The WarriorNiskayuna High School March 9, 2012 Volume 38, Issue 21

a student-run publication since 1974, now weekly

Inside this issue...Review on the 84th Oscars,page 6

Indoor Track ends another season,page 7

Society’s bsession with guns,page 5

Millie was a modern masterpieceby Flora Mao

News

Over the weekend, the high school students presented the musical “Thoroughly Modern Mil-lie”. Directed by Heather Baird and produced by Joan Suda, it deviated greatly from previous Niskayuna performances by hav-ing a much larger cast than in previous years—46 members to be exact—which were directed by Eric Hughes. The increase in numbers didn’t detract from the quality of performance or the camaraderie that was built over the months of rehearsal leading up to opening night.

The rehearsals ran for hours on end, as the cast learned the entire show. Time was spent learning the music with Christina Pizzino, learning the choreography with Abbey Todd, or running through the entire show as many times as possible. It was due to the hard work of the cast in these areas that the show became more than a script.

The incredibly strong cast may have made the show, but the pit orchestra and crew made the world onstage come to life. Their incredible work made the musical more than a group of people sing-ing in the choir room. Instead it became a show to end all. Fresh-man Eileen Ofori, a crewmember, said, “The show was great, the cast may have gotten somewhat stressed every once in a while, but it was a great experience.”

Costumes and makeup were the icing on the cake. The makeup crew had their work cut out for them with the sheer amount of people they had to wig—since the 1920’s were famous for women getting their hair smartly bobbed—not to mention the amount of people who had to get makeup done as well. The won-derful Linda Borges managed it all to the minute. Costumes were

also tedious, due to the number of changes each cast member needed, along with quick changes. Most of the costumes used in the performance were borrowed from other school districts and theater companies, while others were hand made by Lauren Fox.

Although opening night was postponed and the dress re-hearsal was canceled due to the inclement weather on Wednesday

and Thursday, the performances were absolutely amazing none-theless. The audience was on their feet, laughing at the very obvious drunkenness of one Mr. Trevor Graydon, played by senior Casey Larkin, and applauding the outstanding vocal performances.

continued on page 2[MuSicaL]

Photo Credit / Paul ContiOPENING NUMBER: During one of the many rehearsals during tech week, ensemble performs the opening number for the show. Senior Shayna Golub, as Millie, is held up in the center amidst the crowd of New Yorkers in 1922.

2 The WarriorNews March 9, 2012

District enjoys a cappella performancesby aNNa Mattis

News

Monday afternoon, Broad Street Line, an all male a cappella group, visited the high school. The group, traveling from Temple Uni-versity in Philadelphia, included a Niskayuna alumnus, Joel Sha-piro, Class of ’10. He said, “We had a great time. We went to the high school, Hillside, and both middle schools, and at each place the audiences were fantastic. It was great to have support from all the choir kids back at Nisky.”

The concert at the high school was attended by members of all choral groups: Concert Cho-rale, Choir, Ladies First, The Bel Canto Voices, and Studio Singers. The group performed

six songs, from OneRepublic’s “Secrets” to “Fat Lip” by Sum 41. Students in the audience were mesmerized and entertained. During one song, sophomore member of Ladies First Olivia Hess whispered, “This is magic.”

Later, when she had pro-cessed the performance, Hess said, “Broad Street Line was a very refreshing change from the groups that we have here at the high school and the guys were aesthetically pleasing. They were so talented.” Senior Alyssa Fox, a member of Concert Chorale and Bel Canto, was also impressed. “It was really cool. We don’t have any-thing like that here, so it was in-teresting to hear an all male group

compared to the groups we have here at the high school.” Even at Temple University, Broad Street Line is the only all male group.

In between songs members of Broad Street Line introduced themselves with their names, year, and intended major. There were college students from every year and even a graduate student, all of whom thorougly enjoyed their high school choirs. Majors ranged from Music Education to Business. The audience was receptive and actively engaged in the performance, not hurt by the knowledge that one member of the performing group was a former Niskayuna student.

