Newsstreak April Issue 2017

A10: Clubs travel across and out of the country

The

B3: Spring play rehearsals in full swing

B10: New spring coaches work with teams

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Harrisonburg High School • 1001 Garbers Church Road • Harrisonburg, VA 22801 • 540.433.2651 • Volume XIIC • Issue 8 • April 28, 2017

Hats, hoodies welcomed by students, teachers

I

Nyah Phengsitthy Page Editor In previous years, one of the main rules during the school day was no hats or hoodies allowed on heads.

The rule was mainly created so that faculty, staff and administration could identify students in situations without any cover-ups. In the past, many students have broken and spoken out on this rule, which caused a new hat or hoodie dress code to be added to HHS. Assistant principal Lisa Warren, along with other administration, contributed to the decision of opposing this rule and allowing students to wear a hat or hoodie during school hours.

“It was ultimately Ms. Prieto’s decision as the principal, but it’s something we’ve kind of been talking about and dealing with since the start of school...

It was something that was brought up by students and staff, so it was brought up several times in faculty

PHOTO BY LUCIE RUTHERFORD HATS ON. Freshmen Sarah Hartman and Alyce Kilby-Woodward walk through the cafeteria wearing ball caps. “I like the new rule... it helps students express themselves and their style. The rule can also help students feel more confident and comfortable in their own skin,” Hartman said. meetings to get input from teachers, and of course students gave us input on why

Orientation prepares upcoming freshmen

they should be allowed to wear them,” Warren said.

Now that students are

allowed to wear hats or hoodies during school hours, there are still pros

See RULE page A2

Nutrition Bus will provide summer meals to neighborhoods around Harrisonburg

Iris Cessna Page Editor

Sam Heie Feature Editor

One might think that with far more than the ideal number of people in the building already, HHS would explode when 450 more, over the span of two days, come in. All those present on Friday, March 24 and Monday, March 27 can attest to the fact that that did not happen. These two days were freshman orientation for the current eighth-graders. Principal Cynthia Prieto was involved in the workings of this event.

“The timing is good, they’re finishing eighth grade, you want them to finish strong, and they’re getting kind of excited, a little nervous, a little scared about high school. You want them to come here and see it happen, and walk around, and get to see people that [they know]. ‘Oh, I remember, she was in eighth

Every one in six people students pass in the hallways today have a big problem; they’re hungry without access to food at home. For them, school might be a refuge from the stomach pangs and the uncertainty of their next meal. As we approach summer, the clock is running out for students who receive free and reduced price lunch. During summer, some of these students won’t have the ability to gorge themselves on their favorite meals as other students do.

Director of School Nutrition Andrea Early recognizes this problem.

“Many students in HCPS rely on school meals to provide them with

See ORIENTATION page A2

and cons to the situation, and some administration and teachers are still used

to telling students not to wear them.

“It doesn’t bother me, I see the positives and the negatives. The positive is sometimes, as an administrator, the first and only conversation I have with a student is, ‘take your hat off’, ‘take your hood off’, so a lot of times it’s an extremely confrontational first thing in the morning, which can make students’ days go downhill from there,” Warren said. “[The negative] is it’s harder to recognize students on cameras if they have their hood up or their hat.”

As anyone would notice walking down the halls of HHS, there are cameras on the ceiling of the school for specific reasons. In situations where students need to be identified, cameras are there to help, and wearing a hat or hoodie makes it harder for administrators to see who’s whom. While there are many teachers who are still used to seeing no hats during school

“We will be able to bridge the nutritional gap that can happen during the summer months.” good nutrition. This need does not go away over the summer when school is out,” Early said.

For the past several months, Early has been working on methods to curb childhood hunger during summer. Her solution is the Nutrition Bus.

“Our mobile meals and nutrition education bus will visit four neighborhoods around Harrisonburg Monday through Friday from Jun. 19 through Aug. 4 to serve lunches to children up to the age of 18. Lunches are provided through the USDA Summer Food Service Program. Because all HCPS schools have more than 50% of students qualifying for free or reduced meals, lunches are free to all students, regardless of their individual eligibility category,” Early said.

The specific locations of where the bus will stop have not been finalized yet, but the ideology and purpose has been comprehensively selected.

“Each location will also have activ-

See NUTRITION page A2

Gingras, Hovermale junior class representatives plan annual prom Abby Hissong Editor-In-Chief As the date of May 20 steadily approaches, teachers and students alike are busy at work preparing for this year’s prom. The annual dance is one of two held by the school, with homecoming taking place in the fall for all students and prom a few weeks before the end of the school year specifically for upperclassmen. While the homecoming dance is planned by the student council, the responsibility of prom planning falls on the junior class representatives and their sponsor, English teacher Sara Gingras. This is Gingras’ second year as prom coordinator.

“It really is like

planning a wedding. We have to make sure that we nail three main things early, which are venue, food and DJ. We definitely have those things set in stone, so now we are just working out the details like making the tickets and choosing which tiaras to order,” Gingras said.

Though traditionally just the junior class representatives are in charge of planning prom, this year Gingras opened up the planning committee to any and all students who wanted to contribute their time to help plan the dance.

“[At our first meeting] we made some decisions on what we want our decorations to look like and we’ve been doing a lot of research trying to find the best deal. A lot of the meeting was spent going

Next issue...

Senior Issue Baby Pictures Baby Pictures And More Baby Pictures Senior Wills Columns and Editorials Every Person Has A Story Humans of HHS Trends of 2016-17 School Year

through websites, like Amazon, and then comparing prices with local businesses and stuff,” Gingras said.

“We’re working on a limited budget, so we’re just trying to get the event to look how we want it to for as cheap as possible.”

Taking place on May 20, this year’s prom will be different from previous years in various ways.

“The biggest thing that has changed about prom this year is the location. We were really happy that we were able to get prom in town this year, because even though we had a beautiful venue last year, it was kind of far away. This year, we were able to connect with JMU, and they hooked us up with the sta-

See PROM page A2

PHOTO BY SAM HEIE PROM PREP. English teacher Sara Gingras and junior class representatives (from left to right) Alice Perrine, Jennifer Alvarado, Jackie Mateo-Sanchez and Rose Copeland look through a prom magazine to gain ideas for HHS’s upcoming annual prom. The dance will have the theme Jardín De Amor, or Garden of Love, and will be held in the Club Level of JMU’s Bridgeforth Stadium on May 20.

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April 28, 2017

News-A2

The Newsstreak

Eighth graders learn ways of high school ORIENTATION from A1 when I was in sixth grade’ and everything.

[They] get to see [the students] look very normal; nobody has three heads, you’re in classes, you’re in the library, you’re doing your thing. [It makes them say], ‘You know, I can do that,’” Prieto said.

During the two days of orientation, the upcoming freshman came in and listened to a talk by Prieto and several other administrators and guidance counselors. This explained many aspects of life at the high school including athletics, GPAs and electives. After this, the group split into two, and half of them toured the school with student tour guides.

One of these tour guides was Sophomore Malak Bani-Hani.

“I think it’s really important that the eighth graders get the chance to actually see the hallways, because I remember my first day freshman year I got lost. I was completely clueless. To have the chance to actually talk to them and tell them what our tips are [is really valuable],” Bani-Hani said.

One of the eighth graders, Helen Rivera, is in agreement with Prieto and Bani-Hani that this orientation is helpful. “[My perception of the

high school] has changed a lot. I used to be scared and think that it would be terrifying, but I guess once you get used to it it’s not that scary,” Rivera said.

Prieto also stressed the fact that the high school visit helps rising freshmen to see how much everything they will do, as far as classes, grades and SOLs, matters.

“It’s also a really important time as in all of your choices matter. SOLs, absolutely matter. Your transcript matters. Your grades.

Your GPA. It isn’t like ‘Well, that’s just sixth grade.’ No, no. All of this matters on your massive transcript that then goes to whatever your future is,” Prieto said.

Something else she mentioned was showing incoming freshman all the choices the high school provides. “[I want them to] get excited. These are all of our choices. You’re going to have a lot more options on electives, you even have options in your regular courses, because you have [many levels of the courses]. And then you’ve got all kinds of cool activities and academies going on. So dare to dream, get excited and put your brain on to do your absolute best for the next four years,” Prieto said.

Nalleli Soldebila is an-

PHOTO BY IRIS CESSNA GETTING ORIENTED. Juniors Guillermo Torres and Randee Rose Joven give a tour to one of the 450 upcoming freshmen. Students both volunteered and were recommended by teachers to give the eighth graders an inside look at the ins and outs of HHS. During their orientation, the eighth graders also heard presentations from many administrators and counselors about what next year will bring. other of the eighth graders from Thomas Harrison that attended the orientation on Friday the 24th. The tour has helped her see several things about the high school more clearly.

“If you need help or something, if you’re going to have help about, say, testing, or homework [they will give it to you]... In here you have more freedom and it’s [bigger] than mid-

dle school,” Soldebila said.

She also commented on what she thought of the high school.

“I was really excited [before I came for the tour] because I’d never come to the high school. So I have a big impression about high school,” Soldebila said.

Rivera also shares parts of her impression of the high school and what she will do here.

“I’m most looking forward to AVID and any other classes that I might have not had in the middle school. And making new friends, like meeting new people,” Rivera said.

The difference between high school and middle school that these eighth graders will have to adjust to in the next year is how standardized the learning is, according to Prieto.

“Up until now it’s pretty standard. In fifth grade you take a math and a science and this and that and everyone kind of does the same thing. You get a little bit more choice in seventh and eighth grade, and then ninth grade, look at all your options...Your program is your program. And so that’s a change,” Prieto said.

This orientation was aimed to ease that change.

Warren, admin see good in rule change Early aims to end summer hunger

PHOTO BY LUCIE RUTHERFORD NEW RULE, NEW LOOK. The rule has been widely accepted among students, making for a new look through the halls.

RULE from A1 hours and telling students to keep their hoods down, there are other teachers who don’t have a problem with the change in rules. Science teacher Gehrie Bair never minded students in

his classroom wearing a hat or hood even when it wasn’t allowed during the school day.

“It doesn’t really bother me in my class as long as it’s not a distraction. As long as it doesn’t take away from the learning,

then I don’t really have a problem with it,” Bair said.

Senior Mark Shindyapin uses the new rule by personalizing the way he looks when he comes to school.

“I think this is a great new rule because

I like taking showers in the morning, but when I take showers in the morning, my hair becomes very floppy and it doesn’t look good.

With the new hat rule, I can just hide my hair,” Shindyapin said.

As of now, the hats and hoodies being allowed on heads during school hours is still on, and will most likely continue on for the rest of school year.

“I think that it will continue at least until the end of the school year, as long as students aren’t abusing it, which I have not seen,” Warren said. “Things seem to be going well, and I’m sure we’ll evaluate it at the end of the year in a faculty meeting to see how teachers feel about it and get the input on students to make a decision next school year.”

2017 prom committee sets theme as Jardín De Amor, Garden of Love PROM from A1 dium club room which is very nice and classy,” Gingras said.

Another major difference is the theme of this years prom, ‘El Jardín de Amor’, or ‘The Garden of Love’ in English.

“We thought [El Jardín de Amor] sounded better than the English version, plus, since we have so many different languages and cultures represented at Harrisonburg High School, everyone liked the idea of having our prom theme reflect that,” Gingras said.

Junior class officer Illiya Zudilin hopes that the theme on top of the new, closer venue will make people excited to attend this year’s prom.

“I think it is going to be a lot of fun. I’m really excited about our theme this year because it is so new and different. By having a Spanish themed dance we’re hoping to portray the unity that we want at our school,” Zudilin said. “Also, [the venue] is super nice, and it is in a really good location this year. Since After Prom is at UREC, students could literally walk from the stadium there if they wanted to.”

In an attempt to make prom the best it can be, the junior class will be holding a fundrais-

NUTRITION from A1 ities going on for kids to participate in after they eat lunch at the site. These activities are being coordinated by a graduate student from JMU and will be staffed by volunteers from the community.

During the regular school year, the bus will be used for nutrition education activities such as small group classes and taste tests. We are exploring many opportunities for additional community partnerships as we make visits to neighborhoods,” Early said.

The bus itself was purchased from the Massanutten Regional Library. The library used the bus, previously named the Bookmobile, to bring books and education to various neighborhoods across Harrisonburg.

“The bus is currently getting a tune up and new tires at the city transportation department. After that, we will remove what is currently inside and replace it with hot and cold food storage equipment down one side and seating down the other side. The last step will be to re-wrap the outside with a colorful nutrition themed design,” Early said.

The bus and all of the activities associated with it come at a cost.

All of the renovation and the supplies are not entirely funded by the Harrisonburg school budget.

“The project will cost between $55,000 and $60,000. $40,000 of the cost is being covered by a grant that we received from Share Our Strength, a nonprofit that works to eliminate child hunger. We are working to secure additional donations to offset the remaining costs.

Whatever is not covered by grant money and donations, will be paid from our school nutrition budget,” Early said.

HCPS has participated in activities like this in the past, but never under a method of transportation.

“We have served lunches to all students at our summer school locations for a number of years. These sites are open to any students who can get to the site, however transportation can be an issue for many families. This bus will allow us to expand our summer meals program to reach more students during the summer,” Early said. “By traveling to strategic neighborhoods, we will be able to bridge the nutritional gap that can happen during the summer months.”

Past Decade of Prom Themes at HHS 2007 - Once Upon A Time 2008 - Midnight Masquerade

2009 - Come Sail Away 2010 - When In Rome PHOTO BY SAM HEIE PLAN IT OUT. The prom committee figures out the details of working with this year’s theme, Jardín De Amor.

The committee’s goal is to meet every two weeks. er where all proceeds would go towards prom expenses.

“We’re selling basic HHS gear, like t-shirts, sweatshirts and hats for people to buy. All proceeds will go straight into the prom budget to help pay for some of the heftier costs we didn’t originally plan for. We’ll probably start the fundraiser mid-April, and it will take place before and after school as well as during lunch periods,” Zudilin said.

Though planning such a huge event can be stressful at times, Gingras believes that the

final product makes the hard work worth it.

“I’m really just excited for that moment when everything just comes together and the kids who helped coordinate the dance get to see what happens when you pay attention to the details. It can be tedious, but when it comes down to it, it makes a huge difference,” Gingras said. “Overall, I just want everyone to have a great time and leave prom with some good memories they will keep forever.”

2011 - Under The Sea 2012 - Mardi Gras Magic 2013 - Viva Las Vegas 2014 - Luau Paradise 2015 - A Night In Disguise 2016 - Eiffel In Love

April 28, 2017

News-A3

The Newsstreak

Boys, Girls State enhances leadership skills Lucie Rutherford Print Editor-in-Chief Every spring, social studies teachers nominate a select group of boys to attend Boys’ State at Radford University during the summer between their junior and senior years. The week-long event is focused on governmental and leadership opportunities, and will be held during the week of June 18-24 this year. There is a Girls’ State as well, though that application process begins later in the year.

In her first year at HHS, counselor Danielle Brino has taken over the role of overseeing the nominations and application processes.

“The application process first begins with the nomination, so I’ve asked counselors as well as some of the social studies teachers to give me some names of students who have an interest in government and political science and who would be interested,” Brino said. “That was kind of my first round; I talked with all of them and gave them the application. If we have more than three who want to attend, we ask them to complete a little essay or just give some reason for what their interest is in it.”

Though it is her first experience with Boys’ State, Brino believes the opportunity is a unique one.

“It’s a really awesome opportunity to explore leadership possibilities and leadership skills, but they also do some mock government activities, so [it’s good for]

w

anyone who is interested in learning more about the nitty gritty of government and the levels of government,” Brino said. “They also have some physical adventure challenges that they do, some team building.”

The two nominees for this year are juniors Corin Vogel and Nick Burzumato.

For Burzumato, who was nominated by social studies teacher Jay Blair, it’s the family tradition that brought him into Boys’ State.

“My brother did it when he was in Georgia, and my sister did Girls’ State, so it’s just kind of a family thing, my parents really like it,” Burzumato said.

Though he is not interested in the political aspect, Burzumato is in it for the leadership opportunity.

PHOTO COURTESTY OF ZACH BENEVENTO “I [am looking to gain] more leadership strategies and stuff like that and STATE THE TRUTH. Seniors Zach Benevento and Duncan Rutherford pose with Governor gain some experience. I want to be a Terry McAuliffe while attending Boys State last year. teacher some day, so this will kind of help me lead, hopefully,” Burzumato “He told me that it’s a really fun expe- better themselves,” Brino said. “I think it’s said. rience, it’s really valuable, so I thought I a great way to find out more about a difVogel, on the other hand, is applying to might as well apply and see how it goes,” ferent field or a different career path, and Boys’ State because of the political aspect. Vogel said. it’s also a wonderful thing to put on your “I do debate, which is a much more about On top of the leadership opportuni- resume for a summer job or your college the one-on-one conversations, and I want ty, there is an addition for HHS drumline application. There’s always that spot in to sort of see how the bigger process of member Burzumato which has him excited the college application that has a big area a large group debate works, and working for the week. for you to put in extracurricular activities, through ideas and discussing stuff. [I want “I found out that there’s a Boys’ State and I think that when colleges see that you to see]... how I would do in that sort of sit- band. I don’t really know what the deal take it upon yourself or initiate some sort uation,” Vogel said. with that is, but I hope that I can be part of of involvement or participation in someVogel had the advice of a friend, senior that,” Burzumato said. thing like the Boys’ State of Virginia, it just Zach Benevento-Zahner, who attended Brino would recommend the experi- really shows that you’re serious about your Boys’ State last year to help him make the ence to any student looking to stand out. learning.” decision. “[I think students should do it] just to

Community-based committee addresses student overcrowding issue

Ryan Doerr Staff Reporter

With the ever-changing demographics of Harrisonburg and its status as one of the fastest growing economies in Virginia, Harrisonburg City Public Schools has been forced to make some tough decisions over the past several years. HHS has grown exponentially over the past decade, and at a rapid pace. Decisions now need to be made in regards to the growing numbers of students entering the high school.

To solve the problem, superintendent Doctor Scott Kizner has enlisted the help of a community-based committee, the purpose of which is to address the issues facing HCPS and come up with a solution to the overcrowding at HHS. Assistant principal Eric Miller was asked to be a part some weeks ago, and has since been a vital part of the discussion.

“Doctor Kizner set up [the committee], and he selected a variety of teachers, administrators and community members to be a part of it. [Committee members] are supposed to be the voice of the people,” Miller said. “We have small business owners, retired principals, retired teachers, current teachers, administrators, parents from all levels of education. We report back the voices of our peers in addition to our own.”

The committee’s primary assignment has been to determine whether or not Harrisonburg needs an annex to the current high school or add an new building to accommodate the influx of students.

Miller has been an instrumental part of

this decision-making process.

“Because I’m the only one on the committee from HHS, I thought we really needed to hear from the high school teachers,” Miller said. “I created a survey and sent it out to the teachers saying, ’Give me your thoughts on what you need’. We had a response from 48 staff members. Of those staff members, 42 of them said we needed a new high school. They were very passionate in their replies as to why we need a new school. Their answers touched the committee members—one of them was in tears talking about how she feels for the issue and how much she feels we need to act.”

However, despite the positive response to building a new high school, the committee has run into a variety of obstacles while planning for the coming years. One of the largest concerns with the construction of a new high school is the fear of cutting school districts across socioeconomic lines within Harrisonburg.

“Harrisonburg is not that big,” Miller said. “We’re all in one place right now as it is. We can draw the line wherever we want to—it doesn’t have to be a straight line. All the opportunities will still be [available in each high school].”

