the eagle angleearly rise

rs Students have the

opportunity to apply for TAMS,

an early college for high schoolers on the UNT

campus.

farm frie

ndly Kaylee Price

shares her story in FFA, and

how it is more than just taking care of some

animals.

traditio

nally CurtisThe

story of how

one family has continued from

the very beginning to be a part of Allen ISD and

the community.

perfect p

utter

Senior Marissa

Dodd, this issue’s GTKYE,

signed with Wake Forest to play golf in

college.

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5

8

14

continued on page 2

January 28, 2011

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Stress, competition from class rank affects students

Senior reunites with parents

Victoria Jadoobirsingh points to a plain white wall in an empty room. She lays down on the floor of her new apartment. “This,” she says, ”is where I want my bed.”

She looks around and maps out her bedroom. Next to her bed, she plans to have a nightstand. And across from it she will have a chair to read in.

But to Victoria, in the end it doesn’t matter how her fur-niture will be organized. What does matter is that she is start-ing a new life with her parents.

“Everything that hap-pened in the past one and half years was worth it,” Victoria said. “Now we’re happy.”

For the past year and a half, Victoria, a senior, has lived with her aunt and un-cle in Allen, 4417 miles away from her parents in Trinidad. She came to get a better edu-cation, because Trinidad is an

island that only has one main university.

On Dec. 21, she was re-united with her parents, who stayed behind to take care of Victoria’s uncle, who had cancer. When her uncle died, Victoria’s mother, Mala, quit her job and moved to Allen to see Victoria attend high school and college. Her father, Ge-rard, plans to go back to Trini-dad in March.

“I wanted to come out here

and go to school, but my mom wasn’t too happy about that because I did it in a short pe-riod of time,” Victoria said. “It was hard, but I knew I had to stand by myself. I could either stay in Trinidad and finish up my education, or I could stay in Allen, which is what I really wanted.”

Victoria lived in Allen for a semester during her fresh-man year, and then she moved back to Trinidad. After she

finished the Trinidad equiva-lent of high school, she had to make the decision to either attend the main Trinidad uni-versity or move back to Allen.

“It was hard because Vic-toria is my only child and my only daughter,” Gerard said. “And it’s more hard, from a father’s perspective, to have a daughter move away from you, to go to a foreign country,

A typical day for junior Megan Plate isn’t like other students’ days. After school she gets home and starts homework. Five hours later she is just finishing up. For her, the school day isn’t seven hours. It’s all day.

Hard work, hours of studying, rigorous classes. The whole idea of compet-ing for class rank seems over-whelming. In fact some school districts have started to do

away with class rank, such as Highland Park ISD, who no longer ranks students after the top ten percent.

One of the reasons schools have made this decision is the stress it puts on students. Ac-cording to the National As-sociation for College Admis-sion Counseling, over half of all high schools have stopped ranking students. For Plate, the stress almost made her want to give up caring about

rank.“Last year when we had

to sign up for schedules, I was looking at all my classes and I was like, ‘Oh, my God I can’t do this, I can’t do this, this is ridiculous,’” Plate said.

College and Career center adviser Stephanie Helvey has also taken note of the stress that comes with being a top student in a large school.

“There is [so much] com-petition,” Helvey said. “It is

so hard with a school this size to be in the top.”

Some schools have stopped ranking due to heavy competition, which they say can penalize good students who don’t reach the top 10 percent.

Helvey has noticed from her work with students that those who care about keep-ing up their GPA tend to do well in school. Senior Grant Grafentin has always wanted

to do his best.“Since I was a little kid,

I’ve never wanted to get a B,” Grafentin said. “I’ve just always tried…to be the right kid.”

Grafentin takes a mix of AP and IB classes, while Plate is a full IB diploma candidate. AP and IB courses are graded on a 5.0 GPA scale. To be in the top 10 at Allen, students

continued on page 5

Victoria Jadoobirsingh and her parents were brought back together on Dec. 21. They have now bought furniture and a new apartment to live in. Her morther, Mala, is staying in Allen to see her daughter attend high school and college.

Fresh start

Gymnast hopes to reach elite levelTheater prepares for musicalTallenettes to perform at Super Bowl

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Every five years, Allen High School must go through an IB five-year program evaluation. The evaluation, or the audit, process was started by Troy Lemons, the advanced aca-demics coordinator, in May of last year and will be com-pleted by April. The IB program made suggestions during the last audit and checks to see if the recommendations were followed through with. Select-ed IB students and their parents will participate in a program survey. Lemons said it will help the program know what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Four culinary students placed second on Saturday, Jan. 22 at the regional level Texas

ProStart Invitational competi-tion held by the National Res-taurant Association in Dallas. The four students - Samantha March, Luke Trahan, Matt Kon-rad and Hillary Scott - had to prepare a three-course meal in 60 minutes in a 10-foot space using only two butane burn-ers. The students must provide all their ingredients and utensils and build their menu. Culinary teacher Jordan Swim said, “[The National Restaurant As-sociation] surveyed restaurant owners and chefs and asked, ‘What are the skills that are needed for a successful res-taurant?’ and so they devel-oped this curriculum called ProStart.” Along with preparing their three-course meal, stu-

dents must also debone an en-tire chicken in a set amount of time and show their knife cuts. The students advanced to the state competition in Austin in March.

Revolution Test Prep is sponsor-ing a practice ACT test on Feb. 12 in the library from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The test will cost $10. Four weeks after the test is complete, Revolution Test Prep will give personal score reports that show the strengths and weaknesses of the stu-dent. Space is limited, so early registration is recommended. For more information, contact Melissa Blank, AHS Testing Co-ordinator, at melissa_blank@allenisd.org

Revolution Test Prep will also be offering free SAT and ACT workshops for juniors and se-niors. The first SAT workshop will be held on Feb. 26 and the first ACT workshop will be held on March 29. Each workshop will be four hours long, with ses-sions held in the morning and afternoon. Students must regis-ter by Feb. 18 for the SAT and March 21 for the ACT. For more information, contact Troy Lem-ons at troy_lemons@allenisd.org or by calling 972-727-0400.

-compiled by Savannah Choate and Josh Friemel

the

newsangle

Lisa Smentek was decorat-ing for a football game on Nov. 11 when she received an unex-pected call.

“She introduced herself, and told me that she was from an event and talent agency in [Los Angeles], and they would like to invite us to perform at the Super Bowl,” Smentek, Tallenette instructor, said.

Smentek agreed immedi-ately. At that time, she didn’t know that this would mean a week long process, including three full performances by the drill team. Two performances will be held prior to game day,

Tallenettes to perform at Super Bowlending with the actual Tallen-ette Super Bowl performance on Feb. 6.

“They said they were on our website, [after] googling ‘big bands, big drill team’ and found us,” Smentek said.

All 76 members of the drill team will be attending the Su-per Bowl, and will be involved in performing a constant 20 minute show. Smentek says that they have found a way to keep up a continuous wave of entertainment.

“All the girls are perform-ing one number, and then we’re splitting the team up

so part of the group is doing this number, then the other part of the group is do-ing that num-ber, so there is never any down time,” Smentek said. “We’re basi-cally doing seven rou-tines.”

The na-ture of Tal-lenette prac-tice has been slightly al-tered in prep-aration for their upcom-ing performance.

“[Practices] have become a little more diversified. Usu-ally when we finish the play-off season, we go full-bore into competition season,” Smentek said. “And for whatever rea-son, God put in my head this year to say ‘get your contest material done early.’ So all of our competition material was done before Thanksgiving break.”

Junior Jonée Lewis says that she does not feel that the difficulty level of practices has increased significantly.

“Our practices have al-ways been difficult, so noth-ing has really changed,” Lewis said. “It’s still normal to us, besides the fact that we are practicing for a different pur-pose.”

The team alternates prac-ticing for the Super Bowl and practicing for competitions. Smentek says the Tallenettes are anxious about their Feb. 6

performance.“They’re stressed,”

Smentek said. “More than I would like to think that they should be feeling right now.”

She acknowledges the fact that most of the team mem-bers would be relieved if they did not have to participate in competitions as well. How-ever, Smentek says that the en-tire team has resolved to prac-

need to have higher than a 4.0 GPA.

In order to keep her grades high, Plate stays organized to be more efficient.

“Agendas [are] like my best friend,” Plate said. “Not going to lie, it’s color coded.”

With such a heavy work-load, Plate and Grafentin have had to learn how to manage their time between school and other activities. Often they find there is not as much time for their other interests.

This year Grafentin gave up varsity golf, but he still plays on the varsity soccer team, and plans to play at Stanford next year. Plate chose to take PALS, because she says it is relaxing compared to the rest of her day.

“It’s hard work, the things we do [in PALS], but it’s a dif-ferent kind of work. It’s enjoy-able,” Plate said.

Both Plate and Grafentin have had to make personal sacrifices in order to maintain a high rank. And both feel they don’t have as much time with friends on the weekdays, but they manage to find time on the weekends.

“I hang out with people on the weekends all the time,”

Tallenettes practice the routine for their Super Bowl performance at Cowboys Stadium on Feb. 6.

Just dance

story by Margaret Wells staff writer photo by Margaret Wells

Students deal with stress from class rank

Plate said. “They understand the workload, [we just] feed off each other.”

