SPORTS & ARTSwww.mcsun.org

Fridaymay 22, 2009

Mt. CarMel SuN

B

Mackenzie LanceSportS editor

After months of harsh train-ing, practice in the sun, aching mus-cles, complicated drills, and horrid tan lines, boys tennis has reached CIF and league season.

“Originally, our practices went from three to five, but we practiced much longer,” Junior Andrew Kim said. “Sometimes, we’d even go to six and six thirty. We all tried to dedicate enough time.”

The team as a whole was knocked out in the semi-finals, but individuals and doubles teams have advanced.

As of press time two doubles teams had advanced in the League Tournament.

The doubles teams included that of Andy Frey and Justin Fan, and Garret Smith and Taehee Han.

The individuals were all defeat-ed in the second round of League individuals.

“We played league individuals right now,” junior Shuyang Fang said. “We reached our goals as a team, getting past the third round in CIF. Everyone in the individual tournament got knocked out in the second round.”

Wes Lowe, who went to the League tournament as an individu-al, was happy with the overall sea-son and has high hopes for 2010.

“It was a great season,” Lowe said. “We finished really strong and proved that we can complete. Next year, we should be even better and one of the top teams.”

Kim shares Lowe’s sediments about the future.

“Next year will be a great year for the tennis team because we will have a much more expe-rienced team,” Kim said. “The switch in leagues has also helped us play against more fairly matched teams.”

As they think about the future, the team describes the great leaps the team has made.

“Since the beginning of our season, we had a very inexperienced team,” Kim said. “Last year, only a few players on varsity returned as a Varsity member due to the large number of seniors graduating and not a huge amount of juniors. Starting the season, there were only two people who played varsity year-round.”

The new league made compe-tition easier for the team, the but preseason was a learning experi-ence.

“During the preseason, the team was given a chance to familiar-ize themselves with their new po-sitions,” Kim said. “It was a great learning experience and helped shape the team up for the season matches.”

Along with the team’s lack of experience, personal conflicts played into some issues with the team.

“There were a few bumps we had to go through,” Kim said. “There were certain team disagree-ments, position disagreements, but after overcoming those petty ob-stacles, we really had a solid tennis team going.”

Sundevil Scoreboard

AnA AlvArez | PhotograPherBrea Williams (10) winds up during their most recent game against Westview on Wednesday. The team has continued a very successful season as they head into the post-season games with an un-defeated league record of 12-0. The team attributes their success to their ability to bat well when they need to. Although they did not lose in leagues, they plan to take the CIF games one at a time.

aDiti PaiStaFF Writer

MC swim and dive girls stuck their hands in the middle of their big huddled circle and after a countdown shouted, “Good job MC boys!” They already glowed with pride as the announcer just handed them their first place trophy. The fact that the boys team won just added to it. With excited yelps and screeches, the girls team rushed over to coach Dan Peck and shoved him into their home pool, jumping in after him with the boys. In a rare and exciting finale to league finals, both the boys and girls swim and dive teams won league champions at their home pool. The league finals had some very impressive swims from seniors Harrison Van der Linde, Patrick Nowak, Danielle Spence, and junior Jacquelyn Gentes. While the girls swam against their biggest competition at the first meet of the year, Ramona, the boys waited the entire season for the last dual meet against Westview to test their talent. In a very close meet, the MC boys narrowly won providing them with a bit of confidence to go into leagues with. “The win against Westview was a major confidence booster for the team,” senior Harrison Van der Linde. “Our last league victories were easy wins and beating Westview reassured us that we can beat good teams.” The swim and dive team’s lack of competitive teams in the Valley league formed a worry that when leagues and CIF arrived, the team wouldn’t be battle tested enough to beat them. Their win at Leagues proved promising but CIF finals

on Saturday still looms. “Both boys and girls want to win but no matter what we want to try our hardest and get best times,” senior Danielle Spence said. “The team motto is we + will. This will help us because if we say “we will” win and “we will” swim fast then we have a better chance of actually doing it than if we don’t believe in ourselves.” As the team prepares for CIF finals, they bring out their secret weapons, team spirit and closeness. “Having a sea of red behind the lanes during races really pumps up the swimmers,” Spence said. “Knowing you have support of your team behind the blocks cheering in their bright red warm ups makes the race a

lot more exciting and help our swimmers race faster.” Before prelims, the team bonded with their pre-meet pasta dinner but also with their annual shaving party. “Before CIF we have a shaving party where girls shave boys in order to make them swim faster,” Spence said. “Then at CIF we have a spirit box of pom poms, necklaces, and noisemakers that people use when cheering. Also a lot of people paint their faces and bodies.” The dive team also proved

to have a very successful season. At their league meet, the girls team swept the top four spots with senior Allison Rogers placing first, senior Angela Woods placing second, and juniors Sandy Shyu and Serena McClintick taking third and fourth. On the guys side, freshman Alec Maisonneuve took third, and sophomore Jake Espino placed fifth at Leagues. Rogers, Woods, Shyu, McClintick and Maisonneuve, all qualified for CIF and will compete on Friday for points that will contribute to the Swim and Dive team’s overall place in CIF. “The dive team is delicious,” junior Jeanie Nguyen

Vincent PhaMStaFF Writer

The dream season continues for the girls softball team. After scoring in double digits for the tenth straight game, not only are opponents losing, but they’re getting blown away like dust.

What’s been the cause for this rec-ipe for success? Junior Ashley Romano believes the team’s aggressive batting approach mightily aids their power surge.

“We have jumped on the first good pitch we get when we get up to the plate and we have taken advantage of our opponent’s mistakes,” Romano said.

On April 30, the girls defeated Ra-mona 11-4. Senior Alexis Derango and juniors Kellie Fox and Alix Johnson all got three hits each, and combined for more than half of the team’s run pro-duction in the game.

On May 5, the girls crushed and squeezed the juice out of Orange Glen, beating them 22-0. They put up 12 runs in just the first inning, their most runs scored in a single inning this year. Contrary to that, sophomores Breana Williams and Allysa Abrenica pitched their third combined no-hitter of the season, striking out eight batters in the process.

“Our team’s greatest strength right now is our ability to turn it on with the bats when we need to,” Romano said. “It seems that we always have one big inning that fires us up and allows us to put more pressure on our opponents.”

On May 7, the girls made the long trip to Valley Center and came away with an 11-1 victory. Junior Kellie Fox had no trouble swinging for the fences as she hit two home runs in the game,

driving in four runs. Williams’ pitching capped it off with a complete game, al-lowing only one hit while striking out six batters.

Coaches Ruby and Caesar Chavez continue their stellar work from be-hind the dugout, pumping up the team and keeping their intensity level high throughout the games.

“They’re really fun people to be around,” junior Nina Villanueva said. “They grew up with baseball in their family so they know a lot about the game.”

Traveling to Oceanside on May 12, the team was surprisingly in a tight game, only leading Oceanside by two runs entering the fifth.

But once again, they found a way to put up a crooked number on the op-ponents, piling up 10 runs in the fifth inning en route to a 12-0 victory. Senior Maggie Doremus went a perfect 3-for-3 with a triple and two stolen bases. Wil-liams pitched another gem, allowing no hits and striking out nine batters.

Two days later, on May 14, the girls defeated San Marcos 10-1. This game was also a close one until the bats woke up for the girls, scoring eight runs in their last three innings. Romano had an incredible performance, going 4-for-4 with three runs, three RBI’s, two dou-bles, a triple, and a pair of stolen bases.

As the CIF’s are clearly on the ho-rizon, the girls are not looking to relax and assume that they will cruise through the tournament with little trouble.

“There are a lot of good teams in the CIF,” Romano said. “I don’t think you can take any one team for granted. We have to take the playoffs game by game and always give it our all no mat-ter who the opponent across the field is.”

Tennis reaches season CIF goal; sends doubles to League tourney

“ The win against Westview was a major confidence booster for the team. Our last league victories were easy wins and beating Westview re-assured us that we can beat good teams.”

- Harrison Van der Linde (12)

Matt coffeLt | PhotgraPherSandy Shyu (11) performs her dive at the recent Westview meet. The swimmers and divers will compete in CIF finals this weekend.

Swim, dive emerge flawless in season, send many to CIF

8-4 7-4 10-0 8-0 7-0 6-1 9-4 5-11 10-0 5-6 12-0

Softball undefeated; high hopes for CIF

Tennis Golf Gym. Swim B. Track G. Track G. Lax B. Lax Volleyball Baseball Softball

*LEAGUE RECORDS AS OF MAY 20 FROM NCTIMES.COM

RACHEL MARTINSTAFF WRITER

The girl managed to keep her balance all the way through her routine, ending it with a superb landing off the beam. The MC gymnastics team nailed virtually all their landings last Friday dur-ing league fi nals.

MC won with a score of 223.3 against La Costa Canyon, Fallbrook and Our Lady of Peace. Senior Shelby Bruce won All-Around Compulsory with a score of 38.8 score, and senior Tina Wilhelm won All-Around Op-tional with a score of 37.2.

“They supported each other, and they competed very well,” coach Monique Lamphiere-Tamayoshi said.

The girls have been extreme-ly successful all season, going into today’s fi rst round of CIFs with an undefeated record.

Lamphiere-Tamayoshi be-lieves there is one thing that helps the girls succeed.

“They lean on each other,”

she said. “They know that each person is there to help them no matter what.”

Junior Frankie Coniglio agrees that their team chemistry is very strong.

“We have a really good team this year, and everybody gets along,” Coniglio said.

“In the past there have been cliques and stuff, but this year we all get along really well and ev-erybody kind of motivates each other,” she said.

This ideal team chemistry also helped the girls reach victory in their meet at Westview a few weeks ago.

Many teams think they al-ways do better at home, but the gymnastics team feels that they will do well no matter where they compete.

“It’s really nice because we have a lot of team support, so it doesn’t really matter where we compete,” Coniglio said. “[West-view is] pretty good. We beat them.”

With the CIF tournament

beginning today for the team, the girls have been working especially hard.

