The education system across America has always suffered and struggled when it comes to funding, but this year, especially in Hernan-do high School, it seems to have reached an all time low. The ongoing economic crisis has continued to put a huge damper on school budgets, even though poli-ticians have stressed ma-jorly in their most recent campaigns that the schools need to come first. “The Fu-ture,” as our generation at Hernando High are called, are supposed to be able to have a great education right at our fingertips, no matter where we are. But what do we feel when we reach out our hands? Instead of new books, better technology, and an easier, more inter-esting way to learn, we feel nothing but the crumbling foundation that has been repeatedly neglected and eroded away by the empty promises and lies of the powerful people in Florida and the United States. In-stead of investing in “The

Future,” men and women of stature have once again have chosen to become rich instead of helping, and we are all paying the price. Here at Hernando, there has been a noticeable im-pact the funding cuts have caused, One problem teach-ers across the board have found is that the new copy machine room in the front office is a hindrance for making copies of work-sheets and tests for class

since they now have to re-member to fill out a request form and wait 24 hours for the copies to be delivered. “I actually think it is much more convenient for teach-ers since they don’t have to make copies on their own time,” Principal Ken Pritz said, “but the change was made from budget cuts, and makes teachers find new and creative ways to present their material.” Rumors about other

things that have been set in place have been floating around due to funding cuts. The foreign exchange program, for example, has disappeared, but not be-cause of HHS’s limited fi-nancial situation. No teach-ers have been fired, either. But what is true is that full schedules for every student, which has been a pain for most seniors, is something that had to be put in place in order for the school to

get money. The State, in-stead of attaching funding for each individual student to each student, has decid-ed to attach it to each class period, and so bases the income against how many students are in each period. FCAT can help the school get more money, but only if the school-wide average goes up. Pay-to-Play (see page 11) has been instated, as has the library fee of ten cents per page print-ed, schoolwork or not. With the state cutting fund-ing, tax rolls being down, and only barely enough money to run the school, it is the worst it has been in years. Administrators are opti-mistic, though. “Besides the obvious paper cuts,” Assis-tant Principal Mary Krabel said, “nothing significant has really been effected that will affect the students and school activities.” One can only hope that the state and congress will see the error in cut-ting school funds soon, be-fore it becomes the down-fall of all our generations.

The Purple and Gold PressHernando High School News700 Bell Avenue

(352) 797-7015 October 2011Volume 11 Issue 1

Budget Cuts and What They are CostingBy: Rachael JacksonEditor-In-Chief

Take a peek at what’s inside this edition:

The 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 Twin Tower attacks on our nation. Where were you? What’s rising up on Ground Zero?The Mystery of the Messed Up Schedules.

Why Dual Enrollment is so popular.Missing Teachers: Where did they go?Preview of this years’ sports. End of Summer and Start of Fall Television.

The Hernando High School main entrance and office in all its beauty.

October 2011 Pg. 2

In the KnowEvents on Campus for September 23 - October 21, 2011

September 23, 2011:Varsity Football game at Land O’ Lakes @ 7:30

September 29, 2011:Underclassmen pictures

September 30, 2011: Varsity Football game vs. Central, stadium @ 7:30

October 1, 2011: SAT @ 7:00AM in science building

October 3, 2011: Home-coming bonfire and pep rally @ 6pm

October 5, 2011: SGA dodgeball tournament in the gym ($3)

October 6, 2011: Home-coming GROWL and fire-works at the stadium ($5)

October 7, 2011: Home-coming game against River Ridge @ 7:30pm

October 8, 2011: Home-coming dance 7-10pm in the cafeteria

October 20, 2011: End of 1st grading period and Se-nior picture make-up day

October 21, 2011: Profes-sional Day, no school for students

The Mystery of the Messed Up Schedules at HHSBy David DudleyDouble-Truck EditorWe’ve discovered how it all happened. As all great chillers start, it began with a promising program. Ironi-cally, this program, by the name of Terms, was sup-posed to make the lives of the average guidance counselor much easier. No need to worry about putting schedules together; Terms has it under control. Lies! It turns out that Terms couldn’t distinguish the dif-ferences in times between lunches and classes. This caused the crazy havoc on students’ schedules that was

