HILLMEN MESSENGERPlacer High School

November 20, 2009Volume XXXVII, Issue 6 hillmenmessenger.com

By Laura MolnarMessenger Staff Editor

It is impossible for every student at Placer High School to attend all 180 school days each year, but what happens when they are absent? There are school-wide policies re-garding student absences as well department and individual teacher protocol implemented when a student doesn’t attend class for one or more days.

Placer Union High School district has its own policy re-garding student absences. A student is allowed up to ten days of excused absences with-out verification from a medi-cal professional or school au-thority. After the allotted ten days, a student must present proof from a doctor in order to have an absence cleared.

After a student has used five of the ten allowed absences, the first warning is presented in the form of a letter mailed to the student’s home. The let-ter is once again sent after the tenth absence from school.

At Placer High School, Rhon-da Holden is in charge of atten-dance issues. It is her job to keep track of student absences, and she helps stu-dents stay on track in terms of attendance by sending the reminders and making sure students receive a call home with every absence from school so it can be cleared and a cut can be avoided.

The depart-ments at Plac-er High School have their own set guidelines for student ab-sences. These policies don’t tend to be the same if a student is absent due to suspension or a cut. When these occur, a teacher is not obligated to allow the student to make up missing work.

For example, the math de-partment allows individual teachers to decide how they will handle the work and tests

a student may miss when ab-sent.

“Each teacher is allowed to create their own absence policy, but most math instruc-tors give the student the same number of days they were ab-sent to make up the work,” ex-plained Mike Gardetto, head of Placer’s math department.

Other teachers have unique policies when it comes to stu-dents making up work they missed while absent. For ex-ample, Mr. Schroeder in the Science Department doesn’t allow students to make up missed quizzes. Instead, the grade they receive on the next quiz is doubled and the sec-ond score goes towards the missed quiz.

With the new four-by-four schedule and the outbreak of the swine flu along with other sicknesses which are swept in with the colder weather, stu-dents have to deal with more absences, and it may be hard-er than it once was to catch

back up.“I definitely

feel like there have been more absences lately, but I always feel that way around this time of year,” admitted attendance sec-retary Rhonda Holden.

S t u d e n t s should avoid ab-

sences whenever they can, but things like sickness make this impossible at times. For example, the District doesn’t

permit stu-dents to come to school until they have gone 24 hours without a fever and without using medication to keep the fe-ver down.

“It’s just important to communicate with your teachers when you’re gone for an extended period of time,” explained Chris Swart, a senior who missed school when he had the swine flu, “Your teachers want to help you, but you still have to be responsible for the work missed.”

Sick students having tough time making up work

“I definitely feel like there have been more ab-

sences lately, but I always feel that way around this time of year.”

-Rhonda Holden

“Your teachers want to help you, but you still have to respon-sible for the work

missed.”-Chris Swart,

senior

The Healthy Hygienic Classrooms Committee, clev-erly named H2C2 by Gary Pantaleoni, is f ighting back against this year’s inf luenza season.

Placer High School’s facul-ty have taken it upon them-selves to protect the students from the seasonal f lu and the H1N1 virus, led by sci-ence teacher Dan Galloway. The committee began as a request by Galloway to have his room and desktops regu-larly cleaned, but it g radu-ally evolved into a group of teachers and administrators who have put together a kit including items such as dis-infectant spray, latex gloves, and paper towels.

The kits were paid for by head district custodian Mark Schil l ing, two faculty members who wished to re-main anonymous, and do-nations from Home Depot. Schil l ing was granted per-mission to order gloves and paper towels through his custodial funds provided by the district.

As the H2C2 memo states: Mark Schil l ing offered to provide the cleaning solu-tion (Virex 256) and to fi l l the bottles. Gary Pantaleoni wil l provide labels and the committee wil l label bottles for teachers who want them.

The two anonymous staff members bought the spray bottles, using their own money, from Home Depot, who made a matching dona-tion offer. They the com-mittee put together a kit in-cluding these items for each classroom on campus, and encouraged the teachers to clean al l the desks daily to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus and other conta-gious i l lnesses.

Greg Robinson, history teacher and member of the H2C2, described the group as, “A teacher initiated, teacher driven, teacher fund-ed committee with the pur-pose of making it possible for students and teachers to clean and disinfect their classrooms.”

He explained that although some teachers aren’t tak-ing advantage of the H2C2 kits, at least now every teacher has access to the supplies and if they wish to help in the fight against the H1N1 virus, they can. Many teachers are excited that people have finally stepped up and taken action against this epidemic.

Jonathan Adams expressed his frustration towards the fact that it took so long for anything to be done to prevent more students and teachers from getting sick.

One major question being

asked is why are the teach-ers spending their own money on supplies when Placer High School has a custodial staff ? Shouldn’t they be cleaning the class-rooms? Isn’t that their job?

The problem is the econ-omy. There is not enough money to pay for the extra time or extra personnel it would take for the custodi-ans to be able to clean the desks every week.

“Even though we have a smaller custodial staff, I think it ’s ridiculous that they can’t clean the desks once a week,” stated Kend-all Baldridge.

Robinson explained, “[The teachers] didn’t go to college to clean desks.”

Gary Pantaleoni explained that the topic of the H2C2 was brought up in a board meeting after noticing a 2% drop in student attendance due to the f lu season, but there weren’t enough sup-porters to star t something on the administrative level.

This is when the com-mittee including Dan Galloway, Gary Pantale-oni, Greg Robinson, Kathy Long, Mark Schil l ing, Scott Barry, and Mark Faulkner, formed, with the sole pur-pose of getting the supplies out there to be available to teachers.

H2C2 fights the H1N1 virus

By Shauna KeanMessenger Staff Editor

First playoff game tonight!

What are students spending their extra cash on? See FEATURES, page 2

Is PE pointless? See OPINIONS, page 9

Tonight is the night! The Placer Hillmen will take on the Foothill Mustangs tonight at 7:30, kicking of the first playoff game of the 2009 season. Fans will be piling into the LaFarve stadium tonight, marking the first playoff game Placer has hosted in 28 years. Be sure to come on down tonight to support your local Hillmen!

The last time the Hillmen had a home playoff game was the team in 1981, pictured above.

Photo credit: Yearbook 1981

Who plans on attending the Turkey Bowl this year? SeeSPORTS, page 10

New teacher-driven committee working to make classrooms a cleaner work environment

FEATURES2 Volume XXXVIIIssue 6

November 20, 2009

By Britny ChristineFeatures Editor

By TaNee EdwardsPerspectives Editor

By Colin BrownMessenger Staff Writer

Placer High School. Our aca-demics are good. Our teachers are amazing. Our campus is great. But what makes our school so much better than all those other schools? Why, the fact that we have an open campus for lunch, of course.

We students at Placer High School have the amazing ability to get in our cars and drive right off campus and go eat anywhere.

We can keep it close and go to Mongolian or go as far as Taco Bell right by the Foresthill exit. But have you ever wondered just how much it costs us when we go to lunch?

Not only do Placer students con-stantly leave campus and pay the food industry their money, they also have a need for more gas, which is costing more and more every day.

Most students don’t even know how much energy and money is ac-tually going toward their stomachs.

Take Shannon O’ Flaherty, ju-nior, for example. She goes to lunch about three times a week. She aver-ages about twenty to twenty five dollars for lunch all week. Adding this in with cost of gas and she says

she spends about fifty dollars every week just to get off campus for less than an hour.

Senior Michael Stone confesses that he goes to lunch not once, not twice, but five days a week.

“I think I spend about $20 a week on food,” he said after think-ing for a moment. When asked to factor in gas money, he thinks it would only be about five dollars more a week.

“I drive a Civic,” he laughed.

Students aren’t the only ones that go off campus for lunch, however.

Teachers are known for carpool-ing it over to sushi and what not to escape the high school scene, even if only for thirty five minutes.

Drama teacher extraordinaire Ja-son Long only goes to lunch once a week.

“I only spend 7 to 10 dollars on lunch and factoring the approxi-mate 1% of gas I spend on the ten mile round trip I still only spend

7 to 10 dollars,” Long said with a smile.

“Not only do we as a school sin-gle-handedly keep the gas stations afloat, we also contribute highly to the deteri-oration of the envi-ronment,” he added. “ T h a t ’ s why I only go once a week.”

So just how much do we contrib-ute to the gas stations around Au-burn as a school?

