The Northmen’s LogFriday, January 28, 2011 Oak Park High School Issue 6, Volume 46

Pommies prepare for

regionalspage 2

By: Aggie RiegerEditoral Editor

It’s seniors Derrius Ivy and Jose Marroquin versus a 300-pound block of ice. The temperature is roughly 34 degrees, and judges and ice carvers say it is not cold enough. There are 10 student en-tries, but only three will place. It is a freezing chal-lenge; it is the Eighth An-nual Ice Fest at the Coun-try Club Plaza.

“Oh no, we got a crack,” said Ivy, of the Northland Career Center.

The crack she re-ferred to was on her ice sculpture, which she and partner Marroquin had two hours to create before judging started.

“We have a little one here. If I were to keep going, this entire piece would snap off,” Ivy said.

Not so simpleIce sculpting is no

simple task.“Ice sculpting is tri-

al and error, watching someone else doing it and gaining their trust,” said Paul Santaularia, Ivy’s culinary arts instructor at the NCC. “It’s not some-thing you can walk up to and say ‘do it’.”

Spectators were clear-ly impressed with how students handled the high level of difficulty.

“You can really see the design coming through,” said spectator Pam Pirkle, as she watched Ivy and Marroquin chip away at their ice with 20 minuets left to carve. “It’s hard to believe this was just a big block before.”

Competitors re-

ceived one, and one only, block of ice, measuring 48x12x20 inches.

“[We’re looking for] technique, cleanliness, work, uniformity, perfec-tion, professionalism,” said Jean Guypruneau, a master chef in the Kansas City area and judge in the professional division.

“The professionals have a lot more experi-ence, that’s why they’re not in the same class,” said fellow judge Gerold Janzen.

Talent was apparent in both divisions and in all entries, but as Janzen said, experience proved to be a gap between stu-dents and professionals.

“Most, if not all [of the students] have carved once or twice. I’m im-pressed with the raw tal-ent. They’re diamonds in the rough,” said Jeff Ad-dison of Cool Carvings in Grandview.

Learning the craft

Cool Carvings gave lessons prior to compe-tition and provided ice blocks to the Ice Fest at discounted prices. A les-son from Cool Carvings was the only experience most students received prior to competition.

“Technically they’re free styling,” said Ivy’s mother Lakecia Hollo-way, watching from the sidelines.

The lesson, lasting roughly four hours, pro-vided interested students with basic information on carving.

“We taught a lot of technique, showed them

how to use tools, and safe-ty was another topic,” Ad-dison said.

NCC students and Johnson County Com-munity College students, competed in the Ice Fest.

“I offered this to all students as an opportu-nity; 29 students chose not to take it,” Santaularia said. “These five students did.”

Spectators and judges were proud of the student entries.

“I think the appren-tices are doing better than the professionals. They’ve got more heart, more hard work,” Guypruneau said.

Ice carving was an extra activity for the NCC students.

Ice carving has a his-tory in the culinary arts. Pieces are often also used in hotels for banquets and other events - the fate of the Ice Fest’s winning ice sculptures.

“It’s simply another part of culinary arts. It’s expression and another way to do the craft. It’s all about the craft,” said Jim Long, chef and parent of student competitor Dan Long.

Long coached his son from the sidelines, hol-lering instructions within the last 15 minutes of competition. A few carv-ing stations to the left, Ivy and Marroquin were fin-ishing up as well.

“I’m not really feeling the pressure,” Ivy said.

Her partner Marro-quin agreed.

“I think we’ll have most of what we wanted when the time comes,” said Marroquin.

Freezing to winWhile they did not

feel panicked, they sure felt the cold.

“It’s intense because it’s so cold and there’s so much ice and I can’t feel my fingers,” Ivy said.

Later, she reflected on the temperature again.

“My entire body was cold because I was literal-ly lying in the ice trying to get under the sculpture.”

The cold may have caused several numb toes and fingers, but helped the competitors.

“It’s not too cold and the sun’s not shining. When the sun shines, the ice cracks,” Janzen said.

Still, many argued the weather could have been colder. The origi-nal ice blocks were crys-tal clear, but when 2 p.m. approached and judging began, many blocks were cloudy despite pouring water over the finished sculptures.

“The reason the ice is cracking and cloudy is be-cause of the temperature and wind, the ice is dete-riorating quickly,” Addi-son said.

Ideal ice carving con-ditions are below freezing, around 26 or 28 degrees, according to Janzen.

Some like it hotWhile the cold might

not have been enough for competitors, for some spectators it was too much. Starbucks Coffee warmed them up with free coffee.

“It’s part of our com-munity relations,” said café ambassador Jim

Brown, who handed out the coffee. “We just love to support the community and what we do. We love the Plaza.”

Soon, time was up and competitors had to step away from their piec-es.

“Some did pretty well, some didn’t do so well, but that’s just how ice sculpting is,” Smith said.

He commented on Ivy and Marroquin’s cre-ation.

