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October 2013
Letter from the Editors
Dear Readers, Welcome to The Trojan Horse, the new face of Wilson High School publications! By transitioning from a newspaper to a magazine format, we will be able to explore a new level of storytelling. In our previous format, we presented a limited view of the school in around twenty to thirty short articles spread out through five separate sections. This led to a lot of material that just barely scratched the surface. In our new magazine format, we aim to provide more engaging and developed stories about the students, faculty, and other members of the Wilson community. Our goal at Horse is to share the unique backgrounds of the people we pass by in the halls and take for granted everyday. There are so many tales left untold, and we hope that by presenting these in a more personal and in-depth light, we will encourage more community interaction. In our first issue, we are just beginning to uncover the innumerable unique identities of Wilson. From outstanding sportsmen to incredible exchange students, there’s so much to be learned. Our hope is that these stories will serve as an invitation to you stopping these people in the halls and getting to know them even better. We would love any feedback on our content, or story ideas for upcoming issues. If you know anyone with a fascinating story that needs to be told, help us give them the recognition they deserve. You can reach us on Twitter (@WHSTrojanHorse, The Trojan Horse) or via email at whstrojanhorse@gmail.com. Thank you for your support, and enjoy Wilson’s new magazine, The Trojan Horse! Yours sincerely, Ellen and Olivia, Editors
Olivia Patton Editor in Chief Senior
Ellen Berkley Editor in Chief Senior
Keith Higbee Staff Advisor Brian Chatard Principal
Monika Kovacs Head of Design Junior
Tana Kelley Photo Editor Junior
Maude Lamont Curriculum VP
According to Oregon law, student journalists are responsible for determining the content of this publication, except under limited circumstances. The subject matter, content and views of the news, features and opinion sections in this paper do not reflect the views of Portland Public Schools or Woodrow Wilson High School.
No. 1
C
ONTENTS Road to Recovery
2
The
Exchanged
7
The Tattooed Man
12
Fútbol en
América
16
Going for the Gold
20
October 2013
Exchanged
TWO EXCHANGE STUDENTS DISCOVER THE WORLD A lot can happen in a year, and when Torvald Paasche boarded a plane to travel across the globe to Turkey, he had no idea just how much his life was about to change. As if spending a year in a foreign country surrounded by people who speak a language you don’t understand wasn’t overwhelming enough, Paasche was thrust into a world of political turmoil. He returned from his year abroad with stories about the riots in Istanbul at the beginning of the summer. “In my city there were demonstrations,” Paasche said. “I went to a couple of them and was involved in those demonstrations. I was never involved in the riots, but I saw the aftermath and I also saw the buildup of some riots. I saw people gathering and you could tell something was about to break out.” Though Paasche didn’t experience much of the chaos first hand, there were times that he was genuinely terrified for friends and members of his host family who were active participants in the riots. “One of my good friends was very heavily involved in riots,” Paasche said. “He said that he
saw cops spraying pepper spray in the faces of elderly women, children, [and some cops were] raping women; it was really bad.” Paasche was completely caught off guard by all of this. Though he was aware of the political turmoil, he never expected such violent riots to breakout. “The funny thing was that I was planning to go to Istanbul for a concert that same week the riots broke out. I called my counselor… she was like, ‘Torvald, I’m sure by this point you’ve figured out you’re not going to that concert this weekend.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I know.’” As a result of the riots, Paasche said that people talked a lot more about politics. Living in Izmir, a very liberal city, he heard many people openly discussing their thoughts about Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Erdogan. “Usually pretty bad things would be said about him.” Then, with a laugh, “We’ll just leave that up to the imagination.” In addition to experiencing the riots, Paasche also had a very important medical revelation while in Turkey. As he collected his monthly allowance from his Rotary counselor, she commented that he looked rather sick. He told her that he’d
No. 1 been feeling pretty sick for a while. She talked to his host dad, and, after a trip to the doctor to run some tests, Paasche learned that he had type-one diabetes. “It felt good to have an answer for why all of this was happening,” he said. “Once I read the symptoms for diabetes, I was like, ‘It all makes sense now!’” Though he was away from his family, his parents weren’t too concerned for his well-being after they found out that the host family he was staying with had a daughter who was a type-one diabetic as well. They were familiar with the routine. “I have no doubt that without them knowing and being able to take care of me I would have been sent home in February once my condition had stabilized,” Paasche said. “My parents had enough confidence in their ability to take care of me to allow me to stay. I can’t repay [my host family] enough for what they did for me.” Being in a household with another diabetic enabled Paasche to learn how to manage his condition. “The first couple of weeks it was like learning how to walk,” he said. “My host sister was teaching me what to do, what to eat, when to do things, how to do things. After that it was really straightforward.” While Paasche was sorting through the confusion of political uprising and a medical discovery, Tianmai Bishop was acclimating to her new surroundings in Italy. Bishop had hoped to stay in a German-speaking country to improve her language skills, but instead was sent to Italy. Though she isn’t one to pitch a fit when things don’t go her way, Bishop was genuinely disappointed that
she’d been sent to a country that hadn’t been on her radar at all. As we sat in their bright kitchen, drinking Italian hot chocolate (which is essentially like drinking hot pudding), Bishop and her mother looked back on the moment that Bishop found out where she was being sent. “She was upset, to say the least,” Meg Bishop said. “I told her that she didn’t have to go, that she could drop out and it wouldn’t be a big deal.” Then to Bishop, “Why did you go?” “I keep telling you! It’s my ego!” Bishop said. “Like, I’m not gonna be that kid who’s like, ‘Oh, she dropped out because she didn’t get her first choice.’” “See, Tian was taught to accept what happens and to buck up, and that’s served her badly. She gets the raw end of the deal a lot, and this was just the epitome of the raw end!” While a yearlong exchange in Italy might not seem like the “raw end” to most, for Bishop Rotary’s program offered her an opportunity to get in touch with her mother’s Austrian culture. Meg Bishop moved from Austria when she was very young, but travels back occasionally with her husband and daughter to visit her birthplace. Because of her mother’s background, Bishop had hoped for an extended period of time in the place that was such a big part of her family history. So, naturally, when Bishop found out that she wasn’t travelling to Austria (or even a Ger-
“The first couple weeks it was like learning how to walk.”
