Volume 62, Issue 5
Arcadia High School 180 Campus Drive, Arcadia, CA
January y 2013
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Lady Apaches Turned College Recruits
By ZACHARY YEE
By ANNA WANG Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Senior Melody Chang’s list of basketball-related accolades is hardly lacking. Two-year Girls Varsity Basketball Captain. Awarded “All-Area Second Team” by Pasadena Star News. 2012 Pacific League Co-“Most Valuable Player”. AHS Girls Basketball record-setter for most three-pointers in a single game—ten. Apache Girls Basketball all-time leader in points and steals. Now, she’s reaping the rewards for her talent and tireless efforts, having been wooed by college coaches desperate for Melody to grace their team rosters. Melody’s current success has been in the works since her freshman year, when she led her Arcadia Lady Apache Frosh/Soph Team to a league championship. Crossing over to Varsity her sophomore year, Melody put in hours of practice and worked her way into a starting position. Girls Varsity Basketball Head Coach Don Young praised, “Melody is an extremely hard worker. She is very coachable and is constantly working on her game.” Now averaging 24.5 points per game, she is the star of the Arcadia Girls’ Basketball program and stands at the helm of an excellent team poised to win a league championship for the first time since 1979. The recipient of attention from numerous colleges, Melody narrowed down her choices to Claremont McKenna College, Lewis & Clark College, and Occidental College. With the head coach frequently attending games to personally witness her skills in action, there’s a chance Melody may be donning Claremont McKenna’s gold and maroon next year. Despite her basketball prowess, Melody has remained touchingly humble. “I honestly never had expectations for this success,” Melody said. “I was just playing to play, just pushing to get better. I didn’t think I’d be at this level. College ball is the chance for me to continue to work and improve. I never want to limit myself.”
Three years and sixty-six games ago, senior Francis Dean walked onto the tennis court, hoping to one day cement her name among the great players of Apache tennis history. What she didn’t know was that her goals and dreams would be accomplished, due in part to her excellent work ethic as well as a strong, supportive group around her. A star was born after Francis had won her very first tennis match, and a journey full of countless achievements and successes began. Never looking back from her first win, Francis continued to breeze past the competition and established herself as an elite player in the Pacific League. With lightning fast agility and powerful ground strokes, Francis managed to win the league title for singles three out of four years. And in addition to leading the Girls Varsity Tennis team to the CIF finals as well as the second round of State Championships, she received All-League First Team honors each year. All of the awards and individual accomplishments were certainly great, but Francis had her mind on something even better: a scholarship. Working harder than ever, Francis would actually stay at the courts long after exhausting games just to get extra training and practice. Scouts started taking notice when Francis would come out on top over other highly regarded tennis recruits, going 15-10 against 4-Star tennis recruits and 9-0 against 3-Star recruits. Finally, the University of the Pacific offered her a tennis scholarship, which she happily accepted. Teammate junior Tiffany Hseih reflected on the success of Francis as she stated, “She always works hard and has an amazing sense of sportsmanship; she definitely deserves everything she has gotten.” There is certainly more than enough for Francis to be proud of during her high school career. Keep up the great work Tiger!
awang@apachepowwow.com
Inside this Issue Rally Court Renovations:
zyee@apachepowwow.com Photos by DANA JEE and WILSON LIN Photos courtesy of WHITTIERDAILYNEWS.COM and WIKIMEDIA.ORG
The congested hallways and green-tarped gates are minor pains to endure now for a more beautiful campus later.
Entertaining “Cat”-harsis or “Meow”-lignant Addiction?: From Youtube videos to online memes, cats and kittens have made their way onto the mainstream.
IN STUDENT LIFE (PG. 14)
FEATURES(PG. (PG.8)8) ININFEATURES
Photo courtesy of CONSTRUCTIONSOLUTIONS-MANOJKUMAR.BLOGSPOTS.COM
Graphic courtesy of PHOENIXNEWTIMES.COM