Most of Plate’s friends also take advanced classes, and their support helps her when she gets a bad grade. When she was younger, Plate would sometimes cry when she did poorly. Grafentin would also get upset.

“I would get really frus-trated,” Grafentin said. “I would almost be in denial that I got a bad grade.”

Now both students say they realize their true charac-ter is not based on a low grade, but how they bounce back from it.

“Over time, you just learn that you have to perse-vere through [bad grades],” Grafentin said.

Grafentin suggests that students should make the most of their free education, because he believes that work-ing hard in school will pay off down the road.

“If I strive to succeed in school,” Grafentin said, “that’s just one step closer to success in life.”

continued from page 1

tice harder and longer in order to perfect everything.

“They know that this is an opportunity that never comes your way more than once in a lifetime,” Smentek said. “Even my seniors who have seniori-tis are really buckling down to make this a great event.”

Co-ed auditions were held in November for the Tallen-ettes, and new team members include boys from all areas of the school. Smentek says this will be an added bonus to their Super Bowl performance.

She acknowledges that the co-ed practices’ intensity level has increased rather drasti-cally.

“We’ve never considered taking the co-ed group any-where, other than just to com-petition and then they perform at the spring show,” Smentek said. “I thought ‘what a neat opportunity to show some of the diversification of the group, and to give those fellas a chance to feel what it’s like to really push hard, and to prac-tice real efficiently.’ ”

Smentek says that she is unsure of whether or not the girls fully understand the situ-ation.

“I think they recognize the opportunity at hand and real-ize it’s huge for them. I don’t think they really understand the names,” Smentek said.

“Like when we were told we’re going to escort Tony Dorsett [a former running back for the Dallas Cowboys] and the par-ty trophy into the kickoff of the NFL experience at the con-vention center, I don’t think it really hit them.”

According to Lewis, there are mixed feelings concerning their performance, but mostly she thinks the girls are both excited and anxious.

“When it gets here, we are going to feel extremely lucky to be in [our] position, because [there] are not a lot of drill teams that get offered this op-portunity,” Lewis said. “We’re thankful for every chance we get.”

Lewis adds that she knows the girls will be prepared for their performance.

Smentek says she believes that the team will perform to their fullest extent, and she has no doubt that they will succeed.

“I think they’ll be amaz-ing,” Smentek said. “I wouldn’t have accepted it if I didn’t think that they could pull it together.”

story by Lydia Gardner and Jacob Lostoski staff writers

3new

sthe eagle angle

Issue 5January 28, 2011

Allen High School

Students apply for early college at TAMSShe watches as cars screech

to a stop, grabbing the closest parking spots. Glass breaks as a box of family pictures falls to the ground. The silent groans of dads with achy backs, after carrying a refrigerator up two flights of stairs, echo through-out the halls.

It was the typical dorm move-in day.

A few hours later, she was left alone in what would be-come her home for the next two years: college.

She had prepared herself mentally. No more paren-tal supervision, the constant heavy workload, new groups of friends.

She was only sixteen.

Allison Hu, senior at the Texas Academy of Math and Science (TAMS), is one of the 378 high school students who attend college classes on the University of North Texas campus in Denton.

Upon finishing their soph-omore year of high school, stu-dents of Texas public, private and home schools have the op-portunity to apply to TAMS.The regular application dead-line for fall 2011 is Feb. 18.

The academy is a residen-tial program, in which stu-dents are able to study along-side college students and with college professors to complete their final years of secondary education.

“A lot of people come in

wanting to be doctors or en-gineers, because that’s what TAMS caters to,” Hu said. “But a lot of people are just there for the experience, or to experiment,” Hu said.

Students are given a struc-tured course outline focused on math and sciences. By the end of their senior year, gradu-ates accumulate a high school diploma and up to 60-80 col-lege credit hours depending on their course choices.

“I think you’re getting ex-posed to the college environ-ment,” sophomore counselor Lauren Allen said. “[You are] becoming more responsible and learning the skills that you need to know to adapt at

a younger age in life.”Along with an applica-

tion, students are required, if invited, to attend an interview before acceptance. Students who applied for early admis-sion in January will go to their scheduled interview date on Jan. 27 or Jan. 28.

This interview gives TAMS administrators an op-portunity to see if an applicant might not be mentally and so-cially prepared for the sudden change of academic surround-ings, even if they are prepared academically.

“Other kids need the shel-tering of high school and what it offers to be successful later on,” Allen said. “[But TAMS students are] mature beyond

their years. They can take on the challenge, and they have the responsibility instilled in them to get it done…they don’t necessarily need their hand held every step of the way.”

TAMS students are given many of the opportunities that college freshmen experience, such as football games, foam parties and access to the stu-dent recreation center.

“I was content at Allen and of being known as the smart kid. I knew how to do the homework. I knew how to take the tests,” Hu said. “I needed to be pushed. I need-ed to be with people that were going to be exceptional, who

were going to make me feel like this wasn’t good enough, and I needed to try harder. You never know how far you can actually go until you go there.”

Sophomore Feimei Zeng is an applicant to TAMS for the fall 2011 semester.

“I want to go there and get a sense of character, to find out who I am,” Zeng said. “If I hate the two years there, then I can go do something non-math and science related. But if I do love it, then I know what I’m going to do in life.”

TAMS students reside solely in McConnell Hall, al-lowing them to interact with their peers.

Some of the biggest con-

cerns about living an hour away from home two years early is the lack of social activ-ity similar to high school, leav-ing friends and family and not knowing the other students.

“Everyone is dealing with the same stress levels that you’re dealing with. We don’t really know who we are,” Hu said. “Everyone is going through that, everyone kind of understands you. We become a family very quickly.”

Starting the second semes-ter, students are given the op-portunity to take any elective credit offered at UNT, aside from those requiring prerequi-sites, all expenses paid.

“I personally want to

go there for the academics,” sophomore Helen Xiong said. “I think a lot of the opportuni-ties will be more unique than at the high school…it’s a big change, but I’m looking for-ward to it.”

Another change is the switch to college-level teach-ers, tests and homework.

“[At] Allen I was just skimming through problems,” Hu said. “In college you have to understand concepts. You can’t just do a problem. You have to know how to do it, why you’re doing it and what you’re doing.”

The program is a major jump for students who sud-denly have to interact with older students that they are

now classmates with.“I think it is huge being

on a college campus with pos-sibly 22-23 year olds, and here you are, 16-17,” Allen said. “There is always that fear of the unknown that college kids know what they’re doing and have that experience under their belts.”

Although the workload might scare some applicants off, others find it one of the most appealing aspects of the academy.

“Even though a lot of people think it’s going to cut out on your high school ex-perience, when I’ve talked to people who are there, they’ve said that it’s basically the same

social events as high school, if not more,” Zeng said. “The clubs there are a lot more ac-tive. Sure you take college courses, and it’s more chal-lenging, but they teach you a lot too.”

Though TAMS students are “missing the whole entire high school experience,” ac-cording to Allen, the countless opportunities are still enough to draw hundreds of appli-cants every year.

“It’s right for some people, it’s not for others,” Allen said. “It’s finding what’s best for you, and doing the best you can to be prepared.”

Along with the opening of the new Eagles stadium in Au-gust of 2012, a special Hall of Honor will also be created to honor those involved in Allen athletics.

The Hall of Honor is a wall with former athletes, coaches, teams and fans that are recog-nized for their contribution in Allen athletics from the early 50s through today. Each year, four to five people will be in-ducted, but for the first year, there could be more.

“I think Allen has a rich history in athletics and some people don’t know [or] really realize that,” head athletic di-rector Steve Williams said. “Allen has grown so much over the few years and every-body just remembers what has happened here.”

Williams initiated the idea of creating a wall for those who played a key role in the athletic department. The in-spiration was seeing other dis-tricts, such as Wylie and Gar-land, and their walls of honor for their former athletes.

Nominations are open for anyone to submit. Applica-tions are located on the AISD website and citizens may fill them out and bring them to the athletic facility. Nominees must be ten years removed from their time at Allen.

“The nominee must possess good character throughout their lives,” committee chairman Bob Curtis said. “If it is an athlete that is being nominated, they have had to have a significant contribution to the program and distinguished themselves on the athletic fields. Not only their athletic ability, but their ability as a team player and also as a leader.”

Honorees will be picked by the selection committee, which is made up of commu-nity members. Selected hon-orees will receive a ring that is specifically designed for the Hall of Honor. The top of the ring will have the vintage Tuffy, and a letter “A.” On the other side, it will have the ath-lete’s name and an emblem of

the sport they played. Those who are nominated

and do not get in will be eligi-ble for re-nomination the fol-lowing year.

“If you receive one vote from the committee then you will stay in the pool for five years,” Williams said. “But if you receive no votes, [nominees] go back out. But you can be nominated again.”

The location of the Hall of Honor will be on the home side of the new stadium so people will be able to see it as they enter the stadium.

To gain enough money to create the Hall of Honor, the school held a golf tournament to meet the financial needs, since the exhibit is not school funded. The tournament raised around $11,000.

The first set of selections will be announced in either May or June of 2011.

