CAMPUS LIFE 2,3 OPINION 4 A&E 5 SPECIAL REPORT 6,7 FEATURE 8,9 SPORTS 10-12 October 5, 2010 Volume XCX, Issue 1 SAGE team travels to South Africa, takes second place Samo’s ROP “Students of the Advancement of Global Entre- preneurship” team placed second in the SAGE World Cup 2010 business competition in South Af- rica this summer. When the competition began, the Samo team faced high schools from all over the world including Russia, Zambia and South Korea. The scoring was based on presen- tation and a question and answer session. The 13-minute multimedia Chase Wohrle Staff Writer presentation had the members dis- play all of their new and existing on- campus businesses, such as Seflora and Tote-a-lly Awesome. “We were on such a high be- cause [of] our presentation,” senior team member Jessica Santiago said. “Nobody messed up, every- one was on point.” The seven-minute question and answer session consisted of un- scripted questions the judges asked the team about their businesses. This proved to be unusually dif- ficult for the team because of the The Samo SAGE team competes in South Af- rica for the 2010 SAGE World Cup, and places second after a Singapore Junior College. (continued on pg. 2) SPLISH SPLASH: The Greenies, led by Maxi Vilim-Brozyna and Marc Vonderweidt (above) have started the season off strong. Photo by Sam Boloorchi LABEL ME NOT: A profound look into High School Labels. After almost being forced to close due to steadily increasing budget cuts and a decreasing enrollment rate, Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School (PDMSS) in Malibu has applied for charter status, Coach Cady to run for Board of Education Taylor D’Andrea News Editor A unanimous vote of the city council has put forth two propositions, Y and YY, which would guarantee a sustainable source of fund- ing for Santa Monica-Mal- ibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) public schools, generating over $6 million for schools and another $6 million for vital city services such as police, fire, para- medic and emergency 911 response.. “As we know, the state continues brutal cuts to school funding. Some cuts we were able to reverse, but both of those [efforts] were one-time moneys. We’ll have to start all over again if these measures don’t pass,” board member Ben Allen said. Unlike this past summer’s Save Our Schools campaign, which raised money for the 2010-2011 school year, Propositions Y and YY will continue to provide funding indefinitely. Like the school district, the city of Santa Monica has seen sharp cuts in funding from the state of California. Molly Chaikin Staff Writer Measures Y and YY were put forth by the city to create over $6 million in revenue for both the City of Santa Monica and SMMUSD. Proposition Y would cre- ate a 0.5 percent “transac- tion and use” tax similar to a sales tax for purchases within Santa Monica. An additional 0.5 percent sales tax would be added to Santa Monica’s existing 9.75 percent sales tax, raising the total sales tax to 10.25 percent. Prop YY is an advisory measure that dictates that 50 percent of the Prop Y revenue must be used to support neighbor- hood public schools, with the remaining 50 percent going to vital city services. There is much debate on the issue of Props Y and YY between the city and vari- ous business owners in Santa Monica. Local businesses fear losing customers to busi- nesses in other parts of the county due to the increased sales tax. “I really don’t want [prop- ositions Y and YY] to pass because [my company] will lose money, and it will drive a lot of my customers away,” Omar Alsibai, manager of MacMall Santa Monica, said. Measures Y and YY would raise $6 million for district Eloise Graham Staff Writer Malibu school applies for charter status A Malibu elementary school has petitioned the board of education to become a charter school in response to dwindling enrollment. according to PDMSS parents Robyn Ross and Ali Thonson, which would make it the first charter school in the history of the Santa Monica Malibu Uni- fied School District. On the Point Dume Ma- rine Science Charter website, designed to give information on the campaign, parents Ross and Thonson explain that, due to the recent budget cuts and the current economic climate, closing of PDMSS is immi- nent unless immediate action is taken. “At one point, in similar economic conditions, there was declining enrollment, and then the school was forced to shut down,” Thonson, a parent and one of the lead petitioners for the PDMSS charter, said. “If we don’t act now and they had to close the school, we wouldn’t be able to stop it.” According to Thonson, the obvious alternative for the par- ents at PDMSS was to apply to become a charter school, which is independent from the district and receives funding from the state. Because char- ter schools are not controlled by the district, teachers and administrators have more au- thority over what goes on and what is taught in the school. (continued on pg. 2) Long-time Samo coach and teacher Patrick Cady will be representing Malibu this year as a candidate for the Board of Education. COACH CADY: The longtime Samo cross-country coach watches students as they warm up on the track. Photo by Eloise Graham Malibu resident and Samo run- ning coach of 35 years, Patrick Cady, has announced his intention to run for the SMMUSD Board of Educa- tion in the upcoming election. Cady is the first candidate from Malibu to run in two years and if elected will be the first representative from Malibu since 2008. “I have taught for 35 years and sometimes in those years I’ve said to myself and others, I can do this bet- ter,” Cady said. Before his time as a coach, Cady taught math, history, P.E. and English at Santa Monica Alternative School House (SMASH) for eight years. He then went on to teach math and AP U.S. History at Samo before retiring as a teacher in June 2008. However, he continues to be a part of the Samo community to this day by volun- teering as a coach. He is currently coaching the cross-country team and will coach long-distance track in the spring. Cady believes himself to be well- grounded in both the Santa Monica and Malibu communities, having lived in Malibu and taught in Santa Monica for 35 years. Cady says he will be a larger part of the school district if he is elected onto the board; however, he is hopeful that it will not interfere with coaching his team and continuing to be actively involved in his runners’lives. “Coach Cady is very good at making time and has a clear sense of priorities,” girls’cross-country captain Amanda Botfeld, said. She strongly trusts that if he is elected, Cady will easily be able to balance his time between Samo and the school board. “Pat Cady is well prioritized and has a really balanced life of family, work and civil involvement,” Samo biology teacher and running coach Matt Mabrey, said. If elected onto the board, Cady believes he can help teachers and par- ents fix problems within their schools, and within the entire district. “The most important thing I can bring to the board is a sense of com- munity and family. Hopefully that makes the district a better place,” Cady said. Cady would like to see the two separated communities of Santa Monica and Malibu come together as a single, united district. “I can help bring them together. I can make people in Malibu feel that they are listened to, that their concerns are appreciated and that they are not just something hanging onto the tail of Santa Monica.” THE SAMOHI IS NOW ONLINE!!! thesamohi.com FEATURE P.8 FALL TV REVIEW: A look at this year’s newcomers. A&E P.5 SPECIAL REPORT P. 6,7 SPORTS P.11 www.thesamohi.com [email protected](continued on pg. 2) see Sports, page 10
Transcript
CAMPUS LIFE 2,3 OPINION 4 A&E 5 SPECIAL REPORT 6,7 FEATURE 8,9 SPORTS 10-12
October 5, 2010 Volume XCX, Issue 1
SAGE team travels to South Africa, takes second place
Samo’s ROP “Students of the Advancement of Global Entre-preneurship” team placed second in the SAGE World Cup 2010 business competition in South Af-rica this summer.
When the competition began, the Samo team faced high schools from all over the world including Russia, Zambia and South Korea. The scoring was based on presen-tation and a question and answer session.
The 13-minute multimedia
Chase WohrleStaff Writer
presentation had the members dis-play all of their new and existing on-campus businesses, such as Seflora and Tote-a-lly Awesome.
“We were on such a high be-cause [of] our presentation,” senior team member Jessica Santiago said. “Nobody messed up, every-one was on point.”
The seven-minute question and answer session consisted of un-scripted questions the judges asked the team about their businesses. This proved to be unusually dif-ficult for the team because of the
The Samo SAGE team competes in South Af-rica for the 2010 SAGE World Cup, and places second after a Singapore Junior College.
(continued on pg. 2) SPLISH SPLASH: The Greenies, led by Maxi Vilim-Brozyna and Marc Vonderweidt (above) have started the season off strong.
Photo by Sam Boloorchi
LABEL ME NOT:A profound look into High School Labels.
After almost being forced to close due to steadily increasing budget cuts and a decreasing enrollment rate, Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School (PDMSS) in Malibu has applied for charter status,
Coach Cady to run for Board of Education
Taylor D’AndreaNews Editor
A unanimous vote of the city council has put forth two propositions, Y and YY, which would guarantee a sustainable source of fund-ing for Santa Monica-Mal-ibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) public schools, generating over $6 million for schools and another $6 million for vital city services such as police, fire, para-medic and emergency 911 response..
“As we know, the state continues brutal cuts to school funding. Some cuts we were able to reverse, but both of those [efforts] were one-time moneys. We’ll have to start all over again if these measures don’t pass,” board member Ben Allen said.
Unlike this past summer’s Save Our Schools campaign, which raised money for the 2010-2011 school year, Propositions Y and YY will continue to provide funding indefinitely.
Like the school district, the city of Santa Monica has seen sharp cuts in funding from the state of California.
Molly ChaikinStaff Writer
Measures Y and YY were put forth by the city to create over $6 million in revenue for both the City of Santa Monica and SMMUSD.
Proposition Y would cre-ate a 0.5 percent “transac-tion and use” tax similar to a sales tax for purchases within Santa Monica. An additional 0.5 percent sales tax would be added to Santa Monica’s existing 9.75 percent sales tax, raising the total sales tax to 10.25 percent. Prop YY is an advisory measure that dictates that 50 percent of the Prop Y revenue must be used to support neighbor-hood public schools, with the remaining 50 percent going to vital city services.
There is much debate on the issue of Props Y and YY between the city and vari-ous business owners in Santa Monica. Local businesses fear losing customers to busi-nesses in other parts of the county due to the increased sales tax.
“I really don’t want [prop-ositions Y and YY] to pass because [my company] will lose money, and it will drive a lot of my customers away,” Omar Alsibai, manager of MacMall Santa Monica, said.
Measures Y and YY would raise $6 million for district
Eloise GrahamStaff Writer
Malibu school applies for charter statusA Malibu elementary school has petitioned the board of education to become a charter school in response to dwindling enrollment.
according to PDMSS parents Robyn Ross and Ali Thonson, which would make it the first charter school in the history of the Santa Monica Malibu Uni-fied School District.
