October issue 2013

Warrior Sherwood High School 300 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Sandy Spring, MD 20860

36th Year, Issue No.1

the

October 3, 2013

Inside: News: 1-3, Clash of Genders: 4-5, Features: 6-7, Humor: 8-9, Spotlight: 10-11, Opinions: 12-14,Wondering Warrior: 15, Entertainment: 16-17, Sports: 18-20

Why are fans so obsessed with Breaking Bad?

LGBT History Month Raise Awareness

pg. 17

pg. 10-11

MCPS Modernizes Technological Devices

by Brian Hughes ‘15, Catherine Jou ‘15 and Samantha Schwartz ‘16

Better late than never, MCPS is keeping up with the most recent technology modernization, and Sherwood has replaced outdated computers with brand new desktops and laptops. The school is now equipped with wireless Internet capability and specific classrooms have new technology.

Wi-Fi Sherwood has completed part of the ongoing Technology Modernization Project which updates technological resources every four to five years. Recently, Sherwood installed over 70 access points for full building wireless internet. According to IT Systems Specialist Andrew Dodge, the cost of the project was roughly $5.6 million for MCPS. Previously, only 11 high schools

had full building wireless.

“We live in a digital world and technology is moving in many different directions. Much of the new technology developments are centered around smart phones and tablet computers which heavily leverage wireless technology,” said Dodge.

Students and staff will be able to use the wireless network once the school system issues usage policies and standards.

“We also need to make sure that devices that are connecting have appropriate levels of software patches, virus protection, etc. It is my understanding that [students] will sign onto the wireless network with [their] network username and password to track activity,” said Dodge.

3-D Printer The technology department was given two 3-D printers over the summer, a “MakerBot” model

Bridget Cook ‘14

With the new 3-D printer, cups, cubes, screws and various objects are produced from plastic and nylon. and a “Cubify” model, as part of the new “Project Lead the Way” curriculum in engineering classes. Students can create designs

on the Inventor computer-aided design (CAD) software and then the printers build those designs using a laser source that solidifies

the material in the desired pattern.

The popularity of 3-D print-

see TECH, pg. 2

Chaudhry and McKeldin Take On Department Head Positions

MCPS Re-examines Sexual Harassment and Abuse Policies

by Emma Hierholzer ‘15

In February, a Montgomery County music teacher was arrested on child pornography charges when a multi-state investigation led authorities to his Dundalk community home in Baltimore. Montgomery County school officials say Lawrence E. Joynes, 54, worked for MCPS in 11 schools, mostly in Silver Spring. He has also been charged with sexually abusing 14 of his elementary school students, and purportedly had a sexual relationship with a female student under the age of 15 when he taught at Eastern Middle School.

After a string of complaints from various parents and at least one teacher, school administrators placed only restrictions on Joynes instead of reporting him to the police or finding him in violation of MCPS policy.

The arrest of Joynes comes within months of a string of other incidents. A teacher at Meadow Hall Elementary in Rockville was accused of sexually abusing two students. Another teacher at Julius West Middle School, who is also the coach for boys’ basketball at Richard Montgom-

With a new school year comes change within the halls of Sherwood. Christine McKeldin, an AP Psychology teacher, and Sapna Chaudhry, an AP Statistics teacher, will take on novel responsibilities as new department heads of the social studies and math departments, respectively.

“After Mr. Sangillo announced that he would be moving on, I thought long and hard about applying for the position,” said McKeldin. Chaudhry had the same thought of applying and turned in her resume after Debbie Hiltner left last year.

Sangillo and Hiltner now both work as instructional specialists in the MCPS Central Office.

A panel of administrators, including Principal Bill Gregory, interviewed both Chaudhry and McKeldin before the start of this year. Since their acceptance of the positions, both teachers have faced an equally rewarding and demanding start of the new semester.

“My biggest responsibility is to provide support, both

Bridget Cook ‘14

Christine McKeldin speaks to social studies teachers at a meeting. academically and emotionally to math teachers, as well as improve student achievement in the subject,” said Chaudhry.

McKeldin explained she had similar responsibilities such as “observing the teachers, collecting data on students and mediating issues.”

The two teachers both agree that they are fortunate

to have fantastic cooperation within their department left behind by their predecessors.

“I’m very lucky to have a good system left behind to work in,” said Chaudhry. McKeldin wants to build off of what she already knows in her department. “I plan to take what I have learned

see HEADS, pg. 3

by Tom Lee ‘14

www.thewarrioronline.com

ery, was arrested for having sex with a student at the high school.

In response to these incidents, MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr wrote to members of the county Board of Education about a new plan involving a confidential database with an alert system that would “improve the process for tracking and managing information regarding allegations of inappropriate interactions between [MCPS] employees and students.”

Still, MCPS officials have conceded that it has been a challenge to come up with formal guidelines. “I guess it depends on the severity of maybe what the action is: Was it something said? Was it someone touching someone … all the way up to the most severe of sexual involvement. That’s the dilemma; it is very difficult to lump everything into one category,” said Chief Operating Officer Larry Bowers in a September 14 Gazette article.

In an August 28 memo sent by the Board of Education, “reassignments” and “transfers” were two of seven types of disciplinary action for teachers that have vio-

see ABUSE, pg. 2

The Warrior•News 2

October 3, 2013

New Technology Introduced to MCPS

from TECH, pg. 1

ing has recently soared due to lower prices. “Uses of 3-D print ers in real life continue to grow al most every week,” said Engineering teacher Brendan Lees. “Not only can objects be printed quick ly to use when testing out ideas for designs, but biomedical engi neers and doctors now use them to print out specifically designed pieces to save patients’ lives.”

Students have printed brace lets, screws with bolts, a wrench, and are now working on iPhone

S W E N in brief

Warrior NSPA Results

by Marie Moeller ‘15

The Warrior has once again achieved a First-Class Rating, the second-highest rating possible from the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA). The dedication and hard work of the staff of the 2012-2013 school year led to three Marks of Distinction in Leadership, Layout and Design, and Graphics. The Warrior was one mark away from obtaining the All-American rating, which is the highest honor.

NSPA praised the wide coverage of school-related issues – ranging from topics such as academics to cafeteria food to homecoming.

These articles were well integrated with non-school related news, which was commended for its phenomenal job relating national issues to the student population. NSPA displayed particular interest for the Spotlight section, commenting on how diverse the topics were from issue to issue, giving the readers something to look forward to. In addition, The Warrior was credited with a tasteful and strategic layout and use of photos, graphics and art that helped to enhance the quality of the paper. Overall, NSPA applauded the variety of topics, coverage and consistency of the paper in its entirety.

Enrollment at an All-Time High in MCPS

by Mary Macrae ‘14

This year was the highest enrollment of students for MCPS. There were more than 151,000 students expected to attend the district’s 202 schools this year, an increase of about 2,300 students from the 2012-2013 school year. Also, there was a significantly larger number of kindergartens this year, especially down county close to Washington D.C. than in other parts of the county, noted Principal Bill Gregory. This would mean that as the years go on high school enrollment is going to increase.

Gregory also noted that parents are looking at options for where to send their children, especially during a weaker economy when the price of private schools can be daunting. “I have talked to many parents that have shopped for many schools and have come to Sherwood High School to shop to see what types of programs we had, and it’s been nice that there have been people that have moved to the area because of the school,” said Gregory.

Soda Machine Removed from School

by Ashley Yen ‘14

To ensure sales of solely nutritional beverages to students during the day, the soda machine in the Ertzman lobby has been taken away. It will be replaced by a beverage machine that will sell nutritional drinks instead of soda, according to Business Administrator Brenda Hoyle.

MCPS has put new regulations in place involving vending machines that do not follow the school system’s nutritional quality guidelines such as the calories from total fat being at or below 35 percent per serving. Machines that serve soda, for example, must be closed for the whole day and open 30 minutes after school ends, which includes candy machines as well. The push for the regulations was started by the group Real Food for Kids, a grass-roots parent advocacy group that promotes healthy food in schools. The request was sent by City Council Member George Levanthal to Superintendent Joshua Starr, who requested for Royalle Vending Services to change the timers on the machines that don’t follow the wellness policy.

cases that they can actually use.

“Most importantly, these printers are getting students excited for our Project Lead the Way engineering courses

and what they can design and build right in class,” said Lees.

Laptops

MCPS replaced more than 9,300 computers in over 40 schools with new desktop computers, laptops or tablets. Sherwood received 39 laptops, housed in the media center, as well as a mobile cart of laptops. Together, the laptops replaced 50 outdated desktop computers. School-wide all obsolete desktops have been replaced.

The new hardware is equipped with software programs that improve the work of students and staff. “The new computers are clearly faster than the five year old computers that left and also smaller. Classroom

computers now have the ability to show morning announcements through the LCD projector,” said Dodge, the school’s IT specialist.

Teachers and students have yet to become totally comfortable with the new technology. Students find the smaller laptop screens difficult to see. The unfamiliar mouses take more time to use.

A perk to the new laptops is accessibility. Teachers can sign out the mobile cart and use the computers in their classrooms.

“I would love to start using the laptops in the classroom. It would save a lot of time because kids can just work in the classroom and not get as many distractions as they do in the media center,” said Spanish teacher Maria Peterson.

Olney Library on Track for January Opening

by Mandy Stussman ‘14 Construction of the Olney Library on Route 108 is scheduled to be complete by October 18, or soon after. This will be the culmination of over four years of consulting, designing and finally building the much anticipated community facility.

The new and improved library will feature a larger children’s room, a separate teen area with an expanded collection of literature for young adults and a new set of group-study rooms. It will also feature the newest technology including self-checkout machines, a media dispensing unit for DVDs, monitors on the ends of shelving ranges for accessing the catalogue and loanable laptops.

“I have worked with the Project Manager and architects on the design of the renovated space and the selection of furniture and equipment,” said Rita Gale, Public Services Administrator for Facilities and Strategic Planning for Montgomery County Public Libraries and Library Department. “The building will be more energy efficient … there will be a dividable meeting room that will allow two groups to be meeting at the same time. The shelving will be lower allowing the building to look more open and light.”

After the building is substantially complete in mid-October, it will take a month to finish the project, complete a punch list, and obtain occupancy. Once granted, it will take about seven weeks to move the books and furniture in and get the facility ready for public use, leading to an opening date in late January or early February.

Mandy Stussman 14’

The Olney Library’s construction is near completion, set to open to the public by early 2014, after a series of unexpected delays.

According to the Gazette, recent construction has been running according to schedule, but there have been many obstacles and setbacks. The library closed in December of 2010 because the County was in a recession and required all departments to reduce budgets. Original plans allotted for the library to open in the summer of 2012; however, continuous delays and barriers in planning postponed construction until last January, resulting in the library remaining unused for over a year and causing frustration in the Olney community.

Another hiccup threatened to delay the opening when Milestone Construction Services, the general contractor for the project, informed Montgomery County in early August that it is going out of business at the end of 2013.

The Library project was about 66 percent complete at the time and the pace of the work had slowed immensely prior to the announcement. Despite fears that the project would be delayed for a long time or abandoned all together, the company is in contract and has promised to finish the project.

Since receiving information regarding the status of Milestone Construction in August, the Department of General Services has been diligent in monitoring site progress and working with the contractor to finish the project. Milestone Construction has increased the on-site work force.

Though the building of the library has been a long, laborious process, it will soon open and provide the community with a much needed place to read, research and gather.

Sexual Abuse in MCPS Spurs Policy Change from ABUSE, pg. 1 lated policy. The others are written reprimand, demotion, suspension, coursework and termination.

Bowers did clarify that reassignments are rare and only used if the school’s principal “feels it is in the best interest of the school to not have that person there.”

Principal Bill Gregory said the memo didn’t significantly al-

ter existing policies but rather emphasized the importance of taking the appropriate steps when there is a concern or complaint about a teacher’s behavior. “It was about the seriousness of conducting an investigation and detailed the procedures that needed to be followed by an administrator when incidents are brought up. [The memo] really does not mark any difference from before but is

just a follow up and clarification of prior policy,” said Gregory.

He remarked that of the very few incidents regarding teachers at Sherwood, all have been due to poor decisions or misunderstanding. “We investigate everything and I hope that is one of the things that keeps this school safe and that people know that we adults in the building will always take what people say seriously.”

The Warrior•News

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October 3, 2013

Department Heads Adjust to Changes from HEADS, pg. 1

from those before and incorporate my strength to continue the tradition of amazing social studies instruction at Sherwood.”

As far as plans to change directions of their departments, McKeldin hopes to draw from her experiences working with people of differing teaching and management styles. Chaudhry hopes to “bring the vision of the PLCs (Professional Learning Commu-

nities) into reality and improve standardized test scores among math students in Sherwood.”

Despite all the stress and rigor of their new positions, both teachers agree that there are far more positive aspects to the job than negative.

“I enjoy being able to advocate for my department on both the school wide and county levels.

