HILLMEN MESSENGERPlacer High School

September 25, 2009Volume XXXVII, Issue 2 hillmenmessenger.com

By Zac HershMessenger Staff Writer

Students parking in re-served spaces will be ticketed. See FEATURES, page 2

Ever wondered what its like to be a cheerleader?

See PERSPECTIVES, page 6

Is the Placer football team plagued by injuries?

See SPORTS, page 10

Newly created PLC days have been introduced to the Placer Union High School district this year.

PLC is short for Professional Learn-ing Community. PLC days are short-ened days in which teachers meet after student dismissal to discuss ways to im-prove their teaching. The goal is to im-prove student learning and ensure that no matter what teacher they are given, students will receive the same level of instruction.

“We want students to be able to go from beginning classes in a subject with one teacher to advanced classes taught by another and have no problem tran-sitioning,” commented Assistant Prin-cipal Gary Pantaleoni.

After students are dismissed on PLC days, teachers meet in groups based on their department and subject to discuss teaching techniques to maximize stu-dent performance. They have the op-portunity to discuss problems they are having with certain areas of the class, and teachers with the same subject can give advice on how to help all students. Teachers also travel to other sites in the district to meet with fellow instructors of their subject for other opinions and suggestions.

“Teachers need to get together and have the opportunity to exchange ideas openly and improve the success of their students,” explained Pantaleoni.

The schedule on PLC days is different from regular days. All classes are short-ened to 70 minutes, as opposed to the 90 minute periods in a regular day. Pass-ing periods remain the same for every schedule. PLC days differ from other minimum days because lunch is served between third and fourth periods, where-as minimum days have lunch at the end of school.

“By law, Placer and other public schools must serve lunch every day that school is in session, and putting lunch at the end of the day is too late and wouldn’t work with the schedule.”

There are many different opinions on the necessity of PLC days. Many students appreciate the shortened days, no matter what their purpose is.

“I think the shorter days are necessary for students because it gives us more op-portunities to study and relax,” observed senior Cody Albright.

Some teachers appreciate the PLC days, while others find them unhelpful and unnecessary. There are also oppos-ing views on the number of PLC days needed each year.

“There are too many PLC days sched-uled this year. In my opinion, every other week is overkill to meet,” commented math instructor Mike Gardetto.

For the 2009-2010 school year, there are a total of 13 PLC days scheduled. For the specific dates of the PLC days, visit the Placer High School website at http://www.puhsd.k12.ca.us/placer/.

Downtown construction affecting business

By Laura MolnarMessenger Staff Writer

PLC’s to improve student learning

The construction of the street and landscape improvements for the new town square is creating a nightmare for local businesses and students at placer high school. The new town square, or the “Endur-ance Plaza”, is designed to im-prove traffic circulation and to be an attractive outdoor meeting spot and focal point for Downtown Auburn.

“Supposedly it’s going to be nice, but right now it’s killing us. We can’t even open our front doors,” said GeRee Carpenter, owner of J.W. Frog’s.

Pioneer Mining Supplies dropped 30% in sales because their custom-ers thought that they were closed.

“They lost us a whole season,” stated Heather Willis from Pioneer Mining Supplies.

Business can’t even get their handicap customers in their build-ing because their main entrances are blocked. The stores were of-fered no compensation for their losses and were originally told that

the construction was going to take place at night. The construc-tion is not only affecting busi-nesses but it is also affecting the students at Placer High school. In-stead of getting to walk straight to the restaurants the students have to take a detour around Wells Fargo and across a busy street.

“I do not like the construction because it takes time out of my lunch,” said Paul Bandanza, junior.

The renovation is going to add art pedestals, a fire pit seating area, planter pots, a liv-ing Christmas tree, granite pavers that will recognize participants of the endurance competitions and new fences along the surrounding

buildings. The project is projected to cost two point three million dol-lars.

“Auburns supposed to be broke that’s just a waste of money” said Jim Bell from Pioneer Mining.

All of this probably could have

been avoided if Auburn had just communicated better with the business owners

“Not enough communication, businesses weren’t prepared.” said Pauline Winters owner of Wiz

Photo credit: Zac Hersh

The Placer High women’s volley-ball teams are taking a hard hit this week due to illness.

Practicing and spending time to-gether as a team, it was easy for sickness to spread quickly.

On the varsity squad alone, 12 out of the 15 players are out sick.

There were two scheduled games for this week: one on Tuesday and the other Thurs-day evening. The Tuesday game against Bear River is being re-scheduled, and El Dorado has offered to reschedule Thursday’s game. No decision was made on Thursday’s game as of Wednes-day.

Practice was canceled Mon-day as well, and it is so far unknown as to when the volleyball team will commence practicing.

So what exactly happens when such a large number of people from the same team are ill?

Athletic director Mark Lee ex-plained that, “If such a large number of athletes cannot participate; the game is rescheduled only if the op-ponent agrees. Otherwise it must be a forfeit.”

Having almost an entire team sick, with two confirmed cases of the swine flu is anything but common.

“To my knowledge, Placer has not had to forfeit or reschedule a game due to illness,” commented Lee.

Although uncommon, the Lady Hillmen still have a chance to come back and finish the season strong.

“It’s stressful because the girls are such a top contender in the PVL. It’ll be tough, but the girls can come back,” stated Julie Lardner, parent of team captain Kelsey Lardner.

The swine flu has spread among area schools including Placer, Del Oro, and Nevada Union.

“It was just a matter of time,” player Melissa Manning answered when asked about the swine flu’s ef-fect on her team and school. Man-

ning is one of the confirmed swine flu cases. The other confirmed case is team captain Kathryn Reale.

“Although many people are coming down with the H1N1 vi-rus, most students diagnosed will

be fine,” commented Dr. Joyce Bradshaw, a Pedia-trician with Sutter Medical Group in Auburn.

Dr. Bradshaw said that most patients recover with two to five days at home, and medications aren’t always necessary. Some patients are prescribed Tamiflu, a drug which can reduce symptoms and increase healing time if begun within two days of symptoms beginning.

Last Tuesday, the team was schedule to play against

Bear River. However; due to so many players being ill, the game was rescheduled.

Luckily, Bear River was kind enough to agree.

Swine flu symptoms include fa-tigue, headaches, runny nose, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, aching muscles, and fever. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, it is recommended that you go to your doctor and get tested.

Swine flu spreads to the girls volleyball team

By Laura MolnarMessenger Staff Writer

Varsity volleyball players Kelsey Lardner and Kathryn Reale wear masks to keep the illness fom spreading. Photo by: Julie Lardner

Wire. However in Auburns defense

they are now starting to sup-port the business owners and are holding meetings for the public every Tuesday at noon in front of Froggs at 939 Lincoln Way where

Questions can be addressed. The merchants and public are encouraged to attend. “They’re being supportive now that the business owners have logged complaints.” Heather Willis from pioneer mining. Their also planning to install a storm water filtration system/ attenu-ation swales in planting areas along the street, new architec-tural lighting will be added to all buildings and overhead utilities will be replaced or relocated underground.

“Their doing the best they can” Paula Winters owner of Wiz Wire. So in the end we have to realize that their doing this to help us not hurt us.

The Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Streetscape Phase 1 Project is scheduled to occur at 8:30am on Wednesday, July 15.

FEATURES2 Volume XXXVIIIssue 2

September 25, 2009

By Britny ChristineFeatures Editor

Hidden secrets of Placer

Daily life: Living next to Placer High

By Savannah YoungMessenger Staff Writer

By Alyssa HarbenMessenger Staff Writer

Free lunch near our campus

Phil Costantini, a neigh-bor of Placer High School, opened up his driveway for free lunch for Placer students on Thursday September 10th, and Thursday September 24th. Almost 65 students took ad-vantage of the free food the first time lunch was offered, and that was without any ad-vertising beforehand.

The only way students found out about it was by word of mouth and by walking by.

When asked about the rea-son why he decided to offer free lunch at his house, Phil responded, “I have been tell-ing people that we want to provide them lunch and an opportunity to get to know one another.” Later, he enthu-siastically added, “So bring a friend!”

He plans on continuing to offer the free lunch every other Thursday, the second and fourth Thursday of every month, with help from his wife Andrea and other friends.

Their house is located at 162 Agard Street, which is right across the street form the up-per gym, and is close enough to the school that students can easily walk there with plenty of time to spare during lunch.

“I really like the free lunch. I think its cool he would do that for students,” junior Liv-ia Moneypenny stated when asked what she thought of

Phil offering free food to Placer students.

He plans to provide the food “by opening up a bar-beque in my drive way.” The first time free lunch was of-fered, the barbeque consisted of hot dogs with condiments, an assortment of chips, lem-onade, and water.

“I was really pleased with all the wonderful hot dogs he served,” Ian Bechler said.

