in this issue august

BWthe black and white

the black and white. Sept 2010. volume 19 issue 2. 5152780449. 6501 NW 62nd ave. johnston. iowa one copy free

As pictured above, groups have been making big steps toward school spirit this foot-ball season.

six-sevenRead about the Black and

White’s opinion on students and how they should know thier rights.

fiveFind info on the differences

and similarities between advi-sory, homeroom and freshman seminar.

threeRead about the creative

ways students were asked to the homecoming dance on the backpage.

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEFKelsey KruseDESIGN EDITORKelly McGowanPHOTO EDITORMichael Knoedel

NEWSMike Shi

OPINIONKristine Hayes

EDITORIALZach Winjum

ENTERTAINMENT/REVIEWEvan Culbert

FEATURELauren Coffey

FASHION/HEALTHSpencer Vasey

SPORTSRyan Smaha

BACKPAGEEthan Meng

STAFF WRITERSIsabella Engbloom, Wes Monroe, Alexa Anderson

Editorial5 Amping up American rights

Fashion9 Unique consignment shops

Feature10 Who is that unicycle guy?

Backpage12 Homecoming brings graduates back

DISTRIBUTION MANAGERIan Dunshee

PHILOSOPHYThe Black and White is published solely by the Johnston High School newspaper staff. Its goal is to inform, enlighten and entertain Johnston students. It is an open forum. In ac-cordance with Iowa law and board policy, students assign and edit material. The paper is published nine times per school year. The paper will avoid material that is libelous, obscene or an invasion of privacy. The law does not require parental permission to use student quotes. Ethically, we believe students can speak for themselves. Staff editorials represent the opinion of a majority of the editorial board. Editorial and opinion pieces do not neces-sarily reflect the opinions of the adviser, school officials or the district. Letters to the editor must be signed. Like all material, letters may not be libelous, obscene or an invasion of privacy. Bring letters to room 413 within one week after publication to be considered for the next issue. The Black and White strives to report accurate and timely information. If you believe that an error has been printed, please contact the editors at jhsblackandwhite@gmail.com. The Black and White is a member of CSPA, NSPA, Quill & Scroll, and IHSPA. Recent issues of the paper earned these honors: Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Medalist, National Scholastic Press Association First Class rating, Quill & Scroll Gallup Award, IHSPA state placings.

on the cover: Senior Alexa Probst cheers to the student section during an away game. School spirit is featured on pages 6 & 7

Opinion4 NY Mosque should not be a problem

That’s what Shi said

Sports11 Staph attack

Full-Court Press

News3 Advisory, Homeroom & Seminar C&C

AlertNow prevents skipping

Entertainment/Review8 Parkour takes off

MapMyRun.com

Doubletruck67 School spirit

September 2010.

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the b&w newsp.3

District implements new alert systemwords & layout Rachael Meyer

Advisory raises questions

Starting this year, students with unexcused absences may find a message waiting for them. At the end of last year, the district started using a new system called AlertNow to record a message and send it out to large groups of num-bers at once. “It’s a quick way to get information to a lot of people quickly,” Associate Principal Randy Klein said.

Twice a day, AlertNow sends a message to the parents of stu-dents with unexcused absences. It goes out once after fourth period, and then again at the end of the day. It replaced the old system of one person calling all the absences. Klein said, “[AlertNow is being used] to be more efficient and to make sure we don’t miss anyone.”

So far, the system has been used three times for a large group: at the beginning of the summer, after schedules were sent out and the week before school started. “We don’t want to overuse it,” Klein said. In order to discourage peo-ple from hanging up before the automated message is over,

the messages have followed the format of Klein introduc-ing himself, and explaining the reason why the call was made.

AlertNow can send information in a text, an email or, most com-monly, a voice message. “Once we can make it more user-friendly, we’re hoping to allow families to choose the method,” Klein said.

“The numbers are only as good as the information on Infinite Campus,” Klein said. If a family switches from a landline to only cell phones, and doesn’t notify the district or make a change in Infinite Campus, the phone call sent out won’t reach them. The program makes a note that the number is disconnected, and the administration is able to figure out the problem, and fix it.

The idea came from other businesses that use alert sys-tems like this. “Before we used the TV and radio to let peo-ple know when school was cancelled.” Klein said. Families throughout the district can now learn about absences, emer-gencies, or snow days sooner, faster, and with less hassle.

