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Iowa City High School • Iowa City, Iowa • Vol. 72 Issue 1 • Friday, September 26, 2014 • www.thelittlehawk.com

Sexual assault on the rise Due to the recent increase in sexual assaults, more effort is being made to raise awareness for and teach preventative measures against the issue.

By Payton Evans & Arielle Soemadi

Students complained that the old alerts placed some of the responsibility for sexual misconduct on the victims, because of alcohol consumption or making the With sexual assault on the rise according to recent conscious decision to be alone with someone of the studies by Penn State University and the Washington opposite sex. By adding a statement that solidifies the Post, the White House has commisioned a task force, perpetrator as the only responsible party, the alert meswhile schools and students grapple with how to face sage removes the blame from the sexual assault victim.

“Sexual misconduct is a broad term encompassthe problem. ing any unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature that Within the first nine days of classes resuming for is committed without consent or by force, intimidathe fall semester at the University of Iowa, three sexual assaults had been reported to the Office of Sexual Mis- tion, coercion, or manipulation,” the new policy states.

“Consent is a freely and affirmatively conduct. The Department of Public communicated willingness to particiSafety sent out an email alert to all “LET’S WORK WITH OUR pate in particular sexual activity or beUniversity of Iowa students and facPARTNERS ON OTHER havior in either undoubtedly clear aculty shortly after the first report was CAMPUSES AND HELP tions, or verbal consent. Lack of protest made, as well as a second alert folMAKE IOWA A LEADER or resistance does not mean consent, lowing shortly after the second and ON THIS ISSUE. TOGETHER nor does silence mean consent.” third assaults.

WE CAN BRING AN END Two students have been expelled for The first alert stated that a feTO THIS CRIME.” sexual misconduct this academic year male student told school officials since the policy has been reevaluated. she was subjected to nonconsensual -SALLY MASON University of Iowa students orgasexual contact by an acquaintance nized another protest in early Septemin a residence hall during the lateber of this year after the third sexual night hours of Friday, August 22. In assault took place.

ROAR Iowa City, which stands for addition, both alerts included sexual assault statistics, Radically Organizing Against Rape, coordinated this a link to the University’s Sexual Misconduct Policy, and steps to take if sexually assaulted, as well as the protest, hoping for the University to adopt a zero-tolstatement, “The only person responsible for sexual erance policy for sexual assault.

Beyond protests, students across the country are misconduct is the perpetrator.” acting in response to the recent increase in sexual asIn the past three calendar years, 21 students have been suspended from the University of Iowa, includ- saults. Four male students at North Carolina State ing 11 for sexual misconduct or domestic violence, ac- University conceived an idea in hopes of seeing a decline in the number of sexual assaults. The solution? cording to UI Dean of Students David Grady.

“Keep talking and teaching about it, keep challeng- Nail polish able to change color if dipped in a drink ing the belief systems that enable it to happen, keep containing a crippling date rape drug such as Ecstasy, supporting the survivors, and keep taking action that Rohypnol, or GHB. “I think to some extent this could be affective,” Adwill make meaningful and lasting change,” University dison Kosier ‘15 said when asked her opinion on efof Iowa President Sally Mason wrote in her email following the most recent sexual assault. “Let’s work with fectiveness of the nail polish. “Women would need to our partners on other campuses and help make Iowa a make it a habit to dip their fingers in the drink, so they leader on this issue. Together we can bring an end to will probably forget a lot because they’re not used to it.”

However, in contrast to popular belief, sexual this crime.”

Last spring, University of Iowa students protested, assault is not only affecting college students, but high demanding better policies regarding sexual assault. schoolers as well. According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, 44 percent of sexual assault

victims are under the age of 18.

“Sexual assault isn’t affiliated with high school but with college because it’s much more common there,” Abe Eyman-Casey ‘15 said. “The dorms and newly found freedom let that happen, but I do know of multiple people from City who have been sexually assaulted.

It’s not comm o n l y k n o w n because it doesn’t go on record for everyone to see.”

Students replied confidently when asked what steps they would take if one of their friends were assaulted.

R a p e kits are free of charge and are anonymous.

Victims will also receive STI pills and Plan B medication for no charge.

“If one of my friends was sexually assaulted, I’d tell them to get help, and I’d take them to the hospital for a rape kit, even though it is invasive, ” Omnia Ali ‘15 said.

Kosier agrees.

“I’d encourage my friends to go to an authority figure or the police,” Kosier said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry and get a rape kit done.”

City High student body continues to grow

By Jordan Cronbaugh & Claire Noack Backpack to backpack and shoulder to shoulder, City High students shuffle to the cafeteria through the math hallway, barely able to breathe in the congested space.

“I try to do a polite, but firm, ‘I’m walking here,’ kind of thing,” Naftalia Flatté ‘15 said. “But often, there’s maneuvering with fancy footwork that you have to do to get around people.”

During the 2009-2010 school year, City High held 1,375 students.

Within the past four years, City High has grown over 200 students. Recent numbers have City class sizes over 28 students per class. The School That

Leads is projected to have 1,625 plus students.

“When the dust settles, we may end up with 1,650 students as we continue to have new students going here,” Principal John Bacon said.

“This is just significant growth- a 250 student increase in five years.”

While 1,625 students seems like a large amount, City High’s attendance has been significantly higher in the past. Historically, the high point for the school has been over 1,700 students.

“This was before me, of course,” Bacon said. “But I’m told that rooms were used almost every period of the day.” *continued on page A4

ABOVE: Ms. Green’s fourth period class takes notes at the beginning of class. With a full class period there is no room for anyone else and barely enough room for those in the class. KIERRA ZAPF/ THELITTLEHAWK

A2 PREVIEW

September 26, 2014 The Little Hawk Feature Magazine

Section A

NEWS: STUDENT HELPED

BY SERVICE DOG

9 NEWS: CITY AND THE SWING STATE

4

By Maddy Deninger

12

OPINION: WHERE THE WONDER WOMEN AT?!

By Sophia Schlesinger Wonder Woman is coming to the big screen! Have female superheros been denied the spotlight for too long?

10

15

By Payton Evans & Caroline Brown Recently, the issue of racial profiling has dominated national news. The Little Hawk looks into how this issue impacts Iowa City.

The Little Hawk gets to know Calla Gabaldon and her service dog, Hershey.

By Payton Evans & Riley Lewers TV ads and yard signs are popping up all over the place as election season grows closer.

PROFILED

A&E: SOUL

ON THE COVER: UNMASKING THE MACOT

By Nova Meurice & Sarah Smith What is life really like behind the mask of City High’s mascot?

By Arielle Soemadi Iowa City celebrates its annual Soul Fest

WHAT’S ON THE WEB? Check out what’s poppin’ on Little Hawk social media and around the world.

Section B

SPORTS: IDENTITY CHECK

By Dominic Balestrieri-Fox

4

With four games under their belts, the City High football team looks toward district play.

8

SPORTS: PLAYMAKER PROFILE: BRYSON RUNGE

By Rebecca Meyer Get to know senior running back, Bryson Runge.

LONG DISTANCE LITTLE HAWKS

By Sonali Durham Meet some of the new faces from far away lands at City High this year!

From your editors...

Anton Buri & Payton Evans Well… it’s here. The September issue of the Little Hawk is upon us. As you thumb through the pages of the most recent issue of one of the nation’s most prestigious high school publications, we, the Little Hawk staff, can only hope for one thing: that we bring to you the most interesting and accurate information about what is happening at your school and in your community. Whether it be the first Little Hawk newspaper you’ve ever laid eyes upon, or one of your last, we hope that we can provide to you the well deserved joy that our

newspaper has provided in preceding years.

The baton has been passed and now we turn our heads to what we have in front of us. Full speed ahead.

While maintaining the City High staple that is the Little Hawk newspaper, this year we are searching for ways to master another aspect of our game, one that our generation is more familiar with: social media. We realize that around us other publications, ranging from the high school level to those providing news for the whole world, are making pushes for their online media. Just recently, The New York Times had their Innovation Report, coined one of the ‘key documents of this media age’ leaked. This much-too-longto-read document addresses the difficulties The New York Times, a global leader in news publications, faces in struggling to draw traffic to their website. We feel that we, The Little Hawk, must confront this challenge as well.

We seek to improve our website -- to better its design, its organization, and to fill it with interesting content in the hopes that we can attract more website hits than ever before. We plan to have an online version of every story we publish and to promote it via Twitter, mak-

ing it available to everyone at any time. We also aim for complete coverage on City High sports and other events through our social media accounts such as Twitter, Instagram, and possibly Snapchat. Through these apps, we strive to interact more with our audience and create a strong bond between The Little Hawk and its readers. This includes having Little Hawk reporters at all events ready to live stream, upload photos, update scores, and prepare stories as soon as possible. We hope that the school district supports us in new adventures with technology, as it is very important to us to maintain our Pacemaker status. We realize and appreciate the power social media has in the news world today, and we plan to take full advantage of the speed and mass communication that the platform of social media provides.

In this issue, we take on stories that we feel are relevant to our school and community.

Reporters contacted local police officers in order to better understand the different angles for our story on racial profiling. Other staff members went out of their way to cover oncampus protests spurred by recent accounts of sexual assault. We yearn to go as in depth as

possible into each and every story in order to maximize the quality of the story. As the year progresses, we are making it a top priority to seek out the most intriguing stories and events that are happening around us, even if that means making last second additions the night before deadline. With each new issue, we will strive to make it better than the last in terms of design, photography, and writing.

Hopefully you, our readers, are as excited for the upcoming year as we are. With a strong team composed of talented, experienced writers and motivated, creative newcomers alike, we are thrilled to develop a superb paper as well as a top class website, and along with the assistance of social media, provide you with a reliable and convenient source of ongoing news at The School That Leads.

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NEWS September 26, 2014

What’s in your

Ohio’s drinking water scare highlights Iowa’s water pollution.

A

By Olivia Parrott

gloppy, blue-green mixture washes up on the shores of the lakes and waterways. It has the potential to kill animals and is a threat to human health. Dangerous though it may be, both Ohio and Iowa can find blue-green algae in its waters, caused by agricultural sediment and fertilizer runoff.

A total of 250,000 residents of Toledo, Ohio were left without drinking water when an algae bloom formed directly over the city’s water-intake pipe in Lake Erie, their main source of water. Lake Erie has been polluted with the same kind of heavy doses of phosphorous that is found all over the state of Iowa. Both states are being affected by nitrogen, nitrates, and phosphorus. These toxins have heightened the fears of people using Lake Erie for drinking water in Ohio. Likewise, they have affected people in Iowa who use source water, water used above the ground.

“I wouldn’t be surprised that Toledo is requiring farmers to get a license to fertilize, considering what happened [in Ohio]. But I have not seen that yet happen in Iowa,” David Osterberg, co-founder of the Iowa Policy Project, said. “Would that be a good idea? Maybe.

A strictly voluntary program has gotten us to where we are, with very dirty water. You have to go beyond voluntary in order to get us out of this problem.”

High levels of nitrogen and phosphorus are found in chemical fertilizer and manure farmers use and produce, and sediment that contains runoff from livestock and feedstocks form algae blooms that plague Iowa’s and Ohio’s waters. Through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safe Drinking Water Act, the level of nitrates is required to be kept below 10 milligrams per liter. These levels aren’t always met.

Particularly nitrogen and phosphorus make lakes unsafe for recreational activity, and to use for drinking water.

However, Iowa’s algae bloom problem expands out of the state, and through three others, before it reaches its destination. There it has caused a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is about the size of New Jersey. The polluted water continues to form the blue-green algae, which cuts off oxygen to the marine life, eventually killing it.

“I don’t go tubing or anything in the Iowa waterways; I don’t know why anyone would, because that’s disgusting,” Lilly Brown ‘15, President of City High’s club Envirocity, said.

“It’s affected me indirectly in making me realize that there are problems, and wanting to help try and solve them.”

Envirocity is an environmental club at City High that focuses on bringing students together who are concerned about environmental problems, and figuring out how they want to go about fixing them.

“A lot of times, kids don’t have a lot of input on those types of things,” Brown said. “It’s about just having your voice heard.”

While the club isn’t currently focused on water contamination, Brown researched India’s water through the World Food Press last year. As an educated follower of the water pollution in Iowa, Brown spoke on Iowa’s attempts to reduce the problem.

“Iowa has mediocre standards, but obviously there’s room for improvement,” she said.

In both Iowa and Ohio, environmental recommendations have been issued by the EPA, a federal agency that sets suggestions for states to follow. Each state in the country makes their own regulations when it comes to fertilizers or water pollution levels, resulting in some states to end up following the sugges-

tions more loosely.

