The WarriorNiskayuna High School February 18, 2011 Volume 37, Issue 19

a student-run publication since 1974, now weekly

Inside this issue...Bieber fever con-tinues,page 6

Indoor track sec-tionals,page 7

Late valentines are not alright,page 5

Took a while to break the ice at Snowballby Laura MueLLer

News

Saturday night, Feb. 12, was the perfect setting for the annual Snowball Dance because of the cold weather, the winter won-derland decoration, and all the striking dresses. This semi-formal gathering helps raise money for the freshman class, in hopes to lower the cost of their junior prom. Unfortunately, the turnout of the dance was on the low side.

Every year, the number of people attending school dances like these seems to decrease, resulting in a smaller-scale experience for everyone. An alumna from the Class of 2007, Anna Mueller, was shocked to hear the dance floor wasn’t packed, stating, “Snowball used to be a huge deal when I went to the high school. I used to get there early with all my friends so I would escape the long line

that spilled out the door.” For the first hour, the dance looked like a typical eighth-grade movie scene where everyone is too afraid to make the first move. Students of the same sex huddled together near the door in small groups of five to ten people, not know-ing how to act or what to do. As the few upper classman who attended walked in and saw and felt the awkward tension in the

gym, they tried to ameliorate the situation by dancing and trying to have fun, despite the stillness. Compared to other schools in the area or even the country, Niska-yuna dances seem a little tame. At other schools, events like school dances and senior night games, are attended by practically all the students regardless of what class they are in or who they are friends with. If Snowball, Spring Fling and everything else were as well attended as the Homecom-ing dance or the Homecoming football game, the benefits would be beyond belief. Snowball was a perfect opportunity for show-ing school spirit and having fun with your peers, and some students took advantage of it.

Eventually the majority of the gym was dancing and having a better time than earlier in the night. Snowball was DJed by Karate, comprised of juniors Bryce Grates and Noah Prebish and alumnus Mike Rudinski. Karate’s music selection was on point. It was obvious they had a lot of experience, since the quality was very professional and they seemed relatively at ease behind the electronic turntables and lap-tops. Of course, everyone has his or her own preferences and may dislike a song or two, but overall

continued on page 3[MuSic]

Warrior Photo / Maura GriffithSNOWBALL DANCE: Newly dubbed Snowball king and queen, juniors Ryan Burke and Alexis Fusco show off their crowns after the announcement was made.

2 The WarriorNews February 18, 2011

Teens for Jeans needs recognitionby aNNa Lochte

News

Niskayuna is holding its second annual Teens for Jeans drive which is held by Niskayuna Inter-Community Services (ab-breviated as NICS). Teens for Jeans is a national organization that donates pre-owned jeans to homeless teenagers across America. Last year they do-nated some jeans to the disaster victims in Haiti who were left homeless by the earthquake.

According to The National Center on Family Homelessness, one in fifty children in America is homeless, which is roughly 1.5 million kids. 42% of homeless children are under the age of six. Homeless children are prone to developmental issues and learn-ing disabilities. They are also prone to more sickness than a child with a home because they are exposed to more germs and have no shelter from the elements. This may also be because they

can not afford suitable clothing to prevent sickness. By the age of 12, 83% of homeless children have been exposed to one serious violent event. Children who are homeless usually live in shelters, cars, and campgrounds. Child homelessness in America is a relatively new issue. Research-ers believe this may be due to families breaking apart and becoming impoverished. The state of Texas has the highest percentage of homeless children, while Wyoming has the lowest.

This year is Teens for Jeans’ fourth annual drive. NICS Presi-dent Janet Tenenboym states, “We got involved in it because a student teacher had wanted for the school to participate in it, and contacted NICS, and we always try to partake in any service op-portunity possible.” Last year the high school collected 250 to 300 pairs of jeans but Tenenboym feels that they did not have much involvement and fell short a few

pairs of jeans. The drop-off for the jeans at the high school are the boxes located in the main office and in Crossroads. Teens for Jeans encourages people to drop off their old jeans to an Aéro-postale Store if their school does not participate in the program. There are several Aéropostale stores in the Capital District lo-cated in Crossgates Mall, Colonie Center, and Clifton Park Center.