On the Point Dume Ma-rine Science Charter website, designed to give information on the campaign, parents Ross
and Thonson explain that, due to the recent budget cuts and the current economic climate, closing of PDMSS is immi-nent unless immediate action is taken.
“At one point, in similar economic conditions, there was declining enrollment, and then the school was forced to shut down,” Thonson, a parent and one of the lead petitioners for the PDMSS charter, said. “If we don’t act now and they had to close the school, we
wouldn’t be able to stop it.”According to Thonson, the
obvious alternative for the par-ents at PDMSS was to apply to become a charter school, which is independent from the district and receives funding from the state. Because char-ter schools are not controlled by the district, teachers and administrators have more au-thority over what goes on and what is taught in the school.
(continued on pg. 2)
Long-time Samo coach and teacher Patrick Cady will be representing Malibu this year as a candidate for the Board of Education.
COACH CADY: The longtime Samo cross-country coach watches students as they warm up on the track.
Photo by Eloise Graham
Malibu resident and Samo run-ning coach of 35 years, Patrick Cady, has announced his intention to run for the SMMUSD Board of Educa-tion in the upcoming election. Cady is the first candidate from Malibu to run in two years and if elected will be the first representative from Malibu since 2008.
“I have taught for 35 years and sometimes in those years I’ve said to myself and others, I can do this bet-ter,” Cady said.
Before his time as a coach, Cady taught math, history, P.E. and English at Santa Monica Alternative School House (SMASH) for eight years. He then went on to teach math and AP U.S. History at Samo before retiring as a teacher in June 2008. However, he continues to be a part of the Samo
community to this day by volun-teering as a coach. He is currently coaching the cross-country team and will coach long-distance track in the spring.
Cady believes himself to be well-grounded in both the Santa Monica and Malibu communities, having lived in Malibu and taught in Santa Monica for 35 years. Cady says he will be a larger part of the school district if he is elected onto the board; however, he is hopeful that it will not interfere with coaching his team and continuing to be actively involved in his runners’ lives.
“Coach Cady is very good at making time and has a clear sense of priorities,” girls’ cross-country captain Amanda Botfeld, said.
She strongly trusts that if he is elected, Cady will easily be able to balance his time between Samo and the school board.
“Pat Cady is well prioritized and has a really balanced life of family, work and civil involvement,” Samo biology teacher and running coach Matt Mabrey, said.
If elected onto the board, Cady believes he can help teachers and par-ents fix problems within their schools, and within the entire district.
“The most important thing I can bring to the board is a sense of com-munity and family. Hopefully that makes the district a better place,”
Cady said.Cady would like to see the two
separated communities of Santa Monica and Malibu come together as a single, united district.
“I can help bring them together. I can make people in Malibu feel that they are listened to, that their concerns are appreciated and that they are not just something hanging onto the tail of Santa Monica.”
Samo alum and Titanic star dies at 100Gloria Staurt, voted most likely to succeed in the 1927 yearbook, dies after success in the entertainment industry.
Gloria Stuart, the 1930s Hol-lywood beauty who went on to be-come the oldest Academy Award nominee for her role in “Titanic,” died in her sleep on Sept. 26, 2010
at age 100.In her youth, Stuart starred
in many small movies, as well as more high-profile films such as “The Invisible Man,” two Shirley Temple movies, and “Gold Dig-gers of 1935.” After starring in
Tardy Machine raises concerns from studentsThe new “tardy machine” –– used to log sudents’ tardies in one master system- causes controversy.
Rebecca AsoulinStaff Writer
A line composed of exhausted-looking students crowds all available areas near the staff cafeteria, extending past the security table and well out the Pico gate. This is just a typical morning in the tardy pass line.
“It’s not working, and it’s not strong enough. It’s like going to a concert,” security guard Dunell “Mr. D” Smith said about Samo’s new tardy machine.
Students have also voiced their doubts about the machine.
“It ruins class time and it’s a total waste of money we could spend on things we actually need,” juniors Sara Margulies and Emma Keckin said.
One by one, students pile in, scan their IDs and receive a printed tardy slip. Sometimes this slip is paired with a sur-prise lunch detention notifica-tion.
Samo staff seems split on the new technology. Many teach-ers believe that it’s too slow a process and makes the students arrive to class even later.
“It’s too early to tell. We’re trying to make it very efficient,” Principal Dr. Hugo
Nadine MelamedStaff Writer
Pedroza said in response to the criticism. “When everybody is here on time, we get paid by attendance. As far as ex-pensive, that’s a relative term. This is here to stay.”
M-House Outreach Spe-cialist, Jeffrey Keller prefers the new machine to the old practices.
“I think it works and saves a lot of work for a lot of people,” he said.
Activists for the new tar-dy machine seek reason in the fact that labor work and cost would be cut in half.
“Doing it by hand was in-finitely longer,” Semik said. “I think it was money well-spent; less kids can fall through. To-day, we scanned 203 kids for tardies.”
The new electronic tardy
machine was introduced by O-House principal Clara Her-ran, who found the machine so efficient at her previous high school that she proposed it to the Samo administration. As for the cost, “the computers came from a separate budget” Semik said. The money would not have otherwise gone to textbooks, class computers or other such materials.
“The policy was created with everyone’s best interests in mind. The machines are good additions –– they suit us well.” Semik said.
The one thing everyone does agree on is that the best solution to avoiding the tardy policy and machines is to be on time.
(continued from pg. 1)
WINNING PRESENTATION: SAGE give their multimedia presentationPhoto courtesy of Jessica Santiago
PDMSS to become first SMMUSD Charter(continued from pg. 1)
some 46 films, Stuart, fed up with the shallow roles she was being given, took a 25-year break from acting. She returned to film in 1975 and took on small television appearances. Then, in 1997, she co-starred in James Cameron’s “Ti-tanic” as Rose Calvert, a 101-year-old Titanic survivor.
Before accomplishing any-thing in the film industry, Stuart got her start at Samo. Stuart graduated in 1927, and in her classes’ senior polls was voted the girl most likely to succeed.
With her spin as the elderly Rose in “Titanic,” she finally reached the level of success the Samo class of 1927 had predicted for her.
On her 100th birthday, Stuart gave some insight into how she viewed her life: “If you’re full of love, admiration, appreciation of the beautiful things there are in this life, you have it made, really. And I have it made.”
SCHOOL SPIRIT: The football team encourages the crowd to attend the first home game of the season, where they faced off against the Valencia Vikings.
Photo by Sam Boloorchi
Measures Y and YY would increase sales tax in Santa Monica
TARDY TODAY: Students wait in the rain to recieve their tardy slips.Photo by Lily Cain
(continued from pg. 1)
“We’re the ones who are impacted... [Measure Y]’s going to
impact the kids, our siblings and the future of Santa Monica”
-Rebecca Sherouse, junior
first judge’s accent.“We knew that if he had
said it clearly we would have an-swered,” said Santiago.
The contestants then were scored by categories, but because the US and Singapore teams had tied for first, the judges had to go back and count every point in each category. After the count, the U.S. lost by only two points.
“I would have rather lost by 100 points,” Santiago said.
The team’s disappointment was fueled by the fact that the winning country had not selected a high school, but a junior college to compete in the finals.
“All the other teams were high schools, it seemed unfair,” said Senior team member Evan Parra-Raygoza.
Also, Singapore had only new businesses as opposed to new and existing ones.
Even though Santiago is proud of the team’s accomplish-ments, she feels that they were “robbed of first place.”
“We were just so close,” said Santiago.
Although they worked ex-tremely hard during the competi-tion, the struggle to win in Cape Town actually began long before the team arrived there. Since it was so expensive, the team held small fundraisers, such as sell-ing Jamba Juice, and received a
small grant from the city to fulfill the $40,000 needed for all team members to participate.
However, after all of this, they had still not made a signifi-cant amount of progress towards their fundraising goal. However, in the end the money was cov-ered by an anonymous donor, to the surprise of the team members. Without it, only five of the 11 could have competed.
Due to lack of funding, the team will not be competing in-ternationally this upcoming year. They will stick to only local com-petitions.
Other people in the com-munity are also against the propositions for various rea-sons, including being against a raise in taxes of any sort, and be-ing wary of alledged or poten-tial mismanagement of funds by the city, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.
On the oth-er hand, educa-tion advocates strongly be-lieve that the passing of these proposit ions will strengthen the sustainable mission of our local commu-nity.
“I think this is probably such a small increment that most people probably won’t even feel it. I think when it’s that kind of painless, while I can sympathize, I think it’s probably the best thing for us,” I-House Principal Renee Semik said.
According to Allen, if the mea-sures fail, SMMUSD will once again be faced with teacher layoffs, increased class sizes, closing of el-ementary libraries, and other harm-
ful cuts.“Measure Y and YY money
would help continue the programs that we already have; some of the things we really enjoy – drama, athletics, music, dance, as well as classroom supplies and things like that,” Semik said.
According to Allen, a recent study done on a city in a financial predicament similar to that of Santa
Monica and Malibu. After the in-crease in sales tax, no one claimed to be negatively impacted by this in-crease. “The positives dramatically outweigh the negatives,” Allen said. “[If the propositions were to pass] Santa Monica and Malibu would not be significantly burdened. I would ask [people opposed to the propositions] to take a step back, and ask them to consider how im-portant investing in schools is.”
According to Semik, students who want to get involved should talk to their parents to make sure they are informed about proposi-tions Y and YY. Also, little things like putting a sign in your front yard or making a poster can help the community become more aware of the proposition.
There are also many ways for students to get more involved in
the campaign; a number of Samo students have par-ticipated in phone banks for mea-sures Y and YY, contacting people in Santa Monica to let them know about the propo-sitions.
Samo Junior Rebecca Sherouse, who volun-teered at one of the phone banks, had this to say, “With all the budget cuts going around, [the passing of propositions Y and YY] would give the school a bit of relief. We’re the one’s who are impacted. It’s go-ing to impact the kids, our siblings and the future of Santa Monica. [The proposition] is definitely not enough, but it will help.”