Iowa is 90 percent dedicated to agriculture, so it is more difficult for the state to comply with EPA recommendations. Corn requires nitrogen which is added to the soil through nitrogen fertilizer or manure. However, those loose recommendations don’t hold Iowa accountable for dispensing non-point sources, such as agricultural runoff, into the waterways.

The federal Clean Water Act that was passed in 1972 has strengthened the scope of the national government’s environmental power, as all states must abide by its standards. However, its primary focus on regulating point (direct) sources, which include wastewater treatment and storm water discharges, causes non point (indirect) sources, including agricultural and urban runoff, to be neglected. Non point sources are not nearly as tightly regulated, and therefore fall to the discretion of the farmers who use fertilizers full of nitrogen and phosphorous, the two chemicals largely responsible for Iowa’s waterway’s chemical contamination.

Further weakening the act is the Supreme Court’s questioning of the breadth of its jurisdiction over wetlands and watery areas that aren’t directly connected to streams. This limits environmentalists’ abilities to protect the waterways.

“There are not mandates that say, ‘If you pollute water, we will stop you,’” Osterberg said. “The law is not there. There are far too many nutrients going into waters in Iowa. Everybody acknowledges that.”

Therefore, addressing the control over non

point sources is mostly left to the states. Iowa has chosen not to act, giving its farmers free reign in fertilizing their cover crops.

The act is also only directed toward cities, which must spend millions of dollars to treat the water before it can be discharged back into the Iowa River, in Iowa’s case. Farmers causing pollution, however, are not mandated to reduce it.

“We don’t have to argue if we’re producing too much [water pollution through chemicals]. We are,” Osterberg said. “But how you get reduction of that ‘too much’ is the question.”

In order to attempt to strengthen the Clean Water Act, the EPA has formulated the Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS), a strategy developed by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and the Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which has the goal of cutting the amount of nitrates and phosphorous directed through Iowa waters and the Gulf of Mexico by about half.

“It is up to Iowa to sow the seeds that will harvest clean water,” Osterberg said in his recent paper on the effectiveness of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. “Iowa’s taxpayers and farmers together must identify situations to achieve the most benefit for the lowest expense.”

Any action a farmer takes to reduce pollution produced on his farm is voluntary, but the federal and state governments compensate him, for motivation, if he takes action. For in-

stance, if a farmer installs a buffer strip along the stream to try to keep nutrients from getting into the stream, the government will pay half the costs.

“I think that educating farmers on the correct amount of fertilization, or fertilizers, they should use would help,” Brown said. “They’re just used to putting a certain amount of fertilizer on their cover crops, but then if the seeds don’t grow, they have all this extra fertilizer.

[Farmers] just need to learn to apply it properly, or use natural fertilizers.”

In Ohio, Congress has given funds to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which targets cleaning up toxins, combating invasive species, protecting watersheds from polluted runoff, restoring wetlands and other habitats, and tracking progress and working with strategic partners. Some of the $1.6 billion that Congress has given to the initiative has been put into creating wetlands, and educating farmers on ways to reduce fertilizer use and runoff. However, Ohio’s system is also still voluntary.

The voluntary system of controlling agricultural runoff that Iowa currently follows has proven to be incompetent, as at one point two summers ago, nitrate in the Raccoon River in Iowa reached 240 percent of the level allowed under the Clean Water Act. Also, half of Iowa’s waterways are polluted, according to Osterberg. Projected numbers for 2021, rating waterway’s water quality on a scale from “very poor” to “excellent,” show that there will still be a startling zero in the “excellent” water quality category. Iowa is also among three states in the Midwest that contribute 10-17 percent of the nitrogen share that is filtered through the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, according to Osterberg’s paper.

“Everybody thinks that you can only have voluntary programs. I accept that,” Osterberg said. “But you must voluntarily pick two strategies on your farm that will reduce pollution.

I’m not going to tell you which ones...but the answer cannot be zero.”

The Iowa Soybean Association provides farmers with eight different practices, any one of which will reduce the amount of pollution coming from farmland. This strengthens Iowa’s control over farm polluters, requiring a voluntary choosing of two practices which makes the policy a combination of a voluntary action, and a mandate.

“I don’t think voluntary system alone will work. It just has little chance of working,” Osterberg said. “This, at least, would put most people in a better direction.”

In July of 2011, Iowa adopted strong “anti degradation” standards. These standards are an often ignored part of the Clean Water Act that are devised to keep unnecessary pollution out of clean waterways. It is a preventative measure that could potentially keep some of Iowa’s waters, and its future, clearer.

Chemicals from farm fertilizer and sediments from the agricultural process, although the most threatening, aren’t the only thing that harm Iowa’s water, Brown reminds the community.

“Water pollution isn’t just fertilizers and chemicals going in, but also plastic and litter, she said. “If you don’t litter, a lot of that litter won’t be blowing into the water, and then swept away.”

Water is a resource everything and everyone needs, people and animals alike.

“Not only is [reducing water pollution] going to help us, but it will help our neighbors,” Brown said. “We are all connected through rivers and waterways. We also want to help the wildlife and the ecosystems around us, because as soon as the ecosystems start to fall apart, you have major problems.”

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September 26, 2014

Student Senate funds trip to Chicago

By Anton Buri & Sophia Schlesinger

lunch, and concluded with a visit to the neighboring Shedd Aquarium. The group returned home that evening.

Not only did this trip to two of the most visYesterday, September 25th, a select group of ited institutions of their kind provide knowledge students hopped on a bus, ready for a day-long and insight, but there is hope that it provided a trip to Chicago. They split the day between two bonding experience as well. of the most respected institutes the Windy City “It’s just a unique experihas to offer: the Shedd ence to make students feel like Aquarium and the Field they’re really apart of things Museum of Natural “I THINK IT WAS A REhere at City High,” Bacon said.

History.

ALLY IMPORTANT TRIP The trip was inspired by an “Sometimes we can experience Bacon had years FOR STUDENTS BEtake for granted all of ago when he visited the LinCAUSE SOME OF THE the amazing opportucoln sights in Springfield, Illinities that are in the STUDENTS AT CITY HIGH nois with one of Mr. Hellwig’s area,” Principal John classes.

HAVEN’T BEEN OUT OF Bacon, and organizer of “It was one of the best IOWA.” the trip said. “Certainly things that I’ve done in my five three and a half hours years here at City High. Both away there are two of the students and I learned so -CAPRICE BERNARD ‘16 the greatest institutions much and it was just a really anywhere in the world.” fun day,” Bacon said. “I wanted Forty-five students, to replicate that idea by offeralong with five adult chaperones, boarded a ing this trip to Chicago.” charter bus to Chicago. Their first stop was the Although assembled by Bacon, the trip owes Field Museum of Natural History, followed by much thanks to the Student Senate, who provid-

ed the funds for the trip.

Kids were selected to go based on a simple application process in which they were asked to think about how they could demonstrate leadership at City High. Preference was also given to those who had not visited these places before.

“I wanted to have students put a little thought and work into the application process,” Bacon said. “The students that took that the most seriously were the ones that went.”

This trip was the first of its kind, but the goal is that it leads to many trips that provide both the opportunity to learn and the opportunity to lead.

“I think it was a really important trip for students because some students at City High haven’t been out of Iowa,” Caprice Bernard ‘16 said.

“They haven’t been to places like Chicago, so it was a good chance for them to get out and see some other stuff.”

The trip provided students with a unique and memorable experience, which is a satisfying achievement for both the school and the Student Senate fundraisers.

“It was exciting,” Bacon said. “I only wish we could have taken more kids.”

Student helped by service dog

By Maddie Denninger Hershey, a German short-haired chocolate lab mix, has been Calla Gabaldon’s service dog for two years.

“I took medicine to try to regulate [my seizures], but other than that I did nothing,” Gabaldon said of what she did before Hershey came.

Hershey is a seizure service alert dog.

She accompanies Gabaldon throughout the school day, and is there to smell seizures.

When asked what Hershey would do in case of an emergency, Gabaldon said, “She would probably bark really loudly, or whine a little bit.”

At first, Gabaldon said classmates had questions about Hershey.

“People were always asking me questions. They were always wanting to pet her, and it was kind of annoying. But people have gotten used to her now,” Gabaldon said. “People ask me why I have her, what she’s for, can they pet her, can I

talk to her, what she’s doing, and how she senses the seizures.”

Hershey, who was trained by Pawsitivity Service dogs in St. Paul, Minnesota, is well behaved in class, and has been from the start, according to Gabaldon.

“People should know just to let her do her thing., Gabaldon said.

Hershey fits in at the family’s home too, Gabaldon said.

“Of our other dogs, one of them doesn’t like her very much and they fight sometimes. But she tolerates it,” Gabaldon said.

“At home, she’s a normal dog, crazy and excitable,” sister Liana Gabaldon said.

According to Gabaldon, the two got along well as soon as they met.

“I met her for the first time, and we hit it off right away,” she said. “She came up to me and put her head in my lap, and it was really nice. I knew that she would be the perfect dog.”

Calla Gabaldon ‘15 poses with her service dog, Hershey. CAROLINE BROWN/ THELITTLEHAWK

NEWS

Overcrowding continued from A1 City High’s official capacity is around 1,800 students, well below the current enrollment numbers.

However, several temporaries have been built behind the school to more comfortably fit the growing number of students.

In addition to the growing enrollment numbers this year, six and a half teacher positions were also cut from City High due to the recent district budget cuts, exaggerating the problem.

“There is no question that we had to be meticulous in the balancing of sections,” Bacon said. “To try to make sure that we don’t have gigantic sections and small ones.”

Even through the balancing of sections, the number of students enrolling as the year goes on causes classes to grow past the previously balanced numbers.

“Some classes, I’ve heard, get really huge,” Michael Olesberg ‘15 said.

“It’s like the time Mrs. Davis came in to my English class and was like, ‘Do you have an extra desk? I got my 35th today.’”

In contrast to the 2013-2014 school year, where average class sizes were in the upper 20’s, the 2014-2015 school year has classes closer to the 32 student max that the ICCSD recommends. This sometimes causes problems for students trying to learn.

“When teachers have a smaller group of kids to work with they can teach more personally to them so they can help them learn better,” Claire Rutherford ‘16, said. “When it’s a bigger class, it’s just harder to make sure [students] understand it well.”

The larger student body has also put pressure on the common areas of the school, especially the hallways.

“I think it’s palpable in the halls when you walk and go around,” Doug Lestina, Dean of Students, said. “Especially in the math wing; hallways are a little tighter, there are some tight corners that seem to have a little more traffic this year.”

Along with the hallways, other common areas are becoming increasingly congested, in particular the cafeteria.

“I was very concerned about the cafeteria, and we discussed, ‘do we need to add a fourth lunch shift?’”

Bacon said. “The cafeteria staff felt confident that we would be okay and I think we have been.”

While lines in the cafeteria are longer, students say the lines in the parking lot are even more extreme.

“The parking lot is completely filled up,” Flatté said. “With morning swim practice, I can’t find a place to park and it’s very difficult.”

It’s the hope of the administration that as the year continues, these issues will sort themselves out. City High is projected to continually grow over the next couple of years as well. However, the administration does not see this as too big of a concern.

“We’re working very hard to figure out our pressure points, and working with the school district to determine what kind of relief we might be able to have,” Bacon said. “If we needed to continue to serve more students, we could.” scan for full online story at www.thelittlehawk.com

NEWS September 26, 2014

The red coats are coming

By Lizzie Ronan & Joe Weideman

“It means that we can take our open hours, if we’re free, to go help the new students. It’s kind of nice to have another student there to help you This year the Ambassador’s club is increas- around,” Alyssa Forgey ‘15 said. “It’s from a stuing its involvement in daily life at City High. dent’s perspective instead.”

In past years, according to the Ambassadors’ The change was made at the request of previous website, the club was involved in about nine ambassadors.

“Every year they say that they wish they had major activities: Registration, freshmen oriena bigger presence at school during the school tation, back-to-school night, welcoming new students to City High, day,” Ambassador club concerts or special acsponsor, Renée Tonning, “IT’S MORE INVOLVED tivities, greeting and insaid. “They wanted to troducing guests to City interact more with their NOW AND THAT’S High, community and peers.”

GOOD. WE’RE A school service projects, The club has taken parent/guardian night MORE DYNAMIC over some of the Welconferences, and graduCLUB.” come Center’s traditional ation. New activities roles, especially in giving added this year include: tours to new students. giving tours, dance mar“There’s been a tour athons, homework club, at least once every day XAVIER FIELDS ‘15 and pen paling with since we’ve started,” Tonfourth graders at Grant ning said. “They’ve come Wood Elementary. through with flying col“Doing the pen pals, I think, will be fun beors.” cause we haven’t done that before,” Forgey said.

