Newsstreak January Issue 2017

A6: Massanutten opens winter season

The

B3: Celebraciones del mundo at Keister

B11: Wrestling team coverage

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Harrisonburg High School • 1001 Garbers Church Road • Harrisonburg, VA 22801 • 540.433.2651 • Volume XIIC • Issue 5 • January 27, 2017

HACKED.

HHS has experienced six DDoS attacks since the beginning of the year that have continued to frustrate teachers and students. These attacks involve saturating the target machine with requests which blocks legitimate traffic.

PHOTO BY SAM HEIE

DDoS attacks prohibit learning Sam Heie Page Editor

Six attacks, thousands of dollars and work hours spent and the possibility for felony charges, all within the Harrisonburg City Public Schools. The main computer servers for HCPS have been attacked by hackers working in with a method called Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS. These attacks are caused by someone or something

that sends mass amounts of data through the system and clogs the servers, causing a stop in Internet traffic. These attacks are characterized by a slowing or complete stop of the wireless network and the Internet. These specific attacks began in mid-November and continued far into December.

Although it has been defined as a hacking by now, after the first attacks, there was speculation by HHS principal Cynthia Prieto.

“Initially there was a question of what it was and we figured that it might have been Google, but it’s not Google, it’s internal and very specific... Think about it as highway traffic, [and] this is a massive traffic jam. Traffic comes to a dead stop, and then the real traffic isn’t able to get through,” Prieto said.

After the attacks had been identified however, HCPS tech specialists Dwayne Hottinger and Toni Sheets began working to

stop and prevent the attacks.

“Our tech people were on it immediately. The issue is that when you order these DDoS attacks, you order them from something different than the Internet.

There is another net and it does encryptions in another way so it gives less ability to track,” Prieto said.

DDoS attacks are ordered through the dark web using a payment method called bitcoins. This is an online and untraceable

DDoS:

An attempt to make servers unavailable to users by saturating them with huge volumes of traffic from multiple sources.

Consequences

DDoS attacks can be a federal offense, and perpetrators could see up to 10 years in prison.

job who was trying to take one last test to graduate from high school came in to HHS. She was unable to take the test and it had to be rescheduled. There are alternatives to using the Internet, but Prieto worries about validity after a certain amount of work.

“You have teachers whose classes are dependent on technology; our CTE classes, our computer

See DDOS page A2

VHSL confirms 4A to 5A division move

Distributed Denial of Service

What is it?

payment method. This means that someone could pay for an attack anytime throughout the day.

“You’re talking about anybody that is outside of the building communicating with us, you’re talking about everything that functions. [Teachers and students] cannot access any of their files, cannot communicate [and cannot] upload any new information,” Prieto said.

In one case, an adult woman with a full time

How it’s done

A company is paid to rent about 10,000 machines for a period of time and told to open connections to a website. This uses up all available resources on the computer and “denies service” to anyone else trying to use it.

What makes it difficult?

“What makes a [DDos] attack harder [to

stop] is that it’s not one person attacking something, or one particular PC, but multiple, so it’s almost impossible to track the source because you have multiple devices.

”

- Buddie Ritchie, Computer Networking teacher at Massanutten Technical Center

Noah Siderhurst Page Editor Every two years, the Virginia High School League (VHSL) Alignment Committee meets to decide what the next two-year plan for athletic districting will be. Currently, HHS falls as a 4A school, a classification based on population size ranging from 1A to 6A. Starting next year, however, HHS will be moving up to a 5A classification due to the growing population. This means that sports teams will be competing against different schools for state championships.

At the same time, the VHSL is also moving to a new classification system, as Athletic Director Darrell Wilson explains.

“The [VHSL] has reorganized… into four regions per classification as opposed to two regions now.

Now we’re in a system where there are conferences within the region

INFOGRAPHIC BY LUCIE RUTHERFORD

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within the classification. We’re moving to a system where there are [going to be] only regions within the classification,” Wilson said.

Not all schools HHS will play are going to be completely new due to the fact that we are still a member of the valley district, and will still play schools in the valley just like before. Under the new classification, about half of the schools HHS will play are concentrated in Stafford County, about a two hour drive from Harrisonburg, and the other half include Albemarle, Orange, Halifax, William Fleming and Patrick Henry.

“There’s sort of a small cluster and then a big circle [that we will be playing],” Wilson said.

Wilson does not see this new classification as too much of a difficulty for sports, but believes it will require mainly logistical adjustments, especially in the area of travel.

See CLASSIFICATION page A2

Find us on the Web www.hhsmedia.com Updated sports scores and schedules for all seasonal sports Feature package stories and extended coverage of print packages Advertising forms and information Breaking news from school and the community

January 27, 2017

News-A2

The Newsstreak

Man on the Street: How Students Have Been Affected by DDoS Attacks

Parker Ferguson (11) “It really hinders me from doing a lot of my work. I’ve had to kind of do nothing for a few days because of the DDoS-ing and because the Internet just won’t work properly.”

Fernando Posada (10) “We were doing a performance task and a lot of it was online research, so when the DDoS attacks happened, we couldn’t get online to write our research paper.”

Kaitlyn Cue (10) “At that time we were doing an explore task and it was really important to use the internet, so honestly, it got really annoying.”

Urie Conis (11) “In computer science, Mr. Hiser has had to cancel his normal lesson plan and we’ve been doing this project that counts as our AP exam and he’s had to push back the dates every time.”

INFOGRAPH BY SAM HEIE

Attacks frustrate technology teachers DDOS from A1 programming classes. We have classes fully based on technology that fully can’t function. There are only a certain amount of games or crossword puzzles that have validity for that subject. Sure, that’s fun that one day… but that gets old really fast.

It demoralizes the teachers. What do you tell this stranger that comes in as a substitute, has 30 kids in her class hanging from the rafters because they don’t have access?” Prieto said.

Teachers have been forced to use their own cell phone data plans to show Google Slides and resort to many other strenuous efforts. The attacks are not just having an effect on the education of the students, but in some cases, the safety.

“If there is any kind of emergency or I need to tell the teachers something, I usually send out an HHSall email. If the email isn’t going out, nobody gets it.

It’s interesting because it’s made us stop and think,

‘wow, we’re really dependent on our technology,’” Prieto said.

Although it started as a local issue, it has developed to something much bigger. HCPS has informed local, state and even federal authorities about the attacks. Harrisonburg Police Department has not been able to provide much help due to the higher level of technological issues. They also hired tech companies such as Google and Comcast, but primarily Mitigation, to work on protecting and preventing the attacks. “[Mitigation] is trying to do different things. There are softwares that you can put in place to filter out some of that junk traffic and that allows the normal traffic to get through.

They’ve isolated some of our servers, but that means that there is limited access,” Prieto said.

These services have narrowed down the options to several suspects, but there is no concrete evidence to question or accuse anyone in particular. Prieto suspects that the person is ei-

ther a student or involved in the HCPS system. Until then, teachers remain upset.

“I had no idea [what it would become], and I was busy with teachers who were getting frustrated, but I didn’t know the extent of frustration until recently. Now, the teachers are through. They’re done.

This is not funny in any way. It is damaging and it has a direct impact on… the students,” Prieto said.

One of the teachers who is a frontline victim of the attacks is online teacher Adam Good. He teaches PLATO Economics and several other virtual classes.

“When [the attacks] take place, my students aren’t able to really do anything. I have PLATO students and Virtual Virginia students who are unable to access anything, so it’s a loss of a day and a class period,” Good said.

After attempting to work around the issues, Good often will allow students to work on other classes to stay productive.

However, it is still a loss of

Annual Women in STEM event looks towards second year

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB ADAMEK

WiSTEM. STEM student Hannah Daniel introduces civil engineer Doronda Bailey to the group of middle and high school girls at the Women in STEM debut last year. Bailey works at the Department of Planning and Community Development for the city of Harrisonburg.

Iris Cessna Staff Reporter STEM is one of the fields that has long had disproportionate representations of women to men. President of the HHS STEM academy, senior Genevieve Cowardin, even overheard a sixth grader informing her mother that STEM is for boys.

“I was on a sixth grade river field trip with the STEM academy… and I overheard a conversation between a young girl and her mother.

The young girl was explaining to her mother that she didn’t want to apply to the STEM academy because STEM was for boys. I was so shocked that here was this sixth grader who didn’t realize that STEM was for everyone, or she didn’t feel comfortable within STEM,” Cowardin said.

This interaction inspired Cowardin to start the Annual WISTEM (Women in STEM) Summit. “[Not realizing STEM is for everyone] should not be the determination whether or not you’re going to pursue that kind of field, and so after going away from that… I just felt like I needed to do something,” Cowardin said.

According to HCPS STEM coordinator, Amy Sabarre, the event is driven mainly by the students involved, not the faculty members.

“The cool part about

WISTEM is that it’s run by the students, and I’m just here to do whatever it is they need me to do to help out. It’s driven by Genevieve’s passion, not mine,” Sabarre said.

The event, featuring several activities and mentors, or women in fields of STEM that have been invited to the event will take place on the afternoon of January.

27. Several female students in the STEM academy and faculty members have been involved in a planning committee this year. They work to make sure the event will go smoothly and plan out the content of the event.

“Working with the committee for this event has been really fun. Their creativity and ideas for how to spread awareness for Women in STEM has been really inspirational,” Cowardin said.

Cowardin compares last year’s event, being the debut, to what is shaping up for this year.

“I feel like the two events will both be similar in their format and definitely similar in their agenda.

[Although] this year, hopefully it’s going to be a larger event for more people.

Since last year was the first year of the event, it was a little bit disorganized since we weren’t quite sure who was going to show up. We knew what we were going to do there, but [didn’t know] how it was going to

be received, and I feel like this year we’re going to have a better idea about what exactly we’re doing during the event,” Cowardin said.

One of the other students in the committee, sophomore Sophia Thomas, also reflects on how this year’s event will be better planned than the one from last year, seeing as last year’s was the first.

“I think that we’ve definitely learned a lot from our experience last year, but I also think that there will be better communication this year as far as getting lots of girls from both of the middle schools and also the high school. And I also think that we know better which of the mentors we want to invite back,” Thomas said.

Guidance Counselor Anda Weaver, one of the faculty advisors to the WISTEM committee, thinks that the event will continue to become better planned as the years go on. She specifically thinks she will be able to be more helpful to the event planners.

“I’m someone who, after I see something done, I usually have more suggestions and ways to make it even better. So after year two I think I could be even more helpful, because I’ll have seen exactly what it looks like,” Weaver said.

Sabarre also thinks the event will gain speed as years go on.

“The first year it met its purpose, and I think that as the years go on it will get better. This year I think there will be more girls that come out for the event,” Sabarre said.

However much better it will get over the years, the event is still accomplishing Cowardin’s original goal.

“It’s celebrating women in STEM,”Cowardin said. “A lot of it will have to do with creating connections for people, with high school girls in STEM and then middle schooler, eighth grade girls, and additionally the women in professional fields of STEM.”

work time for Good. After his years of teaching, this is his first time experiencing this type of attack.

“Occasionally there has been a period where the Internet would go down, but nothing where we have lost multiple days. This is the worst it has ever been.

They just need to realize that the impact it is having on everyone. I don’t really know what the motivation would be. I don’t know how fun it is just to mess up everyone else’s day, but it’s very frustrating to students and teachers alike,” Good said.

Although the problems primarily affect the high school, all eight buildings in the HCPS system have experienced and have had to deal with them.

Superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner has been involved in the search for the attackers, and it has come at a price.

“Money is a lot harder to quantify, but [we’ve spent] a lot of time. It’s a huge disruption. It’s created unnecessary work for staff with other respon-

sibilities, so their time is very valuable and there is money associated with that,” Kizner said.

Despite the difficulties he and HCPS have faced finding the person, he is optimistic and wanting to finish this ordeal. In the end, Kizner estimates that it could have cost upwards of 100,000 dollars to combat and protect the system. Even after the culprit or culprits are found, the costs will continue. The cost of protection against further attacks is tremendous. For permanent protection, Fairfax County schools spend several hundreds of thousand of dollars a year on fighting the attacks.

“If we are ever able to discover the people who did this… I’m prepared to take any legal measures I have and going into the cost it has created [for] the school system and hold that person responsible for those charges,” Kizner said.

HCPS is not the first to come under the fire of hackers like the ones we

are seeing. Augusta County schools experienced similar attacks.

“We’re learning from others. We’re not the only system that has experienced this and we are working with law enforcement and we are working with the cyber security world. We’re unfortunately learning as we are trying to figure this out… It’s more common than we would have liked to believe, but we are also learning what the potential resolutions could be,” Kizner said.

In Augusta County’s case, two of the three suspects were found and charged. Sentences for this type of activity can be upwards of ten years, depending on the severity.

Kizner plans on continuing to pursue charges even if the attacks stop.

“If it ends up being someone who is affiliated with the school, either staff or student, this will not be taken lightly,” Kizner said.

“Obviously, it’s an act of vandalism and disruption and won’t be tolerated.”

Wilson, Tysinger prepare for new classification CLASSIFICATION from A1 “It doesn’t matter what classification you are, you have the athletes that you have… We’re in a pretty tough district.

The sports teams around here are pretty good, so that shouldn’t hurt us, and hopefully we’ll be able to see that we can be competitive with those schools and then have success in the postseason,” Wilson said.

Varsity baseball head coach Kevin Tysinger thinks that the new move will not have much of an affect on baseball.

One challenge Tysinger sees with the move up is academics.

“The policies we have in place for guys staying eligible with a 2.0 [GPA] and not having D’s and F’s, I think [will] come into play a little more because kids are going to be away from school a little more often with travel time, and it’s going to be hard to get some of their homework done,” Tysinger said.

As the school continues to grow, there is a possibility that a move up to the 6A division could be necessary, but Wilson doubts it.

“The projections that we’ve seen don’t see us getting to the 6A number anytime soon. When the new classification system started four years ago, we were in the middle of the 4A’s, and we went through the top of the fours within four years, but that all has to do with how the population is changing in Harrisonburg,” Wilson said.

An alternative that Wilson would like to see happen even before we hit the 6A cutoff would be the split of HHS into two crosstown high schools with their own athletic departments and sports programs, a proposition which Wilson has presented about to the school board.

In the ideal world for Wilson, the two high schools would be in different di-

visions but still play each other in local games.

“If [the two schools] could be in different districts but have a cross-town rivalry [while] not knocking each other out of the playoffs, it would give the community a way to embrace both and support both without [the rivalry being too harsh],” Wilson said.

Along with two high schools would also come twice the opportunities for students to participate in athletics, something that Wilson thinks would be very good.

“Right now, look at the basketball team. We have 12 guys who play basketball. If you have two schools, you have 24 and then you have JV. You double the amount of students who can participate…

If you look at soccer, we cut three out of four guys that tryout for boys soccer, so we could easily fill another team and still cut half the guys in the city that try-out for soccer,” Wilson said.

Tysinger, however, does see at least a temporary downside to splitting schools.

“We’re not getting 60, 80 kids coming out for baseball, we’re still a little bit down as far as numbers go,” Tysinger said. “It’s possible [that we wouldn’t have enough people], but I think once people realize that there are some more opportunities, some people who have played all the way up through Little League and they just lost interest might say, ‘you know what, I’ve got a chance here.’”

Overall, Tysinger believes it would be better to split high schools eventually instead of continuing to move up divisions.

For now though, Wilson thinks it’s just a matter of adjusting to the new system, even if it takes a little time.

“There’s going to be a learning curve and we have to communicate out to folks how the new system works and how we live in it,” Wilson said.

New regional school classification

Region - Class 5, Region D Harrisonburg MOVING UP. In the black areas shown are Harrisonburg’s new opponents: Orange, Potomac, Stafford, North Stafford, Mountian View, Albemarle, Brookepoint, William Fleming, Halifax, Patrick Henry and Massaponax.

INFOGRAPHIC BY SARAH EARLE

January 27, 2017

News-A3

The Newsstreak

Student teaching program gives ‘full experience’ Owen Stewart Print Managing Editor While most student teaching jobs only last for a small portion of a school year, Harrisonburg City Public Schools has a established a full-year resident program for the first time this year. The program currently consists of four resident student teachers, each with a teaching mentor. Jeremy Weaver, one of the organizers of the program, notes that job openings and experience were some of the key factors for the idea.

“One of the main reasons was [because] we were trying to fill some of our teacher openings that are typically hard to fill, the goal being that we would train some core teachers really, really well, that way they were not like first-year teachers when they got their first classroom placement,” Weaver said.

One of the four resident teachers is fifth year

JMU student Zoe Slobodin, working in a third grade classroom at Waterman Elementary. As opposed to the normal eight week cycle, Slobodin sees advantages in being at the school a full year.

“It gives us the whole experience of how the classroom is supposed to start and how it works throughout the whole year. With student teaching, you don’t always get to see the beginning or end of the school year, and with this, you get rich experiences every day,” Slobodin said.

While most typical student teaching jobs are packed with observing for the student teachers, the resident program is more of a hands-on experience.

“I have teaching responsibilities. Our class works mostly in small groups, so I have a group for math, reading and writing. I’ve also done content before,” Slobodin said.

Weaver agrees, noting that the program offers the full experience.

“These teachers started with us on teacher work week, the first week of August. They were setting up the classrooms, getting ready for school. They’re here throughout the year, so they’re into everything,” Weaver said.

As she makes her way through the school year, Slobodin has encountered some challenges, but believes that her support system at the school provides assistance.

“So far, I’ve learned how hard it actually is. There’s a lot more going on with teaching than people actually think. There’s a lot of planning outside of the classroom. We do get a lot of support though. Our principals are amazing, and my mentor teacher is really great too,” Slobodin said.

While HCPS’ program isn’t all that big yet, Weaver has hopes for expansion in the near future to fill hard to find spots at the high school level.

“Initially, we did look at trying to get some res-

PHOTO BY ANDREW RATH

EXTRA EXPERIENCE. JMU student teacher Zoe Slobodin instructs the third grade class she practices in at Waterman Elementary School. ident teachers at the high school level, especially in math. We were unable to get any JMU students that were ready to commit to our program for that, but that’s certainly a goal for the future; is to really expand, looking specifically at

bilingual teachers, teachers in hard-to-fill positions such as mathematics [and] also special education,” Weaver said.

The inspiration for the program came from another school district, down in Richmond.

“[The program] is based off of some work that’s already been done by Richmond Public Schools. They are the ones that have the biggest program in the state, and we’ve just modeled our program after theirs,” Weaver said.

Scholastic Bowl combines education, STEM students revisit past event competition Yogesh Aradhey Staff Photographer

Zoey Fox Staff Reporter Students on the Scholastic Bowl team, or Academic Team, compete against other schools every week, testing their knowledge in a variety of academic and cultural areas.

This is Senior Kathryn Hulleman’s second year on the team. For Hulleman, questions can be about almost anything.

“There’s a wide variety [of topics]. We’ve had stuff on quantum mechanics, sports figures, we’ve had one [question] about John Cena--a personal favorite. We’ve had questions about currency… political leaders… geographical locations, historical events, books, authors, you name it,” Hulleman said.

Beginning in November, the Academic Team competes every week against local schools. “[There are] four people on each team… and there’s a question asked— it’s sort of this long paragraph of information… and then you have ten seconds to buzz in and answer the question...

There’s three rounds: [the first and third rounds] are the paragraph questions.

The second round, you can collaborate with your teammates, and they’re short questions,” Hulleman said.

Lawson Yoder has been running Academic Team for two years now, with the help of Ryan Henschel.

Yoder believes one of the greatest benefits to students who participate is that they learn to appreciate education.

“Since it’s really academically based, I think [it teaches students] that it’s fun to learn,” Yoder said.

Senior Ryan Showalter is captain of the Scholas-

PHOTO BY ZOEY FOX

QUICK QUESTION. Seniors Ryan Showalter, Kevin Sokolyuk and Alesazem Asuagbor prepare to play in the toss-up round in competition. tic Bowl team this year.

He’s participated since his sophomore year. He thinks that members of Academic Team benefit from having the experience of being part of a team like other sports, but without as much pressure.