If PDMSS becomes a char-ter school, funds that are cur-rently controlled by the
district would instead be controlled by a board of parents, teachers, and other members of the community, as would the curriculum.
“We presented the idea to the teachers in February, and there was a unanimous vote in favor of the charter,” Thonson said. “Our school curriculum would continue to have a focus on Marine Science and continue
to incorporate technology and arts.”
Although the school is ap-plying to become a charter to have more independence from the district, Thonson believes that the district had nothing to do with the school’s lack of funds and declining enrollment.
“Their hands are tied. They are suffering just like us and just like every other school district in California,” she said
Marissa Kristy, a student at Palisades Charter High School, believes that there are elements
of charter schools that the stu-dents at PDMSS would be able to benefit from.
“Being a charter school gives us more power and with the power comes more control,” Kristy said. “Its beneficial be-cause we can be part of LAUSD without being completely under its authority.”
The board of education has 60 days to make a decision about the application.
They say the early bird catches the worm — but how early is too early? With friends and siblings heading off to col-lege and Samo teachers piling on the homework, sophomores are feeling the college pres-sure more than ever.
Karan Rajalingham, one college-bound sophomore said, “This year I am very cau-tious about my grades because I know that starting in 10th grade all your records count and everything matters.”
While Rajalingam recog-nizes the importance of strong transcripts, others worry about the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) which is offered to all students at Samo.
Absorb. Test. Discard. Re-peat. This is a process all too fa-miliar to students in high school. In education today, students always feel the need to please, with the fear of failure and the feeling that no learning is really occurring ever-present. Instead, it feels as if we’re just taking in our daily dose of information and spitting it out again at some-one’s request, like machines.
Director Vicki Abeles rec-ognized this very problem in her family, and in her local schools. In her documentary “Race to Nowhere,” Abeles explores and uncovers the dangers into which schools in America are placing their students. The film provides an insight into the world that’s being created for our genera-tion, with stories so shockingly close to home, they’re almost painful to watch.
Special Education teacher Lisa Johnson has always felt passionately about rethink-ing the way students are being
educated. It was through her hard work and dedication that a screening of “Race to Nowhere” was held in Barnum Hall on September 21. After seeing the film only once, Johnson knew right away that she had to find a way to bring it to Samo.
“I felt like the teachers in
the movie. I was already work-ing on education reform, so this felt like ‘here’s a train where I already feel the same way, and I can just get on,’” Johnson said.
As a teacher and a Samo parent, Johnson has seen two sides of the situation. As a par-ent, she has seen the all-night-ers, the cramming for tests and constant anxiety about school. As a teacher, she struggles to cover all state-mandated mate-rial while trying to provide her students with a positive learning
experience.“We’ve lost teaching as
a profession,” Johnson said, “Now we’re into ‘we have to teach you this, to pass that.’ It’s the culture of education today.”
Johnson realizes the poten-tial impact the film could have on the Samo student body, and
has made great effort to keep the film at school so it can be shared with the masses.
“I want the kids to see it, because I see the kids explode – and I saw kids explode after watching just a little bit of this. And I’ve seen kids cry. This let’s me know that we have tick-ing time bomb here,” Johnson said.
The ever-present stress is recognized across the Samo campus. Many students feel the source of the problem comes
College Admissions: How early is too early?Chelsea BrandweinStaff Writer
“I am feeling pressure through the PSAT and con-stant lectures from teachers about what we should do to prepare,” sophomore Serina Bernstein said.
While academics are cause for a fair amount of the pressure on college-bound sophomores, life outside of school is also known to create stress.
“High school students have so many interests in ad-dition to their academic lives. On the one hand, these ac-tivities make you happy, but on the other hand can lead to overload and stress. Ask yourself if you are playing this instrument or involved in the sport for the sheer love of it, or are you just taking part
because you want your high school resume to look college-worthy,” English teacher Kris-tine Haenschke said.
In some way or another, sophomores are experienc-ing the college pressure. But what can sophomores do now to ease this feeling of trepida-tion?
“Stay organized, do your homework, get involved. The rest will fall in line,” freshman seminar, world history and AP government teacher Rose Ann Salumbides said.
Sophomores, here are a few tips to make the road to college less bumpy:
1. Attend the College Fair on October 12. The Col-lege Fair provides an oppor-tunity for students to obtain
Are Samo students in a “Race to Nowhere?”Alice KorsStaff Writer
from the constant need to suc-ceed. And by today’s standards, success means having the abil-ity to impress the colleges.
“Colleges expect more and more as each year passes,” se-nior Jason Pitts said. “Pupils are constantly trying to join clubs and organizations even though there’s no time allotted in their weekly schedules to be active in these extracurriculars, receive good grades and stay sane.”
As students, we don’t need a movie to tell us that expecta-tions are set too high. But it’s still comforting to know that we are not alone in feeling all the pressure of school. Although the end may not be clear, many teachers and parents, such as Johnson and Abeles, are begin-ning to look for the answer to the problem.
“The truth is: Our kids are tired, they’re not happy,” John-son said. “We need to do some-thing to make them happy.”
To learn more about the campaign, visit www.racetono-where.com.
informational pamphlets from hundreds of colleges and to speak with representatives from each college who can provide students with insight into different colleges.
“In order to choose a school, you have to know what you like in a school,” college counselor Julie Honda said.
2. Take advantage of col-lege visits at Samo.
3. Begin researching scholarships to see which you could be eligible for.
4. Dedicate a summer to taking college tours. If you are having a stay-cation, sign up for tours of local universities.
5. Purchase a college guide or check one out at your local library. If you are unable to go out-of-state, at least you can narrow down your list of prospective colleges.
6. Open a free account with collegeboard.com. Once you open an account, the web-site will keep you up to date on what you need to be doing ac-cording to your grade level to better prepare yourself for the road to college. Collegeboard also provides you with the tools to create a resume.
7. Every year mock SATs, ACTs and PSATs are held. Take one — it is great practice.
8. Talk to your parents and other people that went to college. They can give you an idea of what they liked and didn’t like about the college process,” Honda said.
9. Form connections with teachers, administrators and counselors. Teachers will be your source for college rec-ommendations, administrators can offer advice and encour-agement and counselors can ensure that you stay on track for college using the Four Year Plan.
10. Work hard, but re-member to balance that hard work with relaxation and fun. You still have time! You are only a high school sophomore once.
College CenterCalendar
• October 7 – Brag Sheet Workshop in T110 (com-puter lab) after school• Ask your teachers/adviser/college counselor at least one month in advance to write a letter of recommen-dation for you if will be applying to private colleges or for scholarships. Make sure to give them all the necessary forms.• ACT and SAT group courses on campus: Revolution Prep will be offering ACT or SAT classes at Samo to help students prepare for the ACT or SAT exam. Sign up online. Financial aid is available – call 877-738-7737. If you receive free and reduced lunch, please sign up for available scholarships online at www.revolutionprep.com• SAT six-week course begins October 23 (December 4 SAT Test Date)• ACT six-week course begins October 27, 2010 (De-cember 11 ACT Test Date)• PSAT (Practice SAT Exam)Take in 9th, 10th and 11th grade (11th is the only year that can qualify for national merit scholars)Saturday, October 16 (8:30 AM-11:30 AM) $28Reduced price for students on free and reduced lunch $15Sign up in O-House Office H209 with Ms. Glover (in morning, at lunch or after school)• SAT/ ACT (Required college entrance exams)Fee Waivers for students on free and reduced lunch see your college counselorACT online – sign up at www.actstudent.orgSAT online – sign up at www.collegeboard.com12th graders – last time to take these exams is De-cember 2010 for the colleges• CounselingPlease see your adviser if you need someone to talk to if you’re having a hard time at home or at school.• PinnacleIf you have lost or forgotten your Pinnacle pass-word, go see your adviser so that you can check your grades!
11:45 a.m. – Brown University1:45 p.m. – University of Washington
“We’ve lost teaching as a profession. Now we’re into ‘we have to teach you this, to pass that.’ It’s the culture of education today.”–Lisa Johnson, Special Education teacher
We live for our future. We work hard bal-ancing APs, sports, music, art, community service, part-time jobs and other extracurricular activities. And for what? To get into a good college.
The trouble, however, is when we get accept-ed into the school of our dreams, and we discover there is no way that we can afford our complete tuition. Most schools assure us financial aid and student loans will cover the rest. While we’d like to believe them, the reality isn’t quite as friendly.
Let’s start with the statement “college is ex-pensive.” That’s true. But everyone knows that. We can go even further to say that “College is so expensive, most students go into debt just to pay off their bachelor’s degree.” Also true.
This summer, the U.S. Department of Edu-cation posted a list of the debt repayment figures for every college in the nation. Penn State Uni-versity came in third with $590 million in total student debt. Second on the list was the University of Southern California with $631 million and fi-nally in first place was New York University with a modest $659 million.
In fact, NYU’s student debt is bigger than the gross domestic product of 12 countries combined, according to the Department of Education.
As if that weren’t enough, the cost of private tuition has gone up 154 percent since 1979, and
186% for public tuition. This would be fine if fam-ily income increased at this rate as well. Unfor-tunately, it hasn’t. Since 1979 family income has only gone up by a measly 10%, according to the US Census Bureau and the College Board.
This means that while college is getting ri-diculously more expensive and students are ex-pected to pay thousands more than they were ten years ago, income isn’t making any sorts of leaps or bounds to meet that gap. The estimated un-dergraduate tuition is slipping farther and farther away from what families can pay.
Luckily, if you are labeled as “upper class,” chances are you have lots of savings and will be able to make the shift without twitching an eye-lid. And if you are lower class, making less than $60,000, your schooling is virtually taken care of because of financial aid and grants. You aren’t expected to pay a sum that will likely cut your in-come in half. This seems fair for the upper and lower class.
But what about the middle class? The mid-dle class undoubtedly receives the worst end of the deal. Let’s create a hypothetical middle class family.
