The Green Pride

In this Issue:

www.dhsnews.org Friday, April 12, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 7

-See Page 2 -See Pages 4-5

2013 Senior Prom candidates

-See Page 6

@DHSgreenpride

Page 1

Girls soccer update

By Sophia Templineditor in chief

Recently, De Soto High School hired a vice principal to replace Chuck Mahon’s temporary re-placement Craig Robinson for the upcoming school year. School Im-provement Specialist at Starside Elementary Kris Meyer is excited for her new position at DHS.

Although the selection pro-cess was rigorous, DHS Principal

Current LGBT rights drama

SOPHOMORE EMMA JACKSON waits in the gymnasium, while donating blood for her first time. She is also a member of Student Council, and helped host the event. Photo by Kelsea Burns

By Kelsea Burnsstaff reporter

The De Soto High School Student Council partnered with the Community Blood Center and hosted a blood drive where students could donate a pint of blood to people in need of blood transfusions on April 5.

Any student who met the CBC’s requirements could do-nate blood. The requirements included a minimum age of 16 and a minimum weight of 115 pounds.

Many students participated in the blood drive. Stuco member sophomore Emma Jackson do-nated for her first time this year.

“It’s really great because it helps people who need blood,” Jackson said. “It’s really good to give back and you can live with-out some of your blood. It’s a good way to get involved, and you feel good after you do it.”

According the CBC’s website, approximately 580 blood do-nors are required every weekday to meet the needs of patients in the community. In 2005, over

78,000 volunteer donors donat-ed over 134,000 units of blood to people in need. Many people need blood, reasons ranging from cancer and heart and blood vessel disease to disease of the gastro-intestinal tract and emergencies such as car accidents and burns.

Many donors, including first time donator senior Lauren Mabe, described their experience positively and painless.

“I thought it would hurt more, but it didn’t. It was actu-ally less painful than getting a flu shot,” Mabe said.

Mabe said that the only down-side to her experience was that the CBC couldn’t use her blood after she donated.

“My arm clotted up so they had to throw it away,” Mabe said. “If you don’t give enough, they can’t use it because they have to put a chemical in it to make it transferable. So, if there’s not enough then there’s too much chemical and that’s bad.”

Over 65 students participated in the blood drive and 46 units of blood were donated. The pro-cess for donating blood lasted

about an hour, but the actual blood draw lasts approximately 25 minutes. During this time, students relaxed on cots while squeezing a small ball.

For students interested in becoming regular donors, the CBC offers the Gallon Grad

Award Program. After donat-ing at least eight times with the CBC prior to graduating, any high school student is eligible to receive the Gallon Grad award, earning him or her a Gallon Grad Certificate of Achievement and a One Gallon Pin. Eight dona-

tions is equivalent to one gallon of donated blood. This can be achieved by making donations at high school blood drives, a lo-cal CBC Neighborhood Dona-tion Center or any other com-munity blood drives sponsored by the CBC.

DHS hosts annual Community Center blood drive

Mark Meyer is confident in his choice of the Starside School Im-provement Specialist.

“The candidates that applied went through an internal screen-ing interview with our human resources director … When that was complete there were five can-didates that were forwarded to me. I interviewed those candi-dates one on one and out of that we narrowed it down to a couple. We interviewed those finalists in

a committee-based format with a panel,” Mark said. “The candi-dates gave a formal presentation along with some standard Q & A. From there, we sat down to narrow it down as to which can-didate best fit the atmosphere of De Soto High School.”

Kris attended Ottawa Univer-sity for her undergraduate teach-ing degree and Baker University for a master’s degree in school leadership. She has been a part of

the De Soto School District for six years now. Her current role at Starside is very similar to what an associate principal does. Kris works as a support system for students and staff as well as de-veloping opportunities for pro-fessional development, working with students and teachers re-garding behavioral issues, observ-ing and mentoring.

“I look forward to meeting the DHS family and attending

events, games and other activi-ties. I also look forward to work-ing with the high school leader-ship team, as I’ve heard they are a hardworking team of profession-als,” Kris said.

Kris is excited to work with high school students who are nearing college and future ca-reers. Her first class at Starside will be the incoming freshman class at DHS. She will start at DHS this July.

Students and staff welcome a second “Meyer”

Recently in the news, the LGBT community have been very active in Arizona and the Supreme Court.

The LGBT community has always faced hardships, as the African-American community had faced through the 1960’s. Today, the community [LGBT] faces torment from the West-boro Baptist Church and Propo-sition 8 in California.

