May 2011 - Eating Disorders

The MAY 20, 2011

MARQUEE

[VOLUME TWENTY-FIVE] ISSUE EIGHT

[3]

New superintendent debates allowing electronics in school

[18] Pitcher reflects

on four varsity years after baseball season ends

[22]

Staff editorial argues for better planning in UIL meets

Hands tied and hungry

MARCUS HIGH SCHOOL [5707 MORRISS ROAD] FLOWER MOUND, TX 75028

[table of contents]

the marquee [newsmagazine] editor in chief luke swinney

managing editor carley meiners

photo editor

allison przybysz

graphics editor

nathaniel thornton

news editor luke swinney

feature editor devon miller

in-depth editor lauren rose

p. 4 news/

cover photo by allison przybysz contents photo by jordan richards

[5] STANDARDIZED SWITCH Next year’s freshmen will be the first to make the transition from the TAKS to End-Of-Course examinations. by olivia tarlton

feature/ [9] THE GLEE PROJECT Senior travels to Los Angeles after beating out thousands to continue his dream of becoming the next Glee superstar. by luke swinney

entertainment/

[16] FAREWELL, MICHAEL SCOTT Students reflect on their most cherished memories of the quirky boss of Dunder Mifflin. by luke swinney

sports/ [19] ALL SHOOK UP Proposed Texas legislation would take extra precautions for high school athletes who recieve concussions. by jasmine sachar

entertainment editor molly spain

sports editor

jasmine sachar

opinion editor carley meiners

business manager allison przybysz

reporters

alex cain, alex mcginnis, sarah sauer, olivia tarlton

designers

maria heinonen, jordan richards, breyanna washington

photographers

kyle anderson, peter iversen, aj lascola, jordan richards, sarah sauer, taylor thomas

adviser

lajuana hale

principal

gary shafferman The Marquee newsmagazine is a student-generated publication of Marcus High School. It is produced, edited and maintained through the efforts of the school’s advanced journalism class. The Marquee is designed to serve the school and community as a forum for open discussion and student expression.

The Marquee encourages letters to the editor as part of its mission to educate, inform and provide an open forum for debate. All submissions must be signed. The staff reserves the right to edit all material.

Editorials reflect the opinion of the staff, not necessarily that of the administration. Signed columns or reviews represent only the opinion of the author.

Advertising rates are $60 per 1/8 of a page, with discounts available. For more information call 469-713-5196.

The Marquee is a standing member of ILPC, TAJE, ATPI, CSPA, NSPA, JEA and Quill and Scroll.

news

New superintendent considers opening gates on gadgets story by devon miller photo by allison przybysz

Two years ago, LISD banned iPods in schools. The same year Birdville ISD Superintendent Dr. Stephen Waddell started allowing students to bring their own technology to school. Students were allowed to talk on their cell phones between classes and use their own technologies (phones, laptops, iPads) in class to help with homework.

After his recent move to LISD, Superintendent Waddell is now considering bringing the open technology concept to his new district.

“One of our beliefs is trust and having a trusting relationship with students,” Waddell said. “How can we tell kids we want to build a trusting relationship with them but we can’t trust them to use a cell phone?”

Waddell said he believes that students can be relied on to use cell phones and other technologies responsibly. He has started an experiment at Hebron High School where procedures similar to the ones in Birdville have been implemented.

“The Hebron experiment has been a great success,” Waddell said. “I think the people who participated in it are very impressed with it, and I’ve been in some of those classrooms and there are some amazing things going on.”

AP Chemistry teacher Jan Hutley said that teachers at Hebron have seen improvements in their classes due to the allowance of iPods in class.

“Some of the teachers at Hebron felt like the kids who have a hard time focusing because they’re used to studying with music tend to be the same students who may be a distraction in class when they don’t have the music,” Hutley said. “So when they do have their iPods they not only were able to focus but they were less of a distraction.”

Many teachers believe in the benefit of iPods in the marquee |may 20, 2011

classrooms. Math teacher Rick Sudbrook said he thinks iPods in class are a good idea, but only for upperclassmen who he believes can handle them responsibly.

“I can see it being beneficial to some students,” Sudbrook said. “I would allow it in my classes because I can trust those kids to not do things against school policy and trust that they’re only listening to music.”

Hutley who said technology like laptops and iPads would benefit her class because of the limited numbers of computers. Technology in classrooms, she said, would improve the way students learn.

“I think your generation is really digital in how you communicate,” Hutley said. “How you communicate is going to benefit how you learn because you’re moving toward what you’re most comfortable with and what you like best.”

Junior Zac Rice said having access to phones and iPods will be good because students will be able to use apps and other programs to aid them in class.

“It’s going to make information a lot easier to access,” Rice said. “It’s also going to make us more comfortable because we’re a technology-driven society.”

One of the major oppositions to the use of phones in class is that students will text instead of paying attention. Rice said that he believes this will not be a problem, and the students that do text are only punishing themselves.

“Well the kids who text in class aren’t going to learn and they’re going to fail,” Rice said.

Though Dr. Waddell said he doesn’t have any set plans for next year regarding technology, he said he is looking forward to expanding what students can do with their own technologies.

“Right now we don’t have a new procedure for what we’re going to do but I think you can get an idea of where I want to head,” Waddell said. “I’m going to ask questions about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”

Learning at your fingertips Opening the district to technology would allow students to use various educational apps found at the iTunes store (like these below) to aid them in class.

dictionary.com // With this free and self -explanatory app, students can quickly look up the meaning of “perspicacious” faster than they can flip the page on their school required novel.

No Fear Shakespeare // It puts Shakespeare’s plays next to modern English. Comprehension is improved.

iElements periodic table // The melting point of mercury, the atomic weight of carbon and the atomic radius of helium are all at your fingertips.

design/graphics by jordan richards 3

news

Marcus plans to donate cranes two-fold story by alex cain An ancient Japanese legend says that one thousand paper cranes bring good fortune and luck to those who receive the gift. This legend is a familiar one to student Soobin Lee, who moved to the United States from Korea five years ago.

Etched in America’s mind is the image of two massive black clouds of smoke and fire in the New York skyline early that September morning almost ten years ago.

Former Marcus student Eric Pearson, who was teaching English to Niihari Middle School in Japan during the disaster, sent Marcus over one thousand paper cranes that his students had personally folded. Some of the cranes had even been folded using candy wrappers. photo by jordan richards “Some of [Pearson’s] students wanted to fold and send us a thouThe paper crane chandelier hangs in the sand cranes to end our world suffering library and consists of a thousand paper and wish that our dreams would come cranes, which are said to bring good luck.

true,” Librarian Cathie Totty said.

Now, almost ten years later, an earthquake disaster has hit Japan, causing over 14,000 deaths, almost seven times as many as the 9/11 terrorists attacks. Back in Texas, Totty was showing the library to some guests at the school when they asked about the paper cranes.

“I told them the background story behind our mobile, and when I got done telling the story I thought, wow, they just had a terrible earthquake and tsunami so I thought we should send two thousand back to them,” Totty said.

Just telling the story had inspired her, and many other students as well as teachers got on board with the plan.

Currently a couple of art classes including Julie Murdocks and the ESL students are helping to fold two thousands cranes to send back to the Niihari Middle School and as well as another school in Japan.

Totty, who reads to the ESL students

School board president to stay for another term

Graduate makes strides towards full recovery

story by carley meiners The Lewisville Independent School District school board elections took place over the weekend of May 14. Carol Kyer was reelected and will remain school board president.

Kyer, who is now in her fifth term as president, said she feels her experience allows her to be the most qualified candidate.

“I know our school district pretty well,” Kyer said. “I’ve been here, I’ve been involved and I have excessive knowledge of the school district.”

This year a new superintendent, Dr. Waddell, was hired into office. Kyer said that he is the last of the fresh faces the district needs. Because of state wide education budget cuts, Kyer added there needs to be members on the board who have experience with the LISD school district’s financial system.

“We don’t need any turn over,” Kyer 4 design by nathaniel thornton

said. “This is a time in which we need the experience because of the changing district finances system. This is not a time for a learning curve.”

Although Kyer’s opponent Reginald Johnson had less experience, he said he believes in community involvement within the district.

“The children and the parents of the school district are who the school board represents,” Johnson said. “We just need more involvement and input from the community as a whole to make the district flow better.”

While Johnson believes the district needs more communication, Kyer said she is looking forward to another successful year.

“I’ve been here for 19 years and I believe I’m looking out for the community’s best interests,” Kyer said. “I know what the community’s like and what the people want because I’ve been here.”

story by olivia tarlton Kyle Jackson’s dramatic recovery from his recent life threatening seizures has surprised his doctors and family. After the incident, Kyle’s prognosis was that he may never walk or talk again. His doctors are more optimistic now since he has become responsive to verbal commands.

Last week his mother said he even started laughing.

“He’s getting better but it’s a pretty slow process,” Tracy Jackson said.

A series of seizures caused extensive brain damage and sent Kyle to the hospital nearly two months ago. He has shown several signs of progress, including the removal of his breathing tube and the ability to feed himself.