“I think the whole school spends $5,000 a week in gas just going to lunch,” said Michael Stone.

How can we as a school spend less and still enjoy the ‘open’ part of ‘open campus?’

You can start by knowing where to get gas that is the cheapest in the area. In Auburn, Arco on Bowman and The Store on Dry Creek cur-

rently have the cheapest gas by a land slide of one cent over Flyers and Valero at $2.77.

According to Mr. Jason Long, going to lunch as much as we do is

contributing to the fail-ing environment.

If we could, as a school, pact to drive to lunch less and pack a lunch and eat on or off campus, we could help the environ-ment and get the ‘Going Green’ movement really

get started here at Placer. Placer High School has been giv-

en a wonderful privilege. We have something that other schools do not.

As Michael put it, “I love to rub it in [the other schools’] faces.”

We can leave, come back, and have the best food around. But sometimes we need to think about what this action is doing to affect ourselves and those around us.

How students spend their time and money

The various Pro’s and Con’s of advertising

No shave month not popular with the ladies

With November nearing an end many of the young men who are members of the No Shave Novem-ber Pact are breathing a sigh of relief. That is because the facial hair that these men have grown has either turned out too dirty or too much to handle.

Senior Ian Bechler has his own unique tale on how his facial hair makes him feel.

“I feel dirty like I should commit some crimes. I feel like the lon-ger my facial hair gets the more evil I get”

Other people such as senior Blake Prior resent this facial hair for a different reason.

“I couldn’t take it anymore my face got dirty and there was hair going ev-erywhere”.

But some of these men are having a hard time putting up with the fa-cial hair not because of it’s inconve-niences but because of the way that the ladies have taken to their stubble, “The Girlfriend is pissed and saying she’s going to shave it in my sleep” stated Mikey Bray.

Many of those involved in the pact agree that facial hair is usually a turn-off with the ladies. The dirty facial hair look is not the best if your trying to get the ladies” stated senior Jake Styler.

Some of the other members of the pact have a different take on how the ladies view their facial hair.

“The ladies love it, I gotta beat

them off with a stick” stated Senior Chris Swart.

It seems that the men involved in the pact seem to think that girls have mixed feelings regarding facial hair.

Julia Dorsey however believes that most of the men look good with the facial hair…sort of.

“I think it’s sexy they look like rug-ged lumber jacks.”

Other girls also have some mixed

feelings when it comes to the facial hair that the No Shave November Pact members have grown.

“I don’t get grossed out over hairy guys but I think it’s bad when the guys who couldn’t grow anything had like three long hairs at the end of the month,” stated Heather Johnston.

It has been hard to tell who is has been able to grow the best facial hair this month with Conrad Harder and Jake Styler both growing a solid layer of fur on their faces but the clear winner would have to be Dylan Dobbas.

“He looks like an Irish Cat Stevens after he converted to Islam” stated Bechler.

With November drawing to an end one thing is for sure completing the No Shave November was more of a challenge than most of its par-ticipants.

From TV to billboards across the highways, advertis-ing is everywhere. Some try to sell you different food prod-ucts, whereas some hope get lure you into buying the latest gadget or toy.

Regardless of where you are and where or not you know it, you will forever be surround-ed by people who are trying to sell you something.

Various advertisers try to get creative whilst trying to sell you something, mainly with catchy little songs, jingles or things of that sort.

On the flip side of things, it can often be very difficult for

an advertiser to try and fig-ure out how to sell the latest product. To what age group? Through TV, magazines, or what? Different study groups are held just for advertis-ers who have just those same questions.

When small businesses are thinking about advertising, they normally do it in the hopes that their business will pick up, and townsfolk will see their advertisement, enjoy it then stop by. One of the things ad-vertisers look for when placing an ad, it whether or not the ad will pay off. Meaning will they get the money that paid for the ad back. Without knowing the answer to this, many are weary and untrusting of advertise-

ment salesmen.“I just like to take into ac-

count of who will read the giv-en publication, and are those people that I really want to ad-vertise to,” Says Dawn Bentley, owner of All Creatures.

Different corporations, like McDonalds, really don’t need to advertise, seeing as how they’re everywhere. But be-cause they have a surplus of cash they can afford to spend a little, or a lot, of money on something as simple as a com-mercial.

But when they do, they still notice a spike in profit, just because it reminds customers that they miss McDonald’s un-healthy goodness.

“A lot of advertising is very misleading. They (Compa-nies) promise you free things, but when you actually buy the product, you realize they’re just lying,” Said Placer senior Sam Coggins.

This would be a con depend-ing on the company, or their reputation. If companies al-ways filling their advertise-ments with lies, eventually it’ll catch up with them. Things like ‘food artists’ make a liv-ing out of decorating food to make it look somewhat decent in a photo or in a commercial.

When advertising does go as planned, the ad gets out to the target audience, and then raises profit of the company, however when it does not, it can just confuse people, or cause people to be less trust-ing.

“I think I spend about $20 a

week on food,”Michael Stone,

senior

McDonald’s is a cheap and common lunch spot for Placer studentsPhoto Credit: www.flikr.com/photos/seabird

Mike Fraguglia and Dylan Dobbas show off their scruff after almost a full month without shaving

Photo Credit: Colin Brown

FEATURES 3Volume XXXVII

Issue 6November 20, 2009

By Shannon HarcusMessenger Staff Writer

By Rachel ChurchMessenger Staff Writer

At Placer High School you will find that no two teachers grade exactly the same, and this can get a bit confusing for students. Some teachers put a lot of emphasis on tests and quizzes, others focus more on homework, and still others weigh participation and effort the most. However, there are many classes where grading is difficult to do, simply because of the nature of the subject.

An example of this situation is PE, a subject every student must take. Marcia Mackenzie, who teaches PE, explained that the grading method for PE here at Placer is fairly sim-ple, although supposedly there are some freshmen who have a hard time grasping the con-cept. “All PE classes are graded the same on a point system,” Mackenzie stated. “There are a total of 16 points, and you get 4 points for cardio, 4 for uni-form, 4 for participation and 4 for skills. If you get a zero in any area, you don’t pass,” she explained. The points are averaged out for each grading period, and in order to pass a student has to pass at least 3 of

the grading periods. If a student is missing a cer-

tain amount of miles, they must makeup the miles at the appropriate times, in order to earn a pass-ing amount of points in the cardio area.

Another subject where grading is diffi-cult is leadership. Jon-athon Adams, leader-ship advisor, stated that “grading leader-ship is always difficult because everyone con-tributes differently.”

He explained that there are some stu-dents with good or-ganization, some who are responsible, some who are creative, and some who are accountable.

“I don’t force people to be what they’re not…I don’t ex-pect a creative person to be really organized and I don’t ex-pect creativity out of someone who is a more organized type” Adams stated. However that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone in leadership gets A’s.

“Most kids earn good grades but I did have some no marks last grading period because

some kids couldn’t find a place to plug in,” Adams remarked. Just like any other class, Adams

gives his leadership students tests and projects, where they must form committees and come up with ways to better our school and make activities happen on campus.

While some teachers don’t teach subjects that are hard to grade, they do put their own unique twist to grading meth-ods in order to make their class more like a college class. Take Spanish teacher Kendall Bal-

dridge for example. Baldridge has many unique aspects to his grading system, such as the fact

that he doesn’t retest. “Retest-ing encourages laziness and isn’t what students will find in college…instead I drop the lowest test score” Baldridge stated.

Baldridge also assigns weekly homework so that students can learn how to budget their time, just like they will have to do in college. One part of Baldridge’s class that students won’t find in college? His ex-

perto program that allows all students who score above 85% on all tests to be exempt from

the midterm and final. While Baldridge’s class

focuses on preparing for college, Sharon Gordon-Link’s Spanish classes are more focused on effort and class participation.

“I reward effort and hard work” Gordon-Link stated. In Gordon-Link’s class, students will also find nightly home-work that is meant to reinforce the lesson. “In the foreign languages daily homework is huge because students need to be practicing the lan-guage,” Gordon-Link

explained. Doing the nightly home-

work and actively participating in class might tip a borderline grade in your favor, so keep raising those hands.

Every teacher makes their grading methods clear to their students at the beginning of the class, with a syllabus that is given out to every student so that everyone knows how they are going to be graded.

Grading schemes of teachers around campus

Fall play overview: The Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone play di-

rected by Jason Long reached the audiences imagination on its opening night.