“I like the fact that they incorporated a lot of different things. They might have been better doing something simpler. But with as ambitious as they are, they did very well,” he said. “With the amount of time, they didn’t have enough time to do this elaborate of a design. But that’s how chefs are; they’re too am-bitious.”

Their design fit the theme - Kansas City tra-dition.

“We sat down during class one day and put it together and thought it looked really cool,” said Marroquin.

After the carvingBoth Marroquin and

Ivy were proud.“I had a lot of fun, I

really enjoyed myself. I don’t care about the re-sults. I never thought I could be carving ice,” Ivy said, before the awards were presented.

In the student di-vision, third place was awarded to James Mc-Causland of JCCC. Sec-ond place went to Erica

Tatham and Tony Crane of the NCC, and first place to Matt Baker.

“I think for the first time, not getting any-thing, we’ll be good. It was fun. It was fun being here,” Marroquin said.

Winning pieces were transported to the Mue-hlebach Hotel for an in-augural ball of the Great-er Kansas City Restaurant Association. Other pieces were at first meant to be destroyed.

“We have to get the street open,” Addison said.

Starbucks intervened in the plans of destruc-tion.

“They spent so much time working on them. I’d hate to see them de-stroyed immediately just to clear the street,” said Starbucks employee Kelly McDonald.

Instead, sculptures were brought onto the café deck to be displayed for as long as they last.

“We’re rescuing them, like dogs,” said manager Kevin Marshal.

With the ice sculp-ture rescue, the Ice Fest was over. Still, spirits re-mained high.

“[Ivy is] always cheer-ful, very colorful. She’s very interested, very mo-tivated, an asset to herself and doing what it takes to be successful,” Santau-laria said.

Both Ivy and Mar-roquin plan to continue carving and competing in the future.

“How many times do you get to carve ice in your life,” Ivy said at the end of competition with a laugh.

Senior Derrius Ivy uses a six-prong pick to carve her Kansas City tradition-themed ice sculpture. This was Ivy’s first time participating in an ice-sculpting contest. Her partner was a fellow classmate in her NCC culi-nary arts class, senior Jose Marroquin. Photo by Kim Green, Photo Editor

Freeze frame

Seniors Derrius Ivy and Jose Marroquin compete at was held at the Country Club Plaza on Saturday, Jan 22. They both attend the Northland Career Center. The team was com-peting against eight other student participants. Photo by Kim Green, Photo Editor

By: Courtney KelleyEditor In Chief

Oak Park came through when students were in need of help. Whether there was a death and money was raised for the family, or a house fire where the fam-ily was left with only the clothes on their backs. In this case a student, junior Ray Saari was diagnosed with testicular and lung cancer.

“I feel really good, it helps to have support it makes things much bet-ter,” Saari said.

Saari’s family has re-ceived donations to his fund, along with money, gifts and gift cards.

“My family and friends are very support-ive and encouraging, they

always try and stay posi-tive,” Saari said.

Many students took matters into their own hands. Students made t – shirts with Saari’s name on the back and a Super-man sign on the front. Al-most all of the soccer play-ers shaved their heads for Saari.

“I shaved my head to show support and that I will be with him through the start and end of this,” said senior Mustafa Salih-begovic. “People with love and passion can survive anything.”

At the winter assem-bly on Friday, Dec. 17, students and staff shaved their heads to support the cause. Many barely knew Saari, or had not even met him.

“It was a good cause,

I had not even met Ray until the other day,” said drivers’ education teacher Tom Stout.

Others had differ-ent reasons, including Kim Wohlford, whose grandson, Xander, has cancer and he shaved his head not only to support Saari, but his grandson also. Others just shaved their head because they thought it was the right thing to do.

“The soccer guys are all nice guys, other teachers signed up and I thought it was the right thing to do,” said tech-nology specialist Todd Beeck.

“Thank you everyone who has helped or who have shown how much they care, it means a lot,” Saari said.

Staff members shave heads in support of student fighting cancer

Smiling proudly Kim Wohlford gets his head shaved by his grandson, who has fought brain cancer, in support of junior Ray Saari. Photo by: Dylan Kinder, photographer

Sitting tall, substitute teach-er Joel Pabon has his head shaved in support of junior Ray Saari, during the winter assem-bly on Friday, Dec 17. Photo by: Dylan Kinder, photographer

lifestylespage2 Friday, Jan. 28, 2011

Adaptive P.E. uses teacher assistantsLauren Grace

Lifestyles Editor

Fourth hour, a group comes together for a memorable time to play basketball, octopus and dodge ball as though it was the battle of 300.

Adaptive P.E. is a class for students with physical limitations or who may take special education classes.

Thursday, Dec. 16, the class took its finals just like everyone else in the school. Before class began, they played some basketball and others reunited with hugs, be-fore winter break. All the teacher assistants lined up against the wall as the stu-dents tried to recite their

names. “I was scared, I

thought I was going to fail,” said sophomore Bruno Barrera.

Teacher assistants in-teract with the students and help them focus. In order to qualify as a T.A. for the class, one has to be a junior or senior, as well as write an essay and col-lect teachers’ signatures.