The district has implemented a system of voice messages to communicate with parents.

sept 2010

As with anything new, advisory brings up questions on similarities to old ex-periences. In order to help distinguish between advisory, homeroom and seminar, here is a chart, comparing and contrasting the three.

][

Hom

eroo

mSe

min

ar

-Advisory has curriculum

-Advisory is not for credit and shorter

-Once per week for approximately 20 minutes

-Curriculum

-Advisory in no longer doing polls/survey

-Advisory has smaller classes/divided differently, no longer alphabetical

-No more passing out papers in advisory

-Advisory is more transparent

-Advisory has portfolios

-Advisory is mandatory

-The two are divided up differently

-No polls/surveys in advisory

-Advisory is more transparent

-Advisory has no study hall/reading time

-Games/spirit activities

-Connecting with teacher and peers

-Same teacher all three years

-Course Audit/ITED Review

“Advisory program has some substance to it”-Roz Weaver

“Homeroom was just a gather-ing place to disseminate info”-Roz Weaver

“Bottom line, not even close to seminar”-Roz Weaver

Advisory will focus on advocacy, community skills, 21 century skills and invigorating activities in addi-tion with connecting to one’s advisor and peers

Portfolios are new to advisory that let students store things of value such as photography, certificates or A+s

Both advisory and seminar have curricula but they fo-cus on different things

Games and activities such as door decorating are found in both

Differences From Advisory Similarities To Advisory

A member of the personaliza-tion team in charge of advisory

The curriculum is available online for people to see and comment on

http://www.johnston.k12.ia.us/schools/highschool/AdvisoryProgram/

Differences From Advisory

Similarities To Advisory

Sem

inar

Hom

eroo

m

Weaver Behrens Altmandoors left to right:

words & layout Mike Shi

the b&w opinionp.4

words Mike Shi

That’s

wha

t

said

The mosque planned to be built outside of Ground Zero has experienced major protesting within the last month. These protesters are claiming that this Islamic mosque is too close to Ground Zero because 9/11 hi-jackers shared the same religion. The protesters believe that It would be inconsiderate to allow the same religion that killed thousands of Americans to practice so close to where the bombing occurred. The protesters see this as a sort of victory mosque that insults the ones who died in the attack.

If these protests are only about the mosque’s prox-imity to Ground Zero, than protesters of a mosque in Temecula, California, apparently think that 2,412 miles away is too close as well. Protests against the building of mosques have erupted all over the country, from Ten-nessee to Florida. The issue of the mosque being too close to Ground Zero clearly isn’t the problem. There is an incorrect connection between the Islamic religion and the 9/11 hijackers developed by the protesters.

Whoever caused the World Trade Center bombing should be punished. That is in fact one of the reasons why we are fighting a war. The only problem is that peo-ple are not distinguishing Al Qaeda from all the other Muslims. The protesters are holding a grudge against a major minority simply because it is easy.

It’s the same thing as if a parent who had a child that got injured by a drunk driver started to hate all people who drive a Honda. It is simply much easier to distin-guish if a person is driving a Honda, than it is to distin-guish if a person is driving drunk. This mentality makes

life as an American Muslim incredibly difficult for some.A group of Muslims called “My Faith, My Voice” cre-

ated a public service announcement to address the negative stereotyping directed towards them. The an-nouncement exclaims that they do not want to impose their faith on people, they do not want to take over the country and that they do not support terrorism of any kind. It is ridiculous that it has come to this; a group being stereotyped to such an extreme that they have to announce something that should never even have to be said. Although these protesters have good intentions, they need to be sure they are fighting the right battle.

What the protesters are dismissing is the Consti-tution. While they do seem to know parts of the First Amendment, including freedom of speech and the free-dom to petition, they are conveniently forgetting about another part, freedom of religion. These people should be able to practice their faith anywhere as long as they do it peacefully. Whether it be Scientology, Christianity, Atheism or Islam. The whole point of the Constitution is that everyone has rights and no one should be able to take them away, no matter how many people disagree with another’s point of view.

This dispute is not an issue of proximity to Ground Zero. One block away from the mosque’s designated location is a strip club. A strip club that experienced no protesting for being too close to Ground Zero. This is about misplaced Islamophobia on a misjudged religion. In America, everyone has the right to be able to practice his or her religion; everyone deserves to be free.

words & layout Michael Knoedal

Bacon, that crispy, delicious pork is all around us, whether it’s bacon and eggs for breakfast, bacon bits on your salad for lunch, or bacon ice cream for desert. While bacon may be good, our nation’s obsession with it has just gone too far.

