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West High School newspaper Davenport, Iowa
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Should your web activity be monitored? - Page 15
WEST HIGH SCHOOL 3505 W. LOCUST ST. DAVENPORT, IOWA 52804
BEAK ‘N’ EYEDec. 14, 2012 Vol. 53 Issue 4
Should athletes be required to take P.E. Classes? See page 16
Is our judicial system flawed?See page 12
Kick off your holiday spirit! See the back page
COVER PHOTO - People of Davenport gather downtown to watch several baloons go through the Festivle of Trees Parade along with the West High Band on Nov. 17 (cover and above photo by Saba Khan)
BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 WEST HIGH SCHOOL ● 3505 W LOCUST ST. DAVENPORT, IA 52804
CONTENTS
FACES
The Beak ‘n’ Eye wants YOU to join the staff!
Our Program West High has one of the best high school journalism programs in the nation. The Beak ‘n’ Eye has received Quill and Scroll’s highest honor--the George H Gal-lup Award--every year since 1972 for the quality of its newspaper. Every year students win state and national awards for writing, photography and design.Benefits The Beak ‘n’ Eye staff serves the entire school by informing them of what’s happening in their world. The monthly newsmaga-zine offers a variety of articles on news, sports, features, enter-tainment, and opinion. Student editors plan and produce an issue every month. We are looking for students who are:• Creative• Responsible • Talented in writing, photography or art• Available to work after school sometimes The Beak ‘n’ Eye is published eight times a year from 3505 W. Locust St., Davenport, IA 52804. Member of the Iowa High School Press Association, Na-tional Scholastic Press Associa-tion, and Quill & Scroll Internation Honor Society.
LEISURE
FOCUS
VOICE
SPORTS
12 JUDICIAL PROBLEMS- Take a look at a few trials and the flaws of our system.
8 HOLIDAY CHEER - Learn about West students and their holilday spirit.
9 WINTER HAZARDS- It’s time for win-ter driving, learn how to be safe.
11 TWITTER 101- Tips on how to use Twitter as it takes over social media.
16 NO P.E. CLASSES?- Should athliets be required to take P.E. classes?
4 LIVING LANDS AND WATERS- Take a look at some stuff that floats in our river that you may have never thought of.
5 NURSES OFFICE- Finally figure out why the nurses office has been moved.
7 ALICE IN WONDERLAND- Take a behind the scenes look at the play.
NEWS
18 - 19 WINTER SPORTS HEAT UP- Boys and girls basketball starts along with wrestling and swimming.
20 CHEER AND DANCE TAKE TRIP- Follow your West High Sprit squad through out their recent trips.
21 SPORTS MANAGERS- Learn who’s behind the scenes of the sports teams.
Jacob StewartChorale Singer - BaritoneSolo: Veni Sancte Spiritus
Highlight:“Being in a choir that big is probably the best experience you can have. And it was great to have that full sound.” Favorite Song:“Dominus Vobiscum-it has a lot of interest-ing clashing notes and sections along with fast and slow sections. It has a powerful message when you know the words.”
Dawn VickersChorale Singer - Soprano 1
Highlight: “Being a part of a huge choir whereeveryone knew what they were doing and it sounded absolutely amazing.”
Favorite Song :“Sure on the Shinning Night, because it was really expressive and beautiful.”
Other West All-State Musicians ♫
PAGE BY JEPHTHAH YARIAN DEC. 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 3
NEWS
Brian Lines is the first West student to make the All State Orchestra in 20 years
Four Studentsparticapte in
All State Music Festival
♪♫
Shelby TracyPercussionist - Xylophone, bass drum, tambourine, and marimba
Highlight:“All the talented musicians in one place, everything sounded good all the time.”
Favorite Song:“A piece that the director wrote for our band, which was cool, and the whole band got to sing, which was different and fun.”
(photos by Jephthah Yarian)
♪
BY JEPHTHAH [email protected]
For Brian’s hard work, he, along with three West musicians, had the honor of per-forming at the All State Festival in Ames, Iowa, on Nov. 17. To perform in the 66th Annual Iowa All State Festival Concert, 1,080 high schools musicians across 178 Iowa high schools, came to the Hilton Coliseum at ISU in Ames, Iowa. Senior, Brian Lines has practiced for the past year in preparation of passing the All
State audition on Oct. 30. He was the only West student of the 203 students in the All State Orchestra. “Experiencing the feeling of being in such an amazing orchestra,” was Lines’ highlight of the festival. The festival is not just work, but it is also very enjoyable. “It’s a wonderful three days for the musicians-lots of rehearsing with world renowned conductors and a final concert.” Mark Kretchmer, band director said. “The
highest honor a musician can receive in the state of Iowa.” For these musicans practice is key. “You need to want to do the work,” said orchestra director, Ms. Easley. “This compi-tion is tough. I cannot stress the importance of practicing, enough.” There were 602 students in the chorus, 275 in the band, and an orchestra of 203 students at the Festival this year.
Brian Lines practices with orchestra director, Ms. Easley, and the other orchestra students (photo by Jephthah Yarian)
DEC. 14Ugly Sweater Contest fourth block
DEC. 19Hat Day
DEC. 20Finals: Block 1 (7:45-9:45 a.m.) Block 2 (9:55-11:55 a.m.)
DEC. 21Finals: Block 3 (7:45-9:45 a.m.) Block 4 ( 9:55-11:55 a.m.)
DEC. 24- JAN. 7Winter Break
JAN. 8Term 3 begins
JAN. 21No School
JAN. 26Gala Dance - Sleigh Ride
NEWS
4 BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 PAGE BY COURTNEY GEIKEN
BY COURTNEY [email protected]
National Honors Society is raising money for Brittany’s Gifts by selling donuts and asking for
donations. Their goal is to raise enough money to buy a playground for North High’s Child Care Center. Brittany’s gifts was started after Brit-tany Manders, Nurse Linda Manders’ daughter, passed away in October 2008. “With the holidays approaching and with all the grief, we [the Manders family] sat down missing her,” Manders said. “We tried to come up with a way to honor her memory and to capture her amazing sense of generosity. She had such a big heart for those less fortunate and she did a lot of volunteer work.” Brittany Manders volunteered at the Handicapped Development Center and worked at the Child Care Center at North. The director of the Handicapped Develop-ment Center was happy to find out that they wanted to create this charity in her memory. The goal of the first year was to
give at least one gift per person, and they exceeded that goal. Manders said these people don’t get as much as one gift. A pair of socks is like $100 to them. NHS also raises money to buy birthday presents for them. “I’m very proud of the students,” said Manders. “To see the love and generosity, to support such a wonderful cause, it’s very amazing. I’m so proud.” Senior Jacob Stewart, co-president of
NHS, said they volunteered two weeks ago to help at a trivia night and all pro-ceeds went to Brittany’s gifts. Brittany’s gifts has spread from North, West, and now Central is supporting it, too. “Brittany’s gifts is a great way to lift the spirits of children less fortunate and National Honors Society is proud to represent the students of West High School in an effort to better the community,” Stewart said. “We stress how important it is,” said senior Kris Burney, co-president of NHS. “It’s really close to home, and really im-portant to Mrs. Manders. We try to get as much money as we can.” NHS will have a Christmas party on Dec. 20 to give gifts to the children and play with them.
NHS raises money to buy gifts
The trophy made by the counselors for the top ugliest sweater. (Photo by Courtney Geiken)
“Brittany’s Gifts is a great way to lift the spirits of children less fortunate”- Jacob Stewart
BY SABA [email protected]
To help raise money for “Falcons for Families,” hat days are being held and an ugly sweater contest will be Dec. 14. Every Wednesday of December is a hat day and you can pay $2 for a ticket to wear a hat in school. The ugly sweater contest “is the ugly sweater holiday.” In this competition people have to wear the ugliest sweater to win a $100 gift card for Best Buy. There are three winners in this contest: a girl, a boy, and a staff member. The top winner will win the ugliest trophy of the ugly sweater contest. It is going to take place at West on Dec. 14, and stu-dents can watch by paying $5 to get in. Counselor Jennifer O’Hare, who is organizing all the events, said, “We are
going to hold this contest and hat days to collect money for the Falcons for families because it help us and others. We have about 15 families in West to whom we are going to help. In this contest we are going to get $10 for every person who is participating in it by Blaze Restoration to help for the ‘Falcons for Families.’” She said it is the spirit of giving.