October 2013 man-speaking country of any sort), she was crushed. “After I found out, I was complaining to [my mom], ‘The one time in my life that I really wanted something and it didn’t happen!’” Though she didn’t let her disappointment show, she continued to feel like she’d lost something that was extremely important to her. “The first three months I was really resentful,” Bishop said, “but after awhile I realized I was going to be there for a year so I might as well enjoy it.” As she accepted her circumstances more, Bishop began to find the joy in the people around her. “The other exchange students there were great. We became like a big family and it was awesome.” They got so close that they ended up having a huge turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, dividing up the work between several houses in order to orchestrate the meal. Because meat isn’t sold in large amounts in Italy, it was almost impossible to find a whole turkey, but, after pulling some strings, the students were able to track one down. She remembers trying to teach a bunch of teenagers how to cook, which wasn’t an easy task. “I was manning my dish and someone else’s dish and someone else’s dish and then someone was Skyping in so I was also manning their dish over there,” Bishop said. “It was crazy.” While Bishop had the family of her fellow Bishop and friends visit the Vatican in Rome for a day
exchange students, she also developed close connections with her host families. She stayed with three different families while she was there, each with their own unique background and way of life. The worst thing she could say about her host families was that one of them didn’t cook particularly well, to the point where Bishop was reluctant to eat. “That was really weird because Tian will eat anything,” Meg Bishop said. “So when she said she didn’t like the food I’m like, ‘She’ll eat fish eyes! How could the food be that bad?’” “I’ll eat, like, fermented duck eggs. It’s like, whatever! I don’t care! It tastes good! If you can eat it, I’ll probably like it, so you have to understand the magnitude of how bad it was if I say I couldn’t barely eat their food.” Silly problems aside, Bishop’s move from her first host family in the heart of the city to her second host family’s country residence was very wearing on her. Located about 45 minutes from the city by bus, the distance from her first home and her friends was rough on Bishop. In addition to the huge contrast from bustling city life to the steady lull of rural living, Bishop’s host mother and father constantly worked, leaving her home alone often. With her friends located so far from her, she felt extremely isolated from everything. “The country was a pretty severe place for Tian The sunset in Gorome, Turkey
No. 1 and I knew there was a big problem when I got there,” Bishop’s mother said about her visit to Italy to see Bishop. “When I saw her, she was a total mess.” “I was not a total mess!” Bishop said. “You were so! I could tell! I’m your mother! I looked at you and I said, ‘This is not right. Something is wrong.’” Meg Bishop gave her daughter the choice to come with her as she visited her relatives in Austria, but Bishop elected to stay with her host family and stick it out, showing her determination to make the most of the opportunity she was given by Rotary. Both Paasche and Bishop set up their exchanges through the Rotary Club of Portland. Rotary is a non-profit organization that is divided into various clubs around the world. In addition to functioning as a facilitator of community service, it enables students like Paasche and Bishop to travel abroad on yearlong exchanges. For a relatively low price -- around $1500-$2000 -- Rotary provides several host families for the student to stay with, language lessons, monthly allowances based on the cost of living expenses, and trips to various places around the country. “It’s basically a $12000 scholarship to go stay in a foreign country,” Meg Bishop said. Students interested in an exchange send in an Bishop and her fellow exchange students in Barcelona, Spain
application listing the top five locations they’d like to go to. They then go through three networking trips where applicants talk to the various country officers. These officers are in charge of picking the exchange students they think will be most successful in their country, for example pairing up extroverted applicants with a country with a more introverted population or picking the students they feel will best represent their country. The students then go through language and culture lessons, learning the basic things they need to get by in the country to which they’re travelling. However, what one takes away from the lessons is very much what they put in. Paasche thought he had the basics down, but found that wasn’t quite the case. “I fly there and I’m like, ‘I’m gonna say this and this,’ and then I land and just whoosh! Gone!” As time went along, Paasche struggled to learn the language. “I became a master at charades,” he said. “I had my iPod with me and I’d translate everything and show them and they’d be like, ‘Oh, okay!’” Some countries require exchange students to attend language camps upon arrival to the country while others have occasional Rotary Club meetings, depending on how active the country’s club is. “It isn’t a homogenous thing as to how people are treated when they exchange,” Bishop said. A fountain at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