What used to just be a component of breakfast has exploded. Everywhere you look, you can guarantee that bacon will be

there one way or another. A quick look on-line will bring you everything from rainbow-colored bacon to bacon lollipops. On page one of Google Image Search there is, of course, regular bacon, but also a bacon briefcase, bacon bandages and even a ba-con bra.

While I may not know about you, to me, a lot of that bacon stuff is just not appetiz-ing at all. I really wouldn’t want to eat yel-low bacon or a bacon lollipop? The rainbow may taste delicious in Skittle form, but with bacon, it’s just disgusting.

Not only has bacon invaded the Internet, but it has also taken over our televisions. While I understand that some people are more likely to buy a product because it has

bacon on it, some of these ads are just out-rageous. I remember watching one Taco Bell commercial, advertising some taco or whatever, with two women in a bar. One has a taco with bacon in her purse, the other, sadly, does not. Next, some fellows come over; of course, they are transfixed by the mere scent of bacon. Personally, ba-con doesn’t get me all hot and bothered like this ad wants me to believe.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate bacon. I think it’s a good side dish to have oc-casionally with breakfast and it’s good on other stuff too. I just think we’ve taken our love of bacon a little too far. If we keep this up, what’s next? Bacon-flavored floss? Oh wait, they already have that.

Baconmania

Islamophobia

Illustrations/Rosemarie Freymark

sept 2010

the b&w editorialp.5 sept 2010

A cop pulls you over because your left front headlight is out. He then proceeds to ask you to open your trunk.What do you do?A.Tell him he does not have probable cause.B.Get out of your car and open the trunk.C. Start crying.

You have the right to remain silent

What else do I have?

As Americans, we are pretty well-off. We have a gov-ernment that does not oppress the people and we have rights unlike any other country on the planet. Every day we are granted the opportunity to practice these rights. But when students are put in situations when authority figures are involved it can get fuzzy.

Five girls from Atlantic High School were strip-searched in the school locker room after one girl reported $100 miss-ing. The event took place after the girls had finished their physical education class. After being informed of the miss-ing $100, the assistant principal ordered the strip-search to occur. The female guidance councilor continued with the procedure, which the three girls allowed. The search in-volved the removal of various items of clothing.

Although this has not happened at Johnston, that does not mean a situation like it could not occur. There are so many situations that students are put in when they do not

know their rights or what to do. Not only were the students unaware that they could refuse the search without punish-ment, the school officials were also oblivious to the laws prohibiting these searches from occurring. The end result of the strip-search was the firing of the assistant principal and a lawsuit against the school filed by the students and their parents.

The first step in preventing these types of situations from happening is to have a basic understanding of our rights as students and Americans. We must learn what we can and cannot do, especially when authority figures are involved. The best way to do this is by following what is happening in our community, state, and country.

Talking amongst friends and classmates about current events and issues can also expand your knowledge of your basic rights. The school is filled with opportunities to ask questions and share knowledge of student rights.

The principal randomly decides to search through your locker while you are at lunch.What do you do?A. Nothing. Your locker is school property.B. Get angry because your first amendment rights are being violated.C. Call your mom.

A peer claims you have stolen $100 from them. You are asked by an authority figure to remove your clothing so you can be searched for the missing money.What do you do?A. Refuse.B. Proceed to take off your clothing. If it was wrong, an authority figure wouldn’t be asking you to.C. Punch your peer and run.

Do you know your rights?

Mostly A’s You know your rights! When a situation arises where you are being asked to do something, you do the right thing, by law that is. You know when to say no and when to go with the flow.

Results Mostly B’s

It is evident that you are unsure of your rights! Although your answers seem somewhat responsible, there are better solutions. You might want to study up so you can make informed decisions.

Mostly C’s Dealing with stressful situations is not your strong suit! As well as learning and comprehending your rights, you should probably develop a sense of indepen-dence and maturity.

Illustration/Austin Smoltdt-Saenz

the b&w school spiritp.6&7

Brooklyn Drake “I think wearing the over-alls to school got a lot of people excited to see such a big group of girls get into it. School spirit is important because it brings people together”

Megan Randolph “School spirit is important because people who play football always say that when they hear us it gives them motivation.”