Another student Niki Win-nett simply said, “Amazing!” when asked about the experi-ence.

When asked about what happens during free lunch Phil simply stated, “Free lunch and a good opportunity to get to know a new generation in Auburn.”

In the past, other places have offered free lunch, such as the Church on Orange Street, but they stopped offer-ing it two years ago.

That was one of the other reasons Phil decided to start offering it.

“It provides people who don’t always get to do extra activities at lunch a chance to meet different people and bet-ter their school experience at no cost,” Phil Ballew, a senior at Placer High School, said.

It is also an alternative to the free lunch program for low income families, and that pro-vides students with a lunch ex-perience that is different from their everyday experience.

Many may not know some secrets about Placer High School so here’s some in-formation. The majority of us Hillmen know that Placer High was originally Sierra College and the “First Inde-pendent Normal College on the Pacific Coast.” Normal, in this instance, means prelimi-nary, professional education for teachers.

Their rules were, “students can enter at any time, select what studies they choose, and advance as rapidly as their at-tainments will permit.”

In 1897, Sierra Normal Col-lege leased Professor DeBell the buildings which he ran the school through the name of Auburn High School .

In September of that same year only seventeen students attended the High School and all paid tuition. It’s first grad-uating class was in 1900.

In the 1950’s Placer had an outstanding rifle team. The Placer rifle team won state championshipd four years in a row.

What is now the weight room used to be used as the shooting range for the team. Interesting… Where did the team slash club go?

The club slowly died off as the seniors left and the in-coming freshmen weren’t in-terested. It has happened to many other sports at Placer through the years.

Placer also had a Girls Field Hockey team, a gymnastics team, and song leaders along

with cheerleaders. But they s l o w l y died off as well.

D u r -ing the cold war in the 50’s a g a i n s t R u s s i a , Placer High used the Dun-geon as a bomb s h e l t e r and stor-age for both food and water.

“ T h e y gave us tons of 50 galloon w a t e r c o n t a i n -ers and b i s c u i t s to store d o w n t h e r e , ” Jug Cov-ich said, a former principle of Placer as well as the father of current ceramics teacher Mr. Covich.

They were scared of an in-vasion and were told to either head to the Dungeon, or what now is called the weight room, for safety.

Many famous people have graduated from Placer High School. Ben Nighthorse was in the 1964 Olympics.

He was the Captain of the judo team. Stacy Dragila was

an Olympic gold medalist for pole vaulting in 2000.

A retired officer of the United States Air Force and a “triple ace” in World War II, Col Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson. Jeff Blauser was in the major leagues of base-ball and played for the Atlanta Braves. Jeff Hamilton was the bronze winner of the Olympic games for downhill skiing.

Amazing what secrets have been kept and what has changed here at Placer High School, or should I say, Au-burn High School.

To most students, Placer’s campus is a place to learn, hang out with friends and the location where most of your sports practices are held. Yet as you walk the campus, many houses surround Placers high school; you can see these houses right outside the win-dows of most classrooms.

Homeschooled student Sa-mantha Bell lives right across the street from Placer high school and has for the past nine years.

When asked if anything about living near the school bothered her, Bell had this to say, “The bells honestly do bug me, especially when they go off during the summer months. It’s rather bothersome when you are trying to sleep,”

Although Bell is bothered by school bells and fire alarms

ringing and going off as well as students always walking near and around her house she said that if given the chance, she wouldn’t move, seeing as how she’s gotten so use to Placer students.

Bell still finds it bad-mannered of Placers students when she goes to exit her house and finds various pieces of trash and gar-bage on her yard and around her house. Bell has found things from chip bags to coke cans in her yard and had noticed the amount of garbage going up with each passing year.

“It’s not too big of a deal, but I wish some high school students would just have a bit

more common sense to realize that this is rude. It’s where I

live. I don’t put trash in their yards,” Said Bell.

Despite the fact that Bell has almost no problem with the surrounding Placer students,

some business owners do have problems with students.

“I really don’t like that fact the students sit on my lawn around lunch time, and then decide to leave their trash all over the place. I find it real-ly disrespectful,” Said a local business man who wished to remain anonymous.

Some students, such as senior From a rifle team to a girls hockey team, it’s easy to see how Placer has evolved over the years

Molly Fries, who’s been living neat Placer for fifteen year and has been attending Placer for four, finds living right by the school quite convenient.

“I get to eat lunch at home whenever I want to which is awesome and I think it’s pret-ty nice that my friends and I always have a place to go at lunch when we don’t want to go off campus. Not to men-tion, it’s never much of a big deal when I forget my home-work,” Stated Fries

Fries finds it extremely help-ful when she has to get up ear-ly for band practice or stay late for drama rehearsals as well.

Placer senior Alyssa Abraha-mian thinks that living within walking distance to the school would be a good and help-ful thing, “It would be great, think of all the money you could save on gas. But I do see how it could be annoying hav-ing to listen to fire alarm tests during the summer or knowing that you would never truly be able to get away from the high school atmosphere.”

Houses across from Placer’s campus are forced to listen to bells ring during summer time Photo Credit: Britny Christine

Behind the current weight room, there was once a shooting range during the 1950’s Photo Credit: Savannah Young

FEATURES 3Volume XXXVII

Issue 2September 25, 2009

By Claire McCoyMessenger Staff Writer

The majority of students at Plac-er High School wear flip-flops, but what they don’t know is that wear-ing them too much can lead to per-manent foot pain or infection.

Aching feet sounds like a prob-lem that just middle-aged or el-derly people experience, but it is now more common in high school students.

“Whole soccer teams of 16-year-old girls are complaining of the kind of foot pain usually seen in mostly older, fatter people,” said Dallas sports Podiatrist Marybeth Crane. The source of the injury and pain isn’t only the girls’ soccer cleats or even the high heels they break out on prom night.

Instead, Crane blames the pain on their flip-flops, which she ex-plains as, “The flimsy, slip-on, toe-thonged sandals that girls and young women nationwide have adopted as their warm-weather, everyday shoe uniform.”

Most women and men now are wearing flip-flops as a casual, hot-weather shoe that seems comfort-able, but can cause unknown foot ache. Many people who wear flip-flops and experience foot pain would not think that it is the source of their ache.

“Flip-flops were never meant to be everyday shoes,” says Crane,

who is also a spokeswoman for the American College of Foot and An-kle Surgeons. “They were meant to be worn from the locker room to the pool and back.”

The beach is a really popular place to wear flip-flops.

It is better to have some support under your feet at the beach instead of being barefoot but for every day use, there are bet-ter shoe choices that give you the support and com-fort that you need.

“The problem”, foot doctors say, “is that flip-flops offer little cushion-ing under the foot and no arch sup-port.”

Some of the few possible consequences for wearing flip flops are sore arches and heels, which can lead to chronic condi-tions. Theses chronic conditions include inflamed Achilles tendons and plantar fasciitis, which is the inflammation of the tissue that connects between the heel bone and the toes.

Other common conditions are heel calluses from the constant pounding on the sole of the shoe

and hammer toes from the grip-ping in between the big toe and the second toe.

The irritation that is found be-tween toes can lead to nasty fungal

diseases and infections. The layer of grime that coats your feet at the end of a day from wearing flip flops around town is some danger-ous dirt.

Lab tests done by two reporters revealed a potentially deadly germ, Staphylococcus aureus, which was lurking on the rubber of the shoe. If the dirt or grime seeps into a cut on your foot, which is an entirely common summer condition, the bacteria can enter the bloodstream

By Kathryn RealeMessenger Staff Writer

Premanent parking spots awarded to select few

Studies prove flip-flops are unhealthy

Getting a spot in the limited student parking lot is a luxury that only the kids who are will-ing to wake up at the crack of dawn get to experience. But for these 10 lucky students, they will no longer know the feeling of frustration as they search for a parking spot in the early morning hours.

Kelsey Lardner, Mitchell Maddox, Asher Gotzmer, Mi-chael Dean, Audrey Furlong, Heather Johnston, Shannon Harcus, Connor Coleman, Nick Vandendrieshe and Alys-sa Abrahamian were the select few who now have this ultimate privilege.

These students ignore the STAR testing reputation of a pointless test that you make smiley faces in the ABCD bub-bles with. Instead, these stu-dents tried their hardest and improved their score tremen-dously increasing our school’s overall STAR testing scores.

The lucky few will receive a spot in lower parking lot for the entire school year. Senior Mitchell Maddox is overjoyed with the prospects of his own parking spot.

“It’s really, really convenient. It’s good to know I have a park-ing spot for football games, basketball games, and any other

sporting events I attend.”“It’s pretty awesome. It’s a

great feeling when your coming in late knowing that there will be a spot just waiting for me when you get there,” stated Dean.

