Vol. 19 No. 5

the

Roar

A&M Consolidated High School

Meet the Consolapalooza lineup on pages 10-11.

1801 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy. S., College Station, Texas 77840

Friday, April 4, 2014

Vol. 19 No. 5

inthisissue people

standing with venezuela

heather weir

annie zhang | news editor

sports

golf

Venezuelan student explains government corruption, issues in home country

reviews amico nave

wheretolook

news viewpoints snapshots student life people sports entertainment

pages 2-4 pages 5-8 page 9 page 10-11 page 12-14 page 15-17 page 18-20

W

hen she was barely thirteen, senior Maria Atencio’s father was kidnapped by the Venezuelan government—and then rescued by it. Yet for most Venezuelans, such cases have become the norm in the country some have nicknamed the “kidnap capital of the world.” Kidnappings are but one of many other problems experienced daily by Venezuelans.

Atencio’s father was the president of an agricultural group in his area for a while, and although it was formed mostly for cultural reasons, it was also a part of the opposition group against the Venezuelan government.

“My dad was in an area near the border of Colombia, which is an important area for the government to take because there, Venezuela has many relations with the guerrilla Columbiana and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which deals with drugs, so there’s been a corrupt and illegal give-andtake of arms, drugs and food,” Atencio said.

“If they’re able to be close to that area, there’s a better way to make it not as obvious that the Venezuelan government is having such a relationship with those groups.”

In order to achieve that goal, the government sent people to kidnap Atencio’s father, so they could divide the land among its supporters.

“It was just a normal day on his farm and he was going to visit the workers on his farm, but when he came in to the office, most of them were tied up and their mouths were gagged,” Atencio said. “[The kidnappers] gagged my dad and then took him—just him—and the workers couldn’t do anything because they were tied up.”

The workers remained bound until the people who bought milk from Atencio’s farm found them and called the police. “[It] was kind of weird during that time, like I couldn’t believe it was happening. I didn’t feel anything, I didn’t cry, I didn’t do

anything. I was in denial,” Atencio said. “But my mom was not eating or talking, and the whole time she was either crying or praying.

You never know what’s going to happen to the person that’s kidnapped. You don’t know if he’s going to get killed, you don’t know if he’s going to get rescued, and you don’t know how much money you have to pay—you don’t know anything.”

A week later, Atencio’s father was rescued by the government, but “for all the wrong reasons,” she said. “[The government] didn’t want the opposition to know what was going on with its relations to the illegal groups, but also they wanted to gain more votes right before the election, so people would say, ‘The government rescued Miguel Atencio, so that means they’re good.’” Atencio said.

“Venezuela” continued on page 3.

2 | news | the roar

friday, april 4, 2014

District realignments create new competition, rivalries aaron ross | assistant editor With the addition of College Station High School, AMCHS will be moving down a district classification. The new district includes CSHS, Bryan, Rudder, Caney Creek, Huntsville, Livingston and Willis.

“Every two years UIL, or University Interscholastic League, does reclassification and realignment of all the public schools in the state of Texas. They put them in divisions or classifications, and subdivide them into districts,” Deputy Superintendent for Administrative Services Clark Ealy said. “It’s a tremendous amount of work on the part of the UIL to gather all the information about the schools, and then make decisions based on geography for those different schools.”

The school districts determine which schools compete against each other in athletic and academic UIL events. The districts are announced every two years, in early February. The UIL makes their decision off of each school’s population and how close they are to each other.

“UIL goes across the state, they take all the numbers from all the schools in Texas in October, and they spend that time between October and February trying to figure out who will be 5A, 6A, 4A and trying to put them into districts,” Ealy said.

“We simply turn in a number and we wait until we find out. While there are lots of rumors around, no one really knows until they reveal them around 9 a.m. at that first morning in February.”

While previously there had only been five district classifications, next year will mark the first time a 6A classification will be used. Consol has been a 5A and will remain a 5A, but is technically going down a district as it would have been a 6A during the previous district change.

“It’s going to be interesting, because we are going to be going down a division next year with 6A, and many of the smaller [schools] are very competitive in academics,” UIL coordinator and U.S. history teacher Bobbi Rodriguez said. “It’s also going to be interesting participating with College Station High School. That will be the weirdest dynamic.”

However, Rodriguez also said that, for the most part, UIL academics don’t have much to worry about. When AMCHS last changed districts, it was put against strong schools such as The Woodlands, Conroe and College Park, and despite the amped up competition, the UIL academics team still placed first.

However, some UIL events will definitely reap the rewards of changing down to a smaller district.

“In our old district we were doing

a lot better from a winning standpoint.

Our times have stayed the same; our team hasn’t gotten any worse,” cross country runner Cisco Hurtado said. “We’re just now competing with the super schools, so our standings have gotten worse.”

The last two seasons the cross country team competed against “super” schools, like the Woodlands, College Park and Oakridge, who are well known for their competitive cross country teams.

“I’m definitely looking forward to the new district,” Hurtado said. “We will finally be competing against schools that are on level with us, as far as team members and facilities.”

The new realignment will not only help from a competitive standpoint. Sports with Tuesday and Friday night games will see their travel time reduced by almost an hour.

“That’s one of the benefits of this new district for us. Last year we had a very long trip to Lufkin, [and] our longest trip this next year will be to Livingston,[which is] probably 45 minutes to an hour less,” Ealy said. “So that’ll be good for our student athletes, getting home earlier. It’s better for us for the budget, better for our kids being able to go to bed and study and do all the things they need to do, and we’re excited to get to know new rivalries.”

the

how many students are in the schools of each district?

District

Students

1A

<104

2A

105-219

3A

220-464

4A

465-1065

5A

1066-2099

6A

2100 + SOURCE: UILTEXAS.ORG

Roar O N L I N E for breaking news, student features and photo galleries, check us out at

theroarnews.com

the roar | news | 3

friday, april 4, 2014

Student reflects on kidnapping, deception in her native Venezuela “Venezuela” cont. from page 1 Chavismo, former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s ideology of socialism, aims to provide everyone with the same economic status. However, Venezuela’s economy has been steadily declining.

According to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, Venezuela ranks second to last among Latin American countries, and has seen the worst decline of any country in the past twenty years. “[The economy’s] getting worse and worse because they’re taking pieces of land from the owner and giving it away to uneducated and inexperienced people, and making the government the actual owner of the big businesses,” Atencio said.

“But even though Venezuela has a bad economy, we’ve still been able to survive the past fifteen years because of our huge oil reserves, but we’ve also become too dependent on it.”

In 2000, Venezuela and Cuba signed an agreement in which Venezuela sends 53,000 barrels of oil to Cuba per day (this number was increased to 90,000 barrels in 2005). Furthermore, almost 20,000 of these oil barrels are entirely free of cost. In return, Cuba sends approximately 30,000 Cubans to offer social services, such as physicians and teachers.

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“But we don’t need them. Why do we need Cuban doctors when we have Venezuelan doctors?” Atencio said. “Yes, we have one of the largest oil reserves, but the government is not managing it well, so it’s hurting the economy.”

Because of the deteriorating economy, Atencio said, the people have lost their morals and have found the need to commit crimes.

“You couldn’t leave your house after 10 p.m. without fear of being shot, robbed or kidnapped. It doesn’t matter if you live in a high-class neighborhood or in the poorer areas, at school, at church, or at your house.

Anything can happen,” Atencio said.

“Actually, my brother and his wife were at church one day, and two guys entered the church with a woman, and just robbed the people at the church. They did it inside of the church.”

In addition, necessary items such as toothpaste and toilet paper are scarce.