Katelyn Fritcher “We want everyone to be a part of it. If you are there to sit down, you shouldn’t be in the student section. Go sit with the parents or some-thing.”

Katie Lashier “Why would you go to a foot-ball game and not cheer?”

16 pairs of overalls: $512 25 cans of spray paint: $70 School Spirit: Priceless

Over the course of a week, sixteen senior girls spent time in senior Brooklyn Drake’s barn spray painting, stenciling, and glittering what once were white overalls to show their school spirit. “School spirit has been kind of down these last couple years,” senior Katie Lashier said, “so we wanted to bring it back.”

YOU KNOW It’s every performance that

counts, “We, along with the cheer-leaders, the students, and the foot-ball players, help create the ‘Friday night’ experience,” Band Director Patrick Kearney said.

Enthusiasm. Support. Motivation. Spunk. Representa-tion. Heart. All are components of the recipe for school spirit; it matters. It matters to those who try to inspire it: with their cheers, with their dance routines, with their in-struments. But, it matters most to those on the field.

When fans are not present, it makes it hard on the cheerleaders because there isn’t anyone to pump up. “Most people don’t know this, but when there are more people there it pumps us up, too,” senior cheerleader Elis-sa Wiley said.

If fans do fill the stands, and they need some pumping up, the cheerleaders have a challenge; it is their job to give the crowd spirit. “We try to do a crowd-involving cheer so they have to stand up and do an action,” Wiley said. A stunt or two also helps to energize the crowd.

The half-time show is meant to entertain, but also to inspire school spirit into the hearts of the fans. The band performs during the half-time to show off all of their hard work, as well as to represent the school. “It definitely helps when we are playing and people are paying attention to us,” senior drum major Sarah Mayer said.

At pep assemblies, as the band plays the fight song it is awkward for people not to stand and clap along, so join in. “People do a pretty good job of participating,” Mayer said. “Especially the ‘D-R-A-G-O-N-S, Dragons Fight!’ part.”

Also performing during pep assemblies and the half-time show is the dance team. Senior Taylor Coakley said that the improvement they have made, due to team bond-ing, an increase in dedication and numbers, among other things, has contributed to school spirit. “People are paying attention to us more,” senior Taylor Coakley said, “So they are getting more excited.”

Dance team member Spencer Vines said the team re-ally gets into it at the pep assemblies and games to get everyone spirited. “The first football game we had to prove ourselves,” senior Alli Christ said, “and now it’s going to be about getting everyone psyched for the game.”

The game: the reason behind all the pumping up. Se-nior football player Brandon McBride said that seeing and hearing fans in the stands encourages him and his team-mates. “If the fans are cheering for somebody it gets them to step up,” McBride said.

“Woo!” The sound that used to end football warm-ups, until lineback-er coach Brent Ksiazek decided it did not sound manly at all. He decided “You know” would be a more appropriate cheer; a cheer, that actually, has caught on.

sept 2010

Pro

vid

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olly

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Photos Provided/Molly Ward

Provided/Paige Plaskitt

What does school spirit look like? Two guys jumping up and down, screaming

in skin-tight purple and gold full-body morph suits. Purchased for $60 each, two guys in morph suits, one in a purple and one in a gold, can be seen at football games cheering enthusi-astically, with the place of purchase, morphsuit.com, printed across the lower back area.

(Right) In the gold… junior Nick Payne(Left) In the purple… junior Andy Smith

Why so much school spirit?“When I was a young lad, my parents always

told me to cheer my heart out, so that is what I do,” Payne, the boy in the gold morph suit said.

Smith, the boy in the purple morph suit added, “It is not embarrassing to cheer for your team. I love the people at Johnston, and I be-lieve they work hard on the field so I cheer for them.”

The Varsity girls dance team pro-forms at the first football game. Members include Alex Cordes, Allie Christ, Amelia Medici, Brianna Demoss, Brittany Fa-ley, Brooke Stephens, Carly Christ, Elin Tegels, Katelyn Lunders, Katherine Gil-lette, Katie Hermanson, Spencer Vines, Stephanie Vines, Stephanie Phillips, Taylor Coakley, Amanda Judas, Laura Smalley and Kenzie Foldes.

