WG ECHO February 2015 by wgecho

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February 2015 Volume 100 Issue 6 Photo by Bret Waelterman

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Opinion

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Editorial

Artistic importance again questioned Students might notice a glaring absence this year among the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day activities. The annual MLK Assembly has been replaced by a day of Black History Month presentations. The administration made the switch because it felt the assembly was straying too far away from its original purpose: to educate the students about the lives and legacies of significant African Americans in history. “We are trying to diversify the strategies we use to celebrate Black History Month,” assistant principal Dr. Shiree Yeggins said. It feels as though, due to their artistic nature, the administration is classifying past performances as merely “talent shows.” The ECHO staff and drama teacher

2014-15 ECHO STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aerin Johnson JUNIOR EDITOR: Jack Killeen BUSINESS/ADS MANAGER: Alex Ring OPINION EDITOR: Andy Kimball NEWS EDITOR: Bennett Durando FEATURE EDITOR: Willie Zempel SPORTS EDITOR: Cal Lanouette ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: Irene Ryan GRAPHICS/VIDEO EDITOR: Bret Waelterman WEB EDITOR: Phoebe Mussman PUBLIC RELATIONS: Brittany Patton CIRCULATION EDITOR: Andre Scott ADVISOR: Donald Johnson SOME MATERIAL COURTESY OF AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEWSPAPER EDITORS/MCT CAMPUS HIGH SCHOOL NEWSPAPER SERVICE The ECHO is a monthly publication of the newspaper staff of Webster Groves High School, 100 Selma Avenue, Webster Groves, MO. To contact staff members, call 314-9636400 ex. 11157 or write wgecho@wgmail.org. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of a majority of staff members; signed articles are the opinion of the writer. Letters to the editor of 300 words or less are welcome; submit letters by the 10th of the month to wgecho@wgmail.org, or room 155. All letters must be signed, although the name may be withheld from publication if requested. The ECHO has the right to edit letters for publication as long as intent remains unchanged. The ECHO is a member of SSP, Quill and Scroll, MJEA, JEA, MIPA and CSPA.

February 2015

Photo by Willie Zempel

Senior Nia-Michelle Walker performs at last year’s Martin Luther King assembly, which was presented to the entire student body. Todd Schaefer do not feel this is the case. “This comes down to a debate between artistic expression versus educational value and expression. Art is not always put on that same scale,” Schaefer said. To say the MLK assembly is a talent show is to dilute the messages of the students in the assembly to simple entertainment. Yes, they were relaying these messages through talent, be it a poem or a dance, but that should not diminish the fact that Schaefer got 47 African American students to get up on stage and express frustrations and issues that they rarely get the opportunity to express. “The assembly and everything are similar to a parent/child relationship, like seeing them take their first steps. We [as

teachers] have very few moments when that light bulb goes off or we see a student glow,” Schaefer said. Students should also consider what this replacement means. Instead of a group, a majority of whom weren’t white, writing all its own material and performing it, the history club and sponsor Julie Burchett, a majority of whom are white, are researching facts about civil rights events and creating speeches in which the students presenting them will have no say. There will still be a performance; however, it will not be available during school hours for all students. The cast had two daytime shows on Tuesday, Feb. 24, during second and third hours and will have one on Friday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m.

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School should lift weight off students’ shoulders

Andy Kimball Opinion Columnist With all of the extracurricular activities and classes, students can sometimes feel like they have a lot to carry around. However, thinking and actually having a physical load to carry are two different things. Webster students have to carry textbooks, notebooks and other materials that can add up to over 15 percent of their body weight, according to a story in the Huffington Post. Lockers are a good solution to this prob-

lem, but some students have to go from one side of the building to the other for classes and simply don’t have the time to go to their lockers to exchange materials. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, at least 14,000 children are treated for backpack-related injuries every year. Backpack-related injuries also send an estimated 5,000 children a year to emergency rooms. Athletic Trainer and Health Teacher Sean Wright said heavy backpacks are a issue for students today and symptoms that can be caused are lower back pain and trigger points or sore back muscles. This is a problem that can be easily solved, however, because some classrooms have a class set of textbooks, but not all. It should be a priority to get a class set of text books for every class that uses them so that students don’t have to carry textbooks from home and around school. Other possible solutions are to have

digital textbooks or to add two or three extra minutes to passing periods to give students more time to go to their locker, to drop off their books. Wright thinks textbook material should be digital saying, “All students should have iPads.” Wright also talked about the possibility or roller backpacks to reduce back stress but said, “they (the school) probably won’t get those (roller backpacks) for students.” Digital textbooks could be put online and be accessible to students on their phones and computers at home. There are already digital textbooks in place for the geometry textbooks, but a password needs to be provided to access it. Also, students at Hixson each receive Chromebook laptops to bring home and bring to school each day. Students could receive laptops and receive material digitally instead of textbook form. This will reduce costs for new textbooks and help reduce the load that students have to carry around daily.