“It’s very noncompetitive. You go to matches and you win or you lose, but you don’t really feel this deep sense of loss. The people who do it are very nice, gracious. You don’t ever have to deal with people’s egos,” Showalter said. “We crack jokes at matches with the judges and with the other teams, and it’s just a lot of fun, to be able to have that kind of ‘sport’ where it’s a lot of fun but you don’t have to deal with the stress and the anxiety that goes along with a different sport,” Showalter said.

Yoder agrees that the team aspect of Scholastic Bowl offers a good experi-

ence for students. “[There is] a lot of camaraderie, friendships. It’s just another fun activity that we offer here at this school…

It’s just a good, enriching, building kind of experience,” Yoder said.

Hulleman found practical applications for the skills she learned through Academic Team.

“It helped me a lot, actually, on the ACT and the SAT, with knowing what [the questions are] asking for,” Hulleman said. “Half the battle is finding out what the question wants you to know,” Hulleman said.

Just like games such as Quiz Up or Trivia Crack, Scholastic Bowl appeals to students who have special interest in specific subjects, and students who enjoy learning new things.

Some seniors in the governor’s STEM academy are revisiting a competition that they had competed in their freshman year. The competition is call Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) and teams from across the country are tasked with building a rockets that can perform a specific task, usually involving carrying an egg.

Senior Ryan Showalter, a co-captain on the team, is in charge of delegating work to team members and making sure the project is progressing on schedule.

“This year, the challenge is to launch an egg up in the air, and you want to get it up [to] 775 feet,” Showalter said, “The flight time has to be [as close to] 50 seconds [and] the rocket itself has to had two separate tubes which are joined together. Both parts need to come down separately. We need to do this without cracking the egg.”

This experience is different for team members because when they competed in TARC their freshman year, it was much more teacher lead. Now the responsibility is on the students.

“We have chopped in up [in so several tasks]. We brain stormed, where we sketch up some ideas. Then we tweak them and discuss as a group which one has the best chance of succeeding. Then we [will run] some simulations on them to see which one will work the best. From there we can order the parts we need [to build the rocket]. Finally, we build it and test it,” Showalter said.

Assisting their project, the two teams have access to a computer program called RockSim. This is a program that simulates the flight of a rocket based on its design. The teams use this to fine tune their designs and make sure that they will perform as close to the target altitude and flight time as possible. “[RockSim does] a really good job of keeping their parts list consistent so [in the simulator] you can go through and test a certain motor from a certain manufacturer,” Showalter said. “You can’t account for things like wind though [because launch conditions vary].”

Senior Tyler Sutton is the other captain on the team. His responsibilities also include making sure everyone has something to work on, and having team meetings and discussions.

PHOTO BY YOGESH ARADHEY

ROCKET DESIGN. Seniors Ryan Showalter and Tyler Rodriguez, and junior Jorge Tejada-Molina sketched designs in their notebook for the competition.

“[We need to improve] how we use time. Make sure we use planning [resources] like Kanban flow, to make sure we get the project done on time,” Sutton said.

Kanban flow is an online tool that help teams coordinate and bring all their way together. This is a new tool for that the senior class has used for the first time.

At this early in the project, it is not possible to determine how well they will do in the competition. The first stage of competing is to do a launch and submit the results. If the overall score qualifies, the team will be invited to an event where a lot of teams will launch and a winner will be awarded.

“We don’t know [how well we are doing] yet. Once we get some designs and simulations back we will have a better idea,” Sutton said.

TARC offers students an educational experience that also teaches other skills like project managing.

“It’s actually really fun and teams from all over compete in it so it is pretty competitive. For the most part, we just do it because we enjoy building rockets,” Showalter said.

The Newsstreak

January 27, 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 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, Irene Liu, 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

DDoS attacks are beginning to get out of hand NEWSSTREAK STAFF EDITORIAL How many times have you gone to class in the past month and was unable to complete an assignment due to the fact of it being online?

How many times have you had to change your lesson plan because the Internet was down? How many more times will it be until this problem is fixed?

These Internet issues are being caused by whom authority believes to be an insider, a fellow student. For some odd reason, people like to deter others from what they are doing. However, it’s usually small things like setting off the fire alarm, which is still a serious crime, causing everyone to evacuate the building for no reason at all. It takes about five minutes until the ¨all clear¨ during a routine fire drill is given, which isn’t that bad.

Although, these hacks have interfered with hours, days, and almost a month of our time we spend at school. That is absolutely unacceptable.

This person obviously doesn’t care about any of our educations.

They are extremely childish and treating the situation like a game that we are being forced to play. ¨Will the Internet work this period,¨ ¨Will I be able to stick to my lesson plan,¨ are questions we constantly ask ourselves. While all of us are becoming filled with frustration, due to the lack of access to the Internet, they are somewhere snickering because they somehow find this entertaining.

Time is the one thing in this world that you can’t get back and that is exactly what this person is

wasting. The domino effect this issue has is major, especially with the end of the semester nearby and the need to take exams on the computer. There is no doubt that

someone has even the slightest clue who is causing all of this trouble. Please inform the authority if you know something. You will not be a snitch, you will be a hero.

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.

ART BY ZOEY FOX

Don’t base college decisions on academic ranking Abby Hissong Editor-In-Chief I think I can speak for most seniors when I say that the college admissions process has quite literally taken over my life. It’s been

quite the long and stressful journey, and between essays, recommendations and deadlines, I was more than ready for it to be over.

So when I came home last week to find an acceptance letter from my top choice of college in the mail, the University of South Carolina, it

Top 7 Public Universities Information taken from US News Rankings !. University of California-Berkeley Tuition: $40,191 (out-of-state)

$13,509 (in-state)

2. University of California-Los Angeles (tied) Tuition: $39,518 (out-of-state)

$12,836 (in-state)

2. University of Virginia (tied)

Tuition: $45,066 (out-of-state)

$15,722 (in-state)

4. University of Michigan

Tuition: $43,476 (out-of-state)

$13,856 (in-state)

5. University of North Carolina

Tuition: $33,916 (out-of-state)

$8,834 (in-state)

6. College of William & Mary Tuition: $41,718 (out-of-state)

$18,687 (in-state)

7. Georgia Institute of Technology

Tuition: $32,404 (out-of-state)

$12,212 (in-state)

truly felt as if a weight had been lift- get an education, but also to gain ed off my shoulders. As I started to new experiences, meet new people tell people my good news, I was ex- and explore your passions. Many pecting a flood of congratulations. of those opportunities come from And while most people were very experiences outside of the classexcited for me, what I wasn’t ex- room–clubs, sports and activities. pecting was some of the backlash So, whether you’re looking for I received. I had classmates come big Greek life or lots of intramural up to me and ask me why I was go- sports teams on campus, do your ing to such an ‘easy’ school. Even a homework first to learn whether teacher asked me why ‘a the college can offer you smart girl’ would go to a the kind of activities and ‘not-so-smart-college?’ opportunities that are Now, I realize that they important to you. probably weren’t trying While rankings can to be rude, but I was ofbe helpful, they certainly fended. Not only were can’t tell you the whole their comments insultstory. ing, they were ignorant.

So dig as deeply as Believe it or not, there Dear Abby 2.0 you can into what the are more factors to be statistics that colleges considered when decidshowcase do and don’t ing where to spend the next four assure you. Treat your undergraduyears of your life than the school’s ate education as a precious opporacademic ranking. tunity, before you’re confined by While I was upset, these mind- the burdens of full-fledged adultless remarks brought up a much hood, to go outside of your comfort zone. If you only know the North, larger issue.

Nowadays, is it absolutely ob- think about the South. If you only scene how much emphasis people know a small town (aka Harrisonput on how prestigious a college burg), consider going to a school in looks on paper rather than the a big city. Seek diversity, not just in school’s actual environment. Sure, terms of nationality, ethnicity and rankings can definitely be useful, location, but also in terms of finanbut they also offer a lot of limita- cial background, especially if your tions. After all, it’s impossible to bearings have been primarily uprank something that’s as subjective per middle class. You’ll most likely as the best college–best for whom? encounter a different economic You might be able to get into a population of classmates at one ‘smart’ school, but will you be able of the top state universities than to thrive there? Not necessarily. you will at a more esteemed colAnd while rankings may be a good lege. Doesn’t that have merit, and place to look for some ideas of shouldn’t that be weighed?

All in all, don’t dismiss a college colleges that may be right for you, they certainly shouldn’t be treated because of it’s high acceptance as gospel. After all, all rankings are rate or it’s reputation for being bound to leave out some serious- ‘easy’. Consider your options carely important factors. For example, fully, and physically visit a college majors and programs, extracurric- campus to form your own opinions rather than just looking to the latular opportunities and cultural fit.

You go to college not only to est USA Today ranking.

Be strong, defy unrealistic societal pressures Samantha Little Feature Editor

aim to reach that beauty standard in whatever way it takes. Some of those ways that include eating disorders, sometimes seen by girls Everyone knows that there are as the only way to reach that body all kinds of standards placed on type, aren’t healthy and can have society that tend to be unrealistic very negative effects on their body for many people. More specifical- in the long run. ly, the pressures placed on adoEven though many lescent girls and their girls aren’t driven to bodies not only push eating disorders by for a uniform look, but, those pressures, they because of their unrealcan still affect them istic nature, lead to eatmentally. Seeing beauing disorders and low ty so often defined by self esteem. such a skinny body, it’s The female bodeasy to compare that ies flooding the meSmall Talk to their own bodies dia that are meant to and bring attention to define beauty can be everything that doesn’t summed into one word: match up with that standard. This thin. While this beauty standard can lead to unhappiness in their doesn’t lead to clinically diag- look and a negative body image. nosable eating disorders among There’s then a possibility that it all girls, about 20 million women could get worse, because picking in the United States suffer from apart and criticizing the only body a clinically significant eating dis- you have can lead to low self esorder at some point in their life teem. (according to the National Eating However, this isn’t something Disorders Association). Although that can’t be changed. I believe societal pressures may not be the that there will always be some sort cause for all of those 20 million of societal pressure on girls and women to have the disorder, they it’s unavoidable in a way. Howare a big factor in many cases. See- ever, if the shift of the pressure ing a body type that only a small was shifted from skinny to strong percentage of the country has it could solve some of the trounaturally published so often in the bles. “Strong” comes in all sorts media can lead to many girls to of shapes and sizes and isn’t de-

fined only by one body type. This is more inclusive and applicable to virtually every willing girl. This standard is relative to each person and the overall means of obtaining it are much healthier than the current definition of “skinny”.

In fact, some means of obtaining the current body type standard do the opposite to the body and can weaken it. The ways of reaching a strong body, exercising and having a healthy lifestyle, are not only beneficial physically, but to the mind as well. It stimulates the development of muscles, bones and joints, as well as the heart and

lungs. It also releases endorphins, causing you to feel energized and good in general. Not only does exercise help improve depression, anxiety and stress, it can increase self-esteem. It creates a sense of achievement of goals and feelings of strength and power.

Combating the negative effects of the pressure of having the thin body type in society, “strong” is an alternative that is open to everyone and isn’t achievable by only one type of person. It empowers women, unlike our current standard, and the means of obtaining it improve the quality of life.

Eating Disorder Quick-Facts

Information taken from the National Eating Disorder Association

42% of 1st to 3rd grade girls want to be thinner 81% of 10 year olds are scared of becoming fat 50% ofbehaviors teenage girls use unhealthy weight control

such as fasting 95% 1-5 of “dieters” will regain lost weight within the next

years 69% ofideals girls who see magazines say they influence there

on body shape, and of those...

47% say the pictures make them want to loose weight

The Newsstreak

January 27, 2017

BY DANNY DOMBROWSKI

Istanbul nightclub attack: The mass shooting killed 39 people and injured dozens more.

Hatchimals: The hottest children’s toy is sold out at all retailers.

Mariah Carey: The star singer had a meltdown after a lip syncing failure in her New Year’s Eve performance.

HHS basketball: The JV girls have started the season 8-1 and the JV boys are 8-2. Following a losing season last year, the boys varsity team is now 7-5.

Ronda Rousey loses: After a one year break from losing to Holly Holm, Rousey was knocked out during UFC 207 by Amanda Nunes.

JMU football: The Dukes brought the NCAA National Championship back to Harrisonburg for the second time in program history.

Washington Redskins: The Redskins failed to make the playoffs after losing a must win game to the New York Giants 19-10.

4 Your Eyez Only: J. Cole’s new album is the #1 Album on Apple Music heading into 2017.

More school: The first semester is over, but we still have another one until summer.

Wrestling: Three HHS wrestlers placed first in their respected weight classes at 44th Annual Harrisonburg Invitational.

Cyber hacking: The United States has now imposed sanctions for Russia after election hacking.

Minimum wage: 19 states have increased their minimum wages at the beginning of 2017.

Florida airport shooting: Five are dead and eight were wounded when a gunman opened fire at a Fort Lauderdale airport on Jan. 6.

Acceptance letters: Seniors have begun to receive acceptance letters from colleges for next year.

Obamacare in danger: A new study from the Congressional Budget Office shows that 18 million people would loose insurance if Obamacare is repealed without a replacement.

New city council members: Deanna Reed and George Hirschmann took office On Jan. 3 Inauguration: Donald Trump was inaugurated the 45th president of the United States on Jan. 20.

Krispy Kreme: The new Harrisonburg location is finally open!

Italian avalanche: An avalanche in central Italy left 30 missing after covering a hotel.

Meet Me in St. Louis: The musical Meet Me in St. Louis will have performances from Feb. 15-19.

Its plot follows a family in St. Louis during the lead up to the 1904 World’s Fair.

Quick thinking saves mother from stroke Hannah Daniel Staff Reporter December 4th was like any other Sunday for me. I had just arrived home from work, and walked in the door to find my mom and brother (William) on the couch, just like they always are on weekends. I said hello, and then began talking about my day, and how my boss had scolded me at work for something or another. Then my mom interrupted me, saying something about her head-

ache and my brother being in a tunnel. I was confused for a second, then continued talking about work, when suddenly my mom interrupted me again.

This time, she spoke in short, erratic bursts that didn’t form complete sentences. Then, she shut down; her face went blank and she stared right past me. My brother got up quickly, and both of us called “Mom?” a couple of times. My mom just sat there on the couch, looking.

“Mom?” I called again, and then looked at my brother. “I

Warning signs of: Stroke

Heart attack

Weakness and numbness of the arms, legs, face or sides of your body is a common sign to be mindful of.

Blurred vision and double images is an obvious sign that you may be experiencing a stroke. Not being able to walk or slurred speech is also a symptom..

Shortness of breath and discomfort in the chest area and in the upper body can be warning signs of a stroke. Shortness of breath while doing day to day activities is a warning sign from your body. Other signs may include breaking out into a sweat, having sudden fatigue, and nausea.

What to do

What to do

If someone you see is having a stroke, immediately call 9-1-1, and stay calm while keeping a positive attitude. At absolutely no cost should you give the person food, medicine, or water.

If someone you know is having a heart attack you should immediately call 9-1-1 like any other emergency. You should also take a painkiller medication, but be mindful and give them the right dosage. If educated perform CPR. Remember to never panic.

Information from American Heart Association, the Mayo Clinic and Everyday Health

INFOGRAPHIC BY KENYAA WRIGHT

think she’s having a stroke.” when we did, my mom may I tried performing a Stroke have suffered more severe intest on her, asking her to smile, juries and deficiencies. We got raise her arm, and repeat a lucky, too, because the timing worked out almost sentence. She didn’t as if by a miracle; respond, and so I we were both in told my brother to the room when call my father (who my mom began lived across town). to display symp“I’m going to call toms of a stroke.

9-1-1,” he said, alWe were both payready dialing. As he went to the front Hannah-Rama ing attention and we acted quickly, room to wait for the so that when my EMTs, I sat with my mom, trying to keep calm. I held mom really needed medione of her hands and checked cal help, it was right there her pulse. Her heart was still in the ambulance with her.

This incident taught our beating, but I couldn’t tell if she was breathing. Unsure if family many things about love she could comprehend, I told and emergencies, but most of her to follow me in breathing. all it taught us how quick action “Breathe in, and breathe and problem solving can really out,” I said, demonstrating be the difference between life for her. After a minute or so and death. It may seem like of doing this, she began to doctors and nurses are the breathe out loudly, blowing only ones that can save lives out on my face. I began to cry, in emergency situations, but and after another minute she you can too. Have emergenlooked at me with wide eyes, cy phone numbers always on and asked, “Are you sad?” hand. Know the signs of sudden EMTs came quickly, and illnesses like strokes, seizures, mom was in the hospital with- or heart attacks. Read more in 30 minutes. That night, about life-saving procedures she was transported to the like CPR, or how to monitor a University of Virginia’s Hos- pulse, or how to keep somepital, where she spent the one breathing. It only takes a next few days. The nurses few minutes to learn, but it can were kind, the doctors were make a lifetime of difference.

Because of our swift thinkhelpful, and my mom was discharged within the week. ing, my brother and I were I consider myself incredibly able to save my mom from a life-threatening fortunate that my mom was potentially able to survive this, but she blood clot and stroke. Bedidn’t do it alone. If William cause of our actions, I still and I hadn’t recognized the get to wake up every mornsituation and called for help ing knowing my mom is okay.

Doerr not looking forward to motherhood ple, real or fictionalized, who decide against children is blatant and carries with it only negative connotations.

I know myself well as a person. In Most teenage girls are looking forall honesty, I think I’m too happy beward to being mothers at some point ing autonomous to have a child. I don’t in their lives. Motherhood is an expecwant to sacrifice the parts of life I can tation of most women in the United enjoy without a baby, like States and many other parts travel and independence of the world, and it isn’t and sleep. I like doing what something I’m sure I want.

I want and spending my Evolutionarily, women time how I want. In uncerhad the sole duty of beartain times, I’m not sure I ing children to continue want to bring a child into the success of the populaa world where prejudice is tion, and choosing not to still so strong and climate Ryan’s fulfill that duty meant not change is still not being takfulfilling life’s purpose. We Ramblings en seriously. I don’t want to are no longer at a point bring a human being into a where choosing not to bear children means the potential fail- world that might be in shambles in anure of the human race—we simply other 50 years. These are all rational don’t need to have children anymore. reasons to avoid motherhood. People Despite this, the stigma attached will still call me selfish for saying them.

It has been so deeply ingrained into to women who don’t want to become us as a species that women are made mothers still stands. We are in the mito be mothers that we don’t stop to nority, and in many parts of the world, consider the idea that the world popuincluding the US, women are looked down upon for choosing not to be- lation of 7.2 billion has made the need come mothers. This desire, when vo- obsolete. Sure, there’s some merit to calized, is often met with confused having children with one’s own DNA, stares. Whether in television sitcoms but the idea of motherhood is noor trashy tabloids, the scrutiny of peo- where near as absolute as biology.

Love and nurturing have more to do with being a parent than science ever could, and so many people forget this.

I could adopt if I felt the need to be a mother; I could give an unwanted child a home instead of needlessly creating one.

But right now, even at 17, I don’t want to do either.

I am content being myself, just myself, far into adulthood. I don’t feel like having a child will validate me as a woman. I don’t think it should. I am no less of a human being or a woman just because I don’t want children, and 3,000 mothers surveyed I will not be looked down Information from University of Michigan upon because I’m doing what’s right for myself.

INFOGRAPHIC BY RYAN DOERR

Ryan Doerr Staff Reporter

Did you want your child?

Un 1 wa0% nt ed

HOT Or NOT

Op-Ed-A5

Inte66% nded

24% d ime t s i M

School should be more appreciated Angel Hendrix Online Editor-in-Chief Michael Hyatt, a famous author, said, “You can’t steer a parked car.”

This means you have to put some work in, or start something before you can get moving. This is more than just a “duh” statement about a car.

This is a great life lesson that will always apply, however it especially applies right now. We are in high school, and I guess that for some, the whole idea of being on our own in a few years just isn’t clicking.

Not to give the whole “You’re getting older” speech we all tune out every single time it’s given, but it’s true, we are. I feel like people aren’t taking advantage of being in school. I’m not saying that I enjoy waking up way too early to come to a building filled with people that truly get on my nerves. Although, I am saying that if I’m going to be forced to be here seven hours a day, five days a week, I might as well get the most out of it.

There are few people out there, if any, that are content with minimum wage.

