By Echo ReporterAshley Scott

On Friday December17th, Dr. Charles Bests’ Stu-dent Council presented itsannual talent show.

The show, hosted byStudent Council’s MelanieShim and Melany Arevalo,was held on the stage of theschool’s small gym, a settingmany students found to bedisappointing due to the factthat the audience had to re-main standing while watch-ing the performance.

Featuring seventeenperformers, the talent showwas an opportunity for thestudents at Charles Best tosee all the hidden talent thatthe student body has to of-fer, and students soon for-got their complaints aboutthe location.

Opening the showwith Green Day’s AmericanIdiot was rock band The 5 3Experience consisting ofgrade eleven students MaxPatrich, Scott Clarke andJeffrey Chernenko.

The guitarists accom-panied by a drummer, en-tered the stage and begantheir set, causing the energylevel in the gym to immedi-ately rise and a small “moshpit” to form near the front of

the stage.However, as quickly as

it had started, the pit wasended by Mr. Fichter.

Next on the agendawas Korean drummer, ErinHong, who played a power-ful set of percussionrhythms.

“Erin’s performancewas different from the otherconventional acts; it was agood contrast to the show,”exclaimed a grade 12 CharlesBest student af-ter the show.

Follow-ing Erin wasgrade nine solo-ist, StephanieCarrasco, whoperformed a su-perb renditionof ShaniaTwain’s Fromthis Moment.

T h efourth act wasDerek Hardy,the talentshow’s onlystand-up come-dian. Derek de-livered a flaw-less set, as thecrowd of nearly300 laughedhysterically.

Derek’sdebut was “hilarious”, andone student claimed that she“had never laughed so much

in her life.”F o l l o w i n gDemi Chao’sexcellent sing-ing of O HolyNight, gradenine studentSerge tookthe stage. Hisintricate gui-tar pickingwas de-scribed by au-dience mem-

bers as “amazing” and “seri-ously cool.”

Next up was WilsonHuang singing a Mandarin

song, giving the show agreat sense of cultural diver-sity.

His excellent vocalskills were soon followed byAshley Nijjer, DavidGrender, Scott Andersonand Geoffrey Mielen per-forming Seether’s hit songBroken.

Reflecting on his per-formance, David Grendersaid, “Playing on the stageand watching the crowd’s re-action was an amazing feel-ing. Everyone seemed to re-ally enjoy theshow.”

Next totake the stagewas another vo-cal act, LizaCooney, whosang a mellowsong while play-ing the acousticguitar.

Her origi-nal, vocalstylings weresoon followed

by rapper Jint who wowed thecrowd by performing his ownremix of Only Reason.

After these performancesduo, Evan Watkins, on clarinet,and Alice Lee, on keyboard,played a song titled GrandSlam.

Andrew Carey took thestage minutes later, playing a

mix of popular guitar riffs thathe titled, Reverse Destiny. Hisrendition of The Mario Broth-er’s tune and other Nintendosounds, kept the crowdamused.

The cheering con-tinued as RonnieHaywood performed a hip-hop dance to Usher’sYeah.

The band GlassBottom Boat Ride (AlexGadora, SchaeferCarson, Steve Chambersand Keelan Watkins) fea-

tured moreguitar skills asthey played aM e t a l l i c asong. “Livingup toMeta l l i ca ’sstandards arehard; but theyseemed to doit well,” an on-looker re-marked, as theband im-pressed its au-dience.

ConorRogan, whoperformed af-ter the band,performed amix of famoustunes, includ-ing WildHorses and No

Woman, No Cry as manygirls screamed their ap-proval.

Following KarenArevalo and DhillonBremner’s flawless duet

of Have Yourself aMerry littleChristmas, lyricaldancer ChristineAllen and herfriend NicoleSpinola performeda magnificent clas-sical piece to thesong “Broken” bySeether.

To add tothe talented list,one of the talentshow’s hosts,

Melany Arevalo, sang an acappella version of Ain’t NoMountain High Enough thatamazed the crowd and re-sulted in a well deservedround of applause.

Next up was the finale,and as usual, it was a memo-rable one!

The Math Depart-ment, dressed in holiday de-cor, hula skirts and baggyjeans, shocked the crowdwith their crazy mixture ofholiday songs.

While Mr. Napoletano,dressed up as Elvis, sangBlue Christmas and Mr.Smith danced around in ashort dress to Santa Baby,the audience laughed hys-terically.

Ms. Skye did a Hawai-ian dance during the per-formance and Mr. Kocharforced the crowd to hyster-ics as he ‘rapped’ a Christ-mas song.

A grade 12 studentdared to say what all theother student’s were prob-ably thinking after this hilari-ous performance: “I’ll neverbe able to look at my teach-er’s the same way again.”

Overall this year’s tal-ent show was a huge suc-cess. All of the acts wereamazing, and the turnout wasequally as good.

Hopefully next year’stalent show will be able tolive up to this one.

Students at Best Show Off Their TStudents at Best Show Off Their TStudents at Best Show Off Their TStudents at Best Show Off Their TStudents at Best Show Off Their Talent at This alent at This alent at This alent at This alent at This YYYYYearearearearear’’’’’s Shows Shows Shows Shows Show

Rant: Are you stressing about school?Pg. 2

Gibbons places first in tournament Pg. 8

Student Profile: Stress:Are you stressed? Review: In Good CompanyPg. 7Pg. 6 Pg. 5

Mr. Kochar strikes a pose during his performance

Conor Rogan plays his guitar inthe show

The 5 3 Experience performing“American Phsycho”

Derek Hardy during the set

Page 2 Wednesday, January 26th, 2005The Echo

Senior Editor: Andrew CareyReporters: Sarah Billy, Hannah Choo, Ashley Scott, Melanie

Shim, Allison MacRae, Leah Kruger, Andrew Carey, Clinton Martineau,Alex Gidora, Laura Shaw, Samantha Taylor, Kaitlin Dalton-Gibson

Page 1: Ashley ScottPage 2: Sarah BillyPage 3: Hannah ChooPage 4: Laura ShawPage 5: Leah KrugerPage 6: Alex GidoraPage 7: Allison MacRaePage 8: Melanie Shim

Desperate Plea for LettersDesperate Plea for LettersDesperate Plea for LettersDesperate Plea for LettersDesperate Plea for LettersPlease, the editorial department is overwrought with too much

space and too little article. If for no other reason, please send yourletters so that we, the editors, have less work to do.

Also, if you have something to say, it is important to make yourvoice heard, especially when it’s in a publication that will be read bythe entire school. Drop your letters off in room 311, or email The Echoat 080-echo@sd43.bc.ca. Published letters will earn a free Subwaytoken for the writer.

Great Debate: How EssentialGreat Debate: How EssentialGreat Debate: How EssentialGreat Debate: How EssentialGreat Debate: How EssentialAre Provincial Examinations?Are Provincial Examinations?Are Provincial Examinations?Are Provincial Examinations?Are Provincial Examinations?By Echo ColumnistsSarah Billy and Ashley Scott

By Echo ColumnistAllison MacRae

EditorialsEditorialsEditorialsEditorialsEditorials

Too much academic and so-cial pressure is placed on teenag-ers today. Without a doubt, schoolis important, but there has to be aline, a point when the pressure be-comes too much.

Trying to achieve highgrades is extremely stressful forteenagers. Teens, parents, teach-ers, and employees all hang ongrades as the be all and end all ofour lives. What ever happened tojust letting us be teens?

