Athletes Finish Season StrongWinter season sports end well, several progress to state level

Athletes worked hard to � nish the winter season strong and several teams or individual team members made it to the state level competition.

� ree wrestlers, seniors Logan Jack-son, Marcus Brown, and Ryan Bearon all competed in states, and Jackson took

APPX program coming soon, brings changesNew program arrives at the same time the VASS program comes to SHS

BY BRIDGET PHILLIPS / Design Editor

� e Advanced Placement Programs of Excellence is a signature program available to high school students in Staf-ford County Public Schools striving to “scale new heights and achieve new dreams,” according to the informational brochure.

“It’s actually a program developed by Dr. [� rstname] Martin, who used to be principal at Colonial Forge and is now the assistant superintendent,” Biggs said. “� is is something that she is very proud of, and something that is going to give us a lot of opportunities.”

� ese programs will o� er high school students exposure to college-level materials and skills, as well as pro-viding students with the opportunity to earn college credit a� er successfully passing an AP subject exam.

“If you take a certain number of Advanced Placement courses in a con-centrated area, like whether it’s Math, English, or Science and you score high enough number on the exams and you do a service project, you can get a schol

To in� nity and beyond! Hanging out with Buzz.

Smoke Signalthe Stafford High School

Feb. 29, 2012Volume 67, Issue 11 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Fredericksburg, Va

a state championship title for his 195 pound weight group. State alternates were senior Joey Sorrentino and soph-omore Devin Bornschein. � e senior wrestlers � nished their last high school match to the best of their abilities.

“Knowing it was my last year and that I was running out of time, I had to give it everything each day,” Jackson said. “I couldn’t waste a single day and I

knew it’d be worth it a� er.”Senior Jacolby Hawkins, and juniors

Dashawn Harris and Evan Greening helped carry the team to the districts level. Hawkins playing his last season for Sta� ord. Some of the senior play-ers were disappointed at the end of the game, which marked the end of a season and the end of an era.

“I was really sad. I felt as if all four

years just � ew by fast,” Hawkins said. “A� er the game I thought about our past seasons and how I could’ve worked harder so that the team could have been better, and I really couldn’t sleep that night.”

Also playing outstandingly on the court for the last time this season were seniors Merritt Hempe and Taysia Gray.

index Feature............6-7 News...............1-2 Opinion..............3 Sports.............4-5 Spotlight............12 Student Life............9-11

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See APPX: page 2

Twitter becomes popular, gives other networking sites run for their money.SEE page 6

Baseballs swings for fenc-es with new players and

rigorous tryouts.SEE page 4

Chorus makes a fun week-end trip to Disney World.

“It was a great opportu-nity to have fun and learn a lot.” -Lexington Bowler

BY LIZZIE WALKER / Sta� Writer

MUSIC

� e band sent an unprecedented number of musicians to state auditions this year.

� is year the students have been working tirelessly to qualify for states. Before reaching the state level, they had to audition at the county and district level and be � rst or second in the dis-trict in their respective instrument.

During a typical audition, the stu-dent sits before a panel of esteemed judges and plays major scales, a chro-matic scale, a prepared piece and a sight reading piece that they cannot see be-fore they audition.

Senior Haley Russ is one of the 14

I am so glad to have the opportunity to audition for such a prestigious ensemble.” -Haley Russ

Band goes to statesMaking dreams come true

musicians from Sta� ord who had the opportunity to audition for states. Russ has been playing the baritone saxo-phone for six years and was � rst chair in the county and the district. She, along with the other students from Sta� ord, traveled to James Madison University to audition.

“I was really excited to meet other musicians at the auditions,” Russ said. “I am so glad to have the opportunity to audition for such a prestigious en-semble.”

� ere were 11 total districts and over 100 total schools that had students qualify for states and Sta� ord had one of the larger groups of students to be

BY SHANNON COOKE/ Editor-in-chief

Calendar

What’s HotCollege Acceptances

Unseasonable weather

Summer Job Applications

Talents

Chick Flicks

Scheduling

Spring Sports

Karaoke

March 2 Talent Show

March 9Mr. Stafford

March 17St. Patrick’s Day

Days until GRADUATION

Days untilSpring Break

Days until Summer Break

Days until Spring Concert

25

38

108

96

Countdown

more disciplined, because of the extremely high standard the Woodies set for all their players, they get the most out of every player,” Gallivan said.

As to which one she prefers, Gallivan coolly diverted.

“� ey both help the team in di� erent ways!” Gallivan said. “Big Woodie has the experi-ence, and we’re sure she knows what she’s talking about. And Little Woodie’s enthusiasm al-ways gets us hype.”

Signing day is a huge step in the career of an athlete. All the hard work, hours of practice, the weekends away at tourna-ments, all coming down to a dotted line on the bottom of a page. � e most recent Indian to experience this moment was senior Erin Gallivan, a four-year varsity � eld hockey player and member of the � rst team all-district, all-region, all-state, and all-met teams.

Following in the footsteps of Taylor Bailey, a Sta� ord � eld hockey great who graduated last year, Gallivan signed to James Madison University re-cently. She has been planning on playing there for some time.

“� e moment is more emo-tional than I expected,” Galli-van said. “All of it is just hitting me now.”

Gallivan credits the Sta� ord hockey program a great deal in her progression as an elite player.

“� is team has made me

BY MATT YELVERTON / Sta� Writer

See GALLIVAN: page 2

See BAND: page 2

Purple and Gold Pride: Erin Gallivan signs contract with coach and parents looking on. Photo by Betty French

Senior Gallivan signs to play college field hockey

See WINTER SPORTS: page 2

An award-winning band: The Sta� ord Tribe of Pride is no stranger to winning. Over the past twenty years, the band has acquired numerous trophies and awards for concert and marching band. Photo by Shannon Cooke

2Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.comNews

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-ar seal on your diplo-ma and get recognition as a global studies or dis-tinguished scholar,” Biggs said.

“� ere is also a re-quirement that if you take a certain number of AP exams and at least have one of your scores sent to a university oversees or outside the country you can get an Advanced Placement International Diploma,” Biggs said. “You have to get certain scores on your AP exams for that as well. So that’s two di� erent kinds of rec-ognition, for a lot of hard work.”

Major Content Con-centration Areas are James Farmer Global Studies Scholar, Sir Isaac Newton Science/Math-ematics (STEM) Scholar, � omas Je� erson Lin-guistic Scholar, Palmer

Hayden Arts and Hu-manities Scholar.

Students will have the choice of choosing one of two concentrations: Ad-vanced Placement Distin-guished Scholars (APDS) or Advanced Placement International Diploma (APID).

APDS and APID class-es will o� er the following a collegial college-prepa-ratory learning environ-ment composed of like – minded thinkers, sum-mer APPX enrichment opportunities, a technol-ogy rich learning envi-ronment, and many more.

“For the APDS you have to do a service-learning project, and they call it C.L.A.S.S.,” Biggs said. “It’s not volunteer-ing, it’s were you identify a need in the community and you develop a project to address that need. It’s very similar to what learn

and serve does.”APID is available to

students attending sec-ondary schools outside the U.S. and for U.S. resi-dents applying to univer-sities outside the country. APID is not a substitute for a high school diploma. It provides students with an additional, interna-tionally recognized certi-� cation.

“In order to make this happen, they will have needed to taken the hon-ors classes to help get them ready for the APPX classes,” Biggs said. “I think everyone needs to know that you register for the class, you don’t apply. We’re not doing applica-tions, were doing register-ing. Part of the register-ing is agreeing to study as hard as you have to, and do everything you need to, to pass the class.”

APPX: New program comes to Stafford

Continued from Page 1:

Black History month is usually celebrated with quotes on the morn-ing announcements ev-ery year, but the African American Alliance club decided to host a “Who am I?” competition this year.

Members of this club take turns every day with clues taped to their backpack or hung around their necks with ques-tions rang-ing from birthdays to a c c o m -plish-

ments of famous Afri-can American � gures to promote Black History month.

“I think the ‘Who Am I?’ questionnaire Mrs. Pellichero and Mrs. Vaerst came up with is a really good idea,” senior Dar-rian Johnson said. “� is activity opens everyone’s eyes to the important African American traits

and the di� culties they went through in or-der to achieve their freedom and ad-mire their accom-plishments.”

Students can guess the person

based on the q u e s t i o n s

and put their an-swer in a box in Ulli Vaerst’s r o o m . A n a m e i s drawn at the e n d of the d a y and the winner w i t h the cor-r e c t a n s w e r is given a prize, courtesy

Celebrating Black History MonthBY B.H. KIM /

Sta� Writerof Becky Woodside and Sue Gill.

Woodside donated school supplies to the club to use as prizes and Gill is o� ering a free cookie pass with a sign o� by Monte or Delonte Harrison, the club founders.

“We only give three clues about each person so when you look online to � nd the answer, you can learn more about the accomplishments of these people,” said senior Monte Harrison, African American Alliance club co-founder. “� e purpose of the ‘Who Am I?’ is to acknowledge the lesser-known African Ameri-cans that have had in¤ u-ences in the history of America and to show that everyone had a role in the equality we have today.”