While attending high school,

Shapiro was a part of Concert Chorale, Bel Canto, and Studio Singers. Now a sophomore in college, Shapiro is majoring in Music Education and Vocal Stud-ies. He encouraged students to continue to be involved in choirs even after high school. “Every-one in choirs should continue to sing in college and for the rest of their lives. There are so many a cappella groups in colleges every-where. Guys should try out for the all guy groups, girls should try out for the all girl groups, and everyone should try out for the coed groups. There’s a group out there for everyone. Just keep singing and keep having fun.”

Musical is magically mesmerizing continued froM page 1

[MiLLie]

The plot follows Millie Dillmount, played by senior Shayna Golub, as she embarks on a journey in 1922 Manhattan in an attempt to find a rich boss and marry him with love ‘having nothing to do with it.’ She ends up finding love and great friends while uncover-ing a white slave trading plot along the way.

This story is sprinkled with numerous dance numbers, and many memorable songs, such as “Forget About the Boy,” “Thor-oughly Modern Millie,” and many others.

“Thoroughly Modern Millie” also boasted being one of the few bilingual plays that Nis-kayuna has presented. Two of the charecters speak and sing mainly Chinese throughout the performance, with the translation of their words displayed in a series of humorous super-titles above the stage. These charecters, Bun Foo and Ching Ho, played by senior David Phil-lips and freshman Will Whisenhunt, respec-tively performed amazingly with a language they could barely understand, let alone speak.

The cast has many fond memories of the musical experience they have gone through. Senior Kat Romans said, “The musical has been the best experience throughout my high school career. I hope the audience had as much fun as we [the cast] did”. Mike Vassolas believes, “It’s an amazing experi-ence that really unites everyone involved.”

“I love the musical!” said sophomore Gina Foley. When the final performance

ended, many weren’t able to accept the fact that such a huge part of their life was over; sophomore Irene Kulbida said she was “sad,

Photo Credit / Paul ContiTAKING A LETTER: Trevor Graydon, played by senior Casey Larkin tests Millie’s, senior Shayna Golub, abilities as a stenographer during one of the run-through at this past week’s musical rehearsal.

yet at the same time so grateful I made such wonderful friends and amazing memories.”

3March 9, 2012The Warrior News

Students perform for a good causeby DaNe JeNNiNgs

News

For people interested in hear-ing live music performed by high school students, the high school’s ACTIONS club is hosting a concert performed by a variety of student musical groups. This concert is called Band-Aid, and takes place tonight (March 9) from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. in the high school’s New Cafeteria. Tickets cost $5 in advance and $7 at the door.

There are several bands and musical groups playing at this year’s Band-Aid. Starting off the show will be a per-formance, by junior Jesse Zeltins, who is a skilled acoustic guitarist. After Zel-tins’ performance the Cardinals will perform a few num-bers. The Cardinals consists of juniors Chris Caul f ie ld , Julian Foster, Da-vid Divirgilio, Tucker Jahoda, and Andrew Poitras. It began as a Beatles cover band, but now plays rock from the ‘60s.

After a trip back to the 1960s with the Cardinals, the audience will get to hear a newly formed indie rock duo called Nisky Girls Varsity Soccer. Members of the

band are senior Noah Prebish and freshman Eric Shekerjian. Right after that, a talented rock group with rising local fame will perform, and that group is Mental Trigger, which consists of juniors Tom Perlee, Dane Jennings, Joey DeBritz, and Jake Price.

Towards the end of the show, Karate will perform. Karate is an electronic group consisting of senior Noah Prebish and high school alumnus Mike Rudin-ski. They have opened for many national acts such as Infected Mushroom, Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Shpongle, and Is Tropica.

They also recently won the Battle of the Bands at Northern Lights, a nightclub in Clifton Park.

Concluding the show will be the band Milestone. Milestone’s performers are seniors Noah Prebish, Mike Bruns, Ethan Evans, and Jamey Wagner, as

well as junior Luc LaGraff. They are a well-known local alterna-tive band playing what may be their final live show. It’s a per-formance that one can’t miss.

Band-Aid is an annual tradition at the high school; it has been go-ing on for many years. Every year, it is put on by the club ACTIONS,

which is a Christian charity club that donates money to charitable organization. ACTIONS is led by advisor Linda Borges, who is a campus supervisor. Although the tickets will cost $7 at the door, a large portion of the proceeds made from Band-Aid tickets will be go-

ing to help an underprivileged child in Africa.