Hardcore Parkourthe b&w entertainment

MapMyRun.com

words & layout Evan Culbert

words & layout Wes Monroe

Junior Lucas Wittman jumps into the hardcore phemomenon sweeping the globe, parkour.

p.8

At the age of 2, as opposed to teaching him to walk, junior Lucas Wittman’s parents were focused on finding ways to keep him from scaling the walls of his crib, and climbing down the side to freedom. At this age, Wittman had no idea he was technically doing Parkour, much like he had no idea what the alphabet was. Eventu-ally a tent-like cover kept him from escaping, but not from climbing everything else, and eventually stumbling upon Parkour.Hardcore Parkour.

Perhaps the most official and agreed upon defini-tion of parkour was created by ‘American Parkour,’ the leading parkour community in the world: “parkour is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one’s path by adapting one’s movements to the environment.” Parkour movements usually consist of jumping, vaulting, running, climbing, balancing, and in some cases flips.

Wittman had been doing some form of parkour long before he found out there was a name for what he was doing, let alone a world-wide group of parkour activists. “The first time I found out about parkour and actually knew there was a name for it, was when watching ‘The Office’,” Wittman said. “They couldn’t really do it, but they showed videos of actual parkour on the show.”

From there, it was to the Internet. “I watched a bunch of videos online, and after that I just went outside and started trying rolls off my deck,” Wittman said. After get-ting the hang of the basics, he has since progressed to parkour movements such as kong-vaults, cat leaps and front handsprings. Wittman usually does parkour wher-ever he sees a good spot, like buildings he’s allowed to climb. “I love trying to get on top of buildings,” Wittman said. “Anytime I want to get on top of a building, I’ll walk around it and if I see a place that I can get on top, I’ll

“Parkour is getting from point A to point B as efficiently and fluidly as possible using your body and surroundings,” junior Lucas Wittman said.

sept 2010

There are several different ways to re-cord the miles you run so that you can cre-ate a summary of your workout. Map My Run is a Web site that allows you to do just that, and more. “I like Map My Run since its primary purpose is for runners,” senior Drew Jackson said.

When you enter the site you start by making a personal profile where you ini-

tially put your miles, goals and the time it took you to complete your routine. one nice addition to the site compared to other sites is the ability to add people to to a friends list. You and the people you add as friends have the ability to chat about your workouts, share goals, and the routes or routines you have completed.

On the front page of the Web site there is an area where you enter your location and the routes of people near you show up.

Map my run gives you the ability to create your own maps, show-ing the distance and elevation.

From there you can add them as friends, use their route as your own or browse the workouts they have posted. Also when us-ing this feature you have the chance to look up groups of runners around you.

“The info and tools are very easy to use and understand compared to other sites,” Jackson said. Map my run is a good way to have some fun with your workouts and daily routines while maybe making a friend or two along the way.

walk up to it to check for handholds and footholds, so I know I can do it.”Gear.

Essentially all parkour requires is you and the clothes on your back. However clothing is important, especially shoes. “You need to be able to move comfortably, without (clothes) being too baggy or constricting,” Wittman said. “Shoes are important. There are a lot of things that will make a shoe good for parkour, like light-weight, good grip, and the sole should have just one part.” Witt-man owns a pair of ‘Ariakes’ made specifically for parkour by K-Swiss. Although important, shoes don’t determine skill level. “One kind of rule for parkour is to never blame your shoes if you can’t do something,” Wittman said.

Risk.Along with any activity that involves running, jumping,

and vaulting, there comes a certain risk factor. Parkour can be very dangerous, especially if not practiced prop-erly and cautiously. “You definitely have to be in good shape for parkour, and you need to be athletic,” Wittman said. “It’s important to just have all around core, leg and arm strength.” Even if you’re a straight up macho man, the second you act stupid you could wind up in the hos-pital. “You really have to think things through before you do you do it,” Wittman said. “I always visualize things in my head before I do them.” So check out the world of parkour, even if you couldn’t stand up at age 2.

A webside that provides you with entertainment and fun while completing a daily workout.

1. Handspring2. Human Flag

3. Wall Run4. Kong Vault

1.

3.4.

2.

words & layout Spencer Vasey

the b&w sept 2010 fashionp.9

Reused, revamped

Worn shies away from the typical consignment shop “mall brands” to offer higher quality clothes at a much lower price. They specialize in high-quality denim brands such as True Religon and Rock & Republic. They also sell many designer brands of purses, shoes, and other acces-sories.

