Homecoming activities set

The 88th annual ‘Battle for the Victory Bell’ is tonight

ExplosionGlendale High School

Vol. 102, No. 2 1440 E. Broadway, Glendale, CA 91205 Friday, November 3, 2017

The Homecoming Dance is tomorrow at 6 p.m. at The Reserve in Down-town Los Angeles. The address is 650 S. Spring Street.

A week full of eternal joy, ecstatic times, and perpetual smiles, Homecoming week is finally here. Spirit Days of Home-coming week included Mickey Monday, Halloween Tuesday, Western Wednesday, Pajama Thursday, and today is Rally Shirt Friday.

The Homecoming Rally theme is “Harry Potter.” Seniors wear scarlet and gold as Gryffindor. Juniors wear green and silver as Slytherin. Sophomores wear blue and bronze as Ravenclaw and freshmen wear yellow and black as Hufflepuff.

The expected performances at this morning’s Homecoming Rally will be made by the school’s Marching Band, Drumline, Color Guard, Dance Drill team, Varsity Cheer and Junior Varsity Cheer groups. ASB will also announce the Roy-al Homecoming Court and they will have their bios read to the school.

In addition to those performances, they will be having a video introduction, mentions of our spirit game contestants, game activities, and “Do It” yell off. More announcements will be addressed by ASB.

Tonight will be the 88th annual Home-coming Football Game played against crosstown rival Hoover High. The game starts at 7 p.m.

Ticket admission for high school stu-dents will be $5 (without an ASB card), and free with ASB card. General admis-sion will be $8 for adults. Tickets may be bought at the stadium entrances. Ticket booths open at 4:45 p.m. A large crowd is expected for the game which recognizes the city champion.

Before the Homecoming Game starts, the Homecoming Court introductions for both Hoover and Glendale highs will take place beginning at 5:45 p.m.

Then 10 Glendale High School foot-ball greats from the past will return to the school to be recognized before the game at 6:20. The headliner of the group is Nation-al Football League player Michael Davis from the GHS class of 2013. Davis cur-rently plays for the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Homecoming King and Queen, will be announced during halftime of the football game.

As for tomorrow, the Homecoming Dance will take place from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. at The Reserve in Los Angeles.

Tonight the Nitros will look to kick a six-game losing streak while reigniting the fiercest rivalry of the season against the Tornadoes of Hoover.

Though neither team will be playing for a playoff spot, that won’t make the game any less intense. Hoover (1-8 over-all, 0-6 in the league) will be looking for its first regulation win of the season, their only win coming from a forfeit by Soto-mayor. Glendale (2-7, 0-6 in the league) will hope to add another win to their re-cord since winning against Mendez and Vasquez high schools in week 2 and 3 earlier this year. The GHS boys will also be looking for their first win of the year at Moyse Stadium.

The key for Glendale to win this game is to take an early lead and to hold on. Neither of these teams have particu-larly explosive offenses, so it will be im-portant for the Nitros to take an early lead and not let go. The chemistry between quarterback Van Haslett and receiver

Anthony Luna has been successful in the past and will need to be on fire during this game. The Nitros need to come out hard and fast, put points up on the board quickly, and make Hoover try to climb back into the game from behind.

On the defensive side of the ball, Glendale needs to make sure to contain Hoover’s star receiver James Chung, who caught six passes for two TDs and 198 yards in Hoover’s defeat to Burroughs last Thursday. The Tornadoes’ wide re-ceiver Maurice Herrera and quarterback Quran Bouldin will likely miss the game due to injury. They have an outstanding sophomore quarterback named Mattis Richards. Richards passed for over 300 yards last week against Burroughs.

At the end of the day, it will come down to whichever team wants it more. Neither team has a league win this sea-son, and a win for either team would prove that they’re not the worst. Which-ever team is able to use that as greater motivation will be the one that finds the most success. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at GHS.