“Well in the beginning of practice, like this season, it was practice every skill and get every-thing down and clean everything up,” Coniglio said. “But now, like these next two weeks we have Leagues and then CIFs, so we’re just mainly working on routines, routines, routines, routines every single day.”

This kind of discipline may become diffi cult for some teams, but gymnastics has their way of motivating each other.

“All the seniors were told to bring in an inspirational quote,” Coniglio said. “So we do like little team bonding things that every-body’s a part of.”

The coaches are also an inte-gral part of the team’s success.

“They give us little point-ers like how to do better,” said Coniglio.

The girls will be competing today in the fi rst round of the CIF tournament.

Gymnastics involves precision, technique, and perfection.

For senior Shelby Bruce, this demanding sport has become a part of her life.

Bruce has been competing in gymnastics for about 13 years.

“I have been in gymnastics since I was like four years old,” she said. “I have been on varsity since my freshman year.”

Bruce has one event that stands out as her best.

“My favorite event is beam because it’s kind of scary but really fun when you can get the skill,” she said. “My best event is fl oor, though.”

During this season Bruce received three gold medals at the annual Sundevil Invitational. The Invitational was on May 2.

She took home the compulsory fl oor and uneven bars gold medal, grabbing the compulsory all-around title for the second year in a row. Besides the events, Bruce really enjoys

her team. “My favorite part of gymnastics

is defi nitely all of our team dinners,” she said. “I love food and our team is hilarious and we always have a lot of fun together.”

Although Bruce has devoted a large portion of her life and energy to gymnastics, she stopped participating in club at the beginning of high school.

“I used to go to club for 17 hours a week but I quit my freshman year,” she said.

Bruce, who is usually smaller than her competition, believes it helps her in gymnastics.

“[My height] is an advantage, I would say, since most Olympic gymnasts are really tiny,” she said. “I mean I really would not know if it is hard being tall, so it is hard to say.”

Bruce is going to UC Santa Barbara in the fall.

“I have no clue what I am majoring in yet,” she said. “I am considering biochemistry, but I am still undeclared.”

According to Bruce, she will not be playing gymnastics in college and is not sure if Santa Barbara has a team.

Besides school and gymnastics, Bruce just likes to have fun.

“Outside of school and gymnastics, I like to just hang out with my friends and ch3ill at the beach or anything exciting,” she said.

Bruce is looking forward to her future at UC Santa Barbara. Since the university does not have a team, this next few weeks will be the last for Bruce’s gymnastics career.

Senior David Darling fell in love with lacrosse the minute he stepped on the fi eld in seventh grade.

“[At fi rst] my mom made me,” he said. “Now I play because I love it.”

Being on varsity since freshman year, he plays the position of midfi eld, and has scored the most goals for the team.

When asked, Darling believes that there are more important things than scoring.

“[I don’t feel] so good [about scoring], because assists are worth more in my book,” he said.

During this year, Darling went to the East Coast to play on an All-American team representing California.

“Out of the other teams, our team wasn’t as good because we were up against kids on the East Coast where lacrosse is a bigger sport,” he said.

Darling has also decided to go to college at Eastern University in

Pennsylvania and play for the team there.

What attracted Darling to Eastern University is the restructured lacrosse program.

“I liked the coach,” Darling said. “He is building a new lacrosse program for athletes.”

At home, Darling is the captain of the MC team.

He likes being captain because of the hard work, and being the role model for the younger kids.

“[Being captain] is a challenge,” Darling said. “I have to set different ways to motivate the team. The younger kids look up to me and if they ask me a question that I can’t answer, I give them my best advice.”

Darling has such a passion for lacrosse, that all the free time he has is dedicated to working on his game.

“I practice every day, any time I get,” he said.

Darling is also talented off the fi eld. His sense of humor was displayed at Senior Idol.

He also says that it does get tough to balance school and lacrosse at the same time.

“It’s diffi cult to stay on track with school during season,” he said. “I have to work hard on the weekends to fi nish my school work.”

But despite all the work, what Darling loves most about the game is that it takes more than strength.

“[Lacrosse] is a game for athletes,” Darling said. “You have to use your brain more than your muscles. You have to know where everything is on the fi eld at all times.”

May 22, 2009SportsB2 Mt. Carmel SUN

Bruce enjoys team bond, earns three gold medals Passion, dedication root of Darling’s lax success

QUICK HITSIf you had spent $100 on anything, what would it most likely be?Most likely clothes and food, especially food.

What is your greatest fear and why?I am ridiculously terri� ed of spiders. It’s dumb how scared I am.

If you could un-invent one thing, what would it be and why?Alarm clocks so no one would ever have to wake up early.

What’s your weirdest food combination? (Example: potato chips and caramel dip)Spaghetti tacos are the best.

What do you plan to do after high school?I’m going to UC Santa Barbara

Name one person or group of people that you admire.Monique L.T.

What is your favorite TV show?House

What is your worst pet peeve and why?Really slow drivers. I get really bad road rage.

QUICK HITSIf you had spent $100 on anything, what would it most likely be?Save it for spending money in college.

If you could own any brand of clothes, what would it be?Nike.

What’s your weirdest food combination? Yams with chocolate syrup.

If you could un-invent one thing, what would it be?MTV because kids try to live fantasy lives after watching it.

What is your greatest fear and why?Not reaching my potential.

What is your favorite T.V. show?Family Guy.

If you could have any super power, what it be?The ability to blend into a crowd.

Name one person or group of people that you admire.My parents.

What is your worst pet peeve and why?Meat in my pasta sauce.

Sundevil Spotlight

SHELBY BRUCE

VANDANA BHAIRISTAFF WRITER

DAVID DARLING

KATELYN CUTTSNEWS EDITOR

Boys lacrosse learns from past mistakes; maintains positive, constructive mentality

Boys golf takes second in league, tees off into CIFMELISSA ROADMANEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

In the sweltering heat last Monday and Tuesday, the boys golf team fought their hearts out for the Valley League title at Camp Pendleton Golf Course.

The fi rst day of the tournament brought success for the Sundevils. Three of the boys placed in the top fi ve.

Seniors Jeff Hsiao, Ryan Phife, and Ben Young placed second, third, and fi fth respectively.

With an overall team score of 415 after the fi rst day of an 18-hole round, the boys found themselves in an unexpected second place, behind Ramona.

“As a whole, the team did pretty well,” Young said. “After the fi rst day, teams were wondering how we did so well.”

The second day of the tournament proved to be harder for the boys to keep up the momentum.

According to both Hsiao and Young, they did not play as well on Tuesday.

Although many of the players scored higher, the team still fi nished strong.

Hsiao placed second overall in

the Valley League with a cumulative score of 151. Junior Marc Hermann fi nished in fi fth place with 155.

Overall the team placed second with a team score of 790, behind Ramona.

“As a team, we played well and even gave fi rst place Ramona a scare, but came up a bit short,” Hsiao said.

According to Hsiao, the team’s success in the tournament is due to the different level of competition in the new Valley League.

“Since we switched leagues, the competition hasn’t been as strong,” he said.

Young also believes that the practice time that the members put in helped with their success.

“Most of the team practiced a lot the weekend before leagues,” Young said. “This

contributed to our second place accomplishment.”

The two day tournament determines the winner of the league title as well as who will move onto the CIF tournament, which took place this week.

Results were not available at press time.

The CIF tournament began on Wednesday.

Only those who make the cutoff

after the fi rst day advance to the next round.

In order to prepare for the next level of competition, the team put in more time over the weekend practicing.

“Our team actually doesn’t practice too much, but we [made] an exception for CIF and work[ed] really hard over the weekend to prepare,” Hsiao said.

ABBY MANSOURSTAFF WRITER

Optimism is a feeling that is hard to maintain, but according to senior lacrosse player Joey Pospichal “things can fall apart without it.”

They also played Carlsbad on May 6 with a loss of 4-15.

The team also took on Poway suffering a devastating loss of 1-15.

With these losses, the team has a philosophy in order to keep a posi-tive mindset.

“Past mistakes can be correct-ed but past results can’t,” Pospichal said.

The team had their last home game against San Marcos on May 14, which resulted in another loss for MC.

“Our record is not quite where we want it to be, but we plan to fi n-ish the season strong with a couple wins,” Pospichal said.

Pospichal claims that the team gets along extremely well.

“We are pretty much like one

big family,” he said. “We joke around a lot and have fun.”

The team played at Westview on Monday May 18 and came away with a devastating loss.

Despite these devastating loss-es, a few individual players have been able to showcase their talent.

Senior David Darling still man-ages to remain in the top fi ve of league scorer leaders.

He is also second in points scored per game in the league.

In addition, he is the league goal leader.

Sophomore Kamden Luke is third in leagues for most saves.

On Wednesday, they took on Monte Vista in a non-league game at 7 p.m.

No matter what the outcome of a game might be, the boys are always learning from the past.

“We try to focus on the mistakes of the last game and other previous games,” Pospichal said. “We just try to stayed relaxed, positive, and fo-cused on the upcoming game.”

MATT COFFELT | PHOTO EDITORRyan Phife (12) follows through with his swing in a recent match. The boys fi nished second in Valley League and worked very hard to prepare for both league fi nals and for CIF on Wednesday.

FIRST Ramona 767SECOND Mt. Carmel 790THIRD Valley Center 814FOURTH Westview 835 FIFTH Orange Glen 866SIXTH San Marcos 927 SEVENTH Oceanside 957

League Tournament RESULTS

Team chemistry, bond lead to success in competition

ANA ALVAREZ | PHOTOGRAPHERAngela Fajardo (11) competes in the beam event at a recent match. The team thrives off their close bond and are al-ways confi dent in their competitions. They enter fi rst round of CIF today.

May 22, 2009Sports B3

Mt. Carmel SUN

Kaveri GyanendraFeatUreS editor

With a difficult season, boys baseball con-tinues to persevere and attempt to make the best of what’s left. Overall, the boys faired well, with strong wins here and there. Toward the end of the season, the boys suffered against San Marcos, los-ing both games.