The play included four epi-sodes and if you look at the set before the beginning of every play, one can see the title pro-jected on the wall: “The Shel-ter”, “A World of Difference”, “Will the Real Martian Please Stand up”, and “The Masks”. The cast did a wonderful job putting the hit 1960’s TV show by Rod Serling on stage.

The common themes of aliens, Humanity’s mentality, hopes, vanity, and fears were portrayed during the play. The first thing one sees when enter-ing is the pre-show of four nar-rators/actors sitting at a table playing cards over a smoke and drink. One after one they left the room

At once during “The Shelter”, the scene was set of four fami-lies in a neighborhood celebrat-ing a birthday together. The ac-tors did a great job showing the happy, easy going characteristics in their characters before they introduced the bomb threat in which they had to frantically seek shelter.

The attitudes flipped as panic and survival was the main con-cern and voices were raised. The

friends find they don’t need a bomb to destroy themselves as they fight to be the only family who gets to hide in the bomb shelter.

The stage crew had a speedy set change as the Twilight Zone opening played on the speak-ers. As the lights came back on the new set for “A World of Difference” was an of-fice which consisted of a few tables, chairs and a telephone. A businessman comes in and begins another normal looking day at work, but he soon finds what he believes to be normal as completely wrong.

He learns he is on a produc-tion set and what he thought was his life was actually him act-ing in a show but through over-working.

Like most sets, he finds his getting taken apart and he des-perately tries to make since of what is going on because he doesn’t recognize his boss, ex-wife, or friends.

He believed he is really this character and fights to get back to his wife and family that doesn’t exist in this different world. The

actor does a great job portraying the man’s disparity.

At this time there was a 20 min-ute intermission as the actors and stage crew prepared for the next episode “Will the Real Martian Please Stand up”. In my opinion this was the best performed epi-

sode. It opened with two c o p s invest i -g a t i n g a fallen f l y i n g o b j e c t and find t r a c k s

leading to the nearby diner. There we find the seven passen-gers of a buss all waiting for the bridge to re-open but accord-ing to the buss driver, there was only six passengers on her buss.

The suspicion begins as the search for whoever or whatever came from the UFO begins. The ending had one of the twists typically seen in Twilight Zone episodes which left the audience thinking and captivated.

The next and last performance of the night is “The Masks” in which the audience first sees a woman in a wheel chair and they learn she is really ill.

The ending is foreshadowed as the old mother says she must live at least until midnight as for

her family is coming to visit and she has some business to attend to.

The actors had to really put the personalities of the family as it plays an important part of the episode.

The mother has the family all wear mask the opposite of their personalities and lives. For example, she wears the face of death, for she is still alive.

At first the family refuses, but agree once they find they will get everything of their mother’s

if they wear the masks until midnight, but get nothing if the masks are removed.

Waiting to see what will hap-pen by midnight lets the au-dience’s imagination run wild, everyone anticipating what will happen of the family.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you try to find the time to go down to the theater 7:30 tonight or tomorrow night be-fore it’s too late. The Twilight Zone is a play to see and to get your mind running wild.

Gordon-Link grades papers during her prep Photo Credit: Shannon Harcus

“The common themes of aliens, Humanity’s

mentality, hopes, van-ity, and fears were well portrayed during the

play.”

OPINIONS4Volume XXXVII

Issue 6November 20, 2009

By Alicia SandovalMessenger Staff Writer

Many parents face a problem when deciding whether or not to send their children to public school or to educate them at home. Most parents fear sending their child off to the unknown world that is public school. There are many questions parents must ask themselves regarding public school. Will their child be safe? Will they learn as much as they would in home school? Will they be ridiculed by fellow students? These are all questions to which the answer isn’t very clear and though parents may be looking for a straight, immediate answer they will find that the immedi-ate isn’t as important as the long run.

Children who are home schooled have difficulty making friends. A home schooled child’s only options for a playmate are siblings and if you have an only child this option is ruled out. A lack of friends to socialize with in your developmental years can lead to extreme social awkward-ness as an adult.

Say that you find friends for your child in other places such as church or family friends. Choos-ing a child’s friend for them can lead to many problems, such as bitterness towards parents later in life, not to mention how shel-tered home schooled children can become. They spend nearly every waking moment with their parents and if they aren’t with their parents, they’re with peo-ple chosen by their parents. This puts their life 100% in the con-trol of others, allotting them no freedom to make mistakes and learn from them.

This can go one of two ways: A child who never learns to ques-tion their parents’ control over them will either end up extreme-ly sheltered, unable to function in the real world and extremely socially awkward and unprepared for issues in life, or the child will realize that their life is totally ruled by their parents and feel a deep desire to rebel. In doing so they’ll possibly turn themselves towards drugs, violent behavior

By Clarise BankusMessenger Staff Writer

Home schooling has become more and more popular over the years and what used to seem like an easier way to sleep in and watch television has actually become a way to get the most out of learning.

Looking back on almost 13 years of public schooling, I wonder if I have actually learned the most I could have. Of course from kinder-garten to about 6th grade the entire curriculum is pretty much the same anywhere you go. But as you get older, it seems that every teacher has their own technique of how or what they teach.

I can’t tell you how many times my teacher has skipped over chap-ters in books with the explana-tion that there isn’t enough time to cover it, or it’s not important enough. Why is it the teacher’s choice of what we need to learn? If it’s in the book, then why aren’t we learning it? It seems as though as long as we cover most of the material, then we can pass the test.

Tests. We learn… to take tests. We cover the basics for a week or two, cram as much as we possibly can, and take the test to determine how much we’ve “learned.” How is that considered learning? Tests are what determine your grade, and that’s all that matters, getting an “A.” An average “C” is no longer accepted these days and a “B” is just a failed attempt to get an “A.” Let’s face it, if we didn’t have tests there would be no way to determine our grades, but how much information are we retaining? After the test, there’s no reason to remember the lessons, so what’s the point?

Home schooling has become more efficient than public school-ing, according to recent studies. Dr. Lawrence M. Rudner researched home schooling along with private and public schooling to compare the difference in student learning. Al-most one in four home school stu-dents, which is 25%, were enrolled one or more grades above age level. Working one on one is beneficial because you’re able to learn at your own speed and according to your specific needs. Teachers do their best to help every student, but that can be a rough job after the first 90 students they teach. Home school also eliminates the distractions that

happen often in public schools. But for as long as I can remem-

ber home schooling has always seemed weird or different. I could never imagine not seeing my friends everyday during passing periods or lunch. Home schooling seems like it doesn’t help to develop social skills, but that could actually be a false statement.

When you are home schooled, you have more time to do extra-curricular activities, which can help develop all the social skills you need. If all you do is just sit at home and don’t try to venture into the world, of course you’re not going to learn how to interact with others. It all comes down to the individual themselves, and the choices they make.

If you’re not sitting in a class-room for seven hours per day, there is more time to have fun with your friends, participate in sports or other activities, and have more of a chance to learn as much as you can without the pressure of cramming information in to take a test.

I have no complaints on my years in public schooling. But now look-ing at how home schooling has evolved, I see that I could have bettered my education through home schooling rather than public schooling.

or alcohol in order to break out. So basically, home schooling can lead to either a totally sheltered child who can’t take care of it-self, or a rebellious child whose life will careen down a treacher-ous road of no return. Doesn’t that sound beneficial?

Forget about the social awk-wardness or the alcohol abuse in later life; let’s talk about the im-mediate effect. There’s one clear thing about home schooling that can’t be argued. Parents are not teachers! In most states, includ-ing California, a teaching cre-dential is not necessary to home school a child. They don’t have teaching credentials, they don’t have any teaching skills, a major-ity of parents of this generation don’t even have a college degree! According to the US Census, in 1980 only 17% of Americans graduated from college and in 1975 it was down to 13%. How is the average parent in anyway qualified to educate a child up to the high school level without ac-tually being a teacher?

If the parent isn’t able to ed-ucate their child to an equivalent level of a high school senior, which most probably don’t, then they’ve hit a dead end. There is no such thing as college home school! What is your child sup-posed to do when they abruptly have to live on their own, do much higher level work then they’re prepared for and have to get around completely on their own? According to a statement by the California Federation of Teachers “…Home school-ing, absent the necessary un-derstanding of how children learn, adequate preparation in subject matter areas for the par-ent/teacher, and the fertile give and take of cooperative social interaction in the public school environment, can have a nega-tive overall effect on students. Missing such educational factors will often harm a child’s long-term prospects of developing the attributes of a citizen in our diverse society.”