By Vache SarkissianCo-Editor-in-Chief

By Bela KikorkNews Editor

Hoover Tornadoes to Watch Tonight

Dahsan Beasley #56 Quran Bouldin #7 James Chang #5 Guillermo Corrales #3 Azad Markosian #50 Allen Melikyan #16 Andrew Rangel #1

Glendale Dynamiters to Watch Tonight

Santino Espiritu #56 Van Haslett #2 Chris Ibarra #30 Anthony Luna #6 Jaaziel Santiago #13 Dart Smith #62 Karl Steckermeier #21

Van Haslett will lead the Nitros’ offense against Hoover tonight at 7 p.m. in the 88th annual Battle for the Victory Bell at GHS’s Moyse Stadium.

Photo Courtesy of Stylus

Thank you Dodgers!Vache Sarkissian

ExplosionThe Staff believes it is our duty to report campus news, to inform students of affairs in the surrounding community and world, to explore issues, and to

offer constructive criticism where necessary. By-lined articles reflect the views of the writer, while editorials reflect the majority opinion of the editorial board.Explosion welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and in good taste. We reserve the right to edit for space or clarity.Advertisements contained in this publication do not reflect the endorsement of such products or services by Explosion, Glendale High School, or the

Glendale Unified School District. Explosion, in its 102nd year of publication, is published six times during the school year by the production journalism staff of Glendale High School, 1440

East Broadway, Glendale, California 91205, (818) 242-3161, ext. 6110, Fax- (818) 244-6309, under the auspices of the Glendale Unified School District. Explo-sion is printed at News Publishers’ Press, Glendale, California. Patrick Lancaster, in his 26th year as advisor of Explosion, can be reached at plancaster@gusd.net.

Editors-in-ChiefVache Sarkissian

Christina Sargsyan

News EditorsNatalie Rosales

Bela Kiyork

Opinion EditorEthan Moos

Entertainment/Features EditorsIzrrael GutierrezKenneth Yabut

Sports EditorVache Sarkissian

Copy EditorsEthan Moos

Leona Avanesian

Staff PhotographerKariken Stepanian

Staff Artist Alex DerMovesesian

Staff Reporter Diana Lrtshikyan

Adviser

Patrick Lancaster

2017-2018 Explosion Staff

Glendale High School

Journalism 1-2: Lilit Abdulyan, Justine Mervic Andres, Arman Andzhunyan, Vaylen Avazian, Erik Avetisyan, Brian Banda-Cruz, Isidro Barrera, Marianna Barseghyan, Greg Bedjanian, Maaliyah Benson, Berlin Bravo, Kyle Butac, Kasandra Cardona Orellana, Heaven Ceballos, Haylee Delarea, Alexis Diaz, Samantha Figueroa, Tangik Ghayvandian, Steven Rovira, Janae Sangalang, Savarta Sarksian Shahbalghi, Suren Simonian, Selin Zadourian

Staff Editorial by Christina Sargsyan

Every year, seniors are most excited for their trip to Grad Nite as an end of the year celebration for graduat-ing. Traditionally, Glendale High School seniors attend Disneyland’s Grad Nite, and if you ask around, that is usually the place seniors hope for. This year’s Grad Nite changed to Six Flags, and as there were many negative feelings and complaints about the change, the class of 2018 student council believes they made the better deci-sion as there were many cons towards Disneyland.

Last year’s price for Disneyland was what most would expect to be around $100. This year, the school was informed that Disneyland raised their price by over $60 per ticket, so with tickets and bus fees, it would cost approximately $160 per person. This does not include food, as you would have to pay an additional amount for that. Disneyland is open to the public during your Grad Nite, which is already hectic enough as the lines would be longer and you would be surrounded by families with children instead of your fellow seniors. Meanwhile, Six Flags is closed to the public and is just for graduates and their guests the entire duration of the event.

Most people can agree that theme park food is expensive and not always the best. Disneyland does not in-clude any food with your ticket and their food is already grossly overpriced. For Six Flags, food is included, but you can also choose to buy your own meal.

Six Flags doesn’t just have rides, they have a lot of other activities for those who don’t like roller coasters. So, if you decided you do not want to come to Six Flags because of the rides, there is a lot of entertainment for you to enjoy. The graduation celebrations at Six Flags and Disneyland are the exact same style, but Six Flags has more DJs spread around the whole park. The party lasts the whole time, but Disneyland’s party is during the last few hours of the night which some seniors may be too tired to enjoy.