The spots aren’t only a privilege, but a great necessity if you are run-ning late get-ting to school, or coming into school during 2nd and 3rd peri-od where there are virtually no parking spots available.

They will re-ceive stickers to put onto their cars, showing that they are one of the stu-dents who have one of the designated spots. Although some students are overjoyed with their gift, oth-ers are not as happy-go-lucky as the winners.

“I think it’s really dumb. It’s even harder for people to find parking spots now,” said senior Erika Hanson about the desig-

nated spots effect on the other driving students.

“I don’t want to wake up ear-

lier to get a spot,” junior Aubrey Clayton said of the now limited spots in the parking lot.

Waking up earlier and fewer parking spots for other stu-dents are posing as problems for drivers. But what if a stu-dent is so mad they are to park in one of the special designated

spots?“I’d probably key their car,”

Dean said outraged at the pos-

sibilities of another person parking in his spot.

“I would immediately call Mr. Pantelioni and file a com-plaint,” Maddox went on to say, “I would definitely kick their car.”

The real question is, will the rule for only the star testing

students parking in these spots be applied? Principle Peter Ef-stathiu explained the process if

a student proceeds to park in one of the spots.

“If a student is to park in one of the spots, they will go directly to the vice principle, and they will leave a note on the stu-dents car,” ex-plained Efstathiu, “If a student fre-quently goes in the spots, the school will have to place disciplinary ac-tions on them.”

These conse-quences should prevent students from parking in the spots.

“These kids have worked hard to achieve their goals so they deserve to have their own parking spots,” said Efstathiu.

Although some students don’t feel that the parking spots are fair, the students who did receive them get to enjoy the parking spot waiting for them for the rest of the year.

and if it is not treated, it can be deadly.

Of course, flip-flops aren’t the only popular shoe that can hurt or damage your feet. Popular bal-

let flats and sky-high wedges, if worn too often or in the wrong

situations, can cause just as much pain as common and well-known stiletto heels.

Even low-heeled, wide-strapped sandals can harm your feet if you wear the same pair every day throughout summer.

Ways to avoid and prevent se-rious foot conditions are really simple.

Spend most of your time in com-fortable shoes that offer good arch and heel support. If you know that you are going to be walking most of the day, then wear shoes that are right for that.

In order to prevent bad sunburn on your feet, wear sunscreen on the top of your feet and in between your toes.

Flip flops are fashionable and comfortable, but can lead to un-known foot conditions. Take cau-tion and put thought into the type of shoes you wea,r and whether or not they give you the support you need.

Convience of common footwear outweighted by hazards to health

Shoes like these are linked with various health problems Photo Credit: Britny Christine

Ideal spots, such as these, are marked marked with green and gold paint on the curbPhoto Credit: Britny Christine

OPINIONS4Volume XXXVII

Issue 2September 25, 2009

By Cait CullenOpinions Editor

By Amy Van GroningenNews Editor

Bikes are everywhere. Stu-dents ride them to school and around town. Some people even just ride their bikes for the fun of it. But what I really want to know is: do they know the laws that they must abide by?

Section 21202 of the law states: “Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway…”

Under section 21207, bicycle

lanes are established. Addition-ally, section 21208 explains: “Whenever a bicycle lane has been established on a roadway pursuant to Section 21207, any person operating a bicycle upon the roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride within the bicycle lane…”

My problem is with the large amount of cyclists that appear to be completely unaware of this law. I am unable to count how many times I have had to specifically move while driving to avoid a cyclist.

Just last week, I was driving home on Auburn Folsom Road. For those unfamiliar with Au-burn Folsom Road, there is a clear white line marking the bi-cycle lane. The speed limit is 45 miles per hour on this par-ticular stretch of the road, and cyclists are unable to maintain the speed of traffic.

There were two cyclists, side by side, riding down this road as I drove. One of these cyclists was at least two feet left of the white line. I watched as the car in front of me drove half way into the next lane to avoid this cyclist, and unfortunately, I had to do the same to avoid a col-lision with the bike. It was ex-tremely lucky that there was not a car driving in the left lane.

Now, had the cyclist been passing the other cyclist, his move would have been legal. Cyclists are only allowed on the left side of the bike lane under a few circumstances, including passing a cyclist, preparing to turn left at an intersection, and when necessary to avoid road conditions.

I have 20/20 vision, and I am completely positive that the two cyclists were riding next to each other like old buddies; they weren’t turning left at an intersection and there was defi-

Cyclists cross the line morally and literally

The recent hub-bub about a park to be named after William Shockley in Auburn is ludicrous considering his outright racism and lack of tolerance for all hu-man beings. Last time I checked, there’s no Adolf Lane or Don Imus Way in Auburn. I do not support a piece of land being turned into a park bearing the name “William Shockley” be-cause “William Shockley” is, to me, synonymous with racism, ignorance, and worst of all—eu-genics.

William Shockley was a bril-liant man who had a lucrative career as a physicist and inven-tor and was not only awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his co-invention of the transis-tor, but also the Presidential Medal for Merit for his dedica-tion to improvements of tech-nology during World War II.

Towards the end of his life, he became known for theoriz-ing African Americans’ intel-lectual inferiority to whites and was thought of as a racist due to his proponent status of eugen-

ics, a racist concept. Essentially, statistics spoke to Shockley that minimally-educated blacks were reproducing on average at a faster rate than other races, edu-cated or not. He shuddered at the thought that eventually the entire universe would be flooded with humans having “undesir-able traits.” This fear drove him to publicize these beliefs.

Eugenics is the idea that the human race may be improved by discouraging those with genetic defects or “inheritable undesired traits” to reproduce. Eugenicists would generally prefer the hu-man race to be purified (doesn’t this sound like an ideal Aryan nation?) of genetic defects and undesirable traits, which can be presumed to come from African Americans. Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime favored this concept. Isn’t that enough? Shockley is recognized as having prominent ideas in common with Adolf Hitler, a man responsible for the death of 12-15 million people due to anti-Semitism and intol-erance.

Shockley passed away in 1989, but his widow, Emmy, only re-cently passed away in 2007. The land he owned was donated be-cause Shockley’s parents previ-ously lived in Auburn.

Auburn Area Recreation and Park District voted to accept this donation of land in March of this year. What an uneducat-ed decision. Although it isn’t the burden of ARD to dig up dirt on a seemingly uncontroversial

Shockley is racist and undeserving of park

nitely nothing wrong with the road.

Say there had been a car in the left lane. What measures would I have had to take? I would obviously do my best to slow down. But slowing down so quickly could still have un-fortunate consequences. It is possible that I would have been able to slow down in time to avoid the cyclist. But had there been a car behind me, my abrupt stop could have caused a collision between my car and the car behind me.

Cyclists do get hit often, sometimes when they are fol-lowing the law and sometimes when they are not. A common action for the cyclists is to sue the driver. This is not an issue, unless the cyclist is following the law. However, it is extreme-ly difficult for a driver to avoid being sued, even if the cyclist was not following the law. The fact that cyclists can sue for

money, even when the cyclist was the law breaker, is very up-setting.

Drivers already have enough to worry about on the road. There are other cars everywhere, signs regarding the speed limit, etc. To have to worry about bikes on the left side of the bike lane is ridiculous.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s awe-some that these people are sav-ing money on gas and reducing pollution. But come on! If you care so much about the envi-ronment and the people living in it, abide by the law.

I don’t want to hit a cyclist, and the thought of hitting someone and causing injury to them completely horrifies me. But I’ve had enough of driving into the other lane to avoid hit-ting someone and getting sued. Just follow the law. As a driver, I follow the laws of the road everyday, and believe me; it’s really not that hard.

man like Shockley, it’s not brain surgery. The man’s Wikipedia page exposes his beliefs within the first paragraph. If ARD had done their homework, perhaps they wouldn’t be in such a mess right now. Auburn does not need this man mucking up our good name and getting a park named after him when the truth is that he didn’t like black peo-ple because of their skin color. He doesn’t deserve glory; he de-serves shame and infamy.

While it was generous and thoughtful that this 28 acre plot of land, which lies on Shock-ley Road between Luther Road and Auburn Ravine Road, was donated, along with $50,000 for upkeep and startup for the development, it shouldn’t be ac-cepted under the current terms. Those terms state that the park be named “Nobel Laureate Wil-liam B. Shockley and his wife Emmy L. Shockley Memorial Park.” I say the heck with that! ARD, get away from this proj-ect. Or find a way to name it something different.

The United States has come too far to let this happen. The President is African American! We need to stand up and say no to the idea of a common racist’s name being touted on a poten-tially beautiful and serene park. If you believe that all men are created equal and deserve the same rights and treatment, you couldn’t agree that this man de-serves anything more than pub-lic ridicule and disappointment.

