Warriorthe36th Year, Issue No.5

300 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Sandy Spring, MD 20860

Inside: News: 1-3, Travel: 4-5, Features: 6-8, Humor: 9, Spotlight: 10-11, Opinions: 12-15, Wondering Warrior: 16, Entertainment: 17-18, Sports: 19-20

April 10, 2014

Sherwood High School

www.thewarrioronline.com

Standardized Testing Undergoes Major ChangesPARCC Pilot Reveals Problems With Using Computerized Tests

Skepticism Persists Over Need for SATs

by Ashley Nnabue ‘16 and Kira Yates ‘16

Recently, approximately 100 students at Sherwood took the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Ca-reers (PARCC) field test, which resulted in multiple technical dif-ficulties and established a need to appropriately equip schools for future computerized tests in order to continue reforming education. The PARCC Assessment was developed to provide more challenging, deep-thinking and hands-on questions than the current HSAs, MSAs and other state-wide testing. “The PARCC Assessment is aligned with the Common Core Standards which have been in place for 10th and 11th grade [students] for some time now,” said English teach-er Lynette Evans, who had two classes take the PARCC field test. According to a student who participated in the pilot testing of the English section, there were four sections, which included typing essays, to complete in 90 minutes during two consecutive course periods. The students en-

countered parts where they had to watch videos in order to an-swer questions, which were then compared to the other provided writings that students had to write essays about. Because the PARCC Assess-ment is on a computer, technical difficulties are a potential risk, as demonstrated by the many incidents that occurred during the field testing two weeks ago. “Since every computer is differ-ent, a student’s test performance can be altered because they aren’t used to a certain computer … so I really think they should just stick to pencil and paper. It helps to keep everything consistent and gives every student a fair chance to do well,” said junior Shiffali Singh. As Evans’ AP English Lan-guage class was taking the test on March 25 in computer lab A296, one student could not log onto the test initially and was forced to start 10 minutes later than the rest of the students. While an-other student was taking the test, the site shut down and the student

by Julia Gajewski-Nemes ‘15

The College Board an-nounced March 5 that it will be making major changes to the SAT in spring 2016. The redesigned test aims to lessen the achieve-ment gap between high- and low-income students on the test, according to the College Board. However, as the College Board pushes for its recently proposed changes to improve the exam, skepticism regarding college entrance exams has re-surfaced. Researchers, college admissions officers, teachers, parents and students are wonder-ing how well the SAT predicts college success and whether or not the exam should be eliminat-ed completely. Recent studies on the SAT have explored its predictive va-lidity, but yielded conflicting results. A study funded by the College Board and conducted by Dr. Paul Sackett found that socio-economic status does not correlate with one’s SAT scores nor with one’s ability to make it into college, but that there is a correlation between students’ SAT scores and students’ grades during their first year of college.

These findings suggest that the SAT remains a useful measure for college admissions decisions. However, not all studies yield the same findings as those of Sackett. Professor Frederick Vars of the University of Alabama and Dr. William Bowen, former President of Princeton Univer-sity, found that standardized test scores might not be as predictive

as previously thought. In their study of 10,000 stu-dents, Frederick and Bowen found that a 100-point increase in SAT scores led to a one-tenth of a grade point gain for college GPA. This offered about the same predictive value as looking at whether an applicant’s parent had

International Show Returns in Exuberant FashionOn Friday, April 4, Sherwood’s Inter-national Club put together the Interna-tional Show for the entire student body. The well-received and entertaining show returned after taking a year off. To spread recognition of different cultures, the show displayed a variety of fashion, dance and more representing ethnic groups in the United States. Club Pres-ident Shiffali Singh and Vice President Caroline Yun, along with club sponsor and English teacher Christiane Lock, took turns introducing the show and its ap-proximately 50 student performers. Per-formances included an African fashion show and traditional dance, a Bhangra traditional dance, an Ethiopian tradition-al dance, a Hawaiin traditional dance, an Indian and Pakistani fashion show, a Lat-in fashion show and traditional dance, a breakdancing performance and even a rap performance.

see PARCC, pg. 3see SAT, pg. 2

“There are

DRAMATICchoices to be made:

the numbers are quite largeof potential students with

strong high school GPAswho have proved themselves

to everyoneexcept the testing agencies.”

“ ... Students with

stronghigh school GPAs,

even without testing,are likely to succeed in college,

and students withlow high school GPAs,

even with a broad range

of testing, have much

lower college GPAs and graduation rates.”

Ashley Yen ‘14

Source: “Defining Promise: Optional Standardized Testing Policies in American College and University Admissions”

Prom 2014

Girls VS Guys: Attitudes towards

by Ashley Yen ‘14

Belgiummmm

pgs. 10 + 11

The Warrior•NewsApril 10, 20142

NEWSin brief

Despite unforeseen obstacles, a large number of students turned out for the school’s second blood drive of the year, which took place on April 2. An unannounced fire drill occurred and pre-vented many from donating, but every time slot for blood dona-tions was still full. Fewer students experienced light-headedness this time around because the blood drive took place in the large and cool Ertzman Theatre instead of a humid classroom, as was the case last fall. The 93 collected units of blood were transferred to Inova Donor Services. They will distribute the units to participating hospitals in the Washington metropolitan area. This blood will be a vital asset for hospitals dealing with patients in need of various procedures such as organ transplants, which usually require blood transfusions. If students plan to donate blood in the future, they should “eat breakfast and drink lots of water” beforehand to prepare their bod-ies for blood loss, said Medical Careers teacher and blood drive coordinator Stephanie Gelfand.

Blood Drive Pumps Back into Action

by Zach Stubblefield ‘15

Student Artists Prepare for Exhibitionby Emily Gilburt ‘16

The Sherwood Art Show, which provides students with an op-portunity to have their artwork placed on display, will take place on April 30. Several forms of art are represented in the show, includ-ing functional and sculptural ceramics, paintings, drawings, digi-tal photography, darkroom photography, commercial art and some claymation short films. Students who are enrolled in multiple art classes have the free-dom to represent an array of their pieces. Showcased seniors will present their best works and are currently organizing their artist statements. The list of seniors in the art show will be published in a future art brochure. Additionally, students have for the first time created an original t-shirt design for the art show that will be avail-able for purchase. “We do encourage every art student to contribute work to the art show. It’s always really impressive to us as teachers to see the amount and quality of work our students have produced over the course of the year,” said art teacher Michele Spangle.

Annual Community Run Honors Legacy of Student

by Stephen Luckey ‘15

In early 2011, the Sherwood community mourned the loss of junior Alex Popeck after a fatal car accident. Popeck, who was a member of the track and cross country teams at Sherwood, was well known for his resilient and ambitious attitude. The legacy he left behind at Sherwood inspired the launch of the Alex Popeck Never Back Down Foundation. Every year, the Never Back Down Foundation hosts a run that is open to all Montgomery County citizens. It will take place at the Olney Boys and Girls Club on June 8 this year. Those who partici-pate can either register online by June 7 for $25 or onsite at the race location for $35. The Never Back Down Foundation hopes to bring people of the community together by hosting several events. In addition to promoting driver safety among teenagers, proceeds from the run are awarded in grant scholarships to high school seniors in Mont-gomery County who show honest and caring qualities. a college degree.

The sentiment that SAT scores have very little predictive validity is not exclusive to college level professors. “It’s not an intel-ligence test, but an aptitude test that measure[s] how you could possibly do in college. But if tak-ing a weekend course can raise your score 100 points, how valid can that be? There are too many tricks to the current SAT test that can raise your score if you learn them,” explained Tim Altaner, a math teacher of the College Prep Test course at Sherwood. As concern over the predic-tive validity of the SAT grows, the College Board and several colleges and universities across the country are adjusting accord-ingly. The College Board’s recent-ly announced changes to the SAT make the exam easier to under-stand and ask students to demon-

strate skills more pertinent to everyday life. Not only will the vocabulary consist of relevant words in context, but the prob-lems presented throughout the exam will also be given in re-al-world situations and students will be asked to provide evidence that supports their answers. The expectation is that these changes will be more useful in determin-ing the college and career readi-ness of students. Before the College Board took action, however, more than 800 colleges and universities took matters into their own hands by making the submission of SAT scores optional for admission. Researchers at Bates College, a test-optional school since 1984, found in their study, “Defining Promise: Optional Standardized Testing Policies in American Col-lege and University Admissions,” that there were virtually no differ-ences between the college perfor-mance of students who submitted

Popularity of SAT Continues To Declinefrom SAT, pg. 1

2015 MCPS Fiscal Budget Approvedby Tom Lee ‘14

The Montgomery County Board of Education voted Febru-ary 11 to propose a four-percent increase in its budget for the 2015 fiscal year, citing growing enroll-ment, continuing costs and efforts to close the achievement gap. The proposed $2.32 billion spending plan is more than $35 million higher than what Super-intendent Joshua Starr recom-mended in December. Most of the new funding will go towards employee salaries because MCPS has signed a new agreement with its three employee associations. “With the new budget, many teachers will receive a raise in their salaries. They work hard ev-ery year and deserve every pen-ny of what they are paid,” said Starr at a conference held for high school newspapers on February 24. His statement was in response to a question asked about whether funds should be allocated instead to more programs that will direct-ly affect students. Board President Phil Kauff-man said in a news release that the proposed spending plan “will allow MCPS to keep up with its rapid enrollment growth and in-vest wisely and strategically to improve teaching and learning.” The district has added almost 14,000 students in the past six years, increasing the total enroll-ment for this academic year to over 150,000 students. The budget request is also geared toward closing the achievement gap. The spend-ing plan will fund 15 new high school teaching positions to help decrease the student-faculty ratio in math and reading classes. Also, there will be more staff members to help middle school students learn English and two pre-kin-dergarten classes for lower class students. The proposed spend-ing plan also allocates funds for a new program that would bring

more effective teachers to high-needs schools and retain exem-plary teachers already at those schools. The Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Asso-ciations (MCCPTA) aims to en-sure County Executive Ike Leg-gett and members of the County Council give MCPS what it wants in next year’s operating budget. “Our county executive and mem-bers of the county council will soon demonstrate if they deeply support schools and students or not. I know the conclusions I am going to draw before I head to the ballot box in June if the school budget is not fully funded or if the conversations turn back again to [the] Maintenance of Effort (MOE) [law] this spring,” said MCCPTA President Janette Gil-man in a January Gazette article.

The budget is $26 million above what is required by the MOE law, which requires local governments to provide an ade-quate level of per-pupuil fund-ing to public schools. However, the county has been able to only approve 99.4 percent of the net amount of what all schools have requested. “We are going to have to find $15 million in vital programs and services that our children and family need. It will be tough work for us and we are going to have to work with the council to figure out what is next,” said Leggett at a conference for student journal-ists held on March 13. The Montgomery County Council has the final say on the district’s budget. The council is expected to pass a spending plan in May.

80%: Instruction

15%: School Support

3%: Other

2%: Systemwide

Support

scores and those who did not, although those who chose not to submit their scores scored, on average, 160 points less than sub-mitters. “In our study we found that 30 percent of the students were non-submitters, and were largely doing fine work in their colleges or universities, despite modest testing [scores],” said William Hiss, former dean of Bates Col-lege. “If our study is correct in its finding that 30 percent of students are being under-measured by test-ing, I would suggest that America cannot afford to throw away 30 percent of its potential talent.” With schools shying away from the SAT I and placing more emphasis on GPAs, AP scores, SAT II scores and the overall personality of the applicant, the necessity of the SAT continues to remain in question and leads many to believe that the elimi-nation of the SAT is a justifiable possibility.

MCPS Expenditures by Category

Quick Facts• The MCPS operating budget is about $2.23 billion for the 2014 Fiscal Year.• The Montgomery County and Maryland state governments contribute about 93 percent of funding for the MCPS budget. • Montgomery County executive Ike Leg-gett has proposed a $77 million increase for the MCPS budget for the 2015 Fiscal Year.