After learning about Teens for Jeans, and child homelessness in America, freshman Alexis Watson states that she would participate in Teens for Jeans. She also feels the number of homeless children in America is sad, and is glad that someone is doing something to help them.

NICS is a community service club for the school. NICS helps out with various elementary school fun nights as well as help out with the food bank. NICS also participates in ROAR. ROAR, which stands for Reach Out And

Read, helps and encourages children to read. NICS travels to two elementary schools in Schenectady and helps the stu-dents there learn to read. They also participate in other service projects throughout the year.

Sophomore Andi Reich has been a member of NICS since ninth grade and is now on the board of the club. She says that NICS also works with new eighth graders and their parents who are interested in looking at the high school. Reich states, “I believe it’s a good club with good inten-tions.” It really can’t be summed up better. They do many service projects, especially collecting fruit cups around Thanksgiving for Equinox for the needy. Hope-fully, the NICS club can set an example to help other schools do the same. That way, the schools could try to alleviate the problem of homeless teenagers with no jeans. It can only hap-pen gradually, one teen at a time.

Band-aid

Congratulations to the following bands who are to play at band-aid!

unCle Joel’s Comb, milestone, Karate, tetrageddon, last year’s heroes, mental trigger, and halfway to

washington

Come and support your sChool bands

friday, marCh 188:00 p.m.

new Cafeteria

3February 18, 2011The Warrior News

Morsell brings Douglass to lifeby sarah MiNer

News

Wednesday Feb. 9, juniors attended an assembly in which they heard of the life of escaped-slave-turned-Abolitionist Fred-erick Douglass. Although the word “assembly” usually has a negative connotation, this was a great experience for all those who attended. Rather than the usual assembly in which students are talked at, rather than talked to, about various aspects the school feels are important, this assembly could be more easily compared to listening to a story. The man who spoke is a Frederick Douglass impersonator whose name is Fred Morsell. Despite the difference in names, the resemblance was uncanny. He brought with him a level of passion often unparalleled by those who are merely imitating an important historical figure.

For the students who have not taken American History, Frederick Douglass was born a slave in 1818 in eastern Mary-land. He escaped from slavery as a young man, and travelled to England. When he returned to the United States he began work as an abolitionist. He also wrote three autobiographies, one of them called The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, which some junior English classes read.

He started out with a very dramatic oration of Frederick Douglass’s opinion of how the United States claimed that they had “liberty and justice for all,”

but black people were still en-slaved. Then, he moved on to a dramatic description of his life. He really made the students feel that they take their parents for granted, by saying that he (Fred-erick Douglass) didn’t know his parents when he was born. Many students also enjoyed his artful description the young Frederick Douglass when he was forced by his grandmother to collect chick-ens. Many juniors also enjoyed the dramatic oration when Frederick Douglass was separated from his grandmother at a plantation in coastal Maryland. He emulated a child’s voice perfectly, saying that his grandmother had gone, and then he pretended to bawl like a child convincingly. The audi-ence felt empathy for Frederick.

While he was on stage, he worked on an easel, drawing maps and writing words such as Tuckahoe representing the name of the creek by which he came from. He culminated his performace by giving his take on racial slurs such as the dreaded “N-word.” He said that they take away dignity, and that no one should have their dignity taken by a stranger. Therefore, students were strongly discouraged from using racial slurs. After a ques-tion and answer session where a few questions were asked, the students were free to leave.

Morsell’s seminars have been a staple for Niskayuna High School for many years now. For the high school, they usually take place

in the fall. However, this year’s assembly was in February which meant that American History stu-dents already had a background understanding of Frederick Douglass, because they study him in December or January.

He began to perform as Dou-glass in 1988, after witnessing the depressed black community in Los Angeles. He works to share the story of Douglass’s life, bring a message of justice, and above all deliver his keys to success which he believes are as follows: believe in yourself, take advantage of every opportunity, and use the power of written and spoken language to make positive change for yourself and the society in which you live. His performance is entitled “Presenting Mr. Fred-erick Douglass” and has now been brought to over 500 schools and communities nationwide.

