I don’t get to see much. I find myself yelling louder and losing my voice for the following 24 hours. I’ve even found myself offering a front row seat to an underclassman, making my journey into St. Mark’s sports fandom come full circle.

Community has a multisided definition. Communities lift you up.

They make you feel welcome and encourage you to do better—to be better.

During my 11-year career as a Marksman, I’ve never been involved in something as resoundingly powerful as a student section.

Through the thrills of game winning three pointers to the torture of a one-win football season, there’s one thing that remains consistent: the enthusiastic and compassionate community that owns the bleachers.

So, my fellow Marksmen, ask not what your community can do for you, ask what you can do for your community.

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| March 10, 2017 |sports| THE REMARKER |

Freshman pitcher Alek Houillion prepares to throw a fastball in the baseball team’s 9 - 1 win against Thomas Jefferson High School.

a peek INSIDE

at a GLANCE

Inside the sports section

A brief look at sporting events on campus

26

ALUMNI CAREERS a talk with alums with a career in the sporting world

29

TRACK’S NEW FACE Eighty-three year old Bob Ward coaches track & field

30

BENDING THE RULES Investigating the encouragement of cheating in sports

32

TREADING WATER A look at the state championship water polo team

WILL INGRAM COMMITS TO MIDDLEBURY Senior Will Ingram has committed to play NCAA Division III basketball at Middlebury College in Vermont beginning this fall.

He decided to attend Middlebury after looking at numerous other schools, including University of Chicago, Boston University and Rhodes College, among others.

The two things that steered him toward choosing Middlebury were the coaching staff and the sense of community he felt when on the campus.

Ingram is excited to take his basketball to the next level by playing collegiately.

“I look forward to playing in the big rivalry games in front of thousands of people and getting a chance to showcase my abilities against other talented players,” he said.

for the RECORD A status update on Lions sports teams

Varsity lacrosse

2

1 loss

wins

Varsity baseball

3

1

loss

wins

Varsity water polo

1

1

wins

loss

JV SPORTS RAMP UP Both the baseball and lacrosse JV teams are looking to start the spring

season strong. The baseball team won their opening game 7-1 against Trinity Valley.

“We have been carrying a really good winning energy in practices, and the way that we practice is the way that we play.” head coach Dennis Kelly said. “I like to see that the intensity and good energy is carrying on to the field.”

Lacrosse starts their season against Keller on March 3.

TENNIS TEAM HIRES NEW COACH Lance Hagan was named the new head coach of the varsity tennis team. He and his brother played tennis at Tyler Junior College together.

Hagan coached the T Bar M Racquet Club for 10 years, and he is now the current tennis pro at the Dallas Country Club.

Hagan hopes to bring a renewed energy to the team with his practices.

“He is entirely changing our program,” senior tennis captain Frank Thomas

MIDDLE SCHOOL SPORTS START STRONG Heading into the spring season, both seventh and eighthgrade baseball had their first games on Feb. 28 against Greenhill.

The blue lacrosse team took on Prestonwood Christian Feb. 27 in their first game of the season, and the gold lacrosse team played their first game March 4 against St. John’s.

The tennis team has their first match March 3 against ESD. Track and field had their first meet, the Cistercian Invitational, Feb 23.

Seventh and eighth-grade water polo both played Denton, Southlake, Flower Mound and Grapevine on Feb. 26.

— Parker Davis, Jahaziel Lopez, Zach Landry, Josh Daniels

in the SPOTLIGHT

2

assists in his first two games of the year Garrett Mize ‘18

said. “He has a huge passion for tennis and for making us better.

We are doing more conditioning, stretching and live ball. He does a really great job of mending the individuality of tennis and the team aspect of a high school team.”

MIDFIELDER GARRETT MIZE

4 3

takeaways so far this season clears in lacrosse’s win against St. Stephen’s

SPORTS

26

|THE REMARKER |sports| March 10, 2017 |

ALUMNI IN SPORTS

CALLING THE SHOTS WORKING IN THE FRONT OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS FRANCHISES, PROMINENT ALUMNI HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TURN THEIR LOVE OF SPORTS INTO CAREERS.

IN THEIR ELEMENT Clark [top left] sits in his office at the Kansas City Chief’s Arrowhead Stadium. Dan [top right] stands in the middle of FC Dallas’s Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. Auld [above left] stands in front of a dark Tropicana Field Silverman. Matt Silverman [above right] answers questions from national media in a press conference in St. Petersburg, Fla.

T

he 2008 World Series is only a few days away, and the Tampa Bay Rays are due to host the first two games.

This is the first time the Rays had been put in the international spotlight since Brian Auld ‘95 joined the team.

It’s his job to make sure everything runs smoothly for the biggest games of the Rays’ season. His mind churns with all the possible scenarios of what could go wrong.

What if the lights don’t work?