These tours have enhanced the AmbassaThis expansion heightened the enthusiasm dor’s involvement in the school, as well as helping foster the student-led atmosphere for new of the club members themselves.

“It’s more involved now and that’s good,” students at City High.

Xavier Fields ‘15 said. “We’re a more dynamic

club I think.”

The ambassadors also started new club bonding activities. These include bowling night, a bonfire, a potluck picnic, and even an ambassador wake-up.

The ambassador wake-up happened the day before registration. Veteran ambassadors picked up this year’s new members and did a variety of activities, including roasting marshmallows and participating in an obstacle course.

“It was fun,” Forgey said. “It’s kind of like the freshman wake-up that we have in band.”

These activities welcomed the new junior and seniors, and increased the group’s cohesion.

“They’re planning more things that they can do just as a group to get to know each other,” Tonning said. “It’s just been really fun to see them embracing the new ambassadors that have come in. They’re doing more things that are just them as a group.”

In addition to the new activities, the club has more members than past years. There are now 40 student ambassadors, as apposed to the usual 30.

“We have a lot of great people, so it’ll be really successful,” Fields said.

The ambassador’s club sponsor is also optimistic.

“It’s a great group of kids,” Tonning said.

Vandalism closes Little Library

By Claire Goodfellow & Wynne Miller

Recently teenagers were seen taking books from a Little Free Library near City High and throwing the books into Ralston Creek. This happened on multiple accounts, causing Judy Siversten to stop supplying her Little library with books.

“I stopped putting books out, but to my delight, friends, neighbors, and strangers began supplying books,” Siversten said.

Starting in Wisconsin in 2009, a recent trend of “Free Little Libraries” have come to Iowa and have been popping up around town. The Libraries started as an initiative to get people reading and to provide the public with free resources to do so.

Little Free Libraries are boxes, often shaped like buildings, where anyone can put books in for other people to come and take to read as often as they choose.

“Usually we see people stop who are walking by, but sometimes cars pull over to see what is available,” Siversten said. “My grandchildren like to look when they visit. The neighbors, friends, students, even the mailman found a book he wanted.”

The vandalism had started to become a

problem last spring, making Siversten hesitant to refill the library. She eventually began putting books back in her library over the summer, but once school started up again, so did the vandalism.

“Reading is freedom. Literature is in itself a teacher,” Siversten said. “It gives the reader a larger vocabulary, practice in spelling, and a way to see the world from a different perspective.”

The vandalism by teenagers that has struck the Little Free Libraries has many people confused on what possibly could have been their motive. Most believe that the teens were showing off, or just bored.

“I don’t think we have very much vandalism at City,” City High librarian Jeri Kinney said.

“I think people have been educated on the fact that they’ll get caught, and it’s destructive and serves no purpose.”

Vandalism is rare at and around City High, and the importance of literature is highly stressed in the school as well as around town.

“Here in Iowa City, designated by UNESCO as a City of Literature, we embrace books.

We have a great Iowa City Public library. We have books at the thrift store for only eightyeight cents and there are Little Free Libraries all around town,” Siversten said. “I am just sad that I feel I have to close my little library for a while.”

StudenT Senate -October 1st:

-September 24th: Super Intendent Steve Murley is attending our meeting

Homecoming parade and Powder Puff games, sign up for teams in the Main Office.

-October 5th: Hoover Reunion on the Hoover blacktop from 1-4, alumni from the past 60 years are invited to come celebrate Hoover turning 60 years old.

- November 1st-Winter Break: Can Drive will start Everyone is welcome to attend Student Senate meetings every Wednesday at 7:30 in the Little Theater. Juniors looking to be Senior Class President must attend Student Senate meeting for the majority of the year.

ABOVE: Little Free Library on First Ave. CLAIRE GOODFELLOW/ THELITTLEHAWK

Ask an Ambassador

By Cora Bern-Klug It’s 7 a.m. (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, take your pick) and I’m dragging myself out the front door on my way to either Interact, Student Senate meeting and preparation, or an editor’s meeting for newspaper. Then I attend seven hours of school followed by two hours of volleyball managing and, depending on the day, go to a City High Review meeting or 4th Ave. Crew afterwards. Then I walk home and do my homework for the day.

Now some of you may be saying to yourselves, “Cora, what the heck are you doing with your life?” And on those

A5 Best Buddies reaches record membership

By Wynne Miller

After last year’s award for best chapter in the state, City High Best Buddies is starting off the year with record high enrollment in the club.

“It makes your life better in every possible way; you meet so many cool people,” Lauren Sammons ‘17, a second-year member of the club, said.

Best Buddies was introduced to City High eight years ago by Tom Braverman and Brent Deneice, two faculty advisors working in Special Programs at City.

“I believe we’ve helped change the culture here at City High, and made people not just more accepting of people with intellectual disabilities, but people with differences in general,” Braverman said.

The club was initially founded in 1989 by Anthony Kennedy Shriver. The goal of the club was to create a social outlet for students and to, ideally, bridge the gap for the adults and students with intellectual disabilities who otherwise wouldn’t have social opportunities to be with their general education peers around the school.

The Best Buddies program gives a positive experience for many students involved in the program here at City High.

“It’s a great experience for everyone and a part of trying good and new things at City,” Gabrielle Fortunato, ‘16, a third year member of the club said.

There are two ways to join the club as a person without an intellectual disability. One is to join as a peer buddy, where you develop a oneon-one relationship with another member. The other is to join as an associate to the club.

“To me, the associate members, who usually take up the largest proportion of the club, are even more important, because they’re sort of the eyes and ears of the school,” Braverman said.

“When someone’s using the R-word or someone’s dogging a person with an intellectual disability, they’re the ones to say, ‘Hey, that’s not right.”’

The club holds many social events every year including a Valentine’s Day party, a Halloween party, and Prom.

“There are so many kick-butt activities,” Braverman said. “We do all kinds of cool stuff.”

The club is also starting to put a focus on physical health in their events.

“This year we’re trying to do more outdoor active stuff. Instead of having all inside parties where we eat greasy food and pizza,” Sammons ‘17 said. “We’re going to go to Wilson’s Apple Orchard on the 21st.”

The main focus of the club is to include and unite the student body, while accepting others’ differences.

“We help people understand that we live in a very diverse culture and anything we can do to have people be more tolerant of each other is a good thing,” Braverman said. “It’s a way for people who are socially introverted to come out of their shell a little bit. I think it’s not only an opportunity for our students with intellectual disabilities to grow, but for our students without them because they get to see that these kids are just like them.”

days that I’m at school for 15 hours a day, I ask myself the same question. But truth is, I enjoy a busy schedule. Although it’s stressful sometimes, it’s definitely worth it.

The way I keep myself together and on time is A) My planner — I’m religiously writing my schedule in there and highlighting things that are important. B) I tell people when I can’t make something or when I’ll be late. Because of my planner I’m able to know when activities may conflict. Luckily most of the people I work with (or for) are understanding (S/O to Mrs. Carty).

And finally, C) I’ve chosen things that I know won’t conflict, for the most part. I’m busy but it’s do-able. If you want a busy schedule make sure you DON’T OVERLOAD YOURSELF! The best way to get to know people at any stage in your life is to get involved and get out there! It may sound cliche, but it’s the truth. City High has a variety of ways to get linked to new people and try out new things. So GET OUT THERE! DO STUFF! DO YOU! #TSTL #Prez

A6

September 26, 2014

NEWS

A7

know

homecoming 2014 court

Get To

your

NEWS September 26, 2014

Childhood Nickname

dream job

favorite food

best chs memory

machupichulalola

naturalist guide

krabrangoon

having spanish with maria mccoy

the dougie

flashed my second grade class

ike

athletic trainer

chocolate

going to state for basketball

the l-dawg woof

walked into a stop sign

SAM blowers

mike

anesthesiologist

steak

libby fischer

love bug

conductor of a professional orchestra

Jordan hobbs

j-hobbs

disney princess

pop tarts

Sarah plock

pitbull

optometrist

trolly eggs

katrina scandrett

queen of verbage

stylist in new york city

wings and ice cream

ryan brennan

rocket

passion boys music enterprises

Brady cotton

b-cot

Queen Candidates

Cora Bern-Klug Sara blowers

chocolate

best embarrassing dance move moment

going to state the for bridesmaid’s soccer shrug dancing to gold digger with ms.stucky

“the t-rex dance”

falling down the stairs in eigth grade pantsed in the hallway freshman year

going to the helicoptor nationals for dance team

accidentily pulled down my pants in fifth grade

winning the spike back

wet my pants during my first basketball game

the worm

winning grand the champs in mr. hodges fourth ave.

falling onstage at a fourth ave.performance

hu-hot

saving evan’s life via cpr after being hit by a car

pillsbury doughboy

being the victim of a stink bomb attack

chocolatier

mashed potatoes

beating west during sophomore basketball

soulja boy

getting peed on by a tiger

Jens dancer

bug boy

owner of a construction company

sparti’s gyros

winning fresh/ soph districts in XC

soulja boy

grabbing ryan weaver’s butt on accident

evan GRACE

dong

passion boys music enterprises

tacos

winning three golden globes for a spanish video

white boy twist

getting a concussion after being hit by a car

XAVIER FIELDS

X

trophy husband

crème brûlée

making honors recital for band

the coffee pot

tripped down the stairs freshman year

ERIC MCDONALD

cube

astronaut (because it’s out of this world!)

fillet mingon

winning the boot junior year

the randy brown shuffle

not getting kissed by jordan

SCOTT TRIBBEY

pillsbury doughboy

ceo of arsenal

spaghetti

going to the state finals for soccer

the sierra chambers “drop and spin”

ripped pants at junior year homecoming

King Candidates

A8

September 26, 2014

NEWS

City and the Iowa senate race receives national attention

The race is on for long-time Iowa senator Tom Harkin’s seat in the Nation’s capital, and is being closely monitored by citizens and government officials across the country.

ByPayton Evans One of Iowa’s Senate seats is being contested for this year due to the retirement of veteran Democratic Senator, Tom Harkin. This seat, along with 35 other seats across the country, will be elected for in November. Suspense is in the air, accompanying the possibility of a shift in the Senate majority.

“Tom Harkin has a significant leadership position in the Senate and losing that seniority is going to be tough for Iowa,” Carrie Watson, City High social studies teacher, said. “Plus, there is contention for control of the senate, so an open senate seat anywhere in the state could mean a difference for who gets the majority.”

Iowa, along with 3 other states, is considered a swing state in the election, meaning candidates of both parties have similar levels of support among voters and the results of the state’s race could ultimately serve as a deciding factor in the senate majority. The Republican party has to pick up a mere six seats in order to gain control of the senate. Leaving such a small margin of error for the Democratic party, a Republican victory in Iowa could potentially compromise the Democratic majority in Washington.

“Many of these state races are pretty close,” Watson said. “We could see a completely Republican control of legislature and a democratically controlled executive branch, so that could mean a whole different ballgame for the future.

Perhaps it could make law making easier.”

Iowa candidates competing for Harkin’s seat include Republican state senator Jodi Ernst and Democrat representative Bruce Braley.

Ernst, a mother and former soldier, won the

Republican primaries by 56% of the vote. She “In Iowa, we tend to be a bit more moderate did this not with money or name recognition, state, maybe a bit more conservative in some arbut by drawing attention to herself with bold eas and more liberal in others, but we don’t have and unique ad campaigns, the commercial ref- as much of the extremes,” Watson said. “It could erencing her knowledge of how to castrate a pig be interesting to see if it pushes us towards one quickly becoming her signature. extreme or the other.”

“I am running for senate to protect, and proAccording to many other polls and forecastmote, the traditional values and principles I was ing models, predicted odds as to who will take taught growing up in Southwest Iowa,” Ernst the majority are in the Republican party’s favor. states in the bio of Nate Silver, previous her campaign webNew York Times analyst site. and founder of blog Fif“I SHOULDN’T REALLY Opposing candityThirtyEight, is in agreeCARE WHETHER IT’S date Braley worked ment with this prediction. as an attorney for 23 Silver correctly predicted DEMOCRATIC OR REyears, prior to being the electoral outcomes in PUBLICAN. AS LONG elected to represent every state in 2012, causIowa in Congress ing him to be viewed as a AS THEY’RE DOING THE in 2007. His main political prophet by many.

RIGHT THING IN A SENSIpolitical focus is FiftyThirtyEights’s senhelping strengthen ate election forecasting BLE WAY, THAT’S ALL THAT model is a combination the middle class, in addition to creating of opinion polls and hisSHOULD MATTER.” jobs, strengthening torical and demographic the economy, and information used to calinvesting in educaculate odds for each state’s -ERIC McDONALD ‘15 tion. senate race. Silver’s blog As is the case in predicts the switch in mamany other competitive elections, both candi- jority primarily due to the fact that many Senate dates are trying to assure votes by taking mea- races are being held in states where Obama resures to make the other seem incompetent, pri- ceived an average of only 46% of the votes 2012. marily via attack ads.