Ugly sweaters help cause CALENDAR
NHS sells donuts every Friday in the main hall. (Photo by Courtney Geiken)
BRIEFS
PAGE BY COURTNEY GEIKEN DEC. 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 5
ROTC marches in parade
BY COURTNEY [email protected]
Sergeants and those ranked higher in AJROTC (Army Junior Reserve Of-ficer Training Corp.) marched at the
Festival of Trees Parade on Nov. 17 while holding an American flag balloon. However, ROTC isn’t just about march-ing in parades. It teaches cadets physical fitness, academics in every topic, and leadership. Students are put in situations that build their decision making skills. “Each day Leadership is in charge of over 140 cadets in the program, and the cadets day by day are challenged with new problems and are tested to see if they can overcome them,” said junior Josie Miller, Public Affairs Officer. Miller’s job as Public Affairs Officer is to take pictures of all the activities they do and document their entire year.
Some may assume that ROTC’s only purpose is to put people in the military, but it isn‘t actually to put you in the military. Miller said they just want to give you a taste of what it’s like. “It really changes your perspective if you really get into it like I did,” said Miller. Miller said the average day in ROTC is different for West students; they usually get to Central 5-10 minutes late because of rid-ing the bus. Then class is normal, starting off with saying the Cadet Creed (a pledge they take every day) and having regular lessons about good conduct, Army values, and principals of leadership. To rank up in ROTC, they take what they learned through out the term and get tested on finals at the Rank Board. If they do well they rank up. “ROTC takes people out of their comfort zones,” said Miller. “It gives them opportunities that they wouldn’t usually get in high school, like I got to ride in a heli-copter, be the leader of over 60 people, and attend the summer camp program (JCLC).”
Speech and Debate Debating against 97 other teams, Noah Kirshchbaum and Greg Windeknecht won first place in Public Forum and Debate at the Dowling Catholic Paradigm competition in West Des Moines on Nov. 7-8. Coach Maggie Rietz said, “Overall they did well, especially Noah and Greg.”-By Shauna Foss
Business Academy Three teams of Business Acad-emy students placed second, third, and eighth in the JA Titan Compe-tition on Nov. 7. This year, students had to mar-ket a holo-generator, and their goal was to sell the most and make the most money,. The junior team placed second, only losing by two points to PV, who usually wins every year. “I hope next year we beat PV,” said Meredith Tangen, business teacher. -By Courtney Geiken
Spanish Several advanced Spanish students will take a trip to Spain over spring break led by Spanish teacher Barbara Lipnick. The trip’s purpose is to express and perfect students’ knowledge of the Spanish language and further their understanding of Spain’s culture. -By Annalise Buehner
Food Drive The Hunger Drive ended Nov. 8, resulting in just over 50,000 pounds of food, about 3,000 less than last year. Altogether the 19 schools raised a total of 767,455 pounds, topping last years 756,498 pounds. Student Senate adviser Jodi Zimmerman said, “Locally, we needed more help from our own student body.” -By Shauna Foss
School Boundaries New school boundaries are be-ing discussed by the school board for the 2013 school year to balance school utilization and to save money. -By Courtney Geiken
AJROTC seargeants hold the strings to the American flag balloon on Nov. 17. (photo contributed by Josie Miller)
Sergeants march, but that’s not all they do
Foul smell causes irritationBY JEPHTHAH [email protected]
The Nurse’s Office moved to room 403 due to a foul smell for the second time. “A really strong smell and then people were noticing some headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems,” said school nurse Linda Manders. The smell is thought to be Volatile Or-ganic Compound (VOC). “Any time you have any kind of new construction, you have VOC,” said Mark, the custodian supervisor. “Ninety-five percent of the time it is not harmful. We
want to make sure it’s not, so we are doing some tests.” “We found an instance with some ro-dents, and we cleared that. We think it was some of the VOC, not the rodents.” After the rodents were cleared and the nurse moved back, the smell was still there. “The levels of VOC in here are well below toxic. The symptoms would be an irritant.” said Craig, school’s insurance representative. The VOC will go away with time. “Hopefully, when we are able to come back in the problem will be solved,” Manders said.
6 BEAK‘N EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 PAGE BY BECCA SANDRY
NEWS
BY BECCA [email protected]
Students got boatloads of informa-tion about water education on Dec. 7 in Kim Strunk’s Environmental
Studies class when Michael Coyne, a representative from Living Lands and Waters, came to share about how our rivers were in need of some serious cleaning. Coyne brought several items that were found in the waters over his journey of the past 25 years such as a prosthetic leg, a bowling ball, and a radar gun. “The one thing that trumps finding the bowling ball that can float is finding the message in a bottle signed from a girl,” said Coyne. “We made several at-tempts to find the girls at her current ad-dress but failed because her name could have changed since she wrote the letter when she was a young girl.” Living Lands and Waters was estab-lished by Chad Pregracke in 1998. Since the organization was founded, Living Lands and Waters has grown to be the only “industrial strength” river cleanup organization in the world. The associa-tion goes out on river boats to collect the garbage from the land and brings them back to the correct dump site, including recycling bins. Some students in the class thought the speaker provided a positive message.
`“It was very educational and I learned how dirty our water is, even though we don’t think it’s that dirty,” said senior Taylor Bruce. Living Land and Waters has been able to do their works with the help provide by the city of Illinois. “Alcoa provided us with an $8,400 grant to do our water clean up in our first year,” said Coyne. “The city of Rock Island also provides us a place to put our items after cleaning up and we have then since got many more sponsors ” Living Land and Waters provides students with an Alternative Spring Break option to help the community for a week. From late February to Mid- March, the Living Lands and Waters crew hosts several students from all over the Midwest to help their local waters. In 2011 the organization had a three camp clean up events that recruited and ad-dition 250 volunteers who removed another 15,000 of garbage including 12,000 pounds of recyclables. “If anyone knows of a site and is that inspired, we are on Facebook,” Coyne said. “You can like our page and let us know of a site you think needs some cleaning and you can even be in charge of that site.” For more information on Living Lands and Waters or the Alternative Spring Break program, you can visit livinglandandswaters.
org “I learned 3.4 million people die a year because they don’t have access to clean wa-ter,” said Bruce. “That is something that needs to be changed.”
Students learn about filthy local rivers
Senior Taylor Bruce, displays a prosthetic leg found in the River by Michael Coyne. Coyne came to Kim Strunk’s Enviormental Studiest Class on Dec. 7. to explain the importance of keeping our rivers clean. (photos by Becca Sandry)
Living Lands and Water visit
Sophomore Jade Davis looks at the message in a bottle found by Michael Coyne on one of his clean ups in the QC.
Michael Coyne displays some of his findings over the past 25 years of cleaning the river including a Ronald McDonald foot and a radar gun.
Michael Coyne, talks about the importance of keeping our local rivers clean from debris. He also performed a rap for the students.
Alice in Wonderland cast performs the tea party scene. (photo by Jephthah Yarian)
PAGE BY SHAUNA FOSS DEC. 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 7
West in Wonderland
BY SHAUNA [email protected]
From Dec. 7-9 audiences sat their on-stage seats and waited for the strange world of Wonderland to come alive. Alice in Wonderland begins with a very bored Alice, playing cards at her sister’s feet, soon finding her self lost in Wonder-land. The on-stage seating allowed the audi-ence itself a better feel of what’s happening in the show, said producer/designer Wayne Hess. Some of the actors were presented with opposite-gender roles. “I felt they handled them well; I think they just had fun doing it” said Hess. The production was spread out over six show times, and overall had a decent out turn of viewers. “It was a good performance, a lot of character and growth for people who haven’t been on stage a lot,” Hess said.
Hess said shorter rehearsals were one of the harder parts of producing the show. Along with using repetition, one of the things Hess tells students is to know the show. “If you know your story the lines are going to come easier,” he said. “The script wasn’t that great but they did a great job interpreting what they had,” Hess said. West is expecting a new sound system to improve future performances.