Kyle was relocated from the ICU to the rehabilitation center at UT Southwestern Medical Center almost four weeks ago. On the average day, Kyle

once a week to help introduce more English vocabulary, said the cranes are really helping the ESL students become more involved with the school.

“Folding cranes is something that they all can do,” Totty said. “It’s all done by hand, so they are really putting in their time to do something for someone else.”

Soobin who participates in the ESL class said that she enjoys folding cranes because it is similar to the crafts that she had done in Korea, like the paper fan.

“In Korea we fold papers and do a lot of arts and crafts in the schools there,” Lee said. “So I learned over there when I was younger.”

Lee says she knows that the cranes will help the students in Japan like they had helped Marcus students remain hopeful ten years ago.

“Honestly, it is just folding papers,” Lee said. “But knowing that these cranes are going to help someone, it makes me feel good about doing it.”

goes through physical, occupational and speech therapy. He practices walking with the help of a walker and his physical therapists. Mrs. Jackson even said it feels like he is on the verge of talking. “[These things make] me hopeful that a year from now he’ll be close to a full recovery,” Mrs. Jackson said.

This is not Kyle’s first near death experience. Over a year ago, he had a longboarding accident that caused a serious head injury and posttraumatic epilepsy.

Kyle’s therapists see the remarkable recovery he experienced last year as an indicator that he will make a good recovery this time as well.

Kyle’s discharge from the hospital is set for May 27, but he will still have a lot of work to do since injuries like his often take years to recover from.

“There’s hope that he’ll come back,” Mrs. Jackson said. may 20, 2011|the marquee

news

Co-op change looms Music showdown ARTbeat set for June story by alex mcginnis

story by sarah sauer

Due to low enrollment numbers, co-op will only be offered as one class instead of two next year. The number of people this year is just below the required enrollment for two classes. Co-op teachers Deborah Friend and Kendra Day said not many people know what the class has to offer, resulting in fewer sign ups.

“I’m sad that students are missing an opportunity to develop skills that are important no matter what they choose for their career,” Friend said. “Organization, dependability, cooperation and independent thinking are just a few of the skills that students must master in co-op.”

Co-op gives students the opportunity to get class credit for their after school job. Students in co-op get to leave school at 12:30 p.m. each day if they work at least fifteen hours a week during the school week.

The decision to offer additional co-op classes will depend on students who enroll this month and over the summer. Students can enroll now if they are unemployed if they plan to get a job by the start of next

Art, culinary, orchestra and fashion design students will be holding the first ARTbeat Art Show in the cafeteria on Friday, June 3 from 6-8 p.m. The show will have demonstrations of different art forms and anyone is welcome to attend. Art teacher Pedrameh Manoochehri hopes to make it an annual event.

“We hope to start a tradition of sharing the hard work, talent, and development of students dedicated to the creative pulse of Marcus,” Manoochehri said.

“These students truly shine and deserve to be celebrated, just as the Marcus spirit should be shared and recognized well beyond the walls of our school and educational home.”

Visitors will be entertained by various exhibits.

The culinary students will provide snacks for visitors. The fashion design students will put together an array of their own personal creations. Visitors will also be able to listen to music played by the orchestra while admiring all the students’ drawings, paintings, and sculptures.

photo by aj lascola Junior Evan Stouder shows off his vocals during the Battle of the Bands on April 16. His band, Chasing Whitney, took first place during the competition against four other bands. Members, Joe Crosby (keyboard), J.R. Green (drums), and Cannon Law (bass) took the stage from 7:00pm-7:40pm.

EOC to replace TAKS as state exit exam story by olivia tarlton

Lewisville ISD, along with other school districts across the state, is about to experience big changes when it comes to standardized testing. The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), which began in 2003, will next year be replaced by the Endof-Course Exams (EOC).

The EOC is a part of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Program, and will consist of 12 parts (three for each of the four core subjects).

Currently, the state is conducting field tests for the EOC but is planning on putting it in place for the 2011-2012 school year. This will affect incoming freshmen, who will be the first class required to pass their designated EOC Exams.

Junior Camilla Novoa and many other juniors took the English 3 EOC field test on April 11 and 12.

The test consisted of multiple choice, short answer questions and two essays. This varies greatly from TAKS, which is comprised of only multiple choice questions on the reading TAKS and short answer and one personal experience story on the writing TAKS. “It was supposedly harder than TAKS,” Novoa said. “I think it was because you had to write two essays.

Novoa said it is difficult to compare the EOC and the TAKS tests because of their differences in content and essay styles. Though she did admit to liking TAKS better because there aren’t as many or the same type of essays like on the EOC. English 3 teacher, Lauran Popp disagrees and said she was hoping the school would be moving away from TAKS. “I think anything would be better than TAKS,” the marquee |may 20, 2011

photo by peter iversen Most End Of Course exams (EOC) will be taken on the computers but there are scantrons for some of the tests.

Popp said.

She said that what she disliked most about the TAKS was the essays students were required to write.

The topics of these essays have included “the importance of doing something you love”, so Popp said she is happy about the change.

The purpose of the EOC exams are to measure students’ performance in core classes. Material on tests will be closer to what is actually being taught in the classroom during the year. It will also count as 15

percent of the student’s grade in that class.

Though passing rates have not yet been set and will not be determined until after students take next year’s EOC, students will be allowed multiple tries to retake the exam if they fail it at first. This is how the grading system works for TAKS and AP Exams as well.

“I think as long as we’re changing [from TAKS], we’re on the right track,” Popp said. “As long as we’re moving away from those silly essays.” design by nathaniel thornton 5

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may 20, 2011| the marquee

feature

Q &

A Senior Will Macklin holds up his acceptance letter to OU at his house on May 12.

Radu Jitariu, 10 compiled by olivia tarlton photo by aj lascola

Q: What is your dream date?

A: Probably just like a dinner on the beach with horses. Not on a date with the horses, but riding on horses to the table.

Q: What was your favorite part of sophomore year?

A: Being picked class favorite… and welding.

Q: Why do you think you were chosen as class favorite?

A: Probably because I’m awesome and really popular.

Q: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

A: This one time I was on vacation in Cancun and I jumped off a cliff into water! It was pretty high… the cliff was high.

Q: If you were president of the world, what would you change?

A: If I was president of the world, I would make everyone follow me on Twitter. I don’t have one yet though.

Q: What food would you like to be?

A: I’d probably be the Harry Potter Chocolate Frog.

the marquee | may 20, 2011

photo by allison przybysc

Dream school almost slips away Senior with family roots at OU gets slim chance story by jasmine sachar

For senior Will Macklin, it had always been OU. It was OU since the time he could recognize the red and white logo when he was three or four. Since the time he’d watch his dad Andy, class of ’75, yell at the TV for Sooner football games. Since he heard the stories his brothers CJ and Ron told him about college life and fraternities. Macklin liked the courtyard, the contemporary buildings and the scenery.

He thought he’d get in easy, so he didn’t really think about it. He made B’s in AP and regular classes.

He pole vaulted, and he was a legacy.

It wasn’t really until a meeting with counselor Cheryl Richie at the end of last year that Macklin got nervous. He sat across from her in her office while she scanned over his credentials. The verdict: she was skeptical about his grades.

“She told me that I’d have a pretty slim chance,” Macklin said.

Macklin had a 3.0 GPA then, while OU required a 3.5 for automatic admission. He had to make all A’s senior year to even be considered.

“It was a really big reality check, and I just remember having this doubt come over me afterwards,” Macklin said. “It’s just kind of hard to take. I knew I had to focus on grades.”

So Macklin changed his habits. He started actually studying, and blew past Astronomy, Government and Economics with easy A’s. He applied to OU in December, and was already dreaming up majors, Accounting and Business Law. He knew he’d be waitlisted, but it was the only school he applied to.

“It was the only school I could have ever thought of going to,” Macklin said.

But his second semester was tougher. English was his hardest class and his grade was teetering on a low A. The day of his final, he had a 90 in the class. After the final, Macklin stayed after class to see his grade.

It was a C, bringing his grade to an 88. This was it,

he thought.

“I was devastated, I was crushed,” Macklin said.

“With that 88, I thought that I wasn’t going to get in. There was no chance. I felt like I had failed my parents and myself and everyone who was rooting for me.”

That day, Macklin had a track meet in Keller. He went to Chili’s with the team before the meet, but didn’t eat anything. Thoughts about his future were racing through his mind.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Macklin said. “I wasn’t even sure if all college deadlines were done. I guess I would have gone to NCTC or something.”

And at the meet, he couldn’t even clear the bar.

“It was just kind of overbearing for me,” Macklin said.

What Macklin didn’t know was that earlier that day, the North Dallas recruiter for OU had called his mom Iris with good news. The Freshman Admissions Committee had reviewed his application from the waitlist. He had been accepted.

His mom hadn’t told him yet because she wanted to have the experience of getting the letter. But after Macklin’s coach called her with concerns about him, she rushed over to the track meet to give him a note that told him the news.

“I was just so shocked that it was over,” Macklin said. “All the stress was gone.”