I also enjoy watching the teachers in my department teach, which is an opportunity that should be more

available and/or used by teachers. Watching others truly allows me to be more reflective in my own practices,” said McKeldin.

Chaudhry reflected on the positive aspects of her new position as well. “I’m enjoying my new office and the tremendous support from my colleagues in my new job. Most importantly I feel grateful to have the opportunity to make a difference in the quality of math instruction. It’s a very thrilling experience for me.”

New ‘Character Committee’ To Focus On Non-Cognitive Learning Skills

by Bridget Cook ‘14 A committee of teachers and school staff recently formed with the goal of highlighting the importance of non-cognitive traits in students. This committee, headed by social studies teacher Aileen Woolley, aligns with the new strategic planning framework created by MCPS to build character and instill non-academic performance traits in students.

Originally, about ten staff members committed to brainstorming for this project. After a September 9 staff meeting at which Woolley and committee members math teacher Tim Altaner and science teacher Janet Frensilli presented the project, about 50 staff members ranging from teachers to security signed up to join a book club. Principal Bill Gregory purchased copies of “How Children Succeed” by Paul Tough for interested staff to read and discuss.

At the after school and lunchtime book clubs set to begin in October, club members will discuss the book “How Children Succeed” and brainstorm ways to ensure that traits such as self-control and perseverance become more prevalent in the students of Sherwood. This book will be discussed for three months, then in January, members will discuss specific ways to bring

Bridget Cook ‘14

Aileen Woolley presents at a meeting of the school’s staff on Sept. 9. character traits to Sherwood.

“I got really excited about the power of character in children’s lives … the big question was: How can we foster character in the classroom?” Woolley said. Academic learning is undoubtedly a vital part of school, but Woolley hopes to go beyond just academic knowledge and stress non-cognitive learning in her teaching.

Frensilli is also eager to begin working on integrating the character traits. “I believe that non-cognitive traits are important not only for academic success but for success in life. Teachers can empower students to enhance the traits that they already have and help them develop the traits that they need to be successful,” she said.

Woolley also emphasizes

that character traits play a key role in the success of students beyond their time in high school.

“Lots of people think Mr. Tough is talking about moral character, but it’s about the character traits connected to performance,” she said. Grit is crucial because it helps students recover and move on after a failure. Conscientiousness is an integral characteristic for students because it helps them set appropriate priorities. Curiosity develops a hungry mind that is engaged by academic work. Other important non-cognitive traits highlighted by the committee include social intelligence, zest and gratitude. “I’m hoping the awareness and practice of these skills will become part of every Warrior,” said Woolley.

Bridget Cook ‘14

Science teacher Glenn Gerhardt assists students in a lab activity.

Curriculum Diversifies with Addition of GeoScience Class

by Lucy Hurlbut ‘14 A new GeoScience curriculum has been created for MCPS, and Sherwood is one of four schools offering the course this year.

The class is taught by science teacher Glenn Gerhardt, who also teaches Astronomy and Physics.

Students can take the class for the whole year or just one semester, because each semester discusses a different aspect of GeoScience.

GeoScience is a broad field, and geologists study many aspects of nature such as oceans, rocks, fossils, the atmosphere and weather.

In the first semester, called Paleontology and Resources, students examine how mining works and what resources on Earth can be the most beneficial.

Students also study the many layers of the Earth and the different types of rocks such as igneous and metamorphic rocks. Instead of a traditional multiple-choice semester exam, students do a final project. In groups, students choose an exo-planet (a fictional planet based on a real planet) in order to find out what kinds of resources exist, what the current conditions of the planet are, and the history of the planet.

The second semester is called Oceanography and Earth Systems. For the final project in the second semester, students design a functional ocean glider that they will get to test out.

“Students should take GeoScience, because it’s definitely hands-on. It is project-based, so there aren’t traditional tests, and no scantrons.

Everything you learn goes toward completing a final project [each quarter],” said Gerhardt.

The GeoScience curriculum is not yet rigidly set, which is a positive for Gerhardt. “I have more freedom to try things out ... it is a challenge ... but I am happy I get to teach [it],” he said.

Many students have found the class more interesting than they thought it would.

“My ESOL teacher said this GeoScience class would be the perfect class for me, because I don’t like science much, but I did want to learn more about the Earth. I do like the class,” said sophomore Samuela Fotso.

Junior Erik Ortega’s counselor suggested he take the class. What he thought would be just another science class was much more than that. “It’s a great hands-on experience that makes the class more engaging and interactive,” he noted.

The curriculum may be in the process of being finalized, but students appear to be enjoying it so far. It will be the teachers and students of the four schools offering the course who test it’s effectiveness. It may succeed, so the class may be back again next year, this time perhaps with a more definite idea of the curriculum as a whole.

The Warrior thanks its many wonderful patrons: Armstrong Family, Bernstein Family, Bina Family, Brady Family, Carol McCarty, Carr Family, Carrera Family, Gary & Nora Carswell, Cecil Family, Cudd Family, Deal Family, Delauders Family, Deppe Family, Dowrick Family, Dymond Family, Ferris Family, Fields & White Family , Regis & Renate Finn Family, Florian Family Fricke Family, Gallagher Family, Ganey Family, Giorgio Family, Giron Family, Hall Family, Dick & Vivian Harris Family, Hierholzer Family, Joe & Kathy Hughes Family, Hughes Family, Hurlbut-Blum Family, Jou Family, Justus Family, Kayastha Family, Keilsohn Family, Kendall Family, Kenel Family, Kibler/Mahoney Family, Koehler Family, John & Laura Lee, Betsy & Mark LevyFamily, Linkletter Family, Jim & Diane Macrae Family, Macrae Family, Mangus Family, McCarty Family, Melnick Family, Mezebish Family, Militano Family, Moeller Family, Patrick & Anita Moore, Murphy Family, Michael & Jessica Natelli, Newmark Family, O’Donnell Family, Paholski Family, Pletcher/Stinehelfer Family, Plummer Family, Mike & Lynn Ronan Family, Ryezek Family, Saviola Family, Schipper Family, Schwartz Family, Siberry-Reddy Family, Josey & Chris Simpson Family, Sousane Family, Spillman Family, Stussman Family, Sutherland Family, Tom Family, Townsend Family, Van Gelder Family, Wasik Family, Cindy & Mike Weitzner Family, Susan & Tom Wells Family, Whitt Family, Todd & Renate Wilson Family, Witkin Family, Yates Family, John & Christine Young Family, Zhang Family If you are interested in becoming a patron, contact Peter Huck at Peter_J_Huck@mcpsmd.org

The Warrior•Clash of Genders 4

October 3, 2013

Did you know? more than girls Boys use their phones os and videos, ot ph e ar sh s, me ga ay to pl nd e-mails. Girls se d an c si mu to en st li es primarily for tend to use their phssonaging. talking and text me Post The Washington

17, are more o t 3 1 s e g a , s e Mal ir location e h t l a e v e r o t likely working site on a social net than females. wn.edu Georgeto

Women are 29-percent more been treated for a mental likely to have than men. Depression is health problem women; however, men are more likely in suffer from physical illnmore likely to ess than women.

mentalhealth.org, science daily .com

e likely to r o m t n e c r e p 5 .

Teen boys are 3 victim of dating abuse report being a however, females reported than females; wice as much fear as the experiencing t les. victim than maapy.org Goodther Men who are more likely thoomosexual are about it than “come out” Georgeto women. wn.edu

ands afh r i e h t h as nt of women w restroom; 75 perce t n e c r e p 90 the public ter using the same. biology of men do erican Society for Micro Am

Adolescent boys are 12.6 at mechanical reasoning -percent better better at mental rotationand 9.4-percent girls are 4.8-percent be . Adolescent and 3.8-percent better attter at spelling language arts.

Education.com

- compiled by Meagan Barrett ‘15 and Haley Whitt ‘15

Kelsey Morrison ‘14

It’s Not Their Fault, They’re Just Boys

by Meagan Barrett ‘15

The next time you’re in your AP English class, look at the person in front of you, or the person next to you, or even the person behind you. Chances are all of these people will be females. In the first semester at Sherwood alone, the AP-level classes for English, AP Language and Composition and AP Literature, cumulatively consist of 62 percent girls and only 48 percent boys.

This pattern remains consistent in high schools all throughout the United States, and even in other countries. Nowadays, this isn’t very surprising. It has simply become common knowledge that girls are “better” at language

arts (reading and writing) than boys. And not only is this gap already large, it’s still growing.

Teacher, educational consultant and author William McBride presents research that suggests a major reason for this is simply biological. “With more cortical areas devoted to verbal functioning, girls are better at … the complexities of reading and writing.”

A second theory is that the problem is an inability of schools and teachers to keep boys interested in English classes and reading. Author Richard Whitmire remarks that the world and its education system has become progressively verbal, while boys have not. Not only do they lack the advantages that allow girls

to excel in reading and writing, English is often taught in bland, demure ways, with a lack of the explosions and bug-squashing necessary to retain the interest of elementary school boys.

The problem, which only begins in elementary school, doesn’t end there. It simply grows throughout middle and high school. “Boys get frustrated, act out, and learn to dislike school,” Whitmire comments in his book “Why Boys Fail.” Whether the answer lies in the difference of the human psyche or simply in the interest of third grade boys, an answer needs to be found to keep the gap from getting much larger than it already is.

and 41 percent is male. However, as the workload intensifies in AP BC Calculus, the percentage of male students increases to 64 percent while the percentage of girls drops to 36 percent.

“Boys are generally hardwired to be kinesthetic learners,” argues Anne Jolly, a middle school teacher and blogger.

“They learn best through handson experiences—through touching and moving. They are less able to focus when forced to sit still and learn through static activities.” Because of this, boys tend to do better in classes that are more hands-on. as opposed to sitting while reading and writing.

As for why women are fall-

ing behind in STEM disciplines, although it is assumed that women just lose interest in STEM classes, there are more reasons as to why this gender gap exists.

Catherine Riegle-Crumb, an associate professor of STEM education at the University of Texas, said that this gap has to do with “subtle discouragement that happens where girls from very early ages … start to misidentify with science and math, start to feel that these fields are not things that they find to be interesting, that they find to be exciting.” Therefore, they find the subjects to be less relevant because the have been overtly or subtly discouraged from pursuing them.

Anything You Can Do, Can I Do Better?

by Haley Whitt ‘15

It is a commonly recognized fact in high schools throughout the United States that boys are more likely to take STEM classes than adolescent girls. Sherwood is not an exception to this rule.

In the first semester alone, the Introduction to Engineering class is 63-percent male and 37-percent female, while Principles of Engineering is 70-percent male and 30-percent female. In the so-called hard science of AP Physics, 59 percent of the students are male and 41 percent are female. In AP AB Calculus, girls outnumber boys in which 59 percent of the class is female

The Warrior•Clash of Genders October 3, 2013

5

iN Competition, Boys and girls Play by Different Rules

Upbringing Causes ‘Win Girl Tackles Stereotypes in Fantasy Football intrepid female reporter joins an all-male Fantasy league.

At All Costs’ Mentality An

by Katie Mercogliano ‘14

By Hunter Moore ‘15 The typical stereotype is that boys are more competitive than girls. The story goes that boys will do anything to win a game by as many points as possible, while girls will not wish to hurt their opponents’ feelings and make them feel badly about losing by a lot.

This perception of the difference in competitiveness between boys and girls isn’t necessarily all wrong. Studies do show that boys, more so than girls, perform to win in competitive situations and games. However, it is not that something naturally makes them more competitive. Rather, culture and upbringing best explain boys’ competitive fire.

Starting at a young age, many parents push their male children into taking risks and acting competitively in sports, which stays with them through adulthood. On the opposite end of the spectrum, young girls are encouraged to remain more cautious, leading them to take fewer risks and act less competitively in their adult life, according to research done by Uri

Gneezy, a professor at the University of California at San Diego and the University of Amsterdam.

Cultural expectations also contribute to the competitive behavior of boys and girls. When girls are around boys, they tend to work harder to maintain their gender identity, which would mean being more sensitive and less competitive. Boys, on the other hand, try to act even more masculine when around girls.

In a study run by Gneezy, a group of 140 boys and girls were tested based on their running.

When a boy had to race a girl, the boys performed significantly better than when they ran alone, whereas there was no difference in times for girls when they ran in competition or when they ran alone.

This is not saying that all girls are not competitive; for example, tennis great Serena Williams is overwhelmingly more competitive than the average male on the tennis court. Girls can be just as or more competitive as boys, but because of culture and upbringing boys are typically more competitive.

In America, 73 percent of men and 55 percent of women watch football weekly. That means over half of women watch America’s favorite pastime, yet only 6 percent of women participate in Fantasy Football.

This football season, I ventured into the extremely competitive, guy-dominated world of Fantasy Football.