Trending Now: Dual EnrollmentBy Hope StoutAssociate/News EditorRight now, dual enrollment numbers are on the rise; in our own school there are class sizes of almost 40 students in DE humanities and English Composition, among others. British Lit-erature was introduced this year to students who showed enough interest to make this a class. All of these classes are free and count as college credit which is transferable to any state university, mak-ing them very desirable in the hard times. What does all of this mean? If a student has a 3.0 GPA, and passes the ACT or PERT test (col-lege placement test), they

can take up to four (or more with principal’s permission) college classes per semester while in high school, and earn their Associates De-gree before they graduate, or right at the same time. North Carolina has really jumped on the dual enroll-ment bandwagon as well as other states in the U.S, having all 58 of their com-munity colleges offering that opportunity. Although some universities feel that the measurement scale for an AP class versus a DE class is skewed, with DE classes being on the “easi-er” end of the scale, parents

Pasco-Hernando Community College, North Campus. This is where most HHS students take DE classes.

NEWS

seen across school and es-pecially in the guid-ance coun-selors’ of-fices the first couple of weeks. W h e n questioned w h e t h e r or not next year Terms will be used once more, Mr. Pritz con-cluded that

it most likely will be used, but obvious-ly with some adjustments. B e c a u s e Terms cannot dis t inguish b e t w e e n lunches and classes, ac-tions such as reprogram-ming could take place or guidance c o u n s e l o r s might have to manually

The scheduling problems might not be over...

install every student’s lunch period and the surrounding classes. The question is still in the air as to whether or not one way is better than the other. No matter what, there will be mistakes. There will always be stu-dents who decide they want to switch lunches or classes after a summer of chang-ing opinions. However, at the very least, Terms is to thank for getting so many new students communicat-ing and getting to know the school, and their guidance counselors.

and students are all for it. This program saves money, motivates kids to do their best, brings them to a col-lege level of academics and exposes them to college set-tings while in high school. AP classes might be more rigorous according to some, but those classes can’t re-

ally give a true college feel to the students like actu-ally attending college will. Also, unlike AP, as long as the student maintains a “C” average in their course, they recieve full college credit. Doing well in college also boosts GPA signifigant-ly. With the economy in a slump, these free college classes are motivating stu-dents to bring themselves up to college standards.

NEWSOctober 2011 Pg. 3

Facebook: Making it Safer for YouBy: Rachael JacksonEditor-and-Chief When people think about the dangers and stalkers of Facebook, they generally don’t come across the issue of prison inmates being part of them, but due to the rise in harassment and stalking, states across America are starting to join with the Fa-cebook team to get rid of all Facebook profiles that be-long to anyone in jail. Not all inmates are guilty of harassment and stalking, mind you, but the ban is just a huge case of “the few spoiling it for the many.” In the California Department of Corrections and Rehabil-

itation, there were reports of almost 7,500 con-traband cell phones inside of the jail be-ing used for the first half of the year. It has increased 300 times since the 2006 num-ber. “Access to social me-dia allows inmates to circumvent our

monitoring process and con-tinue to engage in criminal

activity,” says CDCR Sec-retary Matthew Crate. “This new cooperation between

law enforce-ment and F a c e b o o k will help protect the community and poten-tially avoid future vic-tims.” S o far this law has been passed and put into effect in California, and South Carolina is

also quickly on its way to

passing the ban throughout the state. Andrew Noyes, a Facebook spokesman says, “We will disable accounts reported to us that are violating rele-vant U.S laws or regulations or inmate accounts that are updated by someone on the outside.” It is now becoming a new and effective way to help ensure the safety of all who visit this popular social net-working account. So, next time you are on facebook, although obviously actions are being taken to make it as safe as possible, just be careful about the informa-tion you post, or who you “friend” while online.

Facebook is making their site a safer place for everyone, and cracking down on criminals.