He immediately called his dad, who cried over the phone, and then he went out to Whataburger with friends to celebrate afterwards.

“I’m looking forward to starting the rest of my life and being independent,” Macklin said.

Macklin said that he cautions underclassmen to start young when being worried about their GPA. “Don’t mess around with your grades,” Macklin said. “If you have a place you want to go, you’re not in until you get that acceptance letter. If anything I grew up so much from this situation.” design by maria heinonen 7

feature

The other side of the story

photo by taylor thomas Despite losing the race for student body president, junior Aleah Leonard continues to look on the bright side.

Junior deals with student body election loss story by devon miller

Aleah Leonard watched as her family bustled around, helping her oldest brother Doug prepare for the upcoming Marcus student body election. She was in fifth grade then. He was a senior. Her eyes roamed over the letters Doug was ironing on to shirts, spelling out slogans like “Vote for Doug” and “Doug’s your man.” She couldn’t wait to run for student body president herself. *** All three Leonard brothers, Doug, Dan and Dave, had won the student body president election in 2005, 2007, and 2009, respectively. Now, it was Aleah’s junior year and t was her turn to carry on the legacy. Now, it was her turn to win.

At the beginning of the year, current student body president Allison Riding told Aleah she would be running against Dalton Dallas. Since that day, she had known it would be a tough race.

“My stomach fell out right there because I didn’t want an opponent,” Aleah said. “So I knew all year that I’d be running against him and I had never really known him. But I got to know him throughout the year because if I did lose I didn’t want to lose to a stranger.”

The final day of campaign week, Aleah felt confident that she had a chance at winning. She and her friends had plastered the walls of the school with signs ranging from fail posters to cheesy pick up lines and quotes from Teddy Roosevelt. Several students told her the signs were funny.

“We’re kind of creative when we want to be,” Aleah said.

Aleah looked up at the clock, groaning inwardly as she realized she would be trapped in W204 for ten more minutes before she could find out the results of the election. Unable to handle the butterflies in her stomach any longer, she asked her English teacher, Mrs. Groce, if she could leave early to go check the election results. After Mrs. Groce agreed, Aleah hurried out of the classroom.

“Walking down there was like walking down death row,” Aleah said.

8 design by nathaniel thornton

She passed her competitor, junior Dalton Dallas, on the way to Mrs. Karbs’ room. He told her he didn’t want to see the results. She told him she did. She continued around the corner of the S hall. She could see the paper posted on the wall now.

In a few seconds, she would know if she won. All the butterflies would disappear and she would finally be able to sleep at night. She walked faster. The print on the paper was just small enough to be unreadable. She got closer.

Her stomach dropped. She had lost.

“I had false hope during the campaign week,” Aleah said.

“If you would’ve asked me the week before the campaign I would’ve said Dalton would win and the paper kind of reconfirmed it. There’s nothing I could’ve done about it but so I might as well just be happy for him.” *** That night, Aleah settled in to her couch as her father put Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 into the DVD player. They had just gotten home from Chick-fil-a and she was starting to feel better about losing. As the movie began playing, the phone rang. Her dad left to answer it, leaving Aleah to watch the movie and think about what she would do now.

“I had a back-up plan all along, just in case,” Aleah said, “I’m going to take American Sign Language. I took it this year as my foreign language and I fell in love with it.”

Aleah said she plans to work her way through college as a sign language interpreter for a hospital. She wants to attend Brigham Young University-Provo and study to become a physical therapist. Her brothers also attended BYU, but Aleah said she’s not following in their footsteps.

“I’ve seen it work out for them, but this is my plan, too,” Aleah said.

Her father returned to the room and told her that her nephew had just been born. It hadn’t been such a bad day after all.

“I don’t want to know if it was a close race or if Dalton won in a landslide,” Aleah said. “I’m a firm believer in God and I think this is his way of saying you need to do this instead of being student body president. I always try to see the bright side.”

may 20, 2011 | the marquee

s k e e g

calling all

oxygen.com Senior James Arnesen smiles outside of the Norris Conference Centers before his Glee audition.

Senior remains confident after Glee audition story by luke swinney

As senior James Arnesen left The Glee Project auditions in January, he knew he didn’t make it. There was too much talent. Too slim of a chance. Too many contestants wanting to be the next Glee star.

It was only a few days later when an email from The Glee Project appeared in his inbox. He clicked it and bold letters appeared across the screen.

Congratulations, you are one of the top 83 out of 40,000 contestants to make final callbacks.

“I couldn’t breathe,” James said. “I was literally dying of happiness.”

*** The chilly January air surrounded James as he waited outside the Norris Conference Centers in Fort Worth for his Glee Project audition. It was only 8 a.m. but over 1,000 excited contestants had already arrived ahead of him, hoping they had the talent to land a starring role on Glee. In the next 30 minutes, 3,000 more would join him.

“The line was massively huge,” James said. “I think the worst part was that my mom couldn’t come in. The auditions all had to be kind of hush-hush so I had to go in by myself.”

After filling out the stack of necessary paperwork and being assigned to a the marquee |may 20, 2011

waiting room, James sat for three more hours until his first audition began.

To entertain themselves, contestants practiced their audition songs – musical selections that had previously been performed on Glee.

“There was actually a big group of people from The Glee Project who would get microphones and say ‘Who knows this song? Aladdin!’ and everyone would just start singing it and they would film it,” James said.

After the waiting room buzz died down and nerves set in, James was directed into a group of four contestants and taken to the first audition room.

Two judges sat at a table and all four performed their songs. James selected “And I am Telling You,” from the musical Dreamgirls but switched it up with his own version.

After he finished his song, the judges deliberated on all four contestants’ fates. James was the only one they asked for a callback.

“I was standing there alone like ‘Oh my God,’” James said. “Everyone was so talented, and I couldn’t understand why they picked me. It was crazy.”

As the day went on, James auditioned several more times, each audition being completely different. One room held a single camera filming his audition, the next would be filled with

cameras. One room had several judges, the next only had one. The more auditions James made it through, the better his chances at final callbacks.

While James was stuck inside the audition rooms, his mother waited patiently in the Starbucks across the street. Neither originally knew it would be an all-day audition.

“It was 8 o’clock in the morning when we started and I was there until 7:30 at night,” James said. “That’s a lot of sitting around at Starbucks for mom.

Her support meant the world to me.”

*** After nearly 12 hours of waiting in lines and auditioning, the producers finally told James he could leave. He and his mother went to Cabo Grande, a Mexican restaurant across the street, where they inspected the paperwork James was handed before he left. The first sheet said “Eligible for Callbacks,” but James didn’t think anything of it.

“At that point I thought it had been fun, but there was no way I was making it,” James said. “Everybody else was so talented, there was no way. No way.”

But it was only a few days later when he received his callback email. He was offered an all-expense-paid weeklong trip to Los Angeles to continue auditioning. The first person James told was his mother, who returned home

feature from grocery shopping just moments after he first found out.

“I was screaming so she ran in frantically asking what was going on,” James said. “I told her to read the email. She started crying she was so happy. It was insane.”

*** As the spring semester began and most students headed to new classes, James made his way to L.A. to continue his Glee dream. He had beaten thousands to land a place in the finals, but since he was under a strict contract, he couldn’t tell anyone where he was going.

“I had to tell them I was leaving for some other random reason and it was awful lying to everyone, but I didn’t want to risk being disqualified,” James said. “I’m actually still in the process of telling everybody where I went.”

In L.A., James said he felt like a superstar. Auditions were held on the actual Glee set. Brad, the redheaded pianist on the show, played James’ music for him. Hollywood producers from other shows came to watch him audition in addition to The Glee Project producers.

“They wanted to see how you handle pressure,” James said. “Some people were shaking uncontrollably, and others were like ‘Whatever.’ I was in the middle. It was fun, but I was nervous.”

Because Glee features offbeat high schoolers, James said the producers were looking for talented singers who felt comfortable being themselves. He said it was relieving not having to fit anyone’s criteria but his own.

“Since I flew all the way to L.A., I figured at that point, I’d just give it all I had and be me,” James said. “That’s what I loved about the process so much.

I could be me. I didn’t have to change anything or be someone I’m not.”

At the end of the auditioning week, the 83 finalists were whittled down to 12. One of these 12 contestants will win a seven-episode role in Glee.

James’s name wasn’t on the list.

“I’m not going to lie, not making the top 12 was disappointing at first,” James said. “But being around so much talent and being one of the finalists was mind-blowing. That was enough of a prize for me.”

The Glee Project begins airing June 12 on Oxygen and follows the final 12 through a ten-week competition. Although James wasn’t chosen, he said The Glee Project has only fueled his passion for singing.

“I would do it again if I could,” James said. “Twenty more times. It was so much fun.” design/graphic by maria heinonen 9

Jane Miles, M.D. ABPN Board Certified:

CHILD & ADOLESCENT, and ADULT PSYCHIATRY www. JaneMilesMD.com Tel: (972)934-9438 Fax: (214)432-5718

At Preston &LBJ: 6330 LBJ Suite 235 Dallas, TX 75240

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(972) 249-9790 5801 Long Prairie Road 10 design by allison przybysz

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DIAGNOSTIC TEST

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New students only will evaluate your child’s strengths & weaknesses

may 20,2011| the marquee

in-depth

Mirror , on the mirror wall. ..