Willie’s Comic XIV

February 2015

Opinion

Kimball Konception

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Statesmen coffee shop energizes school work environment which is much different from the school environment; I love working there. Not everybody knows about the shop, so I think everybody should come,” During early classes in the day, Peccola said. students sometimes have troubles Latin teacher Jeff Smith, a regular at the waking up and being ready to learn; shop, said he sees Peccola working there the Special School District (SSD) all the time. has a way to combat this with a new “He’s so nice that I tip him extra. The coffee shop. shop is real fun place to go to, and all the The shop is open from 7:30 a.m. customer service is awesome. It’s conveto 10 a.m. in the SSD Center, which nient and for an amazing cause, so it’s a Photo by Willie Zempel is on the first floor between the liwin-win,” Smith said. brary and the weight room, near the Senior Anthony Washington buys a cup of For students or teachers who don’t have junior entrance. The menu consists hot chocolate before school from senior Anmoney in their pocket every day, there is of regular coffee, hot chocolate, thony Peccola at the Statesmen Coffee Shop. also a system of punch cards. A punch card Keurig Coffee, water and cookies. has a $10 credit and can be used to buy “We are trying to raise money for anything at the shop. functional and vocational skills classes, so the kids can easily Once the punch card is filled with purchases and the customer get around on the buses. Working at the stand gives a positive pays, he/she can receive a free cup of coffee. impact for their (the students) vocational skills, and the students McEntire said, “The shop also has to make the students think love working here,” SSD teacher Emily McEntire said. of and use marketing skills.” With the use of marketing skills, The employees at the shop are students from the Special students learn about customer service and sales. School District. Their shifts are each 30-minutes. Currently, the shop makes around $50 a day after opening near Senior Anthony Peccola said he’d work there all day if he the end of January, according to McEntire. Coffee, hot chocolate could. and cookies cost $1, Keurig Coffee costs $1.50 and water costs “It’s just a different experience. We have to deal with the 50 cents.

Willie Zempel Feature Editor

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Bond Issue to be decided April 9 Cal Lanouette Sports Editor

“Major is redoing the concrete; you’re redoing the track.” Webster Groves “We would School District have to relocate plans to spend locker rooms as $28 million on well because we renovating its take the space schools to relieve we use at Hixson overcrowding and currently for the bring the schools locker rooms, and into compliance we would build with the Amerinew space to the cans with Disabilsixth grade over ities Act (ADA), there,” said Riss. according to Web“We’d have ster-Kirkwood new locker Times. rooms, new food “Right now we stands and bathhave six elementarooms at Moss ry classrooms that Field, which are located outwould be great,” side the walls of said Riss. the school, so they “The expanare trailers,” said Photo by Cal Lanouette sion that is going superintendent Dr. The expansion of the sixth grade from Steger to Hixson Middle School will cost to happen at HixSarah Riss. about $18 million and the major renovations to Moss Field will cost roughly around son is prompt“If you go to $6 million. This will create an eight-lane track, address the safety issues and add new ing some of the Avery, you will bathrooms and concession stands. changes at Moss,” see the halls lined Vespereny said. with tables and Benefits would chairs with people be one fewer transition for students, ADA compliance at four eldoing work because there’s just not room in the classroom,” said ementary schools, enhanced safety at Moss Field, and additional chief communications officer Cathy Vespereny. “We started seeing growth probably the first year I was super- space for elementary students. Webster Groves has one of the highest tax rights according to intendent, so that was seven years ago,” said Riss. “Most of the Riss. growth has been at elementary, which is probably pretty typical.” “We don’t have a lot of commercial property,” said Riss. “We’re up about 300 students during that period of time,” said “We’re predominantly a residential district, and so that makes Vespereny. our property taxes higher.” Some of the plans the district has are converting Hixson MidThe benefit of additional space is key as “the elementary dle School into sixth through eighth grade, creating a circular schools are over capacity by 180 students, or the equivalent of drive around Hixson (west of Moss Field), converting Steger into 12 classrooms,” according to Webster-Kirkwood Times. an elementary school (which would include Computer School “Committee members recommended that the board consider students) and also address ADA issues at Clark, Edgar, Hudson putting the $28 million bond issue on the ballot in April. If apand Steger. proved, homeowners with a $200,000 house would pay an addi“[Moss Field] was built in 1948, and there really haven’t been tional $106.40 in annual property taxes,” according to Websterwhat we call major renovations done to that field,” said Riss. Kirkwood Times. “I believe the Webster Groves School District community, whether they have children in the school district or they’re going to have children in the school district, strongly know that education is the top priority,” said Riss. “Our kids and our staff memfacebook.com/WebsterKirkwoodTimes bers deserve great places to go to school each and every day.”