The Mad Hatter Anna Wells, junior, was cast as the role she had hoped for, a male role, The Mad Hater. Wells said by playing a male role, “I can do feminine things and it’s funny.” The harder part of playing a male role she said was keeping her voice tone low. “I sometimes caught myself slipping into an Irish accent, but keeping the loudness was probably the hard part,” she said. She said of her role of the Hater, “I love tea, but I don’t think I have that many crazy hair days.”- By Shauna Foss
The Red Queen Casey Gaylord, junior, was cast as The Red Queen. “I didn’t audition, someone quit and they asked me to fill in,” said Gaylord. Playing the Red Queen Gaylord had more of feminine attire, including a black dress and facial makeup), “It made a lot of people laugh, so I was okay with it,” he said. Gaylord said for his first performance he did really well at performing, memorizing his lines, and keeping voice tone. “I definitely stuck with it; I didn’t sound like I hit puberty halfway through,” he said. - By Shauna Foss
Auditorium to receive new sound system The Scott County Regional Author-ity provided West with a $20,000 grant to for a new sound system for the West auditorium. The grant was received Nov 14th and is anticipated to be in place by the sum-mer of 2013. Wayne Hess, language arts teacher, said the old equipment needed to be re-placed. “It is 30 years old, it’s never been maintained, it’s unreliable and it’s time for a change,” he said. The new equipment will include state of the art microphones, amps, inputs, and speakers.“It will make everything easier for every-one who uses the facility,” Hess said.
Facts about Alice in Wonderland
• The stories began when Charles Lutwidge Dodgenson, more com-monly known as Lewis Carroll, was on a July 4th boat trip with a friend, his sister Alice and her friends on the river of Isis. The girls were bored and Alice asked for a story consisting of nonsense. • “The Alice Comedies” by Lewis Carroll are what inspired Walt Dis-ney to purchase the rights to Tenniel illustrations in 1931. • Disney asked artist David Hall to create some ideas for a completely animated film. The two did not re-ally begin producing until June of 1974 due to World War 2. • Out of over 200 actresses 14-year-old Kathryn Beaumount was chose to play the role of Alice in the origi-
Two actors enjoy playing opposite gender roles
In a comical version of ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ students were in a world of nonsense
Alice, played by Helena Hansen, has conversation with the Red Queen, Casey Gaylord. (photo by Jephthah Yarian)
FACES
8 BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 PAGE BY SABA KHAN
Holy Days
BY SABA [email protected]
West students celebrate a variety of religious holidays throughout the year. Christians are prepar-
ing for Christmas on Dec. 25 and it is the birth day of Jesus Christ (the son of God). On this day Christians decorate Christmas trees and has big meal and exchange gifts. Lexi Sachleben, junior, celebrates Christ-mas with her family. “We get our family together and go to church in the morning and we have big dinner with different types of food as sometimes it is Italian and some time it is Mexican.” said Sachleben. “Then we open presents and play Christmas music and we share old memories.” The Easter is also a big religious cel-ebration for Christians. They celebrate the “resurrection” of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead, after three days of his death in the cross.Kelsy Morton, sophomore celebrates Eas-ter by going to church with her family. “I get up early, wear nice clothes and go to church with my family and after coming back from church I go to my grand parents house with my family and then we have big meal which consist on roast beef with potatoes, carrot and beef broth.” said
Morton. The Muslims all over the world celebrate three different religious events in a year and they celebrate their events according to lunar/Islamic calendar. Eid-ul-Fitr is celebrated on 1st Shawal(Islamic month) after the month of Rama-dan (the month of fasting). On this religious event Muslims donate a par-ticular amount of money to poor so that they also can enjoy the happi-ness of this event.Dinara Dooranova is a senior, exchange student from Kirghizstan celebraes this Eid. “In Kyrgyzstan we usually cook our national food and share with relatives and neighbors and we read Quran (religious book for Muslims) after praying we visit relatives and the children’s go for trick and treat on this event.” said Dooranova. Junior Rachel Whiskeyman, celebrates Hanukkah which is celebrated according to Hebrew calendar anytime from late November to late December.
“Hanukkah is the festival of lights, and we believe that long time ago, our temples were destroyed in Jerusalem and we thought that we had enough oil to burn candles only for one day but it worked for
eight days. So we burn candles for eight nights and we say the prayers of candles and we exchange small gifts on this event,” Whiskey-man explained. Senior Tracy Vo said her Buddhist religion has few
holidays. “It’s the religion that has been passed down from generations to generations in my family,” she said. “Just like in Chris-tianity, Buddhists would pray Buddha during hard times to help their troubles. There are temple days in March, June and November where we give offerings to statue gods. Every first and fifteenth days of each month, my parents would practice vegetarianism for the entire day, Although I don’t practice this, I respect it. Most monks in Vietnam are, to an extent,
Students celebrate in different ways
Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ and is celebrat-ed on Dec. 25. Lexi Sachle-ben celebrates Christmas by decorating a Christmas tree and going to church with her family. Then she has a big dinner with her family.
Tracy Vo is a Buddhist and they don’t have any special holiday, but they have some days where they do not eat meat in March, June and November. Buddhists pray to Buddha during hard times to help their troubles.
Dinara Dooranavo is exchange student from Kyrgyzstan.She celebrates Eid-ul-Fitr with her family by cooking a national food called Ash, made with rice, beef, onions and carrots, and sharing it with neighbors and relatives.
Rachel Whiskeyman is Jewish and she celebrates Hanukkah with her family by exchanging small gifts. On this event the Jewish burn candles for 8 nights in the re-membrance of temples that were burned in Jerusalem.
WORLD RELIGIOUS POPULATION
Christianity 2.1 billionIslam 1.5 billionHinduism 900 millionBuddhism 376 millionSikhism 23 millionJudaism 14 million
Source: infoplease.com
PAGE BY GARRETT ANDERSON DEC, 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 9
WINTER DRIVING
TIPS
Preparation
• Leave early and assume slow traffic.
• Make sure your windows are clear so you can see.
Driving
• Drive very slow and stay extremely cautious of traffic.
When approaching a stoplight:
1. Brake slowly from a good dis-tance away so you don’t slide into the intersection.
2. Steer your wheel to the direc-tion you want to go and hold it steady.
3. Accelerate the car slowly and gradually gaining speed.
Parking
• Always park as far as possibly from everyone to avoid getting hit or possi-bly hitting anyone.
SOURCE: SteveVerdon, Drivers Ed
Features
Winter Hazards
BY GARRETT [email protected]
Winter weather is right in front of us, and its the most dangerous season in the year. But inexperienced
drivers may not be aware of the dangers. With winter comes snowy roads, icy sidewalks, and not to mention injured people! In 2005, there were nearly 6.5 million car accidents, 50 percent of those being in winter, according to the Car Accidents Statistics. Winter is clearly the most dangerous season to be driving in and has more possible threats to drivers. Whether it’s spinning out, getting in a wreck, or driving off the road, there are many possibly threats of winter weather. An average 500 people drive a vehicle to West High every day. All of them are vulnerable to the weather conditions and its hazards. As some young student drivers don’t understand the dangers of the condi-tions, one student shares his awful experience.
“One time I was driving to school on Pine in the morning when I noticed the roads were bad. I stopped at a stop sign, then went on. But as I was in the intersection, another car tried its brakes but kept sliding. Right when It was about to hit me,
I stepped on the pedal and somehow slid out of danger,” said junior Brad Belz. “It was the scariest thing to ever happen to me, and I wouldn’t want anyone else to experience this.”
“If snow comes along we must call off driver’s ed. It’s very frustrating be-cause time is valued and the schedule is packed. - Steve Baldry, Drivers Ed Instructor
“The most frustrating part I have about winter is getting out of my house. My driveway is awful.” - Quinton Baenzinger, 10
“To me, the thing that makes winter so difficult is physical activity. I love to be outdoors and do activities, but I don’t like frost bite.” - David McVay, 11
“What I think is the most frustrating is getting ready early. I have to go start my car to see out the window and stay warm.”- Maddy Saskowski, 10
What’s the most frustrating part about winter?
