Niskayuna High School

Since 1974,Now Weekly

September 19, 2003 Volume 30, Issue 2

D.A.R.E. Run succeeds despite rain

Fun Day aids Niskayuna childrenBy Laura Simpson andJoshua Xiong

NEWS

On Saturday, October 4that 3:00 pm, a Family FunDay will be held at RiverRoad park to raise moneyfor the research o fNeurodegeneration BrainIron Accumulation, a rareand incurable genetic disor-der of the brain from whichtwo local girls, Alyssa andSabrina Barbiero, suffer.

NBIA is a disorder thatcauses iron deposits to accu-mulate in the brain. It in-hib i ts the neuro-motorskills, provoking problemswith physical abilities we of-

ten take for granted, such aswalking and talking. Due toa recent discovery of thegene that causes the defect,the chances of finding a curehave raised from a dismal5% to a promising 70%. Allproceeds from the FamilyFun Day will help fund re-search for a cure.

The two girls, Alyssa andSabrina Barbiero, both at-tend elementary school atRosendale. Alyssa is a sec-ond grader while her sister,Sabrina, is in the thirdgrade . We interv iewedPatr ice McMorrow-Klemballa, who knows theBarbiero family personally

and is responsible for put-ting together the race on the4th. “Alyssa missed a lot ofschool last year when hercondition worsened,” Patricecheerfully commented. “It’sa great way to pull the com-munity together.” A few lo-cal organizations have al-ready been very generous.“We hope to raise about 20thousand dollars. Some lo-cal stores have lent all sortsof things to give…T-shirtsand many different raffleprizes. A microwave and aDVD have also been donatedby some organizations,” sheadded.

Apparently, The Warriorisn’t the only one who hasgiven the Barbiero’s storyattent ion . According toPatrice, The Gazette andTimes Union are also inter-viewing them. Patrice wouldlike to extend her deepestappreciation to the membersour high school’s Key Cluband Michelle Stopera. Wesincerely wish the Barbierofamily the best of luck withtheir endeavor and hope ourfellow students will come toFamily Fun Day to sponsorthe NBIA on the 4th.

By Utsav BansalNEWS

Many students showed up for the 11th

annual Dare Run, which was held thispast Saturday, September 13, althoughthe event was affected by rain for thesecond consecutive year.

Many people expressed their thoughtsprior to the race. Freshman SethRosenblak stated, “I have this dry filmat the end of my throat. That just meansI’m anxious.” Also in attendance wasthe freshman cross country team whichplaced 3 out of 19 teams at the ShakerInvitational earlier that morning.

Monitoring the race by bike was Of-ficer Gary Connor, the Dare officer inNiskayuna. “The Dare Run issupposed to be a communityevent, a fun-filled evening ofactivities. The Dare Run was[originally intended to be] a fair,which didn’t have such a greatturn out that we have today,”remarked Conner. All agegroups were well representedat the run. Food tickets soldout in the first few hours of the event.

Familiar faces in the crowd of runnersincluded Physical Education teacher

Carol Baldwin along with her fieldhockey team. When questioned beforethe race, she replied, “My goal is just tofinish and since my field hockey team ishere with me, it is a group effort.Niskayuna High School principal Mr.Rickert finished with a 28:40 time.

There were three races on Saturday: a5K, a 1 mile run/walk, and a 100 yarddash for the kids. The 5K (3.2 miles)stretched along around theschool and down NottStreet and back.The winnerof the

5 Kw a s

Chris Hart-shorn, a resident of

Niskayuna, who won therace with a time of 15:10. The

second place runner, Victor George,was close behind at 15:59. When com-menting on his run, Hartshorn said, “Idid a good run and it wasn’t a big sur-prise to me because I knew that I was

going to win. After you get to know yourrunning mates, it is easy to level and seewhere you will stand.” Hartshorn wenton to say that he enjoys the sport ofrunning and runs 70 to 80 miles a week,even during the winter. Hartshorn re-ceived an engraved Seiko watch at the

award ceremony.Niskayuna Caitlin McTague

was the first woman to crossthe finish line in the 5K ran atime of 17:42. McTague was alsopresented with a Seiko watch.Congratulations to StefanDosch, a seventh grader at VanAntwerp, who finished firstplace in the mile with a time of6:12. “The people who encour-aged me to come here today was

my coach, Coach DeRocco and my dad,”comments Dosch. When Mr. Dosch wasasked about his son’s performance, heanswers, “I am very proud of my son andhe has been running since he was just alittle kid. He has always enjoyed it.”