HALLGREATS

OFHONORCREATESALLEN

CLASSALUMNIof

I needed to be with people that were going to be exceptional, who were going to make me feel like this wasn’t good enough, and I needed to try harder.

“-Allison Hu

“

story by Megan Patoskie and Kailey Warren staff writers

story by Esther Yang staff writer with contributions by Josh Friemel

5features

the eagle angleIssue 5

January 28, 2011A

llen High School

so far away from you, at an early age. It was not an easy decision.”

Gerard said he had to think about what would be best for Victoria.

“I thought that it couldn’t be a selfish decision, because with this opportunity [to live in America], it was going to please me,” Gerard said. “But I needed to think about her fu-ture. It wasn’t about me, it was about her, so I had to make the sacrifice.”

Parting with her parents was particularly saddening for Victoria, who was 16 at the time.

“It was really bad,” Vic-toria said. “At the airport we cried and cried. I wished they

could come with me.”Gerard said not a single

day went by that he didn’t think of Victoria.

“Most mornings I would get up with tears in my eyes because you’re in the house, and you remember her room, and ‘this is what she did here,’ and every single thing in the house reminded you of her,” Gerard said. “I’m not an emo-tional person, not like her mom. Men are more introvert-ed. But not a day went by that I didn’t miss her.”

Victoria found a job to help with finances for living. Although the family would stay in touch by video chat-ting, texting, e-mailing and talking on the phone, Victoria said at times it was depressing being away from her parents.

“It was hard when my un-cle died,” Victoria said. “I had to go back home and it was hard to say goodbye.”

Christmas 2009 was hard for Victoria and her mom be-cause they had to celebrate apart.

“It’s so far away that we can’t do anything except talk to her,” Mala said.

Whenever Victoria was going through a difficult time, she tried not to let her parents hear it in her voice.

“Sometimes it would hurt, but I didn’t want to bother them, or let it get to them,” Victoria said. “I didn’t want to put them through that. I know they look up to me and I can’t lie, and I didn’t want to start crying.”

Victoria suprised her par-

ents at the airport when they arrived in Texas.

“I was walking in the air-port and I thought, ‘What will I say when I see them?’ I was thinking all that and my cous-ins were laughing and making dumb jokes to keep me calm,” Victoria said. “And then I saw Mummy and when she saw me she was trying to hide her face. And I saw her and I was so happy and then I saw Dad. Dad had no clue. It was nice. It was like everything is faster and you feel accomplished. It’s a feeling I can’t explain.”

Although Victoria missed her parents, she said that she appreciates them much more now than she did before she left.

“I mean, you miss your home and what your parents do for you, and I miss them checking up on me, and see-ing how I am at school, and making dinner,” Victoria said. “[And] all the sacrifices. I can’t imagine having to do that.”

Gerard also respects Vic-toria more after she overcame her sheltered upbringing in Trinidad.

“She came and she was so determined to make some-thing of herself and to do something. I knew she felt strongly about it, but I didn’t know how much,” Gerard said. “And with me, as a father, I really admire her because it occurred to me that she didn’t have that person to look out for her and to tell her what to do and to do her schoolwork.But I knew that she was work-ing hard.”

Now that her mom has

The thick stench of ma-nure seems almost nonexistent to senior Kaylee Price as she walks up to the pen. Opening the gate, she reaches out to pet her 1,500 pound steer named Psycho.

Price’s love for animals influenced her to join FFA her sophomore year, and since then it has became a major part of her life.

“I go in and feed my ani-mals one day, and then the next day I walk them. I work however their body adjusts,” Price said. “If my pig is look-ing too thin, I’ll feed her. If she is looking too soft, I’ll work her out.”

Before joining FFA, Price thought the only objective was to raise animals. She now con-siders FFA to be like a basket-ball team, utilizing the value of teamwork, leadership and bonding.

“You wouldn’t get any-where if you weren’t a leader,” Price said. “You can get some-where with a team, but you have to have a leader on that team in order for the team to function.”

After going through a Ca-reer Development Event and a leadership course, Price was able to learn the history of FFA

and start meat judging. Dur-ing the process of meat judg-ing a dead carcass is hung to indentify the parts and meat cuts.

“There is a lot to it,” Price said. “They have retail cuts, which is where they cut a T-bone off and you have to know what it is. When you look at a pig, you look at its butt. But in meat judging, it is called a ham.”

To prepare for competi-tion, Price works her animals daily at the barn by walk-ing them. Since cattle are her favorite animals, she often spends time washing and dry-ing her steers.

“I like cattle more because they are more social. They are like big teddy bears on ste-roids,” Price said.

Price attends three com-petitions a month in order to improve her animals and get feedback from the judges.

“I have a real bad luck pig. When we took her to county, she kept throwing up her feed,” Price said. “We went to another show, we figured out what was wrong and stopped that.”

When Price gets her ani-mals she knows that their lives are short so she tries not to get

too attached. “It is the cycle of life. I eat

them, why wouldn’t I give them up? You have to men-tally prepare yourself,” Price said. “I get my animals know-ing that they are going to die.”

Sometimes it insults Price to hear people’s negative com-ments about FFA, but after she explains it they end up think-ing it’s cool.

“Usually [other people] think of farm animals, farm-ing, hicks, rednecks and poop,” Price said. “Sometimes [it bothers me], it just depends on what they think. When I say that I’m in FFA, they say ‘Oh, you are a hick.’ My re-sponse is, ‘I grew up in the city just like you.’ ”

Returning to the large metal barn, Price paces to the

At the Collin County Youth Show on Jan. 6, senior Kaylee Price shows her steer, Sabin. Price has been involved in FFA since her sophomore year and is the FFA president this year.

Animal Fever

Student learns to love farming organization

continued from page 1

Senior’s parents come to Allen after almost two years in Trinidadpermanently moved to Allen, Victoria is excited to have a house and to be able to spend time with her.

“All day, the whole day, I could not sit easy in school. I just kept saying, ‘I can’t wait to see my parents,’ and my friend had to tell me, ‘Vicky, calm down,’” Victoria said. “I’m just so excited to move into my apartment and to be back with my family. I can’t wait to drive her and go on a walk with her.”

Gerard and Victoria agree that a lot of children and teen-agers take their parents for granted.

“Children growing up at a certain age don’t appreci-ate their house or their car, but when you grow into 19-21 [years-old] or something, then you begin to think,” Gerard said. “When you realize you need to move out and you are having to face the world, you begin to appreciate what your mother has provided you, or your father.”

Victoria is appreciative of her mom giving up her job and her home to move in with her. Mala is looking forward to the future too.

“I’m doing it all for a bet-ter life,” Mala said. “I want to be here for her for high school and college. It’s all because of my daughter.”

Mala, Victoria and Gerard Jadoobirsingh shop at IKEA for furniture for their new apartment. After Victoria’s uncle died, her parents moved from Trinidad to Allen to be with Victoria.

A new home

story by Juhie Modi staff writer photos by Juhie Modi and Josh Friemel

opposite side of the barn to collect tonight’s scoop of feed. After pouring the feed into the bin, she strokes the jet black hair on the top of Psycho’s head before leaving. And then it starts all over again tomor-row.

story by Katie French staff writer photo by Austin Gartman

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7entertainm

entthe eagle angle

Issue 5January 28, 2011

Allen High School

Film: “Country Strong”“Country Strong,” which

premiered Jan. 7, centers on fictional music sensation Kel-ly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow, “Iron Man) as she returns from rehab. This film includes rising stars Leighton Meester (“Gos-sip Girl”) and Garret Hedlund (“Tron: Legacy”).

The film boasts great musical talent from Paltrow, Hedlund and Meester. Pal-trow proved that she truly has musical talents. Meester and Hedlund also show their mu-sical prestige with their songs including a duet called Give In To Me.

The film had great acting. Paltrow gives a commanding performance in a role darker than her typical performances, but the true main characters of the film could easily be con-sidered Meester and Hedlund. Though some of the scenes are traumatic and disturbing, the cast handles the intensity with ease.

Plan on spending money to see this film, but as a warn-ing it is more of a chick-flick.

CD: “Thank You, Happy Birthday”

With Cage the Elephant, you’re always in for a catchy pop/punk tune that’s stuck in your head longer than it needs to be. Songs like “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” and “In One Ear” have had their names in the spotlight dozens of times, and their self-titled debut al-bum scored high with alterna-tive and pop fans alike.

Their second and latest al-bum is all about transcending their irreverent standard. “Ab-erdeen” is rich with random guitar riffs and tambourines. It sometimes feels like you’re listening to a different band. “Indy Kidz” and “Around My Head” are also a little off-tempo and both are mixed with screaming and even a few gorilla-ish grunts. They seem to be moving away from the sound that made them a hit.

Although “Thank You, Happy Birthday” has it’s mo-ments with “Rubber Ball” and “Shake Me Down,” the album feels like it’s trying too hard to be something we know it isn’t.

The theater department will be performing “Back to the 80s: The Totally Awesome Musical” at the Lowery Fresh-man Center Feb. 3, 4 and 5 at 7 p.m.

The musical follows the memories of the narrator, played by junior Blake Lee, as he reminisces on his high school days.

