Volume XLVI, Issue 14 | June 3, 2009 | Circulation 2,500 | Thousand Oaks High School | 2323 N. Moorpark Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

LEADERS..........................................Pg. 1NEWS..................................................Pg. 2OPINION............................................Pg. 3FEATURES........................................Pg. 4VALEDICTORIANS.........................Pg. 5MAP...............................................Pgs. 6-7TRIBUTES.........................................Pg. 8FAREWELL TO FACULTY.............Pg. 9ENTERTAINMENT.........................Pg. 10SPORTS.............................................Pg. 11SENIOR SPORTS............................Pg. 12

BY MATT BRADBURYSenior Editor

AS WE GRADUATE, WE RETRACE THE STEPS WE TOOKTHROUGH OUR FOUR YEARS OF HIGH SCHOOL...

FRESHMAN YEAR 2005-2006

Our freshman year of high school began with abang, as Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast inlateAugust of 2005. To this day, clean-up operationsare still underway. At TOHS, a bomb threat placedby a sophomore in December added to the overallterror, and not longer after the school placed securitycameras outside every restroom.Baseball expanded in early 2006, as America

hosted the first World Baseball Classic. Japan won,and won again in 2009.2005 marked a breakthrough year in cyberspace.

Everyone’s favorite web-site, youtube.com waslaunched and instantly be-came a teenage sensation.The Xbox 360 made itsdebut as well.Many of us came to

TOHS from Redwood, andwe did not come alone.Tim Carpenter and MartyCrawford came with us.

SOPHOMORE YEAR 2006-2007

Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq for over 25years, was convicted and executed by his country-men. The Virginia Tech school shooting toppled oursense of school security.In January, Apple unveiled its newest product –

the iPhone. Today, iPhones can be found all overcampus. The next month, The Departed won BestPicture at the Academy Awards, giving acclaimeddirector Martin Scorsese his first award in the cere-mony’s foremost category. Also, New Moon, thesecond installment in Stephanie Meyer’s TwilightSeries, reached number one in the NewYork TimesBestseller List in September. Through our fouryears, these books and 2008 movie became thebiggest cultural phenomenon since Harry Potter.

At school, we foundour gym brand new aftersummer renovations,two years after comingback to a new pool area.As we took the notori-

ously easy CaliforniaHigh School Exit Exam,we looked forward tomoving into the world ofupperclassmen.

JUNIOR YEAR 2007-2008

Our junior year ended with disappointment, as theLakers fell to the Boston Celtics in the NBAFinals,reviving a thirty year rivalry.Girls soccer not only won the CIF Championship,

but finished second in the state championship, cap-ping one of the greatest runs for any sport in schoolhistory. The school band performed in Rome, Italy;one of the longest school trips in school history.In January of 2008, the United States Stock Mar-

kets plunged after growing fears of a recession, fu-eled in part by the housing mortgage crisis.At the end of the year, Assistant Principal Brian

Crain, long hallowed as the man behind the sun-glasses, left TOHS to take a job in Oregon.

SENIOR YEAR 2008-2009

As seniors, many of us became swept up in thepolitical wave that encompassed our city, state, andcountry. The 2008 general elections energized moreyoung people than ever before, and the election ofBarack Obama and passing of Proposition 8 polar-ized the campus and fueled the creation of severalstudent political clubs.The 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, saw

American swimmer Michael Phelps bring the sportback into the national spotlight. Meanwhile, here oncampus, senior leaders Sean Gildea and AndrewSnyder led the cross country team as they traveled toOregan for the Nike National Team Invitationals.

Equally captivatingwas the CIF champi-onship run for boys bas-ketball which endedwith a 52-57 loss toLoyola in the WestlakeHigh School Gymna-sium.In May, NPHS closed

down temporarily due toswine flu. Tennis dou-bles partners MarcosGiron and Denis Linwon their second con-secutive CIF Title.

Senior SportsSPORTS pg. 12

Senior DestinationsMAP pgs. 6-7

Thanks to TeachersTEACHER TRIBUTES pg. 8

ALL PHOTOS FROMWIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Marissa MorrisonStudent Body President

Kristine KilgoreCo-Senior Class Pres. Crystal Lepley

Co-Senior Class Pres.

Matt Bradbury and Jean KimCo-Newspaper Editors-in-Chief