I’m no o f t h et t h e s k i n niest m all

the marquee |may 20,2011

design by breyanna washington 11

in-depth

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Measuring up

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Junior reflects on experiences with anorexia throughout middle school years

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story by molly spain

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During her middle school years, junior Ali Williams* could not go to sleep until she felt her rib cage. She would lie on her bed and trace slender fingers along her flat stomach searching for the contours of her ribs. She would rejoice with the feel of the bony structure jutting from her body beneath her fingertips. Pleased with her success, Williams would then be able to sleep. She believed in her mind that she was doing something right. She was one step closer to being skinny – to being beautiful.

Williams suffered from anorexia, an eating disorder that involves an obsessive desire to lose weight through starvation. Most often, people afflicted with anorexia see their bodies as distorted and overweight, but they are actually skinny.

Her disorder began near the end of sixth grade when she noticed the evolving bodies of her fellow classmates at her middle school. She began comparing herself to the other girls and decided her weight was a problem, though she had never actually been overweight.

She saw losing weight as a challenge. How many days could she go without food? How many pounds could she lose in a week?

“For other girls, it’s literally they look at themselves in the mirror and see themselves big,” Williams said. “I didn’t see that, I just saw everything I could fix. It was if I was in a mirror next to them, who would win the skinny contest?”

It was an ordinary morning at middle school for Williams when she walked into the building wearing her normal every day outfit. She wore her 00 jeans that she jokingly now calls her “marker jeans” because those were the smallest jeans she owned and a baggy sweatshirt loosely hung about her upper body, not revealing any skin. She heard students whispering near her. She knew they were talking about her. Almost every student in the middle school knew about her anorexia.

Williams said she hated the gossip that gave her a “negative rep” and didn’t want people to think of her as the “messedup girl.” At the same time she liked that her classmates knew about her disorder. It meant they noticed she was skinny.

Food cluttered tables in the crowded middle school cafeteria later that day. Williams sat at a lunch table and watched her friends eat while she ate nothing.

28why don’t you eat? You’re such a fatty!” They laughed.

“Ali, They all knew about her disorder. Being in middle school, they just didn’t know how to handle it, and Williams said she was often hurt by their jokes.

“You don’t know how much power words have on someone 27circumstance,” Williams said. in that kind of That night when Williams arrived home from school, her mom placed a hot dinner on the table in front of her. Carefully picking at the food, 26 Williams waited until her parents had gone from the room to make her stealthy escape. She then 28 trash can. threw her uneaten meal in the neighbor’s

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“The deceit to my family was the most painful,” Williams said. “They didn’t know half the stuff I was doing, and they still don’t know all the stuff I did.”

Later that night, Williams waited until her parents were asleep until she slipped on baggy workout clothing and proceeded with her daily exercise. She would secretly run two miles and swim laps around her pool almost every night. She constantly exercised to lose the weight that she couldn’t lose by just not eating.

“I was killing my body essentially,” Williams said. “It’s sickening.”

After her strenuous workouts, Williams stood in front of her mirror and stared at the reflection of her body. “You’re not hungry, you’re not hungry,” she chanted. Eventually, Williams said if she told herself that enough times, she wouldn’t be hungry. It was all a mental game.

“I would look in the mirror and be like, ‘Do you want this to keep going? Or do you want to lose all this?’ And I wouldn’t be hungry,” Williams said.

It took until the beginning of freshman year for Williams to recover from her disorder. With the help of her mom and her friends, Williams said she realized she needed to stop starving her body.

“It became all of me and it ruined my friendships because I wasn’t able to give all of myself to them,” Williams said. “I was so selfish. I was putting them in deliberate pain when I could’ve done the bigger thing and gotten help.”

While recovering, Williams said every time she ate food, it hurt emotionally, but all that mattered was that she had made herself eat. Even now, Williams said that the wound her middle school years and anorexia gave her self-esteem will never be completely gone. Still, she worked hard to recover.

Her mom helped her hide the scale and her full-length mirror to prevent her from weighing herself.

“I’ve learned to be able to fight the demons and tell myself, ‘you’re a beautiful person,’” Williams said. “I keep telling myself that hoping one day…I’ll have nothing to worry about when I look in the mirror. The mirror is the enemy.”

*** Williams now lies on her bed and glances at her horizontal reflection in the full-length mirror hanging on the door.

She looks at the bulletin board hanging on her green walls covered with pictures of her and her high school friends. In every photograph, Williams grins widely with arms slung over friends’ shoulders. She studies the photographs and her friends’ faces. Williams said if not for her friends she had this year, she would have relapsed. She closes her eyes and remains silent for a moment.

“I wish I had the friends in middle school that I have now,” Williams said. “I wish people cared enough to actually intervene. If you don’t have those people, then you’re going to go down that path. So stop with the popularity contest and find genuine, real people who care about you.” *names have been changed may 20, 2011 |the marquee

in-depth

compiled by carley meiners and lauren rose

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Growing up, young girls view Barbie as an idol. They want to look exactly like her. However, wanting to look like Barbie could have serious implications.

To the right is a model of the dimensions Barbie would have if she were real.

If Barbie was real, she’d have to walk on all fours because she is so unproportional.

percent of teenagers have an eating disorder.

Often eating disorders occur when a person’s life spins out of control. Eating is often the only thing they can control.

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Only percent of people afflicted with anorexia make a complete recovery.

According to the Natural Eating Disorder Association, 10 million Americans are now struggling with eating disorders.

The Danger of Making Weight story by devon miller

Eating a bag of Goldfish for dinner and spitting in a cup to lose water weight are not activities usually associated with wrestlers. However, this is how senior Phillip Vivar and junior Cody Craddock spent their wrestling season.

Vivar, who has wrestled at Marcus all four years, said the biggest pressure on wrestlers is to lose weight to fit into a lower weight class.

“There’s a lot of weight cutting,” Vivar said.

“Seven months ago, I weighed 30 pounds less. I was losing like seven pounds a week.”

Craddock said that to make weight he had to restrict his diet.

“You can’t really eat what you want,” Craddock said. “I’d maybe have a little bag of goldfish or a slice of turkey for dinner. For breakfast I just won’t eat, can’t really drink anything.”

On top of cutting down on what he ate, Vivar would work out for three or four hours a day and sit in a sauna to lose extra weight.

“It was bad at first,” Vivar said. “I couldn’t function. After awhile you just lose feeling. It goes from feeling bad to not feeling anything at all.”

The lack of nutrition started to affect Vivar’s mental and emotional state after some time.

“I was so emotionally unstable,” Vivar said.

“Probably because I wasn’t eating and I wasn’t well-fed or healthy at all. I didn’t eat much, I didn’t sleep much and I had to exercise all the time. It was a lot of stress.”

Sometimes, Craddock said, he was forced to the marquee |may 20, 2011

take drastic measures to lose weight before a meet, like wearing a sweat suit everywhere.

“You’re always tired and once you start eating again you can’t eat much,” Craddock said. “If I could eat I had more energy. I felt like I did better when I was able to eat.”

The three-hour workouts and poor eating habits eventually got to Vivar and he passed out, causing him to eventually quit wrestling.

“I was just completely malnourished,” Vivar said. “Eventually it all caught up to me. I couldn’t focus in class, at home, or driving from class to home. And one day I just passed out at home.”

Soon after, Vivar’s parents stepped in and he started eating better. After skipping a few meets because he couldn’t make weight, Vivar quit. All the focus on weight gain started to affect the way the wrestlers felt about their bodies, Vivar said.

“It made a lot of guys self-conscious about how much they weighed,” Vivar said. “It was weird seeing a bunch of teenage guys thinking they were fat and being so obsessed over a pound.”

Psychologist Frances Walker said that the habits wrestlers develop to make weight could potentially lead to an eating disorder in the future.

“Anytime you get something that makes you over-fixated, it’s easy for it to become more important than it should be,” Walker said. “The obsession on it places more importance on it than is probably necessary.”

Though throwing up before a meet is illegal, Vivar said he heard of wrestlers at other schools doing it to drop weight right before a weigh-in.

“At Marcus it was more prominent the last two years, but all those kids are graduated,” Vivar said. “We had trouble making weight at the lower weights, but we ate so little that when we tried to throw up there was nothing to throw up.”

Wrestling coach Mike Prado said that new rules have been implemented to prevent wrestlers from attempting to make weight in harmful ways. These rules, he said, have reduced the number of wrestlers who go to extremes to make weight.

“We have to weigh them in every week,” Prado said. “In years past there weren’t a lot of regulations on it, and therefore people would wait until the last minute and try to dehydrate and not drink water for a few days. Now, you only get on the scale once so if you don’t make it you don’t wrestle.”

While Walker said that the way wrestlers make weight is not exactly like an eating disorder, she said they do share similarities.