Proposition 8, California’s

OPINION @DHSGreenPride Friday, April 12, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 7

Page 2 April 12, 2013 Vol. 40

If you think you’re special, you’re not The Green PrideDe Soto High School35000 W. 91st St.De Soto, KS 66018

Phone: (913) 667-6250Fax: (913) 583-8376

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF» Sophia TemplinMANAGING EDITOR» Tyler BellNEWS EDITOR» Laura MeyersOPINION EDITOR» Rebekah BurgwegerFEATURE EDITOR» Kaylee AsherSPORTS EDITOR» Maddie TorlineARTS EDITOR» Makenzie HillADVERTISING MANAGER» Ryanne MercerSTAFF REPORTERS» Michael Buffkin, Kelsea Burns, Emily Herrington, Jacob Jen-nings, Xena Moore, Erin Sullivan, Jordan WolfCARTOONIST» Ben PattonADVISER»Michael Sullivan

EDITORIAL POLICY The editorial policy of The Green Pride is (1) Letters to the Editor must be typed, signed, and less than 300 words in order to be published and (2) the staff reserves the right to edit all copy. OPIN-IONS EXPRESSED in The Green Pride do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Green Pride Staff, De Soto High School, the DHS administration or the De Soto Unified School District #232 Board of Education.

CENSORSHIP POLICY Kansas Senate Bill 62 guarantees the same rights for student journal-ists as are given to professionals. These rights include, but are not limited to, all First Amendment rights, including the right of freedom of expression, insofar as published items may not contain libelous, slan-derous or obscene statements, may not incite or promote illegal conduct, and may not cause a substantial disruption to normal school activity. This bill does not allow the adviser, administrators or any other faculty to censor the paper in any way.

Hi my name is Erin Sullivan and I am special. I am so spe-cial. I get everything I ask for and more. I am spoiled to no end. Whenever I want some-thing, my parents hand it over no questions asked. I only work hard enough at school to get passing grades so my parents will fork over money for the A’s and B’s that I have accumu-

lated throughout the semester. I love talking on my expensive smart phone. I am surrounded by name brand clothes and high-end expensive accessories. Every-thing that I want is handed to me by my parents who worship the ground I walk on. Nothing is better than my life.

Ha. Hahahahaha. Yeah right. I wish my life were like this. It would be so easy, so nice and so wonderful. This life might seem like a fantasy to some, but in all honesty, nowadays, this is how many teenagers are treated. May-be not all of these things apply to every teenager, but we can all relate in some way.

Living in Johnson County, most of us have parents that can pay for our high tech phones, name brand clothing and delicious gourmet food. Overall the things given to us are luxuries. The issue is that

teenagers are beginning to think that these things are supposed to be just handed to them with minimal work required because they think they are better than others. It’s a stupid way to think.

Personally I do have a very nice phone, car that was given to me when I was 15, and, if I ask, my parents sometimes will pay for the extra little things that I enjoy. I love that I have a life that can give me all of these things. I know that I am not special because I have these privileges. I know that at any moment they can be taken away from me in a blink of an eye. I know that I still have to work hard to achieve the qual-ity of life that I want to have when I am older.

I feel like not many people actually realize this though. Everyday I hear my classmates

By Erin Sullivan staff reporter

complaining about how their parents will refuse to pay for their gas, won’t pay them for the grades they receive or won’t allow them to go hang out with a friend dur-ing the wee hours of the night. To me the idea that teenagers actually think they deserve these privileges blows my mind. Seriously. No one is special enough to deserve the treatment that has to be worked for and proven. To receive the “right” to gain these things teenagers need to actually do something besides sitting around the house or hanging out with friends. They need to prove to parents, teach-ers and other adults that they deserve to have their gas paid for. They need to work for the things they want. And work does not include hassling your parents to give you the things that you want. Trust me, honey you aren’t that special.

Gay marriage debated in Supreme Courtban on gay marriage, was taken into the Supreme Court and the decision will create a precedent that will either set marriage be-tween two people, or a man and a woman.

Coming from a liberal home and having gay friends and family members I was taught to accept people for who they are, not for what they are.

Another thing that I have a problem with is Arizona try-ing to pass legislation to ban transgender individuals from using public bathrooms. For one that is asinine because it is going to be impossible to crack down and enforce this ridiculous law. Secondly, how are they going to tell the women from the “women?” It is going to be a waste of mon-ey to create a group to enforce this law, which I coined as TIA, or the Trouser Inspec-tion Agency.

Many drag queens and trans-gendered individuals are out-raged by this notion because it does not allow for them to use the bathroom while they are in drag. When you really think about it, most transgendered individuals are gay, so they are not going to think anything of the women or men they see in the bathroom.