I was invited by 10 of my male coworkers from over the summer to join their league. We all worked together at the baseball tournament, Cooperstown Dreamspark, I was one of two girls in my department and the only one who followed football religiously.

As interns, with the exception of showers, beds and bathrooms, we were always together working 16 hour days. These guys, ages 19-23, were from all different parts of the country, from Montana to Illinois. By the end of the summer, I was deemed the esteemed title of being ‘one of the guys’ and granted the honor of joining their Fantasy league (most likely to be an easy opponent, or so they surely thought).

Now, I may be a tomboy when it comes to watching and understanding sports, especially with football, but I still had one huge disadvantage; girls’ relatively low level of testosterone. High levels of testosterone are directly correlated to having a more competitive nature, so guys automatically have the upper hand in that aspect of the game.

What I lacked in competitive drive, I made up for with pure luck … and Andrew Luck. I was fortunate enough to receive the first-overall draft pick and took advantage of it picking up Viking Adrian Peterson. I later had a chance to take Bronco Knowshon Moreno, Giant Victor Cruz and Packer Randall Cobb. These gifted offensive beasts have given me a perfect record of 4-0 so far this season. And to say the least, the guys I have gone up against are not very pleased.

Now, I’m still newbie in the art of trash talking, but I have received an extreme crash course throughout the past four matchups. Instead of using the given discussion board, we all just created a group message that consists of some regular conversation and a lot of trash talk that hits below

the belt. Most of it has content that is just a bit too explicit to repeat here in this column. But surprisingly, they did not hold back at all simply because I’m a girl.

In fact, I have gotten harsher jabs for being a Redskins fan than for being a girl.

In all this, I discovered possibly the biggest non-biological difference between guys and girls.

When girls have a cat fight, it’s vicious and unnecessarily drawnout. Verbal daggers are thrown back and forth at each other with no mercy. When guys get into a fight, they toss a couple of insults into the conversation, threaten to “wreck” the other one, and about five minutes later, dap each other up and everything is okay again.

This difference is apparent in the dynamic with the guys and myself. While I have yet to threaten a physical fight with them (for obvious reasons), I’ve increasingly lost almost all the cautionary censorship I started with in my choice of insults, with the exception of the classic Sandlot quote, “You play [fantasy] ball like a girl.” I mean, I wouldn’t want to hurt their sensitive male egos too much.

Student Learning Impacted by Gender of Teacher In Classroom

by Stacey Wells ‘15 The number one thing that students notice about their teacher on the first day of school is the teacher’s gender. To some, the gender gives a hint on how tough the teacher will be and what their personality is like. However, there is actually no proven difference that gender affects an individual’s teaching style.

According to a German tandem study performed in 2012, if male and female teachers have the same professional qualities, like the same degree, then there are no teaching style differences.

The common belief that female teachers are more emotional and empathetic towards students was not supported by the results of the study.

Even though gender does not determine a teacher’s style, some students succeed more in the classroom when they are with a teacher of the same gender. In the well-known paper “The Why Chromosome,” published by research economist Thomas Dee, it is stated that learning “from a teacher of the opposite gender has a detrimental effect on students’ academic progress and their engagement in school.” It can actu-

ally lower test scores by four percent if boys have female teachers and girls have male teachers.

Having a teacher that is opposite the student’s gender also dramatically decreases the amount of student participation and engagement in the class.

Since girls respond best to female teachers and boys respond best to male teachers, it would make sense for coed public schools to strive for an equal number of male and female teachers. However, that is not the case.

In 201l, only 18.3 percent of elementary school teachers were males and 42 percent of secondary school teachers were males.

While Sherwood still has more female teachers than male teachers, the school has hired many new male teachers this school year.

The math department added three new male teachers, but math resource teacher Sapna Chaudhry says that hiring all new male math teachers “was not intentional” and it “just so happened.” Instead of looking for a specific gender, Chaudhry says the interview panel looks for “strong role models [who] can be men or women … who know their job [and have] good personal skills.”

Bridget Cook ‘14

Social studies teacher Joshua Kinnetz “I have always enjoyed social studies as early as I can remember. It always sparked my imagination when I think about other peoples’ stories from another time.” He thinks that “your teaching style is dictated by your personality … I’ve had a similar personality with both genders of teachers in which our teaching styles were similar.”

Math teacher Jordan Bennett “Anne Arundel County needed more mathematic teachers at a high school level [and] mathematics chose me.” Bennett said. “It’s nice that the male population of teachers is growing” but in the end “it’s [all] about the education.”

Bridget Cook ‘14

Bridget Cook ‘14

Health teacher Mathew Parsons “The subject is so broad and is something that is relevant to everyone in class [and] I like to think that this subject will help better someone’s life in one way or another.” Parsons thinks that “female teachers might be a little more organized and detailed than the male teachers.”

The Warrior•Features 6

October 3, 2013

Facebook Popularity Declines Due to New Options

by Vicky Florian ‘14 Not long ago, a teenage girl would log onto her Facebook account to catch up with her friends.

As she scrolled down her news feed, she was intrigued by the embarrassing pictures from the party the other night, entertained by a witty status of a boy she liked and amazed at her friend’s new relationship status. She would write on her friends’ walls and they would return the favor.

For teens of both genders, and of all social cliques, Facebook was exciting and well worth the often outrageous amount of time teenagers spent on it.

But much like MySpace and other once-popular sites, Facebook’s teen popularity is experiencing a significant decline. It is being increasingly taken over by middle-aged relatives, invitations to play online games and an excessive amount of posts from pages ‘liked’ back in middle school.

It is not that teens have stopped using Facebook altogether, but rather they have introduced new, more widely used sites to their repertoire. Twitter has become progressively more popular, with an increase in teen users from 16 percent in 2011 up to 24 percent in 2013, according to a survey by Pew Research Center. Applications on smart phones have diversified as well, pulling teens away from the traditional Facebook.

“I have been wanting to de-

activate my Facebook for awhile because I don’t even use it anymore, like I used to,” said senior Stephanie Cuzmar. “Instagram and Twitter are just more entertaining in today’s time.”

Unlike in the past, teens today have access to a multitude of different social networking sites and applications. While Facebook has videos, statuses, photos and messaging all rolled into one convenient site, the increasingly popular applications like Twitter, Instagram and Vine have become more specialized. The rising popularity of these sites suggests that teens prefer social networks that focus on simply one type of content.

Though many teens choose to express themselves on other platforms, a large amount of social networking still takes place on Facebook. “Instead of Facebook being the Walmart of social media, it will become just one platform in a big ecology, including photo sharing with Instagram, broadcasting with Twitter, etc,” the Pew survey concluded.

“Facebook will continue to be used to some degree, but other apps will begin to dominate the time teens spend on social networks,” predicted senior Ashley Ventura.

A poll conducted by Piper Jaffray asked teens for their most important social media network, first in the fall of 2012 and then a follow-up in the spring of 2013.

Over this period, the percent of teens that prefer Facebook de-

Social Network Used Most Frequently Facebook 18%

Twitter 34%

Other 8% Vine 2%

94%

of students currently have a Facebook, while

None 3% Instagram 35%

creased by nine percent, while the popularity of both Instagram and Twitter increased.

When 107 Sherwood students were polled, 35 percent claimed to use Instagram most frequently, 34 percent used Twitter, 18 percent used Facebook and 10 percent used some other site.

Students themselves have noticed the decline of Facebook. In the survey, 87 percent of the students believe Facebook is used less often now by teenagers than it was just two years ago.

While Facebook ranked third most popular social network among Sherwood students, 94 percent still claim to have an account. Facebook may not be the most hip site for teens, but it is still prominent in teen social media today.

6%

do not.

Frequency of Facebook Use Compared to That of Two Years Ago I don’t know 5% Same 7%

More frequently 1%

Less Frequently 87%

*107 students surveyed

The Warrior•Features October 3, 2013

7

Students Decide To Take Popular Automotive Program at Edison

tom of the car up. So from tires we go to roaders, then to axles, then to control arms and then Every year a group of stutransmissions.” dents from Sherwood submit an The class sizes are usualapplication to take a half-day ly between 20 and 25 students, schedule to attend Thomas Ediwhich allows the teachers to deson to pursue their chosen career. vote a lot of time to help students The Edison classes offered are and refine their various skills. three periods long and earn two A number of stucredits.

There are a variety of “I might go to college or my uncle dents in the program different courses students has an auto body shop and I might have known from an early age that they can choose to take at Edison, and they are divided take over that. I like [Edison] because wanted to go into a cainto four clusters: automo- I don’t really like school, and I like reer in the automotive Students have tive, design and computworking on cars so it’s something I field. previously found Eder-based, construction and ison gives them the services. Each cluster has can do.” different careers for stu ~Senior Jake Bartell tools needed to pursue that goal. “I might go dents to learn and study. to college after or my There are a multitude of opportunities for students to get year students begin with brakes. uncle has an auto body shop and They learn about brakes in the I might take over that. I like the hands-on experience as well.

The automotive cluster is classroom then come to the lab program because I don’t really particularly popular for Sher- where they get to disassemble and like school and I like working on wood students, who spend about reassemble front and rear brake cars, so it’s something I can do,” an hour and half of the period components from various vehi- said senior Jake Bartell, a student working in the lab and the other cles. They are taught to adhere in the Edison program. half in the classroom studying to industry standards while doing Edison is intended as a gatethe different mechanisms and this,” said Matthew Page, an Edi- way for students to enter their work careers. “A lot of our stuconcepts of the automobile func- son Auto Technology teacher. tion. “In my class we spend 1½ Students start by learning dents do enter into automotive periods of time in the lab and the braking, move to electricity, then careers after graduation. Tons of other 1½ periods would be in steering and suspension, finish- our students do go onto secondour classroom, studying theory ing with engine performance. ary education whether it be in a of how the different components “Each day we always learn a new trade school or a four-year uniof the automobile function. This thing,” said junior Joey Prochas- versity. We have a summer inthen teaches the students how to ka. “Lately we’ve just been doing ternship program that happens for examine and analyze the different maintenance like tire repairs and the select students that are juniors components for proper function. we’re just learning oil changes. and going into their senior year,” If it doesn’t function correctly, the We typically learn from the bot- said Page.

by Mary Macrae ‘14

Taylor Fernandes ‘14

English teacher Debbie Reier conducting an open discussion with her class. She believes student input and debates better engage students while allowing them to express their own opinions.

Reier Continues To Inspire over the Years

by Cal Wilson ‘14 In her thirty-seventh year of teaching, English teacher Debbie Reier has the longest tenure of any staff member at the school.

The Sherwood of today is not the same as the one in which she began her career in 1976.

Since she began at Sherwood, Reier has seen the population of Sherwood grow. “There were 1,100 students throughout the four grades when I started here and now we’ve almost doubled,” said Reier. The increase in students at the school has made it more difficult for teachers to establish close relationships with the student body as a whole. According to Reier, Sherwood used to be a closer, more tight-knit community. “[When I first started at Sherwood] if I walked down the hall at least I felt like I might know your face but now that has completely changed. The larger we get the less we are able to interact personally [with students],” said Reier.

But an increase in the number of students and staff is not the only change Reier has noticed over her years at Sherwood. She has witnessed the introduction of numerous AP classes and the implementation of MCPS’s six keys to college readiness.

“I have noticed incredible changes in the academic rigor of Sherwood,” said Reier. “I think that in the decades I’ve been here the staff has been really diligent in their efforts towards improving academic rigor, making kids college ready and really challenging kids with the AP program that has really taken off.”

Reier’s style of teaching was adopted to not just help students with the curriculum but also to teach them life lessons and expand their understanding of the world. Group seminars and open lectures incorporate the students into their own learning. Since day one of her career, Reier found it important to establish a sense of

respect with her students. She genuinely believes it is important, not only in the classroom, but in life in general to have the ability to respect and be respected by one another.

“I have always been very concerned with establishing a relationship of respect with students,” said Reier. “I cannot expect students to provide respect to me if I don’t provide respect for them. [Early on] I confused that with being your friend; not that we can’t be friendly, but I think it is a very tenuous relationship to put that care and compassion out there,” said Reier.

In addition to teaching such courses as AP Literature and Honors English 12, Reier has had an incredibly influential role at the school in the area of theatre and performance. Reier was the drama director for 30 years, witnessing its transformation from the “Jesters” to Creating Awesome Sherwood Theatre (CAST). She has seen the drama club blossom from one show a year to four: a straight, musical, senior show and dinner theater. Although she resigned as the sponsor five years ago, Reier finds it important to help out with the extracurricular activities because it allows her to be more involved with her students and also show her love for teaching students.

“I know that we both strive for high quality productions and a great experience for all of the students involved [in a show],” said IT systems specialist Andrew Dodge, the current theatre director. “Mrs. Reier has been a great resource to me especially when something comes up that she may have dealt with previously [in a show].”