What happens if the TV feed cuts out?

We’ll look really bad if anything happens, and it will all be my fault.

The games go on without a hitch.

Yet another success in Auld’s career in professional sports.

••• Auld went to Tampa Bay to work with Matt Silverman ‘94 as Silverman took over as president for the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Auld attributes his career with the Rays to Silverman, who pulled him away from his job as a teacher in Palo Alto, California to come

join him in Florida.

“I tell people all the time that, when I was graduating business school, we thought it would have been cool to go run a sock factory,” Auld said, “so it was above the coolest thing in the world that we had the opportunity to run a Major League Baseball team.”

President of FC Dallas Dan Hunt ‘96 believes the school set him on a path toward success in business, especially owing to the rigor of the multifaceted curriculum.

“Obviously the standards that are set there, the personal, academic and athletic standards, teach you to expect more from yourself, and they teach you that you are capable,” Dan said. “St. Mark’s truly prepares you for life.”

Dan’s brother, Clark Hunt ‘83, who currently serves as chairman and CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs and FC Dallas, said his time and experiences at the school are what set him on his way to a career in professional sports.

“My experience playing competitive sports was important to the career

THEIR CAREERS a look at the careers of Auld, Silverman and the Hunt brothers

5

the number of teams managed by the four since they graduated

the number of championships won by the teams they have managed

FC DALLAS

the most recent team to win a major championship. The team won the MLS’s Supporter’s Shield and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open in 2016

that I ended up choosing,” Clark said.

“It taught me a lot about what it meant to be part of the team and the importance of the team as opposed to the individual for an organization to have success.”

Clark took over the Chiefs after he and Dan’s father, Lamar Hunt, passed away in 2006. His favorite part of being involved in professional sports, and what brought him into the industry, is the chance to be a part of a company that feeds off a winning mentality.

“I think being a part of those successful organizations and the type of culture that allows teams to be successful is probably what I’ve enjoyed the most,” Clark said.

Silverman feels the same way about the mentality of professional sports, and he attributes a large portion of that attitude to the environment that the Rays have created in recent years.

“It comes down to the people I work with on a daily basis. We enjoy each other’s company, we respect and challenge each other, and we’re all oriented towards common goals,” Silverman said. lark’s most exciting moments come when a team he is a part of wins a championship. During his ongoing tenure as a part of Major League Soccer, three of his teams won either the MLS Cup or the Supporters’ Shield by obtaining the best regular season record in the league. But much of his excitement stems from the satisfaction of the players, coaches and the team’s supporters.

“First of all, I’m happy for the fans because they are the lifeblood of every professional franchise, and they invest so much of their time in the organization,” Clark said. “Second and very close behind, I’m happy for everyone

C

in the organization who is part of it and who has worked so hard to make it a reality.”

The high points of their careers have not, however, been without low points. Auld and Silverman consistently face the challenge of competing in the same division as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, two of the biggest-budget teams in the MLB. It’s a challenge that makes their jobs harder each day, but they also relish the difficulty.

“Being a small market club is the reason Matt and I were given the opportunity to run a baseball team in our late 20s,” Auld said. “We have had to be innovative, become smarter, make more out of less, and that is a really, really big challenge.”

For Dan the hardest part of working in professional sports is that a team takes on more layers than a typical business.

“In your typical business, you’re driven by financial results,” Dan said.

“You either make money or you lose money. Then in sports, you add on the layer of winning or losing. With those four things you can have multiple results, like you could win on the field, but lose money, or vice versa. That, at times, can be a huge challenge.”

During both winning and losing seasons, Auld, Clark, Dan and Silverman return to their offices daily to keep their franchises up and running, almost always receiving far less acclaim than the athletes on the field. But for them, the thrill of the game never vanishes, and none of them think it ever will.

“I have a passion for the sports business,” Clark said. “I don’t know if I picked the career, but the career certainly picked me, and I love what I do every day.”

STORY WILL FORBES, PARKER DAVIS PHOTOS COURTESY BRIAN AULD, CLARK HUNT, DAN HUNT, MATT SILVERMAN

SPORTS

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| March 10, 2017 |sports| THE REMARKER |

REEMTSMA JV SOCCER COACH

Long way Taking the

home.

JV SOCCER COACH JOEL REEMTSMA’S YEARLY TRAVELS FROM ALASKA TO DALLAS PROVIDE HIM WITH MANY UNIQUE EXPERIENCES WHICH HE HOPES TO PASS ON TO HIS PLAYERS

WILD MAN Reemtsma takes a hike through the Kenyan wilderness [above left]. Reemtsma hangs out with his college soccer players in the Oregon mountains [top right]. The Kenai Central High School soccer team celebrates their second place state championship finish [above center]. Reemtsma enjoys some trout fishing in the Alaskan mountains [above right].