If this legislation is passed in Arizona, as the immigration laws were, then Kansas will probably pass it as well, since Kansas has the tendency to adopt laws cre-ated by Arizona and other con-servative states.

Gay Pride month starts in June, but the LGBT com-munity became active early to promote the goings on in the Supreme Court by becoming active on social media and tele-vision networks.

Facebook groups, such as LGBT News, have asked users to change their profile pictures

to an image of a red square with a white equal sign to pro-mote marriage equality and the Human Rights campaign. On March 26, 2.7 million people changed their profile picture to promote the cause, according to Huffington Post.

Logo TV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race, a reality TV competi-tion to see who will become the next drag queen superstar, is filling the airwaves of Twitter with marriage equality posters of current and past contestants including season four winner, Aaron Cody (Sharon Needles) and disqualified contestant Willam Belli (Willam), express-ing their concern of marriage equality rights in America.

“I once got married, but then all of my rights were taken away,” Belli said.

History is about to be made as a precedent is going to be set that will affect the LGBT community for years to come.

By Tyler Bell manager editor

Our parents read to us when we are young, so that we will be prepared when we start kinder-

In the past, a high school di-ploma represented hard work, dedication and foremost, that a student was ready to move on for college. In the present, however, that is no longer the case.

All one needs to do in order to graduate is to pass all of the required classes. While this may

Issue 7 April 12, 2013 Page 3

OPINION www.dhsnews.org Friday, April 12, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 7

Graduation no longer an accomplishmentseem hard to accomplish, in real-ity, it is relatively easy.

After all, the administration makes sure that all students take the necessary classes. All the student needs to do is not get a failing grade, which shouldn’t be that hard to do.

A student just has to show up to class and participate, and will be likely that they will get above a failing grade. However, this is where my criticism lies.

The work required to pass a class is too easy. I know of stu-dents who show up to class, do nothing but stare at a wall, never turn in the homework and man-age to still pass.

As a result, students who do below the minimum are allowed to graduate. These students were not dedicated

or hardworking and they are making a mockery of the high school diploma.

Every year at graduation, I am surprised by students who are able to graduate. In the back of my head, I wonder how long it is until they drop out of col-lege. Then, I question how they were able to graduate from high school in the first place.

So how can this be fixed? Well, for starters, we can make it so that students actually have to work for their grades. The percentage makeup of each class could be reviewed so that a stu-dent can not pass solely on par-ticipation points. It should be changed so that if a student never did their homework, and always got below C’s on a test, they would fail the class.

Other times, though, a teach-er is simply too sympathetic to a student’s plight to fail them. The more common occurrence is that grade-saving extra-credit is offered. Students then are able to manage passing solely due to extra credit.

Now, I am not saying that ex-tra-credit should be eliminated because sometimes hardwork-ing students do screw up and need a way to redeem them-selves and their grades. Rather, I am saying that teachers should keep an eye on students’ grades and make sure that students are passing because they are doing their homework and working hard, and not because of extra credit opportunities.

Furthermore, percentage points (like those on the Wildcat Cards)

By Rebekah Burgwegeropinion editor

should not be taken anymore. They misrepresent grades and al-low students to pass a class by do-ing little to nothing. Moreover, it makes no sense that a student who excelled on a math state assessment to use percentage points in a dif-ferent subject, like English. That’s like saying, “let’s reward so-and-so in math, by helping them out with another, non-related class.”

Perhaps if students learn that they can no longer skate by, then they will actually try. If they don’t learn, then there is a simple solution: make them a ‘super’ senior.

These measures may restore the dignity to a high school di-ploma. Then maybe, this year at graduation, I won’t see any future college dropouts, but only future college graduates.

School does not prepare students for real lifegarten. We learn basic math, sci-ence and language in elementary school, in order to prepare us for middle school. During middle school, teachers begin assigning more homework, and they tell us it’s to help get us ready for the homework load we will be assigned in high school. In high school, we take core, scholastic classes and also have the option to choose classes that are speci-fied to the job path we plan to take in the future.

Some examples of the required classes high school students take are English, Algebra, Chemistry,

Government and a generic tech-nology class. In high school and college, teachers and professors claim that receiving a general edu-cation of such required classes will help us in the real world.