October 2013 “It’s kind of a flipped coin.” In addition to these language lessons for their exchange students, Rotary institutes a restriction on phone calls home for the first two to three months of the exchange to ensure total immersion in the language. Of course, the levels of immersion varied from family to family. “Some host families spoke English fluently,” Paasche said. “Mine didn’t, thankfully, so I was forced to learn Turkish.” While both Bishop and Paasche had very different experiences, each found things that were very different from America’s culture. Paasche noticed a different family dynamic in the traditional Turkish household. “The mom cooks and cleans and takes care of the kids and the father sits home and watches football and drinks beer,” Paasche said. “That’s one of the things I didn’t like about Turkish culture. Women were really objectified. Here in America, the idea of the traditional housewife is old-fashioned. My mom is a really strong woman, so going there after growing up with her was weird.” Meanwhile, in Italy, Bishop experienced a very relaxed atmosphere that she wasn’t used to. “Their whole life has this coffee break, this may or may not get done in the next three years, feel to it. That definitely aggravated me when I had things to get done.” She remembers one instance where she didn’t receive her allowance for three months because she wasn’t able to meet up with her counselor. “It forced her to learn how to get what she needed in a diplomatic way,” Meg Bishop said. “She got a lot more confident.” “She’s a bit more mature,” added Tom Bishop, Bishop’s father, “but she always was.” Through their trials and tribulations, Bishop and
Paasche came away from their experiences with a new perspective of the world. “I gained a new appreciation for the American school system,” Bishop said. “In Italy, the kids work really hard but don’t get much out of it. They memorize facts and regurgitate them. The amount I put into my education is the amount I get out of it, which is awesome.” Paasche had a bit more of a struggle with school. “I was in school maybe 60 percent of the time I was there, and of that 60 percent I was asleep 70 percent of the time. Part of it was because I didn’t know the language. Even when I knew the language, I still only got, like, half of the lessons.” Regardless of his actual education, Paasche feels that he’s become a lot more respectful and knowledgeable of other cultures. “I went to Turkey, but I didn’t just learn about Turkish culture, I learned about the cultures of the [exchange students] who came from other places... and from the travelers I met along the way.” Paasche and Bishop are just two examples of teenagers who’ve been changed through their experience with Rotary. Thousands of other kids have had incredible opportunities that they could’ve only had through the Rotary program. “It’s a really great experience,” Bishop said. “Even if you don’t think you’re ready for it, you are. People find themselves and people will adapt because we’re people and that’s what we were made to do. All you have to do is just keep swimming.” Olivia Patton Editor in Chief Senior Photos contributed by Tianmai Bishop and Torvald Paasche Thoughts? Tweet @WHSTrojanHorse
No. 1
The Road to Recovery
MCKENZIE HOPFER’S BATTLE TO RETURN TO THE FIELD February 2013. She instantly knew her fate: six to nine months without playing sports. Drugged up on painkillers, she woke up in the hospital and knew this injury was going to impair her for the rest of her life. Sports had been her outlet from all of her other problems: her parents going through a separation, her dad’s recent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (m.s.) followed by his moving out. It all happened at the same time; the injury came at the wrong time. Mckenzie Hopfer does not like feeling vulnerable or being taken care of, because usually, she is the strong one, always
putting others before herself and taking care of everyone else while pushing all of her own physical and emotional struggles aside. “Before the injury, I held a lot in and hardly ever talked about my emotions. This injury made me more prone to showing my emotions and it was sort of my transition to sharing my true self,” Hopfer said. Hopfer is known to be strong and near fearless, so it was surprising to see her this vulnerable. “She took it very hard, but truly, it speaks to her resilience,” her coach, Aaron Olsen said. “Mckenzie is the hunter, not the wounded animal. As her
teacher and basketball coach, it’s difficult to see, because I have grown to care about her as more than a student and a player, but as a person as well.” In a way, this injury was a blessing. It gave her time to think, to ease stress without being so busy with her demanding sports schedule. It made her have to accept, as hard as it was, her own vulnerability. With her crutches propped up on one side of the cream-colored couch and her knee elevated on a pillow with a giant ice pack on it, she revealed her knee, which had doubled in size and showed the spots
October 2013
Photos by Ellen Berkley
where the surgeon had made incisions. Still reclined in the family room, she calmly talked about how her life would change. “As much as I needed to be taken care of, I became aware of how important it was for me to be there for my little sister. I want what’s best for her and to be there to comfort her scared and confused thoughts about
my parents separation,” Hopfer said. “In terms of this injury, something good has to come out of all the hurting.” She explained how everything happens for a reason and tried to find reassurance in her friends. “It is hard to see her in so much pain and to tell her that this is not going to be easy or short,” long-time best friend Dana Nathanson said. “This