Whether it’s teaching theatre or English, Reier has made an enduring, immeasurable impact on Sherwood. “I am very passionate about what I do, I love what I do,” said Reier. “I adore this job.

I wouldn’t be here for this many years if I didn’t and it makes me happy.”

component would be replaced.

This would be the hands-on part and with diagnosing skills,” explained Ivey Robert, Auto Technology teacher at Edison.

Students in the automotive cluster get the opportunity to work on actual cars that are donated to the program. “The first-

New Clubs Integrate Students

by Marie Moeller ‘15 Participating in extracurricular activities is one of the many ways students can become involved in their academic community. However, even with a variety of clubs to choose from, there is always one waiting to be created.

Starting a club at Sherwood is a fairly simple process that begins with obtaining a Club or Special Activities form from Secretary Caitlin Ring in the main office.

On the form, students must fill out several key pieces of information, such as the aspirations for the club, club sponsor, meeting dates and a list of potential candidates that wish to join the club (at least five). All forms go to Assistant Principal Kathlyn Carroll, who reviews each request thoroughly before approval.

Sponsors are a very important part of initiating and maintaining a club. In the request form, students must get a signature from their school sponsor to indicate that the sponsor is dedicated to being the adult representative. The sponsor is responsible for supervising club meetings and activities, coordinating field trips and working with Business Administrator Brenda Hoyle in relation to fundraisers.

Haley Whitt ‘15

Junior Sabrina Mann holds the first X-STEM meeting with fellow club members. During this meeting, students begin organizing the club and performing activities related to X-STEM. X-STEM, bearing the notable acronym STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), is a newly founded club in which X-STEM ambassadors conduct experiments and participate in the USA Science and Engineering Festival. In addition, X-STEM ambassadors have access to the ‘Nifty Fifty’ science speaker program in which top scientists can be brought to Sherwood. The newly founded club was started by junior Sabrina Mann and is sponsored by science teachers Kristina Orange and Mary Baker. Meetings are in K282 once a week, and interested students can contact Orange or Baker for more details.

In addition, there are a few noteworthy regulations on advertising a newly founded club. Students can display advertisements on the morning announcements or around the school as well. However, all posters must be authorized by Carroll or a grade-level

administrator.

Rarely does a proposal for a new club get overturned. However, when starting a team, as opposed to a club, MCPS has to take part in endorsing it due to liability concerns, resulting in a longer process.

The Warrior•Humor 8

October 3, 2013

School Spirit...

Girls Look to Miley Cyrus in Search of a True Role Model

by Stacey Wells ‘15

www.socialbookshelves.com

by Joy Zhang ‘14 Students lazily cheer at football games during times that should be festive and exhilarating. We don’t proudly wear our Sherwood t-shirts; we simply tug it on when we haven’t done laundry in weeks.

Spice it up and saddle up your spirited boots because we need a school spirit revitalization and here are some suggestions:

1.

Guys –

show your

Warrior Pride

by

attending games shirtless and covered in royal blue and white body paint.

Girls –

wear

Sherwood

gear

(that’s

skimpy) to distract the players on the opposing team; don’t let them bring their

A-Game.

2. Appreciate the school band’s music.

Request new songs and we can have our own karaoke night.

3. Stand up to students from the opposing school if they make clever comments

Poms’ provacative performance at halftime … only we’re allowed to do that!

4. Don’t exclude freshmen. Instead, adopt them as your own, teach them how about the

to turn up and expand the student section by letting them sit with you, so they can carry on the

Sherwood

legacy.

5. Insert blue into your bloodstream literally “Bleed Warrior Blue.”

to

Young girls have recently noticed what a fantastic role model Miley Cyrus has become. Tween girls should aspire to act just like her, because Cyrus is the perfect definition of a successful woman.

As any young adult knows, Cyrus used to star in the popular TV show “Hannah Montana” for four seasons, which ran from 2006-2011. Cyrus met the love of her life, Liam Hemsworth, in 2009 on the set of their movie “The Last Song.” They got engaged in 2012 and since Cyrus is the ripe age of 20, people were absolutely positive that the couple would be together for years to come.

The couple recently broke up, because they decided that their relationship wasn’t going to work out. Cyrus demonstrated her maturity on September 14 by unfollowing Hemsworth on Twitter.

Two days later the engagement was officially called off.

Cyrus started becoming an ideal role model when she was caught with the drug salvia in 2010. She didn’t face any consequences, which shows pre-teens how to stay out of trouble and still have fun. Other than being a wonderful role model, Cyrus also gives America valuable fashion advice. Girls can look like celebrities by shaving their heads and wearing scanty clothes that tell people you are very comfortable with your body.

In June of 2013, Cyrus had an important moment in her life.

She released her new song “We Can’t Stop,” which inspires children to “own the night” by doing drugs in the bathroom and sleeping around. The music video has over 875,876 dislikes, yet over

www.businessworld.com

Cyrus is caught candid in a full-on lip lick in a day chocked full of yoloing and twerking. She can’t stop, she won’t stop.

1,000,000 likes on YouTube.

Cyrus’s performance at the 2013 Video Music Awards was extremely shocking … in a good way! She rocked an appropriate nude color one-piece, while grinding on a man twice her age.

The best part of the performance was when she began to dance with her foam finger. Boys loved that part, since foam fingers are usually seen at sporting events.

On September 9, Cyrus let loose in yet another music video,

“Wrecking Ball.” After one day of the video being on YouTube, 29 million people had seen it. The video portrays Cyrus suggestively licking a hammer and swinging naked on a wrecking ball.

This perfectly conveys the image of a young woman bursting with strength and confidence.

All little girls should hope to be exactly like Cyrus when they grow up. She is an awesome role model who teaches girls how to be respected strong women.

cartoon by Kelsey Morrison ‘14

The Warrior•Humor October 3, 2013

9

Tiny ‘Freshman’ Invasion R.I.P to Sandler’s Career

by Cal Wilson ‘14

by Mike Crooks ‘14

Many have noticed the increasingly small size of the freshmen. The past four freshmen classes have been getting tinier and the reporters of The Warrior wanted to get to the bottom of it.

After extensive interviews with representatives from MCPS, the reason for such a great height difference was finally uncovered.

To improve students’ ability to recognize differences in people, MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr decided to enroll a select few sixth graders in the Class of 2017.

Starr plans to continue to challenge the students in new and creative ways by incorporating subtle changes, according to his new “Building Our Future Together” program. The goal is to improve students’ social skills by teaching them to recognize differences in others. He hopes students will learn to better deal with diversity if they can first recognize it.

Sixth graders deemed “exceptionally intelligent” have been promoted to ninth grade for a full year where they will attend high school classes before returning to their appropriate middle schools.

The expectation is that students will recognize the differences between current freshmen and those of past years and report it to staff.

Rumors abound that there is a prize awarded to the first student to report all the sixth graders in their school to a counselor or administrator.

A test run was conducted at

The career of actor and movie producer Adam Sandler’s career was officially pronounced dead on July 12 with the release of the painfully bad movie “Grown Ups 2.” He was 46.

Sandler’s career in film as an actor began in the 90s with the release of memorably funny movies. “Billy Madison,” “Happy Gilmore” and “The Water Boy” are the big three. These movies are still quoted today, whether it’s the “T-T-T-T-Today junior!” when a friend stutters, or the classic “That’s what I call high quality H2O.” In these movies, Sandler played outrageously goofy characters, and through these roles, he was able to establish himself as a top comedic actor. In 1999, Sandler formed his own production company “Happy Madison Productions.” Sandler had reached the apex of his professional career.

Shortly after, his career took a turn for the worse. Adam Sandler movies, both ones that he produced and acted in, severely declined in quality. Any movie Sandler produced starring Rob Schneider as the main character was a train wreck. In that category falls the “Deuce Bigalow” movies, “The Hot Chick,” and “The Animal.” Those were all just awful and weakened Sandler’s health in Hollywood. “Mr. Deeds” was ok, “Big Daddy” was average, “Click” stunk, and “50 First Dates” was decent.

When Sandler partnered up with Kevin James for a streak of movies, the results were abysmal.

Taylor Fernandes ‘14

A couple of potential sixth graders spotted roaming the halls of Sherwood in a sea of large high schoolers.

Paint Branch last year, yielding wildly successful results. Fourteen sixth graders were enrolled in the Freshmen Class and all were revealed. Furthermore, the upperclassmen went out of their way to isolate them further by injuring them every week to warn the other students of the shorter kids’ differences. Starr’s expectations were further blown away when they started calling them special nicknames such as “Smurf,” “Strawberry Shortcake” and “Oompa-Loompa.”

After the test run, Starr decided to extend the program throughout MCPS in hopes that other schools would display the performance Paint Branch students did.

The sixth graders have been instructed not to admit to their

actual grade level and have been briefed on the supposed age, names of peers and recent events of freshmen so that they may blend in, although they are significantly shorter. Confronting an alleged freshmen will not help prove if they are an imposter. Instead, ask around the halls to see if anyone knows them. If they are a new face to Sherwood, act immature for their age and seem shorter than usual, they are most likely in middle school and should be reported.

The winner will be announced when all the freshmen are uncovered and shipped back to their proper school. So come on, Sherwood! Let’s go catch ‘em all, and remember, the winner gets a prize.

“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” was a joke, as well as “Zoo Keeper” and “Here Comes the Boom.” Sandler’s partnership with James was a main facilitator of the demise of his career. Yes, James is fat and it is funny, but Sandler went to that one well too many times.

In the past two years, it became apparent that Sandler’s career was nearing its end. “Jack and Jill,” “That’s My Boy” and “Grown Ups” were sorry attempts by a once great comedic talent at the end of his tenure in the movie industry.

Friends and family became increasingly concerned about Sandler and urged him to get professional help. According to sources, Sandler would invite James over on weekends to watch “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and they would laugh hysterically. Sandler’s wife and children were troubled as to why they would laugh at such an unfunny movie.

Despite outcries from his loved ones, Sandler’s career continue to crumble until its tragic death. “Grown Ups 2” was as bad as it gets. Truthfully, the only funny part about it was how terrible it was. It literally had no plot. If you asked anyone what the main conflict or climax were, they wouldn’t be able to do it. It was just a bunch of middle-aged men hanging out in their hometown, doing dumb stuff. It was like sitting through a long, painful death, one hour and 41 minutes long to be precise.

This here lies an initially promising, but ultimately pitiful and sad career.

11

In 1994, Rodney Wilson, a Missouri high school teacher, believed there should be a month dedicated to the celebration and teaching of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender history. With the support of other teachers and community members, they decided to celebrate during the month of October in part because National Coming Out Day, which occurs on October 11. In 1995, a resolution passed by the General Assembly of the National Education Association including LGBT History Month in their list of commemorative months.

Celebration of National Coming Out Day

by Jenni Kenel ‘14

On October 11, 1987, around 125,000 people gathered in Washington DC to advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights; this is commonly known as the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. LGBT activist Jean O’Leary, head of the National Gay Rights Advocates, initiated the idea of National Coming Out Day. Because of this march, and O’Leary’s determination, in 1988, October 11 became National Coming Out Day. Since this day, many LGBT youths have come out about their feelings, and have gained confidence from the success of National Coming Out Day. At first, only 18 states participated in National Coming Out Day, but by 1990 all 50 states along with seven other countries had recognized this important date in LGBT history. Currently, National Coming Out Day is recognized in nine countries around the world and continues to encourage homosexual and bisexual citizens to accept themselves and fight for their rights.

1994: An Ikea ad runs on on TV TV runs showing two men shopping shopping for for furniture furniture together. together. ItIt isis the the first commercial to feature a gay couple.

5

April 30, 1997: 'Yep, I'm gay' Ellen DeGeneres comes out on her television show, "Ellen," in an episode with 42 million viewers.

2000

May May 30, 30, 1987: 1987: Rep. Rep. Barney Barney Frank Frank comes comes out, out, becoming becoming the the first first openly openly gay gay member member of of Congress.

Congress.

arvey Milk Harvey Milk becomes becomes the the rst openly first openly gay gay politician politican fter being after being elected elected to to the the San San Francisco Francisco Board Board of of Supervisors Supervisors in in 1977.

1977.

May May 9, 9, 2012: 2012: Barack Barack Obama Obama becomes becomes the the first first sitting sitting U.S. U.S. president president to to back back marriage marriage for for gay gay and and lesbian lesbian couples. couples.

2010

June June 26, 26, 2013: 2013: The The Supreme Court Supreme Court strikes strikes down down the the Defense Defense of of Marriage Act, Marriage Act, granting granting married married gay gay couples couples federal benefits, federal benefits, and and Proposition Proposition 8, 8, which which banned banned gay gay marriage marriage in California. in California.

2004: Massachusetts Massachusetts 2004: becomes the first first U.S. U.S. becomes the 2000: Vermont state to legalize samestate to legalize samebecomes the first sex marriage marriage after after the the state to allow same- sex state Supreme Court state Supreme Court sex civil unions. ruled the the ban ban on on itit was was ruled unconstitutional. 13 13 more more unconstitutional. states have have legalized legalized itit states since. compiled by Mandy Stussman ‘14 since.