Winter drivers spin a little too far out of control on the roads
Davenport Police arrive to the accident scene at the West parking lot after two cars collided on Dec. 11. Accidents can happen at anytime of the year, but more often in winter. (photo by Malik Salsberry)
10 BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 PAGE BY CODY GEURTSEN
BY CODY [email protected]
The battle for the top video game got heated last month with the release of Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black
Ops 2. As far as the games’ aesthetics go, Halo 4 takes the cake. The graphics in Black Ops 2 show no improvement from last year’s Call of Duty installment, Modern Warfare 3. Halo 4 features cut scenes that almost make the player believe the game is live action. “I prefer the graphics of Halo 4 because movements seem a lot less jumpy than in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2,” said senior, Sebastian Roe. The main difference between these two games is that Call of Duty takes place in a more modern time where as Halo 4 takes place in the future. This major difference impacts numerous aspects of the games including the campaigns, the types of maps encountered and the types of weapons featured in each. Both games have campaign modes which are drastically different from each other. Halo 4’s campaign mode is centered around Master Chief, a Spartan IV super-soldier. Halo 4 is set four years after the events of Halo 3, as Master Chief wakes up from cryogenic sleep, orbiting the planet
of Requiem. Cortana, Master Chief’s AI partner informs him that she is going to die of rampancy. The duo is pulled onto the planet and encounters The Didact, and is led on a mission to defeat him before he destroys the Earth. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s campaign has two connected story lines in which Alex Mason, the protagonist in the first storyline, fights in the Cold War (1986-1989) and his son David Mason, the pro-tagonist in the second storyline, fights in a second Cold War in the year 2025. There are multiple alternate endings in this cam-paign which are based off of the player’s actions throughout the game. One popular feature in both games is the online multiplayer. Players are pitted against each other in either free-for-all or team based events with goals such as cap-turing flags or bases or simply killing other players. Many of the games are centered around strategy and require planning and communication between players. Both games have many of the same multiplayer types, with the main difference being the weapons available to players. Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 each have an additional game type. Black Ops 2 features a zombie apocalypse mode where players attempt to survive the zom-bie onslaught for as long as possible. Halo 4 features Spartan Ops in which players work to achieve a primary goal.
REVIEWS
Disney’s latest production, Wreck-It Ralph, follows a video game villain, Wreck-It Ralph as he tries to break the mold and win a hero’s medal to prove to everyone that he is not a bad guy. Wreck-It Ralph takes viewers on an emotional roller coaster from points of comedy, to despair, and to moments of triumph. The only flaw was with the ending that didn’t quite add up
Take Me Home is the second album by the English-Irish boy band One Di-rection. Overall, the album is upbeat and catchy. However, some of the catchy songs, such as “Live While We’re Young” and “Back For You” seem far too repitiive. The album also features slower songs such as “Little Things” and “Summer Love” which stand out among the other songs on the album for not really fitting One Direction’s ‘style’.
Snapchat is a photo messaging app in which users can send photos to their friends wtih a slef-designated time limit, after which the photos are deleted. Most teens use Snapchat to send ratchet photos of themselves to friends. However, Snap-chat has been used by some for ‘sexting’ since the pictures are deleted automati-cally. Just a word of caution; people can still screenshot the pictures so be careful as to what you are sending.
Wreck-It Ralph
Grade: B+
One DirectionTake Me Home
Grade: B
Snapchat
Grade: A-
“My favorite part of BO2 is the random Toma-hawk kills from across the map.”-Conner Leahr, 12
“My favorite part about Halo 4 is Swat. Swat is a one shot, one kill game but with only headshots!”-Kyle Bramman, 12
HALO4 VSCALL OF DUTYBLACK OPS 2
LEISURE
VS
As 2012 comes to an end, some are saying goodbye to one major social networking site and hello to
another. For the last four years, students have been ob-sessed with Facebook. Posting pictures and status’ has been a daily part of life for high school students. But recently high school students have found another way to spend their time. Twitter is the new trend. It’s a social networking site that is in some ways like a blog. You can talk about things that are on your mind and see what’s on others minds. It started out like any other social networking site-slow. It began almost five years ago and had a quarterly user rate of about 400,000 in 2007. But Twitter has grown to be something huge. In 2011 it had a quarterly user rate of 140 million and has about 500 million active users. According to media bistro if Twitter was a country, it would be the 12th largest in the world. Twitter is on the top 10 most visited websites. Twitter is a different type if social networking site because it is more than just socializing. “Twitter is useful for more than just seeing what’s going on with your friends,” said Junior Taylor Snyder. “I never even used Facebook because it seemed like a silly fad, but Twitter actually helps you.” On the other side of things, there’s
Facebook. It has been on a downward spiral since mid 2012. According to the New York Times Upfront Magazine, an-nual growth this year is a record low of six percent compared to a high 39 percent only two years ago. In a recent Gallup poll almost 50 percent of Americans say is a passing fad, some say this because of
the lack of privacy and then there are some people that have simply just lost interest in Facebook. Another reason why people have stopped using Facebook is because it’s hard to control all
the people you see posts from. “There are so many annoying people on Facebook,” said freshman and active twitter user Abbey Walters. “On twitter you can control who you see.” So what makes twitter so appealing? Many students like following their favor-ite celebrities and sports stars. “My favorite person to follow is Lolo Jones, an Olympic track star,” said junior Mary Perez. “She makes really funny tweets and she’s one of my idols.” Many other students use it to keep up-dated on the news for things like classes or speech and debate. “I use Twitter to see what’s going in the world because I’m too busy to watch the news and on Twitter it takes five min-utes!” said sophomore Olivia Grubbs. No one can predict that Twitter will overtake Facebook, but many can agree that Twitter is something new and exciting and could be used as much more than just a social networking site.
PAGE BY OLIVIA TERRONEZ DEC. 14. 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 11
If you don’t have a Twitter you may be a little behind. But if you want one but you can’t seem to figure out exactly how it works, here’s a little instruction to help keep you in the Twitter sphere.
First step: Sign up! Go to twitter’s website and pick a name and user name. You also need a picture of yourself for your page. Second step: Follow people! If you know people on twitter you can search for them, but if you have no idea who to look for, go to the discover page and you’ll see trending people and some ce-lebs you may like. When you start out, its easier to just observe what tweets are like before you start tweeting yourself. Third step: Tweet! To make a tweet on phones you press the pen in the top right corner. If you’re on a computer you press compose. You only have 140 characters, so use them wisely. Fourth step: Communicate with others. To reply to a tweet on Twitter, you just press the arrow pointing to the left under-neath the tweet. It’s just like comment-ing. To retweet you press the two arrows under the tweet. It’s basically like sharing on Facebook. To Favorite you press the star. If you like a person’s tweet and you want to show it just favorite it. Fifth step: Find your way around. To find your new notifications press connect. The Me button on the top of the page is your profile. On your profile it will show your followers, who you follow, and all your tweets. With these tools, you can stop stress-ing out and finally tweet as long as your heart desires.
I’ll teach you how to Twitter
BY OLIVIA TERRONEZ [email protected]
BY OLIVIA TERRONEZ [email protected]
Is Twitter On Top?
FOCUS
12 BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 PAGE BY TRACY VO
BY TRACY [email protected]
The United States judicial system is one of the most organized in the world. The exhausting process of a trial is done to make sure that courts are throwing the right person in jail. But even with
this kind of a system, flaws can still occur. One of flaws is imprisoning the innocent. Although the exact number is unknown, according to studies done by University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross, about 136,000 people are currently wrongly incar-cerated. Another interesting fact leads to how DNA testing can be beneficial for exoner-ating, or freeing, those who are unjustly imprisoned. The first DNA exoneration occurred in 1989. The Innocent Project is an organization dedicated to “exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing.” According to The Innocent
Project’s website, 234 people have been exonerated since 2001 due to DNA evidence. Eighteen of those people have served time on death
row. The exonerees have served an average of 13.6 years. Other than imprisoning some of the innocent, there is a clause in the Constitution that may let some get away with crime. The Double Jeopardy Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the
U. S. Constitution states that “no person for the same offence
[sic] can be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” “It protects an accused individual from being arrested and tried again on the same identical offense,” said former correctional officer Frank Noblet. This clause has angered the public as the outcomes of trials are not what they had expected. A case that had gathered national attention was the Casey Anthony trial. On May 9, 2011, Casey Anthony of Orlando, Florida was tried for first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of providing law enforcement false informa-tion. Casey Anthony’s 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, was reported missing by Casey herself a month after she saw her on July 15, 2008. Casey then accused the babysitter, Zenaida Gonzalez, of kidnapping Caylee. Caylee’s remains were found six months later a few miles from the family home. In July 5, 2011, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murder due to insuf-ficient evidence. Mostly circumstantial evidence was provided. The evidence failed
HOW FAIR IS THE
JUDICIAL SYSTEM?Court decisions
anger the public
5 Famous Controversial Court Cases
1. The People v. O.J. Simpson - He was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife, which created massive public outrage as there was a lack of physical evidence.