Despite the challenges at hand, Miller and the committee are hopeful that a solution will be found within the coming months.

“[The committee] has determined that the best thing for Harrisonburg is a new high school. Now, we’re figuring out how to do that,” Miller said.

Poll: What solution would students prefer?

Annex or new high school?

Number of students who would prefer an annex

72%

Number of students who would prefer another high school be built

28%

POLL OUT OF 100 STUDENTS ASKED DATA COLLECTED BY RYAN DOERR AND SARAH EARLE INFOGRAPHIC BY SARAH EARLE

Sophomore Walton faces downsides, appreciates participating in Blood Drive Lily Gusler Staff Reporter On Apr. 3, sophomore Rachel Walton participated in the blood drive.

“My dad has influenced me to give blood because even though he doesn’t do it now, he used to.

I don’t mind needles that much, and I want to get a tattoo when I turn 18 so I figured I might as well donate blood while I can,” Wal-

GIVING BACK BY GIVING BLOOD. Junior Makiah Moore participates in the Blood Drive held on Monday, April 3. Any student 16 years or older was allowed to give blood.

PHOTO BY ANDREW RATH

ton said.

Walton finds several benefits in giving blood, and overall appreciates the experience.

“I like being able to save somebody’s life, and it’s also a benefit to get out of class for a little bit,” Walton said.

Walton sees a few downsides to donating “The last time I donated blood I felt a little faint afterwards and it was the only time I needed help carrying my stuff around the

building. Also, last time I donated blood, I was writing a paper that day for English class and I still have no memory of what I was writing that day,” Walton said.

There are a few things you must do to be a blood donor, though Walton doesn’t feel the need to prepare to give blood.

“I don’t really prepare, I just come in ready to donate and I just need to be ready to not carry my own stuff around again,” Walton said.

The Newsstreak

April 28, 2017 The Harrisonburg High School Newsstreak The Policy The Newsstreak is published by the students of Harrisonburg High School every month. Reproduction of any material from the newspaper is prohibited without the written permission from the editorial board. Advertising rates are available upon request.

It is the policy of the Harrisonburg City Public School Board to comply with all applicable state and federal laws regarding non-discrimination in employment and educational programs and services.

The Harrisonburg High School City Public Schools will not discriminate illegally on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, disability or age as to employment or educational programs and activities.

Editorials appearing without a byline represent the majority opinion of the staff, but not necessarily the opinion of the adviser, school administration, or the school system.

Signed editorials are accepted from people on the staff, but are subject to editing according to published guidelines and policies. Editorials may be edited for special reasons.

Letters to the editor are encouraged and must be signed and a telephone number must be given.

Names may be withheld if the editorial board feels there is a just cause.

The Newsstreak reserves the right to edit and may refuse to publish ads or letters deemed inappropriate, libelous, or obscene. Please drop your letter by room 444 or give them to any staff member.

Letters may also be sent to the high school.

The Editors and Staff Editor-in-Chief: Abby Hissong Print EICs: Lucie Rutherford, Owen Stewart, Christa Cole Online EICs: Garrett Cash, Olivia Comer, Angel Hendrix Advertising Managers: Madison Varner, Audrey Knupp, Anna Rath Photographers: Christa Cole, Andrew Rath, David Gamboa-Pena, Yogesh Aradhey Page Editors: Kyle Brown, Anna Rath, Andi Fox, Christian Rodriguez, Nyah Phengsitthy, Yogesh Aradhey, Hannah Miller, Jackson Hook, Theo Yoder, Lucie Rutherford, Abigail Hissong, Christa Cole, Noah Siderhurst, Sam Heie, Owen Stewart, Owen Marshall, Vivian Neal Staff Reporters: Yusuf Aboutabl, Yogesh Aradhey, Kyle Brown, Garrett Cash, Christa Cole, Olivia Comer, Danny Dombrowski, Sarah Earle, David Gamboa, Sam Heie, Angel Hendrix, Abigail Hissong, Jackson Hook, Audrey Knupp, Samantha Little, Owen Marshall, Hannah Miller, Nyah Phengsitthy, Anna Rath, Christian Rodriguez, Lucie Rutherford, Noah Siderhurst, Owen Stewart, Madison Varner, Theo Yoder, Carrie Yoder, Max McDaniel, Hannah Daniel, Lene Andrawas, John Breeden, Ryan Doerr, Andrew Ely, Lily Gusler, Jackie Mateo-Sanchez, Forrest Matter, Jewelia Rodriguez, KiYosia Wallace, Andi Fox, Zoey Fox, Andrew Rath, Edgar Sanchez-Bautista, Vivian Neal, Carson Rising, Iris Cessna, Ty McDaniel, Anzhela Nyemchenko, Jake Urbanski, Josh Wilson, Kenyaa Wright, Samantha Little Professional Affiliations The Newsstreak participates as a member of several journalistic evaluation services including the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA-2010 Gold Evaluation and 2005, 2009 and 2015 Silver Crown Winner), Quill&Scroll Journalism Honor Society (2012 Gallup Award), National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) All-American, the Virginia High School League, Inc. Trophy Class Award, and the Southern Interscholastic Press Association All Southern Ranking and 2010 Scroggins Award winner. hhsmedia.com Opt Out Notice: If you do not want to allow your student’s full name or image to appear on the school newspaper site, please send an email to vkibler@harrisonburg. k12.va.us stating: I DO NOT want my son/daughter (place student’s name here) to have his or her name or image published on the new online version of the newspaper, www. hhsmedia.com.

Op-Ed-A4

New bathroom passes inefficient, unsanitary solution NEWSSTREAK STAFF EDITORIAL Everyone’s seen the yellow lanyard with the white, laminated name tag, held by hundreds of students all traveling to one place: the bathroom.

I’m not going to talk about what goes on in there, but it’s pretty unsanitary, obviously. All of those germs get transferred over right onto that bathroom pass.

Each student probably carries the pass into the stall, does what they need to do, and then carries it right back out, germs and all, right into their classroom for another person to project their bacteria onto. Nice. Do some people wash their

hands afterwards? Yeah, most do. Does it make much of a difference after they pick up that bathroom pass? Nope.

I agree, we need bathroom passes. We shouldn’t just have students aimlessly wandering the halls; they need to prove that they “have a purpose”.

Still, though, it doesn’t have to be the same bathroom pass per classroom.

In the past couple of years, science students have wanted to swab the passes to see the plethora of bacteria, the idea is so gross. Sadly, that’s not allowed due to the potential of growing even more

bacteria and endanger those experimenting. If anything, it makes the idea even more disgusting.

What happened to the traditional method of sticky notes or torn-off notebook paper with just a name, a signature and a time? What is so complex about this idea that it can no longer be used? Sure, it might increase our paper usage a little, but considering the disease that could be spread by these passes, it is worth it. We’re already an overcrowded school; sickness travels like wildfire here as is. We don’t need any help with that, and we don’t need these passes.

WHAT IS THE STAFF EDITORIAL?

The unsigned staff editorial appears in each issue and reflects the majority opinion of the Newsstreak Staff Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is comprised of all editors-in-chief, page editors, advertising managers, photographers and selected freshman journalism students. In no way does our opinion reflect that of the school system or the administration.

Modern-day justice system failing US citizens in regards to rehabilitation Noah Siderhurst Op-Ed Editor Prison in its current state is an inhumane form of punishment and should be abolished. Let me explain.

The origin of prisons in the United States has its roots in the early independence of our nation.

Although incarceration was initially an idea proposed to reform criminals, it soon became clear that simply locking people in a cage with a bible would not magically make them model citizens.

What seemed like a good idea in theory -to rehabilitate criminals who had simply made a mistake and only needed to be shown the error in their ways- had become by the mid-nineteenth century something much different.

The famous English author and social critic Charles Dickens once described the early American prison system as “immeasurably worse than any torture of the body.”

In fact, before prisons were instituted as a means of punishment, torture of the body and public embarrassment were the most common punishments a criminal might face. Jails, before they were seen as a more humane method of punishment and put into use as such, were basically just places to hold criminals while they awaited trial.

More recently, an era of mass incarceration beginning in the early 1970s with marked racial undertones was cheered on by democrats and republicans alike. It is only recently that we have begun to realize the true cost of mass incarceration, both fiscally and socially.

Advocates for criminal justice reform range from Bernie Sanders to the Koch

Sagacious Siderhurst brothers, spanning partisan divides.

Federal judge Mark W. Bennett in 2012 wrote, “If lengthy mandatory sentences for nonviolent drug addicts actually worked, one might be able to rationalize them.

But there is no evidence that they do. I have seen how they leave hundreds of thousands of young children parent-less and thousands of aging, infirm and dying parents childless.

They destroy families and mightily fuel the cycle of poverty and addiction.”

It seems that the best solution we have been able to come up with for the problem of crime and its underlying causes is to throw more and more people, many from already disadvantaged backgrounds and locations, into cages where reports of abuse by guards are not unheard of. Even worse, the private prison industry has made keeping people in jail a corporate interest.

This is why the prison as we know it must fall. The question remaining is how will this be done?

The first step to abolishing prison should be to simply make more things legal, starting, of course, with drugs, but not stopping there. Laws essentially making homelessness a crime (such as those against panhandling and sleeping in public areas) have also got to go. To fill the hole the abolishment of these will inevitably create, policies promoting

affordable housing and unemployment benefits need to be put in place as well. Rather than shoving society’s problems away from our sight, we need to deal with the root cause.

The second step would then be the release of many prisoners who were convicted under these laws and the slow dismantling of our prison system.

U n f o r t u n a t e l y, both of these actions leave a question as to what we should do with the worst violent criminals, such as murderers and rapists.

To solve this problem, a model revolving around restorative justice and mental health care seems to be the best option.

Currently, state prisons hold ten times as many mentally ill inmates than mental institutions, representing about 20 percent of state prison populations, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center, an organization aimed at creating better treatment of mental illness. If we can use restorative justice to rebuild communities broken by violence and get murderers the mental help they need, incarceration will virtually disappear.

Sure, some cases of mental illness require confinement to protect the criminal and others, but it would be on a much, much, much smaller scale, and with an emphasis of treatment and re-integration not isolation and exclusion from society.

Of course, this is not an overnight fix. It will be difficult. There will be many issues along the way.

But to simply give up, to say that our system works when it so clearly doesn’t is detrimental not only to our criminals so desperately in need of our help, but to our very concept of liberty as a paramount right.

Fast Facts about incarceration in U.S.

77% 2.2 37 over

%

of inmates are re-arrested within 5 years

48.6% of people incarcerated in the U.S. are in for drug offenses

million

people are currently incarcerated in a U.S. prison or jail

There are more jails than colleges in the U.S.

of people incarcerated in the U.S. are African American

2.1% of all federal offenses are for violent crimes

ART BY ZOEY FOX

13 Reasons Why displays big impacts of small actions Abby Hissong Editor-In-Chief Since it’s debut as a Netflix original series in late March, 13 Reasons Why has been making waves with its controversial storylines. Based on a novel written by Jay Asher, the show follows Clay Jensen, Dear Abby 2.0 a high school student who comes home one day to a set of 13 cassette tapes left for him by Hannah Baker, a classmate of his who recently committed suicide. Each of the tapes are dedicated to a person who contributed to her decision to kill herself, including the protagonist. While the show has been immensely successful, even becoming the most tweeted about Netflix series ever, it has also received a huge amount of criticism for “glamorizing suicide”. From parents bashing the show’s message on Facebook to angry viewers creating a petition to have the show removed from Netflix altogether, it’s appropriateness for teens has been widely debated by adults without considering the positive effect the story could have on its viewers.

Having gone through four years of high school myself, I can vouch for the fact that everything that happens in the show actually happens in real life too. For example, the first tape Baker makes details a date she went on with a boy in her grade to a local park one night. Even though all they did was kiss, the next day the boy tells his friends that more happened between them, starting a rumor that irrevocably damages Baker’s reputation. These little “white lies” happen all the time in high school, but what this show portrays that others don’t is the long term effects that such small events can put into action. What the series 13 Reasons Why really shows us is that our words and/or actions have a bigger impact on people than we realize and there is never an excuse to treat people poorly, no matter the circumstance.

Nevertheless, 13 Reasons Why goes further than the cookie-cutter lesson to “be a good person”, it portrays the plight of a modern-day teen in a very realistic manner. Baker is not the only one with issues in this show. The people who star in her tapes struggle with some very real problems of their own, including sexual orientation, physical abuse and rape. None of these students match the stereotypical description of a high school bully, in fact, viewers can empathize with most of them. Yet there is no denying that each of the people on her tapes played a very real part in causing Baker to take her life. This realization is jarring, but it forces viewers to accept the hard truth that some mistakes have very permanent results.

Which brings us to the very graphic suicide scene in the last episode that has caused so much backlash. The scene is incredibly intense, not only showing Baker slit each of her wrists in a bathtub, but also her mother finding her dead body. It is a gut-wrenching scene to watch, but it also tackles suicide in a way that no other show I’ve ever scene before has. There is no dramatic music playing in the background, there are no montages of her life as it flashes before her eyes and she does not live. The show may depict Baker taking her life, but it is by no means done in a glamorous fashion. There is nothing beautiful about watching Baker scream in pain as she cuts herself or and there is no elegance in her mother’s anguish when she finds her only child dead in the bathtub upon getting home from work.

The show 13 Reasons Why is important because it makes suicide real in a way that other productions don’t. While some parts of the storyline were definitely dramatized for the sake of viewers, the show still got a lot more right than it did wrong. What critics need to understand is that by tip-toeing around the issue of suicide, society is doing nothing to stop it. Kids in high school as well as those going into high school should watch this show, as it could give them an insight on how to treat others as well as teach them how to look out for students who might be considering suicide. Suicide is a topic that has been swept under the rug for too long and it is time that we educate our youth on how to prevent it before one more person becomes the next Hannah Baker.

April 28, 2017

HOT Or NOT

BY JACQUELINE MATEO-SANCHEZ

Budget costs: Trump’s blueprint of his budget plan states massive budget cuts on departments such as Labor and State.

New album: Drake’s ‘More Life’ breaks his own streaming record.

Missile testing: North Korea is having more frequent missile testing and some have fired toward Japan.

World tour: Korean boy group BTS finished the U.S. leg of their world tour. Performing previously in cities in Chile and Brazil, they’re now headed to Thailand.

Sanctuary cities: Trump and his administration threaten sanctuary cities with taking away their funds.

Beauty and the Beast: The live action film makes $350 million off of their first weekend with $170 million coming from the U.S. Mosul: In Mosul, Iraq, the US led coalition air strike that was targeted at an ISIS truck killed more than a hundred civilians.

Hat policy: The school now allows students to wear hoods and hats.

Teen death: A 17 year old male will be tried as an adult for committing second degree murder in Front Royal, Va. Sponge: Scientists have found a way to clean up oil spills using an oil absorbing sponge.

Missing: EMU graduate was found dead in Congo during a mission trip.

Footprint: The now biggest dinosaur footprint of a Sauropod was found in Australia measuring at 5ft 9 inches.

Missiles: Trump fires missiles at Syrian air base which killed many with the chemical attack.

Musical: Thomas Harrison performed The Wizard of Oz. Construction accident: A construction worker fell fifty feet but only sustained minor injuries to the arm.

Run: The first woman to run the Boston Marathon is now going to run it again after doing it the last time which was fifty years ago.

Charges: Former President of South Korea, Park Geun Hye, is facing charges of bribery and abuse of power.

Fundraiser: Prom Committee is having a t-shirt fundraiser in hopes of reducing the cost of prom tickets.

United Airlines video: A passenger was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight so that a crew member could take his seat. After the incident was captured on video, United Airlines suffered a massive public relations fiasco.

White House Easter egg hunt: 21,000 people gathered for the annual White House Easter egg hunt. 18,000 eggs were hidden.

North Korea missile tests: The North Korean administration said that it will continue to test missiles and that any U.S. intervention would lead to war.

Kendrick album: The rapper Kendrick Lamar released his latest album on Apr. 14. It features appearances by artists U2, Zacari, and Rihanna.

Neil Gorsuch approval: Neil Gorsuch was approved to the bench of the supreme court in a party line vote.

Negative mass: Physicists have developed a fluid with “negative mass,” meaning it moves towards you when pushed.

The Newsstreak

Op-Ed-A5

Physician assisted suicide should be legal Ryan Doerr Staff Reporter

It seems that with a controversial issue like assisted suicide, many people begin to think that they know best in regard to the well-being of complete strangers. It becomes all too easy to misunderstand the aim of assisted suicide as being the last resort of a solely suicidal person. Like several other controversial issues in this day and age, the autonomy of one’s body is at stake in the argument. The matter itself is not one of death, but rather one of life.

Assisted suicide is legal in five states in America: Oregon, Vermont, Washington, California and Vermont. In order to be eligible for this option, people must have a terminal illness and a prognosis of six months or less. For someone who is nearing the end of their life, suicidal thoughts may be a symptom, but they are not caused by the idea of still living, and this marks an important difference between assisted suicide and typical cases. No one wants their loved ones to remember them in a state of

deterioration, or to their bucket list and a child born into poverty or watch themselves escape the inevita- the foster care system may be waste away their last ble weeks--or even subject to abuse, malnourishdays instead of actumonths--of unnec- ment or incarceration and will ally living. When an essary physical and not experience the life that their mother may feel they deindividual’s quality of emotional pain. served--and that she cannot life no longer takes To resolve this Ryan’s provide.

A dying cancer victim precedence over cognitive dissoRamblings simply keeping them nance, I have to look may be able to survive for sevalive, the dying process has al- at this very much as I have to eral months longer, but will live ready begun. look at abortion: death is never with nausea, pain, fatigue and The idea of suicide often something that people in a sta- a deep emotional toll that will makes people uncomfortable, ble state of mind look forward scar their loved ones as well and it has become a topic in to. It occurs not out of desire, as themselves. While you may our society that is somewhat but necessity. Removing a po- not agree with one’s decision taboo, despite the frequency tential fetus from one’s body to alleviate potential suffering, of depression and suicide in is not an event that could be giving them the option to make America today. People strug- considered favorable to any the hard choices in life should gle to separate the image they sane person; dying from an in- never be unavailable. have in their head of the typical curable form of suicide victim from that of the cancer at age 30 American position on dying cancer patient or quick- isn’t something physician assisted suicide: ly sliding dementia victim. The that anyone idea of suicide as not only a could anticipate choice to not “try to improve or look forward things”, but also as a sin, is diffi- to, either. cult to take away from the term In both casr In favo “assisted suicide.” For assisted es, the potenOppos 49% ed suicide patients, the choice to tial for life may 5 1% change their position in life has be present, but been taken away from them. the quality of They know that they will die, life is what’s in and they would rather live the question. While rest of their days as pain-free the argument INFORMATION FROM HEALTHRESEARCHFUNDING.ORG as possible, say their good- can always be INFOGRAPHIC BY RYAN DOERR byes, knock some items off made for life,

Current rap culture creates unrealistic view of life Sam Heie Feature Editor The hip-hop and rap genre began in the 1970’s with parttime poets and musicians blazing the path into the new undiscovered category. Since some of the first poetic rappers, we have seen the genre become dance music, then gangsterized, then novelized, and now we are in the contemporary stage of mainstream rap: brainless drill rap. The majority of modern day rappers don’t tell stories or vivid descriptions of their struggles in life. Instead, they spurt support for violence and drug abuse. I, as well as anyone else that goes against contemporary rap, am guilty of listening to some of the music that falls under the mainstream drill rap, but it is important to understand the song and the artist before taking lyrics to heart.