Source: montgomeryschoolsmd.org

The Warrior•NewsApril 10, 2014 3

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had to start over. Three other students had tests that wouldn’t load. Their screens froze and administrators had to be called. They finally solved the problem by sending students to different computers, causing them to start 15 minutes late. These varied start times and technical prob-lems tested the logistics of the PARCC testing. On the second day of test-ing, classes arrived at the com-puter lab only to be told to return to class as the computer system

PARCC Test To Replace Standard HSAsfrom PARCC, pg. 1 was experiencing more techni-

cal difficulties. The students were never able to finish the test. Despite the several prob-lems encountered, some feel the field tests succeeded in their purpose. “The field tests were created to test the logis-tics involved with the entire process of the test so the state could be provided with feed-back on how they need to im-prove the system to make the tests successful in the future,” said math department head Sapna Chaudhry.

Principal Bill Gregory remains optimistic about the new testing. “The new curric-ulum and tests help you apply the skills you learn at an earlier time to what you will do in the future,” said Gregory. With every year comes an-other addition to the PARCC testing. The test is scheduled to be officially implemented next year for all geometry courses and English classes except for those in 12th grade. In the fol-lowing year, Algebra 2 students will also begin participating in the PARCC testing.

School Year Extended after Maryland Compromises Waiverby Connor Loughran ‘15

MCPS has confirmed that a waiver to close four of the six make-up days has been accepted by the state, but the original pro-posed waiver to forgo five days was denied. Additionally, MCPS will have school on Easter Mon-day, April 21, and one extra day on June 13. The original waiver request was denied because the state did not feel it demonstrated a com-mitment to make up any mean-ingful instructional time after MCPS closed 10 times this win-ter. The state also believed waiv-

ing five make-up days would give less than adequate time before students began final exams. Because of the changed schedule, many have wondered if the Senior Class will be impact-ed. “Graduation cannot be [af-fected], because those dates are already set,” said Principal Bill Gregory. “Graduation is solid.” Seniors will still take their exams as scheduled. The newest announcement came in an email to all staff from Superintendent Joshua Starr and stated, “Under a plan approved by the Maryland State Department of Education this morning, MCPS

will hold school on Monday, April 21 (Easter Monday) and Friday, June 13, which will now be the last day of school for stu-dents.” This announcement came to the relief of many who thought that the school year would be ex-tended by at least six days, due to the expectation that the origi-nal waiver would be denied. The announcement also stated that af-ter the two make-up days, “none of the remaining snow days will have to be [made] up under the [new] state-approved plan.” The original announcement, posted on March 6, stated there would be five school days added

to the year unless MCPS were to receive a waiver. There would have been six school days added without a waiver, due to the most recent snow day on St. Patrick’s Day. Because of this announce-ment, speculation arose that there might be some way of bypass-ing the make-up days in June by getting rid of some scheduled holidays. Though Gregory had said most of these rumors were based on what had happened in other school systems – referring to Fairfax County specifically, which had school on President’s Day (February 17) – it turned out that the rumors were true, with

school being opened on Easter Monday in MCPS. The most recent winter in which the county had applied for a waiver was in 2010, the year dubbed “Snowmageddon,” when there were 11 snow days and multiple state of emergency days, which led to all missed days be-ing waived. Although the addition of the two extra days to the school year may be undesirable to most, it does have its benefits rooted in that of safety. “I would rather see the school system close and keep people safe when it snows than to risk safety,” said Gregory.

Maryland AP Students Lead Nation by Exampleby Catherine Jou ‘15

The College Board issued its tenth annual AP Report to the Na-tion on February 11, and for the eighth consecutive year Maryland had the highest percent of high school seniors in the nation pass at least one AP test in 2013. Much of Maryland’s success is credited to MCPS, which had an increase in the number of grad-uates taking AP exams in at least eight schools, with the largest in-crease at Clarksburg with 5.9 per-cent. Sherwood had an increase of 2.1 percent from 2012 to 2013. The average percentage for U.S. public high school graduates in 2013 who scored a 3 or high-er on an AP Exam is 20.1 per-cent. Seventeen states exceeded the national average, including Maryland with 29.6 percent and Virginia with 28.3 percent. Of Sherwood graduates from the Class of 2013, 70.1 percent took at least one AP exam during high school and 55.6 percent of graduates earned one or more AP scores of 3 or higher. This com-pares to 50.9 percent of 2013 graduates from Quince Orchard, a school that is considered to have a similar demographic profile to Sherwood.

The most popular AP exams taken by the Class of 2013 in Maryland were English Language and Composition, followed by Psychology and English Litera-ture and Composition. The five most popular tests taken among students at Sherwood last year were Psychology, U.S. Govern-ment and Politics, World History, English Language and Composi-tion and English Literature and Composition. According to the MCPS re-port “AP Participation and Per-formance,” along with being Sherwood’s second most popu-lar exam, U.S. Government and Politics had the highest percent passing rate of all exams with 89.8 percent and with a mean average score of 3.8. Psychology had a 63.3 percent passing rate and an average score of 2.9. The best mean average score was 3.9 in U.S. History. The exam scores with the lowest averages at Sher-wood were Physics C: Mechan-ics, Environmental Science and Calculus AB. With the highest scores and participation rates in humanities classes and the lowest scores in science and math classes, there seems to be a correlation between popularity of a class and scores.

PARCC TEST vs. TRADITIONAL TESTSThe Partnership for Assessment of Reading for College and Careers (PARCC) is a group of about 20 states working to develop a common set of K-12 assessments that align to the current Common Core State Stan-dards (CCSS). PARCC’s work, which is funded through a $186 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, is already showing dif-ferences from traditional standardized tests:

• PARCC assessments will look more deeply into student writing abili-ties. • Students will have to document work for more complex math questions.• Computer-based assessments deliver real-time information on student knowledge to teachers.• Shift from multiple choice tests to performance-based tests intends to measure a student’s full range of knowledge.

Source: parcconline.org

The Warrior•TravelApril 10, 20144

Almost everyone has dreams of traveling, but realistically, traveling is very difficult to fit into society’s expected path to success. After high school, you go to college. After college, you immediately start your career to eventually support a family. The more comfortably a person settles into life, the more inconvenient traveling becomes. Leaving the country now-a-days has become outrageously expensive, and many believe they have to first start a career to even afford the luxurious vacation. However, after hearing my dad’s experiences from around the world, I’ve come to realize the importance of traveling while still young and independent. Being on a budget actually enhanced the authenticity of my dad’s journey across Africa and Europe. While attending Towson University, he spent the school year vigorously working instead of partying. With the money he saved, he spent the summers go-ing on road trips from Maryland to California with his friends or hiking the Appalachian Moun-tains. After college, he didn’t go straight into pursuing a career. Instead, he worked for one year at an inner city soup kitchen for homeless people while waiting for his Peace Corps application. The next year he was accept-ed into Peace Corps in West Af-rica for a two-year period from

1984 to 1986. He was sent to a village of 6,000 people that had no running water or electricity. He was trained to teach appro-priate technology to villagers to reforest the local area through replanting seeds in tree nurseries. He also taught them about sand dune stabilization, fuel efficient mud stoves, primary health care and oral rehydration therapy. He hiked from village to village to teach classes on these subjects. In each village, he lived with a family in a mud hut and ate whatever meals they made. He went to the village chief and asked him to ask all villagers to attend his class in the village square. He then spent the night at the village chief’s house. After the Peace Corps, my dad went to Europe with only a backpack of luggage and trav-eled from city to city on trains. He stayed at youth hostels, which consisted of 20 or more strangers

The Big Difference Between a World Traveler and Just an Average Tourist

Sherwood gives students some great opportunities to travel abroad on numerous trips during the second semester. A few of the social studies department teach-ers are taking students to Athens and the Greek islands over spring break, and this year there was not one but two foreign exchange trips for students taking French. One was to Belgium in February and one was to France at the end of March. This spring break I am at-tending a school-sponsored trip, through the company Education First (EF) to Italy, which is be-ing chaperoned by three of Sher-wood’s very own art teachers: Angela Praisner, Debra Bernhardt and Michele Spaingle. I chose to go on the trip to Italy for numer-ous reasons. I’ve never been there

Why I’m Going to Italybefore and I’d like to experience more cultures. I also thought it was a cheap way to get a trip to Europe, and numerous friends of mine are going. I’ve been to Eu-rope twice before with family, but I expect this trip to be different than the two preceding it. It will be interesting to explore a part of the world I’ve never been to be-fore with friends and peers rather than with family. I am extremely excited to ar-rive to Italy in two days, and to see such cities as Rome, Florence, Venice and Assisi. I just can’t wait to see such important landmarks as The Vatican and The Coliseum and, of course, the canals of Ven-ice. I truly believe that students owe it to themselves to jump on a chance like this when it arises; it’s important to experience new cultures and if you do a trip with school, you’re starting young.

by Will Van Gelder ‘16

by Becky Ewing ‘14

Mark Ewing on his visit Amsterdam, Holland, circa 1984.

sharing bunk beds in only one room. At the hostels, he befriend-ed his fellow travelers by swap-ping stories of their experiences. Next time he wanted to visit his new friend’s home country, he stayed at their homes with their families. Today, society frowns upon those who detour from their ex-pected and comfortable path. Over the years, we have lost the distinction between a traveler and a tourist. A tourist just takes a tem-porary break from his or her rou-tine life to merely visit a planned destination. However, a traveler completely immerses his or her-self in the culture of each country, and knows there is no destination. Traveling, for such a person, is a journey of self-discovery, which is why I believe traveling while young is best time to travel. How can one settle down in one place before exploring the vastness of the world?

The Warrior•TravelApril 10, 2014 5

When students realize that Spring Break is just around the corner, the last thing they think about is college. A much needed vacation from the stress of school, Spring Break is supposed to be a time for relaxation before head-ing back to the responsibilities of high school. However, this week-long hiatus can also serve as a great opportunity to visit nearby colleges while enjoying vacation. If you find yourself traveling to another state, whether you’re visiting family or heading to the beach, take this opportunity to find a school close to you. You’re already headed in that direction, so you might as well take the ex-tra hour or two drive to see what the school is really like. Often times, students believe they have found the perfect school only to face disappointment once they get a true sense of its identity from the campus. Senior McKayla Joaquim en-countered this very problem when visiting American Interna-tional College. Last year during break she decided to visit the school while staying with her family in Massachusetts. “I fell in love with the school on paper, but when I went to go see the campus it was not at all what I expected,” Joaquim said. “The school was much smaller than it seemed on

the website and there were barely any students on campus. It was seriously missing school spirit.” Campus visits aren’t always posi-tive, but even the negative experi-ences help you select the college that fits best for you. On the other hand, college visits can be a great experience that leads a student to find his/her best school. Senior Christina Ricciuti felt her campus visit to Coastal Carolina was vital in her decision to attend the school. “I got a good vibe from [the school]. It was modern, clean and the stu-dents seemed happy to be there.” Ricciuti agrees that campus visits are an important part of the col-lege search process, and feels she would not be able to commit to a school without one. Even if you’re not a senior, campus visits are still necessary since they provide a window into what college life is like at a par-ticular school. Getting a sense of the school early on enables you to narrow your college search when it comes time to apply. A positive experience also fuels your moti-vation to do well in high school; if you loved a particular school and could really see yourself there in the future, you’re likely to put in more effort to achieve your goal of admission. Putting a particu-lar college as the face of your end goal makes high school work that much more tolerable.

by Steffani Carrera ‘14

Music Festivals Near and Far Attract Students as They Make Summer Plans

Two pleasures of life are music and traveling, so music festivals are a sweet combination of both. From one day-ers to a whole week-end, music festivals have fulfilled young people’s needs of adventure for decades, going back as far as Woodstock in 1969. Concerts are a great time, but seeing several bands and artists at one time is even bet-ter. Although music festivals pop up all across the country, most high

Bonnaroo June 12-15, (Manchester, Tennessee): Main

headliners: Elton John, Kanye West, Vampire Weekend

Coachella April 11-13, April 18-20, (Indio,

California): OutKast, Muse, Arcade Fire

Governors Ball June 6-8,(Randall’s Island, New York):

The Strokes, Vampire Weekend, Jack White

Firefly June 19-22 – (Dover, Delaware): Out-

Kast, Jack Johnson, Arctic Monkeys

Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) May 24-25 (NYC), June 20-

22 (Las Vegas): Bassnectar, Tiesto, Calvin Harris

Warped Tour July 22 (Columbia, Maryland): Full

lineup to be announced

Lollapalooza August 1-3 , (Chicago, Illinois): Emi-

nem, Outcasts, Kings of Leon, Skrillex, Lorde, The

Avett Brothers, and Foster the People

Sweetlife May 10 (Columbia, Maryland): Lana Del

Rey, Foster the People, Fitz & the Tantrums

“ [At Firefly] it was really amazing to see so many bands that I loved back-to-back. I really enjoyed the whole festival atmosphere, and had a great time. That was the first three-day festival I’ve been to and I’m going back this year as well, but I’ve been to a few single-day festivals before.”-Tim Tralka ‘14

Students Take Advantage of Spring Break for College Visits

“Well the best moment [of Firefly] was

when Michael Franti was walking around

and told me he liked my shorts and I got

a picture creeping behind [Franti and

his band Spearhead]. It was my first big

music festival but I had been to a lot of

concerts before. My favorite thing in gen-

eral is that you can see so many amazing

bands in a day.”-Erin Thorndike ‘14

“Warped gives me something to look forward to and a sense of community. You can strike up a conversation with a random per-son and instantly have a connec-tion in some way.”-Cheyenne Sebold ‘14

The verdict is in ...

by Ashley Yen ‘14

school students, short on cash and still beholden to their parents’ rules, stay close to home with WMZQ, Firefly and Warped Tour. Tickets to these festivals are usually in the hundreds, depending on the duration, but once all of the artists to see are divided by the price, it is a steal. To get away from a familiar hometown, students travel to see their favorites live.