2. The Case of Trayvon Martin - The trial hasn’t happened yet, but the case had already caused several to be angry at the offender, George Zimmerman.
3. Roe v. Wade - A landmark decision was made by the Supreme Court in 1973 to legalize abortion, a controversial topic, due to right of privacy.
4. State of Florida v. Casey Marie Anthony - Like the O.J. Simpson case, her acquittal was due to a lack of physical evidence and had many angry.
5. Tinker v. Des Moines - The Supreme Court ruled that the school had vio-lated the students’ freedom of speech.
PAGE BY TRACY VO DEC. 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 13
Process of a Trial1. JURY SELECTION – Jurors are selected from a pool of available jurors.2. OPENING STATEMENTS – Each side presents what they expect the evidence to prove.3. PRESENTATION OF EVI-DENCE AND TESTIMONY OF WITNESS – The prosecution’s case is presented first. The witnesses testify. The other side that did not call the witness can ask questions. Evidence is then admitted and numbered. After side presents their evidence, they rest their case.4. CLOSING ARGUMENTS – Attorneys summarize the evi-dence and try to persuade the jury to be in favor of their client. The plaintiff can then open and close arguments.5. PRESENTATION OF JURY INSTRUCTIONS – The judge reads instructions of law to jury, defines issues the jurors must decide, and informs everyone of the law that governs the case.6. DELIBERATION – Jury retires to deliberation room to consider case and reach a ver-dict that governs the case.
Source: hamilton-co.orgCompiled by Tracy Vo
“I was confused with all of the evidence that she was acquit-ted.” – Aubrey Kohl, 12
“It was kind of wrong that she got away with it. I feel that she should have been convicted because there was evidence stacked against her.” – Hunter Meador, 12
“If the court didn’t think she was guilty then that’s okay with me.” – Khalil Hacker, 10
How did you react to the outcome of the Casey Anthony trial?
“I found it really sad. It would be terrible for that to happen to a child. Her mother is hor-rible, and she should have been convicted.” – Brittany Gei-ken, 11
“My first reac-tion was shock, then I was angry because they let a murderer loose.” – Tuyen Nguyen, 10
“I was shocked because it seemed like she really did kill her kid and I think that she should go to jail.” – Brianna Bohland, 10
“Circumstantial evidence can weigh heavily on a trial,” said Noblet. “However, it’s the connection to physical evidence to the circumstantial evidence that generally does not materialize leaving reasonable doubt.” In Nov. 2012 new evidence surfaced. Investigators had overlooked the browser search history on Anthony’s home computer. The 17 search entries revealed that someone had searched “fool-proof suffication,” mis-spelling “suffocation.” If more evidence were found against Anthony, she can-not be retried for her daughter’s murder by the double jeop-ardy clause. She could admit to murdering her daughter and still can-not be retried. “Despite the crime she was accused of, those prosecuting her were not able to satisfy by law her guilt,” No-blet added. “I person-ally had no reaction other than the defense proved reasonable doubt. Yes, I think she was guilty, however, the requirement of law was not satisfied.” However, she can be tried lesser offenses. Anthony also spent time in jail for lying to the police. Many people believe that Anthony is guilty of murdering her daughter. Her acquit-tal had sparked public outrage.
“I was so mad, you don’t even know!” said Jacquelyn McKittrick, senior. “How can someone even kill their kid and have no remorse for it, and can’t even report the kid immediately after she went missing?” Some were also sympathetic for Caylee. “I was kind of sad that the actions took place.” said senior Andy Snawerdt. “It shows that we have holes in our legal system and that it identifies a problem that must be
resolved.” Indifference was also shown as Anthony was acquitted. “I don’t really care,” said Nicole Kraft, junior. “I think the media really affected how the trial went. I don’t even get why it was such a big deal. Stuff like this hap-pens all the time.” Nothing is perfect. Although there are flaws in the justice system, it is the fairest way to settle
things. “The purpose of the judicial system is to interpret the laws of its jurisdiction and apply them equally in the context of the facts of a case.” said Noblet. “The judicial system in this country is and will be the greatest in the world while the system is compromised by those whom have personal agendas, and ideals the system
Do you think Casey Anthony is guilty?
Source: Survey of 152 students
14 BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● Dec. 14, 2012 PAGE BY HANNAH FANDEL
FEATURES
BY HANNAH [email protected]
Over 500 shoppers took over the North Park mall on Black Friday while waiting for Victoria’s Secret
to Open. With so many people, and only so little space police had to take over and direct the shoppers. When the doors unlocked at midnight, the anxious crowd rushed into the store. Some students experienced the crazi-ness first hand. “Population limits only allowed so many people go in at once. I waited in line for so long, and I still wasn’t in the first group to get in.” junior Abby Thumann said. “There were so many people trying to all get in at once, everyone wanted in first. People were pushing and shoving each other,” freshman Lauren Vandemark said. “Some random girl ended up punching me. I didn’t know what do so, so I just punched her back.” However, other people weren’t the only thing shoppers were destroying at this clothing store. “People took anything they could get their hands on, if they didn’t want it they would just throw it on the ground or into the air,” freshman Jade Jones said. “There were also girls jumping on displays and knocking things over so they could get items others couldn’t.” Why might someone want to go out among all the hustle and bustle of crazed holiday shoppers?
Well, Black Friday is a great day to get deals on everyday items, and other gifts that are just in time for Christmas, and the holiday season. A main attraction to many shoppers are the incredible sales on electronics. Senior Jaime Peterson waited 3 hours at WalMart to purchase a television for a gift to her parents for Christmas. “It was worth the wait because I saved over $200,” Peterson said. However, scoring deals on the more pricey items isn’t the motive for every shopper. “I didn’t buy anything big on Black Friday, but I did purchase a lot of clothes and other small items,” sophomore Bri-anna Bohland said. “I saved a lot of money and probably spent half of what I would if they weren’t on sale.” Freshman Meghan Pierce has made a tradition out of going Black Friday shopping every year. However, this year was different for her. Instead of going out in the early morning to go shopping, she started very early the night before. “I started shopping at 5 p.m. on Thursday, and didn’t finish until 9 a.m. on Friday morning.” Pierce said. Starting her shopping journey at Wal-Mart, pierce continued and went to over 20 different stores total. With wanting to buy as much as pos-sible, while still having a limited budget Pierce planned out all the stores she wanted to hit up on Black Friday. “I definitely saved more money than I spent.” Pierce said.
While worrying about getting all the items on your loved ones wish lists, not many think about the people who have to run the retail shops. On Friday, over 86 million Americans went out shopping. Senior, Bailee Fulton works at Hollister at NorthPark Mall. Dealing with crazed customers was something Fulton had to deal a lot with on her long shift. “I worked a 13 hour shift on Black Friday, it was so crazy,” Fulton said “The customers would get mad at me if we were out of something they wanted, even though it wasn’t my fault.” For many stores, the after effect was even worse than the madness during the shopping hours. “I didn’t even know where to start cleaning. Everything was in mountains, and scattered everywhere” Fulton said. “Me and my co-workers jammed to some music and had an extreme clean though, so that was fun.” After all the madness of Black Friday was over, the Terranomics retail services reported a 16% sales increase over last year’s sales. The average shopper spent $398.62 this year, topping last year’s sales at $365.34 per shopper. Overall, the total sales amounted to over $52 billion spent on black Friday this year alone. Black Friday 2012 might have been the craziest, but it can now be said that it was also the most successful.
