Volume 55, No. 2 The Student Newspaper of Cinnaminson High School1197 Riverton Road, Cinnaminson NJ 08077

December 2013

What’s Inside...

Gambling at CHS is Surprisingly

Common

Page 5

Ally Herron Casually Meets

Celebrities

Page 3

Petty Lunch Theft is Customary to Some at CHS

Cinnaminson Police Criminalize Fighting in Schools

by J.J. Walsh ‘14Staff Writer

While students have the option to either buy or bring their lunch, some have discovered a third op-tion: stealing. According to some students, lunch theft seems to be common in the school cafeteria. In fact, it is now somewhat of a norm to some, to the point where most students would do nothing to stop it. With four lunches a day, students have numerous opportunities to take whatever they want—and get away with it. In a busy line, some students have been known to covert-ly grab a free lunch. “I feel students may feel more inclined to steal

from the wrap line because the area is more open and there is minimal security,” says an anonymous student. Other than wraps, students frequently steal cookies. Students either take more cookies than they’ve paid for or simply just take a handful and walk away. Lunch theft is apparent to quite a few people, although it does not seem to bother them, nor does it go report-ed as it probably should.

Senior Austin Em-ery explains, “People steal lunches pretty much every day. It’s actually a pretty easy thing to do.”

Students may not know how much of a dis-service they are doing their school by stealing lunches. The loss of income to the

cafeteria service causes prices to rise and it means that students who follow the rules will end up paying more for their lunch.

In fact, Mrs.

Llewellyn warns students that stealing any part of a lunch should be something where students should con-sider the consequences.

“It doesn’t matter

the size of the theft or how expensive the item is; it is still theft and it is wrong and students will be charged with a crime if caught doing it,” she finished.

What’s dis-concerting about this trend is that school lunches themselves are not very expen-sive. Today, a stan-dard lunch is up to $3.25. The people stealing lunches are most likely not do-ing it because they cannot afford to buy

it. If that is the case, special circumstances can be made with the school so that stu-dents have the ability to eat lunch everyday.

by Mike Zelinka ‘16News Editor

Cinnaminson High School has always been a relatively safe place to be. CHS is certainly not a place with a high reputation of violence, but occasionally fights will break out in the hallways or the lunchroom. These actions, infrequent as they may be in the grand scheme of things, will no longer be tolerated at CHS.

Vice Principal Gor-man believes that fighting “is not an appropriate way to solve a conflict.” A pre-viously used policy is now being adopted to stop any violence that occurs at CHS. In previous years, fighting would result in an OSS,

ISS or police referral. The new policy now involves the police immediately. Any physical assault or fight will now be considered a crime and will be punished ac-cordingly.

According to Gor-man, this rule has been in the agenda since he and Mrs. Llewellyn arrived. Gorman says the adminis-tration wants “to make sure the message is clear. This is a place where we will not tolerate fighting.” The altered policy that is being initiated into the curriculum states that if a fight occurs, both students involved can be charged with a crime and referred to the police.

Officer Czarsasty explains, “If some type of

incident happens on school property and it can be con-sidered a crime... the stu-dents can or most likely will be charged.” Typically, a fight like this would be the first offense for the indi-viduals involved. Czarsasty says that, “Most of the time, the punishment will most likely be community service depending on the severity of the crime.” Even so, most students would be wise to avoid any such punishment.

Whether it’s the agenda’s warning or the administration’s rules, stu-dents should assume that fights will not be taken lightly anymore.

While some stu-dents think it’s unreason-able to not be able to defend

yourself in a threatening situation, others feel differ-ently. In sophomore Kim Lanholm’s opinion, “it is good the police are getting involved.”

Officer Czarsasty also feels that police in-volvement is important in this case. “I believe if kids realize there are con-sequences to their actions then they may second guess what they’re actually about to do,” he says.

“Anything that hap-pens once you leave your doorstep on the way to school, from school, all the way to getting back inside your house… that’s con-sidered on school time,” Czarsasty says.

According to this

logic, if a fight happens on a school bus, it is now consid-ered a criminal offense.

The goal of this new policy is to prevent violent situations from escalating. Hopefully, this will result in a total disappearance of fighting at CHS.

Ultimately, Czarsas-ty feels that violent situ-ations need to be handled promptly and severely, in order to completely wipe out any fights that could happen in the future.

Whether you feel the new policy is appropriate or too harsh, it will definitely affect CHS students in the future. This new policy will make students think twice before throwing a punch anytime soon.

photo courtesy of Sean GallagherThe most common items stolen from the lunch room are wraps and cookies.

Is the new “Jersey Diner” the best local diner?

Page 7

Page 2 December 2013

by Sean Gallagher ‘14Features Editor

December 12, 2013 marked a milestone in Cinnaminson history. This day represents the 150th anni-versary of Cinnaminson Township Public Schools. Dr. Illuzzi, who is currently in his 14th year as district superintendent, explained that 150 years ago, Palmyra, Riverton, Del-ran and Cinnaminson were all part of the same school district. In those days, the only public school in Cin-naminson was called the Lower Chester School. The school was a ramshackle, one room building that housed only a handful of children. Back then, schooling only went up to sixth grade, took up to eight months, and only boys were admit-ted. The Lower Chester School was originally located where Westfield Friends is now.

Cinnaminson High School itself was constructed in 1961. Students began attending CHS the following year. In 1962, CHS was even more packed than it is now. At the time, the school consisted of only one floor and educated stu-dents from 7th to 12th grade. Even worse, two students would have to share a small, cramped locker.

Things have definitely changed for the better since then. The best change Mrs. Llewellyn claims is the increased amount of

school spirit that she has noticed in her five years as principal. On the subject of the 150th anniversary, Mrs. Llewellyn believes that, “It’s nice for students to learn history about their schools.” This sentiment is shared by Dr. Illuzzi, himself a self-professed history buff.

“Personally, being a former social studies teacher, it’s great to see that the people who gave so much years ago are being recog-nized and appreciated,” says Illuzzi.

For Mrs. Llewellyn, Cin-naminson Public Schools represent community. “This place is built on community spirit,” she comments. “It is a small, tight-knit commu-nity with strong people.” The sig-nificance to celebrate the 150th an-niversary in her opinion is, “Any milestone is important…a life, a marriage, or a township.” The mid-dle school recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, coinciding with this one. To commemorate their an-niversary, the middle school plans to host a Senior Breakfast combined with a birthday celebration of sorts.

Looking into the future of Cinnaminson schools, both Illuzzi and Llewellyn see a bright one. The two stress that the technology within the school will improve and that they hope for a ground break-ing renovation of the building. “The hopeful renovation could give the community a facility that could last

20-25 years.” Illuzzi indicates that there will be “more emphasis on technology.” Mrs. Llewellyn be-lieves that, “In time, we’ll see posi-tive effects from our new evaluation system.” She, too, hopes for “more technology,” along with “more col-lege-ready approval.”

The school’s plans for new renovations, coupled with the intro-duction of BYOT classrooms, will help transition CHS into a more modern institution.

On the appeal of Cinnamin-son schools, Mrs. Llewellyn says, “It’s a prideful place. Students love this place, adults love this place. People come back to visit here.” Il-luzzi agrees, commenting, “Work-ing with the students and staff is really a privilege.” It’s reassuring to Illuzzi to see the work he initi-ated in 1999 have very positive ef-fects.

In the past, Illuzzi has reor-ganized the school district to split the different grade levels into more appropriate schools. He also peti-tioned to improve the “outdated, torn and generally disgusting uni-forms” CHS athletes were given before he arrived. These are the ac-complishments he is most proud of as superintendent. For Illuzzi, Cinnaminson Public Schools represent more than just a school district. “They rep-resent opportunity for any young

person to fulfill any expectation of what a good life can be.” Illuzzi is not only proud of the school district, but he admires the character of Cin-naminson students. “Anyone who has come into our schools has com-mented on just how polite and help-ful the kids are.” Illuzzi feels that this has always been true of Cin-naminson and that the future for the district is promising.

One CHS teacher, Mr. Masi, has personally witnessed the educa-tional opportunities and people that come out of Cinnaminson. Masi, who now teaches Financial Readi-ness and Computing for College, at-tended CHS in its early days. Masi graduated in the class of 1968. Six years later, he became a business teacher at CHS and has proudly re-mained in the district for 40 years. Masi reflects on his time at CHS, saying “The kids are well-behaved and pretty bright. They’re great to be around.” In 40 years, a lot of things have changed, but according to Masi, the kids have always been great.

“The families [in Cinnamin-son] care about education,” says Masi. The teachers and adminis-trations, such as Illuzzi, Llewellyn and Masi all believe in the power of strong public education. This is something that Cinnaminson Town-ship Public Schools have proudly represented for 150 years.

Cinnaminson Schools Reach Milestone of 150 Years

by Jake Barnes ‘14Copy Editor

It could be argued that the only thing to be taken away from the Red Ribbon assembly was a better understanding of the word irony. During Red Ribbon Week in October, Cinnaminson High School’s SADD program put on an assembly to inform the students about drug and bullying prevention. They invited the group “Hip Hop Fundamentals” to educate the stu-dents about the dangers of drug use. However, their “performance” was quite controversial.

