The Lance Volume 66, Issue 1

THE

FITNESS

ISSUE

THE

LANCE

Oct. 29, 2021

Westside High School

Volume 66, Issue 1

02

T

A

B L E

O F

C O N T E N T S News 04. News in Brief 05. Summa, Magna & Cum Laude 06. Helping Through Hope 07. A Dazzling Display

Feature 15. Tackling the Line 16. Lademi Davies 18. Art With a Purpose

Opinion 08. Computers Versus iPads 09. Editorial

Sports 20. Westside’s Triple Threat is a Brotherhood 21. Building a Contender

In-Depth 10. Just Keep Swimming 12. Redefining Winning 14. The Power of Protein

A&E 22. Always ABBA 23. Horror Movies Remakes & Reboots

C O N T R I B U T O R S

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editors Business Manager Copy Editor Design Editor Graphics Editor News Editor Opinion Editor In-Depth Editor Feature Editor A&E Editor Humans Editor Staff Writers Graphic Artists

Guest Contributors

STAY IN TOUCH! @WESTSIDE WIRED WARRIOR TELEVISION CHECK OUT WESTSIDE WIRED, WESTSIDE’S STUDENT-RUN NEWS SITE

Luke Steiner Izzy Dodge Kiera Ginn Charlotte Miller Jadyn Anderson Jasmine Palikhya Delaney Davis Auguste Kuehne Charlotte Miller Charlotte Miller Kate Stevens Emma Tyler Emma Allen Lydia Frost Zoe Rector Sydney Rolles Dani Acers Presley Gofta December Thomas Teddy Twit Zoe Gillespie Ben Kaufman Mary Nilius Jordan Nogg Tallie Pease Grace Vandercoy

design by Jasmine Palikhya, cover by Delaney Davis

The Lance

03

EMAIL OMAHASFS@GMAIL.COM FOR MEETING DATES AND DETAILS! FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER: @OMAHASFS

COMPASSIONATELY COMMITTED TO OUR COMMUNITY.

Fearlessly focused on you.

With FNBO, you have our commitment to ensuring your financial well-being while doing our part to help our customers and communities stand strong.

Issue 1

Member FDIC

NEWS IN BRIEF

04

News

Snippets of district, local and national news Local

Westside C

urrent Westside Principal Jay Opperman has announced he will be retiring at the conclusion of the 2021-2022 school year.

Opperman has been the Principal of Westside High School for five years and his chapters of being a high school principal at WHS will be complete after this school year.

“I’ve been a principal for 18 years and it’s a fairly stressful job,” Opperman said. “There is still work in my future, just maybe some work that has a little less responsibility and a little less stress.”

There have been other contributing factors that have led Opperman to conclude his time at Westside.

“I have my fourth of four children graduating high school this year,” Opperman said. “My age and experience puts me in a position to retire.”

Although Opperman may be moving on from his principal responsibilities, his love for education and human interactions will still be present in his future.

“I know I’m going to work,” Opperman said.

“I want to do something in human services, and it could be education. I am trained as a science teacher, so that’s definitely something on my list of things I want to explore. There are a lot of different human service areas that work with people that I’m interested in.”

N

obbies is known to be one of the most beloved party supply stores within the Omaha metro area. Sadly, they will be closing their doors after 33 years of business as owners Ordon and Joy Watanabe announce their retirement. This announcement is bittersweet because of the impact the store had on the community.

Ian Myers, a current freshman at Westside High School, is heartbroken over the news about the closing of Nobbies.

“I’ve been going to the store for years and I can’t believe it’s closing,” Myers said. “I go there every single Halloween and now it’s closing and I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m going to have to become an artist and start making my own props now.”

story by Auguste Kuehne, design by Jasmine Palikhya, graphics by Dani Acers and Decemeber Thomas

National S

tealing soap dispensers, paper towel dispensers and even an entire sink can be blamed on TikTok videos. The new trend, “devious lick,” includes stealing items from schools and displaying the process through videos on the global video-sharing app, TikTok. TikTok has housed more than 611,100 videos of students vandalizing school’s property. The TikTok trends don’t stop there. Administration has warned Westside of a new rumored internet challenge in October. The “Slap Your Teacher Challenge” is one that the Westside administration will not tolerate. Jeff Kilgore, the School Resource Officer at Westside, is saddened by what these trends have come to.

“It’s really just juvenile and ridiculous, especially the one where you were damaging property, and now you’re talking about assaulting teachers,” Kilgore said. “It’s ridiculous, you’re damaging property that your parents are paying for because your parents pay taxes in this school district.”

Along with sending numerous emails to students and parents, Westside is making sure that these poor decisions end here.

“If someone tells you to go jump off a bridge are you gonna go jump off a bridge?

No,” Kilgore said. “So if someone on Tik Tok tells you to go damage a restroom why would you do that? I think it’s just a way to manipulate kids into doing things that are just silly.”

The Lance

News

S

ince Westside’s founding in 1952, a Class rank system has been used to compare students in each grade. Within the past few years, the decision has been made to change the system of class rank for the class of 2025 and on, from the current system to the Latin Honors system.

According to Principal Jay Opperman, the decision was based on the idea that there are different paths through high school for students such as engineering and technology and physical education that are not as appreciated in the old structure of class rank as those students who take more honors and AP

SUMMA, MAGNA & CUM LAUDE

05 Cum Laude, which is Latin for with honor.

“If a student has a GPA of 4.25, or higher, they would be considered highest honor, or Summa Cum Laude,” Opperman said. “If their GPA is between 4.0 and 4.25, they would be considered high honors, or Magna Cum Laude. If their GPA is 3.75 or higher, they would be Cum Laude, or with honor.”

Starting with the current freshmen, all GPAs will be weighted to go along with the Latin Honors system, and AP classes will be scaled on five points rather than four. All honors classes will be on a 4.5 scale.

“AP classes, instead of four grade

Class rank system changes for current freshmen classes.

“We have really had our department leaders and teachers go back [through] and say [which classes] in engineering and tech are more rigorous and we are actually giving those more value,” Opperman said. “We are also trying to emphasize that there are more pathways and in these pathways, you can earn points in this system that are valued.”

Junior Eddie Pike also sees the benefit in providing more rigorous classes in other fields. He believes that administrators should look into the amount of time spent outside of class before giving certain classes more weight. According to Pike, AP classes stand out against other classes of the same rigor because of the amount of homework.

“Part [of more weighted classes] is how much work are they doing outside of clas,” Pike said. “While that woodworking class may be difficult, you look at AP classes and you spend a lot of time outside of class, especially when it comes close to the AP exam.”

Opperman said that another reason the class rank is being switched is that fewer and fewer high schools in the country are ranking students,. Therefore, fewer colleges are factoring class rank in the application and acception process.

“The concept of ranking is less popular, less than half of American high schools use class rank,” Opperman said. “I think the trend was already there for colleges anyway just because a lot of schools have gone away from ranking.”

Pike has also found that the number of colleges looking at class rank is dwindling.

“I am starting to look into colleges, and none of them care,” Pike said. “Not a single college says ‘we care about [class rank].’”

Pike said that the change to the Latin Honors system

Issue 1

has been talked about in his classes among both students and teachers.

“I actually am aware of it, there have been discussions in my classes,” Pike said. “Teachers are mostly interested in it.”

Although many upperclassmen may know about the switch with the class rank system, freshman Cora Dietrich feels that many in her grade don’t know the specifics of the Latin Honors system, or how it works.

“I think a lot of students have probably heard that it [has] changed, but I don’t think everyone has been very well educated on the specifics of what it entails,” Dietrich said.

Opperman said the Latin Honors system consists of three tiers of honor based on the student’s weighted GPA. The first tier is Summa Cum Laude, translating to with highest honor. The next highest is Magna Cum Laude, meaning with high honor, and the final tier is simply

points, would be five grade points max, so an A would be 5, a B would be 4, and C would be 3,” Opperman said. “[For] courses labeled in the registration book as honors, an A would be a 4.5, a B would be 4 and so on.”

Dietrich is under the impression that removing class rank and going forward with the Latin Honors system will reduce competition within her class along with making school more enjoyable and less stressful.

“I think it will create a less ‘I’m better than you’ type environment and more people will enjoy school rather than [thinking] ‘I have to be the best,’” Dietrich said.

Opperman adds that the Latin Honors system will be able to recognize more students for their achievements rather than just acknowledging the top 10 percent. With more student recognition comes more pathways and nontraditional post secondary plans.