Murder, drugs and violence were not introduced to rap until groups like N.W.A and other big city gangster rappers adopted rap into their culture. In the beginning, the issues were talk-

ed about in a logical It’s easy to say that story format that apyou can listen to the pealed to the masses music without bebecause it was a new lieving what it says, narrative of a true but the power of struggle that they subliminal messages had never heard. In is much more powHeie-er retaliation, rappers at erful than our gullPower the turn of the cenible brains. When tury such as 50 Cent you find a song you and Eminem rapped and har- like, you listen to it repetitivemonically educated us about ly, which causes it to be in your their struggles with violence subconscious. and drug abuse to discourage Rap today creates an unrecrowds from experiencing what alistic and unfair vision of life. they did. This was the last gen- It seems to only talk about eration of true and pure lyrical drugs, money and girls. This genius. setup for how you should live My revelation to the rap your life is only lived by a seindustries messages occurred lect few, but is expected to be when I started looking up the the goal of everybody. Rappers lyrics to songs that I heard on rise to success not through talSpotify. The songs that I was ent anymore, but only through just listening and bumping to abiding to these mainstream started to not look so good ideas. Artists like 21 Savage and when I put the slightest bit of Lil Yachty have admitted in the effort into finding out what the past to writing verses for their song was about. A new under- songs under the influence of standing of the songs did not promethazine in under 10 minturn out well for any of my play- utes, as Lil Yachty said in an inlists. No one in their right mind terview about his song featurbelieves that murder, drug ing Kyle, iSpy. abuse, domestic violence and This new type of ‘sing along so much more is acceptable. to rappers that are talking

about homicide’ has also desensitized an entire generation to real struggles. You’ll religiously recite lyrics of drug abuse and violence, but since you heard it on Q101, how bad can it be? This is the problem with drill rap. The modern waves of music present real issues as if they’re no big deal and a part of everyday life.

Rappers will often advocate for violence, and when you accept that as a lifestyle you want to live, you are refusing to acknowledge the experiences of kids growing up in slums with unresponsive and crack-addicted parents. That is the real lifestyle that rappers lead you to, not fame and glory.

All of this said, there are still artists that have tremendous talent in what they do, but they are often overlooked for rappers with less talent.

As I already admitted, everyone is guilty of listening to hype drill rap on occasion. What’s important to do with every song you listen to is to analyze what the artist is saying and critically think about the implications of what they are saying.

College rejection letters do not have to mean disappointment Hannah Daniel Staff Reporter

them. will face rejections When this rejecduring their life, tion from a program, whether it be by a We’ve all seen the videos; college, a grant, a school or even job the ones where a high school job or a love interinevitably happens senior, surrounded by friends est. Most applicable (which it will), do and family, opens his/her col- to our lives are colnot fret. I’m a firm lege letter and realizes, “Oh my lege rejections, and Hannah-Rama believer in a healthy god”, they are going to their even the smartest, amount of wallowdream school! Cheering en- most flawless, pering, and you should sues, hugging, crying, laughing, fectly resume-ed students will spend some time alone. Let and the whole thing leaves you get rejected by a school. It just yourself feel bad, envious and feeling warm and fuzzy about happens. Instead of showing angry. Let yourself cry, a lot, the possibility of this same these rejections and normal- and complain to anyone and thing happening to you. But no izing them, parents, friends everyone. Eventually the melmatter how touching the videos and teachers only focus on the ancholy will pass, but you need are, there is something major good- what went right in the to release those emotions bemissing from them, something process- and in doing so they fore you can ever feel better. that happens to all students ev- hide the truth of college reAlso, take solace in your erywhere. These videos don’t jections. And unfortunately, it loved ones. They’ll keep you show the flip side: the moment left me, crying on my bed one rational in these sad times, when the college or program of sunny afternoon, to feel like the and they will remind you the your dream rejects you. only person in the world that fundamental truth of the rejecThese can be very mislead- has ever had their heart broken tion process: most of the time, ing, because every person because a school didn’t want your rejection is not because of something you did wrong. Some colleges don’t have space for another science major, and need to choose an Information from U.S. News and World Report equally qualified candiNational date who is majoring in Aristotelian Theory in 1. Stanford University World War Two or else Acceptance rate: 5% their Comparative Phi2. Columbia University losophy in the Modern Acceptance rate: 6% Age department will go under. Sometimes it’s 3. Harvard University a numbers game, and Acceptance rate: 6% there isn’t anything you can do about it.

Local I knew going into 1. Liberty University (Lynchburg, VA) the application process Acceptance rate: 21% meant was going to be rejected somewhere, 2. Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA) so I also knew needed Acceptance rate: 24% to plan intelligently. My 6. University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) thought process went Acceptance rate: 30% a little like this: If my top college had a 45% INFOGRAPHIC BY NOAH SIDERHURST acceptance rate, I need

Lowest college acceptance rates

to apply to two of those caliber schools. If my school has a super selective, ultra-competitive selection rate of 10%, for instance, then I needed to apply to 10 of those schools, just to have options. This may seem a little excessive, and obviously, applications are expensive and not everyone has this luxury, but the bigger point that I’m making is about covering your bases. You’re going to get rejected somewhere, and I’d rather have a similar college waiting to accept me than be left with a slew of safety schools I may not be wholeheartedly invested in.

And most of the time, you’ll be better because of it. The best people in life are ones that meet challenges, and ultimately failures, with confidence.

Right now, it feels like college decisions are much bigger than they are. Yes, while your future is altered slightly because of each “Congratulations!” or “We regret to inform you,” you have to trust that whatever path you take, even if it’s not your planned one, will be wonderful in its own way. If my grandmother hadn’t been rejected from her two top schools, she never would’ve met my grandfather, or had my father… and the rest is history.

Ultimately, rejection happens to everyone, no matter who you are, how impressive your academics or how many apps you’ve made to detect skin cancer in its early stages (I did meet a high school senior who created such an app). Just remember when it happens, it’s okay to cry, it’s not your fault and that college is truly missing out on the outstanding person you are.

The Newsstreak

April 28, 2017

Feature - A6

TURN UP THE JAMS

Drake’s More Life more of a playlist Madison Varner Advertising Manager Drake’s highly anticipated album, More Life, was released on March 18, and it was a pretty big hit, breaking Apple Music’s streaming records.

Three singles were released from the album in October 2016. The hit song, Fake Love, was one of the released singles that was popular amongst fans and got people excited for the new album.

The album includes 22 songs, featuring many well know artists such as Travis Scott, Kanye West, PARTYNEXTDOOR and more.

Each song varies from the other and reflects on some of Drake’s older music, as well as some of his new music. This album is very different because it doesn’t have a theme like his older albums did. More Life is more of a playlist because of how versatile and all over the place it is, unlike most albums. This includes many songs and genres of music which makes it suitable for a variety of people.

Drake started his career by acting on the show Degrassi, which ended pretty

quickly. When he first started in the music business, many people wondered how in the world he was going to make it in music.

Since then,he has released a new album every year since 2009. With each album having hits, people grew to love him.

I t h i n k this album is just another reason to love him and his versatility.

A f te r D r a ke ’s last alb u m Views, many fans were left confused, and wondered what happened to the old classic. In this album many of the songs sound like the real and old Drake that fans love. All 22 of the songs are difficult to keep up with, but the long track list makes the album unique because more artists don’t make projects that long.

Overall,l I think this album is really great for any music lover. It’s very versatile and has many options.

Some of my personal favorites are “Blem”, “Since Way Back” and “Do Not Disturb”. I would definitely recommend this album for anyone who wants a variety of new music to listen to.

“Overall, this album is really great for any music lover. It’s very versatile; it has so many options.”

MORE LIFE. Drake’s newest album, More Life, could be considered more of a playlist, considering the length of the project. It includes work from many other popular artists as well as Drake himself. More Life was released on March 18, 2017.

Mars’s third album comes classy, trashy KiYosia Wallace Staff Reporter

DIVIDE. Ed Sheeran named his newest album “Divide”, after “Multiply” and “Plus”. The album includes 16 songs and was released on March 3, 2017. Two of the songs, “Castle on the Hill” and “Shape of You” were released on January 6, 2017 as lead singles.

Ed Sheeran’s Divide follows mathematical album theme

Jewelia Rodrigez Staff Reporter

Ed Sheeran, the famous English singer/songwriter released his third album, Divide, on March 3, with 16 brilliant new songs. These songs are all number one on the billboard 200 music charts. Since then, he has sold 451,000 total albums.

Ed Sheeran decided to stay with a mathematical theme when he was naming his albums. Since his previous two albums were called multiply (x) and plus (+). He

named his second album multiply because it made everything that was on plus bigger. Then, three years later, he released his number one selling album, Divide.

I really enjoyed listening to Ed Sheeran’s new album divide because, I noticed that all of his songs are written about him and his life growing up. I enjoyed his song Supermarket flowers, the song he sang about his grandmother’s death, in particular. He has a ton of passion when singing any of his songs, but with this song you can definitely feel the emotions he feels.

Bruno Mars’ style has alway been somewhat unique. It is a mix of old school, pop and R&B. With his new album,24K Magic, he followed his exact rules.

He kept it classy, somewhat trashy, and, as always,hype. He uses similar beats and some slow ones in all his songs, but they seem to make you always sing along. He always such a good flow. He speaks the truth. Regardless, his true feelings and emotions are always heard in each song on the album. One of my personal favorites was 24K Magic, because who just doesn’t want to get out of their chair and dance when it comes on?

Another one of my favorites was That’s What I Like, because it is just another song that just personally I like. He is a great artist,and this album may not be the best for when you are in your feelings, but was a great album. From the funky beats to his word phrases and strategies,his execution of the album was excellent. The album was definitely a sort of new twist for Bruno Mars. I

24K MAGIC. American musician Bruno Mars released his third album, 24K Magic, on November 18, 2016. The album includes songs “24K Magic”, “Chunky”, “That’s What I Like” and “Finesse” along with several other songs. would give it a 7/10 rating.

Even though it was a good album,some of his word usage was a little touchy.

But regardless,what artists isn’t touchy? What artist doesn’t use inappropriate language? The cover for his

album was a little plain and not too eye catching,which kind of knocked down the score for me, but if someone I asked I would definitely tell them that this is an album they should listen to.

Man on the Street: What is your favorite album of 2017 so far?

Skala Barakay, 9 “I like Kendrick’s new album.”

Wilmer Hernandez, 12 “I’m not big on music.”

Emilee Hussack, Elizabeth Tyler, 12 English Teacher “I’m usually the person “I’m still rocking Chance who randomly picks difthe Rapper’s Coloring ferent songs from everyBook.” body.”

Marina Fermin, 11 “I usually listen to all types of music.”

April 28, 2017

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April 28, 2017

Feature-A9

The Newsstreak

AP teachers offer after school review for students Lucie Rutherford Print Editor-In-Chief

With the light at the end of the tunnel near for many high school students, whether it be graduation or summertime before another year, there’s one more road block in the path of every AP student: the AP exam. Starting during the first week of May, students enrolled in any kind of AP class take the test that they’ve been preparing for all year. Nearing the big tests, students amp up their study habits and teachers switch over their class routines.

Starting at the end of March, AP psychology and European history teacher Marc Healy began weekly study sessions for his classes.

“For the European history kids, we started after school review [at the end of March],” Healy said. Unlike most teachers, Healy has to alternate his weeks between the two subjects. “[The psychology students] do [review sessions] for the week and a half leading up to the AP exam, and then I’ll come back and do Euro because they take the exam a little bit later.”

Though he offers these study sessions, Healy stresses that students must prepare outside of the classroom as well.

“A lot of the review for the AP exam and getting ready for that has to be student-generated. There’s not a whole lot of time in class to go back and spend time to review,” Healy said. “A lot of the time I’m going to spend in class leading up to the exam is test prep, practice exams, those sorts of things. So as far as content review, they probably have to do a lot of that on their own.”

AP biology teacher Gehrie Bair will also be offering study sessions for his students, though plans to dedicate whole class times to preparation.

“We will make sure we’re finishing content early enough that we have a couple days before the test to review, and then I’ll offer review sessions either before school or after school depending on their schedules to go over any stuff we can’t fit in during class,” Bair said.

In the AP Euro and psychology sessions run by Healy, he tries to have his students recognize their strengths and weaknesses. “[I have them] go back and help them remember things back from August and September and slowly allow them to figure out a study plan that they can use over the next six weeks and kind of let them understand perhaps what area of content they’re deficient in so they can focus on that,” Healy said.

Sophomore Eric Ramirez has been attending the AP Euro sessions on every occasion he can. “[I’m trying to get] a review about all the material since it’s so hard to remember everything that we’ve learned in the past,” Ramirez said. “[The sessions are] collaborative, you work with everyone else that’s in the study sessions then just review together and try to remember what we’ve learned.”

In holding study groups, Bair hopes to not only mentally prepare students, but give them a sense of confidence on exam day.

“Confidence, that’s the biggest thing [that I hope they gain], but also just putting stuff back in their head that they may have forgotten from before, so it’s more like a refresher session than it is a re-teaching session,” Bair said. “There’s also some specific lab things that I haven’t done yet that we’ll hit in the class time that we have to review, there’s certain sheets that they get during the test that we haven’t talked about. It’s also just picking up those last minute little things that they need as well.”

What are you stressed about?

Juan Perez Cardoso, Senior “The thing that stresses me out the most is the amount of work I get from all my classes. Also the amount of time I have to finish that work outside of school because of soccer.”

Tommy Karageorge, Sophomore “I’m stressed about my final English exam.”

Liam Mcgehee, Junior “Math. I hate it with a passion.”

Parker Rising, Sophomore “One thing I’m stressed about is my school work and staying on top of everything, because with a lot of honors and AP classes it’s stressful.”

Infographic by Carson Rising

PHOTO BY LUCIE RUTHERFORD

STUDY BUDDIES. Sophomores Marena Benton, Julia Inouye and Anna Rath compare answers for an AP European History multiple choice practice test during an after school review session.

For many students, with the AP exam comes stress, and according to Bair, teachers experience this as well.

“I see [stress] with teachers too. I want my students to do as well as they can possibly do, and they want to do as well as they can do, so you know, it’s stress for all of us, but that’s life. I see more stress in the students that have multiple APs because they’re kind of spread a little thin through that time period, but overall, they’re stressed, but we try to deal with it,” Bair said.

Some students may stress out about the upcoming exam while others, such as Ramirez, don’t fret too much.

“I’m sort of stressed, but to me it’s just another test, another exam,” Ramirez said.

For Healy’s AP Euro students, who are mostly sophomores, this will be their first AP exam.

“I don’t think they know to stress yet.

For a lot of them it’s their first AP exam, especially for the tenth graders and they don’t necessarily understand what they’re getting ready to get into, a lot of them don’t,” Healy said. “The more serious of a student you are, the more stressed you become.”

The psychology exam will take place on May 1, biology on May 8 and European history on May 12.

Teachers, students begin final projects Sarah Earle News Editor As spring makes its way, end of the year projects have begun. For many, this time of year is known to be the most stressful, yet also an indication for the school year coming to an end.

Government teacher Jay Hook has prepared his students for their Government Service Learning Project, which will be the biggest project of the year for his class.

“The first two-thirds of the year we have to do our regular government stuff, so we have to get that in a compact time frame. [The city departments] sort of present their ideas to us and we go forth from there.

We have three check-in days, where the groups have to show us what they’ve done so far and we can critique and move forward with goals from there,” Hook said. “We have five groups that select projects from different city departments. The last third of the year [the students] go out along with their city leader and they work on those projects and then we present those to city council in May.” Unlike previous years, Hook decided to change

certain things, that way students could be more prepared for their presentations.

“Check-in, where you have to have certain things done, is a little earlier than it was last year just [because] we have a dress rehearsal in the middle of May before we present to city council,” Hook said.

“We put the two check-in days in March and April, rather than putting things off and procrastinating.”

Hook believes the project is a ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for seniors.

“Especially for the seniors, they know this is one of the last big things that most of them have to do. They get to get out of school; they’re not in the classroom, so they like that part.,” Hook said.

Despite it being a continual project he uses, Hook believes this experience is still effective for students. “[The purpose of this project is] one, for us to give back to the city of Harrisonburg and two, so that the students can get a more realistic picture of what people actually do for our city and in our city to make it successful,” Hook said.

On a much different side of the school, choral director Bethany Houff has begun preparing her students

for their final concert in June.

“We have our last concert of the year on June first... We’ll be starting new songs in each of our choir classes and working really hard to learn those songs so that we’re ready to perform them to an audience in June,” Houff said. “We do four concerts every year; we did one in October, one in December, one in March and then one at the end of the year.”

Houff has mixed feelings about the concert, but is looking forward to it overall. “[The end of the year concert] is a good opportunity to celebrate the seniors, especially the seniors who have been singing all four years of high school.

Every year we close our concert with the same song and we invite alumni up on the stage to join us. It’s really wonderful to reconnect with old friends who are able to come back and join us for our last concert of the year,” Houff said. “[This end of the year concert] is bittersweet. It’s always hard to see the seniors go, but it’s also exciting for them to be starting something new and to be moving on and growing up.”

As for the music being performed, Houff partic-

ularly likes to introduce songs that students may not typically listen to, even songs that are in different languages or styles.

“I think the music that we sing at the end of the year is more difficult than the music we were singing at the beginning of the year, so I think it shows the complexities of what we’ve learned throughout the year,” Houff said. “We have four choirs and each choir will probably sing three songs and then we’ll have a combined closer; [we’ll have] probably 13 songs in the concert. We learn new songs for every concert, so it’s really fun for students to sing in different languages and sing in different styles.”

Houff anticipates a good crowd and invites anyone to attend. The concert will be held on June 1 at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium at HHS with no ticket fees.

“I’m hoping a lot of people will attend our last concert,” Houff said. “We always like to bring what we’ve learned from the classroom to the public. I think it’s really important to share what we’ve learned... to the parents and the school community. This is our final celebration of everything that we’ve learned this year.”

We’re Going On a Trip...

April 28, 2017

Experience-A10

The Newsstreak

Throughout the course of the school year, HHS clubs have been known to travel across and even out of the country.

This year is not an exception with students traveling to Costa Rica and more.

Exchange students travel to Costa Rica Vivian Neal Staff Reporter

1996 marks the year when the Costa Rican Colegio Metodista school and HHS exchange program came into existence. The program involves a two to three week trip to allow for students to visit sites in Costa Rica, go to school with the Costa Rican exchange students, visit the Panama Canal and build their confidence in the Spanish language. With differences in culture, it can oftentimes be an overwhelming experience for students, but Phil Yutzy, Spanish teacher and Costa Rica trip organizer, has always provided some key advice for all students prepared to take the step into another country.

“One of the most important recommendations I have for students is leave the United States behind and have an open mind. Don’t spend your time on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat with people in the United States. Don’t spend your time wishing you had a hamburger. Don’t spend your time missing the United States,” Yutzy said. “Take your time getting as much experience out of the countries we are in. Then when you get home, you can have all those things you were missing at the time. If people spend a lot of time allowing themselves to be homesick and miss things, they’ll lose a large part of the time they have on the trip.”

The exchange works by allowing the Costa Rican students to come during their time that is considered their break from school which is in January through February. They come every year to Harrisonburg, while HHS students are only able to go

on the trip every two years during June and July when Colegio Metodista is in session. Despite the staggering between trips, the Costa Rican students that have been coming to visit have been able to fuel the interest in traveling to their country. Sophomore Abby Campillo is one student who has been involved in multiple exchange student experiences.