The first reactions were overwhelmingly pessimistic, as many students were simply unable to comprehend the meaning of the assembly. “I thought it was hor-rible. They really didn’t talk about drugs at all,” says Junior Sabrina Atkinson. As the group was break dancing on stage and explaining the meaning and history of hip-hop, several people felt as if the purpose of the assembly was completely ig-nored. Following the assembly, cu-rious students decided to look at the group’s Twitter account. This led them to search for individual mem-bers on Twitter. These searches re-vealed a surprising discovery: one

Social Media Exposes Some Hip-Hop Hypocrisygroup member was a hypocrite.

Box Won, one of the group’s dancers, had numerous explicit and drug-related photos posted on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. The photos were highly criticized by the students on social media. Some found it hilarious, while others were an-noyed. For some-one who preaches about the dangers of drugs, Won seemed to be ac-tively encourag-ing drug use. One photo he posted on Instagram was captioned with “#WeedOut-Wednesday” and showed an inebri-ated Won smok-ing marijuana.

A tweet he wrote read, “DK birthday party last week. I’ll outdrink any-one!” It was accompanied by a pic-ture of Won drinking alcohol out of a measuring cup. At this point, the students felt that the assembly

had lost all creditability. However, SADD advisor Mr. Faltz believes that the assembly still relayed the message of drug and bullying pre-vention to the students of CHS.

“I believe the message of the assem-bly drove home the m e s s a g e about al-ternatives to drugs and bul-lying and it was also mo-tivational with the dancing,” e x p l a i n s Faltz. He also be-lieves that the ac-tions of Box Won should not d i s c o u r -age the s t u d e n t s

from taking the message the group was trying to deliver in stride. Faltz reveals how he felt about Won’s Twitter photos, saying, “I was a lit-

tle disgusted to say the least but you shouldn’t discount the message be-cause of the messenger. It also truly shows you how drinking and drugs do have consequences because Box Won was suspended.” Indeed, when the administration became aware of the incident, Hip Hop Fundamentals wrote the school a letter of apology.

The group also informed CHS that Box Won had been sus-pended from the group for two weeks without pay. The SADD club usually puts on a hip-hop themed assembly to relay the message of the dangers of drugs. The club typi-cally books a dance crew named “Faceless Entertainment.” How-ever, after a recommendation from a staff member, the club decided to book Hip Hop Fundamentals.

Ultimately, Faltz does not regret the decision to invite the group to perform in front of CHS, saying that he is always willing to give a new group an opportunity to send out their message to high-schoolers. At the end of the day, the assembly may have caused contro-versy, but the students all learned something from it. Hip Hop Funda-mentals showed the students first-hand that drugs can have negative effects on people’s careers and rep-utations.

photo courtesy of Brad HawthorneBox Won shown smoking weed in a Twitter photo

Page 3 The Ship’s Log December 2013

Holiday Gifts

by Gia Cordisio ‘16Staff Writer

This time of the year leaves students anxious for winter break and the holi-day season. However, the weeks leading up to the break can be extremely stressful for students when trying to figure out what to get their friends and family for Christmas. Fortunately, tech-nological competitions rise and there are many new of-fers available for the holi-day season. One popular gift that many teens are asking for is the Beats by Dre Pill: a speaker with Bluetooth Conferencing. The Pill is priced at $199.99. How-ever, you can get the pill at for cheaper if you hunt for a bargain. A website called DHgate.com is offering the pill at almost half price for only $110.00. If $110.00 is still

too much for a Bluetooth accessible speaker, there are cheaper options. The HMDX Jam Classic Wire-less Bluetooth Speaker has rave reviews from those who have it and the price is much more appealing at $34.00. Sophomore Katie Bove speaks for a great ma-jority of teenagers when she says she “wants an iPhone 5S.” The regular price for the iPhone 5S could be as much as $700 in some instances. However, most people will not be forced to spend that much for their phone. Most likely, if you are on a data plan with your carrier you will be able to get the phone for a more reasonable price around $199.00 for the 16 GB, $299.00 for the 32 GB, and $399.00 for the 64 GB.

If that price is still too much for some people, there is always the iPhone

5C. It is a cheaper option, when compared to the 5S. The 5C comes in five dif-ferent colors: blue, green, pink, yellow and white. At

a much more affordable price, the 5C hovers around $99.00 for the 16 GB and $199.00 for the 32 GB.

Keeping with the Apple theme, the iPad Air was recently released. The new iPad has been com-

pletely redesigned and weighs just one pound. Its battery is said to hold ten hours, which seems extraor-dinary for iPad owners. At

$499.00, the iPad will defi-nitely leave a hole in your pocket. However, people claim that it is definitely worth the money.

If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to the iPad, there has been a lot of

talk comparing the iPad to the Windows 8 tablet. This tablet, offered at a much cheaper price of $299.00, is a great gift idea. Many people have switched to the Windows 8 tablet, because of price or because it sim-ply offers a wider range of things to do. There are two new gaming systems that are on the top of many people’s wish lists. The PlaySta-tion 4 and the Xbox One. The PlayStation 4 is priced around $400.00 while the Xbox One is priced around $500.00. These won’t be cheap but they will defi-nitely make someone ex-tremely happy. Remember, too, that there are plenty of sales and promotional codes available from now until the end of the holiday season. There are many ways that you can get the hottest presents with-out leaving a huge whole in your wallet.

photo courtesy of www.pcadvisor.co.uk and blogs.villagevoice.com The Beats Pill speaker and Playstation 4 are great gift ideas.

FEATURESPage 3 The Ship’s Log December 2013

by Valerie McAdams ‘14Staff Writer

If you follow Soph-omore Ally Herron on Twit-ter, you know she if often reaching out to celebrities or entering contests to win

meet and greet tickets. Ally has personally met numerous musicians, actors and YouTube stars. She does this by buying tickets to shows or by en-tering radio or social media contests. Meeting celebrities is almost like a regular thing for Ally. “I meet a celebrity like every two weeks or so,” says Ally. So far, all of the fa-

Relaxed Holiday Shopping Due to New Releases

Ally Herron: Celebrity Enthusiast or Fortunate Fan?mous people she has met have been at concerts. This past March, Ally entered a contest to win Taylor Swift tickets. After she won, Ally started entering more and more contests. As a result, she

went to concerts more of-ten. She has continued to win VIP passes and concert tickets. According to Ally, most people think she meets all these people by stalking them. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. “I win contests a lot,” says Ally. “Most people think I go on the streets and like ac-tually stalk them but usually I just win contests.”

Through these contests, Ally has met people she never dreamed of meeting, such as Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. In a very short amount of time, Ally has met an obscene amount of celebrities. Some of the ce-lebrities that stick out in Al-ly’s head are Bruno Mars, Jesse McCartney, the Back-street Boys and One Direc-tion. As to her favorite celebrity experience, Ally feels that, “Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez were so sweet and it was awesome speaking to them. One Di-rection was awesome too, it’s hard to choose a favor-ite.” On Twitter, Ally has over 600 followers and of-ten tweets to One Direction, internet star Lohanthony and Josh Hutcherson. She uses her personal account to tweet at celebrities and to enter contests; nothing anonymous. Though she can be seen tweeting celeb-rities almost daily, Ally does

her best to not harass the ce-lebrities’ accounts with her tweets. “I try not to spam them. If anything it’s some-thing dumb like ‘Hey, love you.’” After numerous contests and countless tweets, Ally’s been very successful in meeting a lot of her favorite stars. Considering all of the stars she has met, there are still a few that she desperately wants to meet. “Demi Lovato, I love her so much and I heard she’s so sweet. And Miley Cyrus for sure. I’ve loved her for forever.” Ally will be attending Miley’s concert at the Wells Fargo Center this April, which is part of Miley’s Bangerz tour. Other than the upcoming Miley Cyrus concert, Ally’s not sure what her next event will be. “Usually I don’t know if I’m going to meet someone

until a few days before, be-cause last minute tickets are always cheaper. I also go to small Q102 events, so they usually aren’t announced until the day before.” Meeting all of these celebrities helped Ally find out about entertainment management, a career she hopes to pursue. Besides focusing on celebrities, Ally is also

plays volleyball for CHS and can also be seen on the lacrosse field in the spring-time.

photo courtesy of Ally Herron Herron poses with the five stars of the boy band One Direction.

photo courtesy of Ally HerronHerron smiles with artist Selena Gomez

Chewing Tobacco Hits CHSby Amanda McAneney ‘14Sports Editor

The popularity of smokeless tobacco among Cinnaminson High School students has been grow-ing larger and larger for the past few years. It is more so a problem among the male population, rather than the females.

Chewing tobacco, also known as “spitting a lip” or “dipping,” is when you take twists of tobacco and place them between your cheek or gum and teeth. The nicotine is then absorbed through the mouth tissue. This causes the per-son chewing to have to spit the excess saliva because you do not want to swal-low it unless you prefer to have a horrible taste in your mouth.

It is no longer an un-common sight to see boys after school or on the week-ends carrying around a wa-ter bottle and spitting into it, filling it up with unsightly and pungent brown saliva.

According to can-cer.org, 3.2% of people in the US ages 12 and older use smokeless tobacco, and of that number 44% of those users are younger than 18. People will claim that chewing tobacco, rather than smoking it, is less of a risk of lung cancer, which it is. But that doesn’t make it any less harmful.

Although it decreas-es the risk of lung cancer, you are more likely to get mouth cancer or stomach cancer.

Kids are aware of the risks that smokeless tobac-co has, but still choose to do it. In their minds, chewing

tobacco is more appealing than lighting up a cigarette. Unlike cigarettes, chewing tobacco has all dif-ferent types of fla-vors that can range from fruity flavors to spearmint.