The new high school pool and athleticfacility’s grand opening after the eventwith a full complement of fireworks.�����With additional reporting by JesseConti

Logo courtesyDARE.org

(Continued to page 3, BEN-EFIT)

2 News September 19, 2003 The Warrior

Benefit to be held to support local girls(Continued from Page 1 FUN)

Those wishing to volunteer, or desir-ing further information can contactPatrice McMorrow-Klemballa at 346-5726. Alternatively, you can write yourname, address, and phone number alongwith information regarding how youwould like to volunteer and leave it inher mailbox at 693 Maple Lane inNiskayuna. There is a flyer entitled“Neighborhood Challenge” available inthe High School Main office, if you needany sort of additional information, orhave questions.

ALL SMLES: Niskayuna residents Alyssa and Sabrina Barbiero, students at Rosendaleelementary, suffer from the rare brain disorder NBIA.

Photo courtesty Patrice McMorrow-Klemballa

NEWS BRIEFS

HOMECOMING: The date of Homecomingof has been changed to October 4th from 8-11. This dance is sponsored by Pep Club.Start asking your dates now!

WARRIOR: The Warrior is always lookingfor new staff writers for the news, sports,feature, entertainment, and opinion sections.Stop by afterschool on Mondays and Thurs-days in room D103 for more information.

CHEMISTS: The Chem Demosmeeting is rescheduled for Tues-day, September 23rd, at 2:45 at inroom D201. New members are wel-come.

AIDS WALK: NICS and Visibility are bothhelping to sponsor the annual AIDS Walk.It will be held this Sunday at 1 pm, inAlbany’s Washington Park. Donation formsare due today.

COURTYARD DANCE: Tonight from8-11 in the courtyard. This dance issponsored and will benefit NICS. Comewatch the battle of the senior DJ’s.

NICS BBQ: NICS is holding a barbequefor anyone interested this Saturday inRiver Road Park from 2-5 pm. Everyoneis welcome.

Family Fun DayBenefit3 pm

River RoadPark

3NewsSeptember 19, 2003The Warrior

School stiffens penalties for cheatingby Nate Staudinger

NEWS

CORRECTIONSContrary to a statement made in the

article “We be clubbin’: opening day verysuccessful” in last week’s Warrior, theforeign language department has noplans to discontinue German at the highschool level, and is in fact looking forincreased enrollment in the Germancourses. Look in next week’s Warrior foradditional information on Germanclasses.

In last week’s article, “Field hockeydefeated in opening game,” the photocaptioned “Put some mayo on that” mis-takenly identified team member CarrieDown.

Aside from the new pool,the 2003-2004 school yearat Niskayuna High Schoolis little differ-ent: the yearlyhabit of addingrules has beenc o n t i n u e d .This yearbrought newp r o c e d u r e sand conse-quences to theacademic in-tegrity policy,s p e c i f i c a l l yregarding pla-giarism andcheating. “Wehad an over-whelming re-quest f romteachers tora ise thelevel of edu-cation aboutacademic in-tegrity,” saidPrincipal JohnRickert. “I think that wefound an increasing numberof violations, so the penal-ties were made more severefor repeat offenders.”

There is concern that somestudents may not be awareof the full range of academicintegrity violations or theseriousness with which theyare taken by teachers andadministrators. The basicinfringements are commonsense: cheating on tests,copying from books or theInternet without citation.The recognition problemscome with the less-knownviolations. Such violationsinclude handing in the samepaper for credit in more thanone class, working togetheron assignments without per-mission, and giving and tak-ing information about tests.

The most significant of thechanges is the new proce-dure for handling a sus-pected violation. In the past,a teacher who suspected

such would first talk to thestudent, giving him a chanceto explain himself; this al-lowed the teacher to be flex-ible and judge the case based

on his own experience.The new procedure seem-

ingly forces teachers to fol-low a stricter path; teachersare now supposed to “notifythe appropriate administra-tor” first. An investigationtakes place within the ad-ministration, and finally thestudent is notified in a meet-ing with the teacher and theadministrator. The new poli-cies “emphasize to studentsthat this is a serious issuethat they should be atten-tive to,” commented Englishteacher Russell McDowell.