“The cool thing is we would probably honor 25 to 30 percent of students for their course work, so it was really honoring a larger group of students from a lot of different paths,” Opperman said.

Opperman said that during the development and implementation of the Latin Honors system they were asking the community, parents, and students for feedback on the system.

“We surveyed teachers, we surveyed parents, and we surveyed students,” Opperman said. “When you looked at the surveys, there was more interest potentially in an unranked system.”

Opperman said that the Latin Honors system will let students take the courses they enjoy rather than those that will give them the higher rank or GPA. Opperman expressed that students will feel honored more than the students using the current system.

“I can be honored and I can do what I love, if I were to put it in a nutshell,” Opperman said.

story by Kiera Ginn, design by Jasmine Palikhya, graphic by Delaney Davis

06

HELPING THROUGH

News

Westside implements national suicide awareness squad

W

ith over 30,000 members across 1,000 schools nationwide, the Hope Squad aims to “prevent suicide through public awareness and education,” as stated on their website.

The organization, founded in 2004, focuses on spreading awareness about suicidal thoughts and tendencies through student leadership and peer connections. Westside implemented a Hope Squad this fall, following a recommendation from a Westside family.

“The [family] approached the district to ask if we could put the Hope Squad in place at the high school,” Richard Painter, Westside’s Coordinator of Secondary Counseling, said. “I wanted to look at what other organizations we have that [teach] students about the signs of suicide.”

Although Westside offers the Believe it or Not, I Care, (B.I.O.N.I.C). club, Painter researched the Hope Squad organization and, after discussions with Hope Squad representatives, feels that the content is different. “[I] met with the Hope Squad to see if they could tell us a little more about it,” Painter said. “[The Hope Squad said] it is a way to teach students curriculum to provide insights to students to know what the signs of suicide are amongst their peers.”

According to Painter, that missing suicide knowledge has caused lives to be lost and many warning signs to be missed. This sparked the interest for the first Hope Squad at a Utah high school.

“There was a student who had a watch, and he told five of his different friends, ‘Hey, I’m not going to need this watch anymore, you can have it,’” Painter said. “Nobody understood what that meant, and then that student ended up taking his own life. Then, the school in Utah created the Hope Squad so that they could train other students for the signs of suicide.”

Painter will receive training from the organization to officially implement Westside’s own Hope Squad later this fall. He said the club will meet about once a month to discuss the curriculum around suicide awareness and prevention beginning on Oct. 27.

Bellevue West High School, currently the only school in the Omaha area that successfully runs a Hope Squad, has seen many benefits from the curriculum, activities and peer connections the Hope Squad provides, according to Bellevue West Principal Kevin Rolfs.

“The big thing [... the Hope Squad] has done is, through our advisory and lessons and other activities, ... we’ve really tried to take the stigma off of mental health

issues, to make students more comfortable talking about [mental health], admitting they’re struggling and being more open to talking about it,” Rolfs said. “Our students are much more comfortable talking with somebody [about mental health].”

Although Rolfs believes the sucide awareness curriculum the Hope Squad uses is comparable to general school counseling, he said he sees a much greater impact when it is an ongoing message from peers, rather than the occasional guidance lesson.

“With the Hope Squad, the information is coming from student to student, rather than from teacher to student,” Rolfs said. “[Suicide awareness] is ongoing, the message is always out there. It’s stuff we kind of just keep out there all the time so that conversation is always out there and people feel [more] comfortable to talk.”

With the addition of the Hope Squad at Westside, Painter hopes that suicide awareness will grow amongst the student body, and more people will understand when to report someone who may be struggling.

“I’m hoping that it spreads throughout the student body,” Painter said. “[And] that people feel comfortable [so that] if they hear of something that a student says and they don’t feel that that’s right, that they tell an adult, and then that adult takes the action that they need to get a student help that’s needed.”

About 35 Westside students have already shown interest in becoming the first students to learn the curriculum with the Hope Squad, according to Painter.

The curriculum includes learning how to ask and answer difficult questions of peers when concerned about self harm or sucicide, Rolfs said. He reminds people that Hope Squad members are just meant to be peers who are willing to help.

“Probably the biggest emphasis that needs to be made is that Hope Squad members are not counselors [and] they’re not therapists,” Rolfs said. “They’re just a student who’s going to help another student get to someone that is going to keep them safe.”

Sophomore Emma Naimoli is planning to be a Hope Squad member, and believes that it is a great opportunity to get familiar with the ways she, and other students, can help spread suicide awareness. “[I hope] to kind of get myself informed, or [learn]

story and graphic by Kate Stevens, design by Jasmine Palikhya

how I could help,” Naimoli said. “I think that [the Hope Squad] will inform people. [It will] definitely show people that suicide is a real thing.”

According to Principal Rolfs, the Bellevue West Hope Squad has been involved in numerous activities, with many more scheduled, to give help to students. He said the Hope Squad organization has played a huge role in the messages and activities that need to be spread amongst students. “[Within] the national organization, one thing they talk about is a hope week in the spring,” Rolfs said. “That’s a whole week centered on hope and sucide awareness and mental health issues. The national organization has come out with a lot more support. Every month there is a theme and [the Hope Squad will] send out activities for the schools to promote or talk about.”

Rolfs said he struggled with allowing his students, who eagerly wanted to make a change, to do so successfully across the whole student body. The Hope Squad has provided the structure for students to lead the cause, he said.

“I just never felt comfortable turning students loose to do things without some sort of format or guidance on what it is they want to do,” Rolfs said. “The Hope Squad brought that to us. It gave us an organization, [and] a format; they gave us [a] curriculum. It just gave us an organized way to move forward [and] to reach out to our students.”

Naimoli and Painter are interested in the various activities and collaborations that are possible as the Westside Hope Squad gets going.

Painter said he hopes to learn from existing groups like the Bellevue West Hope Squad, and Rolfs is excited to partner with the many potential Hope Squads in the area.

“I think we have about five or six schools (in the Omaha area) that are [creating a Hope Squad] for the very first time,” Rolfs said. “With time, I would love to maybe see the high school Hope Squads from the area get together. [Having] more students we can put together that are fighting the same fight will just strengthen all of us.”

Hope Squad Official Site: https://hopesquad.com/

The Lance

News

07

A DAZZLING DISPLAY

Westside donors establish a light show and tunnel walk for athletes W

ith the recent addition of a light show in the sports mall, Westside teams are more excited than ever before their games. Many Westside athletes and coaches feel an abundance of excitement in the sports mall, and the anticipation makes each team enthusiastic and ready to play.

The tunnel walk and light show for the volleyball, basketball, and football teams at Westside were implemented over the summer just in time for the first games of the new school year. The walk-through is located in the sports mall near the athletic entrance of the school.

Before their games, a few of the current Westside teams run through the tunnel area in the sports mall while the light show is playing. To get the players hyped for the game, flashing red lights and music play for the light show, making for a striking display.

During football games, the lights can even be seen by the crowds that are in the bleachers. The show doesn’t stop after the initial walk out. It plays in the sports mall throughout games and is there to lift the teams’ spirit during halftime and after the game. “[It’s] creating that ultimate tunnel walk feeling that a

Issue 1

college athletic program would have,” said Terry Hanna, a member of the Westside Foundation that helped with the organization and funding of the light show at WHS. The Westside tunnel walk is modeled after the Nebraska football one. Hanna brought up the idea over the summer of doing something similar in order to boost Westside’s teams’ spirits before their games. This spectacle always makes Nebraska’s players and fans excited, which is exactly what Westside’s tunnel walk does for many of their athletic teams and spectators.

According to Brett Froendt, a Westside varsity football coach, his team has been even more enthusiastic before their games since the installation of the light show and tunnel walk.

“It just [adds] an element to the pre-game excitement,” Froendt said. “It enhances the game-day atmosphere and its neat for the kids to have that experience.”

In addition to that from their coaches, the crowd, and their teammates, the tunnel walk provides an extra level of support and encouragement for Westside’s athletes. A high school team with their own light show and tunnel walk is exceptionally unique to Westside.

According to Hanna, no other high schools in the state have the same kind of experience for their athletes.

“It was exciting because we were all hyped up for the game,” said Eleanor Brislen, a varsity volleyball player at Westside. “Everybody was just super excited already and then we walked through that and we were like ‘it’s game time.’”