Look, I love the fact that stu-dents are required to get a general education of a variety of subjects. All these classes are, however, strictly scholastic. I mean, most students can calculate the speed at which two cars collide, but they can’t change the oil in their car. One of my dear friends didn’t even know it had to be changed until I told her. The poor girl has

By Laura Meyersnews editor

great hair though.If Trigonometry and Shake-

speare are going to prepare the teachers, nurses and contractors of tomorrow for the “real world,” then would it be too extreme to suggest that students are required to take a general home mainte-nance/mechanics class? I feel like knowing how to shut the water off when the toilet is over-flow-ing is a skill that may come in handy at some point, especially at your in-laws house.

A class like this would cover topics including, but not limited to: maintaining a heating and

cooling system in your home, general automobile maintenance and household plumbing and how to manage a mortgage and other utility bills.

Before we start creating bril-liant engineers, we need to make sure they know how to take care of the car they drive and the house that they live in. An edu-cation starts from the ground, up, so let’s start with the basics. If our goal is to prepare students for the “real world,” then let’s follow through, because a flat tire and a chimney fire are very common, real things.

VOICES

How well does high

school pre-pare stu-dents for real life?

“I say it doesn’t because real life is harder and in high school. They

baby you and give you excuses and make your life too easy and then you get out into the real world and it is

a lot more difficult.”

“I think high school does prepare students for real life, that’s kind of the

point of high school, but if we had some other classes that were more in

depth about things you will use in your actual life, instead of things like alge-bra then maybe it would be better.”

“I don’t really think they [high school and preparing students] should be

used in the same sentence.”

“[High school prepares students] very well. It helps students learn to deal

with a lot of stress.”

Freshman Jaycee

Thaemert

Fresh-man Rex Templin

Junior Ethan Rid-

ings

Senior Micah

Sanders

Page 4 April 12, 2013 Vol. 40

@DHSGreenPride Friday, April 12, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 7

By Emily Herringtonstaff reporter

De Soto Prom falls on April 13 this year. Many students are not only planning for it, but they are also being pressured and are stress-ing into making sure night of the year is both the most memorable and possibly most expensive.

Students count on prom to be one of the most wonderful days. Every detail has to be perfect and go exactly right; that includes ev-erything from finding the right date, to making sure their nail polish is the exact shade of coral as the accent beads on their dress.

Junior and senior guys are pressured into not only finding a date, but creatively asking the desired girl in and unforgettable way. This leaves every girl spend-

ing their time waiting and hop-ing for somebody to ask them. Not every couple works that way and sometimes a guy will not make the first move, especially when he is being pushed into making the asking public.

After everyone has figured out who they are going with, they have to figure out what the night will entail. Most people get a group of friends together, take pictures, go to dinner, attend Prom and then finally After Prom.

These events can be kept simple, but they can also be blown out of proportion. There is a drastic difference in having your mother snap a few pictures and hiring a photographer to do an entire shoot. Dinner usu-ally happens at the nicest local

Prom is becoming a lavish, overdone event restaurant, adding even more to the cost. Then there are the par-ties afterward, which are held at a range of places, from peoples’ homes to costly hotels.

Transportation and dress are both very important througout the night. Students will spend hundreds of dollars on limos and then different outfits to each event. They have to make sure that their entire group of friends can both afford and keep up with the elaborate plans.

Even once all of the planning has been replanned and finalized multiple times, there is still a lot to be done. Guys do not usually spend more than an hour prepar-ing on the day of, while girls take the entire day to get pampered and pretty.

Typically, girls will get up

after the most well-rested night they can manage to shower. It will probably be the most thor-ough shower they have taken all year and if the hot water is not out before they are done, then they have not spent enough time conditioning and making life decisions.

Afterward, many girls will go to get their hair and make-up done. Whether they choose an updo or to wear their hair down, the trip to a salon or friend’s house would probably take up two full hours. The look cannot be complete with-out the perfect mask of make-up to bring out their eyes and to match their outfit.

They will finally go home and put on the dress that they have spent forever dreaming about

Under the Sea: Prom 2013

and plenty of money buying. Their date will show up with a corsage, that his mother prob-ably picked out, and the girl will have to figure out how to pin a boutonnière to his jacket without pricking her finger and bleeding on her dress.

Prom is supposed to be a fun way to end your junior or se-nior year. Some students get so stressed about the night that they choose to opt out all together. Definitely not every student goes over board, but there is a fine line between being very excited for prom and driving both yourself and everyone around you insane. The best way to make the day into a positive memory is to keep it simple and to not worry about anything other than having a good time with your friends.

Issue 7 April 12, 2013 Page 5

Under the Sea: Prom 2013 @DHSGreenPride Friday, April 12, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 7

Prom perspectives: boys girls By Michael Buffkin

staff reporter

Girls don’t have as many prob-lems when it’s time for a dance. They get to wear dresses that cost hundreds of dollars to wear for one night while guys get touched by another dude to be able to wear used tuxes that already have other guys’ sweat in them.