“My family, [specifically] my older sister, began hosting Costa Rican exchange students and we really enjoyed that whole experience. My sister also went on the Costa Rican trip two years ago,” Campillo said. “I’m still in contact with the Costa Rican student we hosted last year, so I will probably contact her to see if we can meet up.”

Students will also be able to have an experience similar to their Costa Rican exchange student as each student will be set up with a family. In most cases they will be placed with the family of the student they exchanged with, but sometimes students may be placed with a whole new family.

“Usually people identify that the best part of the trip is staying with a family. That’s something students are usually scared about at first, but they end up really feeling that that is the most rewarding part of the trip,” Yutzy said.

With the Costa Rican exchange program, students have been able to get a level of immersion that is more common in college exchange programs. To expand on the possible exchange experience, Yutzy is setting up a contact with a high school in Spain through JMU. This will allow for a variety of Spanish speaking experiences for all Harrisonburg High School students.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PHIL YUTZY FIESTA! (Above) Students cross a bridge on rain forest tour. (Below) Senior Ciara Hampton enjoys a boating expedition with the group. (Left) Charles Blair and son relax on the Costa Rican coast

Model United Nations representatives attend Baltimore conference Lucie Rutherford Editor-in-chief World History teacher Lawson Yoder has been at HHS for five years now, and is finally getting the chance to integrate Model United Nations, or MUN, as one of the clubs offered to the student body.

When previously teaching in Brazil, Yoder was a part of the student-run, world issues-based club, and has wanted to introduce the activity to HHS as well. “[MUN is an] interdisciplinary activity that deals with all kinds of issues, more so of the social studies discipline, but from current events to economics, geography and political issues,” Yoder said. “Furthermore, on top of that, you’re developing speaking [skills], giving presentations. It’s like a forensics or debate kind of idea, [there are] so many different skills and interests wrapped into one.”

On Saturday, April 1, Yoder accompanied the newly put together group of four students to Baltimore, Maryland for their first MUN simulation. The four students were sophomore Glorious Njoroge and juniors Lucie Rutherford, Tyler Wood and Stephany Tolliver.

“They are just volunteering, they are interested. I talked to them during the year trying to stir up some interest, and they responded, evidently they like social studies issues and such,” Yoder said. “They [represent] a country, that’s kind of the cool part about it. They do a little research, it’s not an overwhelming amount of research, but it’s some preparation. For example, if you’re representing Belarus, [you have

to] kind of try to read about Belarus a little bit to know who you are.”

Yoder stresses that at an MUN conference, adults play no part, they simply sit on the edges and let the students take over. “[The students] go to this event, they represent their country in this arena where we’re working on international issues, trying to solve crises and make the world a better place. In that process, they have to learn how to compromise, negotiate, they have to be knowledgeable on their subject,” Yoder said.

According to Yoder, some conferences get up into the thousands in terms of how many students attend. For HHS’s first experience in Baltimore, they started out a little bit smaller.

“This one in Baltimore is run by a couple high schools and I think it’s a smaller one. I don’t think there’s going to be a thousand students there, but I think it’s going to be a very good first opportunity for us to learn and hopefully they get excited about this to build on for the future,” Yoder said.

On the day of the conference, sophomore Glorious Njoroge portrayed Reince Priebus as part of Donald Trump’s cabinet, which was randomly assigned to her a couple weeks before the simulation.

“I’ve always been into politics, and I’ve always wanted to understand how it works more, and anything United Nations is a great place to start, so I thought doing a Model [United Nations] would be really interesting,” Njoroge said.

As it was her first time, Njoroge was going in cold, not quite sure what to expect.

“I really thought it was just going to be people arguing over one topic, but once I came here I realized that there’s at least more than a dozen topics people talk about and they really take on the person that they’re suppose to be portraying, or the country,” Njoroge said.

Though she enjoyed the experience, Njoroge was initially overwhelmed.

“I definitely didn’t really know what was happening, especially because there are different rules and different things you have to say on certain occasions, but I think it was really good the first time, now I know what to do,” Njoroge said.

Once through that initial feeling, Njoroge began to feel more comfortable in her position.

“I think [my favorite part] would be when I really understood the rules, so I really understood what people were saying and how I would answer them, and I could understand the topics that they were talking about,” Njoroge said.

Junior Tyler Wood had a slightly different role than Njoroge, as he was part of the United Nations General Assembly, representing Ireland. Like Njoroge, Wood was not sure what to expect.

“I thought it would be a staged thing, where the different committees would say their speeches on stage, but turns out each committee was divided into a different room,” Wood said.

The different committees that the HHS group participated in consisted of the

Presidential Cabinet, General Assembly and Security Council.

Wood is not one to be fully interested in politics, but he was moreso interested in having a new opportunity.

“I’ve never even heard of [MUN] and I thought it would be a good experience,” Wood said. “It’s not something that I’ve looked into as a career, but it’s something that I research every now and then.”

Now with one conference under his belt, Yoder is looking towards the future of MUN and building up.

“We’re looking for more and more people to join us.

[Students] can talk to people who are involved this year and hopefully build on a good experience because next year we’ll try to

go to another one, if not two, and we can have a big group,” Yoder said.

For Yoder, starting MUN has been a great experience thus far, and something that is just right for HHS. “I’m really excited that we have a group of students that are interested to explore this, I’m really excited to be the faculty sponsor for this, to get this hopefully off the ground,” Yoder said. “I have experience with MUNs from different schools and I know how cool it can be, how fun, and since as a student body we have such incredible, wonderful diversity from different country perspectives, to go to a MUN simulation where we represent countries of the world, I think it’s just a perfect fit for who we are.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF LAWSON YODER OBJECTION! Junior Lucie Rutherford (fourth in from the right) and other Model United Nations students discuss the crisis in the South China Sea. Rutherford represented Belarus as a member of the United Nations Security Council.

The Newsstreak

April 28, 2017

Feature-A11

Every Person Has A Story

Lawson spreads her passion of dance through teaching Kenyaa Wright Staff Reporter

Julia Lawton is a freshman at Harrisonburg High School, both a ballet dancer and instructor at Skyline Middle School. Lawton has been a ballet dancer ever since she was a young girl: her passion for dance has been growing since.

“I started dancing when I was four years old, and it’s so important to me. I have studied ballet, jazz, modern and tap dancing at Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation and Dance and Company. I plan to continue with dance and make it my career,” Lawton Said “I have been an assistant dance teacher for many years at Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation, and will be officially team-teaching classes with my dance partner Sophia [Thomas] during the 2017-2018 school year,” Lawton said.

To Lawton, ballet is a way of showing people your thoughts through actions.

“Ballet is a chance to communicate ideas

through movement. Even though ballet is performed for others, I think of ballet as something I do for myself. I have to be motivated to work hard and get better,” Lawton said.

Even as her skills increase through the years, there is always room for practice and improvement.

“In order to improve as a dancer, you need to have a lot of control over your body and have the power and determination to make it happen. It’s always okay to make a mistake or fall out of a turn; personally, I struggle with this. I often get very caught up in the control and technical aspect of dancing, but sometimes you just have to let go and dance,” Lawton said.

Lawton teaches Skyline Middle School students ballet every Monday and Thursday after school from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Noemi Rosas Cande, Belicia Castro, Lena Blagg and Harmony Cannon are the gymnasts that Lawton and Thomas instruct at SKMS. “I feel so honored to share my passion for dance,

I love seeing the dancers improve from week to week… Our practices are going very well, but things can be complicated, and I learn from them,” Lawton said. “The hardest part for me is the teaching. Beginning teen dancers [there’s] the challenge of how much to correct [them], Lawton said.”

“I have been dancing my whole life, so the steps that we are doing are like second nature to me. However, it is all new to the girls in ballet club. I have learned that it is very important to not get so caught up in the technique. It’s not going to be perfect, and that’s okay,” Lawton said.

Despite the challenges,Lawton is not discouraged because she is still working and teaching young girls.

“With this group of dancers especially, it is easy to motivate them and get them excited about dancing. My biggest goal for ballet club is to spread the love for dance, and I feel very fortunate to have such sweet students,” Lawton

PHOTO BY KENYAA WRIGHT

STAND TALL. Julia Lawton demonstrates an arabesque at the barre while conducting one of the dance classes she teachers at the Harrisonburg Rec Center. said.

On top their teaching, Lawton and her dance partner Sophia have created a routine for themselves that they believe should improve dramatically once some moves are tweaked here and there.

“Before each meeting, Sophia and I plan out ex-

actly what we are doing for that day. We like to be very prepared so that we don’t waste any time. I believe very strongly that consistency is the key to success, so we conduct class in the same order every time. With our performance coming up however, I think we will have to work

on dividing our time a little differently so that we can focus more on the dance,” Lawton said.

Julia and her dancers will be performing as part of the Valley Dance Showcase at HHS on Wednesday, May 10 at 7 p.m.

Huffman builds life-long relationships Aljubori seeks new life in America for family Apurva Sharma Staff Reporter

PHOTO COURTESY OF MADISON HUFFMAN

FAMILY REUNION. Madison Huffman with five of her six siblings: Maddy, Mathew, Matt, Emmie and Ellie.

Andi Fox Feature Editor Sophomore Madison Huffman has six siblings, four of them sharing the same name. Huffman enjoys having such a large family, because making friends is almost guaranteed.

“A thing I like about a lot of siblings is that you are able to make more bonds and life-long friends. It is nice to be able to have more people there for you,” Huffman said. “My step sister, Maddy, and I have become best friends over the course of the past few years.”

The ages of Huffman’s siblings range from 12 years old to 27 years old, which can make it difficult for her whole family to get together.

“My half sister, Hannah, lives away in Colorado, but my whole family gets together at least twice a year,” Huffman said.

Huffman is exactly the middle child, with three younger siblings

and three older siblings.

“An advantage of being a middle child is that sometimes you get spoiled because [your family] feels like they are leaving you out. A disadvantage is also the fact that you do get left out a lot,” Huffman said. “You also don’t get treated like the oldest or youngest so there are really no benefits there.”

According to Huffman, having a large family is made more interesting by the fact that some of her sibling have the same names.

“We’re a blended family, [so] sometimes it’s a little confusing.

My sister and I have the same name and my brothers have the same name, so it’s kind of hard sometimes to know who they are talking to,” Huffman said.

Huffman’s family does their best to avoid as much confusion as possible.

“We don’t get mixed up because my step-sister goes by Maddy and I go by Madison. My brother goes by Matthew and

my step brother goes by Matt,” Huffman said.

Huffman has known her step-siblings her whole life, so having the same name was not a surprise for them.

Even with having such a big family, Huffman has been able to individualize herself through playing softball. Out of her two brothers and four sisters, Huffman is the only one who plays.

Huffman started playing when she was six years old, and fell in love with it.

“When I was little, I started to play [softball], and it’s something that I’ve just done ever since. I played on the little league team in Harrisonburg,” Huffman said.

Huffman enjoys playing softball, because it gives her an opportunity to hang out with friends outside of school.

“I love the sense of teamwork that we have and being able to communicate with others,” Huffman said. “[I like] just being able to gain friends.”

It is not everyday that somebody calmly mentions that they survived a war. Born on Aug 28, 2000 in Baghdad, Iraq, Junior Aya Aljubouri had to face many hardships from a young age.

She lived in Iraq for six years, and then moved to Syria because Iraq was not safe to live in. She then lived in Syria for about seven years.

In Syria, Aljubouri lived in a city called Baqin when the war was ongoing. She went to Damascus School, which is situated in the capital of Syria.

Contrary to what many people believe, Aljubouri says students still went to school even though there was a constant fear of getting attacked at the back of their minds. The war got worse, and her family ultimately decided to move to the United States in 2014 for the betterment of Aljubouri and her younger brother, who currently studies in the eighth grade.

“Before I moved here, life was a little hard, but at the same time I had a lot of friends and my family was there so it was fun,” Aljubouri said.

She remarked that moving here was a big decision for Aljubouri and her family because they had to leave their country for an entirely new lifestyle, but their future depended on it.

“It was hard adjusting here because of the language, culture, religions, and weather which were pretty different,” Aljubouri said.

Because English wasn’t taught at her previous schools, Aljubouri was completely new to the language. She says it was really hard to understand the things being taught at school, and to make friends. She then joined the ESL program and claims that it was extremely helpful in allowing her to be involved in class and to socialize.

“The teachers were a big help. Mrs. Beheraj, Mr. Phillips, Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Martinez, Mrs. FM, everybody encouraged me and supported me, and made me who I am today,” Aljubouri said.

Before moving to the states, Aljubouri’s father was a carpenter in Syria, and her mother was a housewife. After moving here, her father now works at an Arabic store in Harrisonburg, and her mother takes care of her newborn baby, Aljubouri’s little sister, and makes sure that everyone comes back to a warm and happy home.

Despite everything she had to go through, Aljubouri has a positive outlook towards her life and future. She plans on going to college, and hopefully med school for now.

“The war made me want to protect my family more than anything, and made me feel that life is precious and short,” Aljubouri said. “Also, it made me realize that you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow, that things that you cannot even imagine can happen to you. It was so hard, and it is still hard, to live without being anxious and scared.”

April 28, 2017

Feature-A12

The Newsstreak

Lawton chooses Wellesley College for out of state school Olivia Comer Online Editor-in-Chief Going to college in your home state has its advantages; financial aid is more plentiful, it’s closer to home and one has a general familiarity with the area.

Despite these advantages, some students decide to leave the state in search of a change or the right college.

Senior Cecily Lawton has chosen to attend Wellesley College in Massachusetts next fall.

“So it’s a women’s college, and a lot of factors went into that. I think mostly the great academics and also the amount of love and support everyone has for each other there [lead me to choose Wellesley College],” Lawton said.

Wellesley College is a medium-sized school with roughly 2356 undergrads, meaning it provides more individual attention from professors that a larger state school might not offer. Wellesley also specializes in sciences which suits Lawton’s aspirations of becoming a marine biologist.

“I’m going to study biology and possibly do a mi-

nor in jazz saxophone. [The location] is really good for me because I have a lot of plans after college for grad school because I want to be a marine biologist, and there’s a lot of really, really good programs right in the area with MIT and Harvard,” Lawton said.

Choosing to go out of state was an easy decision for Lawton because her home state is not actually Virginia. Lawton is from New York, making an East Coast city an easy choice for a new home. “[For] my in-state schools I had UVA and William and Mary and then [for] my out of state ones I had a lot of Ivy’s and then a couple of larger state schools like Stony Brook University in New York,” Lawton said. “I’m from New York, so it was a lot easier for me to make the decision to go out of state, and I knew that if I got into one of my really elite schools that it would be a financially viable decision.”

In the fall Lawton will be attending the all female Wellesley College, where notable alumni Hillary Clinton also attended. “More than anything I’m just excited to get out of my comfort

PHOTO BY ABBY HISSONG THE NEXT STEP. Senior Cecily Lawton plans to attend an all female school after this year, Wellesly College in Wellesly, Massachusetts. “I’m going to study biology and possibly do a minor in jazz saxophone... I have a lot of plans after college for grad school because I want to be a marine biologist, and there’s a lot of really, really good programs right in the area with MIT and Harvard,” Lawton said. zone and experience new things. Going to a school that is almost nine hours

away is a little scary, but in the long run it is going to be worth it,” Lawton said. “All

Francois enlists in Army National Guard Anna Rath Feature Editor Chanelle Francois is not just your typical high school senior, she is also currently a Private First Class (PFC) in the Army National Guard. Francois spends one weekend a month and her summer training ever since she joined a year ago. Francois joined the Army National Guard last year after talking to a recruiter here at school during her lunch shift.

“I joined the military because I thought it would be a pretty cool experience. I thought it would help me gain a bigger understanding, and get to travel around the world and do cool things. And then I also found out they pay for college, so that’s a good reason to stay in the national guard,” Francois said.

Francois is planning to stay in the Army National Guard and attend college next year.

“I’m definitely going to college next year, I’m going to use all those college benefits. I’m going to go to Blue Ridge for two years and then transfer over to Virginia Commonwealth University,” Francois said.

Francois would like to major in criminology and forensics and minor in criminal justice. One day she would like to be a criminal investigator and is thinking about doing active duty a few years after she finishes college. Francois currently has an eight year contract with the military and would like to keep it going until she can retire.

Francois’ interest for the military started when she joined JROTC. “I got interested in the military, not only through the JROTC program but also with seeing the people in it. There are a couple of students that come out of this program and they’re just in the classes and then just go on and forget all about it, but some actually think about joining the military insert and a lot of them actually do make it a career, and I’m just like, if they can do it I can do it too,” Francois said.

After first joining last year, Francois was excited about her new experiences to come.

“When I first joined I was excited about shooting weapons and doing all kinds of cool things and because I know it’s not traditional for a female to be in the military, so I thought maybe I’d one up a couple people,” Francois said.

Francois parents supported her decision to join the military while still in high school.

“My mom was ready. She was agreeing with me, she was with me all the way, she said it was my choice and that she’s happy for me, but she was scared and she was nervous,” Francois said.

“My dad was overjoyed, he was like, ‘You are going to go, and you’re going to be great, and do great things. I know you can be awesome

throughout high school I’ve focused on my grades, so it is nice to see that all the

Sattva hopes to gain personal knowledge through gap year Samantha Little Feature Editor

PHOTO BY CHANELLE FRANCOIS EARLY MEMBER. Senior Chanelle Francios plans to continue to be in the Army National Guard next year and attend BRCC. and you’re going to beat all those people and you’re going to prove that girls can do anything a guy can do’. They were very happy for me and were with me the entire way.”

Although her parents were happy with her decision, her grandfather wasn’t quite as supportive.

“My grandfather thinks that I should not be in the military. Everytime he sees me in my uniform he gets really sad and he gets kind of upset… He wasn’t super happy about it. He’s still not agreeing with me right now, but I’m hoping maybe one day he’ll come around,” Francois said.

The JROTC program here at HHS has helped to prepare Francois for the military. “[JROTC] really does teach you almost everything you need to know about the military.

They teach you rank structure[and], they teach you discipline, lots of discipline. I love the way that they set up the disciplinary program, it’s exactly the way that you’ll see it at basic combat training,” Francois said.

Not only does the JROTC program help prepare students for the military, but Francois enjoys all the different skills the program teaches.

“They will yell at you, they tell you what you did wrong and they fix it, they correct it instantly, and they’ll take you out and teach you right from wrong. They show you respect and how to make sure that you get the same respect back,” Francois said. “This program is amazing; it teaches you how the military can actually have your back, how everyone in the military are tied together, we’re all a family and everyone will know it.”

work I’ve put in has paid off.”

While many seniors are receiving college acceptance letters and planning for the next step in their formal education, Piper Sattva is one of those preparing to set herself on a different path post-high school: taking a gap year.

Sattva, who first found out about the possibility of taking a gap year through her mom, began thinking about the option last year, but finalized the decision this year when her peers began applying for college.

“I think that the process from high school to college is rushed, and a lot of kids don’t know what they’re getting into. I’m taking a gap year because I want to find out who I am before I pursue anything through education,” Sattva said.

“I also don’t know where I want to go yet because I haven’t had enough time to research. I’ve been doing so much work in school getting ready for college that I have no time to actually look at the colleges that I want to go to.”

Because Sattva is an art student, she hopes to take this time to work on her technique and develop a sense of style while building up her portfolio. She plans to get an internship at Harrisonburg’s Alley Cat Tattoo as a tattoo artist and possibly start her own business. In doing this,

she hopes to show her future school of choice that she is progressive about art and can make a business in it.