In previous years, therewere no set-in-stone conse-quence guide l ines ; th isyears penalties were mademuch more consistent. First-time offenders suffer theusual punishment: reducedor failing grade on that testor essay. What changed wasthe consequences for repeatoffenders, who can now failthe quarter or the entirecourse, be suspended from

school, and even be referredto the police. “Kids won’tchange their actions until theysee someone get seriously pun-ished,” said senior Dan

Johnson. Added senior JulieGranka, “They’ll still do it aslong as they think they won’t

get caught. What we need isbetter ways to find cheatingand plagiarism, not

more punish-ments forwhen they’rea l r e a d yfound.”

Mr. Rickertc o n t i n u e d ,

“The teacherscan play a major

role by going overthis and increasingthe students ’awareness – theycan help us to bemore clear aboutwhat is and whatis not acceptable.It’s the only waywe can attempt tosolve this.”

It is hoped thatthis new pol icy

will discouragestudents’ habitof such indis-cretion in theirs c h o o l w o r kand workplace,

thus promoting a more hon-est, responsible and happyschool atmosphere.

Warrior Art / Anjali Nirmalan

4 Opinion

The Warrior

The Warrior is published each Fri-day the high school has classes (33times a year).

For a one-year subscription, senda check for $25 payable to NiskayunaHigh School to The Warrior, Attn:Subscriptions, 1626 Balltown Rd.,Niskayuna, NY 12309.

Niskayuna High School1626 Balltown RoadNiskayuna, NY 12309

(518) 382-2511, Ext. 351http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/nhs/

warrior/

T H E S TA F FEDITORS-IN-CHIEF: Tae Andrews,

Elspeth EdelsteinNEWS EDITORS: Jesse Conti, Leanne

Merrill, Julia Napolitano, JeremyWolos

ASST. NEWS: Nate StaudingerOPINION EDITORS: Kishori Rajan, Alec

WilsonASST. OPINION: Evan BallanENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: Stephanie

Blair, Matt LarkinSPORTS EDITORS: Jonathan Chow, Lisa

D’AnielloASST. SPORTS: Peter ChalfinMAGAZINE EDITORS: Alice Lee, Anna Yu,

Kathryn FantauzziASST. MAGAZINE: Anjana RajanDISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Jackie NguyenBUSINESS MANAGER: Erik DonhoweWEB SITE MANAGER: VacantADVERTISING MANAGER: Jonas ChangGRAPHICS COORDINATOR: Evan FenaroliCOPY EDITOR: Abby AlgerADVISORS: James Edgar, Russell

McDowell

EDITORIAL POLICIES

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR are wel-come from all members of theschool community. The Warriorreserves the right to edit lettersfor grammar and length.

SIGNED OPINION ARTICLES AND CAR-TOONS express the opinions oftheir creators.

UNSIGNED EDITORIALS representthe consensus of the paper’s edito-rial board, which may not reflectthe majority of the students’ views.

THE OP-ED PAGES are a forum forstudents’ opinions and ideas.

September 19, 2003 The Warrior

by Stephanie KaylorOPINION

Over the summer, NewYork State passed a law pro-hibiting people from smok-ing in bars, restaurants, andother public places. This lawwas designed to preventworkers from suffering fromthe effects of second-handsmoke. To many, thisseemed like a brilliant idea,because now they wouldn’thave to face the risk of de-veloping lung trouble fromthe second-hand smoke. Isthis law, however, going tobe that effective?

Furious by the fact thatthey could no longer smokein bars, smokers began tohang around the doorstepsof the places that were af-fected by this new law. Whileit definitely won’t be asharmful to people, whatmakes the legislators thinkthat the smoke isn’t going towaft through windows, orthat people aren’t going to bemore inclined to smoke inbathrooms? When I was in arestaurant restroom onenight, there were threewomen smoking cigarettes,and, judging by the smell,many other people had pre-viously done the same. I’m

sure that this is not the onlyrestaurant or work placein which people illegallysmoked, and I highlydoubt that any actions willbe made in the near fu-ture, since New York Statehas bigger problems toworry about.