Many stu-dents are very excited about this year’s an-nual Band-Aid. “I’m super ex-cited to see the bands and it supports un-derpriv i leged children; it’s a win-win situa-tion!” said soph-omore Mariam Baig, “If you’re interested in having a good time and feel-ing that you’ve con t r ibu ted , come to this!”

Many other students just love Band-Aid. “I love Band-Aid!” said senior Mike Kimmer. “I always look forward to seeing the raw indie talent dis-played in each year’s Band-Aid,” said senior Kristjan Salasoo. This Band-Aid is sure to be a success!

Warrior Photo / Douglas PriceSTAGE CALL: Performers Joey DeBritz and Dane Jennings with Jake Price in the background on stage during a Mental Trigger performance.

School district suffers budget cutsby JasoN KasMaN

News

The Niskayuna Central School Dis-trict is facing a $4.1 million budget gap for the coming year. It has begun to act through a series of budget cuts and other measures designed to save money and maximize productivity within the schools.

On Tuesday, Feb. 28, the School District released a list of forty teachers and other faculty members who would be laid off at the

end of this school term. These layoffs were first planned and announced to the public last year in the plan for proposed budget cuts. The layoffs were part of the “Stage One” group, the group designed to save the most money, which received the most cuts.

Given the current plan, teachers, faculty and staff from all five elementary schools, both middle schools, and the high school will have their positions eliminated beginning in the fall, and their positions will not be filled.

“We face some difficult choices for this bud-get,” said Superintendent Susan Kay Salvaggio on the district web page. “Everyone is com-mitted to maintaining the caliber of education that our community has come to expect, but to do so, things have to look different next year.”

The district continues to host bud-get forums and amend plans in hopes of achieving the best possible solution to the budget problems for all involved.

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:Maggie JordanEmily O’Brien

News:Sarah Miner, EditorGrace Strong, EditorHannah Wistort, EditorJackson Montrym, AsstAnna Mattis, Asst

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

Entertainment:Eunu Song, EditorOlivia Cox, Asst

Advisers: James Edgar Russell McDowell

Sports:Christopher Herman, EditorJoe Petraccione, EditorAniket Tolpadi, AsstOlivia Jaquith, Asst

Magazine:Inga Bagepalli, EditorShikha Dharia, EditorAlisha Desai, EditorSwati Mehrotra, Asst

Additional Staff:Gabriel Holodak, Copy EditorAlison Xu, Copy EditorMaura Griffith, Photo EditorSohaib Syed, Graphics EditorKen Omiya, Graphics EditorKaitlin Hungershafer, Business ManagerBridget LeMon & Rachel Bickauskas, Distribution Managers

March 9, 2012

Mourning our lost teachersby tiM rice

opiNioN

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Today is a sad day for anybody who has ever had a teacher, because the universal family of students has suffered a great loss. There has been a death, and because of that, we mourn. We mourn not just for our teachers, but for our community. We do not cry for our school, but for our little brothers and sisters. For as goes the teachers, so goes the future.

The time for pointing fingers and passing blame has passed. Demanding the higher -ups take pay cuts and complaining about the wastefulness of Smart Boards won’t get us anywhere anymore. In fact, the time for us to be able to fix the problem may have come and gone. The die, it seems, has been cast. So let us don our black veils and begin keeping our silent vigil.

By the time this goes to print, it should be comon knowledge that last Tuesday,Feb. 28 the Niskayuna Central School District released a list of forty teachers and other faculty members from all of Niskayuna’s eight schools whose employment would not continue past the end of this school term. Though this plan to layoff staff members was first announced and finalized last year, this first stage of cuts was worse than any of us could have imagined, due to the nature in which the sentence was delivered. Directors were given lists of names and told

to inform their “selected” staff members of their termination on Tuesday morning. As almost ev-eryone has pointed out, even the most ruthless human resource managers representing the cold-est corporate behemoths wait until the end of the work day on Friday to carry out even mass layoffs of thousands of people. To perpetrate such an act in such a heartless, systematic manner is unfathomable; to expect these forty teachers to go to work not just that day but for the rest of that week without any substan-tial amount of time to process or recuperate is despicable.

This behavior is not that of an excellent school district such as ours, nor that of an industrial titan.