“In a way, [taking a gap year] opens my mind into possibilities of what I can do other than educating myself, such as developing personal hobbies and finding out just who I am. I want to create art and get better, faster and more efficient. [I also] just want to know more about what my style is,” Sattva said. “I hope to gain personal knowledge of who I am and develop a sense of individuality. There’s always someone around you when you go to college, so I think that with a gap year I’ll develop personally and in the sense of maturity.”

However, Sattva has also looked into taking online classes through Blue Ridge Community College to get her general education requirements out of the way and make room for more classes of her interest when she does go to college. As well as this, Sattva will be living outside of her parents’ care and will be working to support herself.

“I plan on living on my own to develop some life skills that other people don’t have the chance to grasp onto when they go straight into college,” Sattva said. “I don’t think that high school prepares you enough with life skills to just go to college and feel like you know how life works. I want

to be able to grow into an adult before I start pursuing my passion.”

Though she sees the benefits in her plan to take a gap year, she also realizes that she may run into possible hardships with it.

“I definitely think that taking a year off is risky because we live in a society where it’s normal to go straight into college. For a lot of jobs you have to go to college and get a degree before you specialize in anything. It looks good on paper if you go to college,” Sattva said. “Living alone is also going to be really hard because I’m going to be paying for everything myself and having to work. People tell me it’s going to be hard, and I’m aware of that.”

Despite this, Sattva is glad she’s not rushing into any certain field of education and finds that many students go straight into college when there are many other options.

“I think that people planning on going to college definitely have more of a mapped out future, and they know more of what they want to do or are maybe just going because they don’t know what they want to do and feel like it’s the only thing that they can do,” Sattva said. “I feel like kids who go straight into college follow the crowd and follow the herd into a certain path of life when there are so many others that you can take.”

Senior on the Street:

What part of graduating are you most looking forward to?

Kendall Thompson

Lucy Moss

Juleian Cappell

Maria Snell-Feikema

Kyel Towler

Neha Pokharel

“I’m most excited about getting to live on my own next year and the actual graduation ceremony in June.”

“I’m so ready to get out of high school and go to college and meet a ton of new people.”

“College. Living the full college experience and getting out of Harrisonburg.”

“I’m excited to be treated like and adult and catch up on all the sleep I’ve lost in the past 13 years.”

“Knowing that I have a solid future and going on to bigger and better things. “

“All of the ‘lasts’ that will come in these next few months and getting to share them with my friends.”

INFOGRAPHIC BY ABBY HISSONG

April 28, 2017

Feature-B1

The Newsstreak

Off To College

Benevento receives scholarships, decides between two Christa Cole Print Managing Editor College acceptance letters are in, and most seniors have a pretty certain idea of where they’re headed in the fall. This isn’t true for Zach Benevento, though, despite being offered a full ride.

Benevento has a choice to make that does not involve the University of Richmond, the school he received the full ride from.

“The scholarship I got was a full tuition, which is awesome. That’s like $3000, so that makes them very competitive. [However,] I don’t think I’m going to pick them because it’s not the location I want, but it’s a pretty cool school… Right now I’m really struggling deciding between Colorado College, which is in Colorado Springs. It’s a small liberal arts school, so the cool thing is you take one class at a time. You’re super invested in that class and you’re able to not miss other classes, so then you’re able to go and be involved,” Benevento said. “So [for example] a film class goes to L.A, flies there, spends three and a half weeks in L.A, so it’s super hands-on learning.”

His other potential school would be Middlebury College.

“There’s also Middlebury in Vermont, which is like the fourth best school in the country in terms of small schools and has an amazing environmental studies program… I don’t know how I’m going to pick.

The difference between financial aid is, like, $200 so essentially, it’s the same amount of money. So it’s such a hard choice and

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZACH BENEVENTO

SCENIC. Senior Zach Benevento visits the campus of Colorado College, a liberal arts college located in Colorado Springs that he’s taking into consideration.

I’m dying [trying to decide]. I’m going out to visit Colorado College and Middlebury [and] I’ll see,” Benevento said.

Benevento believes that these smaller schools will give him more of an in-depth education as opposed to what he could get at a larger school.

“I want to have mountains around my school and both of these have mountains...

I want to be able to ski. I wanted a small liberal arts school because professors are super engaged with you, you don’t have to fight for research opportunities with graduate students or compete with them. You

get a small group of students that all live on campus, so you get a really strong community. I think all these smaller schools are really geared towards social justice and looking at problems in a really different way that I think larger institutions as a whole don’t do as well. You have professors geared towards that, but as a whole it’s not quite geared towards that,” Benevento said.

It was not his ACT score, though quite high, that Benevento believes made him stand out in the crowd.

“I think my family [helped me make an

Jeffries to start college at BRCC, transfer to JMU after two years Garrett Cash Online Editor-in-Chief Senior Winston Jeffries is taking a new stance on college. He’s not going to a trade school, and he’s not going to a four-year university just yet. Jeffries will be going to Blue Ridge Community College and then transferring to JMU. It costs much less and helps him get out of debt, and it helps him transition from high school to JMU much easier. Plus, he gets to stay in the city he loves.

“The main reason is money, basically. It’s much cheaper for me to go to BRCC for two years and then transfer to JMU just so my first half of college is a lot cheaper than [it would have been] if I just went straight to JMU,” Jeffries said.

By taking dual enrollment classes at HHS, Jeffries also earns plenty of credits for Blue Ridge, exempting him from classes that he normally would’ve taken in his first years of college, saving him time and money.

“Another thing I would recommend is that if you’re in Harrisonburg, if you take dual enrollment classes, they count at Blue Ridge. So I’m kind of already in the Blue Ridge system as of now. When you take dual enrollment classes, it basically counts as that college class, except it’s generally much, much cheaper. You’re talking, only spending 100 to 200 dollars for three credits if you pass, compared to doing it at Blue Ridge which would cost you about 100 to 200 dollars for one credit hour. It’s a lot

cheaper, and it already gets you a head start,” Jeffries said.

Not only does transitioning from BRCC to JMU save him money, it also gives him the opportunity to experience the benefits of community college.

“You do also get to have an experience with the community college and see what it’s actually like to go to school [there] and the difference between that and actual college. What I’ve heard from my brother, who also did the same thing eight years ago, he found that community college was a bit better because they get a little bit more personal with their students, kind of like the teachers at Harrisonburg. And it’s not as impersonal as a college professor at a four-year university can be,” Jeffries said.

Although the choice won’t work if you plan to go to an out-of-state school or to a Virginia university that won’t accept the credits from BRCC, Winston recommends the choice to transfer to everyone willing to stay in the city for another four years.

“There’s the obvious financial advantages, and from a workload perspective, it’s not nearly as heavy. So I would say if you’re willing to stay in Harrisonburg for another four years, it’s definitely worth the money, and you don’t have to worry about doing room and board if you’re willing to live with your parents for another four years,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries plans to stick to the transition program for all four years of higher education and wants to pursue either science, math or even drama.

PHOTO BY NYAH PHENGSITTHY

CUE. Senior Winston Jeffries (right) rehearses his part in the spring play “Hey Diddle Diddle”, written and directed by Bradley Walton.

1.

impression], through living in the Dominican Republic and being exposed to lots of cultural aspects and lots of different issues like going to protests as a little kid. A lot of me is able to see the world with a different set of eyes that I think my friends don’t really have. So I think that’s what makes me separate. Additionally, my ACT score was a 34, which is in the 99th percentile,” Benevento said. “Colleges usually run through applications and if they see a good score then they put you out… so I think they got that more in-depth look which allowed me to get into these schools like Middlebury, Colorado College… and I think going to Harrisonburg High School has also really helped because you get that piece of diversity that a lot of schools are looking for. People that know how to interact with diversity. Our location is special because a lot of these small schools are getting people from like New York, Massachusetts, all these private boarding schools that are feeding into small liberal arts schools, and my perspective from Virginia is kind of different, kind of in a rural area and I tried to read that into my essays.”

Benevento encourages future seniors to apply for scholarships, regardless of doubts or barriers.

“Don’t count yourself out, that’s really important. Don’t [not] apply just because you think you’re not going to win. Spend time on those essays because that’s what’s going to separate you out from people.

Even if your scores aren’t that good, if they look at your essays and they are killer, you’re going to get at least an interview.”

Best friends Garcia-Martinez, Horne attending JMU together Hannah Miller Print Copy Editor Going to college. The excitement grows for many graduating seniors with the prospect of many things to come. They get to experience a whole new set of firsts. Now, though, they’ll be in a new environment with new people; no more of the same faces will pass them in the hallways everyday. Instead, they’ll have to branch out for the first time since maybe even elementary school and attempt the age old trial that every kid once had to complete: making friends.

Fortunately for best friends Darla Horne and Maria Garcia-Martinez, they were both accepted into JMU, and will have a familiar face while new people come into their lives.

“Maria and I have been friends for almost 12 years. We both always knew we wanted to go to college, we just didn’t think it would be together... She decided she wanted to go to JMU as well, and we applied and hoped for the best,” Horne said.

Having lived in Harrisonburg for a majority of their lives, both girls initially rejected the idea of attending JMU because it was so local. Eventually, they fell in love with the campus.

“I originally wanted to get out of Harrisonburg for college, but as soon as I started to be near JMU more often, I fell in love,” Garcia-Martinez said.

Horne felt the same way, and realized that, financially, it was a smart choice.

“I’ve lived in Harrisonburg for almost 13 years, and at first I didn’t even see JMU as an option. As time went on and college began to approach me, I realized how beautiful the campus was and the amazing programs it had to offer,” Horne said.

“Something else that attracted me to the school was that I could live at home. I’m pretty close with my parents, so this allowed me to save money while being able to deal with my parents for the next four years...

As college started fast approaching the both of us, we both realized staying at home was the best option for us money wise.”

Both girls will be pursuing a nursing-related major. This will allow them to stick together when things get tough, and they’ll still make plen-

ty of new friends.

“Maria and I have been friends for a long time and we’ve been through a lot together. We knew that we would’ve stayed friends regardless of where we went to college, but this kind of solidified the ‘next step’ in our friendship. I’m thrilled that we’ll be able to spend the next four years by each other’s side,” Horne said. “We’ll be able to support each other through all the struggles of college. Considering she is also pursuing her BSN, our friendship will come in handy during those two years of nursing school. Nursing school is difficult, and our support system will help us make it through,” Horne said.

Though very close, Horne and Garcia-Martinez understand that college is the next level of life, and they won’t be connected at the hip.

“Although Maria and I are best friends, we do not do everything together. We don’t even talk every day. I don’t think our friendship will change much, or at all, for that matter. We’ll probably do a lot of stuff together like we do now, but we will also branch out and have our own friends and our own plans, etcetera,” Horne said.

As the girls leave high school behind, they’re ready to take on the next part with a friend.

“I would say the best part about going to college with someone you know is probably that you already have a friend. College is a time where you have to put a little more effort in to make friends since you don’t see the same people every day like in high school. Going with someone you know allows you to already have someone as a friend that you can rely on during that transitional period from high school to college,” Horne said.

Going into college alone may be a scary transition, and Garcia-Martinez finds comfort in knowing that, no matter what, she’ll at least have one person she trusts supporting her along the way.

“The thing I’m most excited about is having someone I know around.

We’ve been best friends for almost 12 years, so it’s nice having a friendly face by your side,” Garcia-Martinez said. “It’s easier because you have someone you’re already close to.

There’s comfort in knowing you’ll have at least one friend there.”

Tips from the Pros: Class of 2016 2.

3.

4.

“Some advice I would personally give freshmen would be take time to get to know your professor, meet them during their after hours and talk to them. When you’re feeling stressed with the amount of work, take a 15 minute break and then get back to it. Don’t procrastinate and leave all your work unfinished until the last minute. When a project is assigned, do it as soon as you can. That way you won’t worry about it the night it is due and you’ll have time to perfect it.”

“Make sure that you keep track of your syllabus over the course of your class and take as many notes as possible. Also, if possible live on campus. I commuted this year, but I really wish I had lived in the dorms to get the full college experience.”

- Gabby Rafael, Blue Ridge Community College

- Pepe Gonzalez, Bridgewater

“The best way to get the most out of college is to take advantage of all your opportunities and meet as many people as possible. Join clubs, go to events, and go out of your way to meet people because friends make college super fun.”

- Karan Chalishajar, University of California Berkeley

“Keeping track of your mental and physical health is really important. A lot of people get to college and go crazy because they don’t have any structure and forget to take care of themselves. I joined the club soccer team, which has helped me stay in shape as well as meet some amazing friends who started out as teammates.”

- Olivia Yutzy, Virginia Commonwealth University

5.

“I would say that the most important thing you can do is take risks.

If you don’t push yourself and make yourself do things you never thought you could do, you’ll never grow. It’s really important to do things that make you uncomfortable.”

- Ellie Plass, The New School

April 28, 2017

Feature-B2

The Newsstreak

Smithland involves dads in elementary experience Jackson Hook Sports Editor Smithland Elementary School began the Watch DOGS (Dads Of Great Students) program in November of the 2016-2017 school year. Watch DOGS, which is organized by the National Center of Fathering, revolves around bringing male role models into the building to give a positive influence on young students and show them that they truly value education. The program was adopted by Smithland on behalf of the school’s nurse, Teri Bosley, who loves the idea after her daughter’s experience.

“My daughter had participated in the program. My husband was a Watch DOG for her school… My husband had a great time doing it, so we just talked about it to see if that was something we wanted to try to institute here, and it has worked out pretty [well],” Bosley said.

Bosley brought up the idea in the schools Home-School Relations Committee, a group that works on building relationships between the family and the school. Physical education teacher Zachary Wilmot and Home-School liaison Adam Shank also help to run the program.

“Basically what it boils down to is getting fathers and positive, mostly male, role models into the building, helping out and just experiencing a day of school with their child or whatever student they mentor… We started out with a couple goals this year. We’re part of a committee called the Home-School Relations Committee at [Smithland], and basically we are tasked with how to reach out to the community from our school. The Watch DOGS program

PHOTO COURTESY OF ADAM SHANK

ROLE MODELS. Dad, Netra Thapa, reads with Smithland Elementary school students as part of the Watch DOGS program. The program is not exclusive to only dads . allows us to bring these positive community members into the building,” Wilmot said.

To Shank, the Watch DOGS program is not only an opportunity for students, but also for the father to have a better insight on their child’s education.

“The point of the program is to have more positive male role models here at school. Not only are the kids benefiting from having a male role model in the classroom, but often our dads leave with a new appreciation for teachers. They have more insight into what their kid is doing and they’re better able to relate to their child at home,” Shank said.

Bosley has made it clear that the program does not only take fathers of students, but allows any positive role model.

“It’s not just dads. It can be an uncle, it can be a family friend, a coach, an older brother. We’ve had one mom that came in and wanted to be with her children, so it’s not just solely dads. We’re just trying to get a positive male role model in the school,” Bosley said.

When the Watch DOGS first arrive, they are briefed on how the day will play out. All Watch DOGS will spend time in their students class as well as others.

“When they first get here we give them… a little orientation, run through their schedule, give them some pointers on how to interact with the kids, some things that they should definitely be doing and some topics that we want them to kind of stay away from. But then we hook them up with this Watch DOGS t-shirt and a match-

Spotswood students engage in service learning Lucie Rutherford Print Editor-In-Chief

Countless service learning projects go on at Spotswood Elementary School (SES) every year amongst a variety of teachers in order to give students a new perspective as to what they can do to help out their community. These projects have been going on at SES for many years, though according to instructional coach Kaitie Saunders, kindergarten teacher Lauren Caffrey is who really brought the program front and center through their leadership team. “[She shared] a lot of integrated learning and how to make things relevant to kids, and that it’s relevant to them if they’re actually producing something to do for others,” Saunders said.

“So at least in my world, a lot of the sparks kind of started with the projects she did, and then it kind of spilled over and more and more people thought, ‘This is an amazing idea’, and it’s kind of grown from there into different ideas and different leaders have taken on things.”

Over the past years, as well as this year, Caffrey has led many service learning projects.

“Historically, we’ve done a plant sale fundraiser for earthquake victims in Nepal, we’ve donated food for firefighters fighting a local fire in the national forest and we’ve gotten treat and toy donations for the animals at the SPCA,” Caffrey said. “Both historically and presently, we’ve put together ‘Warm Winter Kits’, each with a warm hat, pair of warm gloves and a small toy for children at local shelters. We’ve provided Thanksgiving food for local families in need and we’ve constructed tactile Braille books as a gift for a community member with sensory needs.”

For Caffrey, these projects are a way to show students exactly how much they can do for the place they live and how easy it can be.

“Service learning… allows us to support our community in a way that fosters the notion that service can be represented in a variety of ways…

Our projects help us to understand we can give ourselves in a variety of ways; that it doesn’t always involve money,” Caffrey said.

There are currently 12 classroom teachers who have done service learning projects this year at SES. Some classes do them individually, while some grades do it as an entire class.

“First grade… went to Avante, the nursing home, and read stories with the elderly and did Valentine crafts with them and just visited them on Valentine’s Day,” Saunders said. “They’re going to go back on Saint Patrick’s Day, so that was just a field trip kind of experience where they did some service learning.”

The second and third-graders also did projects as a class where they made and sold snack mix to the school community. Not only were they able to raise money for their chosen organizations, My Community Place and the SPCA, but were able to implement the projects into their curriculum by learning about economics and business.

“They integrated it into a unit in their classroom, so students were learning about economics and money, and adding and subtracting and those types of things,” Saunders said.

In addition to raising money for My Community Place and the SPCA, the second and third grade classes also made snack mix bags as donations to the Mercy House, according to Cierra Drummond, another SES teacher who implements service learning projects into the classroom.

“The kids really enjoyed having a choice of what to put in there, knowing it was going to go to someone who got to choose what they wanted. Excited is one of the most used words when trying to describe [the students]. They were showing a lot of caring words, like, ‘I hope they like this’, and ‘I think they’re going to enjoy this’, so [they were] thinking about how [others] were going to feel,” Drummond said.

Drummond, who teaches first grade students, pushes them to understand the value of doing projects to help fellow community members.

“The kids need to see giving, and not just receiving, and caring about others, not just about themselves, and selflessness,” Drummond said.

For Saunders, it is important for her students to realize the impact they can make, no matter their situation outside of school.

“I think, knowing a lot of students in our school are challenged by poverty, that sometimes people, and children in general, can feel like, ‘I’m just six, what can I do’, or ‘My family doesn’t have a lot of money, what can I do?’ So this is a way to empower them,” Saunders said. “That it doesn’t matter how big or small the gesture is, that you can always do something, you can always make the world better in some way.”

ing one for the kids,” Wilmot said. “Everyone’s schedule looks a little different, but we try to get each dad or mentor into their students classroom for an hour of teaching.

They also eat breakfast with their student, each lunch with their student, go to recess with their student and go to specials with their student, so like P.E. or an art class, whatever one their kid has that day.”

For students in the Smithland who may not have a fatherly figure at home, Shank hopes that the program will help to fill that spot while they are in school.

“That’s one of the ideas behind the program is that the person isn’t just there for their kid, but they’re also interacting with the kids in the classroom or the cafeteria or the playground. We’ve tried to really make it explicit that we don’t just want dads because we realize that there are a significant amount of our students that don’t have their biological father at home. Hopefully each kid can think of some sort of positive male role model in their life. Maybe an uncle or a grandpa or a coach, whoever that might be,” Shank said.