Dorthea’s Closet is all about vintage. They buy from sellers all over the world to provide the best selection of vintage clothes in the Des Moines area. Dorthea’s Closet sells everything from 1920s flapper dresses to 1980s red leather jackets. But beware, because of their vintage qual-ity, the clothing here can get expensive. Most pieces sell for around $100.

Consignment shops sell name brand and vintage clothes at a fraction of their retail price

Repeat Boutique is the best place in Des Moines for used formal wear. They have several racks full of designer dresses that have only been worn once or twice. All of the dresses are marked down to a small percentage of their full retail price. Repeat Botique also offers several hun-dred pairs of pants and tops, along with a full selection of designer purses, belts, and shoes.

Repeat Boutique3913 Ingersoll Ave. Des Moines

Worn835 42nd St. Des Moines

Dorothea’s Closet1733 Grand Ave. Des Moines

How to sell consignment

1 2Clean out your closet Choose a store Sell Make Money

If you have not worn an item of clothing in the past six months it is probably time to give it up.

Different consignment shops have different styles, so make sure the clothes that you want to sell are consistent with the store you are trying to sell to. 3 4

Most consignment shops accept walk-ins, but some require an appointment, so call ahead first. When you arrive, the owner will look over your clothes and make you an offer, or accept them to be sold in the store.

If you accept the offer, the store will usually pay you in cash for your clothes. Some stores wait and pay you a percentage of sales if your clothes sell.

the b&w featurep.10

As the day begins, students arrive to school in all different ways. Most have the luxury of coming in cars at whatever time they please. Some file off the bus, and a few exercise enthu-siasts pedal up to the bike rack. Se-nior Quico Ellsworth chooses to take an entirely new mode of transporta-tion: a unicycle. “I just decided one day that I wanted to learn,” Ellsworth said. “It was on a complete whim.”

“I didn’t have a car last year, and don’t have a parking pass this year,” Ellsworth said. “I didn’t want to be the loser senior riding the bus, so I ride my unicycle.”

He started the hobby on a complete whim. “I just wanted to do it,” Ellsworth said. “I guess my parents were sup-portive, they got it for me for my birth-day present.” He said that learning how to ride is not as easy as it looks. “It took me about a month to learn,” Ellsworth said. “My basement was get-ting redone, so I used the boards on the wall to pull myself along.”

He has been riding since he was in seventh grade, and uses it as his main mode of transportation. “The most I’ve ever ridden is 10 miles, which was hell,” Ellsworth said. “I tried to go to my brother’s new place, but I couldn’t find it so I just kept going until I had to call and have him pick me up.”

The only person that Ellsworth has tried to teach how to ride is his brother, Charles. “I’m not patient enough to teach,” Ellsworth said. “He got to go a couple of feet, but I get frustrated explaining things. I just want them to

sept 2010

know how to do it right away.” While Ellsworth is skilled at riding,

he has had a few setbacks. “I actu-ally fell today,” Ellsworth said. “It was surprising, because I haven’t fallen in over a year. Plus, it was in front of a bunch of cars, which is always great.”

One time, Ellsworth even got ‘pulled over’ on his unicycle. “I was rid-ing, and I heard sirens all of a sudden. I looked around, didn’t see any other cars, so I pulled over to the side,” Ells-worth said. “He asked if my unicycle was street legal and I’m like ‘I don’t know, isn’t that your job to know?’ He kind of grunted and said to get off the road. As soon as he drove away I just got on the road again. He gave me a warning, like I’m ever going to get pulled over again.”

Ellsworth plans on riding his uni-cycle every day to school. “The only time I won’t ride is in thunderstorms and ice,” Ellsworth said. “Sometimes I’ll text while I ride.” Once, Ellsworth almost caused a car accident. “This guy was driving and just glaring at me,” Ellsworth said. “The car in front of him stopped, and the guy swerved a little and slammed on his brakes. He just barely missed him.”

Ellsworth plans to ride his unicycle while in college as well. It’s definitely convenient,” he said. Besides trans-portation, he isn’t interested in using his unicycle for anything else. “Maybe I’ll be in a carnival or parade once, just to say I did it,” he said. “I don’t mind being that guy who rides a unicycle. I have pride in being different.”

Oneof a

kind

Ellsworth hopes to become a part of the “Gallon Club”. He do-nates a liter of blood or two every few months. It adds up to donating a gallon over his high school career. “I figured to do it for the sake of doing it, like everything else I do.”