To most people who don’t use smokeless to-bacco, it is found to be gross. Senior Ol-ivia McCaw agrees by saying “It’s not my cup of tea” and “it’s kind of gross.”

Guys justify that statement by blaming it on the high demands of women; however, girls are not the only people that find this type of habit unappeal-ing. Senior Jake McDevitt hates this behavior claiming “(I) would never do that. It’s disgusting.”

Last year, this was a popular trend on some high school’s teams. Before prac-tice, you could find some of the boys ‘spitting a lip.’

Senior Marty Mc-Donald spoke about this recent problem saying “It’s definitely not going to be a problem (for teams) this year, it was mostly the kids that graduated last year that did it. (Most) coaches didn’t know about it, but when they did catch (play-ers) once last year, we had to run.”

An anonymous CHS student who is no stranger to smokeless tobacco explains his reason behind doing it. When asked about when he started using it, he said, “It was the summer going into freshman year.” He then described what it was like his first time dipping. “I felt like I was paralyzed, I was

so light headed. It happens the first time you do it. I didn’t throw up though.”

When asked if he was a frequent user and he said, “I will buy it occa-sionally. I know it’s bad for you, its straight gum decay. It’s worse than smoking but it’s cheaper. Its just fun and something to do.”

Some people might be wincing at the fact that he justified his use of chew-ing tobacco as it is fun and something to do, but that’s why kids do it.

However, what teens don’t deal with are the contents of the smokeless tobacco they’re putting into their bodies. According to the U.S. Smokeless Tobac-co company, some of the in-gredients in Skoal Long Cut Cherry include water and flavor, but also propylene glycol, or the alcohol used in antifreeze; sodium bicar-bonate, the white powder used in fire extinguishers; ammonium, the by-product of ammonia, which is a col-orless gas used in fertilizers and household cleaners.

So, before you make the decision to use this, make sure you know what you’re putting into your mouth.

Page 4 The Ship’s Log December 2013

by Anthony Murphy ‘17Staff Writer

Smoking cigarettes is a habit that most people can pick up from peer pres-sure in high school. In Cin-naminson High School there are a definite amount of people that stay away from smoking because they realize the risks of it and how harmful it can be to your body. Then there’s the other people who either re-alize the risks but don’t care or don’t realize how much damage they are doing to their body.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially signed the bill stating that the mini-mum age to buy tobacco is 21.

They realize that they cannot possibly get rid of all minors from possess-ing tobacco but they can make it harder for them to get it. According to tobac-cofreekids.com most kids try their first cigarette be-tween the ages of 11-13.

Thirteen year-old kids most likely are get-ting their first cigarettes from older siblings. If their brother or sister is at least 18, they are just five years older which is a usual age gap between siblings. If their brother or sister has to now be at least 21 years old, the gap jumps to nine years which is more of an unusual gap between siblings.

Even though sta-tistics show that most kids pick up their first cigarette at 11-13, cigarettes are usu-ally added to kids daily

NY Raises Tobacco Minimum Age to 21

routine when they reach high school. When an 18 year-old, or senior in high school, could buy tobacco, they could simply hand it to a 16 year-old, or sophomore in high school. That 16 year old now has to ask a 21 year old who isn’t in their close proximity in their high school.

The main goal of the new law is to make it harder for minors with great po-tential to start up an awful habit.

Before this, New Jersey was tied with Wash-ington D.C., Alabama, Alaska and Utah for the highest tobacco age at 19.

Gov. Chris Christie has not yet passed a bill regarding raising the age in New Jer-sey; but it would not be sur-prising to most people if he did. New York City, being one of the trend setters in the country, will most likely make many states reconsid-er their minimum tobacco age.

photo courtesy of kickit.missouristate.eduA new trend at CHS: Smokeless tobacco.

photo courtesy of vaporking.comTobacco age may be raised.

Eminem Releases Hit Album Marshall Mathers LP2by Amanda McAneney ‘14 Sports Editor

The popular and sometimes controversial rapper Eminem recently re-leased his new album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2. I would highly suggest listen-ing to the Eminem’s first LP before listening to this one. There are many follow-up songs and references to his previous work on the new album. If you’re new to Eminem’s music, most of these references will go over your head.

The first song on the

album is titled “Bad Guy.” The song is a sequel to one of Eminem’s biggest hits, “Stan.” “Bad Guy” is creepy and twisted. It’s a great start to the album.

The album contin-ues with “Rhyme or Rea-son,” where Eminem raps about the father he never knew. It’s a very angry song, but at the same time, it’s really catchy.

He goes on to rap about his mother, in an un-usually forgiving tone. It’s called “Headlights.” On it, he apologizes to his mother. He seems to be letting his

guard down. It’s a sincere tribute that comes off as completely genuine.

Another track, “Sur-vival,” was used in the trail-er for Call of Duty: Ghosts. It’s easily one of the best songs on the album. With an intense beat and a sim-ple, but powerful message, “Survival” is a great track.

Unfortunately, there are some weak songs of this album. For instance, “Stron-ger Than I Was” is one of my least favorite Eminem songs to date. He sings the entire song, not rapping at all. I don’t mind slow songs,

but this one is mostly bor-ing.

On this album, Eminem collaborates with Kendrick Lamar on a track called “Love Game.” This is quintessential Eminem: fast, funny and clever. Even better, it also tells a story. I feel that this song will be-come more popular as more people get to listen to it.

Another great song is “Rap God.” This is by far Eminem’s best work on the album. The song is amazing and it manages to live up to its egotistical title. The song is six minutes of straight

rap. The lyrics are genius. Overall, this album is one of Eminem’s best, even sur-passing his first LP. Critically, the album has been well received. The New York Times, along with The Guardian praise the “relentless” nature of the album. The Times acknowledge that Eminem is getting older, but he still refuses to grow up. For fans, this is something they never want to see happen. On the whole, music reviewers seem to agree that Eminem has managed to keep himself from getting old.

Page 5 The Ship’s Log December 2013

Pirate Poll

by Andrew DeStefano ‘14Staff Writer

Sports gambling, though not taking place on the campus of CHS, has be-come more apparent to the student body.

The federal govern-ment passed a law in 1992 which made sports gam-bling, professional or other-wise, illegal. However, like many other student vices, il-legal sports gambling has a large impact on the students who partake in it. But now in the prime of the NFL sea-son, gambling talk is at its peak in the CHS hallways. “Yeah, there are a lot of people who gamble, and the number is always increasing because people are wining,” says freshman Dom Cicale. Cicale himself does not declare he gam-bles, however he admits to witnessing others gamble. Many believe it’s fun to make a quick easy buck, but few bets could easily turn a student into a gam-bling addict. When asked about his viewpoint on

sports gambling, psychol-ogy teacher Mr. Campbell states, “Nationwide gam-bling addiction is on the rise due to the internet. There are numerous psychological studies that prove gambling to be as dangerous as other addictions.”

M a n y people do not realize there are drastic con-sequences for betting money you don’t have. Senior Ryan Lilley has been told of these consequences second-hand. “It’s so stupid, I’ve heard sto-ries of people having to skip town because they couldn’t pay a debt.”

Sports gambling it-self does not pose a violent threat to students, unless a student were to bet money that he or she cannot ac-count for. “They feel like they’re betting with fake money,” says senior Aus-tin Emery. “If a student

Gambling Addiction Puts Many Students in Debtbets every week, they have the option to open up a tab with the bookie,” he contin-ues, “it usually takes place online, and every month a stranger will come to your house to either drop off or receive money.” At CHS, a student has

run into a predicament with online sports gambling. “I like winning money,” says the student. However, at one time this student was more than $600 dollars in debt to an online bookie.

Along with the threat of physical harm from the “bookie”, if a stu-dent is caught, they will be

processed by the school as well.

If knowledge about any type of gambling is re-ported to the administration, there are a vast number of punishments that could be enforced, depending on the logistics of the case. “Sports gambling, and gambling of any sort is not tolerated at CHS,” says Vice Principal and disciplinarian Mr. Gor-man. “If I were to become knowledgeable of this, I would have to investigate the matter to the fullest ex-tent,” he continues to say, “However there is no prece-dent to base a student’s pun-ishment off of. I haven’t had any issues with gambling at CHS in the past.”

When the NFL sea-son comes to an end, most believe that sports betting will decline. However, people like senior Christian DeLuca argues that fact: “I think sports gambling stays at about the same rate af-ter football season. College basketball season is com-ing up, and there are a lot of games to bet on.”

Gambling, while seeming like a fun way to make a game more interest-ing, is accompanied with serious threats.

Listening to conver-sations around the halls of CHS, there will be much talk about the gambling ad-diction at CHS. Many laugh at their fellow friends who are deeply in debt, but that could leave them in some serious trouble with their bookie, or stranger coming to their house to pick up the money.

Gambling does not seem to be as serious when friendly or low-stakes bets are set between friends. However, that is not the case at CHS.

Once you start los-ing hundreds of dollars and are forced to bring your in-nocent friends into it by ask-ing for money, it becomes dangerous. However, the most common line for an addict is “I can’t stop bet-ting, I need to win money back.” While the gambler wishes to do right, they of-ten end up in debt.

Photos and Questions Courtesy of :

Andrew Destefano ‘14and

Jake Barnes ‘14

How do you feel about the use of tobacco among minors?