While school is necessaryfor teenagers to develop, to gainknowledge and skills that will ben-efit us later in life, students becomeway too obsessed with grades. Grades are important, but they don’tdecide who we are as people. Youcan fail a test and still be a goodperson; perhaps you have justmade a mistake. Exams in particu-lar carry too much pressure.

Not only do students haveto worry about exams on a weeklybasis, but grade twelves also haveto study for Provincials, a singletest that can decide your future.

This academic stress is fur-ther compounded in grade twelvewhen students begin to worryabout University. Now, to get intouniversity, you can’t just be an ex-cellent academic student (althoughthat works for certain super-smartpeople), but you also have to be a

well-rounded candidate. Thismeans you should be active inyour school and your community.

With two hours of homework,plus volunteering and maybe evenholding a job: there is no room forteenagers just to be teenagers!Teenagers need more time to sim-ply enjoy life.

Not only do teenagers haveto deal with homework, exams andpressure about the future, but teensalso have to deal with other pres-sures. Having to deal with yourfriends and peers can be very diffi-cult at times. As people in our lateteens, we are still blooming, discov-ering who we are and what we willbecome. Why bother us with somany other pressures? Don’t adultsremember what it’s like to be a teen-ager? We already have enough todeal with.

Some may argue that it is im-portant for teenagers to feel pres-sure in order for them to know whatit will be like when they get older.Yes, pressure will come at everytime in their life, but why rush theiradolescence? People may also ar-gue that teenagers need to learnwhat it’s like to be responsible, andknow how to set priorities in life.All of those things are important,but teenagers already know whatit’s like to have responsibilities.

Succeeding in every aspectof our lives is important but we, asteenagers, deserve to have a lifetoo. We deserve to just be teenag-ers: hanging out at the mall, goingto parties, and having fun. School,jobs, and other responsibilities areimportant, but there are years tocome when teenagers feel stressand pressure.

Adults know the pressuresof being adults: Mortgages,daycare bills and so on. The pres-sure will inevitably come for us, sowhy rush us into becomingadults?

We will have our chance tomake an impact on the world. Is itfair to pressure us to make a changewhen we aren’t ready for?

TTTTToo Muchoo Muchoo Muchoo Muchoo Much

It’s that time of year again -the holidays are sadly over andstudents are trying to get back into“school mode.” However, it’s notjust getting ready to wake up earlyin the morning for school that is sotorturous, it’s the fact that Januarymeans two things: final exams andthe inescapable Provincials.

Ashley: In a worldwhere stress continually rises,why must teachers and thegovernment add more stressto students’ lives? Gradetwelve is a stressful enoughyear for most students to en-dure, and Provincial exams arejust an unnecessary way ofadding more stress into stu-dents’ lives.

Sarah: I agree thatprovincials are stressful, butthey’re not unnecessary. Thewhole purpose of Provincialsis to be assured that studentsare being taught everythingthey need to know (according tothe government, anyway). Teach-ers vary from every class andschool, so there’s no possible wayevery student will be able to learnthe same way or receive the samemarking. Let’s pretend that one stu-dent received 90% in a course andanother student received 75% in thesame course, yet they end up know-ing the same amount for thatcourse. Is this fair? No, it isn’t.Provincials are necessary so thegovernment can find out that teach-ers are teaching students properly,and not just giving out bonusmarks and marking too easily.

Ashley: Yes, but what hap-pened to the day when the govern-ment used to trust teachers? WithProvincial examinations, it has be-come more and more evident thatteachers are not trusted to teachthe curriculum. Why are the teach-ers not trusted? Why must thegovernment monitor learning? Itseems to me like teachers are being

paid to do their job, and if they taketheir job seriously, which I hopemost of them do, then I would hopethat they would already ensure this.Also, because Provincial examshave come into play, teachers arenow forced to follow a restrictedschedule. They must make surethat all the necessary material, pro-vided by the government, is taughtand this allows for less variety inthe course.

Sarah: The governmentneeds to monitor our learning tomake sure we’re learning all the re-quired material properly. Also, thegovernment needs to monitor stu-dents’ learning incase they feel theeducation system needs to be im-proved. For example, if students areall doing really well in EnglishProvincials, but horrible in MathProvincials, perhaps the govern-ment would revise the Math we“need” to learn to make it a littleeasier. Provincials are also impor-tant for Scholarships and Univer-sity entrance, as high Provincialscores reveal the brightest stu-dents. If there weren’t Provincials,a student could get a scholarshipfor having high marks in class,which could just be the product ofa teacher’s easy marking. The onlyway to make admissions and schol-arship selection fair is to give eve-rybody the same test distributed bythe government.

Ashley: But can you really

base how much a student haslearned throughout a coursethrough a single exam? Provincialexams are not entirely fair becausethey do not correctly display a stu-dent’s overall knowledge. What ifa student was sick the day of thetest, or the week before the test andthey were not fully prepared for theexam? What if some kind of emer-gency came up in their life and theyjust couldn’t come to the test?

Would this mean that theywould receive an awfulmark in the course, all be-cause of one single day? Itis not fair to base a stu-dent’s knowledge of acourse on one single day.

Sarah: Getting sickthe week before mightslightly affect a student’sperformance, but if thatstudent really did learnanything throughout thecourse, then that studentshould be able to do wellon the Provincial. Besides,it’s not just one single day

- if an emergency came up (or forwhatever reason a student couldnot show up), students alwayshave the chance to take the Pro-vincial again when other studentsare re-taking the exams.

Ashley: All of us know thatPost-Secondary education is morechallenging than high school.Why is the government takingaway our last, sheltered year? Iunderstand that Provincial examsare used so that Universities mayassess top students easily; how-ever, are they really necessary?They add too much stress and don’tproperly judge a student’s knowl-edge.

Sarah: If students have donewell throughout the course andhave been taught properly, the Pro-vincial Exams shouldn’t be too dif-ficult. As much as everyone loathesthe Provincials, they are necessaryto make everything equally fair foreach student for scholarships andPost-Secondary admission.

Stress ForStress ForStress ForStress ForStress ForTTTTTeens!eens!eens!eens!eens!

The EchoWednesday, January 26th, 2005Page 3 NewsNewsNewsNewsNews

Pourquoi est-ce que c’est impor-tant d’être en Immersion française?Dans ces journées demulticulturalisme, est-ce que c’estessentiel d’avoir une langueseconde? Notre monde est habitéde 6.4 billions personnes et plus de1.3 billion d’entre elles parlent man-darin. Alors, pourquoi ne pas direque c’est plus avantageux de parlerle mandarin que le français?

La raison est simple: parce qu’onfait partie du programme immersion,on soutient notre pays et noslangues. Le Canada est bilingue,alors c’est important que les

LLLLL’importance de parler francais’importance de parler francais’importance de parler francais’importance de parler francais’importance de parler francaisBy Echo ReporterLeah Kruger

habitants le soient aussi. Il n’y a pasbeaucoup d’adultes qui parlentfrançais, alors si les jeunes neprennent pas la responsabilité depréserver notre langue, notrelangue va être oubliée.

Un cinquième du monde parlemandarin; l’anglais, l’espagnol etl’arabique sont les trois languessuivantes les plus utilisées. Lesautres langues secondaires, commele Français, font face à la menaced’être oubliées. Il y a des avantageset des désavantages d’avoir unelangue internationale, mais pour lemoment notre pays est bilingue alorsil est très important que nous,canadiens et canadiennes,

utilisions et connaissions nos deuxlangues.