“You get to see a dif-ferent side of them since other students don’t get to talk to them outside of school. You know them better, the fun side in them,” said T.A. senior Abbey Schoenrade

Freshman Hanna Kelly likes to hang out with T.A. senior Gage Harrison, she considers

him her brother most-ly because Harrison is a friend with her real brother Gage Kelly.

“I like hanging out with my brother,” Kelly said.

Junior Shawn Dough-ty takes adaptive P.E. New to OP, from Indepen-

dence, Mo., he said he en-joys the class.

“It’s fun to be around these people. A cool place to hang around,” Dough-ty said.

The class also has a tradition when students birthdays come up, they decide what kind of treat they would like for cel-ebration. T.A. senior Tay-lor White and sophomore Danan Hensley’s birth-days were in the month of December.

The two agreed upon root beer floats in com-memorating another year. Coach Anthony Ab-bott made the floats with vanilla ice cream and fizzy soda in plastic cups, enough for everyone.

“Yummy,” White

said. “And it was fun hav-ing people sing to me.”

As fun as the class is, adaptive P.E. is not the only class special educa-tion students can take for encore classes but also foods for life, weight lift-ing and art.

“Most special edu-cation students have an average IQ. They do not lack intelligence; they have difficulty process-ing some things. It could be in the area of written language, math, etc. They have different learning styles and need informa-tion presented in a variety of ways so they can con-nect to it. Then, there are also some who have cog-nitive impairments, but that is the minority of the

special education popula-tion,” said self-contained teacher Rita Richards.

Richards explained her students practice aca-demics with her so they can be as independent as possible after high school.

“I love seeing the stu-dents finally succeed at something they’ve worked hard to accomplish. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to see them grow from silly fresh-men into mature seniors,” Richards said.

If a student would like to become a T.A. for the adaptive P.E. classes for 2011-2012 school year, he or she should pick up an application from Rich-ards. Applications are due Monday, Feb. 7.

Jessica NicholsSports Editor

“Mediations can be ac-cessed in a variety of ways,” Peer Helper sponsor Marilee Frailey said.

With fights breaking out between students, distracting from and disrupting the school day, the peer helpers and their sponsors, Frailey and Heather Brennan, knew something had to be done to cut down on the violence. Looking back into past efforts, they found what they hope to be the solution: peer mediation.

“The first year the peer me-diation program was instituted at Oak Park, it was reported that there were at least 60 me-diations held with a 90 percent success rate,” Frailey said. “If we can achieve that kind of pos-itive results now, we will have made a fantastic difference in student relationships.”

Ten students began train-ing for peer mediation in the middle of December. The first

session lasted two and a half hours.

“In training we learn how to resolve conflict in a mature manner,” sophomore Marvin Byas said. “We also learn how to facilitate conversation fairly between the opposing students and how to find a fair compro-mise.”

The topics covered in train-ing sessions range from steps to problem solving and rules of mediation to the definition and different types of conflicts.

“As of now, we, Heather Brennan and myself, are plan-ning two sessions to prepare our students for the mediation process prior to the begin-ning of work with students, but these sessions will be on-going if the need arises,” Frailey said.

The students in the training sessions participate in in-depth discussions about conflict and will practice mediation skills in the meetings before moving on to helping their peers.

“A great deal of discussion went into the first meeting,”

Frailey said. “We will begin role playing so these students are prepared for the many situ-ations that they may be called upon to mediate.”

Once the training sessions have been completed, the 10 students involved in peer medi-ation will have a chance to ob-serve mediations before work-ing with students on their own.

“After the second session the students will start tak-ing turns observing me when I conduct mediations,” Bren-nan said. “After everyone has had a chance to do that, we will have another session to debrief and start scheduling students to lead a mediation with me present. We hope, at some time, to have students conduct their own mediations depending on the severity of the situation.”

The goal of peer media-tion is to assist students who are dealing with conflicts before a situation becomes a verbal or physical altercation.

“It is my hope that if stu-dents are able to meet with

mediators who are also stu-dents they will be able to solve problems before they get out of hand and that understanding, growth and maybe even friend-ship between both students may occur,” Brennan said.

Though administration referrals are the most popular way to get the names of students who require peer mediation, the sponsors hope students will begin to step up on their own.

“Administration referrals will probably be the most prev-alent, but we will make sure that teachers can also give us names of students who they feel are having issues,” Frailey said. “Our hopes are that students begin referring themselves as they see conflicts arising.”

The first training sessions have already begun to impact the students involved.

“This training has taught me more about being a mature, professional, respectful, per-sonable mediator and student of Oak Park High,” Byas said.

The students and the spon-

sors have high hopes for the rest of the year with the help of peer mediation.

“As a student, the oppor-tunity to make a difference in the lives of other students is greater than that of an adult in certain situations,” Byas said. “Through mediation I hope to make a difference in our school. Our team is there for the good of the students. Our hope is that the student body will reduce physical conflict by verbally compromising in a ma-ture and confidential way.”

Those interested in becom-ing a peer helper and training to become a peer mediator for next school year should contact Frailey or Brennan.