“It’s the era of the 80s,” Lee said. “It’s interesting to see what happened back then, and to see what was cool.”

The theater department has been putting on a musical performance every other year for several years now.

“[Every year] the direc-tors all kind of toss out ideas and pick out ideas based on the kind of kids we have, what kind of talent we have that could support a musical, and we decide from there,” theater director Carrie Howell said.

Each student auditioned with a minute and a half with a song of their choice, and the directors collectively decided who was the best fit for each part.

“We started after Thanks-giving, rehearsed a few weeks in December, and then all of January we’re rehearsing ev-ery day at least two hours, if not four,” Howell said. “And then we have some Saturdays.

It’s a pretty extensive rehearsal schedule. It’s a big commit-ment.”

Junior Dominic Peciko-nis said that his character has helped him learn more about theater.

“He’s a huge nerd at the school, and he’s so smart that he knows that we’re going to have cell phones, and we’re going to have computers. He knows everything about the future because he’s pretty much the one inventing the fu-ture,” Pecikonis said. “And be-cause my character talks about so many really smart things, I’ve had to go and research everything. So I feel like it’s helped me learn how to really develop a character.”

Lee, Pecikonis and senior Kaley Were have all been in-volved in AHS theater pro-ductions for several years, but putting together a musical presents an entirely different experience than a regular play.

“It depends on the show, but 85 percent of all the musi-cals out there are very ‘show-biz-y,’ ” Lee said. “Theater can be a little more personable and realistic.”

A musical also presents a different set of challenges.

“I would say a musical and a play have the same rehearsal time, but in a musical there’s

so much more that you have to do,” Pecikonis said. “Because in a play, it’s the blocking, it’s learning the lines. In a musi-cal, it’s blocking, it’s learning the lines, learning the songs and learning choreography to the songs. So I feel like there’s so much more you have to do. It’s a little more stressful.”

Despite the extra work, all three agree that the finished product is worth the stress.

“I like the outcome,” Lee said. “I like seeing how it all comes together. Because you go through this whole month-long process of hammering in songs and blocking and work-ing and you get to the outcome of it and you think, ‘Wow, I can’t believe we put this to-gether and it looks so cool.’ The hard work pays off.”

The cast is looking for-ward to watching the audi-ence react to the play.

“I think the audience is really going to enjoy it, espe-cially since a lot of our parents were probably in high school in the 80s,” Were said. “I think they’re really going to get a kick out of it, and I think their energy will be good for us as actors.”

Theater prepares for 80s-themed musical

Sophomore Kelsey Garrison practices choreography for “Back to the 80s: The Totally Awesome Musical.”

Footloose

story by Conner Martin staff writer photo by Nicole Welch

CD: “Showroom of Com-passion”

Cake has been making hits since before most of us were born, and their defin-ing 1994 debut gave them well-deserved credit for their unique sound. Now, with their latest release, “Showroom of Compassion”, their signature quirky jazz melodies coupled with the stunningly blunt sar-casm of frontman John McCrea is brought back.

Well, sort of. The album’s single, “Sick Of You” has charted on Billboard’s Top 100 nine times, every time ranking from thirteenth to eighteenth in the most requested catego-ry. “Showroom” radiates the usual satire expected, with the song “Federal Funding.” But a surprising amount of slow and almost reminiscent tracks grace the album as well. Songs like “Bound Away” and “The Win-ter” bring a surprising amount of simple guitar. Its bluesy, yet melodic feel keeps the album rich, but doesn’t overload by keeping some stripped down material on there as well.

Reviewing with an angle

Film: “Season of the Witch” On Jan. 7, “Season of the

Witch” boasting lead actors Nicolas Cage (“National Trea-sure”) and Ron Perlman (Hell-boy), opened in theaters. The duo gave an interesting per-formance as two knights of the Crusades that get wrapped up in a witch trial.

The film itself has an in-teresting plot, but the acting appeared subpar. When lesser known actors took control of intense scenes, the film was not as strong. The cast attempted to hold the film together, but a lack of general chemistry be-tween the actors caused the it to fall flat.

Claire Foy does do a de-cent job playing the creepy un-known sociopathic witch. The film would have been better if it was a longer length, to fill in some plot holes.

Though this film did have its moments, wait for the DVD.

The latest movie and CD releases

reviews by Mary Patrick White and Zach Avallanet staff writers

legacy

tradition

(love) A be d family’s

“All you remember now is the good stuff, because there’s no room for the bad stuff.”

-Stacey Curtis-Dunstan

It’s not hard for Stacey Curtis-Dunstan to feel connected to Allen. She only needs to drive down Rivercrest to pass Walter and Lois Curtis Middle School or stop in at Scotty P’s to order the Curtis Burger.

And when she was growing up, her grandmother or cousins were only two streets away in every direction. Lois Curtis, or “Meme’s” house was always the favorite though.

“Her house is still two streets away from my parents [just like] when I grew up,” Stacey said. “I could go up any time of day, and if my parents wouldn’t get it for me, Meme would.”

Today, the Curtis’s influence is everywhere. In some way, almost every member of the Curtis family, starting with Lois, has reached out to touch Allen ISD.

“With the exception of one cousin, we’re all AHS grads,” Stacey, a geometry teacher, said. “My dad’s graduating class was 18, I had a graduating class of 351 kids.”

Bob Curtis, Stacey’s father and Lois and Walter’s son, said for the past 81 years, there has been someone from the extended Curtis family enrolled as a student in Allen

ISD. Lois was the first when

she entered first grade, and was followed the next year by her future husband, Walter.

Later, Lois would serve as the first food service director for Allen ISD and Walter as tax assessor and collector for Allen ISD and the city.

Together, Lois and Walter have more than 70 collective years of documented service to AISD.

“Education and Allen ISD is just in their blood,” Becky Kennedy, Curtis Middle School principal, said.

Although Walter and Lois were made Curtis Middle School’s namesake in 1994, these two family members were not the end of this family legacy.

“When they decided to name the school after my

grandparents, my grandfather had just passed away,” Stacey said. “We were cleaning out my grandmother’s house, and we came across pictures of [Lois’] family coming to Allen from the Tennessee area in a covered wagon.”

The legacy continued with Bob, who was active in city

and civic events, while his wife, Amanda Curtis, worked as the athletic secretary at the facility until both retired last May.

“After [my dad] retired from the ATF, he started working with my grandfather and eventually became executive director of facilities,” Stacey said.

A career, however, wasn’t the only way they devoted their lives to the community.

“Even when my grandfather didn’t work for

the school district, he was the one who went in a grain truck in the late 50s or 60s to get Allen’s first scoreboard,” Stacey said.

Walter always did more than simply buy a ticket and attend a football game.

“My aunt was in drill team, and he always drove

the drill team bus,” Stacey said. “He [also] ran the clock at the football and basketball games.”

After college, coming to Allen to teach was an easy decision for Stacey.

“I had a math degree, and I could have gone anywhere,” Stacey said. “But I chose to come back here and teach.”

She came back to a rich legacy.

“If I sat down and wrote a book of everything we did as a family, it would be so

tremendously thick,” Stacey said.

Whether it was a casual weekday lunch, or a national holiday, all of the Curtis family was invited.

“I love Christmas, and that was always my favorite,” Stacey said. “The grandkids would get together and be goofy or play games. And the dorkiest, stupidest stuff was

the best part of it.” For the big holidays,

such as Christmas, they had a long banquet table where all of about 15 people would gather for a meal.

“It didn’t even have to be a fancy meal. Sometimes

it was just sandwiches and chips and dip,” Stacey said. “Then we would pass out presents and we’d do present exchanges.”

Putting family first is what Stacey remembers about her childhood and how well her family got along. The memories are especially important to Stacey now, as she watches Lois struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

“I truly would say my grandmother is one of my best friends because before she developed Alzheimer’s, we went and did everything together during the summer,”

Walter is the third from the right end of the back row of the 1940 football team picture. Lois is pictured on the far right on the front row of the 1940 senior girls picture.

honor

Stacey said.Stacey would often pick

up Lois to go out for lunch or to the mall. Her grandmother was the person Stacey could gossip or watch soap operas with during their free time.

“[We] had friends, but family came first,” Stacey said.

Stacey and Lois have also endured struggles together; some shared and some in support of each other.

The two women have a condition called essential tremers in common, which is a genetic condition that skips generations. So, Lois has it and passed it down to Stacey.

“I wouldn’t trade this,” Stacey said. “It just means we are definitely related.”

Mild symptoms cause a little shakiness, but severe symptoms impair one’s abilities to write or hold objects in their hands, and sometimes even walking is a challenge.

“Two years ago at 32, I was about as bad as she is now at 87 years old,” Stacey said. “We bonded over that [since] we were going through the same thing.”

Before Lois’ Alzheimer’s symptoms progressed over the past 5 years, she remained active in the school district as well.

“Her health has been

declining in the last 5 years, so we saw a little bit less of her,” Kennedy said. “Boy, until a couple of years ago, she was getting in that car and driving over here.”

Stacey struggles to watch her best friend lose the ability to recall the memories that hold their family so close together.

“You look at this woman and she’s your grandmother. You know she’s in there somewhere,” Stacey said. “She just can’t get out. She’ll remember parts of it.”