“With all the facts it’s stupid why they’d want to smoke!”

-Mrs. Loza

“It’s a terrible thing that shouldn’t happen.”

-Norman Berry

“I think it smells terrible and it’s bad for you. You could die!”

-Mrs Neuman

“I dont know how they afford it and based off the facts, I don’t know

why they do it”-Mr Wilson

“it’s a bad habit that could be a gate-way to other drugs.”

-Tristan Scott

photo courtesy of www.pehub.comStudents are now gambling on sporting events.

Page 6 The Ship’s Log December 2013

Overly-Long Catching Fire is Well-Acted but Dullby Sean Gallagher ‘14Features Editor

It’s disappointing when a big-budget film like The Hunger Games: Catch-ing Fire doesn’t fully utilize its eclectic cast of actors. Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson and Stanley Tuc-ci continue to own this se-ries, while the other actors don’t seem to be giving it their all. Or they are–and their all just isn’t enough. Take for example Phil-lip Seymour Hoffman and Donald Sutherland. These two are acting legends and all they’re allowed to do is scheme quietly in rooms. It’s especially discouraging to see Hoffman on autopilot here.

Jennifer Lawrence’s emotionally damaged Kat-niss is still the best part of the movie. Lawrence makes for an extraordinary, strong female lead. That being said, this film is loaded with underdeveloped characters and ideas, robbing it–and the central romance–of any tension. Katniss Ever-deen’s two boy-toys, Peeta and Gale, are played by fan

girl favorites Josh Hutcher-son and Liam Hemsworth. Jennifer Lawrence out acts these two gentlemen by a long shot. As a result of Hutcherson and Hems-worth’s bland acting, much of the drama lacks heft and weight.

Catching Fire does have a few interesting sci-ence-fiction concepts. In some respects, it’s a very political film. It deals with totalitarian government; with the oppressors and the oppressed. The social com-mentary in this movie is far more substantive than the Twilight-esque romance and the much too clean ac-tion. Socialites offer Peeta a purple drink at a party, tell-ing him to drink it so that he will throw up. This way, he will be able to eat every-thing they offer him.

Moments like this are far and few between. The problem with the PG-13 rating in this case is that the harshness of the vio-lence is numbed. I under-stand this film is playing towards a tween-teen audi-ence, but I believe that the people who read the book

can handle more graphic vi-olence onscreen. Often, we are told rather than shown what violence is being com-mitted. When we do see it, it’s bloodless and therefore less impactful.

The original Hunger Games film was not with-out its flaws. Director Gary Ross overused shaky cam-era movements to simulate the chaotic violence. This time around, Francis Law-

rence (I Am Legend) has replaced Ross. Technically, Ross has made a much more impressive film. The CGI fire is not as embarrassingly

bad as in the original and the costumes, makeup and sets all feel more alive. Having said this, special effects do not make a movie. For me, movies are successful when they hit me on an emotional level, something which the first Hunger Games did, de-spite its problems.

Catching Fire starts out slow, in an attempt to build the stakes for the new Hunger Games that follow.

The deliberate pace only caused me to lose interest long before the climax ar-rived. Catching Fire is a bloated sequel that values

elaborate costumes and ex-position over excitement and human emotion. Even though The Hunger Games was at times a creaky affair, I was moved to tears dur-ing one pivotal scene and I tensed up during the action.

As Catching Fire goes on, we are left to watch Katniss go through seem-ingly endless misery. This didn’t make me appreciate her struggles more. Instead, I grew increasingly bored. Being that this is the sec-ond film in a series of four, I never felt for a minute that Katniss was in signifi-cant danger. A better film would’ve fooled me, despite myself. Book fans (of which I am not) will likely appre-ciate Catching Fire’s run time, which I assume cor-responds to a wealth of ma-terial taken from the book. Where the original felt raw and fresh, this sequel feels like an overlong retread into familiar territory. I kept waiting to have a strong re-sponse while watching this film, but in the end I was left cold. Fans clearly em-braced this one, but it didn’t do much for me.

Arkham Origins is a Good But Not Great Follow-Up

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen in Catching Fire.

by Sean Gallagher ‘14Features Editor

It’s strange at first to hear the voice of Batman in Arkham Origins. The im-mortal fan-favorite Kevin Conroy does not lend his voice to the character this time around. Also not re-

turning is Mark Hamill’s demented version of the Joker. Hardcore Bat-fans may find it hard to adapt to a new actor in the role, but it won’t ruin the overall expe-

rience. In time, you will ad-just to hearing Roger Craig Smith’s gravelly tones in place of Conroy.

Voice actors aside, Batman: Arkham Ori-gins is a solid follow-up to the universally beloved Arkham City. It just doesn’t wow you in the same way.

Arkham Origins can’t help but feel like a bit of an af-terthought. The game play is just what you would ex-pect it to be and not much more. The free-flowing

combat system is still out-standing, but it hasn’t really been improved or modified significantly. Even without changing much, taking on twenty bad guys at once is still extremely satisfying.

This time around, the gadgets have advanced a bit more, making the com-

bat easier on the whole. Batman now has access to a Re-mote Claw, which means he can string enemies together from a distance and grapple out of cer-tain situations.

Arkham Or-igins, and to an ex-tent Arkham City, is one of those games that can burn away hours of your time. Whether you de-cide to stop random crime, complete missions, or fin-ish the main story,

you’ll always have plenty to do. There are more “Crimes in Progress” a la Spider-Man 2 than before. The Riddler is called Enigma at this point in time and there

aren’t any new Riddler tro-phies to collect that I have found.

Arkham City greatly expanded the open-world our hero is allowed to ex-plore, which can also be said of Arkham Origins. As the title implies, this game is a prequel of sorts to the first two games in the series. A bounty is placed on Bat-man’s head by the villainous Black Mask, causing eight of Gotham’s deadliest as-sassins to go after him. Due to this game’s unique time line, Batman is still consid-ered a suspicious vigilante by the Gotham City Police Department. His future ally, Detective James Gordon, is pursuing him.

The plot isn’t quite as strong this time around, but the graphics are as pol-ished as ever. In particu-lar, the cut-scenes (which I advise you not to skip) are crisp and detailed.

The only issues that come up with the graph-ics occur during high speed fights or grappling through the city. Sometimes, there is a slight lag in between

punches and when gliding over Gotham’s streets. This is still a fairly new game, so perhaps the technical issues will improve over time.

One completely new addition to the series is Bat-man’s improved detective mode. He has been called the World’s Greatest Detec-tive and this game incorpo-rates more of his deduction than previous installments. Batman can use his detec-tive mode vision to analyze crime scenes for evidence and reconstruct murders. This allows players to stop and rewind crime in order to find important clues.

Batman: Arkham Origins may not revolu-tionize the beat-‘em-up genre—or surpass the origi-nal games-but it still deliv-ers the goods. As with the other two games in the se-ries, there are plenty of un-lockable costumes and col-lectibles to discover along the way. I’d say this game is definitely worth renting for casual gamers and worth purchasing at a discounted price for hardcore fans of the series.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Games MontrealThe Caped Crusader comes into his own in the much-anticipated Arkham Origins.

Page 7 The Ship’s Log December 2013

Local Diners Offer Affordable and Delicious Eats

Adv. TV Gets $2000

by Megan Morris ‘15Editor-in-Chief

People usually go to a diner for a quick and cheap bite. There are several pop-ular diners in Cinnaminson and its neighboring towns, including Hathaway’s, The Jersey Diner, 130 Diner, and The Penn Queen Diner.

Although every-one has their own favorite, a friend and I visited all of them to see which one pro-vides you with an all-around great experience.

Starting with the Jer-sey Diner, we were hesitant from the start since we were both a big fan of the Harvest Diner which was replaced with this. However, from the moment we walked in we were intrigued with the décor of the restaurant. In-cluding different bright colors; the atmosphere was more energetic than the Harvest Diner.

The friendly server handed us our menus which offered eight pages of dif-ferent foods differing from salads to veal. The maxi-mum amount of money you could spend on one entrée was $21.99 for the Seafood Supreme.

We both went sim-ple and ordered a variation of a hamburger, mine being a cheese burger and his be-ing a Canadian burger. Both only set us back $7.99 each. Our burgers quickly arrived and it did not disappoint our expectations.

The final bill which included two hamburg-ers and fries and two sodas only set us back $20.44. We both agreed that we would come back. Although many people refuse to eat at The Jersey Diner because they are upset about The Harvest Diner being closed, it’s time to stop holding a grudge and go get some delicious food.

The next diner was The Penn Queen diner which is a little less popular throughout the high school since it’s out of the way with its location on Route 130 in Pennsauken. How-ever, the people that do dine there rave about it.

We walked in with open minds but immediate-ly were disappointed with the décor of the restaurant. It was boring and there was nothing special about it.

Also, there was barely any-one in the restaurant. Count-ing us, there were only four tables occupied throughout the whole restaurant.

The service was po-lite but not as friendly as The Jersey Diner. Opening the seven page menu, the most expensive item was sirloin steak at $20.99 but they also had more prices hovering around $16.00-$19.00 whereas the Jersey Diner had more options in the $11.00-$13.00 range. Keeping with the same pattern, we both ordered a $6.99 burger.

When our meal was

delivered, we were excited to compare the two. We both agreed that the burger was run of the mill and there was nothing really special about it. The overall experi-ence of this diner could be described as mediocre since it wasn’t bad but there was nothing driving me to take the extra five minutes to get there.