According to senior Dennis Bowman, the games against San Marcos are what killed the winning momentum of the team.

“We got swept by San Marcos,” Bowman said. “They killed us. When we play as a team we do well, but when we have one thing going right in one area and something going wrong in a different area it doesn’t work.”

In the previous set of games against of Oceanside, the boys won one and lost one. They lost the first game, 2-1, and won the next face-off 6-5.

It was a similar situation for the games against Valley Center, the Sundevils won one and lost one. However, this time around, the boys won the first game, 5-4, and lost the second game, 6-4.

“We really should have won all those games,” junior Brad Catcott said. “They were all really close games and there were a lot of silly mistakes. If we could take them back we could have won.”

In the Tuesday game against Westview, the boys lost 8-7.

Junior Wesley Wallace had a successful game, hitting two home runs.

“When I’m at the plate I am looking for a pitch I can drive,” Wallace said. “It’s exciting to get a hit and it’s cool to see the crowd all excited.”

Unfortunately, a series of errors and strong Westview hitting caused the game to slip from the

Sundevil side in a single inning.

“We mentally weren’t focused and didn’t play to our full ability,” Wallace said.

“We didn’t play to our potential,” sopho-more Kenny James Sansone said. “We beat ourselves through our errors. There was one

inning where they scored all their runs and if we had done damage control we could have won.”

The team also played the Wolverines on Thursday, however results were unavailable at press time.

“Overall it’s been a disappointing season,” senior Kyle Karshner said. “This year the games were a lot more competitive since we are in a new league. The teams are an equal match and there is actually a game rather than getting our butts kicked. Next year should be stronger for the team since we only had three starting seniors but a lot of strong juniors.”

vandana BhairiStaFF writer

To say it frankly, girls lacrosse has done better this season than any other season.

They are 14-5 overall, and 10-3 in league, as of Tuesday.

Recently, the girls lost to Westview, Santana, Valley Center, and Scripps Ranch.

However, they crushed San Marcos, Granite Hills, Ramona, and Fallbrook.

Junior Carly Voris said that MC got off to a slow start against WV. Also, the fact that WV was better prepared and knew what they were going up against.

“They knew what they needed to do and they did it,” she said. “They knew who the leading scorers were, they knew who to shut down, and when they shut down our leading scorers, they shut down our team.”

Junior Camie Chapatte agreed that WV had better strategy.

“They basically double and triple teamed Carly and me, but even with that, we managed to score eight goals; we fought REALLY hard.”

Senior Ashley Blanco, the goalie, has found her own strategy to surprise the other team.

“I come out of my crease [the goalie box] more often,” Blanco said. “Usually, a lot of goal-ies don’t go out of the crease, so it kind of catches the other team off guard.”

Voris is saddened by the loss of seniors next year, and hopes that it won’t affect their game too much.

“It’s really tough that we are losing a lot of seniors,” she said. “But next year’s team needs to step it up and build confidence. We have the po-tential to be a GREAT team!”

Chapatte agrees with Voris, adding that the returners need a high level of commitment.

“We need more than just a few players play-ing off season and on the weekends,” Chapatte said. “Whether it is going to the wall or playing club lacrosse that’s what we need to do—that’s the only way we can get somewhere as a team.”

Chapatte also says that it’s up to the team to expand lacrosse not only at MC but on the West Coast.

“Lacrosse isn’t as well known here as it is on the East Coast (where nearly everyone plays it),”

she said. “There are pockets here and there on the West Coast who play, but it’s up to all of us to make it grow.”

In the past few years, MC girls lax has not only gained more popularity but has significantly improved as well

Chapatte says that to improve even more, the team needs to play more like a team.

“We just need to work together,” she said. “Be-cause when we work together, it is beautiful.”a

aBBy MansourStaFF writer

The boys track team is the dual meet Valley League champion, and the girls team shares the championship with Westview.

After over a decade of no championships, the dry spell has been broken.

“The league championships were one goal and we achieved it when many thought we could not,” Head Coach Dennis McClanahan said.

Part of their success relied on their perfor-mance at the MC- Westview dual meet.

The boys team victory over the Wolver-ines came down to the very last event, the boys

4X400 relay. The track was lined with a flood of red,

all to witness sophomore Alex Allen’s finish clinching the team victory.

“The meet was a total team effort, nobody quit, everyone contributed; the meet was won by the seconds and thirds that were fought for as much as the firsts,” Coach Paul Samaras said.

League prelims took place on May 12 and May 15 at Valley Center High. Many athletes competed very well.

McClanahan believes that leadership, as well as hard work, led to these successes.

“[Success comes from] a lot of hard work from athletes with good attitudes,” he said.

“We have team members that are willing to be leaders and that have helped us.”

League finals also went well for the team, which showcased the many talents of MC.

Junior Kenny James got fourth place in the 100 meter dash. Sophomore Alex Allen fin-ished in second for the 400 meter.

Senior Sergio McGirr and junior Marvin Medina finished in first and third place for the 800 meter race.

For the girls, senior Alex Wright placed second for the 100 meter dash, as well as the 200 meter race.

Sophomore Alex Parks did very well as she placed first in the 400 meter event. Sophomore Lauren Hall also contributed to the success,

placing third in the 800 meter event.As for the distance runners, junior Erin

Menefee finished with a first in the mile and the two mile events.

CIF prelims start tomorrow, Saturday May 23, right here at MC. Finals also take place here at home on May 30.

“We should have some good results,” Mc-Clanahan said. “We have gotten better through-out the year and we have some athletes that are good enough to win spots to go the state meet as well as show well in the CIF Finals.”

Samaras sums up his confidence and pride about CIF and league finals.

“This is what we work for all year long,” he said.

sara shantzStaFF writer

Many people thought that the boys volleyball team would be in for a tough year after losing seven crucial seniors last year, but the boys went on to prove them wrong by winning the Valley League and earning the first seed going into CIF.

“I think it’s really exciting [being seeded first going into CIF] especially because we graduated so many kids last year…and for us to be this young and the number one seed is awesome,” Head Coach Patsy Malta said.

Being the first seed for CIF is an advantage because the boys get home court advantage until finals, but it also makes it harder on them.

The first seed is always the team to beat so every team is going to be even more motivated to play MC.

“It’s nice to know we’re first but it’s also a big load to carry on our shoulders because we have to do well and we have a target on our backs,” junior Nick England said.

The boys are going into CIF as the returning champs and that also adds a lot of pressure.

Malta credits the boys’ work ethic for their success this season.

“A lot of people said that ‘we’re going to lose a lot of seniors’ and ‘you guys might have to a little tougher year next year’ and really, I only had one starter back this year,” Malta said. “For us to do as well as we did, I think it’s really a tribute to them and how hard they work.”

The boys’ success this season may also have something to do with this year’s change in leagues.

“I also think it’s because we’re in the Valley League too and that’s a little bit easier,” Malta said. “But, we did beat Poway, and we did beat West-view. We’ve beaten every division II team that we should have.”

It was a little unnerving for the team entering the new league.

They knew it wouldn’t be as strong as the Palomar League, but they were concerned about teams that they’d never faced surprising them with their level of play.

“I’m kind of surprised (that we won league) because you hear about Valley Center and Ramona being very good and I wasn’t sure how we would do,” Malta said. “I thought we could compete with them but I didn’t know how we’d do, not ever being in their gyms before.”

Although the whole team has played at a very high level all season, only four of them are mentioned on the North County Times website for being overall leaders in the North County.

England, the starting outside hitter, and junior Jamie Ferguson, the starting middle blocker, are men-tioned for being two of the overall kill leaders in North County.

England has 143 kills so far this season. Ferguson has 85 kills so far this season.

Junior Connor Mortland, the starting setter, has the third highest number of assists in the North Coun-ty, with 434 assists so far this season.

Junior Stephan Lawrance, the starting libero, has 162 digs so far this season.

Malta has been cracking down on the team lately to prepare them.

“Malta recently had a talk with us about always giving our best effort and not being lazy,” England said.

England is hopeful about the team’s chances of another CIF title.

“Our team has great team chem-istry and I think that as long as we bring our a game to CIF, we’ll have a really good chance of being repeat champs,” England said.

The team has a bye the first round of CIF and will play the winner of the match virsus Steele Canyon and East Lake in the quarterfinals tomorrow night at seven at MC.

If the boys win tomorrow, they more on to play on Wednesday and next Saturday.

ana alvarez | photographerJiordan Resolme (12) prepares to pitch the ball during a recent game at MC. The team struggled to win games against such closely-matched competition in league. Games against San Marcos caused the boys to lose their final momentum. They hope the juniors will be able to pick it up for next year’s season.

Baseball struggles with tough league competition

Boys, girls track achieve goal of league champions, end dry spell; indivdiual success helps team triumph

Girls lacrosse captures best record ever; hopes to continue momentum next year

Volleyball starts battle for repeat CIF title; receives top seed in playoffs

matt coffelt | photo editorErika Van Sickel (11) sprints toward the opponent’s goal during the Scripps Ranch game. The girls team has never been more successful, capturing an overall record of 14-5 as of Tuesday. They only lost three games out of the 13 league matches. The team played their last league game on Wednesday and the result of the game affects whether they advance to CIF.

Goal leaders Camie Chapatte 62

Carly Voris 48

Points Per Game leaders

Camie Chapatte 86Carly Voris 54

Erin Menefee 31

assist leadersCamie Chapatte 24

save leadersAshley Covington 56

*ACCORDING TO NCTIMES.COM AS OF MAY 20

“ They were all really close games and there were a lot of silly mistakes. If we could take them back we could have won.”

- Brad Catcott (11)

Girls lacrosse leaGue leaders

May 22, 2009EntertainmentB4 Mt. Carmel SUN

Title: EurekaRating: R

“Eureka” starts off with a bus hijacking and massacre from a crazy man with a gun. The only survivors were the bus driver, Makoto Sawai (Kôji Yakusho), and siblings Kozue Tamura (Aoi Miyazaki) and Naoki Tamura (Masaru Miyazaki).

After the incident, Sawai leaves town for a while. Two years later, he comes back to start his life all over again.