10

Gay Marriage Support In the U.S.

. . . times are changing

1996

2013

27% overall 41% 18 to 29 years 30% 30 to 49 years 15% 50 to 64 years 14% 65+ years

52% overall 70% 18 to 29 years 53% 30 to 49 years 46% 50 to 64 years 41% 65+ years

Stand

poll conducted by Gallup

Proud

by Joy Zhang ‘14

Stand Proud, a club that consists of LGBT students and their allies, strives to promote community and social awareness of LGBT issues at Sherwood. Every Wednesday at lunch, around 20 students gather in room K279 to share their stories. They are supported by peers who know, understand and respect what they are going through.

Stand Proud is sponsored by science teacher Mary Baker and the club president is junior Alex Hanson. “It is a space where I can be surrounded by people who love and support me and my community,” said Hanson.

To celebrate October’s LGBT History Month, Stand Proud will spend their meetings educating members about monumental events in the LGBT community that are not taught in class. “You don’t have to be gay to join Stand Proud; you just have to be a good person. Everyone should join,” encouraged Hanson.

Understanding Gender and Sexuality compiled by Marie Moeller ‘15 and Mandy Stussman ‘14 Sex refers to a person’s biological status: Male or Female Gender identity refers to one’s sense of self as male or female.

Transgender: a person who identifies with a gender identity that differs from the person’s sex at birth Sexual orientation refers to the sex of those to whom one is sexually and romantically attracted.

Heterosexual: attraction to members of the opposite sex Homosexual: attraction to members of the same sex Bisexual: attraction to members of both sexes Source: http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf

1925 1926: The New York Times becomes the first major publication to use the word homosexuality.

1952: "Spring Fire," by Marijane Meaker, the first lesbian novel and the beginning of the lesbian pulp fiction genre, is published, selling 1.5 million copies.

1950 1951: 1951: The The Mattachine Mattachine Society, Society, the the first first national national gay gay rights rights organization, organization, is is formed formed by

by Harry Harry Hay, Hay, who who is is considered considered by by many many to to be be the the founder founder of of the the gay gay rights rights movement. movement.

1975: 1975: ABC ABC debuts debuts Hot Hot LL Baltimore Baltimore featuring featuring the the first first gay gay couple couple on on TV. TV.

5 7 19

June June 28, 28, 1969: 1969: The The 1962: 1962: Illinois Illinois Stonewall Riots, which take Stonewall Riots, which take becomes becomes the the first first place in New York and last place in New York and last state state in in the the U.S. U.S. for days, are triggered by for days, are triggered by to to decriminalize decriminalize police harassment of gays. police harassment of gays. homosexual homosexual 1973: 1973: The The American American acts acts between between Psychological Psychological Association Association consenting consenting adults adults removes removes homosexuality homosexuality in in private. private. from from its its diagnostic diagnostic manual manual of of mental disorders. mental disorders.

Ha H fir fi af a S

The Warrior•Opinions 12

October 3, 2013

Staff Editorial:

In Our Opinion

Disclosing Government Secrets

Should the government be able to mo nitor the public’s personal information in the interest of national security? to s n ’s actio ward Snowden d E el fe u o y ? o D s were justified et cr se ed fi si as release cl Do you think newspapers acted respon sibly in publishing the information Snowden leaked to them?

When confidential information was leaked from the National Security Agency (NSA) by 29-year-old Edward Snowden, the public didn’t know what to think; there was confusion as to whether this was a heroic deed or a dangerous betrayal.

In May, Snowden shocked the world by providing proof that the U.S. government is overseeing its citizens’ personal phone calls, e-mails and internet searches without their consent. This alarmed many Americans who feel the government overstepped legal boundaries. After releasing these documents to The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers and facing charges of espionage, Snowden fled to Hong Kong, and later Moscow, where he currently resides under political asylum. In late August, The Guardian and Washington Post published the “Black Budget,” a collection of documents describing the distribution of funds to the agencies that make up the National Intelligence Program. These confidential pieces of information are now available to anyone, including foreigners, and can possibly be used against U.S. interests.

Although enraged with the leaks, the Obama administration claims that there were more appropriate ways to release the aforementioned information. These claims can easily be dismissed, however, since there were actually no legal paths Snowden could pursue. President Obama passed a

Presidential Policy Directive last October extending whistleblower protections to intelligence employees. This wouldn’t have applied to Snowden, since it clearly emphasized “Protecting national security information,” which Obama feels he didn’t.

By directly releasing the secret programs to newspapers, Snowden is undoubtedly a criminal.

Although the information benefited the public, Snowden violated his oath of secrecy to the NSA by deliberately releasing sensitive documents to newspapers; he deserves to be prosecuted.

Snowden’s departure to China and Russia leads some to believe that he is a coward. He would’ve been more of a hero by acknowledging that he committed a crime and accepting the forthcoming punishment because it shows that Americans’ liberties are worthy of protecting, no matter the cost.

Still, the newspapers who published the information are not at fault. The role of the press in a healthy democracy is to inform the public about what is going on in the world; with a free press in the United States journalists are supposed to uncover government abuses for the public to see. The press has been changing how the public views the government for decades – from The New York Times publishing the Pentagon Papers to The Washington Post exposing the Watergate Scandal – and The Guardian and The Washington Post’s actions are just another example.

Warrior

the

P

ublished seven times a year, The Warrior serves as Sherwood High School’s premier news source. Over the years, it has received numerous state and national honors.

With a staff of 32 students and one advisor, The Warrior keeps the Sherwood community apprised of local and national events.

All opinions articles represent the viewpoint of the writer. The unsigned staff editorials solely represent the opinions of the newspaper staff. These articles do not necessarily represent the views of Sherwood High School.

The Warrior welcomes Letters to the Editor of 250 words or less. They may be submitted to room C268 or emailed to thewarrioronline.shs@gmail.com. Letters must be signed, and all content received by the newspaper is subject to editing.

The Warrior staff invites feedback and corrections to printed inaccuracies.

The Warrior reserves the right to refuse advertisements.

Staff Print Layout and Production Directors ....................... Michael Natelli ‘14

Marie Moeller ‘15 News Editors ............................................................ Steffi Carrera ‘14 Betselot Wondimu ‘15 Girls v. Boys Editor ................................... Whitney Marie Halaby‘14 Florian ‘14 Features Editors ...................................................... Vicky

Mary Macrae ‘14 Humor Editor ......................................................... Hunter Moore ‘15 Spotlight Editor ................................................. Mandy Stussman ‘14 Opinions Editors .............................................. Emma Hierholzer ‘15

Cal Wilson ‘14 Wondering Warrior Editor........................... Samantha Schwartz ‘16 Entertainment Editors .............................................

Jenni Kenel ‘14

Katie Mercogliano ‘14 Sports Editors ............................................................ Joey Lavoie ‘14 Kyle Melnick ‘14 Online Online Managing Editor ........................................... Ashley Yen ‘14 Online Page Editors................................................ Brian Hughes ‘15 Catherine Jou ‘15 Alec Perez ‘14 Content and Copy Managing Content and Copy Director ...................... Joy Zhang ‘14 Content and Copy Editors .................................. Meagan Barrett ‘15 Michael Crooks ‘14 Tom Lee ‘14 Managing Photo Editors .......................................

Bridget Cook ‘14 Taylor Fernandes ‘14 Photographers ...................................................... Meagan Barrett ‘15 Kaleigh Homer ‘15 Cartoonist ........................................................... Kelsey Morrison ‘14 Staff Writers ................................................................. Ryan Deal ‘16 Will Van Gelder ‘16

Stacey Wells ‘15 Pollsters ............................................................. Sammie Spillman ‘16 Business and Publicity Directors ........................... Lucy Hurlbut ‘14 Sean Kang ‘14 Advisor ............................................................................... Peter Huck

cartoon by Emma Hierholzer ‘15

The Warrior•Opinions October 3, 2013

13

Should the Minimum Wage be Raised?

Ever since the Fair Minimum Wage Act passed in 2007, its guidelines, which raised the minimum wage to $7.25 by 2009, have gradually lost the attention of the American public. However, with fast-food workers recently striking for better pay, President Obama proposing a $9 federal minimum wage in early 2013 and Seattle contemplating raising its minimum wage to an unprecedented $15, the topic of minimum wage has reemerged as a national issue.

Pro

Lower Working Class Deserves Chance at Life

by Betselot Wondimu ‘15 The income inequality in the United States today seems boundless, partially due to the low minimum wage poor Americans are facing. According to the Wall Street Journal, the top ten percent earned 50.5 percent of America’s income in 2012. No new policies have been enacted concerning these problems despite growing support from workers across the country. However, recent outcries have brought minimum wage back into the political discussion and are inspiring rationales that argue an increase would dramatically boost our slow economy.

President Obama suggested that the federal minimum wage be raised to $9 in his State of the Union Address earlier this year. If this were to be implemented, low-wage workers in all major companies would have more pocket money. With this, the companies would take initial losses in profit.

As time goes on, however, workers earning new, universal living wage salaries across the nation would unleash their enhanced purchasing power. Cashiers, janitors and fast-food workers would be able to spend more and reinvest money back into the economy by buying more food, clothes and other basic living accessories. Stores that originally raised their workers’ pay would now see a gain in profit from selling additional goods and services.

While some fear that increasing the minimum wage would discourage employers from hiring workers, their fear is misguided. According to a study conducted by the University of Vermont, increases in both federal and state minimum wages correlated to lower unemployment. This happened because with a higher living wage, companies’ profits ended up exceeding what they lost through workers’ pay.

With the current federal minimum wage set at $7.25, low-wage workers have a difficult time surviving. Someone in a two-person household working 40-hour weeks would annually make $15,800, which is just under the poverty threshold, with this living wage. A provider in a four-person household would be thousands of dollars below the poverty line. People working full time don’t deserve to struggle and still not get by.

Currently, 19 states have set their living wages higher than the federal government’s. These state legislators realize that the American economy is a cycle, and what goes around will eventually come back around. On top of giving businesses profits by encouraging the working-class to spend, an increase in the minimum wage could dramatically better the lives of many, even helping them off of government welfare. In the wealthiest country on earth, low-wage workers shouldn’t be living the way they are.

CON

Paying People More Still Hurts the Economy

by Brian Hughes ‘15 Raising the minimum wage is a classic example of good intentions that yield bad results. It’s a nice thought to pay people more money so they happily have more to spend, but the logic in increasing the federal minimum wage of $7.25 someone earns an hour just isn’t there.

It sounds like a good idea, at least.

When people are earning more money it grants them more freedom to spend it on things besides life’s necessities. From there, it makes sense to contend that businesses would make more money as well, so everybody wins.

If the logic for raising the minimum wage is so obvious, why stop at $9 or even $15? Why not raise it to $30? It’s because that extra money employers have to pay has to come from somewhere. Businesses aren’t as willing to hire when they have to pay $10 an hour opposed to that $7.25 mark. So now all those people that were going to have more money to put back into the economy suddenly have no jobs at all since businesses decide that they can’t afford to hire people when it’s too costly. When the price of a product goes up, people aren’t going to buy as much of it. Labor is no different.

This applies to high-school students as well, as Forbes reported that within six months of the last wage increase,

Take PSAT Seriously

Extracurricular Bias

by Betselot Wondimu ‘15

by Meagan Barrett ‘15

Many freshmen and sophomores are probably thinking about what a joke the PSAT is. Half of an entire school day on October 16 will be consumed for another worthless standardized test, right? Wrong. Underclassmen tend to make the mistake of belittling the importance of the PSAT. It is a shortened version of the actual SAT, which has tremendous influence on what colleges students do or don’t get into. PSATs are an easy way for underclassmen to see where they need to improve within the SATs math, reading and writing sections; it wouldn’t hurt to put some effort into it. The exam costs $14 for freshmen and is free for sophomores. Underclassmen should take advantage of this opportunity to hone their skills and reduce stress during their socially and academically busy junior years – the whole point of it is to make students feel less threatened by the actual SAT. The “This test doesn’t even count” mentality needs to be thrown away; it won’t be written in the grade-book, but it will help in the long run.

Working a part-time job in high school should mean just as much to colleges as extracurricular activities do.

While joining clubs shows you participate in the school community, it is purely a social outlet, and it doesn’t necessarily show that you’ll be a reliable student or member of society. Besides that, the clubs a school has to offer don’t always suit every student, so students end up joining clubs they don’t even like because “it looks good on college applications.” Having a job, however, shows students are ready to participate in society, take responsibility for themselves, and learn real life skills. Those who choose to have a part-time job, often times in order to save money in order to pay for college, may even have to sacrifice participating in after-school activities. Making money for a school proves they have the desire to attend a university.