It is worth noting that in spite of this incident, these teachers did nothing for the rest of the day but teach. I myself sat in the classrooms of two of these teach-ers and enjoyed the company of at least three more, and did not learn of their disappointment until the next day. Even then, I did not hear about it from them. None of their students did. They kept their eyes dry, their heads up, and their voices silent until they were no longer in the presence of their students, as not to compromise the integrity of the profession they love. This is the kind of pas-sion, selflessness and resiliency that has put us all where we are today. Without these teachers, the student as we know it in our school would be a radically different entity. Our community itself would be altered beyond the

point if recognition. These are the kind of people that we are lucky to have working in our schools.

This is usually the time when students begin to criticize “the Administration,” those some-times faceless names who “run” our school but do not teach our classes. But this is not their fault. These cuts are as big a loss to them as they are to us. They didn’t make the decision, but rather carried out orders from a higher echelon of faceless names. So please, don’t shoot the mes-sengers, especially when there’s someone so much better to blame.

While schools like ours are releasing teachers based on the length of their employment, many are proposing that teach-ers are released based on merit. After years of trying to “square the circle,” the great State of New York has devised a way to standardize educational merit. Most recently, the New York City school districts have field tested this merit evaluation in the form of a test given to all students. This, of course, presents a few problems. For instance, teachers in Washington Heights are being graded lower on merit at much higher rates than teachers in For-est Hills. This has nothing to do with merit, but rather with the fact that Washington Heights has one of the highest Hispanic immigrant populations in all five Boroughs, while Forest Hills is predomi-nantly English speaking. It’s not that teachers in Forest Hills try harder than their counterparts in Washington Heights; it’s just that

their students actually under-stand what these tests are asking.

As apparent as these problems may seem, the state neglected to accommodate for them in the test-ing process. Even now that these issues have been raised by teach-ers within the districts as well as in the media and the courts, the state has yet to fix them. There only appears to be one possible reason why this is: the state of New York has given up on education. And as of last week, Niskayuna Central School District has joined them.

It is a cardinal rule that “good” editorials do not just criticize an issue, but present a means by which to solve a problem. I suppose then, that this is not a good editorial. I do not have a solution to propose, nor do I feel comfortable proposing a solution at this stage. Though we can try to change the tide by writing letters or starting movements, etc., we must start by fighting the biggest battle of all. We, as students, need to show that we care. And as long as those higher up know that we do, and that we will never stop, their cuts and their layoffs will never be the final nail in our coffin.

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.

5March 9, 2012The Warrior Opinion

Modern problems are exaggeratedby Joe parisi

opiNioN

Terrorism, global warming, capsizing cruise ships, recession, bird flu pandemic, default, riots, doomsday, tsunami, meltdown, and Whitney Houston. What do all these topics have in com-mon? They involve threat, and they involve fear, and therefore they are intriguing. The public gobbles up these stories, because frankly, they are headliners. But what people fail to recognize in this “chaotic” world is that this world’s not really all that cha-otic. We are living in what could be called an age of bliss, Pax Global if you will. Never before in human history has society been functioning so smoothly.

The quality of life of the average person in America is incredibly higher than that of a

hundred years ago. Innovation has brought about this change. In the past, problems have been aroused and later solved by in-creasing innovation. For example, a hundred years ago, the world was becoming increasingly glob-ally connected; communication was essential but not accessible in immediate circumstances. This was changed with the invention of cell phone towers and satel-lite receivers. Now people can access anyone on the globe with a few tones of their cell phone.

A hundred years ago, the aver-age person was basically stranded by continent. Nowadays people can travel anywhere in the world in less than a day by airplane. People a hundred years ago at-tained their knowledge through hours of searching through books in libraries. Now people

can access information in a blink of an eye from Canada to Aus-tralia on technological devices.

You see, society is always progressing to solve problems of the future. But people say tech-nology has brought about more problems than it has solved. Now weapons of mass destruction can fit in a suitcase or the environ-mental crisis is leading to catas-trophe. But what do we not hear about? Innovation in robotics, in security, and energy production technologies. Cameras in major cities track movements of every passerby and bomb detectors can solve a problem of terror-ism before they even come into fruition. Solar technology has become increasingly affordable and plausible every year and steps are being taken to use al-ternative fuels and electric cars.