Not only is the law be-ing broken by various NewYork State residents, thelaw has a loophole in it aswell. Many people don’trealize that part of the lawstates that if this ban onsmoking hurts places fi-nancially, it can file forexemption. The legisla-tors, however, did notelaborate on how muchmoney would be consid-ered a considerable loss.For all that the store own-ers know, it could be aslow as one hundred dol-lars a year, or as high astwenty thousand. WhileNew York State has notyet made any decisions onthe complaints store own-ers have made, this newlaw will do very little, ifanything, to help preventsecond hand smoke. IfNew York State is so con-cerned about the health ofits population, it should

fix this loophole, and en-force the law better.

While legislatorsshould not ban tobaccoall- together, they shouldtry to prevent second-hand smoke, because non-smokers should not haveto suffer from these dan-gers. This new law prob-ably doesn’t even workmuch better than the pre-vious “non-smoking” and“smoking” sections of res-taurants. Besides causinglung cancer, second-handsmoke can be extremelyharmful to people whosuffer from asthma. Itmay be true that NewYork State has manyother things to worryabout, several of whichmay be described as beingmore important than thisnew law, but the health ofour population should bevalued much more than itcurrently is. Was the NewYork State Legislature sonaive that they thought ev-erybody would follow thisnew law? Chances are thatthey weren’t. Without someimmediate changes, therisk of lung-cancer amongnon-smokers is probably thesame as before.

New law just blowing smoke

The final year of high school brings manyprivileges, with senior parking being one ofthe most coveted. The lot, however, has longbeen chaotic and even dangerous, espe-cially at the sound of the final bell.

More than one fender-bender accidenthas already been reported, and there havebeen many other close calls.Granted, the lot is small andcramped, with narrow lanesfor driving and maneuvering.Common sense, however, and a little pa-tience, will go a long way.

One rule that must be followed is drivingin the correct direction in the one-way lanes.The middle lane is for coming out of theparking lot; the outer two are for driving in.If the arrows on the ground were moreclearly marked, this would help the matter.The school should take the effort repaint

the arrows.Another bothersome problem are the

pedestrians who choose to walk in largeflocks right in front of the drivers tryingto get out. With the cars nearly bumperto bumper, and students congregatingin the remaining space, room in the

already small area becomesnearly nonexistent.

Many people have alsocomplained that cars aren’t

parked within the parking lines, leavingawkward spaces, and the lot not filled toit’s full capacity.

A spot in the senior parking lot, thoughsome consider it costly, is a convenienceand high point of senior year. So let’smake the best of this situation and havethis privilege be nothing but a pleasantone.

EDITORIAL

Senior parking lot too chaotic

5OpinionSeptember 19, 2003The Warrior

by Elspeth EdelsteinOPINION

As elementary and middle school stu-dents, my peers and I learned to ex-periment. Teachers encouraged us tocome up with our own methods of solv-ing problems, inviting us to spell wordsas they sounded, figure out the bestway to estimate a number of soda cantabs, add negative numbers using dif-ferent-colored beans, purify water, andfit two hundred words into a single,grammatical sentence. We took nu-merous risks, failed terribly, succeededbrilliantly, and generally learned. Thisis a sound theory of education.

In the final evaluation, however, ex-perimentation falls woefully short.

Recently, the New York State Re-gents board decided to rescale stu-dents’ grades on the Math A exam, apassing grade on which has become arequirement for graduation and a cov-eted Regents diploma. Though theBoard had already given permission tothrow out failing seniors’ scores in or-der that these twelfth-graders mightgraduate, some students in youngergrades still had to attend summerschool pending the decision. Likewise,a disproportionate number of students

failed the 2002 Physics Regents exam,prompting the state to allow a retake.The English exam also came underfire, after it was discovered that thetest’s creators had altered literary ex-cerpts to make them more palatable.As a result, the Board constantly re-writes tests and changes standards.

Can assessments that require so

much revision really be sound? As mat-ters stand, students already spendtheir academic careers undergoingmyriad evaluations, many of whichhave been introduced in the last de-cade. Such problems only call into ques-tion the validity of the exams, for theBoard’s seeming inability to come upwith reasonable tests makes it seemutterly out of touch with young peoples’true capabilities. While fine-tuningmight be acceptable, the apparent needfor overhauling, and the admission bythe Board of its necessity, indicatethat the research essential to producerealistic measurement of students’learning is lacking.