What’s the Truth About HHS Students?By: Kacey HolcombReporterHave you ever wondered to yourself while doing some-thing throughout your day, “How many other people have (or are) doing this too?” Well luckily, with some surveys and the oh-so-amazing internet, now you will know some interesting statistics about people.According to www.dayto-nasun.com,91% of us lie regularly

45% of us believe in ghosts

69% of us eat the cake be-fore the frosting

47% of us drink from the carton or bottle when no one is looking

22% of us do not eat lunch daily

62% of us pop our zits

50% of us regularly sneak food into the movie theater to avoid paying for over-priced snacks

27% admit to cheating on a quiz or test

21% of us make our bed daily, 5% never do at all

29% of us have unintention-ally stolen from a store

The strange habits of the average person may not be so strange after all; considering how many people do them.

OpiNiON Whenever I contemplate the things people do that an-noy me the most, the one that is at the top of the list, next to making loud noises whilst eating and forcing one's beliefs down people's throats, is that little trait that is rather rabid in high school, the one of making derogato-ry remarks about oneself in search of compliments. We all do it from time to time, but there are those people who simply cannot help themselves and do so in ev-ery other statement, at which point it crosses the annoy-ing threshold into the realm of the pathetic. Contrary to the popular misconception, self-degradation is not be-ing modest. And of course, worse than that is making cruel comments concerning another in hopes of making oneself look better. Constantine in The Help had the right idea: "You quit feelin' sorry for yourself. Now, that's ugly. Ugly is somethin' that grows up in-side you. It's mean and hur-tin'…"

Self-Esteem in High School Please, people. Get some self-esteem. And until then, shut up. Why is everyone so self-conscious nowadays? What is up with everyone's obses-sion of being the most at-tractive person in the world, and if you're not, you're not worth much? Is it just the backlash of the aftermath of evil puberty? Or is it the re-sult of vain ideals promoted in our media? In our culture of to-day, beauty is perceived as synonymous with perfec-tion. We strive to expunge

physical flaws in order to reach a state of corporeal perfection, through means of make-up and, in more se-vere cases, plastic surgery. I do not personally object to the use of makeup or mi-nor surgical corrections of physical flaws, if it makes one feel more secure in one-self. However, the focus of this in absence to what lay beyond the material realm of life is something I find rather alarming. We fail to recognize that we as humans cannot reach perfection. We (assumingly) have but this

one flesh and one lifetime, and we wonder at minor dif-ferences that distinguish us from others. Subconscious-ly, we strive to conform to the general public’s overin-dulgent attitude concerning the normality and perfection of humanity. What we fail to recognize in order to consult our self-conscious wonderings is the basic idea that all material things are imperfect expres-sions of perfect and univer-sal ideas or forms. Perfec-tion cannot be reached in the physical world, a fact

the human mind is little at peace with. Perhaps the reason we strive to be so perfect on the surface is because we each recognize that sometimes how we ap-pear, in physicality and per-sonality, is representative to what lay within, and we do not see that examples need not always be picture-per-fect replicas of what they symbolize. And thus, be-cause the human senses can be fooled, a truly beautiful person pursues knowledge of the perfect form that lay beyond the senses. In simpler terms, what is on the outside doesn't have to match the inside. They say beauty is skin-deep, but ug-liness goes to the bone. The moment you think that you are better than your peers is when it borders on arro-gance. Be content in what you have, because we have but this one lifetime, and why waste it by constantly wondering what others are seeing when they look at you? Make yourself beauti-ful by your actions and your words, not the luck of your genetics. Carpe diem.

ATTENTION STUDENTS: Would you like to see something published in your school’s newspaper?Well, here is your chance.Ms. Poggi, room 28209, and Rachael Jackson, Editor-in-Chief, along with Tyler McBee and Hope Stout, Associate Editors, are taking stories ideas from you! The school newspaper is made for you, so get involved and speak your mind about what you want to read.

By: Katie AdamsEntertainment Editor

Inspirational button from Google images.