injury is a journey and all I can do is stand by her side and say that there is a light at the end of this long tunnel.” Post surgery, she was to use crutches to get around. That entailed propping herself up because her leg couldn’t bend. She felt like Captain Hook not being able to move her leg. She still had to drive herself to school every day, and claimed she looked ridiculous getting in and out of the car. In the mornings, she would have to fit everything that she needed for school that day into her backpack, because she couldn’t carry anything in her arms while on crutches. Her backpack would get really heavy and she felt like she was going to tip over all the time. Yet, she denied the elevator key because she was so focused on getting better as fast as possible and she felt that using the stairs was the best way: not taking the easy way out, being the strong one. “She channeled her frustration into determination and it furthered her passion for sports. It was truly amazing to watch,” her boyfriend Phillip Blatt said. It was hard for her to keep up with her physical therapy
No. 1 exercises at first because she was in so much pain. She would take painkillers, but then she would want to fall asleep. Luckily that dreaded cycle didn’t last for too long because three weeks after surgery, she really felt better, and physical therapy got more fun and less awful. The doctor had warned her that she was going to have this phase where she was feeling good but she wasn’t healed. Feeling good and healing are completely different things and it was hard for her to wrap her head around that concept because she felt like she could do anything. But really, inside her body, she just wasn’t healed. “It took her a while to process that this injury wasn’t going to fix itself overnight; it was going to be a process. But, Mckenzie just wants to go out there and do it anyway,” Olsen said. As much as she wanted to run forever and get back on the field, she simply couldn’t. Throughout this process, she had more time for schoolwork, helping out with her younger sister, and running errands for
her mom. She learned how serious it was that she had given so little time caring for her own emotional and physical state, while instead, only allowing time for others. “With my parents splitting up, there was a lot of tension. I didn’t have a good relationship with my dad either,” Hopfer said. “My mom would be working all day and
instead of having my dad there for me, he would just leave me alone at the house. It sucks not having a dad that is there for me when I need him.” Luckily she had Blatt to help out. “I was just wanting to give her the support that she was missing with her parents, trying to make each day a little
easier,” Blatt said. Because of all of the stress coming from her parents separation and both of them getting back into the dating world, she couldn’t have been more appreciative of Blatt. He would come to visit her almost every day at lunch or after school. “One day I will never forget, she was lying on the couch and she looked over at me and just broke down into tears. It was so hard on me knowing that there was nothing I could do to turn this around, but even harder knowing how hard it was on her,” Blatt said. He became the one managing her food and painkillers, spending hours of time at her house just being there for her. The hardest part for Hopfer has just been not being able to play sports. “It’s been a roller coaster; I cry at night sometimes because I don’t understand,” Hopfer said. “I have to watch people play what I love, but then I sort of feel guilty because it could be so much worse, but then I shift back to, it could be so much better. It’s really tough.”
October 2013 She missed having the support system of her team and having fun, leaving her worries behind through her play. Wilson women’s basketball is a very tight knit group, and Hopfer’s injury had an effect on the entire program. “From Mckenzie’s basketball team’s perspective, she was a clear leader at the JV level and swinging up to varsity, coming to establish a solid position at that level. She had been an integral part of JV’s success, and they took a hard hit when she got injured and never really came back,” Olsen said. She still aspires to return to both soccer and basketball, with a focus on soccer, because that is what she is used to and has played since she was four. “She puts all the build-up and desire to play sports again into her workouts and I know she has worked her hardest to come back with fire,” Nathanson said. “Mckenzie is a fighter; we all know that.” She never wants to stop playing soccer, hoping to play at the next level in college. She desires to have that organized team environment to
go to every day and have the sport in her life. August 2013. The six-month mark from her surgery and she was cleared to start practicing again. Everything was on track: she was feeling strong, healthy and ready for her comeback. She came to practice and worked hard every day, preparing for that first game of the upcoming soccer season. All the excitement and adrenaline
“Mckenzie is a fighter; we all know that.” raced through her body. As she prepared for the opening game, she suited up in her number five green uniform set and triumphantly resumed her role as starting center back. She made it; she was moving around flawlessly. The only evidence that remained from her ACL injury was in the form of a soft black knee brace. It was September 5th and eight minutes had elapsed