Six Flags is from nighttime to 5 a.m., which is much better since Grad Nite is during the early June and it won’t be too hot then.

Most importantly, everyone gets a season pass for 120 days with Six Flags. This treat is included in the Grad Nite ticket!

Six Flags offers so much more for a dramatically lower price. It is understandable that there are people who would be willing to pay the $160 for Disneyland, but it would not be fair to put the rest of the class who cannot afford that price increase. Seniors, it is your last time to celebrate with your class as a whole, let’s make it a good one. We applaud the council’s decision to make the change. It makes financial sense.

The price is not right!

Opinion2 Friday, November 3, 2017 Glendale High School Explosion 2

It felt wrong to put a paper out two days after the final game of the World Se-ries without saying anything about it.

First of all, congratulations to the Houston Astros. Regardless of what team you were rooting for, seeing a team win its first ever championship after exist-ing for 56 years, you have to give props. This Astros team overcame many things this postseason and, at the end of the day, they deserved that Game 7 more than the Dodgers did. It’s as simple as that.

Now that that’s out of the way, we can get down to business. In truth, this was a tremendous series. As someone who pre-dominantly watches hockey, soccer, and football, I could not stop watching this series anytime it was on. Each game was better than the last and both teams played some of the most entertaining baseball I’ve ever seen in my life.

As I watched the Dodgers fight each night, I realized that this is the first LA professional sports team in quite some time to reach a final. We’re spoiled here in Los Angeles with teams that have con-quered in their respective leagues. The Shaq and Kobe era of the Lakers won five championships and dominated the NBA.

It was only three years ago that the Kings won their second Stanley Cup in three years and were beginning to earn a “dynasty” title in the NHL. Heck, even the LA Galaxy became a bonafide MLS dy-nasty in the Landon Donovan and David Beckham era by winning three MLS Cups in four years from 2011 to 2014.

But since 2014, no LA team has made it to another final. This was not only the year for the Dodgers to win, but it was the year for the entire city of LA to remind America that we are a sports powerhouse.

Much will be said and more will be criticized of the Dodgers’ Game 7 perfor-mance Wednesday night. A combination of inexcusable pitching by Yu Darvish and lack of capitalizing on numerous scoring opportunities eventually did them in.

Some of this criticism will be justi-fied, of course. Some of it will be com-pletely unfair also. But the truth is, the Dodgers did deserve to make it to the World Series and they deserved that 7th Game after being down twice in the series. Unfortunately, they also deserved to lose on Wednesday.

But you know what else they deserve? A ton of respect from fans. Dodger fans, Kings fans, Lakers fans, Galaxy fans, even Rams and Chargers fans, all owe a big thank you to the Dodgers for giving this city the ability to hope.

An entire city was hoping for a 29-year drought to end. An entire city was hoping that an LA team would capture a national title for the first time in three years.

Alas, neither of those things were to be. But it was a heck of a ride while it lasted and it won’t be the last time we see the Dodgers make a postseason run like this. Let’s just hope that next time we can get over the hump. I think I speak for most sports fans in this city when I say this: Thank you Dodgers for an unforget-table season.

Artwork by Alex DerMovesesian

Princess Ani Krikorian

Ani has been playing soccer for four years. She was awarded “Rookie of the Year” freshman year and top goal scorer junior year. Ani is a very nice and ener-getic Baskin-Robbins worker, who will greet you with a smile. Her favorite city is Hollywood, and she wants to study sports medicine at Pepperdine Universi-ty.

Homecoming Court3 Friday, November 3, 2017 Glendale High School Explosion 3

Ani Krikorian

Meet the Royal Homecoming Court

Prince Ezekiel Castelo

Ezekiel is in Nitro Crew, National Honor Society, and he is the president of Filipi-no Club. Ezekiel is a very happy person. He smiles all the time with or without a reason. He wishes to become a success-ful engineer in the future. He wants to attend Cal State University, Long Beach.