Members of this club encourage students to guess who the person of the day is and to take the time to research the ac-complishments of these � gures.

Harrison enjoys this event and hopes that it will continue in the com-ing years.

� e African American Alliance club has been promoting the awareness and importance of histor-ical African Americans and their achievements through this activity.

Next year Gallivan will play both mid� eld and forward, helping the Dukes with her speed and assist ability. Players report a few weeks early and have an opportunity

take turns every day with clues taped to their

hung around

with ques-

and the di� culties they went through in or-

freedom and ad-mire their accom-plishments.”

guess the person based on the

q u e s t i o n s and put

swer in

in Ulli

r o o m .

n a m e

drawn at the

winner

the cor-

seen a group this large from Sta� ord.

“� ere is no compari-son. � is year we had 14 students qualify,” Hite said. “� e most we’ve ever had in the past was maybe seven.”

So what is the reason

to bond with new team-mates before the burden of college life bears down.

Gallivan recognizes that her success is a re¤ ec-tion of all the hours her parents and coaches put into teaching and coach-

for their success?“Mr. Hite is really

good at preparing us for auditions,” Russ said. “We also work really hard on our own, so we were re-ally driven and motivated to get to the state level.”

Hite believes that pri-vate teachers make all the di� erence.

GALLIVAN: Senior signs to play hockeying her and the smiles of all concerned during the concerned re¤ ects that.

“� ey’ve made me who I am,” Gallivan said. “� is moment is impor-tant, but it is only a step towards my future.”

Continued from Page 1:

“We had so many people that are taking les-sons privately, which just makes them better play-ers,” Hite said. “If our stu-dents would stop thinking having private teachers as remedial help, then there wouldn’t be anybody that could touch us.”

BAND: Members progress to StatesContinued from Page 1:

� e girls’ basketball team played exception-ally all season and made it to the regional level.

“� e season went well,” Hempe said. “We made it to the second round of regionals, but we could have done bet-ter in district play.”

Track had an impres-sive and well-earned end to the season ending with

several placing on the state level.

“Our season went well, we had records broken and a good amount of people made states,” ju-nior Ian Macleod said.

Senior Greg Bohmke, MacLeod, sophomore Luke Lysher and senior Brandon Hinton com-peted in the 4x800 me-ter relay, coming in � © h place and breaking eight minutes.

Sophomore Ashley Hinton took an impres-sive second place in pole vaulting, senior Brooke Scruggs took tenth place in shot put, along with seniors Ricky Martin and Robert Beckwith also competing in shot put.

� e winter sports teams at Sta� ord did ex-eptionally well this year. Records were broken, memories made, and hard work paid o� .

Continued from Page 1:

WINTER SPORTS: Athletes excell

4Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.com

Like all spring sport teams, tryouts for baseball began Monday Feb. 20, a day where there was bone-shivering weather with wet snow cov-ered roads from the previous night.

“It was freezing and the field was covered with snow but everyone had been dying to start playing so no one was going to let “bad” weather get

in the way of us trying out,” se-nior Marcus Bumbrey said.

The number of players who showed up on the frosty day proved just how much deter-mination and love for the game the athletes had. They know that in order to play at full po-tential during the season they need to work as hard as they can during the off-season.

“Most may say the season starts on Feb. 20, but to the ball players that eat, sleep and

dream baseball, the season is all year around,” senior Shane Haley said.

Players have been going to conditioning every Tuesday and Thursday since the week after Thanksgiving.

“All the running and throw-ing during conditioning and after school had the boys ex-tremely eager to start official practice,” said Scott Coleman, assistant varsity coach.

Waking up at five in the

morning and giving everything an individual has takes a toll on most but to these boys it is just another way of preparing for what they hope to be a champi-onship season.

“Several of my teammates and I have not only been show-ing up at workouts but also go-ing out to the field every single day since the last baseball sea-son ended to try and keep im-proving for this season,” senior Tyler Creel said. “With all the

work we have been doing, I can only imagine how we will look come game time.”

The team’s first scrimmage is on March 3 against Wood-bridge High and their season opener is on Feb. 13 against Massaponax.

“The team is looking pretty good this year but you never really know what to expect,” varsity coach Tommy Harrison said. “But just like in any sport the hard work will pay off.”

BY CODY BEACORNStaff Writer

Returning lacrosse players are optimistic about the up-coming season. They feel this spring will be better than last year.

The only changse in rules be-ing that the referees are going to crack down on certain hits, the players are already used to the play style and the same equip-ment as last year unless they are moving from JV to varsity. The former JV players have to buy a team helmet and team gloves. Other than that they just need pads, mouth guard, and, a stick.

“Most of the seniors, as well as Jack Giscard, Will Stratton, and Rhett Teaster are looking good,” senior Ryan Sompayrac said.

Many of the returners agreed that Giscard is looking

Lacrosse looks to make progress in new season

like one of the top freshman in the off-season workouts.

“I expect our team as a whole to stop playing as indi-viduals and work together as a team,” sophomore Andrew Karras said.

The team finished last sea-son with 1 win and 13 losses, but have high expectations this year.

“We have potential. I think everyone will play hard, not quit, and hustle every second of the game.” Sompayrac said

Alex Sypolt, a senior who was badly injured in a car acci-dent recently, is unable to play for the whole season, however he has been made an honorary captain for the season.

The team will be starting practices in late February and their first scrimmage will be against Osbourne High School.

BY AUSTIN THOMPSONStaff Writer

Softball sets high standards

Baseball slams into new season

After cuts, the softball team still has a great outlook on the upcoming season. Last year, the softball team was 18-4 and almost made it to districts. They hope to do even better in the upcoming season.

“I think we should win a lot of games,” coach Cathie Tobin said. “I have a good attitude with the girls that are here.”

The beginning freshmen have also had a good experi-ence with softball conditioning and the other girls on the team.

“For me, softball is a way of life, and I plan to keep play-ing,” freshman Jasmin McDou-gle said. “I also love my team mates, but would play softball regardless.”

Softball has played a big part in some of the girl’s high school experience, as some have played since freshman year. Dana Jacobs, Jennifer Quintero, Kristen Weadon, Lindsay LaFratta, Megan Reed, are some of the returning play-ers for the upcoming season, and were also consistent start-ers. Reed, with support from LaFratta are the pitchers for the team.

“I have done softball since freshman year, and it has been

a very good experience for me,” senior Lindsay Lafratta said. “I do not plan to play in college, but hope to play in any way I can.”

Softball has come to be something the girls really enjoy.

“I look forward to softball season, since I’ve grown close to the rest of the girls on the team,” junior Jennifer Quintero said.

Most of last year’s JV team has come back for condition-ing, along with a few of last year’s varsity girls.

On the varsity level, the soft-ball team is unaware of whom to keep a look out on, “The dynamics of the team have changed, since a lot of our great pitchers graduated last year,” coach Linda Keefer said.

In the past Stafford has been neck and neck with Mountain View High School, and hopes to come out on top. Riverbend High School and Massoponax High School have also shown tough competition for the JV team.

A new year brings new chal-lenges for Stafford’s boy’s tennis team as they adjust to

a new coach, move players around and welcome in new players in hopes of bettering the end results of past season records.

Tryouts began Tuesday, Feb. 21, with Stafford English teach-er, Patrick Miller, as the new head coach. Junior Matt Coyne says that the team has really

worked on their game and is ready to produce a solid per-formance at the district com-petition.

“I played tennis at a young age and I coached the Stafford girl’s team years ago, so when I heard that the boy’s team need-ed a coach I volunteered my-self,” said coach Patrick Miller.

“The team should have a solid line up,” said Coyne. “I hope to assume the number 1 spot on the team again this year, followed by senior B.h. Kim.”

“Although I don’t think we will have many people, the play-ers we do have are really good,” said sophomore Stephen Han-nah. “We looked pretty good at tryouts, so I’m excited to see where this season takes us.”

The team welcomes back veteran players including soph-omores Chris Vaughn, Ridge Dodd, and Stephen Hannah, as well as seniors B.h. Kim and Will Janney.

Being the only seniors on the team, a lot of pressure will

be put on Kim and Janney as younger players will look to them to set examples and to be the best that they can be.

“I’m glad the newer players can look up to me and Will. Next Spring, if I make the team, I’ll be looking up to the more seasoned players at Virginia Tech, so I can sympathize,” said Kim.

Depending on the cumula-tive effort of the entire team, they hope to beat last season’s overall record of 9-6. With Staf-

BY TAIA POLLOCKStaff Writer

Tennis overcomes preseason strugglesBY SHELDON SHEINALL

Staff Writerford’s biggest competition be-ing Riverbend and Albemarle, this won’t be easy.

“I believe our team is pretty strong and Stafford can expect at least a third place perfor-mance at districts, but we’re hoping for the absolute best,” Kim said.

Coach Miller said that along with teaching players to police themselves a little bit, tennis teaches athletes honesty and integrity.