Every year, Lois always made a point to show up on the first day of school at Curtis Middle School and attend the kick-off pep rally.

“When we would introduce her in the pep rally, they would cheer and stand up to clap for her,” Kennedy said.

She would speak to the kids and give her words of wisdom and encouragement for the new school year, Kennedy said. And it usually ended up with something like, “and be nice to each other.”

“I always laughed and thought that was good advice,” Kennedy said. “Try hard and study, but bottom line with Mrs. Curtis was to be nice to each other.”

Lois also visited periodically throughout the school year. Around Christmas time, she would acquaint herself with all the faculty, new and old, as she handed out homemade holiday goodies.

Although Lois is not able to be as active in the community now, her family remains a large part of the district.

“This family legacy to me is that they’re always there,” Kennedy said. “With the Curtis family, it just continues.”

Stacey Curtis-Dunstan teachers her geometry class during 8th period. She is the granddaughter of Lois and Walter Curtis.

Heritage

story by Paige Foster staff writer photo by Kyle Inabinette

Walter CurtisTax Assessor & Collector for the

City of Allen and Allen ISD** Also drove a school bus and

worked the clock at football and basketball games

Lois CurtisFood Service Director for

Allen ISD

Dan Curtis

Barbara CurtisSecretary for Curtis Middle

School** Also worked at the Allen ISD

Administration Office

Bob CurtisExecutive Director of Facilities for Allen ISD

** Also worked in the Tax Office with Walter Curtis

Amanda CurtisAthletic Secretary for the Al-len ISD Athletic Department

** Also was a secretary of Boyd Elementary & Green

Elementary

Marty Allen

Stephanie WalstonBobby Curtis

Worked summers for the facilities department

**Currently a physical therapy student at Texas Tech

Stacey Curtis-DunstanGeometry Teacher at AHS

** Also has taught at Ford MS, Curtis MS and Lowery Freshman

Center** Also has worked at Allen ISD

Athletic DepartmentIndicates Allen High

School Graduate

Laurana Allen

Kyle AllenWorks for Allen ISD

Facilities Department

Ashley AllenTeaches 1st Grade at Olson Elementary

Greg Walston

Grace Walston Abby Walston

Robert Dunstan

Cara Valentine

Clint Christie

Mike Valentine

Jodi Christie

Hunter

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stAFF WRitERs

Allen High School • 300 Rivercrest Blvd. Allen, Texas 75002 • (972) 727-0400 • eagleanglestaff@yahoo.comthe eagle angle

Next fall, several students from Allen will complete their junior and senior years of high school at the Texas Academy of Math and Science (TAMS), a two-year residential early col-lege entrance program housed at the University of North Texas. There has been concern that students who have just completed their sophomore year are not ready for a college environment.

The Eagle Angle staff be-lieves that the concerns are unfounded.

Students at TAMS and many other early college pro-grams are separated from the rest of the college environ-ment. At TAMS, there is a strict disciplinary system in place that enforces curfews and re-

stricts students from going to certain places in Denton. Stu-dents live in a TAMS-exclusive residence hall and take many of the same classes together, so it really is an isolated commu-nity within a university, and certainly not a stereotypical, wild college atmosphere.

Also, high school is not for everyone. Those who want to pursue a career in math or sci-ence would most likely benefit more from TAMS than from public high school where they would need to study subjects that are not very relevant to their future. Students should have an education that suits their needs, and for some, early college programs are the best fit.

Opponents of early col-

I have this re-occurring dream where I’m stand-ing with all of my peers, step-ping across the stage to accept a rolled piece of

paper. I reach out to accept the rolled paper and shake the principal’s hand when the spotlight is placed on me and the principal takes a deep breath. “Briahna, you will not be graduating with the rest of your class because you caught the disease known to teach-ers as senioritis.” Those final words echo in my head as I try to pull myself out of the situa-tion I’ve slid into.

Senioritis is not a good thing. It takes you away from what you should be focused on. It heightens impatience and stimulates laziness. We fall behind in classes. We think seniors 2011 rule the school and we become overindulged in the attention we get for be-ing seniors.

From our senior shirts to our senior jeans, we expect to be respected. We expect to have a fly by year with little to no work. But it’s not at all what we want it to be. We are not senior royalty and the school system does not stop for us.

When it comes to getting my work done, I’m optimistic in my effort. I write everything down, schedule what time to get it done and I believe with-out a doubt I’ll have it done. But of course, when the time comes to do the work, procras-tination seeps into my pores and persuades me to do some-thing else. “I’ll get it done,” I think to myself, “Just at a later time.”

One would think that af-ter 12 years in school, habits

that encourage completion of homework would be devel-oped. But truth be told, I just want to be done with it.

Every “A” day I sit in my pre-calculus class trying my hardest to pay attention to the swirling numbers on the overhead. “Focus,” I’ll say, trying to speak over the loud voice in my head that takes a deep breath and says “I can’t wait until I graduate.” I flip my binder to the front side to view the calendar and count the days until graduation. It’s easy to be excited for gradua-tion and hide the fact that I’m not completely there yet and still have work to do. Some-times I just give up in frustra-tion, because I’m a senior so I shouldn’t have to do this.

Usually after seeing a drop in my grades, I quickly jump back into action and pick up all that I let slip. There are a lot of things that can hap-pen to a student’s future with a simple drop from an A to a C. Scholarships can be taken away as well as college accep-tances. Thinking about having to pay for college myself hor-rifies me and puts me back on track. That money would be better used if it stayed in my pocket for things like books, labs and shoes. So I’ve realized that it’s better to stay focused now, and gain lessons that will better prepare me for college.

Hopefully, when I do take those unfamiliar steps, the principal won’t speak at all. He will just smile and shake my hand. Now all I have to think about is not falling.

lege programs say that 16-year-olds are not ready to live alone. However, this is a choice that each student makes along with their parents. As long as the students’ families agree that their child is ready, it should be no one else’s con-cern. If anything, early college programs will teach students how to be self-sufficient and accountable for their lives and education.

It might be true that in some cases early college pro-grams are not the right fit, but many have benefited from them. Rather than criticizing their choices, we should wish the students well at TAMS and other early college entrance programs.story by The Eagle Angle staff

story by Briahna Ellis staff writer

story by Kyle inabinette managing editor

Personally, I’m glad that I never knew about the in-d i s c r i m i n a t e murder of over a dozen people in the streets

of New Baghdad, Iraq on the news, that probably less than 5 percent of America knows what U.S. foreign policy even means and that I’m entering the world of “paying taxes” and I have no idea where that money is going.

We should be thankful that our government is as shady as it is. If we knew ev-ery little thing about the war in Iraq, U.S. foreign policy and why we’re $3 trillion in debt right now, we’d have to face those problems, when that is something our grandkids should be doing.

That’s why I hate “Wikile-aks.” When it first made it onto Fox News, I thought it was Wikipedia for plumbers. This little website takes all this clas-sified, Tom-Cruise-Mission-Impossible-type information that our government keeps in the secret vault under the White House and publishes it all over the Internet. Clearly, that’s not a good thing. What happens if information about our national debt and foreign policy falls into the hands of some terrorist? Or worse,

what if this “leaking” business turns into a massive violation of privacy and the govern-ment starts tapping my phone calls and tracking my inter-net usage? Wait. That already happens.

Did you hear about the Freedom of Information Act a few years back? It said some-thing about how everyone has the right to certain govern-ment documents (obviously excluding those that must be kept classified for National Security purposes). Honestly, this “act” is a lot like any kind of environmental reform in the last decade. Environmen-tal reform saves a few trees and the Freedom of Informa-tion Act gives us the right to see some super-secret stuff. Both pointless and pandering to those greasy-haired, tree-hugging liberals that have nothing better to do with their time than take my gun and tell me where the nearest abortion clinic is (probably around the corner from the new health-care clinic where sick people get healed for free).

I went searching for this Wikileaks business on the computer and scrolled all the way down until I found a link called “Collateral Murder.” Finally, my kind of website. I mean, this link has obviously got to lead me to some sort of action movie about a guy who

has to rescue his teammates and avoid as much collateral damage as possible while car-rying around a gun too heavy for even Arnold Schwarzeneg-ger, right? Wrong. It’s a 39 min-ute tape shot from an Apache helicopter in New Baghdad, Iraq.

The tape starts with sol-diers chattering about “permis-sion to fire” on armed “insur-gents” and some outside talk of an attack a little more than a mile away. Finally, the red-tape is cleared and the soldiers open fire on the insurgents. But they weren’t insurgents. They were reporters from Reuters, a prominent world-wide news organization, and a couple of unarmed civilians. The helicopter keeps firing at them until every last one is dead (the really funny part is when one completely innocent man tries to crawl away and the soldiers in the helicopter shoot around him and laugh until finally killing him). A few minutes later, an unarmed black SUV pulls up, carrying two children, to pick up the bodies. The funny part: the soldiers blow it away, killing the children and their father.