October 2011 Pg. 4

OpiNiONFall of TV

By: Andrew KahlerReporter

America as a whole is ex-tremely fixated with tele-vision. Our grandmothers watch their Spanish soap operas, despite not speak-ing Spanish; our grandfa-therss spend hours watch-ing WWII documentaries and talk about the good old times, despite only being sixty; our dads watch sports and talk about how much better they could coach. Television is a huge con-versation piece for everyone, and is responsible for eating up a lot of free time. Despite this, experts say that televi-sion, like radio, will soon be

rather obsolete. How can that be? The in-ternet, I answer. The internet isn’t really a new thing, but the ability to watch our fa-vorite shows online is. With newer websites like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube, Inter-net users can watch videos on the Internet whenever they want instead of waiting for the show to come on. Websites like Netflix and Hulu require a small fee to allow the ability to watch popular shows and movies on computers or gaming consoles. Spending $7.99 a month to watch all those shows is a much better alter-

native to spending $49.99 to buy one season of LOST. These websites have al-ready successfully killed Blockbuster. With their vast selection of movies people can instantly watch, this seems like a much better option than going to a store and choosing from a mea-ger selection and returning it the next day. Blockbuster was an empire in the 90’s, but Netflix crushed it in a matter of years. The same is predicted to happen to vari-ous TV stations. Netflix is now releasing content completely unique to the website, such as new episodes of the Dave Che-pelle show. Soon there will be whole channels where

content comes out exclu-sively on the internet. No wait, YouTube already does that. With all these factors, television could very well not be relevant in ten years. The rise of the Internet has greatly changed our way of life. Instead of just lazing around on a couch, eating potato chips, wasting away our days in the livingroom, we are now typing away in the computer room, trying to find all the shows online, making it vastly more con-vienent for ourselves. Many people may refuse to accept this realization, but it is true. I truly hope this does not come to be true, and we all keep enjoying television.

.

.

Top: A traditional television set

Bottom: The new medium for TV

Google Images

October 2011 Pg 5

Hernando HighWhere were you?

HHS and The Purple and Gold Press Remembers...Mr. H

ait - Government

Teacher

“I was living in Long Isla

nd at the tim

e and I w

as back and

forth from New Jersey a

nd my home. I was p

resident of the

teacher’s

union and was in my office, a

nd I didn’t lo

ok at it

on the tv until I

heard that th

e first building fell

, then I went

down to the deli to check it o

ut. We watch

ed in aw as the

second building fell

..it was th

e type of thing that yo

u could

never think would happen; Especia

lly after

the first explo-

sion. You thought that it

could never of been engineere

d,

something that well t

hought out. It was ju

st an unbeliev

able

moment. The sm

ell is what re

ally brings it

home…just that

smell..a stro

ng acrid tast

e.. it’s th

e only way I

can descr

ibe it.

I can tast

e it right now in the back of my th

roat..I can

taste it

right now…Its just o

ne of those Seminole m

oments in my

life. One of those th

ings where you know exactly

where you

were. Exactly

what you were d

oing when it happened. It w

as

just you know, one of those u

nbelievable m

oments..”

Hope Stout - Associate Editor for The Purple andGold Press

“I was in my second grade class, doing whatever assignment I’d been told to work on. My teacher was on the phone and sounded upset, but being 7 years old, I didn’t really pick up on the urgency of the situation. Kids started to be called to the front office to go home, and eventually only me and a few other kids were left in the classroom. My mom finally picked me up early from school, and I can remember her having the radio on listening to the news in silence. That night, my parents were glued to the T.V as they watched the broadcast repeat over and over again that there had been an attack on the U.S. I was too young to know the extent of the damage that had hap-pened or the seriousness of the situation, but I knew that it was bad.”

Tyler Mcbee - Associate

Editor for The Purple and Gold Press

“When I heard of the 9/11 attack I was being picked up from daycare and wonder-ing why I wasn’t going to school the next day. To be honest I was actually kind of

mad that it happened because it kept me from going on a field trip that had been planned shortly after. I didn’t know what it all meant really, only

that a huge event had happened and that it was big enough to cancel school the next couple of days.”

Hernando HighWhere were you?

HHS and The Purple and Gold Press Remembers...

Ms. Poggi - English/

Journalism Teacher “I was in eleventh grade French class. I had a substitute that day, and she re-

ceived a phone call. Shortly after she hung up the phone, she turned on the tv. The first tower was burning. We (the students) thought it was an accident, but within seconds a plane flew into the second tower and we knew we were under attack.

Being a teenager when it happened, I spent the next decade watching the world I grew up with drastically change. Many of my peers went into

the military as a direct result of 9-11, and I watched my little brother grow up in a world where security always

outweighed everything else.”