“An eating disorder becomes more about control than losing weight,” Walker said. “But they’re somewhat alike in the way that they’re trying to lose weight in unhealthy ways and are pushing their bodies and focusing on the external weight issues.”

Vivar said he believes the things wrestlers did to make weight often resembled an eating disorder.

“I know some girls with an eating disorder, and I can say I ate less than they did,” Vivar said. “It was a mental disorder, too, to just feel like I couldn’t eat anything at all and I had to work out so often. Every little thing I ate, I had to get rid of, and you did whatever you could to get rid of whatever weight you gained.” design/graphics by breyanna washington 13

entertainment

Welcome back, boys Beastie Boys return to music scene with new album

Then & now

1986: License to Ill, their first LP is released.

2007: The Mix-Up, the Beastie Boys first instrumental album, is released.

review by breyanna washington

Where You At? “Well, now, don’t you tell me to smile You stick around, I’ll make it worth your while Like numbers beyond what you can dial Maybe it’s because we’re so versatile.”

rock concert that their parents might have attended when they were younger, but it doesn’t mean it’s a bad track. It’s actually really catchy.

Can They Dig It? Many Beastie Boys fanatics have found dissatisfaction with Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2. Beastie Boys supporters on YouTube have claimed that the CD wouldn’t live up to the former award-winning hits of their earlier years. But minds were changed after watching the 2 minute trailer that previews the full 30 minute film that comes with the album when purchased on iTunes.

From their hit song, “Intergalactic Planetary”, Grammy-winning lyrics like these put artists such as the Beastie Boys on the top of the list of rappers with mad flow and a new twist on the rap game. But that was 1999. Twelve years later, fans are left to wonder where the punk hip-hoppers have disappeared. Overseas concert performances, a few downloadable singles, video game soundtrack featurettes and an annual This Is How They Rock handful of poorly advertised albums during the early 2000s aren’t enough to satisfy the desires of yearning Fight for Your Right Revisited is the title of the fans. Where was the spark that the Beastie Boys used included 30 minute film. The move starts with the to leave in every song in the late 90’s? Well fans, Hot Beastie Boys played by Elijah Wood, Danny McSauce Committee Pt. 2 is your answer.

Bride and Seth Rogen leaving the scene from the forever famous music video of “Fight for Your Right Say It Like It Really Is (to Party)” from the album Licensed to Ill. Our boys In April, the Beastie Boys released “Make Some seem a bit too old to play the Beastie Boys, but their Noise,” the first song on their May release, Hot Sauce antics prove critics wrong as they lie, steal and Committee Pt. 2. The track had many fans skeptical smash into and out of anything with a glass winof what the rest of the album would sound like. Beas- dow.

After causing as much mischief as they can, tie Boys’ member, Ad-rock, begins the fuzzed (livethe Beastie Boys meet up with their future selves sounding) drums and DJ scratch with: “Yes here we (played

by Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Jack go again, give you more, nothing lesser/ Back on the Black) for a dance-off. Side-splitting dialogue, mic is the anti-depressor.” The first words that pop trippy situations, and ridiculous behavior equal a into the listener’s head: Wow, really cheesy. After goworthwhile 30 minutes for young adults and anying over the song twice, learning the lyrics, and tryone who can handle explicit humor. ing to remember if MCA’s voice was always so raspy, the avid Beastie Boys follower comes to appreciate the song and anticipate the rap aspect of the CD. Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 doesn’t just cover the trio’s hip-hop side. The album also covers the punkrock genre that the band began its career with before they became the mainstream Beastie Boys. “Lee Majors Come Again” is the twelfth track on their new CD. The track fills its background with low bass, a few guitars, a drum and the scratching of an electronic record to give ambience to fast rap lyrics and soft vocals. At first glance, it reminds the listener of an alternative

The Wrap-Up Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D of the Beastie Boys do not fail to gratify Beastie Boys fanatics with their inventive blend of old-school rock and hip-hop on the Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2. Fans of the traditional rap style seem incredulous when former stars attempt to make a huge comeback, but the Beastie Boys have shown the world that they are still relevant.

2011: The Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 is released.

14 design by nathaniel thornton

may 20, 2011 | the marquee

entertainment

compiled by luke swinney

As Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 hits theaters on July 15, it marks ten years since Harry, Ron and Hermione first appeared on the big screen. To celebrate this decade of magic, The Marquee picked the ten most memorable moments in Harry Potter history.

Wizard Chess This scene at the end of The Sorcerer’s Stone gave a unique look into the most impressive aspect of J.K. Rowling’s wizard world – magic. While most books have limited plotlines, chess pieces actually coming to life showed the magical possibilities are endless.

Hermione Punches Draco Malfoy

It’s awesome when a jerk gets punched in the face. It’s even better when it’s an arrogant jerk. And it’s even better if he’s getting punched by a girl. While this isn’t the most important moment in the books, it’s definitely one of the most hilarious.

The Epilogue: 19 Years Later Some fans describe it as “cheesy,” but the epilogue was a nice way to complete the series. Seeing everyone’s favorite characters all grown up was a simple reminder that life eventually got better. Sure, naming Harry’s kids Albus Severus and Lily Luna was a little ridiculous, but we’ll get over it eventually.

Introduction of Luna` Luna Lovegood is one of the quirkiest characters in the Harry Potter world, and introducing her character into the movies was a much-needed addition.

The fifth movie might not have been the best, but Lovegood’s character certainly made it more entertaining. By the way, what are nargles?

The Sorcerer's Stone Opens November 2001 Breaking the record for highest grossing opening weekend of all-time with $90.3 million, the first Harry Potter film gave non-readers the chance to be immersed in Rowling’s wizarding world. The Sorcerer’s Stone movie increased the series’ popularity like magic. the marquee | may 20, 2011

Weasleys Leave Hogwarts

Every kid fantasizes about pulling a prank on a particularly nasty teacher, and it was great to see the Weasley twins actually pull it off. Not only did they explode fireworks throughout the entire castle, they interrupted an exam given by the fifth book’s evil antagonist, Professor Dolores Umbridge.

Harry and Ginny Even if this love duo was a disappointment to all the Harry/Hermione fans, it was great to finally see Harry and Ginny together. Seeing everyone’s favorite wizard truly happy and in love was a nice contrast to his depressing battle with Voldemort.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Opens When Universal Studios first opened its Harry Potter theme park last June in Orlando, it opened an entire new way to experience the wizarding world. Now fans can visit the shops of Hogsmeade, take a ride on the Dragon Challenge thrill coaster or be sorted into their favorite house at Hogwarts.

Snape Kills Dumbledore Dumbledore’s death was a huge shock to readers, but the funniest part of this top ten moment was when people screamed “SNAPE KILLED DUMBLEDORE” to all the fans standing outside bookstores anxiously waiting to get their copy of the sixth book.

Voldemort is Defeated It’s over. The wizarding world is saved. Seven books of battling evil finally culminates into a war in the Great Hall at Hogwarts and ends in Voldemort’s defeat.

This moment is what the entire series builds up to and gave closure to fans who “stuck with Harry until the very end.” design/art by nathaniel thornton 15

entertainment

Best Memories of Michael Scott

Michael Scott (Steve Carell) said his goodbyes on last month’s episode of The Office after seven seasons of managing Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. To celebrate seven years of wacky costumes and “that’s what she said” jokes, The Marquee asked students for their favorite Michael Scott memory. compiled by luke swinney

“Michael wanted to wake up to the smell of burning bacon, but he accidentally stepped on his George Foreman grill. He called the office for someone to pick him up and arrived with bubble wrap on his foot. That was hilarious.”

Camille Marvin, 10

“On Diversity Day, Michael tried teaching racial diversity and did a terrible job. He started making racial slurs on accident and offended everyone. It really pushed the envelope and it was edgy.”

Schuyler Rougeau, 12

“The whole storyline when he tries to open his own paper company and just completely fails. It shows how stupid he really is. At one point [him and his employees] were throwing Cheeto Puffs at each other’s mouths.”

Micaella Maldonado, 12

COMMUNITY SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES compiled by sarah sauer

CCA Kids Eat Free

Tutor and Hangout

Greater Lewisville Cares

Community Kitchen

What: Deliver lunches to kids in need When: Starts this summer Who to Contact: Ms. Rutledge, rutledgea@lisd.net

What: Varies from cleaning the community to working with senior citizens-available to all ages Where: 5500 Morris Road, Flower Mound Who to Contact: info@greaterlewisvillecares.org

What: Help tutor kids Where: St. Charles Apartments When: Tuesdays at 4:15 p.m.

Who to Contact: Ms. Rutledge, rutledgea@lisd.net

What: Looking for students to prepare, serve food and clean up.

Where: Lewisville soup kitchen When: Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Who to Contact: rhagey@verizon.net For more service opportunities try contacting: Animal Rescue League YMCA Lewisville Senior Center

16 design by maria heinonen

may 20, 2011 | the marquee

sports

the

SPORTS UPDATE

Softball defeated in playoffs story by jasmine sachar The Lady Marauders ended their playoff run in the regional quarterfinals after losing back to back games to Keller on May 12 and 13.