There exists some uncertainty as to

the value of having so many exams inthe first place. Nevertheless, if theRegents Board deems testing the bestway to create a common standard, itneeds to set expectations at a reason-able level, which it can resolutely main-tain regardless of failure rates or pa-rental complaints. Incessant tinker-ing only frustrates students and teach-ers, who already face the irritation of“teaching to the test,” and often spendmore time worrying about the how thanthe why. What’s more, the relativelysmall amount of modification made tosuch longstanding exams as the SATsand ACTs reinforces the idea that thebest evaluations are those which canremain the same despite changingtimes or societal influences.

Allowing students to have their testsregarded or class grades used as asubstitute was certainly the right tac-tic in this situation. However, not onlyshould it have been done a lot earlier,but it should not have been necessaryin the first place. Having discoveredthe importance of questioning, we mustnow question the way New York Statetreats its students. Experimenting nowmay benefit future generations. To us,though, it only does a disservice.

SOMETHING ELS

by Evan BallanOPINION

The latest television crazeis supposedly the genre of re-ality television, but what ex-actly does the term “realityTV” encompass? A myriad ofshows seem to wear this “re-ality” tag, but there seems tobe nothing similar aboutthem. For example, their hav-ing a span of content fromCBS’ Survivor, which placescontestants on an island, toTLC’s Trading Spaces, inwhich people’s living quartersare redone by the show’s crew.And then, lest we forget, areshows such as The Bachelorand Joe Millionaire, on whichcontestants vie for a lover.What do these shows have todo with each other at all? Itcan’t simply be the“unscripted” aspect, sincethere are many unscripted

shows, from Jeopardy to theevening news. And as far as“reality” goes, Survivor seemsto me about as realistic asGilligan’s Island, onlyless funny.

Most likely, itwould seem, real-ity TV is just a termcoined by critics torefer to televisionshows that I don’tlike. It seems asif I am fatednever to seewhat’s so at-t r a c t i v ea b o u tpeople eat-ing wormsand eye-balls, like the contestants onNBC’s Fear Factor, or what’sso interesting about peoplecompeting in a singing contest,like on FOX’s American Idol.

These shows seem to have nopurpose, and take up almostall prime time programming.Unfortunately, it seems as if

reality television is here tostay, and is only going

to get worse. Theother day I had theprivilege of bearingwitness to a commer-cial for an NBC showentitled Who Wantsto Marry My Dad?.

Just when Ithought realitytelevision wasas bad as itwas going toget, gems likethis one comealong and

prove me wrong.The future of enjoyable tele-

vision is shaping up to be agrim one. It seems as if thesedays, television producers have

Regents exams don’t make the grade

Television needs to escape from reality

Warrior art / Heather D’Evelyn

given up on writing original,enjoyable shows, and spendall of their time trying to con-coct the most outrageous re-ality programs. Apparentlythe majority of America dis-agrees, but I get enough real-ity every day, in reality! Whenone sits down to watch televi-sion, it shouldn’t be to watchmore of the real life they livein day-to-day; rather, itshould be the opposite: an es-cape from it.

When the reality crazestarted about a year ago, Ihoped it would be a fad. Unfor-tunately, it looks like we aredoomed to endure the likes ofMeet My Folks, until that happyday when producers step out ofthis reality funk and start cre-ating shows with substanceagain. But, until that day, mytelevision set, for one, will betaking a lot of time off.

High school standardized tests add little to education process

6 Entertainment September 19, 2003 The Warrior

Fall television shows look very promisingby Matt Larkin

ENTERTAINMENT

The new television seasonis upon us, bringing many newshows along with it. Freshseries and old favorites willundoubtedly be gracing ourtelevision screens at night.

The O.C. (Fox, Tuesdays 9pm) has actually been on theair since the middle of Au-gust. It is basically a teensoap opera, chronicling thelives of adolescents in OrangeCounty, California. It pro-vides us with the dorky richkid, the rebel without a cause,the detestable jock, and theconfused girl caught in themiddle. Meanwhile, in thebackground, the show detailsthe lives of their parents.While The O.C. is a bit pre-dictable, it does give severalplot twists and an enjoyableensemble of characters. Un-fortunately, it will be off theair until the end of October.