It’s not just the players that are getting excited for the game during the light show. Athletes from Westside Middle School and Westside elementary schools are allowed in the sports mall while the players run through to make it even more exciting.

Hanna created a roped-off area in the hallway for spectators to watch the light show from. He said that, for the athletes, being able to see their fans’ support and enthusiasm makes them even more excited.

“We wanted to make sure that we had a lot of students throughout the district [there],” Hanna said. “We created this roped off area where kids in middle school and elementary could be in there … yelling at the team and getting everyone excited.”

story by Jadyn Anderson, design by Jasmine Palikhya, graphic by Delaney Davis, photo by Kiera Ginn

08

Westside makes changes in student technology

T

his year, Westside made the decision to change the school’s technology. The whole high school has transitioned from computers to iPads. Still, the iPads are not ideal, and they bring a lot of uncertainty to school work.

Getting iPads for the benefit of apps has a few flaws.

Many helpful apps are blocked and students are restricted to using the school’s issued app store with fewer resources.

Students who desire a certain organizational or learning app are stuck with apps approved by the administration.

Junior Katie Klemmensen said that the apps we do get are not high quality.

“We can’t download the useful apps,” Klemmensen said. “We have to rely on Safari, and Safari doesn’t always work [on the iPads].”

Many teachers instruct students to use Google Classroom on Safari rather than using the iPad app. The app lacks some of the organizational structure that the website has, and some of the announcements and assignments fail to show up like they do on Safari. The computers only had one resource to reach a site which made things a lot less complicated.

Junior Lucy Holan is worried about classes being too reliant on the iPads for schoolwork.

“It’s putting us in a digital dependency because now we’re doing everything on our iPads,” Holan said.

Another trait about the iPads is the inconsistency of the touch screen. The touch screen is an addition that was not available with computers. While it is a lot nicer than just having the trackpad, it can be very inconsistent.

For some objects on the iPad’s screen, users can only use the trackpad, and for others, users can only use

Opinion

COMPUTERS VERSUS IPADS the touch screen. It can get confusing and irritating to continually switch between the two.

One opportunity missed was a learning course on the iPads. Freshman year students take Info Tech to get familiar with computers and applications like Word that are only available on computers. Without something similar for the iPads, how many students are left confused and stuck with how to navigate the them?

The iPads function different from the computers. This forces students to be more reliant on self-teaching to work out the kinks and waste valuable work time on figuring out things like how to use a split screen.

It would be unfair to claim that the iPads only introduce negative changes to Westside technology.

They provide more freedom than the computers. Students are now allowed to change their lock screens and use their fingerprint to unlock the iPads.

This can take away the sense of restriction

that was on the computers.

Another positive is the Apple Pencils.

While difficult to keep track of, they are quite useful.

The Apple Pencils make electronic note taking more convenient. There is a wide selection of colors and brushes to spice up notes and make it more enjoyable for students.

Klemmensen said notes can be kept in the same area easily and can be searched for by titles rather than digging through folder after folder in a backpack to find last week’s

lecture. It also encourages students to write their notes down and not just type them out. Still, not all teachers even allow the option to use the iPads for notes.

Holan said she sees a lot more students off topic on their iPads and doing things like coloring instead of working on school work.

“Not only is this a distraction from our learning, it’s also not conducive to our learning because it’s harder to take notes,” Holan said.

One question that circulates is the process for this transition. Were students incorporated in this major decision? After all, they use these electronics day after day, so they should’ve been able to have some input.

Klemmensen believes that the possibility of switching to iPads always seemed like a rumor, and administration did not communicate the change well with students.

Principal Jay Opperman said that students and administrators had been included in the process of switching to iPads.

“Our tech team actually piloted the iPads with staff members,” Opperman said.

“They had some students pilot some iPads over the last couple years, and we’ve already been using iPads in elementary schools.”

On the other hand, some think that this decision wasn’t affected by how students felt about the iPads.

“I think it was the easier decision and they just went with it instead of trying to get student opinion on how it would affect us,” Klemmensen said.

Regardless of the pros and cons of the iPads, they will continue to be the main technology Westside High School uses.

“I wouldn’t envision going back to laptops,” Opperman said.

story by Lydia Frost, design by Jadyn Anderson, graphic by December Thomas

The Lance

Opinion The Lance is a school sponsored publication of Westside High School, Westside Community Schools, 8701 Pacific St., Omaha, NE 68144. The Lance office is located in room 251.

Phone: (402) 343- 2650. The Lance is an in-house publication.

The paper is distributed every month to all students, except in vacation periods. Subscription rates to others are $30 prepaid.

The Lance is printed by White Wolf Web, in Sheldon, IA. Advertising rates are available upon request. The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit all ads for clarity and grammatical errors. The editorial staff reserves the right not to publish any ads that are libelous or that contain non-factual information.

The Lance editorial staff also reserves the right to nullify contracts at any time without prior notification. The Lance also refuses ads that promote activities illegal to a majority of the student readership.

Reader response is welcomed in the form of letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words, signed by the author and sent to room 251. Names may be withheld upon special request. Lance editors will decide whether to honor such requests.

The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and grammatical errors.

The editorial staff also reserves the right to not publish any letters that are libelous or contain non-factual information.

The Lance is a member of the Nebraska High School Press Association, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association and the Quill & Scroll Society.

The Lance staff recognizes that the administration of Westside Community Schools controls the curriculum and, thus, sets the parameters of the production process of school publications.

The Lance staff also recognizes its own responsibilities to inform, enlighten and entertain its readers in a way that reflects high standards of journalism, morals and ethics.

Editor-in-Chief Luke Steiner; Design Editor Jasmine Palikhya; Managing Editors Izzy Dodge and Kiera Ginn; Business Manager Charlotte Miller; Copy Editor Jadyn Anderson; News Editor Auguste Kuehne; In Depth and Opinion Editor Charlotte Miller; Feature Editor Kate Stevens; Arts & Entertainment Editor Emma Tyler; Graphics Editor Delaney Davis; Humans Editor Emma Allen; Staff Lydia Frost, Zoe Rector, Sydney Rolles, Dani Acers, Presley Gofta, December Thomas, Ted Twit.

Issue 1

Rethinking recognition of athletics & academics I

t appears that athletics are held to a higher standard and praised more than academics.

Athletes at Westside are recognized with yearround banquets, posters around the school and praise from administrators, staff and students.

Athletic recognition is well deserved, especially considering that Westside has one of the best athletic programs in the state, but academic achievements should be held to as high of a standard that athletics are.

Academics should be recognized more frequently and given more recognition because students put as much effort and time into academics as athletes do into athletics.

Principal Jay Opperman explains how Westside is trying to give academics more recognition.

“We used to do a ninth through eleventh grade award night in the spring, but we are not going to do that ceremony anymore because it wasn’t very well attended,” Opperman said. “We really want to recognize each semester, so we are going to start publishing Honor Rolls at the end of each semester. We are [trying] to make that

academic recognition for doing service and doing well in classes more frequent and public.”

Opperman also said that the National Honor Society and the new class rank system, the Latin Honor System, are other ways that academics are recognized. “[Before COVID], we had three celebration pep rallies each year, and when we do [pep rallies], we really emphasize acknowledging academics and other activities,” Opperman said. “We would just try and recognize different things like attendance, good grades, maybe great performances in a wide variety of things and maybe have a little competition. We are really hoping as [COVID] hopefully starts to go away, that we can start doing [pep rallies] again because we really want to recognize students for doing great things, whether it’s academics, activities, clubs, athletics, or just being a great person.”

Opperman said that Westside is trying to recognize academic achievements in other ways by trying to recognize students in different classes and areas of interest.

“We are [starting] to have teachers and other staff nominate students for great academic improvements, doing something great for the school, or doing something great for their peers,” Opperman said. “We are just really trying to work on broadening the definition of recognition, because we have all kinds of students that are doing great things in a lot of different ways.”

When academics are not recognized

09

EDI TOR IA L

enough, students lose motivation to do well in their classes. Most times, academic achievements are only used for college applications, and having more recognition of these accomplishments will motivate students and allow them to feel a sense of pride.

Athletes feel accomplished when they win games or break records, but students with academic achievements are unsupported by the community and their peers in that way.

Opperman believes that athletics at Westside are recognized in a lot of different ways and that Westside is working towards recognizing other performances as well.