The next diner is an all-time favorite of many students and their families: Hathaway’s. This has al-ways been a popular place for students to go with their families and friends since it’s in the heart of Cinnamin-son, located right across of the Shops at Cinnaminson.

The service was ex-tremely friendly when they handed us a much smaller menu compared to the other two diners. Although there were fewer options, the price range was more pleas-ing to a high school student. The most expensive item on the menu was homemade ravioli and meatballs pric-ing at $11.55.

I kept it consistent

with ordering a cheese-burger, $7.95, but my friend wanted to try a gyro, at $8.50. They were both de-cent, but they did not com-pare to the Jersey Diner’s food. Hathaway’s and The Jersey Diner’s prices were relatively the same since both bills were $20.00 and change.

Hathaway’s is a good diner to go to if you like the feeling of a small-town restaurant. I agree with Lindsey Marter that the best part of Hathaway’s “is that it is close and I’m lazy.”

Others, however, people such as Mr. Faltz

used to favor Hathaway’s until the “opening of Sweet-water” claiming “the food kind of degraded.”

The last diner we visited was the 130 Diner which is located in our neighboring town Delran. This diner is relatively new but many people in our high school go there. Many stu-dents like senior Austin Em-ery believe that the “food and hospitality of the 130 diner” is the best around.

With these opinions in the back of our mind, we visited.

We pulled up to the parking lot and took the last available parking spot. This showed us how many people enjoyed the food and venue of the 130 diner.

The menu offered five pages of top-to-bottom food options. The most ex-pensive thing on the menu was a $20.99 fried seafood combo. There were many options in all price zones so if you wanted to go enjoy a quick lunch or nice, sit-down dinner, 130 Diner has what you want The burger

was $7.99 and included a side of fries.

They did not com-pare to those of the Jersey Diner, but was better than both Hathaway’s and The Penn Queen Diner. How-ever, the atmosphere did not compare to Hathaway’s.

After visiting each of the diner’s, we came to an agreement that the Jersey Diner is the best diner in our area. Jake McDevitt agrees by saying “he likes the size of their portions.” Not only are their portions plentiful, but their staff is friendly and the atmosphere of the whole restaurant made us want to revisit.

The runner up was an all-time favorite of many: Hathaway’s. Even if Hatha-way’s has fewer options to choose from, people in Cin-naminson will continue to

go their due to tradition. Coming in third,

was the Route 130 Diner. The best part about this din-er was the fries. There was no home-like atmosphere as there was in the other din-ers. However, I would go back because their food was delicious.

Due to location pur-poses and an out-of-date environment, The Penn Queen Diner is the least favorite. Besides the few that rave about it, a major-ity of students in CHS could not tell you where the Penn Queen is located let alone know people from their own school go there to eat. The problem with The Penn Queen was there was no driving force pushing me to drive the extra two miles. Ultimately, the Jersey Diner is the best diner around.

photo courtesy of jerseydinernj.comCHS Students accept and enjoy the opening of the Jersey Diner.

by Callie Gallagher ‘17 Staff Writer

Bullying has be-come an epidemic in schools across the nation and CHS’s Advanced TV Production is working to prevent it. The class, led by Mr. Wilson, has begun pro-duction of two anti-bullying videos, each from a differ-ent school perspective. One relates to middle school students while the other ap-plies to high-schoolers. The idea for this anti-bullying project was introduced by Officer Czar-zasty, our school resource officer. He said he was in-spired to do this project dur-ing a HIB presentation in which “they were utilizing videos from YouTube.” He continues, “I said to myself, ‘Why can’t we do this?’” Three CHS students, Ashley Ungvarsky, Malisa Eckhardt, and Morgan Gar-es, are taking the lead on the project. “We are doing a video and we’re collaborat-ing with the middle school,” says Ashley. Middle school stu-dents in the Drama Club were asked to write scripts for an anti-bullying video that they would like to see. Mr. Brian Bacon, the CMS drama club teacher, then chose the best script and sent it to the TV Production class. The students are hard

at work, trying to rewrite the script that was written by the middle school stu-dents for their video. “We don’t want it to be cheesy,” Ashley says, in the middle of the rewrit-ing process. “The video is going to show that a lot of people go through it [bully-ing] and how to overcome it,” says Malisa. The students are not working alone. Officer Czarzasty and Mr. Faltz have been working along-side them to produce a relat-able video. “It’s very much a group effort,” Ashley says. “I feel like it’s an issue that people need to be more aware of,” she adds. To ensure the suc-cess of this project, the TV Production class has been funded $2,000. The money was given to Advanced TV through donations from lo-cal businesses with the help of the Cinnaminson Police. The money is be-ing used to purchase equip-ment for future productions. “Most of the pre-production is done,” said Mr. Wilson in November. “We are in the process of spending the money on the equipment. We plan to start filming in the first week of Decem-ber.” The TV Production class plans to film through-out December and finish sometime in January.

Editor-in Chief: Megan Morris‘15 News Editor: Michael Zelinka ‘16 Features Editor: Sean Gallagher ‘14 Sports Editor: Amanda McAneney ‘14 Copy Editor: Jake Barnes ‘14 Advisor: Mr. Kind The Ship’s Log, the Cinnaminson High School news paper, is designed to function as a voice for the school community. Its objectives are: 1. To give a full account of currnet ideas, events, and problems affecting CHS. 2. To present a truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the school’s events in a context that gives them meaning. 3. To project a representative picture of the groups that make up the school. The Ship’s Log reserves the right to edit letters for length and to reject letters if they are libelous or do not conform to standards of goodtaste. The Ship’s Log cannot guarantee publication of all letters it receives. All letters received become the property of The Ship’s Log. Opinions expressesd in letters or guest editorials do not nec-cessarily reflect the opinion of The Ship’s Log. All letters and guest edi-torials should be submitted to Mr. Kind’s email at kindc@cinnaminson.com or to his mailbox in the main office, or even to an English teacher who will submit them to Mr. Kind. Many thanks to Mr. Iacono for his assistance with many photos and timely support to the editors and staff.

The Ship’s Log2013-2014 Editorial Staff

Staff Editorial

OPINIONSPage 8 The Ship’s Log December 2013

Disney’s Frozen is Year’s Best Animated Movie

Photo courtesy of Disney Animation StudiosDisney’s Frozen is entertaining for both little kids and high school students.

by Sean Gallagher ‘14 Features Editor

Icy tree branches droop low and glisten like diamonds. The pink-orange glow of a sunset glimmers on the snow. To be sure, Frozen is a dazzling film

to behold. Animation has come a long way since Dis-ney Animation Studios first brought us Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. Frozen harkens back to its classic Disney roots with plenty of princesses, castles and musical numbers occupying the forefront of the story. Most importantly, this is a tale of true love. The result is a film that uti-lizes modern animation, but keeps that timeless Dis-

ney feel.The story is simple

and familiar, but it’s ex-ecuted well. The story is simple and familiar, but it’s executed well. A young girl is cursed from birth with the ability to freeze anything she touches. One

day, young Elsa acciden-tally freezes her sister Anna when they are playing in-side the castle. From that day on, Elsa isolates herself from her sister in an attempt to protect her. At Elsa’s cor-onation ceremony, Princess Anna accidentally reveals her sister’s incredible ice powers. The villagers think Queen Elsa is a monster and she flees to the mountains in shame. With her kingdom in an eternal winter, Prin-

cess Anna decides to go on a quest to find her sister and restore Arendelle to its for-mer glory.

She is aided by a handsome mountain man named Kristoff and his trusty reindeer Sven. An-other character who comes

into play is Olaf, a snowman come to life. Josh Gad’s vocal work as Olaf will make you laugh and melt your heart. Fro-zen moves along with more energy than many recent animated films I have seen. That’s

because the humor works and the characters are more real than you’d expect. For instance, Princess Anna is socially awkward and na-ïve, but also fiercely in-dependent. Kristen Bell is well cast as the voice of Anna. It’s important that young girls see movies in which the princesses have personalities and not just pretty faces. Frozen is not a film with a deeper message or

a larger meaning; it simply entertains. Even though this movie is designed to appeal to younger audiences, I feel that it will play well with just about anyone. The mu-sical numbers soar–with the help of Rent star Idina Men-zel–and most importantly,

With the Christmas season, comes the frenzy of shopping and finding the perfect gifts at the per-fect price. All this stress is hidden by the mounds and mounds of decorations in-side and outside houses and public places.

In the past couple of years, the decorations have been set up earlier and earlier. Most people are completely intrigued by the Christmas atmosphere, however December should mark the official start of holiday festivities.

Thanksgiving was the first holiday to be for-gotten and now it’s gotten as far as Halloween being overpowered by a holiday 55 days after it.

As much as Christ-mas is said to be the best time of the year for Chris-tians who celebrate it, the extension of the season

is getting a bit irritating. Christmas is on December 25th; therefore it shouldn’t be acceptable to start pub-licly celebrating until at least the start of December. If you disagree with that, you at least have to agree with waiting until Thanks-giving is over.

As soon as people awaken from food comas created from stuffing their face with as much turkey, stuffing, mashed pota-toes and gravy as possible, Thanksgiving decorations come down and the festive green and red décor go up.

There are some people that think their lawn doesn’t look decorative enough with just Thanks-giving decorations on it. An easy fix to this problem, in their minds, is to put some of Santa’s in the mix. A blow-up turkey and a life size Santa standing side by side is not an uncommon picture anymore.