If a two-wage earning family of five who lives in California has an adjusted gross income of $120,000, pays $17,000 in US income taxes, $2,000 in medical and dental expenses, has cash of $5,000 and investments of $12,000, then the par-ents’ estimated contribution is between $13,000
and $18,000. Now factor in years of unemploy-ment and the high cost of living in a city like Santa Monica. How can this family pay $18,000 without going into debt? They can’t.
The United States is facing a crisis. Hun-dreds of thousands of students are emerging out of college with five or six digit loans strapped to their backs—and this is just to earn their bachelor’s de-grees. They aren’t flowing into high-income jobs. Instead, they are average educators, artists, busi-ness professionals and salespeople who will make a decent income but will unlikely ever make the jump to upper class. And this of course is assum-ing that all of these trained professionals will get jobs in our current economy.
Essentially we are creating a new level of so-ciety with college-trained individuals who have no foreseeable future for betterment. We are crippling our future.
College is expensive.Luckily there are also thousands of different
scholarships available to help make up a fraction of the difference. My advice: apply for as many as you can. Working hard is a much better alterna-tive to drowning in even more debt a little farther along the road. True, the middle class might have to work harder for these. But these extra bonuses are available. It’s a long shot, but nevertheless, it’s a hope.
Tessa NathFeature Editor
How college tuition shoots the middle class down
When I first heard about it, the idea of building a Muslim mosque near Ground Zero rubbed me the wrong way. But after I calmed down, took the initiative to listen to what American Muslims were saying and further researched the issue, it became apparent that allowing the Muslim center to exist in lower Manhattan is exactly the kind of thing that makes us a free country. We are a democracy founded on freedom of religion. We build syna-gogues next to cathedrals and Mormon temples next to Buddhist temples.
This is America!Contrary to popular belief, the proposed
mosque is not on top of Ground Zero. The loca-tion is by no means even next to Ground Zero. It is a good three blocks away (which is a good three miles in New York). Also, the proposed mosque is not even a mosque, exactly. It’s a rec-reational center open to everyone, regardless of if they’re Muslim or not.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the congregation behind the building’s propos-al, said he didn’t realize that the construction would be controversial because it is meant to be a religious and cultural center, much like the YMCA. The Imam said he wouldn’t have made plans to build it three blocks from Ground Zero (in a space that used to be a Burlington Coat Factory) had he known it would have caused such a furor.
Islamic center affirms American valuesChloe DirectorStaff Writer
A bang for your buck? The Samohi is a biweekly newspaper by, for and about Santa Monica High students. Our goal is to empower the student body through information. We do not represent the views of the administration or staff. We do not endorse
advertisements placed in our paper.
Opinion Editor:MyaMcCann
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But people have also criticized the Imam for using the controversy as a threat. He said that if the mosque doesn’t get built at this point, radical Mus-lims outside of the United States might be incited and it could result in a terrorist attack. He even said that if the mosque isn’t built, Islamic newspapers would write that “Islam is under attack in America.”
I understand the angry response of many Americans to this presumed blackmail. But I think the Iman was simply stating a reality: this is the way extremists respond.
But we can’t go around being frightened and sheltered, either by building mosques or not building mosques. We are a democracy founded on freedom of religion. This is America.
When a group of friends and I went out to see “Catfish,” we expected to be entertained by yet another thriller, perhaps with a cast of mundane characters who meet on Facebook only to inevitably be-come trapped in some internet predator’s scheme. Or, it could have been just another story about that guy who falls in love with a chick on the Internet and - despite some humorous complications - ends up together with her in the end.
Instead, a minimalist, lifelike mock-
It’s refreshing to see a black woman, let alone a black couple, star in a television show that isn’t meant to be comedic. And at 8 p.m., a primetime slot, no less!
Unfortunately, the premiere of “Un-dercovers” — which follows the rather har-rowing (and extravagant) lives of married CIA-agents-slash-caterers Samantha and Steven Bloom — was ridiculously generic to the point that I guffawed twice before even the first commercial. One would ex-pect J.J. Abrams, the show’s co-creator and television veteran (“Alias,” “Lost,” and “Fringe” are his creations) to know what the public wants, but this one is a grave mis-step on his part.
You know that the acting is sub-par when the first aspect of a character you can remember were those moments when he or she was topless. The main characters are gorgeous, and Steven Bloom (Boris Kod-joe) is a complete hunk, but acting skills? Nonexistent. A wooden cast of his body could do just as well.
Samantha Bloom, played by a tal-ented Gugu Mbatha-Raw, receives com-mendation for trying so hard to develop her character. But any attempt at genuine acting was cut short by the weakest part of the show, and the part that makes my ears want to file a cease and desist warrant against the writers: the script.
I can’t even remember how many times they murdered the pun “sexpio-nage,” beat it until it was unrecognizable and hurled it off a cliff. The writing was so corny and so predictable that one has to wonder if they’re intentionally “dumbing down” the dialogue.
Discourse set aside, the plot itself was incredibly awkward. It somehow managed
The glamorous nightclub patrons count down from ten, their shots and cocktails raised. They cheer. Couples embrace, kiss, then lovingly finish their drinks with somber faces as “Taps” sounds off. It is the eve of January 16, 1920 — the inauguration of Dry America, and the era of “Boardwalk Empire.”
Created by Terence Winters, the pen behind more than a few episodes of “The Sopranos,” this latest drama by HBO follows Atlantic City Treasurer Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (a spot-on Steve Buscemi) in his crooked life as a mastermind political boss and cutthroat gang leader during the early years of Prohibition.
However exciting a 20’s-gang-ster-synopsis may be, the complex, multi-faceted ball of “Boardwalk Em-pire” gets rolling rather slowly; two hour-long episodes in and we still don’t know what to make of all the pieces. Nucky meets with crime bosses, hires young gun Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), counts some bills, shouts at house servants, befriends a pregnant Irish im-migrant (Kelly MacDonald), inspects his bootlegging partners, comes up on the FBI’s radar — in short, a lot is go-ing on, and it’ll be some time before it comes together. “The Wire” had a similarly slow and methodical start, but brilliant performances and a real-istically busy story made the wait for developments worthwhile.
Martin Scorcese, who co-produces the series, directed the pilot episode that aired Sept. 19. We have him to thank for
Max TamahoriA&E Editor
Evan KahnCopy Editor
Rachel RodinoffStaff Writer
HBO creates another masterpiece J.J. Abrams fails to deliver
A film for the Facebook generation: “Catfish” examines our lives onlineumentary surprised us with an intriguing twist on one of America’s favorite, embar-rassingly ubiquitous pastimes — social networking.
Henry Joost and Ariel Shulman clev-erly lured in “Catfish’s” audience through an extensive Youtube and widespread In-ternet campaign, hinting that “the last forty minutes of the movie will take you for an unforgettable emotional ride,” and market-ed the movie’s tagline as “Don’t Let Any-one Tell You What It Is.” Perhaps audiences identified with the authentic personas and relatable plot line of “Catfish,” intrigued by a movie that proposed a fresh perspective
on a familiar theme in pop culture. The main character, Nev, a guileless
college student from New York, meets Abby, an eight-year-old artistic prodigy from Michigan on the Internet. As their conversations progress, Nev is introduced to Abby’s mom and her attractive, nineteen year-old sister Megan.
The rest follows a deceptively formu-laic story line – Nev discovers that he and Megan share interests and soon becomes infatuated with her beauty and virtual mys-tery. As Nev and his friends decide to make a home video of Nev’s online relationship with Megan, they become aware of the un-
To watch, or not to watch . . .“House” and “Glee” are back to please the masses, but what about the newcomers to the networks? The Samohi reviews some of the new shows on the Fall 2010 lineup.
expected surprises behind Megan’s enticing photos and Abby’s brilliant artwork.
Nevertheless, their curiosity only en-courages them to set out to meet Megan and her family in person, and find out the truth behind her idealized life.
Curious? Fortunately, “Catfish” is too fascinating of a movie to spoil in a re-view. From its truthful, humorous begin-ning to its disturbingly realistic climax, “Catfish” dives the viewer into the des-perate heart of our Facebook generation. It illustrates an accessible portrait of the dark truth behind the virtual social world, where nobody really knows who any-
the ambitious start of “Boardwalk,” for not only did he create the basis for a hope-fully exciting plot, but also set the artistic tone of future episodes.
For one, the violence is tasteful; guns remain holstered for more time than one would expect from a gangster show, and the only shootings one does see are the necessary ones.
Period dramas like “Boardwalk” also require a certain aesthetic, and Scorcese doesn’t fail to deliver. A good portion of the pilot episode’s roughly $20 million budget undoubtedly went toward constructing a 300-foot long replica of the historic Atlantic City boardwalk, not to mention the gor-geous intricacies of classic 20’s fash-ion. Scorcese’s sweeping pans and wide shots also make the most of the lavish production design, successfully embodying the scope of grandeur (and sometimes grit) in each scene.
to be concurrently foreseeable and nonsen-sical. There are no transitions, no character developments – it seems as though writers, in their rush to get a pilot out, threw out ideas at random.The show skips from scene to scene with simplistic, rushed dialogue. The results are hilariously awful.
Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh. The special effects were good — there were four rather unnecessarily shot rocket gre-nades in the space of ten minutes, which is a point in my book — and the chase scenes are classic. However, this doesn’t change the fact that I’d have to flip a coin to decide whether to watch the next episode of “Un-dercovers” or a “Gilligan’s Island” repeat. (Wed., 8pm, NBC)
But perhaps the most striking ele-ment in the “Boardwalk” mix is Steve Buscemi, who is not at all out of his element as Nucky Thompson. His widely-acknowledged brilliance as a character actor (“The Big Lebowski,” “Fargo,” “Reservoir Dogs”) has finally landed him an actual lead role. Yet he isn’t our standard hulking gangster, but rather an impeccably dry, witty crook with a razor of a mind and a weakling affect that seemingly betrays his power.