As for the kids, their father died, and their mother had left them long before. They were living together without an adult.

After Sawai gets back to town, a string of murders of young women begins.

Sawai then meets up with the two kids, and moves in with them.

Sadly, their lives are still scarred from the incident two years earlier.Sawai tends to have many nightmares, and the kids never speak or show any kind of emotion.

One day, Sawai buys a bus. He and the kids, as well as their cousin, set off on a long road trip to try to fi nd some brightness in life.

The whole movie was shot in a sepia tone to add to the gloomy mood. This movie shows what kind of psychological effects events like this can have on a person.

This is a great movie that is full of details, along with a great storyline. The acting by everyone in this movie was amazing.

It is close to a four hour movie, but every scene is important on telling the story.

It was an interesting movie. It shows how much a traumatic experience can affect someone’s life, and what they have to do to get their lives back on track.

-Sean Williams

Restaurant: Tutti FruttiLocation: Carmel Mtn.

Barely a couple of months old, customers are already making a “dip” into Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt. Located in the Carmel Mountain Plaza next to Jamba Juice, Tutti Frutti offers customers a wide array of choices with eighteen different fl avors and eighteen different toppings.

The store takes on a self-serving concept, much like Yogurt World in Mira Mesa and Convoy. You can customize your bowl of yogurt with anything and you pay according to how much your bowl of “froyo,” nickname for frozen yogurt, weighs.

If health is a concern, you don’t have to worry. Tutti Frutti’s frozen yogurts are prepared with probiotics, which are food supplements and serve as natural components in health-supporting foods.

Potential benefi ts of this could be strengthening your immune system and prevents harmful bacteria.

Flavors of frozen yogurt include anything from original, strawberry, and mango, to green tea, taro, coffee and cookies and cream.

If you are not sure about which fl avor is right for you, the friendly staff can give you small sample cups for the fl avors you want to try.

Some different items you can choose to coat your frozen yogurt include fruity pebbles cereal, almonds, Oreos, bananas, and chocolate chips, among many others.

After obtaining your frozen yogurt, you can choose to stay inside and enjoy the background music or go to the tables outside if you want to eat with a cool breeze behind your back.

With the highest quality and selection of frozen yogurt in San Diego, and a contemporary and vibrant workplace, Tutti Frutti will defi nitely leave you craving for more frozen yogurt even after you depart.

SEAN WILLIAMSSTAFF WRITER

If you’ve seen the new “Wolverine” movie, you’ve seen the amazing card tricks Gambit does. Of course, most of these are impossible to do, but most of them are just extreme versions of simple and easy-to-do tricks.

There are many tricks you can do with a single deck of cards and a little bit of practice.

The most common trick is called “bridging.” This is the trick people do at the end of a riffl e shuffl e.

It doesn’t have much signifi cance, except for putting the two stacks into one and showing off.

To do this trick, after your riffl e shuffl e, place your thumbs in the middle of where the two stacks meet. Then, arch the two stacks by pushing up from the bottom with the rest of your fi ngers and push the stacks together a tiny bit. Now, remove your fi ngers from the bottom of the stack and take the pressure off. This should cause the cards from each stack to fall into one deck in your hands.

One of the more entertaining tricks to see and do is “springing the cards.”

This is the trick where someone transfers the deck from one hand to the other by “springing” them.

The easiest way to do this is to hold the deck long ways up with your thumb on the bottom and your index, middle, and ring fi ngers holding it on the top. The thumb on top should be holding the deck just by the fi ngertip. Begin to apply pressure onto the

deck by squeezing it until the deck begins to arc in toward the palm of your hand. The tricky part is letting the bottom of the card slip off the tip of your fi ngertip. After doing this, the rest of the cards should immediately follow. All you have to do then is practice catching the cards in your other hand.

This trick may take a lot of time and practice to get it right, but with the practice, you should be able to get it.

Another fun trick that is extremely easy is “shooting cards.”

What this trick does is fl ip the card out of the deck so that you can catch it with your other hand, or even catch it back in the deck.

This is pretty simple. First, hold the deck long way up with your thumb and middle fi nger. You have to hold it so that your thumb and fi nger are on the end of the deck, and the deck is sticking out (for example, if you are right handed, the deck needs to stick out to the left, and with your left hand vice-versa). Then, you take your index fi nger, and grab the top of the fi rst card with your fi nger nail. Pull down on the card, and slide your fi nger into the space between your middle fi nger and thumb. This should release the card and cause it to fl ip out in the air so you can catch it.

This is a favorite by senior Jin Yao.“I like the shooting cards trick because I

can hit people with them,” she said. “I usually do this trick whenever I’m bored. It took me around two weeks to learn it and get it right.”

These are just a few of the many card tricks there are out there.

Card tricks are fun to do and are sure to amaze your friends.

TRICKS AND GAMES IN THE WORLD OF CARDS

Hearts and Pusoy Dos act as effective time killers

Unconventional card decks create innovative games

AMANDA STINTSMAN | PHOTOGRAPHER Three jacks and two kings make a full house in Pusoy Dos. The goal of the game is to get rid of your hand before your opponents do .

AMANDA STINTSMAN | PHOTOGRAPHERThis set of cards is a hand from the game Uno, one of many games using nontraditional decks.

KEVIN LAGEENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

You see every where around school nowadays. It seems like everywhere you go, you see groups of friends huddled in circles surrounding a deck of cards.

“At lunch, we like to play hearts and dos,” junior Kyle Staskus said. “Its fun and a good way to kill time when were bored, or to relax after tests or something.”

HeartsIt is generally played with four players.

After everybody fi nishes organizing their hands by suit, each player passes three cards to the player sitting on to their left. After this is done, the player holding the two of clubs plays it. All other players must play either one of their clubs, or should they not have any clubs, they may “slough” any card of their choosing. The player who plays the highest card of the original suit of that round takes

power, and must play the fi rst card of the next round.

The basic goal of the game is to not take points. Points are taken by winning a round in which a point card is played. Point cards include all hearts, which are worth one point, and the queen of spades, which is worth 13 points.

However, should you be dealt a hand in which it appears you will be taking most of the points, such as one in which you are dealt many face cards, it may be benefi cial to try to “shoot the moon.” This is where a player takes all 13 hearts and the queen of spades. If this happens, all other players take 26 points, which puts you at a huge advantage, because the game ends when a player hits 50 points.

Pusoy DosPusoy dos, commonly referred to as

“Dos” in which the goal is to get rid of all of your cards fi rst. The game is played with

four players. After being dealt your cards, the players should organize their hands into poker hands. You play your cards using poker hands. In the game, the two of diamonds is the highest possible card and the three of clubs is the lowest. The player dealt the three of clubs must use the three in a hand.

You must play the same level of hands as the previous player. So if someone leads with just the three of clubs, you may only play single card hands, and you must play a higher card or set of cards than the previous player. The progression of suits is clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds. If the player cannot beat the previous card, they must pass.

If each player passes, then the player who played the highest hand has “power” and may choose which level of hand to play next.

The game is won when a player runs out of cards to play.

MATTHEW GELLERSTAFF WRITER

The world of cards is not limited to the 52 card deck. The card game Uno is perhaps the most famous game that uses non-traditional cards, but popular board games ranging from Monopoly to Scrabble have been adapted into card game form.

Another type of card game that uses a different type of deck is “Apples to Apples.” In this game, players fi rst draw seven red cards, which have nouns written on them. The players then take turns drawing green cards, which have an adjective.

The players who don’t draw the green card compete for it using their red cards by picking the noun they think best suits the green card. The player who drew he green card determines the winner.

At fi rst glance it seems simple, but

which card is deemed best suited depends heavily on the whims of the drawer of the green card.

“It depends on the person,” senior Chris Berg said. “Some people like it to be completely out there…Other people like it to be strictly within that adjective.” Apparently, one person who plays even favors “big, fi ery explosions,” and will pick a red card related to that regardless of the adjective.

Humor is also a big factor. Who could resist picking a “sexy” Jack the Ripper or a “pure” Bill Clinton?

“It’s mostly reading what other people like,” Berg said.

Uno, a more mainstream game, is based on a deck of four colors, 10 numbers, and various other cards, including the all-powerful Wild- Draw four card. Cards can be played on the same type or color, with the exception of Wild cards, which switch

the color.The other types of cards in Uno are the

skip, the reverse, and the draw two cards. There are two types of Wilds, one that just switches the color and one that makes the next player draw four.

A large part of Uno’s popularity is due to the fact that it is so different from a normal card game.

“If you get one card, it changes the order,” senior Chris Gallardo said. “It’s not just like dealing with fi ve-card hands. It’s something different.”

Of course, the world of non-traditional cards is far more than just the two explained above. With a little searching, you can fi nd games such as Ziggity, or the 24 Game. New kinds of card games are being invented all the time, although a little searching is required. Try searching Amazon for cards and see what comes up.

STEP ONE: Prepare your catching hand’s � ngers to be able to stop the cards from progressing forward or falling.

STEP TWO: Hold the cards in your springing hand with the cards being held by only the tip of your thumb.

STEP FOUR: Position your catching hand close enough to catch all the cards, and then just practice to increase distance.

STEP THREE: Apply pressure to bend the deck and let the cards slip straight o� your thumb tip.

Learn how to spring cards in four simple stepsALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY ANA ALVAREZ | PHOTOGRAPHER

Today’s defi nitive fad is also targeting the younger generation. It combines the known successful business plan of the Beanie Baby with the increasingly popular online realm dominated by Facebook and MySpace. The franchise even includes a kind of trading card game.

Stuffed lions, tigers, and bears are basically purchased at local Hallmarks, along with their unique code, which allows owners to log them into the Webkinz World and watch their plushy “come to life!”

“My little brother and sister go on Webkinz like high schoolers go on MySpace,” junior Courtney Hedgecock said. “My sister has over 36 of them. It’s such a waste of money, because each one costs like $12. But they love it.”