If you think this is bad, then you will probably hate the fact that radio sta-tions started playing Christ-mas music as early as No-vember 12th this year.

Even if you’re one of those people that don’t start preparing until a reasonable time, it’s still inevitable to hide from Christmas in No-vember. Tacky Christmas commercials from stores expressing their great deals will bombard your televi-sion. As much as you don’t care about their layaway specials, they shove it right in your face.

As if the commer-cials are not enough, ABC Family not only offers a countdown to Christmas by showing 25 nights of classic Christmas movies, but also a countdown to the count-down starting November 20th. So, yes, there were Christmas movies playing on Thanksgiving. And you can bet there were millions

of people watching them.There are some peo-

ple who decide they would like to get their Christ-mas shopping done early. There’s nothing wrong with shopping early and elimi-nating the stress on the last couple days before the big day. I agree with being or-ganized and thinking ahead, but there is a difference between buying a Christ-mas gift or two and looking like Santa threw up on your lawn in early November.

There is nothing wrong with getting into the Christmas spirit but if you start celebrating too early, won’t you be tired of Christmas by the time De-cember 25th actually comes around?

This has just be-come a problem in the past couple years. I doubt it will stop since people simply love the alleged “positive energy” that the holiday season comes with. They

want to extend that holiday season out as long as pos-sible. What most do not re-alize is that this is the most profitable time of the year for big businesses, so they will not stop the deals and commercials until there is some type of negative re-sponse from consumers.

As much as it may sound pessimism about the holiday season, it is not. The excitement of the weeks leading up to the big day is awesome. But, Christmas should not be extended throughout the month it is in. There are no other holi-days that are extended out-side of the month they are in, so why is Christmas any different?

The only answer to this problem is that we, as consumers, have to resist the gift-buying craze next year. Make a solemn oath to yourself and your family to celebrate the season in the right time frame!

they come from the char-acter’s feelings. The script has a few more tricks up its sleeve then you initially might imagine.

In an admittedly weak year for animated films, Frozen ranks highly among them.

Page 9 The Ship’s Log December 2013

Weather-Weary Teens Seek Indoor Alternativesby Rachel Bastian ‘14Staff Writer

For many, winter can be a very boring time of the year. It’s too cold to go outside, so often times people choose to remain cooped-up in their house. During fall and spring, many more students are kept busy with sports and extra-curricular activities. Winter can be a miserable and unproductive time for some. Here and there, you start to go a little crazy. If you are bored of the regu-lar routine (mall, movies, or a friend’s house) here are some alternative things to do this winter.

The Stratosphere Trampoline Park in Haines-port is a fun and unique at-traction. The park includes over 10,000 square feet of trampoline, foam pits, and an arena for younger chil-dren. For half an hour of jumping, the price is only $10.00. Add $5 more dol-lars for a full hour. Over-all, the prices range from $10-$22, depending on how long you want to jump. The park is open every day ex-cept Monday and Tuesday.

Senior Alyssa Birbeck recently went to the Stratosphere and describes it as, “clean, cheap [and] a lot of fun.” She continues, “The people are nice and the place is really organized.” The Stratosphere includes a dodge ball arena, foam pit, and arcade, as well as the trampoline arena.

If you love swim-ming or just want to get that feeling of summer, you might want to check out some of the indoor water parks in the area. The two most popular locations are Sahara Sam’s Oasis and Coco Keys. Sahara Sam’s is located in West Berlin and Coco Keys is located in Mt. Laurel. Both are moderately priced, considering they would make great spots for a winter vacation. At Coco Keys, passes are $27.99 if you order them online and $32.99 if you buy them at the door. Comparative-ly, Sahara Sam’s offers a slightly better deal. Tickets are $19.95 for a half-day and $26.95 for a full day.

If you’re looking for more exciting, but expen-sive options, consider ski-ing, snowboarding or tub-ing. The closest ski resort to

High Hopes in the Future for Young Winter Track

Cinnaminson is Bear Creek Ski Resort, which takes about an hour and a half to get to. Other close resorts are Blue Mountain, Camel-back and Elk Mountain. None of these re-sorts require their guests to have any advanced skill.

In fact, you can even book lessons on skiing and snow-boarding. If you’re not up for that, you can simply vis-it these places to go tubing. Tubing requires no previ-ous experience and is really as simple as it gets. What-

ever you choose to spend-ing, visiting a skiing resort is a great way to spend a cold day. If you’re willing to drive the extra miles and you have enough money, ski resorts are a blast.

If all of these ex-pensive and complicated

options don’t suit you, consider looking into vol-unteer work. Such work is far more rewarding in the long run. Students thinking about applying to colleges should definitely consider doing some resume-friendly

volunteer work. There are so many opportunities in Cinnaminson alone to help other people. Even if you aren’t looking for commu-nity service hours or an im-pressive way, volunteering is a gratifying experience. Volunteering allows stu-dents to experience all dif-ferent walks of life.

Senior Samantha Stepnowski is a very experi-enced volunteer worker. For Sam, “The best part is the fact that I get to improve the quality of so many peoples’ lives.” Part of Sam’s volun-teer work includes working with dementia patients and assisting disabled children. You may have also seen Sam collecting donations for school kids in Camden. Sam’s mission is to be able to send these underprivi-leged kids some fresh fruit at their lunches.

In the end, the re-wards and social benefits of volunteering make it a worthwhile alternative to the countless distractions students encounter every day. If you decide not to do something traditionally fun during winter, perhaps you could do something mean-ingful.

photo courtesy of www.newyorkfamily.comThe indoor water park of Sahara Sam’s Oasis offers one option for teenager looking to cure their yearly, winter doldrums.

by Sean Gallagher ‘14Features Editor

This year, the win-ter track team has nearly doubled from last season. Of the fifty athletes on the team, thirty-seven of them are newcomers. There are only thirteen returning

athletes, but they are very experienced at this point. Freshmen make up 20% of the team this season, which seems to indicate a strong possibility of success down the road. However, this sea-

son also looks promising. Senior Ryan Lilley, a four year winter track ath-lete, says “The team looks incredible” so far. He adds, “We have a good amount of people, the most I have seen for winter track in my four years.” Lilley hopes to make it to the Meet of

Champs for pole vault and at least qualify for states in high jump. Ideally, seniors like Lilley will be able to help the freshmen adapt to winter track. “There’s a great amount of talent on the team,” says Lilley.

Now, it’s just a mat-ter of working together as a team with the talent they have. Junior Gabby Wright, who also pole vaults, can’t wait for the season to get rolling. “I’m excited for the season be-cause we’re going to do really well and hopefully place in a few events,” says Gabby. In terms of pole vaulters, “the people com-peting are experienced” ac-cording to Gabby. As a re-sult, she predicts that “new records are going to be bro-ken” this season. “Winter track is a totally different animal compared to spring,” Lilley believes. “The competition is different. It’s more in-tense.” It’s all about “work-ing hard” and listening to the coaches, according to Lilley. “They’re here for a reason: to make us better athletes,” he finishes. Senior Carley Old-field views winter track as “basically a training season for spring.” She is not so fo-

cused on how well she does in winter, more so on how she prepares for spring. “I’d like to do well,” she admits, “but I know it’s going to be hard.” Carley is still re-covering from an injury she received during cross coun-try, but it’s not stopping her. “(Coach) Callinan keeps saying to us, ‘It’s not about times, it’s about training for spring.’” Coach Kind feels that the team “may struggle at first, as the newcomers learn the intricacies of in-door, but by the end of the season, I think we’ll do well.” Two athletes that the team is counting on to help propel the team forward are senior Isaiah Udotong and his brother, junior Emmanu-el Udotong. Both have been standouts for the spring track team and should be able to make immediate contributions to the winter track team. Both will con-tribute in the sprints and the high jump. The team will com-

Photo courtesy of the BuccaneerSenior Carley Oldfield tries to out run her opponents in a relay

pete in one of the best small-school divisions in the state when it takes on the likes of Haddonfield, Woodbury and Haddon Township during the indoor season. Haddon-field always carries some of the best distance teams in the state, but the Bulldaw-gs also possess key sprint-ers and jumpers. Haddon Township is also returning a fantastic distance team and were the Group 1 sectional cross country champions. Woodbury always has some of the top sprinters in the state and will surely return them in the winter. With all of that be-ing said, the boys and girls should benefit from their numbers this season. Some of the highlights will start with tonight’s meet at Kutz-town University. Next week, the team travels to New York City to compete at the NYC Armory, one of the best indoor tracks in the country before begin-ning their weekly journey to compete in Toms River’s Bennett Center.

Page 10 The Ship’s Log December 2013

CHS Bowling Team Anxiously Awaits Fun Competition

by Mike Zelinka ’16 News Editor

As winter be-gins, so does the swimming season. The goal for the year, according to Coach Schroeder, is “to improve, have good numbers, train harder, and to have all of the swimmers at all of the meets.” S c h r o e d e r doesn’t, “want to compare [this season] to last year as that was last year and this is new fresh start, a new year per say,” Last season, many swimmers could not make the meets due to scheduling conflicts. These unfortunate conflicts led to “others be-ing forced to swim events they are not as strong in,” explains Schroeder. As a re-

sult, the relays were effect-ed. All of these factors cre-ated a “trickle down” effect that made the team weaker than it should have been. Although this season has no shortage of active mem-bers, there are plenty of new swimmers to help fill in the gap they leave. Sophomore Ka-tie O’Connor thinks that is a great thing by saying, “There are a lot of good freshmen who came in so they’ll be good.” This year is a fresh start, so Schroeder has im-plemented new training and practicing techniques into the system. “We have imple-mented a dry land (strength-ening program) this year, where we do dips, pushups, crunches and sit ups on the deck before practice. Right

now they are doing five sets of whatever their age is, (for example, if you are 15 yrs.

old, multiply 15 x 5 = 75, so therefore 75 total.)” He is hoping this hard work pays off once they begin compe-teing in meets.