Then, on the day of prom, girls get to spend almost the entire day

doing their make-up or hair while us men get on our hands and knees to clean our cars for our dates. Girls could at least do what they are best at and clean our cars.

It gets worse though. At pic-tures, we are stabbed in the nipple by crazy moms that want to know our life story in five minutes.

After pictures, we have to pay for a dinner that some of us would rather spend on 12 Mc-Donald’s double quarter pound-

By Makenzie Hill art editor

A little girl dreams about it: the dress, the hair and the guy.No, I am not talking about getting mar-ried, I am speaking of Prom. Pos-sibly the most anticipated dance of the year that offers so much and often delivers very little.

Some of us are lucky enough to have our hair done profes-sionally. However, even after sit-ting in a chair having my head plucked at for hours, I may not even get the style I was going for.

I head home with my unsatisfac-tory hair style to put on my dress. Once my date arrives, I can only

hope the night only gets better. My parents open the door and

instead of the Prince Charming I have been expecting, its just the same ordinary guy who asked me to the dance.

Then comes the flowers. Of course, it takes him 20 minutes to figure out the corsage while I poke him multiple times with the boutonniere. Once I finally fig-ure it out, the flower is crooked and drooping pathetically.

My mother suddenly becomes the most overbearing creature on the planet wanting pictures, fix-ing flowers and asking questions.

Finally we escape the clutches of her camera wielding hands,

and leave the house.My spirits rise. Surely the

night will improve due to the gentlemanly behavior of my handsome date. Nope.

We get the car and I stand there expectantly to have my door opened. By now he is staring at me while wondering if I will ever get in the car. I yank my door open and try to be graceful while getting into a small space with my ample dress. I do not succeed.

We arrive at the restaurant and once again, I open my own door and stumble out of my seat, all this going on while my date watches, offering no assistance.

He orders finger food. I watch

er meals. Heaven forbid you girls ask to split the check for dinner!

While at dinner, we have to lis-ten to our dates complain about how if they eat too much they won’t look good. Plus, if we make one comment on that topic it au-tomatically becomes offensive.

Then, we have to come up with some kind of way to save the night after offending our dates on the long, sometimes awkward, car ride. Of course

this ride lasts twice as long as normal car rides simply because it is so uncomfortable.

Once a guy has made it to the dance, he is already thinking, “why did I sign up for this?” However, the night keeps getting worse.

Guys get embarrassingly sweaty in front of everybody they know hoping the Old Spice we put on is keeping us smelling fresh. If the sweat isn’t enough, our feet are con-stantly being stepped on as well.

After the dance, the best part of the night arrives. We get to play games and ride go-carts for hours into the night. We can be boys after a night of being gentlemen finally.

But the good time is short lived. The awkward good-bye for some men is closing in. For a guy, we have to throw ourselves out on a limb to either be denied or get the kiss or hug we have planned all night.

this carnivorous event proceed and I notice the napkin never leaves the table. Yes, I want to dance with those hands.

After we leave the dinner, we drive over to the prom venue.

We walk in and it is a gym. Not the beautiful wonderland I have dreamed of, a gym at the Shawnee Civic Center. We begin dancing, after I remove my heels of course, and my hem rips from people stepping on it.

Oh, but the best part of this dance is the dancing. I get to stand there while half of the stu-dent body ungulates together like a grotesque ameba of writhing maggots. Just beautiful.

Finally, Prom is finished. We go to Powerplay where my date abandons me, but when I ask if we can leave he says we have to stay so we get prizes. So, I sit there until four in the morning just so my date can get a free coffee cup.

Once we leave I am tired, my feet hurt and my dreams are crushed.

My date drops me off. He walks me to my door and he is holding my hand while murmur-ing sweet words. I am already forgetting his lack of gentleman like behavior and we say a sweet goodbye.

I immediately fall asleep and begin to dream of the wonderful festivities of next year’s prom.

The 2013 prom candidates, from left to right are Halie Hansen, Alec Mackay, Lauren Mabe, Jonny Hodges, Laura Meyers and Drew Stephens. The prom king and queen will be announced at prom on April 13.

SPORTSwww.dhsnews.org Friday, April 12, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 7

Page 6 April 12, 2013 Vol. 40

By Michael Buffkinstaff reporter

The De Soto High School baseball and softball teams are very senior heavy this year.

