smoke signal issue 8, dec. 20, 2011

smokesignaltheSta� ord High School www.sta� ordsmokesignal.comIssue 8, Dec. 20, 2011

1thesmokesignalDec. 20, 2011Volume 67. Issue 8

Sta� ord High School 33 Sta� ord Indian Lane, Fredericksburg, VA 22405 www.sta� ordsmokesignal.com

Twinkling Lights

Neighborhoods show their

Christmas spiritSee page 10

Gymnastics Gymnastics spring into new season

See page 7

Calendar

Jan. 24-Jan. 27

Semester Exams

Dec. 22-Jan. 2Winter Break

Jan. 30No School

countdown

days until Christmas

days until Exams

days until 2012

days until Graduation

indexEntertainment .......6

Feature..................4-5

News......................1-2

Opinion.....................3

Sports....................7-9

Spotlight.................12

Student Life.....10-11

what’s hotWinter Break

Michael Buble’s

11

35

5

178

weather

Dec 22-29

High: 45 FLow: 26 F

Dec 30- Jan 6

High: 44 FLow: 26F

40 make All County/All District band Gathering at Mountain

View High School, over 500 students throughout the county participated in the All County Band auditions with only 90 positions available. � e auditions took place on

Monday, Dec. 5 at 4 p.m. and lasted until around 9 p.m. From Sta� ord, 90 students auditioned and 30 made the ensemble.

Out of the 20 spots available, eight students from Sta� ord received � rst chairs. � e students that received � rst chair

places were Devin Ger-aghty with the clarinet, Andrea Stakes with the contra bass clarinet, Mia Romero with the alto sax, Haley Russ with the bari-tone sax, Chris O’Hara with the trumpet, Aaron Small with the trombone, Ji Sang Lee with the tuba,

and Justin Garrett with bass.

“� e number of stu-dents for All County is a good number,” band di-rector Chuck Hite said. “We usually have between 15 and 30 students make the ensemble. It is unusu-al for any high school to

have such a high number of � rst chairs and most of ours were in the standard instrument area.”

At the auditions, stu-dents signed up for num-bers in each instrument group. Each instrument,

BY KARRI CHESTNUTBuisness Manager

� e marketing stu-dents competed in the District DECA Com-petition along with stu-dents from six other high schools.

“All of the students did a fantastic job in the com-petition and looked awe-some in their professional dress,” marketing teacher Kara Knittel said. “� ey represented our school really well and we had numerous teachers com-

ment on how great they looked overall as a group.”

� e competition was to see how well young people actually do in real life business situations.

“I was being inter-viewed at the competi-tion for a position that sells American food,” se-nior Mikey Rynders said. “� e company wanted to globalize and sell to other countries and cultures so they interviewed me as well as other kids in front of a judge but I happened

to get � rst place.”� e students’ scores

were based on a combina-tion of interview scores as well as the test score, which each student took within their marketing class.

“I competed in busi-ness services and market-ing and won second place overall for the state com-petition,” co-president, Ryan Leake said.

Many of the students for Sta� ord were able to place and qualify for the state competition.

Parking passes must be displayed on vehicles in the SHS parking lot.

“� e Man can’t hold me down!” Joanne said. (Names have been changed to protect the identity of the students responding to the report-er’s questions.) “Buying a $75 parking pass? It’s stupid.”

John was only told to buy a pass when caught

Students take stand against passesBY COURTNEY

MEARSSta� Writer

Counterfeit parking stickers have appeared in the parking lot. Stu-dent say the parking fee of $75 is too high for them to pay along with other fees such as class dues, senior photos and club dues. Students must have paid class dues before they can pay for the parking pass. Photo by Emily Pearce

BY LELAND BROOKSEditor

DECA challenges new marketers

See BAND on page 2

See PARKING on page 2

Christmas Album

All County Band

New Years Plans

Basketball

Hopes for a White

Christmas

Light gear snaps, brings lighting boom to floor

Joanne isn’t the only one who thinks so, either.

John was said to have been making fake passes, but denies the accusa-tion. � e fake passes were rumored to be around $15—a whole $60 o� of the original price.

“I mean, I guess they heard about me being caught with a fake pass,” John said. “� ey just as-sumed that I was making them.”

with a counterfeit. John was never punished for

possessing a fake parking pass.

Luke, unlike Joanne and John, simply forgot to turn in the check.

“I mean, my mommy wrote the check and ev-erything,” Luke said. “I just couldn’t remember to turn it in…”

Notices were placed on the windshield of Luke’s

DECA contestants pose after winnering serv eral awards at the competition held recentl at Spotsylvania Towne Center. Photo by DECA.

At the eleventh grade PSAT presentation, the stage lights crashed to the stage while being adjusted for the upcoming choir and band concert.

� e Drama 3 and 4

classes were in charge of raising the lights when they came crashing down, due to a gear in the crank being worn down a ̈er 37 years of use.

“Our job was to crank up the lights but appar-ently a piece had worn down, causing it to snap

and fall,” senior Kendall Khan said. “My reaction is something that cannot go in the paper.”

Counselors were standing by the stage when the lights fell.

“We were giving out the PSAT results when they came down and I

shielded my face because I didn’t want to get hit by glass,” counselor Sabrina Gladney said. “It turned out to be mostly dust but a few of us did scream upon the impact.”

� e PSAT presenta-tion was able to continue without more distrac-

tions.“It was surprising and

unexpected and we are going to continue to do safety checks because this obviously shouldn’t have happened,” said Rodney

BY ANA NOSAL ,LELAND BROOKS

Editors

See LiIGHTS on page 2

The light boom lies on the stage with broken glass everywhere. A gear failed and the boom crashed to the stage narrowly missing people on the stage during the counseling department’s PSAT assembly with juniors. No one was hurt but if the boom had hit anyone, it could have been a fatal injury. Photos by Rodney Redman.

Members of the All County and All District Band stand in the bandroom for their photo. Sta� ord high had eight students out of 20 positions make � rst chair Photo by Linda Keefer


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like ® ute, clarinet, trum-pet, and horn, had judges. All instrument groups were auditioning in di� er-ent areas of the building at the same time. In ad-dition, the auditions were blind auditions, meaning the judges have no way of knowing who the student is or where they are from.

“I was very pleased with the kids and their performance,” Hite said. “� is is a very talented group of young men and women.”

Besides the eight � rst chair positions, many other students earned chairs in the auditions. � ere were also second place chairs including Antoinette Tortorici with the clarinet, Shannon

car. When it comes down

to it, all of my sources have the same thing in common. � ey believe $75 is too much money for a parking pass.

“I understand that it’s a necessary fundraiser for the school,” Luke said. “But I feel like $75 is a lot of money for students to

Cooke with the tenor sax, and Eric Stapleton with the trumpet.

“Personally I feel be-ing second in both the county and the district is really exciting,” Tortorici said. “Even more exciting is that Devin got � rst as well. Sta� ord taking the top two clarinet chairs is a great accomplishment.”

On Saturday, Dec. 10 the band students also participated in All Dis-trict auditions at Moun-tain View. � e auditions had close to 1200 students auditioning with only 180 positions available. � ere were over 20 high schools auditioning.

“Districts is pretty cra-zy,” Garrett said. It’s about 20 or so di� erent schools who throw their best mu-

park.”Lucy agrees that it’s

too much.“Senior dues are $75,

plus the costs for col-lege applications, school supplies, transcripts, club dues, dual enroll-ment classes, AP classes, sports—and then the $75 parking pass, all at once?” Lucy said. “It’s ridicu-lous.”

Band: Students audition for All CountyContinued from page 1

Parking: Pass price causes controversyContinued from page 1

Redmond, head of secu-rity.

� e logistics behind the incident were inves-tigated by maintenance sta� .

“It was a mechanical failure and the crank will be replaced today, along with the lights,” building engineer Chris Caldwell said. “It was an unexpect-

sicians out there. It’s kind of like a race in track, with the lineup being really close, but you can’t see the other runners. It’s really a tough audition,

but even then, I’m con� dent in our players.”

� e band also did re-ally well at All Districts with many students plac-ing chairs in the district. Forty students made the All District band and seven of the students took the top 20 spots. � ere were six alternates who may also get to go to All States. � e students that placed in All Districts will then move on to All States, which will be at James Madison Univer-sity.

“I think we’ll do really well at All States,” Russ

said. “We all work really hard and are all very tal-ented.”

Overall, 13 students are now All State eligible and will be attending All State auditions on Feb. 25. � e students will contin-ue practicing even harder in preparation for All States.

“� is was a wonder-ful experience!” Garrett said. “I love coming to-gether and seeing a lot of good friends from other schools that I usually don’t get to see otherwise. � is event really shows that we’re all the same. We have worries and get ner-vous and there’s usually no ill will toward anyone else. It’s a really friendly environment.”

ed mishap but we are go-ing to try our best to pre-vent it in the future from happening again.”

� e Drama classes have also been instructed to be aware of potential incidents such as this one.

“We were told to yell out when working with the lights so students can get out of the way,” Khan said.

Although it was a traumatic experience for some of the students and counselors, the issue has been taken care of.