Your Times. twitter.com/WKTimes websterkirkwoodtimes.com

February 2015

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Fitzpatrick brings fresh humor, knowledge to classroom Alex Ring Business Manager Not all heroes wear capes. Of the 100 Fitzpatricks who live in St. Louis there is only one that WGHS students hope for as a sub: Mr. Tony Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick’s teaching skills took shape right out of college. In fact, the first dollar he earned after graduation was by substitute teaching in the Urbana IL School District. Since 1972 Fitzpatrick has been certified in Illinois to teach English for grades seven-12, and although he spent most of the 70s teaching, he later started to Photo provided by stray from the classroom for about Tony Fitzpatrick 31 years. Tony Fitzpatrick coaches In this time, Fitzpatrick began baseball in Genoa, IL. his career as a senior science editor at Washington University in 1987. He still freelances for Wash. U. and continues to write in his downtime. His writing focuses mostly on science for Wash. U. and the U.S. Department of Energy. In 1993, Walker and Co. of New York published Signals from the Heartland Fitzpatrick’s own book about ecologists, ecology and natural renovation of Illinois and Missouri. Fitzpatrick was motivated and inspired to begin writing by “some of the most outstanding” high school and college teachers and writers. The passion that was sparked in Fitzpatrick is the same motivation he

promotes while teaching. “Getting a book published was the attainment of my dream that began in high school. I have often told students to hold onto their dreams; it’s worthwhile!” In the classroom Fitzpatrick has succeeded, graduating from University of Illinois with a English Education degree and teaching for 12 years, but there is an unknown athletic side to him. Through high school his athletic ability allowed for the 5’ 11” Fitzpatrick to play three sports and to play them well enough to get offers for football, and to end up playing his favorite sport, baseball, at University of Illinois. Fitzpatrick had trouble staying ahead at such a difficult school, so he stopped playing after his first year, but after college he went into coaching. Fitzpatrick’s first real job was in Genoa, IL, 15 miles north of DeKalb (Northern Illinois U., where Jason Meehan has played D-I football the past four years). He coached football, basketball and baseball at Genoa for two years. Fitzpatrick led his varsity baseball team to a district championship in 1974. The team was gathered from an enrollment of about 420 students, and it beat a team from Rockford who had four times the number of students. This is something Fitzpatrick is still very proud of. Fitzpatrick is known best in classrooms joking with students and helping their English skills. “I find subbing fun and engaging. I see the warmest, truest, most genuine smiles at all the schools, but especially the high school” said Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick’s style of starting the class with jokes acts as a way to gain the classes focus at the start of the class. “As a sub, you about five minutes of information you need to share and with jokes you can focus people right away,” said Fitzpatrick. About having Fitzpatrick as a sub, senior Jordan Shumate said, “I feel like a kid getting taken out for ice cream. Fitzpatrick is always very personable and gets to know us as people.”

Substitute teacher Tony Fitzpatrick takes attendance while subbing for Melissa Rainey’s English class.

February 2015

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Lewis and Helen Wall speak to sophomore English classes about their medical work in Africa.

photo by Bennett Durando

Wall speaks about work in Africa Bennett Durando News Editor Washington University obstetrics professor Lewis Wall has traveled to Africa multiple times, helped set up hospitals and medical universities there, fixed the lives of countless women with childbirth injuries and taken his fistula repair foundation worldwide. Then on Friday, Jan. 30, Wall and his wife Helen sat down by the fireplace in the library to discuss their adventures with Deborah Bohlmann’s sophomore Honors World Lit classes. The Walls are founders of the Worldwide Fistula Fund, an organization working to prevent the fistula childbirth injuries that occur most commonly in poor African nations incapable of providing suitable care for pregnant young women. Bohlmann and her classes originally learned of the Walls and their work when reading a chapter in Nicolas Kristoff’s “Half the Sky.” Bohlmann then contacted Wall and arranged for him to speak to her classes. “The research project we are immersed in right now is focused on examining exactly what Dr. and Mrs. Wall have accomplished in their lives,” Bohlmann said. “These are two people whose lives exemplify the themes of empathy and connection of crosscultures that we’ve studying in our class.” Bohlmann’s first and fifth hour students asked the Walls questions about their experiences in Niger, Ethiopia, and other African poor nations that have benefited from the Worldwide Fistula Fund. “That experience was eye-opening, a real humbling experi-