“You can’t find the basic things in the supermarket, stuff that you’re like, ‘Why is this missing? Where did all the Venezuelan money go? Where is everything? What happened?’ Things that should work don’t work,” Atencio said. “And the thing is that people inside of the corrupt government are taking all the money, and it’s hard to accuse them because they’re inside of the government. It’s all a cycle—the government worsens and the inflation

increases.”

The exchange rate between the bolívar, the currency of Venezuela, and the US dollar was one USD to 4.30 bolívares in 2010. Today, the rate is one USD to 6.284 bolívares.

To bring attention to the failing economy, millions of students took to the streets to peacefully demonstrate against the government on Venezuela’s National Youth Day, Feb. 12. The protests have been growing more violent daily.

“The problem is that we don’t have the freedom to [protest], and the government sent their national guards to hurt and kill the students. We’re supposed to be a democracy, but we cannot speak up and say what we’re against,” Atencio said. “Even if you’re just being loud, they’ll shoot you, beat you, and do terrible things to you. One of my cousins got sent to jail for a while, and his father had to pay money to get him out, while another one of my cousins was shot in the leg.”

Since then, protests have begun all over the world to support Venezuela, including one held on the A&M campus on February 22. Holding posters and flags, dressed in the Venezuelan colors of yellow, blue and red and singing Venezuelan’s national anthem, people gathered to pray and show their support. Among them was Atencio.

“We need the world to know what’s going on in Venezuela. They know what’s

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going on in Ukraine, in Brazil, but not many know what’s going on in Venezuela,” Atencio said. “When the international community begins to focus on the issues in Venezuela, maybe in twenty or even fifty years, Venezuela will be what it was when my parents were kids, when there was freedom, the economy was good, and the people would actually go to Venezuela instead of leave it.”

The information, however, is not just for the international community, but for those in Venezuela as well. Since the government censors the news, many are unaware of the true events and the correct statistics.

“What we’re also trying to do is post pictures of what we do and show our support for the Venezuelans so they don’t stop, so they keep fighting for their freedom, their rights, their democracy,” Atencio said.

Yet despite the current conditions and situation in Venezuela, Atencio maintains a positive outlook.

“The only thing that will never change, and is why I will always love Venezuela so much, is how it doesn’t matter what we’re going through, what’s going on, how violent our situation is, Venezuelans always find a way to have a smile on their faces,” Atencio said. “Always.”

4 | news | the roar

friday, april 4, 2014

Minecraft Club launches, creating gamer group with connection austin coats | staff reporter

“The whole club is basically rage, blocks and fun,” said Walden.

From this complicated interaction, Ivey has learned Imagine yourself in a world made fully out of pixelata few things about the challenges of being the leader of a ed cubes where you can do relatively anything you want group. with the resources provided. Minecraft is the virtual take “I’ve learned that it’s hard to control people,” Ivey on this, a game in which the player is set in a world of cubic, pixel-like blocks. The player can mine these blocks said.

Some of the group’s favorite aspects of Minecraft are in order to craft more useful cubes to enhance gameplay. the mini-games, plug-ins and the survival game mode.

While the game consists of basic block-building, there is In this game mode, the player much more to the game, according is given a random map to build to freshman Michael Ivey. shelters, explore dungeons and “Minecraft is a game where you caves for raw materials and use have fun, build things, and the posthe materials to create tools and sibilities are endless,” he said. weapons to fend off creatures And that’s why Ivey created like zombies, skeletons and the Minecraft Club, a group that meets Minecraft-original creeper, in every Friday in the school library. an attempt to stay alive.

“I liked the idea [of Minecraft While the club is fairly senior Chase Walden Club], and asked myself ‘Why not?’,” small and only has four meetIvey said. ings under its belt, the group During these meetings, the curhas a few plans to make the rent group of 11 members play the game together, while gatherings more exciting for its participants. While the interacting and competing through multiplayer servers.

“We play mini-games together,” senior Chase Walden club plans to maintain a sense of cooperative gaming, said. “Once we’re done with [each mini-game], we vote there may be more individual play coming in the future.

“We want to have six-week sets of people doing their on the next one.”

This competition and democracy crafted together own thing,” Ivey said.

Overall, Minecraft Club is a gamer savvy group that can often create a bit of anarchy. Freshman Harrison Welikes having fun, enjoying the mayhem that they create deking couldn’t help but note the amount of “rage and and letting one’s creative side flow in a digital parallel uniyelling” during the meetings.

Nevertheless, a little disorder is welcome in this verse.

“The whole club is basically rage, blocks and fun.”

group.

Blocks for Beginners There are many options in minecraft.

However, the first choice every player should make is between creative and survival mode.

Creative

• Unlimited resources for creating any structure • No enemies • Blocks of all shapes and sizes To watch a quick video on controls/ options, scan the QR code.

Source: Minecraft.net

Survival

• Crafting out of necessity • Protect yourself from groups of monsters

the roar | viewpoints | 5

friday, april 4, 2014

SIBLING RIVALRY It’s no secret that College Station High School is newer and shinier than Consol, but is there a rivalry forming that goes deeper than a fancy building? Here’s what you said:

rivalry is more to you?

1 Whichrelevant

43% CSHS

take me out to the

BALL GAME Baseball’s Opening Day warrants an official celebration

30% Don’t care 28% Bryan

2

What, in your opinion, is the main cause of the rivalry between Consol & CSHS?

57% Sports

16% Other 15% Facilities/resources 9% Other/no rivalry exists 4% Academics

3

Have you witnessed fights/ arguments on social media outlets relating to either rivalry?

48% No

26% Yes; both CSHS and Bryan 20% Yes; CSHS 6% Yes; Bryan

4

Be honest: would you rather be at CSHS?

88% No 13% Yes Compiled from 184 responses

austin coats

staff reporter

It’s safe to say that most people love not having to go to work or school because of federal holidays. The days that Americans are relieved from the rigors of everyday life are ones of happiness and fellowship. Would it hurt to add one more to the list of important dates?

Well, technically a federal holiday means the compensation of employees of branches of the government which are nonessential to the day in question, obviously meaning a pretty large amount of money is spent.

However, the celebration of our nation’s history is worth spending a large amount of money, as it reminds us all of our heritage and of what a great country we are. Therefore, it is necessary to have federal holidays for celebrations like Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day and the Opening Day of Major League Baseball, as recently proposed by Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith.

Many would argue that baseball’s historical significance does not match that of the holidays already listed, as well as the others. Sure, it is not easy to believe that a game could be an integral part of American history, but when one studies baseball’s own history, it is easy to see its effect.

First of all, baseball shows the melting pot aspect of American cul-

ture clearly. Baseball began in America as the product of immigrant minds.

Bat-and-ball games brought over from people seeking a better life in America were played still and improved to the form that was initially publicly played by the New York Knickerbockers in the 1840’s. Today, this detail of our culture is continued in baseball as many of the best players in the MLB are from foreign countries. For example Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Carlos Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez all make ESPN’s top ten players list entering the 2014 season.

The American transcendentalist Walt Whitman had this to say about the game: “[It] has the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere—belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions, laws: is just as important in the sum total of our historic life.”

In the 1920’s Babe Ruth intensified the connection between baseball and America as he became idolized in American culture, sealing the title for the sport as “America’s Pastime.” From then on, generation from generation, the love of this great sport is transferred from parent to child, making a truly special bond.