� e band and chorus concert was postponed, as well as club pictures.

Counselor Harry Mack said, “� e few times the counseling depart-ment has to use the stage, we brought the house down.”

LIGHTS: light boom fall to stageContinued from page 1

Russ also agreed, but was hesitant to answer questions about parking passes.

“Lemme ask you this, why pay $75?” Russ said. “I live a simple life. I come and park for free, and I wanna keep it that way. No more comments.”

� e other students questioned about park-ing passes were reluctant to answer for fear of being caught.

Sally hadn’t bought a pass, and received a warn-

ing.“I got a warning, and

then the very next day I got booted!” Sally said. “I was angry. I wanted that thing o� immediately without a � ne. I called my mom and told her to talk to the administration so I could come home. I was also annoyed because I had to get to work at four. And I had a lot of school work to do and not doing it would a� ect my studies and grades in the long-run.”

White Oak Market & Deli316 White Oak Road

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smokesignaltheStafford High School www.staffordsmokesignal.comIssue 8, Dec. 20, 2011

3Stafford High School

opinion

Editor-in-ChiefEmily Griffin

Assistant Editor-in-ChiefElexxus Brown

Assistant Editor-in-Chief Photography Editor

Shannon Cooke

Online Editors Editors Rebekah Kim Leland Brooks Molly Podlesny Toni Sorrentino Page Editors Megan Corsano Ana Nosall Dani Raymond 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 Barber, Cody Bea-corn, Emily Billingslea, Natalie Bohmke, Luci Braun,

Doreen Brindise, Moriah Briscoe, Kiana Burgos, Kirsten Burton, Travis Byram, Jackson Carmichael,

Shawnail Cavender, Shannon Cocho, Megan Corsano, Erin Cunningham, Ridge Dodd, Am-

ber 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, Kate-lynn Halstead, Ryan Hazelgren, Hannah Haugen, Alexandria Hinkle, Patrick Holland, Billy Howell,

Maggie Howell, 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, Brit-tany 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 Rolando, 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, Austin Thompson, Ryan Thompson, Chiann Todd, Jessica

Turner, Chris Vaughn, Elizabeth Walker, Jillian Weis-beck, Taylor West, Tyler West, Taro White,Taylor

White, Brittni Wright, Matt Yelverton

PhotographersKerstin Felton, Amber Griffith, Muhamad

Khalid, Emily Pearce, 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

A+

C

DA+ Winter Break

PSAT scores

Half Day

Homeworkover the break

Only one more day! Then two weeks of rest, relaxation and fun.

The sophomores and juniors who took the PSAT were pleased to get their scores back. Some people did really well, and others now know what to study for the real SAT.

What is half a day? How much do we get done? Why are we here? Oh yeah, it counts as one of the 180 we need.

What are teachers thinking? There are only so many hours and days in the break and to spend them doing homework is crazy!

C RAINRain, Rain, Rain! Go away! Come another day! Don’t tease us with flooding and then not close school for the day.

BY PATRICK HOLLANDStaff Writer

Trash, trays, garbage! Clean it up!Students disrespect

and disobey the rules of lunch by leaving trash cluttered and trays scat-tered on tables.

The custodial staff cleans the lunch tables be-fore, in between, and after lunch, they do appreciate the students that clean their trash and trays up.

“When we (custodial staff) clean the lunch tables we use GP For-ward SC, which is an all-purpose cleaner and water,” custodian Jenny-fer Rivera. “I find it very disrespectful to me and the school when a student leaves trash and their

trays on the tables.”Students that refuse

to clean after themselves recognize the fact that there is a custodian staff and some would argue that it is their job to clean after the students.

“I realize that someone has to clean up after me, but I personally believe that it is their job to clean up after me,” sophomore Amiaya Carey said.

Students have reasons as to why they refuse to clean up after themselves but more often than not, their reasoning was the same.

“I’m just too lazy to walk to the trash can to throw it away,” Carey said. “I just leave my trash on

the table and walk away and not worry about what happens to it.”

Some students even try to get other students to clean up after them-selves.

“I don’t throw my trash away at lunch because I always give my tray to someone else to throw away,” junior Kevin Pow-ell said. “I feel like some of my friends are going there so why can’t they throw mine away and if they don’t it’s not my problem.

There are many stu-dents that do in fact throw their trash away, and respect the cafeteria and the presence of the custodial staff.

“I throw my trash away

every day,” junior Jerome Russell said. “It’s really not a big deal to do such a small task. After I throw my trash away, I place my

Do the crime, pay the timeAs the school year

passes by and winter break has finally ar-rived, students are un-fortunately finding that teachers are no longer letting little mishaps slide by, and the con-sequences are affecting practically everybody in one way or another.

Although some teachers, especially those teaching upper-classmen or advanced classes, don’t accept late homework from day one of the new school year, many oth-er teachers do allow late work to be turned in because of the recent adjustment from sum-mer laziness.

As the weeks fly by though, many teachers aren’t accepting any

excuse, no matter how good a student might think it is. As the year progresses, teachers believe that so should responsibility. Not say-ing that this expectation is asking too much, but most students are find-ing this concept too hard to grasp.

Another classic ‘crime’ popular in the halls of Stafford is tar-diness, as well as skip-ping class completely. Students are finding more and more ways to make cutting class easier, despite the fact that teachers are also finding more and more ways to punish pros-ecutors.

Detentions and sus-pensions are as always flourishing as students

continue to disrespect teachers, property and even other students, regardless of the conse-quences.

The latest offense students have been partaking in concerns parking passes. Wheth-er students choose to attempt at using last year’s pass or refuse to buy a current pass altogether, major con-sequences are being en-forced.

Obviously punish-ments become more severe as they become more frequent, vary-ing from detentions and suspensions to cars be-ing booted and parking privileges being taken away.

The most recent pun-ish that the administra-

tion has enforced was created because of the flood of tardies earlier this year. Security now has permission to con-fiscate parking passes for a certain amount of days. The more morn-ing tardies a student has, the more days the pass is taken away.

These rules may an-noy students at times, especially if they are being enforced on them on a daily basis. As teens mature though, they must come to real-ize that responsibility is not an option. If one wants a proper educa-tion they must endure the societal rules that come with it. Remem-ber, have a great day, or not, the choice is al-ways yours.

tray on the rack right next to cans. It’s not like I’m

walking to the other side of the cafeteria to do so.”

CartoonistsErin McGraw, Jack Raymond

Toni Sorrentino

Design EditorBridget Phillips


4 feature

Each year many Afri-can Americans celebrate Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday, but a seven-day celebration of spirit and festivities.

� ose who celebrate Kwanzaa are remember-ing African American heritage and culture. According to the O� -cial Kwanzaa Website, the idea of Kwanza � rst came up in the United States from a man with the name of Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966.

“I don’t personally cel-ebrate it, but it’s a holiday just like any other,” junior Abriana Fines said. “None of my friends participate in it although I know there are probably many people out there that do.”

From Dec. 26 through

January 1, 15 million peo-ple worldwide practice Kwanzaa. Each of the sev-en days corresponds with one of the ‘seven guiding principles’ and a candle is lit in remembrance.

“I think that candles are an important part of Kwanzaa,” sophomore Katherine Frano said. “It symbolizes what the holi-day really means and cre-ates a family tradition.”

Other symbols such as the Bendera, or � ag of Kwanzaa, also have senti-mental meaning. Accord-ing to the Tomorrows World Website, the colors on the Bendera represent black for the people, red for their struggle, and green for the future and hope that comes from their struggle.

Kwanza has many other representations but

the most important is the name itself. � e word “Kwanzaa” comes from the phrase, “matunda ya kwanza” which means “� rst- fruits.”

Kwanzaa was origi-nally spelled with one “a” at the end, but evolved into “Kwanzaa” due to an organization called “Us” and their wanting to inspire creativity in the children. Seven children wanted to represent the holiday so another “a” was added to make the word seven letters.

“I think that it was a smart idea,” sophomore Haylie Harbin said. “It is nice that the kids wanted to play a part in their cul-tural heritage.”

Kwanzaa is clearly a holiday for African Americans created for African American people.

However, others can also celebrate it too.

“I would not person-ally celebrate Kwanzaa,” sophomore Iram Fazli said. “I am not a part of their culture and that would be considered dis-respectful to my own cul-ture to celebrate that.”

� e principles and messages of Kwanzaa are rooted in African culture, but can also be applied to others as well. According to the O� cial Kwanzaa Website, any message that is good for a particular people, speaks not just to the people, but to the world.Sources:

www.tomorrowsworld.org

www.offi cialkwanza-website.org

Hanukkah is the eight day Jewish holiday that can also be called Chanu-kah. � e word Hanukkah means dedication because the Jews had to � ght for their sacred temple.

“� e temple of the Jews was under an attack against the Romans and

while the Jews only had enough oil for one day of candle light, the light ac-tually lasted eight days.” junior Jacob Berlin said. “It showed that we can last on such little things and it is not a season of giving.”