The perfect ingredient to any summer BBQ or birthday party was indisputably the Hula Hoop. Freshman Briana Pompa Hogan remembers vividly her childhood summers always spent with “a friend and a hula hoop.”

“It was kind of like ‘there’s nothing else to do, so we might as well’ at fi rst but then I got really into it,” she said.

“Me and my friends would hula hoop for hours,” she said. “We would have contests: who could go for longest, who could do the most at one time, who could run

the farthest while hooping.”

Hula hoops originated around 3000 years ago in Greece, but they were most popular in the 1950s-60s.

In 1996, kids everywhere were introduced to their own virtual pet. Tamagotchi, is a digital pet that fi ts in the palm of your hand. The egg-shaped toy allows kids to take care of their very own pet by using three buttons to feed it, play games with it, or just clean up after its messes.

Although the animal is not real, it still needs constant attention from its owner.

“I had a Tamagotchi for like a week and then I killed it,”

senior Anna Mendoza said. Through her childhood

experience with a Tamagotchi, senior Sarah George is

concerned for the future. “I am defi nitely

not fi t to be a mother because I was terrible at caring for [the Tamagotchi] and found them super annoying,” she said.

Over 70 million Tamagotchis have been sold since they were fi rst introduced to the world.

Each doll is based off a pre-teen girl from different eras in US history. The dolls were fi rst sold in 1986 over mail order and have sold over 14 million dolls since then. The company has branched out to modern style-dolls in more recent fashion as well as dolls that can look just like you.

American Girl DollsHomemade mini skateboards meant for fi ngers fi rst known to be created in the 1970s, but fi ngerboards didn’t become popularized until the Tech Deck company mass produced fi ngerboards, using real graphics from major skateboarding brands on their decks.

The infamous collection of plastic blondes took over the lives of girls and some boys when most of us were about 4-8 years old. In actuality, the dolls fi rst came out 50 years ago, having been launched in 1959. Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the Barbie.

Mattel Inc. manufactures this widely known doll. Barbie has made it into pop culture several times, the most recent and controversial being the popular song by Aqua “Barbie Girl.”

Barbie

Title: Star TrekRating: PG-13

The script of the new “Star Trek” was satisfyingly cheeky, with all the plot contrivances perfect for a blockbuster. The animation was amazing. But when there’s a tiny replica of the Enterprise that doubles as a salt shaker, it’s gone too far.

It started out with an impossibly dramatic scene, where Kirk’s pregnant mother is giving birth to him as the Enterprise falls apart. They desperately cart her to the other side of the ship as Kirk’s father heroically dies, while fending off enemy ships.

The fi rst 30 minutes are spent establishing Kirk’s coming of age. After he grows up, Kirk (Chris Pine) meets Spock (Zachary Quinto). They immediately hate each other and get in a fi ght. Spock wins, because he’s cool like that, and has Kirk sent off to some icy planet.

But Kirk fi nds help from the person he was least expecting: Spock. Old Spock (Leonard Nimoy), that is, who came back in time through a black hole. Apparently, black holes can act as either weapons of mass destruction or portals through time, depending on how much we care about the character.

Old Spock and Scottie (Simon Pegg) help Kirk get back on board to beat Young Spock, creating another interesting twist. It’s not often you get messed up by an older version of yourself.

Scottie gets trapped in a giant useless water tube on the way, in a sort of Willy Wonka-like chase scene.

And of course, here comes the scene that’s inevitable in any movie with an extremely stoic character: Kirk has to make Spock cry.

We still don’t know quite why a black hole must be at the center of a planet to destroy it, when having one anywhere less than a light year away would put us all in danger. The time travel doesn’t exactly make sense either, because the directors were obviously tired of having to deal with all of those “Back to the Future” complications.

Overall, it was a pretty good movie, right for both trekkies and non-trekkies. You won’t be disappointed.

Artist: The Dangerous Summer

Title: Reach for the Sun

The Dangerous Summer fi rst jumped on the scene two years ago with their respectable EP, “There is No Such Thing as Science,” but have remained mostly silent since then.

Perhaps this hiatus can be attributed to front man A.J. Perdomo’s stint of homelessness, but with the release of their fi rst LP project, the band declares “I picked up where I left/and I waited two more years/and covered up my ears/I think I’m ready to sing this time.”

Ready they are.Coming back with the help of

Paul Levitt (All Time Low, Dashboard Confessional) TDS presents an album with a sound typical of their cramped genre, but song writing that only comes from personal experience.

The title track, “Reach for the Sun” especially expresses the growth and self discovery of TDS over the past two years, and the inner struggle that occurred in the meantime. “I wrote a song about war/the kind that lives in your head/I found a place I can sit, a place where everyday light hits.”

Although Perdomo belts each line with obvious sincerity, a punk group such as this can’t be held by vocals alone. The instrumentals have to be there, and that’s a team sport TDS mostly achieves.

The tracks are fast, no acoustic ballads to be found, but that’s just their style. In an effort perfect for summer, The Dangerous Summer presents a relatable album that acknowledges hardship, but more importantly, the opportunity life gives us to grow.

May 22, 2009Entertainment B5

Mt. Carmel SUN

Way Back When

FADulous

Nowadays

Pogs. Pokemon. Tamagotchi. Names of products like these

should stir up nostalgic feelings of childhood in many a high school student.

Almost everyone remembers the fads of their younger days. It’s diffi cult to fi nd a teenager nowadays who has never heard of Pokemon.

If you ask, surely they will recall the cards, the action fi gures, and the video games.

Teachers may recall hula hoops as one of their childhood fads. Why, even way back in the olden days,

massive groups of people obsessed over childish toys.

Nowadays, kids are still affl icted with an obsession with fads. Bakugan, Webkins, and products similar to those have fi lled store shelves, only to be constantly swarmed and bought by hundreds of small children.

Seeing kids nowadays obsessing over toys like those may make some feel as though these kids are crazy.

But nearly all people have been involved in a fad at some point in life. The MC SUN staff examined some of these fads, ranging from those of olden days to more recent creations, and everything in between.

2000s

1990s

1970s

WRITTEN/ COMPILED BYKATELYN CUTTS | NEWS EDITORMELANIE DICKINSON | STAFF WRITERABBY MANSOUR | STAFF WRITERDENNIS SUN | STAFF WRITERJORDAN UGALDE | STAFF WRITER

This fairly new line of toys by Hasbro Inc. came out in 2008 and appears to be very popular with pre-K to 4th grade girls. These plastic toys come in all different animals, from cats and dogs to rabbits and turtles. Owners of these “pets” can buy all sorts of accessories to accompany them, even a house. Their slogan? “How big is YOUR littlest pet shop?”

Littlest Pet Shop

Yu-Gi-Oh started out as Japanese Manga created by Kazuki Takahashi, but it has since then formed an entire franchise. From the TV series to the trading cards, it seemed as though this was the new Pokémon. It was as though every third-grader wouldn’t be caught dead without his Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I remember quite vividly of a few victims getting their cards confi scated by teachers. Needless to say, they weren’t very happy.

Yu-Gi-Oh

Hula Hoops

The mini stuffed animals made by TY Inc. became a phenomenon in the late ‘90s. Junior Emily Bell remembers fondly of her childhood with beanie babies.

“I liked them because they were cute and fun to collect,” she said. “I was about six when I really got into collecting. My sister and I probably shared around 100.”

“My friends and I made a video, pretending to be reporters on a ‘Beanie Baby News channel’,” she said. “We selected a few beanie babies to discuss and we described them.”

“It seems a little ridiculous now but it kept me entertained when I was younger,” she said with a laugh.

Beanie Babies

His hands move at great speeds. Every twist and turn is thought out meticulously, carefully thinking of every move in order to solve the Rubik’s Cube.

The Rubik’s Cube was extremely popular about three years ago. Everywhere you looked it seemed as though someone was solving the puzzle. The cube was invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor Ernő Rubik.

Rubik’s Cube

Ever since the launch of its fi rst game in Japan in 1996, Pokémon, created by Satoshi Tajiri, has become a very profi table franchise, spawning 40 video games, a T.V. series, a card game, and other types of assorted merchandise.

Sophomore Raymond Remigio has been a fan of the franchise since getting Pokémon Blue in 1998 upon its release in America.

“I grew to love the game because of its RPG (role playing game) elements,” Remigio said. “But after I grew to love the game, I wanted to see the franchise in its entirety.”

Since becoming addicted to the series, Remigio has been immersed in everything Pokémon, buying merchandise, devotedly watching the series, and buying every Pokémon game ever made.

“Let’s just say I don’t see my obsession going away any time soon,” Remigio said.

Pokemon

Fingerboards

U.S. Navy engineer Richard James was working on springs at his home laboratory when he accidentally knocked one down and it fell from shelf to shelf in arcs, inspiring the concept of the slinky, which began to be mass produced in 1946.

Slinky

Our generation grew up with the creepiest of new-age fads. A language-learning, life-imitating, fuzz-covered robot named Furby gave an immeasurable amount of tweens nightmares when it was popular in the late ‘90s.

Despite what was described as a Furby “comeback” in 2005, this bug-eyed fad is destined to remain tucked away in attics or selling for dollars apiece on eBay

Furbies

Webkinz

Polly Pocket, which received its name from its original pocket size height, was fi rst produced in 1989.

The miniature doll comes with multiple different accessories and is known for its fashionable

garments. Polly is now about three inches tall and has multiple friends, including boys.

Polly Pocket

1980s

First introduced in the early 1990s, Pogs became an overnight sensation among kids. The game originated in Hawaii in the 1920s and was reintroduced by a Hawaiian math teacher in 1991. Each pog has a different design on it ranging from a cartoon character to a famous person.

Its popularity reached a climax when pogs were being banned from schools because they were considered a form of gambling.

Pogs

Tamagotchi

Lego, a Denmark-based company, released the plastic, colorful bricks that interlock in the 1940s. Legos have had multiple themed series like Star Wars and Harry Potter. The toy has expanded from small plastic bricks to amusement parks and video games.