“We will begin a new se-ries of training sessions, to-wards the end of the semester, for those students who want to be peer mediators, next year,” Frailey said.

Peer mediation returns, hopes to eliminate fights

“I was scared, I thought I was going to fail.” sophomore

Bruno Barrera

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opinionpage3Friday, Jan. 28, 2011

Oakie OpinionsHow do you prepare

for quizzes and tests?

“The Northmen’s Log” is published 10 times during the school year. “The Log” is a student forum for expression; it is produced by students for students.

“The Log” accepts letters to the editor in rooms E133 or E134 or cgeabhar@nkcsd.k12.mo.us. Letters cannot exceed a length of 350 words. We will not run letters that are libelous, obscene, or that may cause a verifiable disruption of the education process of Oak Park. Letters must be signed.

Advertisers may contact the business manager at 413-5352, or 825 N.E. 79th Terrace, Kansas City, MO, 64118.

Opinions expressed in “The Log” do not reflect staff endorsements of that product or service.

“The Log” is a member of NSPA, MIPA and Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists. “The Log” is affiliated with JEA and JEMKC.

The Northmen’s Log Staff &PoliciesEditor-in-Chief Courtney Kelley

Photo EditorKim Green

Editorial EditorAggie Rieger

Sports Editor& Feature Editor, Business ManagerJessica Nichols

Lifestyles EditorLauren Grace

Entertainment EditorTatyana Pekarsky

ArtistKaylan Ballard

WritersStephanie AgabekyanAnastasia ColosovschiCaleb EisslerLilla Foldi

Zach Lancaster

PhotographersJohnna HensleyDylan Kinder

AdviserChristina Geabhart

“Cram and try to study a little the day before.”

- senior Richard Borsella

“I look over the entire chapter and I do the review plus anything I need to work on.”

-junior Jaclyn Pfiefer

“I usually review the study guide or notes.”

- sophomore Ryan Cheung

“I study for, like, 10 minuets before the test.”

-freshman Amber Ivey

From the Newsroom: Students switch teachers at semester

First semester one finds his or her-self sitting in Matt Duffy’s Algebra II class. Winter break comes and goes; and second semester starts with a dif-ferent schedule, a new math teacher, and a new teaching style. Sitting in class, completely confused by the new teaching style, students begin to wonder why they had to switch teachers in the first place.

Many students have a hard time adjusting to new teaching styles. Once one gets comfort-able with the style of one teacher they get thrown into the style of another. It makes second semester all the more challeng-ing.

Switching teachers at semester seems to have a negative effect on a stu-dent’s knowledge. After adjusting to one teaching style at the beginning of the year, students often find it challenging to catch up with another teacher’s style. This causes a drop in grades as well as overall comprehension of the subject. Forcing students, who have already be-come accustomed to one style, to switch teachers at semester, lowers the success rate for that class.

Students build relationships with

their teachers throughout the first se-mester of school. When torn away from their original classes, the students have to rebuild old connections or build new ones. Already having a connection with a first semester teacher, makes it even more difficult to adjust to a new teacher second semester.

For a select few, who adjust to new teachers easily, they should have the op-portunity to switch teachers if they want

to. But students should also have the option of stay-ing with the same teacher in the classes they take for the full school

year, especially when a class is required for graduation. Taking a problem to the counselors and trying to switch back into an old class, should not receive a rejection before the situation has been explained.

Students should always give new teachers a chance, but when switching classes causes a problem in the way they learn academically, the school should do something about it, preferably put-ting the student in a class with their first semester teacher where they compre-hended the material and understood the teaching style.

Log’s View

By: Lauren GraceLifestyles Editor

The alarm clock went off three minutes too late; with hesitation one puts on the t-shirt that was in the back of the closet for a rea-son and runs down the stairs grabbing a stale Pop Tart. After driv-ing like Evel Knievel to school, they realize they have plenty of time be-fore class starts so they can hang with the Brat Pack, but with realiza-tion of how one is wear-ing the awkward shirt they pick the group of friends who won’t make fun of them, but gently tease.

Cliques are not ex-actly status quo, for people do socialize with diverse people. Though in the morning there is a different observation. People stand in spots with the same people ev-ery morning to start the day off with. People like to stand by the office, in front of the main stairs and sit by their lockers.

One might say the term mavericks; others prefer the term “soul searching.” But with out a doubt the kids who sit by the office have a place to sit at before class starts. Not exactly the next Woodstock, people just find them-selves anywhere to start the day fresh compared to the day before.

“I just re-member a bunch of fun times my friends and I had, freshman year, before they all went to Staley,” said se-nior Megan Krone.

Krone said the hall-way is also a good place to get to classes easily, but it is also a hopping place.

“We're all crazy. If you've ever seen us, we're always running around doing random stuff,” Krone said.

People also like to hang out by their lock-er. Junior Kim Foskett tries to make it to school before the bell rings so she can sit with her friends before she has to power walk to her class.