� e candle that the Jewish use is called a Menorah. Each day they

light another candle a� er sun down. However, the ninth candle, called the shamash also known as the helper is used to light the others.

“My mother is Chris-tian and my father is Jew-ish, so we intertwine the holidays, but we mostly celebrate Christmas,” se-nior Dan Jobrack said.

By Julianne RogersSta� Writer

Students keep African tradition

Jewish light candles to honor their heritageBy Amber Donald

Sta� Writer

� e world is � lled with various religion-centered holidays, with many oc-curring in the month of December. Many peo-ple already know of the Christian and Jewish hol-idays, including Christ-mas and Chanukah, and how they came to be, but not as many know about the various Muslim holi-days and their storied backgrounds.

One of the most well-known Muslim holidays could be considered Ra-madan, which is where many Muslims spend a month of daytime fasting in order to purify their

souls and refocus their minds to God.

Ramadan concludes with a part of the holi-day Eid-al-Adha, also known as the “Festi-val of Sacri� ce”, which many Muslims call Small Eid.

“For Small Eid we give charity to the poor and then o� er prayer,” freshman Arham Zahid said.

Eid-al-Adha’s � rst half is called Big Eid and is a representation of many special events in Muslim history. It represents the com-memoration of prophet Ibrahim (or Abraham) to sacri� ce his son Isma’il (or Ishmael) as

an act of obedience to God before God inter-vened to provide him with a sheep to sacri� ce instead.

“For Big Eid, we o� er prayer and put on our newest or best clothes available,” Zahid said. “If you are able to sac-ri� ce, you may do that too.”

For Muslims, Eid is similar to Christmas. As Christians wait for Christmas the entire year, Muslims do the same for Eid, along with receiving gi� s in a similar fashion to Christmas.

Another major Mus-lim holiday is Hajj, where millions of Mus-

lim journey any way they can to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Ara-bia.

Occurring every 12th month of the Islamic calendar, the objective of Hajj is to display the solidarity of the Mus-lim people and show-case their submission to God.

Every religion fea-tures their very own holidays in order to dis-play their love of their own spiritual leaders, and creates a common bond between all the world’s religions and, in a technical sense, peo-ple in general.

Muslim student practices Ramadan customs

“When we celebrate Hanukkah we get a pres-ent each night, instead of all them on one day like Christmas,” Jobrack said.

Hanukkah starts on the eve of the 25th day of the Hebrew Month of Kislev, and that means the day is di� erent every year, this year it begins on the sundown of Dec. 20 and ends on Dec. 28.

By Reid MurphySta� Writer

By Jack Raymond

Do

you stillbelievein Santa?


5feature

The beginnings of a holiday stapleBY LELAND BROOKS

Page Editor

What does it mean to be a Sta� ord Indian? How would you describe Staf-ford High School? Unfor-tunately, these seemingly simple questions have been eliciting increas-ingly negative responses. Preoccupied only with the school’s lack of win-dows or crowdedness, many students can’t see the positives that hold the tribe together.

Many see high school only as a seven-hour ob-ligation. Sta� ord is only a place to check out, but

as Link Crew and Inter-act Club sponsor Ryan Middleton puts it, “to be constantly surrounded by negativity can be taxing.”

As a � rst year teacher last year, Middleton no-ticed a de� nite lack of enthusiasm among the student body last year. “It was like a gray cloud of negativity, and it was a downer,” Middleton said. “But I’m starting to see a real di� erence this year. Hopefully it will stick around.”

Unfortunately there can be a widespread mindset of the adversarial relationship between sta�

and students. “Sometimes when

students get angry, they blame a ‘they,’ with a capi-tal T, ” said NHS sponsor Deborah Kresho. “But I say no, it’s ‘us’ with a capi-tal U. � at’s what spirit is. It gets us involved, it keeps us going.”

Students and teachers should have open lines of communication, sharing ideas and beliefs on what’s going on in the classroom.

“Let us know what’s important enough to you,” Middleton said. “If you say things enough, you get heard. A lot of students feel muted and

shutdown, when that’s not the case, and that’s unfor-tunate.”

Instead of taking a negative stance of opposi-tion to Sta� ord, students should maximize their time in high school by taking part in the activi-ties that will build their interests and in turn cre-ate a positive high school experience.

“� e more you feel connected to school, the higher you achieve,” Mid-dleton said. “And I don’t mean achieve in terms of test scores, I mean it in terms of reaching your full potential.”

BY ANA NOSALPage Editor

What does it mean to be a Sta� ord Indian? How would you describe Staf-ford High School? Unfor-tunately, these seemingly simple questions have been eliciting increas-ingly negative responses. Preoccupied only with the school’s lack of win-dows or crowdedness, many students can’t see the positives that hold the tribe together.

Many see high school only as a seven-hour ob-ligation. Sta� ord is only a place to check out, but as Link Crew and Inter-act Club sponsor Ryan Middleton puts it, “to be constantly surrounded by negativity can be taxing.”

As a � rst year teacher last year, Middleton no-ticed a de� nite lack of enthusiasm among the student body last year. “It was like a gray cloud of negativity, and it was a downer,” Middleton said. “But I’m starting to see a real di� erence this year. Hopefully it will stick around.”

Unfortunately there can be a widespread mindset of the adversarial relationship between sta� and students.

“Sometimes when students get angry, they blame a ‘they,’ with a capi-tal T, ” said NHS sponsor

Deborah Kresho. “But I say no, it’s ‘us’ with a capi-tal U. � at’s what spirit is. It gets us involved, it keeps us going.”

Students and teachers should have open lines of communication, sharing ideas and beliefs on what’s going on in the classroom.

“Let us know what’s important enough to you,” Middleton said. “If you say things enough, you get heard. A lot of students feel muted and shutdown, when that’s not the case, and that’s unfor-tunate.”

Instead of taking a negative stance of opposi-tion to Sta� ord, students



“� e more you feel connected “And I don’t mean achieve in terms of test scores, I mean it in terms of reaching your full potential.”

Every year Christmas rolls around, and things tend to get bigger and bigger in terms of deco-rations, presents, but not necessarily in holiday spirit. It seems with ev-ery passing year com-mercialization seems to trump the true meaning of Chirstmas.

For instance, the fam-ily-oriented ABCFam-ily usually just does its “25 Days of Christmas,” where for the month of December holiday and Christmas � lms and mov-ies are shown.

� is year 25 Days of Christmas had a pre-cele-bration that is the Count-down to the countdown. � at’s right, 25 Days of Christmas has “10 Days to the 25 Days of Christmas Countdown.” Opinions on this have been mixed, mostly leaning towards

the dislike of the idea.“� at is a pretty silly

idea,” senior Raphael Sandor said. “It really is too repetitive.”

Some thought it was okay in small incraments.

“I guess for people who like Christmas it’s good,” sophomore Jacob Chance said. “(It’s) a little early for that, though.”

Also of note is the celebration of Christmas immediatley a� er Hal-loween ends. Christ-mas wreathes, orna-mentsts and decorations have been seen littered through Downtown Fredericksburg already. It’s also been met with mixed reactions.

“I don’t mind [Christ-mas decorations] coming up a� er � anksgiving,” teacher Judie Jobrack said. “I’m � ne with it. I myself like a simpler Christmas without the brouhaha.”

Many students think other holidays are pushed aside to accommodate the mammoth of an event that is the winter break.

“I feel like � anksgiv-ing is skipped over and not appreciated,” junior Pierre Woodson said. “People don’t celebrate it like they used to!”

Students also have called out the excessive-ness that comes with the Holiday season.

“It’s messed up with all the decorations!” sopho-more Nelson � urston said. “It’s just way too much!”

Some even believe the holiday season has gone so commercial its strayed from its original purpose.

“It’s totally over com-mercialized,” junior Max Taylor said. “� e holidays have gone away from the true meaning of Christ-mas.”

BY TRAVIS BYRAMSta� Writer

Overkill of Christmas

Dear Students of Stafford High School,Everyone here at the North Pole is very busy preparing

for Christmas Eve. Mrs. Claus is mending my red suit

as I had so many holes in the knees from sliding down

all of those chimneys! Rudolph just whispered in my ear that the sleigh is nearly packed. He can hardly wait

to lead the reindeer with my sleigh full of toys on our

long trip to visit the homes of good boys and girls. The

elves are busy putting bows and ribbons on the last of

the presents.

I just had to take a minute to write to you all and tell you that I am very pleased with the good reports I have

received about you guys this year. I see that you have

all kept your grades up has been very helpful and kind

this year! The reindeer and I are planning to arrive in Stafford just after midnight to deliver your gifts. Well, Mrs. Claus is calling me for dinner, so I have

to get going. Keep on being a good kids and Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Santa Claus

Truth about Santa


6entertainment

“New Year’s Eve” fails to dazzle, delight viewers

Christmas will be coming early for “Glee” fans with the release of the cast’s new album Glee: The Music, The Christ-mas Album Volume 2. The al-bum was released on Novem-ber 15.

Ten classic Christmas songs are featured on this new album, along with two originals from “Glee”. The tracks, titled “Ex-traordinary Merry Christmas” and “Christmas Eve With You” give the album a more current vibe.