Students have recognized the program as a fun way to go about their school day and look forward to Watch DOGS coming in or even returning.

“They really love it. There are so many benefits to the program,” Wilmot said.

“The kids get to interact with other men who actually value education. They get to have just that male influence in their life, but also the dads when they leave are like, ‘Wow, you guys are doing some pretty cool stuff here’, and they just leave with this totally renewed appreciation for what it happening in our elementary school. Which then helps them to further support their child.”

Latin dance brings kids back to roots

PHOTO COURTESY OF JESUS BARERRA

VAMOS A BAILAR. Smithland Elementary School students learn dances from a variety of Latin cultures.

Garrett Cash Online Editor-In-Chief Two years ago, Yanira Portillo had no idea what the Latin Dance Club would bring.

Having a child that goes to Smithland Elementary School gave her the opportunity to join the Latino Parent Committee. After anguish about not being able to book a dance troupe to perform at Smithland’s annual “La Fiesta” celebration, Portillo, along with all the other parents, decided to start teaching Latino culture and history through dance.

“I was talking with other parents. We tried to make a group that we can teach [the kids]. It was so exciting. I loved Harrisonburg because of the dual language [program] and that they’re trying to show the kids that they’re going to learn the culture of different countries,” Portillo said.

Portillo is excited about the program and the opportunity to show the kids about Latino traditions and histories. She feels that her and her fellow teachers’ backgrounds bring

a great experience for the students.

“We’re trying to show the kids our culture,” Portillo said. “I am from El Salvador. I have another dance teacher; she’s from Puerto Rico. We’re trying to teach them folklore dance. This year, we’re going to teach them to do salsa.”

The club meets every Thursday for one hour. Over the course of this year, they’ll be learning two or three different dances. They will be performing these dances at different festivals around Harrisonburg.

“It’s awesome. It’s exciting. Last year, we danced in the festival. We danced in the Latin Festival… and we danced in the International Festival too,” Portillo said.

Portillo approves of the experience that performing in front of people provides for the kids and enjoys it herself.

“It was awesome. [It was] exciting for me and exciting for all the kids. This year is going to be the same thing,” Portillo said.

Although only in its second year, the program has been wildly successful amongst the kids, so much so that there’s now a waiting list to join the club.

Annual HEF Gala raises money for projects Christian Rodriguez Feature Page Editor

PHOTO COURTESY OF TAMRA ATKINS

SWOOSH. (Left to right) Weston Hatfield, Assistant Principal Eric Miller, and Superintendent Dr. Kizner supporting HEF at the event.

Every year, the Harrisonburg Education Foundation puts on a Gala to raise money for the organization.

Through a series of auctioning, the group is able to put money together for any and every need of those schools. HHS treasurer Tamra Atkins was one of ten staff members who volunteered to organize the event.

“The Harrisonburg Education Foundation does different events to try and raise money for the organization. With those funds and profits we give back to teachers. Teachers will apply for a grant to subsidize what their budgets don’t cover. The Gala is one of those events that HEF sponsors so we have a lot of businesses that will donate a project or a service.

We invite people who are very kind and giving when auctioning off these items,” Atkins said.

Some of the items live auctioned at the sixth annual HEF Gala included a JMU Football autographed by Coach Houston and the 2016 NCAA

D1 Championship Team, a variety of food and drinks from the restaurants around the community and theater tickets for this year’s middle school productions Other items ranged from a day of fun with the Kizners to a Texas Hold’em party for 10 to a lake house getaway. Atkins explains how the silent auction works in order to make a profit for HEF. “For example, we had the Harrisonburg Turks donate four season passes; those are worth 55 dollars for 11 games. We put the package together for four of them, and it valued 110 dollars. The goal is that we will get those silent auctions up and [that] the bids will be much more than that, and they usually [are],” Atkins said.

The auctioneer of the night was athletic director Darrell Wilson.

“This was the first time I was able to attend the event. I was asked to fill in that role, so I try to serve. It was a new experience, but overall it was fun,” Wilson said.

Every year, a new theme is chosen in which the activities and attire of the event relate to.

“We had it at JMU Bridgeforth Club

and our theme this year was March Madness,” Atkins said. “Several of the volunteers, including teachers [and] teachers assistants, wore referee shirts and many had on their favorite teams jerseys. There was a basketball shot game, photo booth, corn hole, live auction and silent auction, so it was very profitable in that respect.

[The theme] was even incorporated in the auctions,” Atkins said.

The money raised throughout the event is given through grants to different areas of the school, in order of importance.

“Twice a year, the foundation will [announce] that they are opening up the grants to the schools, and they begin submitting applications. Mrs. Warren won one of these grants last year that funded everyone having a t-shirt. It goes to the teacher with the most useful way to apply the money to a school purpose,” Atkins said. The Yearbook class has received a grant and another year the Special-Ed classes received a grant. The grants range from 500 dollars to 1000 dollars. It always goes to the most useful idea for a school purpose.

April 28, 2017

Feature-B3

The Newsstreak

The Further Adventures of

the Dish and the Spoon

Plays of the past Spring play focuses on different type of audience 2006

The Bloody Attack of the Evil Demonic Giraffe Puppet

Noah Siderhurst Op-Ed Editor

2007

An Evening of Short Plays

2008 The Story of a Prom

2009 Babble

2010 Super Villains and Zombies

2011 Terrible Skunk Breath

2012 Storied

2013

Senior-itis

2014

The Wizard, The Witch, The Fairy, The Squirrel, & The Soft Fuzzy Slippers of Doom

2015

The Coloring Book Play

2016

The True Story of Hey Diddle Diddle

This year’s spring play, entitled “The Further Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon”, is one in a long line of spring plays written and directed by Bradley Walton.

In fact, “The Further Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon” follows a similar format, with several short pieces revolving around the same story as last year’s play, “The True Story of Hey Diddle Diddle”. It is also, quite obviously, similarly named. Where the two plays differ, however, is in their plot. While “The True Story of Hey Diddle Diddle”, last year’s play, explores what might have actually happened in the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle, The Further Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon” attempts to explain what happened after the nursery rhyme.

As may be gathered from the title, many of Walton’s plays are ridiculous comedies. Sophomore Kyle Showalter, one of the four members of the cast, thinks that this is one of the play’s strengths.

“It is like dumb humor, like child humor, but it’s hilarious when you’re reading the script for the first time, like, ‘What is this?’” Showalter said.

The play follows the dish and the spoon in five short acts, speculating on what might have happened after they ran away together at the end of the nursery rhyme.

In the first act, the dish and the spoon travel to Nepal and encounter the abominable snowman.

In the second, they meet the witch from Hansel and Gretel. In the next three pieces, they go to work in a houseware

store, fight bad sushi in a sushi restaurant and finally, become spies.

These aspects of the plot lend to a unique role for the spring play among the three largest acting events of the year: one act, musical and the spring play.

“Mr. Swartz generally does heavy dramas for the one act, not always, but frequently… [With the] musical, he alternates between comedy and serious, it seems like every other year,” Walton said. “The main idea behind [the spring play] was just to provide an opportunity for a different type of play than the other two.”

Senior Winston Jeffries, another member of the cast, feels that it is also a unique experience for the cast; it doesn’t have the same sort of rigor as the other acting events.

“I would say [the spring play] is definitely a lot more relaxed with the cast, with the people. It’s not as intense, it’s not like we’ve got to ramp it up... right off the bat…

We can have a lot more fun with it,” Jeffries said.

Not only does Bradley Walton both write and direct the spring play, but his daughter, Rachel Walton, is on the cast, a fact the she believes doesn’t really affect the play.

“I already go into the library kind of frequently, and it’s just like, ‘Good afternoon Mr. Walton’, [and he says], ‘Good afternoon Ms. Walton’, and then we just go on with our day,” Rachel Walton said.

Showalter thinks that having the father-daughter dynamic between the two simply adds to the fun atmosphere of the play.

“It’s just funny that sometimes they’ll banter a little bit back and forth,

PHOTO BY NOAH SIDERHURST SPOON FULL OF MEDICINE. Senior Winston Jefferies plays a customer with a headache. The spoon, played by sophomore Rachel Walton, was acting CUSTOMER HAS HEADACHE SPOON WORKING THERE

just because [they’re] father and daughter,” Showalter said.

The spring play also attracts a different type of audience, one that may not be as attracted to the musical and one act.

“Last year a whole bunch of kids came from elementary schools, and they were laughing like crazy. It was just a fun experience to have a different type of audience than say a dramatic audience for the one act,” Showalter said.

In fact, the spring play has tried to target a younger audience through giving out free tickets to children at the city elementary schools.

All of these factors setting the spring play apart from other acting events of the year cater to a certain type of actor who

may not necessarily be as interested in one act or musical.

Because of this and other reasons, such as Bradley Walton’s personal writing preferences, and the fact that the spring play coincides with spring arts (an event that takes up many arts student’s time), many actors from the musical and one act don’t necessarily transfer over to the spring play, leading to a small cast. There are only four actors to play 31 parts, down from nine cast members last year.

However, this does not necessarily have to be a bad thing, as Jeffries is quick to point out.

“In an unexpected way it has improved the efficiency [of the cast] because you have so few people you don’t have to constantly reign every-

one back in whenever we get off topic,” Jeffries said.

In many ways, the spring play stands out as different from the other acting events of the year, something that Jeffries believes is its greatest strength. “[Mr. Walton] changed to [making the spring play more of a comedy] partially for creative reasons and partially just because I think at the end of the day… it was different. Lots of teenagers go out and see the musical because they have friends and family [in it], so that already attracts a lot of attention, but this is something that we can do differently and we can appeal to the elementary schools and all the really young kids,” Jeffries said.

Summary:

PHOTOS BY NOAH SIDERHURST

A group of storytellers gather to share their stories, but once they hit the stage, they find out that their stories must resolve one of the greatest cliffhangers in literary history- the mystery of happens after the dish runs away with the spoon at the end of Hey Diddle Diddle. What follows is a collection of stories in which the dish and the spoon encounter the Abominable Snowman, meet the witch from Hansel and Gretel, experience the horrors of working in retail, become spies and fight bad sushi.

Walton learns reigns of writing, directing high school plays Angel Hendrix Online Managing When you visit the library, there’s a good chance one of the librarians you’ll see will be Bradley Walton; however, he is much more than just a librarian who checks your books in and out. He doubles as a playwright and director.

“The first play that I directed was my senior year of high school, then I did two in college. There was a six year gap after that,” Walton said. “In my current job, I have been directing the spring play since 2001, so this is my 17th [year]. I’ve been writing since 2003, so this will be the 15th [script] that I have written for the spring play for Harrisonburg High School.”

Writing plays can take a lot of time, but sometimes it may come in a sudden inspiration. Over the years Walton has learned from his

experiences and found alternative ways to approach his plays.

“When I first started doing it, the first play that I wrote I spent months on. I was approaching it as a big, giant endeavor that would take a whole lot of time. I did it that way for the first couple of years and it dawned on me that the more time that I took to write something, the harder it was to keep track of everything that was going on,” Walton said. “If I approached it all at once and hit as hard as I could and wrote it in a short period of time, it was easier to keep up with all the pieces in my brain. So I started doing it that way. I have written the spring play some years in as little as a week and a half. This year was a bit of a struggle. I am very pleased with what we came up with in the end, but... it was over two months [for the writing process] on this one.”

Theater is something that Walton has had a passion for ever since high school.

During his youth, though, he wasn’t offstage directing, he was on stage performing.

Playwriting wasn’t even on the agenda.

“I was a theater geek when I was in high school. Drama was what I was really into, it was most of the focus of my high school experience. Obviously coming back to work here, I can’t be in the cast of the plays, but directing a show gives me the opportunity to be a part of that and hopefully share some of my enthusiasm with students,” Walton said. “I was actually in the cast of the very first play that Mr. Schwartz directed here, which was a one act play called ‘The Rope’ in the fall of 1987.”

Though Walton had not

originally intended on being a director, he eventually came to love it. Directing a play is not always a piece of cake, though; it comes with a huge amount of responsibility.

“It can be [stressful being a director]. As the director, you’re ultimately responsible for eve r y t h i n g , and that can be a lot of pressure.

When you are sitting in the audience when the play is being performed, if something on the stage is not working, it’s on you. It’s a double edge sword. If it’s going great and the audience is having a wonderful time, then you get to bask in the glory of it, but if it’s not going well then you want to crawl under your seat and die,” Walton said.

Out of all the plays Walton has written, his all time

favorite happens to be one about a cat he once had. It is also his most successful play.

“My favorite play that I have written is not one that we have performed here.

It is called ‘The Absolutely Insidious and Utterly Terrifying Truth About Cat Hair.’

It is about cat hair after it has been shed off of a cat’s body being alive and intelligent and murderous and killing people and plotting to take over the world. It is the most successful play that I have written. It has been performed about 140 times so far,” Walton said.

“I’ve never actually seen a production of it, but the inspiration for it was a cat that we owned that I loved dearly, who just shed all over the place… One day I was standing at this cat’s fur on the carpet thinking, ‘Didn’t I just vacuum three days ago?

Where did all of this fur come from?’ This idea just started percolating in my brain about cat hair being

infinite and insidious, and so over the course of the month I wrote this play not knowing what was going to happen.... I found a publisher that liked it and they put it out and it’s been very successful. The cat that inspired it passed away several years ago, but everytime I get a production off of this play, I’m making money off of it, and it’s been very successful for me. It’s kind of like that this cat that I gave all of this love to is taking care of me now.”

Walton’s visions for his plans come from almost anything; even something as simple as a pet. “[I get my inspiration from] everywhere,” Walton said. “Inspiration can literally come from anywhere; it’s just sort of whatever idea pops into your head and grabs your attention long enough for you to write a play that goes with it.”

April 28, 2017

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April 28, 2017

Snow, rain effect spring sports schedule Kyle Brown Sports Editor The spring season starts the beginning of outdoor sports teams, but the season of spring also comes with spring weather. A small amount of snow towards the start of the season and rain throughout has had a large impact on the team’s ability to get on the field and get playtime.

Junior Sam Healy plays on the varsity baseball team and explains how the weather has affected the season so far.

“It’s affected this season especially when it rains because... especially for baseball even a little amount of rain can mess up the dirt so we can’t go outside. You can still get work done in the gym, but it’s just not as quality [as practicing outside],” Healy said.

The baseball team has had a few games rained out towards the beginning of the season. In terms of rescheduling, Healy explains where most of the games will be moved too. “[We’d make them up at the end of the season] and sometimes we just have bye days [during which] we don’t have a game and we’ll just place it there.

Sometimes it makes us play back-to-back games, which isn’t that bad but it’s just a little hard on the pitchers,” Healy said.

Freshman Jenny Arteaga is on the varsity girls soc-

cer team and has felt the frustration of rescheduling games as well.

“It just kind of sucks because you’re mentally prepared to play the game for that day, and then you just have to mentally prepare to just go to practice,” Arteaga said.

The varsity girls soccer team will always have practice rain or shine, the only difference is they might have to practice indoors.

“Usually when it’s been raining we’ll have practice, but when it starts pouring we’ll just put our bags under our coaches car and will either keep playing or if we have to we’ll go inside and just do an indoor practice or talk about the game the next day,” Arteaga said.

The frequency of rain cancellations all depend on the sport and what the athletic director feels should be done. According to Healy, the baseball games would be much rather played at a later time than played in the rain.

“I would much rather have a canceled game than playing on a field with bad conditions, because if the fields not in good condition then it’s not good baseball,” Healy said. “Sometimes it’s kind of nice because if you have a long week with three or four games and one of them gets canceled [then that cancellation allows for a break] ... it’s just going to be better baseball with less errors hopefully.”

Contrary to Healy, Artea-

PHOTO BY ANDREW RATH

VIEWS. The varsity boys soccer team plays a game at HHS after multiple games were postponed due to weather. ga believes that she would much rather play soccer in the rain, rather than postponing.

“I’d rather play in the rain because I like the way it feels. That sounds weird, but I like to play in the rain, and it just always sucks to have to postpone a game…

I’m not super fond of indoor practice,” Arteaga said.

The rain also impacts the separate sports differently.

Arteaga explains how she plays the game differently in wetter conditions. “[I usually play about

Ball brothers balling out David Gamboa Photography Editor The Ball Brothers have risen to fame in the past year due to their success in basketball. The oldest of the three, Lonzo, has taken control of the University of California Los Angeles basketball team as their starting point guard while being a true freshman. He is most likely going to be drafted in the top five in this year’s NBA draft. The two younger brothers, LiAngelo and Lamelo, play for the number one ranked high school team in the country, Chino Hills.

Last year, when all three brothers were on the court for Chino Hills, they had an impressive undefeated season that culminated in a California state championship. LiAngelo has committed to play for UCLA next year, and as only a sophomore in high school, Lamelo has also committed to play for UCLA once he graduates.

With a last name like Ball and the high level of basketball that all three players are at, there is no way that these guys shouldn’t all be on the national radar. Lonzo has brought back life to the UCLA basketball program, Liangelo scored 72 points in a high school game and only a few weeks later, Lamelo dropped 92. Being on the national level, they are extremely scrutinized.

One of the most common complaints at the high school level is cherry

picking. One player stays back, and after a defensive rebound or turnover, the ball is chucked back to that one player to make the basket. Chino Hills runs a fast paced offensive that focuses heavily on the fast break.

When they get the ball on one side of the court, they will often look for a player that is already making his way down the

Davey Wavey court. This player is often already being guarded, and this shouldn’t be considered cherry picking. When this player is LiAngelo Ball, a 6’6”, 240 pound basketball prodigy, it usually works. Simply because he is able to dominate his defender and make the play look easy does not mean that it should be cherry picking. In Lamelo’s 92 point game, many accused him of cherry picking most of his points, however this was not the case. He was contested on almost all of his shots and towards the end of the game was being double and triple teamed, but still managed to achieve the monumental stat.

At the college level, Lonzo has propelled UCLA’s basketball program

back into the spotlight.

He has led a fast paced offense into being one of the best teams in the nation, and was a contender in the national tournament. He declared for the draft after only one year at UCLA. Many people argue that he is not only overrated, but that his awkward shot mechanics will hinder him.

He is currently top 20 in the nation for field goal percentage and if what he is doing is working, then why change it?

The brothers’ father, Lavar Ball, has also been causing a lot of controversy. He is a very ambitious and outspoken man that believes his kids can do anything; Otherwise known as a very proud father. However, by being on the national spotlight and getting followed national news outlets by the likes of TMZ and ESPN, some of his ideas have been put out on a very public level. He is quoted as saying “Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan oneon-one.” From saying such outlandish things, he has found himself on talk shows like ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. He has also said things along the lines of his three kids being worth a one billion dollar shoe deal and that Lonzo is better than back-to-back MVP Steph Curry. At the end of the day, Lavar Ball is a proud dad on a big stage. His kids can back up what he says, and there is no sign of them slowing down.

the] same, but sometimes when it’s super wet and muddy it will affect the way I play. It will be just a little slippery and it affects touches on the ball which can make it difficult sometimes when it’s too wet,” Arteaga said.

Similar to Arteaga, Healy explains the impacts of the weather on his personal game.

“For my sport, baseball, we have a dirt infield and everyone knows that when it gets wet, it’s unpleasant and hard to run in. In the

grass it’s very swamp-like and when the baseball gets wet it’s hard to throw and you don’t have as much control on it, and you lose traction in your cleats,” Healy said. “The game revolves so much around running the bases to score runs, and when it’s muddy you’re not getting around the bases as fast and it’s harder to run and it’s harder to get hits.”