“Athletically, there have traditionally been a lot of things in place, both formal recognition and informal recognition, so I don’t know if we need to create other ways to recognize [athletics],” Opperman said. “I think we want to continue to develop how we can recognize great academic performance and just other great performances, whether it’s service to others, hard work, how you interact with your peers, or your leadership. That’s something [that], as a school, I hope we can continue to work on and grow at.”

Administration is taking steps to improve the recognition of academics, but students and community members are not. Posters of athletes are posted in the hallways and many students could easily name a variety of varsity athletes. Athletes wear their jerseys on game days and their accomplishments are often posted about on school affiliated social media and spoken about over the intercom.

We should try to hold academic and community achievements to the same standard as athletics. Acknowledgement of academics needs to continue to grow.

story by Charlotte Miller, design by Jadyn Anderson, graphic by Delaney Davis

In-Depth

10

W

REDEFINING

inning is highly valued in athletics.

There are no grades or honor roll; winning is the main success that at an athlete can achieve in their sport.

At Westside, winning is an expectation.

Westside athletes push themselves to uphold the strict expectations of achievement, but how far are athletes willing to go, and should winning be their only form of accomplishment?

According to Healthy Living instructor and varsity football coach Brody Schmaderer, kids today are putting too much pressure on winning, and not enough on their mental health. He believes that this can result in physical and mental harm.

“Anything that takes you to a far extreme [is] putting you at a great risk of some type of a disorder,” Schmaderer said. “Whether it’s an eating disorder, or to the point of depression and anxiety.”

Eating disorders are extremely common among athletes today. In a study conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, it was reported that 33 percent of high school female athletes have symptoms and attitudes, making them at high risk for eating disorders.

Schmaderer believes this correlates to the need to win.

“I don’t think sports cause [eating disorders], but I think they can up the chance of it happening,” Schmaderer said. “I think there are lots of people that play sports [and] don’t have eating disorders, but because sports has gotten to the point where winning is everything, people are doing whatever it takes to get there. For something like

don’t want to be able to see it on their bodies.”

Sophomore, and dance team member, Cadence Higgins believes that eating disorders and poor body image are common in the dance world.

“I think everyone in dance struggles with [body image],” Higgins said. “The image of dance is to be really skinny, have longer legs and to not be too muscular. I got injured earlier this year and without training, I did gain weight and got really frustrated. I worked really [hard] to lose the weight in a healthy way, but I did struggle for a while, because, when your weight changes in dance, it changes everything. Weight changes your center of balance, how you turn, how you leap.

Keeping a good weight balance, and keeping it healthy and eating the right foods is really important.”

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, eating disorders are more common in athletes who are involved in judged sports, such as gymnastics, figure skating, and dance. Thirteen percent of athletes in judged sports have eating disorders opposed to three percent in refereed sports.

Higgins believes an environment that has an expectation of only winning, like a competitive sport, plays a huge role in an athlete’s mental health.

“At my old studio, my dance teacher was always comparing me to other dancers,” Higgins said. “[The teacher] likes [to] win a lot [and] you need to be like her and it was really frustrating. I hated when relationships

WINNING How Westside is prioritizing mental health in sports gymnastics or ice skating, it’s about being in incredible shape. Sometimes drastic measures are, in their minds, the [only] way to be successful. Students are taking incredible risks to get [a preferred body].”

Schmaderer believes body expectations for each sport are different, especially between men and women.

“For a lot of male sports, kids are trying to be faster, stronger, eat more, [and] lift more,” Schmaderer said. “So I think [what] they want to see their body do is grow and get bigger and stronger. It’s the opposite for ladies sports; they still want to get bigger, faster and stronger, but they

The Lance

In-Depth

would be ruined because of those comparisons. [She] really did base everything on winning; it felt like the main goal sometimes. Sometimes there would be eight hour practices because the dance didn’t look good enough to win. It was just unhealthy amounts of training to where you lose the drive for [dance].”

At Westside, there are steps being taken to prevent the mental health decline of athletes. Coach Garet Moravec, nicknamed The Wizard, is the creator and coach of “Wizard Wednesdays.” “Wizard Wednesdays” are football sessions with Moravec that focus on improving your mental health on-and-off the field. “Wizard Wednesdays” began last year in hopes of improving the players mental game before each game on Friday.

Moravec is a certified sports psychologist and worked with the Central Intelligence Agency and Secret Service with cyber security blending and behavioral science. He was trained to shape and influence adversaries to make decisions that would be detrimental to their intended purposes, but he wanted to flip that and help people for good, so he and his wife, a counselor, started Visionary Dream Makers.

“We provide mental skills, body, mind, spirit and a holistic view of how you can improve your performance and your mental state of being,” Moravec said.

It started with 20 minute lectures each session for

the football team. The whole team comes together in a classroom and tries to focus on thought process, and Moravec introduces a new, relevant mental skill each week to improve performance. The sessions were so successful that the program has now spread to the track, basketball and wrestling teams, as well as the District 66 leadership teams at Westside.

Senior Grant Guyett has been on the varsity football team for three years and enjoys “Wizard Wednesday.” He believes that it has improved his mental game on the field.

“Wizard Wednesdays are when we focus on the mental side of the game and we take a break from the physical side,” Guyett said. “I feel like it’s helped me have a stronger mind set and not let things on the field get to my head as much.”

To Moravec, winning shouldn’t rely on the scoreboard.

“Winning is [asking]: did you perform better than you did last time or perform to your best ability, even if you made some mistakes,” Moravec said. “When we just measure ourselves and not worry about the other team, we seem to also have a nice scoreboard.

Higgins learned to truly find happiness in her sport once she experienced a change in mindset and environment by changing her dance studio.

“Winning feels great [and] I tend to win a lot,” Higgins said. “Now, it never pushes me over the edge. When I’m

11

dancing, I just go on stage and dance. I don’t really think about anything else and I know that if I do my best, I’m going to get a good outcome.”

Schmaderer believes that, to further prevent these mental and physical issues, we need to begin to bring a new perspective to winning.

“Redefining winning. Redefining what success is.

Redefining what our goal is,” Schmaderer said. “Don’t get me wrong, I want Westside to win as much as anybody, but it’s also about having that right perspective. If we stay grounded and central in what our focus is, we have [a] less likely chance of having problems. I think there is an ultimate goal of winning everything and winning at all costs. I believe that that is not the case [and] there is a lot more that goes into it. I think that being successful is way more than just winning.”

Moravec believes that the recent increase in athletic success has to do with the shift in the team prioritizing mental health.

“When the scoreboard turns out, everyone is happy,” Moravec said. “But we are working towards the players continuing to be happy when the scoreboard isn’t what they want. We won the state championship in football last year and we haven’t won that in 38 years. It wasn’t anything magical, it was just having them look differently in the mirror and at themselves.”

TRADITION of EXCELLENCE, INNOVATION & SUCCESS

npdodge.com

Issue 1

Behind every great team are proud supporters.

story by Izzy Dodge, design by Jasmine Palikhya, graphic by Dani Acers

12

In-Depth

THE POWER OF PROTEIN The effects supplements have on athletes

M

any athletes are looking to increase their muscle mass and many turn to supplements, such as protein powder, to boost their daily protein intake. Some athletes also use pre-workout supplements to get their muscles going before a gym session.

Senior Zach Atlas uses protein powder and supplements almost everyday, but acknowledges that the business of supplements is very lucrative. According to Atlas, now, more than ever, supplements are being pushed to young athletes. “[Supplements are] all about marketing and making money,” Atlas said. “A lot of them are overpriced too.

They’ll have young people on social media advertising it, sponsorships telling you ‘you need this.’ It’s absolutely overmarketed.”

Social Studies instructor and head baseball coach Otis Seals agrees with Atlas in the fact that supplements are overmarketed, especially when the nutrients can be found elsewhere.

“I think they’re a little over-hyped,” Seals said.

According to Physical Education instructor Justin Haberman, a smaller number of athletes have asked him for advice on protein supplements this year as opposed to previous years.

“Normally I get a lot more kids asking and talking about it, but this year I have not had very many kids come talk to me at all,” Haberman said. “Normally I see it with them, carrying it around with their shaker bottles, and I haven’t [seen] that many this year.”

While they may be over promoted, Atlas believes he has seen a significant improvement in his protein intake and muscle growth, but says he could get all the necessary nutrients from his diet. Atlas feels that many protein powders and supplements can simply just act like they’re doing their job of growing muscle, when it could actually be your diet

providing the muscle growth.