Until then, you can catchup on Playmakers (ESPN,Tuesdays 9 pm). This show isabout a professional footballteam and the events that oc-cur off the field. It details ev-erything we see in profes-sional sports today: drugs,crime, and broken families.While the show sometimesseems unrealistic, it is anedge-of-your-seat drama that

even a sports novice canenjoy. And if you are al-ready a sports lover, youare guaranteed to enjoythis series.

Probably the biggesthyped show of the fallseason is Survivor:Pearl Islands (CBS,Thursdays 8 pm), whichpremiered last night.CBS claims this to bethe most exciting Sur-vivor ever, with manynew twists. For ex-ample, instead of beingprepared for their stay,the castaways were ma-rooned in the middle of theocean with just the clothes ontheir backs. They were thenforced to swim to their islandsand set up camp from noth-ing. Personally, I hope thisseason will make a return tothe excitement of the first twoSurvivor series.

CBS also provides us withtwo of the best shows on tele-vision: CSI (Thursdays, 9 pm)and Without a Trace (Thurs-days, 10 pm). CSI tells thestory of crime scene investi-gators in Las Vegas. Eachweek has a new, exciting plot.Smaller background plots aremoved along from show toshow, but the specific caseshighlight this great series.The intensity of forensic in-

vestigation is never sacrificed,and extreme special effectsadd to the power of the show.Without a Trace carries theintensity of CSI into the 10:00time slot, chronicling theMissing Persons unit of theFBI. Each week seems to puta new twist on a reusedstoryline with great success.The characters also displaythe apparent stresses of anFBI agent flawlessly, makingthe show an entertaining in-sight into something that isusually not public knowledge.

Many shows make their re-turn on NBC, the most no-table of which is Friends(Thursdays, 8 pm), now in itsfinal season. Who knows howthe ten-year run will end? The

countless possibilities are in-centive enough to tune in. Oneof the most underrated showson NBC is Law and Order:Criminal Intent (Sundays, 9pm). The highlight of this se-ries is the main character, De-tective Robert Goren, ablyplayed by Vincent D’Onofrio.Goren is an unpredictable,passionate member of theNYPD, who basically makesevery episode. If you have en-joyed either of the other twoseries of Law and Order, Ihighly suggest checking outthis lesser known spin-off.

So if your homework evergets to be too much, take aminute (or an entire hour) tocheck out a new show or anold favorite.

Photo courtesy nbc.com

LIVING IT UP: The O.C. is one of the freshest new dramas on television.Photo courtesy fox.com

OLD FRIENDS: The final season of Friends is here, and it promises to bringmany surprises along with it.

MAKING THE PLAY: The cast of Playmakers poses in the locker room.Photo courtesy espn.com

7SportsSeptember 19, 2003The Warrior

Boys’ soccer starts season on right foot

IN THE MEDNICK OF TIME: Senior Aaron Mednick sprints for the ballin a game against Averill Park last week.

Warrior photo / Jon Chow

By Anthony GuzmanSPORTS

The boys varsity soccerteam, filled with talent islooking positively towardsthe rest of this fall season.Playing under the leadershipof coach Dave Bundy, theteam has jumped to an im-pressive 2-1 record in highly-competitive league play, andis 4-1 overall, looking prom-ising for the future.

Starting the season strongwith several impressive winsagainst teams such as Scotia-Glenville, Averill Park, andColonie, the team has shownpoise with new young talent.The graduation of several keyplayers last year, includingmidfielder Zach Kelly causedslight worries in the begin-ning. “Although we've lostseveral important players, Ithink we are still a betterteam than last year's squad,”striker Andrew Hardingnoted. The team has beenhelped significantly by theaddition of sophomores ChrisHavis, Alex Johnson, andRobert Garibali.

Opening the season atScotia-Glenville, the War-riors led at the half 1-0. How-ever, it was a clutch penaltykick by senior striker Joe

Asmussen late in the gamethat secured the win, with afinal score of 2-1.

One of the Warriors' mostimpressive wins was againstGuilderland, in the ShakerShoot-Out Tournament Sep-tember 6. With both teams go-ing scoreless through regula-tion, the victor would be even-tually determined in double-overtime. With an assist fromjunior Basil Daratsos,Asmussen scored the game-winning goal, leading the War-riors to the championship.