Rachael Jackson - Editor-In-Chief of the Purple and Gold Press

“I remember I was sick that day; I was on my couch, curled up in a blanket just watch-ing T.V. All of a suddden, a huge newsflash came on reporting almost instantly of the incident. I was shocked, and since I was only 7, I didn’t understand where it was hap-pening, all I knew was that it was in New York. I became worried about my old friend Alex that was still in New York. I now know that we used to live on Long Island, not in the city, but that day I thought about her a lot. I didn’t get to talk to my parents until they got home from work, and my little brother Kyle was at daycare.”

Mr. Pritz -Principal of

Hernando High

“I was at West Hernando Middle School as a principal there, I was

doing my job whatever that involved at the time.. I guess it was,

people use that word surreal. You turn the tv on. It was happening

as you watched it. Unless you’ve seen some of the tallest buildings

in the world, to imagine them collapsing is just surreal.

I guess what hit me is that my oldest son was there the day before,

he was just visiting and I knew he was in New York and he had

been there so of course we wanted to know where he was and he

was fine. There was a real feeling of a kind of helplessness, you’re seeing

it happen and there’s nothing you can do about it. It seemed very

pointless. Then you started getting reports of the plane hitting the

Pentagon, and the plane hitting the field. And you just ask yourself,

how many more are there? I think that’s what hit me the most...the

feeling of helplessness and not knowing.”

FEaturESOctober 2011 Pg. 8

It has been 10 years since the dreaded 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Ten years since all of Ameri-ca watched the countless people die as the Towers burned. Ten years since the world rose up in arms at the terrorist group that killed so many for their own venge-ful agenda. In those 10 years a phoe-nix has been rising from the ashes of Ground Zero; mul-tiple phoenixes in fact. One of the projects being done on the site is a rebuilding of the first Twin Tower, which is being named the Freedom Tower. The Tower will be a lot like the original towers; the new tower will have a 200 square foot base, just like the original Twin Tow-

ers. The Freedom Tower is expected to be finished within the first quarter of the year 2013. Not only the Freedom Tower is on the infamous site, there are also two me-morial pools that will be

open to the victims’ families on the 10th anniversary and to the general public on the next day. The pools will be in the footprints of the origi-nal towers, making them an acre each. The memorials will be pools of water and

contain the names of all of the poor souls that lost their lives in the terrible attack on the World Trade Centers. Families of the victims are able to schedule a visit to the memorial on Septem-ber 11, 2011 by going to the

911memorial.org website.Along with the World Trade Centers, the PATH subway terminal was also destroyed. A temporary terminal was built on November 23, 2003 and the refurbished and re-built original will be com-pleted as the World Trade Center Transportation Hub during the second quarter of 2013. It has been 10 years since the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers, and in those 10 years Ground Zero be-gan to spring up and flourish again, like a phoenix from the ashes, carrying the spir-its of those who perished in the attack with it. May all of the families and friends of the fallen people find peace now.

Where did they go? There have been major staff chang-es concerning teachers this year in Hernando High School. Many sophomores, juniors, and seniors are left to wonder where some of the most popular teachers of this school have gone. Even freshman that were expecting to get some of the missing teachers could be puzzled by their disappear-ance.

Where are they now?~Mrs. Webster: Beloved English teacher, who taught here for 7 years, has transferred to STAR to teach English.~ Mr. Galitsky: With as many admirers as haters, he transferred to Evaluations at the School Board Office after eight long years of teaching AP Psychology, AP Human Geography, and all those other insane classes.~ Mr. Drummond: Liked by the majority of Hernando High School, he is now a full-time E-school teacher; he decided to switch after 15 years of teaching History and American Government.~ Mr. Mahubani: Widely liked by all his students, Mr. M taught math for one year and decided to take a break from teaching.~ Mr. A’Day: Fun History teacher, was not reinstated after one year at Hernando.~ Coach Roof: P.E. teacher for 3 years; is now in Taiwan teaching children the English language.~ Mr. Roberts: Has finally switched to be a full-time E-school teacher after teaching a variety of sci-ence classes including Physics, AP Physics, Marine Science, and Physical Science for six years.

Even though all staff chang-es at Hernando High during the summer of 2011 could not be mentioned, since there are bound to be a lot with over 130 members, it does not mean they are any less important. If any of the teachers read this, the students at Hernando High hope you are having fun and wish you all good luck with your new lives.