The World Cup Soccer is often referred to as “the world’s game,” because, while it may be the fifth most popular sport in America (professionally), it’s almost a way of life in many cultures. European and South American soccer fans are as passionate and energetic a breed of sports enthusiast as you’ll ever encounter, and the World Cup serves as a host site for the pilgrim-age many of them make every four years. Experiencing a World Cup gives an American fan a newfound perspective on what sport really means in a global context. Additionally, the World Cup is an opportunity to be exposed to new cultures; both through the people you meet and through the experiences you have in the host country. With so many countries competing, stadiums are spread out into multiple locations around the host country, giving tourists an opportunity to explore multiple cities on their soccer excursion. Brazil will play host to this summer’s Cup, but if you can’t make it on short notice, Russia and Qatar will host the 2018 and 2022 cups, respectively.

The Summer Olympic Games A reinvented version of one of the original great sporting events in history, the first Summer Olympiad took place in 1896. 2016’s Summer Games will celebrate the 120th anniversary of the more modern version of the competition. The Games offer something for sports fans of all kinds, as there will be 28 different sports (including the notable addition of rugby) and 306 total events to attend. Like this summer’s World Cup, it will take place in Brazil (in many of the same stadiums). If you have your heart set on a trip to Rio de Janeiro but can’t manage to put something together before June, start planning for 2016.

Summer Time Gives World-Wide Sports Fanatics Something To Look Forward To

Cooperstown, The Baseball Hall of Fame While every sport has a Hall of Fame, nothing compares to the Baseball Mecca that is Coo-perstown, New York. The museum itself is host to some of baseball’s greatest historical artifacts, such as Babe Ruth’s locker, and in addition to the actual museum, baseball-themed restaurants and museums line the streets, giving travelers plenty to do when they’re done touring all three floors of the Hall of Fame museum. Cooperstown also features Otsego Lake, giving tourists a non-baseball marvel to enjoy when their home-run experience is over.

by Michael Natelli ‘14

WMZQ Fest May 17 (Bristow, VA): Jiffy Lube Live Dierks

Bentley, Chris Young, Chase Rice, Jon Pardi

The Warrior•FeaturesApril 10, 20146

by Katie Mercogliano ‘14

A Night of Jazz starts off the spring music department concerts in the cafeteria at 6 p.m. Sher-wood’s Jazz band, under the guid-ance of Alex Silverbook, has been preparing since earlier this spring. Along with the Jazz concert, the Spring Instrumental Concert will be held in the Ertzman on May 6 at 7:30 p.m. Both feature several of the same students that partici-pate in the bands at Sherwood. “Practice during band can get spacey since often we’ll be pre-paring for Rock N’ Roll revival. But once it’s done we continue everyday to go through all songs we intend to play at the concert,” said senior Nish Desai. Desai has been a part of the music depart-ment for three years. “My favorite part about being in band is learn-ing from each other,” said Desai about his time in band. “We’ve all had different levels of training so being able to teach and be taught by other musicians is always ben-eficial.” There are some differences between this year and previous years. “Last year we lost a lot of

our musicians, but this year we re-ally bounced back under the guid-ance of Mr. Silverbook. Though we have different strengths as a band this year than we did last year, we still always come togeth-er to perform fully,” said Desai. Senior Martin Mueller is par-ticipating in all four Spring con-certs, including both band events, the Spring C h a m b e r Singers Con-cert, April 24, and the Spring Cho-ral Concert, May 8. He has been in Chambers for two years and band for four years. “[We started preparing] about two months ago,” said Mueller. “We’re a lot better than previous years.” Rehearsals for the Spring Choral Concert were affected by the unexpected and large amount of snow days MCPS had in Feb-ruary and March. “We have had a lot of rehearsals for our spring concert outside of school so that we are better prepared,” said se-

Tobi King Crowned as Mr. Sherwood

The annual Mr. Sherwood event was held on March 28 in the Ertzman Theater with a sellout crowd of more than 1,000 people. 17 seniors volunteered to participate in the competition: Mike Crooks, Kevin Daly, Chris Katz, Noah Kieserman, Tobi King, Joe Lavoie, Vi-jay Mahabare, Martin Mueller, Clyde Noubissie, Jan Pasternak, Alec Perez, Ty Reeves, Julian Riley, Daniel Ryczek, Austin Tucker, Abdulai Turay and Cal Wilson. Reeves took third place and Keiserman was runner-up. The eight judges, consisting of Sherwood teachers, se-

nior Ashley Magliaro. Magliaro has been in Chambers for three years. “Being in Chambers … is really comfortable for me, we are like a big family,” expressed Magliaro. Chambers this year is prepar-ing to travel Europe, specifically Italy and France. According to Magliaro, “sophomore year and

junior year we did a lot of the same songs … this year we picked up a lot of new repertoire.” The Spring C h a m b e r

Singers Concert will be at The Lutheran Church of St. Andrew and they will start at 7:30 pm and the Spring Choral will be held in the Ertzman Theatre , also start-ing 7:30 pm. Bill Evans is the teacher in charge of Chambers and most of the choruses. “[Spring concerts are] a great sharing time for the students where the students from each group get to watch the other groups,” said Evans.

Kicking Off Spring Concerts

“We’ve all had different levels of training so being able to teach and be taught by other musicians is always beneficial.” ~Senior Nish Desai

compiled by Jack Armstrong ‘15

lected King as this year’s Mr. Sherwood winner. His talent consisted of an imitation, with Daly and Perez, of the boy-band ‘N Sync. They lip sang and danced to the songs “Bye Bye Bye” and “Tearing up My Heart.” The contestants practiced every Tuesday and Thursday for a month. Poms members Lauralynn Heon and Katarina Stephanos, both juniors, did the choreography for the group dances and edited the songs for the participants. SGA sponsors, teachers Christine McKeldin and Catina Wist, helped organize the event, which raised close to $2,500 for a local charity.

by Alec Perez ‘14

The Warrior•FeaturesApril 10, 2014 7

by Meagan Barrett ‘15

Film Fest Showcases Aspiring Filmmakers This year, Sherwood will have its first ever Film Festival on Friday, May 16, at 7 p.m. in the Ertzman. All video entries must be between two and 12 min-utes long, and fit under one of the following five categories: Narra-tive, Documentary, Music Video, Animated Film and, surprisingly enough, Vines. The judges will choose the three best of each cat-egory as winners. What does one get for win-ning? So far, in addition to an im-pressive addendum to one’s col-lege transcript, the decided prizes are a “trophy” and a t-shirt with the Film Festival logo on it. As an added bonus, “we’re looking into the possibility of movie tick-ets … to give out as prizes,” said English teacher and Film Festival advisor, Christiane Lock. Many budding Sherwood di-rectors are going to be featured in the festival. This includes junior Eric Sagastizado, who worked in a group with sophomore Anya Mudryakova and junior Andrew Marin. The trio created a short named “Horse,” and the come-dy aims to be a parody of a hor-ror movie. “I wrote the script in a day, we filmed it in a day and Anya edited,” said Sagastizado of his movie. However, among all of the viable prizes, Sagastizado was motivated to enter his video only for the enjoyment. “It’s more for

fun. Win or lose, I don’t really care,” said Sagastizado. Seniors Matt Stinson and Mitchell Porter have been work-ing on a video to submit as well. “Imagine ‘12 Years a Slave’ and ‘Schindler’s List’ combined. That’s kind of the plot of our movie,” said Stinson. For Stinson and Porter, how-ever, the process of creating the movie has been a rocky expe-dition. The two took a notable amount of time deciding on the plot of their movie and preparing for filming. “Tone, characters, message, how you want to convey the film, and how to tell the story you want with a small budget are all fac-tors,” noted Stinson. The two young producers also have a different reason for entering their video into the Film Festival. “The film class … had all the students make movies for our final project, and a lot of them were surprisingly high quality. We all felt it was a shame more people wouldn’t see them,” said Stinson. To these two producers, the best part is getting to share their talent with a broader audi-ence. Not only is the admission free, but there will be a reception held afterwards – and yes, that includes free food. The best in-centive, however, will be getting to see the familiar faces of friends you know up on the big screen, and in the rolling credits.

by Lucy Hurlburt ‘14 After being closed since 2010, the Olney Library reopened its doors on March 15, with many drastic changes having been made. While the huge increase in size from 16,825 to 22,574 square feet might be a shock to some who were used to the small but cozy atmosphere of the pre-vious building, others prefer the increased open space of the new building. “Because of the big open space, I feel less trapped when reading or searching for books. It’s also easier to navigate and search around for exactly what I want,” said sophomore Anya Mu-dryakova. From the moment visitors drive up to the building, the visu-al appeal of the 2.5 acres of land the building sits on makes them smile. Not only is there a large parking lot, followed by steps up to the main entrance, but also a complete set of glass windows so lots of light can shine through. The very high ceilings and open floor-plan make the library very spacious and a great place to re-lax. One of the biggest chang-es is that there are more seating options available. “I’m really

happy it’s open again because ... it’s helpful for school and re-search for projects, or a hangout place with friends after school to get work done,” said sophomore Molly Bayewitz. There are two group study rooms, one of which can hold eight people, a quiet study room, and a number of computers avail-able. A new separate Teen Area

has nice booths with tables, lock-ers and a group study room for six people. The room visitors see to the right of the entrance is a one-hundred seat meeting room, which can be split to have two smaller rooms if desired. Both self-checkout and regular check-out are now available. Other new features of the li-brary include a bridge that cross-

Long-Awaited Olney Library Opens to the Community

es the landscaped storm-water management area, and advanced heating and cooling systems. The building also has enhanced ener-gy-efficient glass as well. Howev-er, some pieces of the 1981 build-ing remain. Inside, visitors will find the bricks and wood panel-ing from the original building, as well as the distinctive “Delights of Reading” mosaic artwork from

the previous building on the out-side overlooking the storm-water management area. This library should be the new attraction for the Olney com-munity in no time. “It is a place where residents of all ages and backgrounds can come together to be educated and entertained,” said County Executive Ike Leg-gett at the opening ceremony.

County Executive Ike Leggett gathers with library staff and members of the Olney community at the entrance of the new library for the rib-bon-cutting ceremony (left). Olney residents assemble in the parking lot of the library to watch the proceedings involved in the opening (right).