And it doesn’t look like the hype will betray the power of the show itself, either. The advertisement and discus-sion surrounding “Boardwalk” (not to mention the powerhouse produc-tion team and cast) are giving a defin-ing shape to the new series. AMC just might forfeit the title of “best show on TV” to HBO. (Sun., 9pm, HBO)
Image courtesy of imdb.comLIKE A BOSS: Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) is the Atlantic City’s cor-rupt, bootlegging treasurer in HBO’s new Prohibition-era drama.
body is as self-delusion inaudibly riddles everyday communication.
“Catfish” will catch you off guard without injecting scenes with sentimen-tal sap or far-fetched distortions. Its social commentary explores scenes in everyday life, and translates an otherwise complex story to a practical, yet riveting level. As its story unfolds, don’t be surprised if your perception changes entirely from what you expected the movie to be. I honestly recom-mend going to see “Catfish” in theaters this month; its unique viewpoint is not one to pass unnoticed.
Remember the first season of “He-roes” — the fast paced race to nowhere? It’s back, and once again, it’s perfect. I don’t know what road “The Event” will take, but I’m in for the ride.
The entire show revolves around a huge orchestrated event that is made up of numerous pieces. The glue that holds the haphazard story together is the pres-ence of aliens. The web of deceit, sur-rounding the event, is woven by the lead-er of the extraterrestrials (Laura Innes). It is focused around an ordinary man (Jason Ritten) whose girlfriend (Sarah Roemer) is kidnapped by an unknown third party. Each episode is filled with twists and turns. The lead detective investigating the aliens is actually extraterrestrial himself.
Nishok ChettySports Editor
NBC lets loose with “eventful” new seriesThe convoluted story is told from
various perspectives and in many differ-ent times. Within the first three minutes of the premiere, there were three jumps in time. The plot is complicated and filled with many characters who have seem-ingly no relationship to one another. As a result, the plot is fun to follow, but the characters are one-dimensional and flat, none of them receiving more than seven minutes of face time per episode. Hope-fully, with enough flashbacks, the charac-ters will become people.
The main concern, however, is that the show incorporates aliens. I fear that the scenarios are able to secede reality and that the event, the ultimate conclu-sion to the madness, can be anything. There are no limits, meaning that the con-clusion can be as ridiculous as it needs to
Image courtesy of about.com
Image courtesy of about.com
be. The show already seems to be gearing up towards a “Lost”-esque ending.
It is reminiscent of “24” as the plot is in constant progression and no episodes are wasted in divulging pointless tangent stories. There is also a hint of “Lost,” as the back stories are portrayed in almost exact fashion. As in the beginning of “Lost,” the flashbacks all pertain to the actual crash and move progressively to-wards character development.
The reason I will be glued to the couch every Monday night is that “The Event” is unique. It tells its story in bits and pieces and forces the viewer to think. It seems common sense to sacrifice “Dancing With the Stars” and “Gos-sip Girl” for “The Event.” (Mon, 9pm, NBC)
STUFF HAPPENS: Jason Ritten stars as Sean Walker in this whirlwind of a show.
NOT SO SEXY: J.J. Abrams’ latest se-ries just doesn’t match his past creations.
Image courtesy of hbo.comImage courtesy of nbc.com
What we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, and a princess, and a criminal.”
“You see us as you want to see us ... in the simplest terms and the most convenient defini-tions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed ...
Kermit the Frog once said “It’s not easy being green,” but I am happy to announce it’s getting eas-ier being a red head.
Despite the infamous ‘Kick a Ginger Day’ event on Facebook and the widely viewed South Park episode mocking so-called ‘Gingers,’ redheads are regaining their confi-dence and their souls.
So what was the root of this discrimination against carrot tops?
Chelsea BrandweinStaff Writer
It all began with the 2005 episode of “South Park,” which re-volved around pale-skinned, freckled redheads and how they are perceived. Then a Facebook group was formed that encouraged prejudice and violence against “Gingers.” It grew from there, forming into a full-fledged, national event formed on Facebook, known as “Kick a Ginger Day.”
By Nov. 20, 2009 redheaded students across the nation were surrounded by a large group of peers, kicked and beaten.
One case occurred at California Distinguished School, A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas where five attacks were launched on redheads by their classmates.
Luckily, no hospi-talization was required. The spark of this inter-net phenomenon got the authorities’ atten-tion. All that remains on Facebook are posts which oppose “Kick a Ginger Day.”
It’s a feeling we’ve all experienced at some point during high school: the apprehension that follows receiving a class schedule. But I find that it’s not seeing your classes for the first time that’s frightening. The scary part is seeing who teaches those classes.
The reasons behind all this fright are the stories that follow certain teachers. Sometimes those stories are just as, if not more, vicious than the stories and rumors that follow students. They can also thoroughly sway a student’s decision to take a class.
Here’s the thing about rumors: they’re hardly ever true. And I’m speaking from experience.
Last year I had the luck (or lack thereof) of getting the “hard” teacher. I slumped to my counselor’s office to try to switch out, because seasoned students had warned me about the class. My counselor, of course, declined my request and I slumped back to class with a frown and dread, all because I had a bias that wasn’t ever backed up by fact.
Now that I’m the seasoned student I’ve learned a valuable les-son that I will pass onto you: save yourself that trip to the coun-selor’s office.
Most of the terrible stories about teachers come from the
mouths of students who have a personal hostility against them. These stories shouldn’t weigh heavily in your decision-making process.
Sites that promote these stories, like “Rate My Teacher” and “Teacher Complaint,” thrive on negative feedback from angsty students, and keep these scary rumors circulating. These sitesare not to be trusted. In fact, statisticians have a term that explains the problem with sites like these: “Voluntary response bias.”
Voluntary response bias occurs when a survey (or in this case, a website) is open to anyone who wants to express their opinion on a matter. Open surveys are considered “biased” because most of the people who choose to respond are those with strong opin-ions – and in most cases the negative opinions outweigh the posi-tive. That said, a website whose design is known to draw biased response should not be the deciding factor into whether you take a teacher’s class or not.
The ending to my story is a happy one. The weeks that fol-lowed my return from the counselor’s office were the most brain- stimulating weeks that I’ve ever had at school. I learned more with the “hard” teacher than I thought was possible, and the experience thoroughly prepared me for a college classroom.
This year, my schedule is saturated with “hard” teachers. It’s funny to see the reaction people have when I show them my
schedule. They cringe, they don’t really know what it’s like to be in those classes. They’ve only heard the stories.
So the next time you pick up that fresh class schedule, leave the apprehension at home and forget all the stories that you heard about a particular teacher because every experience is different. Think of teachers like food — just because one person doesn’t like it, doesn’t mean you won’t.
Mya McCannOpinion Editor
This is going to require a fair amount of time travel.
Three, two, one. Destination: Salem,
MassachusettsThe year is 1692 and
I’m being led to an open flame. The stake firmly in the ground. My hands tied behind my back. My hair in constant motion, encircl-ing my face, or is that the flame? To them I’m a witch. But I know who I am.
I’m just a spectator. I’m time traveling, remember?
During the witch trials, many redheaded women were burned at the stake, as redheads were believed to be untrustworthy. But trust
me, it was just a supersti-tion.
As a pale-skinned, freckle-faced, redhead I have been privy to all the labels. In grade school, I was the girl under the hat, and I got a lot of looks, mostly from mean girls donning Limited Too. When we went on class field trips to the beach, I wasn’t in my “itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini.” I was dressed in full combat gear, fight-ing a battle against the sun. Tights covered my legs, long sleeves my arms. No one dared to be different then. Standing out meant
you were out.When I got to middle
school everyone wanted to be different. People started to come out of their shells. They started dying their hair ... red. I was a step ahead of them.
Now, high school is all about being unique. High school is where status quo takes on a whole new mean-ing. Where labels don’t touch our mouths but rather fill our notebooks separat-ing one class from another.
“The Breakfast Club,” a 1985 film by John Hughes, has become an iconic example of high school stereotypes.
MeAs teenagers, our jobs are to experiment, make mistakes and be judg-
mental. We find ourselves casting stares upon our classmates, envying their toned waistline or clear skin. Many teenagers jump to conclusions when noticing someone’s physical appearance — especially when it comes to weight.
It’s often assumed that people are fat because they eat too much, or that skinny people don’t eat at all. It is possible for someone to exercise on a daily basis, eat healthily, and still be overweight. Unfortunately, thanks to media portrayals of super thin actresses and peer pressure to look your best at all times, many teenagers fall prey to the belief that there is no such thing as ‘too skinny’ when it comes to their body image and self-esteem. Some people think they need to change how they look or act to feel good about themselves. Actually, all they need to do is change the way they see their body and how they think of themselves. Easier said than done.
“Weight discrimination has been documented for decades, but more research is showing how prevalent it is in recent years,” said Rebecca Pulh, co-author of the survey and coordinator of weight stigma initiatives at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. This same study shows that discrimination against overweight people — particularly women — is as common as racial discrimination, and that women are twice as likely to be the victim of weight bias as men.
Weight bias is far-reaching and affects job hiring, job advancement, salary potential, college acceptance, the availability and price of current fashion trends and most recently the cost of airline seats. The biased at-titudes of medical professionals who treat overweight people have even been documented.
What does this mean for our society? How can a society’s perception of perfection, and body image change? There are no easy answers. How-ever, a study of racial and gender bias may help us understand and identify the tools we need to begin to overcome today’s prevalent issue of weight discrimination.
- By age nine, at least half of all girls exposed to any kind of media report have been on a diet. 80 percent of eighth grade girls say they are on diets.-The teen suicide rate has doubled since 1968. 10 percent of adolescent boys and 18 percent of girls have attempted suicide and approximately 30 percent contemplated it. In 1985, some 5,399 people be-tween ages five and 24 took their own lives in suicide.- An estimated 3 percent of adolescent boys use muscle-enhancing drugs (including steroids) to help achieve the “ideal body.”
Molly ChaikinStaff Writer
LabelNot
The wind rushes by; it licks his face as he stands, erect, and concentrates on the small black ball gripped in his hands. He throws, and the shotput soars through the air.
This is junior Kevin Hamilton, member of the Samo track and field team and a Special Education student. Kevin has been my friend since my freshman year when I signed up to participate in Circle of Friends.