when devastation struck at Buchman field. Mckenzie Hopfer went down grabbing her previously injured knee and wailing in pain, leaving her teammates in shock and the moms in tears at the first game of the 2013 soccer season. So many thoughts were racing through the minds of the people around her. It was truly an unforgettable scene, not just because of what had happened, but who it had happened to. Not Mckenzie. Not now. This can’t be happening. Not again. Trying to gather thoughts, observers can’t help but think, did she come back too soon, or did she come back playing too hard? “It’s hard to know or say if she could have done anything differently to prevent the second injury,” OHSU Sports Medicine Doctor and Wilson High School athletics volunteer Jim Chesnutt said. Speaking as a professional with a wealth of information, rather than as Hopfer’s personal physician, he continued, “Once you have torn one ACL, you are more prone to a second tear in either the same or the other knee. You can rehabilitate and
No. 1 be strong enough to return, but sometimes you can lose control during the game and get distracted. An unfortunate combination of things such as a plant or twist can cause the injury.” Chesnutt regularly attends sporting events, and Hopfer often chats with him about her knee and about ACL prevention in general. He has suggested preventative measures for young athletes, especially those in Hopfer’s situation. “Coaches have to be on board to dedicate the extra time into the warm-up, because it will increase strength and help prevent the ACL injury by 70%,” Chesnutt said. Looking into the eyes of the athletically built, blonde haired junior, you see the strength and passion, and not the intense emotional and physical pain. “Now I am ready for the second surgery because I know what to expect and how to get strong again. I’ve been there. It is just scary because of the recovery process at home,” Hopfer said. “I still don’t talk much to my dad, but I’m ok with it, because I can’t make him be someone he can’t be. I’ve learned to work around it
and my mom has been great, but I don’t want her doing any more than she already does.” Hopfer, despite all of the hurt, rationalizes her thoughts. “The first time I got injured, while I was recovering, all I thought about was coming back to soccer as soon as possible, channeling all of my desire to return into my physical therapy,” Hopfer said. “When I found out that it all happened again, it was truly a wake up call to reassess how important my body and mental stability are. I need to take longer to recover and focus on being fully healthy before my next return.” Two weeks after she found out the second injury was reality, she instantly started pursuing her career interest of sports medicine to keep her going. Hopfer got a sports medicine internship at OHSU (Oregon Health and Science University) solidifying her hopeful future career as a doctor that she has dreamed of since the age of five. “I have always had a thing for helping people, both medically and emotionally.” Hopfer said. “I hate seeing people in pain, therefore I want to be there to talk to people and
care for them.” Almost everyone knows someone who has suffered an ACL injury. “With my new internship, I will be able to be involved and educated about this injury and make ACL prevention more out there,” Hopfer said. “I want to be able to help other athletes out and prevent them from having to go through what I did.” Along with her new internship, Hopfer has taken Chesnutt’s advice to heart and will be helping the Wilson women’s basketball team with a 10-15 minute warm up that should help prevent ACL injuries from affecting the team this winter. It is in Hopfer’s nature to be tough, and that is just what she has done and will continue to do as she eases into her next comeback.
Ellen Berkley Editor in Chief Senior Thoughts? Tweet @WHSTrojanHorse
October 2013
THE TATTOOED MAN THE STORY BEHIND KEITH BROWN’S INK
No. 1 Keith Brown, a former biology teacher and current school counselor, is a spectacle to behold. For all intents and purposes he looks fairly normal; that is, until you see his tattoos. When he bares his arms in short-sleeved t-shirts, it shows off the impressive display of intricate patterns coming to life on his forearms. When he turns his head, a line of stars trek their way up the side of his neck. The word “LEFT” is boldly stamped across the knuckles of his left hand. While Brown insists that his tattoos are not a reflection of his personality, ask anybody else that question and it may garner a different response. “He’s just loud compared to everybody else,” Julie Fleming, a fellow counselor, said. This assertion is not too far off from the truth; the loudness of his tattoos is complemented by his boisterous, almost unnervingly friendly personality. Fleming herself admits that she had been initially daunted by the prospect of working with him because of his gregarious nature. “When I got the job here, I was like, ‘This might be weird, I have to work with that guy,’” Fleming said. Now she has completely changed her tune--they are close friends. Whether he is trying to or not, Brown is certainly making a statement: tattoos are not just for thugs or delinquents anymore. As with every other tattooed individual, however, this body art did not appear out of nowhere. There are specific stories and thought processes behind why choose the ink they do, and Brown is no exception. “I got my first tattoo at Dixieland Tattoo in Panama City, Florida, in I think ‘87; way before tattoos were a thing,” Brown said. As a 19 year old gay man attending Florida State University in one of the most conservative parts of the country, it was a brazen statement told through a small ink spider