Senior pitcher Devon Wallace said that the team was unable to score after the seventh inning of the second game, making the final score of the game 3-2.

“It was really sad, especially being a senior, realizing that was my last game to ply for Marcus,” Wallace said. “Everyone was crying after the game. We got

out a little sooner than we expected but we gave it a good run.”

Still, Wallace said that with the toughness of District 5A, advancing to the third round of the playoffs was an accomplishment.

“We did really well on our offense this year,” Wallace said. “We always found a way to score. I was really impressed with our hitting and our pitching. At the beginning of the season, we weren’t really that close knit. After we all got to know each other better, we started working together and that helped us on the field.”

photo by allison przybysz Sophomore Hannah Null pitches the ball on Thursday, April 21 against Hebron. The Lady Marauders won the game, and advanced into playoffs.

Three seniors travel to state story by carley meiners

photo submitted

Senior Ryan Thomas runs in the 800 m on the weekend of May 2 and placed second, securing a state meet spot.

Senior Ryan Thomas’ mind is racing.

It’s 4 a.m. and he’s just now going to bed.

Earlier today Thomas placed second in the 800 m at the regional track meet, securing a spot at the state meet. A smile stretches across Thomas’ face as he finally lies down to sleep.

The state meet took place last weekend. Thomas placed fourth in the 800 m.

Thomas said he liked the atmosphere.

He said it was like all eyes were on him.

“It was a fun experience overall,” Thomas said. “I would have never ex-

pected to be here a year ago when I was in basketball,” Thomas said.

Alongside Thomas in the 800 m was senior Sean Canavin. Canavin placed third at state. This was also Canavin’s first time at the state meet. Canavin said that the experience was cool and that he feels accomplished.

“It’s what I’ve worked for, for four years so it was exciting,” Canavin said.

“It was all worth it.”

Senior Craig Lutz placed first in the 3200 m at the state meet. He nearly beat the state record, held by Eric Henry since 1987, but fell short by .6 seconds.

Horse judgers place at state story by alex cain

The horse judging team advanced to the state competition in Lubbock the weekend of April 16th, earning 24th at the state level overall. The team had placed third at the area level, a setback from their second place finish last year.

But later at state they advanced 18 spots from their 42nd place finish last year.

In preparation for the contest, the team attended many practice competitions in Houston and College Station and spent hours watching videos and the marquee |may 20, 2011

studying the judging regulations.

The competition consists of grading the horses based on muscle strength and coordination, show abilities such as jumping and trotting, as well as the overall health of the horse according to the FFA guidelines. The scores that contestants give are then compared to an official judge’s score to determine their accuracy. The team has made it to the state competition for the past four years.

“It was pretty cool because it shows that all of our hard work paid off,” junior Paige Ackley said.

photo submitted Senior Melissa Griffith and juniors Hunter Greer, Paige Acklie and Taylor Matson hold third place area award.

design by maria heinonen 17

sports

Farewell, Marauder Field

After four years on varsity, senior pitcher looks back on season’s finish, coach looks forward to next year’s team

Heads up for next year

photo by jordan richards Senior Michael Gill bats at the Marauder Baseball Field on April 29 in the last game of the regular season. The Marauders won against Hebron with a score of 9-3.

story by molly spain

Senior varsity pitcher Michael Gill stands on the mound of dirt he has become so familiar with over the past four years. He faces the batter from Lewisville and winds up to throw a pitch. It’s a ball.

Gill is frustrated with himself, knowing his pitching hasn’t been up to par tonight. The baseball team finished the game with a 5-1 loss to the Farmers, securing their fifth place spot in district. They did not reach the playoffs.

“We just played like it wasn’t an important game, but it was,” coach Dustin Sykora said. “We just didn’t have that fire and that energy I was looking for.

We came out flat.”

Gill was disappointed that the team did not make playoffs his senior year after making them both his sophomore and junior years. While Sykora attributes the failures of the team to inex18 design by maria heinonen

perience, Gill said it was due in part to a lack of motivation in the underclassmen.

“There was not really much drive,” Gill said. “I felt like they were just going through the motions.”

But Gill places part of the blame for the shortcomings of the team on him and the other captains. He said the team shouldn’t have just played for themselves, but for the seniors who don’t have another year, the coaches who help them and the parents who support the team at every game.

“I failed as a captain,” Gill said.

“We didn’t do enough to push the underclassmen to want it more. In the last game we pushed it in their heads, ‘don’t just do it for you.’ We should’ve done that from the beginning.”

However, the disappointment from the result of this season did nothing to tamper with Gill’s overall positive experience with the team during his four years in high school. He said being on the varsity team for four years built up

his confidence on the field.

“After learning that you can do it and you have confidence in yourself, you have confidence in playing the game and everything slows down for you,” Gill said.

After the last baseball game of the season, the senior game against Hebron, Gill said he felt a weight lift from him. He said he was anxiously lookingforward to the next step of college and hopefully a future with baseball. Gill played his last game according to his dad’s advice: “Just go out there and have fun.

Swing how you know how to swing and pitch how you know how to pitch.”

Gill said he would miss the unity of the baseball team and the experiences they shared. But he’s proud of the knowledge he’s gained and can’t wait to move forward though he’ll never forget his high school baseball experiences.

“It was the best four years of baseball of my life,” Gill said.

Though the baseball team failed to make it to playoffs this year, next year Coach Dustin Sykora expects good things from the team.

“We don’t make excuses around here,” Sykora said. “We’ll get better next year, there’s no doubt about that.”

Sykora said he doesn’t have to change much with the team to get to the playoffs next year. The problem with the team this year, Sykora said, was inexperience.

He said that will change next year since he will have six senior players on next year’s team.

“They played every game (this year), so they’ll be ready to rockand-roll when we get back to the fall,” Sykora said. “We’ll be ready.”

Junior Colin Poche is a candidate for a starting pitcher on next year’s team, despite an injury that put him on the bench for six weeks. Poche said that if the team has good leadership, they could do really well next year.

“Our captains this year were good, but they weren’t very vocal,” Poche said. “I think we just need to be more vocal and get everybody in the game. That way… everyone’s on the same page.”

Poche thinks the team next year will excel in strength, pitching and overall defense. He has no doubt the team can make it all the way to the playoffs next season.

Being just a left-handed pitcher, Poche will contribute as much as he can to next year’s team in order to help them get to the top.

“I’ll do anything I can for my pitching,” Poche said. “I’ll try to eliminate any dumb mistakes to help the team win. I just want to get the team a chance to win” may 20 , 2011 | the marquee

sports

New legislation aims to prevent harmful long term effects story by jasmine sachar

After a head-to-head collision with an Allen football player last fall, senior offensive lineman Mike Wyse received a concussion But he remained conscious.

“I actually continued playing the game until five minutes left in the fourth quarter,” Wyse said. “When the coaches did know, they took me out right away.”

Wyse still ended up in the hospital that night where a concussion was confirmed. He spent the next few weeks off the football field, with instructions from school trainer David Ortmeier to sleep, not watch TV and wear sunglasses.

But next year, concussed players could face more evaluation before returning to the field, as a proposed state law would require an athlete with a concussion to be cleared by a group of medical professionals before returning to a game or practice.

The biggest change for LISD athletics could be the establishment of a district concussion management team. If an athlete gets a concussion, the team-which would include a licensed physician-- would craft the return-to-play guidelines, with input from the family.

“I think it’s good that they’re taking precautions,” Wyse said.

Head athletic trainer David Ortmeier said the legislation would make the biggest impact on smaller school districts that do not have training staffs on the sidelines.

“I feel like it’d make their job a lot harder,” Ortmeier said. “We are real fortunate. We’re one of the schools that we have a physician on the sidelines.”

The legislation, which aims at preventing long-

term brain injury, comes at the end of a year where concussion awareness in high school sports was pushed to the forefront of many sports debates.

Football team doctor Bruce Linden has been handling concussions on the Marcus football sidelines since 1999. He said awareness has trickled down from the NFL, where numerous former players were found to have Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease which robs the player of short term memory and decision making ability.

“We used to think a concussion really did not occur unless you had a loss of consciousness and that’s really not the case,” Linden said. “In the past you’d have a player who might have an injury or have a collision, they would say they would say, ‘Oh, I just got my bell rung’ and really, that’s actually a concussion.”

Head football coach Bryan Erwin said that this past season, he saw more concussions on the field than usual.

Often, the player approached the coaching staff and informed them something was wrong.

“But usually it’s pretty obvious,” Erwin said.

“There’s a major contact. He looks a little loopy or he’s not carrying out his assignment.”

The player is then sent to the sidelines where he is asked a series of simple questions. What is the score of the game? Who scored last? What day is it?

The questioning then turns to remembering a list of three simple things. If there is further doubt, balance tests are administered. If the player fails any of these tests, he’s out of the game.

“Every time a kid gets a head injury, we’re very cautious about it,” Ortmeier said. “We never send them back in if there’s any chance or risk of any per-

Breakdown of a Concussion 1 A concussion is caused by a large blow to the head that causes the brain to shake and hit the skull. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, more than 60,000 athletes get a concussion each year.