Junior Jeff Schultz practices during try outs for the lacrosse team Many stu-dents came out for the lacrosse team this year. Photo by Eric Stapleton

Softball try outs ended Thursday with girls having to be cut. The first prac-tice was Friday indoors because of rain but the JV girls didn’t mind as they got their new uniforms and took a run around school. Photo by Emily Pearce

Varsity Baseball Clinic: Stafford’s varsity and JV teams held a clinic for younger students on Saturday, Feb. 25 from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. Youngsters from younger teams came for instruction in catching, hitting, fielding and throwing by the boys selected just Thursday for the varsity and JV teams. Senior catcher Matt Yelverton demonstrates here how to field a grounder. Photo by Em-ily Pearce.

Sports

5

5Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.com

Sophomore Ashley Hinton has been doing gymnastics long before she hit Stafford

High’s floor mat. She has de-voted her time and effort into gymnastics for over nine years.

Hinton first started gymnas-tics because her parents put her in classes for doing cartwheels and handstands everywhere. Ever since, Hinton has always enjoyed the sport.

“I fell in love with it imme-diately, and it appealed to me even more because it’ definitely something many people can’t do,” Hinton said.

She does gymnastics year round along with being on the gymnastics team at

Stafford. She is in level 9 of Royal Gymnastics.

Hinton has done competi-tion gymnastics for seven years and continued her competition when she came to Stafford High School. She competes in vault, bars, beam and floor.

“I love preparing myself for competitions,” Hinton said. “Imagining myself doing my routines correctly mentally pre-pares me for the meet.”

Hinton’s favorite events are floor and bars and her least fa-vorite is beam.

“I feel like I am stronger on floor and bars,” Hinton said.

Shawn Thurston, Stafford’s gymnastics coach, has been coaching gymnastics years be-fore Hinton was at Stafford. Hinton tries to take Thurston’s

Bounding across the court with the ball, 18-year-old Mer-ritt Hempe’s talent stands out. The blonde, six foot, three inch tall senior also stands out in in the hallways.

“My favorite animals are gi-raffes ‘cause they’re tall like me,” said Hempe. She is a fun person who enjoys cracking jokes and having fun.

Oftentimes, Hempe can be seen smiling or laughing along with anyone, even people she barely knows. Her bright and sparkly attire matches her out-going and lively personality perfectly.

At the end of this semester, Hempe will be going off to col-lege. She recently signed to play basketball for the University of Georgia.

Hempe misses having no responsibilities as a child. “Not having any worries or cares was probably the greatest feeling as a kid.”

advice to further her skills in gymnastics.

“Just have fun with it and relax,” Thurston tell Hinton before she performs.

“I always try to improve myself and Coach really helps me motivate myself,” Hin-ton said.

Janet Barham, assis-tant gymnastics coach, believes Hinton can only get better from where she is now.

“She’s one of the best in the state,” Bar-ham said. “She has ac-complished so

much this season, and I can’t wait to see her improvement next year.”

Hinton spends most of her days of the week going to gymnastics practices and meets. She also spends hours at the gym practicing making sure she can improve as much as she can.

“Gymnastics is my life, and I love it,” Hin-ton said. “I love how close it brings

you with people. Your teammates be-come your best friends and family.”

Stafford’s gymnas-tics team as a whole and individual mem-bers have improved throughout the season according to the team.

Hempe’s favorite school subject is English because of her love of writing. There’s one more huge thing in her life that Hempe loves: basketball. When she’s not studying or with her friends, Hempe is on a court working on her game.

“I practice everyday after school, when we don’t have practice and sometimes before practice starts,” Hempe stated. “I play basketball every chance I get!”

Ever since she was little, Hempe has dreamed of win-ning a WNBA championship.

Instead of getting pumped for each game, Hempe listens to slow, quiet music to get calmed down.

Hempe’s drive to succeed is evident in the way she plays. She models her game after WNMA player Elena Delle Donne.

Hempe said “I think that you should use everything you can and work hard to get where you want to be.”

Hinton loves childhood sport

Local travel field hockey team, High Voltage, just recent-ly returned from the Disney Showcase in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, Feb.12. The team placed in the top 16 out of the 80 teams that came from all over the country to compete.

Stafford has six players on the team that traveled to Disney and they have 22 years of play-ing for High Voltage between them but, the U-16 team also consists of players from River-bend, James Monroe, Moun-tain View, and Fredericksburg Academy.

“Overall, we did well for never playing together and changing from an indoor hard court to an outdoor grass field,” freshman Shannon Fenwick said.

The competition was so tight that the difference between High Voltage making just the top 16 and a higher seed was one penalty stroke that was given to them in the middle of what turned out to be their last game.

“I loved spending time with the team and fighting for a spot in the finals until the end,”

freshman K e n l y B e l m a n said.

Soph-o m o r e s E r i n C u n -n i n g -ham and Mo r g a n F r e n c h said that their fa-v o r i t e moment on the field was the face of “com-p l e t e s h o c k and utter happiness” that Belman sport-ed after being in the right place at the right time which resulted in a goal when they needed it most during one of their final games.

“The trip was really memo-rable,” freshman Brooke Har-mon said. “The far walks in between the fields and losing when we should have won were really the only downfalls.”

Travel hockey hits ForidaBY SYDNEY SCOTT

Staff Writer

Kicking off the season with tough conditioning and hard work ethics, girls soccer has high hopes for the year.

“I want our team to win

more games,” junior Larissa Ayo said. “We are going to have a better record than last year.”

With conditioning only on Thursdays, players practice hard outside of school to better themselves.

“I practice five days a week,”

said Ayo. “I’m on a travel team to help me get ready for the sea-son.”

Coach has set expectations for the upcoming team and players individually.

“I expect the girls to be in good shape fitness wise,” coach

BY SKYLA BAILEYStaff Writer

Girls soccer kicks into spring training

BY HANNAH HAUGANStaff Writer

Meet Merritt Hempe, more than basketballer

Members of High Voltage Field Hockey team traveled to Disney World for a tournament. Several members are from Stafford High School. Photo provided by Sydney Scott.

Already signed to play for Georgia, Merritt Hempe poses in Stafford’s gym. The girls basketball team made it out of districts but lost the first game in regionals to end their season. Photo by Kaitlin Shacklette

Rain, rain, go away: Girls JV and varsity soccer were forced to practice indoors becuase of rain and wind on the first real day of practice.. Photo by Emily Pearce.

BY CARA SKEERStaff Writer

Laura Gaesser said. “I want them to work hard and give 100 percent every practice and game.”

The team will scrimmage twice against Osbourn and King George before their first game.

“I want our team to have at least one upset,” said Gaesser.

Teammates plan to improve from last season with new ad-ditional players.

“There is a lot of new talent coming up,” senior Erin Smith said. “I’m really looking for-ward to seeing what happens.”

Smith plans on staying healthy and being safe during the season.

“My main goal is to not be injured for a third year in a row,” said Smith.

Players hope to make a posi-tive contribution to the team.

“I plan to do my best and add to the team’s win,” sopho-more Katelyn Walz said.

Walz believes the coach will have a positive impact on her and the rest of the team.

“The coach is great,” said Walz. “We do a lot of practicing and we work hard in condition-ing.”

Past players believe with the hard work from freshmen, the team will grow.

“The freshmen this year are good,” Ayo said. “They will help us win a lot more.”

The girls soccer team will play their first game Tuesday, March 13 against Massaponax.

When they were off the field, they did some team bonding by seeing The Woman in Black, shopping in Downtown Dis-ney, singing Whitney Houston songs at the tops of their lungs, team dinners at CiCi’s Pizza, tanning in parking lots and just hanging around the hotel. New memories were made along with new friendships

Sports

6Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.com

@LadyGaga19.5 million

@JustinBeiber17.6 million

@Shakira14.2 million

@Rihanna13.8 million

Most popular celebrity Tweetters

What are you doing?

Students contribute to the international social movement in 140 characters or less

Why subtweet?

Twitter, Facebook compete

@KimKardashian13.3 million

175 millionNumber of

registered Twitter users around the

world

Multi-platinum singer Beyonce’s pregnancy

announcement set the world record at

Two of the most pop-ular social networking sites are Facebook and Twitter.

At the end of 2011 Facebook had 845 mil-lion active users while

Tw i t -ter had o n l y

200 mil-lion us-

ers, accord-ing to their

websites, although Twitter has a consider-

ably smaller user base it is growing in popularity.

“I prefer Twitter be-cause it’s more social,” freshman Brandi Hu� -man said. “Instead of posting pictures and try-ing to get likes, it’s more about talking to people

and seeing what everyone else is doing.”

On Twitter, the user follows someone who has the choice of follow-ing back or not. On Face-book, the other person has to accept before the user can become friends someone.

“Twitter is more social than Facebook,” freshman Alexandra Casazza said. “You can follow anyone on twitter without it being creepy but on Facebook I wouldn’t add someone that I didn’t know. I have made friends on twitter because random people � nd my tweets interest-ing.”