on his shoulder. “It was something fun to do . . . [like] some kind of token tattoo,” he said of the spider. But that was only the tip of the iceberg, it seems; within Brown, a deep passion for tattoos was born. Nevertheless, it was still three years before he got his next tattoo at the age of 22. By the time he was 30, he had added a substantial amount of ink to his skin. “Everything below my sleeveline to my wrist I’d added since living in Oregon . . . I moved here when I was 30, and it’s Portland, so tattoos are kind of more standard these days.” While tattoos have become more widely accepted, Brown’s mother, Shelby Harpe, who he describes as an “old-school, Southern Baptist”, still holds that same mentality from decades ago. “We thought that tattoos were only on sort of low-class people,” she said. “I’ve lived in a different era.” Despite the fact that they both lived in the same era, Harpe and Brown’s father, Charlie Brown, differ in their views on their son’s body art. Charlie Brown said, “Well, they probably are [excessive]. That’s just the way he wants them, and so what? And I [couldn’t] care less. If somebody wants to get them, then get them.” In contrast to Charlie’s supportive attitude, Harpe is a bit more resigned. “It sort of made me sad that he would mark up his body to that extent,” she said. Nonetheless, both of Brown’s parents agree on one thing: whatever made him happy, made them happy. Tattoos are becoming very commonplace and accepted, especially in larger areas such as Portland. However, not everybody is as progressive as they would like to think. Brown remembers a time where a new principal found them to be off-putting. “He made a couple of comments about me
October 2013
“When I got the job here, I was like, ‘This might be weird, I have to work with that guy.’” having tattoos on my neck, you know, ‘jokingly’, but I think it made him feel a little--just surprised, probably.” Most of the time, people will make a point to get inked on parts of the body that are easily concealable, so that they have the choice to cover them up when needed. Brown tells of a Portland tattoo artist in a parlor called “Atlas”, who drew an obvious line at his wrists but gave himself free reign to tattoo almost everywhere else. Brown said, “He likes to dress up so it allows him to kind of be in both worlds, I guess.” Jason Bradbury, a Portland tattoo artist at the Atomic Art Tattoo Studio who has worked on Brown before, seems to agree with that sentiment. “These days, as long as you don’t tattoo above your neck or below your wrists before you have a solid career you’ll be okay in the workforce,” he said. In his years working as a tattoo artist, he has had many experiences where well-off individuals such as doctors and lawyers would come in to be worked on, although Bradbury notes that it is always under clothing. Brown’s decision to remain in “one world” has been strongly influenced by both his job in the school system and his residency in Portland. “Portland is Portland; we’re a little bubble, which I really appreciate,” he said. Despite his decision to remain in “one world”, Brown affirms that he has never had trouble acquiring a job, even with the tattoos. He has
worked in the Portland Public School system since 1999, and he is set on remaining here until he retires. His colleagues, all of whom he has worked with for several years, have learned to barely bat an eye at his tattooing antics anymore. “I remember the first time: it was on a Saturday, and we were running the PSATs,” Fleming said. “I remember looking at him and I was like, ‘That’s a new tattoo.’ It was a new one! They just kept popping up.” Brown has a tendency to forget that his tattoos are even there until he notices somebody staring at them. “That’s kind of the way it is; you forget about them and they become a part of who you are,” he said. Fleming, too, said that she forgets about his tattoos when they are covered up in the wintertime, and only remembers when he starts wearing polos in the springtime. Regarding student’s parents, Brown believes that he has had little trouble with them. He said that his tattoos have garnered attention throughout the time he has had them, particularly his sleeve tattoos when they are exposed, but he thinks that it has generally been neutral. Fleming disagrees. “I’ve seen really conservative parents come in and they’re like, “Look at this guy, he’s all tattooed sleeves,’” she said. Regardless, nobody has ever been upset enough to complain, and parents have more often than not been more curious than angry. In spite of Brown’s insisting that his tattoos had
No. 1 not resulted from a sort of rebellion, there may have been a bit of mild childhood resentment that fueled his decision behind the “LEFT” tattoo on his fingers. “It was a big thing in the 60’s, if you had a left-handed child, to switch them over to right,” he said. Although Brown had been born left-handed, his mother had essentially trained him from an early age to be right-handed. He now he writes with his right hand but is generally more dominant with his left. With that in mind, he went out and got the “LEFT” tattoo in an act of spontaneity with a friend. Thematically, the rest of his tattoos have less to do with sentimentality and more to do with his previous profession as a biology teacher. Aside from the aforementioned knuckle tattoo and the name of his former dog Owen written on the inside of his right wrist, they are all related to science. His right arm is dedicated to insect life, while his left arm is covered with designs of ocean life. “I get
Photos by Hunter Parks
the question all the time, ‘What do they mean?’ I find it to be a silly question. I just decided that I was interested in body art, and it’s science-related because I’m still a science geek,” he said. When it comes to his body art, the only regrets he has are when he finds they attract negative attention toward him when he visits Florida, and gets hostile stares from its more conservative population. Even in those low moments, though, he remains positive. “The world is changing,” he said. “I have no control over what people think. If they’re going to judge me for my tattoos, then I have no control over that.”