Returning this season is the standout star senior David Finnan. His

brother, sophomore Brian Finnan, is also living up to his brother’s reputation. As Schroeder simplified, “Both Finnan brothers are studs.”

photo courtesy of the BuccaneerCHS swimmers look to continue their success from the past.

Their fellow teammates also acknowledge David’s skill in the pool, “No one really knows what he’s best at, he’s kinda good at every-thing. He’s definitely one of our best swimmers,” said O’Connor. Besides the Finnans, fellow leaders on the team help by, “encour-aging swimmers when they feel tired and exhausted and want to stop,” told Schro-eder. The team this year differs from last year based on the intensity. which will hopefully pay off. The team is also “a bit deeper, and a bit stron-ger,” Schroeder described, meaning that the numbers are in his favor this year, which gives the team high hopes for upcoming meets.

by Michael Zelinka ‘16News Editor

This time last year, the bowling team had lost 18 seniors. Going into this season, they have gained more players, most of them newcomers. The 2013-2014 season will be played at Laurel Lanes, where CHS bowlers will proudly rep-resent their team. Sopho-more Timothy Meissgeier believes that the bowling team will, “have some high competition but [they’re] gonna pull through.” All the bowlers on the team share the same hope, along with coach Faltz. Faltz states, “I see really good prospects for future seasons.” His top four players come from dif-

ferent grades. Alexander Ruiz, Eddie Runquest, Dan Robinson and Tim Meiss-geier are naturally gifted bowlers, according to Faltz. All he expects is gradual improvement as the season goes along.

Faltz sees this team as very unique when com-pared to previous teams. This year, the team is com-prised of players that are mostly new to competitive bowling matches. The tran-sition from recreation to competition doesn’t seem to phase the new bowlers.

According to Faltz, the players have very raw natural abilities. He com-ments on how many of them have the footwork and the ability to move the ball down. “This season I see,

has some really top notch bowlers. I see them (im-proving by) 13 to 20 pins more in their game,” Faltz explains. He plans “to have a very enjoyable season with a lot of instruction…to fine tune the team.”

What Faltz really looks forward to this season is teaching the team how to throw a finger-tip ball. A finger-tip ball is a way to add more curve and revolu-tion on the ball. “It will give [the ball] a performance curve, so it can hit the rack strategically in the pocket they desire,” Faltz says. The players are eager to explore new bowling techniques. This year’s team displays a unique level of confidence going into the season. Faltz claims that

many of the players have purchased their own equip-ment, even though bowl-ing balls could easily have been rented. “Their eager-ness and enthusiastic-ness is what’s driving them, their motivation is what I would say stands out this season as to previous seasons.” Meissgeier agrees, saying, “We’ve been working hard at the beginning of the sea-son and this is where we’re gonna start our journey to the victory. Meissgeir hopes to bring home a state cham-pionship bowling title. Meissgeier also be-lieves the team’s chemistry is “phenomenal.” He adds, “Everyone on our team are friends with each other, and we get to hang out after school and we really all just

get to know each other, like on and off the lanes.” The key to a great team is a great coach. Meissgeier strongly be-lieves Coach Faltz is essen-tial to the team. “Mr. Faltz is a great coach, I mean he’s really guiding us through what we’re supposed to be doing, I mean a lot of the people that are bowling this year are just starting out and he’s just our mentor and an all-around great guy,” he says. In summary this team is new, but more eager, and more unique compared to past seasons. While it will be somewhat of a rebuilding year this season, the team remains hopeful for the fu-ture.

by Amanda McAneney ‘14Sports Editor

The Cinnaminson boy’s basketball team is coming into the season this year with high hopes. The team is led once again by head Coach Fries. Fries has been with the team for nine years now and has led the boys to much success. Coach Fries knows that this year is going to be tough, but he knows it can be successful. After losing key players last year like Dan Haddon and Kevin Sotell, the team is now very young.

They are “going to have to grow up quick,” according to Fries. “Losing Dan and Sotell will be big shoes to fill. They gave us so many points; we’ll be losing like 30 points a game without them,” says Fries. Fries is thinking about rebuilding the team this year. He believes that “The senior leaders are gonna have to mentally lead the younger players on the floor.” The team’s seniors know they have to step it up to accomplish what the past seniors have done. Coach Fries knows this will be a

hard transition. “You can’t replace the leadership of Dan Haddon,” states Fries. Seniors Rashone Damon and Jackson Merget are the captains of the team this year. The two couldn’t be more excited for the sea-son. Damon, who is cur-rently recovering from sur-gery on his knee, is ready to win this season. He refuses to let his previous injury slow him down. “I want us to go far in the playoffs and to win the division,” says Damon. Merget has simi-lar ambitions for this year’s team.

Despite the team losing much of its height, Merget is not too worried. “In our division we don’t have that many big men, but when we play out of con-ference it will be tough,” he says. Senior Matt Gono will be taking the role of the team’s “big man”. The boys are also traveling to Disney for the second year in a row to com-pete in a tournament. Last year when they went they came in third place. “We play teams from all over,” says Merget. “I think we’re gonna do well down there,

we play really big schools. We played a Group 7 team last year and won,” he adds. The boys will leave for Dis-ney on December 26 and re-turn home on the 31st. Overall, the team is prepared for the season ahead. They will be compet-ing with a lot of big teams this season: Willingboro, Pemberton, and of course, Delran. The team definitely has the skills and leadership necessary to win, its just a matter of everyone on the court learning how to work together.

Boy’s Basketball Leadership Has Big Shoes to Fill

Swim Team’s Intensity Rises for the New Season

Page 11 The Ship’s Log December 2013

Fall Sports Finishes with Three Division Champs Girls Soccer

The Cinnaminson girl’s soccer team finished off their season with a re-cord of 7-13 and a league record of 3-8. Despite their records and being placed as the 15th seed in the play-offs, the girls did not go down without a fight. The team traveled to Spotswood for the first round, defeating the secnd seed in a complete upset. The final score of that game was 2-1. For the second round, the girls had to travel far to play Rumson, a tough opponent. It was a difficult game and the girls ended their season with a disap-pointing loss of 4-1. De-spite a rough season, the girls still managed to make it farther than anyone ex-pected them to in the play-offs. Next year, the team will only lose five seniors. Hopefully, this is a sign that they will have a better sea-son next year.

Boys Cross Country

The boys cross country team had a success-ful season this year, with a season record of 11-3 and league record of 4-0. This won them the Patriot Divi-sion.

Winning the divi-sion was not their only achievement. The boys also

took home the coveted Holy Cross Challenge Cup.

The team had many star runners, with Fresh-man Michael Ungvarsky standing out. It is rare for a freshman to be very suc-cessful in cross country,

let alone break the school record as Ungvarsky did. Ungvarsky, along with se-niors Harrison Ball and Aaron Haegele, went on to make the first-team Patriot division. Freshman Ryan Bleistine and senior Jake Barnes also made second team Patriot division. Next year, the team will be los-ing more than half of their team (mostly comprised of seniors), but the underclass-men look ready for the chal-lenge.

Girls Cross Country

The girls cross

country team finished their season with a satisfying season record of 10-4 and a league record of 6-1. The senior-dominated team was led by Ms. Guscott. In the end, the team did very well in every meet they ran. The

girls gained important vic-tories over Holy Cross and New Egypt. Unfortunately, tough losses against Delran kept the girls from winning the division.

The girls definitely had a good run this season. Losing more than half of their team for next year will be an obstacle the girls will have to overcome.

Field Hockey

The field hockey team received a new head coach this season in Ms. Quaranta. She is more com-monly known as Coach

Q. As a new coach, it was tough for Coach Q to ad-just to the team. Consider-ing the amount of departed seniors and athletes doing other sports, it was definite-ly a challenge for Coach Q. Even with the setbacks, the girls were ready to work for success.

The team finished with a season record of 6-11-1 and a league record of 2-7-1. The girls made it to playoffs, but lost in the first round to Riverside. Ul-timately, the girls lost the game 2-1.

The girl’s record did not reflect the sheer amount of talent that was on the team, and despite a rough season, Coach Q and the girls know now what they have and are prepared to take on next year’s season.

Tennis

Head coach Mike Perekupka led the girl’s ten-nis team in a very exciting season. They finished the season with a winning re-cord and participated in the Central Group 2 division championship.

The first round they faced their rival, Delran. The girls blew them away, defeating the Bears 5-0. The girls went on to play Rum-son. The girls fought hard, but ultimately came out short and lost 3-2.

Next year, the girls will be losing a decent

number of graduating se-niors that were key players on the court. Senior Alexa Pritchard made first Team all-stars, along with some of her fellow teammates. Ju-niors Amanda Adams, Andi Odjemski also made first Team, and as well as Fresh-man Victoria Robinson. Three other seniors made second team. They were Jenna Monnoleto, Lindsay McCarthy, and Cindy Liu. Even with the loss of so many seniors, the team has some ambitious underclass-men and a great head coach. Perekupka and the team should have no worries for the 2014 season.