I know it’s easy to say, “So and so didn’t go to school and they’re

Angel rich.” News flash, you’re not them, and not to crush your dreams, but the chances of that happening to you are pretty slim. Most people who are rich were born rich, so unless you come from royalty or your family just happens to have endless cash, you have a lot of work to do.

Now I know we’ve all thought more than once that the information that Virginia demands we know is completely useless in the real world. However, in the society we live in, it’s extremely important that we obtain a high school diploma and go to college to continue our education whether we like it or not. You wonder why it’s so hard to find a job as a teenager? It’s because the people who didn’t get their diploma are taking them in order to pay their bills every month with only $7.25 an hour.

Is that how you want your future to look?

Leadership classes not fulfilling potential, out of touch with students Sam Heie Feature Editor

Horribly boring, unnecessarily repetitive and out of touch. On Thursday’s, everyone dreads the sudden announcement of leadership. We were supposed to have the ELT period in which we could actually be productive and have a more relaxing time than the forcingly engaging Olweus program.

The idea behind the Olweus Leadership Program is not on the right track. Although it tries to centralize its topics to create relevancy for high schoolers, this has failed time and time again. The program itself needs to be reorganized to fit the contemporary situation of the kids it is supposed to help.

When I think of the school that leadership is designed to address, I think of the High School Musical setting with cliques with nothing

in common and an unrealistic sense of what high school is now. The program itself needs to be adapted to the current issues that high schoolers face. For example, bullying, while still an important issue, has lost a lot of relevance in the past ten years.

At one point, it could have been the way Disney and Olweus portray it, but if someone from the program were to walk into HHS, they would be surprised about how well everyone gets along. Almost no one is singled out from groups and picked on to the point where Olweus wants you to believe they are. This type of harassment was left in middle school.

Instead of focusing on outdated topics, the program should shift its attention to the struggles students actually face. Stress has replaced bullying on the podium

of importance to talk about. Al- speak to let out their issues. This though it may be covered very goes back to the relevancy argulightly by the program, it needs ment. If we were talking about to really dig in on how to manage something important to the peotime and the burdens ple who need to speak, that come with high their passion would school. Teachers and shine through, creating students alike recoga safe and learning ennize this is more imvironment. In fact, the portant, but teachers Leadership program feel obligated to stay singles out the people with the ‘curriculum’ who aren’t talking. This set forth by Olweus. is very hypocritical, Another issue that seeing as the program Heie-er I have seen with the focuses an unnecessary Power program is the ability amount on the very to gain willing particitopic it has created. pation. The very few people who There is also the issue of no do talk are the people that are one knowing each other well top of the class try hards or the enough to open up. Seeing as ones who are very eloquent, the we only have Leadership once a people who usually need to talk month, give or take, the teachers about their problems the least. don’t have the time to develop This doesn’t create a safe envi- the connections that they get to ronment for those who need to in their regular classes. This can

be solved by putting students with the same teachers and other kids that they share classes with. Of course there are going to be some very specific problems with that, but overall, the issue will be resolved for the majority.

All of these problems stem from a disconnect between the administration and the student body. The people who know this the best are the ones that are in the classroom with us all of the time; the teachers. Although they deal with hundreds of students a day, they still understand the passions of the kids in their classes much better than any other staff in the school. They are the most qualified people to make a mutual decision with the students about what they want to talk about. This might just make kids excited to go to Leadership instead of miserable.

The Newsstreak

January 27, 2017

Feature - A6

On the Slopes

Derrick spends winter season on competitive ski team Andi Fox Feature Editor When wintertime rolls around, many people venture up to Massanutten to try their luck at skiing, snowboarding, or snow tubing, but for freshman Eli Derrick, skiing is much more than just recreational. Derrick has been skiing for six years now, and has competed successfully at the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski national competition for

the past two years.

“At nationals [last year] I did pretty good,” Derrick said. “I was one of seven 13 year olds and I got 34th place out of 60-some people.”

Derrick hopes to improve and become more relaxed. He also hopes to continue on to nationals again this year.

“My goals for this season is in general just to get more comfortable with going faster and work on making my wider turns,” Der-

rick said.

Everyone in Derrick’s family either skies or snowboards, which has paid a large contribution to his interest in skiing.

“I first got interested in skiing because my father skied in college, so I took [lessons up at] Massanutten, and I just had fun doing that. My dad and my mother ski and my sister snowboards, [but] I am the only one that does it competitively,” Derrick said.

Derrick mostly skies at Massa-

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELI DERRICK

Airborne. Freshman Eli Derrick competes at the 2016 United States of America Snowboard and Freeski (USASA) national competition in Copper, Colorado.

nutten with his team, but he and his family enjoy traveling to new places to ski and snowboard.

“I do competitions up at Massanutten, sometimes at Seven Springs, and at Wintergreen,” Derrick said. “There are 3 or 4 people on the team from HHS, but I’m the PHOTO COURTESY OF ELI DERRICK only one doing slope SHREDDING THE SLOPES. Competing in style and skier cross, the ski cross event, Derrick takes part in the which is where four 2016 USASA national competition. people go at once [and there are] more bank most fun, is that I wrecked during turns and jumps.” a race. I slid halfway down the There is, however, a large dif- slope and my ski got caught on a ference between skiing competi- fence.” tively and recreationally, accordBecause of these wrecks, Dering to Derrick. rick has realized that he needs to “The hardest part is getting have quick reactions. used to having this competition “One thing I’ve learned is that aspect of [skiing]. Going by your- you sort of have to be fast to reself [is very different than] going spond to something that’s hapwith other people,” Derrick said. pened. If I fall down or get hurt, I “When you are skiing by yourself, need to be fast to get up and get you don’t have to worry about out of the way,” Derrick said. other people, but when you are Even though skiing has its chalcompeting, you have to worry lenges and difficulties, Derrick about other people going faster always looks forward to the comthan you.” petition season during mid to end Skiing is a dangerous sport, but winter.

Derrick hasn’t had any serious in“I do it because I enjoy it, and juries. it gives me something to do and “I have never broken anything look forward to during the winor gotten a concussion from [ski- ter,” Derrick said. “My favorite ing], but I’ve had a few wrecks part about skiing is that I can just that hurt a bit the next couple of sort of mess around without havdays,” Derrick said. “[My] most ing any consequences.” memorable experience, not [my]

Kelley, Shulgan first year rental and repair shop workers Sam Heie Feature Editor Don’t have your own pair of skis?

That’s fine. Working behind the scenes at Massanutten Resort are the people that make it all happen.

The rental and repair shop workers distribute and monitor the rental equipment which includes skis, snowboards, boots, poles and helmets. The rental shop offers options for first timers on the mountain all the way through experts.

Massanutten employs high schoolers from all around the valley and even outside of it. One of these high schoolers, sophomore Brianna Kelley, is a first year worker at the rental shop.

“I started working this year when it opened on Friday, Dec. 16th. One of my neighbors works there and they recommended me for the job, so all I had to do was turn in an online application and head up to [Human Resources] to [make it] official after calling the Rental Shop Manag-

er,” Kelley said.

Kelley always finds something to do when she is working. She works three weekdays after school and weekends.

“Once you clock in you’re put in one of 3-4 stations to work at. However, throughout the day you could be moved from place to place or go out and do odd jobs. Though the stations vary, in each one you always assist the customers in getting the equipment necessary for heading out to the slopes, and answer any other questions that they may have.

There [are] usually waves of people at certain hours regardless,” Kelley said.

Kelley makes a flat nine dollars an hour with no tips. Her shifts vary in length depending on how many people are working and how many customers there are.

Another first year worker at the mountain, senior Ella Shulgan, finds that she can make several hundred dollars a week without too much stress.

“It’s usually a 9 or ten hour shift

which is kind of a struggle, but you get a thirty minute break and on slow days, you can get a riding break and just go out and ski,” Shulgan said. “They’ll switch you around in shifts, so you stay busy.”

Despite the fact that Shulgan is kept busy, she finds the job to retain some enjoyment through the customers.

“They’re all tourists, so honestly, yes, [they’re polite]. Some of them have never skied before so they don’t know how to work ski boots, and some of them have never seen snow,” Shulgan said.

Shulgan may find the job to be fun and laid back herself, but she does have some recommendations if you want to apply.

“If you have haven’t been at Massanutten for the past few years and you aren’t an avid skier or snowboarder, you’d probably hate it, but I’ve been around that for a long time so I love it. I love Massanutten, and it’s definitely worth the free pass,” Shulgan said.

Senior ski instructors McGehee, Poirot enjoy working at Massanutten Ski Resort

Regular Season Hours: 9 am-9 pm daily Late Season: Hours may vary

Slope Use Tickets (Adult): Monday-Friday

8-Hour Session: $50 4-Hour Session: $40

8-Hour Session: $70 4-Hour Session: $60

4 pm- Close: $40

Saturday/Sunday/Holiday Any Night

Equipment Rental: 8-Hour Session: $35 4-Hour Session: $30 Night Session: $30

Season Passes:

Student Full Season Pass: $375 (ID Required)

Unlimited skiing/snowboarding

Special Value Pass: $235

Valid Sunday through Friday any time and every night (excludes Christmas Holiday: December 26, 2016 - January 1, 2017)

Valid any time Opening Day through December 25, 2016 and March 1, 2017 through the end of the season

Monday Night Madness: Each Monday night (4-9 pm) January 2 through February 27, 2017, ski or ride at Massanutten and contribute to a local charity.

Slope Ticket: $20 Equipment Rental: $20 Free beginner group lesson at 5,6 or 7 pm

Theo Yoder Staff Reporter Children ages 4-12 years-old travel to Massanutten Resort every year with the purpose of learning how to ski. These children are instructed by high school students from around the valley including several from Harrisonburg High School. Junior Liam McGehee has been instructing at Massanutten for two years.

“I love everything about it. I get paid, there are good benefits and it is really fun,” McGehee said. “The kids are funny and I also get to ski which is awesome because I get to do what I like while it is a job,” Mcgehee said, “My mom said I needed a job and this ended up being something that I really enjoy.”

Before this year,Mcgehee has been a Junior Ski Instructor meaning he was responsible for assisting the Senior Ski Instructor. A typical day included arriving at Massanutten Resort Saturday or Sunday morning, and beginning the day by fitting boots and skis for the children. After, the kids wobble out onto the slope to begin their lesson for the day.

Mcgehee’s job consisted of picking kids up after they fall, teaching them how to begin to turn and occasionally running children to the bathroom during emergencies.

This year, Mcgehee along with sophomore Gabe Poirot, applied for the position of Senior Ski Instructor.

Massanutten Ski Resort Rates and Passes

INFOGRAPHIC BY SAMANTHA LITTLE

PHOTO BY THEO YODER

EASY AS ONE-TWO-THREE. Sophomore ski instructor Gabe Poirot leads a group of new skiiers at the Massanutten Resort slopes. They begin with boot drills and then learn how to make a perfect wedge (pizza). Students get lessons, lunch and rentals included in the price.

Poirot has also been a Junior Instructor for two years.

“I really enjoy working with the kids. They’re loving and kind and are always joyful about everything they do during the day. It is a fresh breath from the typical week at school,” Poirot said.

Instructors begin with teaching the children on the bunny slope.

After they show sufficient progress, they are allowed to move up to the next, slighter bigger slope, and so on. Instructors are responsible for not only providing a safe learning

environment, but also a fun and enjoyable day on the snow.

“It is sometimes difficult because they can hold you back and you can’t do your own free activities, but you learn how to help people ski and take your eyes off yourself and put them on others,” Poirot said.

Poirot plans on being an instructor for the rest of his high school life and may even work during college. If Poirot attends college in the area, he will remain an instructor at Massanutten Resort.

PHOTOS BY THEO YODER

LEARNING CAN BE FUN. Gabe Poirot works with his class of ski students during their lesson at Massanutten.

January 27, 2017

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January 27, 2017

Feature-A9

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Dean leaves on third day of school Lucie Rutherford Print Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO COURTESY OF EMILY DEAN

STORY TIME. History teacher Emily Dean reads to her two sons, two year-old Finn and new born baby, Declan.

Not many teachers get the chance at a second first day of school, but for U.S. and VA History teacher Emily Dean, an unexpected event got her that round two due to the birth of her son.

“Decklin was due on September second, so I was planning on just staying [at school] until my due date, or until he decided to come, but I didn’t think he would come so soon,” Dean said.

Because she teaches different classes both A and B days, Dean was able to meet all of her students within those first two days.

When meeting them, she warned them that she would be leaving in about two weeks, but little did everyone know, including herself, that she would be sit-

ting in a hospital bed within the next 24 hours.

“I was glad that I at least got to see them and they got to see me, but I did wish that I would’ve been able to be there for the first week when we all kind of get to know each other,” Dean said. “And, so I could set expectations to help Ms. Miller transition to a system that I already put in place.” Miller, who was Dean’s long-term substitute as Dean went on leave is brand new to the teaching sphere, and had to come in a little earlier than expected.

“At the end of the following week, [Ms. Miller] had planned on coming in and shadowing me for a couple days to just see how things go and see how I interact with [my students], but that didn’t happen,” Dean said.

Like anyone when asked what the best and worst

parts were of taking four months off of school, Dean says it was all best parts.

“I think for me personally, it’s the most invaluable experience and time that you can never get back to bond with your new baby and also get settled, because I have a two year-old also, so kind of helping him transition into having a new brother and everything,” Dean said. “It’s just a really important time for me to heal and for our family to get settled into a new normal.”

Despite loving her time off, getting to spend it with the new addition to her family, Dean is happy to be back in the classroom.

“I was a little nervous, and of course I’m exhausted all the time, but I’m really glad to be back,” Dean said. “My kids this year are really great, so that has helped make the transition better too.”

Diggs starts preparing for second child Nyah Phengsitthy Social Media Coordinator The job of being pregnant and teaching a class full of students isn’t something new to new English teacher Jennifer Diggs.

Near the end of November this past year, Diggs found out she was pregnant with her second child. Before coming to HHS, Diggs taught at Robert E. Lee High School as well as other schools in Richmond, and was pregnant with her first child, Zoë, when working at JMU. During her time at JMU, Diggs experienced teaching during a pregnancy and preparing for a maternity leave. Diggs only taught one class, which made it easier on her whenever she was sick compared to an all day job at HHS. While Zoë is only a year and a half old now, Diggs and her husband decided they wanted another child around this time.

“My brother and I are a little less than two years apart, and we’re really close to one another, so we wanted to have [our children] close to one another, so they can be close like my brother and I. Zoë will be exactly two years old when this one is born, they’ll probably be birthday twins,” Diggs said.

For her second pregnancy, Diggs not only has to worry about balancing out work, a child and an upcoming baby, but

also the basic needs she has to prepare for before her baby arrives.

“Well we were really excited, but then you’re also like,” Oh my gosh think of all the things I have to do now’, like getting a new car,” Diggs said.

Diggs’ child is set to be due July of 2017, allowing her to stay this whole school year and plan for her maternity leave either at the end of this school year or during the summer. For now, Diggs is trying to focus on her students inside the classroom, and for them to not see worry or see her pregnancy as a distraction from their learning.

“Students are really supportive. [I] have to tell them [I’m pregnant] earlier than you necessarily plan on because I’m getting really sick, and I don’t want them to think or be concerned on what’s going on with me or what’s going on with the classroom,” Diggs said.

With her child due in the middle of the summer, Diggs’ maternity leave will cause her to not be here at the beginning of next school year.

“I hate that I will miss the beginning of the school year, like meeting my new students and establishing a classroom community, but by the same token, I need to remember who needs me more at that point, and the baby needs me more,” Diggs said.

In the meantime, Diggs hopes that her maternity leave for next year won’t affect

Leeper plans maternity leave Sarah Earle News Editor With a couple weeks to go in the first semester, Instrumental Music Teacher and Band Director Claire Leeper left for maternity leave. Although she went on leave a little later than planned, Leeper balanced dedication to bot h her class and pregnancy.

“I taught through my due date and six days after. I went on maternity leave a week after my due date; I figured I had tempted fate long enough and didn’t want my water to break in the middle of a class,” Leeper said. “The original due date was November 23rd, and I didn’t have the baby until December 5th. It was a long wait, but definitely worth it.

Unlike her previous pregnancy, Leeper has faced obstacles, causing her to be more alert.

“My first pregnancy was easy. If I could guarantee a pregnancy like that I would have so many more kids. This pregnancy was very rough on my body; more aches and pains, lots of nausea and dehydration, and overall much harder. With my small frame, I think it just took more of a toll; with my first pregnancy I gained 45 pounds, but with this one, I gained just 16,” Leeper said.

Leeper has already planned how long she will be gone, in order to be back at the start of the second semester.

“I will take only six weeks off and come back at the change of semester,” Leeper said. “FMLA

[Family Medical Leave Act] guarantees that you will have a position for up to 12 weeks of leave, but there is no guarantee of pay. I have to use vacation time, as though having a newborn is a vacation, and sick leave and the rest of the days I take are just unpaid. Many big businesses see the benefit to providing paid leave like Google, Facebook, IKEA, etc, but state systems haven’t been exactly progressive with women’s rights.”

Leeper had worries about leaving, but her students and faculty have assisted her along th way. “[I was most hesitant about] the fruit sale, but Mrs. Vass has been amazing,” Leeper said. “[During my pregnancy at school], the students had been so understanding and helpful. [I expect from my students] lots of learning and making music [while I am gone].”

Leeper made it through the difficulties of her pregnancy while being at school, and has high expectations from her students when she’s on leave.

“Being pregnant was hard because of marching band and the extreme hours and physical demands. The normal teaching during school hours was fine, other than having to pee a lot,” Leeper said. “I hope the students have adjusted well; I’m very lucky to have a great long-term substitute. [While I’m gone, my students will be doing] all the same things; making music and learning about different cultures and how music plays a role in everyone’s lives.”

PHOTO BY ANNA RATH

GETTING TO WORK. English teacher Jennifer Diggs works at her computer during the school day. Diggs is pregnant with her second child and is currently working on the preperation for her baby on the way. her new students, even when she hasn’t seen them face to face. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ “Obviously I don’t know my students ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ yet, but from what I’ve heard, the ninth grade class is great. It’s difficult having not

set up classroom boundaries and classroom rules,” Diggs said. “As a teacher, you always want to be here and with your students, so it’s hard to be away from them, even when I haven’t met them yet.”

Beppler’s fifth kid still teaching him parenting skills Vivien Neal Staff Reporter Five Facts about Maternity Leave For English teacher Joseph Beppler, the house has gotten a little louder with a baby adding to the four children home. From ages fifteen to not even a month old, Beppler is continuing to learn from his experience in a full house. A household full of five children is nothing short of an adventure for him. “[A house with five children is] crazy. I’m just looking at the calendar with all the marks for what everybody is doing and it’s instantly filled in from the beginning of the month.

Basically, what you need is two capable people driving to accomplish everything.

Sometimes a third parent would be nice too,” Beppler said.

There are many things Beppler has been able to learn from his household also. He’s come to realize that some of these lessons never fully clicked until he found himself parenting his own children.

“Being a parent of so many, you don’t have much of a choice but to put yourself second. Or in my case, seventh. I was one of three kids and there were probably some lessons in unselfishness that I never learned until I became a parent of so many kids,” Beppler said.

Similar to many other young dreamers, Beppler also had his own set plan in life.

“I think everybody, if they figuratively look into the crystal ball, their future is going to be the fame and the fortune. Everything will be nice and perfect with a

son and a daughter. I know quite a few people who stopped at two kids. Personally, I suppose at one time I envisioned myself having three kids like my father.

Just like me, my father was also one of three children,” Beppler said, “I have three sons of my own and then I have two step-kids at the top, so that’s what creates my household of five kids.

Never in my wildest dreams did I envision being a parent of five.”

Beppler has found many joys, especially in his years of coaching three of his children in baseball for seven years. As his children grow up, he has also found his joys in them. The most important joy comes from the being able to see them do the right things.

“I take joy in seeing when my kids display empathy, it makes me feel happy inside.

Maybe my wife and I are doing an okay job. [That’s what I think] when I see examples that they might turn out to be decent humans,” Beppler said.