Ezekiel Castelo

Princess Mandy Nassirpour

Mandy is a four year player on the girls’ varsity water polo team, and earned all-league last season. She is the team cap-tain this year. She is also in the senior class council and works for the YMCA. She teaches kids how to swim and serves as a lifeguard in her free time. She plans to attend Cal State Northridge.

Mandy Nassirpour

Prince Tigran Danielyan

Tigran is a four year member of ASB. He was freshmen class vice president, sophomore class president, junior class president, and now he is the ASB pres-ident. He plans on majoring in Business Administration at UCLA.

Tigran Danielyan

Princess Marie Premne

Marie is a two year member of ASB and is the director of multimedia. She is also varsity cheer captain. Marie is the sec-retary for the Girl Up club. She enjoys binge watching Netflix shows and loves cuddling with her cat. She hopes to go to Cal State University, Long Beach to study nursing.

Marie Premne

Prince Santino Espiritu

Santino is captain of the varsity foot-ball team. He is part of the National Honor Society, Global Mindset Group, and Physics Club. He wants to attend UC Berkeley as an Engineering major. He enjoys going on food trips with his friends and hopes to live near the beach.

Santino Espiritu

Princess Christina Sargyan

Christina is an editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, two year member of ASB and currently director of clubs. She is also the secretary of Hunger Heroes. In her free time, Christina volunteers for the Union Station Homeless Shelter. She is interested in becoming a journalist in the future.

Christina Sargsyan

Prince Sebastian Gonzalez

Sebastian is a four year member of the football team and has been on the varsity for three seasons. He loves playing bas-ketball with his friends. Sebastian plans to continue athletics on the college lev-el. He hopes to major in Kinesiology in college.

Sebastian Gonzalez

Princess Jillian Yanai

Jill is a four year varsity point guard for the girls’ basketball team where she was first team All-CIF last season. She has been on varsity track and field for three years. In her free time, Jill likes to be hyped up on Eminem and J Cole music. She has played the trumpet in jazz band for four years. She is planning on going to a school out of state.

Jillian Yanai

Prince Kane Gu

Kane is the president of NHS, vice pres-ident of Red Cross, and regional VP of Global Mindset Group. He has been in marching band for four years, symphon-ic orchestra for three years, and Glendale Youth Orchestra for three years. Kane enjoys volunteering with the American Red Cross and playing music. He hopes to attend UCLA.

Kane Gu

Dukes and DuchessesJuniors-Van Haslett- Van is the starting varsity football quarter-back and is a team captain. He loves his team and enjoys being their leader. When he is not on the field playing foot-ball, he enjoys taking hikes and relaxing at the beach.

Clara Cho- Clara is on the varsity water polo team. She serves as a lifeguard at YMCA and volunteers at Pasadena Humane Society. She loves hanging out with her friends, sleeping, and watching Netflix. She loves to eat ice cream.

Sophomore-Amaras Gogoshian- Amaras is two year member of ASB and currently sophomore class director of publicity. She has been in volleyball for two years, and she is also in Best Buddies and Hunger Heroes. In her free time, she enjoys eating, watching Netflix, and hanging out with her friends. She hopes to go to USC after graduating high school and transfer to Harvard to become a lawyer.

Freshmen-Arshak Krikorian- Arshak is on the JV water polo team. He loves his sister Ani. In his free time, he likes to play games on his PS4. His favorite subject is math. Arshak wants to go to UCLA and become a lawyer in the future.

Miranda Mendoza- Miranda is on the JV basketball team. She is enjoying her first year of high school at GHS. She plans to attend an Ivy League college to become a psychologist in the future.

Sports4 Friday, November 3, 2017 Glendale High School Explosion 4Dynamiter football Legends return to MoyseMichael Davis of NFL’s L.A. Chargers heads list of 10 former Nitros football greats who will be honored tonight in pre-game ceremony starting at 6:20

Zane Archer ’08 Michael Davis ’13 Andy Eddy ’81 Denny Evangelatos ’74 Jimmy Evangelatos ’76

Brian Flette ’93 Gordy Hess ’57 Rick Martin ’04 Tom Seabold ’60 Alex Yoon ’12

In 2008, Zane Archer was the GHS Athlete of the Year, Glen-dale Quarterback Club Scholar Athlete of the Year and scored three touchdowns against Hoover. He was voted the Homecoming King.