Asmussen, as well asHarding, have been the team'stop scorers this season. Otherkey offensive players includeMark Bryan, who has talliedfive assists this season, as wellas Daratsos, who has four. TheWarriors’ offensive force hasgiven them top rankings inthe leaderboards for both as-sists and goals scored. As ateam, Niskayuna has posteda total of thirty-three pointsthis season, ranking them sec-ond in points overall, just be-hind Catskill.

Other victories include aseason home-opener againstAverill Park, in which theteam cruised easily to a com-manding 8-0 rout, as theteam's exceptional senior

goalie, A.J. Ipsen, posted hisfirst shutout of the year. Ipsenis backed by a superb defen-sive team including seniorsCorey Hinton, Pat Carney,and Dan Johnson. Theteam's only loss this season,last Thursday against Co-lumbia, was a battle of twounbeaten teams, butColumbia's 2-0 lead at thehalf could not be overcome.The final score was 2-1. How-ever, two days later, theteam rebounded with a domi-nat ing home win over

Colonie with a final score 7-0, a game which markedIpsen’s second shutout, andincluded an outstanding hattrick by Asmussen.

Clearly, the team's successcomes from a talented, bal-anced, offensive and defen-sive squad. "I think the teamhas great potential to beatsome of the best teams inthe Suburban Council," saidjunior defenseman RyanLamar. "We 're pos i t iveabout our team and the restof our schedule."

By Peter ChalfinSPORTS

Prior to the season, the varsity footballteam was well aware that the toughestpart of their schedule was the beginning.What they didn’t know, however, was thatit was going to be this tough. After the firsttwo weeks of the Section II football season,the Silver Warriors find themselves at thebottom of the Suburban Council standingswith a disappointing 0-2 overall record. Ifthere is any news to be found in these twobitter defeats it’s probably that those firsttwo opponents may very well end up beingthe two best teams Niskayuna will have toface all season. Despite the difficult start,the Warriors remain optimistic as to howthe season will turn out.

Coach Furey’s Warriors opened theirseason with a trip to Dietz field in Kingstonto take on Monroe-Woodbury. They fell

Football trys to zone in on its gamebehind quickly when Monroe-Woodbury’sMatt Stack rushed for two first quartertouchdowns. A successful two-point con-version put the Warriors down 15-0 in theopening quarter of the game. Niskayunawould respond, however, with a 68 yardtouchdown pass from sophomore quarter-back Brian Grastorf to wide-receiver DanHalayko. The Warriors then cut the leadto 15-14 before half-time on a tough touch-down run by senior Dan Hjeltnes. Unfor-tunately, that is as close as they would get,as Monroe-Woodbury pulled away in thesecond half with Stack’s third rushing touch-down of the game. He totaled 173 yards on31 carries on the day. A fourth quartertouchdown sealed the victory for Monroe-Woodbury, and the Silver Warriors returnedhome defeated and disappointed.

However, there were a few bright spots inthe game for the Warriors, specifically on

the defensive side of the ball where defen-sive back Nick DeGeorgia came up with akey fumble recovery and Halayko notchedtwo interceptions. After the game the War-riors were determined to avenge their lossthe following week, but they were aware itwould not be easy. Next up on the schedulewas a strong Saratoga team that had demol-ished Colonie 43-0 in week one behind starquarterback Rory Pedrick’s 117 rushingyards and two touchdowns.

The home opener last Friday nightagainst the Blue Streaks of Saratoga didnot go as planned, unfortunately. Rightoff the bat Pedrick led the high-poweredSaratoga offense marching down the fieldin the opening drive. The Blue Streakslooked like they were destined to score asthey were already in the red zone, but

(CONTINUED on page 8, Football)

Sports September 19, 2003 The Warrior8Girls’ volleyball sets its potential for success

STRETCH OUT THOSE HAMMIES: Members of the girls’ volleyballteam stretch out before their game against Saratoga last week.

By Donovan ShickleySPORTS

The first two weeks of girls’ volleyball,with four games and an unofficial tourna-ment to date, have shown their potential forsuccess. The team owned a scrimmage tour-nament with an 8-2 record, losing only toShenendehowa and last year’s state cham-pion, Burnt Hills. As for matches, the team’s1-3 record thus far is not a true portrayal of

the amount ofpotential theLady Warriorshave.