By Alyssa HarbenMessenger Staff Writer

Daily bulletins too costly, bet-ter suited online

One would think that, in the middle of a financial crisis, one would try to cut costs whenever possible. Therefore, wouldn’t it be logical to switch from print-ed paper bulletins to online bul-letins?

Not every teacher here at Plac-er reads the bulletin everyday, so the bulletin that is printed out every day for them goes to waste. There are so many other ways we could spend the money that we now spend on paper for bulletins. Especially now, since we have an extremely limited budget and tight funds in all departments of the school, we need to be saving money. We should be doing all we can to spend the money we have on necessities, not wasting them on things like unnecessary paper.

Placer High school has 55 teachers, including ROP teach-ers, which means there are ap-proximately 55 bulletins printed for teachers ever day. After a school year we have used 9,900 pieces of paper just for bulle-tins, which just end up getting thrown away, with many stu-dents forgetting what was in them.

Shouldn’t a public school in a state that is in the middle of a budget crisis spend its limited funds on things that help stu-dents learn, not on unnecessary paper? Some of the teachers here at Placer think that paper-less bulletins are a better alter-native also.

“I would love it; I’m all for it. It would save trees and mon-ey,” said Elise Ryerson.

Not only could we save mon-ey by switching to paperless bulletins, we could also save en-ergy and the environment. Just by getting rid of a printed out bulletin, we as a school would be able to save around forty trees per year, anywhere be-tween 4,000 and 20,000 gallons of water used in the paper mak-ing process and we would also be conserving the energy that would have been used to make that paper.

Teachers could even have the option of printing the bulletin out for themselves. That way, the ones that would want to pin it on their wall, or save it, still can. And the teachers that al-ready read the bulletins are not going to stop reading it just be-cause it’s online.

Another benefit for the stu-dents would be that all they would need to access the bul-letin at home is the internet. When students know what is happening on campus, they are more likely to participate which would bring more students to events. The benefits of switch-ing to online bulletins far out-weigh the possible problems.

Shockley’s racist opinions overshadow any accomplishments during career

Motorists must swerve and practice caution around reckless cyclists

5Volume XXXVII

Issue 2September 25, 2009

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PERSPECTIVES6Volume XXXVII

Issue 2September 25, 2009

By Melissa Smith Messenger Staff Writer

t ion and hard work has defi-nitely paid off

“I do cheerleading because it ’s something I’m good at and something I’ve always

had interest in.” Megan Peek exclaimed.

Cheerleading is Megan’s

A day in the life of cheerleader Megan Peek

Rally time, the time when the students of Placer High School can scream and jump and dance, and are encouraged to do so; due to the help of the Placer Hillman. Rallies have always been a great treat and spirit booster to the stu-dents of Placer High, but who is the man behind the beloved Hill-man mascot? None other than our every own Conrad Harder.

“It’s pretty energetic, and to be honest, it’s a privilege…it is pretty hot though,” laughed Se-nior Conrad Harder.

With being the mascot of Placer, there come great respon-sibilities, including going to all the rallies and all the major events at Placer, not to mention, making sure that everyone is on their feet and cheering ‘Can’t Stop The Green Machine!’

“I go to every rally, make sure that everyone is high energy….I do do the jug. It’s probably one of my finest moments….It‘s a little hard getting the freshman motivated. It’s a real task some-times, but someone‘s got to lead them,” shrugged Harder.

This being Harder’s first year in the classic Hillmen costume, he has come to find out that it may not be as easy as going out in front of a crowd.

“It’s a lot of fun, a little nerve racking, but once you’re out there,

you just gotta do it…” stated Hard-er. “Take one for the school…”

By Nicole Parrish Messenger Staff Writer

One thing that Harder is hoping won’t change is his time for basket-

ball. Conrad has played basketbal l since his Freshman year and hopes to continue it into his Se-nior year, but accord-ing to Con-rad, this won’t be very hard to balance.

“I think that I can devote my-self to both equally. I’ll have to walk out there with the basketbal l team every once in a while, but I’ll still be a Hillman at heart…” s m i l e d

Harder. “I’m probably go-

ing to have my jersey on, but I may whip it off, revealing the Hillmen

Behind the eyes of the Hillmen mascot

“I go to every rally, make sure that everyone is high energy….I do do the jug. It’s probably one of my finest moments….It’s a real task sometimes, but someone‘s got to lead them,” -Conrad Harder, Senior

Life as a cheerleader isn’t as easy and simple as it seems. Most people today look at cheerleading as a useless and pathetic sport. However, that is not the case at al l .

Cheerleaders work just as hard as any athlete does. Yeah, maybe you don’t usu-ally see cheerleaders running suicides or doing 100 push-ups, but they do have to run laps and do some pushups as a punishment. Cheerlead-ers go out and perform their very best at every ral ly, Foot-ball game, and competition they go to.

One of the most known cheerleaders at Placer High is Megan Peek. Megan has been cheering for 10 years straight and loves the sport with a passion. She does both school and competition team.

The highest level for com-petit ion is level 5 and that’s college status. Megan has made it so far to level 4 and her goal is to reach 5 and cheer at Sac State. Last sum-mer she attended a cheer camp and was asked to be a USA cheerleader and staff member, her answer was a for-sure yes. Megan’s dedica-

l ife. Her practices on Tues-days are 3-5:30 and 7-9:00 pm. Wednesdays are at 3-5:30, Thursdays 4-7:00 pm, Fridays are games, and Saturdays/

S u n d a y s are com-p e t i -tions.

“ M e -gan is one of the best f l iers and is a dedi-c a t e d and hard w o r k e r . She is a l e a d e r in cheer and very f i e r c e . You can tel l she has lots of expe-rience by watch ing her,” said t e a m -m a t e Kh inde l l Shelly.

Every week is a

week full of cheer and there are always tough moments. Megan told the Hillmen Mes-senger that she has never had

a broken bone but plenty of sprained wrists.

Cheerleading is one of the most dangerous sports. In-juries oc-cur al l the time mostly be-cause of f l ips and t h r o w -ing girls in the air. M e g a n , as a f l ier, has defi-nitely had risks of serious injuries but never has occurred. The most common injuries are the back, wrists and legs.

If you’ve ever seen Bring It On, then you know cheerlead-

ing is some serious business. Gymnastic moves and daring stunts are just as important, if not more so, than the sym-

bolic pom-poms. When it comes to serious inju-ries, cheer-ing is num-ber one and those feats of daring are to blame. Having a l ife as a cheer-leader is high paced, dan-

gerous, and sometimes a l it-t le hectic. However, it ’s also fi l led with spirit and good old Hillmen pride!

“I do cheerleading because it’s some-thing I’m good at and something I’ve always had interest in.” -Megan Peek, senior

costume; you never know, because

the Hillmen has to be at the ral-lies.”

Last year’s spring musical, Little Shop Of Horrors, had the surprise of having Harder play the vicious dentist, which was a big hit with the crowd due to his ability to leave the room laughing hysterically. With this year’s musical unknown, Con-rad is still unsure if he is going to

audition. “I might, we’ll see, I

still am not sure about that one….” stated Harder “I’ll just keep you on your toes. You’ll never know.”

But with all this on his plate, not to mention regular classes and the dreaded Senior projects, how does Harder plan on resting in between each activity?

“The Hillmen never sleeps! But when I sleep, it’s with one eye open,

and I like to camp out under the stars and do my Hillmen activities. You got to live the life too, portray the life.” laughed Harder.

Conrad has proven to us that with enough drive and an hilarious sense of humor, you can achieve any-thing. Conrad really knows what it’s like to be a Hillmen. Guess you re-ally cant’t stop the green machine.

Photo By Nicole Parrish

Photo by Melissa Smith

Megan Peek gives cheer two thumbs up

Harder shows his Hillmen spirit

What happens behind the pom poms and the cheer uniforms

PERSPECTIVES 7Volume XXXVII

Issue 2September 25, 2009

By Macenzie McGownMessenger Staff Writer

A day in the life of a football player might seem like just an average day; you would get up early, go to school, practice and then go home. But if you were to walk in their shoes for a day, you would come to find out that the walk isn’t so easy.

Placer’s football team spends a long three hours practicing hard after school for four days a week and even as a fourth period the players have football P.E. Football season started August 17th, but over sum-mer they also practiced four days a week from 4-

A day in the life of a Placer football player7 PM. They had football camp for three days also, at Pittman High school in Turlock.

“It’s all about how you practice; if you practice hard, games will be easy,” said Varsity QB, Collin Burnett.

Every Friday night the players go out and play a game, giving it their all. Their games are usually al-most three hours long or longer.

Football players have al-ways been recognized as “the studs” around school, so you might wonder what it is like to actually be a football player for one day.

“People look up to you as a leader and always watch what we do,” said Burnett.