Même si un jour le mandarindevient la langue du monde, ça vaencore être favorable de savoird’autres langues. Pour les individusau Canada qui sont bilingues, lefrançais peut aider à obtenir desemplois dans le gouvernement, àpasser des vacances dans les paysfrancophones, et même à mieuxconnaître la structure des langues.Ce qui est vraiment important estsimplement qu’on garde un respectpour notre pays et nos langues;étant la génération du futur, c’estnotre responsabilité de parler lesdeux langues officielles du Canada.

Speak Out: What Do Speak Out: What Do Speak Out: What Do Speak Out: What Do Speak Out: What Do YYYYYou Do Tou Do Tou Do Tou Do Tou Do To Relieve o Relieve o Relieve o Relieve o Relieve YYYYYourself From Stress?ourself From Stress?ourself From Stress?ourself From Stress?ourself From Stress?

“I sing and dance.”Lucy Hoang, Grade 9

“I tee off with icecubes.”Jonathank Fajardo, Grade 12

“Go shopping.”Dianne Hawthorn, AshleyDanielisz, Grade 11

“You don’t wannaknow.”Tamara Wood, KayceeHoward, Grade 12

“I play guitar.”Jamie Macleod, Grade 11

“I create para-doxes and build onthose to createmasterpieces.”“I enjoy going toplay hockey oryelling at people.”

“I bangmy headon the keyboard” “I talk to mygirlfriend-justkidding.”“I dance ballet”

Mahsa Sajadi, Grade 9 Jenn Partridge, Grade 12 Josh Lafleche, Grade 12 Shervin Naderi, Grade 12 Stephanie Carnovale, Grade 10

Students Students Students Students Students Agree: Fine Agree: Fine Agree: Fine Agree: Fine Agree: Fine Arts Night is a SuccessArts Night is a SuccessArts Night is a SuccessArts Night is a SuccessArts Night is a SuccessBy Echo ReporterKaitlin Donaldson and SamTaylor

Life imitates art asBrittany Neufeld showsoff her painting “Men-tor”

Kimberly Pile and Allison MacDonald showreal emotion in “The Drowned Woman”

The crowd makes “mixed media”

One of the final prod-ucts from the mixedmedia

Two of the juniorband players ontrombones

The choir sings theBeatles’ “Can’t buyme love”

On January 14th, Best hosted itsannual Fine Arts Nights. By the turnout alone, the evening could be clas-sified a tremen-dous success.

The number ofpeople who cameout to supportthe up and com-ing artists atCharles Best wasamazing. Thecrowded gyms h o w c a s e dmany of Best’smost creativegeniuses.

To start thefestivities, thefamilies andfriends attendingthe Fine ArtsNight were askedto create an artproject of theirown.

There were tables scatteredthrough out the small gym and thepeople at each table were responsi-ble for making a figure with the ma-

terials provided.The creativity in the room was

outstanding. Everyone participatedand each figure was ascreative as the next.

On display were paint-ings, drawings and por-traits in many different me-diums including acrylics,pencil crayon and contéby Mr. Foulkes’ Founda-tions Art 11 and Drawingand Painting 12 courses.

There were also impres-sive displays of clay andpapermaché projects in allthe colours of the rainbowfrom the ceramics classes.

And, finally, displaysof fine photography andmarvelous graphicsplaced around the gym andin the halls.

But the art didn’t stopwith the visuals.

The night also featured perform-ances by the school bands and choirand some short skits from the Drama

department. The night

began with asolid perform-ance from theSenior Bandbefore severalDrama stu-dents took thestage and pre-sented sev-eral witty andmoving per-formances.

Next theJunior Banddazzled theaudience withtheir renditionof the themefrom Pirates ofthe Carib-

bean. Tthe Jazz Band rounded out the

evening with a masterful perform-ance of Aretha Franklin’s“R.E.S.P.E.C.T”

Ashley Nijjer sings a solo

Page 4The Echo

Wednesday, January 26th 2005NewsNewsNewsNewsNews

In In In In In And And And And And AroundAroundAroundAroundAround Charles Best Charles Best Charles Best Charles Best Charles Best

Grade 12 Bio students RubinaSobhee, Jasmine Prasad andStephen Methot dissect a piglet.

Grade 12 students Hannah Chooand Jessica Ahn with theRiverview Park kids during theGrade 1 Christmas party.

The Best band students jazzing upthe hallways with Christmas music.

The Best choir sings Christmascarols in the main foyer.

Davis Davis Davis Davis Davis And Jenneau Represent Best And Jenneau Represent Best And Jenneau Represent Best And Jenneau Represent Best And Jenneau Represent Best At Distict Public Speaking ContestAt Distict Public Speaking ContestAt Distict Public Speaking ContestAt Distict Public Speaking ContestAt Distict Public Speaking Contest

Best Raises Money TBest Raises Money TBest Raises Money TBest Raises Money TBest Raises Money To Help To Help To Help To Help To Help Tsunami Vsunami Vsunami Vsunami Vsunami Victimsictimsictimsictimsictims

The Public Speaking Contestants

By Echo ReporterHannah Choo

On January 11th, the DistrictPublic Speaking Festival was held atRiverside Secondary. RepresentingCharles Best were grade 9 studentsKelsey Davis and Lauren Jenneau,and grade 12 student Shafer Carson.Overall, Kelsey received silver for herspeech about the 2010 OlympicGames; Lauren recieved bronze, forher topic on disorders/self-esteem;and Shafer received silver for aspeech on George W. Bush.

The process began on FridayDecember 10th when Charles Bestheld aGrade 9 Public SpeakingContest with two representativesfrom each English 9 class. Thestudents who participated in thatcontest were Kelsey Davis, LaurenJenneau, Ga Won Go, CarmelleBohr,Devon Henderson, JenniferKarsen, Ashley MacDonald, Kasey Grade 11 students Merisha Shim,

Mary Thomson and StephanieMichaels work at the Kiosk.

Art 9 student Kylie West paintsher papier mache zebra.

By Echo ReporterLaura Shaw

In response to the tragediescaused by the December 26earthquakes and tsunamis along theIndian Ocean, the Charles BestStudent Counsel is holding a CoinDrive from now until the 4th ofFebruary. All proceeds are going tothe Canadian Red Cross TsunamiRelief Fund to help distribute medicalaid, financial assistance, and reliefsupplies including tents, blankets,tarps, plastic sheeting, food andhygiene kits to the victims affectedby the tsunamis.

The Best Entrepreneurship 12class also hosted a Pie throwingcontest on January 14th in blocks Band C in the foyer. Students andteachers paid $1 to throw a pie at avariety of teachers and studentvolunteers, or they could spend $10to smear a pie in the face of one ofthe students or teachers. “It wentreally well… it didn’t get out of hand,”says Entrepreneurship 12 teacher Ms.Bazley.

In total, $286 was raised to gotowards the Student Counsel’sTsunami relief effort. The event wassponsored by Groovy Smoothy and

Mr. Smith Mr. Clish

Mr. Case

Mr. Hyde Ms. SousaMrs. Barabe-Chin

Grade 12s Prepare For ProvincialsGrade 12s Prepare For ProvincialsGrade 12s Prepare For ProvincialsGrade 12s Prepare For ProvincialsGrade 12s Prepare For ProvincialsBy Echo ReporterHannah Choo

Two weeks of relaxationduring the winter break was exactlywhat the grade 12’s needed. SinceSeptember, their final year at Bestseemed to quickly fly by, their livesfilled with event after event:homework, studying, tests,scholarship deadlines, friends,work, parties and the tediousCAPP essay due sometime beforespring break. Now, examinationweek is approaching fast- nextweek to be exact.