One major di� er-ence between Facebook and Twitter is the use of hashtags. If a tweet has the pound symbol fol-

lowed by a particular word or phrase Twitter will group the tweet with other tweets of the same topic.

When a lot of people use the same hashtag or have the same phrase in a tweet it becomes a trend-ing topic. Trending topics are generally related to a recent event, a celebrity, or can be question like phrases.

“I feel like the trend-ing topics are always funny and really good to tweet about,” sophomore Brianna Branson said.

Twitter users have the ability to retweet some-one else’s tweet. � is makes the tweet visible for the person’s followers as well and is commonly done with celebrities.

“I love Twitter’s

Caitlyn GreenSta� Writer

8,868 tweets per

second

Dillon BadenSta� Writer

Emily Gri� n @EmmmaleeGAshton Kutcher still looks EXACTLY the same from when he was on that 70s show. #itsbeenadecade

Merritt Hempe @HempeDoesItIf you’re absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be present during my success.

Elena Sisson @lenaaroooGrilled cheese and Cheetos #cheeseattack

Allie Siegal @siegalsnackNot doing my homework just because I don’t want to get up to get it #lazytweet

Sheldon Sheinall @thayshytsheyFeeling like Black Swan when you peel o� a hangnail #iamtheswanqueen #iwasperfect

Tori Garrett @toriii91I’ve got 99 problems and they are all because of senioritis

Ryan Sompayrac @ryansompayracIt’s been a rough year so far, but the best is yet to come #classof2012

“People know a little too much about you and what you’re up to at all times.”-Brandon Chon, sophomore

“pros are getting information out quickly, like advertisements, and so-cial stu� ” -Aaron Haynes, sophomore

Short for sublimi-nal tweeting, sub-tweeting is a tweet directly referring to another person with-out mentioning their name.

People sub-tweet for several di� erent reasons. Although it can be viewed as indi-rect and rude, not all sub-tweeting is nega-tive.

“If I sub-tweet, it’s always in a posi-tive way and the per-son knows it’s about them,” junior Larissa Ayo said.

A sub-tweet is al-most never posted without a purpose.

“I usually sub-tweet when I’m angry atso-meone,” said junior Brianna Dunn.

Sub-tweeting pro-vokes many questions because it is so indi-rect and it can of-ten cause people to feel attacked.

When tweeters are the subject of a negative tweet, they o� en retaliate.

“If someone s tweets about me, I usu-ally take it as a chal-lenge to tweet about them even more,” se-nior Aaron Mays said.

Some tweeters are hesitant to respond to a sub-tweet due to its indirect nature, and would rather confront the person directly.

“Well since it’s sub-tweeting it is hard to tell if it is actually about you, so it is hard to react.” Dunn said.

Generally, people see sub-tweeting as cowardly and indirect.

Many tweeters are against sub-tweeting and avoid it completely in an attempt to avoid the un-needed drama.

“It’s cowardly because you could easily just text the person and tell them what’s wrong, but it can also helps you get some anger out,” Dunn said.

A sub-tweet can be as positive, or as emotion-ally damaging. Because sub-tweets are so indi-rect it is hard to accuse a someon for targeting a particular person. Does this mean sub-tweeting is a form of cyber bullying?

“Subtweeting is de� -nitely like cyber

b u l -l y i n g because you’re saying hurtful things about someone,” Dunn said. “However, the person doesn’t necessarily know it’s about them.”

retweeting option,” sophomore Allie Sie-gal said. “It shows how people are thinking the same thing as you or if they said your thoughts better than you could and you can just retweet it.”

In 2010, 40 per-cent of Facebook users were between the ages of 13 to 25. Only 17 percent of Twitter us-ers were the same age, according to the com-panies.

“Facebook is geared more towards younger users due to its simplicity,” fresh-man Kendrik Icen-hour said. “Twitter is geared towards older age groups due to the fact that you can share what other people are

“People know a little too much about you and what you’re up to at all times.”-Brandon Chon, sophomore

“pros are getting information out quickly, like advertisements, and so-cial stu� ” -Aaron Haynes, sophomore

PROS CONS

“Twitter is a fast and easy way to keep in contact with your peers and favor-

ite celeberties.”

“It’s a fast and easy way to stay in touch with your friends, and possibly gain a little popularity if you

gain enough followers.”

“I can just say whats on my mind at any point in the day.”

“I think Twitter is a negative thing, at least for high schoolers, because it’s just another way for

kids to be picked on.”

“It starts drama like any other social network might.”

“It promotes sitting on the computer or being on the phone all day rather than

having any real life interactions.”

Top Trending Topics of 2011

#JustinBieber#FIFAWorldCup#LadyGaga#NBA#JonasBrothers#Christmas#SuperJunior#BritneySpears#JapanEarthquake#OneDirection

-Brandon Chon, sophomore

-Tohlig Bugg, sophomore

-Kirsten Mitchell, freshman

-Dana Jacobs, senior

-Caroline Major, junior

-Naomi Bower, freshman

Twitter.At the end of 2011

Facebook had 845 mil-lion active users while

lion us-ers, accord-

ing to their websites, although

Twitter has a consider-ably smaller user base it

Sub-tweeting pro-vokes many questions because it is so indi-rect and it can of-

When tweeters are the subject of a negative tweet, they

“If someone s tweets about me, I usu-ally take it as a chal-lenge to tweet about

“Subtweeting is de� -nitely like cyber

b u l -l y i n g

Justin Bieber was a trending topic at least once every

month in 2011

Features

3

3Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.comOpinion

smoke signal staff2011-2012

Editors-in-ChiefShannon Cooke

Emily Griffin

Photography EditorEmily Pearce

Online Editors Editors Rebekah Kim Leland Brooks Dani Raymond Molly Podlesny Toni Sorrentino

Design Editor Page Editors Bridget Phillips Katie Brandon

Megan Corsano Ana Nosal

Kirstin Whiteside

Copy Editors Business Managers Emily Byers Karri Chestnut Kathryn Lenox Ashleigh Powell

Staff WritersClaire Adams, Allie Ahlm, Catherine Alfaro, Louisa Amenitsch, Dillon Baden, Jacob Bar-ber, Cody Beacorn, Emily Billingslea, Natalie

Bohmke, Luci Braun, Doreen Brindise, Moriah Briscoe, Kiana Burgos, Kirsten Burton, Travis Byram, Jackson Carmichael, Shawnail Cav-

ender, Shannon Cocho, Megan Corsano, Erin Cunningham, Ridge Dodd, Amber Donald, Elizabeth Drash, Katherine Drumm, Megan

Ebeling, Bradley Elmore, Austin Enfinger, Mariah Erickson, Shannon Fenwick, Ergys Ferruku, Starla Foosness, Tamara George,

Michael Gordon, Caitlin Green, Tyler Haley, Kimberley Hall, Katelynn Halstead, Ryan Ha-zelgren, Hannah Haugen, Alexandria Hinkle, Patrick Holland, Billy Howell, Maggie How-ell, Megan Humphrey, Taylor Jones, Bonnie Kamei, Eric Kauffman, Russ Kaus, B.H. Kim,

India Kithcart, Valerie Lampert, Jessica Larson, Taylor Lisco, Courtney Mears, Erin McGraw,

Kyle McGuire, Chris McMillen, Melissa Mercer, Caelynn Miller-Keyes, Kirsten Mitchell, Maddi Mixon, Brittany Nealy, Patrick Oliver, Ellie Pare,

Chadni Patel, David Pearson, Kelly Pedigo, Palmers Pelham, Abbie Pennington, Audrey

Perrine, Marta Perrine, Taia Pollock, Charlotte Potts, Elizabeth Puckerin, Brynne Reeves, Isabella Rivas, Julianne Rogers, Rachel Ro-

lando, Anthony Romanello, Hannah Rowlette, Tori Santiago-Troutman, Sydney Scott, Kayla

Seal, Sheldon Sheinall, Brendan Sherman, Alyssa Sims, Cara Skeer, Morgan Silver, Bridget Stadelmyer, Blayne Stine, Marissa Stone, Tyler Sullivan, Madison Teaster, Justin Thomas, Aus-tin Thompson, Ryan Thompson, Chiann Todd, Jessica Turner, Chris Vaughn, Kristina Varela,

Elizabeth Walker, Jillian Weisbeck, Taylor West, Tyler West, Taro White,Taylor White, Brittni

Wright, Matt Yelverton

PhotographersKerstin Felton, Amber Griffith, Muhamad Kha-

lid, Austing Pearson, Kaitlin Shacklette, Eric Stapleton, Keana Young

VideographersAlisa Posey Jordan Reed Taylor Sutherland

Advisor Sue Gill, CJE

The Smoke Signal is an open forum for student expression of the student body of Stafford High School. Unsigened editorials reflect the collective opinion of the Smoke Signal staff. Signed editorials represent the opinion of the auther and do not necessarily represent the opinons of Stafford HighSchool, its administration, or staff. Signed letters to the editor not exceeding 250 words may be submitted to room W206. Anonymous letters will not be printed. The Smoke Signal reserves the right to edit letters for grammar and content and to refuse advertisements.