Look around you. The lights on the ceiling, the Promethean board at the front of the class-room, even the phone in your pocket would have been un-thinkable a hundred years ago, even in the richest offices of the president. Look at how far we, as an innovative race of people, have come. I am confident in the seven billion plus minds in this world that our race has a bright future and not one of demolition and destruction.

Yes we will encounter problems in the future, but it is our na-ture to conquer these problems using creativity and innovation that make us successful as a people. It is our innovative abilities that will crush these problems when they are still on the horizon and help us reach the extraordinary goals of the future.

O b s e s s e d w i t h g u n sby DaNiel Zhao

opiNioN

Modern society is obsessed with guns. From movies to video games, the media is essentially dominated by the image of guns. Movie stars in action movies seem to always sling around a pistol with them, avoiding bullets with grace and relative ease. Perhaps it is because we are sur-rounded by bullets and guns far too much, and therefore have become densensitized, but the obsession with guns to me is a bit disturbiing

It seems ironic, then, that tragic movies pull at our hearts, and make us tear up. Scenes of lovers being separated by cruel fate are regarded as some of the most emotionally powerful scenes in cinema, and these sort of cinematic moments have a huge following. Korean and Chinese dramas, in particular, have a devout following in their respec3tive nations.

It then seems even more particu-larly disturbing that we care so much for these

individual lives, but fail to even flinch when we witness an unamed soldier dying in a movie, in the news, or in video games like Call of Duty or Battlefield 3. It doesn’t need

mentioning that each one of these soldiers had a family, a history, and a loved one too in their lives. Some of you may be doubt-ing the comparsion between video game soldiers dying and characters in movies

dying, but the fact remains that they are both completely fictional, a mere figment of a writer’s imagination. We care so much for these fictional characters, and yet a news story of soldier diving onto a grenade to save

his fellow soldiers is almost immediately forgotten in favor of a drama on television.

As a society, we should hold ourselves to higher moral standards. I’m not claiming that caring for characters in a drama or

television show is wrong; rather, I’m stating that we shouldn’t exclusively concern ourselves with fiction when there are true stories of brave soldiers and heroes out there that can pro-vide just as much inspiration, if not even more than the often overexagerrated and excessively violent stories that Hollywood is fond of pumping out now.

Guns, then, and the prevelance of guns in modern society and media, stands as a representa-tion of just how artificial we are. Guns, only one of which is needed to end an entire individual’s ties to society, friends, and lover, are treated casually and excessively

in modern movies. Movies like Transform-ers, The Matrix, among others, stand as an enduring testament to this distrubing modern trend, and this obsession with guns doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

Warrior Art / Ken Omiya

6 March 9, 2012 The WarriorEntertainment

A r e c a p o f t h e O s c a r sby Miles tepper

eNtertaiNMeNt

Movies: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Friends With Kids, Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Music: One Direction, The Ting TingsBooks: The Idea Factory by Jon Gert-

ner, Free Will by Sam HarrisVideo Games: Tales of Graces: f, Ma-

rio Party 9, Silent Hill: Downpour

Your Weekly Entertainment Fix

Two Sundays ago, the 84th Academy Awards were held in the Kodak Theater in downtown Los Angeles. After a bit of a shakeup beforehand with Eddie Murphy dropping out as the show’s host, veteran Billy Crystal came in to save the day. It was certainly an interesting year for nominations, with unique films such as “Hugo,” Martin Scorsese’s 3D children’s book adaptation, and “The Artist,” a silent black and white French film by Michel Hazanavicius about the silent movie world, leading the pack.