“I like that my friends have their lock-ers near mine and I can talk to them. Also it's not a really crowded hallway like upstairs,” Foskett said.

Others find them-selves in a certain loca-tion before their class.

Senior Rosy Bor-rero explains that she goes to Treble FX before school to practice.

“I have a hard time getting up and I have to be up there by 6:45, my brother usually makes me late though,” Bor-rero said, “We warm up our voices and then sing our songs by that time I [am] somewhat awake.”

Band students go off blowing their horns as soon as the tan doors open.

“It is a great time in the morning, but band is every other day,” said freshman Ben Apley.

Other than having a defined location others like to be liberated and go where they please.

“Like some times I get mad at the people, they get annoying,” said sophomore Saman-tha Resner. “I love my friends but they can be as annoying as I can be annoying to them too.”

Overall, the choos-ing of where one stands in the morning is based off of comfort and where friends locate them-selves.

There is probably further psychology to the matter, but what is a better way to wake up than to see the shiny smile on your friends’ faces, that is saying a lot.

Standing in the morningBy: Aggie Rieger

Editorial Editor

If I am hit by a car because the driver swerved away from a pack of wild turkeys, I will shake the driver’s hand for being admirable. If I am hit by a car driven by an old man with a lazy eye rushing to his only daughter’s wedding, I will limp around a bit to make him feel bad. But if I am hit by a car because an student was texting or popping wheel-ies, I am suing.

The act of driving, operating a mo-tor vehicle when in need of transporta-tion, is not dangerous in itself. Not look-ing at the road because you are texting is. So is popping wheelies in an icy park-ing lot to impress friends.

Now I have to stop myself here, I myself am an enabler. I was once in a car accident in which the first thing I screamed even before asking if every-one was okay was,

“There’s too many people in the car. Someone needs to get out, get out,

get out.” I have interviewed a student for

the newspaper on the phone while they were driving. Oops.

I suppose I have yet to seriously learn my lesson.

But what will it take for us to learn our lesson?

A severe punishment, an injured friend, a totaled car?

Or maybe it takes a serious, heart-breaking accident.

We are bombarded with informa-tion on the dangers of careless teen driving. Yet, we still keep the mental-ity the next accident will not, could not possibly be ours. We participate in reck-less driving because of this, the thought that we are too safe for concern.

It is time to learn from what is on the news and what happens to others who we do not know. It is time to think our decisions of driving through. It is time to drive safely, before we learn our lesson the hard way.

Reckless driving may wreck livesBy: Kaylan Ballard, Artist

“I like that my friends have their lockers next to mine and I can talk to them,”

junior Kim Foskett

“

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Students should think while driving, not text. photo by Dylan Kinder, photographer

sportspage4 Friday, Jan. 28, 2011

By Lauren GraceLifestyles Editor

On a cold winters day, students had a day off. Though on that day pom pon squad members questioned if they would get to do a pre-show, it was bad enough they had practices postponed a number of times because of the snow, and now a last chance to perform before the judges.

Thursday, Jan. 20, Pommies performed in front of family and North-men before their competi-tion on Saturday Jan. 29, at Lee’s Summit North. As the school is used to them dancing to the fight song, however, this time, the girls performed solos and ensembles to songs they choreographed.

“[I enjoyed] seeing the girls dance, and see-ing [junior Chelsie Yo-

kum] dance and enjoying it,” said her grandfather Bob Yokum.

Seniors Melanie Holmgren and Elizabeth Garnos and juniors Chel-sie Yokum and Jessica Nichols did an ensemble to the song, “He Had It Coming” from the musi-cal “Chicago” using props

of red fabric to add dra-ma to the song.

“Competitions are just exiting to work for,” Yokum said. “This is the first one, regionals alone we get to do our own cho-reograph.”

There were also du-ets, one from sophomores Taylor Mills and Hannah Mabrey. They preformed to the song, “Hit Me with a Hot Note,” and had it choreographed by Teri Day. Both girls are new to the squad and their dance shows off many challeng-ing technical moves.

“The hardest part of our duo is the speed of the music,” Mills said. “Finishing every move-ment before going on to the next.”

Sisters Melanie Hol-mgren and freshman Natalie Holmgren also prepared a duet for com-petition to “Ruby, Don’t

Take Your Love to Town.” “We really wanted

to take advantage of this time because it’s the only chance we’ll have to per-form together without the rest of the team,” Melanie Holmgren said. “I think we connect well in our dance, because we are al-ways around each other, that bond can only help the dance.”

Nichols prepared her second lyrical solo for competition to “Bang, Bang.”

“Taking a solo is a big leap of faith,” Nichols said. “You have to believe in your choreography and yourself. You have to be confident in your-self because you know the judges are critiquing your work and your tech-nique.”

There was a good number to the crowd es-pecially since it was last

minute rescheduling, but enough people to feel re-assured that with all the excitement the girls are still able to dance grace-fully and be affected by butterflies.

“[I like] that it wasn’t cancelled, with all the

snow, and the girls’ en-thusiasm in the show,” said senior Alvaro Pino Quintana. “I don’t really know what to look for as a judge, but from my per-spective they were great. I think they’ll do well.”