ence,” Lewis said of their latest trip to Ethiopia, spent supporting the training of obstetricians. “The most important thing to take away from this is the constant humanity that binds us all together.” “We don’t realize how fortunate we are in our everyday life,” Helen said, stressing the importance of not taking life in the United States for granted. “The power went on and off all the time in Ethiopia; we couldn’t drink water from the tap…then just walking into a Dierbergs for the first time when we got home was incredible.” “That was an accident of chance for you to be born into a culture like this,” Lewis said. Still, the Walls have worked in some of the poorest nations in Africa, including Niger, where the Walls opened the Danja Fistula Center in February 2012. It has restored countless women with fistulas to health over the last three years. Fistulas in women develop from obstructed, usually uncared for labor and can cause urine and feces to constantly poor out. Women with fistulas become socially deficient as well. Most women in these cases are outcast to live on their own at the edge of their village, and slowly deteriorate physically and emotionally over time. “This is a problem that happens to women through no fault of their own,” Lewis said. “They are urinating 24 hours a day with a constant flow…. A lot of people with fistulas have been secluded from their families as well, they’ve been lying in bed for months in some cases.” “It’s hard to turn your back on that and live with yourself,” Lewis said.

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Students celebrate black histo Aerin Johnson Editor-In-Chief

tory month showcase celebration which is going to be included in writer’s week. We’re going to be doing monologues, scenes from three August Wilson plays, from ‘Of Mice and Men’; we’re While in past years the Martin Luther King Assembly has been doing a non-traditional cast of ‘Mice and Men,’ and we’re doa single assembly performed twice in ing a scene from ‘Driving Miss Daisy,’” one day for all the classes, this year preSchaefer said. sentations will be made all day to social Sophomore Che Askew performed slam studies students. poetry in last year’s assembly as well as in Todd Schaefer, drama department this year’s showcase during the All Write teacher, said, “They shifted it into a speFestival. cial seven-hour day on the last Friday of “It’s more than about, really, just racial February, and in those hours, we’re puttensions. It’s more like about actual peoting together 20 kids. There are going ple, in like ‘yo, we’re free in any type of to be five teams of four, and we’re goway.’ Like, we should have our own way ing to try to have diversity in the groups of thinking and expressing ourselves and and the history club is pulling all the that does not involve race, gender, sexual research.” orientation. We should just be free in genStudents will perform monologues eral,” said Askew. and music as well as talking about black “The MLK assembly this year is transihistory that a student might not find a tioning into something the administration text book. considers a little more educational,” said “The hurdle has been the children Schaefer about the assembly. who were involved in presentations we “The ultimate goal is to pretty much were doing in the past nine years are teach. Let people know what’s that point feeling a bit slighted at not getting an of all this. The whole point of this, is to opportunity to write original poetry and give you guys knowledge that you can use do that sort of presentation on a grand upon yourself and show us that creative scale because I think they enjoyed it. It ways that we can express our own feelwas a neat opportunity for them,” said ings about how things have been going Schaefer. on because everyone’s kind of mad about Photo by Bret Waelterman Aaron Gardner, Mike Brown and TrayThe same week on Feb. 24 and 27, students will also perform in a Black Dorian Palmer, junior, performs a spoken von Martin, but it’s not just about them. word poem during the Black History History Month Showcase. It’s about we need to change in ourselves “I have taken the drama department, Month Showcase in the All Write Festival before we can see changes in society as a and we are putting together a black his- in the Little Theater on Feb. 24. whole,”Askew said.

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(Top) A Oliver, Showca showca the libr

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ory month’s 100th anniversary

De’Andre Scott Circulation Manager

Photos by Bret Waelterman

Alumnus Chandler Turner, junior Essence Tyler, senior Imani , and junior Allyssa Lang-Taylor perform during the Black History ase in the Little Theater as part of writer’s week. (Bottom) After the ase was over, the performers came on stage and met with students in rary for dialogue about their performances.