Jack Armstrong ‘15

The Warrior•FeaturesApril 10, 20148

by Mary Macrae ‘14

Students Take Part in Search To Find the Perfect Roommate

The process of finding a college roommate has changed throughout the years with grow-ing technology. With the inven-tion of Facebook, students are able to pick their roommates through college groups. In these groups, students are able to browse through people’s profiles and determine whether they think they would be com-patible with one another. This method of deciding roommates though social media sites is a very popular trend this year among new college students. “For find-ing my college roommate I used the group on Facebook because I wanted to live with someone with my same values and inter-ests. I think if you have a Face-book you should at least browse through the people because it’s a really great way to get to meet and get to know someone. Also, I found potential roommates fairly quickly and I knew it was a safe way to do so,” said senior Ashley Magliaro. Within the Facebook groups students can post statuses about themselves, including where they live, what their major is and what they would like in a roommate. Then, other students can message these students if they are poten-tially interested in rooming with them. After messaging them, stu-

dents can then chat with them and see if they would be compatible and potentially arrange to meet each other in person. However, even with this new Facebook method, there are still some students who decide to use a survey given by the college or just go random instead. With this survey method, students fill out questions about themselves and what they would like in a room-mate. This survey is typically provided by the college. “I wanted to use the survey for determining my roommate because it had questions on it

that I would have never thought to ask in a potential roommate,” said senior Jenna Swink. “It asked whether you like going to sleep with the light on or off and I would have never thought to ask that to someone. Also, I thought that the college and survey would do a better job than me with de-ciding who my roommate should be because colleges want all their incoming students to feel com-fortable and at home.” This method is not as risky compared to the last method of seeking out a college roommate which is simply by going random.

While filling out all the forms before going to a college, stu-dents are able to check a box to receive a random roommate. This way is not as widely used as the other two ways because of the un-predictability it poses. However, there are still some students that use it. “I’m going to go random with finding a roommate because if I use a Facebook group or a survey it would be my fault if I decide or get a roommate that I didn’t like. However, if I go ran-dom then it wouldn’t be my fault. Also, I think by going random I’ll

have the opportunity to interact with someone that I would have never had the opportunity to in-teract with before if I had decided to use the survey or go random,” said senior Sara Zarny. These three different meth-ods vary in the amount of control students are given when deciding who their college roommate is. “Whichever way you decide it’ll work out in the end. It all just de-pends on how comfortable you are with each one and whichever you feel is best for you and your decision-making process,” said Magliaro.

cartoon by Kelsey Morrison ‘14

The Warrior•HumorApril 10, 2014 9

Bar Fight between Two Rap Styles Eruptsby Hunter Moore ‘15

A fight broke out in a Mi-ami bar last Wednesday between old-school rappers and contem-porary rappers. An eye witness said it was more of a battle over which style of music was bet-ter: the old-school clean-cut rap about not doing drugs, or the contemporary foul-mouthed rap about how awesome drugs are. An eye witness identified those representing the old school style as the all-time great rap-pers Sir Mix-a-Lot, Run-DMC, Biz Markie, MC Hammer, DJ Rob Base and Miami-native Va-nilla Ice. The middle-aged crew fought against rappers Big Sean, Fat Trel, Wiz Khalifa, Chief Keef, Drake, ScHoolboy Q, KiD CuDi, Macklemore and Mac Miller. The fight between the two groups had no clear winner to start but with Macklemore on the young rappers’ side, they held a slight edge over the old-school crew. Throughout the whole fight, Macklemore just kept bragging about his four Grammys asking all of the old-school rappers if any of them won the number of awards he had in his first year of making music professionally. The youngsters would have won the fight if it wasn’t for the notorious hothead DMX who arrived late to the fight. An anonymous source said he

witnessed DMX do cocaine be-fore the fight, which is the rea-son for him almost taking on all of his opponents at once. Mac Miller said that he be-lieved DMX fought everyone as if they were George Zimmer-man. On the other hand, Vanilla Ice thought he could have taken all the “youngins” on by him-self, easily. He also claimed that the fight started because he and his old school rappers just want the respect they have earned and the respect they deserve. “That was so mean and in-sensitive of them to fight us; we were just minding our own busi-ness,” said an upset Drake. “Ex-pect a few songs about this, and be ready to feel the pain I felt.” But the old school rappers had no remorse on the sub-ject, especially DMX, who said that talk was cheap and that his dogs took care of business. “If you ever see me and my big-booty loving old-school rap-pers, do not even compare our music to that of this new breed of rapper,” said Sir-Mix-A-Lot. “Unless, of course, you are al-right with a good, old-fash-ioned, 90s-themed beatdown.” An anonymous contempo-rary rapper said that he does not intend on returning to a bar where he may have a run-in with one of the old-school rappers who just beat him and his crew down.

Correcting the Social Imbalance by Dean Emerson ‘14

Students Find Unlikely Source of Inspirationby Leo Corman ‘15

While some teachers (per-haps the more inexperienced ones) decide to decorate their classrooms in a careless and hap-hazard fashion, the true educators know that the content they put on their walls has a tremendous influence on student productivi-ty and performance. Specifical-ly, teachers’ choices for quotes will have lasting repercussions for their students throughout the school year. As students begin to drift off during class, presumably disinter-ested and bored with the topic at hand, their eyes and attentions in-evitably wander. Now the quotes spring into action. A brightly col-ored poster catches the student’s eye. In order for the student to really connect with and respond to the quote, it absolutely must be simple and brief (strict-ten word maximum). Too complex or lengthy and students might collapse from the mental exhaus-tion of trying to figure them out. The quote should also contain a concept or message with which the student is familiar, preferably something the student has heard before. The more hackneyed, the better—after all, there is nothing students enjoy more than being told things that they already know

and have known. If the quote performs its in-tended function properly, then the student reading it will instantly well up with all sorts of positive energy. Inspired, the student will likely return to the classroom ac-tivities with renewed vigor and a completely altered perspective of life. These quotes also carry a great deal of importance be-cause they give students a mech-anism by which to judge their teachers’ intellectual acuity and philosophical depth. Obscure, indecipherable quotes can make a teacher seem pretentious and con-descending. “I thought [English teacher Peter] Huck was a pretty cool guy at first,” confided an anonymous student. “But then, one day, I was reading some of the quotes on his wall, and they were just really long and complicated and from a bunch of people I’d never heard of. I wondered, ‘Does he think he’s better than me just because he has these weird quotes on his wall?’ What a snob!” Clearly, teachers need to take more careful consideration before they ruin their reputations over one badly chosen quote. Howev-er, they must be cautious—if their quotes get too good, students will never be able to focus on their lesson.

According to social com-mentators, the current generation, dubbed the “millennials,” are the least productive generation and possibly the worst ever. They claim that, despite this genera-tion being the most educated and technologically advanced, the whole feel-good movement to build kids’ self-esteem has com-pletely backfired, creating the most arrogant and selfish gener-ation of all time. Like an inva-sive species with no predators to keep it in check, this generation has caused much inefficiency in our society due to its belief in overly high self-esteem and equality of result for everyone. Enter the jock, high school’s natural tertiary consumers; this pre-evolved form of the human species keeps general self-es-teem low through means of both direct and indirect intimidation. While these rather aggressive creatures have seen a drop in pop-ulation over the past few years (due to anti-bullying campaigns and letterman jackets becom-ing horribly out of fashion and expensive), their resurgence is being brought about by the likes of several football and lacrosse players. At the forefront of this trend are senior athletes E.J. Audibert and Will Wykoff, par-agon examples of the jock life. “I wake up every morning and immediately put on my let-ter jacket. I mean, people can al-ready tell I’m a jock just by my looks, but the letter jacket really seals the deal,” said Audibert, a three-year varsity lacrosse play-er. Typical jock activities in-clude interscholastic athletics, knocking books out of innocent peoples’ hands, team showers, at-tempting to “woo” female coun-terparts, consuming seemingly unnecessary quantities of protein and, above all, lifting weights. “I try and hit the gym twice a day, every day, minus Sun-day,” noted Wykoff, both a var-sity football and lacrosse player. “Saturdays, when I don’t have lacrosse or football practice, I might fit in three workouts to

make up for Sunday, which I consider my day of rest. You don’t choose the jock lifestyle, it chooses you. We’re physical specimens; it’s just what we do.” Jocks still puzzle many wild-life biologists, however. Despite the intense workout regimen put in place for most jocks, many of these scientists are finding strik-ingly large anatomical differenc-es between jocks’ upper bodies and lower bodies. “We found that the upper body in some cases be-ing two to three times larger than the lower. Some blame biology, many others blame the species’ workout regimens and diet,” said Günther Zimmerman, lead bio-logical researcher at the H. Moore Jock Sanctuary and Research Fa-cility in Berlin. “Additionally, the biological aggression of jocks is

somewhat of a cause for concern. While the average brain size of the jock is about three-quarters the size of a human’s, a jock’s amygdala, the region linked to aggression, is three times the size of the average human.” Students should be grate-ful for the revival of jocks, but should remain wary as well. “While beautiful, they are still very volatile creatures and can snap at any moment,” added Zimmerman. “If you see a herd of blue letter jackets roaming through the hall, your best sur-vival technique in terms of fight or flight is most definitely flight.” From a jock standpoint, the best way to avoid any bodily harm with these predators? “Respect the letter,” collectively agreed the jocks.

Top: (from left to right) senior E.J. Audibert, junior Hunter Moore, senior Will Wykoff, senior Mike Crooks, senior Justin Koenick, senior Matt Chanin posting up in the traditional jock pose. Bottom: (from left to right) Koenick, Audibert, Wykoff, Crooks, Moore, Chanin showing off their individual sports on their jackets.

cartoon by Kelsey Morrison ‘15

photos by Haley Whitt ‘15photos compiled by Haley Whitt ‘15

Prom to

be Held a

t Aquarium

Typically when people think of prom, they visualize all their class-

mates packed into the ballroom of an elegant hotel. For prom 2014, however, this will not be the case, because this year

prom will be held at an unconventional venue: the Baltimore aquarium. It will be from 8 p.m.-12 a.m. on April 26, and will cost $95 per person.

“Oneof theofficerssuggested[theaquarium]lastyear,andwhenwefound out it was possible, we sent out a survey to the Class of 2014 asking about possi-

ble locations,” said Senior Class Treasurer Natalie Sebeck. “The aquarium was the choice of an overwhelming majority.”

Sherwood rented out the P4 Pavilion called Touring Blue Wonders which has an eatery area and some animal exhibits, including the dolphin arena. Students must stay in this area for the

duration of prom, and are not permitted to wander around anywhere else in or out of the aquarium. Other visitors will be walking around the Pavilion from 7-8 p.m., but after that the aquarium will be

closed to the general public and the DJ will be on starting at 8 p.m. Dinner will be provided at the aquarium. Hors d’ oeuvres will be served at 8p.m, and dinner will be

served from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The food offered will be chicken and pasta with vegetables and two sauces, salad, bread and lemonade. Dessert is a chocolate fountain with cookies and fresh

fruit, and will be served from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Buses are provided to transport students to and from prom. Students do not

have to take the bus, but it is strongly advised. “[Promthisyear]willbeanewanddifferentexperiencewhichwilldefinitelyberememberedforever,”saidJodiFriedman,Junior

Class sponsor, who planned prom for this year. “Who else has had a prom at the National Aquarium?”

by O

livia

Sko

fte

land ‘1

4

PromProm20142014

Just the anticipa-tion for prom is simply ex-hilarating: the dance, the pic-tures, the shoes, the limo. And, for girls, the dress. Prom dresses have a sort of sentimental value for girls which may increase the pressure to find the perfect one. For some thesearch for the ideal prom dress starts very early. “Some-one created a Facebook group where everyone puts their dresses that they’re deciding to get. It really made it speed up the process because you need to get a dress before all the good ones are gone,” explained senior Nicole

Tarloff. The ‘2014 Prom Dresses’ group on Facebook mostly has been successful in ensuring that no one at Sherwood purchases the same dress. There are hundreds of pictures of dresses posted by all the girls attend-

ing prom this year. Last year’s graduated senior girls are also in the Facebook group, not because they’re attending prom again but to get rid of their old prom dresses. The graduated senior post pictures of their old dresses and sell them for reasonable

prices, which is convenient for girls who do not want to spend a fortune. While searching for the perfect dress, girls stumble upon price tags. New dresses usually range anywhere from around $200 to $700. It seems logical that the best dresses wouldbeexpensive,butgirlshavefoundinexpensivewaystofindqualitypromdresses.Inadditiontobuyinguseddressesfromgraduatedseniors,onlineshoppingoffers

an alternative and cheaper route for prom-dress shopping. “I ordered a dress online and it wasn’t too expensive but I love it so much,” said senior Erin Bailey. Some girls come across scam websites such as dreamprom.com, 21shoppers.com and cheapgowns.com along their journey to the perfect prom dress. “Girls should really buy dresses in a real store because you can see how the dress looks in person and scam websites rip people off big-time,” said senior Elaine Peters.