Girls Volleyball

The girls’ volley-ball team ended their season with a record of 5-13. The team was very young this year, with only one senior on the team, captain Stacy Fletcher. The girls were led by Mrs. Skvir, the head coach. The team started out their season with two wins against Camden High School and Woodrow Wil-son, but ultimately never won another game until the end of the season. Although the team wasn’t winning every game, they still had amazing talent on display.

Senior Stacy Fletch-er and junior Megan Co-slove made the Olympic Conference All Star First Team.

Girl’s Bball Looks for More Success under Jenkinsby Jake Barnes ‘14Copy Editor The balls bounce, the whistle blows and ev-eryone expects success in the Cinnaminson High School gym. The Cinnaminson girls’ basketball team is looking to repeat the suc-cess of their 2013 Patriot Division title team with a new-look, senior-heavy team. Second year Head Coach, Bret Jenkins, is looking to continue the ex-traordinary success of his young coaching career by delivering another season of competitive basketball. “Our goal is to im-prove throughout the year and be competitive in every

game,” announced Jenkins. While the girls did suffer the losses of many key seniors including Jamie Campbell and Melissa Tarte, both of whom are continuing their careers in college, Coach Jenkins does not expect a drop-off from their team’s performance last year. “We graduated some very good players but we still have a lot of talent and they are a very hard work-ing group,” explained Jen-kins. Senior Captains Najha Treadwell is hoping to daz-zle scouts this season with both her tenacious rebound-ing and crucial scoring in order to join the select few deemed good enough to play college basketball. Approaching 1000

points, Treadwell is already close to cementing her lega-cy as one of the greats in Cinnaminson’s storied girls’ basketball program. She plans to follow in the foot-steps of some of her team-mates from last year by con-tinuing her basketball career at the collegiate level. Re-ceiving offers from Coppin State University in Mary-land and The College of Notre Dame (Maryland), her dream of extending her career may soon be a lucid reality. While she may be receiving offers from vari-ous colleges, she has not forgotten about the impor-tance of her senior year of basketball with Cinnamin-son. Treadwell states the teams strategy is, “To work

hard and push the ball up as much as we can to get good shots.” She also suggests that on the court each player needs to be in sync with one another “We’d like to have better communication,” ex-plained Treadwell. With scoring com-ing from Treadwell along with her fellow senior Cap-tain, Brittany Runyen, and stellar defense by senior Captain Sabrina Axelrod and sophomore Marissa Dileo the Pirates hope to be a dominant team at both ends of the floor. The girls’ biggest games come against Holy Cross and Delran, vi-cious rivals and worthy ad-versaries. “Every time we play either Holy Cross or Delran it’s a good game because we

are both evenly matched,” said Coach Jenkins. The girls hope to be a force in both the Patriot Division and all of South-Jersey bas-ketball as a whole. The girls start the season against Northern Burlington tonight before coming back to face Pennsauken tomorrow morning. After returning from Winter Break, the girls have two of their toughest opponents of the season when they play at Delran on Jan. 3 before coming home to face Willingboro on Jan. 7. The Chimeras are com-ing off of a sectional title last year and are always one of the top teams in the state. The team will host Delran on Jan. 28 and Holy Cross on Feb. 10.

photo courtesy of the BuccaneerCHS seniors Harrison Ball and Ethan Burns race to the finish.

continued from page 12

SPORTSPage 12 The Ship’s Log December 2013

Inside CHS SportsUpcoming Events

Boys Basketball

BowlingGirls Basketball

Wrestling

Winter Track

Swimming

Football and Boys’ Soccer Very Successful in Fallby Amanda McAneney ‘14Sports Editor

FootballThe football team

had a tremendous season on the whole. After a rocky first game in which they lost to Ewing after a lengthy rain-delay, the boys were deter-mined not to lose again. The boys went on to win seven consecutive games and fin-ished their season 8-2.

The team then went on to the playoffs, where they hosted Bridgeton. Un-fortunately, the boys were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round, losing 47-26 to an incredibly athletic Bridgeton team.

After this loss, the team had two weeks to pre-pare for the annual Thanks-giving game against their ri-

val Delran, who shared the same record and fate as Cin-naminson in the first round of the playoffs.

Junior quarter-back Nick Thevanayagam opened the scoring with the first touchdown of the day for CHS, and the Pirates never looked back. The team completely dominated the game, running up a 35-0 halftime score, on their way to a 42-0 victory over the Bears.

The victory cement-ed the senior class with the achievement of having won parts of three consecutive division championships, something very few football teams can say at CHS.

Boys’ SoccerThe CHS boys’ soc-

cer team finished their sea-

son with an outstanding season record of 15-5 and a league record of 10-2. The boys won the Liberty Divi-sion title, which they shared with their fellow co-champions and eventual state c h a m p i o n s , Delran.

N e x t , the boys had to get ready for the playoffs. Being the 3rd seed, they had the confidence and skill to win their first round of playoffs eas-ily. They de-feated Manasquan, with a score of 5-1. The boys then made it to round two, where

they held their own against North Plainfield. This play-off game was held on Cin-

naminson’s home field. It was a close game, but the boys remained strong and

came out on top, winning 2-0.

In the third round, the team traveled to Rumson, where they ultimately lost 3-2. The boys played well, but couldn’t quite over-come Rumson. This unfortunate loss ended the boy’s sea-son.

Overall, the boys had a fantastic season. Many tal-ented players, such as Seniors Jake McDevitt and An-drew Debellis made 1st Team Liberty Division. Junior Darnell Brown also

made 1st Team Liberty Divi-sion.

Strong Junior Class Dominates CHS Wrestling Teamby Megan Morris ‘15 Editor-in-Chief

Miserable boys walking down CHS’ hall-ways complaining about be-ing hungry can only mean one thing: wrestling season has started. The CHS Wrestling team is coming off an awe-some record of 19-2 and a division title in their 2012-2013 season and have their minds set on surpassing those numbers and collect-ing more titles this year. The boys made it to

the sectional finals of the playoffs last year only to un-fortunately get knocked out by Paulsboro who would go on to win their 33rd out of 34 possible South Jersey Group I titles. Last year the wres-tling team held an impres-sive array of talent; a lot from the seven seniors. Three of the graduated se-niors are now wrestling in college: Jason Bowen, who finished with a 26-7 record, last year is now wrestling at Roger Williams Univer-sity; Nick Dell-Priscoli,

who finished just short of the top six in South Jersey in the 170 lb. weight class with his 23-7 record, is now wrestling at Gloucester County College; and James Kennedy, who also finished short of the top six in South Jersey in the 285 lb. weight class with his 18-3 record, is wrestling at York College. Not only are the seniors going to be missed this season, but also junior Jeremy Bowen is out indefi-nitely with a back injury. Bowen, who ranked 5th in South Jersey last year with his 27-9 record, will be missed in his 106-lb posi-tion. The boys will defi-nitely feel the loss of the graduated seniors and in-jured players; however, Head Coach Beirao believes that if “one or two younger guys can fill in [spots left empty from seniors] they can be one of the best teams in the area.” Arguably, the heart of their team is the talented junior class. As freshmen and sophomores, a couple of boys have been extreme-ly successful.

Ryan Addlesberger sealed the match for the Pirates in the playoff win against Woodstown. Zach Sireci who finished his sea-son at 20-7 last year, and Pat Morton and Tom Hal-ecki who both were top contenders in their first two years are, all in Beirao’s mind as some of the “team’s top wrestlers. T h e other top con-tenders in-clude senior Kevin Fisher who finished at 15-10 and s o p h o m o r e Anthony Pen-cook who fin-ished at 8-11 last year. Seniors Andrew Destefano and Austin Em-ery will be big contributers to the team as well. The boys are ea-ger to face Cinnaminson’s longtime rival Delran but also can’t wait to compete against Bordentown. Both of these matches were ex-tremely exciting to watch last year. Delran, the team’s

cross-town rival, ended in disaster for the Bears when the Pirates beat them by 33 points last year in less than an hour.. If history can re-peat itself, there “will be much to celebrate” claims Beirao. There is a lot of tal-

ent on the team but it needs to be executed correctly. That involves players “stay-ing healthy” and “getting better every day at practice” says Beirao. The goal for a wres-tler is to individually suc-ceed, but if they can work together they could have another successful season as a team as well.

photo courtesy of The BuccaneerQuarterback Nick Thevanaygam hustles to make a pass.

continued on page 11

photo courtesy of The BuccaneerAnthony Pencook wrestles against Woodstown

1/03 vs Delran, 6:151/07@Willingboro, 5:151/09 vs Palmyra, 6:15

12/20 vs. NBC, 6:1512/21 vs Pennsauken, 11:30 12/23 @ Haddon Twp, 11:30

12/27 @ Egg Harbor, 91/03 @ Moorestown, 61/06 vs Maple Shade, 6

12/20 @ Kutztown, 512/27 @ NYC Armory, 91/3 @ Toms River, 5

1/07 @ Burl. Twp, 3:451/09 @ Delran, 3:451/13 vs New Egypt, 3:45

12/20 @ Pemberton, 3:1512/21 @ Delran, 3:451/11 vs Moorestown, 3:45