Ten yers ago, the Twin Towers were destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now the free-dom tower is being erected to commemorate the lives lost in he attacks.

America Begins to Recover from the 9/11 TragedyBy Tyler McbeeAssociate Editor

MIA @ Hernando High SchoolBy Rachael Jackson

Editor-in-Chief

ENtErtaiNmENtOctober 2011 Pg. 9

Throne of FireStephen SkipperReporter

Image courtesy of Google search engine.

ABC Family Summer T.V.By Hope StoutAssociate EditorThe Nine Lives of Chloe King: The season finale of this intriguing show drew to a close a few weeks ago with a dramatic and surprising ending, as Chloe was forced to confront her feelings for both Alec and Brian, and finally see her father again after many years. Unfortu-nately, things took a turn for the worst when Chloe went to meet her father; Alec is angry with her, Jasmine and her mother’s lives have been taken by the enemy, Brian dies at the hand of Chloe, and Chloe loses another of

her lives, while her enemy escapes free. The next sea-son certainly has an awful lot of damage control to do.Pretty Little Liars: As fall T.V is right around the corner, Pretty Little Li-ars is on hold until January, with a suspenseful and per-plexing finale that aired on August 30. The Liars find themselves in the worst trouble they have ever been in at the hands of their mys-terious stalker “A”, who kidnapped Dr. Sullivan, the therapist whom knew A’s identity. The girls race through a deadly game

hosted by A in order to get Dr. Sullivan back before time runs out, but instead are caught in suspicious cir-cumstances with the mur-der weapon that supposedly killed Ali, their old best friend. As the girl’s lives fall to shambles, A takes it a step further and this time, it seems as though there is no way out for the girls.

FALL T.V.

The Lying Games: The season premier of the new hit T.V show, the Lying Game, aired recently and was well received, which isn’t surprising considering that the show was produced by the same person who

produces Pretty Little Liars, and the T.V series was first a book series by Sara Shep-pard, also author of Pretty Little Liars. The show starts out with Emma, a foster kid who finds out that she has a twin sister that she never knew about. Although very different, the two girls con-nect immediately and de-cide to try to find out who their birth mother is. Emma trades lives with Sutton, her twin sister, for what she thinks will be just a few days, but then something goes horribly wrong. Gossip Girl: The 5th season of Gossip Girl airs September 26th on CW44, and rumor has it that both Jenny and Vanessa will

be out of the picture for this one, not surprising for Van-essa who took off to Barce-lona after delivering Dan’s manuscript to a publisher at the end of season four. Blair and Chuck are still not back together, but some-thing to keep an eye on is the positive pregnancy test that Dorota threw out in the garbage. Serena appears to have changed her ways (for now) and is done with rela-tionships (for now), but that probably won’t last long. Finally, season four eluded to much more of Georgina, and the mysterious charac-ter “Charlie” who also goes by “Ivy”. What will next season hold? Not too much longer to find out!

Anyone who knows about mythology fiction will know the name Rick Rior-dan. He has done truly in-credible work on Greek, Roman, and, most recently, Egyptian mythology. In his newest book, The Throne of Fire, he continues the tale of the Kane siblings, Carter and Sadie. Now that they know their mission, the twins begin their quest to stop Apophis, the embodiment of chaos itself, from rising in a few days’ time. In order to do this, they must obtain the Book of Ra, which will al-low Ra to rise to power and hopefully defeat Apophis. Who can do this alone?

Among the many new fac-es joining our heroes, there are two new trainees, Jaz and Walt, the friendly god, Bes, and of course, the loyal baboon, Khufu. However, with new friends, there are also quite a few new adver-saries. Along with the House of Life chasing them for re-leasing the gods, there are also numerous followers of Apophis, and in these times, no one, not even close al-lies, can be trusted. Meanwhile, Carter begins a journey of his own, try-ing to locate his old friend, Zia. In the end, the group is forced to undertake a peril-ous voyage in order to re-vive Ra to his full power, a

journey where not everyone will survive. In this stunning sequel, Riordan proves yet again that he is a master of the mythology genre. This nov-el shows how mystifying and enchanting Egyptian mythology can be. Riordan has clearly taken that idea to the next level. This book is the second in a series of five, each released in May of the succeeding year. I eagerly await the next book and each after that. Also, keep an eye out for the next installation in Riordan’s other series, The Heroes of Olympus titled The Son of Neptune.