More classic Christmastime hits are matched perfectly with artists. Naya Rivera, (Santana) sings “Santa Baby” and brings

an energetic and fun sound to the song. Rivera perfectly meshes her character’s edgy personality with her own dy-namic voice.

Damian McGinty (Rory)’s “Blue Christmas” is a unique take on the Elvis classic. His Irish accent adds the perfect touch to the song by keeping the traditional sound but with a new voice.

In addition to cast regulars, new voices from The Glee Proj-ect can be heard on the album.

The newcomers are heard on songs “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and “Santa Clause Is Coming To Town.”

Alex Newell, Lindsay Pearce, and Samuel Larson create a more balanced sound as well

BY MEGAN EBELINGStaff Writer

“Glee” Christmas album lives up to show, entertains

Michael Bublé kicks off the holiday season right with his plainly titled album, “Christ-mas.” The charm of the album stems from the combination of Sinatra-era tunes such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christ-mas” with pop hits including “Santa Baby” and “Blue Christ-mas.”

Bublé’s trademark soulful vocals are highlighted in “It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas,” which rightfully earns its place as first on the album.

A jazzy rendition of Jingle Bells takes the sleigh-ride fa-

BY KATIE BRANDONSection Editor

A Bublé Christmas, delightfully cheerful

For 89 years the National Christmas Tree has been an American Christmas tradition. Since its beginning in 1923, the tree has been in DC to bring citizens together and send a message of peace.

The National Christmas Tree event takes place every

year on December 1. When President Coolidge started the tree lighting, there were mu-sicians from the U.S. Marine Band and a 48-foot fir tree dec-orated with 2,500 lights.

Even today the event is still much the same, with a few ad-ditions. There are now smaller individual trees for each state and territory in addition to

the main tree attraction. Also, there is a Santa’s workshop for children to visit along with a bonfire known as “Ye Olde Yule Log.”

“After we see the tree, I take my little brother to see Santa at the workshop and he always gets so excited to see him and ask him for presents,” freshman Ripken Smith said.

BY ELLIE PAREStaff Writer

D.C. Christmas lights show unites nation with holiday cheer

Gingerbread houses and gingerbread men became popular in Germany after the Grimm Brother’s published Hansel and Gretel in the 19th century. Early German settlers brought this gingerbread house tradition to the Americas.

The first gingerbread man is credited to the court of Queen Elizabeth 1, who favored im-portant visitors with charming gingerbread.

After the Grimm Brother’s tale of Hansel and Gretel de-scribed a house “made of bread”, German bakeries began to offer gingerbread house decorated elaborately with candy and oth-er sweets. England, France and

Gingerbread history and treats delights young, old especially Germany were known to eat and celebrate with gingerbread treats.

One of the earli-est known recipes for gingerbread was in the early f i f teenth-centu-ry cookery book Good Cookery directs that it be made with bread-crumbs, boiled in honey with ginger and other spices. Ginger was said to have preserva-tive qualities and around the fifteenth century people began to use it cakes and cookies.

In America cookery, there are two distinct families of gingerbread cookies: honey-

BY MARISSA STONEStaff Writer

based gingerbreads of Middle European origin and molasses shortbreads that developed in

England and Scotland.Many people today still

carry on the tradition of gin-gerbread houses and men, el-ementary schools, bakers, gro-cery stores and so on. Making gingerbread houses and men can be fun and messy at the same time.

The National Gingerbread Competition, held at the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa in Asheville, North Carolina draws in over 200 entrants. They keep display of the houses throughout the holidays, and the contest has been featured in Southern Living’s Home for the Holidays and was cov-ered by ABC’s Good Morning America.

However since Feburary 1978, the Christmas tree has been knocked down due to unavoidble high winds. A new tree was planted just in time for this years holiday season.

“My sister and I were so ex-cited to see the new tree light up for the first time,” freshman Karah Sizemore said.

Many families have the tra-

dition of visiting this historic event, or watching the cover-age of the lighting on television each year.

“Every year, my fam-ily and I watch the lighting of the tree,” sophomore Morgan French said. “It really gets us in the spirit of Christmas.”

vorite to a 1950s dance hall with the brilliant addition of The Puppini Sisters whose sound echoes that of The An-drews Sisters.

In “Santa Baby” Bublé dem-onstrates his artistic creativity by cleverly rewriting the lyrics and producing a track resonat-ing more as impish rather than flirty.

Classic Christian hymns including “Silent Night” and “Ave Maria” easily demonstrate Bublé’s vocal and artistic range and shed light on his Italian heritage.

Although the majority of the covers measure up quite well with the originals, “White

ative script, essentially a re-hash of “Valentine’s Day.” The clichés, predict-able couplings and awkward lines did no favors for the mostly competent actors and actresses.

Like the cupid-inspired movie, “New Year’s Eve” is a Hollywood star dump-ing ground or big-screen launching pad for televi-sion stars. Well-known ac-tors and actresses including Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro and Kather-ine Heigl starred in the film as well as big-screen new-comers Lea Michele (Glee) and Jake T. Austin .

While real-life New Year’s Eve is made fun with the anticipation, the film version lacks any sense of anticipation and is sac-charinely sweet with small dashes of humor, sass and holiday cheer.

Christmas” is argueabley the worst song on the album with the addition of Shania Twain’s vocals that take the Bing Cros-by masterpiece to a whiny-yo-del of a song.

The sole original track on the album, “Cold December Night,” melds seamlessly with the others and has the potential to become a Christmas classic for younger generations.

Bublé’s combination of su-perb vocals and an excellent song selection make for a must-have holiday CD. It’s the perfect choice for gifting to a favorite relative or listening to on the long car rides to and from rela-tives’ houses.

as increasing the richness and vocal range on several tracks. Their voices blend seamlessly with the rest of the cast’s and their voices would be a wel-come presence on the show.

Though the majority of the songs provide the expected Christmastime feel, there are still a few major misses. “Christ-mas Wrappings” was too fast and failed to give off the feeling of a holiday song. The lack of uniqueness and solemn tones made “Little Drummer Boy” a song not to be remembered.

Despite the few songs worth listening to, the album overall has an impressive number of good songs for “Glee” and is enjoyable to listen to.

BY CATHERINE ALFARO

Staff Writer


7entertainment sports

With a new coach and a new system, the boys’ basket-ball team must have leaders step up to prepare them for the oncoming season’s chal-lenges.

“I am excited for the new season,” senior JaColby Hawkins said. “I’m ready to see what challenges we face and lead the team to vic-tory.”

Steve Spicer is no longer coach-ing the team and along with a new coach, comes his new system of play.

“Mr. Tryon is a different, but good coach,” ju-nior Da’shawn Harris said. “He is preparing us as a team to get us where we need to be in order to be successful.”

Tryon’s new system of play is more up tempo. It is a faster pace offense which involves a full court press.

“The new system works

in the benefit of a fast team, which we are,” Harris ain the long run.”

The boys are looking to earn their fifth district title in a row.

“I definitely think we can do well enough this season to win that district champi-onship game,” Hawkins said. “Being a senior, I am really go-

ing to step up to make sure we get to that championship and come away with a win.”

Everyone on the team has a role to fulfill in making it to that district game.

“Even though I am only a

junior, I will do whatever it takes to make sure my team gets that W.” Harris said, “I will pick people up when they’re down and help the team in tight spots.”

The team working together can also secure them a spot in the district game.

“Everyone on the team likes each other,” junior Ryan

J o n e s s a i d . “ W e w o r k h a r d and are like a f a m i l y at prac-tice.”

B e -f o r e gett ing to the champi-onship, t h e y h a v e to go through the reg-

ular season first.“I watch some of the boys’

practice,” Spicer said. “I think Tryon is preparing them for the season and they will do very well because they are all hard workers.”

Walking a fine line: During practice, sophomore Ashley Dingus practices her bal-ance beam routine . The team conditions along-side the wrestlers, in the auxi-lary gym everyday after school. Photo by Amber Griffith

Freshmen gymnast bring new energy to team

Baseball begins early workouts for season

Keep away! During the game against Riverbend high school, junior DayDay Harris attempts keeep possession of the ball. The team later went on to lose the game .Photo by Emily Pearce

Basketball adapts to new style

Baseball hit the ground running December 6, literally.

The 5:30 AM workouts began a month late this year, which gives them the reason to work that much harder to be prepared for the Spring season.

“We focus on condition-ing, ball handling, and mental work.”, said Varsity Coach Tommy Harri-son. This will be Harrison’s fourth year at Stafford, with work-outs being s o m e t h i n g he’s continued since his first year here.

Workouts are held on Tuesday and Thursday mornings in the gym, and are open for anyone who wants to attend.

“Workouts give us a chance to gel together as a team, and we also get to know each oth-er’s strengths and weaknesses”,

said Senior Shane Haley. “Not only that but they get us in shape, refine our skills, and ultimately build team chemistry.”