Making the Grade

B+

D Rainy practices

Senior Karaoke

Although some athletes may prefer playing in the rain, the spring sports have had to practice indoors for the first few days of the season.

Admit it, there’s nothing funnier than seeing your peers prance around a stage singing to some of the cheesiest songs known to man. It’s no wonder the auditorium was packed for the event.

D

B-

AF Senioritis

Paying for AP tests

Spring Sports Tryouts

Warmer Weather

With the warmer weather comes the anticipation of summer. It doesn’t help that the college acceptance letters are pouring in. For many seniors, it’s a miracle we aren’t al flunking out.

Before the VASS mandate takes effect, students have to pay $87 for every AP test they are taking. These fees quickly add up to a small fortune.

Because of the high level of talent and competitiveness of the athletes this year, several upperclassmen were cut from their favorite sport to make room for the newcomers. However, there’s no doubt we will see an exciting season.

The students are seeing and feeling the first signs of spring. The warmer weather seems to be reflected in the lighter and brighter moods around school

A+ StatesWrestling, girls swimming, gymnastics, track, choir, and band are all sending members to compete at the state level and many students are winning big titles for Stafford.

F Snow on days off

We all were pretty disappointed when the most snow so far this year fell the Sunday before President’s Day, which we already had off from school. What a waste of a snow day.

Okay, it’s no secret that the hot topic of the last couple of weeks (besides Jeremy Lin) was the VASS grant and the whole idea of getting compensated for taking AP tests.

I’m not going to lie to you; my first inclination was to take the easy way out and play angsty col-umnist and write about how sad it is that we have to get paid to take advanced tests, that kids in Third World Country X would be incredulous about us receiving finan-cial compensation for education. I’ll admit that there are a lot of kids in this world that would risk their lives to go to school while we’re here getting paid for it.

But, (not to go all Larry David on you), that being said, we can’t spend our whole lives compar-ing ourselves to those less fortunate than we. If we really went all out and completely empathized with them, we’d feel like guilty brats 24/7, even those who are considered

less fortunate by our stan-dards.

I’m not saying that we should purposely be ig-norant and self centered, or that we should stop thinking about the needy. All I’m saying is this: to a certain extent, our lives play out on their own con-tinuum. Constantly view-ing our own lives in the context of being spoiled or rich is just ridiculous.

But here’s the thing: that’s exactly why this grant is unethical. Kids with just as much as just much money as we have been taking AP classes to get in to college or to save money on classes for 57 years. It should be an insult to all of us that the county brass thinks they have to pay us to strive for success in school.

Think about it; this basically means that those who came up with this whole VASS idea sat around a table and came to the conclusion that our generation is pathetic enough that we need to be essentially bribed to take AP tests. Awesome.

Look, this will prob-ably work. More kids will take AP classes, the teach-ers will be happier, our scores will get higher, all that good stuff.

While all those kids in Haiti would risk their lives to go to school.

Taking second look at V.A.S.S

Ryan HazelgrenColumnist

Procrastination is the quickest way to lose track of what you are doing and need to do in the world, hence the definition.

“If you put something off that you can do today, you are just wasting one more minute in this world that you can’t get back,” sophomore Aaron White said.

It may cause your downfall at any time and in any place in society. It is the easiest way for

someone in school to get a bad grade and someone in the work world to get fired.

“Procrastination is bad,” senior Bethanry Boyed said. “Don’t do it!”

Procrastination is de-laying something until the last second in most cases. Through procrastination you give yourself more time to plan and organize but less time to act. By doing that you are dig-ging your own grave (in a sense).

“People who procrasti-nate don’t get things done

until the last minute and when they are done they have done poorly,” sopho-more Samantha Mikelson said.

You are taught from day one in kindergarten not put off what you can do today until tomorrow but most people still do it anyway.

Doing a little extra bit

of work every day helps. Give an extra 10% every time you walk into school or work.

People say just getting your foot in the door is the first step. The same thing applies to your school work. Just pick it up. Do the first few questions. You may be surprised on how easy it may be.

Taylor JonesColumnist

Put off today what you can do tomorrow

7

7Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.com

features

2012

Mitt Romney has been around politics his whole life.

After graduating from Brigham Young University in 1971, he earned dual degrees from Harvard Law and Har-vard Business School.

Romney founded the invest-ment firm Bain Capital in 1984.

 Romney is not a career poli-tician. He has spent most of his life in the private sector, giving him an intimate knowledge of how our economy works. But he has also been an outstanding public servant.

Romney was elected gover-nor of Massachusetts in 2002. At that time the state was in a tough time. The state economy was in a tailspin, with busi-nesses cutting back on invest-ment or even closing and un-employment ticking up. He reconstructed the government programs, paring back when necessary and finding solutions throughout.

 

Students lack interest in election, politics BY KATIE BRANDON

Section Editor

Election

Barack Obama Ron Paul Rick Santorum Newt Gingrich Mitt Romney

A demographic can change effect an election.

A demographic is data of the population show-ing gender, age, income, race and education.

A candidate will ap-peal to a certain group of citizens, gaining their support.

“Depending on what kind of sample of peo-ple are in a location , it can affect the outcome of what candidate they might want, ”senior Amy Quantrille said.

Another example would be that 67 per-cent of Latinos in Amer-ica voted for President Obama because they felt that he was paying atten-tion to them, according to the New York News.

While most business owners and the wealthy are more likely to vote Republican assuming the Republicans would be more likely to stabilize the tax system, aiding the economy.

“In today’s world, the economy is playing heav-ily on most Americans,” said Sarah Jackson, social

studies teacher. “Subjects such as healthcare, social security, and combating terrorism are also impor-tant.”

According to Singa-pore’s Institute of Policy Studies, people rely on media to tell them more about each candidate.

“Any public informa-tion available to voters can sway them, but the biggest thing is the me-dia,” senior Codie Ham-mond said.

If the target group doesn’t feel like the can-didate will help them in any way, they’ll change to a different candidate impacting the election in big ways.

“If there’s a time to get interested in politics, the time is now!” Hammond said. “Whether people vote or not, the outcome will affect everyone in America.”

If a citizen ever feels the need to get involved with politics, they can campaign at local elec-tions and even work at polling places like Ham-mond.

Voting is a way for cit-izens to make their mark

in an election. Citizens are eligible to vote in the United States when they turn 18 years of age.

“I’m really excited to vote,” senior Quincy Dodge said. “I’m glad that

BY JESSICA LARSONStaff Writer

Demographics affect voter outcome, races

President Barack Obama is running for president again in the 2012 election. He has been elected the Democratic candi-date with his vice president Jo-seph Biden by his side.

Obama went to Harvard Law School, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he took a job teaching constitu-tional law at the University of Chicago.

Obama was first elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996. During his time in Springfield, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expand-ed health care for children and their parents. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

As president, Barack Obama has dedicated himself to put-ting Americans back to work and restoring economic secu-rity to middle-class families. He’s been driven by the basic values that make our country great: America prospers when we’re all in it together.

Ron Paul is a Republican running for the GOP in the 2012 presidential election.

He graduated from Get-tysburg College and the Duke University School of Medicine, before proudly serving as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force during the 1960s.

He served on the House Banking committee, where he was a strong advocate for sound monetary policy and an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve’s inflationary measures.

He serves on the House Fi-nancial Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Com-mittee.

Dr. Paul’s consistent voting record prompted one Congress-man to comment that “Ron Paul personifies the Founding Fathers’ ideal of the citizen-statesman. He makes it clear that his principles will never be compromised, and they never are.”

Rick Santorum is another Republican running for the GOP in the 2012 presidential election. Former U.S. Senator Santorum was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 at the age of 32, and from 1995 to 2007, served in the U.S. senate.

Along with John Boeh-ner and Jim Nussle, Santorum was a member of the famous “Gang of Seven” that exposed the Congressional Banking and Congressional Post Office scandals.

Some other accomplish-ments were he was an au-thor and floor manager of the landmark Welfare Reform Act which passed in 1996 that has empowered millions of Ameri-cans to leave the welfare rolls and enter the workforce.

But of all his accomplish-ments, Santorum is most proud of his role as a husband and fa-ther. Santorum and his wife of 21 years, Karen, are the parents of seven children.

Newt Gingrich is one of the other Republican candidates running in the 2012 presiden-tial election.

Under Newt’s leadership, Congress passed the first bal-anced budget in a generation, leading to the repayment of over $400 billion in debt.

Newt served on the Defense Policy Board under President George W. Bush, which provid-ed strategic counsel to the Pen-tagon and Secretary of Defense on how to better address threats facing the United States.

Newt is widely recognized for his commitment to a better system of health for all Ameri-cans. His leadership helped save Medicare from bankrupt-cy, prompted FDA reform to help the seriously ill and initi-ated a new focus on research, prevention, and wellness.

Candidate Profiles

For those actively paying attention to politics, it’s the beginning of a month-long marathon. The presidential campaign has heated up, the Republican Party presidential primaries have begun and both parties are preparing for that crucial day in November.