“I have this bottle of hot sauce with the hottest peppers in the world called Ghost Peppers. “This kid didn’t think it was that hot and he put a bunch of it on his food. I felt kinda bad, his face turned all red and started quivering. I was just like, ‘Oops, my bad.’”

After his brothers left for college, Ellsworth decided to take advan-tage of the situation. “I just fall asleep in what-ever room is closest to me. I cycle through the rooms when I get bored,” Ellsworth said.

Quico’s Quirks

layout Micheal Knoedel

words Lauren Coffey

the b&w sportsp.11

On June 2, it looked as if 28-year-old Armando Galar-raga was going to pitch baseball’s third perfect game this season. He rolled through the Cleveland Indians lineup for eight and two-thirds innings, and Jason Donald came up to bat, Cleveland’s last chance to end the perfect game. Donald grounded the ball to first-baseman Miguel Cabrera, who flipped the ball to Galarraga, who was covering first base. The ball seemed to beat the runner by a split second, but first base umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe. Tigers’

Instant replay not an option for baseball, a must

Staph infection strikes fall sportswords & layout Ethan Meng

Recent cases of Staph infection in fall sports have forced the school to take steps to prevent the further spread of the bacteria.

“I think initially once it was determined that there was some Staph infection the biggest thing first was commu-nication from our nurse, trainer, and the coaches on the steps that we needed to do to prevent it from spreading,” Athletic Director Gary Ross said. “That included things like not sharing your equipment and if you suspect that you may be getting it, go to the doctor and get checked out.”

Staphylococcus aureus, better known as Staph infec-tion is a group of bacteria that presents itself as a rash or a boil on the skin. Staph generally causes minor skin infec-tions but it can become more serious if the bacteria enter the bloodstream.

It can be transmitted from one person to another by physical contact as well as sharing equipment. The school’s reaction to the cases of Staph was to get it taken care of as fast as possible. If the infection becomes inflamed or red lines begin to appear, it is important to seek medical attention immediately.

“I make sure that if a student is here in school that the in-fection is covered and they don’t participate in sports where it could be rubbed off on another student,” school nurse Susan Krebs said.

Krebs said that by the beginning of the year most cases

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Full-court Press

By: RyAN SMAHA

had already been treated by the students’ physicians. Staph infection has affected students throughout the

school as well as those who participate in sports. “I think I got it from my [football] equipment, it wasn’t very clean to start off the season with,” Junior Tyler McCormick said. “I had it across my back all the way down my arm, and it hurt really bad.”

McCormick had begun to notice blisters appearing on his arm near the begining of the school year which he had

examined by his doctor. He was given Doxycycl hyc and mupirocin ointment for two weeks, which alleviated his symptoms and resulted in the treatment of the infection.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, roughly 95,000 people had Staph in 2005. Just five years ago, this infection could have been treated by an antibiotic called amoxicillin. Now a new type of type of Staph called me-thicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is begin-ning to infect more people in community settings.

slow down the game. The average game in the MLB lasts roughly two hours and 50 minutes, and if every close call were to be reviewed by replay, the games would take much longer, considering an NFL replay can take anywhere from two to five minutes.

However, the reason baseball hasn’t utilized replay throughout its history is that the technology to review close calls wasn’t available until the past decade or so. The MLB is the only major American sport to not use replay. Even college football, America’s most tradition-oriented sport (especially since they still believe the BCS is the best way to determine a champion) uses replay. I’m not suggesting we review every close call. Instead, baseball should give each manager one replay a game that he may use on a safe/out call or a fair/foul call, but not on ball/strike calls, because that would eliminate the need for pitchers to pre-pare for the umpire’s unique strike zone and give pitchers a huge advantage over hitters. This system would be a lot like the NFL uses. And that would add maybe, at the most, one minute to the overall time of the game.

Maybe then Armando Galarraga could be remembered for his perfect game, and not the most famous one-hitter in baseball history.

manager Jim Leyland used his replay challenge to reverse the call and save the perfect game for Galarraga.

If only this were the case.What actually happened was Joyce called the runner

safe, which effectively ruined Galarraga’s perfect game. The fact that we still rely on the umpires’ eyes to determine close plays, while we clearly have the technology to prove that all calls aren’t right, is like using a typewriter when we have a computer. It still gets the job done, but you‘re just scratching the surface of technology’s potential.