Furthermore, baseball made a huge contribution to American history in 1947 when Branch Rickey introduced Jackie Robinson as the first black player in Major League Baseball as a player for his Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson was one of the earliest leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and an original nonviolent protester for the movement. Dealing with such abuses as death threats, condescending attitudes from players and fans, separation from his team on road

trips, and more, Jackie fought back with intense and stellar play, showing many that integration, even in America’s pastime, was not bad, and instead incredibly beneficial. Martin Luther King Jr., who has his own federal holiday, said himself that Jackie and the black athletes who came behind him made his job possible.

It may seem crazy, but baseball truly has been an integral part of American history, and therefore, the most important day of Major League Baseball’s season must be celebrated as a federal holiday Additionally, it’s not as if Opening Day isn’t treated as a federal holiday anyways. According to CBS, over 22 million people over the age “played hookie” in order to properly celebrate Opening Day last year. Even avoiding the amount of kids who might have mysteriously become sick to watch or go to games, this percentage of the American public is a pretty good reason to make a change in interest of the people of the United States of America.

Overall, Opening Day is not just any ordinary day. Kids are not willing to forfeit rewards for perfect attendance, nor are hard-working adults willing to give up vacation days for just any ordinary day. Opening Day is a tradition, the medium through which a parent to child bond is created through stories of past Opening Day experiences; how their own personal history, baseball’s history, and America’s history all coincide into a beautiful event. If Congress considers this issue well enough, we will be able to celebrate all three.

Austin Coats is a staff reporter for The Roar. Contact him at the.roar.coats@ gmail.com if you’d like to discuss the importance of America’s pastime.

6 | viewpoints | the roar

friday, april 4, 2014

what do you think?

UKR AIN E

mine!

CRIM E

A

puttin’ up with putin Crimean invasion leads to reflection on Putin zach kluver staff reporter

A couple of years ago, my friend and I thought Vladimir Putin was the funniest thing. We would mock him (with very effective Russian accents, I should mention) and Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, portraying Medvedev as a weakwilled softie, and Putin as a sad, depressed old man who yearns for the olden days of the “good ol’ Soviet Union.” We would laugh and watch that video of Putin singing “Blueberry Hills,” and make jokes about his lack of cooperation with anybody except countries with severe human rights violations, like Syria.

However, through his takeover of a small portion of Ukraine, Crimea, he has shown that he is not just a problem for Russia, but a problem for the world. As if his obnoxious, consistently contrary behavior towards the West isn’t bad enough, he seems to have the perception that Eastern Euro-

The Roar asked students what their thoughts were on the situation in Ukraine.

pean countries are all still Sovietera satellite states of Russia.

A measly week after the Sochi Olympics, which Putin spent an (estimated) $51 billion on, (compared to $8 billion at the Vancouver Olympics) he decided to reinforce his new, “glorious” reputation as a pompous overachiever by taking back Russianspeaking regions (a.k.a.: Crimea) of Ukraine during a coup d’état, while they were at their weakest.

Specifically, Ukraine was fighting back against protestors who wanted to establish a new regime due to incredible amounts of government corruption. Although Ukraine used to be part of the Soviet Union, it is now a completely sovereign country, but apparently the Russian government still thinks of it as their playground.

The biggest problem with Putin isn’t his policies, however.

It’s his longevity. He has been Prime Minister for six years, in two different terms, 1999-2000, and from 2008-2012 and has been President from 2001-2008 and from 2013 to the present.

If you add these up (As Dmitri Medvedev is essentially a figurehead, he and Putin switch back

and forth between these two positions), that is almost 15 years as the central power in Russia! As long as he is still in power, the Russian government will not be able to progress past the Soviet Union, and he will form a Rob Ford-ian ulcer on a country that could be so much more.

So what can the United States do for now? Well, we obviously need to let him know that we will not let him mess around with other countries. Luckily, we have the support of pretty much all of Western Europe, so with this unity, we can lead Russia to become less of a ruthless super state and more of a fair democracy. Sanctions, which the US has no qualms about using against poor Middle Eastern countries with small armies, should serve well. In this circumstance, it might not be good enough to just kick them out of multinational programs like the G8. After years of oppression in Russia, it would be nice for them to become a freer and kinder state.

Zach Kluver is a staff reporter for the Roar. Do you have any opinions to share on Putin and the situation in Russia? Email him at the.roar.kluver@gmail.com.

senior anna chernikova

freshman meghan watson

“It’s heartbreaking. I have family there, so we’re all really upset that they’re invading our country.”

“I think Putin is really dangerous, and it’s scary how much like Stalin he is.”

sophomore nicholas farmer “Crimea is mostly ethnically Russian, but there is a minority group, the Crimean Tatars, which the territory is named after. The leaders [of the Soviet Union] often split off territories of ethnic minorities from the main Russian partition. During this period, Crimea was bonded with the Ukraine. If anything, Crimea should be independent or a part of the Ukraine.”

the roar | viewpoints | 7

friday, april 4, 2014

reflecting on Be-You-Tiful week The Roar asked students how they felt about Student Council's event.

senior Aaliyah Smith “I liked it because I think it’s a good thing to make people feel beautiful. I especially liked Friday.”

Week of self-acceptance requires tailoring to fit diverse student body michelle liu managing editor I am guilty of a few things in life: buying granola bars with chocolate in them so that my vegan sister won’t touch them, accidental permanent borrowing of other people’s pens, and--well, okay: scorning body-positive messages.

So, for souls too busily entrenched in the entirety of Sylvia Plath’s unabridged journals, or painting their nails dastardly shades of black in spite of it officially being spring, Be-You-tiful Week comes at us like a sprawling net of neon.

Granted, in theory, it’s cute, spunky and desperately needed (after all, as teenagers, we’re told we’re laden with baggage brought on by societal ideals exacerbated by the cruel, vicious media). But in practice, the event tears a little under pressure-and not at the edges, but in the center of its actions (just like the way those encouraging sticky notes on restroom mirrors inevitably end up sporting rips from side to center after a day or two).

This weeklong parade left me feeling like a witness to a mess—sure, there are tangible ways to assure others their socalled beauty exists, but the wreckage of it

all makes me more uncomfortable in my own skin. Aside from the sticky notes (in various other states: crumpled in the trash, somehow wet, etc.), there’s the kiss.

Not a kiss of death, admittedly, but a kiss I didn’t want anyway. Properly, it’s really just a Kiss, a sweet drop of chocolatey Hershey’s goodness handed to me as I entered the doors Monday morning.

I saw her eyes light up, but said Stuco member hasn’t bothered to talk to me since freshman year. And next thing I knew, there was an inevitable 22.2 calories in my palm and an unsettling feeling in my stomach, knowing that someone I’d once been good friends with when we were ten through 12 was probably patting herself on the back for brightening up my morning (along with those of countless other nowstrangers to her).

And I’m not really sure what it means for a girl to have stopped wearing makeup last week, like we were told to do over the intercom. Or for a boy to support her through it. Oh gosh, her eyes aren’t lined this week! Quick, tell her she looks good anyway!

Really?

If I (or anyone, boy or girl or any identification on the gender spectrum) want to wear makeup, I can do so. It’s a mark of self-expression (and therefore, self-acceptance) that rivals the lofty task of keeping one’s face bare. Most importantly, it’s a choice. And in telling girls to stop, and in reinforcing boys as merely onlookers to

this positivity spectacle, Be-You-tiful Week is—albeit more subtly—doing damage it inherently seeks to avoid.

I’m just not really sure about the level of impersonality Be-You-tiful Week provides despite its message—the school goes into a whirlwind of loving themselves, but that flood of positivity seems to lessen the importance of the concept itself: are we just lemmings, fed one basic lesson? I don’t think I’m beautiful, but I know I’m overcoming that. I know I have yet to bridge gaps between cultures and images and personal frustrations. Mostly, I know that this one panacea isn’t going to work for a student body so diverse that wealth and class and race and family history can’t easily be fixed with a band-aid of a message.