Since the lossof three of theteam’s mostvaluable se-niors, many ofthe underclass-men have had tostep up theirgame. Threesophomores ,C r i s t i n aLiquoir, AlysonNerney, andErica Selin,have risen to the

varsity level this year,forming the core of theteam. The playersshare the sentimentthat bringing upyounger players reallygives them a chance toachieve excellenceearly in their highschool careers and givethem greater room forimprovement by sub-jecting them to a morecompetitive gamingatmosphere.

“We lost some really good seniors, likeAmanda Laskoe and Katie Brinkman, andhad to bring up the younger kids,” saidsenior Alyson Kelly. “The team is reallystarting to come along.”

The varsity coach, Rachelle Mont, hascoached girls’ volleyball for ten years and isspoken very highly of by her team. Said setterand captain Kathleen Gillen, a senior, “She isvery knowledgable and is very good at helpingus to stay motivated.”

While being tough on correct technique anda strong proponent of talking while playing,Mont involves players in the decision making

of the team. Assistant coach Laskoe, whograduated last year with the Class of 2003,says of Coach Mont, “She values their opin-ions and is respectful of their feelings, mak-ing her a very successful coach.”

On the first day of school, Niskayunaplayed a winning game against Bethlehem.While the other three games the team hasplayed were losses, the girls are proud ofthemselves. Saratoga and Averill Parkwere always evenly matched againstNiskayuna in the past, and the loss of keyseniors has apparently tipped the balancein their favor for now.

THE SET UP: SeniorKathleen Gillen practices be-fore a recent meet.

(Continued from page 7,FOOTBALL)

Halayko came through in theclutch with yet another intercep-tion. Niskayuna was not able tocapitalize on the turnover, how-ever, and things only got worsefrom there. At half-time the SilverWarriors went into the locker roomalready down 21-0. Saratogawould run that total up to 35-0mid-way through the fourth quar-ter. Despite being disappointedand embarrassed, the Silver War-riors did not give in and they weredetermined to get on thescoreboard. They finally did ontheir final offensive drive of thegame, led by a strong rushingperformance by DeGeorgia.DeGeorgia strung together a fewconsecutive firstdown runs, set-ting up the Warriors’ lone scoreofthe game: a play-action pass fromGrastorf to senior wide-receiverJim Kelley. The play was set up bya beautiful ball-fake by Grastorfwhich fooled the defenders intothinking it was a run. The touch-down prevented the shut-out andat least provided the Silver War-

riors with something to be proudof from the game. Niskayuna’sinability to stop the run was clearlyevident in the game as Pedrickrushed for 118 yards and his back-up added 139 more. When askedwhat he thought was the team’sproblem, senior tight-end TomPond responded “We just didn’tplay to our potential. We need tostep up our intensity.”

With an 0-2 record, the SilverWarriors find themselves in avery difficult position. They needto win the rest of their games onthe schedule in order to makethe playoffs. While this is a diffi-cult feat to accomplish, the play-ers remain optimistic that it canbe done. Senior Greg Boroweiccommented, “We need to do abetter job of playing attention todetail, then we will be fine.”While they have a very largemountain to climb, the SilverWarriors are not out of it yet.With what may end up being thetwo toughest opponents theyhave to face all year already outof the way, things can only getbetter for coach Furey’s squad.

Football starts season Weekly HighlightsBoys’ Soccer:

Girls’ Soccer:

Boys’ Volleyball:

Girls’ Volleyball:

Field Hockey:

Football:

Boys’ XC:

Girls’ XC:

Win vs. Averill Park 8-0Loss vs. Columbia 2-1Win vs. Colonie 7-0

Win vs. Bethlehem 2-1Loss vs. Shen 3-0Win vs. Vestal 4-1Win vs. Bethlehem 3-2

Win vs. Mohonasen 3-0Loss vs. Bethlehem 3-0Loss vs. Scotia 3-0

Loss vs. Saratoga 3-0Loss vs. Burnt Hills 3-0

Win vs. Scotia 7-1Win vs. Guilderland 1-0Loss vs. Shen 1-0

Loss vs. Saratoga 35-7

Placed 7th in Shaker Invititational,Jon Wetzel placed 24th overall and1st among Niskayuna runners

Placed 1st in Shaker Inviational,Caitlin McTague placed 1st for the4th consecutive year.

Warrior Photo / Jon Chow

Warrior Photo / Jon Chow