Football being the dom-inate sport at most high s c h o o l s c a u s e s most stu-dents and t e a c h e r s to expect the foot-ball play-ers to be good role models. Football players are expected to be inspira-tional and always set good examples. This includes good behavior, respect to others and maintaining good grades.

“You have to manage

your time good because of homework and practice,” added Burnett.

Most players won’t be home from practice until

after seven, so they spend their nights staying up late finishing homework from classes.

“It is difficult because you don’t have as much time, but you’re more dis-

ciplined,” commented Bur-nett.

Fortunately, the football players have a nice time to relax every Friday. Be-fore every game, the entire football team does yoga.

“We do yoga, and that re-ally calms the team down and centers our soul,” stat-ed Burnett.

The football season will be over in mid-November, depending on if they make it to playoffs. Playoffs go until December.

So if you were to walk a day in the shoes of a foot-ball player, you would come to find out that a lot more is asked than just playing a game and winning.

Dedication in three year band president Molly Fries

A student of Placer High school who plays the trumpet in the band, Molly Fries bases her life around mu-sic.

Fries told me that being in the band is very fun. She loves to make music with her band mates. Not only is her hobby based around the band but it is also based around drama as well. She loves both her drama class and her band class equally the same.

“Being a senior is a little unreal and the senior project is daunting, but I may do something with music,” commented Fries. That’s not all; she’s thinking about majoring in music, too. She is also thinking of doing her senior project on music.

Charlotte Csontos, a friend of Fries announced, “She has been play-

ing the trumpet since middle school.” Csontos added, “She does a perfect balance of band, school and drama, and she’s an awesome band president as well.”

What a lot of work: band presi-dent, school, drama, and being in the

band class as well!She’s also so devoted to band that

she goes in the band room during lunch just to practice and be in there playing music. This shows how much she loves to play, which is a lot.

Not to mention, she’s giving up her trip with the AP English class to Ashland. The trip is an excursion to Ashland, Oregon to watch some Shakespearian plays with her AP English class. That’s a lot of devo-tion to be skipping your senior trip because you are dedicated to your school and its music.

By Santa Hart Messenger Staff Writer

A day in the life of a teacher is more than just using class hours to teach. They take their hours off to grade papers, clean up after the stu-dents’ messes and go to meetings.

Before arriving in the classroom, teachers create lesson plans on what they’re going to teach that day. At school, usually beginning around 8AM, teachers must begin the dif-ficult task of interesting sleepy stu-dents.

A good sense of humor and the ability to think like their students help teachers get their students’ at-tention. Also, listening to what they have to say and their point of view on things help teachers understand students. This helps more than just teaching and talking for the whole two hour period and then assigning

A typical day of Mr. Janus By Karrah Barger

Messenger Staff Writer homework for at home.

Teachers must have high expecta-tions of their students and be able to empathize with their concerns. Also, teachers can be required to act as chaperones at a certain number of af-ter-school functions, such as dances, leadership and choir concerts. Teach-ers should want to make a difference in students’ lives and their upcoming future. Students have to realize that they’re their teacher, not their friend.

“The craziest thing Mr. Janus has ever done was drink mouth wash in the middle of class; he is pretty trip-py,” said Bronte Haskin.

Every teacher is different, and there are skills that go along with teaching. Being a teacher isn’t easy; after school, kids also need help with their work and they come in at lunch to make up tests or turn in homework.

Teachers have to go to college for

along amount of years and start off with student teaching. It takes up to four years or more to get your degree and after you’re hired, most schools require you to have your Master’s Degree, which is an extra two years. It takes time and a lot of work to become a teacher, and to live in that life style.

Unfortunately, there is a risk of easily getting fired because of the budget cuts in education. You also have to deal with parents if there is any student problem, or even a miscommunication.

“Everyday I look forward to going to Mr. Janus’ class because he is such a fun and cool teacher,” stated Zac Hersh. He is a good teacher that teaches Physics, is popular and very well known at Placer High.

Being so into the band and giving up your lunch and a trip to Ashland just to practice with the band shows a lot of dedication and devotion.

Csontos described Fries’ person-ality as that of very intelligent and sweet. Csontos mentioned that Fries

also encouraged her to go to concerts with her and be a part of the musical life. Molly is also, apparently, holding a fund called the Flugel Fund which is at her locker. Csontos thinks that it is a promotion for the Flugel instru-ment that looks similar to a trumpet and plays some what like it as well. She has a jar in her locker for the money for the fund.

Cstontos added that, not only is Fries into band and drama, but she loves art as well. One of her projects she has made was a dress with a ton of buttons sewn onto it.

Photo by Santa Hart Molly Fries practices her trumpet

“You have to manage your time good because of home-work and practice...It is dif-ficult because you don’t have as much time, but you’re more disciplined,” -Collin Burnett, junior

8Volume XXXVII

Issue 2September 25, 2009

OPINIONS 9Volume XXXVII

Issue 2September 25, 2009

Editor-in-Chief: JD Avila Features Editor: Britny ChristineNews Editor: Amy Van Groningen

Opinions Editor: Cait CullenPerspectives Editor: TaNee Edwards

Sports Editor: Kathryn RealeOnline Editor: Claire McCoy

Design Editor: Clarise BankusAds Manager: Melissa Smith

Copy Editor: Tierra Schroeder, Shauna Kean

Reporters: Karrah Barger, Ian Bechler, Alex Brigham, Colin Brown, Rachel

Church, Alyssa Harben, Shannon Harcus, Santa Hart, Zac Hersh, Shauna Kean,

Claire McCoy, Mackenzie McGown, Laura Molnar, Laura Nash, Nicole Parrish,

Alicia Sandoval, Tierra Schroeder, Melissa Smith, Savannah Young

Adviser: Dan Wilson

Mission Statement: The Hillmen Messenger is dedicated to providing an open fo-rum of expression and producing a newspaper of quality based upon professional standards of accuracy, objectivity, and fair play so that students, faculty, admin-istration and the public can gain insight into student thinking and concerns. All students and staff are welcome to send letters to the Hillmen Messenger. Letters can be brought to room 306 or e-mailed to phsnews@puhsd.k12.ca.us. All letters must include name and first period class. The Hillmen Messenger reserves the

Hillmen Messenger

right to edit letters for content, size, or spelling.

By Alicia SandovalMessenger Staff Writer

Kanye West, a rapper known for his blunt opinions and outspoken at-titude, lived up to his reputation on this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. During Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Music Video, West jumped on stage, interrupting her, in order to give praise to Beyoncé

Knowles. This recent “outburst” has ignited

Kanye’s controversial flame, thus put-ting him in a bad position. His albums are being boycotted and his music re-moved from radio stations. However, I can only help but wonder why exactly this is such a pressing issue.

“I don’t care really, it’s not that im-portant at all,” said William Owen, a junior at Placer High School, and I can’t help but agree with him. So in the words of the great Chris Crocker, “I’m here to say leave Kanye alone! You’re lucky he even preformed for you people!”

In recent years, Kanye West has been the center of many controver-sies. These range from his lyrics to his political opinion. During a concert for hurricane relief after the Hurricane Katrina disaster he declared, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” but as far as it relates to high school students, this outburst went fairly un-noticed.

“What Kanye said about George Bush wasn’t a big deal, but what he did with Taylor Swift was a jerk move,” commented Tyler Flash.

Now, some might say I’m a little cynical; nonetheless, I would say it’s a sad day when most teenagers, even when related to a king of the sup-

posed music of their generation, can’t comprehend anything even slightly re-lated to politics and yet with no effort can make a huge issue out of the em-barrassment of one of their little Dis-ney-promoted, no-talent ‘stars,’ who are only famous because they’re easily exploited and appealing to people of our age group.

Taylor Swift is no different than any other upcoming star. She has to learn to take ridicule and embarrassment like everyone else has. Many great artists, from Prince to Steven Tyler, started their music careers getting booed off-stage, over time becoming megastars and, when matched against such great artists, Taylor Swift absolutely pales in comparison. And let’s not forget

all the free publicity. Follow-ing this incident she’s gotten at least 10 times as much face time as the late Patrick Swayze, who lost his year long battle with pancreatic cancer just the other day. Her album sales have skyrocketed over the past few days and her television appearances have increased substantially. With all the money pouring into repairing her hurt feel-ings, she should be thanking Kanye West for what he did.

But let’s take another look at Kanye. He did apologize various times! He’s apolo-gized repeatedly since the moment he handed the mi-crophone back to her. The most heartfelt of them all came from his interview with Jay Leno the next day. I would like to point out Jay

Leno completely stepped over the line when he asked Kanye West how he thought his mother would feel about this incident. I remind you, this is his mother who just recently passed away and whom he accredits all his success to. It’s not as if he got on stage and di-rectly insulted Taylor Swift, he merely pointed out that Beyoncé had a good music video. Is it really necessary to nearly bring the man to tears on na-tional television? May I also say, even if somehow one managed to overlook all off this and still feels that he de-serves horrible punishment, there’s no need. While being interviewed by Jay Leno he specifically said he was taking a break after this, therefore he doesn’t have to be unreasonably boycotted because he’s not going to be around anyway.