So therefore, I would say home schooling is excellent if you don’t mind having a child with no life experience, has difficulty working with other people, and is completely unprepared for what they’ll have to face in life. So go ahead and start breeding a generation of close-minded, boxed-in people, it’s not like we don’t have enough.

So Veteran’s Day came and went and the events of Fort hood are still fresh in my head. What happened at Fort Hood has got me thinking. I’ve been thinking about my country, its people, its government, its military, and especially its wars. I’d like to re-mind you that we’ve been at war for the last eight years, so basically my seven year old sister hasn’t known a world at peace. But have any of us ever really known a world at peace? To me it seems war has become a part of our reality, it has become just as normal as going to school or brush-ing your teeth. What kind of world do we live in when war is just a part of everyday life?

I am by no means a supporter of the war. Personally, I believe it’s a waste of both time and money, but most importantly a waste of life. Nearly ev-ery American has been touched by the brutal reality of the war. The death toll has been rising every year and has now reached over 4,000 in Iraq and nearly 1,000 in Afghanistan. I have even lost a cousin to the war in Iraq, killed by

an IED while on patrol as a Humvee rooftop gunner. It wasn not more than a month ago that Auburn lost Placer graduate Joshua Hardt. The war is felt everywhere. Although there may not be guns, and there may not be bombs, the war is definitely here and felt in the hearts of nearly all Americans.

I am very opposed to the wars going on in the Middle East, how-ever that is not to be interpreted as a lack of support for troops. Too many people see support for the war and support for our troops as one in the same. Though I don’t support the war, it doesn’t mean I don’t support the troops. It’s hard to say what exactly our armed forces are fighting for but I know this; I know that back home we should be fighting for the lives of our brothers and sisters overseas. And re-gardless of whether or not we support the war, support should never waiver for our troops.

What I fear the most is what I opened with; violence and war be-coming commonplace. After all from an early age we learn violence. We see it on TV, in movies, on video games; we even see it on the streets and in our front yards. I remember the violent vid-eo games and movies. I remember my childhood heroes nearly all resorted to violence as a means of solving prob-lems. I remember as a child watching two men fight not much farther from my home. I remember watching and thinking, ‘Wow if I’m a good fighter, I can do anything I want.’ I learned vio-lence, a lesson too many people learn

at a young age. What is truly shocking is that no one seems to realize what is being taught to the younger genera-tion. It’s time to wake up.

Maybe I’m wrong though, maybe violence is the only answer and peace is just a dream we’ll always have but never attain. If that’s the case you can sign me up for the Army and ship me out tomorrow, but in reality this will never be the case. Peace is something that seems so foreign, so elusive and though we have the illusion of peace at home, war rages all around us. It seems like the only way we can achieve peace is by shedding blood, but this is just another illusion we all too willingly accept.

In order to achieve peace, we have to break these illusions and rid ourselves of ignorance and indiffer-ence. The war that has touched us all, the violence in the streets, and in our homes; it can all be ended. It’s up to us to demand action now. I’ve said it be-fore and I’ll say it again because I don’t believe most of us realize the power we have as citizens. Something as sim-ple as writing your congressman can make a difference, however I believe the most powerful weapon we have as citizens is our ability to assemble in public against violence and war. And achieving peace at home is as simple as resorting to words and keeping a cool head in a hot situation. We can make change, we can bring peace, it’s simply a question of whether or not we want to get out and speak our minds or just sit and watch the world burn.

Home schooled students have the advantage

Violence can be stopped, your voice counts

Public school has more to offer

5Volume XXXVII

Issue 6November 20, 2009

PERSPECTIVES6Volume XXXVII

Issue 6November 20, 2009

By Savannah Young Messenger Staff Writer

In all the movies and Hallmark cards, Holidays look like the per-fect family time. Christmas has the whole family with the perfect tree with the tinsel and the flash-ing lights. Then there is Thanks-giving with all the fall colors, the big juicy turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing and of course pumpkin pie. The reality of the movies and the cards are far from the truth.

“One time we were going to go to my mothers for a little bit and I set the timer on the oven so the turkey would cook while we were gone. We left and came back two hours later. I went to check on the turkey and it wasn’t cooking. Turns out I didn’t set the timer right and the entire time we were gone the turkey wasn’t cooking. We ate all the other sides but the completely frozen turkey.” says Panfila Lyon.

With nothing left to laugh and move to the nearest restaurant for the new thanksgiving din-ner. Shannon Spears shared her Thanksgiving disaster story; Shannon left a Pyrex bowl on the stove, hoping to keep the

food warm while the other food cooked. She didn’t know that the Pyrex glass bowl would explode with the open flame beneath it. “We are not talking about a little boom we are talking about a big bah-boom!”

There is always the time when someone forgets to cook some part of the dinner and they are in a rush.

“Then there was another time

when we forgot to make the potatoes, so we put them in the microwave for two minutes, they didn’t cook all the way through, so we put them in for a little longer. While the potatoes cooked in the microwave they shriveled up and became very wrinkly. The mash potatoes tasted like cardboard.” Panfila Lyon told.

With all the different ways to

Thanksgiving disasters cook a turkey there is a way to go wrong, there is deep frying, oven slow coking, and of course barbe-quing.

“I barbequed a turkey on a pro-pane barbeque, the propane tank fell off and broke into the house. The barbeque exploded and I went to check the turkey and it was done, it was a tasty turkey,” our very own Mike Pahl admit-ted.

“In the family we always burn the rolls. It is almost an expected thing. It has been passed on through the generations, Grand-ma, Me and my daughter...we are all guilty. One year we were out playing football as a family like we always do, we come into the house and we smell something burning. I opened up the stove and there they were the rolls… on fire. They weren’t just a little

chard no they were on fire. We don’t bake rolls anymore.” Said Susie Sanders.

We are all guilty of having a di-saster at a family function, it is a given some are funnier than oth-ers but without those times how can we learn to appreciate the amazing times and the great food. Hope the Thanksgiving dinner survives this year.

Top 10 hot spots at lunchWe are all looking for

some great places to eat at during lunch aren’t we? There’s the cafeteria, the lawns, or even the track and field. But that’s not where it ends. Due to our open campus, students have found many different places to eat at. Some consider Taco Tree, Mongolian BBQ, or buying food at the local gas stations to get there daily needs and wants. You may think there isn’t much of a variety but other students have found many places to eat at. Garren Prather has chosen three places he described as great quality food, Taco Tree, Mongolian, and Tango; a frozen yogurt place that acts like a buffet. The difference is you pay for the toppings you choose and the amount of the yogurt you take. “It’s a good place to go to when you have the money for a nice treat!” exclaimed Garren Prather. Better make sure you have the money for this delicious treat as explained by Garren. He also says that Mongolian

BBQ is a great place to go to when you want the best noodles and toppings with that perfect blend of sweet and spicy. You can choose anything you want from their buffet and stack your bowl as high as you want. Then, once you’ve done that, you get to choose the exact amount of sweet or spicy sauces you’d like to put into your Mongolian noodles. Other students seem to

agree with him, Nathan Whiteside goes to Taco Tree for their burritos, Tango for their yogurt; at least when he has the money to. He enjoys Burneys Old Fashioned Hot Dogs but not for the hotdogs for their burgers. He says, “Get the Hillmen Special; it comes with fries and a drink.” The Hillmen Special is a special for Placer students only that comes with a burger, drink, and fries.

Nathan also enjoys In and Out Burger for their delectable burgers, also the 4x4 burgers you can get there as well. The Pizza Place is also a hot spot. In fact, when you step in you’ll most likely be at the back pushed up against the wall because of all the students and bodies that fill up that room just for their pizzas. Other students like to go to places like gas stations.

There is 7-11, The Regal, Beacon Store, and Rowdy Randy’s. There, students can get things like sandwiches, chips, candy bars, chocolate, and drinks like Arizona Teas and Energy Drinks such as Monsters and Rock Stars.

Also, to get your sandwich elsewhere, maybe even bigger then that of the gas stations, you could go to A Town Deli. All in all, Taco Tree and Mongolian BBQ seem to be Placer’s favorite places to eat. Not to mention, they are very close to the school. But if you dont mind the drive, In n Out has some aewsome burgers and fries.