Legos

In 1968, the fi rst Hot Wheel, a custom Camaro, was introduced into the market. Since then the cars have overtaken their Matchbox rivals, gotten larger in size, and ride on tracks with names like T-Rex Rampage and SharkBite Bay.

Hot Wheels

Within six months, the infamous pet rock rose and fell from national popularity, and made creator Gary Dahl over a million dollars.

“There’s a Barnum and Baileys quote that sums up what I think about the pet rock,” math teacher Joe McEachron said. “‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’”

Pet Rocks

2000s-Present2000s

2000s-Present

1990s 1990s

1990s-Present 1990s1990s

1990s

1990s

1980s

1970s

1960s-Present1960s-Present

1950s-60s

1940s

1975

1940s-Present

not fi t to be a mother

CAN YOU NAME

T

HESE

(IN)FAMOUS FADS?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

89

10 11 12 13

1. Yu-Gi-Oh Cards, 2. Beanie Babies, 3. Pogs, 4. American Girl Dolls, 5. Magic: The Gathering Cards, 6. Legos, 7. Rubik’s Cube, 8. Slinky, 9. Pet Rock, 10. Pokemon, 11. Littlest Pet Shop, 12. Fingerboards, 13. Hot Wheels

Answers:

Click on MCSUN.org for more articles about other infamous fads throughout the ages, such as:-Mad Libs -Bakugan -Stamps -Magic-Lincoln Logs -K’NEX -Mah-jongg-State coins -Crazy Bones -Livestrong

Introduction:

DANIEL THAN | PHOTOGRAPHER

-Sarah Carrigan

-Laura Slusser

FeaturesB6 Mt. Carmel SUN

Sarah Carrigan

From the End of Heaven

Memoirs from the corner of where I am and where I’m going

I have senioritis. Most seniors I know have it. Heck most sopho-mores I know have it too.

Or so they think, because in re-ality there is a small but distinct dif-ference between Senioritis and Pre-Summer Anxiety.

The former is deserved.I’ve put in 12 years of work.

I’ve been accepted to college. I’ve taken tough classes with no off-roles throughout high school.

And now, I need a break!Some would argue that this atti-

tude is stopping before the fi nish line, that all this “work” is good prepara-tion for college. After all, higher edu-cation is hard.

Yes, I know, I understand, but here’s the thing: I’m ready to work in college. It will be not only a new step in schooling, but in life. It’s a big deal and I’m ready for the all nighters and tough course loads.

I am excited for college.I’m burnt out on high school.AP Literature teacher Gretchen

Hughes-Taumoepeau describes Se-nioritis as, “A combination of ex-haustion and ‘I’m just done.’”

This is the land I live in. A place where seniors don’t want to be here and teachers are, as Taumoepeau ad-mits, babysitting.

In reality, there are many rea-sons why seniors don’t need to be here. Administration would disagree with this statement, but let’s face it, once AP testing is done, my school day consists of scrapbooking, playing with imaginary stocks, and watching movies.

Are these things fun? Absolute-ly! Could they have real life applica-tions? Maybe. Nevertheless, they are hardly crucial to graduation and col-lege preparation.

Taumoepeau suggests real life experience to fi ll the time between the last AP test and the last day of school.

“Seniors should have to report to a job or an internship,” she said. “Something that will actually be ben-efi cial to them.”

As proof that I’m not just lazy here’s an outline of my day today.

1. AP Gov: Read through court case re-enactment. Potentially ben-efi cial for when I get called to jury duty.

2. AP Art History: Watched a movie about a trucker and a Jackson Pollock painting. Entertaining. Ben-efi cial if I ever need to verify a Thrift Store Jackson Pollock.

3. Math: I actually learned stuff. The Law of Cosines is fun!

4. AP Lit: Scrapbooked. Ate Mrs. T’s snacks.

5. Newspaper: Typed this col-umn.

6. Chemistry: Taped things in my lab notebook.

And somewhere in all of that I went to what I thought was a career day on being a teacher but was really an SAT prep class. (Do you know what the connotation of delectable is? I do!)

Call it an excuse for laziness, but Senioritis is legitimate. It is the state in which children are ready to bridge the gap to adulthood.

We are coming to the cliff and slowing down to peer over the edge before we jump into the real world.

We know that only 13 school days separate us from the real world, and frankly what difference will 13 days of semi-busy work make?

I’m not sure. No one can man-age to tell me. So there we go.

My name is Sarah Carrigan, and I have senioritis.

May 22, 2009

Lady Sundevils hit the gym to obtain top physical fi tness for Prom KAVERI GYANENDRAFEATURES EDITOR

As the big day creeps closer, lady Sundevils dig out their running shoes and hit the great outdoors, or better yet, the local gym, for a quick workout to shed some extra inches.

Junior Michelle Clifford makes a large effort to spend about two hours at the gym at least fi ve times a week.

“I start with a 20 minute warm up, which is normally some-thing cardio, like running on the treadmill,” Clifford said. “Then I switch to lifting weights for the rest of the time.”

For a toned upper body for the typical strapless and open back dresses, there are various exercises that can be completed. According to promgirl.net, “back lifts” will aid in getting the per-fect upper portion body.

To complete the back lift, lie on your stomach, palms resting on the fl oor, shoulder height. Attempt to elevate both your head and chest off the fl oor as high as possible without using your hands. Maintain this position for 10 seconds, and then gradually lower yourself back down to the fl oor. Execute three to fi ve sets, 10 times each set.

For slim shoulder and toned arms, triceps kick-backs and biceps curls are helpful.

Triceps kick-backs are done while holding a pair of weights. Start by bending at the waist, with your palms facing forward. Your back must be straight. Bring elbows up, and stretch arms back as high as possible. Repeat 10 times each, doing three to fi ve sets.

Begin the biceps curls by hold a fi ve- pound pair of weights. Keeping your arms by your sides, palms facing inward. Slowly lift and lower the weights 10 times. Perform three to fi ve sets.

For short dresses that show a little leg, calf raises and lunges are suggested for lean leg limbs.

Begin calf raises by standing tall with toes pointing straight, and feet slightly narrower than shoulder width apart. Push up onto your toes forcing your heels to rise up. Squeeze your calf muscles and slowly lower your heels. Repeat 10 times, three to fi ve sets.

As for lunges, stand straight with hands placed fi rmly on hips, legs centered hip-width apart. Take a giant step forward with your right leg until your right thigh rests parallel to the ground. Return to the starting position, and then lunge with your left leg. Execute 10 times each leg, three to fi ve sets.

To get fi t in the abdominal area for the tighter fi tting dresses, the fl oor bicycle movement are suggest-ed in order to defi ne abs.

Begin with lying on your back with your hands behind your head and legs straight out.

Then contract your abdomen muscles and lift one leg bending your knee while raising your shoulders slightly off the fl oor without pulling your neck.

Next, bring your elbow and knee together bending so that the elbow and knee just touch.

Following that, lower and then

change sides so the alternate legs in a bicycle movement touch-ing knee to elbow. Repeat.

Move through the positions slowly. You can vary this abdo-men exercise by bringing the knee and elbow of the opposite sides together requiring the upper body to turn slightly from side to side. This maneuver is very effective and works the oblique as well as both the upper and lower abdominal.

Implement the following routines and see an improvement in all areas of your body.

But don’t forget, regardless of your actual physical fi tness, a positive attitude and sparkling smile will really make you shine on Prom night.

GIRLSDO: Wear a � attering dress

DON’T: Wear a dress that you can’t comfort-ably dance in

DO: Wear makeup to highlight your featuresDON’T: Look like a drag queenDO: Go to a party afterwards

DON’T: Drive drunkDO: Wear dress shoes

DON’T: Wear ConverseDO: Get a boutonniere for your date

DON’T: Stab him with the pinDO: Enjoy yourself

DON’T: “Enjoy” yourself...DO: Have a good time

DON’T: Do something you’ll regret

PROM DOS AND DON’TS...GUYS

DO: Wear a tuxedoDON’T: Wear your dad’s Prom tuxedo from 1970

DO: Treat your date to a swanky dinnerDON’T: Take your date to a restaurant with a

drive-throughDO: Open doors for your date

DON’T: Shut it on the old lady standing behind her

DO: Meet your date’s parentsDON’T: Show them your fake ID

DO: Get your date a corsageDON’T: Pick the � owers from your mom’s gar-

denDO: Wear matching socksDON’T: Wear highwaters

SARA SHANTZSTAFF WRITER

The cliché way to ask someone to Prom is to simply buy them fl owers and wear a smile but, some MC students went above and beyond this year.

Junior Wesley Wallace went through a little more trouble to ask junior Kellie Fox to Prom.

“He put a poster on my garage asking me if I would go to Prom with him with balloons…I just woke up in the morning and my mom was like ‘go outside’ and I saw the poster.”

Kelly responded with an equally cute gesture. “I wrote on the balloons yes and made him a ‘yes’ poster.”Senior Bryce Denham-Zemberi asked junior Anna Oh to

Prom in a completely original way. “He told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands and

he put something fl uffy in my hand and I thought it was an animal,” Oh said. It was a pink teddy bear.

He and Maddie Anderson had gone to Build-a-bear and stuck a voice box in it.”

“He asked me to squeeze it and it said ‘Anna will you go to Prom with me?’ I was so stunned, I said yes right away.”

Of all the creative ways people got asked to Prom this year, the way senior Chris Gallardo asked senior April Purdy takes the cake.

“It was kind of a spur of the moment thing,” Gallardo said.

“I did a scavenger hunt and there were different places she had to go to get the next clue. They didn’t say like explicitly ‘go here,’ it was like, they all rhymed but the rhymes sucked.

“The fi rst one was at her car, then she had to go from her car to her house and her sister had the next one. From there she had to go to In-n-Out and then from there, to Borders, from Borders to the pool and the pool to Hilltop.”

“They [each spot she went] all kind of had signifi cance]. “In-n-Out because we always go there after swim meets, to the pool because we spend way too much time there, her house just because it’s her house and her sister was there and she wanted to go with her.”

When Purdy got to Hilltop, there was a song from her fa-vorite movie “Top Gun” was playing and Gallardo was standing outside his car.