When I sat down that first day with my lunch pail in hand, I was terrified. All my preconceived notions about who we were, how different we were, fueled by all the labels that had been attached to me and had followed him throughout our lives, rushed into my head. How would we connect; what would we talk about? I felt as if we were on two sides of an impassible gorge.
I mumbled hello and his friendly face broke into a shy smile. “Hello, I’m Kevin.” Soon we were talking –– just talking, I don’t remember half of what we talked about that first day, but I do remember talking and laughing and discovering things about myself as I learned about his life. I found out that we were both on track and field, he throwing shotput and me running short distance. I found out that we weren’t so different after all.
The separation between Special and General Education has created an environment where we view each other not only as people with slight differ-ences, but as parts of two entirely different species.
We are separated by the lines that are drawn between us, by us, by others and by the educational system that attempts to promote unity amongst all stu-dents. Maybe if we can see our commonalities rather than the labels that tear us apart, sitting down to have lunch with someone who is “different” won’t be nearly as daunting.
Labels. They’re important. No, I’m not talking about labeling people, al-though that’s fun too. I am referring to the art of labeling your binders, books, pets, and what not with pens, stickers, post-its or other forms of identifica-tion.
Imagine for a second a world without labels. You could walk into the house and mistake your bleach for orange juice, and then die. If you are un-popular, maybe you should try purchasing a label-maker! All of your friends will want a personalized label, and before you know it you would be the talk of the school.* Without labels, there would be mayhem in the streets, people not knowing which car was theirs, which home was theirs, or even which children were theirs (well, they may be able to deduce which child was theirs, but there is no way of knowing for sure).
Innocent students without clearly-labeled binders could have theirs ac-cidentally switched with their friend’s resulting in an inability to turn in their homework, resulting in a lower grade that would mess up their concentration during their next test, which they would then fail, causing their average to go down and their parents to yell at them, and then they would just die. Labels are important. I don’t know how one could live without them…
I regret to inform you of this, reader, but you have a label.
Don’t you fret, now! Although it’s an untreat-able condition, you’re not alone. As members of the most intelligent species on Earth, a fact we flaunt not at all, we feel the subconscious need to define our surroundings, to name and categorize and organize everything we come across. We are the only species known to do so.
So then, to what ends do our minds make us la-bel ourselves, our colleagues, our beliefs and what-not? What makes us want to identify one person as a dork because they wear thick glasses and play Mag-ic: The Gathering, and another as a recluse because whenever you call them to hang out, they always say they’ve got too much work?
One of the chief reasons is that it’s easier. It’s simple enough to say that you see all facets of all people you know, that you see them as more than just one or a few choice aspects of their selves, but when someone asks what they’re like, one usually
Did You Know?
replies with a label. It’s a much less complicated route than to wax lyrical about their eating habits and how they pick their nose at 11:00 a.m. every day, on the hour.
The American majority seems obsessed with the two-party political system, the black and the white, even though there are more opinions and sides to take in a political debate than almost any other discussion one can have. The gray area in between “Democrat” and “Re-publican” is quickly being filled by “moderates,” which can be anything from Green Party advocates to Liber-tarians to Statists. The facets exist, but society tends to ignore them, because it’s “easier.”
Of course, there will always be the denomination that rejects these labels, and wants to be seen as merely “people.” However, as unfortunate as it may be, labels are inescapable, and any person who doesn’t accept or try to shape his or her own labels will be plagued by irony. Take those in the counterculture of the ’60s and ’70s — they had a strong desire to just be themselves, to go undefined, but as a result, they were christened “hip-pies” by society.
So I’m sorry to disappoint, Californian nonconform-ists, but nonconformity is a label, too.
Big Fish in a Big PondBecause we attend such a large school, the hobbies, contributions and special talents of many students exist under the radar. Not anymore!
Leo Erickson: Biking blogging bigshot
Alice KorsStaff Writer
Evan KahnCopy Editor
He bikes. He blogs. He even builds a community along with his family mem-bers — or in this case, his “FMLY” members. Sopho-more Leo Erickson has seen the once-small FMLY expand worldwide since its early beginnings.
FMLY, created by Cam-eron Rath and Noah Klein, started as a music blog that reviewed and showcased local and relatively unheard-of musicians and bands from all over the city. But it grew, and rapidly. Soon, FMLY began hosting a wide range of excit-ing events. Whether gathering hundreds of costume-clad bikers for a group ride to a mini-concert, or holding free community concerts in small parks, the goal was always to bring people together.
“It’s like art and social-izing combined, because everyone is making art there, together,” said FMLY creator Cameron Rath.
When Erickson stumbled upon FMLY, he did not realize how far his involvement with the group would go.
“It was the end of summer 2009 and I had just started to dive into the LA bike ride scene. I was con-stantly checking ride websites when I came upon this group called “THEFMLY.” Rides
were rare at the time so I jumped on it and showed up,” Erickson said. “After that ride I immediately fell in love with the involvement of music on the bike ride. There were at least four stops where bands would play in hidden corners of Santa Monica and Venice. From then on, I just needed more!”
And more is what he got. Erickson was given a place on the FMLY blog, so he could share his interesting musi-cal finds, as well as any of his own creations. However, due to the spread of the blog across the country and over-seas, Erickson only recently found out that his blog post-ings are being internationally received.
“Apparently, 2,000-plus people check the website ev-ery day. This was news to me about ... 3 days ago,” Erickson said. “I guess it’s exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to share something cool with people and have them see it with through my eyes, whether it was a new band or a video I made. And people seem to like it, judging by their comments and Facebook ‘likes.’”
From the online FMLY to its community events, Erickson never ceases to get involved in any way he can.
“He does whatever he sees fit. He does live sessions
with bands and reviews for shows,” Rath said. “He spreads the FMLY word.”
Since joining the forces of FMLY, Erickson has at-tended every event to date. “Thank You, Come Again” is a monthly, free concert hosted by FMLY, and is located at Mary Hotchkiss Park in Santa Monica. The type of music played is eclectic, ranging from mellow, soft guitar pieces to rock bands playing an entirely acoustic set. The concerts’ open setting and free-form structure allows listeners a unique music ex-perience they wouldn’t find at most other concerts. Erickson has even taken it upon himself to help in finding the talent that participates in the show.
“I find bands who are local and want to go acoustic. Sometimes the bands will even find me, which is great, because anyone is allowed to play,” Erickson said.
Of course, FMLY — be-ing the all-inclusive group it is — has an aspect of com-munity even in its bike rides. And Erickson is always right there to help out, making sure FMLY’s “no rider left behind” policy is followed. The bike rides include stops where rid-ers can take a break and listen to live music in designated areas. The mix of both art and exercise provides for endless entertainment.
Through it all, Erickson has remained true to the main message of FMLY and shares it any chance he gets.
“Cameron always says that it’s about transforming the urban environment and making the un-norm, normal,” Erickson said.
Erickson has been de-voted to the goals and ideals of FMLY for over a year now, and continues to want the best for his loving “family.” With people like Leo Erickson at its side, FMLY has the potential to make the world a better place, one blog post, concert in the park or bike ride at a time.
Ingredients:
3 eggs1 tbsp. milk1 tbsp. butter or margarine½ medium tomato or 6 cherry toma-toes — diced¼ white or yellow or Bermuda onion — diced¼ cup grated or thinly sliced cheese Fresh marjoram, basil or thymeSalt and pepper to taste
As one of too many high school students who enjoy waking up twenty minutes after their alarms go off, I usually only have time for cereal and some fruit or some buttered toast to take in the car before the tardy bell rings. However, for late-start Wednesdays and weekends, this quick, tasty recipe is my go-to fix.
On a sizeable skillet, melt the butter or margarine on high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high; add diced onions and sauté until browned. Add chopped tomatoes and continue to sauté until the tomatoes begin to become saucy (about one minute).
Whilst the tomatoes and onions are sautéing, whisk two egg whites and one whole egg together with milk in a medium-sized bowl. Add herbs, salt and pepper.
Pour the egg mixture over the onions and tomatoes, add cheese and cover for about 30 seconds. Gently fold egg mixture with your handy spatula, checking to make sure the eggs are not runny but still fluffy — about four folds with the spatula should be enough.
Be sure to serve yourself gratuitously.
Art by Leah Pomeratntz
Photo by Henry Boyd
FMLY GUY: Erickson witnesses a concert good enough to blog about.
Photo Courtesy of www.imaginaryordinary.com
ERICKSON AND BIKE: Man has a new best friend, and it doesn’t have four legs.
Photos by Henry Boyd
THE WHEELS ON THE BIKE GO ROUND AND ROUND: Erickson drops kick-stand in Science Quad after school.
This dish goes perfectly with some cheesy bread. Just grate some cheese over a piece of warm toast and enjoy!
Escalera still walks through the administration building every morning, still stops at the door to the Ath-letic Director’s office. But the mindset with which he ap-proaches the office is as no-ticeably changed as the name posted above the door — no longer Norm Lacy’s, but his own.
Following Lacy’s sudden death from a heart attack last June, Escalera, who has taught at Samo for over 20 years,
On his routine walk through the administra-tion building each morning, Daniel Escalera would often pause at the door of the Ath-letic Director’s office to say hello to Norm Lacy. Through their long careers at Samo, the two men had become friends, united by mutual respect and appreciation for sports and for the school they served.
was chosen to replace him as Athletic Director. The posi-tion comes with a meaning-ful legacy and a unique set of challenges.
“You sit around here and you see his handprint,” Escal-era said, “either literally or figuratively speaking, in terms of what he’s done with this pro-gram.”
T h e “handprint” Escalera de-scribed was heart-wrench-ingly vis-ible last June, when tributes to Lacy became ubiquitous throughout Santa Monica — from the hand-let-tered signs on the softball field promising he would be “For-ever a Samohi Viking,” to the hundreds of mourners packed into St. Monica’s church for his memorial service. Today, it is still evident in small details, like the hand-labeled binder on the shelf behind Escalera’s desk: “Lacy’s Faxes.”
“There were some people who wouldn’t walk into this office,” Escalera said. “It was hard. It was hard for me.”