This in turn means that Democrats are battling Polls assessed in mid-September indicated a hangover effect in these states, so receiving that Ernst leads Braley 50 percent to 44 percent support in these areas could be difficult. Howamong likely voters in Iowa, but the fact that ever, the blog states that it is still very feasible Iowa is generally a moderate state makes the for the Democrats to maintain the majority, as election outcome difficult to predict. many state races are still very competitive.

SENATE 100 SENATORS

Given that the nation’s capital is across the country, seeing how the majority of the Senate affects Iowans on the local level can be difficult.

“What decisions are going to be made will be determined based on what the majority is,” Gabbi Wadsworth 16’ said. “For example, if the senate majority is Republican, then more conservative decisions are going to be made. Depending on which party you agree with is going to change the way you feel about our government.”

However, not everyone views the elections as a heated battle between the two parties.

“I’ve got this opinion towards politics,” Eric McDonald ‘15 said. “I shouldn’t really care whether it’s Democratic or Republican. As long as they’re doing the rig ht thing in a s e n sible way t h at’s all that should matter.”

A9

NEWS September 26, 2014

e Swing State City High hosts Congressional Debate

On Thursday, August 28 a key Congressional Debate took place in City High’s Opstad auditorium, in front of an audience dotted with City High Students.

By Riley Lewers Many City High students were in attendance as Democrat incumbent Dave Loebsack and Republican challenger Mariannette Miller-Meeks faced off in the midst of a tight congressional race in Opstad auditorium on Thursday, August 28.

“They [high school students] should just be aware of what’s going on because it’s their world too, and it’s going to affect them, too,” Gabi Wadsworth ‘16, said.

“They’re going to have to deal with what’s happening now, later.”

Polls show that the race is extremely close, with Loebsack leading by only 3 percent.

“I would vote for Loebsack because he’s experienced. He knows what he wants to do, he knows what needs to be done, and what he has to do to do it,” Wadsworth said.

Wadsworth, along with about 30 other students, attended the debate to get extra credit for Mr. Burkle’s AP Government class. “[I sent my students] because I wanted them to be politically active, as it affects them,” John Burkle said. “Many of them are going to school in a few years and are going to be paying college loans.

Sometimes that

comes up,” Burkle said. has been anything but affordable as we’ve seen within our The debate, moderated by Dean Borg, began at 7:00pm state and those type of issues,” she said. “I have a lot of and was broadcasted live on IPTV. credibility on those issues [and] we’ve discussed that at Miller-Meeks is a United States Army veteran and length. It really comes down to who we are going to trust served for three years as the Director of the Iowa Depart- to fix healthcare, who we are going to trust to manage a ment of public health. sluggish economy, and who we are going to trust to hold “We have real issues, we have real problems, and the the government accountable.” country is hungering for people to step forward,” MillerDebate topics ranged from border security issues and Meeks said. “I think throughout foreign policy to problems inmy career both in the military side the VA, the Affordable Care and my career as a doctor and Act, and the economy. Generally, “WE HAVE REAL ISSUES, as a nurse, and then going into the candidates’ comments fell WE HAVE REAL PROBLEMS, along party lines, with Millerthe department of public health, I’ve been willing to serve people.

Meeks taking a shot at President AND THE COUNTRY IS That’s the primary reason why Obama’s foreign policy.

HUNGERING FOR PEOPLE I’m running,” Miller-Meeks said.

“If you don’t have a prepared “Washington is a dysfunctional foreign policy strategy, if you’re TO STEP FORWARD.” mess. I’ve said that since I began strategy is whatever the polls say this campaign,” she said. you should do, that’s not leaderLoebsack agreed that Washship and no one knows where -MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS ington is dysfunctional, but inwe’re going,” Miller-Meeks said sisted that he is part of the soluon the current situation in the tion, not the problem.

Middle East.

“I’m proud of the things I’ve She was also critical of the Afdone across the aisle [such as] my Sectors bill and my Jobs fordable Care Act. bill,” Loebsack said.

“I think that when you listen to people and you go to Loebsack is a retired professor from Cornell college in Washington D.C. to be their voice and you listen to their Mt. Vernon, and is currently serving his fourth term in concerns and you talk to them. You know I’ve met with the United States house of Representatives, representing people all across the district whether they have lost their Iowa’s Second District. health insurance, or whether their premiums are going up, “I pay attention to the people of the Second District, or whether they are young people whose premiums are and I pay attention to the people I see every weekend doubling,” Miller-Meeks said. when I go to the convenience store,” Loebsack said, in reLoebsack advocated for a bipartisan solution to the sponse to accusations of inactivity. health care controversy.

This is the third time Miller-Meeks has challenged Loe“We’ve got to get together on this, we’ve got to work bsack for the Second District congressional seat. across the aisle, and we’ve got to have people of goodwill “I think when you look at the things that we’re facing who know about healthcare and know about insurance,” today especially when it’s the Affordable Care Act which he said.

HOUSE 535 REPRESENTATIVES

A10

September 26, 2014

What’s in on Insta?

“I think that the epidemic will burn itself out. So far, that’s what they’ve done. The trick will be to try and minimize the damage, because this time it’s so much more widely spread than before.”

-Mr. Koepnick

EBOLA FACTS

The current outbreak in West Africa, (first noticed in March 2014), is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976.

It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts.

Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals.

There is as yet no proven treatment available for EVD. However, a range of potential treatments including blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies are currently being evaluated.

Source: World Health Organization

NEWS

Home

“Most recently, [ISIS] has publically executed journalists from the U.S. and Great Britain and said they will continue until the United States stops them.”

-Ms. Watson

WHAT IN THE WORLD is going on in

AFRICA

A11

September 26, 2014

OPINION Staff Editorial:

Body Count Rising The school and administration struggle to keep up as each year brings a larger group of students to City High.

LH

Executive Editors

payton evans, anton buri

News Editor claire noack

Opinion Editors

cody owen, will barker

Feature Editors

caroline brown, sonali durham

Design Editor cora bern-klug

Sports Editors dominic balesteri-fox, & innes hicsasmaz

Sports Feature Editor becca meyer

Photo Editor kierra zapf

A&E Editor jonas geerdes

Copy Editors

olivia parrott, joey weideman

Ad Managers

nina dang, taylor milefchik

Online Editors

sarah smith, nova meurice, nina dang, and taylor milefchik,

Staff joe britton, will braverman, ailsa burke, hazel crew, jordan cronbaugh, madeline deninger, libby fischer, kayla fischer, ellis fontana, claire goodfellow, elise goodvin, teghan gevock, sadie hobbs, jonathan house, anna lepcin, riley lewers, sofie lie, taylor milefchik, wynnefride miller, claire noack, drew orr, isabella pittman, rylee price, elizabeth ronan, katrina scandrett, sophia schlesinger, arielle soemadi, austin tholen, joe weideman

Adviser

jonathan rogers

Online Bios and Stories www.thelittlehawk.com/staff

mission statement

The Little Hawk, the student newspaper of City High School, aims to inform, educate and entertain readers; to provide an educational opportunity for the students who produce it; and to provide a medium for commercial advertising.

Equity Statements

It is the policy of the Iowa City Community School District not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability, or socioeconomic status in its educational programs, activities, or employment practices.

If you believe you have (or your child has) been discriminated against or treated unjustly at school, please contact the Equity Director, Ross Wilburn, at 509 S. Dubuque Street, 319-688-1000.

Art by: Nova Meurice

S

urprisingly enough, when 1,600 kids were packed into an old brick building, things got crowded. While in certain areas there is plenty of space for a student to spin around in circles till they fall down, most parts of City High get pretty packed.

Until the new school is finished, administrators of high schools in the districts have been left to their own devices to deal with the problem of class sizes over 28 students and Social Studies, Math and P.E. classes over 30 students.

As for us students, we can only hope something is done before it becomes impossible to breathe in the math hallway or the lunch line finally exits the building.

For the record, overcrowding is in fact reported by teachers to make their job directly more difficult, as it directly affects their ability to make sure that everyone in a class is getting what they may need educationally. This sort of thing means that students within larger classes are far more independent than in a smaller class. While some students are able to thrive in this sort of environment, it only makes the lives

Are growing class sizes affecting your ability to learn?

Yes: 9

of those who already need academic help even more difficult. In addition, larger classes make it hard for teachers to keep up with grading and helping the development of each student, which is especially difficult for classes such as English which entail large, interpretive work such as essays and are supposed to lead to individual analytic capabilities within each student.

While City High’s class sizes seem out of control when compared to recent years, the average class size is 28.3 just above the state, and national average. The national average for high school classes, in the 20132014 school year was 26.8 and the Iowa average was 27.4, Class sizes at City show that the school still has a ways to go before drastic measures need to be taken. Even though Iowa’s average class size is above the national average, the state’s

No: 8

graduation rates for last school year were fourth in the country at 87.9 percent. This shows that while there is correlation between class sizes and the success of schools, Iowa is leading the way in other areas of education that are putting it on top.

Even for those of us whose classes have yet to be touched by overcrowding, the problem is readily apparent to anyone who eats lunch here. As much as we enjoy spending 20 minutes in line for the privilege of having two whole minutes to eat, we feel that this same situation might be considered inconvenient by everyone who doesn’t have 4th in the science wing.

City High should be taking efforts to reduce class sizes, but if they do not go down within the next few years, it is not the end of the world. With it’s wonderful student teacher relationships and

new career programs like iJAG, the school is making sure that every student gets the help and attention they need.

So how do we fix this constantly annoying, but never world ending problem? Make sure that all or most classrooms at City are being used at all time, while teachers do need prep periods, the rooms do not, if there are available teachers, and rooms are available, classes should be broken up. Additionally to improve crowding in the lunch room, underclassmen should be allowed to go out to lunch. By the end of the year, most sophomores have cars and licences and would love to be able to leave campus for dollar pizza day. If the school lets these kids go, lines in the lunch room will be shorter, and kids who are unable to go out to lunch will get their food faster.

City High is not unique in its problem of overcrowding, it is such a common problem that it has become a stereotype of American high school. Things will change when the new high school is built, but things will get worse before they get better.

However if administrators make small policy changes, they just might be able to clear the air.

A12

September 26, 2014

OPINION

Dude, Where’s My Internet?

THUMBS

by CODY OWEN

Net Neutrality is defined as “the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.” Under new Net Neutrality laws under consideration by the FCC after a court ruling in favor of cable companies on this issue. If Net Neutrality is struck down by the cable companies, these companies would be able to charge websites to bring their data to customers, and have the power to slow, and even block access to websites that don’t pay them a premium. They would even be able to charge you to use specific websites like cable companies charge for specific channels.

This would not simply be an inconvenience to internet users, it would effectively be the death of the internet as we know it. An example of the power cable companies would wield is an instance several years ago

when, during a dispute between a Canadian telephone company and a workers union, all access to the union website was blocked by local internet providers. Or picture yourself trying to download a new start-up music app and finding that the internet won’t allow you to visit that app’s page because Spotify has paid your internet providers not to allow viewing of their competitors.

Perhaps among the splendors of corporate wealth and power, the bigwigs running these cable companies have lost touch with the wants of us plebeians. After all, who needs happy customers when you have monopolies? Of course they’re not worried about our only true, guaranteed power, the ability to choose our representatives. In fact, between spending over $19 million in lobbying and golf games between the president of Comcast and president Obama, the interests of cable companies better represented in the government than

those of our entire state.

Likewise, the end of Net Neutrality would lead to the rise of internet monopolies, as the speed/data allowance advantages between a rich company such as Netflix and it’s competitors would soon create a gap insurmountable to anyone who wished to compete. Eventually, these competitors would fall away, having lost their customers to slower speeds, low data caps, and limited show lists because the company gave the majority of it’s budget to Comcast simply for the privilege to exist.

This kind of occurrence underlines one of the biggest impacts the end of Net Neutrality would bring: the end of the internet as a free market. Ever since the founding of our country, one of the prime, archetypal ideals of our country is the idea that any upstart business, with a good idea, savvy, and ingenuity can make it in the world. It’s the fundamental difference between the internet and

the real world of business. Any new, innovative app or website can skyrocket into the limelight seemingly overnight and become the new fad.

It’s how Facebook overtook MySpace, Twitter overtook Facebook, and Netflix overtook TV, and most of our lives. Sadly, however much we love the open and free market, in reality the “level playing field” of said free market is about as even as the moon.

These companies are doing their best to kill the last bastion of truly fair competition. The end of Net Neutrality is the end of internet innovation.

We cannot allow this to happen.