Ordering a dress a few months before prom and having it arrive as if it was made in two minutes is very stressful for senior girls. “I ordered a dress off a scam web-site, not knowing it was one, and it came in looking like a four-year old made it,” said senior Makayla Roy. After receiving a horrendous scam dress, scrambling to findanewonethatnooneelsehasisdifficultaspromgetscloserandcloser. Aspromisthelastbigeventforseniorsbeforegraduation,findingadressshouldnotbeananxiousandhecticexperience.The‘2014PromDresses’Facebook

group has decreased the stress levels and helped the girls to informally work together to create a prom night to remember.

by Dalton Sanchez ‘15

Prom

Att

itu

des T

owards

13% no

87% yes

prom?

GIRLS

Wil

l you be attending 8%

no

92% yes

Guys

Girls VS Guys

H

ow

mu

ch a

re

you

w

illing to spend

on

y

our outfit?

31% up to $100

44%$100-$200

25%$300 or more

69%$100-$200

17%$300 & UP

Do

yo

u have a date or goin

g

solo/with friend

s?

56% with A Date

44% Solo

GIRLS

Guys

GIRLS

73% with A Date

27% Solo

Guys

14%Under $100

Are yo

u g

etti

ng

yo

ur

n

ails, hair or makeup pro

fession

ally d

one?

69% Yes

31% no

“The prom pictures and dance itself are what I’m looking forward to most.” ~McKayla Joaquim ‘14

“I’m most looking forward to the memories.” ~Dennis Muleri ‘14

GIRLS

“The most fun part of prom is getting ready with friends.” ~Jordan Newmark ‘14

27 Prom Dresses: the Search to find ‘The One’

*175 senior students surveyed

“Thepicturesarethemostimportantpartbecauseit’sthelastones[myfriendsandI]willtakebeforecollege.” ~Nicole Seymour ‘14

The Warrior•OpinionsApril 10, 201412

In Our OpinionStaff Editorial:

It’s Time People Start Caring About The World They Inhabit

In each issue of The Warrior, the newspaper staff collaborates and contributes to this “In Our Opinion” unsigned editorial. Inspired by Earth Day, The Warrior dedicated part of the Opinions section to environmental issues. However, in this issue, the staff was presented with its own obliv-iousness. Less than half of the staff considers global warming to be a pressing issue, and even less are familiar with the real causes of global warming. Upon further investigation, it’s been discovered that this trend extends into the popula-tion of the United States. For the last 4.54 billion years – as in the entire history of the earth – the world has gone through natural heating and cooling cycles. Many people discredit the current rise in global temperatures as a normal fluctuation in the earth’s natural pattern. However, over the past couple of decades, an un-deniable pattern has revealed that temperatures have now gone higher than they ever have before. The same trends show that human activity, such as the burning of coal and the burning of fossil fu-els, are enormous contributors to this rising trend. Going through a typical day, you wake up, turn on the lights – which you may or may not turn off - unplug your phone from its charger – which you then leave in the outlet – and then get into your car – which runs on fossil fuels. Many Americans don’t realize how damaging this life-style is. The electricity in your house most like-ly functions due to the burning of coal in power plants. Burning coal emits greenhouse gases, or gases which trap sunlight in the earth’s atmo-

sphere. The side effects of the gas in your car are the same. Leaving the electricity running or driving when it simply isn’t necessary for any amount of time generates just that much more unnecessary greenhouse gases. Your phone charger being plugged in all day may not seem very significant either. However, phone chargers, and any small appliances left plugged in, will continue to conduct an electric current even if your phone isn’t plugged in. But it’s just one phone charger, generating a little electricity, right? But imagine that on a scale of around 300 million phone chargers every day in the United States. It’s true these don’t seem like major causes, but even the small things count. At this point, the human race is already headed toward dire consequences. No matter what happens now, it isn’t possible to reverse the destruction we have done. All that’s possible now is to do damage control and stop it before it gets any worse. The rising temperatures not only cause melting icecaps and a dramatic rise in sea level, but also possible failure of crops, as well as the depletion of the ozone, the world’s only protection from cancer-causing UV rays. Many of the changes people need to make are simple lifestyle changes, ones that will have an enormous effect on the consequences of global warming. While the current generation may not need to deal with these consequences, the effects will fall on the shoulders of future generations. It could be your kids starving, or suffering from skin cancer. But even if it isn’t, it is still the duty of every member of the human race to care about the health of the planet that they inhabit.

How can people make changes in their

daily life to conserve more resources?How concerned are you about the

effects of climate change?

cartoon by Helen Schmitt ‘15

Warriorthe ublished seven times a year, The Warrior serves as Sherwood High School’s premier news source. Over the years, it has received numerous

state and national honors. With a staff of 55 students and one advisor, The Warrior keeps

the Sherwood community apprised of local and national events.

All opinion articles represent the viewpoint of the writer. The unsigned staff

editorials solely represent the opinions of the newspaper staff. These articles do not necessarily

represent the views of Sherwood High School.

The Warrior welcomes Letters to the Editor of 250 words or less. They may be

submitted to room C268 or emailed to thewarrioronline.shs@gmail.com. Letters must be signed, and all content received by the newspaper

is subject to editing.

The Warrior staff invites feedback and corrections to printed inaccuracies.

The Warrior reserves the right to refuse advertisements.

P

StaffPrint

Layout and Production Directors .......................... News Editors .........................................................

Specials Editor ...........................................Features Editors .................................................... Humor Editor .......................................................... Spotlight Editor .................................................. Opinions Editors ................................................ Wondering Warrior Editor............................. Entertainment Editors ................................................ Sports Editors .............................................................

Online

Online Managing Editor ............................................. Online Content Editor .............................................Online Page Editors.......................................................

Content and Copy

Managing Content and Copy Director ....................... Content and Copy Editors ...................................

Managing Photo Editors .........................................

Photographer .........................................................

Cartoonists ...........................................................

Pollster ................................................................Morning Announcements Script Editor .................. Business and Publicity Directors ............................

Staff Writers

Marie Moeller ‘15Michael Natelli ‘14Steffani Carrera ‘14

Betselot Wondimu ‘15 Whitney Marie Halaby ‘14

Victoria Florian ‘14Mary Macrae ‘14 Hunter Moore ‘15

Mandy Stussman ‘14Emma Hierholzer ‘15

Cal Wilson ‘14Samantha Schwartz ‘16

Jenni Kenel ‘14 Katie Mercogliano ‘14

Joey Lavoie ‘14Kyle Melnick ‘14

Ashley Yen ‘14

Ryan Deal ‘16 Catherine Jou ‘15

Alec Perez ‘14Will Van Gelder ‘16

Brian Hughes ‘15

Joy Zhang ‘14Meagan Barrett ‘15Michael Crooks ‘14

Tom Lee ‘14Bridget Cook ‘14

Taylor Fernandes ‘14

Haley Whitt ‘15Kelsey Morrison ‘14 Helen Schmitt ‘15

Sammie Spillman ‘16

Lucy Hurlbut ‘14Sean Kang ‘14

Stacey Wells ‘15

Jack Armstrong ‘15

Ketki Chauhan ‘16Leo Corman ‘15Lauren Cosca ‘15Madison Dymond ‘16Dean Emerson ‘14Becky Ewing ‘14Julia Gajewski-Nemes ‘15

Emily Gilburt ‘16Kaleigh Homer ‘15Emma Izzo ‘15Ankur Kayastha ‘15Joo Hyun Kim ‘14Connor Loughran ‘15Stephen Luckey ‘15

Ashley Nnabue ‘16Allie Pino ‘15Dalton Sanchez ‘15Olivia Skofteland ‘14Zach Stubblefield ‘15Chase Wilson ‘17Kira Yates ‘16

by Meagan Barrett ‘15 and Ankur Kayastha ‘15

The Warrior•OpinionsApril 10, 2014 13

On March 26, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 13 director Peter Sung ruled that Northwestern foot-ball players had the right to unionize, finding that the play-ers are employees of the university. The ruling comes in the midst of the holy grail of college sports, March Madness. The ultimate effect of Sung’s ruling is currently un-foreseeable, but it has the power to eliminate amateurism in college athletics and facilitate change in the college sports world by allowing players to negotiate and earn money. The decision is an important step towards justice for college ath-letes everywhere. The NCAA makes hundreds of millions of dollars each year, getting approximately 95 percent of its revenue from March Madness. However, the players, who put in countless hours of work in order to provide entertaining competition, currently receive none of it. By giving athletes the power to unionize, the NCAA will be forced to share its profits with the employees who generate them. Division 1 college athletes should be able to negotiate contracts and ultimately get paid like professional athletes. Yes, the “star” athletes will make considerably more money than the ones who ride the bench, but it works out be-cause these are the athletes that are making the NCAA mon-ey. People may not like the idea of paying college athletes, but it is the only way to achieve fairness in college sports.

by Michael Crooks ‘14 by Jack Armstrong ‘15 by Steffani Carrera ‘14

Several Faces of RacismNLRB Decision a Win Save Ink, Save Money

Many of Sherwood’s ju-niors have had thoughts of in-ternships pass through their minds as senior year is fast approaching and junior year comes to a close. With impend-ing seniority comes more free-dom and many seniors choose to exercise this newfound liberty by signing up for an internship. With a half-day schedule and valuable experience in a field of a student’s interest what is not to love about the opportunity? However, alluring as it seems, there are definite problems that can happen in these internships. Imagine showing up on your first day of that big-name internship with hopes of gain-ing some real world experience only to be told that you’ve been assigned to the paper-stapling job – for the entirety of your stay. Even with that letdown, in the end you decide to keep with the job, saying that your affilia-tion with such a well-known in-stitution will surely compensate for your less than exciting tasks ahead. Now, I’m not blaming anyone for making that choice

since it’s no news that intern-ing under a big company with a well-known name has its benefits. Rather, I’m trying to suggest that too often are na-ive students put in these unfair situations that ultimately allow companies to have nearly free labor at the expense of an in-tern’s time and energy. If all an intern is used for is the com-pletion of the boring tasks that no one wants to do, it begs that question of why? Why spend all that time doing nothing but coffee-runs and copy machine trips when the purpose of an internship is to gain real-world experience in a future career field, not become the slave of a company’s undesirable tasks. Many companies or well known law firms use this pow-er over its interns. They effec-tively lure students into intern-ships that promise practice in supposed work skills and when students realize the truth, they feel trapped between letting the job go for something far more productive or keeping the posi-tion in hopes of gaining valu-able “connections.” Fortunately, for any in-ternship, big or small, there are

by Emma Hierholzer ‘15 rules that the sponsors for that position must follow in order to maintain an ethical and produc-tive internship. In the Mont-gomery County internship handbook for sponsors, it lists the rules for the hours, treat-ment and placement of interns in an attempt to deter any shady activities with the students. Although these precau-tions may avoid any illegal situations or criminal under-takings with student interns, the rules don’t always guard students from “clerical” work. Companies can claim that this kind of work gives students ex-perience in the real world since exposure to common office tasks could help them in future jobs. However, I feel that this, under no circumstances, jus-tifies giving interns jobs that never allow them to gain real familiarity with their field of interest. Sure, the prospect of giving interns actual respon-sibilities may sound daunting to many big-name companies, but it is only through trust that students can truly get a glimpse on what their field of interest demands rather than become masters of stapling papers.

You wouldn’t think that changing a font to one slimmer and lighter would significantly save ink and paper costs; however, 14-year-old Suvir Mirchandani recently found if the U.S. government changed the font on thousands of documents from Times New Ro-man to Garamond it could save close to $234 million. Mirchandani’s findings also show paper use would be decreased as well because Garamond is slimmer and more text can be fit on one sheet of paper. By considering how slimmer font choices factor into the cost of paper and ink, MCPS could save mon-ey. The county needs to be more conscientious about these simple strategies that could have a beneficial impact financially. If there was also limitations on individual copy and paper use, in addition to requir-ing the use of a slimmer font like Garamond, MCPS could save even more money. The money saved by using less paper and ink could help fund new technol-ogy and help make the schools more technologically advanced, which has been shown to provide a more engaging learning experience. Even though there is a push for everything to go digital, realistically there will always be paper around. So why not use less of it and have more money for new technology at the same time?