A recent study by ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” in which a two-week period of games were studied to determine how many calls were correct, showed that on average, an umpire misses 20 percent of close calls. That means that every five close plays, one is called incorrectly. Two years ago, the MLB started to use replay to review home runs only. However, as umpires missed big call after big call, the clamor for expanded use of instant replay has grown.

Experts against adding replay to baseball say that the MLB is rich in tradition, and the human element of the game is what adds to the controversy. Another possible prob-lem for baseball’s “traditionalists” is that the average MLB game is long enough, and that adding replay would only

Coach Rick Brooks cleans the volleyballs after practice to help prevent the spread of Staph infection.Michael Knoedal/ BW

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the b&w backpagep.12

compiled by Isabella Engblom, Alexa Anderson and Ethan Meng

“Well, Ryan was in Kansas City for a concert and his car was at his house, so me and some of my friends bought a ton of balloons and took them to his car, blew them all up, and wrote messages on all of them saying, ‘homecoming? :)’ and stuff like that. Then we filled his entire car with balloons, like literally entirely full. After that we used window markers to draw pictures on his car.” -junior Amelia Medici

“I used goldfish to ask Maddie to homecoming. I just wanted to ask her in a way that wasn’t over a text. I went to her house and set a little bowl of a bunch of yellow fishy crackers on her front porch and a note that said ‘Out of all the fish in the sea I choose you. Will you go to homecoming with me’ Then she was calling me and I just walked around the corner and said ‘hey!’’’ -senior Jimmy Siebert

“Andrew asked me on Aug. 28. He gave my mom a little stuffed animal puppy dog with balloons tied around it. Inside the balloons there was a note asking me to homecoming. My mom put it on my bed and I found it later and popped the balloons to find the note that said, ‘homecoming?’” -junior Taylor Mithelman

“I asked him to homecoming by sending mail to his apartment everyday and in each envelope would be a letter, [to spell out homecoming] Some days he may get two or three envelopes though while some he may only get one. It’s just when-ever I put them in his drop box. Then the last day he gets a package with a question mark, candy and a note from me.” - junior Kensie Noble

“We were hanging out at his house on Saturday (Aug. 28) and when we were hanging out he got my keys and he put one of those stuffed animals that you make at build a bear in the driver’s seat of my car. I found it when I went to leave and it had a bracelet of roses and was holding a little heart and it said, ‘homecoming?’” -junior Maddie Kleve

Ryan Kitchen and Maddie Kleve

Kensie Noble and Trevor Haden

Andrew Schneider and Taylor Mithelman

Ryan Betters and Amelia Medici

HOMECOMING?

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1 Jeremy Mullen and Briana Wengert

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Jimmy Siebert and Maddie Kreamer

What’s all the talk about? Dresses, dancing, and dates…It’s homecoming! Junior Amelia Medici asked her boyfriend, Johnston graduate Ryan Betters, to come back to high school and go to the homecoming dance.

Why would a college student want to come to high school after experiencing the freedoms of college?

“Well I missed a lot of high school dances because of hockey, so when Ame-lia asked me to homecoming I really wanted to go,” Betters said. “Going with Amelia will make the night really special and I’m probably more excited than her to be honest. I think it’ll be a good time and I want to see all my high school friends and hang out with them.”

College student Jeremy Mullen was also asked by his girlfriend, senior Bri-ana Wengert. “It wasn’t really about me wanting to go to homecoming it was more about just doing what she thought was the best way to have her senior year,” Mullen said. “If she wanted to go with someone else I would be fine with that too but if she wanted to go with me and thought I’d be the most fun then I was all for it.”

Mullen is more excited to spend time with Wengert than to actually go to homecoming. “To me homecoming will probably just be like a date with her, only with a lot of people and a dance break in the middle,” Mullen said. But I’m still excited to shake what my momma gave me.”

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“We were painting these boxes to store our letters in that we write each other when we’re apart and I took the lid for his box and wrote homecoming on the inside of it. So when I sent him his first letter he had opened the box and saw homecoming. And of course, he said yes!” -senior Briana Wengert

Rolling out the red carpet for Johnston alumni

Isabella Engblom/BW

Isabella Engblom/BW

Isabella Engblom/BW

Provided/ Wengert

Provided/Noble

Provided/Medici

Amelia Medici and Ryan Betters

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