Several concussions over a long period of time can cause Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) which severely affects memory and decision making abiliity.

the marquee |may 20, 2011

manent brain injury.”

Starting in 2006, Linden said he began to see a shift in the way the medical community treated high school concussions. While concussions and treatment for them used to be graded on a scale, they are now graded on computerized tests. Each player establishes a baseline, and the discrepancy between the baseline and the after-concussion test is evaluated. Linden said recovery from a concussion can last three weeks.

“If (a player) has a concussion and then you ask them to go to class, concentrate and actually perform, it’s the same as taking someone with a knee injury and asking them to run a mile,” Linden said.

“They just can’t function.”

Sometimes a concussion can be so bad that Linden has to take the player completely out of school and send them back with academic accommodations.

“They needed that,” Linden said. “Their brain was injured. They have sensitivity to light, sensitivity to noise. They’re foggy. They might have difficulty controlling emotions.”

If a player retains a concussion, doesn’t fully recover and gets injured again, he could suffer from second impact syndrome and die. Getting several concussions can contribute to loss of brain function, according to Linden.

Wyse said that the Marcus training staff does a good job of making sure players are recovered before they return to play. Still, he said that teammates should watch for concussions in each other.

“Players need to be more accountable to each other and do what’s best for the person, and not the team sometimes,” Wyse said.

compiled by jasmine sachar

A player suffers a blow to the head with speeds ranging from 17 to 25 miles an hour.

The brain is cushioned

3 by a layer of fluid that is

usually able to absorb the shock of impact. However, the force of a concussion is too great, resulting in bruising of the brain and nerve damage.

mpact

fi force o

immediate symptoms :

2

A wave of impact passes through the brain, causing it to bounce off the back of the skull.

confusion nausea headache dizziness slurred speech

design/graphic by maria heinonen 19

opinion

Farewell, Spindle We are sad to report that Mr. Spindle is leaving after this year. Thanks for never forgetting to wish us happy birthday and always wearing neatly pressed ties. You’re a champ, and you will be greatly missed.

Crazy Irish Catholic

Alex McGinnis

First grade days never fade

When I was seven years old, my backyard was a kingdom. The majority of my time was spent beneath lush oak trees, talking to a boy on the other side of the fence named Jared. Every day I would scramble up the ivy-laced barrier between us and talk endlessly about chicken nuggets or Disney movies. The only time I didn’t usually talk to him was on Sundays, when my family would go to a Catholic church and his would go to a Mormon one. That religious difference had absolutely no effect on me until one day Jared poked his head over the fence to tell me that his mom said Catholic people were liars. I don’t remember what I said in response, but that was the last time Jared talked to me over the fence.

After that incident, my Catholic heritage became an obligation, something that I was born into but didn’t choose.

By the time I entered high school, soccer had become my life. I still went to mass every Sunday, but it meant nothing. I went back to school each week and gossiped about people I didn’t know, and I played dirty on the soccer field so that my friends and I could laugh about it later. My faith was completely buried under worldly priorities, but I justified my actions with the fact that I didn’t drink or smoke and I went to church.

It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year that I realized how much time in my life I had wasted being a hypocrite.

I knew I needed to change. So I thought I’d try paying attention in mass and going to some Bible studies. I began to comprehend what real friendships looked like, and I started to understand that it was up to me to choose what my life would be centered on. I eventually quit soccer. I found new friends. I somehow found everything that I was looking for in the faith that had always been there.

Being who I am isn’t always an easy choice. Today when people find out I’m Catholic they react in different ways. Some people insist that I worship Mary.

And sometimes they accept it, even when they don’t agree. And that’s really all I can ask for, because I’m a perpetual work in progress. I’m doing my best, but I’ll never be perfect.

I know that some people will read this and think I’m arrogant because I disagree with other faiths. But how can I call something my faith if somewhere in the back of my mind I think something else might be the truth? I am Catholic. It’s not something I do on the side. It’s the foundation I build my life upon.

20 design by jordan richards

Adviser triumphs

We’ll miss your smile

By day, Ms. Hale helps The Marquee journalists improve, but by night she’s getting her masters in journalism. Recently she had an investigative story printed on the front page of the Denton Record Chronicle.

Ruth Adkisson is leaving next year after being at Marcus since it opened. We appreciate your friendliness after many years of protecting our lunches and making announcements. Your voice on the P.A. will be missed.

Hillary is my homegirl

Jasmine Sachar

Failure hurts, even democratically

Rejection hurts.

Rejection in high school hurts more.

But rejection in a high school election? Gee, that’s the pits.

First came the inception, the first spark of a silly idea, a dream. Yes, I had a dream. I’m not sure what drew me to the idea of being National Honor Society President. Perhaps it was the thousands of walks through the library hallway, seeing former NHS presidents’ names printed proudly on a distinguished row of gold plaques, all the way back to 1981. Maybe it was my need for the approval of my peers. Or the fact that I wanted to be remembered when I left high school, that I wanted to be someone worth remembering.

So I turned in my application. I talked to as many people as I could. I told my good friends to campaign for me, and this race felt close. There were points where I could almost taste the victory, the sweetness of making a name for myself, of standing out in an organization where faces and community service hours blend together. I could almost picture myself taking the oath of office at induction and finally feeling like I was significant.

But I lost. Someone else’s name will be on the gold plaque. A plain failure, one that made my cheeks flare and eyes water. All that energy and those dreams and ideas and plans for the next year vaporized right before me. I wasn’t good enough. I wasted countless idle hours in my room, examining myself piece by piece and wondering where I went wrong. Why didn’t

How do you

FEEL

FROM TAKS moving

t h e

to the

compiled by carley meiners photos by a.j. lascola

people like me the way I so badly, so earnestly, so desperately wished they would?

More than anything, I felt embarrassed to have put my name on the ballot. I felt embarrassed that most members had seen my name on that slip of paper, thought about it, and conscientiously chosen the other option. Losing wasn’t like a bad grade on a test that I could rip apart and hide. It was public knowledge and my broken heart sat sullenly on my sleeve for everyone to see.

It was a shocking, uncomfortable, unavoidable encounter with high school failure. It felt like losing in double overtime at the state basketball tournament. It was sobbing in the rain after being defeated in the first round of football 5A playoffs while the crowd cringed and cleared the stands. It was a rejection letter from a dream college. And it shattered me for some time. My friends didn’t see why I was so upset when I had other things going for me. I made good grades. I was on the paper. I could get into college. “So what if you’re not President?” I guess, but it didn’t stop the hurt. I wasn’t President and I couldn’t do anything about it but sulk and listen to Glee songs.

But it was a high school election and this is high school. We are not marred by failure forever. I can accept my trivial teenage failure like we all should.

There’s plenty of bigger blunders ahead of us, and yeah, some successes too. And it’d be sad if there weren’t more opportunities ahead than those within this tan brick building in Flower Mound.

“I think it’s pretty good because it helps students retain information. It covers the things that we actually learned.”

Greg Davis,

freshman

“I thought the EOC was hard because there was stuff we didn’t learn. The questions are harder than TAKS.”

Avery Mcconathy, sophomore

may 20, 2011 | the marquee

opinion

Stop the public lovin’

EOC is waste of time

Stop the jaywalking

We understand that every single couple at Marcus is unconditionally in love, but seeing them make out in S hall every morning is getting old and annoying. Not everyone wants to watch that.

Quit with the PDA, it’s gross.

Making juniors in AP classes take the EOC was not cool. It was somewhat entertaining writing essays about unicorns and bubbling random answers, but they would’ve preferred studying for their $56 AP tests.

If people in the parking lot don’t want to get hit by cars, they should try not walking in front of them.

Wait for the security guards to use their traffic directing skills and then you can cross the street.

Spain, like the country

Molly Spain

Childhood dream will come true

At age nine, I wrote a book. A glorious 13 chapters, 22-paged story about the riveting topic of summer vacation. However, The Best Summer Vacation was never actually published, so the world will never know of the heart-wrenching pain that 11-year-old Carrie faced when she was forced to miss a friend’s party to go on a family beach vacation.

Back then, my nine-year-old mind believed that missing slumber parties was a big enough issue to be immortalized in writing. I fantasized about becoming published. I wrote stories featuring wizards, vampires and even a story about a talking squirrel­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ titled The Mystery of the Cruisin’ Squirrel which followed the adventures a little girl and a talking squirrel embarked on together while on a family cruise vacation.

Still, as I got older, I refused to let my fantasy die.

I wanted to be a successful writer as a kid, and I will be, minus the talking animals.

I’ve improved my writing style to emotional short stories and poems posted on a whim to my Tumblr blog online. Like other high school students, I get excited for the weekends. What makes me different is because I know that once I get off work on Friday nights or come home after long Saturday nights with friends, I can stay up late creating new story plots and writing the first chapter for a novel floating around in my head. Because of my passion, I’ve accepted the word “nerd” virtually tattooed on my forehead.