Haley has been a part of the program all four years he’s played at Stafford, so if anyone would know what these workouts were about, it

would be him. Of course, they aren’t

m a n d a -tory, but attend-i n g t h e m is ben-ef icia l

to the p l a y e r ,

m a k i n g them more

valuable come Spring. Not only be-

cause of the skills you may learn, but also it shows love for the game and dedica-tion to the program, both of which are essential to success in the Spring, according to coach.

BY JUSTIN THOMASStaff Writer

The gymnastics team is beginning their season this year looking to prog-ress and improve from last year. Through dedi-cation and focus, they will attempt to make it to states like they did last year.

The team began practicing in the begin-ning of November. They started with basics and then began working spe-cific events for each girl. They practiced Monday through Friday for two hours working hard so that the were prepared for their first meet on De-cember 7th.

“We just want to go out and see where we are,” sophomore Ashley Hin-

ton said. “It will help us to see who has what skills.”

Many seniors are pro-viding leadership roles early on in the season. They are focusing on help-ing the younger members of the team.

“They tell me if I’m doing something good,” freshman Brynne Reeves said. “It really helps me out a lot.

Many team mem-bers are looking to build a strong team through unity.

“Sammy and Adrianna are trying to build a really close team,” Hinton said.

With the new season many senior gymnasts were lost, however many younger girls are stepping up and taking leadership roles this season.

“I feel like some lead-

ership was lost,” junior Jessie Riley said. “But I think we will be fine with our new seniors this season. We have a lot of depth on our team.”

There are also two in-coming freshman who are trying hard so that they can contribute to the team as well.

“I think they’re doing great!” Riley said. “They have definitely brought a lot to the team.”

With the addition of new gymnasts, the gym-nastics team is looking to achieve a few goals this season.

“Were trying to make it back to states this year,” Hinton said.

They are also looking to bring the team together and have a successful sea-son.

BY RUSS KAUSSStaff Writer

Sports injuries are com-monly found during the winter season.

“So far this season, there aren’t any students that can’t participate in their sport,” Ath-letic Trainer Ben Colwell said. “Typically athletes just have aches, pains, or bruises but no serious injuries as of right now.”

Many students are found to have stress fractures this sea-son. A stress fracture is when muscles become fatigued and are unable to absorb shock. In turn, the fatigued muscle trans-fers the overloaded stress to the bone causing a small crack. Information gathered from or-thoinfo.org.

“I was wrestling and took a shot, hyper extended my foot which then fractured it,” fresh-man Caleb Houston said. “It won’t affect my season at all

because it doesn’t hurt at all. I take off my cast when I wrestle.”

It typically takes from six to eight weeks to heal a stress frac-ture.

“I hate sitting out and watch-ing other people practice,” senior cheerleader Madison Ritchey said. “I’m not going to be able to tumble or jump! Tumbling is my stress reliever. When I’m angry I tumble and it helps get my anger out.”

Endurance sports such as winter track seem to cause in-juries such as tendonitis and stress fractures. Tendonitis is an inflammation or irritation of a tendon.

“I am not fully aware of the extremity to the injuries from swim,” said Colwell. “My job is to stay in the proximity of the school and the swimmers trans-fer over to the YMCA for their practices and meets, in which they have a trainer there.”

The sport with the most in-juries tends to be wrestling.

“I’d say the reason there are so many freak accidents is be-cause they can happen at any moment and they tend to hap-pen pretty often compared to other sports,” senior athlete Lo-gan Jackson said.

Although freak accidents are unpredictable, trainers are more prepared for the winter season because it’s more laid back than Fall or Spring.

“In the winter season, there are usually around 25 injuries compared to the minimum of 50 for the fall season,” said Col-well.

Students with more serious injuries tend to need therapy, which can be found out of school. There are many Physi-cal Therapy facilities to en-sure that your injury gets fully healed and that you are using the affected area properly.

BY SARAH SHEARERStaff Writer

BY ERIN CUNNINGHAMStaff Writer

Slippin’ slide: after being pushed, senior Aaron Mays recovers to continue to play in the game. Every year high school students recieve injuries ragin-ing from bump and bruises to concussions. Photo by Emily Pearce

Risk of injury for athletes rise in winter season

Winter track seniors lead teamBY NATALIE BOHMKE

Staff Writer

Winter track seniors Robert Beckwith, Ricky Martin, and Kyle Sullivan are the leaders for shot-put this season. With their experience from last year they are helping the beginners while achieving their own goals.

The three throw an aver-age of 44 feet. Every day after school while they throw they practice on their form and after go lift weights, each day prepar-ing for meets and most impor-tantly qualifying at districts in

order to go on to regionals. “My biggest goal this season

is making it to states and plac-ing in the top five,” Martin said.

In the district, Beckwith and Martin are two of the top returners. Other teams lost suc-cessful seniors from last year.

“Riverbend is our biggest competition in the district,” Sullivan said. “All we have to do is qualify for regionals and then go from there.”

Beckwith and Martin are two of five returning regional qualifiers out of the 19 boys who were at the meet last year.

They are also ranked higher than the other returners.

“The region is gone com-pared to what it was last year,” Beckwith said. “If we can make it out of the district and into the region our chance at getting to states is high.”

“The boys are already throwing just as far as last year and it is early in the season,” said coach Pete Augrom.

As leaders on the team, the three help the younger and less experienced throwers.

“We will help any of the younger guys or girls with their

throwing form,” Martin said. “We have been throwing a few more years than most and if they want to work hard, we will help them along the way.”

Team leaders are put in the spotlight to achieve success.

“They lead by example and know where the others are coming from,” said Augrom. “All three have been throwing all four years and have grown stronger along with improving their technique.”

Freshman Ripken Smith has received help from the se-niors.

“They help me with my throwing stance and tech-nique,” Smith said. “They en-courage me to do better and are good leaders.”

The boys cross country team won states this fall, most of the boys have come back out for track along with other strong runners.

“We have a strong running team this year and it helps that we won states,” Beckwith said. “We also have depth for field events and that will help this season.”


8sports feature

Four years, four titles. For seniors Olivia Shaffer and Sammy Krejdovsky, this is the fourth year on the varsity cheer squad, and the fourth straight district title. And it means the world to them. While senior classes have graduated and roles have changed, the expec-tation of victory has remained constant. The success can be attributed to team growth

and strong coaching, but also dedication to team and team-mate that is displayed by every member of the team, especially Shaffer and Krejdovsky.

“Stafford cheer has grown a lot,” said Krejdovsky. “Defi-nitely skill-wise. But also the heart and love for the team.”

The roles have changed, with both Krejdovsky and Shaffer taking on more re-sponsibility than they had in previous routines. Because of the experience, the team is

able to take on more difficult maneuvers.

“We were able to do some new things because of the ex-perience we had on this team,” said cheer coach Janette Bar-ham.

Any team has chemistry. But to Shaffer and Krejdovsky, this year is different. Even the coaches, Janette Barham and Kristi Proudfoot, are in on it.

“They seriously bleed blue and gold; I know they wanted this so badly. They go above

and beyond for us, and this something we all wanted,” said Krejdovsky.

The four consecutive titles are a testament to the teams’ continual work ethic, and abil-ity to transition with the addi-tions and losses between years.

“We’ve been there for wins, losses, pretty much every situ-ation that could happen in cheerleading,” said Shaffer. “We were prepared for any-thing.”

The topic of the end of four

years can’t be brought up with-out a nod to the future, which these two have no problem do-ing. Knowing what it was like as a freshman on varsity, there is no one better to look to for advice.

“I would like this years’ freshman to take the lifestyle with them,” said Krejdovsky.” That the heart and love for this team makes it more than just a sport to a Stafford cheerleader.”

BY MATT YELVERTONStaff Writer

Krejedovsky, Shaffer dedicate four years to cheer

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. —Stafford leads the Virginia High School League’s Wells Fargo Cup standings in AAA following the 2011 fall sports season.

The Wells Fargo Cup recog-nizes the League’s state champi-ons of state champions, the school in each group that performs best in state-level competition across all sports.

In Group AAA, Stafford is go-ing for its first cup.

The winner of the cup, spon-sored by Wells Fargo, is deter-mined by a point system based on performance in state champion-ship events. Points are awarded for all sanctioned sports in the following manner: first place, 50; second place, 45; third place, 40;

fourth place, 35; fifth place, 30; sixth place, 25; seventh place, 20; eighth place, 15. If there are fewer than eight schools from a classi-fication in the event, only those schools which are represented are eligible to receive points.

In the event of a tie, the schools receive an equal number of points based on the number of schools that tie and the number of schools that finish higher in the standings. For example, the vol-leyball quarterfinal losers equally divide the points for fifth through eighth place (22.5 points each), while semifinal losers split third and fourth place (37.5 points).

Schools that earn recognition in the Wachovia Sportsmanship program, determined following the completion of all competi-

tion for the year, receive 50 points each.

The fall standings reflect the following activities: golf, boys and girls cross country, girls volleyball, cheer, football (top eight schools in each of six divisions), and field hockey (Group AAA and unclas-sified for A and AA) and boys vol-leyball (Group AAA).