Black History Month began in 1915, 50 years after the abolishment of slavery. It started out as Negro History week in 1926, which eventually became Black History Month. The month focuses on remembering the achievements of African Americans and looking at the future of African-American culture. It has been 100 years since the process that became Black History month started. “In a 100 years, we have progressed a lot. That we’re more conscious. We work for what we want,” senior Marquis Houston said. “(It’s) good that we have it,” senior Wes Ragland said. During February, some look at black history and discuss the accomplishments of African-Americans. “I don’t think things that are discussed during this month should be thrown out,”said Ragland. Sometimes people express themselves through music, poetry and other means. “Jazz, hymns, hip-hop, poetry and soul,” sophomore Hamise Askew said to describe just some of the music that should be incorporated into this month. “Things that are created by the African-American people,” Askew added. The history club is incorporating a new type of assembly this year by visiting some history classrooms and doing a powerpoint. Four students per group will work with the history club along with four SAA students. The students were taught about subjects such as Brown verses Board of Education and The Little Rock Nine Students.

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Photo by Diana Linsley

English teacher Deborah Bohlmann is one of seven teachers who shadowed students. Bohlmann shadowed senior Stephen Harris.

Teachers shadow students to gain perspective Phoebe Mussman Web Editor By stepping into the shoes of those they teach, faculty members took a day last fall to experience high school from a student’s perspective through shadowing. Principal Jon Clark sent an email to his staff and asked those who were interested in the experience on Nov. 3, to talk to him. English teachers Deborah Bohlmann, Anne Marie Brewster and Mike Schawacker, science teachers Chris Allen and Cici Faucher, and social studies teachers Nicholas Kirschman and Jason VanBlarcum took Dr. Clark up on his request. “As underclassmen, kids sit a lot, and they have such little interaction with each other. I think for juniors and seniors, there are more fun electives to take and maybe even more lively teachers. [The upperclassmen] work in different group sizes, have big discussions and interact more. I want to tell the freshmen, it gets better,” Faucher said. She shadowed her niece, freshman Maggie O’Brien. Student-teacher shadowing is a technique used by schools to give staff new insight into their teaching strategies and how they can be most effective in helping students learn, considering factors outside the teacher’s classroom. Shadowing was especially popularized when one blog post from high school learning coach Alexis Wiggins went viral on the Washington Post: “It was so eye-opening that I wish I could go back to every class of students I ever had right now and change a minimum of 10 things…” she said. Wiggins stressed how tiring the sitting was, as well as how much students were talked to and patronized by their teachers. Bohlmann had a positive experience with the shadowing: “I found out that this is a really friendly community. The teachers didn’t pay a lot of attention to me, but the students were always helping me along. I was very touched by that.”

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VanBlarcum sought to follow a student with a tough schedule; that person was junior Maddie Gegg. “I thought it was great. Maddie showed me her flight plan for her schedule for the quickest ways to get to each class; we didn’t have any issues with being late,” VanBlarcum said. “There was a sort of camaraderie between the students in difficult classes, but I did notice often there’d be a group of people who engaged in class and a group that didn’t engage at all. There was no inbetween.” “My new insight basically was that I and the students aren’t that different…just like them, I felt nervous sometimes, didn’t want bad grades, didn’t want anyone to laugh at me…all the same feelings,” Bohlmann said. “All the teachers were amazing. In each class, there was a new, different opportunity to learn and it was all very interactive.” Volunteering teachers participated and did the same classwork as the student but not the homework. “Homework is basically the hardest part. Because the teachers didn’t have to do the homework that students are expected to do, I don’t think they fully experienced what we do every day,” junior Hannah Biggs said. Faucher explained because of the shadowing, she is going to engage her students in activities involving them talking to each other and hearing the people around them. Faucher also wants to “give them a chance to transition and process through their day.” “It’s a long day,” Faucher said. “Teachers go home after school, but students have sports, homework, maybe even a job. We need to keep all that in mind; there’s other stuff outside of school that kids have to deal with. They have seven classes- I can’t give them three hours of homework.” VanBlarcum expressed similar thoughts: “We have to take into account everything else kids do, and what we experienced was only one day. I highly suggest any teacher to shadow.”