In essence, I think it is fair to say that this whole issue has been tremendous-ly blown out of proportion. Not only is Taylor Swift being compensated for all this by having her pocketbook filled, and not only did she receive nu-merous apologies, but the delightfully outspoken and disrespectfully imma-ture Mr. West won’t be seen for some time. So with that, I’d like to say to poor Taylor Swift, “I’m so sorry for all the publicity you’re getting.” Also to Kanye West, “Your mother would be very disappointed in you.”

West gives Swift publicity galore, boo-hooBy Clarise Bankus

Messenger Staff Writer

Swift’s achievement overshadowed by West

Everyone has a moment in their life where it seems that all of their dreams have come true. Whether it is receiv-ing the highest grade on your history test or winning an award, everyone will have their moment. For country artist Taylor Swift, her moment was ruined at the Video Music Awards.

It is hard to imagine going through our daily lives without music. I listen to music as I get ready for school, in my car and at work, just to name a few. Although most radio stations play the same songs every hour, listening to music helps us get through the day. Taylor Swift has topped the charts for quite a while now. Her songs re-late to the common teenage girl which makes her music easy to love. Her im-age appears to be the sweet girl next door, and who would hurt the girl next door?

The VMAs had three awards re-lating to music videos: Best Female Video, Best Male Video, and Best Video Overall. Swift won Best Female Video, but her shining moment was crushed by none other than Kanye West. West felt that one of Swift’s competitors, Beyonce, should have won the award instead of her. He should have kept his opinion to him-self or maybe shared his feelings with his friends, but that’s not what he did. West went above and beyond and ran onto the stage and humiliated himself, but more selfishly, he embarrassed Swift in front of the nation.

Did anyone ask who the “Great” Kanye West wanted to win? Was it necessary for him to do that? The an-swer is no. Beyonce went onstage later and won the overall award so West just made himself look like a fool. He needs to be put in his place. If we

spend millions of dollars on his music every year, he should respect others and not act like he’s king of the world. Who wants to look up to someone who hurt the girl next door?

Granted, this is causing a huge up-roar in the music industry. West’s music is being boycotted and Swift’s ratings are sky high. West brought this upon himself, and he deserves what he gets. West’s ego needs to be brought down a few notches. He does not have the right to jump onto a stage and cause a scene, and he needs to realize that his opinion is not the only one that mat-ters.

West sent an apology on his blog after the event first stating that he had talked to Swift’s mother and he thinks that Swift is talented and he was sorry for going on stage. He went on to apologize to his fans and friends at

MTV. West went on to say, “Welcome to

the real world!!!! Everybody wanna booooo me but I’m a fan of real pop culture!!! No disrespect but we watchin’ the show at the crib right now cause ... well you know!!!! I’m still happy for

Taylor!!!! Boooyaaawwww!!!! You are very very talented!!! I gave my awards to Outkast when they deserved it over me ... That’s what it is!!!!!!! I’m not cra-zy y’all, i’m just real. Sorry for that!!! I really feel bad for Taylor and I’m sin-cerely sorry!!! Much respect!!!!!”

This last part of his apology shouldn’t even be considered an actual apology. He’s talking more about him-self and how it’s nothing out of the or-dinary. I guess more people should be “real” like West. More people should interrupt award shows and share who they think is talented or who they think should win. Being “real” is not what West did.

In about two months this will all blow over. West will come out with a new hip song and everyone will for-get about his selfish act. I don’t think people are overreacting. Maybe after

this incident, West will think of others before himself. Maybe he will keep his opinion to himself. And maybe, just maybe, he will stop carrying an open bottle of alcohol down the red carpet. Only time will tell if maybe will turn into reality.

West is seen borrowing Swift’s microphone for a little announcement. Photo Credit: www.guardian.co.uk

SPORTS10 Volume XXXVIIIssue 2

September 25, 2009

By Colin BrownMessenger Staff Writer

Tennis stars Serena Williams and Roger Federer angrily cursed out line judges at the U.S. Open over the past week because of controversial calls.

Both Williams and Federer’s antics have stirred up much controversy and caused strong opinions on both sides; however these stars are not the only ones subject to losing their cool dur-ing a sporting event.

Many athletes here at Placer High have an opinion regarding the temper tantrums that athletes throw or have had a heated sporting event get the best of their good judgment.

At a recent vol-leyball game one of Placer’s star players, Julia Dorsey let a curse word slip in the middle of the game.

The referee let Placer off with a warning. “The ref talked to our cap-tain and said our team had to stop cussing,” stated Julia Dorsey.

Many of Placer’s athletes can relate to the U.S. Open stars’ frustration with referees. Dorsey says,

“I think that people get frustrated

In the start of this new football sea-son, Placer High School’s team has been hit with a plague of injuries and illnesses. At out first home game alone, we were missing seven starters, including Dalton Dyer. Practices have been especially hard according to history teacher and fresh-man football coach, Mr. Barry.

“We had eleven people missing from practice on Monday. My greatest fear is becoming a reality and the freshman team is devastated.”

After the success of the game against Rosemont on Friday the 11th, Aaron Maddox says that our team will be better than ever.

“It hurts your team a lot. We had some really good guys out on Friday but on the other hand this is a really good chance for some of the sec-ond string guys to have some time on the field. I think this will really pull our team together and keep us re-ally tight.”

Despite how many players were out on injury, we were still able to pull to-gether and beat the Rosemont Wolver-ines.

“It was bad that we had all of those players out. Our team was affected a lot but we got it together and won so it all worked out in the end,” says Bailey Potts, a senior and cheerleader.

No matter how many injuries we get, however, Coach Montoya remains opti-mistic.

Tennis star’s overreac-tions causing mixed opin-ions for Placer athletes

in the heat of a game. I black out when I cuss and don’t realize what I am saying.”

And she is not the only Placer ath-lete who sympathizes with the tennis stars. Placer basketball player Michael Jensen says,

“I can definitely relate to how they feel. There is passion and sometimes you say stuff you don’t mean.”

However, Placer health teacher and Football referee, John Hilton thinks

that outbursts of anger by athletes at sporting events is unaccept-able, saying,

“If some one threat-ened me or cussed me out it would be the end of the day for them…”

Placer soccer player Jack Tucker agrees with Hilton saying,

“…I can relate to getting pissed, but, being a top athlete, you should be able to keep your composure.”

Many people seem to think that there is a bad example being set by the pro athletes of today who throw temper tantrums on the playing field.

Hilton thinks that this mentality

By TaNee EdwardsPerspectives Editor

Football injuries concern coach-es and players

Athletes questioning the fairness of referee’s calls

In high school sports today, some referees aren’t being en-tirely fair to each team playing against each other.

A referee’s job is to have au-thority over how a game is played and ensure that the game is being played fair. But what is “fair” to some referees is actual-ly considered favorable to some players.

In most sporting games, there is going to be calls that no one is going to like. The coach might proceed to yell at the referee, the players might give some lip to the referee, and in the rare case, a chair might be thrown or an inappropriate word might be thrown in the mix. But are the calls always ethical?

In a sport where calls mean ev-erything, volleyball is crucial to calls being in their favor. In many cases, the winner of a match can depend mainly on the calls the referees make. In a game verse Ponderosa, the girls came head on with a reffing controversy.

The last two crucial points came in the last game when it was a matter of winning and los-ing for the girls. Luckily, the calls were made in their favor, but is this always the case? Senior Vol-

leyball player Christina Francis feels that referees are sometimes not always accurate in their judg-ments.

“I don’t think that the reffs are always fair during our games. They sometimes seem complete-ly blind to obvious calls right in front of them weather it’s for or against our advantage.”

Although the referees are a big part, other referees such as the girls who do line judging for

the volleyball teams play a major role in how the game is played out. For every game, the JV and/or freshman team referees for their varsity team. Meaning they make a major part of the calls. So when a ball is hit barely out of the court, what will these feeble underclassmen do?

Most likely call it in. Freshman Lauren Collins feels that most of the younger players favor their varsity team when it comes to making calls.

“Everyone does unless they are afraid of the crowds,” says

By Kathryn RealeMessenger Staff Writer

Collins.The favoring of other teams

could in some games make or break a match. And outstanding crowds are willing to bring down underclassmen referees at their beck and call.

Not only is their pressure from the crowds, but from the judg-ment of their peer varsity play-ers. So is there an unfair advan-tage for the other team at away games?

Soccer is a big contact sport and without proper refereeing could turn into a serious controversy on the field.