Later, Archer played football at Glendale College for two sea-sons and then played at Chapman University, where he was an out-side linebacker. His senior year, Chapman had the best record in school history. Today, Zane has followed his dream of serving his community by becoming a firefighter for the Los Angeles Fire Department. He attributes his years of football and school-ing to his success and achieving his goals. He says he owes every-thing to God, his mother Henri-etta, father Daniel, brothers Paul and David, and his teammates and close friends (many of whom are in attendance tonight). He wishes to thank the coach that made him into a man on and off the field, former GHS coach Rafik Thoros-sian. May he Rest In Peace.

Dr. Gordon Hess (Gordy) graduated in 1957. He was elect-ed GHS’s Student Body President and was the male lead in the op-eretta, and was voted King of the Backwards Dance.

On the field he was an all-league running back and earned All-CIF recognition in football. He was the team MVP for the Dy-namiters and was selected as the City of Glendale’s Athlete of the Year in 1957.

After GHS he was given a full athletic scholarship to UCLA for football and he also ran track for the Bruins. He coached foot-ball at prestigious Princeton Uni-versity during his graduate stud-ies there. He obtained a Ph.D. in Psychology and is a Presbyterian Minister.

Hess is married to Sandy Melville Hess. They celebrated 54 years together in December. They have two children and five grandchildren. Gordy is extreme-ly grateful for the faculty of GHS (then and now) for providing a solid foundation for lifelong learning.

The Glendale High-Hoover High rivalry has always been very special to Tom Seabold. He got to play against the Tornadoes in the Rose Bowl and played on three GHS teams that never lost to Hoover.

For the 1959 Hoover game, Seabold was moved from the end position to the tailback position. There he set a Glendale-Hoover game record for most carries and yards, running the ball 30 times for 172 yards. At the time that was the most ever in both catego-ries. His 30 carries in the Hoover game still stands as the top GHS mark.

Seabold’s 1959 Nitros ad-vanced to the CIF semifinals in the playoffs and were one of Southern California’s finest foot-ball teams. He was honored as an All-CIF end. After high school, he received a Civil Engineering degree from USC and spent 38 years with So. Cal. Edison.

Tom has three children and four grandchildren, and he cur-rently resides in Lake Arrowhead with his wife Merry.

Michael Davis earned first team All-CIF honors in football and was a phenomenon on the track team. He is the fastest Nitro sprinter in history, breaking the school’s 100 & 200 meter records that were set in 1928.

Davis was the Homecoming King and a member of the choir and newspaper staff. After GHS, he played football at BYU where he graduated with a degree in Theater Arts with emphasis in Set Design. Currently he is a mem-ber of the NFL’s L.A. Chargers. Davis wishes to thank his mother. He said, “My momma is my best friend, my safety net. Thank you for the countless hours you put in, pushing me to excel and be a better me and stressing the impor-tance of hard work. Gracias Ma.”

He would like to thank GHS’s Steve Holmoe. “What an honor to have this great man in my life. The knowledge that I have ob-tained from him has shaped the way I perceive the world. He al-ways gives me life tips to have an edge on my ‘opponent.’”

In 1981, Andy Eddy served as ASB vice president, was Ed-itor of Stylus, and a member of A Cappella Choir. He was on the CIF Champion basketball team, the league champion track team, and was selected all-league in football. He was the Glendale Quarterback Club’s area MVP, was News-Press All-Area.

He enrolled at USC where he was a member of the football and sailing teams and became a Rose Bowl Champion. He received his Business Degree in 1986. After graduation, he spent eight months sailing with the Heart of America Challenge in the America’s Cup trials in Australia. Today, Andy serves as the Head of Real Estate and Development for Western Dental. He resides in Huntington Beach with his beautiful wife of 29 years, Myra. They have three children, Luke, Holly, Anna. He has been extremely blessed with the people and relationships, in-cluding coaches and faculty at GHS, that have supported and mentored him along the way.