Pommies dance their way to regionals

By: Caleb EisslerWriter

As he clipped on the last strap on his shoulder pads, Kansas City Chiefs center Casey Weigman could hear the deafen-ing roar of the fans above his locker room bench and the memories be-gan flooding back. He remembered what Ar-rowhead once was: the loudest, most intimidat-ing stadium in the NFL. Opposing teams could hardly hear the plays and audibles called by their quarterbacks. Ever since the downhill slide of the past few years, with the eventual smack on the ground with a 4-12 sea-son, all of this intimida-tion and intensity had seeped out of the Tru-man Sports Complex. But for this one day, this one game, the team, the stadi-um and the city were ab-solutely overflowing with inspiration and excite-ment. For the first time in a long time, Arrowhead felt like it did in the ‘90s; filled to the brim and ex-ploding in adrenaline.

Even though the Chiefs suffered a crush-ing blow with their 30-7 loss to the Ravens, it wasn’t a total loss. There was a win in this situation. Arrowhead was just like it was in the old days. Fans were actually excited to see the Chiefs play. After this season and the mirac-ulous success of the guys in red, there’s a glimmer of hope for Kansas City football.

I’ve watched the Chiefs my entire life and have seen plenty of ups and downs (more downs than ups, but it’s still fun to watch). I’m a fan for life, but I’ve gotta be hon-est, it was a little difficult to watch my team the last few seasons. At times it was almost like a chore. I’ve seen some terrible football in my time, but oh my gosh, the Chiefs have played some terrible games in the past two to three years. Take for in-stance their game against the Chargers three years ago. A terrible season, freezing weather, only 15,000 fans spaced out in Arrowhead, and a blown

21-point lead late in the fourth. After that I was almost a little sick of the Chiefs. Every Sunday was beat down. It was like watching David and Go-liath, except Goliath just beat the living snot out of David time and time again.

So this season when my team started off 3-0 I was in absolute shock. I couldn’t believe it. I started getting really ex-cited for games. I was fully tuned in to every game, every play and ev-ery yard related to the Chiefs. But it wasn’t just me getting excited, it was everyone else around me too. Instead of constant complaining about the play calling, players, or the coaches, people were raving about the Chiefs. Enjoyable conversation actually came up about the team. Instead of com-ments about the cry baby Dick Vermiel, how horri-ble Herman Edwards was, that D Bowe can’t catch to save his life, Todd Haley doesn’t know how to play call, or the never ending (but oh so true) King Carl

jokes, it was compliments on Charles’ speed, Jones ‘power, or Cassel’s leader-ship. Fans were actually pumped to see their team play.

Before you call this past season a fluke, think about some facts most people haven’t realized. We’ve got a young team that’s packed with fire-power and speed. Our running game should continue to dominate and with one and heaven for-bid, two good receivers, our offense will become a dynamic force to be reck-oned with. It’d almost be reminiscent of ’03 with Green, Hall, Gonzalez and Holmes. Just like the old days, we’ll be hearing the echo of the famous Mitch Holtus line way more often. “TOUCH-DOWN KANSAS CITY!”.

Our defense is getting better and better, and our team is taking sev-eral guys to the Pro Bowl. As long as we can snag a good offensive coordi-nator and another good draft, this team is basical-ly guaranteed to be play off bound. All this being

said, our division is re-loading and beginning to take back the powerhouse position it once had, so our road to the playoffs won’t be easy. But if we can take the top spot in our division this coming year again, our team will be more prepped for the playoffs than it’s been in years. And this is all with a young team. Give the Chiefs a little time and a new future for Kansas City may come to be.

The future for the boys in red is bright. The laughter about “the new Arrowhead” advertising is over. The old soul is being healed and revamped. The glory days aren’t coming back, they’re be-ing totally redone and improved. It’s an exciting time to be a Chiefs fan, and when more people begin to realize it, Chiefs football is gonna become more exciting than we’ve ever seen it before. Prac-tice your tomahawk chalk and your touchdown chant because before you know it, it’ll be game time Kansas City.

A month in sports

Boys BasketballFriday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m. vs

Staley at StaleyTuesday, Feb. 1, 7 p.m.

vs Liberty North at Liberty North

Friday, Feb. 4, 7 p.m. vs Kearney at home

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 7 p.m. vs Platte County at home

Friday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m. vs Blue Springs at Blue Springs

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m. vs Grandview at Grandview

Friday, Feb. 18, 7 p.m. vs Lincoln Prep at Lin-coln Prep

Girls BasketballTuesday, Feb. 8, 7 p.m.

vs Park Hill at Park HillThursday, Feb. 10, 7

p.m. vs Staley at StaleyMonday, Feb. 14, 7 p.m.

vs Liberty North at Liberty North

Thursday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m. vs Platte County at Platte County

Girls Swim & DiveSaturday, Feb. 5, 8 p.m.