See? Aside from the sheer entertainment of this video-game-like video, couldn’t we just do away with Wikileaks? I don’t need to know if or when my government is do-

ing something wrong. I don’t need to read over 250,000 documents that cover the U.S. embassies’ handling of our country’s foreign policy. I don’t need to know what’s been happening in the war on terror since Jan. 1, 2004. I certainly don’t need to know when U.S. soldiers break the “rules of engagement” and slaughter innocent people. But most of all, I don’t really need to know what goes on beyond

the end of my texting fingers. If I can’t see it from here, hear it from here, or smell it from here, it should just not exist. That’s why I hate Wikileaks, that’s why I hate the truth.

Age not a factor: TAMS does students good

Wikileaks: Ignorance is bliss

Senioritis: a feared disease

11sports

the eagle angleIssue 5

January 28, 2011A

llen High School

On Jan. 21 the District 8-5A swim meet was held at the Colony. Allen’s boys team won its first dis-trict title since 2003. They scored a total of 132 points over Plano West’s 116 points. The girls team won second place with a total of 122 points be-hind Plano’s 171 points. The Region l Meet will be at the Lewisville Aquatic Center on Feb. 4-5 lead-ing up to the Class 5A State Swimming Champi-onships held Feb. 18-19 in Austin.

On Thursday, Jan. 20 freshman Rachel Colman broke the AHS diving record with a final score of 320.16. Colman placed third in district, senior Car-li Curington fifth and senior Cailee Ellsworth sixth. All three advanced to regionals.

The boys basketball team has started off quick with an 20-8 record (4-4 district). They are led by seniors Barrington Stevens (12.48 ppg, 3.2 apg, 1.8 spg) and Bobby Farquah (9.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.7 bpg). They continue through a hard district schedule featuring a tough back-to-back games against of Plano West on Jan. 28 and Flower Mound Marcus on Feb. 1.

On Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. there will be a meeting for all cheerleading candidates and parents in the caf-eteria. Cheerleading forms are due on Feb. 9 at 3:45. On March 7 and 8, tryouts will be held in the AHS gym followed up with a review and practice the next day. On March 10 there will be stunting evaluations followed by tryout evaluations the next day.

the

sportsangle

When I attended my first high school basketball game, I expected a game full of fun and excitement as our very tal-ented team was facing another local talent, Garland Nam-man Forrest. I never expected to be watching players sitting around, coaches pacing back and forth and athletic director Steve Williams standing over the injured Tyler Shrum. Why the delay? Shrum had not only taken a charge, but he had also dislocated and broken his foot in three places. The spectators sat around for 30 minutes wait-ing for the EMTs to respond to the call and take Tyler off on a stretcher.

EMTs should be pres-ent at all sports in case of an emergency. Even if the EMTs had no ambulance, they should still be on site. If any-thing were ever to happen at a sporting event, schools could be in serious trouble

and would regret not having an experienced professional on the scene to help a kid in need. Lives are too precious to lose over a small sports in-jury. Having EMTs present at sporting events that lack the violence level of football is still essential to students’ health. It is the school’s responsibility to protect all students, not just football players.

At football games, EMTs are on the site ready to take someone off on a stretcher in times of emergency. What about the other sports that require lots of movement, as in basketball, soccer or hock-ey? If someone was hit in the head with a hockey puck, they could be seriously injured with head trauma that could be worsened in the time it takes EMTs to respond to the scene. Same goes for baseball with accidentally thrown bats and baseballs hit out of play.

Lack of EMT support at games unfair to other sports, athletes

In indoor sports like bas-ketball and volleyball, ankles and knees are in danger with every play that comes down the court, as in Shrum’s situa-tion. Another risk is the hard gym floor that, if landed on, can cause head trauma or oth-er significant injuries. The fast paced games can also be hard on the internal organs and bring up injuries players never even knew about.

Freshman Callie Banks had an incident at a volleyball game earlier this year that was life threatening. If not for an off-duty fireman on the scene, who knows what would have happened. EMTs have a quick response time, but I wonder what happens the one time they aren’t fast enough and something happens to a stu-dent.

story by Brandon Bolin staff writer

Rate the reactions

*1 being no reaction, 10 being a big issue

Megan McLaughlin

SeniorVarsity Softball

Paul Walker

SeniorVarsity Football

Victoria spears

JuniorVarsity Soccer

Whitley Wilson

SophomoreJV Basketball

01020304050607080910

Carson Boone

SophomoreVarsity Lacrosse

Evan Wills

SeniorSwimmer

“Two: I don’t really watch the crowd.”

“Seven: The crowd gives us feedback if we’re doing good or bad, so it helps the

way I play.”

“One: I can’t hear because the water blocks out all the

noise.”

“Two: I am too fo-cused on the field to worry about the

crowd.”

“Ten: When the crowd is loud and encourag-

ing it gets me more pumped and ready.”

“Four: If it is loud at a crucial moment, you

want to play extra hard. Especially at

home games.”

How much does crowd noise affect your level of play?

Allen High School • 300 Rivercrest Blvd. Allen, Texas 75002 • (972) 727-0400 • eagleanglestaff@yahoo.com

With the dust patted on her hands and her ankle wrapped, Makenzie Johnson starts her practice on the floor, then once warmed up moves on to the beam. “Let’s go. Come on Makenzie, let’s go,” coach Helen Verucchi cheers.

Johnson started gymnas-tics at the age of four in Cali-fornia, but started at Eagle’s Wings at the age of 10 when she moved to Texas. In Febru-ary, she is testing to move up to the elite level, the highest level a gymnast can reach in her career.

“It’s really hard a lot of the times because I don’t have time for a big social life, and I spend most of my hours in the gym,” Johnson, a junior, said. “It’s hard sometimes, but I know it will pay off.”

Johnson, 16, spends an average of six hours a day, and 30-35 hours a week in the gym, stretching her social life thin.

“When I was in California

it was really good and it was a lot more fun, but here Texas is a big gymnastics state and so it’s really tough competition.” Johnson said.

Standing at 5-foot-3-inch-es, Johnson is actually tall for a gymnast, making it hard to compete on elite level bars.

“She has a great passion for gymnastics,” Verucchi said.

Her team’s first meet was held Jan.15 in Austin. John-son, with an injured ankle and toe before the meet, had both herself and her coach worried.

“Yeah, it’s going to be hard,” Johnson said. “But I’m just going to have to push through and do the best I can.”

She kept her positiv-ity high before the meet, but once the competition was over Johnson wasn’t as satisfied.

“I had two injuries and I was sick so I just wanted to get through it alive,” Johnson said.

Verucchi said Johnson is a powerful gymnast because her legs are packed with muscle. Johnson notes that there are a lot of girls who like to stick with soft classical music, but for her it is usually classical techno, just to make a little more of an impact.

The events she competes in are vault, bars, beam and floor. Floor is her favorite event, while the beam is the event that makes her the most nervous.

“You make one little mis-take and your routine could be ruined. You have to be really focused,” Johnson said.

Johnson said her coach is like her second mom, be-cause she spends more time with Verucchi that with her own parents. Still, while Ver-ucchi doesn’t mind talking about boys with the girls she coaches, she is more focused on their well-being.

“It’s a challenge to coach

them, because they may have school problems or problems with their boyfriend, some-times they are moody,” Veruc-chi said. “I have to know what mood they are in, because gymnastics is danger-ous. If they are in a bad mood, I have to put them straight to work.”

Johnson ex-plained that all the hard work beforehand can only get her so far; she has to be mentally ready to go in front of the judges and the crowd with her routine.

“I have to remember to breathe and I also try to give myself pep talks, that if I fall it’s okay. It’s not the end of the world, it’s just a game and a sport,” Johnson said. “But I also try to push my-self and know that I’ll be able to do good.”

Her three brothers, par-ents and teammates on the sideline all yelling her gym nickname, “Mac,” from the sidelines, is just one more push to keep her on her feet.

“Teenage girls would rather be with friends and hanging out,” Verucchi said. ”With her, I’m just amazed how she gets up every morn-ing at 5 o’ clock, she goes to [church], then she comes to

the gym, then she goes to school, then she comes to the gym, even when

she’s injured, she’s in the gym.”

Junior hopes to achieve gymnastics elite level

story by Molli Boyd staff writer photo by Elisabeth Dillon

It’s 4:00 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 10. The varsity girls bas-ketball coach, Sean Weibling, sits at the desk in his office. He is looking at the scouting report for the 6:00 p.m. game against Hebron.

The report keeps track of the opposing team’s start-ing players and their abilities, weaknesses and strengths of the team and plays they often run. Comparing statistics and accounts from the other teams is only one of the preparations he and his team take before facing an opponent.

With two games a week, and a 5-16 record as The Eagle Angle went to press, Weibling has to make sure the girls are focused. One eye away from the prize could crumble all

they are working for.“It’s been a little bit of a

struggle, but [the season] isn’t something that we didn’t an-ticipate coming into this dis-trict, with the new change and the teams that we have to play week in and week out,” Weib-ling said. “As far as our effort goes, and how much we’ve improved I think we’ve ex-ceeded expectations.”

Weibling said the team has worked hard to improve on their play.

“They’ve stepped up and they’ve done their jobs well, probably more than we antici-pated. So for that side, it’s been really good,” Weibling said. “It’s a part of the competition that we knew coming in and it’s been a tough year.”

Senior captain Jenna Mc-Grath says she is used to Weib-ling’s coaching method even though last year it took the team a while to get adjusted to his new style.