By Santa Hart Messenger Staff Writer

Food traditions differ around the world In the United States there is a huge mixture of different cultures and customs, but when they are in their own homeland, their traditions take on a new form. Most commonly in the way the serve and prepare food. Food is a big part of the human and animal life, but there are some places in the world that have many rituals before sitting down to eating. One of which, which isn’t all that different from our home of the United States, is in Africa, the children learn at a very young age that they must wash hands and clap before every meal. Though we may not clap before every meal, hygiene seems to be important in almost every culture. Another thing asked of the children is that they must be silent while the adults eat, and never beg for food. In Africa men always come before women at meals but they also believe that no one eats alone. Africa is also a firm belief in these food traditions and violators of these rules are punished by beatings, and the woman

are seen as self-sufficient and is not unusual to be left with nothing but crumbs. New foods, introduced by others, are usually tasted by the men and if they don’t approve of the

new dish, then it shall not be eaten by any other member of the family; but hospitality is very important to the African people. They will have you do the normal ritual of hand washing, clapping, and offering of food but if you were to

By Melissa Smith Messenger Staff Writer

“Get the Hillmen Special; it comes with fries and a drink.” -Nathan Whiteside, senior

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PERSPECTIVES 7Volume XXXVII

Issue 6November 20, 2009

Food traditions differ around the worldrefuse, it would be seen as a great insult to them. Totemism is also respected, religion is very important to the African people and if there are curtain beliefs about an animal, then they will not serve you that

particular animal. Like Africa, Iran has a lot of customs like removing shoes before entering a room and sitting on soft cushions on the floor. Iran is a culture that’s full of consideration for others and refined manners, and

meal time is full of these characteristics. It is customary for the dinners of Iran to eat all foods with their fingers of their right hand. But short spoons are allowed for soups and soft desserts and like Africa, each meal is preceded by hand washing. Places like Denmark, have some interesting traditions including the fact that the Danish won’t carve the meat on the table, every meal is prepared in the kitchen and then it is severed to guests. Each meal is determined with the seasons, for example, tiny shrimps to which they put on buttered white bread, they also enjoy the first strawberries, new potatoes, and fresh white asparagus of the season. Denmark also tends to have beer with every meal, no matter what time of the day it is. Most of these customs are completely different from one and other but the feelings behind it are all the same. Food is an important part of our life and we take it very seriously.

We see them every day but do we really know what is go-ing on behind the scenes of our very own Placer Caefete-ria? Let’s take a closer look at the kitchen staff pulling fresh pizzas out of the oven and a closer look at the menu offer-ing hamburgers, burritos and fresh salads.

Everyone wants to know what really is going on in the cafeteria, the food, the lunch ladies, how it all gets paid for. The lunch ladies here at Placer cook for over a hundred stu-dents a day and make most of the foods adding there special toppings like the olives and sauces over the burritos.

“At 6:30 a.m we order, the soups, special, and everything that needs to be done”, Debra Foree our lunch ladies says. It’s not an easy job for them, they have to come to work early, prepare, and get all the food cooked for all of the students, and also clean up after the dirty pans, trays, working uten-sils and other messes.

A peek behind the scenes of the cafeteria

“I enjoy feeding the kids ev-eryday, the staff, and of course cooking”, Debra also com-ments. Having lunch ladies that enjoy seeing the students faces everyday is a plus fol-lowed along with there friendly personalities, big smiles, and patience.

What happens with all the leftovers? Do we eat them the next day? Do they get frozen for later? Recently leftovers have been given to the football teams, but everyday they get thrown out or recy-cled. “There really isn’t that many leftovers, but some days there’s quiet a lot, we just throw it out”, Deb-ra commented.

The money coming from the students that are purchas-ing food all goes to a school fund. And the government gives money for the food served here at Placer High.

Alarmed by childhood obe-sity statistics and the prevalence

of unhealthy foods offered to students in schools, they have certain foods that now can’t be sold to schools. Cook-ies, chips, and more foods are unhealthy for lunch at school, but since we have open cam-pus unhealthy food are offered all around by local gas stations, ice cream shops, and mainly fast food restaurants.

The students that can drive have more unhealthy choices of

foods to pick from, because they can drive to fast foods like McDonalds, Taco Bell, Carl’s Jr., and a lot more. And of course when you drive, you’re not go-

ing to walk somewhere.Those underclassmen or

one’s that don’t have there li-cense walk to local places like Taco Tree, The Gas Station, Mongolian Barbeque, Tango, Pizza Place, and Burney’s, which are unhealthy foods, but unfortunately there isn’t a lot of healthy places around cam-pus to eat.

“I enjoy feeding the kids everyday, the staff, and of course cooking”, Debra Foree

By Karah Barger Messenger Staff Writer

One of the beautiful things about America is the cultural mix that has been stirring for many years. Different people from different places come here and bring their traditions with them, and yes, that means food. Even when we go to grocery stores, food that is strange, against the norm, from a different culture can be found. In the seafood section of Savemart one would find an array of interesting fish that one could choose from, like octopus. On display, Savemart has one to two entire raw octopi available. What can one do with octopus? How can one cook it? Here are a few different ways. The meat shrinks while being cooked so one should get a large amount. And it helps to slowly cook it so it isn’t so chewy. Then the options are: bake, sauté, stew, broil,

Weird food available at local grocery stores

By Alex Brigham Messenger Staff Writer

or grill it. Each gives a different flavor to the meat. One Greek recipe calls for stewing the meat in a red wine for a rich flavor. Savemart also sells in the meat section, cow tongue and cow stomach. Cow tongue can be used in many different ways. One of which is in tacos and burritos. Once you take off the top skin, the bumps are barely noticeable, but of course, this is optional. Either way it makes for a good meat for the dish. The stomach can be used in a Mexican dish called Menudo. This dish, made as a hangover remedy, is a spicy soup that contains cow stomach, cow feet, tendons, tripe, and honeycomb. It is said to be a miracle worker, it causes the body to rid itself of toxins by being so hot it causes sweating. It’s eaten with corn tortillas that are dipped in the soup. “[Menudo] was interesting.

I like it though I eat it a lot it’s a different texture,” stated junior Kelsey Mercado. “[tongue] is soft. It doesn’t have a flavor, it’s very plain.” Depending on the store and supply, one can buy thrasher, or other types of shark. The meat tends to be white, and can be cooked in various ways. One can make shark-kabobs with carrots, pineapples, and ginger, or it can be baked with lemon juice salt and French dressing. It can also be grilled and then spiced with lemon, lime and ginger, or fried in a pan. The lower heat the meat is cooked in, the more tender it will be. If it’s cooked the right way, it can be quite delicious. So if it’s adventure one is looking for, look no further than the closest grocery store. Strange and interesting cultural foods are just a frying pan away.

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8Volume XXXVII

Issue 6November 20, 2009

OPINIONS 9Volume XXXVII

Issue 6November 20, 2009

Editor-in-Chief: JD Avila Features Editor: Britny ChristineNews Editor: Amy Van Groningen

Opinions Editor: Cait CullenPerspectives Editor: TaNee Edwards

Sports Editor: Kathryn RealeOnline Editor: Claire McCoy

Design Editor: Alicia SandovalAds Manager: Clarise Bankus

Business Manager: Melissa SmithCopy Editor: Tierra Schroeder, Shauna Kean

Reporters: Karrah Barger, Ian Bechler, Alex Brigham, Colin Brown, Rachel

Church, Alyssa Harben, Shannon Harcus, Santa Hart, Zac Hersh, Shauna Kean,

Claire McCoy, Mackenzie McGown, Laura Molnar, Laura Nash, Nicole Parrish,

Alicia Sandoval, Tierra Schroeder, Melissa Smith, Savannah Young

Adviser: Dan Wilson

Mission Statement: The Hillmen Messenger is dedicated to providing an open forum of expression and producing a newspaper of quality based upon profes-sional standards of accuracy, objectivity, and fair play so that students, faculty, administration and the public can gain insight into student thinking and con-cerns. All students and staff are welcome to send letters to the Hillmen Mes-senger. Letters can be brought to room 306 or e-mailed to phsnews@puhsd.k12.ca.us. All letters must include name and first period class. The Hillmen Messen-ger reserves the right to edit letters for content, size, or spelling.