Conference at NKCSD Natatorium

Saturday, Feb. 12, Last Chance TBA

Saturday, Feb. 19, State

WrestlingFriday, Jan. 28, Baldwin

Tournament TBASaturday, Jan. 28, Bald-

win Tournament TBATuesday, Feb. 1, 6 p.m.

vs Liberty North at home

Eissler’s Insight

New team, new Arrowhead, new hope

By: Courtney KelleyEditor-in-Chief

One of the most im-portant things for an ath-lete before active move-ment or physical activity is to stretch. Not only in sports can stretching be important but stretching also limits future injuries.

Stretching is impor-tant in every sport, but each sport focuses on cer-tain parts of the body to stretch. According to Ja-son Fowler, football and golf coach, there are two types of stretches, the movement stretch and static stretch.

Movement stretch is stretching before an event

that warms up the body. The static stretch is

the type of stretch after a workout. In football they stretch the whole body; the most used stretch is the “greatest stretch,” which is a lunge workout.

“In athletics, it is very important to stretch,” said Fowler.

The most common injury from not stretch-ing would be the pulling of the hamstring.

“Stretching is very important, If you don’t, the older you get you have a higher tendency to get hurt,” boys basketball coach Fred Turner said.

For the boy basketball team, the athletes form

a circle at the beginning of practice every day and call out the stretches as a team. The team jumps rope for three to four minutes each practice, along with new and old stretches working the whole body.

“It’s important to also stretch after a workout be-cause they relax the mus-cles and allow them to get used to the movements,” Turner said.

In girls tennis, the girls jog and stretch their arms and shoulders, mostly the upper body.

“Stretching helps loosen up the athletes,” said girls tennis coach Tana Stock.

Stressed importance on stretching eases muscles

“I don’t really know what to look for as a judge, but from my perspective they were great.” senior

Alvaro Pino Quintana

“

”

Basketball players and seniors Kris Reed, Nick Deason, Will Frazier, and Matt O’Brien stretch after practice on Monday, Jan. 23. All photos by Dylan Kinder, photographer

Senior Melanie Holmgren, juniors Jessica Nichols and Chelsie Yokum, and senior Elizabeth Garnos dance to “He Had it Com-ing” on Thursday, Jan. 20. All four girls have been on the Pom squad for two years. “My favorite part is getting to do a dance with just the returning Pommies,” Garnos said. “We’re all so close, so it’s fun to be able to do a dance with just us. And it helps that we all know each other’s strengths and weaknesses so we can make the dance show off all of us.” Photo by Johnna Hensley, photographer

entertainmentpage5Friday, Jan. 28, 2011

Concerts

Saturday, Jan. 29, Linkin Park @ Sprint Center

Friday, Feb. 4, Purple Haze & Bad Reputa-tion @ Beaumont Club

Friday, Feb. 11, 96.5 The Buzz presents Afentra’s VD Party with Fitz & The Tantrums, AWOLNATION, and The Limousines @ The Midland by AMC

Sunday, Feb. 13, Salt N Pepa @ Municipal Auditorium

Tuesday, Feb. 15, Hawthorne Heights @ Beaumont Club

Games

Jan. 31“Conspiracy” (PS3)“Star Raiders” (X360, PS3)“UFC Trainer” (X360, PS3, Wii)“Dungeon Defenders” (X360, PS3)

Feb. 1“Rock Band Track Pack: Country 2”

(X360,PS3,Wii)

Feb. 8“Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll” (PS3)

Feb. 14“Dragon Quest IV: Realms of Revelation”

(DS)

Movies

Jan. 28“The Mechanic”“The Rite”“Biutful”“From Prada to Nada”

Feb. 4“Sanctum”“The Roommate”

Feb. 11“Just Go With It”“Gnomeo & Juliet”“The Eagle”

Books

Feb. 1“Blackveil : Book

Four of Green Rider” by Kristen Britain

“Trapped” by Mi-chael Northrop

Feb. 8“Spirits in the Stars

(Seekers Series #6)” by Erin Hunter

“A Discovery of Witches” by Deborah Harkness

“The Secret Soldier (John Wells Series #5)” by Alex Berenson

Feb. 14“Angel (Maximum Ride Series #7)” by James

Patterson“A Tale of Two Pretties (Clique Series #14)”

by Lisi Harrison

Entertainment event calender

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By: Lilla FoldiWriter

The Xbox 360 is a seventh generation game console, the successor of Xbox developed by Mi-crosoft, IBM, ATI, Sam-sung, and SiS. The device was first released on May 12, 2005. Its main rival is the Nintendo Wii.

The Wii is a video game console produced by Nintendo. The former name of the console was Revolution. This machine is the successor of Ninten-do GameCube.

“I like the Wii better because you are up and moving while playing games. Although I have an Xbox and love to play it, it makes me feel lazi-er,” said sophomore Toni Manzo.

Its special feature is that the game is controlled by a wireless remote con-trol, which is called the Wii Remote. When using this tool it should be held in hand and 3D move-ments can be done with it in accordance with the events of the game. The Wii console is aimed at a wider layer of population

than its competitors. It tries not to be exclusively available for the video game-loving consumers, but also addresses a layer of consumers who have not been interested in vid-eo games or found them too complicated.