In spite of the emotion-al challenges, Escalera still gleans an obvious pride and pleasure from his participation in Samo athletics. A longtime football coach and former high school athlete, he har-bors a deep-rooted belief in the power of sports to improve individuals and unite commu-
“You sit around here and you see his handprint, either literally or figuratively
speaking, in terms of what he’s done with this program.”
seeing the community come together … just to see what a 16- or 17-year-old can do for the whole community shows how powerful youth can be,” Escalera said.
The community spirit cultivated at Samo by sports and other extracurricular programs, Escalera said, “is very special.” He described the scene at Samo football’s recent match against Leuz-inger, where players rallied around senior Cody Williams, who suffered a traumatic spi-nal injury early in last year’s football season, and proudly donned circular patches em-blazoned with the letters “NL” in honor of Lacy.
Escalera said he expects “great things” for Samo and its athletic department this year. “We’ve got so much tal-ent here, student athlete-wise and coaching-wise,” he said. “The depth of commitment of people in the Samohi com-munity — I knew it, but now I really see it.”
After a school year fraught with unexpected loss
Rich LopezSAT Math Expert
StatisticsWebsite:
Boomerangtutoring.com310-384-7628
— in addition to Lacy, beloved teacher Donald Hedrick and longtime administrative assis-tant Gloria Davis both passed away suddenly last year — Es-calera has found the lessons he learned from sports to be pow-erful tools for coping.
“The challenges make it a rich experience,” Escalera said. “As an athlete, what you deal with a lot is how you’re
going to deal with obstacles that get in your way … and this was no doubt one of them. This has been a tough year.”
Ever the athlete, Escal-era is a stalwart believer in the potential for growth in the face adversity. So now, though he can no longer greet Norm Lacy on his morning walk through the Administration Building, he and the rest of the Samo athletic department are channeling Lacy’s energy and dedicating themselves to mak-ing this year meaningful.
“His impact is still there, and I think it’s a positive one,” Escalera said. “I think we all see in each other some of the wonderful things he repre-sented.”
BIG SHOES TO FILL: Escalera awaits the kickoff at last Friday’s football game.
Photo by Sam Boloorchi
Sports Page11Oct. 5, 2010
Cross country continues Ocean League domination
Once again, we’ve reached the time of the year when Samo’s cross-country teams take to the track and begin their training for the long season to come. Hav-ing already run four races, the boys’ team has already begun to set the usual high standard, and have placed themselves on a fast pace that they hope to maintain for the duration of the 2010 cross-country season.
Senior Nick Salazar was named Team Captain for the 2010 season, which comes as no surprise considering his high level of dedication to the team, and his equal level of commitment to his train-ing since his freshman year.
“I make sure I am there to help anyone on the team who seems to be having problems, or feels nervous before races,” Salazar said. “I have to make sure that I am consistent in my training, and set a good example for the rest of the team.”
Junior Arash Assar, once a freshman at Samo who left the campus to join the ranks of Pacifica High sophomores, has returned once again to our campus for his third year in high school, and his third year running cross-country. He has al-ready made a positive impact
on the team, keeping pace with Salazar.
Ventura High School hosted the team’s first meet of the season, the Seaside Invitational on September 10. Unfortunately, the results of this meet were not in-dicative of the varsity teams potential, as the races were divided by grade level. The Samo seniors placed 20th overall, with an average time of 18:22, spearheaded by Captain Nick Salazar. The Junior team managed to pull off 15th overall, with an av-erage time of 18:13.
Eight days later, the team found themselves at Woodbridge High School, and once again, found them-selves divided by grade level. The Senior squad managed to pull off 14th out of 25 teams, and the Junior team ended up placing 11th overall out of 26 competing schools.
Finally, on September 29, the Varsity team was able to run as a pack at the South Bay Cup at Columbia Park in Torrance. Andrew Capron took first place for the team, running an impressive time of 15:50. He was followed by Assar, running 15:59, who finished directly in front of captain Nick Salazar, run-ning 16:01.
As anticipated, the Samo team crushed their first league meet, taking 1st place in every race with the excep-tion of freshman boy’s team at the infamous Kenneth Hahn Park. Junior Andrew Capron placed first, conquer-ing the hill with an impres-
sive time of 17:29. Salazar, coming in at 17:37, took sec-ond.
While it may seem like the boys have already run their fair share, the season is just underway. Many league meets and invitationals loom in their near future, but this prospect hasn’t seemed to dampen their spirits.
“We have won league eight years in a row,” coach Tania Fischer said. “And were trying to maintain the tradition.”
Danny KarelStaff Writer
Boys
GirlsOnly four meets into
the season, the Samo girls’ cross-country team already appears to be brimming with potential. With the gradu-ation of last year’s varsity seniors, a surprising number of the available varsity slots have been filled by freshman, who have already proved themselves fully capable and ready for the long haul ahead.
“We have a very young team this year,” coach Tania Fischer said. “We have three freshman girls running for varsity.”
The effect of having three freshmen on the var-sity team seems to be having a positive impact on the rest of the girls, as times have im-proved significantly this year from past years.
“The faster, younger girls coming in as a group set high standards for the rest of the team,” Fischer said.
Senior leadership comes from captain Amanda Bot-
feld, whose performances as a junior last year set her apart.
After their first two races where the team was un-fortunately divided between grade levels, the varsity team was finally able to pull off a cooperative win at their first league meet at Kenneth Hahn park. They placed first, beat-ing the Beverly Hills girls’ team, which has been a long-standing rival of the Lady Vikings.
With many big meets in the near future, the girls’ team continues to train hard and push itself towards a suc-cessful season.
Upcoming races:Oct. 9 @ Cal Poly SLOOct 14 @ Kenny HahnOct. 16 @ Cal Poly SLO
READY, SET: Andrew Capron (center), led Samo to vic-tory at their first league meet at Kenny Hahn.
GO: (Left to right) Logan Weinberg, Arash Assar, Nick Salazar and Eric Gironda lead the pack of Ocean League opponents.
Sports Page10
Oct. 5, 2010
Samo rebounds after initial loss Greenies find early success
Girls’ tennis has high hopes for seasonAfter losing the first
game of the season, Samo’s girls’ tennis team is slowly pulling ahead. The Vikings won their next three games against Mira Costa, El Se-gundo and Marymount. Mira Costa and El Segundo were both very close match-es. In the opener against Harvard Westlake, Samo lost 5-13, giving them a rocky start to a new year.
“It was a hard loss. It was a good growing and learning experience for the girls. It was very edu-cational seeing my players playing a top notch school and seeing what we need to work on,” Coach Wilston Poon said of their first game.
Harvard Westlake’s overall record for 2009 was 16-3, while they were unde-feated in their own league. Against Santa Monica, they won eight of nine doubles sets.
“We lost because we are just getting the hang of competing. We have learned from our loss. We are doing a lot better now,” senior Annie Volovik said. Volovik, along with seniors Lucy Walsh and Kayla Sha-
piro is one of the three cap-tains of the varsity team.
Volovik’s words could not be more true. After their loss on Sep. 9th, girl’s varsity played Mira Costa on Sept. 23, and tied 9-9. Once they counted up individual points for each set, Samo made progress with a 86-79 win.
“In the Harvard West-lake game, my girls were not focused. But against Mira Costa, they moved better be-cause of their commitment
Samo came out strong and ready to redeem themselves in their game against Morningside on Friday. After losing to El Se-gundo Wednesday, Samo was hungry for a win. In the end they destroyed Morningside in a 25-2, 25-8, 25-3 demolition. Most of Morningside’s points came from Samo’s serving errors.
“We had really strong serv-ing and several aces on our side. Nothing can be attributed to any one person because everybody played very well and very steadi-ly,” captain and outside hitter Dana Ritchie said.
The girls had several serv-ing rolls, with Sarah Krenik mak-ing an outstanding 14 aces in a row in the first game.
The game against El Se-gundo was another story. The girls fought an uphill battle, get-ting down 18-10 in the first game. They ended up losing 25-15, 25-20, 26-24, but saw improvement from their last meeting.
“We definitely improved each game, which was very good against a hard team like El Se-gundo,” Ritchie said.
Over the summer, the team traveled to Hawaii to compete in the Ann Kang Volleyball Tourna-ment, but did not end up where they wanted to.
“Hawaii was a great ex-perience. We faced some really intense competition and it was a very difficult tournament but we all learned and definitely im-
proved,” Ritchie said. Although disappointed
with their loss, the team is working hard and still sees hope for a CIF victory.
“We’re really excited about going to CIF. It’s going to be a challenge, but we hope we do well and we’re all excited to be playing some great teams and really high-level volley-ball,” setter Tessa Walther said.
“We’re definitely a very young team but we all have a common goal of wanting to get better and do well, not only in league play
but in CIF in November. We have that goal in mind,” Ritchie said. “At the end of the year, who knows? We’re just worry-ing about league play and beat-ing out rivals. We’re taking it one game at a time.”
against El Segundo was ex-tremely close. Samo ended up winning by only one point, making the final score 80-79.
This win was impressive due to the fact that the team was missing their number one player, Christine Mad-dox as well as Walsh and freshman Julia Gordon.
During the game, all the substitutes had to play
and many team members were in positions they were not used to. Rankings had to be mixed up; singles play-ers were playing doubles and vise-versa. Despite their weaker numbers, San-ta Monica won.
After these two close wins, the Vikings were victo-rious - and not only by a few points. On Sept. 30, Samo beat Marymount 14-4, prov-ing that this season will be theirs.
The team is slowly climbing their way up to the top; possibly to CIF.
“If we keep the hard work up, we have a very good chance of going far,” Volovik said.
Last year, the Vikings were undefeated in their league, 8-0, with an impres-sive 11-3 overall record. They won the Ocean League Championships, but lost in the third round of CIF.
This year, there are two
freshmen on varsity; Chris-tine Maddox and Julia Gor-don. Maddox is currently number 1 for singles and has only lost 2 matches this year against number 1 players.