However, despite all of the national attention and cover-age of the election, the majority of students are still indifferent

and uninterested. Typically, the most politi-

cally active students join ei-ther the Young Republicans or Young Democrats clubs, but both organizations have seen a decrease in interest and mem-bership. This is representative of a national trend in youth political participation since the presidential election of 2008.

Even with the substantial amount of media coverage of the upcoming election, most of it is aimed at older genera-

tions, completely disregarding the youth demographic. The lack of teenage appeal leaves their political education and socialization up to classroom government or global issues teachers.

“Students should be en-couraged in school to stay knowledgeable about politics because the issues we face to-day directly affect us in some way or another,” senior Amy Quantrille said. “I know that

Mrs. Jackson, my global issues teacher, always encourages us to watch the news and to stay up to date with politics. It has definitely pushed me to stay in-volved.”

Student involvement in school elections is relatively simple compared with na-tional elections. With school elections, just select the name you think will do the best job. With national elections, there are many other factors besides

just knowing someone’s name or face to think about.

“I think a lot of younger people don’t realize the impact of politics on their daily lives,” said Danny Strock, senior class president. “For example, tax cuts aren’t viewed as being as meaningful to teenagers as they are to older generations. Since the consequences of po-litical decisions aren’t seen as a direct consequence to us, many decide not to become in-volved.”

BY CLAIR ADAMS, JESSICA LARSONStaff Writers

Candidate’s role

As the 2012 presiden-tial elections near, citi-zens are overwhelmed with the campaigns.

Political campaigns are very different to aca-demic ones. There are al-most no rules for political advertisements.

According to “The Changing Face of Po-litical Campaigns,” most political advertisements are attack ads. Attack ads are negative and criticize the adversary’s political position by highlighting the opponent’s faults and comparing them to the candidate’s own position.

Political advertise-ments have very few rules or guidelines that the candidate has to follow. There is no regulatory group that controls what commercials are allowed to say, or what can be printed on flyers.

Political advertising can say anything no mat-ter how misleading, un-fair, or blatantly critical of the political candidates.

Some of the prohib-ited actions may include, but are not limited to: ly-

ing about numbers gen-erated, going outside the chain of command, non-press-shop members talking to the press, blog-ging, and being arrested.

Candidates can, how-ever, sue for defamation of character.

To organize a cam-paign, the candidate must have a campaign manager, political con-sultants, and activists.

Millions of dollars are raised and spent each year during the elections. The presidential candi-dates have raised more than 186 million dollars for their campaigns to date, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

President Obama raised 139.5 million dol-lars and has spent 126.4 million on his campaigns.

Mitt Romney, who is currently in second place, raised 57.1 million dollars and spent 37.2 million.

Candidates who are still in the competition with President Obama and Romney are Newt Gingrich, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, and Rick San-torum.

BY CATHERINE ALFARO

Staff Writer

the first year I can vote is the year the presidential election is being held.”

The presidential elec-tion will be held on Nov 6, 2012.

What party would you vote for?

Republican

Democrat

Independent

Undecided

Party

Num

ber o

f sup

port

ers

0

30

60

90

120

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12

43

Features

8Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.comFeatures

Along with stress over school, drama, friends and trouble at home, many teens deal with body odor issues on the daily basis.

Although most peo-ple think body odor is caused by sweat, it isn’t. Body odor is the growth of bacteria which is fed by sweat, and other than that, the odor of sweat is often unnoticed by hu-mans.

Stress, anxiety and, working out are all factors to body odor. Athletes are more prone to body odor because they do tend to sweat more when staying active and working out.

“Hygiene is very im-portant, its keeps you clean preventing diseases and it helps you smell good,” senior, Jake Wat-ters said.

On various occasions, students like to make sug-gestions on how school can be more, for lack of a better word, enjoyable. Besides a year-long sum-mer vacation and “Prin-cipal Ryan Gosling,” what most students want is ac-tually something students had in elementary school: nap time!

The reason why most students probably want nap time is because one of the most common prob-lems for high school stu-dents across the country is not being able to stay awake during classes. It doesn’t mean that the class is boring (most of the time), but instead is a sign that students aren’t getting enough sleep at night.

“It depends on the stu-dent,” nurse Sharon King

Teenagers everywhere have been using exercise to keep themselves physi-cally fit and healthy. The recommended length of time teenager’s exercise and how often they should exercise has changed over time.

Many teenagers don’t exercise regularly and become unhealthy and many become obese or over-weight. People don’t have to exercise too rig-orously. They just have to move enough from keeping from being over-weight.

“Teenagers need to start slow,” gym teacher Robin Woodie said. “They need to stretch and take it easy for the first part of exercising. Exercising has been just as important as it always has been and when you do exercise it makes people feel good about themselves.”

People can exercise by doing easy, everyday things. Walking up stairs or carrying groceries can be easy exercises that can be done anytime.

Many people today forget about exercising with all of the other things happening around them.

Getting in shape for football is a high priority for juniors Wade Winner and Devin Stowell. Winner helps Stowell keep the weight from falling back onto him as bench presses help build more upper body strength. Photo by Ray Brock

Exercise brings healthBy Eric Kauffman

Staff Writer But for many exercising is easy and can be fun.

“I exercise any day that I can,” freshman Tay-lor Bonney said. “I think exercising is really a fun way of keeping yourself in shape.”

Many people feel that they can’t exercise be-cause they are obese and eat too much. Eating healthier can influence how long or rigorous ex-ercising can be.

The food teenagers eat can also affect their bod-ies when they exercise. Teenagers shouldn’t eat too much before they ex-ercise but instead drink plenty of water.

“I never eat too much before I exercise,” fresh-man Nathalia Lima said. “I am always drinking wa-ter when I am exercising so I don’t get dehydrated.

Many kids exercise many times a week. Practicing sports in high school requires rigorous exercising, sometimes ev-ery single day.

“I exercise for 22 hours every week during cheer season,” freshman Haley Stine said. “After I have exercised I feel like I am being productive while having fun doing what I love.”

Lack of sleep hits students By Reid Murphy

Page Editor

Body odor causes problems for many

By Jessica TurnerStaff Writer

THE HEALTH OF S.H.S.

said, “but the average amount of sleep students should be getting is eight hours.”

Studies have shown that while eight hours is the recommended amount of sleep for stu-dents, only 15% of stu-dents across the country get that much on a school night, according to sleep-foundation.org.

“I usually get five to six hours on a school night,” senior Ray Brock said. “Usually it’s tough to sleep because of homework, or sometimes because I took a nap earlier that after-noon.”

Whether it be from an extreme amount of homework or talking to a boyfriend or girlfriend on the phone, it’s plain and simple that most students don’t get enough sleep, and lack of sleep can be very dangerous to a per-son’s health, physically

and mentally.“One of the major

problems of sleep depri-vation is drowsy driv-ing,” King said. “Many students, and even adults, drive while being very tired and this can result in possibly fatal car acci-dents.”

Along with these problems, another nega-tive effect of sleep depri-vation is the fact that it causes many students to fall asleep in class. Besides something being com-pletely embarrassing by drooling and obnoxious snoring, sleeping in class is also an easy way to get on a teacher’s bad side.

“It makes me quite unhappy,” history teacher Margaret Bridges said. “Unless they’re sick, I don’t approve of it at all.”

Now many doctors, teachers, parents, and students have tried sug-gesting to school boards

Sleep deprivation can cause students, such as senior Ray Brock, to fall asleep and miss impor-tant parts of classes. Photo by Reid Murphy

Acne… that one word makes some people

cringe. There are many sufferers who wish to

get rid of it. Over 80% of these sufferers are high-school and college aged according to Acne-ltd.

com.Acne is anything

from small blackheads to cysts that happen when pores or hair follicles get blocked by excess skin oils according to acne.org.

“My acne isn’t too un-controllable or something I can’t cover up, but I do have friends with acne.” freshman, Charlene Wall said.

According to medical-newstoday.com Acne af-fects more than just your skin. It affects someone’s self-esteem, confidence, and more. The real ques-tion is, how do you get rid of it? “Acne makes people feel ugly and weird and uncomfortable.” freshman, Domenic Ro-manello said.

According to pro-ductreviews.com some of the best working acne treatment products are

Students go to war with acne, zits, skin

By Blayne StineStaff Writer

Exposed Skin Care, ClearPores, Miessence, Minocycline, and Neu-trogena.

“When I get breakouts I use a medicine called Benzaclin and it works re-ally well.” Senior, Brianna Morring said. “It takes about a week and the acne is gone.”

A lot of things can make you break out in-cluding exercise, stress, foods, and much more according to webmd.com.

To help prevent and reduce acne, one can use almost any moisturizer daily, wash the face after sweating, don’t get hair spray or gel on the face, eating nutritious foods, and go to a dermatologist to find a good cleanser or treatment according to teenhealth.org.

“I break out the most when I’m exercising and all I really do to stop it is I wash my face.” Freshman, Jaelyn Wallace said.