“I understand Coach Weibling’s coaching better [than last year] for sure. Be-cause last year I understood it, but I didn’t really see the big picture and what’s trying to be accomplished,” McGrath said. “Now everything is making sense. I’m like ‘Oh, we did that last year for this reason and we do these plays because it affects us this way and since we have a lot of players we can do that.’ ”

Weibling says that the at-titudes among the girls are al-ways positive.

“Our chemistry’s gotten better, our communication is better and our confidence is better,” Weibling said. “We’re starting to believe in each other better and [believe in] what each other can do. Those are the biggest things I think we’ve improved on.”

McGrath says the team is keeping their spirits up try-ing to improve on their weak-nesses.

“[Being a captain], you have to make sure you en-courage people all the time. If someone on the team gets down, you want to make sure you can pick them up,” Mc-Grath said. “You don’t want everyone on the team to start getting lazy so you just need to encourage your teammates

and play a leadership role. When you’re out on the court, you have to give it your all and not slack off.”

McGrath says the team may disagree from time to time, but that never breaks the bond within the squad.

“We might fight some-times, but we are all a family,” McGrath said. “So in the end, we love each other.”

Weibling says it’s not always about the scores of games. His goal is for the girls to get better each day and to improve on their flaws.

“We look forward to every game,” Weibling said. “That’s why we play basketball.”

Girls basketball team struggles with season, district play

story by Jocelyn ortiz staff writer

Raising the bar

13sports

the eagle angleIssue 5

January 28, 2011A

llen High School

The passion, the intensity, the drive. They compel Kevin Albury to step onto the soc-cer field. With the mounting pressure on his shoulders, he is able to concentrate only on the game, the game that will determine the best semi-pro-fessional team in the nation. He searches the crowd for his family but sees a blur of his team colors. The rumble with-in his chest comes from each cheer made by every town member in Albury’s small town in Great Britain, England that came out to support the monumental game.

Albury slowly makes his way to the center of the field. The official blows his whistle. The game is about to begin. The sound of the crowd, the officials and his teammates slowly fade until he can no longer hear any outside noise. Albury’s concentration is now unbreakable, as he focuses on the game ahead and the ex-treme importance of winning.

The score remains zero to zero until his team finally scores. The sweat slides down Albury’s face and his once per-fectly pressed jersey is now covered in grass and dirt. A buzzer sounds. Every head in the stadium turns to the score-board.

When Albury’s team won the national semi-professional title in 1974, he proved that his extensive training that started at age five paid off. Albury’s father, a professional soccer player in England, helped

him train and, Albury says, he helped him become the soccer player he was and the soccer coach he is today, as the new head girls soccer coach at Al-len.

“I had an opportunity to play with my dad when he was a professional,” Albury said. “Also seeing him sacri-ficing a lot for his family was when the seed grew for me that I want to be involved with soccer for the rest of my life.”

Albury quickly grew to love the sport after being in-vited to practice with profes-sionals across the country, and attending almost 500 of his fa-ther’s games. He started play-ing soccer at a young age and was playing competitively by 11.

Albury went on to be cap-tain of his high school team for three years, and by the time he was 16-years-old, he made the national team and was as-sociated with the professional club.

By the time he was 25, Albury made a decision that changed his soccer career. He and his wife, Stella, moved to America where the opportu-nities for Albury’s dream job were endless. Albury wanted to start coaching soccer. In Eu-rope he would not be able to coach full time like he wanted, so when Albury was offered an opportunity to come to America as a full time coach, he did not hesitate.

“It was a big gamble for me. I’m giving up something

I’m very secure in,” Albury said. “But once I got here, I think I settled down after about a month, even though it was a completely different routine.”

Albury and his wife origi-nally came to America for two years to experience a different way of living. They enrolled in classes at the University of North Texas and soon fell in love with the place. Even though the transition was hard, they knew it was a risk they were willing to take.

Albury’s first job was at Cistercian Prep School in Ir-ving. He coached the boys team there for four years until he began coaching at Episco-pal School of Dallas, where he stayed for seven years.

While Albury was at Epis-copal, he received an oppor-tunity to be a site coordinator at the World Cup, which was held in Dallas in 1994. Albury worked full time with the dif-ferent teams that competed in the World Cup. For three weeks, he was in charge of bringing each team to and from events. He had the privi-lege to be in the locker room when the teams received a pre-game pep talk, and be on the field with them during the game.

After Episcopal, Albury went to Marcus High School, where he coached for the last 16 years.

“I was very fortunate to be 16 years at Marcus and I loved what I was doing, but after 16

years I felt I needed another challenge,” Albury said. “I feel like this is my last big chal-lenge.”

Moving from one school to another was a major ob-stacle for Albury because he had to learn a new team dy-namic and train on a different schedule. But he was still able to form a strong relationship with his new team.

“There are inside jokes that we all have with him be-cause he is British so we al-ways kind of joke about his ac-cent,” senior captain Kayla Ke-ating said. “He always knows that we are kidding. We have little inside things that only we get and think are funny.”

The inside jokes have helped bond Albury with his new team. After being a head coach at three other schools, Albury had a general idea on what to expect but still knew that every team is different. Different teams have different ways of handling situations, such as coping after losing a soccer game, or having one of their best players injured. He knows it is up to him to learn the teams’ strengths and weaknesses.

Albury wants to give ev-eryone the opportunity to learn and love the game like he does. He helps build the team to develop the players, help them be successful in ev-ery game and take the strug-gles they have in soccer and turn them into better players.

“Our goals are pretty sim-

ple. We don’t say we want to go to state, we don’t say we want to win the district,” Al-bury said. “Our goal is to do the best we possibly can in every single practice because good practice habits help you in a game. To walk off a field knowing we gave our best, even if our best was to win the game, or our best was to tie the game or our best was they were better than us.”

Most of Albury’s attention is focused on soccer, but he tries to keep a balance with his family so he does not get com-pletely absorbed by the game. When Albury is not at a soccer practice or a game, he plays with his 14-month-old grand-child or helps out his two daughters, Victoria and Lydia. He also likes to build things to go in his house, and was in charge of the men’s group in his church.

During the soccer season, Albury admits there are strug-gles with keeping a strong relationship with his family members but they are equally invested in the game, Albury’s wife understands how impor-tant soccer is to him, and is “married” to the sport.

“It is the bond that holds us together,” Albury said. “Be-cause soccer is the one consis-tent thing in our family.”

story by nicole Welch staff writer illustration by Kyle Inabinette

Making a final stand

Girls soccer team scores new coach

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A hole in one.It seems like an extraordi-

nary accomplishment.But to senior golfer Ma-

rissa Dodd, it’s just the begin-ning.

Dodd is in the top three percent of her class, was named a Super All-State Aca-demic athlete and has commit-ted to Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

Choosing Wake Forest wasn’t an easy decision for Dodd.

“I was seriously looking at about six different schools, all of them to go play golf at,” Dodd said. “It was really dif-ficult. I was not anticipating the whole process to be that difficult.”

Wake Forest had every-thing Dodd was looking for including her intended major, math.

“[Wake Forest] just felt right to me. I mean it had the academics that I was always looking for,” Dodd said. “The golf team is fantastic and I got to meet the girls and spend time with them. I had so much fun and the best part about it was that it reminded me a lot of my high school team. I have had such a great experi-ence here that I wouldn’t want

anything different.”Although Dodd plays 3-4

hours of golf a day, school is still important to her.

“I have been really into school for my whole life. I def-initely take it seriously.” Dodd said. “I won’t lie; I definitely have some senioritis this year. But golf and school have al-ways been a balance because it’s hard to do both and do both well. It’s always been a struggle for me, but I like it.”

One of Dodd’s favorite parts about golf is her team.

“I love our team,” Dodd said. “We get along great and I love how you know that your teammates are depending on you at the end of the day.”

The Allen girls golf team made it to the state champion-ship last year.

“It was so surreal to know that we had the opportunity to go all the way,” Dodd said. “We were so close. We got sec-ond, but it was very exciting and we left there knowing that we’d be back this year.”

Golf coach Karen Gravley echoed Dodd’s thoughts.

“It’s easy for [the girls] to reflect back to that moment in time and remember that dis-appointment,” Gravley said. “It’s helped them build that

fire inside them again to want to work hard to maybe not feel that disappointment again.”

But that wasn’t the first time Dodd had made it into the playoffs.

“I was the only freshman who got to play at the top five spot at our regionals my fresh-man year,” Dodd said. “I got to play at the number one spot a couple of times so I wasn’t consistently at the top which I find is good because it gives me something to work for, but if you kind of get a glimpse and taste of that really high nice place, you know you want it.”

Pressure doesn’t bother Dodd anymore as much as it used to. Dodd used to get “first tee jitters.”

“I get excited from it now; it’s not a nervous feeling. It’s just like a thrill and a rush,” Dodd said. “In golf, you have to learn how to contain it all, because if you let your mind start going crazy, it’s such a mental sport that it can go off very quickly.”

Regarding golf, Dodd has one main goal.

“I would live to be able to have the opportunity to choose if I wanted to take [golf] to a professional level,”

Dodd said. “I plan on playing college golf and then after do-ing that for four years, decide what level I want to take golf to.”