“I like the Wii bet-ter because you also get a work out while having some fun, it is more inter-active,” said sophomore Abbey Henning.

The advertisement uses the following words: “Wii would like to play” and “Experience the new way to play.” Nintendo’s advertisement shows the grandparents and their children having fun with

the Wii game console. The 80 percent of the ad-vertisements are aimed at the adult population wid-ening the usual range of Nintendo consumers.

However, despite advertising or the even more enjoyable games, the Xbox 360 is still much more successful. For those who find the graphics important and who love more serious games the Xbox 360 is the perfect choice. Maybe that is why the majority of students chose the Xbox.

“I think Xbox is bet-ter because they created the Kinect, so if you want to get active you can or if you just want to sit down

and chill you can just play the Xbox,” said freshman Ashley Campbell.

Video games, ever since their release, are the subjects of debate, many people accuse them with generating aggression and addiction. However, at the same time, more and more studies appear on their positive effects, according to which they improve vision, reflexes, and are even effective in killing pain and, last but not least, they entertain. However, unfortunately 9 percent of young video game users are addicted.

Playing video games is fun, but there always should be time for some-thing else as well.

Zach LancasterWriter

“Jersey Shore” is an MTV reality show where eight people spend their summers together. In their first season, the cast mem-bers spent their sum-mer together at the Jersey Shore, second season at Miami Beach and the third season, they return to the Sea-side Heights, N.J.

Accommodat ing the new season, Jer-sey Shore introduces a new cast member: Deena Cortese. Sea-son three of “Jersey Shore” premiered on Thursday,Jan. 6.

Cortese, 23, was on the cheer squad in school. Cortese attend-ed Brookdale Commu-nity College and New Egypt High School in New Jersey.

“I like her,” junior Alex Hubbard said. “She is fun-sized and she has already brought a lot of new excitement to the show.”

Sophomore Mon-ica Nguyen feels the same way.

“Well most of the people I know don’t

really like her, she’s pretty funny. She’s a ‘walking holiday,’ plus she came on the show really open-minded to things and just ready to have a good time.”

Senior Brittney Montague thinks oth-erwise.

“I don’t really like the new girl, Deena. She talks too much and her voice is annoying. Plus she likes to start stuff. But I do like her a lot better than Ange-lina.”

Season three boost-ed ratings.

“Jersey Shore” first premiered Dec. 3, 2009, averaging 1.4 million views. The first season finale ended with more than four million views, almost tripled the initial views. The second season’s premiere started on July 29, 2010 with more than five million views, ending with the finale of seven million views.

Season three pre-miered with 8.5 million views, making it MTV’s most viewed series tele-cast ever, according to MTV.com. “Jersey Shore” airs at 8 p.m. Thursdays on MTV.

“Jersey Shore” hits three

REVIEW: Wii vs. Xbox 360

For the past 46 years, band, orchestra and A Cappella choir wel-come alumni to sing with them. The A Cappella members sang several songs from “Messiah” including, “And the Glory of the Lord,” “And “He Shall Purify” and “Glory to God.” All photos by Kim Green, Photo Editor.

Sophomore Stephanie Barr, junior Sarah Shoup and senior Leah Clark perform at the “Messiah” concert on Sunday, Dec. 14.

“Messiah” was composed by Fredrick Handel and A Cappella used the Novello Choral Edition.

“Messiah” concert

courtesy of: http://www.shopdev.co.uk

courtesy of www.sfl360.com

photo essaypage6 Friday, January 28, 2011

Future legacies for wrestling programs

On Monday, Jan. 24 in the big gym, wrestlers from all over the district worked. They meets Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday for Victory, a youth wrestling club in the Northland. “He gets a lot of good one-on-one instruction. There are a lot of kids his age here. They get one-on-one attention; it is real intense here at practice,” said father of Zechariah, Andrew Bunyar. Photo by: Courtney Kelley, Editor In Chief

Practicing live wrestling, Zechariah Bunyar and partner train under the watchful eyes of coaches. “Most live here in the district, but I come from an hour away, there is a mixture,” said father of Zechariah, Andrew Bunyar said. “My son gets a ton of attention we live an hour away and don’t get treated any different.” Photo by: Courtney Kelley, Editor In Chief

Assisant head coach of Victory wrestling Randy Smith gives instruction to the ath-letes. “Yeah, they yell at us to do stuff,” said athlete Eli Ashtcroft. “It’s fun.” Photo by: Courtney Kelley, Editor In Chief

Former Victory club member, senior Gage Harrison helps out with coaching. “Coach-es here are not paid; everything they do, they do because they love wrestling,” Har-rison said. “This is where our wrestling lives start.” Photo by: Courtney Kelley, Editor In Chief

“I can’t think of another school in the state of Missouri that year in and year out, pro-duces this level of talent than here at Oak Park, Kansas City and the state of Missouri is very lucky to have this school and this program.” Smith said. Photo by: Courtney Kelley, Editor In Chief