The internet itself is a miracle of innovation, and promotes innovation in the best interest of us, the consumers. The corporate world seeks to end that, and bring the world of crushing monopolies to darken the digital sky.

It is nigh time that the interests of the people was considered. The good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one.

Pumpkin Spice Latte back at Starbucks Millions raised for ALS Having the spike back Sweater Weather Tongue Tattoo Fruit Roll-Ups Homecoming Court

Where the Wonder Women At?!

Wilson’s Apple Orachard

by SOPHIA SCHLESINGER The plans for the newest installation in the Man of Steel series were revealed at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International with the announcement of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Now that much of the fuss has died down and we’ve stopped making jokes about Ben Affleck playing Batman à la South Boston, many of us are actually curious about this movie.

The film, however, reflects a trend of female misrepresentation in the film industry with the very first introduction of Wonder Woman to the big screen, and even so- as a background character.

Joining Wonder Woman as a background hero is Aquaman.

Aquaman! The lowest of the low. My feelings are best articulated by Big Bang Theory’s Rajesh Koothrappali-- “He sucks. He sucks underwater. He sucks fish pee.” And yet, production for a movie featuring Aquaman has been going on since 2009, whereas these are the first steps for Wonder Woman in the history of live action portrayals of comic books (okay, save one rather unfortunate television show from the 70s). Let me put this in perspective: Wonder Woman, one of the crown jewels of the DC Comic world is only just appearing in film alongside Aquaman. How on earth could anyone equate these two?

This kind of attitude is rampant in the world of superhero movies. Time after time we see little to no representation of female comic book heroes. And yes, I hear the one person saying, “B-b-b-but Catwoman!” And yes, Selina Kyle is awesome and a total badass in theory, but in execution, she ends up as an ex-prostitute, amateur thief that’s only present to be Batman’s conflicted love interest. This shows that this industry unabashedly

compromises the powerful female for the sake of sex appeal.

One reason superheroes endure lies within their transformation-- from the very first comic books, to modern comics, to the silver screen. This process is keywithout it, Superman would still be a spit-curled kid wham!-ing and pow!-ing his way through waxy pages of subpar plot lines. And Batman would be considerably less emo. We like emo Batman. We put emo Batman on T-shirts, we form cults around his movies, and we have paid almost $2 billion in support. The point is that superheroes are characters, and as characters they can be adapted in different ways. This is the reason we have creations like Soviet Superman (strongly recommend, by the way), this is the reason we no longer have to scoff at lines like, “Holy ravioli, Batman!” But superheroes can also be neglected; heroes like Wonder Woman, Hawk Girl, and Black Canary are still trapped between the pages of comic recreations, and Catwoman has been lost in translation.

The only way for the common action-movie-watching public to accept women into this genre is if they’re finally featured and properly represented in their own movies, their own shows. Until then, this industry is essentially saying that females don’t have the capacity to astound, they can’t be complex or conflicted, and most importantly, they can’t save the world like a male superhero can. This message is more than blatant, and yet we still allow it. So while I’m thrilled that Wonder Woman is finally appearing on film, it pains me that our female superheroes are still having to fight against the push into the shadows of unequal representation.

Dollar Pizza two days a week!!!!!

Homework...again Crowded hallways and lunches ISIS Game of Thrones withdrawal the iPhone 6+ No foreign exchange students next year Not having Swipe Technology on iOS8 Capuccinno Lays Chips Castrating Pigs Art by: Gina Hardee

Underclassmen in the upper lots

A13

September 26, 2014

OPINION

Taboo Or Not Taboo?

RIGHT TO REMAIN

by AILSA BURKE

Sexuality: usually a word people tend to shy away from, it is one of those ‘scary’ words, like homosexual, menstruation, testicle, breasts, queer (in some contexts), rape, you get the gist.

Not everyone has an outright problem with these words, but no one can deny there is a large population of people who either avoid these words at all costs, or, when necessary to voice, do so in a whisper, so as not to be heard. Coincidentally, the same thing happens with actual sexuality: the capacity for sexual feelings. People try to steer clear from expressing their sexuality, or acknowledging its existence at all.

Sexuality may even be considered a social taboo in some senses, not merely the word, the actual thought of people having capacity for sexual thoughts, preferences or actions that someone may not want to have out in the open for all the world to see.

This shun of sexuality goes back a long time.

We all know the older customs in some cultures of not showing skin, staying a virgin until marriage, and making sure to not let anyone know you have ever done anything mildly sexual with anyone.

However, if anyone takes a look around them, that’s not quite how things are these days.

Women and men alike are showing skin on a daily basis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average age for virginity loss is 17.1 years, and people seldom marry so young; it is evident most are not saving themselves for marriage. Not only are married folks shown sleeping in the same bed on television, as they often did not used to be, people are even shown having sexual contact! *gasp*.

Sexuality is obviously in a much different place than it has been at any time in the past, being much more evident in everyday life, as well as in media today. Everyone is very aware that sexuality exists, and the majority are not opposed to a little PDA every once in a while.

So if sexuality has come such a long way, why is it still being repressed? People are afraid of sexuality. They’re afraid to show their feelings, to show that they think about sexuality, to admit that they might do sexual things. People are afraid of judgement. Although, if everyone just let loose, and put everything out in the open, would this fear go away? There would probably

still be that one person giving someone a look as they walk past them, that one group of people who get real quiet when that one person passes by. Despite those people, should anyone really care?

Most students obviously think there’s some sort of limit to this ‘putting everything out there’ theory. No one would even think of coming to school naked or discussing sexual feelings in class or with strangers, or at least I wouldn’t.

But look how far we’ve come. Who knows how this may change? We’ve gone from not showing ankles to maybe not wanting to see someone’s whole ass hanging out of their shorts, so is it completely absurd to think of a future when people are even more free with their sexuality?

Honestly, I hope that future exists. Maybe not to the full out ‘not wearing any clothes, telling everybody every detail about your sex life’ extent.

There is hope for a future when people aren’t so scared to discuss sexuality. Everyone obviously thinks about sexuality and it sucks that society, everyone at this school, and myself included, are so hush-hush about the whole shabang.

SILENT

“

“I don’t know what the difference between a hump and a bump is.”

- Mr. Bevelaqua on histograms

“Ms. Wilson and I would be the worst drug dealers ever.”

Where the Earth is Headed

-Ms. Scott on hiding prizes

by AYLA CANIN

“Oh yeah I can pop, lock and drop it!”

-Mr. Close on his white boy dance moves

“‘Ye women’ is Puritan for ‘My homies’” -Ms. Fettweis

“Ganster-fabulous white people from Iowa, turn it down!”

“

-Mr. Rogers regulating music volumes in 2109

ART: “City On Ice” by Nova Meurice

Inspirational quotes encouraging us to “go green” are everywhere now--plastered onto the bumpers of dusty minivans driven by frazzled moms, printed on reusable grocery bags and BP fuel pumps alike. But one thing these banners often neglect to mention is why. Why should we stop living the way we do? Who cares? Who will it affect, besides dejected baby pandas and tie dye-clad hippies scooping trash from a beach? How about our children, Iowa City, and us? We may not be clinging to what appears to be the last iceberg in the Arctic, but we will be affected too. In fact many of us already have been.

Remember that unit in American History about the pioneers and how they dismantled most of the prairie? Well, turns out that besides rippling in the breeze, supporting a complex and diverse ecosystem, and serving as

a fantastic backdrop for childrens books, the prairie was also quite good at soaking up water. And now that the prairie ceases to exist, every time it rains all the water that our flimsy lawn grass can’t retain (all the water) has no choice but to stream into the Iowa River, which consequently overflows, consuming the lovely city of Iowa City. Although there are a few passionate conservationists attempting to single-handedly replant Iowa’s prairie in highway ditches, the vast majority of us are snugly tucked into our respective vehicles while on the freeway and unlikely to ever experience it any other way. Unless we can muster the energy to get our lethargic selves working for a healthier, more absorbent environment, Iowa City will most likely continue to flood.

Besides destroying the prairie, Americans seem to have taken it upon themselves to generate as

much trash as is humanly possible. The United States manages to churn out a whopping 251 million tons of trash per year, 135 million tons of which end up in landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Not only is that number preposterously high, it is also hugely unnecessary.

The amount of packaging on the things we buy is ridiculous, not to mention the number of things.

The fact that apples from Costco come in a custom apple-shape plastic package is bizarre. And who needs a 12-pack of apples anyway? What happened to the good old days when it only took one apple a day to keep the doctor away?

Although the human population falls short in many ways, one has to be impressed with our ability to independently bring on a sixth mass extinction. The passenger pigeon is just one example of

an entire species that we managed to wipe out in a few short years.

Loss of habitat has decimated hundreds of species. And with the possibility that cell phone signals are interfering with bumble bees’ communication systems, it seems that nothing is safe from humanity. One of the few species that is thriving are the deer, despite the fact that we regularly hire deer extermination services in order to prevent overpopulation...seems slightly hypocritical, considering that we are the most overpopulated species of all.

All in all, it appears that if we don’t shape up soon we will be looking forward to a 2070 of massive floods, the sun setting weakly behind majestic mountains of discarded toothbrushes and dried up markers, all embellished with hoards and hoards of deer. That is, until we develop the technology required to colonize to the moon.

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A12

September 26, 2014

OPINION

Reddit, Fighting for Everyday Freedom

by WILL BARKER

Since humans first became aware of the concept of time, we have always wanted to travel through it, to go back 200 million years and fistbump a stegosaurus, or go forward a few years to check the winning powerball numbers. Well, with modern technology, and the simple URL reddit. com, time travel is possible, or at least it seems like it. If you have visited the popular social networking entertainment site, you know what I mean. If you want to eat up those few hours before bed instead of doing your homework, nothing is better.

But is this time really wasted? Since its start in 2005, Reddit has in addition to promoting silly Internet memes and trends, taken on many important issues concerning Internet freedom and electronic privacy. Two summers ago, hundreds of thousands of Reddit users gathered in a massive forum concerning the George Zimmerman trial to sort out evidence and other aspects of the case.

Earlier this year, Reddit was a key website in “The Day We Fight Back” Internet protest against the NSA and the government’s gathering of personal internet information. Clearly, Reddit is more concerned than other popular social media sites with making the future rather than only benefiting from it.

That being said, Reddit has its share of stupid memes, hateful communities, and misguided causes which are a waste of server space. However, more than other social media sites, Reddit has a real sense of community. Unlike Facebook, a Reddit user’s news feed will be filled with the most popular posts of the day throughout the site, not just what their friends have posted. This makes Reddit very representative of a variety of significant views around the world. Reddit’s simple voting system which determines popular posts, means that Reddit’s content goes in waves. When there is a big world event, for weeks afterwards there will be intelligent conversation on the subject. However, if there hasn’t been much news, Redditors fall back into a pointless spiral of talking about how great Reddit is, or how great they are--basically Reddit becomes Facebook.

So if you log into Reddit tomorrow, will you be wasting your life, or possibly stepping into an intelligent life-changing conversation? It depends, like most things in this world, on who and what types of things you associate yourself with. But that’s the brilliance of Reddit, its basic user freedom has turned it into a daily mess of pictures, memes, and forums which create a good everyday sense of our world.

art by Nova Meurice

Ellis Says NO to the Dress Code

by ELLIS FONTANA

So you’re sitting in class, taking a test. Not just a normal pop quiz mind you, but one of those big tests with 50 multiple choice questions and counts for about a quarter of your grade.

At the beginning everything seems to be going fine, sure you’re a little nervous, but you know your stuff and are confident that you’ll come out of this successful. When suddenly you notice it, that kid across the room is just sitting there wearing…. a baseball cap. For some reason you can no longer focus on the task at hand, but instead are too captivated by the kid’s hat, the way it sits perfectly atop it’s wearer’s head, with the fluorescent light bouncing off it’s shiny sticker, you can’t take your eyes off it. As you’re being hypnotized by this luxurious hat, you don’t notice the time passing by and the clock breaks the testing silence with the bell, the test is over and you only answered 23 out of the 50 questions. Of course you fail the test and your grade goes from an A- to a C, your parents ground you and take your car away, meaning you can’t get to school, or take your girlfriend to that new movie this weekend, all because of that wonderful and mesmerizing baseball cap…

Now of course this story is fake, just a silly story. This scenario never happened, because there is no way an intelligent teenager can be so captivated by a baseball cap that they can’t even take a test or perform well in class. So why can we not

wear hats in school? Well, according to the dress code found on pg. 27 of your School Planner you threw away on the first day of school, it says: “Students are expected to dress appropriately for school and may not wear or display attire which is deemed disruptive of the school environment or unreasonably infringes on others’ rights to health, safety, welfare or property.”