Fred Morsell has had an extensive acting career both before and since his Douglass presentations commenced. He has starred as both Macbeth and Othello throughout America, and he has been acting for more than 38 years. He has been an actor, director, and teacher at the Terry Schreiber Studio in New York City since 1970. How-ever, he has been presenting the Douglass presentation as a one man, two act play in colleges, civic groups, high schools and regional theaters for many years now and many more to come. He currently lives in Montana.

The high school is lucky to have Mr. Morsell perform every year and the students really seem to take to heart what they hear from him. “He was very inspirational because he showed how history that happened many years ago can still be brought to life,” says junior Bridget LeMon. He really brought his, or rather Douglass’s, emotions out in a way that made the words meaningful. Frederick Douglass wanted to carry out his message that “What is pos-sible for me is possible for you.”

According to social studies teacher David Bloom, who helped to sponsor the event, said that the presentation was the second or third best he has seen since Mr. Morsell has been coming to the high school. Also, Mr. Morsell has family connections to African American history. His father was part of the management of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). His father was friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s. He told a story to Bloom after the performance that his father went on a trip into Mis-sissippi with Dr. King. That could have been part of the inspiration of Mr. Morsell to follow black history.

After this presentation many have taken his life lesson to heart, and hopefully Mr. Morcell will still be able to make the cross-country trip to Albany so that these productions continue. Therefore, the students can learn more about Frederick Douglass.

continued froM page 1[tooK]

the energy was kept high and the music was much more easily danced to than the musical styling of “DJ chaz” from Homecoming 2011. A wide variety of music was played, from Lady Gaga and Phoenix to Michael Jackson. Some songs were remixes that surprised the crowd, making it

much more exciting to listen to. These song choices seemed to appeal to the crowd since the mood of the dance floor altered drastically. Everyone appreciated that our own students in Karate could show off their talent at the dance since they would know what the student body wants to hear better than any hired DJ.

Junior Ryan Burke was crowned King for the second

time this year, and accepted the award from his peers with much grace and gratitude, as earlier in the year. The Queen, junior Michelina Carusco, accompanied Burke. She also accepted her crown humbly and looked beauti-ful in a classic black dress with an elaborate up-do. Sophomore Timi Elefontuyi was named the Snowball Prince for the second year in a row with sophomore

Laura Mueller as his Princess. The four danced together to “Wonderwall” after accepting their crowns. Congratulations to not only the winners, but also to all of the nominees. Snowball has the potential to be enjoyable for stu-dents from all grades; the music was great and the gym can always fit more people. Hopefully next year more students will decide to go to support the freshman class.

Music impresses students at Snowball

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Letters to the editor are welcome from all members of the school community, and can be delivered toWarrior staff or sent via

email to: thewarrioropinion@gmail.com. The Warrior reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, length, and content.

Signed opinion articles express the opinions of their creators. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus of the paper’s edito-rial board, consisting of the Opinion section and the Editor-in-

Chief.

The op-ed pages are a forum for students’ opinions and ideas.

The WarriorNiskayuna High School, 1626 Balltown Road, Niskayuna, NY, 12309

http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/nhs/warrior

For a one-year subscription to The Warrior, please send a check for $25.00 to: The Warrior, c/o Niskayuna High School, 1626 Balltown Road, Niskayuna, NY 12309.

4 The WarriorOpinion

Editor-in-Chief:Jason XuMaggie Jordan

News:Emily O’Brien, Chief EditorSarah Miner, EditorGrace Strong, EditorJackson Montrym, Asst

Opinion:Jason Kasman, EditorDaniel Zhao, EditorTim Rice, Editor

Entertainment:Bhavya Narala, EditorJacob Stewart, Asst

Sports:Michael Held, EditorGeorge Jiao, EditorChristopher Herman, Asst

Magazine:Inga Bagepalli, EditorShikha Dharia, Editor

Advisers: James Edgar Russell McDowell

Additional Staff:Gabriel Holodak, Copy EditorAlison Xu, Copy EditorMaura Griffith, Photo EditorSohaib Syed, Graphics EditorKaitlin Hungershafer, Business ManagerBridget LeMon & Rachel Bickauskas, Distribution ManagersAnna Mattis, Advertising Manager

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Letters to the editor are welcome from all members of the school community, and can be delivered toWarrior staff or sent via

email to: thewarrioropinion@gmail.com. The Warrior reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, length, and content.