Erica Keaveney Junior Thoughts? Tweet @WHSTrojanHorse
October 2013
Fútbol en América
A SPANISH EXCHANGE STUDENT EMBRACES AMERICAN SOCCER
No. 1 Spanish sophomore exchange student Alberto Gonzalez looks proudly at his green number seven Wilson High School soccer jersey. Alberto is one of Wilson’s few exchange students that has made a varsity sport team in their year abroad. As he holds up the green jersey he explains his admiration for Francisco Suarez “Isco” and Raul Gonzalez Blanco “Raul”, both big Spanish soccer players, one of whom also wears the number seven. He describes his love of Raul from an early age, and how many of his early soccer influences came from him. To him Raul was a man of leadership on and off the field. When it came to soccer, money and fame did not get in the way; he was true to his sport, and Alberto respects him for that. “When Raul left Real Madrid, I almost cried,” he said. Alberto shows his commitment to the qualities he saw in Raul by his choice of jersey number on Wilson High School’s varsity soccer team. “It (Raul) was also one of the favorite players of my father, so I promised him that if I score a goal here I would do his celebration,” Alberto said referring to Raul’s post goal ritual of
putting his hands behind his head in a sort of “hang loose” movement. Although Alberto’s life revolves around his passion for soccer, this was not always the case. Born into a family of soccer aficionadas, his father a former division II Real Madrid player, Alberto has big shoes to fill in terms of his soccer achievement. Alberto’s father, who is also named Alberto, played professionally for the Real Madrid men’s division II futbal team. The following summer however, he was forced to quit due to academic problems. The following year his division II team moved up to the first division. Alberto accredits his dad’s experience with soccer to be the reason behind his pushing of his son to play the sport. “When I was younger he would take the ball and pass it to me, even though I did not want to play cause I was so young,” Alberto said. “My dad was probably thinking ‘Oh sh*t, why he don’t want to play soccer, he is my son, he should want to play soccer.’” From the age of six, however, Alberto, took after his father, and like many other Spanish boys, took up a love of
the sport. Alberto took up the life of fútbol. He joined his school’s club team, and practiced every day for an average of 2 hours. However, when Alberto reached the age of ten, he experienced another bout of re-thinking his commitment to soccer. This period of uncertainty was brought on by the mental torment coming from the captain of his team at the time. “Every day he would tell all the boys on my team that he thought I was the worst player,” Alberto said. Alberto and the team captain had grown up together. Over the years, his friend seemed to take a leadership role in school and in soccer, and Alberto’s acquaintance with him became a sort of leader-follower friendship that eventually led to the taunting of Alberto. It got bad enough that Alberto seriously considered quitting what had become his passion. Alberto suffered through several months of this, before he realized that he needed to get others involved. He told his coaches and teachers, who told him that he needed to ignore the captain, and get him out of his head. They told him that he
October 2013 needed to focus on his game, and to not let others interfere. Throughout his bad experiences, one coach, also named Alberto, would give him constant reminders in front of the rest of the team that he was a great soccer player, and whenever he was coaching, he would put Alberto in for the whole game. Alberto eventually built up the confidence to stand up to the captain, eventually earning the role of captain for himself.
Photos by Ellie Harper
While soccer is an international sport, Spanish futbol, according to Alberto, is very different from American soccer. At his school in Spain, soccer is all about foot skill, and possessing the ball; not giving it away. In the United States, the game is a lot faster paced. “There are a lot more bodies slamming into each other,” he said. Wilson High School varsity men’s coach Jeff Enquist appreciated the assets Alberto
brought to the team. “Alberto is one of the more technical players on the Wilson team. He can pass, trap, and has great vision and passing. He also has unique ways of getting past players,” he said. “The hardest adjustment for players at all levels coming in to the United States is how physical the play is. There is little time for players on the ball in this country and decisions have to be made quickly.” Alberto was surprised by the number of injured players he sees throughout the halls at Wilson. “In Spain, the only real injuries people have are, for example, a twisted ankle, or pulled muscles,” Alberto said. Because of the cleaner play, Spanish players don’t seem to experience the same degree of injuries from contact with other players, such as concussions, that American soccer players might experience. Despite both being very different, Alberto would say that the levels of soccer in both countries are approximately the same, and that some of the boys on his team in Spain might even have trouble making the varsity men’s soccer team at Wilson due to their lack
No. 1
“Because of the cleaner play, Spanish players don’t seem to experience the same degree of injuries from other players, such as concussions, that American soccer players experience.” of size and aggressiveness. Soccer is run through school and clubs in Spain, differently to the United States where soccer season is played in the fall for high school, and players need to find club teams for the rest of the year. Alberto plans on joining one of Portland’s club teams once the high school season is over. Although, Alberto is loyal to his home team, after experiencing a Portland Timber’s games, he is now excited about following this new team. He considers Portland to be his second home now, and said, “My host family will be part of my family forever.” As much as he’s been enjoying his time in Portland, he is stressed about the fact that he will have to start working on getting soccer scholarships when he returns home. He is not worried about his soccer skills declining here in the United States. Because the soccer style is different here, he said
his and his dad’s theory is that he will gain the traits of American soccer players, predominantly quickness to pass and physical strength, and will go back to Spain with these assets which he can add to his Spanish style foot skills. The other boys and the coach of the team are glad to have a new perspective when it comes to soccer. So far this season they have won all of their games except for one. Alberto said that he s getting along well with the guys on the team, and that there are many aspects to an actual team that he does not have in Spain. Even on his team in Spain he still feels somewhat like an individual, but on the Wilson team, he says it feels like one big family of boys. “Alberto has done very well adjusting,” Enquist said. “He is a very easy going person, and gets along with everyone.” Many would think that due to the language differences, that
communicating on the field might cause trouble, however according to Enquist, “Soccer has it’s own language.” To most people the language barrier might be intimidating, however Alberto saw it as an opportunity to learn as much as he could. “Everybody asks me, and really, I wasn’t nervous before coming, I was excited,” Alberto said. He was overwhelmed at first when he arrived, and was unsure about how the rest of his time here would go, however, now he says that he is settling in, and is excited to learn the most he can about this different style of soccer and the culture in the United States.