The baseball seniors are Blake Davis, Noah Cardiff, Corbin Clark, Austin Gilbert, Isaac Lu-eth, Jonny Hodges and Josh Pas-ley. Together, these men have a major goal that they hope to ac-complish this year.

“We want to be the first base-ball team in a really long time to make the state tournament,” Clark said.

The team believe that the only way this goal can be accom-plished is through senior leader-ship.

“The seniors need to set a great example, play hard and be positive,” head coach Joel Thae-mert said.

The seniors intend to fulfill this role and accept what it will take to reach their goal as well.

“Through positive leadership on and off the field and demon-strating the characteristics of a true Wildcat, we will be success-ful,” Clark said.

Thus far, the leadership has been view different from last year by the underclassmen. Junior Nelson Reeves has seen a change in leadership between last year’s senior class and this year’s.

“We are more fluid as a team and everybody has chemistry. There is less fighting between teammates, especially the se-niors,” Reeves said.

Junior Dylan Holden has rec-ognized change in the seniors this year as well.

“They lead by example and give positive reinforcement which is a change from the past,” Holden said.

Only time will tell if the lead-ership that this year’s seniors are giving to the team will lead them to complete their goal of being in the State playoffs.

The softball team has simi-lar goals in terms of a trip to the State tournament. Seniors this year include Lauren Mabe, Hunter Klamm, Sophia Tem-plin, Julie Hopkins, Megan Mc-Cullough, Shelby Deghand and Allie Flinn.

“All of our seniors have a dif-ferent way of leading the team.

We all help each other out. I think that will benefit us in the end,” Klamm said.

In hopes of returning to State, the seniors are hoping to build on their skills and improve. They intend to take each game head-on as the returning State runner ups.

“We are just going to have to take it game by game. Eventually this road will lead us to State,” Hopkins said.

The seniors are extremely confident in their team’s abilities overall. With their leadership, as well as an abundance of practice, they expect be a strong team.

“I am expecting to go to State this year. I predict that we will be extremely good, and that is my goal,” Mabe said.

Both the baseball team and the softball team will benefit profusely from the addition of a multi-purpose room. It allows both teams an indoor place to practice hitting and improving their skills overall.

“We are going to be able to get so many more reps in which will be so nice. Practice makes perfect, you know,” Mabe said.

Baseball, softball seniors lead

SENIOR ALLISON STANLEY keeps the ball away from a KC Harmon High School defender April 8. The Wildcats went on to defeat Harmon ?-?. Photo by Carena Bledsoe

Girls’ soccer team kicks off start of solid season By Ryanne Mercer

ads manager

The De Soto High School girls’ soccer team has kicked off the start of the season, by mak-ing changes and trying to repeat it’s success of last year in hopes of going to the tournament.

Last year, DHS lost to Ton-ganoxie High School in Sub-State in order to go to State, but this season DHS beat them 3-0.

The first game was before spring break, which was the first of all spring sports to start games. The team lost 4-0 against Spring Hill High School, giving the start of the season a rough start.

“We have made a lot of changes and learned a lot. We came out last week [March 28]

and won 9-1. Those changes were definitely necessary and definitely beneficial,” assistant coach Melissa Stone said.

The junior varsity team had a rough start. Basehor-Linwood High School and Baldwin High School didn’t have enough play-ers to have both JV and varsity teams, so the JV games had to be modified. The Basehor game had to be played in 20 minutes, while Baldwin had to be played in 40 minutes, as opposed to an 80-minute full game.

With the late winter weather, the Bishop-Miege game had to be rescheduled because the field could not have been cleared and dry enough to play on.

“Hopefully down the road we will start playing more nor-

mal games, but so far it’s been an awesome season,” Stone said.

There was optional winter conditioning for girls because only a select number of girls play for a club or year-round team. Most of the team only plays dur-ing the season at DHS.

“The girls have gotten togeth-er to do team bonding and are getting along well, so I can’t ask for a better group of girls,” Stone said.

With almost every strong team, there are strong leaders. This year, the team’s six seniors have led the team.

“You can tell that the lower classmen really look up to them,” Stone said. “They have been nothing but motivating and very helpful and solid leaders.”

SPORTSwww.dhsnews.org Friday, April 12, 2013 Volume 40, Issue 7

Issue 7 April 12, 2013 Page 7

By Jacob Jenningsstaff reporter

Most people have heard of sibling stars in sports, such as Eli and Peyton Manning, Kurt and Kyle Busch and Serena and Venus Williams to name a few. But one hardly ever hears of three sibling stars. However, here at DHS the three Zoller brothers have started off the tennis season strong with many first place finishes.