A

laskan born and raised, the spirit of adventure is cemented into junior varsity soccer coach Joel Reemtsma’s everyday life.

Soccer has allowed Reemtsma to express this unique mindset, travelling through different places and cultures throughout the year, including Alaska, Oregon and Texas.

For the last two years, Reemtsma has made the over 3,000 mile trek from his home in Kenai, Alaska, where he coaches soccer at Kenai Central High School, to Dallas. He then stops in Portland, Ore. for a couple of months, where he coaches soccer at Multnomah University.

Even though Reemtsma normally flies from Alaska to Oregon, he drives 33 hours to Dallas in order to save money by not buying a plane ticket, but also to see the scenery along the way.

“I love driving through northern Idaho and southern Utah,” Reemtsma said. “The views are pretty cool even though I don’t stop much.”

Reemtsma grew up in Alaska but came to Dallas for graduate school at the Dallas Theological Seminary. Head basketball coach Greg Guiler and former junior varsity soccer coach Craig Congdon also attended the seminary and introduced the idea of coaching here to Reemtsma.

“Greg [Guiler] and I went to college together in Ohio, so we’re buddies,” Reemtsma said, “and he mentioned that there was a spot open for coaching. But the guy who was coaching the JV soccer program at the time, Craig Congdon, was also a good friend

of mine, he needed an assistant, so both those guys said I should apply.”

Reemtsma ended up becoming the JV assistant coach for a couple of years, and he took over as the head coach when Congdon left. This past season was Reemtsma’s third as junior varsity head coach.

After arriving here, Reemtsma feels Assistant Athletic Director Josh Friesen really helped him adjust to the school.

“He really helped introduce me to people and transition to life here,” Reemtsma said. “He’s always got my back when I don’t understand how things work at St. Mark’s.”

Reemtsma feels his experiences at the seminary have given him a different perspective to coaching and what’s most important in playing a sport.

“My experiences there definitely influence my desire to build character with these guys and gives me some perspective in realizing just how fun soccer is,” he said. “Even though it is a lot of fun and healthy and important to build athletic ability, it’s ultimately the player’s character that matters.”

While Reemtsma takes a more patient approach to coaching, what agitates him most is when his players lack mental effort.

“I usually don’t get upset with mistakes of execution,” Reemtsma said.

“What upsets me is a lack of effort, focus or respect, because those are all things you can control. If you can keep those levels high, you’re going to carry yourself with honor and be able to learn and grow.”

To Reemtsma, the biggest differ-

ence between coaching in Alaska and Portland compared to coaching here is the character of the athletes.

“The guys here at St. Mark’s are just so sharp,” he said, “and they just kind of have a character advantage over a lot of the teams that we play. I don’t want to brag too much on us, but it’s an interesting dynamic and it really promotes good character.”

Another difference between coaching here and in Alaska is the travel time between games.

“Here, the farthest the JV goes for a game is an hour and fifteen minutes over to Ft. Worth,” Reemtsma said, “but up in Alaska, three hour road trips are pretty much a regular thing. Probably over the course of a season up there I spend 10 to 14 days and nights on the road with the team.

In a little bit we’re IF I COULD going on a 28-hour HAVE ANY trip for a game.

STEADY There’s definitely a JOB IN THE lot more room for WORLD FOR friction, but also THE REST OF it’s a lot of fun. You MY LIFE, I’D get really close to BE DOING the guys.”

THIS. Even though — JOEL the amount he REEMTSMA travels makes for a very hectic schedule, Reemtsma enjoys the change of scenery he gets every few months with his travels.

“It does get a little bewildering at times, moving around so much,” Reemtsma said, “but I do enjoy the change of pace. I feel like I get the best of all worlds, being in Dallas in the

winter, Portland in the fall and Alaska in the spring and summer, so it’s nice.”

Reemtsma believes the unique view on life he achieves from his travels is something people lack in the world we live in today, and he hopes more people start to explore more of the world.

“We all tend to live in bubbles,” Reemtsma said. “We get used to hanging around people like us, whatever that means to you. You’re really cheating yourself out of your understanding of the world. It’s definitely very worthwhile to seek out people who aren’t like you.”

Reemtsma believes the benefits he gets from exploring different cultures is worth the busy schedule and constant travel.

“I definitely feel I get a respect for just different ways of doing things,” Reemtsma said, “different outlooks on life, different subcultures. There are advantages and disadvantages to every one and it’s just kind of cool to sort of inhabit a different world for a couple months a year.”

Overall, Reemtsma feels extremely thankful for his life at the school.

‘I’m grateful to St. Mark’s, to [Athletic Director] Mark Sullivan, [Varsity Soccer Head Coach] Cory Martin, for giving me this opportunity every year and for making it so enjoyable,” Reemtsma said, “and also to the St. Mark’s community for being so warm and receptive. The guys are always a lot of fun. The parents always make it great. So it’s just been a really positive experience. I’m living a dream.”