All the guys that are still asking girls to Prom with just fl ow-ers need to get in touch with their creative side.

APRIL’S PROM SCAVENGER HUNT

MATT COFFELT | PHOTO EDITOR

Anna Oh (11) hugs the teddy bear Bryce Denham-Zemberi (1) made at Build-a-Bear. When sqeezed, the bear asked, “Anna, will you got to Prom with me?”

ANA ALVAREZ | PHOTOGRAPHER

Some Sundevils go above and beyond in asking their dates to Prom

MARY CARMEN GONZALEZ |PHOTOGRAPHER

ALL ART BY KELLY FAN | STAFF WRITER

April Purdy (12) was asked to Prom by Chris Gallardo (12) through a scavenger hunt. This year many MC students were clever when asking others to Prom.

May 22, 2009Features B7Mt. Carmel SUN

This is Unity Music

Kylie Baranowski

KELLY FANSTAFF WRITER

That industry that began with a small fan group has spent most of this past decade grow-ing into a widely-known phenomenon: “anime-mania” has taken the U.S. by storm.

A recently established club centered around this infatuation with Japanese culture, Japanimation, has likewise attracted great popu-larity at MC.

Japanimation is managed by freshman Lovelle Cardoso, who has a certain club objec-tive in mind.

“Through the popular topics of anime, manga, and video games, Japanimation is a club formed to help create an understanding and ap-preciation for Japanese art, animation, and cul-ture,” Cardoso said. “We hope that through our club’s presentations, lessons, and activities, our members can form new friendships, while hav-ing fun and learning about anime and Japanese

culture in general.” It is Cardoso’s passion for Japanese anima-

tion that spawned this club.“We want to

show people that, just like any book or movie, anime and manga can vary from shallow stories to the truly profound,” Cardo-so said. “Sure, there will still be those destined to believe the stereotype, say-ing that anime and manga are for kids, or are stupid and weird, but as the industry be-comes more and more mainstream, we can only hope that more people will come to accept and even respect this often misunderstood art.”

The club tries to connect fellow enthusi-

asts through a broad spectrum of activities.“Obviously, we deal with the major things

you would fi rst think of: anime, manga…” Car-doso said. “But we also cover topics such as drawing, photoshop, clothing and design, ani-mation, vid-eo editing, music, fi lms, and much more.”

A n d since its fi rst meeting about a month ago, the club has seen a massive number of interested members.

“The turnout on the fi rst day was abso-lutely amazing,” Cardoso said. “A grand total

of 65 students signed up just on the fi rst day. Although the number of people has cooled down since then, the sheer size of our club is just incredible.”

Although a generic anime club has been long overdue to appear at MC, Cardoso’s club does not settle for any preconceived stereo-types.

“One cool feature we have is the point and prize system,” Cardoso said. “Basically, every-thing you do in the club gets you points, and every couple of weeks, we total up all the points and the person with the most will get to pick from a catalog of anime stuff.”

Japanimation will also be featuring several interesting events in upcoming meetings.

“We are going to feature our very fi rst les-son meeting, which is going to teach either the basics of drawing, cosplay and crafts, or AMV creation,” Cardoso said. “We are also going to have an anime screening event pretty soon, as well as a huge fundraising event.”

Japanimation explores graphic arts, Japanese culture

Erin Menefee:Master of multiple sports, excellent in the classroom

LAUREN HALLSTAFF WRITER

She smiled big and bright as she sat herself down on the pavement. Her eyes widened nervously as she giggled at the thought of a one on one interview.

With such a modest and outgoing attitude who would have ever thought that junior Erin Menefee would be such a competitor in her three sports: cross country, track, and lacrosse.

Menefee may not look intimidating, but on the fi eld as well as on the track she tears up the other competi-tors.

Menefee is ranked fi fth in San Diego County in the mile with a time of 5:04. But the real wonder is how she manages to not only handle but excel in two sports in one season: track and lacrosse.

Not everyone has the motivation and strength to go from one practice to another.

“Knowing that I need to work my hardest at my practices to get better and to be there for my team moti-vates me to work harder,” Menefee said. “I try to do as much as I can so that I can be the best for my team.”

This team player mentality that is a major part of

lacrosse as well as track and cross country is what drives athletes to get the competitive edge in order for their team to advance farther. This desire to win pushes Me-nefee to become increasingly better and more competi-tive.

“With lacrosse I get really competitive, so it helps in track knowing that I don’t want anyone to beat me,” Menefee said.

Although she has a strong passion for lacrosse, she sees herself continuing to run in the future.

“I would like to continue with track and cross coun-try in college because I like the individual aspects of the sports,” Menefee said.

And it is Menefee’s quest for perfection that keeps her focused in school and gives her academic success.

“I strive to get great grades because I want to do my best in everything I do,” Menefee said. “I want to put my full effort forth and push myself so that I can see how far I’ve come and how much progress I’ve made.”

In a way it is this sports mentality that she uses in all competitive aspects of her life.

“Sports have not only taught me work ethic,” Mene-fee said. “They’ve also taught me how to sacrifi ce myself for the good of the team.”

MARY CARMEN GONZALEZ | PHOTOGRAPHER

Recently, at a high school in Col-orado, a student found a fellow class-mate’s “Kill List.”

The journal contained a list of eight names and drawings of girls dan-gling from nooses.

This was a particularly painful development for a community whose scars from the Columbine shootings are still healing.

Considering past events, local par-ents insist that the student should be punished, and that the threat should be considered viable.

Many insist that this child is clearly mentally ill and should be put on some kind of drugs to correct this imbal-ance.

But as I read this story, a differ-ent question formed in my mind. What could drive a child to this point?

Have we really strayed this far from our values as a country that our children lack simple human compassion?

Just telling our children to be kind is not enough. It is especially true when our own actions contradict our words.

It makes me sick that we insist on taking the easy way out of our prob-lems. When a child is mentally unstable and upset, our solution is to send them to an expensive shrink and drug the hell out of them.

I’m not talking about the mari-juana or cocaine that society has placed such a stigma on. These drugs that we siphon to our children are completely legal prescription drugs.

Just take the happy pills and every-thing will be okay. Or will it?

We fail to address the real problem at hand.

It’s easier to just throw money at our problems for expensive treatments than for families to actually talk out their problems.

“The Chumscrubber,” a movie by Arie Posen, paints the picture of a community whose solution to every problem is pills, pills, and more pills. Its setting is a seemingly sickly perfect sub-urban community, Hillside.

When one looks closer, the vast cracks in this society become apparent as families are torn apart by their own self absorption.

Our society has become more like Hillside than we even know.

It seems that suddenly our simplest problems have been blown into a full-fl edged mental illness.

Taking pills to mask our problems is easier than facing up to the real issues that are much harder to swallow.

But when we’re so drugged and sedated that we can’t feel our problems any more, we lose the capacity to feel altogether.

Is a life without feeling really liv-ing at all?

The “feel good pills” of Chum-scrubber are a myth. These pills only mask problems below the surface as they get steadily worse.

Somehow feeling nothing is worse than feeling the burn of pain.

It’s ironic that people have this ho-lier-than-thou attitude about destitute people addicted to street drugs when they are just as hooked on prescription pills.

Both are chemically dependent on a substance to get them through life.

I do concede that medication can be positive rather than detrimental in many cases. Medication has helped lots of people who truly have a chemical imbalance to live a normal life.

The only point that I wish to make is that medication should not be the fi rst option that people jump to.

Over-medication is a serious prob-lem. Parents should take responsibil-ity and talk openly with their children about their problems.

Pills can help the truly mentally ill.In my opinion, we cross the line

when we begin to prescribe drugs as a quick solution rather than a last resort.

A tough pill to swallow

Pilipino Culture Night:NICOLE BUSTAMANTESTAFF WRITER

“It’s the biggest event of the year,” sophomore Alexander Ty said. “And MC’s is always the best.”

Tonight and tomorrow night Fil Am will be presenting PCN Philipino Culture Night.

“PCN is basically a presentation where we express the Phili-pino culture to the public,” Ty said.

Club president Erwin Ingua has a similar take on the per-formance.

“It’s how we show the community our mission statement and demonstrate Philipino culture and values,” Ingua said. “We focus on more serious issues and deal with mixing the identities of Americans and Filipinos alike.”

Every year the club bases their performance on a problem or topic and theme and tries to enrich it. This year, the theme is “The Other Side of Me.”

“Basically [we do this] to reach out to the community with a show/play/entertainment,” PCN coordinator Geoff Barba said.

The doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the tickets cost $5 before and $7 at the door. It begins with and introduction and dedica-tions to explain the purpose and background. Then the perfor-mances begin.

It is a show that consists of three performances: a cultural dance, a hip hop dance, and a skit. All members of the Fil Am Club are included in either one of these groups or the stage crew, which is in charge of the background.

“PCN is very widely known for performing arts and is en-joyable to watch,” Ty said.

For the skit portion of the performance, auditions are held and positions are picked, just like a regular play. However, for the other two parts of the performance anyone in the club is welcome to join.

Although Ty claims MC’s is the best, it is not the only school to present a Pilipino Culture Night. RB and WV both put on a show of their own.

“The executives [of Fil Am] work together to plan every-thing so we don’t have confl icting dates,” Ty said. “Other than that, everything is done separately and RB and WV have their own forms.”

The club practices every day after school for months un-til the performance; although, as it gets closer, people start to buckle down.

“The week before is always very serious and no fun and games,” Ty said. “But months before it’s always fun.”

While everything may seem stressful, there is a certain feel-ing or vibe that runs throughout the club.

“The week before is very hectic because everyone is trying to pull everything together, and there is a sense of movement,” Ingua said.

Ingua believes that the end result will be something to be proud of.

“I’ll be pretty happy, proud, sad and all those sorts of emo-tions when it’s over,” Ingua said.