In actuality, I’m not that averse to acts of good intentions. The cold little gap where my soul should be warms up just a degree when I recall the flowers Student Council members handed out to girls on Friday, and it’s still stunning and incredible that anyone would pull through with the energy and resources to tell the student body “Hey, you’re beautiful” for a whole week straight.

I just think that message—hey, you’re beautiful—can afford to be a little more inclusive, a little more outreaching, a little more (dare I say it?) beautiful.

Michelle Liu is managing editor of The Roar. Want to share your thoughts of BeYou-Tiful Week? E-mail her at the.roar.liu@ gmail.com.

senior Anjali Yadav “I don’t think it’s well executed. I think that they enforce ideas that you need to have affirmations from others to feel beautiful. The emphasis should be on celebrating yourself. I t was all about exterior beauty.”

senior Kaycey Cermin “I didn’t really care. It didn’t have much effect on me, and I don’t have many issues with myself, so it had no great meaning.”

8 | viewpoints | the roar

friday, april 4, 2014

Consol students have had their share of Twitter fights with students from other high schools: notably, a tiff with Kingwood High School before the first round of football playoffs in 2013 and several sports-related spats with students attending CSHS. On the evening of March 27, during the first round of girls’ soccer playoffs, Consol defeated Klein in a shootout.

A brief glimpse of what transpired afterwards on Twitter follows.

@cdiggy09: I want them tested for gender and testosterone injections and then ill be able to accept the loss

@shayxleigh: klein :( is :( so :( sad :( @littlefufubear5: boy looking

KLEIN

like something out of a Dr. Seuss comic and he’s talking

@BrandonMDavis1: found out

CONSOL

CONSOL

KLEIN

#STOPCONSOLIDATED2K14

OPPOSING

@15_SaFi: Lolol this dude’s girl

why they don’t care that their girls look like men. Gay boys

must play for Klein. Told her in his batman voice, “they’ll pay for this.

Klein will be avenged.”

School rivalries: the good, the bad and the ugly

the roar's consensus

Maturity neccessary for healthy rivalry As the final school year in our current UIL district winds down, students are already looking ahead to next year’s district, where we’ll compete against—among other schools—College Station High School.

And already, there’s plenty of talk on social media websites about how the maroon team will hold up against the purple team, and generally, the talk is pretty nasty. We’re all for supporting your school and having a sense of pride in the schools’ sports teams, but there’s a fine line between having pride in your team and insulting your rival.

After all, had College Station High School not been built a few years ago, wouldn’t we all be cheering for the same team?

Especially on social media, keep your feuding to a minimum—not only because it tends to get ugly and out of hand pretty quickly, but also because we’re sort of supposed to be growing up. The Roar has advocated for mature use of social media accounts before, but we’re about to do it again: the more you feud on your social media accounts about things as immature as high school rivalries, the more immature you look. And as many of us are starting to apply for jobs, scholarships and admission into college, looking immature is not ideal.

Really, this boils down to having respect for others. Whether you like someone’s school or sports team or outfit or political views or attitude or not, the mature thing to do is to simply keep it to yourself. We’re all for friendly rivalries between schools—and we’re sure that the rivalry between Consol and CSHS is going to be a great one—but it’s important that we keep things tasteful and respectful, because when we get down to the heart of what makes us tick as a community, we’re largely the same. As a community of high school students, we like watching football, we hate homework, we want to have nice friends and nice grades and we want to be respected.

We’re not that different, so maybe we should offer each other the respect we all want, regardless of the school we go to.

The Roar 2013-2014 Staff Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Senior Editor Executive Editor Opinions Editor Photography Editor News Editor Sports Editor Entertainment Editor Assistant Editors

Staff Reporters Faculty Adviser Assistant Adviser

Dana Branham Michelle Liu Nicole Farrell Leah Crisman Shilpa Saravanan Eva Araujo Annie Zhang Channing Young Rojas Oliva Tiffany Hammond Stephanie Palazzolo Elizabeth Reed Aaron Ross Austin Coats Alex Coopersmith Zach Kluver Michael Williams Chauncey Lindner

The Roar Editorial Board

Dana Branham • Michelle Liu • Shilpa Saravanan

RANTS & RAVES on rivalries

“I think it’s more fun to go against the other schools that represent the Bryan and College Station areas. It motivates you.” sophomore HALEY GRAY "A certain amount of [drama] is expected, but there’s a difference between having fun and being a sore loser." senior ARYAN SAFI

“Sometimes it’s Bryan, sometimes it’s someone else—there are always teams you want to beat badly.” basketball coach

WENDY HINES

The Roar is produced by the Advanced Journalism class at A&M Consolidated High School, 1801 Harvey Mitchell Parkway S., College Station, Texas, 77840. The opinions expressed are those of the writers and are not reflective of the administrators, faculty or staff of the College Station Independent School District.

Submissions to the editors are welcomed but must be signed and should not exceed 300 words. The editor reserves the right to edit submissions in the interest of clarity and length or to not print a letter at all.

Letters containing obscene or libelous material will not be considered. The Editorial Board consists of the editor-in-chief, managing editor and opinions editor.

The Roar is a member of the Interscholastic League Press Conference (ILPC), the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA). The Roar is a winner of the CSPA Gold Crown, the 1997, 1998, 2000-2011 ILPC Award of Distinguished Merit, the CSPA Gold Medal Award, the NSPA All-American distinction and 2005 ILPC Bronze Star and 2007-2013 Silver Star.

College Station Independent School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex or handicap in providing education services. Glynn Walker, Director of Human Resources, 1812 Welsh, College Station, Texas 77840 (979-764-5412) has been designated to coordinate compliance with the nondiscrimination requirements of Title IX. Catherine George, Director of Special Services, 1812 Welsh, Suite 120, College Station, Texas 77840 (979-764-5433) has been designated to coordinate compliance with the nondiscrimination. requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

the roar | snapshots | 9

friday, april 4, 2014

hidden harmony

Teachers uncover hidden musical talent, lifestyle outside classroom PHOTO BY STEPHANIE PALAZZOLO

stephanie palazzolo | assistant editor

Latin teacher David Casper performs on electric guitar.

Casper also plays seven other instruments. PHOTO PROVIDED BY DAVID CASPER

German teacher Byron Goble composes an original song. Goble enjoys writing music as well as performing. PHOTO BY STEPHANIE PALAZZOLO

English teacher Daniel Posey plays guitar in classroom. Posey enjoys sharing songs with his students from time to time. PHOTO BY STEPHANIE PALAZZOLO

Pop music pounds from a stereo in a passing car. A pedestrian crossing the street nods his head to the beat of the latest hit. Calming notes drift from a grand piano during a performance.

Music serves as a soundtrack in people’s day-to-day activities, but often it is nothing more than background music for busy and hectic lives. However, a few choice people think of music as more than just an insignificant aspect of life. For English teacher Daniel Posey, Latin teacher David Casper and German teacher Byron Goble, music is their life.

All three teachers started dabbling in music at young ages; however, while some chose to follow the classical route, others followed a more nontraditional road.

“I didn’t like playing guitar at first because I really just wanted to learn all the songs I was listening to on the radio,” Posey said. “So I started branching off and teaching myself chords and how to read tablature by myself.”

Posey continued playing guitar throughout his childhood and into high school and college.

“I started writing songs and would play at little venues around town,” Posey said. “When I went to college, I went on to play at bigger places.”

Since graduating from college, however, playing guitar has been more of a therapeutic practice than one he uses to support himself.