I’m determined to write elegant poetry, impactful short stories, symbolic literature and adventurous

“Having us take a different test at the end of the year is pointless because it’s going to be exactly like TAKS. It’s just more to worry about with exams.”

Chase Grewing, junior

the marquee |may 20, 2011

novels. I want to bring forth laughs from frowning lips and wrench tears from stony eyes. I want to grab readers and immerse them in a completely different world where magic can be real, fantasies come true and characters become alive. I want to be a writer.

I will gain the graceful abilities of Jane Austen and Margaret Mitchell to weave the most beautiful love stories. Words will flow from my mind and spin stories of truth, love and happiness, but also of sorrow, pain and tears. I’ll write of heart-racing danger and blissful euphoria. I want to experience the fear and ardent love in my characters’ hearts. My words will be read with passion and humor. I will change lives with words of wisdom.

I’ll probably never write hundreds of sonnets or invent new words like Shakespeare. But I’ve probably started a hundred novels – talking animals, summer vacations, fantastic creatures and all. And I’ve written enough meaningless poems to get me started on this challenging career as a writer.

I may never be the next J.K. Rowling or Ray Bradbury. And I may never capture the literary symbolism of Hawthorne and Steinbeck in my writings. But I have passion, and that’s all I need for my story. And I know that someday my books will be analyzed by teachers, and students will dread having to read the award-winning novel by Molly Spain. The best part is that people will demand to read the unfinished manuscripts I wrote as a kid about summer vacations and talking squirrels.

“I’m glad I don’t have to take it. From what I’ve heard from underclassmen, it’s a pointless test.”

Terri Holston, senior

“I think it’s a little more comprehensive than TAKS. As long as the students are getting a good education, that’s really what it’s all about.”

Jesse Hood, teacher

Shmallison Shibish

Allison Przybysz

Gangsta Rap lives on fo’eva

Tupac Shakur, one of the world’s best selling rap artists, was born June 16, 1971 and it was reported that he died September 13, 1996. According to news reports, Shakur was shot four times in a driveby shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada by a rival gang member who was never found.

Except I don’t think Tupac is actually dead.

I’m an avid Tupac fan and I’ll probably rep West Coast till I die. He is the most influential gangstarapper of my generation, and I’ve always believed his spirit remained with us even after his death.

However, when I noticed evidence that he may still be alive, I had to investigate. There are many clues leading me to believe Tupac faked his death, but these are the most blatant pieces of evidence: In April 1995, Tupac was imprisoned for assault, where he spent time reading. His fellow inmates confirmed that Tupac read many books by Niccolò Machiavelli, a philosopher from the Renaissance.

His popular book called Principe depicts a prince faking his death in order to escape enemies. In the 1996 music video “I Ain’t Mad at Ya” Tupac illustrated his death and rebirth as “Makavelli”.

Tupac obviously studied up how to fake deaths. He believed in Machavelli’s ideas enough to consider himself a modern day version of the philosopher.

I understand the skepticism. Faked deaths and conspiracy theories are usually ludicrous and farfetched. However, some evidence is irrefutable.

A huge clue showing Tupac faked his death is in the music video“Toss It Up”. The music video was released posthumously, and viewers are made to believe the video was made in August 1996, just one month before his death. However, when the video is inspected closely, viewers see that Tupac is wearing a pair of Nike Penny Hardaway sneakers. The sneakers Tupac was wearing weren’t released until after his death. I know that doesn’t necessarily prove he faked his death. Maybe he had an endorsement deal with Nike, and got the new style of sneakers early. Except in another music video, “Live & Die in L.A.”, also released posthumously, Tupac jumps on top of a car wearing Air Jordan sneakers. These sneakers were not released until 1998. The shoes weren’t even designed on paper in 1996. It would’ve been completely impossible for Tupac to be wearing shoes whose design had yet to be created.

Tupac, if you’re reading this, please come out of hiding. I don’t want my generation to grow up thinking Soulja Boy and Waka Flocka Flame are what rap music is all about.

design by jordan richards 21

staff editorial

UIL winners hurt by poor planning Poor planning towards the end of the year is making students pick between important events in their high school career. Groups like UIL and DECA should move their state and national competitions to avoid interfering with AP testing.

For the past two weeks, AP tests were in full swing. For all the students enrolled in these college level classes, these two weeks were filled with intense cramming sessions.

However, for students who advanced to the State UIL Academic meet in Austin, these two weeks of studying was interrupted. Two Marcus students competed to win a state title and both students were also in AP classes.

Because of the conflicting scheduling of the two events, these students had to miss their AP tests in order to advance on to the state competition. The process to retake the test has been annoying. After talking to testing coordinators and being fined $40 for the retake tests, they then appealed to principal Gary Shafferman himself about the additional cost of the test, who then agreed to pay the cost.

While it was nice of Mr. Shafferman to cover the extra expense for the UIL students, the whole cost could easily be avoided if UIL planned their state meet accordingly. Since AP tests are at the same time every year, it makes sense for UIL Academics to schedule their state meet on a different date, especially since most UIL competitors take AP tests.

Another group that was affected by the scheduling of the AP exams were the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) students that made it to the national convention in Orlando. Their big congratulatory slap on the back was missing their AP tests.

The process for the DECA students was irritating as well. They had to first talk to the testing coordinators who then had to call the AP testing headquarters. After much debate, it was agreed that the DECA students could retake their tests on the appropriate date, but the school couldn’t cover their $40 extra cost.

Next year, the UIL board should schedule their events and competitions on a different week from AP tests. AP students would greatly appreciate not hav-

ing to miss tests and other important events because they have to choose between winning state or saving thousands of dollars on college classes that they will have to take in a few years.

N.T.

TAKS testing is finally over, but EOCs will still be pesky Big changes are on the way for the to have to take one more test just fostate assessment test in school districts cusing on that class. It’s not necessary across the state. Rather than TAKS to be tested over the same material (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and multiple times.

Skills), students will be required to Not only will the EOC be another take the EOC (End-of-Course Exams). useless test for students, but unlike Next year’s freshmen will be the first TAKS, it will actually affect students’ group of students required to pass the grades in their classes. The EOC will EOC to graduate. These changes are count for 15% of the class grade for unnecessary and expensive, and the the subject tested. Although it doesn’t EOC should not become the new state assessment test for public schools.

Not only will the EOC be another useBecause there will be an EOC for each indiless test for students, but unlike TAKS, vidual course in a subit will actually affect students’ grades ject, such as Biology or in their classes.

Physics, this means that there will be more tests required for students to take. This will be a hassle for teachers, seem like a large percentage, this could who will be forced to administer more cause students to fail that course if they tests during the year. This will also be fail its corresponding EOC. If someone a hassle for students, who will need to failed a class because of their grade memorize the details in each specific on the EOC, they would not only have course instead of simply the general to retake the EOC, but also the entire idea. The EOC will also seem like just class. This could be a possibility for another final or midterm, which stu- many students according to the results dents already take during the school from field tests in 2010. In a statewide year, so it would be miserable for them test throughout 641 school districts,

“

N.T. 22 design by jordan richards

the average student answered only 52 percent of questions correct on the geometry EOC and 46 percent on chemistry. This is not a good sign of what’s to come.

The passing rates have not been set for the EOC yet, and will not be set until after students have taken the test next year. This is exactly how the passing rates are determined for TAKS too.

Changing from TAKS to the EOC will not be beneficial and these tests should be done away with all together. They are expensive to create and maintain, and by getting rid of standardized testing completely, the state could save a large amount of money. This could spare teachers across the state from being fired too.

It is a good thing that we are getting rid of TAKS, but it should not be replaced by any other assessment exam.

State tests are pricey, time consuming and unnecessary. The finals and midterms students have to take for each subject should be enough to determine if a student passes a class and is eligible to graduate.

”

may 20, 2011 | the marquee

WANTED Looking for a fun summer job?

Want to earn $8.00 an hour?

Look no further!

The City of Lewisville is hiring lifeguards for the summer of 2011. Apply on-line today at www. cityoflewisville.com.

Not a lifeguard yet? Not a problem. Lifeguard classes are now forming. Check the City of Lewisville website for all available classes or call 972-219-3749 for more information.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity!

Seniors 2012

Now is the time to start thinking about your senior portraits!

celebrate your year celebrate your time celebrate being you!

www.nicoleyoungblood.com 214.802.8271 the marquee |may 20, 2011

design by allison przybysz 23

photo story

After taking their AP tests, students in Jan Hutley’s AP Chemistry class conducts various experiments

photos by jordan richards and sarah sauer

1) A base mixture of sand and ethanol ignites with a match after baking powder and sugar is added. A chemical reaction is caused, resulting in black snake-like growths.

2) Senior Nick Kotey watches as the experiment he made in Hutley’s third period AP Chemistry class bursts into flames.

3) Senior Dylan Heath smiles while he enjoys conducting a chemistry experiment called the snake lab.

4) Hutley combines potassium chlorate with heat to release oxygen. This causes the spontaneous combustion of a gummy bear.

24 design by nathaniel thornton

may 20, 2011| the marquee