Luckily, after spring break,the tough parts of grade 12 arealmost over, and the countdownto Grad begins, with the additionalfuss of organizing limos, girlspicking out their princess dresses,and guys working up the nerve toask a girl to be their date. “I can’twait until January is over,” saidgrade 12 student ElainaBondarchuk. “Everyone isworried about provincials and

stressing out. After provincials areover, we can look foward to nextsemester and grad.”

It’s obvious the grade 12shave a full plate; their school daysare constantly bombarded withreminders, pieces of advice andpreparations for their future. “Themood has changed- everything isso serious now,” comments grade12 student Zachary Rogers.“Everything we do now will affectour futures and it’s getting quitebothersome. Nonetheless, the firstbatch of provincials is nearly over,and I’m looking foward to movingon with the fun parts of grade 12.”

So how do grade 12’ssurvive the long, yet mostmemorable year? Academic wise,the staff at Best support theirstudents in every possible way,starting from extra tutorials tomath/biology camps. Hopefully,grade 12 students will takeadvantages of the help providedand do well on their exams.

volunteers included: Sean Postle,Aaron and Matt Brascia, Ms.Wellington, Debbie, Mr. Mcdonald,Ms. Sousa, Mr. Case, Mrs. Barabe-

Chin, Mr. House, Mr. Folks, Mr.Coops, Mr. Roos, Ms. Skye, Mr.Smith and Mr. Clish. “McDonaldand Sousa got it worst… it was alot of fun,” says Ms. Bazley.

The recent tsunamis onDecember 26, 2004 have leftthousands dead or missing and

millions more stranded andhomeless in the worst disaster ofthis decade. The tsunamis in Asiahave caused the most destruction

of any tsunami ever recorded.It was the 4th largest

earthquake in the world, plus it wasthe largest earthquake since 1964,and far more devastating. Theoverall death toll has topped over150,640 people. More than 104,000of those people are from Indonesia,

30,720 from Sri Lanka, 10,022 fromIndia, 5,291 in Thailand, 298 inSomalia, 90 in Myanmar, 82 inMaldives, 68 in Malaysia, andmany more in Tanzania,Bangladesh and Kenya. There arestill thousands of people missing.So far five Canadians have beenreported dead, and more than 150Canadians are still missing.

Among the 150,000 pluscasualties, it’s estimated that atleast one third of them werechildren. More than 4 millionpeople have been left homeless asa result of the tsunamis. Hundredof thousands of them are nowstaying in shelters and makeshifthomes like schools and churches.

One of the largest problemsnow is to find missing survivors,to make sure that all of the survivngvictims can receive care like food,shelter, medicine, and clean waterand to start rebuilding villages andwhole towns that have beenwashed away during the tsunami.

To help raise money for thepeople affected by the tsunami,please bring clothing or moneydonations to the office beforeFebruary 4th.

Mr. Case

Miller and Brian Park.The speeches were judged

by Mr. French, Hillcrest Vice-Principal Mr. Trask, and grade 12student Rubina Sobhee. Winners of

the contest, Kelsey Davis andLauren Jeanneau, qualified for theDistrict Public Speaking Festival.

Overall, tbe contest was a

huge success, and the Englishdepartment was pleased with theresults. “It went fine for a firsttime,” commented Mr. Olding.“There are a number of glitches to

be addressed, but we are well onour way.” Charles Best used tohave yearly public speakingcontests, but over the past few

years, public speaking graduallylost its importance in the English 9curriculum; however, this year, theEnglish department decided tobring back the old tradition. “Publicspeaking contests address one ofour goals: to make the good workour students produce more visiblein the school community,” said thehead of the English department, Mr.Olding. “I have been fortunate towork with a department thatsupports the goal of making publicspeaking a mandatory part of everyEnglish course within the next threeyears.”

There will be anotherEnglish Public Speaking Contestheld next semester. “I expect aneven higher caliber of speech,”explained Mr. Olding, “as our mostmotivated students embrace theopportunity to demonstrate theirabilities.”

The Grade 9 Public Speaking Contestants

By Echo ReporterHannah Choo

Phot

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FeatureFeatureFeatureFeatureFeatureThe EchoWednesday, January 26th, 2005 Page 5

Student Profile: Bronagh Rogan-- Student Profile: Bronagh Rogan-- Student Profile: Bronagh Rogan-- Student Profile: Bronagh Rogan-- Student Profile: Bronagh Rogan-- AAAAA Champion Irish Dancer Champion Irish Dancer Champion Irish Dancer Champion Irish Dancer Champion Irish DancerBy Echo ReporterLeah Kruger

She’s Western Canadian IrishDancing Champion, and she’s still adown-right nice girl. Bronagh Roganbegan Irish dancing when she wasonly six years oldand is now pre-paring for twocompetitions inIreland, which willbe held nextmonth in Belfastand Ennis.

Bronagh wasintroduced to theart of Irish dancing by her family; hergreat-aunt taught dance classes andher mom and cousins previouslydanced. Bronagh says that Irishdancing is fun because she “hasfriends in it, getsto travel more than[she] normallywould if shewasn’t in danceand it is a way tokeep in shape.”For example,Bronagh has beento Florida, Phila-delphia, Boston,Phoenix, San Fran-cisco, Toronto,Edmonton, Ire-land, and evenEngland for com-petitions. Al-though she dis-likes the stress of traveling, she saysthat she really enjoys visiting differ-ent places, and Florida has been her

favourite so far. Another added bo-nus of her dancing was an appear-

ance on television; af-ter her dance school didwell in a local competi-tion, they were givensome local coverage.Bronagh says that thehardest part of Irishdancing is “havingenough stamina to getthrough [perform-ances].”

Competitions are aregular part ofBronagh’s dancing.She competes in an av-erage of one competi-tion a month, and de-scribes it as “fun if they

are local.” When the group has totravel long distances, Bronagh saysthat it becomes much more “nerve-wracking” than local competitions.

At the com-petitions, thegirls competein three indi-vidual danceseach evalu-ated by threejudges. Theirfinal score isthe average

of the three judges’ scores. At largercompetitions, such as the oneBronagh will compete in Ireland, onejudge will evaluate each dance sepa-rately. Her favourite competition isthe North American Nationals be-

cause they take place atthe beginning of summerand are “usually some-where nice and hot.”

Classes are twice a weekfor two and a half hours atthe Penk O’Donnell Schoolof Irish Dancing, andBronagh also practices foranother hour, four times aweek at home. Her base-ment is equipped with adance floor and mirrors soBronagh is able to rehearseto tapes of her music.

At the moment Bronaghis working on three main

dances which she will soon performat the “All-Ireland Dance Champion-ships” as well as the “World Irish

Dance Championships” in Ireland.The competition is in one monthand Bronagh and eight other solodancers from her dance school willtravel to Ireland for ten days.

Irish dancing is normally donesolo; however, there is some groupdancing. Irish dancing consistsof”Rriver-dance” like moves withno movement of the arms or upperbody when performed solo. If it is agroup dance there, is some move-ment allowed. The dances are per-formed to Irish jigs played on anaccordion by a hired musician.Bronagh describes the music as “alot of fun”. During performancesthe dancers wear either hard shoe-like taps or pumps. The girls alsocurl their hair and wear traditionalIrish dresses which Bronagh de-scribes as “colourful, flashy, shinyand sparkly.”