October 2011 SpOrtS Pg 10

Pay to PlayBy: Kacey HolcombSports Writer It’s the 2011-2012 school year, and many of the stu-dents are looking forward to partake in their favorite sports. Though throwing a football, spiking a vol-leyball, and even ‘shoot-ing some hoops’ will in-volve throwing some cash. As of July 26, 2011, the Her-nando County School Board approved of a new activity fee for all athletic students. The high schools involved in the new athletic fee are as followed: Hernando, Na-ture Coast, Weeki Wachee, Springstead, and Central. Due to the School district leaders needing to cut their budget costs, the parents of student athletes are respon-sible to pay for their kids to play sports. The idea is

to pay the year-round em-ployees at school five paid holidays instead of ten, and the employees with six paid holidays, only one. The de-creasing amount of money to the school causes a turn to other resources for materials. For Hernando High, the fee for the first sport joined, will be a total of $45.00. The second fee will be a total of $25.00 per additional sport. The athletic fee must be collected when the student joins the team, and there will be no refunds permitted if a student drops a sport.Senior athlete, Genelle Bur-gan, expresses her opin-ion. “I think it is one of the worst policies Hernando County has ever put into effect. I know the county needs money but it needs to find a different way, rather than punish the athletes by making them pay to play

a sport.” $45.00 may not seem like much to certain students who play only one sport, but those who play three or four sports per school year, the money adds up. “I don’t mind paying the money to play a sport, as long as it goes to the sport I’m participating in.” says sophomore athlete, Alaina Avirett. Unfortunately, the money from the athletic fees goes to the school dis-trict. The money is used for things such as teacher sala-ries and lunchroom food, in-stead of uniforms and other desired materials for sports. So, for those athletes who have to ‘Pay-to-Play’, let your opinions out on the football you throw, the volleyball you spike, and even the ‘hoops you shoot’. Let’s not let a fee affect our leopard pride.

Thoughts on This Year’s Upcoming Sports Season By: Alaina AvirettSports Writer With a new school year comes a new athletics sea-son, making the use of pur-ple and gold tee shirts reach an all time high. Whether its football, cross country, band or golf, everyone is ready for a winning season. “I want a 10-0 season with a win at state!” says foot-ball player Jeremiah Jack-son. He, along with other students and teachers, carry high expectations for the 2011 sports season. Volleyball, already with numerous wins under their belts, smashed Central in their debut game. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s the team that sweats their butts off, (although you can’t see it!) the swim team is going for a stellar season and making Her-nando proud. “This year is it for Hernando swimming and I’m blessed to be a part of it! Everyday I’ll go to practice and give 120% and God will provide our team with a happy and successful season; I’m sure of it,” said Mika Rotunda, an athletic enthusiast celebrating her senior year. I think the whole school can agree we love our football team. Those boys work in-

credibly hard to bring home the bacon. There is something about football that can bring peo-ple together with an almost organic, unchanged sport of our past-time. Help Her-nando get their cheer on! What a better way to do that other than with a little bit of a pep rally? No group practices more extensively than the school’s band. You think stuck-in-your head-all-day jingles just happen? Well, think again. Their five to eight practice schedules beat those practices of even the football players. “We now possess enough members to be a 3A band and potentially the big-gest band in the country! Bigger is not always bet-ter, but everyone is putting forth great effort!” said long time band member, Justin Zimmerman. With band members practicing under the unforgiving sun, in full uniform, much credit is de-served. How about the sport that is your sports punish-ment? Cross country! Also returning this season are golf, soccer, track, weight lifting, wrestling, and base-ball. Whatever the sport, do it Hernando style. Purple, gold, and proud!