Apparently, hats happen to fall into this category, but why? They’re not disruptive, a simple baseball cap is not going to hurt you or destroy your property. But for some reason the schools have some kind of personal vendetta against hats for no apparent reason, other than the fact that it comes from past traditions. And it doesn’t stop at hats either, clothing attire such as “excessive cleavage”, short skirts or shorts, bare midriffs, and pants, slacks, or shorts worn below the waist all fall under this category of “disruptive”.

It’s clear what they’re trying to say with this, that if a girl wears short shorts, exposed stomach, and cleavage then the students and even the teacher can not focus on the task of schoolwork. Because us humans are just so sex-driven that we can’t tear our eyes away from boobs, or our desires get in the way and we feel “uncomfortable”. Now, it can be said that clothing like that can be distracting, but it’s certainly not dis-

ruptive, and it’s most definitely not infringing of our rights to health or safety, it’s not like we’re so distracted that we end up running into walls because we’re not paying attention.

So although these styles could be distracting to some, it hasn’t shown itself to disrupt the school environment, making this issue more on should we allow people to have more freedom in the way they dress even if it means some people are uncomfortable. And that answer would be yes, as the current rule shows itself to take sides in the problem. I mean, if you were a girl wearing a shirt that showed cleavage, how would you feel if somebody came over and said you have to change your clothes because that pimply teenager across the room is too focused on your breasts to work? You would feel pretty uncomfortable.

With these problems, it’s apparent that we need to fix the dress code. To do that I say we simply allow the students to wear hats, short shorts, sagging pants, etc. As long as it doesn’t fall under the indecent exposure category, because that’s actually illegal. The rest of the rules regarding offensive or inappropriate clothes and shoes being worn at all times can stay.

However, the other stuff about how people have to dress a certain way because other people feel a bit uncomfortable, that stuff can go.

Student ONLINE Opinion Blogs

Really just two guys who like movies but have no real qualifications to judge them.

The Little Hawk’s corner of geekiness, where Nina reviews the latest video game news!

A15

Iowa City’s Newest Music Festival

By Arielle Soemadi The second annual Soul Fest was held on September the 19th and 20th. Soul Fest is just what it sounds like; a festival filled with dance, music, food, and art from African and African-American communities.

This event is held to show and welcome other cultures by highlighting and embracing their differences. High schoolers are encouraged to volunteer for Silver Chord hours, and to be apart of the community.

“This year we are hoping for an even larger turnout than last year. About 10 to 15 thousand people attended Soul Fest last year,” Lisa Barnes, the executive director of Summer of the Arts, said. “We are hoping to be at the upper ends of those numbers this year.”

The idea for Soul Fest came from a group entitled Diversity Focus, which is a non-profit organization from Cedar Rapids formed by larger corporations that wish to bring in diverse employees. In order to keep those employes, Diversity Focus wants them to feel accepted into the community.

They have had the idea for Soul Fest since about two years ago, and it was put into practice for the first time in 2013. “[Diversity Focus has] wanted to put on a soul festival of sorts for several years, and this was a great opportunity for that,” Barnes said. “We want a good turnout, so we have Soul Fest when classes are in session. Surprisingly, we’ve never had anyone falling-down drunk.”

Soul Fest is always on an away or bye weekend University of Iowa football game to keep the festival under control. Facilitators also have arranged for security backstage, and the University provides security on the Pentacrest.

Many soul performers, including Al Jarreau and Grammy winner, Lalah Hathaway, performed onstage in downtown Iowa

City. There were 14 performers this year, compared to last year’s six artists. Not only did the program include local artists, but also even bigger names from Chicago and Indianapolis. People had been talking about Soul Fest for months before the event, according to Barnes.

Kids were able to play in inflatables and eat homemade cotton candy, while still being exposed to different cultures. For the adults, Summer of the Arts continued to offer their Beverage Garden. Soul Fest is a free event to attendees, thanks to the many sponsors of Summer of the Arts along with the public’s donations. According to Barnes, this event costs upwards of $50,000.

“Putting on a festival is not cheap,” Barnes said. “Each festival we do (Arts Fest, Jazz Fest,and Soul Fest) requires a lot of planning.” The tedious planning process begins directly after the festival ends. Setup and teardown are extensive volunteer shifts; the streets are closed down on Thursday to begin setup for the festival that will begin the coming Friday night. Setup takes at least 24 hours and teardown can take anywhere from four-12 hours. This requires a lot of volunteers.

Speaking of volunteers, many City High students, and even City’s own special educator Tom Braverman, volunteer at Summer of the Arts festivals. Faithful volunteer of Summer of the Arts, Maria McCoy ‘15, explains why she decided to help out at Soul Fest.

“This will be the second time I’ve volunteered at Soul Fest,” McCoy said. “I volunteered with Summer of the Arts originally for volunteer hours, but I ended up loving working in this environment, because you get to hang out downtown all day and listen to great music. I recommend helping out at these festivals because you help bring the community together, and you get to be apart of this really amazing project. Also,

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

ABOVE: 10 Of Soul takes to the stage infront of the Old Capitol, Saturday night during Iowa Soul Fest 2014.

KIERRA ZAPF/ THELITTLEHAWK

the food venders are really good,” McCoy said. Many City High students volunteered for Soul Fest, and many will volunteer with Summer of the Arts during the summer.

Students are able to gain upwards of 20 volunteer hours on festival weekends.

Summer of the Arts directors have already been working on Arts Fest, another festival in the Summer of the Arts series, for 2015. The 2015 Iowa Arts Festival is scheduled for June 5-7 in downtown Iowa City and will feature approximately 115-120 of the nation’s finest artists in a juried show.

They will begin accepting applications for

artists in December of 2014. Others interested in volunteering, which is the driving force behind the festival’s ability to continue to be held, for next year’s events can sign up at the Summer of the Arts website. “The biggest challenge is [recruiting] volunteers,” Barnes said. “Even though it’s our smallest festival, it’s hard to get our high school volunteers to come out because it’s during the school year. We hope that fraternities and sororities will be volunteering again this year along with other University of Iowa students,” Barnes said. “Our volunteers are what makes or breaks a festival.”

Music That Tells a Story Jared Kuddes ‘15 , a rapper, and Mason Taylor ‘15, a beatmaker, explain their mindsets when it comes to creating a musical piece.

F

By Jonas Geerdes

oul mouthed, but well-meaning, Jared Kuddes ‘15, is one of the few self making music artists here at City High. Starting with writing raps in his free time in Pete Muir’s English class at Southeast, Kuddes has been able to create raps and establish himself as a well known freestyle rapper. Starting in late sophomore year, Kuddes began on a bored day home alone.

“One day I played an instrumental on my computer,” Kuddes said, “I then thought that this is something I could get into.”

Although not entirely considered school appropriate, Kuddes has rapped on serious issues that students face such as drug abuse and daily stress.

“Other rappers will talk about doing drugs and feeling good,” Kuddes said on his songs. “I’m sitting here talking about doing stuff and overdosing, being sent to the hospital.”

Explaining the nature of his raps Kuddes said that you can’t have a little light without adding some dark. “I’m not saying I’m innocent,” Kuddes replied. “I don’t think anyone is, I’m just hoping to bring out some beauty from the dark.”

City High serves as a good source for content for Kuddes. Focusing on interactions between students themselves, Kuddes can mold it into poetry. “There are brains all around me, working in every direction

all with their own troubles,” Kuddes said.

“Thinking about that and what I can do with it. Those are real thoughts that I want to work with.” Future plans include writing more poetry for his songs, as well as working with Mason Taylor ‘15, on a mixtape hopefully to be released by this upcoming summer. “What he does with his music is ridiculous,” Kuddes said. “I’ve never seen someone progress that fast before.”

Taylor makes musical tracks incorporating pre-made sounds to make melodies and beats. Working mostly with EDM and other electronic music, Taylor works the FL studio producer edition program to make tracks on his laptops. “It all started with garageband for me,” Taylor said. “You start with the basics and move your way up to more complex stuff like FL.” When Taylor begins the process of making his tracks, it all begins with a small track in head. “I start with a chord in my head,” Taylor said.

“I try to set a vibe that’s different from mine or other tracks.”

Ending a track, Taylor likes to concentrate on bass for its effect on changing the song.“You’ve got to make it flow right,” Taylor said. “If a song doesn’t have good bass then its not considered good. You have too much and it can overwhelm you, create a rumbly feeling that can ruin the song.” When finishing a song Taylor creates a strong song structure, comparing it to a

story, creating conflicts with a resolution and a worthy climax. “If I’m not satisfied on the story,” Taylor said, “then I can’t expect anyone else to be satisfied either.”

Both musicians have have created and uploaded self-made content onto the online, music sharing website Soundcloud.

Kuddes as jnative, has uploaded 17 raps, although he says he isn’t satisfied. “The only reason I upload is because I was too eager,” Kuddes explained. “I didn’t have real equipment, just my phone.” His profile, what Kuddes calls an experiment, was to see if he could accomplish something that people liked. “ Doing something like this, but as a show, would be awesome,” Kuddes said. “People together celebrating good poetry, with a beat to it, would be beautiful.”

Taylor, as AlienRave, uploaded twentynine tracks, with over a hundred followers.

With plans to send his tracks to professional producers, Taylor states his intent on trying this as a future career. “I’m going into business,” Taylor said, “Hopefully I will be able to use this skills on the side.”

Working together, Taylor’s ability to create a beat and Kuddes talent for rhyming fast, have led to two songs titled Float, a goofy, upbeat song and Near Your Energy, a more vibey, electrical piece. Taylor explains time as an obstacle in future partnerships.

“We both work a lot,” Taylor stated. “ It takes a lot of time produce quality music.”

ABOVE: Jared Kuddes ‘15 performs a rap.

BELOW: Mason Taylor ‘15 works on his mixes.

KIERRA ZAPF/ THELITTLEHAWK

A16

A&E September 26, 2014

Playing the Hero

ABOVE: Various members of the band play at the football games. KIERRA ZAPF AND CAROLINE BROWN/ THELITTLEHAWK

By Drew Orr

Capes and masks are not usual attire for the everyday marching band, but the Little Hawk Marching Band is taking their theme to heart.

“It’s kind of one of those themes that I knew the type of music I wanted, and I used the mask to connect them together,” City High Band Director Ryan Arp said.

The 2014 halftime show is titled Behind the Mask. It is superhero themed and will feature popular songs from Batman, Zoro, and Disney’s The Incredibles.

“Fans should expect a dynamic performance. Lots of highs and lots of lows. Lots of louds and lots of softs,” trombone section leader Ryan Dailey ‘15 said. “It’s very exciting music that moves the soul. You actually get the sense that there’s a superhero while listening.”

Accompanying the new theme this year, the marching band will be receiving new uniforms.

This is the first time the band will be getting new uniforms in 20 years.

“We’re not really sure if we’re going to get them in time for this next game or not, but they are a considerable upgrade from what we had in the past,” Arp said. “The old ones were a majority

white while the new ones are a majority red. We are very excited about them.”

To many students at City High, the band is a very important part of the school. Boosting spirit, the band plays a vital role at City High sporting events.

“I always enjoy being able to watch the bands performance during halftime,” Luke Milefchik ‘15 said. “It provides a nice break from the action and gets you pumped up and ready for the second half!”

Arp states that the realization that the band members are performing the entire time they are on the field is an important step in the learning process.

“I like it when the kids get the whole thing on the show and it starts to make sense to them about what they’re doing and their performing,” Arp said. “That’s what I always like to see.”

As time moves on, the future only seems bright and very exciting to Dailey.

“Hopefully with our performance it will inspire people to do greater things as we remind them of the heros that they grew up with as kids,” Dailey said. “To do greater things. To go beyond themselves and make a difference!”

SPORTS

September 26, 2014

Climbing to the

Top

The volleyball team started off the season as unranked. Now, they have a 6-1 record and have leaped to #8 in the state.

Photo by: Elise Goodvin

B2

September 26, 2014

SPORTS

LEFT: Rylee Price ‘15 celebrates with her team after scoring a point against West High. CENTER TOP: The volleyball team celebrates on the court after Shannon Stamp blocks a West High hit to win the fifth set. CENTER TOP: The crowd cheers for the volleyball team. RIGHT: Alexa Aldrich-Ingram ‘15 sets the ball. ELISE GOODVIN and CAROLINE BROWN/THELITTLEHAWK

Starting off the

year with a spike The Little Hawk volleyball team progresses from unranked to eighth in the state, winning the Spike back from crosstown rival West High School.

By Becca Meyer Fans packed the stands to watch the Little Hawks take on West High in the Battle of the Spike in their first home game of the year.

Roaring students cheered point after point, during the intense back and forth rivalry match. After the fifth set, City High emerged victorious.