At the moment, Bronagh is busypreparing for the upcoming compe-tition in Ireland, and is very excitedabout the challenges it presents. Inthe future, she hopes to place in theTop 25 and hopefully be involved ina professional dance after highschool.

“I’m very proud of Bronagh and all her achievements in herIrish Dancing, and I’m looking forward to seeing her in RiverDance one day”

-Julie Macrae“I feel privileged to know Bronagh. Go Irish Dancing!”

-Amy Barber“She lives on my street and I always see her practicing. I thinkshe’s really good”

-Aaron Brascia

Friends’ Thoughts:Friends’ Thoughts:Friends’ Thoughts:Friends’ Thoughts:Friends’ Thoughts:

TTTTTrivia:rivia:rivia:rivia:rivia:Full Name: Bronagh Marie

RoganBirthday: March 27th, 1988Injuries:Nothing serious, just

twisted anklesAwards:•Western Canadian Champion•9th at North American

Champi onships•34th at World ChampionshipsFavourite: •Food: Weetavix Cereal • Number: 3 •Movie: Forrest Gump •Subject: Socials •Competition: North

American Championships

Bronagh proudly displays herWestern Canadian ChampionTrophy

Bronagh at age six

Bronagh has much to smile about these days

TTTTTop Top Top Top Top Ten Wen Wen Wen Wen Ways to ays to ays to ays to ays to AAAAAvoid Examsvoid Examsvoid Examsvoid Examsvoid Exams

1. Move to Siberia. They don’t care about your math grade there, only your ice fishing skills.

2. Start visiting hospitals. Hopefully you’ll come down with deptheria and won’t have to write your exam.

3. Pray the rain continues. If the school’s flooded nobody is going to be writing anything.

4. Get everybody together and buy all the pens and pencils you can get your hands on.You can’t do an exam if you have nothing to write with.

5. Get yourself a clone—just make sure they implant a copy of Eisntein’s brain instead of yours.

6. Yell “Bomb” in the middle of the test. Just make sure you remember to run afterwards.

7. Carry Pepto-Bismol in your pocket. Pink droll is a sure sign that you have a life-threatening disease, and should therefore go home.

8. Feed the photocopier orange juice. If there’s no photocopier, there’s no exams to pass around.

9. Go temporarily blind. You can’t write a test if you can’t read it. And if all else fails…10. Study. If you have to take the exam you might as well do good on

it.

By Echo ReporterLeah Kruger

“Irish Dancing lets metravel more than Inormally would and helpsme keep in shape”-Bronagh Rogan

The EchoWednesday, January 26th, 2005Echo FeatureEcho FeatureEcho FeatureEcho FeatureEcho Feature

The end of the semester isnearing; you can practically see thelight at the end of the tunnel. Still,who knew that this could be one ofthe most stressful times of the year?With Provincial exams, heavy work-loads and the mad rush to get projectscompleted on time, students tend tofind themselves in over their heads.If you are one of those stressed outindividuals, here are five easy stepsto help you identify and deal withstress.

1) Before you are able deal withstress, you must be able to identify it.The symptoms can vary betweenmental, social and physical. Somemental signs of stress are exhaus-tion, varying appetite (loss of or in-creased), crying, and trouble withsleeping. Physical signs in-clude drug and alcohol abuseand compulsive behavior. Fi-nally, the social signs com-prise of feelings of alarm, frus-tration or dullness.

2) Long before an exam,make sure you understandwhat is going to be on the test.Try to learn your subject in-side-out until you are confi-dent with your knowledge.Confidence is a big step inreducing stress. Also, try toremain active and eat regu-larly. Keeping a steady sched-ule will make it easier to con-centrate on more importantthings, such as studying!

3) Last minute crammingthe night before is definitelyNOT recommended. If you do notknow your subject by this point stay-ing up all night probably won’t in-crease your chances of a decent mark.Instead, get a good night sleep. Evenprepare everything you will need forthe exam, pencils, pens and calcula-tors, etc, ahead of time so you can getthat extra fifteen minutes of sleep.You want to be at your peak whenyou’re at the exam, and a well-restedmind will get you there.

4) On the day of the exam, wak-ing up a half-hour before the exam willleave you feeling groggy and gross.

So get up wellahead of thetime, have a re-f r e s h i n gshower, eat abalanced break-fast (this is veryimportant sothat you won’tfeel hungry andbecome dis-tracted during the exam) and evenget to school a bit early. Avoidcrowds as best you can. The lastthing you need is to have someonewhining about how hard the test isand the possibilities of failing.

5) During the actual exam, besure to read through the entire testbefore beginning. It is good to startwith the areas you know best andworking on from there. Skip the

questions that you don’t know theanswers to right away, you don’twant to take up too much time withthem and they might be easier toanswer after doing a couple otherquestions on the same topic.

If you begin to feel over-whelmedphysician and researcher, MelissaStöppler, recommends you “take afew slow, deep breaths and tenseand then relax your muscles whileseated [to] help break the tensioncycle.” And, remember to keep apositive attitude!

With that said, once you’re

How to Deal WHow to Deal WHow to Deal WHow to Deal WHow to Deal WithithithithithStress DuringStress DuringStress DuringStress DuringStress DuringProvincial ExamsProvincial ExamsProvincial ExamsProvincial ExamsProvincial Exams

finished the exam, don’t stress overhow you did and what you woulddo if you had a second chance. It isover and done with. It would beridiculous to dwell on the past, soI highly recommend you relax andenjoy your break.

A very important part in main-taining a healthy mind during examtime, is maintaining a healthy diet.Here is a list of nutritious alterna-tives to the usual “comfort” foods:

- Carbohydrate richfoods, such as pasta’sand breads. – It’s time todrop the Atkins’ diet.Carbs add to serotoninlevels in your brain, re-sulting in a nice calmingeffect.

- Oranges, lemonsand grapefruits. – Stayhealthy! The last thingyou need during a toughexam is a runny nose. Cit-rus fruits will help pre-vent colds and flu’s.

- Vegetables andother fruits. – You’ll feelmuch happier with a saladthan a bag of potato chips.

- Milk and meats. –It’s all part of maintaining

a well-rounded diet that will keepyou natural and healthy.

No matter how badly you crave“comfort food” to lift your spirits,avoid fatty, starchy and sweet items;they will only make you feel horri-ble. Nurse and author, JacquelineTresl, tells us that “simple sugars[junk food] will indeed raise yourblood sugar, but only for a shorttime. As soon as that ingested burstof sugar is metabolized, your circu-lating levels of blood sugar dropsback precipitously low.” It will leaveyou feeling uncomfortable and bad-tempered.

Echo Collumnist,Samantha Taylor

In order to combat stress, many students often use music as a way to relax.

Which songs do these lyrics belong to?

1) From the housesholy, we can watchthe white doves go.From the door comesSatan’s daughter, andit only goes to show.

Answer: ____________

2) Bright light, almostblinding. Black knight,still there shining.Can’t stop, keep onclimbing, looking forwhat I knew.

Answer: _____________

Page 6

3) Here I am, rock youlike a hurricane.