“She has done really well. She has been a real-ly good asset to the team. Christine is very good for the girls; an inspiration and a good l i f t ,” Poon said of the talented fresh-man.
“It is really the same team as last year, just with our two new freshmen. We did really well last year. In order to improve, we need to pay attention to more specific things that we are doing wrong, like consistency, place-ment and accuracy over power. We spend a lot of time together as a team, so whether we win or lose, we still always end up having a good time,” sophmore Meagan Wilson said.
“If we keep the hard work up, we have a very good chance of going far.”
Boys’ water polo crushed Hoover High School 16-11 on Sept. 22. As they continue to play their way to-ward league games, the team is hopeful for the title of this year’s League Champions.
“Last year we had better cohesive-ness, but this year we’re having more fun. I think we’re positioning ourselves well for our league drive, which starts in October,” coach Matthew Flanders said. “We could have won those games, but we were having problems with over-aggressive players.”
He went on to talk about the team’s now 5-3 record.
After every shot, the Drake Pool was overwhelmed by a never-ending chorus of screaming teenage girls, whose chants would resonate throughout every time out, break, shot or block. The spec-tators who crowded the stands looked even more eager than the players.
“People should be excit-
ed for our season,” nationally ranked captain Marc Vonder-weidt said.
In the first five minutes of the first quarter of the game against Hoover, Samo was ahead 4-1. The lead increased after fellow nationally ranked senior Maxi Vilim-Brozyna scored. The crowd’s celebra-
tion was stifled by the Hoover coach, as he exploded in rage, shouting insults and demean-ing comments at his players from the sideline, frustrated by numerous Samo shots, blocks and steals.
Later in the second quar-ter, Vonderweidt, Vilim- Bro-zyna and junior Charlie Olsen each scored. The period ended with Samo ahead 10-6.
The game was passing by quickly, the yellow ball be-coming a blur as it was passed swiftly between players.
“I’m digging everyone on
the team, we’re a good group of guys,” Vonderweidt said of his teammates. “We play well together.”
After a series of passes back and forth, senior Zack Gold scored, with another point from Olsen soon to fol-low. Gold scored again with a backwards shot, keeping
Samo up at a steady 13-6 lead. Vonder-weidt’s buzzer shot finished the quarter, 14-6.
“This year we have more of a sense of leadership. We’re going to win league. We just have to keep
working and staying consis-tent,” Vilim-Brozyna said of his team after the victory. “The under-classmen just have to step it up and keep playing.”
Photo by Nicholas Zarchen
PUT YOUR HANDS UP: Samo celebrates after Joslyn Hayes smashes in a point against Morningside.
SMACK DOWN: Captain Kayla Shapiro sends a winner down the line in a match against Marymount on Sept. 30. Samo went on to defeat Marymount 14-4, fueling great expectations for this season.
Under the leadership of nationally ranked seniors Marc Vonderweidt and Maxi Vilim-Brozyna, the boys’ water polo team looks forward to a winning season.
Upcoming games:Oct. 6 vs. Culver CityOct 7 vs. ChadwickOct. 13 @ Beverly Hills-Oct 18 vs. El Segundo
Extra! Extra! Get extra photos, extra articles and extra awesome at
www.TheSamohi.com
“We just have to keep working and staying con-sistent.”
– Captain Maxi Vilim-Brozyna
Sports Page12Oct. 5, 2010
Athlete of the Issue: Kris Comas
At 6’0” and 170 pounds, the varsity start-ing receiver is a bit smaller than teammates. Other re-ceivers on the team are 6’2” and 6’5”. However, no other teammate has scored 11 touchdowns in four games.
Football has always been a part of Kris Comas’ life. “ I was bred into it,” he said.
Since he was five years old, his father pushed him into flag football. When the time came, he began at the lowest level of Pop Warner.
With high school just around the corner, Comas planned to go to Venice High. Thankfully, his mother decided to send him to Samo instead, for the academics.
“Freshmen year I didn’t
get that much love [from the coaches],” said Comas “Sophomore year I stepped up a little bit.”
Comas skipped JV football, going directly from freshmen to varsity. This hap-pens to one player a year, at best. He began starting his junior year.
Comas has hopes of go-ing to Boise State to play ball and major in business. “If football doesn’t work, I’m a huge fashion dude,” he said. He has plans to start his own clothing company, specializ-ing in summer clothing.
His coach, Travis Clark, earns his loyalty and respect. “He’s amazing, he’s an amaz-ing guy,” Comas said. “I’m proud to have him as my coach ... Since the summer he’s been pushing me, letting me work with NFL athletes and college athletes.”
Comas has worked with
NFL athlete DeSean Jackson. The Philadelphia Eagles re-ceiver ended last season with 1,167 yards total. He played in the Pro Bowl, catching six passes for two touchdowns.
Even though he is small, he still works hard. In this re-spect, his inspiration is De-Sean Jackson. “He reminds me that I still have to push hard [and] don’t get down be-cause you’re small.”
Comas’ size makes him faster, and makes it easier for him succeedon the field.
“Kris is an athlete,” teammate Brock Miller said. “He breaks tackles and scores.”
Even in offensive prac-tice drills, Comas will run to the end zone and score.“I focus on what I’m going to execute when I get in the game,” he said “I envision how I’m going to score.”
Chase WohrleStaff Writer
Chase WohrleStaff Writer
Vikings’ efforts not enough for ValenciaAt their home opener on Fri-
day, Samo lost to the Valencia Vi-kings. The score was 63-28.
Upon entering Santa Mon-ica College’s Corsair Field, the stress on Samo was tangible in the air. With Valencia ranked 17th in the state, spectators were aware this would be a good game. The Samo banner displayed names of school legends such as Norm Lacy and Cody Williams. Va-lencia cheerleaders ran across the field with their flags only to receive a negative reaction from the crowd.
Senior captains Brock Mill-er, Joel Ramos, Justyn Coker and Cody Williams came onto the field before the rest of the team and observed the coin toss; Samo received first. Just after the kick-off, starting quarterback Rhys Gervais, a sophomore, attempted to pass to senior Kris Comas when Valencia intercepted the ball inside of Samo’s 20-yard line and scored.
After receiving the ball from the second kickoff, Samo began its second drive only to fumble a couple plays later, giving the ball back to Valencia. They scored later that drive. Thankfully, Samo answered before the end of the first quarter with a touchdown to senior Brandon Taylor, leaving the score at 14-7.
Junior Kori Garcia initiated the second quarter attack on Va-lencia with a run that ended five yards from the goal line. In the next play, he finished the drive with an inside run to tie the game
at 14-14. Shortly after Valencia obtained the ball, running back Steven Manfro completed a 20-yard run for a touchdown only to have it called back on a penalty.
Valencia’s next touchdown, scored by receiver Matt Nyberg, was not called back and gave Va-lencia a seven point lead. Valencia scored again with a run by Man-fro. In retaliation, Comas caught a pass and took it for a touchdown. The last touchdown of the quarter came from Manfro on an eight yard run, ending the quarter with Samo down 35-21.
Before the third quarter began, the Valencia cheer squad prematurely broke their the teams banner, leading to a very unexcit-ing entrance by their Vikings. The quarter remained scoreless except for a touchdown by Manfro at the last three minutes.
Going into the final quarter of the game, Samo was down by three touchdowns at 42-21. Man-fro had a one yard run to score within the beginning three min-utes of the quarter. Manfro again scored on a pass inside of Samo’s 20-yard line. Valencia’s next drive resulted in a touchdown by wide receiver Tedric Thompson. This was the last of Valencia’s five unanswered touchdowns. In the last minute of the game, Comas scored his second touchdown with a quick pass leaving the score to 63-28.
Despite the loss, Coach Tra-vis Clark was satisfied with the team’s performance, and the perfor-mance of Gervais.
“That kid put up 21 of those points, so I’m very happy with that,” Clark said. He went on to
say, “We can run the ball against anybody. That defensive line was good, and we ran the ball on them.”
The excessive turnovers in the game played a big role in Sa-mo’s loss, according to Clark.
“The cons obviously were the turnovers. That’s just difficult to overcome,” Clark said.
Ramos agreed with Clark, saying “We had about seven turn-overs, and you can’t win a game with seven turnovers.”
Photo by Reva Santo
Comas receives uncon-ditional support from his fam-ily. They are in attendance of every game. His mother is a huge fan of college football and “you can hear her from the stands,” Comas said.
But what drives Comas to play? His love for football is derived from multiple as-pects, whether it‘s the Friday night lights or the genuine sense of brotherhood he gets from the team.
“I love how everyone comes out to see you play,” he said “and how your fam-ily is there, because the team is your family. We work to support each other.”
Whether he’s on our television screens or his name marks our clothes, Samo will see much more of Kris Comas after he graduates.
Photo by Reva Santo
Photo by Reva Santo
IN THE ZONE: Comas rests on the bench, deep in thought, during Friday’s game against Valencia.
Vikings Football by the numbers:
QB Brock MillerPassing Yards 337Passing Yards Per Game 337Completion Percentage .425
QB Rhys GervaisPassing Yards 508Passing Yards Per Game 169Completion Percentage .647
WR Kris ComasReceptions 29Recieving Yards Per Game 140Points Per Game 16.5Total Points 66
MLB Justyn CokerTackles 22Tackles Per Game 11Sacks 1.5Sacks Per Game 0.4
RB Brandon TaylorTotal Touchdowns 3Yards Per Carry 10.2Points Per Game 4.5Longest Reception 65
TB Kori GarciaTotal Tackles 26Longest Reception 22Points Per Game 6.5Rushing Touchdowns 4
Photo by Reva Santo
Season PreviewLast season, the Samo
football team finished with four wins and seven losses, and lost in the first round of playoffs. So far this season, the Vikings have a record of 2-2.
“We need to win the Ocean League title first of all,” Clark said, “then we’ll take it a game at a time in the playoffs.”
He believes the team has evolved from last year. “I think that the kids have started to change the character and the culture around here,” he said. He also thinks the team relies on its coaches to guide the play-ers to “improve on our style of play.”
“We’re closer to playing football the way we want them to play,” Clark said.
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