Students go crazy to find holiday dealsMasses of people wait for the doors to open on midnight at Victorias Secret on Nov. 23 (photo by Hannah Fandel)
POLL
PAGE BY HANNAH FANDEL AND EMILY THUMANN DEC. 14 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 15
Talesfrom a shopping
cart What are the top items on West High students wish list this year?
How much do students spend on holiday presents?
0 $20 $40 $60 $80 $100 $120 $140
Pets
Friends
Bf/Gf
Siblings
Dad
Mom
1. Uggs 2. iPod/iPhone 3. Clothes
4. Video Games 5. Money 6. Laptop
$8
$13
$135
$17
$22
$34
SOURCE: Beak ‘n’ Eye survey of 160 students
16 BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 PAGE BY ATHENA DINH
Helping Sandy victimsart by Katie Mozzarollo
It’s not everyday when elementary school students work together to help with a natural disaster, and recently
young Davenport Community School Dis-trict students have done just that. Wilson and McKinley students have been working hard to collect donations for those who have been effected by Hurricane Sandy. It’s great that elementary school children are taking the initiative to help others. It is always good when a group of people come together to help after a trag-edy has occurred such as Hurricane Sandy. Wilson Elementary School students have managed to fill a school bus full of donations, such as blankets, flashlights, batteries, construction materials, chil-dren’s toys and cleaning supplies that will be transported to Long Island, Rockaway, and Staten Island. Nov. 27 and 28, Daven-port Community Schools served as drop-off site for the Super Storm Sandy Relief Drive along with Hawkeye Movers, Atlas van lines, and the downtown Davenport partnership. Other schools, such as McKinley did
“Cents for Sandy” where students brought in their change and managed to raise $523 worth of change. On Oct. 29, Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast with 80 mph winds and record breaking storm surges. The storm caused more than 15,000 flights to be cancelled, knocked over 7,000 trees in city parks, and destroyed many power lines leaving up to 90 percent of Long Island without electricity. Hurricane Sandy killed over 90 people and left an estimated $30-50 billion worth of damage. We invite West students to contribute to this cause. Many charities are still ac-cepting donations. The Salvation Army is accepting monetary donations that go toward providing emergency shelter and food, as well as support for volunteers. The American Red Cross is accepting financial donations through its website. To provide emergency food and shelter, also you can donate $10 by texting RED-CROSS to 90999 to help with disaster relief efforts.
COLUMN
Athletes notexempt from gym
VOICE
Editors in Chief Emily Thumann and Becca SandryNews Editors Jephthah Yarian, Shauna Foss and Courtney GeikenFaces EditorHannah Fandell, Saba Khan Feature EditorGarrett Anderson
Focus Editor Tracy Vo Sports EditorsMalik Salsberry, Ali Martin, and Katie MazzarolloLeisure EditorsCody Geurtsen and Olivia TerronezVoice Editors Athena Dinh and Ashley VanWinkleAdviser Steve Lyle
Beak ‘n’ Eye Staff
By Ashley VanWinkle Although I really don’t mind gym, I don’t enjoy the idea of having cross coun-try practice just a few hours after I finish working out in gym. The current gym policy in the state of Iowa is that all students, including athletes, are required to take four years of high school gym class. On paper this policy may sound good, some gym teachers, such as Ms. Rommel, state that gym is a great way to introduce students to other activities outside of their sport and to maintain a healthy physical lifestyle after high school. Where I do agree with Ms. Rommel’s reasoning, I disagree with the fact that ath-letes should have to take gym for several different reasons. As a four year athlete at West, I find taking gym and running at the same time can be exhausting. Where I would usually be working out only about two hours a day in the heat, I end up working out three and a half. This causes me to be exhausted both mentally and physically, finding it tough sometimes to stay awake for home-work when I get home after practice. Also on meet days or game days, resting up and reserving your body is incredibly impor-tant, so on meet day I can’t participate in swimming, fitness days, or certain gym activities. But exhaustion isn’t the only reason. In PE we do learn a variety of things, but I am an athlete and involved in many dif-ferent activities that help me stay fit and healthy other than my sports. On the side I do yoga, zumba, platies, golfing and other activities. It takes a little effort from the person to find a hobby they are interested in, but it can be done. Not all school districts and states require gym for athletes though. In school districts like Chatham Community School District, in New Jersey, if you are an athlete training at the varsity level, you are no longer required to take a gym class. If the state of Iowa would pass the same law as Chatham, we would have less tired athletes, resulting in better athletics and better students.
Becca’s Thoughts
PAGE BY ASHLEY VANWINKLE DEC. 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 17
LIKES & DISLIKES
After being reelected for another term, one of President Barack Obama’s first plans for office was to create more jobs. His pro-posals have been repeatedly shot down by the Senate, making him look like he isn’t doing anything good for this country. In my opinion, the Senate, being mostly Re-publicans, votes against Obama’s ideas because they don’t want him to look good. People say that Obama isn’t doing a good job as president, but he is not to blame. Almost every good idea he has, has been rejected by the Senate. They voted against a fully funded jobs for Veterans bill that they even helped write, approved it at the table, and then voted against it on the Senate floor. It would have provided 225,000 police, firefighter, and forest ranger jobs for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, which would have not only helped the veterans, but also the whole country. They didn’t pass it on the Senate floor because that would mean that Obama would be creating jobs. To me, they are willing to ruin our country just to make Obama look like a bad president. Obama also created a bill that
would help disabled people in our country. 38 republicans voted against equal rights for disabled people around the world, including those with blindness. I think that
disabled people should have every right that any other person would have, but the senate obviously doesn’t agree. Obama also wanted to cut taxes on the middle class and raise it on the rich, but the Senate thinks that the rich should have a tax break. Millionaires don’t need tax breaks; they make enough money to pay a little bit more on taxes. Right now they will cause middle class families to pay an average
of $2,000 more in taxes because they want tax breaks for millionaires. In our area, we gave a $74 million tax cut to John Deere. Their CEO makes over $19 million a year, but we don’t even have enough money to make the educational budget. I think that Obama has good ideas for this country and we would be in better shape if the Senate would think of this country before themselves. The only expla-nation for people voting against a bill that would give our veterans job, is that they don’t want Obama creating jobs.
The fight for Obama’s plans
Have you ever had that friend who is constantly on the phone, Facebook, or Twitter while you’re together? Social media today is ruining the childhood of teens and young adults. I remember the days when riding bikes, playing house and just having sleepovers were something done regularly on the weekends growing up. On my weekends now I tend to just surf the internet on my iPhone. Although I have a busy schedule, when I do get the chance to hangout with my friends they are constantly on their phones. I understand that everyone wants to be connected to their friends but there is always a time and place for everything. When I am with someone I want them to be focused on our time together, not worrying about plans they are mak-ing weeks from now with someone else. Not only does that friend being on their phone constantly get annoy-ing, it also causes a lot of drama. Sarcasm does not transfer well through messaging. Someone can’t always tell if someone is joking over the web or trough texting leading to miscommunication. Miscommu-nication can cause fights between friends, leading them to have conver-sations that could end a friendship all together. Not everyone is technology educated and there are still those few teens who aren’t on Facebook, Twit-ter or constantly texting, and I feel that is what our youth needs, those long nights out with friends sitting around joking and staying up late instead of sitting at home behind the computer screen typing ‘LOL’.
The Holiday seasonThe smell of roasted almonds, fresh baked grandma’s cookies, holiday lights all over the city. The holiday season is a beautiful season, what is there not to like about any of that?!
No debit cards at lunch There is just about nothing worse than going through the lunch line and the lunch ladies telling you that you don’t have the money for lunch. You try to pull out your debit card.. OH! They only take cash. No one uses cash anymore! Dislike
Holiday season givingToys for Tots, Salvation Army, Brittany’s gifts, Angel trees and other various ways to give are scarttered throughout the quad cities during the holiday season. Whether it’s spare change or an item, helping oth-ers in an incrredible feeling!
Winter breakHonestly, after two terms of hard work, a break is definetly needed. Christmas break is the perfect time to get away from school stress and indulge in some friend and family time during the holiday season.