The day of the big game or big meet is always nerve-racking for players of all sports, and Healy ex-

plains what’s happening mentally when the weather is bad on the day of a game.

“You have to think you’ll have a game but you’ll have to be prepared to get the text message from coach Tysinger [saying] that we’re going to be inside if the game is canceled,” Healy said. “You just have to be prepared to play all day until you get that text because if you think the game is going to get canceled then you’re not going to be ready to play.”

Weather causes gym space scramble John Breeden Staff Writer During the spring sports season, the weather can be a huge factor. It rains more in the spring than it does the fall and winter seasons, which can really throw teams off. When it’s raining too much, it causes coaches to have to postpone, delay, and even cancel games, meets, and practices. If it’s raining too much to have a game or meet, there’s nothing much the coaches can do besides postpone.

However, if it’s raining on a practice day, spring sport coaches usually make the call for an indoor practice.

These practices usually consist of the different sport teams having practice inside the main gym, aux gym and usually, for the track team, through the hallways of the school.

Most athletes have different opinions on it whether or not teams should have practice or if they should cancel it altogether. Sophomore Evan Wood, who is a long distance track runner, thinks that indoor practices for runners aren’t good. “[Practicing inside for track] can be a bit difficult because of the hard floor [means] a lot of pounding

on your knees, and it can hurt a lot. So we usually run for a lot less. It also gets a lot hotter inside than outside,” Wood said.

Indoor practices may affect runners the most.

Running at a fast pace on the tile floor of the school has the potential to injure a runner’s legs. It’s different for other sports because you’re running without stopping at all. There’s at least a short break from running in every other sport. “[For indoor practices] we normally just run around upstairs for a certain amount of time, and we’ll go back down and work out in the weight room and do core,” Wood said.

Wood, like most distance runners, is on the side of not wanting inside practices, and have outdoor practices be the only option.

“I really prefer outdoor practices, especially being on the distance track team, because we get to run off campus a lot, and it’s just a lot more fun being outside than being stuck inside,” Wood said.

While Wood prefers outdoor practice, freshman Tucker McGrath is on the

soccer team, and he also has a bad opinion of practicing inside. While it’s hard to run indoors, soccer isn’t any easier, according to McGrath.

“It’s not very fun, we have to roll out mats so goalkeepers can dive, and every now and then you get floor burn on your knees.

You’re not outside so it kind of sucks and it’s really hot [inside],” McGrath said.

For McGrath, it’s not as much the running that can affect him, but the sliding, diving and going for the soccer ball can cause injuries or collisions during an indoor practice. Like Wood, McGrath thinks outdoor practices are better.

“Outdoor practices are much more fun and we can do a lot more. They’re much better in all categories,” McGrath said.

McGrath and Wood both believe that indoor practices should not be a thing. They, along with most other athletes, would like it better if their coaches would go ahead and cancel practice for the day if there’s inclement weather.

It’s much safer for athletes to have the day off, rather than risk getting injured during an indoor practice.

Rescheduled Spring Events Baseball

Varsity vs. John Handley rescheduled for 4-24-17 Varsity vs Sherando rescheduled for 4-3-17 JV vs Sherando rescheduled for 4-3-17

Softball

Varsity vs John Handley rescheduled for 4-17-17 JV vs Sherando rescheduled for 4-3-17

Tennis

Boys varsity vs Spotswood rescheduled for 4-17-17 Girls varsity vs Spotswood rescheduled for 4-17-17 Boys varsity vs John Handley rescheduled for 4-6-17 Girl varsity vs John Handley rescheduled for 4-6-17

Boys Soccer

Varsity vs Sherando rescheduled for 3-29-17 Varsity vs John Handley rescheduled for 4-3-17 JV vs John Handley rescheduled for 4-3-17 JV vs Sherando rescheduled for 3-29-17

Girls Soccer

Varsity vs John Handley rescheduled for 4-5-17 Varsity vs Sherando rescheduled for 3-29-17 JV vs Waynesboro rescheduled for 3-28-17 JV vs John Handley rescheduled for 4-5-17

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April 28, 2017

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Legends opens new opportunities for athletes

Kyle Brown Sports Editor When student-athletes enter into high school, most automatically focus on high school sports.

That is not the case for a few freshmen and sophomores in the Harrisonburg area. The new Legends AAU basketball team is the team to be on for these few students. Unlike normal teams, the Legends travel to weekend tournaments. The Legends have been a team for the past two years led by coach Tanisha Bannister, and they are already showing promise in the upcoming season. Luis Martinez, a freshman at HHS playing on the team, says how well they are doing this year.

“So far we’ve won every tournament we’ve been to, and we’ve had two, so we’re 7-0 so far,” Martinez said.

Taz Lockhart is a sophomore competing with his second year for the team and he states that this undefeated start is a huge improvement since last year.

“Last year the team wasn't very good; we lost like 90 percent of the time because that was our first year playing together as a unit, and this year we’re getting closer and starting to play better and better and starting to come closer as a team,” Lockhart said.

In terms of the team, and the team chemistry, Martinez explains why they are starting to play so well together as a unit.

“Most of the people on that team, we’ve been playing forever and we always see each other, so we just had that family bond,” Martinez said. “It's like playing at

PHOTO COURTESY OF LUIS MARTINEZ

WAY TO WATCH. The Legends pose for a picture after winning the championship in a tournament in Front Royal, Virginia. the rec [center] because we know each other so well, no pressure, no stress. If you play on a team [where] you don’t know anyone it’s just weird, but it’s completely normal for us.”

AAU and high school ball have many similarities and differences, from the competition to the game play. Taz Lockhart explains how different they are.

“It’s just better people and better players. With high school ball, it feels like you have to play a certain way and you never know

when you might mess up. With AAU you just run around more freely and don’t have to do that much,” Lockhart said.

Developing as a team is a major component of any competitive sport to play, and Lockhart explains how playing AAU has helped shape the players as a team.

“It made us learn that we have to play together. There is no ‘I in team’, and we have to be at the same pace in the game, like one person cannot be tired, we all

Softball players growing with travel ball experience David Gamboa Staff Reporter Junior Constance Komara, starting shortstop for the varsity softball team, and Sophomore Ines Lopez-Flores, who plays on the junior varsity team, play for the softball teams at the high school as well as playing for travel softball teams in the valley.

Both Komara and Lopez-Flores play for Wicked Insanity, the area’s travel softball team. They practice yeararound for the most part on Sundays and during the summer and early fall season, they have their games and multiteam tournaments on the weekends.

Komara has been a varsity player for the high school for three years now, and has been playing travel ball for four, however only two years with Wicked Insanity. For Komara, playing travel ball isn't only a sport, but has created friendships for her and is sometimes a getaway. “[I play travel] to stay into softball when you're in the summer because high school is only for three months and then you're done and I love softball. I enjoy it and it's just something that I do for fun. It gets me sometimes, like when i do basketball for too much and I just need a break I'll go to softball. It's fun,” Komara said.

Because of her play at the varsity level, travel ball comes to her with more ease. She sees it as not being as difficult with for of a fun side to it.

“In high school, there are 18 years olds playing that are good, but for travel they’re mostly 16 year old girls so they're not the best. Most of the best play for higher

PHOTO COURTESY OF CONSTANCE KOMARA

WAY TO WATCH. Junior Constance Komara watches the pitch go by in a tournament playing for the Wicked Insanity. [ranked] teams. They go to Charlottesville and play for a bigger team. This is more for fun to be playing,” Komara said.

The team was created by a Broadway parent that decided they wanted to create their own team and would go to other teams in the area to scout for players. However there is not a traditional tryout for the team.

“Tryouts weren't really tryouts, if you came you were on the team. If you weren't good then you didn't play,” Komara said.

Most tournaments are in Charlottesville, but the team

practices a lot in Broadway and will also play often at Purcell Park. The travel aspect of this team is apparent when they have to go for tournaments.

“We travel to Charlottesville, we [have] Purcell Park and play a lot [there]. We play 18u [or] 16u depending on our age. But next year we will probably just be play 18u,” Komara said.

For Komara, travel ball has given her another set of friends.

“I get along really well with everyone on the travel team.

They're all really friendly and their parents are really nice,” Komara said.

have to be at the same energy, same pace, same everything,” Lockhart said.

Martinez stated that he enjoys playing on AAU because of his chances of playing those high level elite competitors.

“I like to play those good teams and the elite teams because if I play bad, it helps me realize what I need to do next time to get better,” Martinez said. “Also, if I play good against an elite team and go out against them, it just gives me more exposure.”

The recent death of Coach Hargrove has left huge impacts on any of the players who have known him. Lockhart explains how Coach Hargrove has helped him become the basketball player that he is today.

“He has helped me in every way possible, from the first year of barely making JV to now. He’s taught me so many things and I’ve gotten to be a much better player the last time he saw me play,” Lockhart said.

Martinez also knew Coach Hargrove personally and explains how he has also impacted his growth throughout the years.

“He’s helped me develop a lot, he’s helped me gain a bigger IQ and be a better point guard, and he’s just helped me to be better and work harder,” Martinez said.

Lockhart has high hopes and aims to play above high school level basketball, and explains why AAU ball will help with that.

“I want to hopefully be able to play college ball,” Lockhart said. “[I believe AAU will help] because it’s more opportunities, and more people around you to see you.”

High school basketball and AAU travel basketball both have different lessons and things to learn, but overall he believes that playing for HHS ultimately leads to his better play for the Legends.

“High school playing helps for AAU, because high school teaches you more drill that will lead into the game like defense to offensive stuff to be able to look up the court,” Lockhart said. “It’s just the stuff in the practice is different from AAU and it helps in the game in those live situations.”

Baseball players use RCBL to gain higher exposure Jake Urbanski Staff Reporter After high school baseball season ends, many high school baseball players go on the play with the Rockingham County Baseball League, this opportunity helps them continue their baseball career. Senior Cade Templeton completed his first season with the Montezuma Braves last summer, and plans to play again this summer.

“It is a summer league and it is mainly comprised of some college players, a few high schoolers, then some men who are out of organized baseball. Last summer was my first season,” Templeton said.

Templeton played alongside two Harrisonburg High School baseball alumni, Ryan Kiser and Sam Imeson, who both play when they are note playing for their college organizations. Templeton believes that using bats that are not BBCOR, like in high school, make the game more difficult.

“It was a really good experience and it is a lot different from high school because you have to

use wooden bats,” Templeton said. “[Which] makes it a little harder on the hitters because you don't hit the ball right on a wooden bat then it won't go very far and playing in this league definitely helps prepare for college because the quality of players is better and the game is a little faster.”

Senior teammate Malachi Simmons plans to play in the Rockingham County Baseball League this summer as well. Simmons plans on playing for the Montezuma Braves or the Bridgewater Reds. “[I want to join] because of Tyler Bocock. The Bocock bothers want me to come pitch for Bridgewater, and they are pretty good, so that would give me some exposure to college,” Simmons said.

Simmons is expecting to see multiple scouts this summer, and is looking forward to playing with the higher level of competition. “[My goal is to] become more experienced and see better pitching, like I will see in college...[I’m expecting ]Radford and probably VMI, [Radford has] shown a lot of interest in me throughout the years and their baseball program is pretty good,” Simmons said.

PHOTO BY OWEN STEWART

GONE FOREVER. Malachi Simmons is greeted at the plate after a home run in a game during his junior year against Amherst. The Streaks went on the lose the game 14-10 in ten innings.

Travel volleyball helps athletes build new relationships over off-season Yusuf Aboutabl Staff Reporter Several students from the HHS volleyball teams don’t stop playing once the season ends in late Fall. There are several travel volleyball clubs that athletes participate in to stay shape and work on their skills in the offseason. The season is set up differently, with fewer practices than the school team and multi-team tournaments on weekends. Sophomore Becky Staton of the North Mountain Volleyball Club out of Broadway enjoys the benefits that come with playing travel volleyball.

“This is my first year playing. They wanted me to play last year but I didn’t get the message. It’s a lot of fun and you make more friends doing travel. That’s also where the college scouts actually come to see you,” Staton said. “It’s rare to be scouted at high school [games], but for travel they come and you have a better chance of being scouted.”

Staton, also a member of the school volleyball team, believes she gains important experience that helps her during the fall season.

“I go really hard in travel volleyball so that it comes easier for me during the fall,” Staton said. “The coach also has workout

plans that we have to do during breaks and summer. They’re a pain but they help prepare me for the fall.”

There are few differences between travel volleyball and playing for the school team, but one of the main differences Staton observes is the chemistry between teammates.

“I have better chemistry with my travel teammates. I feel appreciated and they’re always glad to see me, too,” Staton said.

“I’m always leader of the practices and MVP of the games and everything. There’s definitely more chemistry with my travel team.”

One of Staton’s less serious things she

likes about the team come in the form of community and coming together over one thing: food.

“We all bring food and have a huge potluck on some days,” Staton said. “It’s a lot of fun and you make more friends.”

Shadther Rosso, also a travel volleyball player and a school player, has a similar experience with relationships playing, but not in all aspects.

“I have better chemistry with the school team because I see them more, but I still have a good connection with the travel team as well,” Rosso said. “I like travel a lot because you meet new people and that’s something I really enjoy.”

April 28, 2017

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White receives offer from ODU Owen Stewart Sports Editor

AC White has been the starting varsity quarterback since his freshman year at HHS. This offseason, White attended Junior Day, a showcase camp for players in the Class of 2018, at Old Dominion University, and was offered a full scholarship to play football for ODU, a Division I university in Norfolk. While White has played quarterback his entire high school career, ODU offered him at a new position.

“They want me at this hybrid position called J-Back. It’s basically a tight end, but it’s a tight end that plays on the line, in the backfield with the quarterback and lined up as a slot receiver as well,” White said.

After receiving the offer, White noted that he was shocked that the Monarchs want him at a position other than his natural spot.

“It was pretty mind-blowing.

[Their coach] put it out there when we were first talking, but then at the end of the conversation, he was like ‘Congratulations, you have an offer’, and I was like ‘Wow, this really happened. I just got my first offer’,” White said.

ODU’s offer didn’t have many conditions, and there isn’t much set for the first year of White’s college career as of now.

“The coach said [the offer] is up until Signing Day. [There’s] no plans yet for my freshman year.

They said this is something new they’ve added into their offense, so I guess we’ll see what happens when I get there,” White said. “Red-shirting all depends on

who’s in front of you. They said they want to have me for as long as possible, so if someone’s in front of me that they feel like I’m not going to beat out, they’ll just red-shirt me [so I can] get adjusted to the position.”

Changing positions also comes with a change in mentality and necessary traits, and White believes that will be one of the toughest parts about making the switch.

“The hardest part for me I think would probably just be my speed. I mean, I’m not the best athlete, but I think I’m a good enough athlete to have a natural switch to the position. [Another thing] would just be not being able to command the offense anymore,” White said.

Even with ODU’s offer, White still has hopes of being a college quarterback. To attempt to hone his QB skills, White joined a 7-on7 football team that travels to different showcase tournaments around the country.

“I started playing in Virginia Beach with this pretty well known 7-on-7 team about a month ago.

We go all over the place. I had a tournament a couple weeks ago in Birmingham, Alabama, and then I’ll be up in Rochester, [New York] on the 22nd [of April]. Because they’re such a well known team and the coaches are so well known, if they recommend you to a college, you’re supposed to be pretty good,” White said.

7-on-7 features some differences from traditional football, and White believes this offers another way for college coaches to look at him.

PHOTO BY CHRISTA COLE

BREAK AWAY. Junior AC White breaks away from Broadway’s defense during their game played in Bridgeforth Stadium. AC will now put his skills to the test as he decides whether to attend Old Dominion University, “Basically, 7-on-7 is everyone except offensive and defensive line. You have a certain time limit to throw. It’s weird, but it’s like live football without linemen, and it gives college coaches another chance to see you without them having to come watch you during the season,” White said.

In addition to ODU, White has communicated with James Madison, Richmond and Howard, all

FCS (Division I-AA) level schools.

Of the three, White does have a connection to one school, in the form of a former high school teammate.

“I always thought if I went to JMU, it would be really cool to win a national championship with Devin Medley,” White said.

For White, there are many factors that will aid him in his final decision, but he has a few in par-

ticular when looking over a school that have a high importance.

“I guess the biggest thing is [if I’ll] get an offer to play quarterback,” White said. “Not only that, but the school that offered me, do I like the school, do I like the coaching staff, do I like the players already on the team and do I like the campus. From there, I’ll talk with my family and make the best decision for me.”

Players join football league in Norfolk Theo Yoder Sports Editor A major part of the recruiting process of college football is observing what the players can do in an environment where they can truly showcase their skills. Seven-on-seven is basically regular football, but without the offensive and defensive lineman. This style of football is designed for skill players, such as QBs, running backs, tight ends and wide receivers to have space to show off their true agility and skill in the presence of college scouts.

Seven-on-seven is played without tackling, and there are less players on the field at one time, allowing these players to have space to express their talent. Among the football players joining a seven-on-seven team is sophomore Marcus Robinson. “[The team] helps with the recruiting process with college coaches. They can truly see what you can do and the moves you can make. You can’t really run over other players in seven on seven, you have to make the other team miss. It’s physical, you can’t tackle or [anything] but you can get shoved down. It’s like real football but without tackling,” Robinson said.

Robinson and others will be trying out for a team located in Norfolk. The team will play in a league where they face other teams of seven from as far away as Ala-

PHOTO COURTESY OF AC WHITE

BREAKING ANKLES. Junior AC White huddles with his fellow treammates during a seven-on-seven game in Norfolk. Players are expected to score by showcasing their skills and agility with no physical contact. College scouts are present during these games allowing them to view the players and decide whether to make an offer. bama. The try-outs are competitive, as this is a team college scouts observe with the purpose of finding new players for their

school.

“Teams like this are top notch players.

I expect a lot of good things to come from

this team. We’re going to win plenty of games and hopefully some tournaments,” Robinson said.

Their season started this month and will continue into the summer, ending at the start of the next high school football season. Games are usually played on the weekends, but will eventually be played during the weeks during the summer. Robinson first heard of seven-on-seven football last year when coaches started a pickup team at HHS. “Everybody was like, you should get on a seven-on-seven team. Seven-on-seven is good, that is how you get noticed by colleges. That is what motivates you. It is also fun; I love the aggressiveness. I like the part of football without tackling. I like the agility, it’s not all about cracking people,” Robinson said.

Among the players joining Robinson on the team is junior Stedman Clark. Clark is a tight end for the steaks.

“I’m joining the team with the hopes of getting better as a player and getting recruited. I love the team bonding and being able to go out there with your brothers and show out,” Clark said. “I have the goal of getting two college offers this season.”

Clarke and Robinson are also being joined with QB, AC White. Their tryouts begin this week and games begin within the next month.

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New Coaches

Henschel learning in first year at helm Owen Stewart Print Managing Editor Last year, in his first year teaching math at HHS, Ryan Henschel also took on the role as assistant coach for the JV baseball team. This year, with Jay Hook (last year’s JV head coach) transitioning into a varsity assistant job, Henschel has taken over as the JV team’s head coach. Henschel believes that some of the things he learned as an assistant last year will help him in his increased role. “[I learned] that things are different between playing and coaching. I played in high school and college, but you don’t really see the coaching side of things until you actually get into coaching,” Henschel said. “[Things] like what you need to do before the game to get the team ready, taking care of the laundry, making sure the kids have food, making sure all of the equipment is on the bus, just some different things that I hadn’t seen.”

To make adjustments to his new role, Henschel made sure to consult with Hook, as well as Kevin Tysinger, the head coach of the varsity team.