Rapper and television persona Nick Cannon recently released a series of promotional videos for his upcoming album “White People Party Music” in which he shocked fans and critics alike by donning a “whiteface” to represent his Caucasian persona. Referred to as Connor Smallnut, this imaginary character of Cannon’s has received a serious amount of attention since Cannon painted his face to appear white. The action so closely resembles the overwhelming-ly offensive blackface act that was popular in a segregat-ed America, that it spread like wildfire. Mainly during the 20s, white actors would cover their faces in dark paint to resemble their black counterparts and behave ignorantly as part of a live comedic show; this action was known as blackface and has since been banned from television. While some found Cannon’s videos amusing and comical, others were seriously offended (and rightfully so) by this tasteless artistic expression. Cannon took to Twitter after receiving backlash where he posted ““Duuuude everybody Chil-lax!!!!” ~ Connor Smallnut’.” Though he may have intended to make a light-hearted joke in the name of comedy, Cannon crossed a line. Dressing up as an individual from another race and exhib-iting stereotypical behavior is insulting, unacceptable and plain ignorant. Nothing is okay about his actions, even if it was all just a joke.

Are Internships Just Glorified Slave Labor?

cartoon by Helen Schmitt ‘15

The Warrior•OpinionsApril 10, 201414

America’s Thirsty Futureby Kira Yates ‘16

The recent California drought, a culmination of three consecutive years of below nor-mal rainfall, resulted in Governor Jerry Brown calling for Califor-nian citizens to reduce their wa-ter use by 20 percent. Mandatory rationing of water had already been issued to ensure some water for homes, businesses and farm-ers in some places and could be even more widespread during the summer. In the next decade, wa-ter rationing will become a reality around the country. In an average American household, a five–minute shower uses more water than a person in a developing world slum uses to-tal in one whole day. Even though it might be hard to imagine not having daily access to clean wa-ter, the United States is on course to run out of water sooner than many would expect and it is com-ing a lot sooner for the dry and isolated places of the country. Water scarcity is a result of a massive population and over-consumption of Earth’s extreme-ly limited supply of freshwater. There is only as much water on Earth today as there was when living things first existed on Earth. Water covers 70 percent of Earth, but of all of the water on the planet, only three percent is freshwater that we can utilize for daily use. Even more startling, less than one percent of Earth’s freshwater is available for direct human use. Central Florida is on its way to running out of usable water in just five years. In 10 years, San Antonio could be without enough clean water for daily use. Similar-ly, San Francisco is on the path to run out of water in 15 years and

Lake Mead, the primary source of water for the major entertainment city of Las Vegas could be com-pletely dried up by 2021, forcing all of its inhabitants to move else-where. A lack of clean water can lead to many unexpected and unforeseen tragic consequences. Without clean water, crop pro-duction will decrease because it could not be adequately wa-tered and the prices of food will increase enormously, which has already happened in California. Livestock production will also fall as animals will not have ac-cess to clean, drinkable water. With fewer, unhealthier crops and livestock, the large, constant-ly growing American population will struggle with food availabili-ty. Hunger and starvation will be-come a huge problem on top of an already large–scale water scarcity issue. Conservation of water is cur-rently a big global issue and right-ly so as it is predicted that a lack of water will affect two–thirds of the population by 2025. By 2050, up to seven billion people will be experiencing water scarcity. While working together as a mass movement to save water will help with protecting water throughout the country, every-day conservations such as shorter showers and turning off the water when brushing teeth, among oth-er things, will only do so much. To really make a difference, gov-ernment regulation of water is desperately needed to preserve it for as long as possible. This leg-islation could limit the water use of farmers, golf courses and water parks in order to conserve water for the maximum amount of time possible. If no actions are taken now, the future will be filled with unrelenting hunger and thirst.

“Sherwood is doing a great job, but to conserve more energy, it would be better to use more chalk boards.” - Walter Lopez ‘14

“Sherwood is attempting to lessen

its carbon footprint by the limit-

ed use of paper towels, recycling

and such but we are still not green

enough to affect anything.”

- Julia Lo ‘17

%

*97 students surveyed

At Sherwood do you think enough is done to conserve energy and protect the

environment? What should be done to make Sherwood more environmentally friendly?

Global warming is defined as an increase in the earth’s average atmospheric tem-

perature that causes corresponding changes in climate. There has been recent

debate in the United States over that prevalence of environmental concerns such as

global warming. The purpose of this survey is to get an understanding of students’

thoughts on these matters.

The Warrior•OpinionsApril 10, 2014 15

The decisions our nation makes are almost always with money in mind. After all, the business of Amer-ica is business. However, while run-ning a huge line of oil from Canadian tar sands through the heartland states of America sounds like a promising way to limit oil imports from more costly areas in the world, the econom-ic gains are just not there realistically. And in addition to the money issues, there’s another major problem that should make the Keystone XL pipe-line a no-go: the environment. Just for a start, the Keystone XL would not reduce oil prices in Amer-ica. TransCanada, the company plan-ning this bad idea, claims that most or all of the oil extracted is likely to be shipped overseas to markets where oil sells for higher prices. The com-pany also mentioned how the pipe-line would allow for the drainage of Canada’s oil reserves – the second largest on the planet – so they could be sold abroad as well. These reserves are currently keeping oil prices low in our country, especially for farmers in the Midwest. When oil costs go up for the farmers, they must charge more for their products, meaning the every-day consumer must pay more for his or her food. That doesn’t sound like an economically profitable route for anybody. Another overhyped aspect sup-porting the Keystone XL is that it will create jobs that unemployed Amer-icans need. This is true to a certain extent, but the workforce required for the pipeline would be a mere 4,500

workers or so, and only for construc-tion, making jobs temporary as well. The only permanent jobs that would stay around would be the people needed to fix constant leaks along the pipeline, factoring in environmental hazards as well. If President Obama does as he says he will, not signing the bill un-til reports confirm the pipeline will not intensify the climate change is-sue, he shouldn’t pass it. The plan is to mine and refine oil found in tar sands in Canada, and unlike conven-tional crude oil, tar sands are one of the dirtiest and most environmentally destructive fuels to extract and pro-cess. An EPA report notes that these tar sands are 17-percent more green-house gas intensive than crude oil, and range from two- to 10-percent more intensive than oil from South America that would be extracted in-stead. Mining companies are also dig-ging up thousands of acres of forest to get to these oil sources, leaving be-hind wastelands of toxic ground when they finish. A realistic way to go would be to take the $5.3 billion for the Keystone XL and put it towards domestic tech-niques like the development of hori-zontal oil drilling in the ground and off-shore instead of straight down into the earth. Once the technology is finished, drills would reach their targets faster, with more accuracy and cover a bigger area. This would speed up our energy independence process, create enduring jobs in the United States and lessen the environmental threat of tar sand extraction.

from Latin America. By build-ing the Keystone pipeline that reduces time and energy it takes to transport gasoline, the United States can cut reliance on foreign imports outside of North Amer-ica. If the Keystone pipeline is built, oil prices will not increase rapidly when sources in the Mid-dle East inflates the cost of oil. The environmental concerns regarding the carbon emission of the Keystone XL is understand-able but largely exaggerated. Even if the United States decides not to participate in the pipeline project, Canada will cultivate oil from the area and export the gasoline for economic benefits. The carbon emission caused by Keystone XL is expected to be 17 percent, but the traditional alter-natives to the pipeline will pro-duce just as much, if not more. Obviously, the better solu-tion for the environment to the Keystone XL is to use renewable energy instead of crude oil. Re-newable energy development will benefit both the economy and en-vironment so it could solve the dilemma of the pipeline. How-ever, the most available source of energy is crude oil and not renewable energies, and there is no significant sign that Ameri-cans will give up their reliance on gasoline-powered vehicles. Envi-ronmentalists should accept that building the Keystone XL will benefit our economy.

ConWill Not Have Payoff Equal the Cost

Is The Keystone Pipeline Construction Worth It?

by Brian Hughes ‘15

According to a recent poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News, Americans support constructing the Keystone XL Pipeline by a 3-to-1 margin. While 85 percent of people surveyed said they think the pipeline will bring a great number of jobs to the United States, 47 percent also believe the project poses significant environmental hazards. Is the Keystone XL worth building? The Warrior debates what should happen next.

Will Increase Jobs and Lower Gas Prices

According to the Washington Post, the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent in February and only 175,000 jobs were created. It is clear that President Obama has been unable to keep the promise that he made during the 2012 pres-idential election to create seven million jobs. If there is any way that the president can directly give Americans jobs, it would be to ap-prove the Keystone XL pipeline. The Keystone XL would transport oil from Canada to the United States to promote refining markets in the American Midwest and the U.S. Gulf Coast. The num-ber of jobs projected as a result of building a Keystone pipeline is 42,100, according to U.S. State Department. While the biggest benefactor to the pipeline is the workers in the petroleum industry, consumers also benefit from the Keystone XL. If the pipeline is built, consumers can take advantage of the lower oil price because the increased supply of gasoline from Canada will de-crease its price. Moreover, even without the potential economic benefits of the Keystone pipeline, the value of gasoline, since it is the main trans-portation method of most vehicles in the United States, supports the need of Keystone pipeline. Ap-proximately 13 percent of oil in United States is dependent on Middle East and 20 percent comes

Proby Joo Hyun Kim ‘14

The Chesapeake Bay Foun-dation (CBF) is trying to make sure the largest estuary in the country is substantially cleaner by 2025. As a Maryland citizen, I fully support cleaning and pre-serving the Chesapeake Bay. The need to regulate the amount of pollutants entering the Bay was recognized long before I was born. In 1983, political lead-ers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington D.C. formally recognized the need to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Four years later, the first measur-able pollution limitations were established. These limitations were largely ignored for the next

Delayed Watershed Clean-up Due to Political Gridlockby Kaleigh Homer ‘15 10 years. As a result, states in the

watershed decided to become more serious about the cleaning of the Bay. After ten more endur-ing years and a lawsuit filed by CBF against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a plan was in place to facilitate a struc-tured cleanup effort. In 2009, after years of no accountability, President Obama issued an executive order to re-store the Bay’s health, after pre-vious attempts by the states were not successful. The order required bay watershed states to create cleanup plans based on the EPA’s “Total Maximum Daily Load” guidelines. The plans needed to focus on reducing both point and

non-point source pollution, and measure cleaning efforts every two years. Maryland and DC are on board with the idea; howev-er West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York are more reluctant. The EPA threat-ened to withhold construction permits and allowable sewer releases from states that did not come up with individual pollu-tion-reduction plans by the De-cember 2012 deadline. Within months of the agree-ment to tackle the Bay’s pollu-tion problem, the Farm Bureau Federation (FBF) filed a suit in federal court to stop it. Accord-ing to the Washington post, the FBF contends that the executive

order that would cost taxpayers and farmers billions by its full implementation. The FBF claims that upgrading deteriorating waste treatment plants and fenc-es to limit chemical runoff from farms is the sole responsibility of states. 21 states joined the Farm Bureau’s lawsuit, with some say-ing the executive order is just another overreach by the Obama administration since Republicans control the majority of the oppos-ing states. The FBF and Republican controlled states are ignoring that the much more pressing issue is the health of the Bay and other watersheds. Rather than suing the Federal Government, states

should welcome efforts by the EPA to provide federal over-sight. The 21 states should get behind the negotiations between the EPA and bay states. It is un-fortunate that politics could pos-sibly be the reason behind the prevention of the restoration of such a precious resource. States should want clean water in the Bay because eventually if they do not clean it up they will have no living organisms in their wa-ter which means a lot of fisher-man can lose business. No state should want to be known as the dirty state. The states should push all politics aside and do what is right for the Chesapeake Bay and clean it up.

The Warrior•Wondering WarriorApril 10, 201416

Tattoos Do you plan on getting a tattoo at some point?

36% yes 37% no

are tattoos a gooD way to express an iDea, belief or iDentity?