“A lot of it’s placebo, and you can get it from whole foods, but it just helps reach your intake,” Atlas said. “[Protein powder] keeps you from being hungry, just makes sure you have your daily intake [of protein]. It can be beneficial, but it is definitely not necessary.”

Seals finds that, among his athletes, protein powder helps some athletes, but not all. Seals has noticed that for some students, simply increasing their daily calorie intake can boost muscle growth as much as, or more than, supplements can. “[For] kids looking to put on weight [or] muscle …the protein stuff is good for extra calories throughout the day, but I would suggest eating a good breakfast [and] eating a good lunch,” Seals said. “Then, between passing mods at school, make sure you have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a granola bar.”

According to Seals, something more important than protein intake for athletes, especially high school athletes, is sleep.

“I don’t think high school kids are getting enough sleep, especially athletes,” Seals said.

“You can lift all you want, but your body repairs itself at night when you sleep. If you’re not getting enough of that, you’re not going to build muscle.”

Haberman finds that many brands of protein powder can have more ingredients than necessary that do not help you improve your performance. To ensure you buy the best protein for you, Haberman suggests reading the ingredients and nutrition before purchasing.

“They need to be looking at what they’re buying, because sometimes they’re buying stuff at the big GNC stores,” Haberman said.

“There’s a lot of filler and not a lot of what you’re looking for.”

Haberman feels that when an athlete is using too many different types of supplements, there must be something off in the body, like poor sleep or not getting proper fuel throughout the day.

Neither Atlas, Haberman, nor Seals has observed supplement misuse, such as dry scooping, when you swallow protein powder or pre-workout without liquid, or overusing which can lead to liver failure.

Atlas points out that those who do misuse supplements

only do that to be a part of the fitness community’s trends online. Atlas also brings forth that when you do not use supplements properly they will be less effective.

“A lot of [misuse] is for the culture of all of that,” Atlas said. “It’s not good to dry scoop because some ingredients like beta alanine in pre-workout need time in water to activate, so I think that it is mostly for idiots to look cool.”

Seals believes that pre-workout does not pose any benefits to the athletes using it, unlike protein powder.

“I think the pre-workout stuff is a total scam so I don’t recommend that anybody really use that,” Seals said.

Haberman is in agreement with Seals, because he believes that pre-workout is merely a problematic way to get a caffeine boost.

“In the last few years we have seen an uptake in the pre-workout just because people want to get that caffeine kicking in, which is absolutely horrible for your body, and you should not be using [it],” Haberman said.

Atlas has a different view of pre-workout supplements. While not essential to an athlete’s gym routine, it can certainly help get the muscles ready for a workout.

“When it comes to pre-workout,” Atlas said. “[It’s] not necessary but it helps.”

According to both Atlas and Seals, protein powders can help athletes achieve their goals of gaining muscle, but are certainly not a necessity for the average person or even an athlete who has a diverse and steady caloric intake.

story by Kiera Ginn, design by Sydney Rolles, graphics by Ted Twit

The Lance

Feature

TACKLING THE LINE

13

Westside freshman bends gender barriers I

n school and on the field, some Westside students are constantly breaking the “norm.” Piper Zatechka, a freshman, made the freshman football team as one of the few girls to ever play at Westside.

Zatechka’s positions consist of middle linebacker on the defense and fullback on offense.

“My 6th grade teacher and I figured I might as well give [football] a try,” Zatechka said. “So that’s how I started out.”

Zatechka believes that part of the reason she got into football was because her dad played in previous years and her brother, Ryan Zatechka, currently plays for Westside on the varsity football team.

“My dad [is one of my role models], just because he played and he is super supportive of me,” Zatechka said.

“He taught me how to play and he trained me from day one. He’s always been really big in my football career.”

According to Zatechka, even though football is mainly male dominated, there isn’t a barrier keeping her from feeling apart of the team.

“I think they all kind of treat me like I’m one of the guys, and like we tease each other,” Zatechka said. “But we’re always there for each other, and it’s a supportive team.”

Zatechka said that she has a love for football and it’s one of her favorite sports.

“Being able to play on a high school level would be a crazy opportunity,” Zatechka said. “But I’m definitely focusing on this season for now, taking it game by game, practice by practice.”

Freshman football coach Andrew Mantzaris, has been coaching Zatechka for a

Issue 1

few years now and believes that playing with boys isn’t really anything new to her.

“Her attitude hasn’t really changed,” Mantzaris said. “She’s pretty used to working with boys [because of] growing up with her brother Ryan, [who] also plays football and wrestles.”

“It’s been really awesome watching girls achieve some great things athletically in boy dominated sports.”

- Freshman football coach Andrew Mantzaris Mantzaris said that the majority of the Zatechka family has some sort of history with football. Zatechka’s parents encourage her to try whatever sports she’d like regardless of the social expectation. “[Zatechka’s parents] push her to really do all sports and try everything, no matter if it’s boy/girl or indifferent,” Mantzaris said.

Mantzaris said Zatechka receives no special treatment, and that she is just another athlete on the field trying to get better at football.

“I think at first, just with how young they are, there was a slight gender barrier, it’s different for being boys and girls,” Mantzaris said. “[But] other than that, no, [the team] treats her exactly how any other athlete is treated, as do [we] as coaches.”

According to Mantzaris, Zatechka is a very coachable person.

“With football, she does try [to] get better every time,” Mantzaris said.

“She asks questions, and tries to clarify s o m e different things so that way she can help the team out the best that she can.”

Mantzaris believes that Zatechka is a great athlete to work with and tries her hardest at practice to improve each and every time.

“I think it’s awesome that Piper is really trying to not only break those gender barriers, but also trying to become a better athlete and a better person through our culture and everything we try to do to make players better, as far as on and off the field,” Mantzaris said. “So I think it’s really awesome that she’s continuing to do that through middle school, seventh and eighth grade, wrestling, and into high school with me, and I’m glad I can be a part of that journey.”

story, design, and graphics by Sydney Rolles

Feature

14

Lademi Davies How one student manages a complex balancing act

clonk out on the couch because I don’t have the energy to do anything.”

From oboe lessons to ballet lessons, Davies always tries to get involved in as many activities as possible.

“I’ve pretty much my whole life just had so much stuff going on and I’m the type of person that loves to do things and thrive on it,” Davies said. “I think that I honestly like the way that my schedule is set up.”

Davies enjoys the social influences she receives

B

eing a student athlete has proven to be one of the most challenging tasks to take on as a teenager Lademi Davies, a current junior at Westside High school, takes on this challenge in full stride.

Davies is involved in an assortment of activities that Westside has to offer. These activities include being a member of the varsity track team, the Amazing Technicolor Show Band, quiz bowl team and speech team, as well as being the captain of the varsity marching band. Balancing more than one activity in addition to a full class load is difficult for some students and requires a lot of drive and concentration to find success.

Davies’ daily schedule is packed and includes multiple trips to and from Westside.

Along with the assortment of activities, Davies makes an effort to keep school her top priority. Davies has earned the honor of being ranked number one in the 2023 class with a cumulative 4.0 GPA, though this success hasn’t come easily. Taking multiple AP and honors classes comes with an extensive amount of school work. Lademi has created a well thought out system of time management that she has developed over the years to help be successful.

“I’ll come home, eat and do my homework,” Davies said. “Then I’ll have an oboe lesson or I’ll have to practice my instruments or stretch. Sometimes I will just

“I want to be able to do a little bit of everything that I like to do for the rest of my life.”

come through this program,” Priester said. “As far as being coachable and work ethic, it’s kind of cliche, but she is the first one out there and the last one to leave.

She is constantly wanting to get better and her success is basically grounded to that. It is really through her work and dedication that she is where she is right now.”

Being a state runner up, Davies manages to juggle a time-demanding practice schedule, while receiving exceptional grades.

“I always check hers to humor myself to check to see if she has any grade under 100-percent. She does a great job balancing it and sometimes I don’t even know how she does it,” Priester said.

To Davies, with the extensive lists of activities comes a

- Lademi Davies, 11 from her different activities and believes that they each contribute to building her character.

“Band is sorta my outlet,” Davies said. “I love the culture and we are all our little family and community. It has given me a chance to make friends and just have fun with other people. I just love track for the environment and wouldn’t trade it.”

Throughout her life, Davies has been building a toolbox of skills in order to complete the tasks at hand and to achieve her greatest ambitions.