Answer: _____________

What stresses outWhat stresses outWhat stresses outWhat stresses outWhat stresses outCharles Best Students?Charles Best Students?Charles Best Students?Charles Best Students?Charles Best Students?Echo ReporterKaitlin Dalton-Gibson

Echo Contest! WEcho Contest! WEcho Contest! WEcho Contest! WEcho Contest! Win a freein a freein a freein a freein a freeSubway Sandwich!Subway Sandwich!Subway Sandwich!Subway Sandwich!Subway Sandwich!

ANTI STRESS KIT1. Place on a hard surface.2. Follow directions on cirlcle3. Repeat until stress is relieved or you are

unconscious

BangBangBangBangBangHeadHeadHeadHeadHeadHere!Here!Here!Here!Here!

Contestant’s Name:

In an effort to gage the extent andcauses of stress faced by Best Stu-dents, the Echo surveyed 100 stu-dents, twenty five from each grade.

The results of those surveys areshown in thegraphs below.

The first graph illustrates the sub-jects which cause students themoststress.

Math is clearly the most stressfullsubject in school with almost halfthe population worrying about it.English is a distant second at 22percent.

Most Stressful School SubjectsMost Stressful School SubjectsMost Stressful School SubjectsMost Stressful School SubjectsMost Stressful School Subjects

Most Stressful SchoolMost Stressful SchoolMost Stressful SchoolMost Stressful SchoolMost Stressful SchoolActivitiesActivitiesActivitiesActivitiesActivities

Of all the activities students areinvolved in in school, the most stress-ful is test taking. Well over half thestudents at Best find themselvesanxious during exams.

Which means, this time of year isundoubtedly extremely stressful formost. The pressures of homeworknad presenting before one’s peersfall second among in school stressors.

When it comes to extra-curricularpressures, students find dealing withparents to be by far the most stress-ful.

Almost half the students surveyedcited that dealing with parents oftencauses stress in their lives.

Most Stressful Extra-curriculaMost Stressful Extra-curriculaMost Stressful Extra-curriculaMost Stressful Extra-curriculaMost Stressful Extra-curriculaActivitiesActivitiesActivitiesActivitiesActivities

The EchoWednesday, January 26th, 2005 EntertainmentEntertainmentEntertainmentEntertainmentEntertainment Page 7

This CD is terrible. All subtletyaside, the follow up CD for Not ByChoice, entitled “Second Hand Opin-ions” features some of the mostnauseatingly simple power chordprogressions and offensively clichélyrics in recent music history, whichsays a lot. Second Hand Genre wouldhave been a more accurate namegiven the current popular music cli-mate. Their own website’s biogra-phy has this to say of the band‘ssophomore CD: “Second Hand Opin-ions finds Not By Choice realizingtheir adoration of punk rock withdeeper ties to fundamental rock ‘n’roll roots.” Those ‘rock ‘n’ roll roots’

My three favorite things havealways been video games, mov-ies and hilarity. That’s why I verynearly had a seizure of joy uponmy introduction to the world ofMega 64. This motley crew fromSan Diego has become an Internetsensation with their homegrowncable access show that combinesh i l a r i o u svideo gameskits with bi-z a r r ep l o t l i n e s .Now, the restof the worldcan finallyknow the gen-ius that isMega 64 withthe release oftheir firstDVD, Mega64: Version 1,which in-cludes thefirst season ofthe cable access show along withbehind-the-scenes features andcommentary from the crew.

The story of Mega 64 revolvesaround the creation of a super-powerful new gaming console bythe sinister Dr. Poque. This con-sole has the power to tap into thehuman brain and bring videogames to life within the mind ofthe user. Unable to get a majorcompany to support his inven-tion, Poque kidnaps three testsubjects, Rocko, Derek and Sean,to test the console to its full po-tential. The episodes have thetesters immersed in various well-known video games while a mul-titude of insane things happenback in Poque’s lab. By the end ofthe saga, we have experienced

Super Mario, The Legend ofZelda, Frogger, Metal Gear Solid,Shenmue, Street Fighter and manymore classics of the video gameworld.

Since Mega 64 was filmed on aminimal budget, all the video gameskits are filmed out in public. Thisadds to the hilarity, since bystand-ers have absolutely no idea whatis going on. The cast is comprised

of three coremembers, whoeach play sev-eral parts, aswell as an arrayof guests andbit players.Rocco Bottedoes doubleduty as Dr.Poque andRocko, whileDerrick Acostaplays the rolesof Derek andPoque’s room-mate, Horatio.Finally, Shawn

Chatfield plays both the role ofSean and the voice of Marcus thepuppet. Despite their low budgetand relative inexperience with theworld of film, the crew is consist-ently able to bring in the laughs.It’s impossible not to bust a gut atmany of the moments found inthis DVD. Highlights include theRiver City Ransom skit, SolidSnake (Derrick)’s infiltration of agrocery store, and a Dreamcast-themed rap video.

In short, if you like video games,“Jackass”-style comedy, or justneed a laugh, you can’t afford notto see the Mega 64 DVD. Pointyour Web browser over towww.mega64.com today to seesome sample clips and order your-self a copy.

Have you ever wondered whatit’s like to be in your fifties, have aloving family, and a perfect career?That’s what life is like for fifty-oneyear old Dan Forman (Dennis Quaid).He has it all, a great job as the headof advertising sales for SportsAmerica, a beautiful wife and twohealthy teenage daughters. In GoodCompany, directed by Paul Weitz(About A Boy), opens with a typicalday in Dan’s life; however, this dayhas more surprises than normal.

Dans’s life is about to be taken ona few major detours. Dan finds outhis wife (Marg Helenberger) is preg-nant, his daughter, Alex (ScarlettJohansson) has been accepted tothe expensive New York University,and the magazine he works for hasbeen bought out by the multi-na-tional Globecom.

Things couldn’t be worse for Dan,that is until he finds out that he hasbeen demoted, and has become thenew “wing-man” of Carter Duryea(Topher Grace), a hot-shot twenty-six year old, who is being “groomed”for bigger and better things.

The movie continues along withDan and Carter adjusting totheir new positions: Dan as the newwing-man of a much younger man,who knows nothing about advertis-

ing and Carter as the boss, who isuncomfortable in his new position.

During the movie, Carter, afterbeing left by his wife of seven months,begins to cling onto Dan. Carter

invites himself over to Dan’s housefor dinner, at which time he meetsAlex. “You have a family who lovesyou. How do you do it?” Carter asksDan. “You pick the right one to bein the fox hole with,” replies Dan,whose thoughts then fill Carter’sbrain, as he begins a secret romanticrelationship with Dan’s daughter,Alex.

Although this movie was inter-esting and had a good message, In

Good Company spends too muchtime trying to decide whether it is aromantic comedy or just a comedy. The scenes with Alex and Carterseem out of place and unrealistic: aguy in his mid-twenties being se-duced by an eighteen year old isn’tplausible. The movie should haveleft the love story out and focusedon Dan’s inability to deal with thechanges around him, and on hisrelationship with Carter; a father-son bond was certainly possible.

The last few scenes of the movie,show how Carter has learnt a lot fromDan’s old-fashion ways. He realizesthat sometimes a warm handshakewill seal a deal better than great ads.“Sometimes it’s not about gettingahead, it’s about getting a life.” saysthe posters for the movie.

Dennis Quaid and Topher Graceare excellent in their roles. AndScarlett Johansson and MargHelenberger are great in their sup-porting roles. In Good Companyhas a few good laughs and portraysa good message but it isn’t the emo-tional rollercoaster the ads portray itto be.