Genetics is also a big acne controller according to webmd.com. “If it runs in the family, chances are at one point or another you will get something.

Many people each year are affected by allergies. Warm weather that brings blooming trees and grass-es releases irritating pol-len into the air.

Each spring, plants produce microscopic round or oval pollen grains to reproduce. When the pollen is in the air, it enters a person’s air-way as they breathe in. This natural process is what puts the miserable feeling inside “spring al-lergies,” as said by www. pollen.com.

“My allergies aren’t too horrible,” sopho-more Blaine Hugger said. “I mean they are re-ally annoying but not bad enough for me to have to miss school.”

As reported by www. allergies.about.com, re-actions to pollen occur because of the chemical makeup of the pollen. The immune system produces IgE antibodies that cause certain cells to release chemicals into the blood stream in response to the allergen.

“During spring my al-lergies really make me feel awful,” sophomore Haylie Harbin said. “I sneeze, get a runny nose, cough, and feel all congested.”

According to www. allergies.about.com one of the chemicals released inside the body is hista-mine. Histamine is what causes the symptoms of

Students deal with sniffles, coldsBy Julianne Rogers

Staff Writer

an allergic reaction mak-ing the eyes, throat, lungs, or skin become irritated. Future exposure to the same allergen is recog-nized by the body, which then creates the same an-tibody response again.

However, scientists have developed new aller-gy medication that works to stop the steps of an al-lergic reaction. In some cases, the medicine is di-rectly intended to block the cells that respond to the allergen; states www.ehow.com.

“I don’t know what I would do without my al-lergy pills,” sophomore

Spring allergies wreak havoc upon many students! Photo by Amber Griffith

Victims of unpleasant odor should always wear clean and dry clothes daily. Some doctors rec-ommend wearing cotton materials if sweat contin-ues excessively.

If the unpleasant scent continues, doctors also recommend antiperspi-rants and deodorants. The difference between the two is that antiperspi-rants dry and/or stop per-spiration, while deodor-ant masks the scents with sorts of fragrances.

“Deodorant before and after work outs help keep the stink away,” said David Smith, freshman football player.

Anxiety also stimu-lates sweat, which creates feeding grounds for bac-teria. Whether a student is working out or stressing over homework, should remember to shower, wear clean clothes and to always wear deodorant.

“I used Axe for a long time, but then I switched to Degree because it smelled a lot better, and worked a lot better,” fresh-man Michael Sterne said.

Body odor can be one of the most embarassing things to deal with during a school day. Many students combat it by using various forms of deoderant, includ-ing hard sticks and spray ons. Photo by Emily Pearce

Zaynah Hildenbrand said. “After I take them, my al-lergies seem to disappear and they don’t bother me anymore.”

Most people think of pollen as the source of their discontentment in the spring time, but some kinds of pollen such as bee pollen is very benefi-cial to the immune system and digestion according to www. kidshealth.org.

“Allergies really do suck,” freshman Aaron Morgan said. “But I don’t mind having them if I think of the fact that na-ture is just running its course of life.”

Elizabeth M Attreed, DDS, PC2832 Jefferson Davis Highway

Stafford, VA 22554(540)-659-5161

10Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.comStudent Life

Every year the Univer-sity of Mary Washington hosts a World Language competition. Discovering world languages is this year’s theme. Most high schools in the district will be competing on March 24 in a poster, video, spelling bee, and poetry competition.

Spanish teacher Myr-iam Lorenzo is taking a few of her students to the university to compete.

“Right now we are working on the spelling bee and a video,” Lorenzo said.

While at the university students will receive free lessons in other languages and will get to see college students perform a skit for them.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun because the students will be exposed to other languages other than Spanish,” Lorenzo said.

� e competition will also be open to other lan-guages such as German and French but Spanish is usually the main language that enters.

Junior Patrick Sieg-mund will be competing with a few other Spanish students.

“I’m reciting a poem in Spanish,” Siegmund said. “You learn the meaning, memorize it, and then act it out in a way; it’s like forensics, except in Span-ish.”

Siegmund is just going to practice hard, try to get his pronunciations right and make sure that he is doing it all correctly.

Junior Kendall Wilk-erson will be starring in the short video produc-tion and will also be in the music video.

“I played Ingrid Ho� -man for a cooking show,” Wilkerson said. “Making the video was really fun

BY TAYLOR WESTSta� Writer

Spanish competes in UMW language competition

BY TARO WHITESta� Writer

� e Gays Straight Alliance held their � rst meeting on Feb. 7 in S210. With sponsor Nicole Cunningham, sophomore Samantha Johnson started the GSA in hopes of making a safe and secure place for gays, les-bians, bisexuals, transgender, and asexual.

One of the organization’s primary goals is to edu-cate the student body of Sta� ord high school about gays. It’s a support group for gays who mat need some-one there for them and may not have anyone else. � e group aims to spread tolerance and awareness to ev-eryone.

� e club has received support from many sta� members and students, but the responses were not all positive. � eir posters were torn down within two days of putting them up and students have been heard bad talking them in the halls.

“� ere is always going to be negative feedback whenever you do something that is brave, challeng-ing, or controversial which unfortunately this still is,” Cunningham said.

� e GSA meets every two weeks but they do not have speci� c dates yet. � eir next meeting is on Feb 29. � e group is still in its early stages but it is growing at a fast rate. � e GSA has big plans in the future that they are hoping to ful� ll in the close future.

“I think we de� nitely had more people who are gay, lesbian, transgender, or bisexual than people who are straight attend”, Cunningham said.

� e goal of GSA is to make all students feel com-fortable with them no matter what they are. � ey be-lieve that society puts limitations on them and what they can do. � ey want everyone to be able to dis-cover who they are in a safe way.

“I believe everyone has the right to explore who they are and what they want to become”, Cunningham said. “Everyone needs a safe, non-judgmental atmo-sphere.”

Gay-straight alliance challenges prejudical thinking

and it gave me some extra credit for Senora Loren-zo’s class.”

Alex Kni� n, junior, was featured in the short video and also a singer in the music video.

“It was so much fun. We were all joking around which is what made the video so great,” Kni� n said. “I’m lucky I got mostly English parts because I’m not good at Spanish.”

Students will be going to the University of Mary Washington on March 24 for the showing of the videos and to compete in the rest of the categories. 

Students from Sta� ord competed against other high schools in the district at University of Mary Washington’s World Language Comepetion. Ti� any Kornegay, Rebecca Klopp, Hannah Lowery, Molly Podlesney and Alaina Nichols pose in front of a mural representing world languages. Photo by Muhamad Khalid

9

9Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.comStudent Life

Japanese Club is doing a fundraiser to raise mon-ey for their yearly trip to the Cherry Blossom Festi-val in Washington DC.

“Last year some peo-ple didn’t have enough money for the trip,” Ker-stin Whiteside, their club president, said. “A fund-raiser was the best way to have enough money for everyone to go.”

  eir fundraiser con-sists of selling pies. Each pie is sold for $1. Current-

ly Japanese club is selling sweet potato pies, but in the future they plan to sell apple and cherry pies.

“I bake the pies home-made using a recipe on-line, but I also make my own tweaks and style that makes it my own,” White-side said.

For example, as she kneads the dough she adds butter to the mix.

“It helps the dough stay so� and moist,” Wh-iteside said.

She also uses the Wel-come Home Brand’s pa-per bakewear cups to

bake the pies into. When she � ts the pie into the mold, she makes sure to press down on the sides so that it turns out well a� er it’s baked.

At the end of the fund-raiser most of the money is put towards their trip to DC.

“We don’t need all that money,” Whiteside said. “We are planning to donate some of it to the Hope House Foundation.

Whiteside is the founder of the Japanese club and English teacher Madeline Booth sponsors it.

BY MAGGIE HOWELLSta� Writer

Japanese Club dishes pies

How to make sweet potato pies: Paula Deen style

Ingredients• 9-inch unbaked pie crust• 2 cups peeled, cooked sweet po-

tatoes• 1 1/4 cups sugar• 1/2 stick melted butter• 2 eggs• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 to

2 tablespoons bourbon• 1/4 teaspoon salt• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger• 1 cup milk• 3 egg whites

pies: Paula Deen style

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups peeled, cooked sweet po-

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 to

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 to 2 tablespoons bourbon

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 to

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. For the � lling, use an electric hand mixer and mix to-

gether the potatoes, 1 cup of sugar, the butter, eggs, va-

nilla, salt, and spices. Mix well.

3. Add milk and keep mixing.

4. Pour the � lling into the pie crust and bake 35-45 min-

utes.

5. Place pie on rack and cool to room temp before cover-

ing it with meringue.

6. For the meringue, use an ekectric mixer and beat the

egg whites until so� peaks form, beat in the remaining

¼ cup sugar 1 tablespoon at a time.

7. Keep beating until the sugar dissolves and mizture is

glossy and sti� , but not dry.

8. With a rubber spatula, spoon the meringue onto the

pie, forming peaks.