67% yes 33% no

what is the most you woulD be willing to pay for a tattoo?

what is your reason for not getting a tattoo?

if you were to get a tattoo of just one worD, what woulD it be?

if you were to get a tattoo of an animal, what woulD it be anD why?

if you were to get a tattoo of someone else’s face, whose woulD it be of?

what is the worst tattoo you have seen?

“I am scared it will hurt a lot.” Debbie Moon ‘15

“You have to live with it for the rest of your life.” Gracie Vendetti ‘16

“Miley Cyrus.” Holly Smart ‘16

“Bill Nye the science guy because he is an inspiration to us all.” Monica Keilson ‘16

“I want to get my brother’s initials because he recently passed away.” Casey Minnick ‘17

“Pickle.” Karli Dorsey ‘16

“A griffin. It’s a mix of my races; an American eagle and a Persian lion.” Shervin Kashani ‘16

“A lion for courage. A wolf because it is a Link from the Legend of Zelda.” Joseph Hunt ‘16

“An eagle. It describes me.” R.J. Grant ‘16

“A tattoo of a Brazilian flag across a woman’s chest.” Sara Casareto ‘16

“Any full body tattoos; they terrify me.” Haroula Tzamaras ‘14

“An angel in the back.” Erick Quirez ‘16

27% not sure

*107 students surveyed

compiled by Sammie Spillman ‘16

21% $0 17% $1-50

28% $50-100 20% $100-300

2% $300-500 12% $500-

Elijah Spottswood ‘14 Rae Harrison ‘14 Marquese Thomas ‘14 Steven Eichler ‘16photos by Taylor Fernandes ‘14

The Warrior•EntertainmentApril 10, 2014 17

Captain America Receives Seal of Approval from Fansby Zach Stubblefield ‘15

“Captain America: Winter Soldier” kicks off the blockbuster season with a bang. And a boom and a pow for that matter. The ac-tion in this movie never lets up. It’s great to see Captain America (Chris Evans) is more than just a super macho war ma-chine with a shield. He is actual-ly a multifaceted character with depth and does not just blindly follow orders like you would ex-pect from someone who is called the perfect soldier. Instead, he evaluates the orders given to him and decides on them based on his own personal beliefs. This gives the audience excellent insight into Captain America’s psyche. Thefightsarealwaysdynam-ic. By adding a variety of super-heroes to the fray, it is hard for anyone to get bored. Whether it be The Falcon’s (Anthony Mack-ie’s) aerial assaults, one of Black Widow’s (Scarlett Johansson’s) numerous gadgets, or Captain America’sshield,thefightscenesalways have something interest-ing going on. When one starts to get tiredofone formoffightingit cuts to another hero who has a whole different style of fightingto keep the viewer hooked. While all the fighting styles are great,Captain America and his shield are still able to remain the stars of the show. Captain America’s shield is not the only thing that makes him stand out. Since he was frozen

for 70 years, the world has grown without him. Watching his strug-gles with coming to terms with that was really insightful. Scenes like Captain America embracing his old, withered lover, and him visiting his own World War II exhibit really struck a chord with the audience. It humanizes him and reminds us that even though he has super powers he still expe-riences emotional agony like we do. As great as the action and character development is through-out, the overall story leaves much to be desired. It tries too hard to weave a web of political intrigue and betrayals, and while that certainly can be great, they are not meant for superhero movies. When I see a super hero movie I expect scene after scene of big-ger and bigger explosions, not constant cutbacks to a lackluster main villain scheming with his rich friends. While there is cer-tainly a place for complex plots in movies, I believe a superhero movie is not the place for them. It appears underdeveloped and a lit-tle too earnest for a movie based off of a comic book character. Aside from a couple mi-nor hiccups “Captain America: Winter Soldier” is an excellent film for anyonewho is a fan ofthe superhero genre. Marvel has outdone itself again with another hit and judging by the post credit teaser trailers this certainly will not be the last time we see Cap-tain America on the big screen.

‘Noah’ Sails to Successby Katie Mercogliano ‘14

When I first learned film-maker Darren Aronofsky, known forhisart-housefilmsaboutsub-stance abuse and schizophrenic ballerinas, was making an adap-tion of the biblical story of No-ah’s ark, I was mostly confused, but also a little intrigued. This isAronofsky’s first at-tempt at an action blockbuster, op-posed to his usual psychological thrillers. His surreal visual style, gritty cringeworthy gore and raw emotional (often Oscar-winning) acting performances are expected by most since the critical success of his previous movies, “Requiem for a Dream,” “Black Swan” and “The Wrestler.” His latest, “Noah,” does not fall short of these expectations. The lengthy two hour and 25 min-ute epic, starring veterans Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Hopkins, and fresh-fac-es Emma Watson, Douglas Booth and Logan Lerman, made great use of its big budget with incredi-bly impressive graphic effects. But unlike a lot of modern filmmakers, Aronofsky’s mes-merizing visuals are not just to show off how talented and artsy he is. They were woven master-fully to depict and illustrate the film’s suspenseful intensity andafter just 30 minutes, it’s impos-sible to look away. Crowe gives one of his best performances as Noah, display-ing the magnetic intensity he is known for. Though Hopkins had a minor role, his cerebral and

charming essence made his char-acter as the oldest man to ever live, Methuselah, a serene pres-ence in the movie. Lerman as Ham and Watson as Ila both ex-hibited levels-- of acting they had not previously reached. But the biggest—and surpris-ing—standoutofthefilmisCon-nelly as Noah’s wife, Naameh. Her role requires comforting patience a majority of the film,but in just a few scenes of tragic despair, she gives a passionate, heart-wrenching performance that could have so easily swayed toward overacting with a less tal-ented actress. The film also featured“Watchers” (fallen angels) that are played by acclaimed actors Frank Langella and Nick Nolte. They are shrouded in CGI tech-nology, looking like hybrid of The Thing and a huge, glowing spider. Though their roles are secondary, they both add a bit of much-need-ed humor to the extremely intense drama. Some are criticizing Aronof-sky for his creative license, but they do not get the big picture. His purpose is not to educate peo-ple on religion or even stay that true to the story told in the Bible, but rather use the story to express universal themes about violence in humanity, environmentalism and animal cruelty. Aronofsky is never one to sacrifice his vision for the sakeof pleasing others, and because of that he always delivers poignant, thought-provokingfilms that stirup controversy.

and the rest...

Transcendence April 25th x-men: Days of futures past May 23rdA million ways to die in the west

may 30th

Dawn of the planet of the apesjuly 11th

lOCKE aPRIL 25TH

The Amazing Spider-Man 2May 2nd

The DoubleMAY 9TH

NEIGHBORSMAY 9TH

Million Dollar ArmMay 16th

MaleficentMAY 30THS

22 jUMP STREETJUNE 11TH

Get Up On ThisAUGUST 1ST

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXYAUGUST 1ST

THE GIVER AUGUST 25THgraphic by Katie Mercogliano ‘14

Shows +Shindigs

The Warrior•EntertainmentApril 10, 201418

matured. Her only notable role prior to “Divergent” is the TV se-ries “The Secret Life of an Amer-ican Teenager” where few acting qualificationswerenecessary. The actual character is also important to how the actress is perceived, especially when the actress has yet to establish an at-tractive personality independent of her career. To many audience members, the actress is a literal embodiment of the character they play. It is important that Tris is a likable character for Woodley’s sake as they will be viewed as one in the same. However, the poorly executed plot has resulted in a very different character than the one admired for her strength and fearlessness in the novel. It is inevitable that some fans will fall for this “new” Tris, holding Woodley in as high of regards. Luckily, Woodley may have a second chance. She landed the lead in the new movie “The Fault in Our Stars” based off the John Green novel. Hopefully, this role will be better suited for her and go over well with her audience, allowing her to achieve this so far unattained stardom.

Movie Adaptation Falls Short of Expectationsby Stacey Wells ‘15

Fans expected the recently released movie “Divergent” to beaground-breakingfilm.Manyhoped that it would surpass oth-er trilogies, like “The Hunger Games.” Unfortunately, these predictions were unwarranted and far from the truth. “Divergent,” a novel written by Veronica Roth, depicts a soci-etywheretherearefivefactions:Erudite, Candor, Abnegation, Amity and Dauntless. Each citi-zen chooses their desired faction when they’re 16 years old and obeys the motto “faction before blood.” Those who do not con-form into any category are called Divergent and are considered a threat to the faction system. Thedystopianfilmfollowsateenage girl, Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley), who discovers her di-vergence. Despite that, she picks Dauntless, where she meets her instructor and love interest, Four (Theo James). Tris must learn how to navigate through a new, dangerous faction and eventually deal with an attempted revolution. Despite all of the heart-pounding

action depicted in the book, the movie begins extremely slowly in an attempt to dramatize Tris’ choice of faction. While wonder-ing when the actual story will be-gin, it makes one think of the sim-ilarly drawn-out snooze during the exposition of “The Hunger Games.”OnceTrisfinallychoos-es Dauntless, the movie thankful-ly begins to pick up speed. Disappointingly, as the mov-ie begins to move along, major events from the book are over-looked. It would be impossible to include every detail from a nearly 500 page book into a two and a half hour film, but it is disap-pointing how much information is left out and even misrepresent-ed. The novel’s thrilling tale was one of the main reasons why the movie was produced. By remov-ing many of the central elements, the movie offends the original lovers of the book and ruins the magic of the story. Edward, who is an extremely important char-acterinthebookseries,isbrieflymentioned once, but no actor is ever seen. The wrong character grabs the flag in the all-import-ant capture-the-flag game and

Four teaches Tris how to appear Dauntless instead of Divergent in the simulations, which nev-er even occurs in the novel. The most offensive misrepresentation of the book is when Tris kills her family in a simulation instead of killing herself. In the novel, her self-sacrifice is a crucial step inher character development, since her choice affects other decisions later in the series. Despite the upsetting chang-es and flawed storyline, the ac-tors perform quite well. Shailene Woodley does an above average job playing the main character. Her only major flaw was whenshe attempted to look threaten-ing; she sometimes appeared slightly constipated. Miles Teller, who plays Tris’ enemy, a vile boy named Peter, acts out his part ex-traordinarily, milking his role as a villain and truly morphing into Peter. Furthermore, the various shots of war-ravaged Chicago are breathtaking, which makes the dystopian society come to life. Unfortunately, the movie’s impressive cinematography and actingcannot fully save thefilmfromitsmajorflaws.

graphic by Jenni Kenel ‘14

The Next Big Franchise Girl?by Marie Moeller ‘15

Lately, it seems that many bestselling book series result in a hit-movie series with that one iconic heroine. The most obvious example would be the hilarious Jennifer Lawrence featured as heroine Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games.” Needless to mention the child star that started the trend: Emma Watson, who is admired by all Harry Potter fans. With“Divergent,”asci-fimoviebased off of the book by Veron-ica Roth, possibly becoming the next hit franchise, the question is whether Shailene Woodley, who plays the main character, Tris, can reach “Jennifer Lawrence” status. There are several factors that influence their rise to fame.Per-haps the most important is the acting. Woodley’s poor acting ability in “Divergent,” is not even close to the talent witnessed in Watson’s and Lawrence’s perfor-mances. Perhaps if she was able to express any emotion other than placid and on-the-verge-of-tears, one could state otherwise. To be fair, it is not fully Woodley’s fault that her acting abilities have not

one choice can transform you...