The plot itself isn’t very believ-able but the acting is good. I recom-mend it to anyone who feels likehaving a few good laughs, but if youwant to see a great movie, don’twaste your money on this one.

by Echo Reporter,Allison MacRae

Great “Jackass” VGreat “Jackass” VGreat “Jackass” VGreat “Jackass” VGreat “Jackass” Video Gameideo Gameideo Gameideo Gameideo Gameby Echo Reporter,Andrew Carey

On Friday January 14th, Rain, theband hailed to be the ultimateBeatles tribute band, rolled intoVancouver. Attired in an excep-tionally accurate Beatles wardrobeand sporting English accents, theband played to a sold out crowd ofBeatle crazed fans.

Rain had such a demand fortickets that they added three moreshows to their already jam-packedtour.

Tribute Bands face extraordinarypressure; they have tolook, act and sound likethe real thing and manyfall short. Rain doesn’thave to worry aboutthat because they havetaken the job as a trib-ute band to the nextlevel.

Every member ofRain (Joey Curatolo asPaul McCartney, SteveLandes as JohnLennon, Joe Bithorn asGeorge Harrison, andRalph Castelli andRingo Starr), played hisBeatle character per-

fectly – right down to the last detail.The band’s pain-staking atten-

tion to detail was most evident inJoey Curatolo who played PaulMcCartney.

Not only did Joey have the charm,wit and shaggy hair cut that madethe girls go crazy for McCartneyback in the 60’s and 70’s, he wasable to imitate the identical dancesteps for which Paul McCartney isknown.

With his knees and elbows tuckedtightly to his body and his awkward

swivel of the hips Joey Curatolowon the heart of the audience.

Rain is not a new kid on theblock: they have been around forquite some time. The band beganin the 1970’s when the four whereright out of college. After strug-gling to find a record deal as a bandcalled Reign the four decided tochange their name to Rain, (a titleof a Beatles single from 1966) andbecome a Beatles tribute band.

There was more demand forBeatles covers than there was forthere own music. Their First bigbreak came in 1979 when they werehired by Dick Clark to record musicfor the TV movie Birth of theBeatles.

Although Rain was gaining im-mense respect as a tribute bandthey still dreamed of recording theirown music.

They came close to getting acontract with a big label, but thedeal never went through. Althoughit would have been interesting tosee the band experiment with theirown sound, the fans of Rain arethankful that they keep with theBeatles theme.

As soon as you walked in thetheater, the atmosphere was amaz-ing. The audience ranged in agefrom eight to fifty plus- all there forthe love of the Beatles. And forthose two hours, everyone in theaudience was entertained and en-joyed Rain like they were the realBeatles.

They took you away on their‘Yellow Submarine,’ had you upon your feet with ‘Twist and Shout,’and they lulled you with ‘Hey Jude.Rain finished the night with thetitle song from their tour ‘She LovesYou’ with the fans screaming YeahYeah Yeah. The only thing thatcould be better than Rain is the realBeatles.

Ultimate Beatles Tribute Band Comes to Vancouver

by Echo Reporter,Kaitlin Dolton-Gibson

go all the way back to the year 2000,when pop-punk first started ruiningradios, and when Not By Choice firstdecided to cash in on the fad. Theband’s website also praises the newCD for having “confident songs thatboldly explore yet are comfortablyfamiliar”. The only things that NotBy Choice have ever explored arethe first three strings of their guitarsand “punk rock” demographiccharts. Some bands, even if they’rehorrible, slightly improve from al-bum to album. Not By Choice, how-ever, has made no improvements atall, in any field, under any system ofmeasurement. Were it not for thedifferent packaging I would havesworn this was their first CD. If you

Not By Choice, Not My ChoiceNot By Choice, Not My ChoiceNot By Choice, Not My ChoiceNot By Choice, Not My ChoiceNot By Choice, Not My Choice

by Echo Reporter,Alex Gidora

Good Company is a Mediocre MovieGood Company is a Mediocre MovieGood Company is a Mediocre MovieGood Company is a Mediocre MovieGood Company is a Mediocre Movie

Not By Choice, Not My ChoiceNot By Choice, Not My ChoiceNot By Choice, Not My ChoiceNot By Choice, Not My ChoiceNot By Choice, Not My Choice

Blue Devil SportsBlue Devil SportsBlue Devil SportsBlue Devil SportsBlue Devil Sportspage 8The Echo

Wednesday, January 26th 2005

DrDrDrDrDr. Charles Best Lacrosse T. Charles Best Lacrosse T. Charles Best Lacrosse T. Charles Best Lacrosse T. Charles Best Lacrosse Teameameameameam

Best’Best’Best’Best’Best’s Badminton Ts Badminton Ts Badminton Ts Badminton Ts Badminton TeameameameameamThe Charles Best Badminton

team’s 2005 season is off to an in-tense start.

Although there are no games ortournaments until the spring, the teamhas been preparing for the seasonsince late October.

When asked what some of thestrong points of this year’s teamwere, senior girls team member,Stephanie Michaels responded,“We’re pretty quick and we’re prettygood at the drills we do.”

Although the turnout was largerfor Junior Boys this year, the SeniorGirls team believes they have what ittakes to win this season.

Port Moody Secondary School isthe school that the team has to look

out for most this year.When asked what the team

should work on to prepare for theirupcoming games and tournaments,team member Ronak Pahlevanluresponded, “Well, there’s a lot ofpressure on the senior girls to win,so we could practice more on ourserves and our movement acrossthe court.”

When asked how she feels aboutpeople that don’t appreciate bad-minton as a sport, StephanieMichaels responded, “We’ll provethem wrong when they see us inaction.”

Vanessa Evans is the Head ofBadminton Counsel and Mr. Smithis the team sponsor and SidSydorak and Calvin are the team’scoaches this year.

By Echo ReporterLaura Shaw

Dr. Charles Best has always fieldeda very successful wrestling team.This season, recently started, is nodifferent. Anne Gibbons, one of thefew senior wrestlers on the team hasmuch faith in Dr. Charles Best’s wres-tling team. “I’m excited about my lastyear [at Dr. Charles Best.] I’m lookingforward to the rest of the season.Hopefully there will be no injuries,”Anne said. The team started off wellon the floor and was looking forwardto the BC Age Class Championships,she said, “The new ones are pro-gressing well and they’re comingalong. They’re learning quickly.”

WWWWWrestling Trestling Trestling Trestling Trestling Team Emerges On Team Emerges On Team Emerges On Team Emerges On Team Emerges On Top In Qualifying Top In Qualifying Top In Qualifying Top In Qualifying Top In Qualifying TournamentournamentournamentournamentournamentBy Echo ReporterMelanie Shim

All three Charles Best lacrosseteams are off to a promising start thisseason. With the exception of theTier2 juniors, who are 0-1, both thesenior and Tier1 junior teams are 1-0.Coached by both Mr. House and Mr.MacKay, this year’s teams have beena huge improvement over last year’steams.

Although winning games in theirrespective leagues is one of the toppriorities for our lacrosse teams, thecollective goal is to do well at the

Annual Brine/Blue Devil Field La-crosse Championship this spring,the only high school lacrossetournament in the province.Hosted by our school, it is a greathonor for all three of our lacrosseteams to be a part of the tourna-ment. Spanning from March 2nd to5th, the games will be played atboth Town Centre, and here atCharles Best.

All three teams hope that thehometown crowd will help moti-vate them to victory throughoutthe tournament.

By Echo ReporterClinton Martineau

By Echo ReporterSam Taylor

The latest meet the Cheer Teamattended was on Saturday, January15th, at Oak Harbour, Washington.