9. Make sure the meringue touches the crust all around,

and sprinkle with a pinch of granulated sugar.

10. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until delicately browned.

11. Cool and serve.

Instructions

Peel twp cups worth of sweet potatoes

Boil the cut potatoes

Mix together the potetoes, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, salt and spices

Pour � lling into pie crust

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees

11

11Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.comStudent Life

For most students, birthdays are that one special day of the year that centers around them. Even the in-dividual date has a nice ring to it, but that isn’t always true for sophomore Cheyenne Scholes.

Born on February 29, 16 years ago, Scholes is the only student at Stafford with this special birthday. She is only seeing her birthday for the fourth time in her life this year, but that doesn’t stop Scholes from cel-ebrating that special day every year.

Q: What day do you celebrate on? March 1, because my great grandma’s birthday was

also a leap day and she celebrated on March 1, too.Q: Are you ever teased about your birthday?Not really, people will sometimes say, “Oh you’re

four, haha”Q: Does your birthday at all affect your driver’s

license?It says that my birthday is Feb. 29, but that I turn

eighteen on Feb. 28.Q: How does Facebook work? Does it say that

you’re birthday is the 29?Facebook automatically tells people it’s my birthday

on March 1.Q: When doing little get-to-know-you type

things with other people and you line up in birth-day order, do you say that you’re a March or Febru-ary birthday?

February, not March, definitely.Q: What’s the difference between a leap day

birthday and a normal birthday?The only difference is that the day is missing. Q: How do you celebrate?I celebrate with cake and ice cream and stuff.

BY MARTA PERRINEStaff Writer

Sophomore celebrates her fourth birthday

The Key Club and Latin Club sponsored the second annual sock drive in order to benefit Mi-cah Ministries, a church organization that pro-vides services for home-less men and women throughout the county.

The clubs have collect-ed men’s white socks and flashlights.

“This is our second year doing the fund-raiser,” Key Club sponsor Margaret Bridges said. “With the success of last year, we’ve decided to make this a yearly event.”

Students had seen

boxes in rooms N214 and S205, where they col-lected the donations from students.

“We had about 50 stu-dents sign up to donate,” Bridges said. “That alone makes a difference for the ministries.”

The number of mem-bers this year is larger than ever. Organizing events for the club is more difficult for those respon-sible.

“Key Club is a big club,” Bridges said. “Do-ing a fundraiser like this enables everyone to par-ticipate.”

Micah Ministries has become known through-out the country has a safe

haven for homeless in-dividuals who have been left with nothing.

“The people that go there can get a shower, something to eat and have shelter for the night,” Bridges said. “With the club giving socks, they now have something warm for their feet.”

The Latin Club is also working in collaboration with the Key Club in the event. Member are donat-ing certain toiletry prod-ucts in addition to the socks and flashlights.

“We’re donating tooth-paste, deodorant, and other things for the drive,” sophomore Kate Shilling-ford said. “Simple things

BY TORI SANTIAGO-TROUTMAN

Staff Writer

Key Club, Latin Club sponsor sock drive

Sophomore Chris Ashton sorts through the sock drive. The Key Club collected socks and flashligts for the homeless. They earned over 50 doners. Photo by Muhamad Khalid

you need everyday for personal hygiene.”

All Key Club mem-bers that signed up are re-quired to have their items donated, while other students can do it volun-tarily.

“All you have to do is bring in a pack of socks or a flashlight,” Latin Club sponsor Gilmore said. “With that, you can make a difference, believe it or not.”

Over 150 pairs of socks and flashlights were donated by students. The sock drive ended on Feb. 24.

In honor of black his-tory month, assistant principal Felix Addo has worked with students to present a quote ev-ery morning during the morning announcements this month. Their goal is to raise students aware-ness of black history.

“When Mrs. Ellis asked me, I was a little hesitant at first,” Addo said. “I think I’ll only be on the announcements for black history month.”

These quotes by known and unknown African Americans show how not only African Americans, but humanity as a whole has worked to overcome diversity. The quotes rep-resent themes of life like challenges, racism, anger, resentment, hate and love.

History teach Ryan Middleton and Milton Branch helped Addo and the students with the quote of the day.

“I would like to see more students and teach-ers involved in black his-

tory month, we need to involve everybody,” Addo said.

“Though I don’t have an urge to do announce-ments for the rest of the year, it’s a rush between patrolling the hallways in the mornings and making sure students are where they’re supposed to be, then I’m usually running to do the quotes, and I’m trying to find a balance between them.”

Students that have read quotes for black history month include Darrian Johnson, Le-roy Strowder, and Amy Quantrille. Most students volunteered to read the quotes and reading the quotes has helped them notice an importance in black history.

“When I read a quote by Hank Aaron, I tried to think what was going on through his mind, it stood out to me when he said throughout his career he never doubted his ability, but when all he hears is that he’s inferior, it makes him wonder if all the oth-

er guys have seen things he hasn’t and if they have he’s still looking for it,” Darrian Johnson said.

Senior Amy Quant-rille says the words of wisdom on the morning announcements. The day she did the quote of the day was when she filled in for another student who didn’t show up. “My quote, by Hank Aaron, was interesting. It was about a black man’s strug-gle,” Quantrille said.

“He talked about how his failure didn’t deter-mine his success.”

Some students decided to take a couple steps fur-ther towards establishing the Black History Com-mittee. Monte and Delon-te Harrison first came up with the idea to start the organization to celebrate black history month. They contacted teachers to sponsor, such as Mrs. Pellichero, Mrs.Gilm-ore and five others. Then talked it over with Mr. Lewis, and organized ev-erything with Addo, since then, Monte and Delonte

BY AUDREY PERRINEStaff Writer

have gotten the word out by via posters, signup sheets, and student word of mouth.

“In black history com-mittee we talk about fu-ture events; we’re plan-ning to go to a wax museum at the end of the month, plus a field trip to the Smithsonian, and we dress as famous African Americans that are im-portant to black history,” said Lyndah Lovell “right now we’re doing a canned food drive, production of t-shirts, and having rep-resentatives talk about black history.”

The meetings began the first week of Febru-ary in the language hall-way on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There is no club leader for the black history committee; it’s all based on group effort.

“I don’t consider black history month being rep-resented in one month, I see it as 365 days a year,” Addo said. “We should be aware of it every day.”

Students, teachers honor black history with a quote-a-day

Juniors Deja Pressley and Taisia Smith (left to right) give the quote of the day on the morning announcements. Students and teachers worked together to present a quote a day pertaining to overcoming human diversity in honor of black history month. Photo by Muhamad Khalid

Friday, March 9Senior and juniors vote for Mr. Stafford in the first week of March. Confirmed judges: Kristen Brady, Ulrike Vaerst, Rachel Sherman

Students will be scored on Round 1: PoiseInterviewTalent

Mr. Stafford Competition

Round 2:School TriviaStunt Round

Born Feb. 29 means Cheyenne Scholes has only been able to celebrate her actual birthDAY four times. Many born on this day enjoy the teasing about being only four or five when they are actually 16 or 20 years old. Photo illustration by Toni Sor-rentino

12Issue 11, Feb. 29, 2012 www.staffordsmokesignal.com

Senior KaraoKeSpotlight

Performing I Want Candy are seniors Brooke Scruggs, Hannah Lewis, Erin Smith, and Morgan Brooks. Scruggs danced around the stage as the other three girls pre-tended to try to get her attention. They finished their routine by tossing candy at the audience. The four girls moved onto the final round where they stole the show and became the Class of 2012’s Senior Karaoke Champions. Photo by Emily Pearce

Showing their tough side, seniors James Baron, Josh Elmore, Dylan Porter, Steven West, and Patrick Davis flex for the crowd. The five boys performed I’ll Make a Man Out of You before moving onto the final round where they performed Grenade. The boys took 2nd place overall. Photo by Emily Pearce

These five brought a little west coast to the stage. Seniors Michael Rynders, Bailey Mixon, Christina Pisciotta, Jazmyn Dove, and Aaron Mays performed California Girls while dressed head to toe in beach gear. The five were taken into the final round to perform Haven’t Met You Yet and came in third. Photo by Emily Pearce

Bringing a taste of the oldies music to the stage are seniors Morgan Iannazzo and Brianna Sayasithsena. These two girls performed Tainted Love by not only singing along to the beat, but also showing off some dance moves. Photo by Emily Pearce

Raising her voice solo is senior Jasma Oglesby. Oglesby sang Unfaithful while the crowd cheered her on as she hit the high notes. Photo by Emily Pearce

Rocking boas, neon leggings, and zebra patterned accesories, seniors Tatianna Tonnacliff, Samantha Krejdovsky, Sarah Shearer, Abby Mueller, and Olivia Shaffer perfmormed Diva. The five girls had their routine down including the flip Krejdovsky did and the slide Shearer did to the front of the stage. Photo by Emily Pearce

Perforimg the popular hit Baby are seniors Briana Cornetts and Aroyia Jones. They acted out the song as they sang it to make it more entertaining for the audience. Photo by Emily Pearce

2012