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Jack Killeen Feature Editor

After walking off the Moss field stage with diploma in-hand, senior Rachel Sondag will not only be heading towards Washington University, but she will also carry the title of 1,000 career points in women’s basketball. Sondag became the 10th Webster student to score 1,000 points on Jan. 6, against Mehlville. Going into the game, she needed four points to reach 1,000. Her first two points were from a jumper on the baseline and she sealed her place in Webster’s history with a left-handed layup. Following the basket, Sondag smiled in celebration. Her friends, past coaches and family came to show their support for her at the game. Photo by Bret Waelterman Sondag has had her eyes set on 1,000 Senior Rachel Sondag looks to the points since freshman yea. Sondag said hoop during a free throw while junior she was able to reach her goal through the Erica Waelterman and senior Cami help of her team and hard work. Unger wait for her to shoot at the “It’s pretty cool to be a part of that hisgame against Ft. Zumwalt West. tory. I’ve seen a lot of people hit 1,000,

and have always wanted to be like them,” Sondag said. Sondag has been a varsity player since freshman year. Head coach Patti Perkins said, “She’s really developed her game junior and senior year. [Sondag] started as an outside shooter, but has upped her game in going to the basket.” This fall at Wash. U Sondag will be majoring in Bio medical engineering and playing Division III basketball. She will be more focused on the academics side of school. During her search for a college, Sondag said she “wanted to play basketball and wanted good academics.” Sondag chose Bio medical engineering as her major because it applies math and anatomy, both subjects she enjoys. “Anatomy is really practical. Everything applies to yourself,” Sondag said. Perkins said, “It’s going to be tough to be a student athlete at Wash. U, but I think she can do it. She’s a hard worker.” Academically, Sondag has a 4.2 weighted GPA and is in National Honor Society.

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February 2015

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Sondag breaks record, heads to Wash. U.

12 ECHO Wrestling team places 13th at State

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Bret Waelterman Video/Graphics Editor

Varsity wrestling is back from its State meet in Columbia, where it placed th overall. Four senior and one sophomore qualified for State: seniors Patrick Megown, Tyler Lawson, Lamont Wilson and Jalen Miles, and sophomore Noah Perkins. Individually, senior Tyler Lawson placed third place in his weight class of 126 lbs, and senior Lamont Wilson placed second in his weight class of 113 lbs. Wilson has wrestled for four years, and he has qualified for state three times during his high school career, he said. Wilson joined wrestling because his parents told him he needed to get active his freshman year. He decided to do wrestling because it is a sport where he could win knowing that is was strictly him who won that match; however he can also be a part of a team and support his teammates when needed. “I tried it out, but I didn’t really have a choice. My parents made me do wrestling. They didn’t want me to gain weight doing nothing at home, so that’s how I got into wrestling,” Wilson said. “I am glad that I did get decide to do wrestling.” The team brought five athletes to State. Districts were Feb. 14, in Farmington, and the Statesmen took six place as a team. Senior SeVana Bierman, senior, has been with the wrestling team for three years. She wrestled her freshman and sophomore year and currently is currently

Photo by Bret Waelterman

Sophomore Taran Barber takes an opponent off his feet at the Jan. 28, meet at Roberts Gym . a manager with junior Mia Berg, senior Tiffany Nguyen, senior Abby Hoffman and senior Sara Thomas. “My sophomore year I messed up my knee at a tournament in Oakville, and I decided that even though I couldn’t wrestle, I still wanted to stay with the team because they are family to me, but I didn’t want to get hurt again,” said Bierman. “I think the team did overall very well at Districts. We came in there, and we had our head on our shoulders. We were focused and went in there and did what we

needed to do, so overall I think we did a great job bringing five athletes to State,” said Bierman. “We haven’t had a state champion since 1993, but I am very proud on how they did this year,” said head wrestling coach, James LeMay. “Everyone worked hard. We didn’t had a single wrestler that didn’t win a match, so I am very proud of the team overall.” Lawson lost in the semi-finals to Matt Schmitt from Platte County, and Wilson lost to Dakota Brunson from Neosho.

Scorebox: • Junior Mikayla Kempf finished fourth in the 100-yard freestyle event and 11th in the 100-yard Backstroke event. • The women’s swim tean finished 25th in the state on Feb.21, at Saint Peter’s Rec. Plex.

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Andy Kimball Opinion Columnist