With new voting rules allowing anywhere from five to ten films to be nominated for Best Picture, this year saw nine films nominated for the top prize. Besides “Hugo” and “The Artist,” “The Descendants,” “The Help,” “The Tree of Life,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Moneyball,” “Extremely Loud & Close,” and “War Horse” were given the honorable nominations. “The Descendants,” directed by Alexander Payne, is a poignant dramedy about a troubled fam-ily starring George Clooney. “The Help” is a film adaptation by director Tate Taylor of the best-selling novel written by Kathryn Stockett about African-American maids working for white families in Mississippi in the 1960s. “The Tree of Life” is eccentric director Ter-rance Malick’s esoteric yet spectacularly ex-istential family drama that spans generations and goes all the way back to the forming of the universe. “Midnight in Paris” is director Woody Allen’s love letter to the city of Paris of the 1920s. “Moneyball,” a film adaptation

of Michael Lewis’ book penned by “The Social Network”’s Aaron Sorkin, is about the revolu-tionary way Billy Beane ran the Oakland A’s baseball team. “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is director Stephen Daldry’s slow and pretentious adaptation of the similarly-titled novel about a boy who has lost his father in the 9/11 attacks. Finally, “War Horse” is the work of the great Stephen Spielberg, a sweep-ing World War I epic about a boy and his horse.

Crystal opened up the ceremony with a song about all nine films, which completely supported the fact that Crystal should just host the Academy Awards every year. Why try experimental hosts that aren’t funny (hey there, James Franco) when you can just have someone harmless and funny?

Although there were some noticeable award snubs within the categories, namely Shailene Woodley for “The Descendants,” Michael Fassbender for “Shame,” and Kirsten Dunst and “Melancholia” as a whole, the nomina-tions were mostly good choices. As usual, the award for Best Supporting Actress was presented early in the ceremony. Octavia Spencer won easily for her portrayal of Minnie, a maid in “The Help.” While some might find her performance too hard on the “mammy” stereotype, her biting one-liners and outspo-kenness won over voters from the beginning. Christopher Plummer became the oldest ever

Best Supporting Actor winner, at 82, win-ning a long overdue Oscar for his perfect, moving portrayal of a dying father who has just come out as gay at 75 in “Beginners.”

The award for Best Original Screenplay went to no-show Woody Allen for “Midnight in Paris,” a rather biased choice in my opinion, and the award for Best Adapted Screenplay to Alex-ander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash (who plays Dean Pelton on “Community”), for their witty and biting script for “The Descendants.”

The top acting awards went to Jean Du-jardin, for his heartbreaking performance of a washed-up silent film star in “The Artist,” and Meryl Streep, for her perfect portrayal of former British Prime Minis-ter Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.” Streep won her third Oscar that night, and reached a record 17 nominations.

Michel Hazanavicius’ deserving Best Direc-tor win pretty much cemented a Best Picture

win for “The Artist,” which completed the sweep, making it the second film ever to win Best Actor, Director, and Picture. Although the awards were a bit predictable, it was a great night for Hollywood and viewers alike. Crystal again made the show an entertaining, slightly scandalous one full of laughs and smiles.

www.newsok.comMAN OF THE EVENING: Michel Hazanavicius, the director of the year’s standout black and white film “The Artist,” enjoyed his night at the Oscars, as “The Artist” garnered five awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Origi-nal Score, and Best Costume Design.

www.nationalpost.comIN HIS EIGHTIES AND STILL STRONG: Cana-dian actor Christopher Plummer won his first Os-car ever for Best Supporting Actor in “Beginners.” Plummer is 82 years old, now the oldest recipient of an Academy Award.

www.dailymail.co.ukCROWD-PLEASER: Actor Billy Crystal returned to the Kodak Theatre to host the Academy Awards ceremony for the ninth time, proving to be born to host with his natural sense of humor.

7March 9, 2012The Warrior Sports

Interview with a track starsports

by chris herMaN

Q : W h a t w e r e y o u r goals for this season?

A: The goals for the team this year were to win back our Sec-tional title. We came in first last year so that was what we were going for, but unfortunately this year we were down a lot of athletes around Sectionals because of injuries and traveling and stuff. We still placed third and the boys placed second so it was still a success, and besides that our season has been really successful because as a team we’ve broken some school records and had two athletes qualify for States and

a handful of athletes qualify for Nationals next weekend.

My personal goals for the season were really just to have a good last season with the team. I always enjoy track and this season was no differ-ent. Personally I ran well and cut down some of my times and bonded with my team-mates which is all I can re-ally ask for.

Q : W h o w e r e k e y players in the t e a m s s u c c e s s ?