“For the most part, I just try to do the things that have to be done first,” Davies said. “I am admittedly a bit of a procrastinator and I know if I push stuff off until later I am going to be super overwhelmed. If I have a meet or a band competition I just try to get the tasks to be done first.”

Jonathan Priester, Westside girls varsity track head coach, is in awe of how much Davies manages.

“Lademi is easily one of the top athletes we have had

story by Auguste Kuehne, design and graphics by Delaney Davis

The Lance

Feature To Davies, with her extensive list of activities comes a variety of obstacles as well.

“Sometimes I wish that things didn’t coincide as much,” Davies said. “I like to do a lot of things so I wish that I could do one activity and not be worried about all the other things on the side.”

With this overwhelming amount of achievements, Davies has started to realize the attention that tags along with success.

“It feels like now a lot of people know me more than they did freshman year,” Davies said. “I feel

like people n o w h a v e more of an expectation than they did [freshman year] and what they want me to do and what they want me to be. At the beginning of the year, teachers usually know who I am and they know that I did well in other classes, which is good. Once I’ve established a good relationship with teachers, I like to build trust with them.”

Davies said that having a strong support system is the key to any great achievement. Knowing that there are other student athletes undergoing the same stress offers a sense of comfort to Davies and gives her the ability to persevere.

“The thing for me is knowing that everyone else on the track team is also in school and it’s not just me that’s super stressed out,” Davies said.

Issue 1

15 “My parents help a lot, and my friends. If I ever need a hug or something, my mom’s always there. There’s sometimes those nights when you’re about to break down and you need a hug.”

Although her work load may be larger than most, Davies has found ways to keep cool under the pressure.

“I know a lot of people that can be caught up in the heat of the moment with sports and all the stresses of school, but I’m learning to keep a level head and just try to get through things one step at a time,” Davies said.

Davies doesn’t put herself through a rigorous schedule for nothing. She believes that this is merely a dress rehearsal for the real world.

“I definitely think that all of this stuff is going to help me be able to manage my time when I have even more stuff to do when I’m older,” Davies said.

Davies plans on attending college following the conclusion of her high school journey. She has no intention of slowing down, just because she plans on attending a new school. Davies intends on pursuing her interest in economics.

She has plans to study the methodology of growth plans for developing countries with a minor in music.

“I want to continue to run track in college for sure,” Davies said. “I want to be able to do a little bit of everything that I like to do for the rest of my life.”

16

T

Feature

ART WITH A PURPOSE

Westside dad creates stories through his art

wo murals at Midtown Crossing, including a mural at the Alamo Movie Theater and a mural at Brownell Talbot School, all have Westside sophomore Eloise White hidden in them somewhere. Eloise White’s father Watie White is a painter, print-maker, and public artist who has been working as an artist full-time since 1996. Many of Watie White’s works have featured Eloise White in some capacity.

“I think the main thing that is pretty cool is that I’m hidden in a ton of places,” Eloise White said. “I used to hate going to Brownell Talbot and now there are 14 little me’s dressed as pirates in a mural there.”

As her father was painting that mural, she learned about Ching Shih, described as one of the most successful female pirates, as well as the most successful pirate of any gender.

“Ching Shih’s raging feminism has affected the way I’ve grown up and how I see the world,” Eloise White said, “and I believe Shih is an icon that everyone should look up to.”

Watie White has made close to 100 public artworks around Omaha, plus a few in Lincoln, Minneapolis, and Chicago. According to Watie White, he has always been creating something since he was little.

Nestled among multiple pubs, restaurants, clothing stores, and arcades are a collection of large murals created

by The Watie White Studio.

The murals, called New Nebraskans, are a series of giant portraits made by Watie White depicting refugees and immigrants who have become new citizens in Nebraska.

In collaboration with Justice For Our Neighbors-NE, Omaha Public Schools, the Refugee Empowerment Center and the Intercultural Senior Center, this project aims to bring the community together in an organized fashion.

After interviewing each subject to learn more about their stories, Watie White creates outlines and then invites people from different backgrounds to come together to paint the mural in different neighborhoods.

While most of Watie White’s art is on public display these days, it hasn’t always been that way. Watie White said he always wanted to create art that tells some kind of story. He used to make art for people’s homes that each had their own story, but with such a small number of people actually seeing the art, he wanted to try doing something on a larger scale.

“I was able to start making things that were a lot larger, or things that would mean something to everybody in a library, or everybody who drove past a certain area,” Watie White said. “I put things in the alleys to change the way

that people drove around Benson, the way they parked, and how they felt when they walked around. That was a large part of why I started doing all the public art. It seemed like you could tell stories in a kind of way you

Watie White Studios created outlined murals that were painted by members of the community. This mural is part of the New Nebraskans collection that represents new citizens of the state.

couldn’t tell any other way.”

Beyond storytelling, Watie White says public art can help a neighborhood in many other ways.

“Public art causes a lot of positive things,” Watie White said. “If you put a mural up the crime rates in that neighborhood are going to go down and more people will volunteer in that area to help clean up. Just all these positive things that happen just because a mural went up a block away.”

The Hundred People Project and New Nebraskans are two projects that The Watie White Studio has worked with for years, and Watie White says both tell important stories about the community and the important people whose voices were silenced by others or they were simply too scared to speak.

In 2015, Watie White was in charge of one project involving New Nebraskans. He covered a woman who was a refugee from South Sudan. She first moved to Omaha from a displaced persons camp, and talked about how great Benson was and how nice it was to be there.

One day, the woman’s son got into a fight with her neighbor’s kid. The mother of the kid came over and started saying horrible, racist things to her and the woman eventually moved away.

According to Watie White, when the woman heard the mural of her was going up in Benson, she returned to Omaha.

“She had something in this city that proved that this was her home,” Watie White said. “That woman had

This mural is titled Molloscock’s Inversion of the Sky and Sea. Watie White painted this Benson mural in collaboration with Tim Guthrie and Maggie Weber.

The Lance

17

Feature convinced her that the people of Omaha did not want her, but now all these people were working on this mural of her. It would be there for years and it was something her grandkids and great-grandkids could talk about. I could tell how much it meant to her. It wasn’t just a nice thing, it was something that showed a sense of community that she didn’t feel she had until then.”

In addition to giving the underrepresented a voice, the New Nebraskans series brings together different types of people.

“The morning that we had organized this community painting day, we had about 80 people or so come and paint on this [mural] in the alley,” Watie White said.

According to Watie White, these people from different backgrounds, from political officials to families to school administrators, worked together as a team to create this art.

The art will tell stories that are going to live on for years to come.

Watie White’s most recent project, the Hundred People Project, started in 2016. According to his website, watiewhite.com, “For 100 people, I am designing, carving, printing, and installing 100 individual eight-foottall woodcut portrait murals of activists and advocates throughout Omaha.”

Watie White handpicks people he admires and believes in to serve as his models. They come to his studio where they are seen how they wish to be seen; they pose how they like, wear whatever clothing they wish, and send the message they wish to send through the artwork. These works are spread out around Benson, as well as Blackstone, Chubb’s Foods, and Gifford Park.

While Watie White’s daughter Eloise White has never actually painted or carved anything, she has helped put up murals all around Omaha by doing some of the heavy lifting, talking about where each project should go and attaching the projects to where they go around town.

She also has supported and spread information about the projects to others. Growing up surrounded by art is a thing that Eloise White is used to, and she said it’s sometimes interesting to see something as art when no one else sees it that way.

“My house has never not been filled to the brim with as many photos and oil paintings and woodcuts and acrylic paintings,” Eloise White said. “We’ve got a piece up, actually, that is just eggshells in a frame. There are a couple of pieces that are just ceramic knives or a piece of a man’s hair in a frame. If I didn’t grow up with that I

“That was a large part

of why I started doing all of the public art. It seemed like you could tell stories in a kind of way that you couldn’t tell any other way.

- Watie White definitely wouldn’t be like ‘yeah, this is fun, art, love it.’”

The fifteen-year-old said she’s always enjoyed pushing the boundaries over what she can see as art, and knows she

Part of Watie White’s 100 People Project mural. Each potrait is woodcut, stands eight feet tall and represents activists whom Watie White admires, according to his website, watiewhite.com.