Social media is out of hand
Emily Says
Killing your girlfriendWhen the murder suicide involving Belcher, from the Chiefs, and his 22 year old girlfriend Kasandra was announced, it was shocking. The killing left a child parentless and two families in mourning. Dislike! Iowa weatherI’m pretty sure we are all getting tired of the constant changes in weather. It’s De-cember and last week it was 70 degrees, whereas this week it’s freezing. This is getting old, seriously!
18 BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 PAGE BY KATIE MAZZAROLLO
BY KATIE [email protected] The boys basketball team started off the season with a win of 65-62 against Cedar Rapids Prairie. Coach Mark Bigler said that he was proud of the team’s effort. “The players re-ally gave their best. It was nice to see us pull out a win when in reality we did not execute as well as we will down the road during the season.” Although the boys started the season on a good note, Bigler said there are still things the team needs to work on. “We need to keep developing our basic basketball IQ. We need to show a bet-ter command of our half court offenses in
regards to patience. We need to avoid being selfish and share the ball on offense in the half-court,” said Coach Mark Bigler. “Defensively we need to remember our team rules so we can cause turnovers by the opposition and avoid giving so many easy layup opportunities,” added Bigler. If the team continues to practice and work on their weaknesses, Bigler believes that the team will become even better than they already are. “We are a young but talented team. We are going to be a very good team by the end of the season if the players continue to bring great attitudes, good listening skills, and a superior work ethic to practice each day.” said Bigler.
BY KATIE [email protected] “Lack of chemistry” caused the girls basketball team to begin the season with a 78- 37 loss to Davenport Assumption on Nov. 30, said Coach Steve Saladino. However, Saladino also sees the positive side when it comes to the way the girls play. “I saw improvement and a lot of great effort from the team,” said Coach Saladino. Although the girls lost their first game,
Saladino has faith that the team will step it up even more. “They are young and don’t have much height, but they are making progress,” said Saladino. Saladino also pointed out that the team needs work on being more disciplined and running their offense and defense. Saladino still commends the team on their strong suits of aggressiveness and competitiveness. The girls basketball team’s next game is 7:30 p.m. Dec. 14 at Bettendorf.
Girls Basketball
Boys Basketball
Young team works to improve
Team works on chemistry
SPORTS
Nick Moeller tries to pass to teammate Jerry Myles while playing against Iowa City West on Dec. 1. (photo by Ali Marten)
My goal is to become the Mac Champs and to work hard on the court.” -Geo Butler“
My goal is to not let the person I’m guard-ing score, and I need to score more.” -Alex Finn
“
West High’s Geo Butler sets up to make a free throw against Iowa City High on Dec. 1. (photo by Ali Marten)
Alex Finn plays a strong defense for the Falcons girls basketball team against Clinton on Dec. 4. (photo by Ali Marten)
PAGE BY MALIK SALSBERRY DEC. 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 19
BY MALIK [email protected]
The boys swim team began the season with a loss to Clinton 114-47 on Nov. 29. Evan Felix received first for the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle. Even with this lose, the swim team continues to work hard. “We are learning what it is going to take to be competitive,” said coach Brian Heller. There are six returning starters on the swim team from last year: Hunter Meador, Evan Felix, Kris Burney, David Braun, Austin Barton and Kyle Dittmer. Heller said he “relies on these guys to help me get the team motivated.” Heller also counts on teamwork to help
in and out of practice. “We are a team and each person help everyone else get better,” said Heller, “in general we need to really focus on putting maximum effort into every practice.” The majority of the swimming team is young and inexperienced, but Heller sees it as a challenge that can be overturned. The boys swimming team has a total of 16 swimmers and Heller states that the sprint free is their strongest event. “We have low numbers and have a lot of new swimmers,” said Heller. “I love teaching kids to swim and the coaches are going to be doing a lot of that this year.” The Falcons are preparing for the Clin-ton Holiday Invite, Dec. 15th at Clinton.
BY ASHLEY [email protected]
Inexperience caused the wrestling team to lose their first match against Pleasant Valley on Nov. 28. Although the match didn’t go the way the team and coach wanted it to, Coach Mike Crane said the reason for their loss was mostly the inexperience that comes with a lot of the guys because the team is relatively new, excluding the three wres-tlers that competed at districts last year. “There were some wrestlers who wrestled well, upsetting some very good wrestlers,” said Crane.
The team isn’t letting the first match get them down though. The team has been training about 16 hours a week, three hours daily, to be the best they can be. “We need to forget about how hard the conference and district this is and focus on building the foundation of a successful team,” Crane said. The boys strong work ethic has been paying off, showing immensely as they broke the record this year during the condi-tioning test, he said “I like the group I have right now,” Crane said, “They are going to build the foundation here that will keep the program growing for years to come.”
Wrestling
Boys Swimming
Small team gains experience
New coach guides team
West’s boys swimming team practices starts in their pool to prepare for the Clinton Holiday Invite on Dec. 15 (Photo by Malik Salsberry)
My goal this season is to place at state like my brother did when he went to West.”
- Jorge Caldera
“
My goal this season is to hopefully make it to state this year.”
- Evan Felix
“
West’s Jorge Caldera prepares to stand up against Davenport Assumption. (photo by Malik Salsberry)
Evan Felix stops to pose for a picture while working to participate at the Clinton Holiday Invite. (photo by West Boosters)
20 BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 PAGE BY ALI MARTEN
BY ALI [email protected]
Emotions were hanging on end as the Cheerleaders waited for the results of the state competition on Nov 3 in
Des Moines. They were trying to continue the tradition of their coach Melanie Gray to win since she started. “We took second at state this year due to two deductions we received in our routine. We lost by 5 points to first place, and our deductions totaled 20 points,” said Coach Gray about the loss to Fort Dodge. “We were pretty sad because we knew we could have won state again but we lost on a technicality,” said sophomore Gen-evieve Gaston. “We got deducted for stepping on poms and some spotting penalties,” remem-bered assistant coach Brad Rollins. “The loss wouldn’t have been a big deal if we deserved all the deductions but it was clear that we didn’t so it really sucks.” They worked hard especially on their opening stunts. The opening consists of, “a 360 exten-sion, rewind to a heel stretch, turn to an arabesque, and a full down,” explained
senior Collin Gillaspie. After narrowly being defeated at state, they practiced hard the next week and won first place at the Spartan Challenge in Dubuque. Although they won the Spartan Chal-lenge, the team had injuries and had to end their season. “We had plans to attend regional in December and nationals in February. We hope to get there next year,” said Gray. The cheer team is like a family and before every competition they have little rituals that they do. “We usually have a pep talk. Sometimes I pray for us, and of course we break it down and yell Falcons!” said Gaston. As the teams’ season ends Gray looked back on the experiences they had this year. “My favorite memory was watching a fairly new, inexperienced team from the beginning of summer turn into a highly skilled team by the time state came around. Many of the cheerleaders achieved new tumbling and stunting skills from June till November because they work hard and are very dedicated. Coaching a group of kids, that want to be become better, is fun to do,” said Gray.
Competiton cheer team excited with win
The cheer team practices their competi-tion stunts at sporting events. Senior Laren Skulte and sophomore Olivia Grubbs perform a stairstep lib hitch.(photo by Ali Marten)
SPORTS
BY MALIK [email protected]
The Diamond Dancers left their state competition in Des Moines, Iowa with fifth in Hip hop dance,
fifth in poms, and second in high kick on Nov. 30. Coach Lisa Schmidt commends her team on their work ethic, teamwork and perseverance at the state competition and other performances. “The entire group as a whole stands out,” said Schmidt, “They are the hard-est working, most motivated team I’ve coached.” The Diamond Dancers are working on putting together new routines for the basketball season in several different styles of dance and with songs that are current. “They are working on their flexibility, strength and balance,” said Schmidt,” An increase in their flexibility will enhance
their kicks and jumps, and increasing their strength will make their motions more powerful and will also help them to do different hip hop stalls. She also emphasizes that perfecting balance will help them perform higher level turning combinations. The Diamond Dancers are looking forward to performing at West High home basketball games. They will be dancing at the next basketball game when West takes on Bettendorf at home on Dec. 14. They have performed at the Universal Dance Association Summer Dance Camp in Wisconsin, volunteered at the Jr. Bix, the YMCA Carshaw Kids Games, the Child Abuse Council Lifesaver Day, the Stack the Stands competition in Cedar Rapids. They have also performed at West home football games during halftime and perform at West High pep auds through-out the year.