Hillmen Messenger

By Tierra SchroederMessenger Staff Writer

P.E. classes lack long-term skill building

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so why are people al-ready talking about Christmas? If I remember correctly, Christmas is 29 days after Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving hasn’t even hap-pened yet. Now don’t get me wrong; I love Christmas. I don’t want to come off as another Christmas scrooge, but I feel like the premature celebration of Christmas is upstaging its true meaning and the joy that comes with the Christmas season. Christmas seems to be cel-ebrated earlier and earlier every year. There were already Christ-mas decorations for sale in stores even before Halloween, and Christmas music is already being played in early November. Christ-mas movies are released earlier and earlier, such as A Christmas Carol which hit theatres on No-vember 6. The iconic Rockefeller Tree was put on display in New York City on November 12. When turning on the radio or opening a newspaper, holiday sales are already dominating the advertisement section. Am I the only one who sees this as wrong? Am I the only person who thinks it unnecessary to celebrate a holi-day that occurs on December 25 as early as November 1? All of this early celebration seems to ruin Christmas before it has even occurred. By the time Christmas Day rolls around, ev-eryone seems to be ready for the holidays to be over. We are tired of stressing out over which gifts to buy. We are done listening to the Christmas music that radio

stations start playing a month in advance. We are ready for normal life to commence. The months of Christmas celebration leave a bad taste in our mouths, and we don’t get to truly appreciate such a special day since we have already been celebrating it for weeks and even months in advance. If the Christmas celebration began in December, by New Year’s Eve we’d be able to end the holidays on a good note without being sick of it. Advertising has taken over the holiday of Christmas. The idea of giving has gone over-board with people feeling that material goods are what Christ-mas is all about. Advertising companies have taken control over a holiday that at one time had solely religious purposes. I feel that Christmas celebrated in November ruins the entire point of the Christmas season. It’s supposed to be a carefree time of year where people have the opportunity to spend time with loved ones and appreciate traditions. Instead, the stress rate soars because everyone is trying to figure out how to afford the material possessions they feel ob-ligated to give in order to show that they love and care about im-portant people in their lives. I love Christmas traditions, but it seems that gift-giving is the main focus of the most popular holiday in America. A poll re-leased by the BBC revealed that one in four children think that Christmas is about giving and 75% of children feel that Christ-mas is all about getting gifts. I don’t know about you, but I find all of this disturbing. Christmas shouldn’t just be about presents. We shouldn’t start cel-ebrating it in late October, and we should remember that Christ-mas is more than the gifts we are supposed to buy and the days we spend thinking about it.

By Laura MolnarMessenger Staff Writer

Holidays belong in December

Every student at Placer is required to take two years of physical education, better known as P.E., before graduating. This includes, for the most part, some kind of exercise on a daily basis. But exactly what part of physical education is…educational?

For most students P.E. is a mundane chore that simply must be checked off of their required classes list. The daily mile gets old quickly and the games don’t have much effect either. And a lot of the daily allotted hour and a half of P.E. is spent waiting to get started because kids take too long to dress down.

Physical education is an important class that should be taken seriously, especially considering the growing amount of obese kids in the United States. In this day and age, where even young kids choose playing on the com-puter over playing outside and a salad at McDonald’s is considered “health food,” it’s so important for kids to make physical activity a habit. But how is P.E. forming healthy habits when only two years are required and it consists mainly of run-ning a repetitious mile?

“Ideally, [students] find something they like to do and form good habits from that,” stated Ron Hyatt, Physical Education Department Chair.

This class, like other classes in high school, should prepare us for the lives we have ahead of us and equip us with knowledge and information about the subject at hand. Sure, running the mile every day is great for freshman and sophomore year, but what about junior and senior year and beyond? Juniors and seniors who took P.E. as underclassmen didn’t leave with any knowledge of how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. All they did

is run the mile. It goes back to the old saying that states, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; you have fed him for a lifetime.”

P.E. should be about teaching kids healthy habits that can lead to a longer, healthier life. Many kids simply don’t have good examples of healthy lifestyles at home. Whether their parents have of-fice jobs and don’t promote frequent ex-ercise or the meals served aren’t healthy, plenty of parents just don’t have time to set a good example to their kids. Among other reasons, this is why it is so impor-tant to teach life long habits in P.E.

A big problem in P.E. classes is the fact that half of the class is spent in transition; kids are changing from regular clothes to P.E. clothes, going from the gym to the

track, from the track to the gym, and changing back into their clothes. When truly counted, each class period only consists of maybe 30 minutes of actual physical activity at the most. But imagine trying to herd more than 30 kids from place to place in a timely fashion.

“Kids don’t come into high school knowing how to participate like they used to…I wish kids were ready to go when we were,” commented Hyatt.

The fact that our P.E. classes aren’t highly impacting definitely can’t be blamed entirely on the teachers. Much of the wasted time in P.E. is caused by rowdy students who can’t follow direc-tions. Another big problem for physi-

cal education is budget cuts. Without money from the state we can’t provide state-of-the-art equipment for our P.E. classes. And when it comes to funding, the community often looks down upon physical education as a real class and therefore, it receives less funding than core classes.

“[P.E. classes] should have a lot of variety, and with budget cuts, it’s hard. You no longer have four years of P.E. in high school. You spend a lot of time teaching kids how to participate, and time is wasted,” added Hyatt.

While the P.E. classes that we pro-vide at Placer right now are beneficial and good for students to take, there are ways that they could be improved to

form impacting, life-long habits for students.

“We should do more of a variety of things to improve the healthiness of kids,” said Haley Charles, a junior who has completed her two years of P.E.

If students took P.E. seriously and there wasn’t so much down time in ev-ery class period, P.E. wouldn’t have to be looked at as a chore or a waste of time. There are ways, through activities, les-sons and projects, that physical educa-tion classes could be improved to have an impact on high school students that could carry over into their adult lives, making their lives better and healthier.

Photo credit: Tierra SchroederP.E. students demonstrate a lack of activity.

SPORTS10 Volume XXXVIIIssue 6

November 20, 2009

By Claire McCoyMessenger Staff Writer

Getting called up in sports means that you have improved enough during the season that the coaches feel you are ready to compete in the next level of play in any sport. In the profession-al baseball system the players have to go through three differ-ent leagues to play in the MLB, which is very similar to the way the high school sports system works. Now that our varsity football team has made the play-offs, it’s time for our JV players to get the call up to experience the big time, which in this case is the varsity football team.

“I feel good about going to varsity, it will be a good experi-ence,” said Lance Burton.

The coaches call up the young players because having the extra players provides a huge advan-tage for both the varsity players and JV players. Getting to play for the varsity team is an oppor-tunity for the JV football players because it allows them to experi-ence what the level of play will be like next year.

“It’s a good opportunity to get the feeling of what a varsity practice is like,” said sophomore Tanner Jay. However there is a pretty large size and experience difference between JV and var-

sity players. “I think it’s exciting but……a

little bit scary. I’m a little ner-vous to get hit by all the varsity players,” said Jordan Ralls soph-omore. Joe Mangino also had similar thoughts.

“Its going to be cool but I’m just worried about getting hit by all the varsity players, but I think it will be a good experience for me.” All the JV players that are moving up have one shared thought in their minds and that’s to help the varsity team win the championship game this year.

“I’m going up because I think going to varsity will be cool, I hope I can go up and help the team go the championship,” said sophomore Casey Sabins.

As well as being an advantage for the JV players to move up its also a huge advantage for the varsity players. Having the ex-tra players provides them with an extra backup player, if a first string player gets hurt and it also gives them a practice advantage by having more kids.

“I think it’s a great chance for them. I would have been psyched if I got to move up as a JV player,” said Jake Styler se-nior. Hopefully, the new addi-tions to the varsity team will be just what the team needs to suc-ceed this year.

By Zac HershMessenger Staff Writer

Promising JV players move up to varsityWith playoffs on the hori-zon, JV players have the op-portunity to play varsity

Senior Colleen Stafford is an essential player on the girl’s varsity volleyball team this sea-son. The girl’s volleyball team has had a season to remember and certainly never forget.

Many of the players were affected by the current wide-swept H1N1 flu virus, caus-ing them to miss sev-eral practices and a few of the matches. Even due to this, the varsity girl’s volleyball team has worked off of that in a positive way and has earned the reputation of be-ing hardworking, sup-portive and a close-knit team.

