Seniors gain a home field advantage, again
JOEY LI—EPIC
THE LONG-AWAITED FOOTBALL FIELD| Lynbrook’s anticipated football field renovations have been finished successfully ahead of schedule, allowing the class of 2012 to use it for their graduation on June 8 at 9:30 a.m.
BY JOY SHEN & KATHY LI
T
urn the clock back to eight months ago. Eight months ago, students, parents and faculty members gathered for what would be their last time sitting on the familiar, faded wooden bleachers of the football field. Just eight months ago, members of the Lynbrook community were exposed to mounds of dirt residing beneath a worn patch of green they once called their field. Now, eight months later, a mixture of joy and relief reside amongst the seniors, and other members of the Lynbrook community, for the long wait is finally over. On Wed. May 2, Principal Gail Davidson received the final consent to release an anticipated piece of information regarding the track and field construction going on around
Lynbrook. Two days later, in front of 417 seniors, Davidson announced, with her greatest pleasure, the completion of the highly anticipated football field. The successful rate at which the field was completed allows for the senior class to graduate at home as opposed to Cupertino High School’s field. “We’re very lucky [construction moved quickly],” says Davidson. “The sun has been shining at Lynbrook.” Davidson arranged for a surprise senior class meeting last Fri. during brunch, in order to break the news. During the meeting, she released that “the judge had agreed with the FUHSD and closed the case on the lawsuit, which means that—at this point—
JOEY LI—EPIC
A WORK IN PROGRESS| Part of the track and field renovations consists of new bleachers, which are currently still under construction.
LMU [Lynbrook-Monta Vista United] cannot stop the construction.” Rumors had already been circling amongst the seniors regarding the possibility of being able to graduate at home. However, for the most part, the announcement remained a pleasant surprise. Senior Bryan Le feels that, “It’s really nice being able to graduate at the school that you’ve gone to for the past four years.” Likewise, senior Kritika Iyer shares the excitement and
JOEY LI—EPIC
JOEY LI—EPIC
NEW GREEN| From left to right, senior class president Sameer Kausar with Principal Gail Davidson and ASB President Kevin Tu, stand on the new field.
10 YARDS| The newly renovated football field is artificial turf as opposed to the previous field which was made of grass.
Off the field and into the gym: powderpuff changes sports BY JOEY LI
P
owderpuff, the annual tradition of gender-switched roles in football and cheerleading, will change to dodgeball this year due to construction on the field. The games will now take place in the gym. The changes were decided upon by members in the ASB Athletics commission. Despite the change of venues, Athletics Commissioner senior Brandon Yamauchi is optimistic about the success of the switch. “I think that events in the gym are much easier to organize. The smaller space compared to the field will keep things a lot more orderly,” he says. There are, however, doubts re-
garding the event attendance. Intra-District Council Representative junior Shirley Kiang says, “The event is pretty new, so switching locations will confuse people, and we’ll probably get fewer participants because it’s a different sport that we have to hype up again.” Yamauchi disagrees, saying, “I don’t think participation will be affected, because based on last year’s attendance, Powderpuff was by far the most popular.” The inspiration for this change came from Powderpuff at Monta Vista. Teams will still be organized by class. Yamauchi says, “We thought about changing the rules to be more like March Madness so that any student could make teams at random, but we decided
says, “I feel relieved. This whole time I hadn’t let myself get my hopes up—in order to avoid disappointment—but I’m really happy that we get to graduate at Lynbrook after all.” Even though the graduation ceremony is now moved to Lynbrook, the date is still set for the morning of Fri. June 8. “Many arrangements for graduation as well as Grad Night have already been made [according to the June 8 date]. At this point, these [arrangements] cannot be changed,” says Davidson. Davidson adds that while the field is completely finished, the surrounding track and nearby buildings will not be completed in time. Despite these issues, many seniors still feel thankful and excited to be the first class graduating on the newly renovated field. As senior Elyssa Hurwitz puts it, “It’s like the cherry on top of my senior year sundae.”
that the event would be more fun if we kept all the classes going against each other.” Issues have been brought up about the event—some see the event as possibly becoming too stressful and creating too much competition between classes. Athletics Commissioner senior Gavriela Fine, however, says, “This is supposed to be a fun, stress-free event and will only be as competitive as the classes choose to make it.” Junior Class President Joseph Wei says, “If they decide to hold it, we’ll still go with it; it was just our class officers voicing our opinions. We don’t want to hinder anyone that wants to go.” Powderpuff dodgeball will take place during the week of May 21 at lunch in the gym.