Stafford leads with 120 points in Group AAA on the strength of a state championship win in boys cross country, a runner-up finish in field hockey and ad-ditional points in cheer. James River-Midlothian is in second place with 112.5 points winning a state title in boys volleyball, while picking up additional points in golf and girls volleyball. First Colonial is in third place gather-

ing 105 points from a state title in field hockey and additional points in boys volleyball and golf. Ocean Lakes (90 points), runner-ups in both girls cross country and girls volleyball and South County (82.5 points), runner-up in football and a semifinalist in field hockey, fin-ish out the top five.

Winter standings will be an-nounced after the basketball tour-nament in March, and the final 2011-12 results will be released in June after the spring champion-ships have concluded.

Wachovia Cup winners for achievement in athletic activities from 1990-2011:

SCHOOL RANK

FALL 2011Stafford 1

Colonial Forge 22 Mountain View 26 North Stafford 29 Brooke Point 35

CONGRATULATIONS, ATHLETES! VHSL WELLS FARGO CUP FALL ATHLETIC STANDINGS ANNOUNCEDWilson Memorial, Western Albemarle and Stafford lead after fall seasonPress release:

Photo by Amber Griffith


9sports feature

Hydration: not a joke

The Virginia High School League banned the use of energy drinks effective immediately in all Virginia high school athletics at a Sept. 22 meeting.

The policy, adopted from the National Fed-eration of High School Associations position statement on the same

subject, forbids athletes from consuming ener-gy drinks during prac-tice and competitions. Among other things, it specifies that energy drinks should not be used for hydration pur-poses because of the po-tential health risks they possess.

“The safety of the ath-letes was the overwhelm-ing rationale for approval of the recommendation,” Tom Dolan, co-director

of athletics for the VHSL, told the Baltimore Sun. “We’ve been fortunate up to this point, but is it prudent for us to wait to see if we have an issue before we do something about this?”

The first offense will lead to a warning and much stricter policies will be done for repeated offenders. Many coaches said they discouraged their athletes from using energy drinks before the

ban.“At JMU, we had to

ban it with our volleyball athletes,” John Mitchem, a former assistant coach at James Madison Uni-versity said in a Daily Progress article on Sept. 22, 2011. “They take it pregame, and about half-way through, the rush would wear off and they would bottom out.”

Stafford coaches have also implemented the ban. Sharing their

thoughts on the recent sports ban.

“Energy drinks were banned for health and safety of our athletes,” said Clay Shesman, JV soccer coach. “If they are caught with an energy drink, they are suspend-ed from the upcoming game.”

Teachers have become more concerned on the safety of our students and athletes. As more energy drinks are being released

to the public, the more of the chance of harming the students in any way.

“I’m terrified of the thought of my team drinking energy drinks,” said Danielle Woodie, Varsity field hockey coach. “The physical harm it can do to a young growing body of a teen whose already working at a high rate, and energy drinks just add insult to injury.”

Energy drinks banned by VHSL to protect athletesBY NICK HUDSON

Staff Writer

Different sports performance drinks use many forms of advertising to draw in potential customers.

“Powerade influ-ences me the most because my favorite basketball player, LeB-ron James, is in most of the commercials,” junior DayDay Har-ris, varsity basketball player said.

Gatorade’s adver-tising campaign uti-lizes the idea of rehy-drate, replenish, and refuel.

Different products

are marketed, includ-ing different types of drink, and also a gel that is supposed to replenish energy.

“The best one is stage two,” junior Billy Bolinsky, varsity quar-terback said. “It tastes the best.”

Another tactic is to use professional ath-letes to promote their product. Powerade and Gatorade use athletes that are good role models to young people.

“It depends on the athlete,” senior Jacolby Hawkins, varsity bas-ketball player said. “If I like them, I’ll buy the drink.”

Using popular ath-letes to endorse cer-tain brands of sport drinks helps sell the product.

When consumers see physically fit peo-ple in the ads, they are more likely to buy the product, because they feel they will be able to achieve that, using the product.

Everything from gymnastics and ten-nis players to wrestlers and football teams are seen in commercials and advertisements.

Sports energy drinks have been ad-vertising in this man-ner for about 23 years.

BY MARCUS BROWN

Staff Writer

Advertising campaigns affect consumers’ decisions

vs.

Water: Good Soda: Bad

In order to participate in any sport, students must turn in a hydration form in addition to their physicals and grade sheets.

Before each sports season, athletes must attend a hydra-tion meeting, which goes over the importance of staying hy-drated.

Clearly, the county does not take this matter lightly.

“You can’t play if you are not hydrated,” basketball coach Ryan Middleton said. “You cannot operate at the same level.”

The consequences of de-hydration range from mild to severe.

“When I’m dehydrated, my calves cramp really badly, and I can’t walk or run,” junior Alex Kniffin said.

Kniffin plays soccer.“Being hydrated can be the

difference between first and last place,” senior runner Greg Bohmke said.

However, even more seri-ous situations may arise.

“When you’re really dehy-drated, you can’t see well, you get nauseous,” junior Tayler Beets said.

Beets plays softball. “You get in that zone where

you’re on the verge of fainting, but you don’t. It’s scary,” she said.

To remedy this, athletes usually are given a lot of water and placed in the shade, if they are outside. Another solution is to wrap them in damp cloths, so that they can absorb water through their skin as well.

“Gatorade is good for re-plenishing electrolytes, which get depleted with dehydra-tion,” Middleton said.

However, when one is only

trying to maintain hydration, performance drinks like Ga-torade can be harmful, rather than helpful.

“Since Gatorade has sugar in it, you need to drink more of it to stay hydrated,” Beets said. “Each time you drink it, you need to have more and more to stay hydrated.”

Water is usually chosen over anything else to main-tain liquid levels in the body. However, if athletes do not like the blandness of water, there is an alternative to the sugary drinks.

“The day before a game, I drink Gatorade or Powerade mixed with water,” Kniffin said. “That way, the flavor is still there, with less of the sugar.”

Other beverages like soda and coffee are especially bad for athletes.

“It’s been over a year since I’ve had soda,” Bohmke said. “The caffeine is really bad”

BY MOLLY PODLESNYEditor

Gatora

de

Powera

de

Which drink do you prefer when playing sports or working out?

Other answers

Red BullDr. Pepper

Monst

er

Kool-Aid

Water PoweradeGatorade

48.3%

32.2%

12.3%

7.1%

Orange j

uice

One bottle = 10%

All photos by Toni Sorrentino

Poll by4X journalism


10student life

Drama Students Per-form at Riverside Center

Stafford students Analisa Wall and Temple Hammen develop their artistic sides, juggling both school and work-ing and performing at Riverside Center. Aspir-ing performers Wall and Hammen go to school during the day and wait tables, rehearse, and perform at Riverside on evenings and weekends. “It is challenging some-times, juggling school with Riverside,” Hammen said. “Because the major-ity of the performers are adults, I sometimes have to work crazy hours.”

Hammen has only been with Riverside for two years but Wall has been with them for over 10 years.

“Riverside had only been open for four years when I first got involved with them back when I was a kid,” Wall said.

Working for Riverside

has given Wall and Ham-men learning experiences beyond the classroom, providing opportunities to wait tables, host, and perform live shows for both child and adult au-diences. Wall and Ham-mond also get the chance to learn from performers older than them.

“A lot of the perform-ers we work with at Riv-erside are a lot older than us and some majored in Performing Arts, so it’s really great when that they bring their experi-ence with them,” Ham-men said.

Riverside has benefit-ted more than just this duo, having a strong effect on even more students.

“I don’t work with Riverside anymore but I loved the atmosphere,” sophomore Lindsay Earn-hart said. “It was very professional.”

Drama teacher Chad Johnson encourages stu-dents to be proactive in gaining performing ex-perience for a future in theater.

“Riverside is an excel-lent opportunity for stu-dents to get a great acting experience,” Johnson said.

Although not all dra-ma students are involved with Riverside, many Stafford students pursue an interest in theater.

“I’ve taken drama for four years and the drama department has helped me out, not only as an ac-tor, but also as a person,” senior Alex Newton said.

Wall and Hammen, partnering up with her friend Devin Geraghty, are all auditioning for the hit TV show, America’s Got Talent. Although some students might just be starting to get an in-terest in performing arts, there are still opportuni-ties for students to get involved with drama, The Stafford Players, or com-munity theater.

“Audition, outlet, and go out and just give it a try,” Johnson said. “The more comfortable you get on stage, the better you’ll be, and the more success you’ll have.”

Drama students participate in Riverside dinner theatre BY DOREEN BRINDISE

Staff Writer

Playing the part: Juniors Temple Hammen (left) and Analisa Wall (right) are both employees of the Riverside Center. Wall has worked there for several years starting as a child while Ham-men is a more recent addition. By Amber Griffith

As the winter season approaches, band, orches-tra and chorus prepare for their annual December concert. The groups will be performing on Dec. 15 as well as Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium.

Last year was the first year that the winter con-cert was split into two days. The concert was split because if it hadn’t been split, the auditorium would not be able to fit all of the people and it could take up to three hours for the concert to finish. Now, the concert takes about one to one and a half hours.