The Warrior•SportsApril 10, 2014 19

Lakers Should Move Kobe as Career Comes to an Endby Ryan Deal ‘16

There is no denying that the Los Angeles Lakers have had a disastrous season. They are 25-52 as of April 8, second to last in the Western Conference, and were the first team in the Conference to be officially eliminated from playoff consideration. The team is currently in this midst of the worst season in franchise history and are in need of drastic changes to turn the team around. A big reason for the team’s lackluster campaign has been the absence of superstar guard Kobe Bryant, who has only played in six of the team’s games this sea-son. He has been hampered by a knee injury which he suffered in the playoffs last year. Although the problems with the Lakers are more layered than just an injured star, a trade of the 16-time all-star may just be necessary to turn this team around. Kobe Bryant is heading into what could be his last couple of years as a player. Despite this, there are very few names in the game who are as prominent and important as Kobe. Bryant has re-cently signed a two year contract worth roughly $48 million. Due to this high salary, many wonder if Kobe will be able to find a team

that will take his contract on. While Kobe will certainly take up his fair share of salary cap space there are bound to be at least a couple of franchises who would be willing to shell out a high draft pick or two for the “Black Mamba” just to sell tickets. If the Lakers can swing a trade with a smaller-market team with a bad record to acquire draft picks, it would be highly advanta-geous to the Lakers in the future. There is loads of evidence that prove that building your team through the draft works. In fact, the two top teams in the Lakers’ conference have built through the draft themselves. The Okla-homa City Thunder are perennial winners and have three excellent young players in Kevin Durant (#2 overall pick in the 2007 draft), Russell Westbrook (#4 overall pick in 2008), and Serge Ibaka (#24 overall pick in 2008). Al-though the Thunder fans suffered through two seasons of immatu-rity and growing pains with this core unit, the Thunder eventual-ly matured into being one of the best teams in the league. The San Antonio Spurs have also experi-enced success, having won three championships with their drafted core of Tim Duncan (#1 in 1997), Manu Ginobili (#57 in 1999) and

Tony Parker (#28 in 2001). Although the Lakers have a lottery pick for the upcoming draft which is considered to be very strong, it will take more than just one elite prospect to bring the Lakers back to glory. With a trade of Kobe, they will be able to stock up on top picks in the next few drafts. Also, as long as the Lakers continue losing, top free agents will not view them as an attractive destination, which adds to the hardships facing the team. Although it will be difficult to see one of the greatest players of all-time leave the team he has spent his entire career with, it is a nec-essary move if the Lakers wish to seriously contend anytime soon. As Kobe’s career comes to an injury-plagued end, it would be smart for the Lakers’ to start rebuilding for the future, and at-tempt, if at all possible, to find the next Kobe coming through the NCAA.

Coed Finds Critical Balance as Victories Ensue Even as coed volleyball has built a legacy as one of the best teams in the area and won the county title last year, it has a rep-utation as a less serious sport than others. After winning the coun-ty championship, Coach Pete Siarkas retired from leading the coed squad Bryan Clarke took over the program. Clarke gradu-ated from Sherwood in 2002 and played coed on a team that won two county titles. Before this year Clarke previously coached boys’ volleyball at Watkins Mill. The transition from a weak-er program to a powerhouse has changed his attitude towards coaching. “Expectations are so much higher; just look at the history. They’ve won nine of the past 14 county championships. Tell the people that think coed is a joke to come to some of the matches this year. Division-one volleyball players have played coed,” said Clarke. “Of course, I want the coed team to have fun. It’s a neat dynamic with boys and girls competing with each other. At the same time I want this team to know that success is expected

every year.” All of the girls on coed also play girls’ JV or varsity volley-ball in the fall. “Coed is a little more relaxed than girls but we still play to win. It has a different vibe since it’s boys and girls, but it’s fun to compete and play with boys,” said junior Alison Sarver. “The coaches [girls and coed] definitely have the same expecta-tions. They are both intense and they love the game and just want to win. I think our new coach is going to do great this year and I hope we go far.” One difference between coed, and boys’ and girls’ volley-ball is the rules. In coed the ball must be touched by a male and female before going over the net except for in a case of a block, unlike in the single gender sports where it can be hit over at any point. This slows down the game compared to the fast-paced boys’ and girls’ matches. In the spring season, there are two volleyball teams, boys and coed. Newcomer to the team and senior captain Tommy Car-swell, half-jokingly, said he tried out for coed as opposed to boys because of the fact that on coed

there are girls and he loves girls. Although this may be some of the reason for trying out, others like it since it’s a different experience playing with the opposite gender. “I expect to win every game and I think everyone else does too, es-pecially Jacob Spurrier [senior];

All-Met Swimmer Finds Early Successby Jack Armstrong ‘15

For sophomore Morgan Hill swimming comes naturally. She has been swimming since she was 5-years-old and has been on a club team since she was 11-years-old. Even though she still has two more years at Sherwood, she al-ready has established herself as one of the most elite swimmers in the area. She was selected by The Washington Post as a First-Team All-Met swimmer, after receiving an honorable mention last year as a freshman. On February 22 at the MPS-SAA State Swimming Champi-onships, she swam 23.60 in the 50 free and 51.71 in the 100 free, blowing away the competition and securing titles as state champ in the two sprinting events. “She’s a great competitor; she knows mentally how to pre-pare herself for her races to do the best that she can,” said swim and dive Coach Brendan Lees. At the highly competitive Metros, the Washington area swimming and diving champion-ships, she swam the 50 free with a time of 22.97, breaking the 10-year meet record. She also swam the 100 free in a blistering fast 50.81 and finished second. Unlike

most high school meets, Metros attracts larger crowds, helping to ramp up the already high level of excitement. Competition at Met-ros involves the best swimmers, including American Olympians, from all over the region. “Metros is one of or maybe the most fun meets that I swim in” said Hill. “The atmosphere is crazy and everyone is loud and excited.” She currently trains 6-7 times a week, for 2-3 hours, at The University of Maryland for her club team Machine. In addition to her vigorous club swimming schedule, during the swim and dive season she manages her life at school as well as competes on Sherwood’s team. Even though high school swimming is not as intense as her club swimming, she enjoys the team spirit and says swimming for Sherwood is still so much fun. Looking towards the future, Hill’s focus is clear. “My goals are set mainly on improving my times since I can’t control what other people do and how they swim.” she explained, “I have a good 2-3 events that I am best at, but sometimes it’s fun to mix it up and see how I can do in my off events.”

by Sammie Spillman ‘16

Coach Bryan Clark talks to the team before their match against Richard Montgomery. The team is 7-1 this season behind seniors Makayla Roy and Tommy Carswell. They are defending their county championship.

he is really determined to go un-defeated,” said Carswell. “The coach is super chill and seems to know what he’s doing.” What is a little unique about coed volleyball compared to the girls’ volleyball students are used to is that the road for the team

ends at the county level. Mont-gomery County is the only county in the country to have a coed vol-leyball league at the high school level. This gives the chance for Sherwood’s team to call them-selves state champions by win-ning counties.

Jack Armstrong ‘15

The Warrior•SportsApril 10, 201420

Kenul Carries Girls’ Lax to Fast Startby Joey Lavoie ‘14

After going 12-0 during the regular season and running through the state playoffs to the sound of 74 goals in the first four playoffs games, the Warrior girls’ lacrosse returns nine seniors. Led by second team All-Met mid-fielder Emily Kenul, the War-riors’ have jumped out to a per-fect 3-0 start. as of April 8 After losing to Broadneck 21-5 in last year’s 4A state final, the Warriors come into this season as Mont-gomery County heavy favorites. This team returns a total of 151 goals to the field along with a lot of senior leadership with starting experience. Kenul has already scored eight goals on the season as of April 6. Last season Kenul, a Johns Hopkins University lacrosse com-mit, paced the Warriors’ from the mid-fielder position, scoring 66 goals along with 42 assists during her junior year. She became the all-time record holder for goals at Sherwood, while still a ju-nior. This helped a more veteran squad, who was led by a group of seven, now graduated seniors, stand out in Montgomery County, where lacrosse has not been very dominant, in the lacrosse-crazed state. In fact, she led the first ever Montgomery County team to the state finals. “Emily has had a huge in-

Emily Kenul attacks the goal during the Warrior’s 19-0 win against Paint Branch. Kenul has scored nine goals this season. The Warriors outscored their first three opponents by a combined score of 51-9 and are 3-0.

fluence on the younger players that come out for our sport,” said Coach Kelly Hughes. “The growth in both the interest and the skill set of all the girls has grown simply by watching her play.” Last Friday night Kenul and sophomore Taylor Andrews were able to continue the tear that they have been on since the beginning of 2014, scoring three and four goals, respectively, as the War-

riors jumped on Walter Johnson, winning 15-6. The pair now lead the team with 21 combined goals through three games and don’t look like they plan on slowing down anytime soon. “We knew that Walter John-son would be a challenge com-pared to our previous game,” said sophomore Connor Ganey. “So we knew we had to come out strong and not let up for the entire game.”

The Warriors started off quick, winning their first game of the season against Blake 17-3, led by Andrews who finished with four goals. Kenul finished the game with three goals, starting her final season in Sandy Spring with a bang. The sophomore class seemed to start to put the pieces together on March 21, scoring seven of the team’s goals. After a long layoff due to snow and rain outs the Warriors’

finally returned to the field and really took advantage, thrash-ing Paint Branch 19-0. Led once again by Andrews, who scored four goals, and Kenul, who add-ed three more, the Warriors were able to jump out to an early lead and never look back. The Warrior defense was stingy, and the team allowed only one shot against the Panthers. With a leader in Kenul, and a strong senior class, the Warriors understand that they are going to have to learn from their senior midfielder, going off of her cues. But by having this sort of age gap between the seniors and sopho-mores, stability can be formed for the long run, where a new star can be found for when Kenul gradu-ates. With only four juniors on the team, leadership will be need-ed from the Class of 2016 next season, as the team continues to evolve into a county power for the long run. “You can say the sopho-more class is really big so we try to challenge them more to make them stronger,” said Kenul. “We are trying to prepare them to carry the team next year and for years to come.” As the season goes on, it will be crucial for the underclassmen to step up as the team looks to be successful this year while also building a foundation for future seasons.

Baseball Relies on Pitching after Early Strugglesby Kyle Melnick ‘14

The Warriors started the sea-son wobbly, winning a nail-biter against Wootton by a score of 1-0, and then being shut out by Good Counsel 8-0. Despite the trouble hitting in the first two games, the Warriors more recently have won key games with their strong pitching. Senior All-Met pitcher Matt Chanin did not play the first two games, which contributed to the Warriors scoring only a mere one run through the first two games. Chanin, who held a batting av-erage of .446 last season and hit five home runs, is expected to return for the rest of the season to contribute in both batting and pitching. Chanin highlights the top of the batting rotation as well as the pitching rotation. “Matt had a great offensive year last year and we are expect-ing big things from him. Last year he was coming off of an arm injury and wasn’t able to log that many innings on the mound. This year we are expecting him to have big impact in the pitching rotation,” said Coach Sean Davis. The Warriors make sure to utilize their entire pitching staff

late in games to prevent injury and keep players fresh, especial-ly early in the season. Chanin is joined by senior Bryan Reich and freshman Brendan Collins at the top of the pitching rotation. Se-nior Daniel Ryczek and juniors Thomas St. Laurent, Parker Opar and Connor Bergman fill out the deep pitching rotation. The team will turn to its pitching down the stretch in close games. “Pitching is definitely im-portant to use. We have guys that are very tough to beat when they are on,” said Davis. Junior transfer Neven Suss-man and junior Jake Paholski have been key additions at the plate for the Warriors, hitting .308 and .300 respectively this season. However, hitting has not been a strength for the team as the War-riors have struggled to get batters in scoring position. “Defense will be the key. Pitching is our strong point and if we have guys that can make rou-tine plays we will be very tough to beat,” said Davis. Reich only allowed two hits in the team’s opening game against Wootton and Collins only allowed one hit in four innings against Good Counsel in the War-

riors’ loss. The Warriors finally found success at the plate in their 11-0 victory against Einstein, as the team hit a .250 batting aver-age and Ryczek allowed only one hit the entire game. The talent of the team’s pitchers again were on full dis-play in the Warriors’ 1-0 win

Senior Bryan Reich pitches during the Warrior’s 1-0 win against Wootton on March 22. The Warriors are 4-2 this season, relying heavily on the pitching staff which has helped the team as the bats have struggled.

against Whitman. Reich started the first five innings, striking out four and allowing only two hits. Chanin finished the game, strik-ing out four and allowing no hits. This dominant pitching led the Warriors to stay in the game until senior Pat Dunn hit a game-win-ning RBI in the 6th inning.

The team hopes to find more success batting and putting play-ers in scoring position moving forward. The Warriors had a great outing at the plate in their 5-4 win against Springbrook. The team hit .286 for the game and had strong performances hitting from Ch-anin, Sussman and Paholski.

Jack Armstrong ‘15

Bridget Cook ‘14