Signed opinion articles express the opinions of their creators. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus of the paper’s edito-rial board, consisting of the Opinion section and the Editor-in-

Chief.

The op-ed pages are a forum for students’ opinions and ideas.

The WarriorNiskayuna High School, 1626 Balltown Road, Niskayuna, NY, 12309

http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/nhs/warrior

For a one-year subscription to The Warrior, please send a check for $25.00 to: The Warrior, c/o Niskayuna High School, 1626 Balltown Road, Niskayuna, NY 12309.

4 The WarriorOpinion February 18, 2011

Letter to the Editors

Guns are not the enemyIn response to Clayton Marr

-Stephen Van Hoesen

First off, I would like to ad-dress the lack of care of words that were chosen by Clayton Marr in his very first sentence of his January 28th article. I quote, “Having psychopaths with machine guns running around is not ideal.” This in itself is a stereotype and a bias. The word psychopath is very broad and could be considered hurtful. While Marr may have been trying to refer to Jared Lee Loughner the shooter in Arizona that is not made clear until the second column of his article.

Another term inaccurately used was machine gun. A ma-chine gun is a military weapon often mounted on tanks and planes for war that weighs more than you could carry. There is no civilian equivalent to a “machine gun”, although we are allowed to have semi-automatic rifles and they are often used for hunting. They are not fully automatic and they have been configured so that you may not attach a bayonet.

Furhter,fter describing how a survey took place in 1995, a year after the 10 year ban took place, he writes, “This is worse still considering that the expira-tion on the ban on automatic/ assault weapons was not yet into effect then.” That is a false statement. this could have been

avoided. There was a bill in 1993 passed on gun laws before the 1994 ban. A survey was taken before the one in 1995 and showed that the bill did not help lessen the amount of crime only raise it due to more people hav-ing weapons considered illegal.

Now look at New York. We have some of the strictest gun laws in the U.S. In 2004, when the Federal Assault weapons ban was over New York made its own ban on assault rifles. To even purchase a firearm you must fill out a background check and then it has to be processed to see if you have been considered mentally unstable or have ever committed a crime. Even with this continued ban in effect law-makers tried to make it stricter, changing the characteristics of an assault rifle to any gun that can be fired at a semi-automatic rate. So that would mean your average duck gun shotgun say a Remington 11-87 would be classified as an assault rifle. A semi-auto shotgun that has an effective range at best on animals at 40 yards would be classified an assault rifle with the proper equipment. The bill was quickly turned down.

In the Supreme Court case Quilici v. Morton Grove, a lawyer was shot in court by a women’s ex-husband whom he

was defending. Just a few short months later the local town board came to a meeting and outlined that handguns would be illegal to own and operate within Morton Grove, a small suburb much like Niskayuna. Only weeks after the ban, local gas store and convenience shop owner Don Bennett was in the process of being robbed when he pulled a handgun from under the counter. He did not shoot and it deterred the robbers. He quickly called the police and reported what happened; he was arrested for illegally owning a handgun within Morton Grove even though he used it in de-fense and he never fired it, just flashed it and the criminals ran. Does that sound right to you?

A man keeping his second amendment right to bear arms and use it in defense was ar-rested for that very fact. The second amendment says “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” His security was being threatened and he acted in full use of his second amendment rights.

So I would lastly like to say it was not Arizona’s gun laws but their mental health laws that need to be changed, because

unlike New York they do not have a required write up if a person is considered a threat to com-munity or mentally unstable. Loughner was kicked out of the community college and not ac-cepted in the army due to drug use. This should have been reported but because Arizona does not have a required write up like in New York, it failed to happen. Another thing, there are more state gun laws than federal gun laws, and the fed-eral laws pertain to owning and selling firearms out of a store and there is a permit known as an FFL or Federal Firearms License. So look at what led up to the shooting: he was kicked out of school, then he was by himself for weeks just thinking about what to do, and then he purchased a handgun which he should not have been able to get, had there been communication between organizations and a better more current system to record things like this on. This is why we need a database to record information like this, and have it accessible to people who need it like colleges, gun shops, the military, and local munici-palities. Please consider all the information presented and make your opinion if you wish.