STORY NICK WALSH, JAHAZIEL LOPEZ PHOTOS COURTESY JOEL REEMTSMA

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|THE REMARKER |sports| March 10, 2017 |

ALL SAINTS LEAVING SPC

WHEN THE

SAINTS GO MARCHING OUT

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hey’ve been a football powerhouse for the past decade. Now, Fort Worth All Saints will leave SPC earlier than planned. Many factors were considered in the decision, but their absence will cause various changes throughout the conference.

After 13 years in the SPC, Fort Worth All Saints will be leaving the conference to join the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS), effective this fall.

All Saints had originally planned to leave the SPC following the 2017-2018 school year. However, a recent discovery concerning an ineligible athlete may have been a factor in their early exit. A soccer player was discovered to be overage, and All Saints immediately self-reported the infraction.

“It was [senior] Jeremy Kerber who first told me what happened,” varsity soccer coach Corindo Martin said. “And the All Saints coach FOR THE RECORD only found All Saints football out through through the years a joke one of the teammates made about the ‘old man’ on the team.” number of players on the Based on refootball team in 2016 cent discussions regarding conference realignment, Athletic football record in 2013 Director Mark Sullivan isn’t surprised about their decision.

“A year CHAMPIONSHIPS and a half to the number of SPC even two years championships won in the ago, some of past five years the smaller schools had voiced some frustrations in the conference about how the conference is aligned,” Sullivan said. “I can’t say that I was surprised because [All Saints] was one of

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AFTER YEARS OF PROFOUND SUCCESS IN SPC ATHLETICS, ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL SCHOOL HAS WITHDRAWN FROM THE CONFERENCE, CITING VIOLATIONS OF ATHLETES IN SOCCER.

the schools that led in that conversation back in those days. I knew that they were somewhat frustrated with how the SPC operates in general.”

Before the 2012 football season, schools in the SPC split up into two divisions based on school size, with All Saints grouped with the smaller schools. This year, however, they played in the larger 4A division.

With All Saints winning four out of the past five SPC football championships, the move is more competition-driven than anything, according to Sullivan.

“They’re a unique school in a sense that they have a very strong football program, but at the same time they’re a really small school,” Sullivan said. “By going to TAPPS it puts them in a better place, probably for the sports that aren’t football, and I think for them it makes sense to play in a league that they can compete a little bit differently in.”

All Saints will play in TAPPS’s top division for football and down a division in its other sports. The top division currently consists of only DFW schools.

Sullivan views the travel aspect of SPC as a strength versus the more regional competition in TAPPS. “Schools in TAPPS typically play far more regionally than we would in the SPC,” Sullivan said. “I like the travel piece of what we do. It enriches who we are as a conference and it enriches the athletes that get to be a part of that.” or other SPC schools, however, such as former member Holland Hall, the travel oftentimes can be a heavy burden.

“Just a trip down to the Metroplex was a difficult trip for [Holland Hall],” Sullivan said. “When you think about where they are geographically, for them, a trip to Houston was brutal.”

Despite the travel, Sullivan believes the SPC, as a whole, is a one-of-a-kind conference, with many advantages to its membership.

“We are looking for good overall, well-balanced students who can manage a significant academic load but then participate in a wide variety of activities throughout the school,” Sullivan said. “We all have our different personalities, but we all have the same core mission.”

The SPC’s adaptability to certain changes and its ability to adjust easily is another advantage that comes with its small size.

“When you think of the hundreds of schools that

would be involved in any sort of change in the TAPPS organization or the UIL,” Sullivan said, “it’s much harder to adapt to maybe a different time or mindset where the SPC has the ability to fluctuate a little bit as it sees is best for the conference.”

Senior soccer captain Jake Vaughn believes All Saints leaving the SPC will be a beneficial change for both the conference and our sports teams.

“I’m not really sad that they are leaving SPC,” Vaughn said. “It’s tough playing against them. Their absence really helps level the playing field in SPC. Although they aren’t a powerhouse in soccer specifically, they did dominate football. Without them in football, it gives other schools a chance to win a championship.”

Martin thinks the overall change the SPC is experiencing is big and will continue to shape the division for years to come.

“In the last year, we have lost Holland Hall in Tulsa, Saint Mary’s Hall in San Antonio and All Saints,” Martin said. “Instead of having 18 teams, we now have 15. Does that mean we have to change our format for the championship? There’s also talk of other schools that are looking to join SPC, so I think it will be interesting to see what happens.”

GREENHILL

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ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS

EPISCOPAL SCHOOL

STORY ZACH LANDRY, CJ CRAWFORD ILLUSTRATION MIKE MAHOWALD

Juniors Tucker Ribman, Will Wood win prep state

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hard but I think a lot of work in the offseason really prepared me.”