One cause for this is his inspiration, which for him and many other artists can be finicky and come at any time.

“Writing songs for me is, a lot of the time, a process where I get thoughts out of my head,” Posey said.

Read rest of the story online at theroarnews.com

10 | student

life | the roar

friday, ap

CONSOLAPALOOZA brenna briles

The Roar profiles a few of the upco acts in this year’s student co Who is Janksta B? Janksta is actually senior Brett Marburger. “Janksta B” is a nickname that he has appropriated into a stage name. Marburger will be beatboxing, a talent that he's already won awards with.

What awards? Marburger won first place in the talent show last year, along with Consol graduate Jeff Kettle.

How long has he been beatboxing? Marburger started practicing

about two years ago. His favorite genre at that time was dubstep, so he decided to add his own twist to it.

Why did he start? Marburger says he loved music and wanted a way to play it without an instrument. Now he beatboxes at school “pretty much all the time.”

Is it possible to make a mistake while beatboxing? Yes, but it’s hard for someone who doesn’t beatbox to hear the slip-ups.

the full lineup

Who is she? Briles is a sophomore and a choir member. Last year (as a freshman!) she played Beatles’ songs on the ukulele at Consolapalooza. This year her instrument of choice is the banjolele.

Wait, what is a banjolele? It’s what it sounds like: a banjo combined with a ukulele. Briles says the chords play like a ukulele, but the instrument sounds like a banjo.

What kind of music does she play? According to Briles, her style is neither alternative nor indie. She

prefers to call it “folk-ish.” To make her music more ebullient, she likes to play on the up-beat rather than the down-beat.

How is her setlist going? So far, she’s got “House of the Rising Sun”

by The Animals. Briles says she might play some original songs, but she hasn’t decided yet.

How important are her instruments to her? Very important. So important that her banjolele has a name: Sunny.

janksta b

Brenna Briles Stereotype Astrochimp Scooby Don’t F-Jam Out of Ashes Leah Watts Alejandra Fajardo Pablo and Victor Leon Midnight on Main Janksta B Dan Bot Eva Araujo and Bethany Anderson Blake Steines and Aryan Safi

f-ja

Wh Pre wit and gan wh

Wh stan nam cam

the roar | student life | 11

pril 4, 2014

2014: A PREVIEW

oming leah crisman oncert executive editor midnight on main

am

ho’s in F-Jam? Seniors Steven Acala, eston Cunha, Aryan Safi are members th Sam Armstrong, Cullen Dowling d Jonathan Pequeno. The group ben with Alcala, Cullen and Pequeno, ho play regularly for a church.

hy are they called F-Jam? F-Jam nds for Firecracker Jamboree, the me a random band name generator me up with.

What is their style? Alcala called it a combination of folk, rock and pop. So far, they have two Mumford and Sons songs on their setlist.

Is this their first time playing for a crowd? Not for most of the members of F-Jam! They played at First Friday in downtown Bryan and at Consolapalooza last year.

save the date!

SATURDAY APRIL 12 7 PM CAFETERIA

Who’s in Midnight On Main? Consol seniors Eric Golden and Sean Vanegas make up the band with Kade Massey, Christian Nichols, Sean Vanegas and Scott Snell.

How long have they been together? The band has been called Midnight On Main since Oct. 2013. A previous iteration of the band called The Ripple Effect played at last year’s Earth Day celebration at Wolf Pen.

What is their style? According to Vanegas, it would be hard to pigeonhole them into a single category.

The members of Midnight On Main come from pretty diverse musical backgrounds like blues, 80’s pop and metal. For lack of a better word, their style might be called “alternative.”

Has the band come up with any original songs? Midnight On Main will be playing two original songs

at Consolapalooza: “Shame on Me” and “Everybody’s Got a Story.” Their third song will be a cover of Awolnation’s “Sail.”

Do they perform for the public often? They will be quite soon.

See them tonight at First Friday in Downtown Bryan, or, if you miss that, they’ll be headlining at Wolf Pen Creek’s Earth Day celebration tomorrow, April 5.

taking the FIELDS Tyrik wilder 12 | people | the roar

friday, april 4, 2014

Student athletic director reports on, organizes CSISD sports events

PHOTO BY DANA BRANHAM

tiffany hammond | assistant editor With a passion for sports and people, junior Tyrik Wilder has found his niche as A&M Consolidated’s student athletic director, a position in which Wilder gets the opportunity to help run and be a part of the athletic department.

Wilder is an important aspect to the athletic department, and although he’s not actually on the field, he is as much of the family as every athlete and coach.

“I handle a lot of communication aspects between the athletic department and school clubs, Tiger Club, which is our athletic booster, local news reporters, setting up facilities for home athletic events, greeting opposing teams, coaches and administrators, setting up the scoreboard and sound system, and helping in the concession stands if needed,” Wilder said.

“I would say my favorite part of my job is

interacting with so many different people and building relationships.”

Wilder has gained trust from all the staff because of what they see as his incredible work ethic and the simple joy in he takes what he is able to do.

“He knows every coach and their needs. He knows the athletes and their needs, and he understands that managing an athletic department is more than having good athletes,” Superintendent Eddie Coulson said. “Our athletic directors have tremendous confidence in Tyrik and in his ability to get things accomplished within the athletic department.”

Wilder earned the position because of his dedication to the athletic department and continues to grow and learn through the jobs he is given.

“Tyrik is always assisting with the

visiting teams in all sports as they arrive and helping them in any manner that they may need… [which] exemplifies his leadership ability,” Coulson said. “I admire Tyrik’s attitude, character and work ethic.

One of his greatest attributes is his ability to get along with other students as well as all adults.”

Wilder is preparing now for the future by gaining practice as the student athletic director, as well as working for the City of College Station.

“Something people don’t know is that I’m also employed through the City of College Station Parks & Recreation department as a recreation assistant,” Wilder said. “I hope to someday go into athletic administration and become an athletic director either at the interscholastic or the intercollegiate level.”

Follow tyrik on twitter @ Tyrikwilder for all things Consol, College station and sports

the roar | people | 13

friday, april 4, 2014

immuneproficiency

Biotechnology student takes leading role in hands-on immunology project annie zhang | news editor

Senior Heather Weir dissects a zebrafish during the final day of the research project. Weir had to remove the spleen and take a blood smear. PHOTO BY LEAH CRISMAN

Senior Heather Weir and professor Michael Criscitielo remove the spleen from a zebrafish. Criscitielo has invited Weir to do lab work at Texas A&M PHOTO BY LEAH CRISMAN

Surrounded by blood, fish, liver and spleens, which is mucus-based and not blood-based. senior Heather Weir prepares herself for another “It isn’t just a brief, high school concept; it’s day of research. No, witchcraft is not involved. It’s a legitimate, publishable experiment,” Young said. just the immunology research project that she has And it’s exactly that aspect of Weir’s research been taking part in. that appeals to her most.

Weir has been collaborating with professor “[I like it] because it’s a high level experiMichael Criscitiello from Texas A&M, and the ment, and [it’s] helped me know how far I can go experiment seeks to find a difference in immune already, and where I can go with it in the future,” responses within zebrafish through an injectable Weir said. “It’s shown me my strengths and weakantigen. nesses, and that biotech could be a very viable op“Starting last year, I’ve had a large interest in tion later on because I understand and enjoy it.” genetics and biotech, so I decided to give it a try,” According to Young, Weir “literally flew up” Weir said. “It’s probwhen he offered the reably something I’d like search opportunity to to continue to do in his class.

[I like the immunology college.”