5February 18, 2011The Warrior Opinion

ALL OPINIONS expressed on the op-ed pages represent the indi-vidual viewpoints of their authors. The content does not necessarily represent the views of The War-rior, the high school, the school district, or the Board of Education.

by KeN oMiya

opiNioN

No holiday in the universe gets as much bad press as Valentine’s Day. I mean, why wouldn’t it? It’s a consumerist-driven fiasco when Hallmark almost overexcites itself from all the money they just earned by selling paper cards. It’s the day that 3 billion choco-late consuming Americans kill their New Year’s resolution of losing ten pounds. And it’s a huge, commercialized excuse for shallow romance to bloom and spontaneously explode into thousands of tragic pieces 24 hours later.

Yes, corny traditions will be made, boys will confess their affection, and heck, hearts will be destroyed. But beyond the red smoke of heart-shaped dolly laces and five dollar teddy bears, Valen-tine’s Day is pretty darn cool.

Haters will say garbage like “Oh Valentine’s Day? You know that’s a corporate holiday to steal your money right?” and yes, major industries do rake in 14 billion dollars a year from Valentine’s Day alone. But re-ally, are you against consumerism or the big businesses? Because I don’t see you whining about Christmas or Thanksgiving or Halloween or Easter or New Year’s Day or… Anyhow, that shouldn’t

matter, because guess what? Gifts are awesome! Free chocolate? Forget about it! All I remember about Valentine’s Day is watch-ing my little paper heart fill with Fun Dip and heart-shaped Dove chocolates before my sticky fin-

gers in second grade. Through my eyes, Valentine’s Day has always meant gifts, free stuff, and ulti-mately harmony within my soul.

Haters should also realize that whenever they undermine

Valentine’s Day they sound ex-tremely cynical, because what I hear is “I can’t take love; too cool. Yeah, I’m tragically lonely.” So stop it. And if you think this special day is clichéd, you don’t even know. This celebration

goes way back, like 1500 years back. Back then, you honored the martyred Saints. The idea of association of St. Valentine’s Day with a celebration of romantic love is first made by Geoffrey

Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls. So this “stupid holiday” has a tremendously beautiful history that should not be taken lightly, let alone small-mindedly.

And as a final point, “mushy” rituals should symbolize fresh

hope in a re-lationship for both sexes, or a pleasing surprise for already estab-lished couples. Distaste in con fess ions and standard love affection for its corni-ness is like hat-ing Santa be-cause he spoils children with corny pres-ents. People who are actu-ally audacious enough to open up their true feeling should be applauded with purple munchkins ,

not boos and hisses. If haters gon-na hate, they better hate them-selves for hating non-sensically.

Valentine’s Day ought to be a grand day, a gift day, a fabulous day to honor the human emotion of love and the boundless freedom it inserts into countless hearts, families, couples, and let’s not for-get, teachers, for their respective qualities. Don’t hate Valentine’s Day because it’s cooler than you.Respect it and embrace it, because in the end, all you need is love. And someone to share it with.

A la t e Va len t ine ’s a r t i c l e

Warrior Art / Jason Kasman

6 February 18, 2011 The WarriorEntertainment

Never Say Never is a successby KayLe MaNuta aNd shaLiNi Nagaraj

eNtertaiNMeNt

Your Enter ta inment FixFor the week of 2/18 until 2/25

Movies: I Am Number Four, Unknown, Vanishing on 7th Street, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son

Video Games: Bulletstorm, Gray MatterDVD Releases: Due Date, Weeds Season

6, Memento, MegamindBooks: Gideon’s Sword, Treachery in

Death, Harvest Moon, A Creed in Stone Creek

by aMy yao

eNtertaiNMeNt

February 11, 2011 could not have come soon enough. The day we found out that Justin Bieber was going to be in a movie, we started counting down the days. We already loved his music, but we would have loved to learn more about him. That is exactly what this movie did.