Despite these obstacles, going into Prep State, their expectations were high.

“My expectation was to win [the tournament],” Wood said. “It was something that I came pretty confident into thinking I could and would win it.

In the finals, both Ribman and Wood came out on top, finally reaching the goal that they worked so hard for.

“In the finals match, I definitely had to come back because I gave up the first take down,” Ribman said. “I kind

of had to grit my teeth and come back, so I guess that was a moment of truth. It was good [when I won the tournament].

I was definitely excited to have finally won because I hadn’t won a state title yet.”

Ribman appreciates all of the help that he received along the way to winning his first state championsip.

“Definitely, I [give credit to head wrestling coach Justin] Turner,” Ribman said. “He’s pretty good. He’s probably the main person. Also, the assistant coach Hugo [Castrejon].

He put in a lot of extra time with me in the offseason. All my training partners -- you

have to thank them.”

Despite his accomplishment, Wood still aspires for more in the future of his Upper School wrestling career.

“Long-term goal for the upcoming season [is] probably to have a team large enough to where we can compete in SPC and state,” Wood said, “and individually win state again and hopefully become an all-American.”

Nevertheless, Wood still is still proud of winning Prep State.

“To avenge that loss that I had last year, it felt really great to see all of the hard work come to fruition,” Wood said.

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worked hard to improve their performance.

“It’s kind of a season-long preparation,” Wood said. “It really starts and begins with your practice partner, which all year had been Tucker Ribman.

So, Tucker and I pushed each other, and as state got closer we pushed each other even harder in that dialectic that ‘iron sharpens iron.’”

Just before Prep State, however, Ribman broke his hand, interrupting his training.

“It was kind of difficult the week before because I broke my hand, and we were all kind of beat up,” Ribman said. “So, it was kind of difficult to train

ND

by Connor Pierce uniors Tucker Ribman and Will Wood each took home an individual state title after winning their respective weight classes at the Texas Prep State Wrestling Championsips, which were held Feb. 4 at McKinney Christian Academy.

By winning the state championship, Wood and Ribman, who wrestled in the 108 and 126 pound weight classes respectively, both qualified for Prep Nationals at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. After they both placed second in last year’s tournament, Ribman and Wood each

HOCKAD

1 POWER POSE Turek coaches his sprinters during track warmups. He admits that Ward and him have completely opposite personalitles.

1942-1945

942-1945: George Washington Elementary, Burbank, California.

It’s the first item listed under ‘Formal Education’ in coach Bob Ward’s 19-page résumé.

Along with a world record in the clean and jerk, a world record in the hammer throw, multiple hall of fame inductions and a plethora of books published.

1942-1945: George Washington Elementary, Burbank, California.

Forty-five years ago, coach Ward was introduced to a promising young athlete named John Turek. He saw raw talent and made it his mission to train this young man to his potential.

of physics. He even implements the art of dancing in his teaching.

“He asked me if I’d ever seen a ballerina dancer before,” Gilstrap said. “He wanted me to do those spins down the entire length of the track. That would help me with discus. I did it and translated it to the ring, and it was insane. It totally worked.”

Ward’s lessons are deep and creative.

He believes everything can be deconstructed into dance.

“Everything in life is a dance,” he said.

“There’s a rhythm pattern to everything we have. Bruce Lee was the Cha Cha champion of Hong Kong. The rhythm of a discus is the same—One-two-three.”

New guy on the block

EIGHTY-THREE YEAR OLD BOB WARD ALWAYS DEFIES EXPECTATIONS. NOW, AS HEAD THROWING COACH ON THE TRACK AND FIELD TEAM, HE’S IMPARTING YEARS OF WISDOM.

THE SCIENTIST Ward poses on the throwing block. For 45 years, Bob Ward has been coach John Turek’s go-to mentor.

“A paracleet is a biblical use of someone who comes beside and walks beside you to help you learn what he can teach you,” Ward said. “He can help guide you to your excellence, or any level you want to achieve.”

In Turek’s case, Ward was the catapult to his success as decathlete.

“I would categorize myself as a good athlete who worked his butt off,” Turek said. “I wasn’t a great athlete, but under Coach Ward I found out how to maximize my talent. I went from just an okay high school kid to a pretty darn good junior college athlete.”

Forty-five years of mentoring later, he’s working alongside Turek, instilling his neurophysiological wisdom to the throwers on the track and field team here.

“I mean he just brings so much depth, years of experience and knowledge to the events,” Turek said. “He can help athletes of all levels whether they were world-class or beginners. His holistic approach to the throwing events just helps kids understand it.”

In Ward’s eyes, throwing, like most things, is simple. Everything can be broken down.

“You’ve got to go back down to the fundamentals,” Ward said. “If a little kid doesn’t know how to walk, you have to teach him how to walk before he can run.