“She was very inproject] because it’s a high Though currently terested in doing it beWeir’s been working cause she’s interested level experiment, and [it’s] with the “more nittyin science and the enhelped me know how far I can tire system of how it gritty gross stuff ”, as aquatic sciences teach” Young said. go already, and where I can go works, er Matthew Young calls “And that’s what stands with it in the future it, next month she will out the most about be able to go the vet her—her drive and cuschool at A&M and riosity.” senior Heather Weir work on the QPCR, That drive not only which indicates what is impressed Young, but used in the sample when the protein or the genes also the professor she works with at Texas A&M. in it are unknown. “[He] was wildly impressed with her and of“My part of the research is to take out the fered her an internship,” Young said. “Like, ‘You spleen of the zebrafish, so I have to cut them open, want an internship? Just come in.’” and also to take up blood smear for them,” Weir As for the future, Weir hasn’t yet decided besaid. tween veterinary medicine and biotech.

One group of zebrafish will receive a visceral “Both seem really interesting, and I might injection in the abdomen, and another group will even try do a combination of both, like Profesbe placed into a fluid with the same antigen sus- sor Criscitiello,” Weir said. “I’m hoping to do an pended in it, while the control group will be in- internship with him over the summer and seeing jected with salt water. if this is something that I could do, so hopefully “You see a different expression of immune next year I’ll have a good idea.” globulins based on how you get sick and with But no matter which direction she chooses, what, so your body produces different soldiers Young believes that she has the ability to accomand signals,” Young said. “So, there should be two plish her goal. different things that pop up—the immune mu“Earlier, she expressed interest in vet school, cosal response versus the visceral response—and and that she’ll have no problem with,” Young said. that’s the first step.”

“But if she wants to go into research as well, she’ll The overall idea is to discover how to make be great at it too. I have zero concern of her poa better vaccine for a disease like tuberculosis, tential success.”

14 | people | the roar

Jordan Strope

friday, april 4, 2014

Work Out With the Six Knee Repeater 1.

First you’ll want to get yourself into a confident power stance.

Senior teaches fitness class, focuses on health channing young sports editor Juggling AP classes, Basic Medical Practice and a job can be hard to do in high school, but adding on keeping up with your fitness and health takes commitment.

Senior Jordan Strope is dedicated to doing all of the above. Ever since freshman year Strope has taken an extra step to stay healthy.

“I’ve always eaten pretty healthy, but a few years ago I wasn’t liking how I felt, I didn’t enjoy my body image,” Strope said. “So I decided to change that. Ever since I was a freshman I started working out at the Dome.”

The summer going into her senior year Strope began working in child care at The Aggieland Fitness Dome.

Strope’s boss saw how dedicated she was to her work, health and fitness and asked if she would be interested in getting certified to be an instructor for a new class called Group Blast.

This opportunity was the perfect addon to Strope’s fitness lifestyle and she agreed.

“It’s fun. I like being healthy, it’s just a part of who I am,” Strope said. “The class was just another thing I added on, it’s a part of my life now.”

Strope began her training in October when the BTS (Body Training System Instructors) came down for a weekend in October and taught Strope and others about Group Blast.

“We spent two days from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. learning about how to be an instructor and what [Group Blast] was, because it’s a new class and no one had

ever heard of it until this past January when we released it,” Strope said.

After the weekend training, the BTS instructors left tracks, videos of how to teach the class, for the upcoming instructors like Strope to learn.

“We had a four to five month block period where we learned the tracks and everything,” Strope said. “We had to teach ourselves and then we sent in videos to the BTS and they evaluated and scored us on how well we taught the moves, then you basically received a yes or no.”

Senior Emily Caruso, one of Strope’s good friends, recalls how excited Strope was about teaching the class and sitting her friends down one day and practicing teaching her tracks in front of them.

“She was really excited—it’s something she’s really passionate about,” Caruso said.

When asked about what the class is like Strope said she would relate it to Zumba and P90X. “I would compare it to Zumba, the music aspect, because you do it to the songs and go along with the music,” Strope said. “Another way I compare it is like a P90X style workout because you’re using a step but you’re doing intense movements like lunges, burpees, squats—you’re not using weights it’s all body weight but you’re constantly moving. They have it set up that where your heart rate peaks at certain times so it’s targeting your whole body.”

Although Strope would compare Group Blast to these other cardio classes, she says if one has taken the other two and then came into Group Blast they would realize how unique it

is, especially since it is a new class.

Caruso, who took Strope’s class, said the class is a good cardio workout and she also enjoyed seeing her friend do something she was so excited about.

“It was fun to watch her and see her work really hard for something and it be really rewarding,” Caruso said.

Strope is extremely passionate about her class, fitness, and health even though it can be a struggle to keep up with school and social life.

“It’s hard with my full school schedule, getting out of school at 3:45 then working at 4,” Strope said. “The way I work around my schedule is when I don’t work I’m at boot camp. When I have to be at the medical center in the morning at 7:30 I go to boot camp at 5:15 a.m.”

Not only does Strope have to work her exercise into her schedule but also limit her diet when going out to eat.

When Strope goes out to eat with her friends she limits herself on what she can and cannot eat in order to keep a healthy diet.

“I limit things like sweets, I don’t drink any sodas or juices and I try to stick to all natural things,” Strope said.

“You can even ask my friends when we go out to eat, they’ll get pazookies or something and most of the time I say ‘Oh no thanks, I think I’m good.’”

Although it can sometimes be difficult to live a [healthy] lifestyle, Strope believes it is completely worth it.

“If you want to be the best you can be you have to be dedicated,” Strope said.

2.

Then quickly bring your leg up at the knee.

3.

Now bring your leg forward.

4.

Finally bring your leg down to end in another fierce power stance and you’re ready to repeat.

PHOTOS BY CHANNING YOUNG

the roar | sports | 15

friday, april 4, 2014

PITCHER PERFECT Senior varsity baseball player motivates, inspires teammates dana branham | editor-in-chief When you ask a varsity baseball player who on their team stands out as a leader, they answer with no hesitation: “Kyle Barfield.”

Barfield, however, doesn’t think he’s doing anything out of the ordinary.

“I just do things right, I do the things coaches ask and play the game right,” he said.

Still, his teammates and coaches think he’s doing a little more than just playing the game right. Head baseball coach Chase Mann said that Barfield, a senior who recently signed with San Jacinto Junior College to play baseball, not only does what he’s asked, but helps motivate the other players on the team.

“A lot of it is that his skill level is there, but he works every day and wants to get better at everything he does,” Mann said. “He’s very outspoken and really leads by example and gets the guys going.”

As a third year varsity player, Barfield understands that the other players often look to him for direction. Even in his position of leadership, however, Barfield focuses on staying humble.

“I don’t think people look up to me like I’m ‘over’ them or something–we’re all good friends,” Barfield said. “I don’t

think I’m above them or anything, and not from like a cocky standpoint, but I think they look to me for leadership. It’s not like I’m the main thing, but they look to me to lead them.”

Assistant coach Michael Hobbs, who has coached Barfield in various sports since freshman year, said that Barfield leads by setting a good example for the other players.

“Kyle does his best to hustle everywhere he goes and does the job asked of him every day without complaining,” Hobbs said.

“His teammates see that, and it rubs off on them.”

Mann explained that much of Barfield’s inspiration and motivation for playing stems from his sophomore year on varsity, when the team went to the state championships.

“There were a lot of good guys, and a lot of those guys are still playing baseball now. I know that’s a big goal for him, so it was something for him to look forward to,” Mann said. “As far as this year’s team, I don’t know that there’s any one guy that he’s any closer to than any of them. He pumps all the guys up and he’s around all of them, just trying to get them all going.”