“The winter concert is hard because there are so many things going on all at one time,” band teacher Chuck Hite said. “All Dis-trict auditions, All County auditions, the Christmas Parade, and the Winter Concert happen within four weeks.” Concert orchestra, sym-phonic band, women’s chorus and men’s cho-rus, will be performing on Dec. 15. Advanced women’s singers, chamber singers, wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, and cham-ber orchestra, will be performing on Dec. 20. “This concert is go-

ing to be a little bit scary but I think that we are prepared enough and I am excited to see how it all comes together,” Hite said. The band groups per-forming in this concert have been preparing since their last concert in October. “This is my fifth year of band and second year in wind ensemble,” sophomore Samantha

Hunt said. “We practice really hard and everyone in band is very dedicat-ed to practicing for the concert to sound good.” Band will be playing a variety of songs, some traditional and a unique selection of others. “The concert is going to be an amazing work of musical art,” junior Cory Miller said. “My favorite song is “Winter

Wonderland” because it has many harmo-nies and gets me in the mood for the holidays.” Orchestra will be playing a combination of festive winter music, American music, and Irish music. “I am excited and ner-vous at the same time,” said orchestra teacher Cynthia Richter. “I have never conducted a concert before as a teacher and I

am looking forward to it.” The students have been working on the reper-toire in class as well as taking home their mu-sic either to practice on their own or with their private teachers that some of the students have in or-der to perfect their music. “I feel like we are playing easier music for this winter concert than last year’s winter con-

cert,” sophomore Su-san Hoffman said. “My favorite song that we are singing is “Irish Fare” because it is our most challenging song to play in my own opinion, and it is not the stereo-typical Christmas song.” For some stud-nets, this concert will bring back memories from their childhood. “My favorite song would have to be “Sleigh Ride” because I have known the song since I was a little kid and it’s my favorite Christmas song,” fresh-man Mallory Young said. Chorus will sing vari-ous songs this year in the winter concert between the four groups such as “Carol Of The Bells,” “All Through The Night,” “The Coventry Carol,” “Good King Wenceslas,” and “An Roulant Ma Boule.” “Carol Of The Bells” is my favorite song because I like the melody and it gets me in the Christmas spirit,” sophomore Ally Cole said. “I am excited to see how “Good King,” which we are singing with the men’s chorus, turns out with the harmonies.” This concert is a big event for the Music De-partment and many look forward to the turnout.

Cartoon By Toni Sorrentino

BY ABBY PENNINGTONStaff Writer

Band, orchestra, chorus set for winter performances

The NJROTC marched in the annual Christmas parade that took place in Downtown Freder-icksburg on Saturday Dec. 3. Ever since the NJROTC program has started, it has taken part in the Christmas parade. “We were trying re-ally hard to make the pa-rade great,” junior Sarah

Boggs said. “We practiced almost every day in or-der to make it enjoyable and very professional.” Knowing that the occa-sion has gone well in the past, students involved in the club strived to main-tain and even surpass their success throughout the previous years. For weeks they had been practicing and preparing for their appearance in the festival.

“Every Cadet had to prac-tice at least twice a week,” sophomore Tybreshia Bratcher said. “We went through drill practice so we knew where ex-actly we had to be when in the parade, there was no room for mistakes.” Although they have participated in the pa-rade before, some mem-bers were still restless to see the outcome of the

event and were nervous about appearing in it. “Anyone can march,” sophomore Conor O’Neil said. “Marching in uni-son, with a lot of people, in front of a crowd is a completely different story. Of course I was anxious to see how the parade played out, I’m just glad that ev-erything went as planned.” NJROTC members were not the only people

anticipating the event. Locals arrived as early as 9 a.m. to get good seats for the parade. “Despite how early it was, everyone was re-ally excited,” sopho-more Tohlig Bugg said. “Christmas spirit was everywhere you looked. Knowing that some of our friends were going to be in the parade, just add-ed on to the excitement.”

Now that the parade has passed, they look forward to next year. “Even though it’s only been a few days since the parade, we are already preparing ourselves for next year,” Bratcher said. “We plan to keep improv-ing as the years pass, and eventually become one of the first things people look forward to when they attend the parade.”

NJROTC program marches in annual Christmas paradeBY INDIA KITHCART

Staff Writer

Revolution, React, Re-form is the topic for His-tory Day this year. All ninth grade honors his-tory students participated in this competition.

Each student had to come up with a project idea based on the topic.

“My project is on the revolution of Disney

movies,” freshman Kenly Belman said.

All students had to create a display board and write a paper relating their idea with the topic.

“They had to research their topic and use pri-mary sources to explain it and the relation to the theme,” history teacher Margaret Bridges said.

There were many vari-eties of projects that were

shown at history night.“My project was on

the germ theory,” senior Alisha Bhagat said. “It is about advances in medi-cine and sanitation.”

The students did this assignment as a class project. The students were each graded on the theme, historic content, significance, and organi-zation of their project.

National History Day celebratedBY NATALIE BOHMKE

Staff Writer

History in the making:Senior Alisha Baghat (Left) did her History Day project on the germ theory. Revloution, react, reform were the chioces for topics for the class’s History Day projects.By Kaitlin Shacklette


11student life

>> Link CrewThe Link Crew’s Tuesday study sessions after

school and mini lessons during school hours are getting positive responses from this year’s fresh-men.

The Tuesday study sessions after school start-ed two months ago.

“The study sessions are for freshman that need help understanding difficult material,” se-nior Haley Russ said. “All subjects are available for tutoring.”

Many freshmen go to the study sessions be-fore major tests in a class. If their teacher does not have after school tutoring weekly, it is a good chance for students to get help to understand something they may not quite understand.

I love helping freshman,” said Morgan Ian-nazzo, Link Crew Commissioner.

The study sessions will end once the SOL’s are completely finished. This way, students can get last minute help with minor or major material in a subject.

“We will possibly do a mid-semester exam study session after winter break called Coco and Cram,” said Ryan Middleton, Link Crew adviser.

Link Crew’s mini lessons help the freshman with difficult situations that they may or may not be used to. The last lesson, which was in October, was about inequality and the next lesson is about stereotyping.

“I really like the mini lessons that Link Crew does,” freshman Makenzie Clower said. “They are very interactive.”

Two trained Link Crew members teach these 30 minute lessons during English.

“For training we pretend to be freshmen so when we actually lead the activity,” Iannazzo said. “We know what we can do to keep them inter-ested while ‘teaching’ a lesson.”

This year’s Link Crew members are very inter-active with the freshman and are trying different things to keep them interested.

>>NHSNational Honor Society gets wrapped up in

community service, by wrapping Christmas pres-ents in exchange for donations at Books a Mil-lion.

National Honor Society members arrived at Books a Million and set up tables to wrap books, or any other presents customers might bring in to donate. The gift-wrapping is an attempt to raise substantial donations for an organization that is yet to be determined.

“We wrap Christmas presents for people and we do it for free. All we do is ask for donations but we don’t force them to give anything,” Said Danny Strock, president of the National Honors Society.

Not only is NHS doing the Christmas wrap-ping, but they will also be volunteering at Ferry Farm and Grafton Elementary Schools, by con-tributing to a pancake breakfast.

“I think the pancake breakfast went surpris-ingly well,” Strock said. “We really hope to get around to doing another book wrapping this month.”

NHS is planning on changing the way they do service projects. The students will start to assign themselves projects instead of relying on teachers to provide it for them. The club is also search-ing for new ways to expand the variety of service projects they already participate in.

“We’re trying really hard to allow the NHS members to work on their own projects,” Said Muhamad Khalid, vice president of National Honor Society.

BY ALEXIS BUSHStaff Writer

BY LIZZIE DRASHStaff Writer

Key Club will be host-ing their annual Adopt-a-Family for Christmas project this coming win-ter.

The club will provide both food and presents for families who are not able to afford a festive Christmas.

Each family sends a list of presents they want that year to a social work-er. They also send a din-ner menu they wish to have on Christmas as well as information about each child so members know what other kinds of toys they can purchase. The social worker then sends it to the school so the families remain anony-mous.

“This is my seventh or eighth year running this project,” said Margaret Bridges, senior Key Club advisor.

This year they are providing toys from chil-dren ranging between 18 months of age to seven

years old for both boys and girls. They are also providing three families with dinner for the holi-days.

“It’s a senior require-ment for Key club mem-bers to bring in a toy do-nation for this project,”

said Elexxus Brown, se-nior Key Club president. “We encourage members to bring food in too.”

All of the presents and food are collected before schools close for winter break. After the presents have been collected mem-

bers get together to wrap all of the presents in a Key Club “gift-wrap-athon.”

“We always have a lot of fun during the gift-wrap-athon,” junior Chloe Karlovich said. “We stay after and play Christmas music and just have a good time.”

Key Club recently finished a project for Thanksgiving where they collected food for families who couldn’t afford a lav-ish meal. They had more donations than they ex-pected which gives them high hopes for this com-ing project.

Last year more people brought presents for the Adopt-a-Family project and they didn’t receive as much food contributions.