“It was incredible to beat West,” senior captain Sarah Plock said. “The pure enthusiasm and celebration was such a thrill. The atmosphere in the gym was insane.”

The volleyball team started off the season as unranked. Now, they have a (7-4) record and have leaped to number eight in the state.

“Now that we’ve beat West, our main goals are to be conference champions and to make it to state,” Rylee Price ‘15 said.

Last year, the team came one nail-biting game short of heading to the state tournament after losing to Urbandale.

“Our team chemistry is much better this year. There are less cliques on the team, and the attitude has improved a lot. This year we want it more. Everyone sticks together and everyone believes in each other,” Price said.

With the loss of four starting seniors from the previous season, including current D1 athlete Michaela Nelson ‘14, the younger players on the team have had to fill the spots.

If fans didn’t know any better, spectators of the varsity match might think it was the sophomore game. Four of the six starters for the volleyball team are sophomores, and two additional sophomores see playing time on the court.

“Our team is very young this year, but hopefully, the older we get, the more we improve,” star hitter Alexa Ingram ‘17 said. Ingram is one of the younger players on the team, but still leads City High with a kill efficiency of 0.394.

Not only does the team consist of almost entirely sophomores, there are also two new faces on the team this year—transfers Ashley Smith ‘16 and Kendra Cave ‘17 are two players who haven’t worn red and white until this season. Averaging 6.53 digs a game, Smith carries the team in the back row.

“I love being on the City High volley-

ball team,” Smith said. “Every time we’re all together something new happens, and team bonding is a lot of fun.”

One of the ways the team has fun is by dancing before every game. Whether players do it to get an adrenaline rush or to get rid of nerves, it has been a tradition on the team for years.

“Dancing before games gets me pumped up,” Ingram said.

“Then once I run out onto the court, I am completely focused.

I’m trying to get to know the other team and see what they can do so I know how to stop them.”

Smith also shares a similar mindset towards the game.

“Before the game I’m just thinking about my job on the court and what I need to fix from practice the previous day,” Smith said.

“Then during the game I let everything go and I just play. I love how intense it is when the other team sets up the ball to a hitter, and

“YOUR TEAM ALWAYS HAS TO BE THERE TO BACK YOU UP...YOU NEED 18 PEOPLE TO SUPPORT YOU.” -SARAH PLOCK ‘15

the hitter tries to pound at me. It’s a thrill to try to pass it.”

The players describe the thrill on the court as heart-pumping, but nothing fuels the excitement more than the crowd.

“When we have a really good hit or ace or something, and the initial reaction where you see the whole team getting pumped up and jumping up in the air, it is electrifying,” Plock said. “But when you look over and see the crowd screaming and cheering it just feels even more intense and much more fun.”

The powerful energy from the crowd, and close first game win over West and steal of the Spike has motivated the girls to work even harder to continue to have a successful season.

“We need to be more focused and take more risks in practices so we can improve,” Price said. “We want to be able to run faster and fancier plays.”

Each player on the team agrees that no individual will be able to do it alone. It will have to be a team effort or nothing will come together on the court.

“Volleyball is very team-oriented; you can’t do anything by yourself.The whole team has to be involved,” Plock said. “Your team always has to be there to back you up. If you make a bad set or pass or hit, you need 18 people to support you or the team won’t be successful.”

SPORTS September 26, 2014

Small team continues to battle in the pool

B3

Rebuilding year for Boys Golf

By Katrina Scandrett

ABOVE: City swims against West at Mercer Aquatic Center and City lost the meet 58-125, Pictured here is Makayda Johnson ‘18 CAROLINE BROWN/ THELITTLEHAWK

By Madeline Denninger The City High girls’ swim team competed against crosstown rival West High last Tuesday at the Coralville Recreation Center. West High won,58 to 125.

Despite the loss, Naftalia Flatté ‘14, thinks the season is progressing well.

“The team is pretty excited about going on,” Flatté said. “We’ve had a couple rough spots, but I think overall it’s going very well.”

Flatté’s opinion is backed up; several athletes experienced time drops at the meet.

“A lot of peoples’ starts are getting better, and their turns are definitely too,” Flatté, who swam the 100 yard freestyle and the 100 yard backstroke, said. “We work on turns almost everyday. Peoples’ times are dropping. I dropped time yesterday, a lot of time in the 100 free, and I’m approaching my best time in the 100 back, which is fun.”

Sophomore teammate Maddie Spivey, who swam in the 100 yard butterfly and the 200 yard medley relay, concurred.

“We had a lot of individual victories,” Spivey said.

Junior Alix Sharp won both the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 1:07.24, and the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 2:22.79.

According to Flatté, the team expects to continue to drop times throughout the season.

“It’d be great to get a relay to state,” Flatté said. “I think mostly though it’s personal bests at the taper meet.”

This is the team’s first season with head coach Zane Hugo, a previous coach for the IFLY swim club in Iowa City.

“There were a couple things, like the color breathing system that were new,” Flatté said.

“But we seem to progressing pretty well.”

The new breathing system helps the swimmers to track their heart rate as they swim.

Different heart rates have a color assigned to

them.

Hugo says he hopes to make it to the state meet at the end of the season.

“We have a couple of returning school record holders.” Hugo said. “The 200 medley relay and the 100 breaststroke record holders are coming back, and I’d like to get them back to state and qualify a couple more girls that I think have the potential.”

“He’s really supportive. He thinks we’re doing really well.” Spivey said about Hugo, “He’s only concerned about our individual victories.

We all like his coaching.”

The team currently only has 11 members, down from 19 members at the beginning of the season, which poses as a challenge to them.

“It’s really just the size of our team, because we’re so small.” Spivey said. “Otherwise we’ve been doing really well.”

“I’m not worried about winning events, it’s just staking the lineup that’s going to be a little hard,” Hugo said.

Sports Opinion:

Appalling, but Not Surprising

By Joe Britton Like the millions of others on Monday morning a few weeks ago, I saw the headline “Second Rice Elevator Video Released” and without much thought behind the action, clicked play. I watched as what appeared to be Ray Rice of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and his then-fiance, Janay Palmer, (the two wed on March 28th) enter an elevator while being engaged in a heated verbal argument. As they entered, Rice hit Palmer once in the face.

Palmer then stepped toward Rice as he delivered a close-fisted punch to her face. Palmer was then knocked back, hitting her head on the railing, and was rendered unconscious.

Growing up I had never once witnessed any act of domestic violence, whether it be in my home or someone else’s. This was my first glimpse at what it truly looked like. Disgusted, I began to imagine how it must feel to be attacked by someone who is supposed to love and protect you, someone who you should be able to trust with your life, not fear that they themselves might end it. I was appalled at what I had seen, surprised by the vile reality of it.

I had every right to be appalled, but as I soon learned, what I shouldn’t have been was surprised.

The NFL’s domestic abuse problem is greater than meets the eye. It stems deeper than just Rice. According to USA Today, the league itself has 14 active players with a history of domestic abuse. This includes two players currently involved in domestic abuse trials; with each scenario being just as gruesome as Rice’s. Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers was found guilty on June 15th of assaulting and threatening to kill his exgirlfriend. On August 31st, Ray McDonald of the the San Francisco 49ers was arrested for felony domestic assault against his pregnant girlfriend.

The NFL’s issue is, in a way, a microcosm of our nation’s problem as a whole. The reality of the matter is that domestic violence has always been, and currently is, an ugly problem in our society. People have always know that domestic abuse happens, but they certainly don’t have a clear grasp of the alarming rate at which it occurs. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1 in 4 women in the United States will experience physical violence from an intimate partner

in their lifetime and an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.

Domestic abuse has proven prevalent in our own community as well. According to an article by The Little Village, the ICPD recorded an average year’s number of domestic abuse calls and arrests in just the first six months of 2014. Earlier this month an ICCSD School Board member was arrested for allegedly striking a male in her home with a clothes hanger and kicking him repeatedly.

The only way to remove acts of domestic violence as mainstays in the fabric of society is to change the way we interact with them.

Such acts are not confined to the NFL. No longer can we push them to the back of our minds due to their unpleasant nature. We can’t continue to think of them as something that will always happen. These egregious occurrences serve no cultural function. All they do is spread hate and violence along with permanently damaging their victims’ psyches.

Until we decide as a whole to deal with them with the seriousness that they warrant, nothing is going to change.

The boys golf team is starting off their 2014 season with a clean slate after ending last year ranked 29th out of 40 teams.

In the previous season there were five seniors, in contrast to one returning senior this year, Jacob Cabbage. In addition, only two non-senior varsity letter winners - Ben Morony ‘16 and Tyler Courtney ‘16 - will be returning. Team captains have not yet been decided.

“We’ve lost five seniors from last year, gained four freshman, and have seen the sophomores really step things up from last year,” Ben Morony ‘16 said. Morony has played golf since his freshman year for City and was a varsity member last year.

The team is focusing on rebuilding after the transition, and which has translated into training as much as possible.

“During the summer we had a workout program a couple days during the week. Our coach really pushed us to be in the gym and then made sure we kept getting better every day,” Morony said.

Morony believes that a supportive coaching staff has been key to staying on track.

“Our coaches, Jerry Hora and Mike Bevelacqua, really strive to help us be our best on the golf course and make sure that we are getting all of our work done,” he said.

Amid the positivity, there have been some aspects of play that diminish the attitude of the team. Bad weather can have an influence on the team especially when it comes to meets.

“We try to play unless there is lightning but sometimes the course has standing water.

If there’s standing water we will damage the grass meaning we won’t be practicing outside for the day,” Jacob Cabbage ‘15 said. “Sometimes the weather on meet day can affect the attitude of the team, some players get more nervous.”

Although it can have a negative impact on the team, weather is one adversity that the team has grown used to.

“I love playing golf every day,” Morony said. “It’s one of my favorite sports so I love to go out and play and just feel totally relaxed.”

Morony and Cabbage both hope to continue enjoying playing golf and improving as the season goes on.

“We are working on weight lifting and getting stronger to improve the strokes,” Morony said. “We have a lot of younger players but we should get more consistent as the season goes on.”

Go to:

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B4

September 26, 2014

SPORTS

Identity Check

The Little Hawks push past a (0-4) season with high hopes in the district games to come.

By Dominic Balestrieri-Fox

With the first four games over and done with, the Little Hawks are looking forward to district play, starting with Ottumwa.

Eric McDonald ‘15, a returning varsity lineman and captain, knows it’s been a rough start.

“The season hasn’t been the greatest,” McDonald acknowledged. “We just haven’t been able to get the win. Our district games start soon, however, and I’m excited for them. We’ve got new motivation for them and will step it up.”

This is the first season in 33 years that the Little Hawks have gone beneath (0-3). They failed to put points on the board in the season opener against Cedar Falls, losing (0-14). Powerful drives against Bettendorf weren’t quite enough in the second half, ending the game (17-48), in favor of Bettendorf. They couldn’t quite execute against Ames’s quick tempo (20-44), and when it came to cross-town rival West High, a number of factors led to the Boot trophy changing ownership for the season in a (6-30) loss.

With a younger team - 28 juniors, four sophomores including starting quarterback Nate Wieland, and 19 seniors - the Little Hawk coaching staff have expressed their concerns about inexperience and lack of identity.

“We just haven’t had consistent success, and when you don’t have consistent success, you can’t really say, ‘this is who we are’,” head coach Dan Sabers said. “We’ve got four games under our

belt, so that [inexperience] should be less of a factor, and that’s something that needs to happen.”

In these past weeks, some athletes have stood out for City High.

City High’s quarterback Nate Wieland has thrown 126 passes for 588 passing yards, his most hit targets Burnett, Runge, and #9 WR Griffin ‘16.

He is second in rushing, with 43 attempts for 135 yards.

“I never thought I’d be leading with these stats four weeks into the season, [but I need to] execute more on offense. I’ve been very inconsistent throughout some games,” Wieland commented.

Sabers’ major concern regarding Wieland is inexperience, but he believes that Wieland can manage.

“Not that many [concerns], he’s the best guy we’ve got right now so that’s what we’ve got to do with, there’s some lack of experience, but he’s handling that very well,” Sabers said. #1 RB Bryson Runge ‘15, currently leads the team in rushing, with 35 rushing attempts for 246 yards, averaging six yards per play. Runge also leads the team in scoring, having put 14 points on the boards so far.

Close behind Runge in scoring is #19 Juma Burnett ‘16, having put 12 points on the board so far in the game against Bettendorf. Burnett currently leads the Little Hawks in receiving, averaging 12.5 yards per catch with a total of 175 yards.

Offensive coordinator Joe Wilcox believes that many of the players who are leading the team will continue to do so, but that new leaders are also emerging.