Many parents don’t readily get to that point without forming strategies in order to shape a better family. In the Beppler household, it’s quite the opposite.

“When you have three different things in one day, all you’ve got to do is try and make it work. I don’t think we’ve ever had that many things [going on], but if we do, we just say we only have two cars so we can’t do everything,” Beppler said. “In a household of five children, you tend to get some help from neighbors and friends. My parents are moving up here from Chesapeake. As soon as they do,

• The US is one of only three countries left in the world that do not guarantee paid maternity leave.

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 12% of Americans have access to the paid parental leave, which is considered a benefit by employers.

• Only 5% of low-wage earners receive paid maternity leave.

• About 25% of women go back to work 10 days after having a baby.

• The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) only covers 59% of US workers.

Information from techrepublic.com that should provide some help.”

For any family, there will always be the concept of expecting the unexpected. New responsibilities will spring up at any time, and every single child may provide new paths to good parenting.

“In terms of the first child, the whole [parenting] thing is a complete learn-

ing process. Every child is different. Some babies are colicky and require all your attention from the get-go.

I’m sure that stinks when that happens,” Beppler said. “It’s a learning process for everyone, even if you’ve read thirty books on parenting, until that time actually comes you don’t really know what’s in store for you.”

January 27, 2017

Experience-A10

The Newsstreak

Second home helps parents before, after school Lucie Rutherford Print Managing Editor Monday through Friday, before and after school, 281 East Market Street in Harrisonburg marks a safe haven for many children in the Harrisonburg City Public School system. Sitting right beside Muhlenberg Lutheran Church, the Second Home program, which began in 2007, provides a safe place for students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade. It not only keeps the children safe, but allows parents to continue to be employed without having to worry. Krisztina Szekely, the program director, is part of the small staff consisting of teachers, an administrative assistant and a receptionist. “[In 2007], Spotswood Elementary School had a lot of ‘latchkey’ children, children who were carrying their keys around their necks and were going home to empty houses and apartments… Ann Connors was the principal of Spotswood Elementary at the time, and she was concerned about these children, and was looking for a place to open up an after school care program. [Muhlenberg Church was] on the bus route, we’re pretty close to the school and there was room here,” Szekely said.

Now nearing their 10-year anniversary, the program has since spread to all three elementary schools in the school system, as well as accepting fifth graders from both Thomas Harrison and Skyline middle schools.

“The most important thing for Second Home is safety… We are also academically focused, so we help children with their homework, with an especially heavy focus on reading and literacy activities,” Szekely

said.

Acknowledging that many of the Second Home children are not able to participate in extracurricular activities because of cost or transportation, the program also offers STEM-related activities on top of just homework help.

“We have people coming in to help the children learn about living a healthy lifestyle. We have a JMU nursing group that comes in every semester… We have also had dietitian students from JMU who talked about and did activities with healthy nutrition,” Szekely said.

Not only does the program offer edu-

PHOTO COURTESY OF KRISZTINA SZEKELY

REACHING OUT. A teacher of Second Home reads to a student during the after-school program. Elementary students from multiple schools attend.

Growth mindset prevalent for all at THMS The initiative is monitored Garrett Cash by psychology professors at Online Co-Editor-in-Chief Encouraged by the now principal of Skyline Middle School Daniel Kirwan, eighth grade civics and economics teacher Brendon Derstine collaborates with other teachers in the Thomas Harrison Middle School “Growth Mindset” initiative.

“Growth Mindset is the idea that your intelligence is not fixed, in that your brain can grow or improve. A lot of people think that ‘I’m either born smart or I’m not,’ but scientific research has come out and said, ‘that’s not something you’re born with necessarily. You can improve your intelligence through hard work and effort and perseverance,’ which is a really cool message,” Derstine said.

The Growth Mindset initiative caters to every individual, regardless of their performance in a course. Students are accustomed to a fixed mindset, where they believe they are simply not good at something.

“A lot of people think, ‘I’m not a math person, I’m not a social studies person, I’m never going to get it,’ and use that as their reason for never being successful in their classes,” Derstine said.

This results in the goal of Growth Mindset agenda: “to help students see themselves as learners who can persevere and be successful in any subject.”

“What we have tried to do in the group of teachers that work with me in this Growth Mindset group is help students learn the ways they can have a growth mindset and give them opportunities to work towards being that type of a student and recognizing, ‘maybe I didn’t get it this first time, but if i keep trying, maybe try it a little differently, I’ll get it eventually,” Derstine said.

Stephanie Burgess now

cation-related activities, but community ones as well.

“We also try to provide community outreach activities to the children because we want them to get used to the idea of getting involved,” Szekely said. “There’s research that shows that people who are involved in their communities are going to be better citizens.” The children have done community events ranging from caroling during the winter season to making cat toys for the local Cat’s Cradle.

There are two main ways that Szekely sees success in the students she encounters on a daily basis throughout multiple

JMU to help the teachers carry out the best course of action to facilitate student learning.

Teachers execute this in different ways. Derstine, for example, keeps posters on his wall to help students expand and grow in their dedication to education “On my back board, there is a list of… things that I’ve done in my classroom to try to make sure that my students have what we might call a ‘growth mindset’,” Derstine said. “The first thing you see is ‘students will work until they master each concept.’ My belief as the teacher is that everyone is going to master the information, and that might look different for different students. Some students might learn at a higher level, some students might learn at a lower level, but everybody is going to at least meet a minimum standard, and you’re going to work until you meet that,” Derstine said.

As a result of the students becoming more successful with their newfound determination, the school is feeling the outcome as well.

“When students buy into this belief that they can do anything if they put their mind to it, and if they work a little bit harder, and if they have the skills they need, then students are going to be more successful, so the schools are more successful because of it,” Derstine said.

Since the initiative has come to life, Derstine has noticed the fruit it bears. He says that it has helped change students’ opinions of school and help them come in with a more positive attitude toward education.

“Students come to school wanting to learn. [They think], ‘This is actually something that matters to me.’ When students come wanting to learn, it just creates a better culture at school,” Derstine said.

with her class

school years.

“We look at success as whether they’re able to do better or at least the same at school, and then more so the behavior, to see how they are adjusting to the whole situation,” Szekely said. “Seeing from the first day when they come in to when they leave, and just seeing the growth process in them. There are so many children that when they started coming here, had a really rough time… Also we know that they are coming after school, so they have already done their best all day. They come here and they need to be able to relax, so we don’t expect perfect behavior… We just make sure that everyone is safe.”

To even further their care for each and every student, some of the teachers even reach out to students’ school teachers, tracking down report cards to see where kids need help in their school work. The lead teacher in the program is Ms. Shepard. Shepard started teaching with Second Home three years ago as only a morning teacher, but took over teaching in the afternoon as well after a teacher left halfway through the year.

“All of us here on staff have a bachelor’s degree, and a lot of us are in education specifically, and so it’s a safe, educational place to be,” Shepard said. “[My favorite part is] the fact that these kids have a safe place to be. They aren’t on the streets, they aren’t home alone. They have a place to be and they’re safe and they’re cared for.”

For Szekely, it’s the progress she sees in students that keeps her involved in the program.

“Sometimes [the greatest part is] just seeing those tiny little results from day to day,” Szekely said. “[It’s] being able to help a child who is really struggling.”

Stephanie, Don Burgess enjoy teaching where they grew up Nyah Phengsitthy Social Media Coordinator From teaching in tiny rural country towns to teaching in a big city, kindergarten teacher Stephanie Burgess has found her teaching career in many areas other than Virginia. The different environments Burgess has taught in have helped her become a more well-rounded teacher, making her the person she is today.

For almost 10 years, Burgess has been a teacher at Spotswood Elementary School. Not only is that the place Burgess teaches at, but it is also the place where she went to elementary school.

Burgess grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia and attended Spotswood from kindergarten through sixth grade. After that, she moved back to Halifax County, Virginia for middle school and then back to Harrisonburg. To this day, Burgess still remembers how the town was when she was younger.

“When we were growing up here, there weren’t all of the things that are here now. I actually remember when the mall opened...There was basically downtown, and there’s a theater downtown, and so once in awhile we would go to the theater. Mostly then, the only thing to do was play outside,” Burgess said.

Burgess remembers hodge podges from different grade levels, but her kindergarten year is what she best recollects and enjoyed most.

“We had what’s called a library pit, so in the library there’s a story pit. It steps down into where the easy books are. I remember that vividly, I remember sitting on the steps of the story pit. I vividly remember everything about kindergarten, which I think is one of the reasons I first became a kindergarten teacher,” Burgess said.

Through high school, Burgess knew she wanted to become a teacher. She attended HHS, where she met the person she fell in love with. Don Burgess, also known as “Don Don” back then, met her during their junior year of high school and they have been together ever since.

Don Burgess was a star player on the varsity basketball team, which lead to his induction into the HHS Hall of Fame. He has also been a college basketball coach for different schools along the East coast.

Both Stephanie and Don Burgess attended Radford University. While Don stuck to basketball and his major in business, Stephanie looked straight to the school’s education program.

“Visiting him there, I learned more about their program, and they had just done a complete overhaul on their education program, and I really liked what they had to offer. It came down to either that or Virginia Tech, which was still going to be close enough to see him,” Burgess said.

After finishing college, Don had the option of either going overseas to play basketball in Europe or becoming a college basketball coach. He chose to in the U.S. and coach. He and Stephanie got married, so she taught wherever her husband coached.

The Burgesses have lived in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

“With his profession, we’ve been everywhere because he [was] a college coach,” Burgess said.

At one point, Burgess held a teaching certification for four states, and for two years, Burgess was also a Title One reading and math teacher. Each time she taught in a different school, it would either be kindergarten or first grade.

The couple enjoyed moving around until their kids, Kaley and Jadon, Came along, and then they knew they needed to settle down. Don was offered the coaching position at Bridgewater College.

“It really wasn’t until we had kids, where we realized that we wanted to just get back home, and be close to family. When the opportunity was offered for him to coach at Bridgewater, we were excited to be back,” Burgess said.

As soon as her husband received the offer, Stephanie Burgess applied to work for HCPS, opting to go with an offer at Spotswood.

Stephanie and Don Burgess’ Prom Pictures

“I am relieved to be in one place, and back where I have roots, and I have friends, and I have family. It’s really cool to be back where I went to school, especially in the elementary school I was at. You have a very different perspective, the school seemed huge when you're five, six, seven, eight years old, and now when you're this old, it’s different,” Burgess said.

Don also found that moving back to the Shenandoah Valley held something positive for everyone in his family.

“My parents were getting older. My wife’s family was from this area, and so it was a great opportunity for my kids Kaley and Jadon to come back home where their mom and I grew up and be around their cousins on a full time basis as opposed to just holidays and long weekends in the summer,” Don Burgess said.

Stephanie Burgess taught first grade for a couple of years and then went down to kindergarten and has stayed there ever since.

She loves teaching kindergarten because of the surprises that she sees every day.

“I think you never know what the day is going to bring. You can come in thinking that you’re going to do this... and then you have to deal with that. We could be reading a book, and they want to talk about something else,” Burgess said.

Don Burgess is an Economics and Personal Finance teacher at HHS, along with the coach for the boys varsity basketball team.

Stephanie Burgess finds her husband being a teacher as something positive for HHS to have.

“I think the kids at Harrisonburg definitely need somebody like him. One thing that we are hurting for here is just positive male role models for our school.

There is only one male teacher in all of Spotswood Elementary.

It’s hard because many of our children are from single parent homes. Moms are doing a phenomenal job, but we are lacking male role models. I feel like he can relate to a lot of what the kids are going through at Harrisonburg,” Stephanie Burgess said.

Don Burgess now with the basketball team

The Newsstreak

January 27, 2017

Feature-A11

Every Person Has A Story

Burzumato grows as percussionist throughout high school career Samantha Little Feature Editor

Junior Nick Burzumato, a member of the drumline and Percussion 2 class, first started playing percussion in the sixth grade under the guidance of Marlon Foster at Skyline Middle School, and has been playing ever since.

“I picked up some sticks in this tiny little audition that he had and played the drum. He looked at my hands and said, ‘You’re going to be a percussionist’,” Burzumato said.

Since that day, Burzumato has drawn inspiration from all of his directors, all of which are percussionists themselves, which is something Burzumato is very fortunate for.

Though they all have contributed to his experience, Foster has had the greatest impact.

“The most influential would probably be Mr. Foster just because he taught me all of the things that I needed to know. Once I got to high school, you add on to that, but I haven’t really learned anything new since I first started learning percussion,” Burzumato said.

Throughout the five years that Burzumato has been playing percussion, he has grown in it both physically and mentally.

“I definitely have a lot more calluses than I did in sixth grade. Mentally, it’s given me so much discipline in life and every-

thing,” Burzumato said.

“Just being on the marching band field and having the intensity and having the focus that it takes to put on a show, it really translates into everything else in my life.”

In his high school career, Burzumato has been a part of the All-District band all three years and although he didn’t make All-State Band last year, he scored high on his audition. He was also selected out of about 40 students to be one of the seven members on the varsity drumline during a JMU summer band camp last year.

However, getting to the level that he’s currently at didn’t happen overnight.

Burzumato has contributed hundreds and hundreds of hours outside of class to get to where he is now. Despite the copious amounts of work that he puts into it, he finds that many people don’t take drummers seriously as musicians.

“The most challenging part about being a percussionist would probably be that we get a lot of flack because we’re considered the ‘easy’ instrument and people pick on us,” Burzumato said. “It’s like ‘Oh yeah, you’re just hitting something, it’s not really music’, but it drives me crazy because we do put in the effort and we put in the practice, and we’re still not taken very seriously.”

Aside from taking percussion as an elective class, Burzumato is a part of the drumline in the marching

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB ADAMEK

DRUMMER BOY. Nick Burzumato performs a piece called “Universal Instrument” during a Fine Arts showcase. band, whose season lasts from August to October.

“I love being on drumline. It’s such a cool experience, you really grow with the people that you put thousands of hours of practice with. We really become part of a family,” Burzumato said. “We have a really great dynamic and I’ve known the upperclassmen on drumline for years and they’ve taught me so much. It’s a really great experience.”

When he was a freshman, Burzumato started

on drumline as being a part of the bassline. He then moved up to the snare line as a sophomore and started taking on more of a leadership role. This past season, Burzumato held the role of assistant drum captain, and hopes to be the official drum captain next year.

“Being section leader is so stressful, especially when we’re on low days and people just don’t want to focus or put in effort. It can drive me crazy, but it is very rewarding when we

Saldana attends Massachusetts medical conference Jacqueline Mateo-Sanchez Staff Reporter During the summer, Junior Kimberly Saldana went to Lowell, Massachusetts to attend the Congress of Future Medical Leaders. This program is designed for high school students who aspire to go into the medical field. Along with thousands of other students, Saldana got the chance to see things first hand.

“When I went to the conference with my parents and sibling [younger brother], there were many delegates from many states,” Saldana said.

With the conference lasting three days, Saldana got to witness a variety of things. From getting a lecture from professionals to witnessing a hip replacement surgery, Saldana had an incredible experience.

“A young lady named Shree Bose left the biggest impression on me because she was like me in the sense of the way that I am now,” Saldana said. “She talked about how at the age of 17 she had won the grand prize at the Google Science Fair in 2011 and how she was trying to do something with helping people with cancer.

Hearing her story of how far she made it from where she started pushed me to believe that I can accomplish my dreams and goals in the future.”

In order to attend the program, students must have been nominated by teachers, counselors or other various ways. Students who attend the conference usually show an interest in working in the medical research field or becoming physicians. In the future, Saldana wants to become a pediatrician. She’s been volunteering at the hospital for the past four years.

do well at a competition; we all get in a huddle and I’m so proud of everyone,” Burzumato said.

Burzumato has a low tolerance for lack of attention and lack of focus among drumline members because, as he sees it, great attention and great focus is how he got to where he is now. He also wants them to push themselves to be at higher levels, and describes the drumline as being an important factor in the band.

“There’s a great quote from the movie Drumline where he says, ‘The drumline is the heart and soul of the band. We’re the pulse, and if there’s no pulse then the band is dead’ and it’s really great because we are the driving force of the band and they wouldn’t be able to last without us,” Burzumato said.

Post-high school, he would like to go to JMU and be a part of the Marching Royal Dukes drumline, which he sees as one of the best college drumlines.

Not only that, he would like to be a part of Drum Corps International (DCI). As Burzumato describes it, DCI is an elite drumming league for kids usually aged 17 or 18 to 21 at the top level of their respective instruments. They participate for a summer and tour around the country performing a marching band show with their specific corps group.

“A significant goal I’ve set for myself is to be a member of the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps.

Talentino leaves Dominican Republic for opportunities in America Hannah Miller Print Copy Editor

PHOTO COURTESY OF KIMBERLY SALDANA

PLANNING TO SAVE LIVES. Kimberly Saldana attends the Congress of Future Medical Leaders in Massachusetts.

“While volunteering I’ve learned a lot of things, such as how to help a nurse transfer a patient and how to care for a person in need,” Saldana said. “I’ve learned how to respect someone and their decisions, but in all honesty I think volunteering is fun.”

On the last day of the conference, students are given an award. The award is for completing camp. Students are also capable of getting another award called the National Academy Of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists Leadership Ambassador Certificate. It’s an award granted to alumni students who’ve given information about the program to their school or community.

“We took an oath and pledged to do everything in our power to help solve one of America’s greatest challenges. The growing shortage of young individuals aspiring to serve humans in the fields of medicine science and technology,” Saldana said.

They are the absolute epitome of marching percussion and they’re just so amazing. I really hope that one day I’ll be a part of them,” Burzumato said.

To help reach that goal Burzumato auditioned for the Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps, which is ranked third of the drum corps. Originally he was going to audition for Jersey Surf, a lower ranked corps, but his dad convinced him to go for the higher level.

Burzumato knew he didn’t want to march with the corps this year, but took this opportunity to experience the audition and get his name on their list for future reference.

“The experience was incredible. I wouldn’t take it back for the world. I’m really happy I went, even though I didn’t get in. I can’t wait until next year when I can try again,” Burzumato said.

After college Burzumato hopes to become a high school band director to share his passion and love for music with kids and everyone else. The inspiration for this career actually came from the same person who got him into percussion in the first place: Marlon Foster.

“At the end of eighth grade, I was leaving Mr. Foster for the last time and I was just like ‘Man, I want to be just like him when I grow up,’” Burzumato said.

“He really inspired me to want to become a band director.”

While some students struggle through basic levels in a second language for their diploma, countless other have been bilingual since a young age. Sophomore Mary Talentino knew some English coming to the United States, but after moving from the Dominican Republic at age 12, she had a lot more to learn.

“It was really challenging [to learn English], but at the same time kind of less stressful because everybody around you is speaking it, and you want to be able to understand them. [It was hard] adapting to everything here. The schools and the city and all that is way different than over there,” Talentino said.

Now that she lives in the U.S., Talentino plans to take full advantage of all the opportunities.

“I definitely want to go to a four year college at least. I still don’t have a career in mind, though. I’m kind of interested in psychology and anything that has to do with people, but I don’t have a certain career I’m [considering],” Talentino said.

Her struggle will come once she leaves for college, as it will require her to overcome her biggest struggle. “[I struggle] doing things on my own, because I’m really dependent on people, like my mom,” Talentino said.

One thing she can enjoy on her own is her love for dancing.

“I really like to dance, but it’s not something I’m really good at. I’m really into it just because I feel like it’s a good way to get out of your comfort zone, [especially because I’m really shy]. I really like ballet, lyrical and I also like jazz a lot,” Talentino said.

Talentino came over with her mother. Her mother met someone and was ready to start a new life.

“My mom met my step-dad and had my sister after awhile of being together, and then he wanted her to be here with him,” Talentino said.

Unfortunately, Talentino had to leave behind the rest of her family, not reuniting until several years later.

“My grandparents, my dad and basically all my cousins and uncles and aunts [stayed there],” Talentino said. “[My happiest memory is] reuniting with my family after being here for a while. [The first time was] summer 2015. [We stayed in the Dominican Republic] for 3 weeks.”

The people aren’t the only thing she left behind. The Dominican Republic itself was a place of great importance to Talentino.