“Since we have 250 members this year we’re hoping to have a large turnout of donations,” said Amy Quantrille, se-nior Key Club vice presi-dent. “All of the donating really makes you appreci-ate what you have and I like that we do it.”

Key Club donates for the holidaysBY ASHLIEHG POWELL

Business Manager

Santa Baby: A Key Club member donates various toys for the Adopt-A-Family drive. Clothes, toys, and food were all being donated. By Ashleigh Powell

In her first year run-ning, Latin clubbers party like its 217 BC, celebrat-ing Saturnalia for the first time after school on Dec.14.

The students partici-pated in many ancient Latin activities such as the sacrifice of a plush pig, a Saturnalia performance, a secret Caesar gift ex-change, singing Christ-mas carols in Latin, and everyone’s favorite activ-ity, enjoying Latin food.

The group kicked off the holiday celebration with a pig sacrifice. Latin Club President Danny Strock took the honor of pulling out the pigs “in-ternal organs” and plac-ing them on the altar.

The students also took part in an impromptu performance of Io Satur-nalia, a Latin play about the tradition of masters and slaves switching roles over the holiday. The play starred seniors Liz Wil-lard as the narrator, Dan-ny Strock as the master, and Antoinette Tortorici and parliamentarian Re-bekah Kim as slaves.

“We didn’t plan on performing it, but I’m re-

ally glad we did,” Willard said. “It was really fun and everyone had a really great time.”

Incorporating Christ-mas with their Saturnalia festivities, the members of Latin Club drew names and exchanged gifts for secret Caesar and sang Christmas classics such as “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and “Jingle Bells” in Latin.

Students contributed

by bringing food influ-enced by Roman culture to share including bread with Sicilian olive oil, fruit cake, grapes and honey, juice, and friend-ship bread.

“I really loved the food,” Tortorici said. “It was my favorite part of Saturnalia.”

Although students taking Latin have cele-brated it in past years, this is Latin Club’s first experi-

ence with the holiday. “I’m really blown away

by how much initiative the officers take, planning Latin Club events like Saturnalia out by them-selves,” said Latin Club sponsor Emily Gilmore. “They came up with ideas to do during Saturnalia.”

Latin Club is already working on plans for fu-ture activities like work-ing with Key Club on the sock drive for the Micah Cold Weather Shelter and a birthday party for Rome along with their current project, the turkey drive.

“I like how unique we are because we learn a lot about Latin and culture but we also do projects for the community,” Kim said.

Latin Club provides an outlet for students, not only to learn about the language but also to em-brace the cultural aspects of ancient Rome while taking part in service projects for the commu-nity.

“We do have more fun with Latin Club, and with our events like Saturna-lia,” Gilmore said. “It’s more than just Latin, it’s fun.”

to be as successful as possible.

Rebekah Kim, Danny Strock and Liz Willard get the party started with refreshments fit for a holiday celebration. No pig sacrifice but lots of fun for everyone. Photo by Eric Stapleton

Saturnalia celebrated in Latin ClubBY DOREEN BRINDISE,

LIZZIE DRASHStaff Writers

Latin students and club members attended the Latin Convention hosted by Virginia Ju-nior Classical Leaque at Greater Richmond con-vention Center on Nov. 20-21. Forty students in total went to the conven-tion this year; almost half of the students were first year Latin students.

“This year we have the most going ever,” Latin teacher Emily Gilmore said. “I am really excited about it.”

At the convention, stu-dents were able to learn about culture and tradi-tions.

“I am really excited about seeing how they dance,” freshman Haley Parish said.

Latin students from all over Virginia went to the convention to learn more about Latin traditions and met other students inter-ested in the language and culture.

“I like to see that there is such a huge group of people that excited about

Latin,” Gilmore said. “It is super tiring while there, but totally worth while.”

There were many ac-tive things for students to do while there such as karaoke and dance. Those are not the only things that they can do though.

“Students can wear a toga and participate in a costume contest,” Gilm-ore said. “They can also go to an art show and watch dramatic interpretations.”

While the students are not at the Latin Conven-tion taking part in the

Forty kids attend Latin Convention

Stafford students mug for the camera during the opening assembly at Latin Convention in Richmond recently. One of the largest groups ever attended the convention where they tried Latin foods, games and drinks. Photo by Emily Gilmore.

BY ALEXIS BUSHStaff Writer

>>International ClubBY DOREEN BRINDISE

Staff WriterInternational Club broadens their horizons,

with plans for additions to their cultural activi-ties. Every year two new aspects of culture are

added to the club’s agenda, and next year, music and dance will be added along with their current

repertoire of food, culture, language, and their recent additions of traditional games and crafts.

“We like to try new things that we haven’t explored yet in culture so we can always learn more,” International Club sponsor Myriam Lorenzo said.

The club originally planned on sending pack-ages overseas to soldiers before Christmas but they changed their plans since there are so many collections before Christmas but hardly any after the holiday.

The club sends personalized letters and what-ever the soldiers might need-movies, candy, beanies, socks, etc.

The International Club is also teaming up with a local church to collect donations for Op-eration Christmas Child, an organization that sends wrapped shoeboxes with school supplies and little Christmas presents to children in third world countries who may not get any otherwise.

Every month, International Club picks a coun-try and culture to learn about and this month, they have decided to focus on Mexico and Italy.

“One of the students in the club is half Mexi-can and half Italian which is why we chose those two cultures this month,” Lorenzo said. “We always incorporate what the students are inter-ested in.”

Students are always welcome to join and learn about different cultures.

International Club meets the first Friday of every month in Lorenzo’s room, N217.

activities, they were able to spend some of their time at the Marriott ho-tel, where they spent the night while in Richmond.

“This year’s Latin Con-vention was very fun and interesting,” sophomore Morgan French said.


12spotlight

Being seen from outer space: 153 Brickert Street covers their yard with dozens of different sized trees full of lights. Candy canes surrounded the trees and the whole scene was topped off with Frosty on the right. Photo by Emily Pearce

By John RomanelloStaff Writer

Students from differ-ent neighborhoods set up for Christmas in various ways.

In the few big neigh-borhoods that feed into Stafford, decorations come up in different ways and in different amounts.

Students celebrate the holidays in many differ-ent ways.

“Yeah, we’re pretty fes-tive,” said Morgan French of Argyle Heights. “We do lights and some yard decorations.”

Students aren’t always the most festive but do enjoy the holidays.

“Yea my family cel-

ebrates Christmas but we don’t go all out,” said Kody Cox of Leeland Sta-tion.

The ways that people decorate also can be dif-ferent.

“We put stockings and lights inside and outside of my house,” said Ryan Rosa-Wood of Deacon Hill.

Students like to cele-brate by putting up funky decorations also.

“My dad puts up the inflatable things and I put up deer and lights,” said J.R. Brown of Sleepy Hol-low.

Neighborhoods also decorate in various ways with different types of fes-tivity.

“From what I can re-member the neighbor-hood is fairly festive,” said Ashley Dingus of Clear-view Heights.

Some can be typically non-festive though.

“Not many people in my neighborhood are very decorative during Christmas time,” said Ryan Rosa-Wood of Dea-con Hill.

Students aren’t always the most festive, but usu-ally there are a few people in various neighborhoods who go all out in decora-tions.

“I do have one neigh-bor who has lights ev-erywhere and their yard is covered in blow up decorations like Santa

Claus and snowmen,” said Morgan French of Argyle Heights. “They even have a mini Christmas Ferris wheel.”

Students talk about their favorite kinds of decorations. These dec-orations are various in many ways.

“My favorite decora-tion is this little stand-up Santa holding a stoplight. It blinks and says “Ho Ho Ho,” said Phillip Yelverton of Woodlawn.

Original things for Christmas can also be a favorite of students.

“The tree for sure is my favorite,” senior Tyler Creel said.

Most students just decorate for the fun of it.

They want the Christmas spirit to continue grow-ing.

“For me it just comes with the season,” Yelver-ton said. “It doesn’t really get me more into it, but then again I couldn’t re-ally be any more into it.”

Neighborhoods and students decorate and cel-ebrate from decorating in various ways for Christ-mas.

“My family always gets a Christmas tree and put up lights in our front yard,” freshman Nathalia Lima said. “I think it spreads Christmas joy and makes people more happy.”

“We always put up our Christmas tree in our house and then put an inflatable snowman in our front yard,” freshman Dominic Ro-manello said.

DECORATIONS“We always put lights in

our front yard and on our Christmas tree during De-cember,” freshman Susanna Turner said. “ It wouldn’t be Christmas without the bright colors of the lights in everyone’s houses.

DECORATIONS“I always put lights on

our Christmas tree as soon as possible,” freshman Hay-ley Stine said. “Without Christmas decorations I feel like the spirit of Christmas isn’t here.”

DECORATIONS

619 White Oak Road 59 Leeland Road

209 Northview Drive 619 White Oak Road

14 Brairwood Drive

light up my

world

DECORATIONSBy Eric Kauffman

smoke signal issue 8, dec. 20, 2011

Documents

e students scores

high number

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e number of stu

high schools

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mountain view high school

sta ord indian lane