It isn’t fair to students for extracurricular activity to have as much weight in the eyes of colleges as it currently does, while having a job in the real world doesn’t.

600,000 teenagers’ jobs were lost. With most young adults lacking sufficient skills for more complicated professions, higher wages are out of the question if there are no opportunities to work lower-paying jobs that provide the experience needed to move up the career ladder.

These politicians who are fixated on paying people more to help stimulate growth are playing to the likes and views of their constituents. A recent poll commissioned by the National Employment Law Project Action Fund, a non-profit group that supports increasing the minimum wage, found that 80 percent of the 1,010 American adults surveyed supported raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and increasing it periodically to account for inflation (which, it’s worth noting, is almost nothing at the moment).

Lawmakers want to have the ability to show the visible, easily explainable effects of legislation they support. You can either say, in theory, that it will put more money in your pocket, which is what people want to hear, or you can tell them that it will result in the chance of them losing their jobs.

It’s always a good thing for people to earn a better salary and have more money to spend, but not at the cost of businesses. The best way for people to earn more money is not with more policy, but to work hard and make their services worth more on their own.

What’s in a Name?

by Mandy Stussman ‘14

On September 15, two-dozen protesters stood in the cold and rain outside the Packer’s stadium with signs and shouts, dying to be heard. They were protesting our team, our homeboys, the very name that draws the Washington D.C. area together; The Redskins.

The term “redskin” was once used as a descriptor for someone of Native American decent, though it has not been used in common speech since the 1960s; modern American dictionaries define the term as “insulting” or “taboo.” And yet this word taints our nation, constantly coming up in speech as people use it to describe our beloved football team. This word hurts. It makes people feel uncomfortable and outcast. As NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, “If one person is offended, we have to listen.” The Washington community can’t keep justifying the use of the term because changing it would be inconvenient. Even though fans don’t mean any harm by saying it, it still harms.

The Warrior•Opinions 14

October 3, 2013

Navy Yard Shooting On September 16, contractor Alexis Aaron killed 13 people and injured dozens more at the Navy Yard in Washington DC. This attack has sparked debate over gun laws, mental illness and national-security clearances.

Rhode Island police warned the U.S. Navy last month that Aaron Alexis had reported he was “hearing voices.” Using a valid ID, Alexis entered the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters with a legally purchased shotgun. The main issue here is not so much the weapons, but how did he pass the security clearance?

- Haley Whitt ‘15 Friends of the shooter, Aaron Alexis, say that he was an avid player of violent video games. On the same day of the Navy Yard shooting, the video game “Grand Theft Auto V” was released. The game is basically about going around killing and stealing from people, using guns and other weapons to do so. The majority of people can separate the video game world from the real world. However, for some mentally flawed people, the violence in video games seems acceptable to mimic in real life.

- Michael Crooks ‘14 Before limiting gun rights even further, review how shooter Aaron Alexis legally bought the shotgun in Virginia with gun laws already in place. Current federal laws bar the mentally ill from buying guns, but the illness must be reported to the FBI through a court order to appear on background check databases. Alexis was arrested in 2004 in Seattle when he shot out the tires of a construction worker’s tires due to what he told police was an “anger-fueled blackout.” The government Office of Personal Management even said that they had found the incident in a security check, but the Pentagon ignored it.

- Brian Hughes ‘15

Miss America Causes Controversy Racial Remarks Surge After Pageant Victory

by Steffi Carrera ‘14

On September 15 Miss New York, Nina Davuluri, was officially crowned Miss America in the 2013 pageant. Davuluri is the first contestant of Indian descent to win the crown which invariably led to a variety of reactions from the public. While some congratulated the 24-year-old for her success, many angered viewers took to Twitter to express their disagreement with the decision.

Racist remarks were pouring from the Twitter community, with over 700 tweets associating the Miss America winner with terrorism. The user @Not_MissAmerica tweeted, “More like Miss Terrorist #MissAmerica.”

The offensive tweets didn’t stop there. User @Ry_lynne4 tweeted, “This is Miss America, not Miss Muslim. #sorrynotsorry.”

Jokes concerning gas prices, 7-elevens and Al-Qaeda floated around immediately after Davuluri’s victory. Not only are these tweets completely inappropriate, they’re embarrassingly inaccurate; Davuluri is in fact Hindu, not Arab or Muslim as many people assumed because of her appearance. This episode is a testament to the reality that the America we live in today is not at all free of racism and prejudice.

There is still a desperate need for education of different cultures and races for us to be more receptive and less ignorant.

Ultimately, She’s Just Another Pretty Face

by Katie Mercogliano ‘14

“Background checks should be more thorough. Just because someone was in the military doesn’t mean they should easily be able to get weapons. However, there isn’t too much we can do. If someone wants to kill other people, they’ll find a way, no matter the restrictions.”

- Senior Cole Margol

“I think more focus should be placed on mental illness treatments and documenting people who have had a past of violence and mental illness. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people, so we need to focus on fixing that problem first.”

- Junior Kristin Stitzlein

There is much talk about Nina Davuluri and her historic accomplishment of being the first woman of Indian descent crowned Miss America. Many are raving about how Davuluri winning proves the perception of beauty is changing. But in reality, how great is this so-called change? Yes, the new Miss America doesn’t have the typical blonde hair and blues eyes,

but that isn’t really revolutionary. All this major “feat” really means is that it doesn’t matter what color you are as long as you are parading around in 10 pounds of makeup, a perfect bikini bod and a fake smile. It is great that Davuluri is outspoken about being proud of her heritage, as everyone should be.

But she shouldn’t be idolized for simply winning an outdated pageant that has been objectifying women for decades.

The U.S. Should Stop Acting Like World’s Police

by Will Van Gelder ‘16 The Obama administration has been tying itself in knots as it goes back and forth on whether to take military action against the Syrian government of President Bashar Al-Assad. While this rhetoric has toned down in the last few weeks, it reached a fever pitch following the use of sarin gas by the Syrian military on August 21. This attack killed 1,400 people, including 400 children, in the neighborhood of Barzeh in the suburbs of the Syrian capitol of Damascus. The United States immediately reacted with threats of a missile attack and after first denying that it had these weapons, Syria soon started negotiations with Russia to destroy its chemical weapons cache to meet conditions of a UN resolution.

As the world’s only super power the United States has increasingly believed that it has a special role. Every time there is a sectarian conflict somewhere in the world that escalates into civil war, the United States feels compelled to get involved. Such examples include Somalia in 1993, Bosnia in 1995 and Libya just two short years ago. Of course, there also

were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the case of Iraq, the United States concluded that it was its responsibility to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), which subsequently were never found.

The Syrian conflict started in early 2011 when citizens started to peacefully protest in many major Syrian cities against the tyrannical government. Later in the spring, the government started to fiercely crack down on these protests.

By late 2011 many of these protesters had taken arms against the government and by mid-2012 a civil war had begun.

This war’s violence has increased steadily and in return the Syrian government’s response has gotten more brutal and may have broken some human rights laws. According to reports, as many as 100,000 Syrian civilians had been killed.

In 1997, 189 countries agreed to ban chemical weapons as the international community concluded that such weapons were immoral even in the context of modern warfare. While what Syria did was horrible and broke international law, the United States should not get militarily involved in this far-off country’s brutal civil

war. Military intervention has unintended consequences, both large and small.

Recent history has proven this to be a fact. The use of targeted missile strikes on Syria could kill hundreds of civilians, and wouldn’t it be cruelly ironic if while trying to defend civilians the United States ended up killing them?

There’s also no guarantee that the missile attacks will stop Assad’s brutal tactics, and the United States could well be compelled to get involved more deeply in the Syrian conflict. If the missile attacks didn’t have the desired outcome, would the Obama administration then turn to the use of ground troops? Getting involved in this Syrian conflict could be a slippery slope; as the world’s self-declared police, the United States then would be responsible to militarily react to other countries’ development and use of chemical or nuclear weapons.

The world is full of countries with governments that do some awful things.

While this a tragedy, it is unrealistic to think that the United States can put an end to such suffering and injustice simply by dropping some bombs on the bad guys.

Should the U.S. intervene in Syria?

If Syria does not follow the UN resolution to destroy its chemical weapons, should the United States respond with missile attacks on Syrian military targets?

Not Sure 27%

YES 32%

NO 41% *Survey of 97 students

The Warrior•Wondering Warrior

15

October 3, 2013

The Warrior asked students about their upcoming 2013 homecoming experience. g n i d n e t t a e b u Will yo ing? om c e m o h s e y d i a s % 22

36% said no e b y a m d i 42% sa

What i s one so ng you kn ow you ’ll have t o danc e to?

“The original Pokemon song because it’s my jam.”

-Aaron Cooper ‘16

“Holy Grail, because it’s the jam.”

-Nick Dunwoody ‘16

Who will you be going to homecoming with?

17% said a date

56% said other

27% said friends

g n i k o o l t s o m u o y e r a What ? e c n a d e th t a o t d r a forw “Dancing with my date!”

-Nicholas Nquyen ‘15 “Getting ready before and taking pictures.”

-Jordan Newmark ‘14 “Taking pretty pictures before.”

-Olivia Skofteland ‘14 “The dancing.”

-Thi Nguyen ‘16

How much are you willing to spend on homecoming?

74% said $0-40 13% said $40-70

6% said $70-100 7% said $100-up

*110 students surveyed

compiled by Sammie Spillman ‘16

The Warrior•Entertainment 16

October 3, 2013

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shows & shindigs graphic by Katie Mercogliano ‘14

Big Budget Films Produce Big Failures

by Ryan Deal ‘16

What do Will Smith, Channing Tatum, Johnny Depp, Ryan Reynolds and Jamie Foxx all have in common? They all starred in big-budget, box office flops this summer. Yes, these big names, who usually deliver blockbusters to Hollywood studios, all swung and missed this summer. Could it be viewers, including teenagers, who are the target audience of many summer flicks, are sick of big-budget, star-driven movies?

Well, if this summer was any indication, it appears big-budget movies are at risk now more than ever. At the same time, smaller-budget movies excelled this season, grossing huge amounts of money. This summer, smaller movies like “The Conjuring,” “The Call,” “The Heat,” and “We’re The Millers” dominated the box office while the expensive titles crumbled. In total big-budget movies “The Lone Ranger,” “R.I.P.D,” “After Earth,” and “White House Down” cost $640 million to make and only grossed $255 million in the U.S. Meanwhile, “The Conjuring,” “The Call,” “The Heat,” and “We’re The Millers” cost a measly $113 million in total to make while grossing $291 million.

Year after year, big-budget movies come out with the same attempt at appeal. Boom!

MOVIE (BUSTS) After Earth Lone Ranger R.I.P.D. White House Down TOTAL

Budget $130 million $230 million $130 million $150 million $640 million

MOVIE (HITS) Budget The Conjuring $20 million The Call $13 million The Heat $43 million We’re The Millers $37 million TOTAL $113 million

Loss of money in U.S. -$69.5million - $141.4million -$97 million -$77.2 million -$254.8 million Gross in U.S. $136.1million $51.9 million $158.3 million +$86.8 million +$300.4 million

Sources: BoxOfficeMojo.com, Boxoffice.com

Crash! Explosion! Car chase! It seems that the blueprint for these films—and the sequels—are the same. While over the years this generic formula has been a source of money for studios, this past summer it has raised a red flag to the studios. For the first time in ages, audiences seem to be attracted to substance rather than the flash and appeal of the generic expensive movie.

“The Lone Ranger,” starring Johnny Depp, was criticized for its commitment to action-pact effects, without a strong enough storyline to back it up. “White House Down,” while not as poorly reviewed as other flops this summer, it was weighed down by the fact that “Olympus Has Fall-

en;” the successful Gerard Butler flick, was released earlier and was nearly identical to the Channing Tatum film. “After Earth,” was panned for poor acting and an incoherent script. “R.I.P.D”, was criticized for being unoriginal.

The four big-budget flops of the summer averaged a rotten 25 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, a movie rating site based on critics’ reviews. The four smaller-budget successes not only grossed more, but averaged a fresh 60 percent on the site. While there will always be successes in big-budget films in the box office, this trend, in which smaller-budget movies rake in more money, is certainly one to keep an eye on in the coming years.

The Warrior•Entertainment 17

October 3, 2013

Cliché Film Lost the ‘Battle’ and the War

by Alec Perez ‘14

www.businessinsider.com

After five seasons, “Breaking Bad” has obtained both critical and commercial success. The fifth and final season ended on September 29.

“Battle of the Year” is just another cliché, cheesy and unoriginal attempt to make a serious dance movie. The main character is Blake (Josh Holloway), a washed-up basketball coach. He tries to create a so-called “dream team” of break dancers from all across the United States in order to compete at a competition in France. His assistant coach Franklyn (Josh Peck) is a young man who loves break dancing and wants to be a part of something special. The center of the “dream team” is superstar Rooster, otherwise known in real life as musician Chris Brown. For whatever reason, director Benson Lee decides to remove Rooster, one of the main characters in the film, halfway through the movie.