Gravley believes Dodd is successful because “she has seen the work ethic and com-mitment that has to be made.”

“Marissa has the desire to go beyond. She has known since she came into golf that she wanted to play in college,” Gravley said. “She is willing to make the sacrifices and any good athlete, you look at them and you know they’ve made their sacrifices.”

No matter where golf takes Dodd in college, Dodd believes it “will always be a huge part of my life, whether it’s for a sport or just for fun.”

“My team has been the best, I couldn’t have asked for a better high school golf experience at all,” Dodd said. “We’ve all gotten along so well and I have a feeling we are go-ing to win this year. We got it.”

Fore success, keep drivingGTKYE plans college career around golf

story by nicole schmidt staff writer illustration by Kyle Inabinette

15sports

the eagle angleIssue 5

January 28, 2011A

llen High School

I am a Cleveland Browns fan. Every Sunday I expose myself to the sights of their games, which can be described as visual torture. I root for a team that has had a combined record of 64-128 since 1999. But for some strange reason I can’t turn away from the atroc-ity on Sunday afternoon that is a Browns game. Because I’ve been a fan since my birth, I can’t just pick a new team to root for. I can’t just take my rooting talents to South Beach, because for some reason I love these losers in the orange hel-

mets, and I won’t abandon them.

I was also born in Penn-sylvania, the heart of Pitts-burgh Steelers country. I was born with a disease, a love for the Cleveland Browns. So the obvious question is why? Why subject yourself to end-less losing? But with every fumble and interception, and with every lost game, and every losing season my re-solve grows firmer. I know it’s unexplainable, but maybe it doesn’t need to be explained. I am simply a Browns fan. I was

cursed at birth and all I can do is accept my fate.

It’s not all my fault that I like the Browns. The in-tense loyalty I feel toward my Browns is a result of watch-ing games with my dad since I was a little kid. My brother and I would sit on the couch by my dad, not understanding the game that was unfolding in front of our eyes.

He would explain the game to us simply - we root for the team in orange hel-mets. Whenever he cheered, we would cheer. Whenever

he yelled at the TV, we would yell at the TV And whenever he would swear, me and my brother would ask my mom what those words meant.

It was the beginning of an undying loyalty. My first Hal-loween I dressed up as Browns quarterback Tim Couch. While other kids were told bedtime stories about princesses and dragons, my parents told me stories about Jim Brown, Ber-nie Kosar and Brian Sipe. May-be, that’s why I just can’t stop. Because I know that no matter the outcome of the game, my family will be feeling equally as bad as me.

Every winter we make the drive to Cleveland, Ohio to cel-ebrate Christmas with our ex-tended family. And with every visit there is an annual Browns game that my family attends. Every game is like Christmas morning. We all cram into the car dressed in multiple layers to prepare for the harsh Cleve-land winter, and we drive to the stadium. Of the five that we have attended, one game stands out.

It was 2008 and the Browns were 4-10. We were going to attend a game against the in-state rival Cincinnati Ben-gals. We arrived at the games dressed in snow pants, snow boots, jackets, winter face shields, snow mobile suits and

What can the Browns do for you?One fan’s love and loss with his favorite team

I know what you’re think-ing. I was thinking it too. Bowl-ing? Is that even a sport? After practicing with the team for a day and attending one of their matches, just saying yes does not do enough justice to cover the physical and mental work required for the sport.

Going into practice, I felt more relaxed than I had been for the other sports. No guys twice my size trying to kill me, no dance routine to perform in front of the school and no lacrosse balls to push 30 yards away while attempting to pick them up. Just 10 pins waiting to be knocked down.

I’ve been bowling be-fore, with friends and family, but never in a serious setting. That change from just joking around with friends to the pressure to perform, com-pletely blew the very small part of my brain that knows anything at all about bowling.

It transformed from just a simple game into a sport, and there is a big difference. Going from throwing the ball back-wards and between my legs to lining up next to the fifteenth board and following through was like coloring with pastels instead of crayons. And there is thinking about the spin you put on the ball, which pin to aim for and which foot to start out with. And that’s all before you even throw the ball.

Coach Kevin Prior came straight out and set the tone

for the rest of the practice. He kept saying “We need to get better. We are going to get bet-ter, get better, get better, get better.” For me, getting better was a pretty easy task. I was starting at the bottom, so there was plenty of room for im-provement. As coach said “get better, get better,” I was think-ing “no gutter, no gutter.”

I stepped up to the lane thinking I was going to be fine. I just had to avoid the gutter so I didn’t embarrass myself in front of people who actually bowl and take it seri-ously. I hadn’t taken a step be-fore the coach stopped me and explained that not only was I holding the ball wrong, my ap-proach to the lane wasn’t right either. Before I even thought I had a chance of doing some-thing wrong, I did something wrong. With some quick and thorough explanations, the coach had me ready to do something right. His explana-tion was short and sweet. But the amount of detail required to have good form is incred-ible.

I mean, the idea of bowl-ing is simple enough, right? Throw the ball down the lane. Hit the pins. But the math involved and the physics in-volved were even more diffi-cult than the homework I had waiting for me at home after practice - and I’m not exactly a pro in my pre-cal or phys-ics classes (there’s a 96 percent

chance my dad just read this and cringed, thinking of my grades).

Now with correct form and a little more confidence, I stepped up to actually throw a ball. I quickly reviewed the crash course I had just re-ceived in ‘You thought you knew how to bowl but you actually don’t know anything’ 101 and stepped up to the lane. I stepped forward, reared back and let the ball naturally fall down the lane, aiming where the coach had just instructed me to. It felt great as it left my hand, but about two seconds after it hit the lane, it swung left and wound up in the gut-ter. First test: failed.

As the practice went on the coach continually stopped to help me. As my bowling improved (my next throw did not end up in the gutter, which was a 100 percent improve-ment) I found myself thinking more and more about the tiny things that make up a good bowler. Instead of going up there and throwing it with-out any thought (other than it would be awesome if I got a strike) I was thinking how to line myself up to make a more efficient shot for myself.

It is that level of thought, concentration and analysis that every good bowler goes through on every throw they make. It really is amazing how much effort the bowling team has to put in to be successful.

It may not look like a sport, but the amount of work and athleticism needed to be suc-cessful trumps any misgiving about its qualifications.

Finally, I left practice a much better bowler than I thought I would ever be, es-pecially after only an hour and a half of practice. I im-proved from absolutely awful to somewhat awful. I call that a success. The next day, I went to the match between Allen and McKinney High School.

Overtime with David Barr Gutter ball

Staff writer David Barr bowls during his practice on Tuesday, Jan. 18. He only made one spare during the whole practice.

Both varsity and JV teams sur-prised me with the emotion and energy they played with through the entire match. Both teams came out with a win. It wouldn’t have happened without incredible concentra-tion, athleticism and the drive to get better, get better.

story by david Barr staff writer photo by Josh Friemel

What the Browns have done for you in the past...

• The Browns haven’t had a coach with a winning percentage over .500 since 1999. The best coach since then was Butch Davis (01-04) whose record in Cleveland was 24-35.

• Since 1999 the Browns have had 16 starting quarterbacks.

• 1999 was the first year back from a three year absence. Their record was 2-14.

• Since 1999, they have had a running back gain at least 1,000 yards in 2005 (Reuben Droughns-1,232), 2007 (Jamal Lewis-1,304), 2008 (Jamal Lewis-1,002), and 2010 (Peyton Hillis-1,177).

source: espn.com

every other article of clothing imaginable. We stepped out of the warmth of the van, and into the arctic conditions of the day. It was 0 degrees and the 50 mph winds whipping off Lake Erie made it feel like -30. The bitter cold was almost unbearable, but there was a Browns game to watch.

Once the game started I was instantly disappointed, as the Browns ended up los-ing 17-0. The highlight of the game was when I ordered a Pepsi from the concession stand, and the liquid froze as soon as it was poured from the can into the stadium cup.

That game taught me that no matter how bad it gets, no matter how much we lose, I must persevere. The Browns are a family affair. My family and I will keep going back and will never give up.

I know one day my Browns will win the Super Bowl and I know my family will be watching the game like we always do. And it will feel like we were a part of the vic-tory. We were there for every up and every down. I know the feeling will be indescrib-able, and I’m not too proud to admit that I will cry like a little girl. Someday it will happen.Someday.

story by Lucas Lostoski staff writer

Above: Senior Christopher Fucilla prepares his steer for the upcoming competition.

Left: Junior Mark Davis and senior Timothy Raine try to figure out how to build their assignment in woodshop class.

Right: To make sure the piece of wood is the right size, junior Gabriel Thomas measures to get the exact dimen-sion.

Left: Junior Faraz Ahmad uses a table saw to make precise cuts.

Right: Senior Kirby Long leads his steer to its pen before competition starts.Bottom: Junior Christina Cahoon shows her affections for her goat.

FFA students competed in the Colin County Junior Livestock Show from Jan. 3-8. Thirty-eight schools competed with steers, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits and metal projects. Twenty-one Allen students qualified for premium sale. Photos by Austin Gartman, Alec Spicer, Juhie Modi and Jillian Wade.