We got to the movie early so we could stand in line to get good seats. We got there over two hours early because we knew we would have to fight past the little five years olds, who wore ear plugs to his concert. We wanted to be in the front of the line so when we could finally enter the theater, we could pick whatever seats we wanted. Of course, we wanted the best seats because we are the tru-est fans. After we realized that we had been standing in the wrong line for 30 minutes, we walked around the mall bursting with excitement. The movie could be seen in 2D, and 3D. We, of course, had to see it in 3D because the graphics would be better. Even though the tickets were about $20 each, it was worth every penny.

As the minutes ticked by before our showing, we walked around the mall. Hundreds of girls were walking around in groups sport-ing their Justin Bieber attire. Some had their faces painted with the words “Justin Bieber” or “Future Mrs. Bieber.” All of them were wearing Justin Bieber shirts. We wore them too (Kayle had on her Justin Bieber shirt that she bought at the concert back in August and Shalini was wearing a Justin Bieber shirt and a bracelet that said Justin Bieber)!

It was finally time to go stand in line for our showing. With over an hour until the movie started, there were already about 40 people in

front of us. As we took our spot

in line, we glanced around us. The movie theater was packed with screaming girls. Every time someone said “Justin Bieber” the crowd would go wild. Girls and guys were just as excited as we were. While we were standing in line, we were listening to Justin Bieber’s songs on Shalini’s iPod. We were dancing around in our spot, and taking hundreds of pictures. People around us were staring, but it didn’t matter because we are die hard Justin fans. By the time the previews began, over 300 people were standing in line waiting for the movie. We grabbed our 3D glasses and ran into the theater holding hands. This was the beginning of the best movie ever made.

The movie focuses on Bieber’s journey to stardom as well as the ten day time period before his big-gest performance to date at Madi-son Square Garden. The audience is brought to his hometown, Strat-ford, Ontario, and is introduced to several important people in Bieber’s life. Contrary to common belief, it is not a concert movie and it is not just for his die hard fans. It is also for those who are simply looking for a truly inspira-

tional story or who may not know much about the teen superstar. Any misconceptions are cleared up in this movie, and it is made apparent that Bieber is singer who sincerely cares for his fans.

Being the enthusiastic fans we are, we obviously loved the movie. We were even on the verge of tears at a few occasions. If you don’t take our word for it, trust Gayle King, Ryan Seacrest, El-len DeGeneres or Diddy. Among many other stars, they also saw the movie and think highly of it. It can be viewed either in 2D or 3D, but having seen it 3D, we would recommend it. The audience really feels like they are with Bieber the whole time, and who wouldn’t want that?

From singing on the side-walk to performing at Madison Square Garden, Justin Bieber has certainly come a long way. With 1 VMA, 4 AMA’s (includ-ing Artist of the Year) and 2 Grammy nominations all in the past year, Bieber is easily one of the most accomplished artists of our time. Never Say Never dem-onstrates Bieber’s tremendous gift and talent and is a must see for any age and any person.

Photo Credit / Shalini Nagaraj

THE FANS SPORT BIEBER WEAR: The girls are ready for the movie premiere with their 3D glasses.

S w i f t s i n g s e x c e l l e n c eTaylor “T-Swizzle” Swift’s meteoric rise to

fame was catalyzed by her haunting country ballads and delightfully catchy melodies. When asked about her lyric inspiration, she cited her relationships of the past, which (as her fame grew) began to include famous names like Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, and (most surprisingly) John Mayer. Featuring a more visible shift from a country to a pop tone, her incredibly anticipated latest album, titled Speak Now, has garnered the country sweetheart even more fans. Grown women and teenie-boppers and everyone in between have found something to sing along to in the new song lineup, which includes everything from fiery rants set to music (“Better than Revenge”) to tearjerker pieces like “Last Kiss”.