Although there are numerous seniors on the team, Colleen Stafford is one of the seniors that shines and stands out. She started playing volley-ball in 6th grade for a club team that her dad started called Granite Bay Ex-treme. Her dad is currently the coach at William Jessup Univer-sity. Stafford at-tended Granite Bay high school for her fresh-man and sopho-more years of high school. Her junior year, she changed schools and came to Placer where a large number

of her friends were. She played volleyball at Granite Bay High School but then was intro-duced to the atmosphere of Placer volleyball. Compared to Granite Bay volleyball, Staf-ford has had a much better and enjoyable experience playing

for Placer. “The camaraderie on the

Placer team is much better and it’s a lot more fun,” she express-es without a doubt.

S t a f f o r d continues to play club vol-leyball and is attending

tryouts for NCVC, Northern California Volleyball Club,

this month. She hopes to earn a spot on the team there and show how hard she has worked this season for Placer. This season, she played setter and sometimes right outside hitter.

“I think that I’m a better set-ter but I like to hit whenever

I can play that posi-tion,” she stated.

Someone like Col-leen Stafford, who has an experience of playing volleyball for 7 years, should defi-nitely consider play-ing volleyball in col-lege. She is going to be touring a college called Trinity West-ern in Vancouver, Canada and hopes to play for them after she graduates high school.

There are many things that can be learned and obtained not just from playing volleyball but from playing any team sport. Volleyball in-volves a lot of com-munication out on the court and it is im-

portant to have team chemis-try. Stafford’s favorite element and part of volleyball is getting close, learning from and bond-ing with girls that have the same goals and passions as she does.

“Volleyball has taught me to never give up in anything and not underestimate the poten-tial that I have, not just on the court, but off the court as well. You can do a lot by yourself but you can do more than ex-pected with a team.”

By Amy VanGroninganNEWS EDITOR

The Athlete of the issue: Colleen Stafford

With the end of fall sports, comes the beginning of winter sports.

In the winter, Placer has numerous sports to offer. Whether a spectator or an ath-lete, there is something for ev-eryone.

Placer has five sports in the winter. These sports are boys basketball, girls basketball, wrestling, snowboarding, and skiing. All of these sports programs have a promising season ahead of them.

Boys basketball is already off to a good start. They started practice on November 10.

Michael Jensen, varsity bas-ketball player, commented, “We can’t wait to start. Ever since the end of last season we have been preparing to have success our senior year.”

Last year, the team often only lost by a few points to a

few key teams, and this year thay are working even harder, and hope for finish strong, maybe even undefeated.

“We’ve been lifting and con-ditioning,” explained Jensen. “We’re not tall, but we make up for out lack of height with cha-risma and heart.”

This year, the team has a large amount of se-niors, all of which are well experi-enced and have played together for a long time.

“I think we have a good chance to win league,” Jensen finished.

The girls basketball team also has high hopes for this year.

This year, Tony Camalucci is coaching the girls once again, instead of Scott Barry.

Senior Kayla Reeves, who played for Barry last year, ex-

plained, “It’s different because they have different styles.”

The goal for the girls team isn’t much different than the boys. Success is always a goal.

“[The goal is] basically to

make it to playoffs cause last year was the first time in ten years or so we didn’t make it, so we want to do out best to get there this year,” Reeves elaborated.

In order to succeed, prepa-ration is key.

“We have pre-season games. We travel and go to Redding and tournaments,” Reeves said.

Last year, the girls ski team were extremely successful.

“We won state,” stated Shan-non O’Flaherty, “The boys will be better this year.”

Along with the desire to win state again, O’Flaherty

expressed the goal to “just be the best look-ing ones on the hill and to beat them.”

Last year the Davis Devils were the biggest competition, and they are once again.

In terms of prepa-ration, the ski team is pretty much all ready

prepared.“We have dry land condi-

tioning, but most of us are already in shape,” O’Flaherty commented.

The snowboard team also has dry land contitioning.

“We run and play ultimate frizbee and get to know one another,” said senior Erika Steppig.

“Volleyball has taught me to

never give up in anything and not

underestimate the potential that I

have...”

Winter sports expected to take over PVLJust like the ski team, the

snowboard sets the bar high.“[We hope to] win states

again because we were state champions last year and we’d like to repeat that. We have Caty O, so it’ll happen,” Step-pig commented. “I think it’s going to be pretty radical. Hopefully we’ll get lots of snow!”

Last, but definitely not least, is the wrestling team.

Andrew Naleway, junior, ex-plained, “I am excited for sea-son to start because I want to excel.”

Luckily, this year the team is getting a lot of freshmen with experience, so hopes are high.

“[We’re] looking for a sec-tion title,” Aaron Maddox, se-nior, said. “It will be hard be-cause Oakdale is good, but we definitely have a chance.”

With all the goals of each sport in reach, this sports sea-son is sure to be a good one.

“We’ve been lifting and con-ditioning,” explained Jensen. “We’re not tall, but we make up for out lack of height with

charisma and heart.”-Michael Jensen,

senior

SPORTS 11Volume XXXV1

Issue 6November 20, 2009

By Nicole ParishMessenger Staff Writer

Turkey Bowl a long lasting tradition through the holiday season

Thanksgiving is all about big meals, turkey dinners, reuniting families, giving thanks, and best of all the excitement of the one and only TURKEY BOWL.

Turkey bowl has been held for 40 years and is a huge tradi-tion held at Placer High School. Started by the Harrison family, it has brought many families to-gether on Thanksgiving Day.

The turkey bowl is a fun and exciting event held every year. The game lasts an hour with a halftime break in between and the game everyone participates in is flag football.

At halftime the little kids, ages 5-12 get to play on the placer high field wearing hand-me down jerseys from previ-ous football years. Sometimes the game can get a little rough but it doesn’t happen to often. In previous years the game has caused some injuries but not too

many. There have been cases of some injuries such as, dislocat-ed knees and broken arms. It’s only a flag football game but the sport football is an all around danger-ous sport. Family members usually go out and have a good time Thanksgiving Day at the Turkey Bowl.

Coach Senior Ro-darte said, “It used to just be family members that are part of the football team, however my middle son “flying Ryan Rodarte” be-came good friends with the Harrison’s and Hamilton’s. Now 3 sons play including the father ‘young money’ in the turkey bowl.”

Usually the quarterback is from the family who started the game. Every year at the end of

the game they give out MVP award and humanitarian awards to the standout players that day. Everybody enjoys the game and

has a

great time. This is a great way to build up a huge appetite before turkey dinner. Usually the game is after Placer Highs Varsity

football practice. Football play-ers don’t really get much of a thanksgiving break if they have made it to playoffs. Because p l a c e r has an outstand-ing foot-ball team they get to prac-tice from 8 in the mor n ing to 11.

“ T h e best prac-tice of the year is thanks-g i v i n g mor n ing b e c a u s e you know you had a great season and you know that you’re one of the only teams in your division practic-ing,” Coach Joey Montoya ex-

plained. However, football isn’t the

only team practicing. Boys and girls basketball have practice ev-

eryday during the thanksgiving break, usually with the consistent time as if there was school that day. Placer High School sports work very hard throughout the days when everyone else is at home grubbing up on turkey and mash potatoes. But then again, there is the Turkey bowl that families also get to participate in on Thanksgiving Day. The families get to see a preview

of what it’s like running on a day that is dedicated to giving thanks and eating big, delicious dinners.

Photo Credit: www.fotosearch.com

“The best prac-tice of the year is thanksgiving

morning because you know you

had a great sea-son and you know that you’re one

of the only teams in your division

practicing,”-Coach Montoya

Students, staff and player’s fired up for tonights game

This Friday Placer Football will play its first home play-off game in twenty some odd years. Placer (9-1) and ranked number three in their bracket will have to face the opponent, Foothill (7-3), and ranked number six in the division.

Placer credits their suc-cesses throughout the regu-lar season with their hard work in the off-season.

“I think we have worked hard and the hard work has paid off… We have had a good season. 9-1 is nothing to sneeze at. The last time that we had this record was in 2001,” stated Placer football coach Rick Lopez.

Placer senior line-man Jake Styler believes that even though Placer has seen some success throughout the regular season, the team still has much to prove.

“I think we have played pretty good but we haven’t had our best game yet, but that’s why there is still playoffs”.

Its no secret that the Placer football team is excited about the big game. As senior Jake Styler states, “I

am super psyched to be a part of it, the stands are gonna be packed since it’s the first home playoff game since 1980. All I’m worried about is giving the fans a good show and getting

a win”.But Foothill will not be the

kind of team that will go down without a fight as coach Lopez

explains, “Foothill is a tough team, they got a good running back and some solid linemen”.