Before they can throw, they have to learn the fundamentals of their body.

Junior thrower Zach Gilstrap was skeptical when he heard his new coach would be 83 years old. Now, however, he has totally bought into the program, embracing the lessons Ward has to offer.

“When I first met him he completely defied my expectations,” Gilstrap said. “I was expecting he was going to be like quiet and not personable at all.

But he is extremely nice, super outgoing, engaging, knowledgeable and still really active. He can get in the ring and show us firsthand.”

Ward sees athletics through a scientific lens.

Utilizing the effects of torque, acceleration and a variety of other elements

His coaching has already made an immediate impact on the team. According to Gilstrap, the throwing squad this year has made miles of progress in just a few short weeks. hile this is the case, Ward believes he has very little to do with their learning.

“You don’t teach anybody anything,” Ward said. “I think my teachers never taught me anything. You can’t jump into somebody else’s nervous system. It’s something you learn, for example, by picking up a pen and starting to write. I can maybe help and guide you to learn the neurophysiological processes, but you’ve got to do it.

You have to have a passion to do it. These throwers have to have a passion, and then go for it.”

He is a firm believer in Malcolm Gladwell’s principle that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve expertise, but even then, you can never be perfect.

“When I went into academia and worked to the top degree in my profession, I found out I didn’t know anything,” he said. “You’re always going to be learning.

The applicability of what we’re talking about crosses all dimensions. Sports, business, life, academics, daily living. All of these principles are applicable.”

His philosophy is ingenious. In order to achieve success in anything we do, all we need is just enough. Just enough lead in a pencil. Just enough speed on a track.

Everything needs to fit.

“I look in the mirror myself and I say, ‘Bob, keep an open mind. You’re no different from anybody else.’ It’s just a way of thinking,” he said. “We all lock ourselves out of a knowledge that’s right in front of our face.”

For now though, Ward is just trying to make a positive impact on the throwing team he has inherited.

He invented the revolutionary rotation shot put throw back in the 1960’s. He is concluding a 30-year study about the speed of the Dallas Cowboys. He has surely surpassed his 10,000 hours of practice, but Bob Ward remains humble.

“This is not about Bob Ward,” he said.

“Life is a relay. All I did was take the baton from somebody who was number one in the relay and pass it on to this genius to that genius. All I’m doing is passing on the truth from other bright people. I was just smart enough to recognize they’re smarter than I am.”

W

STORY MIKE MAHOWALD, JOSH DANIELS PHOTOS OWEN BERGER

SPORTS

|March 10, 2017 |sports| THE REMARKER |

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NEW THROWING COACH

|THE REMARKER |sports| March 10, 2017 |

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BENDING THE RULES

IN ATHLETICS, THE RECORD IS EVERYTHING. EVERYONE IS TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO GAIN AN ADVANTAGE, IN ALL SPORTS FROM BASEBALL TO WATER POLO TO LACROSSE. WE TALKED TO THREE STUDENTS TO GET THEIR PERSPECTIVES ON BENDING THE RULES.

LOOKING FOR A LEG UP Sometimes it can mean the difference between a win and a loss. Just about every athlete — at some time or another — will use all the maneuvers — to gain an advantage. Here are three Lion athletes’ take on finding a way to gain that extra performance boost.

Nathan Han: What happens in your sport that still occurs despite it being against the rules?

Junior Canyon Kyle: Pitch framing, in catching, in a way that increases the likelihood that an umpire will call any particular pitch a strike. From the fan’s perspective, “pitch framing” appears as the catcher freezing the pitch in a particular location as he catches the ball.

The actual work of the catcher is slightly more complicated in that it requires sliding the body left or right as needed to give the impression the ball is caught in the center of the catcher’s body over a portion of the plate.

Sophomore Alex Baker: In a faceoff in lacrosse, the angle that your head is facing gets you to the ball faster.

If you tilt the head a tiny bit, not even a 45 degree angle, just seven or eight degrees, and it’s just barely bent, the ref can’t really see it from his angle, and it really puts you at a disadvantage if you don’t use it.

Senior Andrew Lin: You’re not allowed to hold or visibly impend somebody [in water polo]. But everybody’s going to block you off somehow, but that’s part of the game. One thing that I do that probably isn’t legal, but I’ve never been called for it, is that I always hold wrists.

It’s underwater and nobody can see it.

So they can’t move if I hold their wrists but nobody is going to call it because it’s not violent or super-obvious, but it’s really effective. Technically, you’re not allowed to impend and that’s impeding, but it’s part of the game. It’s really a grey line when it gets too far, and it’s really down to the ref, but a lot of players will go past the level of just playing for the ball to gain an advantage.

Connor Pierce: How much of a leg up does using these advantages give you?