“It’s really hot. It’s summer time all day over there, but [I miss] environment, all the trees and the beaches, of course. The atmosphere itself is really open, [too], it will make you feel like you’re free,” Talentino said.

Lopez-Mejia transitions into life in United States after Honduras Forrest Matter Staff Reporter Sophomore Guillermo Lopez Mejia came to the U.S. about a year and five months ago with his parents and siblings.

“My brother is 12, my sister is eight. I love my siblings, I love them both. If I didn’t have them, my life would be boring. Going home every day and having no one to fight with [would be sad]. They just make my life unique,” Mejia said. “Life becomes interesting when you have siblings.

When Mejia moved, he had to re-do ninth grade. He didn’t love moving, but he likes Harrisonburg.

“Coming to the US was a weird thing, starting over again. At first it was pretty depressing, having to repeat 9th grade again and not knowing anyone. It was a horrible experience at first, but now I feel very grateful for the things I have,” Mejia said. “[My favorite class] is JROTC. I plan to go to college after High School. I don’t know what I’ll study, but I will. I would like to go

to JMU, just because it’s the closest to my house, and I don’t want to leave my mom and dad, since they have been my life. They’ve always backed me up and supported me,” said Mejia. “[And they helped when] I moved from Honduras,” Mejia said.

Life in Honduras was hard for Mejia’s family.

“At first I didn’t want to have to move from Honduras, because I had my life there, because I was settled there. Then things started changing, you know, it was difficult for my dad to have a job. There was a lot of corruption, and people were just afraid. You couldn’t go to the streets with your iPhone, because you would be afraid that someone would rob you or kill you just because they want your phone. Basically we came here because we wanted a better life, we wanted to achieve what is called ‘The American Dream for Latinos’,” said Mejia.

The difficulties only continued for the following months.

“At first, only my dad, me, and my siblings came here. And then my mom came two months ago.

We were all separated for a few months. We took a plane, but my mom had to walk.” Mejia said.

One thing Mejia has done to ease the transition is getting involved in sports.

“I love playing soccer and being physically active. I actually have my own indoor soccer team right now,” Mejia said. “ I’m one of the leaders of Spanish club, and we’re the ones who made the tournament. I wanted to participate this year, so I had to make a team.

That’s how I made it. I think I have the best players. We might not win every game, we might lose a lot, but it’s all about the teamwork and communication. I search for the people [on my team], but it’s not mine. I play middle and forwards, it depends. Basically, if the goalie is not here, I want to be the goalie or defense. I search for the people [on my team], but it’s not mine. I don’t benefit from it. I play middle and forwards, it depends.

Basically, if the goalie is not here, I want to be the goalie or defense,” Mejia said. “ I guess I got into soccer because I was little and had nothing

to do, so I started playing with my brother. It was just something I enjoyed and kept me away from my problems that came with me throughout my childhood playing soccer,” Mejia said. “I plan to [play soccer for the school] this year. I didn’t last year, but I really regret that and I really want to play this year. It’s something that I can give my one-hundred percent, without limitation. If there’s a ball, and people I can play… So I’m Hispanic, right, and I have a lot of limitations, but when it comes to soccer I’m just free,” Mejia said.

His love of sports extends to movies too, although his favorite movie is more of a martial arts movie. “ [My favorite movie is] Never Back Down. It’s about a guy who is being bullied by someone who fights. Then he decides to train. He trains a lot. He then fights and overcomes the situation. And now he feels brave enough that he doesn’t have to hide himself from the other guy. You get motivated with the movie,” Mejia said.

Something else that helped Mejia move was his faith. “I would say the Bible [is my favorite book].

PHOTO COURTESY OF GUILLERMO LOPEZ-MEJIA

DEDICATION. Guillermo Lopez-Mejia (middle) stands with COL Roy McCutcheon (left) and CSM Russell Wilder (right) .

It has everything. Every topic you’re searching for, it has it.”

Despite the troubles he’s had to overcome while moving here, Mejia likes Harrisonburg and HHS.

January 27, 2017

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The Newsstreak

Moana brings diversity to Disney Christa Cole Print Managing Editor Moana is one of the best Disney movies yet, especially in one sense: it’s realistic.

Moana is the daughter of an island chief, herself next in line for the throne.

Despite her very important role at home, she is constantly called by the ocean, but is prohibited to go outside of the reef because of her father’s own horrible experience which involved his friend’s death. On this island, Moana had grown up with stories of the demigod Maui, who stole the heart of the earth goddess Tafiti with terrible consequences of the death and destruction of all the islands. Hope is not lost, though, because a hero will one day rise up to take Maui to restore the heart and save the islands. The ocean chooses 16-year-old Moana for this task, causing her to disobey her father and set out with her loyal, yet stupid, chicken Heihei.

The story of Moana is great not only because it’s a genuinely adorable tale, but it’s also funny, and the music isn’t terrible either.

The words ‘You’re welcome’ have been stuck in my head

ever since the day I watched it (go see the movie, you’ll understand). Sure, it’s a little cheesy, but what Disney movie isn’t? I couldn’t help but start cracking up in the theatre when Moana was moving in slow motion, wind blowing in her hair, towards a big monster in the climax whilst singing a dramatic solo. Kind of embarrassing, but it was hilarious.

Not only are there funny moments, but emotional ones as well. I don’t cry in movies, but I came very, very, very close to doing so, having to do all I could to hold in that almost-escaping tear. I’m not lying when I say this movie has everything.

But why is it so much better than other Disney movies? Moana is an amazing character, with a pure heart who will stop at nothing to complete her mission.

She’s stronger than any of the other Disney princesses we’ve seen before, and I mean that physically too.

You could snap the other princesses in half without any effort, but Moana looks like a real human being! She has actual, muscular arms, strong calves and a waist that doesn’t require starving to achieve. Her hair is cra-

zy fun and curly, thick and beautiful. Her character is portrayed with a big, warmly-toned, circular face with thick, black eyebrows. Now does this make her ugly, her face and bodily proportions being realistic? Not at all! I would gladly argue that she is the most beautiful princess Disney has ever created. She’s not just skin and

bones. This is someone girls can actually identify with.

Another reason why Moana tops all of the other princess movies is because Moana is the one making the journey and getting things done. We see this with Anna and Elsa in Frozen as well, and in both movies a little tiny bit of help from a man is necessary, but it’s

much better than the old, helpless damsel in distress act. Dwayne Johnson plays Maui, the male figure, so, so well by the way. No one could have voiced him any better.

With this movie, we add a princess of the Polynesian nationality, getting one step closer to a more diverse group. We now have Disney princesses from all over Europe, Iraq, China, here in the U.S. and the Polynesian islands, representing Native American, African American, Asian, Middle Eastern, French, German, Scottish, Polynesian Danish, Norwegian and possibly British nationalities. I myself am hearing a cry for a Latina and Hispanic princesses, the princess Elena only being showcased in a TV show currently.

I’m not really mentioning any negatives here, am I? That’s the point. This movie has very little for me to critique. The characters were wonderful and the Polynesian story was fascinating, including the roller coaster that every good movie needs. Disney has done very well, and I could not recommend it any more.

Upcoming movies in 2017 Justice League Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Thor: Ragnarok Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Spider-Man: Homecoming Star Wars: Episode VIII Transformers: The Last Knight The Lego Batman Movie Beauty and the Beast Wonder Woman John Wick: Chapter 2 Kingsman: The Golden Circle The Dark Tower The Fate of the Furious

Sing brings mood Passengers falls short in action booster to theaters Joshua Wilson Staff Reporter

Passengers had a star-studded cast that starred both Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, but even with the stacked cast, the movie itself fails to deliver.

This sci-fi romance is about two people who wake up 90 years before their ship is supposed to arrive to their new planet. The whole time the movie tries to be something it’s not; they were trying so hard to get the attention of the Oscars with their cast. Despite what is shown in the trailer, the movie was simply Jennifer Lawrence walking around a giant ship with only 10 minutes of action

Lily Gusler Staff Reporter Sing is a lighthearted and charming animated movie about an optimistic koala named Buster Moon, played by Matthew McConaughey, who inherits a theatre from his father. Moon tries to revive the dwindling audience before he goes completely bankrupt. In hopes of drawing new interest to the old theatre, Moon organizes a singing competition with a grand prize of $100,000. The prize draws in a big crowd from all around the city, including Mike, a small mouse with a very classy voice and appearance, played by Seth MacFarlane; Johnny, a young gorilla with a passion for singing, played by Taron Egerton; and Rosita, a pig who gave up her singing dreams after becoming a very busy mom of 25, played by Reese Witherspoon.

The crowd also includes Ash, a punk-rock porcupine, played by Scarlett Johansson; Meena, an elephant with a beautiful voice and extreme stage fright, played by Tori Kelly; and Gunter, a flamboyant German pig who loves to sing and dance, played by Nick Kroll.

Moon realizes there was a printing mistake on the flyers everyone saw. He intended for the prize to be $1,000, not $100,000. When the new crew of the show realize that, everything goes downhill. The theatre collapses due to water complications, Moon is confronted by the bank about his lack of money, and he loses all motivation to continue.

The crew of the singing competition try to help Moon, and they haphazardly rebuild the theatre, and continue to produce the show, regardless of the money. They put on a jaw-dropping show and attract a large crowd, including Nana, a rich elder played by Jennifer Saun-

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ders who wants to donate money to the rebuilding of the Moon Theatre. With the new theatre in business, Moon is making a profit again and the lives of the finalists of the competition are forever changed.

I thought this movie was uplifting, and I often found myself smiling at each scene. While Sing does have a fairly predictable plot, it is perfect if you need a mood booster, or if you are seeing it with little kids. I enjoyed how all the characters had very different and distinct personalities, but when they came together it was very harmonious.

The movie had a good soundtrack, featuring songs like I’m Still Standing, performed by Taron Egerton and Don’t You Worry Bout A Thing, performed by Tori Kelly. I thought the character casting was strong, but also some of the characters could have been played up more, such as Nick Offerman’s role as Rosita’s lazy husband. Overall, I would recommend this movie if you are looking for something a little cheesy but endearing.

in the film. I would not recommend watching this movie because it completely fell short of all expectations. I got tired of it very quickly after realizing that the entire film was just the two stars meandering around a giant mall for an hour. In my opinion, this movie was just a train wreck with a few good moments every 30 minutes.

I was very disappointed when watching this movie, and felt that it did not stand up to its predecessor, the book Across the Universe by Beth Revis. This movie was just another trite remake of a good book that didn’t need to be made into a movie. I would rate this movie a 4/10.

Loving goes back in time to 1958

Jake Urbanski Feature Editor

Loving was a truly touching movie that captured the racism in southern America by picturing the struggles of an interracial couple in 1958. Living in Central Point, Virginia, Ruth Negga plays an African-American woman named Mildred Loving who is married to Richard Loving, played by Joel Edgerton. This romantic, drama film is one to see.

The movie begins with Richard and Mildred being arrested for being an interracial couple.

Richard being a white man gets released the next day, while on the other hand Mildred is kept and can not be bailed out by her husband. When at court, the judge’s punishment was banning them from returning to Virginia for 25 years. The couple was forced to move to Washington D.C. where Richard continued to work as a mason. Late in her pregnancy, Mildred is persistent on returning to Virginia to have Richard’s mother deliver the baby where they are arrested again then and kicked out.

Years later a young lawyer and civil rights activist by the name of Bernie Cohen tries to get them to go to court against the state of Virginia. Originally against it, Richard is convinced by the oppor-

tunity to be able to move back home to Virginia if the case does well. The story then follows the journey of the Loving’s case through the American judicial system as it travels all the way to the Supreme Court in 1967.

The acting in the movie was very well done. Edgerton and Negga portrayed an excellent 1960’s couple. Edgerton showed the wear on him from being a mason throughout the movie through his posture and body motion. Meanwhile Negga showed love for her family as the caring mother of three children, and a wife to Richard.

The setting and background of the movie was very convincing and brings the audience back in time. The scenery was beautiful in the plains of Virginia where everyone lived in much older houses. When they move to Washington DC, the movie shows the great contrast between the two areas.

Going from the country to the city was a major change for the family, and it was made evident throughout the film.

I thought it was a great movie that kept me hanging. I enjoyed the fact that they added little cliff hangers that made it enjoyable to endure the full two hours of the movie. It is a movie for any adult or young adult that enjoys the history of America or romantic films, and definitely a film that should not be missed.

Rogue One shows a darker side to traditional Star Wars films Yusuf Aboutabl Staff Reporter The newest addition to the Star Wars saga, Rogue One, recently came out on December 16th, 2016.

Don’t get it confused with Star Wars Episode 8.

Chronologically, Rogue One comes before A New Hope, making it the prequel to the originals. It was one of the most highly anticipated movies of 2016, and it didn’t disappoint.

After arguably the worst Star Wars movie in The Force Awakens came out in 2015, the future of the franchise didn’t look bright. People attributed the lack of originality in The Force Awakens to Disney purchasing Lucasarts, yet Rogue One defied odds and became one of the best Star Wars movies to ever come out. Yes, there were some areas that were flawed, but there was a

central theme that was unmistakably beautiful. The story took you on the journey of how the rebels were able to steal the Death Star plans from the Empire, which is a perspective we didn’t see in the originals.

The deliverance of the main idea incited gut-wrenching emotions that viewers didn’t feel when watching the other movies in the saga.

The central theme of Rogue One is that war is grim, brutal and devastating; in a way, that makes this movie the most realistic out of all the others. Death will follow all engagements between tyranny and rebellion.

There is no way around it.

Rogue One made sure you knew of that before you

left the theatre. People die.

So many people die that you’d think the movie was produced by George R.R. Martin himself. At first, I thought I hated the movie.

Why did I just spend money to be sad? But then I realized that was the beauty in

it. The movie forced you to fall in love with the characters, to invest in them. Then it tore them away from you just as quickly as it introduced them.

If I had to describe the movie in one word, it would be “bittersweet”.

The sorrow and anguish that brought tears to the eyes of many were the same reason why they loved the movie. Had all of the characters survived and lived happily ever after, it still would have been a good movie.

Just not a great one. That pit that you feel in your stomach after is what makes it memorable. Another reason Rogue One sticks out compared to other Star Wars movies is the explicit violence shown. Disney did not shy away from including scenes of aggression, such as the clip of Darth Vader striking down several rebels

near the end of the movie.

Although the main theme of the movie revolved around death and sacrifice, the build to the climax had other aspects to it. Characters like K-2SO and Chirrut Imwe brought with them scenes that often left a smile on my face.

They were both humorous characters that the movie would have been incomplete without. Captain Cassian and Jyn Erso reminded us of the dedication and bravery the rebels have, while at the same time hinting at romance near the end movie. The perishing of these characters would not have had the same effect if the roles weren’t so complete and likable.

Rogue One is at the top of my list for best movies of 2016, and of the Star Wars saga. It was time that a Star Wars movie show us the darker aspect of the franchise.

January 27, 2017

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Donut miss out!

Krispy Kreme opens, holds contest Best breakfast

Olivia Comer Online Editor-in-Chief

Delayed from Dec. 10, Krispy Kreme finally opened in Harrisonburg on Jan. 10. The franchise started in 1937 in Salem, North Carolina with the principle that all doughnuts would be made fresh in the store everyday. Krispy Kreme is currently the only franchise of doughnuts that is able to pull that off.

Franchise field operations manager, Maria Rivera, explains that this makes training intensive for employees.

“We have a full week of training per employee, obviously they train on all shifts. It’s very intensive for them because we make our doughnuts from scratch and we’re the only doughnut chain that does that today, fully from scratch from beginning to end,” Rivera said. “There [are] some that try to get to that point, but they’re not quite there. The general manager has the opportunity to choose what they want to serve, a lot of them market leaders. It’s a very involved process.”

Krispy Kreme’s Harrisonburg location was a decision that took much consideration and time to come into fruition. Stephen Graves works in field operations support,

and he concluded Harrisonburg would be a good, profitable place for Krispy Kreme.

“As we begin to grow out single-store markets, we visited Harrisonburg and you’ve got James Madison University here, it’s a great community. We found this nice site right here. It takes about a year or a little longer depending on the right selection, visits, approval process and then you work it in with getting the city permits and things like that,” Graves said.

Krispy Kreme offered a deal to the first 250 customers to walk in the door. The first customer received a dozen free doughnuts every week for a year, 2-100 got a dozen free doughnuts every month for a year and 101-250 recieved a cup and one dollar refills for the life of that cup.

The very first customer camped outside of the store for three days.

“We had probably around forty people on the camp ground at any given point, so some people go, some people come. What can I say about our campers, we love them,” Rivera said. “What’s not to love [about them]? Anybody who is such a fan of our brand that [they are] willing to put themselves out in the cold for three days just for a hot doughnut deserves our love and appreciation. That’s why we gave them doughnuts for a year.”

What’s Your Favorite Flavor?

Chocolate, 15%

in the ‘burg?

ALL DONUTS WERE TESTED REGULARLY GLAZED.

#1 : Krispy Kreme

Light and airy donut with a fine glaze. Light color, chewy and perfect all around.

#2 : Strite’s

Glazed, 32%

Sprinkles, 5% Thick dough and medium, flaky glaze. Very chewy and airy. Darker color and lighter flavor.

Powdered Sugar, 6%

#3 : Dunkin’ Donuts

Jelly, 5%

Cream-filled, 26%

Twisted, 11%

Thinner dough than Strite’s. Has a light glaze.

Sweet and chewy. Light color with strong flavor.

Much sweeter than others.

100 People Polled INFOGRAPHIC BY JEWELIA RODRIGUEZ AND CHRISTA COLE INFOGRAPHIC BY GARRET CASH

Harrisonburg prepares for third donut shop in city Ryan Doerr Staff Reporter Harrisonburg is home to a number of large food chain franchises, and this winter Krispy Kreme has joined the already-long list of restaurants. Although the popular doughnut shop postponed its original opening date, the community is still excited to welcome it to Harrisonburg.

For sophomore Sophia Thomas, Krispy Kreme presents new and exciting options. “[Krispy Kreme] is different because it makes the doughnut experience more interactive. Some of the locations have a waterfall of frosting where you can watch the doughnuts go underneath it, or a machine where you can see them make the doughnuts,” Thomas said.

While known primarily as a doughnut eatery, Krispy Kreme also boasts a menu of iced and hot coffee drinks, bagels and ice cream specials.

The menu, while simple, promises to be a popular destination for local students and their families, including junior Jane Wyatt. The Wyatt family has been a frequent patron in the past, and Wyatt expects that they will continue to be as the chain opens its location here in Harrisonburg.

“There’s just something special about it,” Wyatt said. “For me, it’s a family tradition. Before I lived in Harrisonburg, I lived in Baltimore. Krispy Kreme is really huge there, and my family and I used to go all the time. We would watch the machine make the doughnuts and get the little hats that say ‘Krispy Kreme’ on them.

We would always bring a bunch of boxes home on Sundays.”

Although many students like Wyatt are excited about the arrival of Krispy Kreme, some are not as supportive. For junior Iliya Zudilin, the pastry shop isn’t nearly the same alternative as other localities like Dunkin’ Donuts or Strite’s.

“I’m really excited because

[Krispy Kreme] doughnuts are great, but I’m worried that the store might not live up to the town’s expectations and people may be underwhelmed,” Zudilin said.

Thomas, however, has high hopes for the opening of the store.

“I think it’ll be really nice to have a place like Krispy Kreme on

that side of town, because it’ll be a great place to go before shopping or after eating out in that area,” Thomas said.

Although Krispy Kreme has gained quite a bit of popularity throughout the southeast, its Harrisonburg franchise will face quite a bit of competition with other, more established local doughnut eateries.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JACK FLEMING

BY THE DOZEN. A box of 12 donuts is open to show its contents.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALICE PERRINE

SIX PACK. A box of a half dozen is displayed to show its variety, the donuts ranging widely in flavor, filling and decoration.

PHOTO BY OLIVIA COMER

OPEN FOR BUSINESS. The Krispy Kreme sign shines brightly.

“If I’m hungry for just doughnuts, Krispy Kreme is the place to go for me, but I think Dunkin’ Donuts has better variety overall,” Zudilin said. “I can get doughnuts, coffee and breakfast meals all in one place. Even though a new place will be exciting, it doesn’t mean I’ll stop going to all the other doughnut places in town.”