“The games are not usu-ally unfair but they make some of the most ridiculous calls,” said senior soccer player Clay Campbell, who

has had his fair share of experi-ences with bad calls.

“One time at this tournament we had a referee that wouldn’t let us even touch the other team when they had the ball.”

Although calls can be upsetting and referees can be favorable, unfortunately whatever they say goes, unless maybe a foreign ob-ject is thrown at them.

We can argue with referees for a lot of misleading calls, but the game must go on and we have to keep on playing.

“I’m excited about the possibilities. If we stay hungry and get better and better, we’ll definitely be in the thick of things come play-offs.”

This enthusiasm will continue throughout the season according to senior football player Cameron South-ward.

“We aren’t going to let it effect us. We play against some really great teams but we are not worried. It’s not really a big deal.”

He continues by saying that he heard through the grapevine that two players have had to get MRI’s; one on Tuesday the 15th and another on the 16th.

This new sea-son is looking good so far and we hope to be successful all sea-son. Mr. Barry says that injuries are a common thing on the football field.

“There is a lot of contact in this sport. Injuries happen a lot.”

With the ill-nesses and inju-ries occurring at the rate that they are, the coaches feel that this will

all pass as quickly as it came. “With all the contact that goes around

in this sport it is easy for sickness to spread like wildfire. We are just hoping that it will hit everyone now and our team won’t be sick anymore,” says Mr. Barry.

Illness and injury are bound to hap-pen, but even afflicted with all these tri-als, the Placer High School football team will pull through and make this season all that our school and coaches expect it to be.

needs to change. “There is a ‘look-at-me’ Hollywood

mentality in sports today…I think discipline needs to increase…suspen-sion and fines need to be given more often.”

Dennis Murphy, a Placer math teacher and football coach takes a dif-ferent view of these enraged athletes.

“People are human…we all hold them to a higher level…but who even cares.”

Many coaches and athletes agree that however hard it is to hold back on your anger, it is usually for the best of the team.

“There is a fine line between com-petition and passion and physically threatening a ref…you have got to have self control,” remarked Placer Football coach Joey Montoya.

Anthony Amara, a Placer basket-ball and baseball athlete, knows how hard it can be for some athletes to not complain about bad calls. “It hap-pens. Sometimes people yell at the ref, but usually it’s best for the team if you just hold back.”

Sports can bring out the best and the worst in some people. There is a thrill in every victory, and a frustration in defeat. It is important to not take this aggravation out on the referees.

“I can definitely relate to how they feel. There is pas-

sion and sometimes you say stuff you

don’t mean.” -Michael Jensen

senior

“The games are not usually unfair but they make some of the most

ridiculous calls,” -Clay Campbel

senior

“It hurts your team a lot. We had some really good guys out on Friday but on the other hand this is a really good

chance for some of the second string guys to have some time on the

field. I think this will really pull our team to-gether and keep us re-

ally tight.” -Aaron Madox

senior

SPORTS 11Volume XXXV1

Issue 2September 25, 2009

By Shannon HarcusMessenger Staff Writer

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ very own two-time pro bowl safety Troy Polamalu has become the latest victim of the “Mad-den Curse”. For those who don’t know, Polomalu suffered a torn MCL in a pre-season game with the Tennessee Titans.

Polamalu can be seen on the cover of the much anticipated Madden 2010 video game. Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald is also featured on the cover of Madden 2010.

Fitzgerald remains healthy for now, but the Cardinals did lose their first season game to the 49’ers who effectively shut down Fitzgerald.

The Madden video game has been around since 1988, but didn’t feature ath-letes on the cover until 1999. Before that the game cover simply featured John Mad-den.

It was the second athlete cover in 2000 that brought the first casualty of the Mad-den Curse, Green Bay Packers running back Dorsey Levens.

Dorsey Levens, featured on the cover of Madden 2000 rushed for over 1000 yards in the 1999 season, but produced a meager 224 yards the following year. Levens was only the first. There are many other big names that have supposedly suffered from this jinx.

Donavan McNabb (Madden 06) suf-fered a hernia in the opening game of the 2006 season. To top the injury, McNabb and wide receiver Terrell Owens were in constant conflict all season. After just 10 games, McNabb decided to have his her-nia surgically repaired ending his season. Donovan McNabb, just another injured player or victim of the Madden Curse?

Placer High School’s cross country team has proved to be very successful in the past with three consecutive league titles for both the boys and girls teams.

With practices starting over summer and continuing every day, the whole team of over 40 boys and girls are very dedi-cated to the sport. They are motivated by the main coach Randall Fee and their team captains, Shannon Harcus and Lucas Stancliff, who are always proving themselves in races and in practices.

Much more then just training is involved. Staying hydrated and eating a healthy diet make all the difference when you’re competing at the varsity level. Senior captain Luke Stancliff

After las t year ’s comeback footba l l season, P lacer fans are hopeful for another suc-cessfu l season. This year ’s team has the ta lent they need to make i t to the p lay-offs, inc lud-ing r unning back Asher Gotzmer, our Athlete of the Issue.

Asher has made incredib le con-tr ibut ions to the team so far th is year, inc luding r unning for a per-sonal -best of 266 yards to he lp beat Rosemont in the season opener. A th i rd year vars i ty p layer, Asher i s a l so proving to be a team leader who inspires h is fe l low teammates.

“ [He i s a ] g reat a th lete, a good teammate, and I have a lot of re-spect for h im,” s ta ted Josh Klem.

Teammate Cody Albr ight a l so added that he i s “a good guy, ver y intense, and [ that he has ] a g reat laugh.”

His leadership i s jus t one of the many reasons that Coach Joey Montoya l ikes having Asher on h is team. “Asher i s a g reat k id who works hard…he’s not one of those pr ima donna ath le tes that doesn’t work hard ,” Montoya expla ined.

Combined wi th h is g i f t of speed, Asher ’s exce l lent work eth ic i s ev ident on the f ie ld wi th h is impress ive s t rength and power. These

By Laura NashMessenger Staff Writer

By Ian BechlerMessenger Staff Writer

Athlete of the issue: Asher Gotzmer

qual i t ies a l so lend them-se lves to h is other spor t , t rack and f ie ld , where he i s on the 4 by 100 re lay and the 4 by 400 re lay teams, as wel l as a s tand-out in other spr int ing events.

A s h e r p lans on cont inuing h is footba l l career af ter h igh school a t the col lege leve l . He i s looking to p lay for UC

Davis or Sacramento State, and Montoya s ta ted that “ there are severa l schools looking at h im.”

When asked whether Ash-er has what i t takes to p lay col lege footba l l , Montoya

s imply s ta ted , “no doubt about i t .”

Asher, who says that “ [Placer ] going to the sec-t ion championships las t year” i s h is g reates t foot -ba l l memor y, i s sure to have many more accom-pl i shments in s tore for h im as he f in ishes up h is h igh school career. The match-up between Placer and Whitney on November 13th i s, in h is opin ion, go-ing to be the most cr uc ia l g ame for the Hi l lmen th is season.

Wherever Asher de-c ides to p lay next year, h is love of compet i t ion a long wi th h is speed and inte l -l ig ence on the f ie ld wi l l he lp h im be successfu l . As for th is season, h is goa ls inc lude leading the Hi l l -men to the sect ion p lay-offs in November. So look for Asher, number 22 , un-der the Fr iday n ight l ights,

break ing tack les and scor-ing touchdowns, showing the PVL what be ing a Placer Hi l lman i s a l l about .

Placer students skeptical of the “Madden Curse”

An inside look at Placer’s Cross Country team

So what do Placer students think? “History shows that everybody on the

cover always has a bad year or gets injured” says senior Zach Aubuschon

“I’m a fact guy and when it comes down to the facts no one who’s been on the cover has ever been the same.” Stated Anthony Amara on the Madden Curse.

Then there are those, who don’t believe in superstitious phenomena.

“I think that being on the cover of Mad-den would go to the players’ head, so they would focus on their own fame instead of football.” Remarked Senior Dylan Moon

“I’m not a superstitious guy; the curse is just an excuse for mediocrity,” was all Se-nior Michael Jenson had to say.

One thing that many don’t consider is that all of these athletes are not only high profile, but high impact players. Look at quarterbacks Michael Vick (Madden 04, injured fibula in 05 season) and Donovan McNabb. A quarterback who likes to run the ball is bound to get hurt sooner or later, and both did.

Running backs take hard hits every play. It’s not surprising that a running back like the Rams Marshal Faulk (Madden 03) couldn’t hit the 1000 rushing yard mark af-ter 9 previous seasons of taking hits. Troy Polamu, a vital part of the Steelers defense, brings so much to the game that he is not only a big target for opposing teams, but also a great example of a high impact player.