All three brothers, junior Ben Zoller, and freshmen twins Alex Zoller and Luke Zoller, are cur-rently playing varsity tennis.

Ben plays doubles with junior Ramsey Mason while Luke and Alex play singles, although head tennis coach Justin Hoffman thinks doubles are a possibility.

“Luke and Alex might also play a little of doubles to learn how to communicate with each other on the court,” Hoffman said. Although the Zollers are some of the best on the team, Hoffman still wants them to get as much playing time as possible.

Zoller brothers dominate the tennis courts

JUNIOR BEN ZOLLER is surrounded on the tennis court by his freshmen brothers Luke Zoller (left) and Alex Zoller (right). The brothers have proven successful in numerous tennis tournaments so far this year. Photo by Erin Sullivan

“Right now they’re each play-ing varsity, but I also might have them play some JV for more ex-perience,” Hoffman said. The Zollers learned how to play tennis from their father, who cap-tured the NCAA Division II dou-bles title in 1986 and led his team to the 1986 team championship while at California Polytechnic State University.

Although they learned how to play when they were young, they never played competitively.

“I took lessons a few times, but none of us ever played ten-nis in an actual league until high school,” Alex said.

But that didn’t stop them from going a combined 10-2 at the Washburn Invitational in Tope-ka on March 28. Ben and Ma-son went 3-1 in No. 1 doubles, Alex went 3-1 at No. 2 singles and Luke went 4-0 and took first place at No. 2 singles.

The invitational was the first high school match for all three brothers, as this is the first year of tennis for Ben. But it wasn’t be-

ginner’s luck. On April 1 at the Highland Park Quad, the Zollers went a combined 7-2. At the Paola Round Robin, the Zollers were successful again. Ben finished third in No. 1 doubles with Ramsey. Both Alex and Luke finished first and combined for a 7-1 record. Out of the five teams competing, DHS tied for first. The Zollers are a combined 26-7. Ben is 8-3 with a first-place fin-ish, Alex is also 8-3 with a first-place finish and Luke is 10-1 with two first-place finishes. “I’m happy with my start,” Ben said. “It feels good to win more matches than lose them.” Both Alex and Luke feel good about their starts as well. “I’ve done well, but I should of won some matches that I lost. They were close, but I’m still proud with three losses,” Alex said. “I’ve started out a lot better than I thought I would,” Luke said. “I’ve only lost one match and I’m hoping it can stay that way for awhile.”

By Makenzie Hill art editor

De Soto High School’s athletic department gained a new sport this spring, girls’ swimming. The boys’ swim team, which had its season in the winter, had a suc-cessful season with one member going to State.

Like many of the new De Soto activities, this year’s girls’ swim team is a joint effort of De Soto and Mill Valley High School swimmers.

The coaches are looking forward to the upcoming season. They hope, that as this is the first year of the De Soto swim program, the focus will be on the girls.

“I think the rest of the season we are going to work on bond-ing as a team, both De Soto and Mill Valley together,” said coach Amy Hanna, an eight grade sci-

Girls’ swimming off to a good start ence teacher at Monticello Trail Middle School, who has been teaching swim since her high school career.

They are also hoping to focus on the girls’ individual scores rather than the team’s.

“We just want to see constant improvement. I really feel like this season is more about indi-vidual accomplishment rather than team accomplishment, see-ing as it is our first year,” said coach Alissa Ruffin, who has been coaching for 20 years.

Even though these coaches are by no means new to competitive, their swimmers are definitely new to competing.

The girls on the team that come from De Soto, Senior Shummer Roddick and Lela Servos, juniors Maddie Torline, Erin Sullivan, Montana Frehe, Makell Hadley, Meaghan King,

sophmores Emma Jackson, Ely-ssa Schmitz, freshman Kaylan Carney, Allison Eaton, Lexi Pasquale and Grace VanDusen, are all new to swimming as a competitive sport.

King is one of those new swim-mers. She is excited for the new season and the team.

“The fact that it is a complete-ly a new team means that there aren’t as many immediate cliques. Everyone is welcome,” King said.

The coaches are also very op-timistic about having new swim-mers on the team.

“It’s different, but anyone that is willing to try is teachable,” Ruffin said.

Each individual is hoping to improve their score at each meet.

With four meets under its belt and a team full of positive swim-mers, De Soto’s new girls swim team is off to a promising start.

By Jordan Wolf staff reporter

The De Soto High School golf team’s season is underway. The team has competed in three tournaments so far and has done pretty well.

With those three tournaments under their belt, the players are beginning to gain traction and steadily improve their scores head-ing into the heat of the season.