Other stores, like Strite’s Donuts, got their start in the area, and local students flock to them on a regular basis.

“Strite’s has a lot of seasonal flavors, which makes them more unique than other places around town,” Thomas said.

Despite various preferences outside of Krispy Kreme, the store has the potential to become a staple of the community, and serve as a popular spot for local students.

“I eat out a lot, and it’ll be really nice to have somewhere like Krispy Kreme to go when I’m running around during the day,” Wyatt said.

Zudilin, despite worries for other local shops, is excited to have the donuts freshly made, straight from the chain itself.

“Now we don’t have to enjoy [Krispy Kreme] only from grocery stores or outside of Harrisonburg, we’ll finally have a high-quality doughnut place right in our backyard,” Zudilin.

“It’ll be great because you know [Krispy Kreme] makes their doughnuts right there in the shop, and they have so many flavors,” Thomas.

Krispy Kreme, on Burgess Rd. in Harrisonburg, opened to the public on Jan. 10 after its delay on Dec. 13.

January 27, 2017

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The Newsstreak

Kizner pushes new courses, more learning Andi Fox Staff Reporter

Superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner proposed 16 new courses to the school board for next year on behalf of the teachers and central office staff and administrators on Jan. 3.

Guidance counselor Rachel Linden receives proposals from teachers and administrators and prepares them to be sent to the school board for approval.

“Most [of the classes] are in the world language and Career and Technical Education areas. Medical Terminology, Intro to Health and Medical Services, Italian, Arabic and American Sign Language are all being proposed,” Linden said. “Some of the other courses [being proposed] are AP Human Geography, Dual Enrollment Western Civilization, Advanced Physical Education (Certified Personal Training) and Biblical Literature.”

There are a variety of reasons why these specific courses are being proposed, but the main reason is that these courses will help to give students more opportunities to follow their interests and to be prepared for the future.

“The intent is to provide a variety of courses to meet diverse student interests and to help prepare students for a variety of career opportunities,” Linden said. “[World language classes] are being proposed to offer more options for students to pursue the world language credit for the advanced diploma and to provide more opportunities for students to strengthen their skills in their native language.

[CTE classes] provide options at HHS for this career cluster and prepares for a health science pathway in the Governor’s Stem Academy.”

In order for these courses to become a reality next year, the majority of the six board members would

need to approve. According to Linden, the chances that the courses will be approved it pretty high, but they may not become actual classes unless enough students sign up for them and they don’t disrupt the school’s budget. The school would also need to find a certified teacher. While all of these classes have good intentions, there are a few downsides.

“Many of the courses will require new textbooks and additional staff. Much will depend on how many students are interested in taking the courses to justify adding staff,” Linden said.

“All of the courses would require [a lot of] planning, the creation of a syllabus and plans- it always takes a lot of effort to get a new course going. Some [might] have prerequisite requirements or may be offered just to upper class students. Some of them mean budget implications, so they might not get approved, or if the board was not in support of a course

PHOTO BY YOGESH ARADHEY

SIGN HERE PLEASE. Junior Jane Wyatt stops in the hallway to sign a New Class Survey for Biblical Literature. These types of surveys are presented to the school board to show that students have an interest in taking that class in the future. or program, they could ask that it not be offered.”

Linden believes that the proposed programs could really be beneficial for the

New language courses on the horizon

Christa Cole Print Managing Editor

Language is the thing that allows us to communicate with one another, coming in many different forms from all around the world.

Superintendent Scott Kizner is looking to expand this area for us, hoping to start up a World Languages Academy within HHS. The program would be similar to the setup of the Fine Arts Academy or the STEM Academy, incorporating itself into students’ schedules, and offering multiple languages that students could immerse themselves in.

“It would be more than just language introduction…

[It’s called] World Language and World Culture because we’re going to know more than just the content of the language, we’re going to learn about the traditions, the culture and the history,” Kizner said. “It would be students spending more time integrating their other subjects into areas learning about the culture, the geography, the history of whatever language they’re supposed to take.”

Students can specialize in a language and sample many, or they can try out multiple as long as they get their language credit in the case of an advanced diploma.

There has been a push for Arabic to become offered, as well as Italian. Chinese and Mandarin are also possibilities, but the largest obstacle will be hiring staff able to teach these many

languages.

“The greatest challenge will be getting teachers who are licensed and proficient in those languages, so it’s not that easy but we’re planning for it,” Kizner said.

“We would have to do some very targeted advertising… [and] we would network.

We have a lot of people in this community that speak Arabic and Kurdish, so we may be aware of people.

We have some businesses we do work with that do work in China, and would have to reach out to them.”

If someone is interested in teaching but is not licensed, the school would work with them to acquire that certification.

“We encourage our staff to continue learning, that’s something we do more than most school divisions.

We help pay for course work, we help people pay for conferences and workshops and so on, so even if we didn’t have someone right now that’s completely endorsed [and] has the license, we would work with them to get that license,” Kizner said.

Kizner is excited to offer this program so that students here in Harrisonburg can be both more competitive and more prepared for the workforce.

“Northern Virginia and a lot of places offer a lot more languages than we [do], so what I want to do is make our students be in a position that they could be more proficient, but honestly a little more competitive with students that are graduating from other high schools that offer many

students.

“New course offerings allow students to expand their knowledge and have new opportunities,” Lin-

den said. “Hopefully the student interest will be high and the courses will move forward.”

Fast Facts on Teen Stress

All statistics courtesy of a 2015 survey by the American Psychological Association

63%

PHOTO BY GARRETT CASH

COLLABORATION. Current Spanish teacher Gian Frongia holds up the course proposals for Italian I and Italian II. languages because we’re in an international world languages global economy,” Kizner said. “It doesn’t matter what position they’re in, what career they’re looking at, there’s a good chance they’ll be working with people who speak other languages and it will really expand people’s opportunities.”

Kizner is also hopeful for the unity the languages will bring, especially considering the diversity of our school system and community.

“For me personally, I wish I knew more languages, I took French and Spanish but then I just stopped, and I wish I would have continued that, especially now working in Harrisonburg,” Kizner said. “We say in Harrisonburg the strength of our school system is our diversity, and I think that’s absolutely true. I think the way we all learn from each other and the way we communicate with each other is to understand each oth-

er, and I think that understanding is often communication, either verbal or listening… We want [the] kids [to] have a connection so they feel like they’re a part of something.”

The World Language Academy’s start may be small at first, but it will hopefully grow with time as the program develops.

“I think in the beginning it will be like everything else; there will be a few who will put their toes in the water to see like, ‘let me sample it’, and then…

We want to let students experience it, let them give us feedback. Let’s see if it grows and builds that way,” Kizner said.

This February, Jeremy Aldrich, language coordinator for the school system, will present to the school board this idea for the World Languages Academy and the budget that will go along with it. The hope is to start up the program this coming fall.

of teens say school and homework are their biggest sources of stress

25 % of teens suffer

from stress-related anxiety

31%

36% of teens report feeling tired or losing sleep as a result of stress within the past month

of teens report they feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities

42% 39%

of teens believe that their stress level will increase in the upcoming year

of teens report skipping meals atleast once a week due to stress

INFOGRAPHIC BY ABBY HISSONG

Providing semester and year-long classes benefits all students

Anna Rath Staff Reporter For sophomore Karla Delcid-Cruz taking a year long class is not nearly as pleasant or beneficial for her as a semester long class is. Delcid-Cruz prefers to have semester classes over year long classes partly because of the homework load.

“When you have a year long class you have homework every other day, but

then you forget to do [the homework] from that day because you also have the homework from the previous day due the next day, and it just gets confusing,” Delcid-Cruz said, “I also forget information and sometimes I forget I have a test because I don’t have [that class] everyday so [the teacher] can’t be like, ‘Hey tomorrow you have a test!’ because then you don’t have [that class] that day.”

Delcid-Cruz also enjoys having semester classes

more because the information is easier to retain in a shorter period of time.

“It’s much easier to have faster paced classes, because, for example, for a year long class I have to take an SOL at the end of the year for things I learned in August and I have to take [the SOL] in June, it just doesn’t make sense. It’s better for me to do it in January because there’s not so much of a time lapse in between a big test like [the SOL] and from when you

learned the information,” Delcid-Cruz said.

While Delcid-Cruz prefers semester classes, sophomore Anne Penrod likes having year long classes more due to having a longer time to complete homework.

“I prefer year long classes because it gives you more time to observe the content and more time to do the homework which is nice if you have a busy schedule. I do sports and other activities so it’s nice

that I don’t have homework due the very next day that it’s given,” Penrod said.

Another reason Penrod is fond of taking year long classes is because they have a more gradual pace than semester classes.

“The difference is semester classes are a lot more fast paced, especially language classes. I’m taking Spanish class and it’s not uncommon to have one or two quizzes a week, but in a year long class that would be really unusual to have

two quizzes or two tests or major projects in one week,” Penrod said.

Although Penrod likes year long classes more she still believes that it is beneficial to take both types of classes.

“I think it’s good to have a balance of both year long and semester classes because if you have a lot of semester classes that can really pile up, especially depending on the curriculum.

It’d be a lot of work and pressure,” Penrod said.

Man on the Street: Do you prefer a full year or semester class schedule?

Freshman Raghav Kharel “I prefer semester classes because you do the same thing in a short time period so it’s easier to focus on your work.”

Junior Evan Jost “I like full year classes because it gives you more time to actually learn the content and more time to do your homework as well.”

Freshman Jenifer Bonilla-Cruz “I prefer semester classes because they are shorter with less work but more classes.

Sophomore Joy Parakul “I prefer semester classes because it makes the class feel shorter so you get to experience new classes more often.”

Sophmore Emmanuel Maclon “I like semester classes better.

I think if you need help in a class you should take full year, but if you are good at it, then take a semester class.

January 27, 2017

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Keister students celebrate cultures from around the world

PHOTOS BY ABBY HISSONG

SHOW & TELL. Students learn about foreign traditions (top), make lanterns (left), watch a presentation on Russian traditions (middle) and play games (right) on World Celebration Day. A diverse selection of presenters came to help explain the importance of understanding different cultures and their holiday traditions.

Abby Hissong Editor-in-Chief It has been four years since Keister Elementary School first implemented its dual language program, an educational model that promotes high academic achievement where academic subjects are taught in both English and Spanish throughout the school day.

One of the main goals of the program is to help students utilize their language

skills to communicate with and respect people from cultures all around the world. The program’s latest attempt to expose their students to various cultures came in the form of Celebraciones del mundo, a holiday event planned by second grade teachers Regina Hissong and Rose Jantzi.

“We wanted to find a way to help bring in community members to talk about customs that are important to their families so our stu-

dents could recognize and celebrate those traditions as well. We also wanted to help our children learn from one another and to get them to understand that it’s really important for us to ask questions and understand each other better to make our world a better place,” Jantzi said.

The event consisted of all students in the dual language program, ranging from kindergarten to third grade, visiting 8 different

stations around the school.

Each individual station had a presenter that represented a different culture from around the world, a few being Russia, Peru and Mexico.

“The biggest part of planning [the event] went into finding presenters who were willing to take time out of their schedules to come in and share about the culture from where their family is from, and making sure that we had a wide variety of stations in both English

and Spanish. We had lots of staff members and parents that ended up volunteering their time to come help out at the event,” Jantzi said.

Hissong and Jantzi had helped coordinate a similar event in previous years, but this year’s Celebraciones del mundo was by far the largest. Hissong estimates that around 200 students participated in the event.

“We tried to make sure that we could get as diverse as possible when we invited parents and presenters to come. We wanted to make sure that it was an interesting and informative experience for all of the students involved,” Hissong said.

The event started in the early afternoon, and ran until school was let out for the day. All the students began in the cafeteria, then made their way to each station with their classroom.

“Before the students were let out, I led them in singing Estamos todos juntos, which means ‘we are all together’ in English. All the kids are familiar with it, as that is a big theme within the dual language program.

Afterwards, I took some time to remind the students that we were getting together to honor and celebrate traditions of others in our class because we are part of a diverse community, and it is important for us to respect each other.

From there, the students were released by class into different sessions. Each class went to three different presentations for about 20 minutes each to learn about a different holiday tradition from around the world,” Janzti said.

With the HCPS school district being so diverse, Hissong and Jantzi are constantly trying to find ways to show their students how important it is to be aware of and respect other cultures.

“As we teach our children to

What was your favorite part of the day?

“My favorite part was eating tamales, because they were good and I was hungry.”

russia Portugal mexico

america Spain

Second-grader Santana Perry

“I liked learning about baby Jesus, and how Joseph and Mary looked for a place to stay.”

be biliterate, not just bilingual, we are teaching them how to empathize with other students who come to our school and don’t originally know English language, because many of our English heritage speakers are experiencing the same situation on the Spanish side. It builds empathy. It helps them understand the differences that we experience in our school and all over the world,” Hissong said.

Though the Celebraciones del mundo was the biggest event the Keister dual language program has held, it is not the first time that Jantzi and Hissong have introduced the students in their program to the various cultures present in Harrisonburg.

“Mrs. Hissong and I organized a walking field trip downtown earlier this year with some local business owners down at Las Chamas and Earth and Tea Cafe that were of Hispanic heritage. We also had a read aloud at the public library, so almost the entire event was in Spanish. The point of the field trip was to show our students how they could use their Spanish to communicate with people in the community,” Jantzi said.

Throughout the rest of the school year, Hissong and Jantzi will continue to look for opportunities to expose their students to as many cultures as possible. “[Teaching students about other cultures] builds respect for how people are different than us, but it causes students to contemplate the common thread that connects us all in language, speaking and communication,” Hissong said. “All students in this program are language learners, and that creates a unique sense of equity that puts all students on the same level.”

el salvador peru

Second-grader Aerlie Torres

Diverse presenters introduce worldly traditions to children Lucie Rutherford Print Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO BY ANDREW RATH

PHOTO BY ANDREW RATH

PHOTO BY ABBY HISSONG

CUP, PAPER, SCISSORS. Dual Immersion children learn to recognize the importance of diversity through arts and crafts. “Its awesome to watch my students switch back and forth between English and Spanish unknowingly throughout the day. Their bilingual ability amazes me constantly,” Jantzi said.

The Harrisonburg City Public Schools system is known for its diversity, so when it came to the Celebrations Around the World Day at Keister Elementary School, they were not hardpressed to find volunteers. The day was full of eight presenters, each of whom showed the kindergarten through third grade dual-language students a piece of their specific holiday tradition. From tamales and hot chocolate to The Legend of the Poinsettia, the children had the opportunity to experience traditions outside of their usual sphere.

Candy Foster, a reading specialist and dual-language teacher at Keister, showed the students her family tradition of reading The Night Before Christmas and setting cookies out for Santa each year. “[I wanted to show the kids] the importance of family during the holidays and the importance of having holiday traditions. [I hoped I could help them understand] the importance of sharing them with your family and passing them down from generation to generation to generation,” Foster said.

Though only a couple classrooms over, Katya Koubek talked about a tradition over 5,000 miles away. Koubek was born and raised in Moscow, Russia,

and when asked to present to the Keister students, she was more than happy to share her family traditions and heritage.

“I knew my audience would be little elementary school students, so I wanted to present something they could relate to, comprehend, make connections to,” Koubek said.

Koubek, the mother of a second grade dual-language student, also explained the similarities between the American and Russian holiday traditions.

One of those similarities being the Russian equivalent to Santa Claus, Grandfather Frost and Granddaughter Snow Maiden, who bring presents on New Year’s Day rather than December 25th.

“The experiences are much richer than being all the same, so kids can relate to [the similarities in] presents, to Grandfather Frost looking like Santa, they could relate to that, but they also learn new Russian words and maybe have a better appreciation for the culture that they didn’t know anything about before,” Koubek said.

Again only a few classrooms down, the Hispanic holiday traditions were being celebrated, led by Keister instructional assistant and dual-language teacher Daysi Vega-Hall.

“We [talked] about posadas, which is the reenactment of the travel of Mary and Joseph when they were going to an inn,” Vega-Hall said. “We were [making]

paper lanterns because the angel was following them lighting the path.”

Vega-Hall, who is originally from El Salvador came across kids that already knew what she was teaching about, and others that were experiencing it for the first time.

“Some of the kids already knew the background of the posadas, so they sang [the song with me]. Some of them were like, ‘What are you talking about?’, but when I showed them how to make the paper lantern, they really got into it.

They went crazy and decorated, they were so excited about making it… they were showing it to all of their friends,” Vega-Hall said.

For Vega-Hall, her goal is to

let the elementary school students broaden their views of the world and people different from them. “[I want to teach them] that tradition is important, that even if you don’t celebrate that type of tradition, other people do it, so understanding why other people do it and why they do that… is important for them to learn all about it.”

Like Foster and Vega-Hall, Koubek was hoping to send a similar message to all of the youngsters.

“I want them to [know that] even though we’re so different, we’re so similar as well,” Koubek said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, you can always find similarities, and the differences make us very rich.”

PHOTO BY ABBY HISSONG

CRAFTS AND CONFETTI. Vega-Hall explains the process of making the lanterns to students while teaching them about different holiday traditions. Students spent time playing games and trying different foods as well.

January 27, 2017

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January 27, 2017

Freshmen, eighth graders practice with VAST Owen Marshall Sports Editor Many of the younger Harrisonburg swimmers are obligated to miss their high school practices in order to compete and train with another team. Freshman Luna Fulgueiro balances both high school swim along with the Valley Area Swim Team.

“I go to high school [practices] once and week, and when we have meets I go twice a week. When I don’t go to high school [practices] I go to VAST, which is about four times a week,” Fulgueiro said.

Freshman Grace Gabriele also is apart of both teams and attends VAST practices five times a week.

“I try to go to one high school practice a week, and VAST the rest of the week, I additionally have VAST on Sundays,” Gabriele said.

“I mainly try to go to VAST more often mainly because my parents pay a lot of money for me to be on that team, and I feel I get a better workout at VAST.” Gabriele believes that going to team dinners makes up for missing practices.

“I try to go to all the team dinners, which is where the high school team really bonds. I feel like I still get a good experience with the team,” Gabriele said.

Fulgueiro believes that both teams serve a different purpose for her.

“VAST is really [helpful] for swimming. My goal with VAST is to get faster and reach a higher level with swimming. For high school, I did it more for

the social aspect,” Fulgueira said. “Sometimes, VAST helps me more with training whereas high school is more recreational, but I love both teams.”

Gabriele was already involved in VAST prior to high school. She decided to swim for the Streaks to attend more competitions.

“I started to do VAST before I came to high school, so I have been doing it for a while now, and I love VAST. I think it’s a great program,” Gabriele said. “I decided to do high school because there are a lot more meet opportunities.I get to swim in a lot more meets and have a chance to compete more often.”

Fulgueiro enjoys working with VAST to improve her performance for the high school competitions.

“VAST helps you more with technical stuff, but high school has more meets to test your time. I think they both are a good way to grow as a swimmer,” Fulgueiro said.

Most athletics don’t let students compete with other teams during the season, though VAST and the high school have an agreement to allow the swimmers to participate in both.

“VAST and the high school have something worked out, so [Coach Morrell] is okay if I miss practices,” Fulgueiro said.

Gabriele believes that her coach understands the importance of VAST to the swimmers.

“One of the things I really like about Coach Morrell is he’s very chill and lenient if you have to miss practices,” Gabriele said. “He knows I am still practicing,

PHOTO BY ANDREW RATH

BUTTERFLY. Freshman swimmer Luna Fulgueiro swims the butterfly leg of the 200 individual medley in a home meet versus Broadway High School at Westover Pool in Harrisonburg. and swimming when I don’t go to practices. There isn’t a punishment for missing practices.”

Gabriele thinks that VAST workouts are more challenging than high school.

“VAST is definitely a lot more intense with a lot more swimming, it’s a lot harder. High school is a lot more laid back. If you can’t do something there isn’t much pressure,” Gabriele said.

When it comes to the style of workouts between the two teams, Fulgueiro believes VAST focuses more on the specific swimmer.

“VAST is tailored to you and your [swimming]

( )

whereas [for] high school you do what the coach or team captain says to do.