The team went into the competi-tion confident that they would do“very well,” and they did!

Performing with extra enthusiasm,they pulled together nicely to winthird place. Also, for her individualroutine, Andrea Burton won a thirdplace; an excellent victory againsther five other competitors.

The Senior Cheer Team started offthe competitive season with a bangwhen they placed second to SouthDelta. This year’s team, comprised ofseventeen senior girls, has set its

DrDrDrDrDr. Charles Best’. Charles Best’. Charles Best’. Charles Best’. Charles Best’s Cheer Ts Cheer Ts Cheer Ts Cheer Ts Cheer Teameameameameamgoals high, hoping to do even bet-ter in the six upcoming competi-tions.

With the assistance of coaches,Jaya and Marsha, they even quali-fied for the USA (United Spirit As-sociation) Nationals Anaheimagain.

Andrea Burton, a grade elevenCheer Team member, believes thatthey will do even better this yearthan last because, “We are experi-enced now. We know what we haveto do and how we have to do it!”

The Cheer Team’s next competi-tion is at Yale for which they addedon to their choreography andcleaned their routine, in hopes ofdoing even better.

Blue Devils BasketballBlue Devils BasketballBlue Devils BasketballBlue Devils BasketballBlue Devils Basketball

On Tuesday the 11thof this month,the Dr. Charles Best junior girls’Basketball team was successful inearning its third win out of fourleague games.

According to Mr. French, one ofthe three girls’ coaches, Tuesday’sgame against Burnaby Mountain(which ended in an impressive 35-15win) simply “wasn’t a challenge” forthe girls.

“We hope to meet [Terry Fox]again, but the team to beat this yearis Gleneagle,” commented Mr.French.

When asked about the girls’ workethic, Mr. French claimed “the girlswork very hard.” Ms. French, whoalso coaches the girls, agreed, add-ing that “they have all improvedtremendously.”

Even though the girls are doingwell, they still have a few things towork on before they’re ready for theDistricts.

“We need to increase our teamspeed,” Mr. French stated.

Just last weekend, Best attendedthe BC Age Class Championshipsout in Chilliwack. This is the quali-fier for Nationals and the wholeteam went to represent theschool. The whole team didextremely well and the re-sults prove that. Anne Gib-bons the gold. JanelleHameluck also did well andcame in fourth. Ian Lee, ajunior wrestler, came infourth place, while histeammate, JimmyMahaffey also came infourth. Jimmy had a shot atthird place, but an injury inhis last match has cost himthe bronze. Despite his in-jury, he still came in fourth,and the team as a whole isproud of their accomplish-ments. Jeff Shiou had a lot of wins,but he lost his first match, he wasn’table to get onto the podium. “Eve-ryone wrestled out well,” Mr.Coops, the team’s coach, said aboutthe tournament. As a warm up

competition, Best’s wrestling teamattended a “league meet” at BurnabyCentral on Tuesday, January 11,and did a fantastic job representing

the school. Here, the wrestling teamcompeted against other wrestlersfrom schools in Coquitlam, Burnaby,and New Westminister.

Although only fourteen of theseventeen of the team members at-

tended the meet, the team, consist-ing of mostly junior and new mem-bers, still did exceptionally well.More than half of the team won more

matches than they loss. A few stu-dents from Charles Best evenemerged undefeated. Ian Lee, ColinMcDonald, and Kevin Morse won allof their matches and were unde-feated that day. Aaron Robinson,

This year the Junior Boys Bas-ketball team has become the talk ofthe school. With a track record ofthirteen wins and one loss, whywouldn’t they be?

Led by captain KarimHemmings, leading scorer SamFreeman and leading re-bound-ers Scott Redwood and ChrisSeidel, the Junior Boys are unde-feated in league games. Either, Mr.Fichter and Mr. Macdonald, thecoaches of the Jr Boys Basketballteam, have whipped those kidsinto shape or that is one dedicatedteam. It is most likely a combina-tion of the two. After a disappoint-ing grade nine season last year,the boys have stepped it up intheir junior year and have becomea force to be reckoned with.

Last season the Grade nine teamdid not win a single league game,but this year the “new” Juniorteam is undefeated after four, anice turn of events.

When asked how he thoughtthe team would do this seasonChris Seidel answered “All theboys teams are off to a good startand learning lost from superiorcoaches; Mr. Hyde, Mr.McNaughton, Mr. Fichter, Mr.MacDonald, Mr Parkins and Mr.MacKay. Hopefully this year willstart a legacy of winning basket-ball teams at best.” The JuniorBoys are entered in two tourna-ments in February, one atWestveiw High School in MapleRidge and another on Sechelt.

Mr. Fichter was also asked if hethought that provincials were inthe future for the Junior Boys Bas-ketball team.

“Anything could happen,” hesaid “We only worry about thenext practice and the next game.Where you are ranked, how manypoints you score doesn’t matter.All that matters is the score at theend of the game.”

Senior BoysSenior BoysSenior BoysSenior BoysSenior BoysBy Echo ReporterMelanie Shim

Wrestlers at the BC Age ClassTournament

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bons

another junior wrestler said, “I’mproud to be a Best wrestler.” Surely,many of his teammates also feel thisway after the many successes theteam has gotten for their hard workand dedication.

“Congratulations to all the otherwrestlers because they did a goodjob,” said Ian Lee, a wrestler who didquite well. Although, many athletesdid well, the team still needs to workon developing their skills for theupcoming tournaments and meets.

The team has many very talentedathletes. The team hopes to get intoNationals, but they will have to con-centrate on working harder. “A fewof the athletes need to realize theyneed to train harder to rise to the nextlevel,” Mr. Coops said. After thesemajor competitions, the team is readyand hopeful for the future. Best’snext important tournament will be Feb-ruary 3rd, 4th, and 5th in Port Alberni.The team will take the road trip tocompete once more and hope to onceagain do well again in the future withan array of successful wins.

Anne Gibbons wrestles and comes in first

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Sr. Boys Basketball against Westview

Thursday, January 20th, Dr.Charles Best’s Senior BasketballTeam went up against Pitt Meadowsin an intense and frenzied game.Unfortunately, the Blue Devils wereunable to pull out a win. The team“played hard, but made too manymistakes,” Mr. Hyde, one of thecoachs said. Still, this basketballseason continues to draw many ofthe staff and student’s attention.Despite the program’s young age(It’s only five years old), many of thegames are well-attended and theteam has many skilled players. Thishas given the team motivationthroughout the current season.

“Our team is better this year,” onesenior basketball player commented.“The coaches help us out.” Thecoaches this year are Mr. Hyde, andnew counselor, Mr. McNaughton.

“Everybody on the squad is get-ting better,” Mr. Hyde said. “It’sexciting that we’re getting better.The program is only five years old.Adding coach McNaughton hasbeen great for the team. These guysare fun to coach and are a goodbunch of guys.” The senior team’snext tournament will be in Seaquamfor a three days, January 27th, 28th,and the 29th. After that, their next fewgames will be Friday, January 4th

against Gleneagle, and Thursday,January 10th against Riverside.

Junior BoysJunior BoysJunior BoysJunior BoysJunior Boys

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Jr. Boys Basketball plays against arival team

By Echo ReporterKaitlin Dalton-Gibson

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Junior GirlsJunior GirlsJunior GirlsJunior GirlsJunior GirlsBy Echo ReporterSarah Billy