By Colin BrownMessenger Staff Writer

Senior Brandon Pope also believes that Foothill is a sol-id team but also believes that Placer will come out on top. “They’re a decent team and they’re big and got a lot of tal-

ent but I think we are better coached.”

Although Placer will have their hands full with Foothill, they can still not get the idea of a rematch with their sole loss, Lincoln, out of the back of their minds.

“We are taking it one game at a time but we are definitely looking

forward to a rematch with Lin-coln,” explained Junior quar-terback Collin Burnett.

Lincoln, (10-0) is undefeated and ranked number one in the division. Although anything can happen in the playoffs, the only probable time that Placer could see a rematch with Lincoln this season would be in the Section Championship Game. From the beginning of the season Placer has made winning the section title their goal.

“We are pretty happy with our season so far. We wanted to be undefeated, but 9-1 is still pretty good,

and we are still aiming for a section title,” stated Pope.

“We are pretty happy with our season so far. We wanted to be unde-feated, but 9-1 is still pretty good, and we are still aiming for a

section title,” -Brandon Pope,

senior

Placer Hillmen take on the Foothill Mustangs tonight for the 2009 section title

Q-Man: What are you looking forward to at tonights game?

“I hope that we win!”

-Bailey Swender,freshmen

“I think we are going to beat them very

badly. I can’t wait to hang out in the Gold Mine with all of my

friends!”-Kyle Wells,sophomore

“We’re gonna win. I am excited because

we haven’t had home playoff game

since 1981.”-Zach Scott,

junior

“I think we have worked hard and the hard work has paid off...We have had a good season. 9-1 is

nothing to sneeze at.” -Rick Lopez

NEWSVolume XXXVII

Issue 6November 20, 200912

By Shannon HarcusMessenger Staff Writer

The expenses of senior year real ly add up as the school year goes on, and this year ’s seniors are beginning to take a hit f inancia l ly.

Many of the things our seniors have to pay for are uonavoidable, and neces-sar y for g raduat ion. Caps and gowns, for example, are impor tant for g raduat ion, and wi l l cost seniors at least twenty-four dol lars, that is i f they choose not to order g raduat ion announcements or a status tassel .

However, i f one takes a c loser look at the Josten’s paperwork, they wi l l f ind that on top of the twenty-four dol lars, there is a $9.50 handl ing fee as wel l as sa les tax.

Col lege appl icat ions are another aspect of senior year that are cost ing se-niors hundreds of dol lars. Each col lege appl icat ion costs around 60 dol lars, and with the appl icat ion you must send off ic ia l test scores, which cost about 10 dol lars per school to send. Senior Erin Gunter, is who planning on applying to 14 schools, wi l l end up paying quite a bit of money just for appl icat ions, even though 3 appl icat ions are free.

“It wi l l cost me 60 dol lars per UC School and around 100 dol lars for each private school , and I wi l l have to pay to send my test scores,” Gunter stated. However, students have to remember that this cost is an invest-ment in their future.

Another expense that se-niors are spending their money on is c lass r ings. Class r ings star t at about 100 dol lars and just go up from there. Potentia l ly a student could spend about 800 dol lars on a class r ing, i f they wanted real gold and actual stones. These r ings are guaranteed by Josten’s to last a l i fet ime, and free stone replacement and re-s iz ing are included in the cost . Students can custom-ize their r ings at www.jos-tens.com and make i t rep-resent their four years at Placer High School .

Senior Por trai ts are anoth-er expense that seniors are having to spend their money on. While the senior pictures that Fi lmworks took for the yearbook were free, most parents want other pictures of their g raduat ing senior. This is where i t gets expen-sive. Most photographers charge a s i t t ing fee, as wel l as the price of the picture prints. Some students are f inding ways to reduce this cost by taking the pictures themselves.

Senior Nicole Hil lstead is one of those people. “I learned how to take self por trai ts in Photo 1, so I thought I ’d save myself some money and take my pictures with a tr ipod,” Hil l -stead said.

Not only did Hil lstead save a lot of money, she a lso had a lot more freedom with edit ing and locat ion.

“I had a lot more freedom to por tray my personal i ty rather than being posed by someone who doesn’t know me,” Hil lstead explained.

Baby ads are yet another expense that seniors are spending money on. Baby ads are a fun way for par-ents to show their seniors how proud they are, how-ever they do cost a good amount of money. For an eighth of a page, the cost is 60 dol lars, for a quar ter of a page, the cost is 115 dol-lars, half a page is 220 dol-lars, and for a ful l page the cost is 375 dol lars. This cost includes pictures as wel l as a cer ta in amount of words for a message. Even though the f irst deadl ine for baby-ad’s has come and gone, yearbook business manager Bai ley Potts stated that the yearbook has extended their deadl ine.

“We didn’t have as many baby ads as we expected, so we have a lot of pages left…we have extended the dead-l ine so that more people can get theirs in.”

Apparently, the number of baby ads, which is at 139 r ight now, is s ignif icantly lower than where i t was at last year. Potts attr ibutes this decrease to the econo-my, and because of i t some students have decided to spend their valuable money on other things.

“Being a senior is expen-sive,” stated Lucas Stancl iff, and that def inite ly seems to be the case.

With caps and gowns, se-nior pictures, col lege ap-pl icat ions, c lass r ings, baby ads, and for some a senior tr ip, i t seems l ike seniors and their parents are con-stant ly writ ing checks and charging their credit cards.

On top of this, there are nor mal expenses that many students must pay for, such as gas and school events, and many students are star t-ing to feel the f inancia l stra ins.

Potts explained, “I pay for what I can, but my parents help me out a lot .”

Senior year is supposed to be memorable, so prior i -t ize on what to spend your money on based on what’s impor tant to you.

In May of 2009, Maine changed a law which then in turn made gay mar-riage legal. On November 3rd, voters repealed that decision, making Maine the 31st state to take away the right to marry from the gay and lesbian com-munity, which left them with domestic partnership as the only other alterna-tive.

In a vote taken Tuesday Novem-ber 3rd only 53% of the voters voted against allowing gay marriage.

“I don’t think that people should be married to the same sex, so I think it’s ok,” said sophomore Peyton Sum-mers.

This was the first time that voters have repealed a legislative action, all the other times gay marriage rights have been repealed the public was voting against a court ruling, such as Proposi-tion 8 in last November’s election here in California.

If the proposition would have passed, it would have been the first time in the United States History that a state legalized gay marriage based on a popular vote by the people. Despite the fact that the popular vote has not allowed gay marriage in any states, the popular vote has made amendments to 31 states’ constitutions to ban gay mar-riage in those states.

The majority of the voters that vot-ed to keep gay marriage legal were in general the voters who have a “live and let live” attitude. They are also the same voters that voted for Obama in the last presidential election. Many voted the way they did because they did not want

to get into other people’s personal life and tell them who to love and how to love them.

One of the arguments that the op-position of gay marriage had was that gay marriage has been forced on the states where it is legal by courts and legislature, since no popular vote has legalized it in any state.

The five states where homosexual marriage is legal: Massachusetts, Ver-mont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Iowa, all allowed gay marriage by a court ruling or legislative action, not by the citizens of the state voting.

Many people have speculated that if the proposition had passed, that Cali-fornia would have retried allowing gay marriage and that New York and New Jersey would have more support with

their gay rights movements.The Pro-Gay Rights leaders plan on

continuing to fight for equal marriage rights until they are successful. They have decided to not stop fighting so that they have the same rights and privileges in their romantic and family relationships as straight couples.

“I think that people should be en-titled to what they want to do without consent from others,” explained junior Damian Borja.

The manager of the campaign for gay marriage said,

“We’re in this for the long haul. For next week, and next month, and next year — until all Maine families are treated equally. Because in the end, this has always been about love and fam-ily and that will always be something worth fighting for.”

Gay marriage no longer legal in Maine

By Alyssa HarbenMessenger Staff Writer

Senior expenses emptying the wallet

Writer of the Issue:Laura Molnar

The Hillmen Messenger write of the issue is Laura Molnar. Laura is a talented writer and handles two sto-ries a week with a great attitude. Her stories are turned in on time, and she doesn’t complain with any last min-

ute errands that need to be done. Congratulations, and

thank you for your hard work and great attitude!