Dancers content with state placement
Diamond Dancers Abby Thumann and Kaitlyn Cooper perform one of their routines at a West High home basketball game (Photo by Ali Marten)
PAGE BY ALI MARTEN DEC. 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 21
BY ALI [email protected]
As the game ends and the fans rise to leave, the managers’ work is just beginning. Although it’s the ath-
letes that get the credit, none of our teams would be where they are without the help of these girls. There are many managers for winter sports The basic jobs for each of the manag-ers are to fill water bottles, wash towels, and to keep stats. “Basically we take care of the guys!” said wrestling manager, Aleana Riley. Boys basketball manager Iquan Mos-ley said their most important job is to, “clean out the water bottles every week.” Wrestling manager Alisa Behrens how-ever, thinks that their most important job is, “to keep stats of all the wrestlers. We score all their matches and keep accurate records of each match.” “We go to tournaments to help out the coaches,” said wrestling manager Taymi Pates. Caitlyn McCreight added, “We do pretty much anything Coach Crane needs.” Some of these things are to, “ help with anything at practice like setting up schedules and recording matches, mostly we already know what needs to be don’t and do it, he doesn’t need to ask us to do
much,” said Aleana Riley. “We do a lot behind the scenes work. All the managers dedicate their time to help the coaches with all the little things,” explained boys basketball manager Sydney Buckles. There are many good memories that come from being a manager.
Wresting manager Breana Riley’s fa-vorite memory is, “everything about State 2012! We spent the ENTIRE weekend listening to ‘We Found Love in a Hopeless Place’ by Rhianna, using a Pringles cup as an amp; that song will never be the same!” Mosley said, “I like being with my friends and I use the hours as volunteer work.” “Out of all these years of managing my favorite memory is when they boys would goof off before practice,” remembers wres-tling manager Bailee Fulton. “Like when they would try and run up the wall or do flips. One of them went to flip and landed on his face. Good times!” The hardest part of being a manager according to Alisa Behrens is “trying to score multiple matches. It’s really difficult because you’re trying to look multiple places at once and record them all.” Kaytlyn Karman chose to be a manager because “my brothers were wrestlers and now that they are at college I wanted to keep wrestling in the family.” “Coach Crane asked me in BFS, and I said yes,” explained wrestling manager JoHannah Leigh. Boys basketball manager Libby Burken said, “I did it last year, and my best friend does it. It’s fun, and you get to go to every game, showing your support and watching the team succeed.”
Being a sports
Wrestling manag-ers do different tasks such as video taping and taking stats during a meet at West against Burlington and Assumption on Dec. 6. (photo by Ali Marten)
Aleana Riley shows off the manager motto. (photo contributed by Aleana Riley)
MANAGER
22 BEAK ‘N’ EYE ● DEC. 14, 2012 PAGE BY MALIK SALSBERRY
Top 5 most used supplements1. Multivitamin- essential to get the daily amount of vitamins needed
2. Protein powder- supplies the body amino acids needed for muscle growth, and helps speeds muscle recovery.
3. Creatine- for muscle recov-ery and promotes lean muscle growth
4. Green tea- helps fight fat and provides antioxidants
5. Fish Oil- helps aid the heart and fight against heart disease and other diseases.Source: mensfitness.com
When is it too much?BY MALIK [email protected]
Almost everyone is aware that anabolic steroids are banned at the professional level and at the high
school level. However, there is a trend of young students and student athletes using more legal supplements to gain an athletic edge on the competition. “The most popular supplements that I see taken in a high school setting are cre-atine, and protein,” said West High athletic trainer Devin Mattson.Protein, which comes in a powder form, is used mainly for post workouts to help muscle building, recovery and weight maintenance. It feeds the muscles after workouts to promote muscle recovery and feeds the muscles proteins to increase muscle growth. Creatine, a synthetic form of an amino acid compound naturally formed in the body, which also comes in a powder form, is used to increase strength and muscle mass, and is mainly used with short, high intensity workouts. “I use M5, a pre-workout supplement and whey protein for after workouts,” said senior Triet Nguyen. Nguyen uses M5 about once a week and whey protein after every workout. He uses his supplements for personal fitness and also for soccer. “M5 gives me a boost before I work out,” said Nguyen. “It gets me to feel like I can lift more than I can, the whey protein is just for muscle recovery.” Nguyen also explains that he uses whey protein as a way to keep his weight in check.
Senior Edi Turcinhodzic uses a more concentrated three way creatine system as a pre-workout along with protein. He uses these supplements for personal fitness and for cross country and soccer. “I tried creatine but wasn’t a big fan of it,” said Turcinhodzic. “My pre workouts are part of a three way creatine system but more concentrated, and I use 100 percent protein after every workout. Turcinhodzic uses his pre workouts based on which muscle group he’s focusing on, but roughly three times a week. “Some say its all mental,” says Turcin-hodzic, “but I can feel the bust of energy it gives, and once you’re actually lifting, you feel stronger.” “The majority of the reason is due to the fact that these supplements are pushed hard both by peers and by advertising media,” Mattson said. “I would say at least 90-95 percent of males especially overuse workout supple-ments,” said Mattson. “Kids feel as though that they need to take four or five scoops of a protein powder to refuel their body after a workout.” This however is not the case. According to Mattson, the body can only absorb a limited amount of protein per day. “Overusing protein causes a large amount of free floating protein molecules which must be filtered by the kidneys,” said Mattson, “and overuse of creatine has been shown to increase the amount of water retention.” He stresses these dangers as they are increasing problems with over usage of workout supplements. Creatine has also been linked to liver dysfunction,
but studies have not shown a significant increase in the liver enzymes. “I would encourage each student to thoroughly evaluate and research a specific supplement before using it,” said Mattson, “and not just take them because a friend or the guy from GNC told you to. Being smart will save your body and your wallet in the long run. Mattson said that modera-tion and a balanced diet in protein and carbs is a key essential to achieving your physical goals.
SPORTS
(Photo by Malik Slasberry)
Supplement Use
DEC. 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 23
(Photo by Malik Slasberry)
AAAA Driving SchoolClasses held at West High3:15 - 5:15 p.m. Room 102563 332-6941Steve Verdon, instructor4adrivingschool.com
Are you good with a camera?
The Beak ‘n’ Eye is looking for
photographers to cover
school events.
See Mr. Lyle in Room 161
WHSTODAY.COM coming in 2013
PAGE BY EMILY THUMANN DEC. 14, 2012 ● BEAK ‘N’ EYE 24
Festival Of TreesBy SABA KHAN
There are many kinds of events that “kick off” the holiday season around the U.S. For The Quad Cities the
“Festival of Trees Parade” is a long-standing tradition that seems to grow every year. This event took place on Nov.17, 2012.This Parade passed by The River Center, in downtown Davenport. It was the 21st annual Quad City Arts Festival of Trees Holiday Parade in Davenport, featuring 22 Helium filled balloons guided by walkers, beauty pageant queens, dance groups, high school marching bands, clowns, floats, tractors, antique cars, military vehicles, and Santa Claus. This Parade has been fun for the last 21 years for children and their families. Donna Dubberke was present in this Parade to see her children enjoying themselves while performing in the West marching band. “Since my kids march in the parade, we go every year to the parade,” said Dubberke. “We go to the festival itself every two or three years.” The Festival of Trees parade is how many families kick of the holiday season. “It’s fun to watch kids enjoying themselves,” said Dubberke. “We love all the balloons in the parade and in this parade my favorite part was the marching bands and I also loved the penny-farthing bicycles.”
West High marching band marches in the Festival of Trees parade. (photo Saba Khan)
People of Davenport pull a giant blow up present down thrid street for the Festival of Trees parade. (photo by Saba Khan)
In hopes to get people in the holiday spirit, the parade featured a giant holi-day ice cream cone balloon (photo by Saba Khan.)
People pull a Rudolph balloon during the Festival of Trees parade on Nov. 17. (photo by Saba Khan)
The Festival of Trees kicks off the holiday celebrations with their annual parade on Nov. 17, 2012. (photo by Saba Khan)
Annual parade kicks off the holiday spirit!