Ellie Harper Senior Thoughts? Tweet @WHSTrojanHorse
October 2013
Going for the Gold
ONE SWIMMER’S DRIVE TO ACHIEVE HER AQUATIC GOALS At Riverplace Athletic Club, everything looks brand new. The training room is well lit, the walls covered in mirrors. Dozens of complicated looking machines fill the rooms. In the reflection of one of the mirrors is 15-year-old Sierra Sexton, leaning against a Roman Chair to work on her core muscles. She carefully watches herself in the mirror, eyeing every movement she makes. She focuses all of her energy on her workout, slowly calculating each movement to see how she can improve her form. Sexton’s athletic background began in the womb, her mom racing sailboats up until she was eight months pregnant. “Maybe that’s why I’m so competitive,” she said. Because of her mother’s sailboat racing, Sexton began swim lessons at 17 months old just in case she fell out during practices. She could swim across the pool unaided by age four, and began competitively swimming with the Summer Swim League. By age nine she joined the Portland Aquatic Club. As a child, Sexton also took ballet, gymnastics, fencing, and soccer, but her favorite was swimming. “I love swimming
because you can let your mind wander while you do sets. You can swim and train 25,000 different ways, so that keeps you engaged.” Though they are an important part of her life, sports have taken a toll on Sexton’s body over the years. She tore her lateral meniscus, medial collateral ligament (MCL), and her patellar tendon all at the same time at Club States for swimming when she was 12. These days, Sexton goes to a personal trainer, Austin Crook, every Friday to strengthen her body and to help prepare for her athletic future. With her personal trainer, she works on strengthening her leg and shoulder, from when she subluxated (partially dislocated) it in her sleep just before State Champs. “She was dreaming about her boyfriend,” Crook said. “No I wasn’t! I was dreaming of racing!” During her workout, Sexton works on strengthening her quadriceps, glutes, and core. “Core is most important to athletes,” Crook said, “It helps with balance and stability, and makes your movement efficient.” If Sexton is seriously injured, she takes breaks
No. 1 from competing, but it’s hard for her to be out of the game. She took a six month break from swimming after her leg injuries at age 12, and when she re-injured her leg, she took another two months off. During these breaks, Sexton went to physical therapy to help strengthen her leg and shoulder injuries and help prevent further potential injuries. She also took up biking. Her new swimming coach, Nacim Bouferrache, said that Sexton is driven, but that her injuries can affect that drive. “If I get on her [about losing focus], she bounces right back in.” During the healing process, Sexton never wanted to quit, but she was afraid her body would force her to. Sexton’s mom has asked her before if she wanted to quit sports, but Sexton never considered that an option. Instead, she talked with her mom about how she could get stronger sooner and not get hurt again. Watching from the sidelines, it is easy to see that Sexton is at home in the water with her fish scale practice suit. She makes swimming look very easy, cutting through the water effortlessly, and this talent has stemmed from years and years of training. Sexton’s goal is to make it to the Olympic Trials in 2016. In order to do so, she needs to drop two seconds from her 50 freestyle. Not only will this time qualify her for Olympic Trials, it will break the high school scholastic record. “The first step is healing, and then transitioning from 4,000 yards to 6,000 or 7,000 yards a week,” she said. The other way Sexton is preparing herself is through race theory: training with percentages. This means she needs to improve each movement she makes and perfect them in order to get faster each time she’s in the water. In order to reach Olympic Trials, Sexton also needs to include more sprint work in her daily practices. The smallest improvements can increase your speed, and even a tenth of a second can make the difference
between winning your heat and losing it. “I have beaten someone by .001 of a second, and lost by .001 of a second. During races, I just know I have to be a little bit ahead.” Sexton’s busiest days are Tuesdays. Every Tuesday, she wakes up at five for an hour and a half morning swim practice, then after pre-calculus, physics, and Spanish, she has cross country for two hours, and then another hour and a half of swim practice. “Homework, depending on the day, usually takes between one to three hours,” Sexton said. It’s hard for her to find time for homework with her busy schedule, but grades are very important to her, especially with the advanced classes she is taking. “I have no time to hang out with friends because of school and swimming,” Sexton said. “I get jealous of people who have lives outside of school and do things with their friends, and of people who have extra time on their hands, but I love my life. It taught me what it really means to be dedicated to something, and it taught me to trust my body and know what my limits are.” Sexton is very dedicated to what she does. Even though she has little to no free time for herself, she continues to do what she loves, making sacrifices as she goes. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and that definitely describes her and her drive. “I don’t think of a goal as something to reach,” Sexton told me, “but something to reach and exceed beyond.”
Adrianne Nix Junior Photos contributed by Mia Machedy-Sexton Thoughts? Tweet @WHSTrojanHorse
October 2013
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back cover LEGAL Local Civil Rights inquiries Brian Chatard, Title VI, IX Coordinator (503) 916-5280 Maude Lamont, 504 Coordinator (503) 916-5280 District Title vi, ix, & 504 inquiries Carolyn Leonard, Compliance (503) 916-5280 Room 227 - BESC American Disabilities Act Contact Maureen Sloan, HR Legal Counsel (503) 916-3025 Human Resources - BESC