VAST is more productive because they know what they’re doing. [While for] high school they just come up with sets to do. I’m not sure if there is a reason behind the drills we do,” Fulgueiro said.

Gabriele believes that both teams have their advantages.

“The benefit of VAST is definitely the coaching experience. There is great coaching, great workouts, and I improve every practice,” Gabriele said. “The benefit of high school is the competing part of it.

Not only do I get to see the

swimmers from VAST, but the good swimmers from the other high schools as well. There are some bigger meets for high school. You can try to make conference, states, regionals, whatever your goal is. I really like the competitive aspect of high school.”

If there was a time where Fulgueiro would have to pick between the two teams, she believes VAST will be her number one choice.

“There [are] many reasons I would choose both, but ultimately I would choose VAST. The meets allow you to qualify for states, and eventually go to the Olympics,” Fulgueiro

said.

Gabriele believes that the swimmers on VAST are more committed than high school.

“I would say that VAST is more productive because everybody wants to be there, and wants to get better. Whereas high school is more of a social activity.

VAST is definitely better for swimming purposes,” Gabriele said.

Fulguerio believes that swimming is underappreciated.

“It’s not fair. People don’t know how hard it is to swim,” Fulgueiro said.

“In football practice, you go out and throw a ball. Swimming is hardcore.”

Senior swimmers expected to be leaders Fleming looks for postseason diving run David Gamboa Photography Editor Richard Morrell, swim team coach, has delegated the job of captain to the seniors on the team. However, with the large amount of veteran swimmers on the team, he and the seniors have taken a different approach to taking the role.

Tyler Rodriguez is a senior, and has been on the swim team since his sophomore year. Rodriguez swam before, but held back his freshman year. When his younger brother came in as a freshman and swam, Rodriguez decided to give it another try. “The way he does it for swim is that seniors are usually captains, [but this year] we just have so many seniors that ... whoever takes on the responsibility role is the captain. So if you’re a senior you’re just expected to take on the role,” Rodriguez said.

Now in his younger brother came in as a freshman and swam, Rodriguez decided to give it another try. Now in his third year on the team, he enjoys taking on the role of leadership.

“My favorite part would be seeing the younger kids, like the freshman coming in, [new] sophomores, or new kids in general, and remembering where I was, looking up to the seniors and captains and being in that role now,” Rodriguez said.

Captains are tasked with leading workouts and practices, making sure every-

“... whoever takes on the responsibility role is the captain. So if you’re a senior you’re just expected to take on the role.”

- Tyler Rodriguez Senior Swimmer

one is in the right place at meets as well as filling in for the coach when he can’t be there.

“Sometimes we have to take care of practice if the coach isn’t there, so we’ll have captian practices. We lead dry land. Before we get in the pool we will do body work like abs, arms, pushups, situps and stuff like that,” Rodriguez said, “During meets we’ll make sure no one’s missing their events.”

Tyler enjoys the bond that the team has created and doesn’t think that it is something the seniors will have to worry about.

“We are all really close so there isn’t really a problem for team bonding,” Rodriguez said.

Along with leading the team with workouts, captains serve as a source of motivation for the team.

“Keeping everybody on task, get them to accomplish their goals, keep them motivated and keep them swimming and getting better,” Rodriguez said.

Anna Derrick is a four year veteran on the swim

and has assumed a captain role as a senior. As a leader she hopes that the team dynamic stays positive and thinks that the team, especially the girls, is set up for a successful year. “[My goal is] for everyone to get along. I think we are setup to do really well competitively, especially the girls team to place well,” Derrick said.

“We work as leadership roles for people to go to and set up all the social stuff and we run practices,” Derrick said.

For Derrick, it is difficult trying to give everyone what they want. “[The hardest part is] trying to please everyone,” Derrick said.

Along with the other seniors, Derrick has formed bonds and enjoys being with her teammates.

“I think the dynamic that all the captains have together [is my favorite part]. We really enjoy being around each other,” Derrick said.

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Samantha Little Feature Editor Every Monday through Wednesday from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., sophomore Jack Fleming attends diving practice to help continue his diving career success. Last year, he placed first at regionals and second at states, also placing first at many smaller meets.

Fleming first got into diving just by going to the pool and doing flips into the water. He liked it and kept with it, also applying the flips he learned to as many things as he could, including skiing, biking and skating. His active involvement in biking has had a positive impact on his diving ability.

“I have very good body control from pushing my limits of what I can do, from flips to biking, gymnastics and skiing,” Fleming said. “I feel like my body has adapted to what I do. When you start at a younger age and you do a lot of the same thing, your body will adapt to do that.

My body is continuing to adapt and make itself better.”

Fleming enjoys diving because of the adrenaline rush he gets from all of the time that he’s in motion in the air. However, an essential part about diving for him is to stay calm under the pressure.

“The most challenging

part about diving is not letting pressure or fear of messing up get to you. If you let it get to you, you overthink it and psych yourself out and then you won’t do it. You go to do it and you’ll stop and fall in the water,” Fleming said.

Fleming’s current goal is to improve his triple front, a move with a forward somersault that is then repeated two more times and requires the diver to open quickly into the water. His practices, with divers also from TA, Broadway and Eastrock, consist of warm up jumps and repetition of dives to improve each one. Although head swim coach Richard Morrell is also his dive coach, Fleming knows his dives well enough to be able to self-evaluate them and change whatever needs to be fixed. He also takes time outside of practice to improve dives in the long run.

“I jump on my trampoline on occasion to help with my skills. I practice my diving form and also sometimes stretch because it looks better when you can keep your body tight,” Fleming said.

During each meet, all of the divers competing are given six dives and rotate in order until all of their dives are completed. Every dive is scored as a fail or 0 through 10 by three to five judges.

However, if there are five judges, the highest and

lowest scores are thrown out. Then the three scores are added up and multiplied by the numerical difficulty level of the dive.

Though many people have been injured or gotten concussions while diving at a competition, the only injury Fleming has suffered from that has affected his diving is from a biking competition, putting him out of practice. Unless he’s sick or injured, Fleming tries to attend every practice so that he has a greater chance of winning at meets.

“It’s my only extracurricular activity and I want a scholarship for it, I want to dive in college. If I tried hard enough I could probably eventually make it to the Olympics, but chances are I won’t because I’ll hopefully go into biking,” Fleming said Fleming has found that this year has been easier because his previous year of experience has given him insight and skill that he can now apply to his dives.

“Being an ambitious diver, I’m trying to excel my learning as fast as possible. I’m trying new things all the time,” Fleming said. “To be a diver you need to know what you want to do, commit to doing it 100% and you will do it. If you get everything you need to know about a dive, you can do it. You just have to clear your mind and go for it.”

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January 27, 2017

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Chemistry helps freshmen perform on varsity

PHOTO BY DAVID ALEJANDRO GAMBOA PEÑA

HANDLES. Freshman Atilia Thomas drives to the paint in the varsity match-up against Sherando. The Streaks fell to the Warriors in a 53-43 loss.

Owen Marshall Sports Editor Teammate to teammate chemistry is a big aspect in team sports. This is no problem for freshman Jakaya Brandon and Atilia Thomas, who have played with each other for the past three years. The girls started

their career together on the Harrisonburg Hornets, a local travel team, and are now on the varsity girls basketball team together.

“When we first met, I thought she was really nice and a good player. I was excited to get out on the court with her,” Brandon said. “We have gotten a lot closer through

College Bowl Games becoming excessive idea has been thought of before, but not combined with disposing of the extra bowl games. If the playoff was expanded to 16 teams, One of the longest running tra- it would consist of 15 games, and ditions in sports is the bowl games while that’s much less than the that are played at the conclusion of 41 they have now, the ticket sales the Division I college football sea- and excitement surrounding the son. Decades ago, the bowl games game would provide much more were exclusively for the best of attention (and money) to the NCAA the best, to showcase two of the and the business with their names greatest teams in the country on on the game. More teams in the national television. In recent years, playoff could also give non-Power however, the games have become 5 teams (like Western Michigan or increasingly less importBoise State, who were ant, with a huge number both ranked highly this of meaningless matchseason, but missed out ups between 6-6 teams on the playoff) an opthat only happens so the portunity to win the title NCAA can make money that they won’t have with off of the business that the current four team set sponsors the game. up.

Between Dec. 17 and All in all, the way bowl Lil’ Stews Jan. 9, there will be 41 games are right now Sports bowl games played, beleaves plenty to be deginning with the Gildan sired. Many of them feaNew Mexico Bowl and ture two teams that don’t concluding with the National deserve a 13th game in a contest no Championship. Eighty of the 128 Di- one really cares to watch. Expanding vision I football teams (62.5%) will the playoff offers rewards for the be playing in a bowl game this sea- fans, the players in it, the schools son, 20 of which didn’t finish with a who are represented and the NCAA. winning record, with three actually After all, as a fan, I’d much rather losing more games than they won. see the 16 best teams in the country Getting into a bowl game isn’t even duke it out over a four week span a reward anymore. It’s become es- than watch Army play North Texas sentially a consolation game that in the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl. the TV networks and corporations surrounding the game can benefit off of. Of the 41 games, 34 have a Total Bowl Games sponsorship, and that number is growing every year, with nine more bowl games currently proposed for the future.

With the recent establishment Teams without of the College Football Playoff, winning records in there’s another outlet the NCAA could take to have these sponsored bowls games at the end of the season, while still keeping them between the better teams in the country and making them much more competitive than they are now. Why not Losing record just expand the playoff? Sure, the teams in bowls

Owen Stewart Print Managing Editor

41 20 3

the game and we work a lot better together.”

When Thomas first met Brandon, they weren’t that good of friends, but basketball has brought them together.

“At the beginning, we didn't talk at all, [but] we are pretty good friends now. Our relationship is pretty laid back and chill; I don’t remember a time when we’ve got into an argument. [Our friendships growth] helps us on and off the court,” Thomas said.

The girls believe that knowing each other for a long period of time helps them execute on the court.

“Knowing each other so long has helped us work well together,” Brandon said. “We have learned to play together. We know how each other plays, so that’s a big advantage.”

Thomas agrees that chemistry has helped the girls perform better this season.

“Right now Jakaya and I know where we are on the court and we are making better passes because we know where each other [is],” Thomas said.

Brandon believes that being on varsity as a freshman is a good way to work on the two girls’ game.

“We are the youngest on the team. We get experience by playing with and against older girls at a young age,” Brandon said.

Brandon likes that the varsity atmosphere puts more pressure on her than

teams in her past.

“I have gotten in better shape than at least I was at the beginning of the season. I have just been working a lot more with my left hand,” Brandon said. “It’s a lot faster [paced] than other teams I played for. Now I really have to try hard whereas other teams were more laid back.”

For Thomas the varsity team is a more serious team than ones she has played on in the past.

“Varsity is on whole, new level compared to JV or middle school. It is way harder and more intense,” Thomas said.

The girls pick each other up in games to help them stay positive.

“We always just congratulate each other if we do something good and are there to pick the other person up if they make a mistake,” Brandon said.

Thomas believes that both of the girls, being freshmen, has built their relationship.

“I think it’s helped that we are both freshman on the team. We stick together,” Thomas said.

Brandon believes that the older girls are accepting her and Thomas more as the season goes on.

“At first I felt included, but I was just there,” Brandon said. “Now I feel really included because we are getting closer and closer to each other.”

Coaches bring experience to varsity basketball squad Yusuf Aboutabl Staff Reporter The varsity basketball organization brought in Don Burgess to coach the team a little over a year ago, making this his second season coaching. Burgess also brought with him two assistant coaches to help out with the varsity team: former guidance counselor Tim Meyers and Shenandoah County teacher Mickey Clinedinst. Meyers and Clinedinst have nearly 70 combined years of playing and coaching basketball.

Clinedinst, commonly known as Coach C by his colleagues, teaches P.E. in Shenandoah County. His interest in basketball started very early on in his life.

“I’ve been coaching for about 30 years now. When I was very young, basketball was a sport that I got hooked on. I [was] a very active person as a child, and as a result, I wanted a sport that would have spontaneous and consistent activity where you ran a lot and don’t get many breaks.

Basketball is what I enjoyed,” Clinedinst said. “It gave me an opportunity and I got skilled enough to play in college and it got me a degree in physical education. I always wanted to coach or teach if I wasn’t able to play on the next level.”

Being a teacher in Shenandoah County means Clinedinst has to drive about 30 minutes when he wants to get to HHS to coach, which presents some timing obstacles. Despite this, Clinedinst’s connection with Burgess led him to take up the job at HHS instead of somewhere closer to home.

“I’ve got some folks at HHS that I've known for quite a long time. I also know a lot of people in that area that went to HHS, so I'm familiar with the city,” Clinedinst said. “The reason I chose to coach there is [because] I found out that Burgess got the job, so I called him up. I’ve known him since he was a sophomore. I called him and asked if he would like me to help out. He has a passion for the game as well as I do.”

Despite the title of assistant coach, Clinedinst still has a noticeable role with helping the team. He interacts with the players and aims to set an environment

that will facilitate success.

“I try to [motivate] the kids to get better. They’re familiar with me and we’ve got a great bunch of student athletes here.

They’re very receptive to me and the staff themselves,” Clinedinst said. “We have a good rapport with them, which helps a lot.

I’m trying to establish a culture that HHS had in the 80’s and 90’s. I’m trying to bring back that environment and culture of winning.”

Coach Meyers’ path is similar to Clinedinst’s, starting with interest developing at a young age.

“I played basketball since I was very, very young, so it’s part of my old routine.

I started at Elkton High School. I coached there and then came to Harrisonburg in 1976 until 2007 or 2008,” Meyers said.

“Then I helped [Coach] Burgess at Bridgewater College for seven years and then he got the job here.”

Meyers was a guidance counselor at HHS until he retired last year, but that didn’t stop him from staying involved with the school community.

“I was approaching retirement but still wanted to keep a hand in things. I need to have something to do at this stage of the game. I need a team,” Meyers said.

“I still enjoy coming to practice and seeing what’s on the kids’ minds and what they’re doing.”

After being in the game for over three decades, Meyers can’t do everything he wants, but he still maintains a traditional role on the coaching staff.

“I’m less able to demonstrate and do the things I was able to do 30 years ago, but I still have a good feel for it,” Meyers said. “During games, I do statistics and help with substitutions and during practice I help do breakdown and drills and observe from my perspective the things I think need to be done. I also try to help the guys who are sitting at the end of the bench that aren’t getting any playing time to understand their roles and positions on the team.”

Meyers has been at Harrisonburg longer than most, but he still has a passion for the game that’s as strong as anyone else’s.

“I just enjoy being around the greatest game ever played,” Meyers said.

January 27, 2017

Sports-B8

The Newsstreak

Berhe continues to train and improve Noah Siderhurst Sports Editor Among the school’s best runners is junior Mo Berhe.

Senior Isaiah King thinks that one of the things that makes Berhe a good runner is his mettle.

“I’d say Mo is a very driven runner. Sometimes his English isn’t always the best, but he knows when to put in the work, when to really go at it. He’s definitely a strong mental runner,” King said. “He really loves the competition in the races.

Having competition really allows him to go out and run faster and try to beat his own records.”

Track Coach Jerry Hertzler, who is in his third year coaching Berhe, agrees.

He has seen growth in Berhe over the years he has coached him.

“He’s always been a competitive person… As a freshman, he was good just on sheer talent, but needed to figure out what it means to work hard and practice and that then translates into faster times when you’re racing. It probably only took him about a season to figure that out, so each year he’s just gotten better and better,” Hertzler said.

During the indoor track season last year, Berhe qualified for the two mile race at states, but this year, Berhe hopes to qualify for more events. However, he was not always as committed. In fact, he originally was more interested in playing soccer than running track. It was only after convincing from his cousin Abrham Amine, a current

freshman at Eastern Mennonite University, that he agreed to start running.

“He didn’t enjoy it at first, but then as he went he liked it,” Amine said.

Even so, during that first season, Berhe skipped a few practices to tryout for soccer, a decision which Amine did not like.

“Because I knew he was kind of good, I didn’t want him to be doing soccer,” Amine said. “I was like, ‘I’m not going to push you anymore. If you want to do soccer you can do soccer.’

Then he skipped a couple practices to try out for soccer. After that he reflected back and he was like, ‘I want to do this.’”

The decision was made for the moment, but there still remained some doubt that Berhe would stick to running.

“I remember several times he wanted to drop out because he wasn’t feeling great, but those times he ended up not dropping out because he was mentally strong,” Amine said.

Looking back, Berhe thinks that it was the right decision to stick with running and hopes that it will lead to opportunities in the future.

“I chose to join [running] with [Abrham], and I had a lot of fun with him,” Berhe said. “I’m just going to stick with running and maybe get good scholarships.”

As Berhe emerged as one of the best runners, he started to become a leader, culminating this year after the graduation of Amine, who had been one of the best distance runners in school history. “[Last year] he didn’t

PHOTO COURTESY OF TRICIA COMFORT

READY. SET. GO. Junior Mo Berhe races during the first meet of indoor track at Woodberry Forest. Berhe has contunied to improve his times despite setting various records in the past years. Berhe is on track to break even more records this year set by previous senior, and cousin, Abrham Amine. have to be the leader on the team, didn’t have to be the number one guy where this year he is. That’s a different little twist for him,” Hertzler said.

King also believes that Berhe has taken on a new role this year as a leader that is similar to the role that Amine had filled previously.

“Mo and Abrham are alike. They didn’t always talk a lot, but they were silent leaders… Mo really has taken on that role of motivating himself but also the team to put in the work,” King said.

Ahmed vaults during season Jackson Hook Sports Editor Pole vaulting is one of the less popular events for the varsity indoor track team. Junior Hashaam Ahmed is one of two students who pole vault for the Streaks and has been doing it since he first started high school.

“Freshman year, [Gary] Bugg asked me if I wanted to try pole vault. Bugg was one of the coaches we had last year until he retired, and I figured I should go ahead and try it,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed has not had as much experience as other athletes who do pole vault for competition at meets.

He previously only vaulted in the spring for the outdoor track season, but he will be vaulting for the indoor and outdoor seasons to increase his chances at beating his target height.

“Competition is really hard because a lot of people are really experienced in doing it and they’ve practiced for awhile. I only used to do it outdoor, but I’ve started doing indoor as well. I am hoping that will help me get more practice.

The last time I vaulted my highest was 8’9”, and I’m trying to beat 10 feet this season,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed has realized the difficulties and challenges

Amine and Berhe also have very similar race times, which could possibly lead to the breaking of records set by Amine by Berhe this year or his senior year, a proposition that Hertzler is still somewhat hesitant about.

“Abrham was probably one of the best if not the best distance runner to come through this school.

He owns at least four school records. It’ll be interesting… to see where Mo stands [when he leaves] versus where Abrham stands,” Hertzler said.

In their closest cross

country 5k race, Amine only beat out Berhe by a second, running 16 minutes 15 seconds while Berhe ran 16 minutes and 16 seconds.

Berhe’s goal for his senior year is to break 16 minutes in the 5k, his favorite race.

King has faith that Berhe will be able to beat Amine’s current records.

“Mo this year has almost equalled Abrham’s times, so I definitely think that if Mo keeps working at it, he could equal Abrham if not get faster than him,” King said.

Amine and Berhe still keep in touch, running to-

gether on weekends, and Berhe plans to visit Eastern Mennonite University where Amine is currently a student. King thinks that Berhe is following in Amine’s footsteps.

“You could almost say that Mo was a prodigy of Abrham,” King said.

Furthermore, Amine thinks that there is also mutual respect between the two of them.

“He’s fun to run with, I just always want to run with him… I think it’s the same for him, too,” Amine said.

Weight limit limits football participation David Gamboa Photographer

PHOTO BY THEO YODER

UP AND OVER. Junior Hashaam Ahmed practices his pole vaulting during indoor track practice. in the sport and has taken a leadership role for any new team member that may join indoor.

“The most difficult thing is probably just putting it all together because there is a lot that goes into it. You have your speed, you have your plant, form, just putting it all together is kind of difficult for newcomers,” Ahmed said.