With that, Barfield has high hopes for this season, but knows the team will have to work for it.

“I think we’ll go pretty deep in the playoffs–that’s the expectation, at least. The coaches always push to go deep, but two years ago, we had like four or five D1 guys, so we didn’t really have to work. We’d just go out and play,” Barfield said. “This year, we actually have to do the little things right.”

Barfield’s positive outlook toward the season is especially important, as the team has been going through a bit of a “rough patch,” Mann said.

“We’re kind of in a little stumble right now, but we’re looking to turn around. We’re still working hard, and the guys are fighting every chance they get,” Mann said.

“I’m proud that they’re keeping their heads up and working hard every day, and not just giving in to the losing. They’re working hard to try to get out of this slump.”

Even despite the struggles, Hobbs said he’s confident that with hard work, the team can turn things around.

“The kids and the coaches know we are going through a rough stretch, but we also know the kids have the ability to turn it around,” Hobbs said. “They are coming out to practice with a lot of enthusiasm and wanting to get better. The team knows that the hard work will turn into wins in district.”

Senior Kyle Barfield pitches against Conroe. The game ended 6-2, breaking a losing streak. PHOTO BY ANNIE ZHANG

UPCOMING GAMES April 5

2:00 p.m.

Episcopal

home

April 8

4:00 p.m.

The Woodlands

away

April 11

7:00 p.m.

Bryan

home

April 15

6:00 p.m.

College Park

away

April 17

7:00 p.m.

Oak Ridge

home

April 22

6:00 p.m.

Conroe

away

16 | sports | the roar

friday, april 4, 2014

Sophomore golfer’s tournament play, dedication contribute to success michelle liu | managing editor Sophomore Caroline Zerbe might have been the youngest athlete on the varsity girls golf team for the last two years, but that doesn’t mean she lacks experience.

“I’ve kind of played my whole life. My dad plays—I’m an only child, so he would take me to go hit balls on Sundays whenever I was really little,” Zerbe said. “And then one of my friends worked at Golfsmith [in Austin] so I guess I’ve been around it my whole life.”

Zerbe recalls receiving a junior set of clubs as a kid from that friend, which then led to her playing golf as a way to bond with her father.

Although Zerbe only began playing seriously in seventh grade, her dedication to the sport is noted by teammates and coach alike.

“Golf is literally her life. She plays golf more than any of us do— she’s always out there,” teammate and senior Randi Miller said. “Over spring break she played in a tournament. She is probably the most dedicated person I’ve seen.”

Coach Mike Terral notes that Zerbe’s progression over her past two years has been a “big jump,” thanks to her “hunger to get better,” he said.

“Well, Caroline really has a wonderful work ethic, and I think it’s rooted in the fact that she really loves to play. She has passion for the game of golf and I don’t even think she sees it as work,” Terral said. “And I think that so much of anything in life, if you’re not passionate about something, it’s hard to be very good at it. And she is passionate about golf.”

Zerbe’s visible passion has helped her cultivate relationships with her team as well—all of whom are seniors.

“When she came in as a freshman she came in with a group of girls who were all juniors ahead of her. I’m sure it was difficult—I’m

sure that not every junior buddies up to every freshman in the world, but more than anything else they are really good girls and they’re not clique-ish and so consequently, they respected immediately what she was able to do,” Terral said.

“She has a good relationship with her teammates and I think it grows stronger every day.”

Outside of school golf, though, Zerbe has bonded with other golfers as well—that is, from all the tournaments she’s attending on her own. Zerbe played consistently over the summer (in about 20 tournaments, she estimates).

“In these outside-of-school tournaments, I see a lot of the same girls every meet. Especially in the summer, I played with a lot of the same girls. It was kind of cool,” Zerbe said. “I meet a lot of people, and I get to go a lot of really cool places—South Carolina was the height [of them].”

Some of the perks of playing golf aren’t about her surroundings so much as they are inherently part of the sport itself.

“When you hit like a really good shot, you can just feel it and you know it’s going to be good—I love the feeling of that,” Zerbe said.

Zerbe acknowledges that she would eventually like to obtain a scholarship to play golf in college-she talks about former Consol golfer Casey Grice (who won the state tournament in 2008) as her inspiration.

“She’s a pro now, and it’s really cool to be like, ‘She was one of us, on the team, being coached,’” Zerbe said.

Her teammates don’t doubt that Zerbe herself will eventually reach pro status.

“She’s a really good golfer,” teammate and senior Brooke Bayliss said. “You’re going to see her on the tour one day.”

At the Garrett Maliska Invitational on March 21 and 22 in Bryan, the varsity team placed 2nd overall, and Zerbe placed 3rd individually.

PHOTO OF CAROLINE ZERBE BY MICHELLE LIU

the roar | sports | 17

friday, april 4, 2014

touching base

Seniors enjoy last season together, prepare for future shilpa saravanan | opinions editor Senior softball players Kayla Bowman and Hallie Zimmerman go back-as friends, as teammates, as practically family-to the seventh grade.

“We’re like sisters,” Bowman said. “We’re exactly like sisters. We fight, but we love each other-and we pick each other up on the field.”

Head softball coach Rusty Erwin uses nearly identical words to describe the connection between the two.

“They look like sisters,” Erwin said. “They act like sisters.”

Bowman and Zimmerman spent their first two years of high school together on the basketball team as well as the softball team. Surprisingly, according to both, their friendship grew when Zimmerman made the decision to focus solely on softball, leaving Bowman on her own with basketball for their junior and senior years.

“When we were around each other a lot, we’d get tired of each other and we’d argue all the time,” Zimmerman said. “But once we got into two separate sports, we-as friends-grew stronger.”

She emphasizes the importance of this sort of bond across an entire team in any sport.

“You have to have good chemistry if you want to have a good team,” Zimmerman said. “You can have the best talent in the world, but if you don’t get along with your teammates, you’re going to suck. So, if you have decent talent and put it together, and you have a team who really bonds well, they’re going to be better off.”

Both Bowman and Zimmerman recall the slightly bumpy transition from basketball season to softball season that they experienced together during their freshman and sophomore years-the slight overlap between the two seasons meant that they missed part of the preseason each year.

“You’d have to come back on the field and earn your spot,” Zimmerman said. “You’re behind, because everyone else has been around since the beginning.”

This transition never bothered head softball coach Rusty Erwin. On the contrary, he welcomes

the fact that many of his players participate in more than just softball.

“You can have the best talent in the world, but if you don’t get along with your teammates, you’re going to suck.” senior Hallie Zimmerman

“I like them to be competitive in other sports,” Erwin said. “It keeps the competitive juices flowing. They might be a little slow starting out, but by the time we get to district, you’d never know a thing.”

Erwin feels that this competitiveness has helped his team, whom he says has played extremely well so far, but has also been rather unlucky.

“We’ve had some adversity,” Erwin said. “We just need to get that key hit every game.”

Each game the team plays serves as a countdown for Bowman and Zimmerman-a countdown to the moment when their five years of being family on the field will end. While they’ll both stay in the South, they’ll be across the country from one another: Bowman has signed to play softball at Galveston College, and Zimmerman has signed to Tallahassee Community College.

“I’ll definitely cry at the Conroe game, because that’s going to be our last game,” Bowman said. “It’ll be hard.”

Both look forward to their futures, though, and, as they both plan to return to A&M after playing softball for two years, they will eventually be reunited-if not on the field.

Senior Hallie Zimmerman prepares to throw the ball back to the pitcher. Zimmerman plans to return to Aggieland and pursue a career in coaching. PHOTO BY SHILPA SARAVANAN

Senior Kayla Bowman takes her batting position. Bowman will continue to play softball at Galveston College for the next two years.