The 1973 Glendale High School football class had the first seniors to have come up through the Glendale Bears football pro-gram which was started in 1969.

That Nitros team broke an 18-game losing streak the school had the previous two seasons.

Dennis Evangelatos was an all-league defensive back with FIVE interceptions in just three games, which was one of the top marks in CIF.

He was an outstanding lead-er on campus as he was the GHS Student Body President.

After GHS he was enrolled at USC where he was magna cum laude and a Phi Beta Kappa So-ciety graduate. He was a AOA Medical Honor Society graduate of UCLA School of Medicine. He was selected by L.A. Magazine as one of best doctors in L.A. and In-dustry Favorite by the Hollywood Reporter.

He is currently Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA and has a private practice in Beverly Hills.

Glendale High prepared Jim-my Evangelatos at many levels to carry on with life. Football was his passion and he was vot-ed team MVP his senior year. He made all-league and his teams were undefeated against Hoover for three years.

Jimmy says going to GCC was the “best decision he made.” They won the conference cham-pionship and he received all-con-ference honors. His GCC team and he individually were both in-ducted into the Glendale College Athletics Hall of Fame.

Jimmy said always having his father as his team doctor, on this very field tonight with him from Junior All America Football in 1969 through GHS and GCC, will always have a special place in his heart.

Real Estate Brokerage be-came his passion, and today the Evangelatos brothers, and their wonderful sister, own and manage apartments in Redondo Beach and hotels in Palm Springs and Rosarito Beach, Mexico.

Brian Flette was the anchor on the Nitros’ line on the 1991 league championship team. He was a 2-way starter at center and defensive end and inside line-backer and was also a team cap-tain.

That year, Flette was named Pacific League Lineman of the Year. He is remembered for blocking a field goal attempt in a 17-16 victory over John Muir en route to the Dynamiters’ sec-ond Pacific League title. In 1992, he was again all-league and was the team’s co-MVP. In both 1991 and 1992, the Los Angeles Times named him first team center. He was also a starter in both the Glendale/Burbank and the Daily News All-Star Games and was Captain in the Glendale/Burbank All-Star Game.

Flette graduated in 1993 and attended Glendale College where he started two seasons for the Va-queros. He then attended UC Da-vis. He currently works as a self employed welder/fabricator/met-al art artist in Alhambra where he lives with his girlfriend Deborah.

Rick Martin is a proud 2004 Glendale High School graduate. He played fullback and lineback-er as a three-year varsity letter-man in football and made first team all-league and all-area. He had a memorable game his se-nior year, where he scored FIVE touchdowns in a double overtime win against Crescenta Valley.

Martin went on to play foot-ball at Glendale College, where he made all Western State Con-ference honors, and then played one season at the University of La Verne. He finished his undergrad education at California State Uni-versity, Los Angeles with a de-gree in Business Administration.

After college, he went to law school at Southwestern Law School. He currently resides in Los Angeles and works for a law firm in the Los Angeles area.

Martin would like to thank his high school coaches and team-mates for the great memories and for teaching him the life lessons, through the game of football, that have helped him become the man he is today.

Alex Yoon is a member of the GHS Class of 2012. He was a three year varsity player who played quarterback in his junior year when he earned first team all-league and All-Area for the Glendale News-Press and second team all-league in his senior year as the starting running back.

At GHS he was a four-year member of the choir and a finalist for the Pat Navolanic Memorial Award with a stellar 4.2 GPA.

In his last game, Yoon re-corded 285 rushing yards against Hoover, along with three touch-downs. The rushing total is the most for any player ever in the 88-year history of the Glen-dale-Hoover football game.

Alex went on to study at UC Berkeley where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Economy. He currently works as a credit analyst at Bank of Hope in Los Angeles. He would like to thank all his teammates and all his coaches throughout his high school career. All the accolades earned along the way were all due to their support and trust in him.