Fil Am reaches out to community with annual event

ERIN’S STATS-800 METERS: 2:18-1 MILE: 5:04-3200 METERS: 11:11.93-2 MILES: 12:03-3 MILES: 17:50

-YEARS PLAYED: 5-POSITION: CENTER

-HONORS: VOTED CAPTAIN AS A SOPHOMORE

-LEVEL: VARSITY

“Through the popular topics of anime, manga, and video games, Japanimation is a club formed to help create an understanding and appreciation for Japanese art, animation, and culture.”

-Lovelle Cardoso (9)

PHOTO COURTESY OF MT. CARMEL FIL AM

GIRLS

LACROSSETRACK &

CROSS COUNTRY

May 22, 2009FeaturesB8 Mt. Carmel SUN

Senior scrapbooking allows students to refl ect on childhood

ABBY MANSOURSTAFF WRITER

The classes fl ood into the per-forming arts center. They wait for the show to begin, not sure exactly what to expect. This is Bob Pacilio’s fresh-man English class’s end of the year project, a “reader’s theatre”.

“What we realized was that their stories about their lives showed that they experienced so many things: hap-py, sad, funny, tragic, and that other kids could benefi t from hearing the stories,” Pacilio said.

The production was entitled “Talk.”

“The reason we call the show ‘Talk’ is that if one person saw the show and said ‘Hey I’ve faced these issues too;’ if just one person does that, then we’ve won,” Pacilio said.

The play had the illusion that the cast was just reading their essays, but freshman Danielle Bradley said the cast members the audience may have seen most likely weren’t reading their own essays.

“We all wrote auto-biographical essays and [Pacilio] picked the top 15,” she said. “They’re all personal, individual stories, and we had to work hard for the stories to sound ‘believable,’ that we were the actual author of these stories.”

Freshman Briana Pompa Hogan read the story of a girl who was in a car crash.

“It explains how in a car crash, everything is so surreal and every-thing’s a blur,” Hogan said. “I think it’s amazing how [the author] could put an event like that into the per-spective that she did. In the script, she wrote how lucky she was that nobody died. It’s amazing how she

could remain so optimistic.” Freshman Cole Heggem plays

the part of a boy who is caught be-tween his parents divorce, and what he learned through the hard experi-ence.

Freshman Kiersten Bolt plays a girl who visits the Museum of Toler-ance.

“It’s an emotional scene where she realizes the meaning and the depth of the museum,” Bolt said.

The show is dedicated to the memory of Danielle Van Dam. A few of the freshmen involved in the play were close to her before her tragic death in 2002.

“We realized that this is the ‘Dan-ielle Van Dam Generation’ and that

these kids had been affected by that,” Pacilio said.

Some of the stories are very sad and tragic. Bradley, playing the part of “a girl who was close to Danielle [Van Dam],” brings up the pressure of rep-resenting somebody else’s potentially personal story.

“You have to get to know your script, because when you’re up there, you’re not yourself when you’re doing it, you’re somebody else,” she said.

Although Pompa Hogan admits she was nervous, she believes it was an overall worthwhile project.

“I think it was a positive expe-rience because people who are shy wouldn’t have an opportunity to do this kind of thing,” she said.

SARA SHANTZSTAFF WRITER

Senior year is that scary point in a high school student’s life where they are standing at a crossroad. They have to leave their carefree childhood days behind them and prepare to enter the “grown-up” world. It’s a time to make serious decisions.

They must decide between moving on to some kind of post-secondary education, and entering the work force. Senior year is also a time for refl ection. There is no better way to refl ect on the good times and not so good times in your life than to make the senior scrapbook.

Most MC seniors that have to do the senior scrapbook think of it as a waste of time, but some MC seniors choose to take the “road less traveled by” and fully embrace this project.

Senior La Bon Fonssagrives is one of the students who enjoyed working on her senior scrapbook.

“It’s kind of like a trip of self-discovery,” Fonssagrives said. “You see all of your accomplishments and major events in your life and it helps you to realize how much you’ve actually gone through in your life and that even though you’re not ‘grown up’ yet, you’ve already had so many life experiences.”

While sifting through old photos, some students are re-minded of the good times and the bad times they’ve had so far in their lives.

“I found this newspaper clipping from seventh grade from when I won an engineering award, which is funny since I can’t

stand science anymore,” Fonssagrives said.Senior Lindsay Schultz discovered some x-ray photos from

her back surgery her freshman year. It reminded her of how bad her back was before her sur-

gery. She put the pictures of her surgery on her tribute pages in her scrapbook.

When photos are just lying around, they tend to get lost in the shuffl e. Sometimes putting them in a scrapbook helps orga-nize your memories and gives them meaning.

“I love going through all of the pictures because before the pictures didn’t have structure, how by putting them into a book, it kind of organizes my memories of my life up until now,” Fonssagrives said.

For some of the students who don’t like the senior scrap-book, it’s not the actual project they have a problem with, it’s the price of the supplies needed.

Some students are lucky enough to have parents who are willing to pay, or help them pay for their scrapbook.

Some have to pay for it out of their own pockets. “You have to spend a lot of money on stickers and paper

and all of that stuff,” senior Chris Serrano said. “The putting it together thing is easy, it’s the money [that makes it hard].”

The senior scrapbook…it’s a trip down memory lane…it’s a reminder of your ups and downs--your wins and losses. It is a tedious project, but it’s not just a project you’ll turn in once and get graded on, it’s something you’ll keep for the rest of your life.

ANA ALVAREZ | PHOTOGRAPHER

DANIEL THAN | PHOTOGRAPHER

Reader’s Theater challenges freshmen to step out of comfort zone in memory of Danielle Van Dam

KEVIN LAGEENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Junior paper, AP tests, SATs. For most juniors, all of these big scary ob-stacles, that used to instill fear in us, are now things of the past.

But for most of the juniors, there is still one huge obstacle looming in front of them: the American Identity Speech.

For a lucky few, the speech is no

big deal. They are satisfi ed with their

grade, and it is secure enough that only a serious failure could result in the lowering of their grade.

But for others, the junior speech is their last chance, it is their fi nal opportunity to raise their grade the crucial few percentage points that could get them the grade they want so badly.

In general, the speech is worth

about ten percent of the fi nal grade, so it is understandably nerve-wracking for many students.

“I don’t really get stage fright, so that wasn’t really a factor for me,” junior Chris Figueroa said. “But for some people you could tell that they were super nervous.”

The basic purpose of the speech is to give a speech about what you feel America is all about.

“Basically, we have to pick a word

that we feel describes America,” ju-nior Chris Figueroa said. “Then we have to come up with examples from literature, history, and current events that demonstrate why we think that Americans embody that trait. I think that the literature was actually the toughest part.”

In addition to the speech, stu-dents are also required to present a multimedia presentation demonstrat-ing that trait.

“For [the multimedia portion], most people choose to do a song,” Figueroa said. “For that, you have to pick a song that you feel captures the theme of your speech.”

Unfortunately for many people, they have to do topics that they would rather not because their topics got taken early on.

“We were not allowed to do the same topic as someone else, so by the time that I got to pick my speech

topic, the one that I wanted to do was already taken,” junior Jeanie Nguyen said.

Aside from the negative parts of junior speech, some people actu-ally manage to have some fun with it. Nguyen thinks that the speech pres-ents an interesting challenge.

“Now that I’m done with most of the tough stuff about junior year, the speech is kind of a fun way to spend the rest of the year,” Nguyen said.

Juniors express American Identity through speech; connect to history and literature

NICOLE BUSTAMANTESTAFF WRITER

Every year in May Mi-chelangelo, Gandhi, and Beethoven all walk into the Humanities classrooms.

Although they may not be the actual Gan-dhi or Beethoven, for fi ve or so minutes, stu-

dents embody them.In Honors Humani-

ties, every student picks a culture hero, which is defi ned

as a person in history who has made a signifi cant impact on so-ciety. The list consists of names such as Shakespeare, Freud, Mo-zart, and Elizabeth I.

The culture hero project gives students an amazing freedom to dress up, impersonate their char-acter, and create a speech based on their life and inspirations.

Throughout the years, both Robin Blalock and Scott Currie have experienced creative and in-teresting speeches.

In 2006, a drama student had picked Queen Elizabeth as her cul-ture hero.

She dressed up as Elizabeth, faked a British accent, and essential-ly had tea with the class. She called her segment “Tea Time with Eliza-beth.”

“It was very conversational,” Blalock said.

In 2004, a student who was Bernini had a presen-

tation that has stuck in Blalock’s mind all

these years.“It was before we had com-

puter projectors so the PowerPoint was not part of the project,” Blal-ock said. “So he used the TV VCR in order to have an interactive with himself.”

The student who played Bernini had dressed up as Bernini and timed it perfectly so his in-class self, who was dressed like the Pope, would routinely argue with the Bernini on the TV. For example, when the Pope would say something like, “Bernini was born in December,” the TV Bernini would say, “Oh no no that’s all wrong it was….”

“It was quite meticulous and very enjoyable to the class,” Blalock said. “It was just, well, very good.”

This year, only a handful of students have come up with out of the box ideas for their culture hero’s speech.

Sophomore Max Khatsenko is one of these creative students who, as Sigmund Freud, has decided to give one student a therapy session.

“Because Sigmund Freud is a psychologist, I thought, ‘Why not have a therapy session?’” Khatsenko said.

He plans to have a student lie down on a chair and pretend to give them a therapy session, while he uses Freudian theories to explain what is happening to his patient and what has happened in his own life.

The Culture Heroes project is an interesting way for students to learn about various people who have made an important impact in today’s world.

T.J. Rivera-Alonso (10) gives his Culture Hero speech dressed as El Greco in Robin Blalock’s Honors Humanities class. Students work to impersonate their chosen heroes from history.

MARY CARMEN GONZALEZ | PHOTOGRAPHER

Sophomores perform Culture Hero speeches for Humanities, become important people from history

Andrew Martis (9) plays the part of a student going to the Museum of Tolerance in English teacher Bob Pacilio’s Reader’s Theater entitled “Talk.” Fifteen freshmen’s autobiographical essays were put together to create this unique production. “Talk” was dedicated to Danielle Van Dam, who was a classmate of many current freshmen.