October 2011 SpOrtS Pg 11

The Bucs, Ready For the 2011 Season?By: Taylor SpearsSports Editor

Since Jon Gruden left the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they have had one good season and that was last season and they fared 10-6 and just barely missed the playoffs, due to the Seattle Seahawks and league rules requiring at least one team from each division to be in the playoffs the Bucs and New York Giants missed out on their chance to par-take in the post-season. The question at hand here though is; do the Bucs have what it takes to make it to the post-season for the first time since 2007 when they lost the wildcard game to the Giants 24-14 finish-ing the regular season 9-7?With the way the Bucs im-proved under Josh Freeman he has lead a commanding offense and inspired the defense with the touch of Raheem Morris (Gruden’s replacement and one sea-son prior Monte Kiffin’s replacement as defensive coordinator) the Bucs have been a storm for any team up against them. Under Morris’s first season the Bucs fared 3-13 but turned around last season and went 10-6 as previously men-tioned. The way the Bucs played in the preseason and seeing the promise the start-ers provided other than the Patriots game, the Bucs look ready for primetime. They have all the components for it this season. A stellar defense and a superb spe-

cial teams unit along with a nothing short of amazing offense engineered by Josh Freeman and receiver Mike Williams. The defense is powered by longtime cor-nerback Ronde Barber and 4th year pro cornerback Aqib Talib. Raheem Mor-ris has taken a mediocre at best team to a team that can easily be a perennial Super Bowl contender and will be featuring many Pro Bowlers for years to come. I see the Bucs taking home another Lombardi trophy in about five years, it’d be

nice to see it this season, but in reality, the odds are way too slim. Josh Freeman isn’t polished enough and hasn’t been exposed to enough pressure despite his 7 come-back wins he’s already earned in his career, which he’s now in his 3rd year as a quarterback for the Bucca-neers. Will the Buccaneers pull themselves together this season? We won’t know until mid-way into the year based on their record then, but even then things can change. For example, the Oakland Raiders were 5-4

headed into mid-season and finished 8-8. Anything is possible for this young Bucs team, but hopefully they can pull home a division title at the very least out from Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons. If this can be done, Freeman would earn tremendous re-spect and become a red chip quarter (which means basi-cally, out of a team full of perfect players, Freeman would be 2nd string essen-tially as someone like Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints would be starting) or possible be mentioned

as a blue chip player (The comparison with Free-man and Brees, Brees is a blue chip quarterback.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Team, 2011 Roster. Google Images.

Remaining HHS Football Games

At Land O’ Lakes*9/23 7:30 P.M.Where: Land O’ Lakes, FL

*=Conference Game**=Tournament Game***=Forfeit

Central* 9/30 7:30 P.M.Where: Brooksville, FL

Schedule Legend

River Ridge10/ 07 7:30 P.M. Where: Brooksville, FL

At Sunlake*10/14 7:30 P.M. Where: Land O’ LakesAt Springstead10/21 7:30 P.M.Where: Spring Hill

Nature Coast Tech.10/28 7:30 P.M.Where: Brooksville, FL

Mitchell11/04 7:30 P.M.Where: Brooksville, FL

COMICS & GAMESMissing Summer

Word Bank

SunBeaches

Sleeping Inno tests

cook outsswimmingshoppingvacation

sleep oversrelax

video gamessports

latenight tv

HOROSCOPESAries(3/21-4/19):Slow down and space your tasks out.

Taurus(4/20-5/20):Don’t get mad at what oth-ers say.

Gemini(5/21-6/21):Today your strength out-weighs your intelligence.

Cancer(6/22-7/22):People don’t get you today, try to simplify your ex-plinations.

Leo(7/23-8/22):Have you tried talking your issues over?

Virgo(8/23-9/22):You may make people hap-pier by being open-minded.

Libra(9/23-10/22):Intellectual relationships are going to get stronger.

Scorpio(10/23-11/21):It’s time for a change!

Sagittarius(11/22-12/21):You may want to re-check your work; just to be safe.

Capricorn(12/22-1/19):Try to entertain fresh, new ideas.

Aquarius(1/20-2/18):Things may be bad, but try to calm down and breath.

Pisces(2/19-3/20):You may need to take a day off for some you time.

The Purple and Gold Press needs your submissions!!Send your work to Ms. Poggi in room 28-209

Your work is much appreciated and we thank you for it!!-Tyler McBee,Associate Editor

Volume: 11 Issue: 1

Science In the NudeBy: Tyler McBeeAssociate Editor