Varsity basketball coach Jay Blossom remembers his first win as a head coach, as the coach of Northwest Hughesville in an overtime victory over Chilhowee High School in 1988. After 26 seasons and 402 wins, Blossom has broken former coach Tyke Yates record of 342 career wins at Webster. Blossom tied the record on Feb. 3, in a 46-30 win over Parkway West and broke the record with a 61-34 win at Roberts Gym over Eureka on Feb. 5. Blossom’s record at Webster is 345103, and Blossom has 401 wins total. Blossom grew up in Columbia, and attended Hickman high school. Blossom admitted he wasn’t a good basketball player, but he ran cross country and track in high school. He said he had always wanted to be a coach, and “I wasn’t the greatest player, which made me a better coach... I had good mentors in college.” One of those mentors was the former University of Central Missouri coach Jim Woolrich, for whom Blossom was a team manager when he attended college at UCM. Blossom, said Woolrich was “a great mentor who helped me get my first coaching job.” Blossoms other mentors were Jim Fox, who was a coach at Jefferson City High School, the former principal of Northwest Hughesville, Woran Rileys. After college Blossom was an assistant at Waterloo and then Lindbergh High School before becoming the head coach at Northwest. Blossom’s first team was 4-21. He said, “That was the best thing that happened to me...I was young and cocky and thought I had an answer for everything.” The next two years his teams at improved, and they lost in the district championship in his third and final year at Northwest. After coaching at Northwest, Blossom took his talents to Waterloo High School in Illinois. Waterloo had just moved up to Division II, the highest division in Illinois high school basketball. Blossom led the Bulldogs to a 14-16 record in his first season and a second place

Photo by Bret Waelterman

Blossom celebrates with Junior Chris Gordon after Blossom set the all-time wins record against Eureka on Feb. 5. conference finish the following year. Blossom said he planned to stay and coach at Waterloo for the rest of his career before the Webster job opened up. Blossom said he came to Webster because “Webster is a special place. Its history of school and basketball is one of the richest, if not the richest in the state of Missouri. Webster reminds me of a college-type atmosphere...I’ve fallen in love with the place. The last game I coach will be at Webster I guess.” After two years at Waterloo, Blossom was hired at Webster in 1999 and went 1413 in his first year and 5-19 in his second year as Statesman head coach. Since the start of Blossom’s third season Webster has won 94 of its 95 conference games. Its last loss was in 2013 to Parkway Central and it snapped a 83game conference winning streak, a MSHSAA state record. About why his teams at Webster are so successful, Blossom said, “I’ve got good players. I know it ain’t me. If I have good administrators and players then I will have success. (Webster teams) will fight every night, we are tough. Our motto is TTW (toughest team wins), and our kids have done that.” Blossom has had four Division 1 college basketball players at Webster, Rayshawn Simmons is a junior at Central Michigan University, Kendall Shell was a

walk on at the University of Minnesota, Cortez Conners is a junior at CSU Bakersfield, and Drew Hanlen played at the University of Belmont to go along with players who went on to play at Division 2 and 3 universities. Current Statesmen, seniors Stephen Harris and Alex Floresca have signed national letters of intent to attend Austin Peay and the University of San Diego. Blossom said his favorite wins were The State Championship in 2008, the win over Gateway Tech to get to the Final Four in 2008, and the first time winning the first of three Meramec tournament championships. The Meramec tournament is currently named the Coaches vs. Cancer Holiday tournament. However, Blossom was quick to add “I know that when you get older in coaching the losses tend to stick more than the wins.” Blossom credited his players with the record, he said, “I never said anything to my players (about the record). We don’t post stats or talk about awards. It’s not me; it’s my players. I wouldn’t have the record without them. I don’t see me breaking anything its more about them.” Blossom will look to add to his record on Feb. 27 against Parkway Central, and the Statesman will try to defend their district title at the MSHSAA district tournament on March 3 at Roberts Gym

February 2015

Sports

Blossom breaks school’s all-time mark

14 ECHO Sports

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Bennett from the Bleachers

Basketball teams aim for trips to State

Bennett Durando Sports Columnist The playoff trail for men’s and women’s basketball tips off early March, with both teams looking to win their Districts and advance to the sectional rounds. Both teams have shown they have the capability to win their district and be State contenders, but each has tough competition standing in their way early in the playoffs. The men’s team is 21-5 entering its final regular season game, Senior Night, this evening at 7 p.m. in Robert’s Gym. The only bumps in the road for the team have been against Missouri’s top-ranked school Blue Springs South, two nationally ranked California opponents, and a pair of underdogs in McCluer North and SLUH. Webster, with a first round bye into the District semifinals, takes on Oakville on March 3, with the potential of setting up a rematch with the Junior Billikens, who inflicted upon the Statesmen their first loss of the year to a Missouri opponent. Having won their district a year ago at