“Griffin Fellows ‘16 has been starting to move up and make some plays, Juma Burnett wasn’t a guy we were really expecting a lot from, but he’s shown that he can do some things, Will Noack ‘16 came up with a big catch against West High, Mike Fredieu ‘15,” Wilcox said.“It has a lot to do with what the defense is taking away and what they’re giving up, you know certain things can open it up for somebody else,” Middle linebacker #4 Erick Fletcher ‘16 leads the City High defense with 15 solo tackles, followed closely by #6 defensive end DeJuan McKenny ‘15, 2014 captain, and #23 Aaron Kimber ‘15. Each have 12 solo tackles.

O NL INE P LAY ER P R O F ILES

By Innes Hicsasmaz

Sarah & Ashley Volleyball Feature www.thelittlehawk.com

Eric and DeJuan Football Feature www.thelittlehawk.com

“I think on defense, we’re going to stick with some of the same starters and a few other guys, DeJuan McKenny, Charles Johnson, Eric McDonald, some of those guys will start to step up, the secondary has more coverage responsibility and less tackling responsibility,” Wilcox said.

City has opted to follow a more spread out passing-oriented offense for the 2014 season.

“We feel that suits our talent needs the best, and gives us the best chance to be successful,” Sabers said.

City’s first opponent in the district games is Ottumwa, a team that the Little Hawks have less experience with, the last meeting between the teams being a playoff game in the mid-90’s.

Ottumwa has historically played within the CIML and City High in the MVC. District play has opened the two teams up to regular season contest.

“They’re playing really hard right now.

They’re really scrappy, they aren’t super big, but they get after it and play hard,” Wilcox said.

B5

SPORTS September 26, 2014

COLLAGE: TOP: The offenseive line gets ready for a play. BOTTOM LEFT: Nile Ringen’ 16 dodges a tackle. BOTTOM RIGHT: Evan Grace ‘15 celebrates a touchdown.

RIGHT: Juma Burnett ‘15 jumps for a pass while being defended by an Ames player.

CORA BERN-KLUG/ THELITTLEHAWK

“They’ll run a different defense from what we’ve seen, they run a 3-5, so that’s kind of unique as far as what we’ll see. They’ll have a nose and they’ll be doing a little bit more blitzing out of it.”

Some standout offensive athletes from Ottumwa are #1 WR Papay Kruah, who averages 17.3 yards per catch - 22 receptions for 380 yards, and #2 junior RB Isaiah Cox who rushed for over 1,271 yards last season and has accumulated 590 in the past four games.

Ottumwa is (3-1) in their first four games, losing their most recent game in double-overtime against Indianola High School.

Wilcox sees the Little Hawks’ (0-4) record as a result of the pre-district schedule chosen.

“These first four games we wanted to be difficult, we wanted games that mattered. We knew that it would be difficult, but we knew it would make us better,” he said, “I think the nice thing with district play is that it’s a brand new season. You can go (0-4) and win your last five games and you’re a district champion and be a one-seed in the playoffs,” he said.

Eric & Dejuan Volleyball Feature on thelittlehawk.com

CORA BERN-KLUG

Alexa & Cyan Volleyball Feature on thelittlehawk.com

B6

September 26, 2014

SPORTS

ABOVE: The varsity girls’ team begins their first race of the season at home at the University of Iowa Ashton Cross Country Course. INNES HICSASMAZ/ THELITTLEHAWK

An uphill battle This year, the girls’ cross country team is smaller, but they have much bigger goals.

By Innes Hicsasmaz The junior varsity team won the Little Hawk Invitational meet on September 18th, Celeste Chadwick ‘17 winning the race with a time of 16:30, and freshman Bridget Brownright behind at 17:19. Brown ran her first race with the varsity pack at the beginning of September, but she was one of many runners knocked out by a virus spread throughout the team.

“After IMS, I just started feeling sick,” Brown said. “I started coughing a lot, and it gradually got worse. I had to miss the next two meets. It took a while to get over, but it’s pretty much gone now.”

Despite her illness, Brown set a personal record the next time she ran. Even though girls like Brown are recovering and easing back into running, many runners are still out due to long-term injuries. Aminata Traore ‘16 has been forced to sit out a second season due to multiple leg injuries. Traore missed last season due to a broken knee. This year, she suffers from a stress injury in her opposite leg.

“My left leg was too weak, so my right leg

By The Numbers

was doing all the work,” Traore explained. “[Missing two seasons] sucks. I ran in the summer and I was putting in the work. I really felt like I was getting better.”

Even with girls out with illnesses and injuries, this year’s team is unusually small and young, with only three four-year seniors returning to varsity. Small senior and freshman classes have kept the team under the usual number of runners. While this is a disadvantage from a rankings standpoint, head coach Tom Mittman sees it as an opportunity for the team to form closer bonds.

“One of my main goals is to have great team unity by the end of the season,” Mittman said. “I want the girls to see that their friends can be beyond their closer friends; I want them to reach out. And we’ve done some things to improve that.”

The team has been working hard to prove themselves among larger teams, and a teamwide goal is to improve their 13th-place finish at the state meet last year.

“Everyone’s improving their times,” captain Molly Shepard ‘15 said. “And with freshmen and sophomores stepping up on varsity, it means they’re learning experience. They’re going to be around longer, so the team will

1

Number of seconds Lizzie Brown needs to take off her swim time to make it to Olympic Trials

continue to be good.”

The varsity team placed third at the Little Hawk Invitational, just behind Southeast Polk and Bettendorf. Returning varsity runner Mary Arch ‘17 won the race, running 15:12.

“I’m really blessed to get this opportunity again, because not everyone can get to do this, not everyone can run every year,” Arch said. “My goal this season is to compete harder than I did last year and embrace the pain more.”

When asked about being one of the younger members on varsity, Arch doesn’t find it strange.

“It doesn’t really matter to me because the team is so welcoming. It doesn’t feel any different how old you are,” Arch explained.

“It’s good because there’s a lot of growth that’s happening, I can tell all the time. I can tell there’s going to be a lot of progress.”

“The only negative effect is that we have girls lacking experience being pressed into running varsity, which comes with some pressure,”Mittman added. “The good news is that they’ve dealt with it very well, and they never cease to amaze me at how well they’ve adapted.They’ve really adopted our program’s emphasis on every person counts.”

TOP: Izzy Shutt ‘16 runs through the curves of Ashton Cross Country Course.

BOTTOM: Megan Plock ‘15 races through the finish chute.

INNES HICSASMAZ/ THELITTLEHAWK

49 184 75 204 Number of kills Alexa Aldrich-Ingram has

Number of yards the longest touchdown run is

Number of days until boys’ soccer season starts

Number of students in the City High Red Zone

B7

SPORTS September 26, 2014

UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS Football Friday Sep 26 7:15 Varsity Game

@ Ottumwa High School Thursday Oct 2 7:15 Varsity Game

vs. Prairie High School Friday Oct 10 7:15 Varsity Game

@Burlington High School

Volleyball Saturday Sep 27 9:00 Varsity Invite

@Dubuque Senior Tuesday Oct 7 7:00 Varsity Match

vs. Waterloo East Saturday Oct 11 9:00 Varsity Invite @Bettendorf

Golf Monday Sep 29 9:30 Varisty Div.

@Irv Warren Golf Course

Freshmen stepping up

for cross country

By Hazel Crew After a 14th place finish at last year’s state cross country meet, the team hopes to come back with new forces leading the squad.

The boys cross country team lost their top two runners, seniors Ryan Dorman and Chris Ohrt. But there is some talent working up through the ranks.

“We have good freshmen and some people that are stepping up and filling those spots that were left by the seniors,” Tom McDowell ‘16, a three-year returning varsity letterwinner said.

Among those stepping up to lead the team are Matthew Dodge ‘17 and Joel Bender ‘15, Bender winning the first meet of the season with a time of 16:53. Captains this season are Bender, Jens Dancer ‘15, Joe Crooks ‘15, and Lucas Froeschner ‘15.

“We are gaining a huge freshmen class this year,” Dancer said. “They are very promising and I’m looking forward to having them on the team.”

The enthusiasm from the improving freshmen class, which is 22 people strong, extends throughout the team.

“We have some good potential, I think we all know how to run a good 5K and we can do something really special if we work together and put our minds to it,” Dancer said . “We haven’t been racing together our whole lives, so we are going to have to learn how to race as a team.”

The learning and improving started over the summer for some athletes, with vigorous summer training and workouts. The training seemed to pay off; the team earned a second place finish overall at the first meet of the season, coupled with Bender’s first place individual victory.

“For the people who were there, their training paid off a lot, and you can see it in their times that they have been running,” McDowell said.

The team is careful not to overdo training.

“Last year we did a little too much and we recognize that. This year we cut our mileage back a little bit,” Dancer said.

On average most people ran five days a week and ran about five miles a day.

Cutting back on offseason mileage seemed to work. The team believes the coaches are a positive impact as well.

Thursday Oct 2 3:15 Varsity Meet

@Pheasant Ridge, CF Tuesday Oct 7 9:00 District Meet TBD

Swimming Saturday Sep 27 8:30 Invitational @Kennedy Tuesday Sep 30 6:00 Meet

@Mercer Aquatic Center Tuesday Oct 7 6:00 Meet

@CR Jefferson

LEFT: Jens Dancer ‘15 competes in City High’s home meet at Ashton Cross Country Course. TOP: Joel Bender ‘15 INNES HICSASMAZ/ THELITTLEHAWK

@littlehawksport

Cross Country Thursday Oct 2 4:30 Bud Williams

@U of I Ashton XC Course Thursday Oct 9 3:30 MVC Meet

@CR Prairie High School Saturday Oct 11 9:00 Girls Invite @Sterling Thursday Oct 16 3:30 Boys Invite

@Waterloo West

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LIVE UPDATES - VIDEOS HIGHLIGHTS - RESULTS

SPORTS September 26, 2014

Playmaker

ProfilE

B8

: Bryson Runge

H

e can hear the sounds of pencil on paper while students around him anxiously fill out multiple choice questions. His shaggy dreads hang down past his forehead, nearly getting in the way of his eyesight, as he attempts to read the first question. Bryson Runge ‘15 can’t seem to concentrate on the test in front of him; thoughts of Friday Night Lights and actionpacked plays consume his mind. The sound of the bell interrupts Runge’s daydreams of returning the first ball for a touchdown and he is forced to return to reality.

“On game day, I keep my phone service off during the school day so my main focus is on football,” Runge said. “I try not to think about anything but football. I don’t want to get caught up in anything on social media that would affect my play.”

Runge has had to be mentally tough and totally focused on football for four years now. During his freshman season at City High, he was moved up to varsity and has been contributing to the team ever since.

This year alone, he has already run a total of 246 yards and scored two touchdowns, with two two-point conversions. Yet, he still experiences a feeling of nervousness before every game.

“I kick return and that’s the first play of the game. It’s so nerve racking during the day because I think ‘What if I drop it?’” Runge said.

“But after I catch it, it just feels like practice. I try to do my part, and do what I can to help us win.”

Runge hopes that what he can do to assist the team will be enough to take them all the way to State, along with the aid of the other members of the squad.

“The ultimate goal is obviously to win state, but if we can’t do that, I want to go as far and we can,” Runge said. “I want to feel like we couldn’t have done any better, to know that we left everything out there and played our best.”

Runge knows that in order to earn a spot at State, the team will have to make improvements and minimize errors as the season moves forward.

“Our main focus is discipline because we have a really young team and we make a lot of mistakes,” Runge said. “We’re just focused on being mentally sound. We have the physical talent but we need to be more mentally stable.”

For the team, this season would be the first time making an appearance at State since 2010. Runge has competed in a State championship before though, but not in football. This spring, Runge qualified for State track and placed 3rd in both the 100 and 200. His 4x100 team also earned a 4th place finish.

“Placing well at State track was amazing,” Runge said. “But track is a lot different than football. In track, it’s all about you, it’s almost like a showcase, you’re either fast or you’re not and you have to show your speed. In football you need a team to back you up and it’s not like just like one shot, there are multiple plays and you have chances to redeem yourself.”

Runge has had success in both track and football, but even the most successful players have things to work on.

“I struggle with reading open holes, when I watch film I can tell that if I would of seen a hole I would have been able to score, I need to work on scanning the field,” Runge said.

Runge opted against running for captain this year.

“I didn’t want to be captain, I felt the team needed a more vocal person who talks a lot and has a bigger voice,” Runge said.

“With my personality I didn’t feel like I would fit the role of captain. But I still try to lead by example with the team and help people out one on one.”

Leading by the plays he makes, Runge averages 21 yards on kickoff returns and 7 yards on punt returns. He has also had 16 receptions and averages 8.1 yards while rushing. He may not be a captain, but he is still a playmaker on the field.