Issue 1

Watie White Studio’s 2009 mural created with Goodwill’s Youthbuild program members. would never be thinking like that if it weren’t for her dad and the way she was raised. Still, she draws the line at a banana duct taped to a wall. She said she just can’t find it in her to see that as art.

“With the publicity that this will bring, I wish that more people will see and appreciate my dad’s work,” Eloise White said.

Watie White created an app for the Hundred People Project that allows art enthusiasts to find one of the Hundred People murals and scan it like a QR code. It will then take you to a YouTube video that features the model speaking out about whatever they want to spread information about.

A scavenger hunt has also been created at https:// treerush.com/venture-out-to-find-friends-watie-whitemurals/, which will take users around Nebraska to the exact locations of each of the 100 people from the project.

Visit watiewhite.com for more information on Watie White and his projects.

story by Zoe Rector, design by Kate Stevens, photos courtesy of watiewhite.com

Sports

18

WESTSIDE’S TRIPLE THREAT IS A BROTHERHOOD

Football’s family of Rezacs has made a huge impact on the 2021 team

B

Dom

rotherhood. According to Google, and go get it and to really love the sport. Both of helped him become the player he is today. it means the relationship between my brothers definitely and my mom have been “Dom has been toughening me up my whole a group of brothers. To three athletes at supporters, but No. 1 is probably my dad.” life, being bigger, so that helped a lot,” Teddy said.

Westside High School, it means something DJ played on the Westside football team as “Going up to the field with Anthony and playing a little different. a linebacker in the late 1980’s, earning all-state catch, running routes also made me a better player.”

The Rezac brothers, sophomore twins honors twice (in 1987 and 1988.) As a result of Since the three brothers have grown-up playing Teddy and Anthony, along with senior Dominic, their on-field successes, DJ and Dominic are the football, life around the Rezac household has been grew up around football. Never did they think, only father and son duo to be recognized on the very hectic during the football season. however, that they would all be playing together Champion’s Plaza at Westside’s Phelps Stadium “Everything just kinda revolves around our ac on the WHS varsity team. for football. games and practices,” said Dominic who will Now that all three are playing on the Westside “Dominic was an all-state player last year, and I continue his football career at the Air Force Academy varsity football team this fall, Dominic said he was an all-state player when I played in the 80’s,” DJ next fall. “Carly (Dominic’s twin sister) and Vinnie (the doesn’t just have three blood brothers on the team. said. “That’s a huge, tremendous source of pride for our youngest of the Rezac brothers) definitely had to bear Instead, he goes onto the field each day and night family, because my dad used to coach [at Westside] in more of a burden during the fall, kinda taking the back competing with 60 other brothers (his teammates.) the 70’s. That kinda lineage is cool for us to continue seat. It’s been better this year, with three of us being on the “I take everyone in and treat everyone like brothers,” and be a part of.” same team, but it’s definitely not calm.”

Dominic said. “It’s really unique for me just because I Additionally, DJ and Dominic are, or were, As the Warriors prepare to defend the Class A state have my actual blood brothers on the team that I get to record holders at WHS. Dominic set the school championship they won in 2020, Anthony said the Rezac play with. But I also have 60 other brothers I get single-game rushing record when he ran for 308 brothers are confident that this year’s team can add more to go play with every Friday night. We talk about Teddy Rezac yards against Papillion-La Vista South on Sept. hardware to the trophy case at Westside High School. brotherhood a lot as a program and it’s definitely 17th, while DJ set the school record for the highest batting “One of my goals is to win multiple state one of the best qualities of the program and it’s awesome average at Westside in 1989. He held that record for 25 championships,” Anthony said. “That should be the goal being a part of it” years (until 2014), when Jake Meyers, a former Husker for everyone on the team. Obviously, another goal is to get The three Rezac brothers have made significant baseball player and current outfielder for the Houston a scholarship to go play football somewhere, but my top contributions to Westside’s on-field success this season. Astros, broke it. priority is to win here at Westside.”

Dominic, a running back, has rushed for a team-leading “When Dom set the record, just to think back about Brotherhood.

It’s something DJ said 1,163 yards and 14 touchdowns, while Teddy, a defensive and how many games have been played and that he had the Warrior football community back, intercepted two passes (returning one for a pick-six) the most rushing yards, the feeling that I can think of is thrives on and takes great pride in. during a 28-3 season-opening win over Creighton Prep, grateful,” DJ said. “Grateful for all the great coaches and “In our football culture, we talk and Anthony, a quarterback, ran for 76 yards and passed teammates he’s had and the fact that he has stayed healthy. about being brothers with everyone for 124 more in the first varsity game he ever played in.

Grateful that he has the God-given ability to go out and that has played here,” DJ said. “I “It felt amazing,” Teddy said of his two-interception compete. Afterwards, as a family, we were all very grateful played here in ‘86 through ‘89, so performance against the Junior Jays. “I didn’t think I’d for the Westside Community.”

I am their (the Rezac brothers) father, have that good of a game. I just kinda went in with the Multiple timec this season, Anthony and Dominic have but I am also their Warrior brother. mindset to do my job and I did a little more than that.” had special moments on the field where Anthony hands-off They are blood brothers, but Throughout their childhood years, the Rezac brothers or passes the ball to his older brother. Anthony said it’s they are also Warrior brothers. have been surrounded by the game of football. From an exhilarating feeling to have that moment with his older Wa t c h i n g Anthony and Te d d y being included and playing the sport in their house, to watching old game-day brother under the lights. with Dom and his videos of their father DJ Rezac, the game of football was “It’s great giving Dom the ball to score and help the accepted makes it really cool. It indoctrinated into each of them. team,” Anthony said. “Whether it’s throwing him the ball, class, like an honor rather “It’s hard to say, but it’s probably my dad [who serves or just handing it to him, it’s exhilarating to be on the field i s than an obligation.” as the Rezac brothers’ inspiration to play football],” with him when it’s happening. It’s just a great feeling.” c Anthony said. “He’s pushed me and Teddy to compete Teddy said that his brothers made him tougher and a z Ant ho

ny R

inic Rez

story by Jordan Nogg and Grace Vandercoy, design by Jasmine Palikhya, photos by Zoe Gillespie

e

The Lance

Sports

T

19

BUILDING A CONTENDER

he beginning of a new school year always brings a lot of changes: new students, new teachers, and new things to learn.

One big change that came to the Westside volleyball program in 2017 was the hiring of Korrine Bowers as the new head coach.

Bowers was previously the head coach at Gross Catholic, where she led the Cougars to three state championships. Her last coaching position was at Skutt Catholic, where the Skyhawks also won a trio of titles.

After dominating the coaches circuit in Class B for 17 years, she took charge of a Class A volleyball program at Westside with no state titles to its name.

“This position gave me the opportunity to build a program,” Bowers said. “If I’m going to be a head coach and build a program, then I’m going to do it at Westside.

Hopefully, when I do decide to walk away, I’ve stamped my name on it. It’s an accomplishment that I’ve always wanted to prove to myself that I’m capable of.”

Bowers’ main goal for the program is to become a state championship-winning team. More than that, however, her goal is to make a real impact in the players’ lives.

“I want to win a state championship,” Bowers said.

“I want to give back to these kids who don’t know what it feels like to win. It’s not about me, it’s about these kids. I want them to know how it feels to hold up a state championship trophy. I want them to know how much hard work it takes day in and day out and how that will pay off for them. I want them to achieve the highest level of volleyball that they can, but I’m also in it to teach them how to be a young woman, how to be mature and stand on your own two feet, and how to accomplish your goals.”

Senior Madilyn Siebler joined the Westside volleyball program at the same time Bowers did. And right away, she knew Bowers would bring a lot of positive changes.

“I was super excited because I knew Westside didn’t have a great volleyball program previously,” Siebler said.

“My mom also played with Korrine at UNO, so I knew that she knew what she was doing. My mom had a lot of good things to say about her so I was excited to know that someone who could accomplish this was coming in. I was excited knowing that we had a coach who wasn’t afraid to give us that kick.”

K r i s t a Filipi, a longtime assistant coach of the team, said that the changes brought by

Coach Korrine Bowers’ journey to redefining the Westside volleyball program

Issue 1

Bowers were different from previous coaches.

“I was surprised that we had hired someone with such an awesome reputation in volleyball,” Filipi said. “It was exciting to see somebody come in that I knew wanted to make changes that were long overdue. She was the first coach that came in that wanted to work year-round. She wanted to work hard in the summer while still respecting the schedules of the girls who played club [volleyball].”