Kirkwood, Webster is the host of District 3 this year, so a championship game with SLUH (who defeated Webster on the Junior Bills’ home court) would be held in Robert’s Gym this time. SLUH takes on the winner of Mehlville (who Webster beat by 61) and Lindbergh in the other semifinal. The home court advantage could be key for a Statesmen team that’s 8-1 in Robert’s, and only lost its first home game of the year last week against McCluer North on a free throw with one second left. Webster would love to get back into the sectional round of the playoffs, where they lost to CBC last year. A senior team that’s had success playing perhaps the toughest schedule in the state, these Statesmen definitely have the capability to make a run deep into the playoffs and have a shot at a State title. Meanwhile, the women’s team has been battle tested, playing in many tight games this year, and coming out of most victorious. The team is 16-9 entering tonight’s Senior Night game against Parkway Central, at 6 p.m. in Robert’s. Webster’s latest battle came on Tuesday, when they rallied from down five at Marquette in the final minutes to send the game to overtime, where they eventually pulled

away to win 60-52. Webster will play host to the Class 5 District 3 women’s tournament as well. The Statesmen take on Mehlville in the district semifinal on March 2, a rematch of Webster’s 52-48 win at the Panthers in January. With a win, it’s likely the Statesmen would face off with Cor Jesu, a 15-9 team very evenly matched with the women’s team, for a district championship. Cor Jesu takes on the winner of Lindbergh and Oakville, both struggling this year, in the other semifinal. The Statesmen are looking for redemption after falling short of their potential in the district playoffs at Kirkwood High School. This year, though, Webster gets a District tournament home court advantage for both men’s and women’s basketball, and in one week the Statesmen hope to celebrate two District titles in Robert’s Gym. Both teams show potential to make an excellent playoff run.

OPEN HOUSE | MARCH 5TH | 4:30p to 7:30p

Upcoming Events Men’s Basketball Feb. 27 vs. Parkway Central 8 p.m. (Senior Night) March 3 vs. Oakville: Semifinal of Class 5 District 3 Tournament @ Roberts Gym. Women’s Basketball Feb. 27 vs. Parkway Central 6 p.m. (Senior Night) March 3 vs. Mehlville: Semifinal of Class 5 District 3 Tournament @ Roberts Gym.

February 2015

SEEING IS BELIEVING.

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the

ECHO

Movie talks about insecurities, bullies Aerin Johnson Editor-In-Chief

As a high school student watching movies about high school life, I often feel that these movies don’t fully represent the truth behind the real high school experience- the one with drama, the one with bullies, the one with technology and the one that shows how crazy life gets. Then there are those movies that do come along and are the true treasures. “The DUFF” does this perfectly. Produced by CBS Films, this new movie gives a voice to the problems and dramas of being a teenager and the things that make our head spin. Bianca Piper (Mae Whitman) is a high school senior, journalist, and “cult movie fanatic.” She is one of the least noticed people in the entire school, but friends with the most noticed. She doesn’t understand why this is until her next door neighbor and school’s resident jock, Wesley Rush (Robbie Amell), introduces her to the word DUFF (designated ugly, fat friend). After this massive, insulting wake-up call (and throwing her drink at Wesley), she starts to see everything in a brand new way and wants to find a way to change herself into no longer being the DUFF. Students deal with problems like Bianca’s all the time. As high schoolers, all we want is to be seen and noticed, especially if we feel like we aren’t. Being a DUFF, in the beginning of the movie is just seen as something that’s normal and accepted. That is, up until Bianca finds out about the word. She takes it to heart and it spins her

Photo credit: Guy D’Alema/CBS Films/TNS/MCT

Robbie Amell and Mae Whitman star in “The Duff,” which was released Feb. 20. (c) 2014, CBS Films. Distributed by McClatchyTribune Information Services. world out of control. She wants to change everything about who she is in order that she doesn’t have the label DUFF anymore, including going to the guy she hates most for advice. The question that I have is, why would she do that? Isn’t the main character supposed to be somewhat confident with him or herself? My answer- hack naw! Bianca’s character is not supposed to have that sort of confidence because no high schooler does (I know from experience). She is all the insecurities that we have as awkward high school students who are going into a world where labels are easy to use and bullying is not easy to squash. The thing that makes this movie truly

great is the amount of technology referenced and used to show how easy it is to share something embarrassing on something great. Even the credits are made to look like login screens for social media sites like Tumblr and Instagram and some are made to look like YouTube videos which play bloopers. The credits even list the casts twitter and/or their Instagram handles. “The DUFF” is for the modern generation of teenagers and is great to watch when hanging out with friends. This is perhaps not the movie you want to take your parents or younger siblings to, due to several sexual references and inappropriate moments. “The DUFF” is rated PG-13 and runs 1 hour and 41 minutes.

February 2015

Entertainment

Let’s get awkward…

Fontbonne University Freshman Preview Day Friday, March 6

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9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Tour the campus • Meet students and faculty • Get financial aid and scholarship information • LUNCH is on us!

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Learn More or Register: www.fontbonne.edu/wghs