The acting overall is horrific. There was no emotion shown whatsoever from Holloway in his portrayal of Blake. The viewer cannot tell if and when he is angry at his break dance team

The Show that Broke Television Greatness

by Emma Heirholzer ‘15

“Breaking Bad”- two words that either evoke absolute exhilaration or utter confusion.

I can’t blame people for giving questioning stares when I freak out at the slightest mention of Walter White or Jesse Pinkman. I can’t blame my friends for giving me bored-to-death gazes when I go into ten-minute long explanations of the plot. And I certainly can’t blame my parents who give me worried looks when I stay up every Sunday night to watch a show about meth addicts and drug dealers.

Despite all this, I, like many other Breaking-Bad-philes, have learned to look past the questioning stares and accept that they will never come to fully understand our obsession until they watch for themselves. To truly apprehend the spread of Breaking Bad mania, one has to venture all the way back to early 2008; back to when the future ten-time award winning show was just a baby; back to when the average chemistry teacher decided to ... break bad.

From the moment people across the country watched the first episode, everyone knew this wasn’t your ordinary television show. To start, the writing in “Breaking Bad” is absolute genius. To take an ordinary middle-aged chemistry teacher, Walter White, and give him a devastating case of cancer, then top it all off with him ending up as the most notorious meth dealer in the area with a DEA agent brotherin-law is what I call exceptional drama. Apart from the sheer brilliance the writers have created for the near flawless script, the acting

is phenomenal too.

Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, and Jesse Pinkman, Walter’s partner in crime, played

by Aaron Paul, are two of the most well developed characters in TV. Through the remarkable acting talents of Paul and Cranston, the depth of the show is transformed. Their development as characters allows an interesting aspect to take place. The audience not only sides with the bad guys but feels almost sympathetic towards their predicament. That kind of flip-flop of good guy/bad guy roles is what makes “Breaking Bad’ so incredible.

Outstanding acting, a riveting script—what more could a TV show ask for? Not only does “Breaking Bad” dominate in those aspects of great television, it goes above and beyond, incorporating marvelous cinematography, compelling plot twists and a killer soundtrack that always seems to heighten the moment just when you thought it couldn’t get more thrilling. And the best part is, all that excellence hasn’t gone unnoticed since the beginning.

Ten Emmys later and now one of the most watched cable shows in America, “Breaking Bad” has left its mark on television history. When it came to an end this past Sunday night, TV lovers mourned the completion of one of the best shows cable has to offer.

You can never fully appreciate the significance of the show until you watch it, but hopefully this has helped you understand why we Breaking Bad viewers are so passionate about our favorite pastime: watching the greatest TV show on earth!

product placements, but that does not mean a director should randomly stick in scenes advertising brands like Puma and Sony that have nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Franklyn’s abrupt pause in a conversation with Blake to say, “This Sony tablet is the future” sounds like a commercial for Sony that the director shoved into the script.

If there is one thing anybody can look forward to in a break dance movie, it should be the accompanying music, but the soundtrack for “Battle of the Year” is filled with songs that are unrecognizable to the average viewer. The break dancers show off their unoriginal and overused dance moves to weird techno music that does not go along with the hip-hop theme depicted throughout the entirety of the film. “Battle of the Year” is another messily done attempt at recreating the successful dance movie, “You Got Served.” Viewers will have to wait for another film to accomplish that feat.

and when he is actually praising them. Holloway relies on the same monotone voice regardless of the situation and dialogue. Instead of getting his team in check when they get their butts handed to them by the Russian national team in an exhibition match, Blake drinks himself into a deep sleep, wakes up the next morning hung over and then continues to display his unenthusiastic coaching style. As played by Holloway, he’s the same character from the beginning to the end of “Battle of the Year.” Franklyn is another flat character. Peck tries to portray a tough city-slicker who is rough around the edges but needs break dancing in order to make it in life. But Franklyn’s slicked back hair and feminine clothing style comes across as ridiculous and flamboyant rather than tough.

The most annoying move by Lee is the choice to make a quick buck by using random product placements. Many directors and film producers choose to receive some extra money with use of

Re

vi ew s

‘Nothing Was The Same’ For Drake

by Sean Kang ‘14 After releasing his Grammy award-winning album, “Take Care,” in 2011 and going on the Club Paradise Tour in 2012, Drake spent this past year working on his third album. Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated hip-hop releases of the year, “Nothing Was the Same” was released on September 24 and was definitely not what listeners were expecting from Drake.

In making the album, Drake enlisted the help of his best friend and right-hand man, Noah “40” Shebib, who has played a major role in shaping Drake’s music career, being involved in the production of all three albums.

Despite the continuity, “Nothing Was the Same” features a very different production style compared to his last two albums.

While “Take Care” was dominated with dark, slow-tempo instrumentals to match its emotional subject matter about love and relationships, the overall produc-

tion on “Nothing Was the Same” is much more upbeat and lighter, especially on songs such as “Hold On, We’re Going Home.”

Aside from the production, Drake also decided to change his lyrical content. He is often criticized by the hip-hop community for being too emotional in his songs and not upholding the image of a stereotypical rap artist.

The majority of “Take Care” was comprised of Drake’s melancholy odes to women from his past relationships, but “Nothing Was the Same” is a reflection of his success, career and personal issues.

In the opening song, “Tuscan Leather,” Drake reflects on all of his successes in the past few years and even reveals the crumbling relationship between he and his label mate, Nicki Minaj: “Not even talkin’ to Nicki, communication is breakin’.” The album closes with “Pound Cake / Paris Morton Music 2,” in which Drake establishes that he is no longer an underdog and now resides at the top.

Despite the changes in lyrical content and production, there’s no doubt that this is still a Drake album. On the songs “Furthest Thing” and “Connect,” Drake is still writing about his past girlfriends and failed relationships again in his introverted and emotional raps. But not all of his love songs are repetitive and boring. One exception is, “From Time,” which follows a unique song structure and is much more compelling than the other melancholy tunes. Featuring R&B singer Jhene Aiko, the two artists go back and forth over a piano-driven instrumental, telling the story of their love and why things went wrong.

But above all, the biggest change on the album is Drake himself. Drake has already established himself as a prominent artist in the hip-hop community but this album has allowed him to showcase his versatility and his growth as a rap and hip-hop artist. Just as he promised, nothing was the same.

The Warrior•Sports 18

October 3, 2013

New Trainer Provides Quick Recovery for Student Athletes Social Media Connects Fans to Childhood Heroes

by Michael Natelli ‘14 In a world where professional sports leagues left and right are getting bad press for scandals, steroids and greed-driven lockouts, it’s becoming near-impossible for a six-year old to pick a sports star as a role model. There always seems to be something new on Sportscenter that takes away from the romanticism and joy that comes from sports and the relationship between fan and athlete.

Social media might serve as the duct tape that holds this relationship together.

In the MLB and NHL lockouts of the 1990s, players essentially went into exile, leaving fans out in the cold. But now, players have taken to outlets like Twitter and Facebook to interact with fans and make the experience of being a sports enthusiast just a little more personal.

While there are currently no sports in lockout (wait, let me check again, nope, still no lockouts), bad press is as much a part of the sports world’s daily routine as mentioning Robert Griffin’s knee on Sportscenter six times in the same hour. Having these ambassadors that take 20 minutes a day answering questions on social media goes a long way in doing patch jobs to the public opinion of pro sports.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson got the most recent trend started when he started using the question-and-answer

site Ask.fm. The site is primarily used by teenagers that feel the need to drop obscure flirtations or sexual comments to their peers without having their names attached to said comments, but Wilson opened it up as a way of answering fan mail.

Wilson has since gone to some of his football-playing friends and had them do the same.

And while it may seem like fans’ chances of actually getting responses on these social media sites is slim, some athletes actually schedule times when they’ll come on and answer questions for a good 30-60 minutes. Minor league baseball players are notorious for doing this on their long bus rides from state to state, and will even get into giveaway-offs, where they’ll compete to see who can give away the coolest gear through a Twitter trivia contest.

While the demographic of sports fans is growing at an exponential rate, it still seems as though the connection between athletes and fans is hanging by a thread. But thanks to social media, there may be hope yet.

by Mike Crooks ‘14 Becky Taylor’s work day begins at 8:30 a.m. when she arrives at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center where she works in orthopedics and sports medicine under Dr. Carter Mitchell. By 2 p.m., Taylor is at Sherwood, where she works as an athletic trainer for all sports. This is the first time the school has had an athletic trainer to tend to the injuries of student-athletes.

On an average day, Taylor treats the injuries of 15 to 20 athletes. She evaluates the athletes, diagnoses them, and then refers them to a physician. Taylor also works on injury prevention, and when she has time, she makes an effort to assist athletes in rehabilitation.

Senior Justin Koenick injured his hamstring during a football practice and routinely goes to Taylor for treatment.

“She is really helpful in that she wraps it every day for support during practice and gives me treatments and stretches for after practice to keep it loose so I do not pull it again,” said Koenick.

While Taylor takes every injury seriously, she is especially cautious when it comes to concussions. With the large spotlight on the dangers of concussions, it is part of Taylor’s job to ensure that concussions endured by Sherwood’s athletes are identified and treated properly.

Though she notes that a concussion can happen to anyone in any sport, football players are especially prone to such an injury.

“The numbers [regarding concussions in football] and the nature of the sport make it the most dangerous,” said Taylor.

In one case, senior offensive lineman Dean Emerson suffered a

concussion in a practice early in September. Taylor worked with Emerson, following concussion protocol to make sure he returned to the field healthy.

“She’s been great and really easy to work with,” said Emerson.

“She’s really on top of everything and devotes all of her attention to helping kids get back on the field as quick as possible while still being 100 percent ready to play.”

Emerson played in the second game of the season after missing the opener against Gaithersburg.

Taylor has the authority to prevent an athlete from participating in games and practices.

However, her goal isn’t to keep athletes from playing.

“If I think a kid shouldn’t be practicing or playing, I send them to physical therapy or help them get another form of treatment,” said Taylor. For her, it is about fa-

cilitating the rehabilitation of athletes so that they can rejoin their teammates and compete at their highest level.

Taylor’s shift at Sherwood normally ends at 6:30 p.m. However, she does attend some games where she makes herself available to treat injuries that occur during competition.

Sherwood is not the only high school in the county with an employee from the health vendor MedStar assisting athletes. The others are Blake, Walter Johnson, Magruder, Northwood and Whitman. Taylor and the other MedStar employees are unique in the fact that they perform Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment Testing (ImPACT), and also are athletic trainers. Other health vendors have employees at county schools solely to do ImPACT.

the B-CC Barons, senior quarterback Jack Hanifee threw for 194 yards and two touchdowns, completing 13 out of his 22 passing attempts “Defensively we will try to close down all of the gaps to ensure that all players running the option are accounted for and shut down,” senior defensive captain Will Wykoff said. “As for pass defense, we will run [a lot] of stunts from the linebackers and run 3 Deep in coverage to try and put pressure on the quarterback.”

The defensive performance will prove to be critical in the game if the numbers are any indication of what the Warrior offense will see across the line of scrimmage. In their first four games, the Eagles have surrendered just

13.5 points per game, and held the Wheaton Knights (1-2) and Rams to just six and eight points, respectively.

“We trust in our offense, but realistically, this is a game where you just have to grind out points where you can get them,” said senior running back Elijah Spottswood. “We have to focus on the little things and do our jobs on every play. We’ve been able to run the ball well so far because of our size and because of the solid play by our offensive line.

The key for the offense effectively will be running the ball and controlling the clock. Luckily for the Warriors, that’s arguably been their biggest strength so far.

In the first three games, the Warriors have rushed for 642 yards,

averaging 160.5 rushing yards per game. Spottswood leads the Warriors’ rushing game, running for 424 yards and five touchdowns through Sherwood’s first four games.

The Warriors will look to keep up their recent success this Friday as they take on their toughest opponent to date. A win would put the Warriors at 4-1 through their first five games. The game is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 pm at Caruso Memorial Stadium.

Ashley Yen ‘14

Trainer Becky Taylor treats senior Justin Koenick after he injured his wrist. Taylor is on site during all athletic practices after school.

Warriors Prepare To Host Eagles Football

3-1 (as of September 30) -Next Games: Seneca Valley, October 4 at 6:30 at Sherwood

Magruder, October 11 at 6:30 at Sherwood -Key News: Senior cornerback Alec Perez has four interceptions this season, earning him a spot on All-Met Watch. Senior running back Elijah Spottswood has 424 yards on the ground through four games.

by Michael Natelli ‘14

After mustering up just seven points in their early loss to Gaithersburg (3-0), the Warriors (3-1) have put up a combined 70 points en route to a 3-1 record.