“I followed Coach Hook closely. I asked a lot of questions to see what he did. I still talk with Coach Hook and Coach Tysinger if I ever have any questions. They’re really easy to talk to and they’re willing to answer any of the questions I have,” Henschel said.

In Henschel’s first year as head coach, he has taken on a very young squad, as nearly half of the team is comprised of eighth graders. While the team went through some early struggles, losing their first two games to Woodgrove and Millbrook, Henschel hopes to see improvement come through experience as the season goes along.

“We [only] have two players that started for us last year that are starting this year, so we have seven brand new players who’ve never played baseball at the high school level before. We’re definitely young, [but]

In future years, Henschel hopes to continue helping out with the baseball program however he can, and wants to continue improving at running a team.

“I like coaching; I want to keep getting better. As long as I’m here, I would like to help out in some way, whether that be as an assistant on JV, the head on JV, wherever Coach Tysinger needs me. There are some challenges, but there are also some rewards. As long as there is an opportunity, I think I will continue to see myself in a coaching role somewhere,” HenPHOTO COURTESY OF RYAN HENSCHEL schel said.

As for the current seaAN INCREASED ROLE. JV baseball head coach Ryan Henschel delivers a pitch during his time at Eastson, while Henschel has ern Mennonite University. After being a pitching coach for the JV team last season, Henschel took over already seen his team take as head coach this year. some steps towards success, he wants to see them we’re getting better every day. It’s just a it’s really hard to keep the kids motivated. work in progress,” Henschel said.

Another challenging thing would be time build off of their improvements.

“I want, at the end of the year, to see Henschel also hopes to correct some commitment. On a normal day, JV practicgreat improvements. I’ve already seen bad habits that some of the team’s inexpe- es after varsity, so by the time practice is rienced players have picked up in the past. over, I’m the last one to leave at 7 or 7:30. some improvements from the first two “I think a lot of our players haven’t been For games, it’s even later. For example, we games from each player. My goal is that, at taught the correct way to do things. So went to Millbrook and had a lightning de- the end of the year, we can put everything [during practice we] teach them how to lay and we didn’t get home until 11,” Hen- together and win some games,” Henschel said. “We’re already starting to get behind field ground balls, how to track balls in the schel said. outfield, what the good mental approach Even though some parts of the job ar- our teammates a little better, do things is at the plate, how to throw strikes and be en’t the greatest, there are some things on the field that we haven’t been able to consistent with their delivery,” Henschel that Henschel really enjoys about coach- through the first couple weeks of practice, and we’re seeing a lot of improvement. I said. “I just try to give them more knowl- ing. edge, skill and development, that way we “I enjoy seeing the players enthusiasm know we are young and we are really small. can continue to get better throughout the and the expression on their faces when We’re not going to hit home runs, we’re year.” they make a good play, or when they do not going to hit a lot of doubles. We need During his first year at the helm, Hen- something right, or they realize that they to get base hits, we need to throw strikes, schel has found some aspects of coaching can be successful. That’s the same motiva- we need to make the routine play in the to be more difficult than others, with a tion I have when I’m teaching. I like seeing field. We’re getting better at that, so I want couple in particular standing out for him. it in a student’s face, that ‘Aha’ moment them to see that they’ve gotten better and “One [hard thing] would be keeping when they get it. When they realize they that they can continue to improve as long the players motivated. When you lose, it’s can do something, that’s really beneficial as they work hard.” hard anyways, but when you lose by a lot, to me,” Henschel said.

Bocock begins coaching for former rival Owen Marshall Sports Editor

PHOTO COURTESY OF TYLER BOCOCK

SWITCHING SIDES. Assistant baseball coach Tyler Bocock turns a double play while at Stetson University. Bocock is in his first year coaching at HHS after being a star infielder for district rival Turner Ashby during his time in high school. Bocock’s brother, Brian, also played at Turner Ashby and Stetson, and went on to play for the San Francisco Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies and many minor league teams.

With the Streaks losing both their pitching and hitting coaches from the 2016 season, they got some new additions to their coaching staff. Tyler Bocock was an infielder for the Turner Ashby Knights during his high school career and continued his play at Stetson University in Florida. Now, Bocock is passing his knowledge of the game to the varsity team.

“Playing and playing at a high level and learning from a coach that had forty years of experience in college baseball, those little things that I talk about I learned how to coach that from him. I am just relaying information that I have heard before,” Bocock said.

Bocock is a Turner Ashby alum yet is coaching for the Knights rival.

“In all seriousness, there coaching staff was full so it had nothing to do with where I wanted to go. Coach [Kevin] Tysinger asked me and I said

yeah,” Bocock said.

Bocock is in his first year coaching, but he believes that his years of playing help him teach the athletes on the team.

“I think using my experience to explain the intricate details, learning the details of the game, and working on the little things [can help the team],” Bocock said.

In baseball there are normally coaches for specific aspects of the game. Bocock the believes his best qualities is being able to communicate with the players.

“I [think I’m good at] being relational and being able to relate to all the kids. It is not easy to relate to kids nowadays. I think taking a softer approach with some of the guys helps them process information a little better,” Bocock said.

When coaching the athletes, Bocock believes that he needs to look at it from how players would.

“I don't speak at them, I speak to them. I just try to be as relational as

possible,” Bocock said.

A goal set by the players this season is a state championship and Bocock believes the outlook for the season is going to be successful.

“It’s good, really good. I would say our defense is really cohesive, and we have a lot of moving pieces that we can use. Offensively we are executing and doing the little things we need to do to win ball games,” Bocock said.

Bocock has introduced goat cheese as a pregame snack to some of the players on the team. He believes that goat cheese has a special connotation in the team locker room.

“Everybody wants to be the G.O.A.T., greatest of all time, but nobody wants to eat goat cheese. We are all good at math here, goat cheese plus eating equals wins and dingers,” Bocock said.

The team had a record of 6-3 as of April 19, and concludes the regular season on May 12.

Tennis team gains new assistant in Rutherford Christa Cole Print Managing Editor

A team of 24 girls can be pretty hard to handle, but thankfully tennis coach and history teacher Lawson Yoder no longer has to manage the girls all on his own.

With a no-cuts policy, practices have the potential to become slightly chaotic, but Kim Rutherford, mother of top seed junior Lucie Rutherford, has stepped up to the role of assistant coach this season.

“I played tennis all through junior high and high school, and so when Lucie started playing at HHS I thought, ‘Well, maybe the coach needs some help’, so Lucie let Coach Yoder know I would be happy to help out. This year with the strong turnout, I think it's been good to have a second set of hands,” Kim Rutherford said.

As a registered nurse in the critical care unit at RMH, the assistant coach is not able to make it to practice every day, but is an important asset when present.

“When she is at practice, I can split our rather large team into smaller groups, which allows us

to provide more individualized instruction. She has been super helpful; she's flexible, willing to help in any way, she's very good at offering pointers to help the players improve. She connects really well with the team, an excellent, positive spirit; it seems she is really enjoying being with the players,” Yoder said.

Focusing on that individualized instruction, Kim Rutherford usually instructs groups of a few girls at a time.

“I typically do drills with small groups, rotating players in and out. Practicing volleys, serves and always, always stressing importance on the ‘hustle’ of getting to the ball and getting in position.

Feet have got to be moving in tennis… I am working hard to get everyone's names down. It is a wonderful group of young women.

Their encouragement and support [for] one another is very impressive. They really seem to love the game and enjoy their time on the court,” Kim Rutherford said. “[My favorite part is] coming to practices and seeing the enthusiasm of the players, and more importantly, their support of one another.”

PHOTO BY CHRISTA COLE

NEW HELPER ON BOARD. First year girls tennis assistant Kim Rutherford assists senior Evangeline Mensah-Agyekum with her swing mechanics during a tennis practice. While in previous years, coach Lawson Yoder has been the lone coach for the team, Rutherford has joined the team this season to help direct a squad of 24 girls.

Like Yoder, daughter Lucie Rutherford believes her mother is doing a fantastic job as well, and reassures her so.

“She's doing great. She doesn't coach me as much as some of the other girls, but from what I see, they enjoy having her around and are learning from her. She was actually really nervous after the first few practices about whether

the girls liked her. We would go home and she'd be like, ‘Do you think they like me? How do you think I'm doing?’ She's new to the whole coaching thing, and it was really cute, I just kept reassuring her,” Lucie Rutherford said.

Yoder says he welcomes her back for future seasons, and Kim Rutherford would be happy to assist as long as Yoder would have

her.

“I love tennis and I love watching our players progress,” Kim Rutherford said. “We lost some great players from last year, and although it's been challenging for our players, they have done a fantastic job working at practice and have played well at matches. The best is yet to come.”

April 28, 2017

Sports-B11

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First year tennis players focus on gaining experience Sarah Earle News Page Editor Last year, the girls’ tennis team had a total of six freshmen, as well as two eighth graders; this year six more freshmen joined. With only eight upperclassmen out of 24, the team remains dominated by the underclassmen. Eleven players who have joined the team this year have never played tennis before, including freshman Fiza Afridi. “[I decided to play tennis because] I just wanted to try something new with my friends, and tennis seemed like a good opportunity,” Afridi said. “[I decided to play] a week before tennis started.”

Afridi has made efforts to practice her strokes and work with others on the team to improve. “[The biggest thing I’ve learned so far has been] coordination, because it takes technique [to play tennis]. I think I’ve been doing decent, considering I’ve been working a lot with my peers. The girls are really supporting and so is our coach,” Afridi said. “[The hardest part about playing is] probably serving, because you don’t always make it over. I’ve been working on my serves outside of school.”

As for the future, Afridi is optimistic about the team and has hopes to move up the ladder.

“I’m looking forward to more games with all the girls and getting better in the future,” Afridi said. “[I will] definitely [stick with tennis]. [So far, tennis] has been really fun; kind of nerve-racking, but it gets better. Everyone just supports you no matter what.”

Freshman Abby McCollum is a first-year tennis player as well, however her experience playing volleyball has helped the learning process. “[I decided to play tennis] because it looked like a fun sport to play and a lot of cool people are in it. A few weeks before it started, [I made my decision to play],” McCollum said. “I’ve been playing okay, but I just started, so I’m just kind of going with it.”

Although both volleyball and tennis are similar sports, McCollum finds the two sports differ in the mental aspect of each game. “[Tennis] is a really independent sport and you have to do everything on your own mostly. [The hardest part has been] getting used to it. It’s a lot different from other sports,” McCollum said. “Volleyball is more of a team sport definitely, and it’s way more intense. I like both of them. With serving, [volleyball and tennis have] the same idea, but with a racket and a smaller ball, so serving is not an issue for me, [but I prefer] volleyball [over tennis] because I’m really competitive… I feel it’s a way more

Freshman White joins varsity squad

competitive sport and really intense, so I like that about [volleyball].”

Like Afridi, McCollum hopes to continue her tennis career, as well as improve her skills in order to eventually play in the top six.

“I’m looking forward to getting better and getting more wins.” McCollum said.

Thus far, McCollum has had a positive experience on the team and is excited for up-

PHOTO BY ANDREW RATH

WARMING UP. Freshman Austin White takes a few shots during warm ups in the varsity soccer game. has played for travel teams in the past. “[Playing for a travel team] is different because you’re only playing with kids your age and the pace is really fast and it was the first year on a big field so that was a big change, but it’s definitely a lot more physical and high paced playing for the high school team,” White said.

Although White has played soccer before, he still feels that he must work hard to keep up with the returning players on the team.

“I definitely feel like I have to work harder because I have to keep up with all the upperclassmen and keep up the pace and skill level as they are,”

White said, “ [I have to] take all the drills more seriously, and focus on every little thing.”

While some of the freshmen have less experience than other players on the team, Rath expects just as much from them as he does from the upperclassmen.

“They are expected to do everything at the same quality as my juniors and seniors,” Rath said. “We definitely have to make sure that when we are doing certain drills that the upperclassmen already know, we’ll pull aside the freshmen and make sure they understand what concept were trying to get across.”

coming matches with her teammates.

“I like [tennis] because it’s really chill and everyone is really nice. So far, everyone has been really supportive. Everyone has just been trying to build each other up,” McCollum said. “[The best part about being on the team has been] everybody and just learning a new sport has been really cool.”

Eighth graders discover new playing styles Owen Marshall Sports Page Editor

Anna Rath Feature Page Editor After losing 15 players since the last season, the varsity boys soccer team compensated for the loss by adding many new players, including seven freshmen. Although this has never happened before head coach, Paul Rath, enjoys coaching the range of under and upperclassmen.

“It wasn’t a decision that was made lightly, we needed to make sure we had depth in our team so we picked freshmen that could play physically and intellectually at the varsity level and practice with us and support us with playing time,” Rath said, “Some of the players are practice players with us because they need to develop their skills at a higher level but actually play their games with the JV team.”

Austin White, who plays as a midfielder and forward, is one of the seven freshmen playing on the varsity team.

“It’s pretty exciting being one of the younger kids on the team and being able to play with the older kids,” White said, “I’m definitely trying to improve my skill and also get a lot of good playing time on the field and make an impact.”

White did not play soccer last year, but

PHOTO BY SARAH EARLE

SERVES UP. Freshman Fiza Afridi serves the ball in her exhibition match against the Spotswood Trailblazers.

A total of eight eighth-graders made the JV boys baseball team this year, compared to just three in the 2016 season.

Eighth grader Parker Fiske wanted to continue his baseball career and learn more about the game.

“I just wanted to play baseball. I was too old for little league and I didn’t want to play 50’ 70’. I wanted to play JV for the challenge and to work hard,” Fiske said.

From the little league field to the high school field, the bases length increases thirty feet in the basepaths and fourteen feet from the pitcher’s mound to the plate.

Eighth grader Ryan Muncy believes that the increase makes the game a little more difficult.

“It is a lot harder to get a ball out into the outfield [on a hit] and harder to move to different spots on the field,” Muncy said.

Fiske believes that the biggest change from little league to high school ball is the change in instruction.

“In little league they mostly teach you fundamentals and how to play the game. In highschool they elaborate, they keep the fundamentals in there but change it up a little bit

to add more skill into it,” Fiske said.

Eighth grader William Harrison believes there is a more competitive atmosphere once you start playing JV. “We all have to compete every day to fight for playing time,” Harrison said.

Eighth grader Aiden Perkins agrees with Harrison on the fact that JV there it is harder to get a spot on the field.

“It is a lot more competitive and takes a lot more physical attributes,” Perkins said.

Perkins believes that the team needs to work on playing as a team instead of as individuals. “[We need to start] working with the team better, and start working together as a group instead of going against each other,” Perkins said.

Muncy started in center field in the first scrimmage against Monticello High School and then the first games of the season.

The scrimmage gave him and the other eighth-graders their first exposure on a full size field.

“It is an experience, it gave me an experience that I will need in more important games,” Muncy said.

Perkins also started in left field during the beginning of the season and was happy to see that his

years of baseball were paying off.

“I was very excited and proud of myself to see the skill I have required over the years,” Perkins said.

Fiske did not start in the first couple of games, but earned his spot as the right fielder when the Streaks took on Waynesboro.

“It felt pretty good, because in little league I was used to starting every other game because everybody has to play in little league. In JV it is a harder to get a spot, it is a lot more satisfying and you feel a more accomplished when you start,” Fisk said.

Eighth Grader Xander Collazo suffered a broken ankle early in the season and his role on the team changed.

“I went from secondary catcher to coach’s second hand man. I am just chillaxin in a boot for three weeks waiting to heal and hopefully come back,” Collazo said.

Muncy believes that since he is new to the team, he will get in the game, but not always start.

“I think I will get in some games, but I do not think I will be a consistent starter. I am hoping I can get some hits in this year,” Muncy said. “[This team] has given me friendships and knowledge of the high school that I will need next year.”

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April 28, 2017

Humans of HHS-B12

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HUMANS OF In keeping with our motto “Every person has a story,” the Newsstreak interviews students every month in the style of Humans of New York creator, Brandon Stanton. The idea is to tell the story of as many of our students as possible. Check out a similar project at www.hhsmedia.com.

HHS

Senior Zahraa Shammari

What is your favorite book and why?

“My favorite book is Of Mice and Men because it talks a lot about friendship and I like that.”

Senior Alexander Cruz-Rios

If you could purchase anything, what would it be?

“I would want to purchase a mansion for my family.”

How many tattoos do you have and what do they mean?

“I got two of them when I was 17 down in Florida with my brothers. The first one I got is of a band called Motorhead because I was really into them at the time and I thought a lot of what they were saying was resonating with me so I got their band slogan on my shoulder, ‘Born to Lose, Live to Win’. The second one I got is of a Breast Cancer awareness ribbon and a rose with my mom’s name because she is a breast cancer survivor and she loves flowers. The third one I got was on my forearm and it’s my last name, ‘Cruz’ with a crack through it. I got it a week ago just because there’s some stuff happening in my family and I felt like we were breaking apart so I put it in ink on my forearm.”

Sophomore Noah Pope

Senior Ben Blake

Freshman William Starke

Do you believe in a God? “No. With all of the negative things that happen in the world, I don’t think that there is some kind of being that is meant to help everyone.”

What is your dream job?

“To work at a video game studio and make video games because video games are the fastest growing industry in the US.”

Freshman Daniel Johnson

What is your dream job and why?

“My dream job is to be an electrician because my uncle is one and he is my idol.”

Sophomore Ben Cooper

Junior Janette Celestion

How do you want to work in the future?

“After high school I want to go to James Madison University to get my master’s degree, after that I want to have my own business, a charity foundation, but also I want to be a performer, a vocalist, and use that money to help other students and also the enviroment. There [are] a lot of probems out there; I want to use my words to share with the whole world how I feel we should work for it and hopefully there are others around us that could help me help others so that we can change something out there in the world and solve the problems around us.”

What do you do in your free time?

“I go home and play video games with my friends and hang out with my family.”

What’s your favorite video game?

“Probably CSGO. I like being the top fragger, the person who gets the most kills in a game.”

How often do you play with your friends?

“Almost everyday, usually for a couple hours per day.”

Senior Harly Gardinet-Garcia

Freshman Amir Myers

What do you enjoy about broadcasting?

“I really like it when you can create your own package and construct your stories. Having control over what you’re doing in class is pretty rare.

I enjoy making shorts and videos so this is kind of like an entry point into doing that. I want to make movies and short films when I’m older.”

Photos by Sam Heie, Andrew Rath, David Gamboa & Christa Cole

If you could buy anything right now, what would you buy? ““I’d buy a four room house with a pool. I could have a pool, I could have a different room for different stuff. I could have my pants in one room, shoes in another, my underwear in one of them and I could sleep in the other one.”

Sophomore Enrique Vasquez

What are you looking forward to most about summer?

“Traveling with my family and having a good time.”

Senior Ala Ibraham

How’s life going right now?

“It’s going well I guess, I mean school’s kind of kicking my butt and college, like picking where I want to go, but otherwise I think I’m doing pretty okay.

What’s the worst part of figuring everything out?

“I think it’s just making a decision because, to me, I personally find the pros and cons of every decision and all of my decisions balance each other out, so I don’t know what to pick.

What colleges are you looking at and why?

“I’m looking at VCU and JMU...I’d like to go into the health profession and they both have good programs that I admire, so that’s why.

Freshman Elijah Harvey

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

“My mom. She provides clothes, gives me food and is there for me.”

Sophomore Johnny Tepeyac Gutierrez

What’s the best thing you’ve ever eaten?

“Philly Cheese steak sandwich.”