While Bowers has spent the last four years making changes and growing a volleyball program, she’s also put a lot of time into growing herself as a coach. One thing that Bowers said she’s tried to improve on is her connection to the players.

As a coach that doesn’t work at WHS, it can be difficult for players to get in touch with her. In the beginning of Bowers’ career at Westside, the girls would turn to Filipi, who can be found in the social studies IMC as a special education teacher at WHS, instead.

“She didn’t have the ability and the access to the kids that I did,” Filipi said. “We got kind of an understanding that if the girls want to talk, they need to come [to both of us]. If they said they wanted to talk, I would say ‘okay, then you’re going to wait until practice when Korrine and I will [both] be there and then we’ll talk.”

Using that increased level of communication, Bowers was able to reach-out to the team on a more emotional level and really get an understanding of their lives outside of the volleyball court.

“When I walk into practice every day, it’s not about ‘alright, let’s get this drill done,’” Bowers said. “I try to ask questions like ‘How was your day? Did you do anything this weekend? How’s your mom?’ It’s about reaching out to the kids and saying ‘I hope you had a great day’ or sending them something motivational and really maintaining that relationship all year long instead of just during the season.”

Once Bowers began to build that relationship with her team, the program began an uphill climb, gaining momentum towards her goal of being a championship-level team.

“We’re really starting to see some changes with our team,” Bowers said.

“Positive changes that I don’t think would have happened if not for me being vulnerable. It’s paid off for sure.

We’ve really developed our championship behaviors throughout the whole program. We’re establishing who we are as Westside volleyball.”

Growing a program can’t happen in a day, a year, or even four years. Bowers has made many positive changes to Westside volleyball, but she knows there’s still more room for this program to grow.

According to Siebler, the only way for this program to go is up.

“I think Korrine has built such a great foundation for Westside volleyball to keep growing,” Siebler said. “We have the talent now and girls are going to look up to it and they’re going to want to play here. It’s going to be a program that keeps growing and keeps bringing in more talented girls. I think a lot of people are going to want to play for her.”

During the last four years, Bowers has laid a foundation for Westside volleyball to build upon.

There’s no doubt in Bowers’ mind that there will eventually be a state championship to prove the growth of her program and herself as a coach.

“When we win that state championship and we’re holding up that trophy,” Bowers said, “it’s because of what everybody has done [for Westside volleyball].”

SPORTS UPDATES 10/12 Westside varsity golf places sixth at state tournament. Senior Kaitlyn Hanna finishes career as state runner-up.

10/16 Westside varsity Volleyball finishes as runner-up at Warrior Invite.

10/19 Westside varsity volleyball clinches #7 seed in districts and hosts district tournament for the first time since 1994.

10/21 Westside varsity Volleyball places as runner-up at the Metro Conference Tournament for only the second time in school history.

10/22 Westside varsity girls cross country places fifth at state meet.

10/22 Westside varsity football takes down Benson 59-8 ending the regular season undefeated at 9-0.

story by Ben Kaufman and Tallie Pease, design by Jasmine Palikhya, photo by Mary Nilius

ALW AYS ABBA The band that impacted the world plans to come back

A&E

20

W

hen asking someone to describe what they envision at the thought of the Swedish band ABBA, the variety of answers is astounding. Some may see glittery disco balls accompanied by gogo boots and bell bottoms, while others blissfully recounting the comforting musical they listened to growing up in the early 2000s.

No matter how someone remembers this band, it has left many major footprints over the past decades. The beauty of ABBA is the way their music molds itself to be uniquely remembered years after they stopped making music.

Although their music career was short-lived due to the end of the disco era and creative differences in the early 80s, ABBA stays alive through current media and a devoted fan base. With fans anticipating its upcoming new music and tours, they are kept wondering what this means for their future career.

The strangest thing about ABBA is its origin. In June of 1966, the two men in the band, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, met in Sweden and began a musical alliance.

Flash forward to 1969, these two men met Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Not only did they wed these women, but they formed one of the most famous bands in history, naming themselves ABBA (from their first initials).

After years of entertaining Swedes, ABBA finally reached the U.S. with their fan-favorite Waterloo winning a Eurovision competition that launched a new found love of disco into the U.S. The year was 1974, beginning ABBAs short lived phenomenon in the U.S. With people disposing disco in the 80s, it seemed as if they were only relevant for a short five years or so. The group completely retired their music it seemed in the early 90s. At least their short music life was a good run, but it was far from over.

Fast forward to the late 90s, Judy Craymer, a musical producer, saw interesting elements in ABBAs song The Winner Takes It All. Hearing the song gave her a theatrical feeling. With the constant changing dynamics and intense chord combonation, it felt like it belonged on-stage. Then, analyzing the rest of their discography, Craymer was certain of her assumptions.

After meeting with both ABBA and Catherine Johnson, the scriptwriter for Mamma Mia, they decided to combine forces to create a musical for the new ages.

With jukebox musicals usually being looked down upon, hopes were not high for this project. To everyone’s surprise, in 1999 Mamma Mia premiered at the West End Prince Edward Theatre on London’s West End in 1999 before expanding to Broadway. The musical, an instant hit, would eventually be adapted into a movie followed by a sequel starring celebrities such as Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, and Colin Firth. The musical was even more of a success with teenagers as they discovered the music of their parents generation. It created a wonderfully unique

overlap between age groups. ABBA was finally relevant and popular again amongst all ages.

It truly was an unsuspecting turn of events when looking at other bands from that time period. Having ABBA’s revival occur from them not even making new music is incredibly astounding. Whether it was through disco clubs or Meryl Streep’s voice, their music brought over two generations into a common love: love for ABBA. ABBA had continued to be featured in T.V. and movies and was celebrated by various artists, especially after their release of ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits in 1992. In the 2010s, yet another revival of ABBA emerged.

In 2010, the show Community featured an ABBA

soundtrack in the fan-favorite episode Epidemiology. In the themed episode, the students, trying to escape a zombie attack caused by food poisoning, have an ABBA-themed adventure. The episode features the songs Dancing Queen, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight), Mamma Mia, and more.

The show brilliantly utilizes all of these songs. In themed episodes of Community, such as the zombie episode, the music often makes the episode. The ABBA soundtrack perfectly matches this one’s theme by creating the ideal musical score for the dramatic, action-packed moments throughout.

Another recent example of ABBA’s influence in media is a popular edit of Luca, the 2021 movie. The fan edit of the two main characters, Alberto and Luca, has recently become widespread and very well known. It features the song Chiquitita, which came out in 1979. This song that peaked at number 15 in 1980 has once again gained popularity over 40 years later because of ABBA’s continuous impact on media throughout multiple generations.

ABBA’s influence throughout generations has steadily maintained their popularity for decades, with more years of

ABBA to come.

After all of the lucky success that recent pop culture has granted ABBA, they actually decided to start making new music. With n e w s o n g s c o m e m a n y questions.

With all of the recent art that has b e e n influenced b y ABBA, many younger generations who never got the chance to experience the phenomenon live are wanting to see them on tour.

Sadly, with the old age of the band members, and the current uncertainty of traveling throughout the pandemic, no tour is taking place for their band. However, that still doesn’t mean you can’t see them perform. Taking place in London, an AI concert experience is being developed. This specially made stadium uses laser and holograms to make the audience feel as if they are seeing the band members in person.

At this concert, all of the vocals were recorded live in a studio with the band members, plus, their holograms are incredibly realistic.

Not only do they resemble the band members, but they present them from the 70s. This unique detail is the cherry on top of making this experience the most engaging AI ever.

The show will stay in the same stadium and be available to everyone visiting London for at least a few years. This makes seeing them in concert more a possibility.

Although some fans are disappointed in the lack of a live tour, it is the most fitting way to end their career.

Through decades of being comforted by their upbeat music, most see them as something personal in our lives.

No matter how one discovered their sound, ABBA’S music means something different to everyone. With this stadium being a permanent piece in London, it gives the next generation an excuse to discover the joy that is ABBA. Building this arena is meaningful because its permanent location shows consistency and reliability that really capture the group as a whole. Their inescapable lyrics and feel can be just the thing to cheer up a rainy day. It’s so wonderful to have this stadium to share with all who need it. ABBA will forever be the beautiful gift that keeps on giving. Thank You for the Music.

story by Emma Tyler and Jadyn Anderson, design and graphics by Emma Tyler

The Lance