However, the Warriors will face would could prove to be their toughest test yet this weekend, as they take on Seneca Valley on the

road.

What the Screaming Eagles have shown this year is that they’re capable of throwing a range of different offenses at opposing teams. In their season-opening win against Wheaton, the Eagles had six different players rush the ball, combining for 184 yards on the ground. But in last week’s 42-20 win against

The Warrior•Sports 19

October 3, 2013

Injuries Lead to Early Struggles Field Hockey Crushes

by Joey Lavoie ‘14

A young team and injuries usually is not a good formula for a team to have a successful season, but the boys’ soccer team has been able to weather the storm on the way to a 2-4 record. Under new Coach Mike Kogok, the team has competed in every game, in spite of the injury to starting goalkeeper, senior Nick Widmaier.

Widmaier, with a lingering ankle injury suffered during summer training, has played a total of one game so far this season, playing one of half of each of the games against Seneca Valley and Clarksburg. Backup senior goalkeeper Jake Kram has stepped up in the high-pressure position and through the first six of the season, he has not allowed more than two goals in a game. Widmaier should make his return in the next week, which will allow for the Warriors to turn to a more experienced option in goal.

“Although it’s been tough sitting on the sidelines and watching for the first half of the season I am still supportive and Jake has been doing a great job filling in, and I can’t wait to get back out there and start playing again,” said Widmaier. “It’s exciting being able to start practicing again, and I am excited to be able to finally get my shot to start playing in games again.”

A strength of the team is in the midfield and on the attack, where senior captain Austin Cecil and senior transfer Jeremy Rollings have given the Warriors a chance in every game, even when the Warriors fall behind in a game.

“Austin and Jeremy provide relief for the back line and midfield as they are able to hold onto

Opponents During Undefeated Stretch

Joey Lavoie ‘14

Sophomore Shervin Kashani battles with a Clarksburg defender after receiving a cross in a 2-1 loss on September 28 at Sherwood. the ball long enough for the rest of the team to join the attack,” said junior defender Christian Demoya. “They are then able to lay it off and make a run or take on a defender.”

Last Saturday the Warriors took on Clarksburg at Caruso Memorial Field, where they lost after scoring in the first five

minutes. Cecil opened the game with a goal, but that was as far as the Warriors got. Clarksburg was able to storm back, tying the game in the first half, then never letting off the gas pedal and scoring once again in the second half.

The Warriors have now dropped three straight as Widmaier looks to take over goaltending duties.

Boys’ Soccer

The girls’ varsity soccer team started off the season strong with three consecutive victories: a 1-0 win over Northwest, an 8-2 rout of Magruder and a 5-0 hammering of Seneca Valley. As is the case in sports, the quality of competition tells a lot about how a team is truly doing, and the Warriors faced stiffer tests when in their next two games when they played four-time state champions B-CC, followed by a match against an experience Damascus squad.

Although the Warriors lost to both teams, both games finish (a 1-0 loss to B-CC and 2-1 loss to Damascus) were competitive to the finish. The Warriors bounced back after those matches with a 2-0 win over Clarksburg to bring their record to 4-2 through their first six games.

The season-opening win against Northwest was filled with drama, as it took a goal in dou-

Field Hockey

2-4 (as of September 30) -Next Games: Blake, October 4 at 5:00 at Blake

Springbrook, October 7 at 5:00 at Sherwood

9-0 (as of September 30) -Next Games: Clarksburg, October 8 at 7:00 at Sherwood

Paint Branch, October 10 at 7:00 at Paint Branch

-Key News: Senior goalkeeper Nick Widmaier injured his ankle over the summer, allowing him to only play two halves this season.

Seniors Stephen Sutherland and Austin Cecil have stepped up to lead the team to two wins.

-Key News: Senior Emily Kenul leads the state in goals; finding the back of the net 19 times this season. Senior Gabrielle Yore’s 13 goals is good enough for fifth in the state.

Girls’ Soccer Looks To Hit Stride Under New Coach As Playofffs Approaching

by Whitney-Marie Halaby ‘14

cus, who Sherwood previously had played in a tough preseason

The Warriors are off to an im- scrimmage. The Warriors led 1-0 pressive start this season, as they at half and Damascus was giving have secured the No. 1 rank in the them a dogfight. As the game wore county thanks to an 8-0 start. The on, however, the Warriors began team has dominated the score- to break through and play more board, outscoring opponents 41-5. efficiently and earn the win 5-0.

The offense, led by seniors Coach Morse praised the Gabrielle Yore and Emily Kenul, effort of her team. “The team has put up astonishing numbers played with a sense of urgency game in and game out, recently [against Damascus], which we outscoring Northwood 11-0 in a have seen in glimpses in the last blow-out on September 25. The couple games, but it was great defense, led by seniors Christina to see more of our players play Ricciuiti and Mollie Russell, has with such a desire to score,” said been equally strong, with five Morse.

Sherwood faced anothshutouts through nine games.

With Sherwood overwhelm- er tough test this past Tuesday ing the competition, it is hard to when the Warriors played an 8-1 find flaws in the team’s play. For Clarksburg team that was lookCoach Amy Morse, it is all about ing to end Sherwood’s undefeatsustaining the team’s success over ed start. Whether or not they go the duration of the entire season. undefeated in the regular season,

“We have had a great start to Morse believes that her team can the season, but we realize it’s go- make noise in the postseason. ing to take a lot of hard work to “This team has everything it reach our goal. Our sights are set takes to make it to the state touron the playoffs which means we nament – we have the heart, the need to continue to improve every intensity and mental toughness to overcome every challenge that is day,” said Morse.

The most impressive of Sher- put in front of us,” said Morse. wood’s wins thus far this year was an intensely competitive game on September 27 against Damas-

by Ryan Deal ‘16

ble overtime from junior Lauren Woods to give the Warriors the victory.

For the season, the Warriors have scored 17 times in the first six games they have played, with Woods leading the way with six goals and five assists. The Warriors have also gotten help from their goaltending, as junior ‘keeper Samantha Berger has tallied three shutouts.

The Warriors clearly are responding well to first-year varsity Coach Danielle Rosanova, who took over for Jon Vuckovich. As last year’s JV coach, the transition to a new coach has been smooth since Rosanova was already fa-

miliar with many of the players.

She wants to instill a winning attitude and a work ethic into the team, and she feels that those two attributes will allow the team to continue their success this season and into the playoffs.

“As the season continues I am looking forward to us continually improving,” said Rosanova.

“We have such potential to be very successful this season and I am hoping the players see this as well. We have a few things to tweak as the season progresses, but what is important is that we are peaking at the end of October as we prepare for the playoffs.”

Girls’ Soccer

4-2 (as of September 30) -Next Games: Blake, October 4 at 7:00 at Blake

Springbrook, October 7 at 7:00 at Sherwood -Key News: Junior Lauren Woods leads the team with 6 goals and 5 assists. Senior Leigh Heiserman has also contributed to the win column with three goals.

The Warrior•Sports 20

October 3, 2013

Spottswood, Atwater Emerge as Leaders

Starting running back, linebacker step up as leaders of the team on and off the field as Warriors run up 3-1 record.

by Joey Lavoie ‘14 Senior linebacker Paris Atwater and senior running back Elijah Spottswood entered this 2013 football season with high hopes and realistic chances of playing at the college level. Both transfers, Atwater came to Sherwood the summer before his junior year after playing two years at Peachtree Ridge, a high school outside of Atlanta. Spottswood joined the Warriors before his sophomore year after playing a single season on JV at Blake.

Now seniors and second-year starters, both have taken leadership roles on their respective sides of the ball. Through the first two games of the season Spottswood has been pacing the Warrior offense with 424 yards in the opening four games, after coming off a knee injury last off-season.

“With the knee injury, I try to keep my mind off of it and focus on getting my job done on the field to help my team win offensively and defensively,” said Spottswood following his incredible start to the season.

However, it has been a very different start to the season for Atwater. He played well during the season’s opening game against Gaithersburg, but in the home opener, Atwater was injured in the second quarter while wrapping up on a tackle. The linebacker injured his right arm, spraining a ligament and was taken to the

Courtesy of Chris Grier

Seniors Paris Atwater and Elijah Spottswood pose during a pre-season photo shoot modeling Sherwood’s new Nike Pro Combat Jerseys. These seniors were chose due to their new leadership roles on the field. hospital for further observations.

He returned to the field two weeks later, where he played a key role in the Warriors 28-15 victory at Richard Montgomery.

In preparing for the season, Atwater found inspiration from an unlikely source, “Drake said his album is coming September and just wait on it... that spoke to me. He spent his entire summer working on that album that he

didn’t have time to hang out and live like everyone else. And that is what we did, we worked the entire summer, and we waited. Now we’re here. Reaping the benefits.”

Atwater is the son of former all-pro NFL safety Steve Atwater, and has two older brothers who both play Division I FCS football at Georgetown and Princeton.

After an extremely successful first year with the Warriors, At-

water was looking to take over on defense and hopefully garner the same type of attention his brothers received. Playing in the footsteps of his father has never been a problem for Atwater; he just plays his own game. Atwater is also blocking for Spottswood, starting at fullback for the first time at Sherwood.

“He teaches me things that he did and saw while he played

with the Denver Broncos,” said Atwater of his father. “He wants me to be as good as I can be every Friday night on that field.”

When Spottswood joined the Warriors, he played his sophomore year on varsity, primarily as a kick returner for former Coach Mike Bonovia’s Warriors.

He broke onto the Montgomery County stage early in his junior year, becoming one of the most dangerous returners in the county and taking over the running duties from his graduated cousin, Fernando Smith. Along with playing running back, Spottswood remains a force on the other side of the ball, playing safety behind Atwater.

“Currently, the recruiting process is moving slowly for me,” said Spottswood, who is being looked at by Division I schools.

“As of right now, my top choices are Appalachian State, Towson and Boise State.”

Now four games in, the Warriors have looked extremely dangerous with these two leaders taking larger roles as the wins add up. Spottswood is now fully off of injury, finally carrying no restrictions as he hits his stride following the Richard Montgomery game. Atwater will continue to battle back from his injury, and will be a factor as the Warriors turn into the home stretch of their season; which can definitely end with a playoff run deep into November.

State’s Top Teams Seek To Knock Off Warriors

by Sammie Spillman ‘16 The Warriors passed their first big test on September 12 by beating Broadneck in five sets during which momentum swung back and forth between two teams who are among the very best in the state. The Warriors won the first two sets 25-21 and 25-20, lost the second two 27-25 and 20-25 and won the tie breaker 15-7.

“I am very happy with the way the season has started. The team has come together and competed at a high level against good competition,” assistant coach Joe Moyer. “The Broadneck win showed great resilience and mental toughness to win a close match in the fifth and deciding set in front of a very loud, hostile crowd. I look forward to seeing the girls compete as the playoffs near and continue to grow together as a team.”

In games against county competition so far, the Warriors have been dominating the court. They started the season with a victory (25-12, 25-16, 25-27, 25-20) over Richard Montgomery. From September 16 through September 25, The Warriors did not drop a set, beating Einstein 25-7, 25-8, 256, Whitman 25-13, 25-8, 27-25,

Springbrook 25-12, 25-8, 25-10, and Blake 25-5, 25-10, 25-18.

“I think the team will go far this season,” said junior opposite-hitter Dalton Sanchez. “All the girls are great, we have great chemistry and great energy, and we all love the game. We’ve really bonded this season and become a family and that chemistry off the court transfers over to our playing on the court to give us lots of energy and help us play well together as a team.”

More recently, the Warriors played Blair on September 30 and won 25-17, 25-11 and 2518. Yesterday the Warriors faced Magruder in what Coach Brian McCarty described as a rivalry game, with plenty of emotion and intensity. In McCarty’s view, the winner of that match likely will win the division title. The season does not get any easier with three big upcoming matches, including

tomorrow at Churchill.

“Right now, Churchill and Damascus are still undefeated and have some quality players that will give us some matchup problems. We will have to practice well in preparation for those matches and be ready to play at a high level if we want to win,” said McCarty.

“This year we are coming together as a team on and off the court. We have good communication and we work well together, but we need to work on stepping up and making clutch plays in high-pressure situations,” said senior Makayla Roy. “Damascus and Churchill are two very strong teams and they will probably be some of our toughest competition this season. To prepare for these matches were going to work hard in practice so were able to come out and give it our all at the games.”

Volleyball

7-0 (as of September 30) -Next Games: Paint Branch, October 8 at 6:30 at Sherwood

B-CC, October 10 at 6:30 at B-CC -Key News: Senior Makayla Roy leads the team with 68 kills while freshman Kaiya Heyliger-Powell and junior Kerra-Lei Tirado have helped at the net with 14 blocks each.

Kyle Melnick ‘14

Senior Makayla Roy and freshman Kaiya Heyliger-Powell set a block as Sherwood went on to defeat Blake 3-0 on September 25.