CK: The primary effect of good pitch framing is that more pitches are called strikes by the umpire. There is also a secondary effect though. By good framing, a catcher makes the umpire’s calls look better. This will likely improve the relationship between the catcher and the umpire and possibly lead to more borderline calls going to the catcher’s team.

AB: If there comes along a guy where you’re beating him a ton or he’s beating you a ton, it doesn’t really make a difference, but when you’re close with someone it makes a huge difference in regards to speed. I’d say almost 90 percent of the players I face do this and almost everybody at a higher level at college and above also uses it.

AL: When I got punched in the face [against Denton], I was happy because that was one of their better players and he got ejected. At that point it was like I’d been a good enough player to get in his head and to have him lose his temper at me to the fact that I’d been able to gain a strategical advantage. Just through swimming hard and playing physical the clean way, I was able to mess up his own play and get him kicked out of the game.

NH: Do you think that there should be more stringent regulation or are these small advantages just part of the game?

CK: Absolutely not. [Pitch framing] is more of an art than an unfair tactic in a game. I think pitch framing is something that simply helps define a good catcher and is a key part of the game of baseball. One of the catcher’s primary responsibilities is helping each pitcher have the best outing he can. With good pitch framing, you are helping the pitcher and improving his confidence.

AB: I think it’s fine that this is in the game because it separates who cares about facing off versus who doesn’t really care.

Those people who care about it are going to learn every little trick they can get to win. People who are kind of just doing it because it’s something [they’re] sort of good at, they don’t really practice it. Those guys aren’t going to spend time learning every little detail about the faceoff. It really separates the good players from the bad players and the people who care versus the people that don’t.

AL: There’s definitely a point where stuff goes too far.

But in general just all the wrist-holding, grabbing, hand fighting, the occasional shove-off, all that stuff is definitely part of the game. If you try to regulate that, it becomes more of a referee game and less of having the players play.

Each player has their individual style to gain an advantage. If you start trying to regulate that, everybody does the same thing. You get rid of all the creativity.

STORY NATHAN HAN, CONNOR PIERCE ILLUSTRATION NAFTAL MAUTIA

Junior Sunny Agrawal tests new lacrosse products

by Nick Walsh or the last year, junior Sunny Agrawal has tested lacrosse equipment for the company Tribe7 Lacrosse.

Agrawal first got in touch with the company after buying one of their lacrosse heads and sending some feedback on it. Soon, Tribe7 was calling Agrawal to test out different lacrosse heads and leave feedback on them. It was through this process that he created the idea of the perfect head for him as a “faceoff specialist.”

“I created this whole three-page report about what I thought the ideal face off head would be and I sent it to the CEO of Tribe7,” Agrawal said, “and they thought I had some pretty good ideas. Some of my input came up in a new head that they released and they sent me that for free and I’m sending them feedback on it.”

The head that he helped create,

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called the Sting7, features multiple influences from Agrawal, such as the power nub for more leverage during a face off, a stiffer head for more stability, and a flat scoop to help pick up ground balls.

According to Agrawal, the testing he has done has helped him understand more of the science behind lacrosse.

“I know my skills are nowhere near where some other people’s skills are,” Agrawal said, “but I think I have a deeper understanding of the physics behind the ball. I understand it better than a lot of players even though I can’t execute it.”

Agrawal feels that helping to create his own head is perfect for him because he can design it how he likes.

“The new equipment certainly helps because it is tailored to what I like,” Agrawal said. “It’s like my brain child in a way.”

Agrawal believes that testing out the equipment goes hand-in-hand with some of his classes at school.

“In a strange way, it has been helping me with my physics class,” Agrawal said, “and my physics class has been helping me with this.”

Besides tangible rewards, Agrawal feels the experiences he’s getting will help him in the long run.

“I’m gaining more knowledge of how to work with people and with companies,” Agrawal said. “The fact that the CEO sent me one of their heads for free gave me a real sense of professionalism.”

Overall, Agrawal feels this is a good opportunity to demonstrate his creativity.

“I’m really into building things and making my ideas solid, creating something out of nothing,” Agrawal said, “and I think this is a good way for me to express that creativity.”

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SPRING PREVIEWS

| March 10, 2017 |sports| THE REMARKER |

Sparking the ignition

AFTER A CHAMPIONSHIP AND TWO RUNNER-UPS LAST YEAR, SPRING ATHLETICS ARE FINALLY BACK IN ACTION

Tennis eyes trophy with experienced leadership

Baseball looks to repeat success RECORD 3- 1

THEY SAID IT Senior captain Gopal Raman “I’m optimistic about our season this year.

Coach [Jerry] Lacey brings a lot of depth and experience to the table. If we are able to keep up with a team like Greenhill, we’ll be able to go all the way.”