At competition, vaulters can end up flying higher than 10 feet which brings many safety precautions and dangerous situations for pole vault athletes. “[Something people do not know is] how dangerous it is. We were at states last year, a guy shattered his pole and almost impaled himself with it. He

could have gotten seriously hurt… I haven’t gotten hurt, but I’ve fallen on the bar before,” Ahmed said.

During the outdoor season the pole vaulters are coached by elementary school teacher Megan Mlinarchik, but during the indoor season the athletes are forced to lead themselves.

“During indoor we don’t have a coach but during outdoor we have a coach named Megan, she teaches at Keister,” Ahmed said.

“During indoor we basically just coach ourselves because everyone knows what they’re doing, and if a new person comes in we kind of have to show them the ropes.”

tremely unrealistic compared to real life. There will always be people bigger than you, whether it be size, confidence In the past years, HHS has seen a or economic resources, and there will substantial decrease in the number of always be people that are better than players going out for the football team. you. The next level in football after People blame this on demographics or rec league is high school. The change changes in the program, but it’s the city is immediately seen; players are bigthat is to blame. For years and years, ger, stronger and faster. This change young kids of all backgrounds and sizes, needs to be seen from the first level.

Without experiencing this from the time they could run environment from day one, to middle school age, have it is like they are being put been able to participate in behind the wheel of a masAmerica’s pastime. Kids spent sive 18-wheeler when just their fall afternoons learning yesterday they were barely the game that is football in maneuvering around the pee wee and midget, for the driveway in training wheels. city’s recreational league. All Imagine a kid, five foot was well, young kids learned David Gamboa eight inches, 200 plus the game and learned a love pounds. For a high school for the game. They develfootball player that would play lineman, oped their abilities and molded a true these numbers are average at best. For football mentality and instincts. You may ask, “What’s the problem then?”. a 7th grader that plays soccer and basThe city decided it would be a smart ketball, it is almost unbelieveable. From idea to place a 155 pound weight lim- a young age, his football prospects have it on the kids that could play. Initially been apparent, and living in the Harristarting with who could or couldn’t run sonburg City Public Schools area means the ball, and eventually terminating potential for a young star in the future, their right to play the game. This leads but not being allowed to play in the to problems down the road. Kids no area is absurd. Daily drives out of town longer knew how to play football and to rural areas that do allow him to play would join the high school team with the game is the only way to get him in minimal knowledge about the game. equipment. Most young kids don’t have In other cases, students wouldn’t even these opportunities and have strayed choose to play, but rather go home to away from the game itself. The rules from the rec league are stifling the full play video games and sit around.

The weight limit is designed to keep potential of players who could play on the kids safe and to keep one kid from the high school team. dominating all the others. This is ex-

Rookie Royer joins track for first season Owen Stuart Sports Editor Despite the sport being named indoor track, not all of the meets for the team take place indoors. Some of the team’s runners compete in weekday meets at Fort Defiance High School’s outdoor track. Those meets are dubbed “polar bear meets” in homage to the normally frigid conditions.

Junior Corbin Royer is in his first year running indoor track. He decided to try it out mainly to stay active prior to beginning his other sport.

“I wanted to stay in shape before baseball season. Also, my mom thought it would be fun and that I could meet new people. I’m starting to like it,” Royer said.

At the meet, Royer ran two events, the 4x200 relay and the 500 meter dash. He began his races well before falling off a bit

at the end.

“In the 500 meter, [I was in second] at first, and then I slipped. I came in fifth place. In the 4x200, I started good, but I started to slow down at the end,” Royer said.

In contrast to Royer, junior Patrick “JoJo” Walker is an experienced runner, as he has run since seventh grade, and has participated in many polar bear meets.

Walker mainly runs sprints, such as the 100 and 200 meter. At this year’s first polar bear meet, like Royer, he ran the 4x200 relay. Walker finished with a time of 28.6 seconds for his part of the relay, and noted that he was fairly happy with his results.

“It’s been awhile since [my last meet], but I think I kept my record from last year. I think I did pretty well,” Walker said.

After running in his first career track meet, Royer found a similarity to the beginning of his baseball career.

“When you try a new sport, like when I first played baseball, I really liked it and wanted to continue, and that’s kind of how I feel about track, except I’m not trying to go up to college in track. I just want to stay in shape, and it’s really working,” Royer said.

As for Walker’s opinion on polar bear meets, he believes there isn’t really a way to expect the conditions until the meet actually begins.

“I like that they’re outside, but the thing is, they’re really cold, especially if the wind kicks up,” Walker said. “You could think you’re prepared, but then end up curled in a ball under the bleachers freezing to death.”

For the rest of the season, Walker hopes to increase his skills in the field events, as well as getting a chance to race on the weekend.

“I want to get better at jumps, but also

make it to a Saturday meet since I’ve never been to one before. [To achieve that], I just put in the effort after school and practice whenever I can,” Walker said.

To succeed in track, Royer believes that loosening the muscles is crucial, and has helped him improve throughout the year.

“I’ve really worked on stretching to get the muscle pain away. In baseball, for some reason, I’ve never been able to stretch out that good. In track, we stretch and do core a lot, and I’ve been able to get those places that I haven’t been able to. It’s made me a little faster,” Royer said.

Both runners believe they have room to improve, with Walker hoping to perfect his running form, and Royer hoping to get stronger in his calves and thighs for more power. Royer also hopes to finish in the top two in an event by the end of the season.

January 27, 2017

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January 27, 2017

Sports-B10

The Newsstreak

GYMNAStICS

Kilby-Woodward shines in first year

Kyle Brown Op-Ed Editor

Freshman Alyce Kilby-Woodward is on her first year for the varsity gymnastics team at HHS. Kilby-Woodward has been competing and practicing gymnastics since sixth grade, where she joined the Skyline Middle School gymnastics team.

Kilby-Woodward says that she doesn’t practice that much outside of school, and explains the practice routine she goes through after school each day.

“For practice we start by setting up [the equipment] for a bunch of events that we’re going to do, and run around the school. Then we do our warm up, and practice the events that we compete in,” Kilby-Woodward said.

Compared to other schools, our gymnastics team is a smaller group, with about eight people competing on the team. Kilby-Woodward explains that the crowd of about 30 people that come out to support at the meets is usually parents and families. Kilby-Woodward thinks that gymnastics as a sport is underappreciated. “[Gymnastics is] definitely [overlooked].

I know a couple people that say they don’t even know our school had a gymnastics team, but we put in a lot of work into the sport, and we don’t really get the credit we need,” Kilby-Woodward said.

Kilby-Woodward was nervous at her first competition on the high school team, but she’s starting to understand how the meets work.

“The first meet was the first time for me actually competing at a high school level, so I was really nervous, and I may have pulled out of an event last second because I didn't want to do it, but I did okay,” Kilby-Woodward said. “The second meet I definitely improved. Coach put me in an event last minute so I was scared, but I did it anyways.”

Michael King is the gymnastics coach for HHS, and Kilby-Woodward says he is always pushing her to get better, and always has her doing routines.

“He definitely pushes us every day. I'll

PHOTO BY SAM HEIE

FIRST YEAR HELP. Gymnastics coach Michael King prepares to assist freshman Alyce Kilby-Woodward with a back handspring during a practice. Kilby-Woodward has done gymnastics since sixth grade, but this is her first year on the high school team. be out of breath, and he’ll make me go practice my floor routine. We don’t really have big breaks because he always has us doing something,” Kilby-Woodward said.

Kilby-Woodward’s favorite part of gymnastics is how much it pushes you to do better.

“My favorite part about gymnastics is

[how] it physically pushes you, and also pushes you mentally by getting you out of your comfort zone,” Kilby-Woodward said.

“Like I don't like going backwards, and when I have to do back handsprings and stuff, it just freaks me out the whole time, so it's definitely mentally challenging.”

Balancing schoolwork and after school activities can be difficult in any situation.

Kilby-Woodward explains how it’s difficult sometimes to get homework done and having over 2 hour practices every day.

“It's definitely kind of hard because I don't get home until like 3 p.m., and then I come back at 4:30 [for practice]. Sometimes we have to stay after to help middle school gymnastics, so it’s definitely hard not getting home until [around] 7:30ish. I manage it though,” Kilby-Woodward said.

Kilby-Woodward states that even though the team may be on the smaller side, they still have really close connections with each other.

“Our team works very well. We’re a very diverse group and we all encourage and help each other, and push each other out of our comfort zones,” Kilby-Woodward said.

In terms of the team, Senior Jadah Kilby-Woodward is on the gymnastics team as well, and Alyce Kilby-Woodward explains how her sister pushes her to thrive, as well as the advantage she has of having her sister on the team.

“It makes me feel a lot more comfortable knowing that I have someone that I can go to and ask for help and help me know what I'm comfortable with,” Kilby-Woodward said.

Jadah Kilby-Woodward has made some large contributions to the gymnastics team, and though Kilby-Woodward wants to fill that role in the future, she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to.

“I don't really think I'd be able to fill in her shoes because she definitely has a lot more experience than me, and [is] probably a lot more passionate about the sport than I am,” Kilby-Woodward said. “I'm hoping to at least accomplish some of the things she did, but I might not be able to.”

PHOTOS BY SAM HEIE

READY, SET, FLIP. Freshman Alyce Kilby-Woodward goes through the process of a front handspring during practice. Kilby-Woodward begins her run up (far left). Kilby-Woodward plants her hands into the ground and pushes off (middle left). Kilby-Woodward flips through the air (middle right). Kilby-Woodward lands the flip (far right).

Gymnastics Events

• Bars: Uneven bars consist of two horizontal bars, one higher than the other. Gymnasts swing from one bar to the other, incorporating turns, flips and other tricks.

• Beam: Gymnasts use a 120 cm x 500 cm x 10 cm balance beam to perform tricks such as cartwheels • Vault: In the vault event, gymnasts run and push themselves off of the pommel horse, doing handsprings and other flips in air.

• Floor Routine: Routine performed on a 40 ft x 40 ft floor, and consists of gymnastic and acrobatic dancing.

Scoring In Gymnastics:

By The Numbers

24 Ways to Lose Individual Points in A Meet Ways to Get Automatically Disqualified 3 5 Ways to Get a Point or More Deducted

Soto starts gymnastics career as junior John Breeden Staff Reporter During the winter sports season, junior Kristal Soto, who does cheerleading in the fall, is currently on the gymnastics team. She says that so far this year she’s doing very well. For Soto, gymnastics is something new to her, as this is her first year being on the team. She had given some thought to doing it last year, however, she decided not to. This year, she had a change of heart and decided that she was going to do gymnastics.

“My sophomore year, my friends were telling me about it. I didn’t really want to do it.

Then, this year I decided to do it because it would help me with cheer and strengthen my body,” Soto said.

When trying a new sport, there can be some unexpected challenges. For example, how prepared one needs to be, how hard practices are and how difficult the competitors are.

Gymnastics practices aren’t as hard as other sport practices are, according to Soto.

“We practice from 4:30 to 6:30 everyday. They’re not really challenging, but you can challenge yourself if you want to. We all work hard as a team,” Soto said.

Gymnastic practices are

somewhat independent because there are different events that each gymnast does, from the uneven bars, to the floor routine, to the pommel horse.

“During practice, I personally work on bars, because that’s the event I compete in. It’s the one I like the most,” Soto said.

Soto says there is still room to improve right now, and she hopes to start improving quickly.

“I feel like I can do more tricks in my event. I feel like I can also improve on other events too, not just my own,” Soto said.

Although gymnastics practices as an independent sport, it still competes as a team, and Soto says that they have the same connections as any other team sport.

“We have a strong bond.

We always help each other out, motivate each other, encourage each other,” Soto said.

When doing a sport, there are many things one can find joy in. Maybe it’s what they’ve always loved to do, or a lot of their friends do it and they get the chance to be with them.

Soto says that the competition of the sport is what she likes best about gymnastics.

“My favorite thing is being able to compete with girls I already know, and being able to challenge myself,” Soto said.

January 27, 2017

The Newsstreak

Sports-B11

can sometimes take a physical toll. “[There’s] a lot of non-stop drilling and shooting, stand-ups, working on top [and] just regular drilling stuff. I don’t like [all of it] because it can get tough. Standing up from the bottom and returning a person to the mat [is the toughest thing we do]. We keep doing that for a whole minute, so it can get pretty tiring,” Torres said.

As for wrestling after high school, Torres has interest, but tries not to let the thought of college wrestling get in the way of what he’s doing now.

“Yes [I’d like to wrestle in college], it’s on my mind. I try not to think too much about it, but I would definitely like to. It’s extremely tough to get there though,” Torres said.

For Torres, the best part of the sport is the ability to dominate, while also having to defend yourself from defeat.

“Well, I like to thrive in wrestling. It’s fun to beat people up, honestly, and it’s not fun to get beat up,” Torres said. “[It’s also fun] just going out there, having fun and trying new things.”

SINGLE LEG TAKEDOWN.Torres grabs his opponent from Wilson Memorial’s leg in an attempt to score a takedown. Torres won his match 12-7 at the Harrisonburg dual meet on Jan. 4. Harrisonburg ended up losing the dual 42-22.

Torres excels early in wrestling season Owen Stewart Sports Editor Junior Guillermo Torres began his wrestling career in eighth grade, and now in his fourth season in the sport, is seeing himself take big strides as he goes along. Torres qualified for states as a sophomore, but was eliminated in the first round of the tournament. This year, Torres has goals to go even farther while wrestling in the 106 pound weight class. “[For the] postseason, [my goal is] to win states. Definitely.

I want to be a state champ,” Torres said. Torres is well on his way to that goal, as he has jumped out to a 19-0 record this season, winning two tournaments along the way. While Torres does hope to stay undefeated, he notes that it isn’t his top priority.

“I definitely want to win, winning is always on my mind, but sometimes you have to wrestle the tough matches,” Torres said.

“I’d rather lose a tough match now than lose when it matters, in regionals and states.”

Of the many facets of a wrestling match, there’s one position

that Torres wants to get his opponent into, in hopes to get an advantage. “[My strongest part] is my neutral game. That’s when both guys are standing up. In neutral is when I want to score the most.

When I’m on the bottom, I try to get out. When I’m on top, I go for the pin, but if I’m in neutral, I have to score. They can’t be scoring on me,” Torres said.

To keep his neutral game strong, there are a few things Torres looks to do during a match. “[I try] taking a lot of shots (attempts at takedowns), be good on defense and stay on the offense. The more you’re in on his legs, the less he’s in on yours, so yeah, I just have to shoot more,” Torres said.

While Torres is strongest in neutral, there are some parts of his game he still hopes to work on, saying that he struggles a bit when stuck under his opponent.

“I definitely [have to improve] on the bottom. Bottom has always been my weakest point, so I just keep working to make it better.,” Torres said.

While in practice, the team goes through lots of drills that

Wrestling Point System Takedown (two points)

Gain control of opponent by getting behind them and making their knee touch the mat.

Escape (one point)

PHOTO BY NOAH SIDEHURST

Wrestling team led by new, young coaches Jake Urbanski Sports Editor For the past few years the wrestling team has struggled to keep a head coaching position filled. In fact there have been five different head coaches in the last five years. This year, former assistant coach Billy Bower has stepped up to the head coaching position, and has brought in Charlie Belvin to fill the assistant coach position.

“I love coaching here it is really a positive environment to come in here and see all the kids. Everyone comes into practice and has a positive attitude, everyone wants to work everyday. It’s contagious if you have everyone that comes in that wants to put in their hardest work day in and day out, it’s kind of hard not to keep that up as a team. Sometimes you will have a couple kids come in and they are not really looking to put in all the effort, but I don’t really see that with any of our wrestlers and that makes really happy to coach,” Bower said.

Both Bower and Belvin are currently studying in college. Bower a senior at JMU, plans to eventually become a teacher after graduating from James Madison University. On the other hand, Belvin is a sophomore who is currently studying at Blue Ridge

Community College. He plans on transferring into James Madison University or the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond to study physical therapy after this year. As a coach he has been able to see physical therapy being practiced first hand.

“Obviously with sports you are going to see day to day injuries, and being along side that on a coaching aspect, I do get to see PT and sometimes trainers come out and take care of injuries,” Belvin said.

Bower has also found interest in the teaching aspect of his coaching experience.

“Coaching has definitely influenced my teaching style. I feel like in coaching you have to have a lot of patience because sometimes you will be teaching a move the same way and sometimes someone won’t get it. Coaching has really helped me to see how to approach different learners because everyone learns differently. As a coach you have to see that sometimes kids learn from me doing the drill on them, but also sometimes kids learn better by being able to see the drill being done on somebody else,” Bower said.

After this school year both coaches are currently planning to stay in Harrisonburg and coach next season, and could solve the wrestling team’s coaching problems.

Get out of opponent control from bottom position.

Reversal (two points)

Gain control from bottom position and get behind opponent.

Back Points (2-3 points)

Expose opponents back to the mat for aat least two seconds.

Infographic by Jake Urbanski and David Gamboa

PHOTO BY JAKE URBANSKI

COACHING. Coach Billy Bower (left) and Charlie Belvin (right) yell advice to Daniel Bautista at the Valley District Tournament on Jan 18. Bautista won his match 6-5. The tournament took place at Fort Defiance High School where Harrisonburg took second place with only seven wrestlers. Harrisonburg had three district champions and six finalists.

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January 27, 2017

Humans of HHS-B10

The Newsstreak

HUMANS OF

HHS

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.

Sophomore Alberto Núñez

“If you had the choice of picking any one super power, which one would you choose?”

“Probably to be able to fly because you could get anywhere faster and easier.

“Where would you go?”

I’d go to Paris, because the Eiffel tower is beautiful and I want to go over there.”

Freshman Grace Gabriele

“Do you prefer mountains or beaches?”

“Mountains.”

Sophomore Pana Muhamad

Senior Danny Dombrowski

“This is my third year on the varsity team, so I try to help out the younger guys on the team when they make a mistake because I probably did the same thing at one point. I want us to get as far as we can get in the playoffs this year since it is my last chance.”

“[JROTC] is fun. If something is fun I’m going to continue doing it. I’ve met a lot of friends that have become like family to me and they’re all good people. Honestly, I have no intentions of going into the army, but it’s fun-living. I kind of like it, all the discipline and doing all the regulations.”

Junior Rodrigo Fontanex

“What does JROTC mean to you?”

“I want to go into the Marines, and I want to be an engineer. The Marines [is special to me] because I have a connection to them through my mom. She has a Marine Corps engineer at her school, and I also have an uncle in the Marines.“ “When I was younger I was invited to an ROTC camp and I just started there.”

“ROTC has taught me a lot. The way I look at things, the way I am with my teachersw and the way I am with my grades.”

Freshman Ja’Que Diggs

“What is the happiest moment of your life?”

“When I had my second football game for the high school because I got to start and it was really fun to be out there with my teammates.”

“What is your favorite part about being on the team?”

“Having a family and getting to play and have fun.”

Senior Ninoska Bertran

Senior Kathryn Mestre

“[Gymnastics] has definitely been a pretty big part of my life in high school. I’ve been doing it for the last four years and it takes up a lot of my time during the winter season.”

Photos by Andrew Rath, Christa Cole, Yogesh Aradhey & David Gamboa

“If you could pick a super power, what would it be?”

“I’d be invisible, because it’d be cool to go to different places without anyone noticing you. I’d probably go to France, a new place with new experiences and new people.”

Sophomore Fahad Mohammed “What is the happiest moment of your life?”

“When I moved to America, because I knew I would have a better life. My life would’ve been pretty difficult [in Iraq] because they have to go to school a lot more and the education is a lot worse.

It’s a very difficult place to live in.”

Sophomore Peyton Neff

“What is your sport?”

“I have played football all my life. In pee wee I played on the line, but since junior year I have played receiver. I like it [playing receiver] because I am kind of fast and I can catch.

“I want to start next year hopefully, so I just need to keep working on catching and lift. I need to get bigger.”

“Originally I came here, to HHS, wanting to play football after high school, but now that I am here, I understand that the chances of that are low. If I am offered a scholarship somewhere I will definitely be playing.”

Freshman Suzanne Fornadel “Spicy food or sweet food?”

“Spicy.”

Freshmen Sydney Plowman and Abby McCollum “What is the prettiest place you have been?”

“Paris and Saint Thomas.”

“Dominican Republic.”