Head coach Tod Hessong shares his thoughts about the season so far.

“We haven’t done bad, we went to Gardner for our second tournament and Austin Williams shot a 79, which is the first time we’ve broke 80 this year,” Hes-song said.

On April 18, De Soto is com-peting at the Frontier League tour-nament in Spring Hill. Until then,

the team is preparing to hopefully to put up good scores there.

“We’ve got to get better at our short game. We need to get better at chipping and putting,” Hessong said.

The team won the League meet the last two years, and is looking to win again, completing the three-peat.

“I hope for another league title and for us to qualify some people for State, if not everyone. We host Regionals this year at the Shawnee Golf and Country Club, so that kind of suits us be-cause we get to practice there all the time,” Hessong said.

JV coach Shannon Sawner is also optimistic about the season.

“If we can get everybody healthy and together as a team, that will be helpful. We need to get our scores down a little, but that will come,” Sawner said.

Golf season is going well

Page 8 April 12, 2013 Vol. 40

ARTS @DHSGreenPride Friday,April12,2013 Volume40,Issue7

DHS students attend Shooting Stars Xena Moore

staff reporter

The Arts Council of John-son County hosted the Annual Shooting Stars Gala on April 7. De Soto High School sent seven seniors to be represent DHS talent and compete for the prestigious Shooting Stars scholarship.

The Shooting Stars Program honors high school seniors and teachers for their artistic excellence. Contenders that are chosen show their artistic abilities in one of nine catego-ries, this year DHS students competed against 92 other students from 26 different schools.

DHS had seven seniors who were finalists this year. Dylan Foster was nominated for The-

atre Performance, Mykaela Cross for Literature, Jordan Whita-ker for 2-D Visual Art, Emma West for 3-D Visual Art, Em-ily Churchwell for Photography, Rhiannon Caldwell for Winds & Percussion and Lindsay Everson for Classical Voice.

To compete in the program, the students first must be nomi-nated by their arts teachers, and then finalists must audition or be interviewed, write a one-page es-say and submit a portfolio of their work to be reviewed by judges. All finalists are honored and scholar-ship recipients are announced at the Annual Shooting Stars Gala.

Students nominated are cri-tiqued by experts on certain crite-ria. Not only do the judges look at the submitted portfolio of work, but also whether the student plans to further their artistic career in

college and their community service relating to their talent.

The Shooting Stars Program is one of the few programs that acknowledges the arts and strengthens the confidence of a lot of nominees.

“I’ve found that students were so surprised that I chose their work, even though their work was really strong,” said nominating art teacher Tim Mispagel. “Anytime you can advocate for the kids like that and kind of give them that kick in the pants to get them mov-ing in the future is great. There’s just not a lot of programs like that around here.”

Although no one from DHS won the scholarship, this year it was a great experience and DHS looks forward to com-peting again next year.

Calling All T-Shirt Collectors

To turn those tees into a timeless treasure, contact:BFenton@SewMeant2B.com913-302-6665

Showcase your T-shirts in a one-of-a-kind quilt

or visit our websiteSewMeant2B.com

By Maddie Torlinesports editor

With the end of the year ap-proaching rapidly, activities are coming to a close. That means the De Soto band will attempt to pack as many concerts and competitions into a one month period as possible.

In the next month, the band will be participating in six up-coming events. The first of which was the delayed winter concert which was performed on April 3. It was considered a great success.

“It was a lot better than pre-

vious years because we had an extra month to prepare and that helped a lot,” junior Montana Frehe said.

Director Matt Bradford coul-dn’t have agreed more.

“I thought that the concert went well. It was great to have the concert by large group festival be-cause we had something to work off of the festival,” Bradford said.

Coming up next for the band is a plethora of events this month including the closest, on the April 13, a KMEA-sponsored competi-tion for band members perform-ing a solo or small ensemble. Af-

ter that, the Large Group State Ensemble Competition will take place on the April 17.

Following these, the band will be hosting a golf tournament as a fundraiser for the organization April 19.

The final three events consist of State Solo and Ensemble April 27, a final band concert on May 1 and a performance at graduation.

Bradford is anticipating the upcoming events.

“I am kind of excited for the rest of the year because this is my first year here,” Bradford said. “I’m excited for the end of the year because we get to play some really fun music for that and I am excited for next year.”

Even though he is enthusiastic for many events, he is also hop-ing for his students success in the coming events.

“I get nervous for the students not being ready. There is nothing I can do about that, other than what we do in class ... they have to prepare outside of class too, and when they don’t do that they are not ready,” Bradford said.

Busy upcoming schedule for De Soto band