“Any time you are a high profile player or team you’re going to have a target on your back,” explained Coach Montoya re-garding the Madden Curse

So is the Madden Curse some kind of spell cast to ruin talented players of the NFL, or just a logical coincidence? I’ll let you decide.

Photo Credit: Ian Bechler

Cross Contry team captain Luke StancliffPhoto Credit: Laura Nash

sets personal and team goals including earning league and section titles.

“I think if our team contin-ues to improve, we can make it to states.”

Prepar ing for a race begins the night be-fore. Eat-ing a good dinner, get-ting the rest needed, and getting hy-drated is crucial to all the racers.

Many have no idea about the behind the scenes work that goes into the sport on top of previous obligations such as

school, homework, and jobs.Commitment is a big part of

cross country, and the work has proved to be too much for some such as Senior Blake

Prior.“I enjoy run-

ning, but it took up too much time and I wanted to do more activities not related to school,” he ex-plained.

The team is split up into races by Fresh-men, Sopho-mores, JV, Var-sity, and Top 7. Even if a

racer falls into a freshmen or sophomore race category, they still have the op-

portunity to potentially be put on the top 7 and compete at a higher level, such as sopho-more Christian Finkbeiner, who has proved he will not let age become a factor.

Given the time to work un-til November on whatever is needed until section races be-gin, they don’t plan on letting any of this time go to waste.

They are working hard to im-prove every day with practices after school on trails around Auburn. Depending on the

day, they will run anywhere from 4-9 miles in a practice. Races however, for varsity, are 5k, and for junior varsity, it’s a shorter 2 mile run.

Only time can tell how the team will finish off this year, but are hopeful for success.

They shouldn’t have to wor-ry about this considering the coaches, the strong group with consistency, and the fact that they have proven they can do well in the past.

NEWSVolume XXXVII

Issue 2September 25, 200912

By Shauna KeanMessenger Staff Writer

Placer seniors have been confused about the change in senior portraits and quotes for the upcoming 2010 yearbook. Many rumors have been go-ing around about the changes being made. Some are saying that senior quotes will be cut from this year’s book. Some say there will be an extra pic-ture, along with the required Filmworks photo. These ru-mors are partly true and partly incorrect.

Heather Johnston, Editor in Chief of the Yearbook staff, cleared up the confusion. There will be two photos for every se-nior and they will each be allowed to write a se-nior quote. The required F i l m w o r k s photo will be the same as last year with the trees and plants in the back-ground. Filmworks will take the photo for free today at lunch. Appointments can be set up in room 306.

The Filmworks photo will be the bigger of the two photos. Overlapping it in the bottom right corner will be a photo of the student’s choice. The student choice photo can be of anything. It can be with a friend. It can be from your childhood. It can even be another professionally taken photo.

“It can be a picture of your shoes, for all I care,” stated Johnston. “I’m doing a silly face.”

The senior quote will still be included as well; it will be the same as in previous years. The quote will be placed be-neath the Filmworks photo and to the left of the photo of your choice. The student’s name will be placed sideways above the student’s choice photo. The photos are due on October 15th, and the quotes are due on October 30th.

The change, according to the Yearbook staff, was much needed. The idea came from another school’s yearbook. The Yearbook staff decided that they were tired of the same old design and wanted to switch things up a bit. They

w a n t e d to create something new that w o u l d be more m e m o -rable and show more of the se-

niors’ personalities.Seniors are happy for the

new twist. “I think it’s pretty cool,” stated senior Cody Al-bright. “It’s a good idea.”

One concern heard around Placer about the added photo for the seniors is the fact that it will take away from the pho-to space of the lower class-men.

Johnston explained, “It looked so blank last year.” The space will now be filled with memorable photos instead of blank white paper. Johnston also hopes the change will add new variety to the book and keep things fresh.

-October 15 - Film-works photo and stu-dents’ choice photo

due.-October 30 - Senior

quotes due

Senior photos change layout

The fire alarms rang through Placer High School August 15th during a fire drill and the loud noise also rang in student’s ears. Some students said the fire alarms were too loud for them.

“Everyone had to plug their ears,” said Fiona Payseno.

Sound is measured in deci-bels. Whispering is around 20 decibels loud, while firecrack-ers are around 150 decibels. Sounds that are 120 decibels or more hurt one’s ears. If the alarms hurt students’ ears, we assume the alarms are more than 120 decibels.

Gayla Rooks was in Rick Lopez’s room and commented that the alarm, “Kinda hurt my ears.”

Other students, such as Trev-or Barber, who was also in the science building, thought the alarms were “not that loud”.

Noise-induced hearing loss is caused when tiny hair cells in one’s ears are damaged by noises that are too loud. Listening to sounds at 120 decibels or louder for over a minute can cause permanent hearing loss. So if the fire alarm is over 120 decibels, and it goes off for just over a minute, anyone in a close range could have slight but permanent hearing loss. Lis-tening to 85 or more decibels for prolonged periods of time can also cause gradual hearing loss.

“I used to have a pair of earplugs at my desk for when I knew there would be a fire alarm,” said Mike Janus. The max level of an MP3 player is about 105 decibels. Next time you listen to your MP3 player or iPod, think about how loud you have it.

In past years “the alarms had to be pulled in three sys-tems,” said Gary Pantaleoni. The upper campus, the office and the rest of the buildings all had separate alarm systems. More recently, “The alarms have been replaced with high-er pitched alarms,” stated Pan-taleoni.

Now, all alarms on the school will go off regardless of where the alarm was pulled. Pantale-oni had also checked with the district regarding the loudness of the alarms and discovered they are at the required level.

The sound of the fire alarm produces the desired effect.

“It makes you want to leave,” added Pantaleoni.

The sound level is also af-fected by how close someone is to the source. In some of Placer’s hallways the alarm will echo and create a louder sound, like in the English halls

and art building. Katy Cham-berlin, who teaches in the English hall, says the alarms are “ear shattering” and that it, “does its job too well.”

All of the indoor fire alarms have a flashing light attached to them for the classes such as woodshop, where students may not be able to hear the alarm. Also, the flashing lights are for students who may be hearing impared. When the alarm goes off, the light will blink and create a sort of strobe light.

According to the epilepsy foundation, intense strobe lights like visual fire alarms can cause seizures to those with epilepsy.

The high shrill of the fire alarms will make students want to leave the room and the students will just have to endure the noise, since it is up to district code.

Fire alarms safe for earsBy Rachel Church

Messenger Staff Writer

Combined classes have become a common thing for electives at Placer since the 4x4 began. Many class-es, including woodshop, photo, drama, drafting and ceramics, have begin-ner and advanced students working in the same class.

With two different class levels, the teacher must come up with double the assignments and projects, and split their attention between the students.

Many students in com-bined classes agree that it can be tough for both them and the teacher to deal with two different

classes at once.Though it may seem like a

teacher’s nightmare to have to plan twice the projects and help two sets of students that are in different spots, most of the teachers are okay with it, since they know there’s nothing that can be done.

“I actually chose to have it this way, because last year I had advanced kids separate-ly and since it was a single course, not everybody could fit it in their schedule,” stated Elise Ryerson, photo teacher at Placer. “This gives more f lexibility in scheduling.”

Not only are combined classes easier when it comes to fitting everyone’s schedul-ing, it’s also the only way that some of the classes would be

Combined classes more stressful than othersBy Tierra Schroeder

Messenger Staff Writer

able to be full. With class sizes ranging from 35 to 40, it’s nearly impossible to fit that many students in a ceramics or photo class when they are all trying to use the same equipment.

This is also the case for Jason Long, the drama teacher at Placer, because his classes wouldn’t be big enough if they were sepa-rate. But he has a more extreme situation than the other teachers. He is actu-ally teaching two substan-tially different classes dur-ing the same period.

“We’re even in whole dif-ferent rooms trying to get stuff done,” commented Long. “It’s weird because Tech Theater and profes-

sional drama go together and have a common goal, but it’s still difficult be-cause both require 100% of my time”

Though Long has a tough job, he’s doing the best he can to manage both classes at once.

“He has to divide his time between making a set and making a play,” stated Connor Coleman, a senior in professional drama. “It has to be stressful for him.”

While the situation is not ideal for student or teach-er, both are willing to do what they can to accom-modate the most students.

“We’re doing a lot of self-directed learning,”

said Long.None of the drawbacks

have created huge prob-lems; there have even been a few small upsides to hav-ing combined classes.

“[The photo two stu-dents] help us with our projects ‘cause they’ve al-ready done it,” said Isaac Ordaz, junior.

Whether this helps or hinders students depends entirely on how the teach-er handles it and how the student utilizes their time. Most teachers and students haven’t found it to be a huge problem, but rather have taken the changes all in stride.

Students and teachers agree multi-level coures can be difficult at times