As any fan will tell you, Taylor’s rapid ascent to the top of Hollywood’s celebrity list is mainly due to her ability to connect to her

audience’s relationship experiences. Indeed, of the seventeen new songs in the newest album, all but two of them focus on relation-ships—and in classic Taylor Swift style, most of these fifteen are said to be based on her ex-boyfriends. “Mine”, the opening song on the CD and a popular single, is rumored to be about Boys Like Girls lead singer Martin Johnson. “Back to December”, frequently heard on pop radio stations, details the end of her relationship with Twilight star Taylor Lautner. Her experience with John Mayer inspired “Dear John,” jealousy issues with Ca-milla Belle resulted in “Better than Revenge”, and her ever-lingering feelings for Joe Jonas are evident in the emotional song “Last Kiss”.

Although the subject matter is generally the same, Taylor Swift in Speak Now continued to impress and excite her fans with apt song-writing ability (she wrote every song herself, without co-writers) and clear vocal harmonies. Her intriguing talent for putting into words

what many of us only feel has amassed her a sizable population of male fans, and her female friends repeatedly avow that “Taylor Swift has stolen my diary”. Even Swift admits that her music is mainly “boy-crazy country starlet trying to stop tears from dripping all over her guitar”. However, with the excitement of the album release gradually coasting to a stop, Taylor Swift fans now can only wait to see if her newest relationship with Jake Gyl-lenhaal will incite another Swift-esque tune.

7February 18, 2011The Warrior Sports

Nisky track tears up sectionalsby Matt wiLLiaMs

sports

Yes, the interscholastic wonder of indoor track has nearly ended with the passing of last weekend’s Section II Championship meet, from which the girls’ team took the number one spot and the boys number two. But as with life, the road to this meet’s explosive and scintillating conclusion was wrought with strife, camara-derie, panic, pride and victory.

The hurts-so-good training went off the rails a bit this winter, given feet of snow and subzero temperatures was consdered a normal day’s conditions, this season could not have gone any better. Any onlooker could see the fear stricken into Burnt Hills’ eyes as our very own senior Marshall Pagano scored a bone crushing, skin crawling, face melting and downright unfair 28 points out of 30 by winning the 2 mile (10:04) and the 1000 (2:40), and com-ing in second in the 1600 (4:41). Burnt Hills senior Otis Ubriaco (resident champion in nearly

every event) said, after having being embarrassingly defeated by Pagano in the 1000, “I glanced back at him with about a lap to go, and I could see that he [Pagano] just wanted it more.” That’s right.

But the destructive power didn’t just come from Pagano. Juniors Steven Hanna and Jamey Wagner combined for major pointage in the high jump, moving Niskayuna back into contention during the field events, a place where the team have historically suffered. Junior Jamie Nye scored a massive personal best in the 4 by 800 meter relay leading the boys to a first place finish in that event.

Anyone could tell you, however, that the Big Dog of the Season was junior Niall “Hard in the Paint” Williams. Williams anchored the aforementioned 4 by 800 meter relay to aid in dominating the competition and cranked out a dangerous fourth place perfor-mance in the 1000. But the real reason Niall Hard-iams deserves the BDS award was for incredible courage and restraint in the face

of adversity. Wil-liams was physi-cally assaulted about the head and neck during the 1600 by a fel-low (losing) com-petitor, which landed him well off the track to a delay of nearly 10 seconds. Re-gardless of the pain and adver-sity, Williams demonstrated his superb char-acter and will-power by slash-ing out a fifth place finish for yet more points, and was even nice enough to not knock that other kid’s block off. Trying for a close second for the BDS title was

sophomore Dom Brion, who had a vicious elbow battle with another (losing) competitor from Ballston Spa in the 4 by 800 meter relay.

The sprinters, facing perhaps even stiffer competition on the boys’ side, also came up big. “Wildman” junior Mike Bruns helped pound out places in the 4 by 200 and 4 by 400 meter re-lays, with the help of Hanna and senior Eric Eoff, the latter scoring 4 points in the 600 meter sprint.