PHOTO BY SHILPA SARAVANAN

18 | entertainment | the roar

friday, april 4, 2014

what we’re roaring about: dating simulators Burn Your Fat With Me!!

zach kluver | staff reporter

Featuring

Mayu

“Still... you’ve really gotten...‘squishy,’ haven’t you?”

Yuki

“Her character is too frank and too her own way [sic]”

When I first downloaded this game off the Google Play Store, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had played one or two other dating simulators, but how they would try to integrate push-ups and sit-ups into an interesting plot and game was beyond me. The simple answer: they didn’t. The plot and conversations with your virtual girlfriend are dull and lack any of the fun that is supposed to come with dating, and the game lacks any choices and instead you are forced to read line upon line of rather boring dialogue as your virtual girlfriend talks nostalgically of the past, when you weren’t fat and ‘squishy’ (since the game assumes you are a fat nerd). To be fair, there is some drama, but it ends up being more dumb than entertaining. At its best, the plot sounds like it was written by Nicholas Sparks. At its worst, it sounds like it was written by Adam Sandler.

The amount of dialogue and story is unfortunately not proportional to the amount of exercise you have to do. Near the end, the game requires you to do ridiculous amounts of training to advance the story, like 75 reps five times with a three minute time limit. Honestly, the most useful utility “Burn Your Fat With Me!!” is good for is as a counter for sit ups. That’s if you don’t mind the ridiculously high voice of your girlfriend (there’s voice acting too), which I believe can break glass if you play it loud enough.

However, my main problem with this game is the unintuitive workouts. Rather than registering motion controls to make it easier for the player to exercise, you are forced to press the touch screen every time you do a rep of something. This is especially uncomfortable with push-ups, where you feel like your arms are about to fall off already without the tapping. Couldn’t you place it in a pocket or something and have it count by the already built-in gyroscope? The lack of motion controls also makes it incredibly easy to cheat. If you are really dedicated, all you have to do is tap the screen at a constant tempo and you can advance the story.

So yeah, it might be better for you to purchase a crappy romance book from Half-Price books and read a few pages every time you finish sit-ups, because that’s really all this game is doing for you. Not recommended, except for people who really love anime babes.

Sweet Scandal: My Love Report leah crisman | executive editor Dating simulator apps are a weird little niche genre within a niche genre. There are hundreds of them out there, but the base idea is usually the same (at least for the female-oriented ones): you are a make-believe character (secretary, daughter of a millionaire, ninja, vampire, ninja-vampire, etc.) that is matched with a handsome cartoon guy in a contrived love story. The app I decided to review, “Sweet Scandal: My Love Report,” had three possible love interests for me to choose from (complete with their own taglines!). Will my journalist character choose to do an in-depth story on the professional tennis player (“You know, I really do as I want…”), the popular writer (“Should I let you teach me about girls’ heart? [sic]”) or the professional cameraman (“You’re so defenseless...who knows what will happen?”)? I guess I’ll never know what will happen with that cameraman; I picked the writer because I thought the grammatical error in his taglines was endearing.

The storyline was hopelessly stilted. I just tapped my way through overly simplistic conversations and lots of asides my character made to herself (“Oh, I wonder if he likes me!” and that sort of thing). My love interest, the popular writer with a mysterious past, showed all the signs of bipolar disorder, so I had trouble connecting with him. I’m afraid, even for the noble cause of investigative journalism, I was only able to get through a couple chapters. At first I found the whole thing funny-weird, but then it progressed to boring-weird. I gave up entirely when it tried to make me pay to continue.

Perhaps it’s just my natural cynicism here, but never did my heart flutter (as was promised in the app’s description) or do any other unusual palpitations. I did doze off once though.

If this app sounds like a worthwhile venture, be my guest. It’s really just a digitized version of a sappy PGrated romance novel.

Want to try them out yourself? Either app is available for download on the Android Play Store and “Sweet Scandal” is available for download on the App Store.

Featuring

Horai Itsuki

“You’re so defenceless ...who knows what will happen? [sic]”

Misato Yusuka

“You know, I really do as I want...”

friday, april 4, 2014

New Italian restaurant impresses with pasta dishes, atmosphere nicole farrell | senior editor Amico Nave is my new favorite place.

It’s as simple as that.

Amico Nave Ristorante, located on East Villa Maria just into Bryan, is a pleasant eatery perfect for a pasta pick-me-up.

Its classy interior is comfortable and inviting: chestnutcolored wood and dark tablecloths are balanced with big windows and colorful glass bottle lights. Smooth, jazzy music by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Michael Buble plays at just the right volume and had me nodding my head in appreciation the entire meal. Homey black and white photographs decorate the walls.

Cozy booths are readily available in the smaller dining room, as well as a unique raised seating option in the center. A classic wooden bar gleams at the back of the restaurant.

My sister and I went early, and were seated by a host shortly after arriving. The small half-booths was perfect for two, and neatly folded maroon napkins, a round candle, salt and pepper shakers, and polished water glasses were ready as we sat down.

Our friendly waiter was extremely helpful and explained Amico Nave Ristorante’s traditional Sicilian menu, as well as more modern options. Cocktails were offered, but we politely and legally declined and settled down with the menu to make a choice.

As we decided, our waiter brought out their house bread.

This bread basket wasn’t filled with a typical dry Italian loaf or salty breadsticks, but instead little garlic knots of heaven, sprinkled with grated cheese. My sister and I couldn’t believe how good they were.

As we devoured the bread, we made our choices.I ordered the Blackened Chicken Linguini Alfredo, a perfectly crafted blend of rounded noodles, milky sweet sauce, and amazing blackened chicken with a spicy rub, lightly sprinkled with grated parmigiano-reggiano. It was the best pasta I have ever eaten, and after eating more than my fill, I still had a serving left.

My sister went for a slightly lighter option, the Tomato Primavera Carsoni, a zesty blend of summer squash, mushroom artichoke spinach and marinara sauce over angel hair pasta.

Adding chicken or shrimp was an option, but my sister was pleased with just the vegetables.

The waiter kindly explained all their desserts and explained their partnership with a local chocolate shop for some of the options. We ordered the tirasmiu at his recommendation, which came out in a cappuccino cup. Sprinkled with espresso and topped with rich cream, the espresso-soaked ladyfingers at the bottom were absolutely perfect. As our waiter had said, nothing was sticky sweet, just a layer of sweet cream and coffee. The size was perfect for two.

Amico Nave is the perfect balance between classy and comfortable. The pricing is more expensive, ranging from $10 to $25 for dinner, but the food we received was well worth it, and we had leftovers, which our waiter neatly packed up for us.

Incredibly delicious and wonderful to visit, Amico Nave would be the perfect pick for prom, a graduation or birthday dinner, or an upscale lunch with friends.◆

amico nave the roar | entertainment | 19

blackened chicken linguini alfredo

PHOTOS BY NICOLE FARRELL

tomato primavera carsoni

tiramisu

to make a reservation: call 979-703-1953 or go online to amiconave.com/reservations

want to be on the Roar’s senior map?

20 | etcetera | the roar

friday, april 4, 2014

HEY SENIORS! WANT TO BE ON THE ROAR’S SENIOR MAP? (Of course you do! But what is the senior map, you ask?)

It’s a visual representation of the future of the class of 2014, and it won’t be complete without you.

FILL OUT THE SURVEY TODAY!

Scan the QR code or visit bit.ly/1dwHhUo to tell us about your AFTER-HIGH SCHOOL PLANS!