THEY SAID IT Senior Todd Murphy “We have a lot of talent this year. Even if our team is a little bit smaller, I think if the seniors are able to step up and set the bar high, we have a shot at defending the trophy.”

2016 SPC FINISH 1st

NOTABLE Lance Hagan has been hired as new head coach.

PHOTO RYAN NORMAN

NOTABLE As it stands right now, the varsity team is only fielding 12 players. Head coach Johnny Hunter is planning on swinging players from JV to varsity as the season progresses.

NOTABLE If the tennis team places first in SPC, they will put up a new championship banner in Morris G. Spencer Gymnasium.

2016 SPC FINISH 6th

DEALING DIMES Rearing back for a fastball, freshman Alek Houllion pitches during baseball’s 9-1 win over Thomas Jefferson Feb. 18.

Golf hopeful with new coach

NOTABLE New head coach Greg Guiler will be looking to lead the lead Lions to their first SPC championship since 2011.

BACKHAND Smashing a backhanded return, junior Kobe Roseman aims to win a point for the tennis team.

PHOTO MIKE MAHOWALD

2016 SPC FINISH 2nd

PHOTO RYAN NORMAN

THEY SAID IT Senior captain Sam Clayman “I think we should have a great season this year. We were very close to attaining our goal of an SPC championship last year, and we have only matured more since then. We have many of the physical attributes necessary for success, but the mental aspect of the game can always be improved upon. As long as we stay focused and play within our limitations, we should play well.”

CHIPPING IN Junior Rett Daughberg looks to hit a good approach during a golf team practice.

Lacrosse aided

by Lee’s return RECORD 2 - 1

NOTABLE This team will likely feature talent from all grades in the Upper School. Athletes from each of those grades are expected to contribute to a team looking to make another strong run for the state title.

NOTABLE Hayward Lee is making his return to coaching lacrosse this year.

2016 SPC FINISH 2nd

PHOTO RYAN NORMAN

THEY SAID IT Senior captain Luke Rogers “To be successful, we need to work hard to improve our stick skills, have great team chemistry and buy into coach [Hayward] Lee’s process.”

LOCKDOWN Senior defender Whit Payne chases a groundball during the lacrosse team’s 6 - 9 opening loss to Austin Westlake Feb. 17.

COMPILATIONS MIKE MAHOWALD, CONNOR PIERCE, PARKER DAVIS

SPORTS

PHOTO RYAN NORMAN

SWINGING FOR THE FENCES Junior Canyon Kyle swings during the varsity baseball game against Thomas Jefferson Feb. 18.

Coach Johnny Hunter’s team won SPC last year and is beginning play this year with a 3-1 record as of March 2.

ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS

10600 PRESTON ROAD DALLAS, TX. 75230

THE REMARKER THE BACK SPORTS PAGE THE REMARKER FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017 PAGE 32 HE’S GOT A CANNON Senior water polo captain Easton Honaker practices his shot in the natatorium.

LOOKING FOUR HISTORY With a three-peat already achieved, the water polo team

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seeks to take its fourth state title in a row.

or head coach Mihai Oprea only one word comes to mind when he hears “4-peat” — worry. Worried the word will distract his team from their discipline. Worried that it will put too much pressure on them.

“The word ‘four-peat’ kind of worries me at this point,” Oprea said. “We are where we are, and we have already defined who we are as a program, so that isn’t going to change much.

Senior captain and four-year varsity member Andrew Lin is aware of what will be at stake once the season starts.

“No water polo team has ever won four state championships in a row. It’s unheard of,” Lin said. “If we win our fourth, that will cement St. Mark’s as the powerhouse of Texas water polo.”

One aspect that the team will not have to worry about this year is experience. The team will be starting six seniors, all of whom have been to state before and won. Depth is also high with a large amount of talented freshmen and sophomores.

“As far as weaknesses, we are coming in as the favorites, so we have the pressure of expectation,” Lin said. “Everyone is trying to take down St. Mark’s.”

Oprea doesn’t feel that this year’s situation will have much effect on how the program is seen but is more excited to see the impact that the season will have on the team.

“I think it will mean a lot more for the kids than for the program because, if that happens, we will have two guys that won four times in a row,” Oprea said. “That is very rare. It doesn’t happen generally anywhere in any sport, and that is amazing.”

Despite the amount of success that Lin has experienced, he has found the need to stay focused and to work hard as a team. For Lin, team chemistry is what leads to easy goals and great assists.

“Our challenge is to stay motivated and keep up the endurance,” Lin said. “It’s hard enough to win one championship, let alone four. Every year requires tremendous amounts of time, effort and dedication.”

To have his players’ names etched in history would be an exciting time. Per Oprea, the tools the team needs to succeed again this year are simple.

“Experience, team chemistry, love for one another and just a tremendous respect and trust of others.”

STORY JAHAZIEL LOPEZ PHOTO RYAN NORMAN

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