On the girls’ side, junior Ka-leigh Higgins stepped up as their Pagano, tripling in and winning several of her events. Senior Olivia Rickenbacher and junior Victoria Engvold hammered home several

points in the sprinting events, and sophomore Alison Xu came up huge in the pits for the jumping events. Up-and-comers sopho-more Anka Parzych and fresh-man Emily DeWald (sister to our old faithful champion sprinter, Robert Emery Dewald) aided in beating the other girls’ teams in the 4 by 8 and 4 by 4 for the girls, and Juniors Maggie Hensel and Leigh Ann Labate led the girls in the distance events. Fellow junior Shannon Trant and sophomore Felicia Sciortino rocked the 3k, the longest girls event. The girls overcame huge competition from Holy Names and Burnt Hills, perennial champions themselves.

Photo Credit / Alison XuZOOM ZOOM ZOOM: Sophomore Liz Farley zooms past competitors at sectionals.

Photo Credit / Alison XuTHE HANDOFF: Sophomore Sarah Brzeinski passes tha baton to sophomore Liz Farley during the 4x100 event.

February 18, 2011 The WarriorSports

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Boys Basketball

2/11 @ ShenLost 58-48

Girls Basketball

2/11 vs. ShenLost 46-31

Mohawks:

2/21 vs. QueensburyLost 6-1

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Don’t forget to recycle this issue when you finish reading it!

Nisky girls go strong

Congratulations to senior Alex Espina on beconing Section II Champion two years in a row!

Congratulations to girls indoor track on becomingSection II Champions!

As the season winds down, the girls’ varsity basketball team, lead by seniors Mary Sise and Alyssa Treanor, look to sweep the competi-tion as the team heads into sectionals. The girls have been hanging tough with an 8 – 7 record so far with some very tough and close losses. Despite the close losses, the team has hung on and improved tremendously. At the beginning of the season theteam wascrushed by Shen, but with a lot of hard work the girls have improved and played a very close game in their second meeting of the season.

Senior fan Alex Espina told The Warrior, “Mary Sise and the Treanor sisters have stepped up big as the season has progressed. As the team’s number one fan, I am really looking forward to them being successful at sectionals as I know they will. With excep-tional leadership, strong will and a whole lot of heart, I know they will do work and get it done.” It’s true. Who can question the lead-ership and heart of Sise, “Sticks #11” (junior Kayla Treanor), or the “Texas Ranger” (senior Ashley McCaughan)? These players have carried the team far all season. After senior night, captain Sise told The Warrior, “We’re not looking too bad right now, despite a few close and heartbreaking losses, we are going strong. We are soon to be 9 – 7 and we look to finish strong as we head into the post-season. We certainly have a good rebounding team. We get boards and have a fast pace style of play. Once we put it all together, which we will do very soon. We will be contenders. We believe in ourselves, when others do not. We have talent, we now just need to do work and start finding ways to win those close games that we have otherwise lost and we will!” Kayla

by christopher herMaN

sports

Treanor added, “Schuyler Archambault, Mary Sise, Ashley McCaughan, and Alyssa Treanor have stepped up big and are playing very well right now. But our team chemistry is also great. We pick each other up consistently and have been improving as individuals and as a team. Many of our underclassmen on varsity have improved and have made us better, as we have made them better. With the post season quickly approaching, it’s time to dig deep and pull out some upsets, even though we are underestimated and not a known threat. We have what it takes to go far into the Section II tournament. We just need to finish the puzzle.”

The girls have the talent, the depth and the experience to do well. It now comes down to their ability to peak as a team and play their best every single day. “Consistency is key,” said senior Paddy Bailey. Junior Matt Kelish agrees. “In any sport, the most consistent teams usually have the most success. But for the team it will come down to playing their best ball in February,” said Kellish. Junior Ryan Burke, a huge fan, told The Warrior, “Resilience! That is a key word when speak-ing about the great Niskayuna girls varsity basketball team. The only reason they are 8 – 7 is because they played the toughest teams in good old Section II and they almost won some of those. Some of the losses that they suffered were beyond close. We should have won a lot more games than we have. I plan on attending as many games as I can and watch these primed athletes go and win sectonals. You guys should too. It will be a lot of fun, I promise.” With sectionals com-ing up, the girls are putting in the neces-sary work to do the best they can with the talent, experience and heart that they have. There is no doubt they will go far. Good luck!