A: Everyone on the team is a key player, for track an individual can only score so many points. It really is about coming together as a team and everyone contrib-uting in their event to make a meet successful. Obviously we have extremely talented athletes and leaders on the team (Kaleigh Higgins, Alison Xu, Derrick Smith and Niall Williams just to name

a few) but we wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything without everyone contributing. So the key players are really everyone who comes to practice everyday and works hard and really goes for it.

Q: How do you guys plan on im-proving? What needs to be done?

A: To improve for next season I think that the coaches and team are trying to focus on being more of a community and bring-ing all of the athletes together.

We are always trying to find ways to make the team more cohesive and successful.

Q: What have you done to become such a good athlete?

A: I don’t really think that I do anything special to be a good runner. It’s really just about doing your best and trying your best, and if you do that I think that you’ll always get good results. It’s worked for me at least.

Q: Do you want to pursue this sport after high school?

A: I am actually going to the College of the Holy Cross next year to run D1 track and field, so I am defi-nitely continuting next year and looking forward to it.

Q: What advice do you give to young aspiring runners?

A: For anyone looking to run, I think it’s a really great program at the school. It’s kind of different than other sports because it is very individual. It really pushes you to achieve goals and work towards them, so it is really fu-filling as long as you work hard.

As the season comes to a close, the athletes get ready for the outdoor track season. They have a few days in between seasons but most of their free time will be spent remaining in shape and working out for the spring season. As Victoria and the team head down to New York City for Nation-als, they have all of the tools they need to have a good showing, since they have been at it all year long.

As one season concludes, a new one is born and new opportunities will present themselves to our athletes. They say that success is a product of both preparation and opportunity. If this is the case, our athletes have been pre-paring and we hope and expect them to reap great success from their dedication and work ethic.

Photo credit / Victoria EngvoldGETTING READY TO BLAST AWAY: Victoria Engvold prepares herself for a race at Yale Univer-sity. The senior leader had a solid showing at the event and helped the team with a good perfor-mance.

i Sat down with Victoria engVoLd of the indoor track teaM thiS LaSt week and becaMe quite faMiLiar with the niSkayuna track teaM and what MakeS theM So good year after year. engVoLd iS an integraL part of the niSkayuna track and fieLd prograM. next year She wiLL be attending the coLLege of hoLy croSS to Sprint at the diViSion 1 LeVeL. we wiSh her the beSt of Luck!

March 9, 2012 The WarriorSports

Sc

he

du

le

an

d S

co

re

s Indoor Track

3/9-3/10 New Balance Nationals @ Armory in NYC

8

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

Can you smell tennis?sports

suMaN paDhi

It is spring again, and with spring comes baseball, lacrosse, track, crew, and of course, tennis. The first four sports named get plenty of attention as is, but today I’d like to call your attention to tennis.

Niskayuna’s tennis program is quite talented with a lot of success at the Sec-tional level. It has historically been one of the top competitors in the Suburban Council, usually in the top three spots, in-cluding a couple finalists in the singles and doubles competitions at Sectionals last year.

Alumnus Chris Frost did Niskayuna proud by winning it all last year, while seniors Bren-dan Service and Erwin Lin made it all the way to the finals in the doubles championships. Not only was Niskayuna in both finals last year, but the team had representatives in the consolation round of both tournaments as well. Donny Dudley lives on in the hearts and memories of the tennis teams as they celebrate all he did to help the team’s success. Hats off to senior Jon Fin for making it to the consolation round of the doubles competition.

With such a great history in an excellent sport, it is no surprise that several athletes who don’t do a spring sport are turning to tennis to continue Niskayuna’s success. Not only are athletes who are usually rest-ing during the spring turning to tennis, but several athletes are switching to tennis from other sports, which simply portrays how attractive Niskayuna’s tennis program is.

With several middle school students step-ping it up to play at the junior varsity or even varsity levels, and a lot of interest already existing in the high school, the competition for each position on either squad is heavy.

Try-outs in tennis run in a very interesting manner, leaving a lot more up to the athlete’s self-evaluation as they choose the team and position that they try out for. This leaves less to the coach’s evaluation and more on how well a player knows his own skill level. His-

torically, competition for varsity positions has been intense with several kids getting moved down to JV, but the JV program has been very welcoming, more focused on developing everyone who joins rather than winning every match, and thus usually not cutting anyone. This usually leads to a massive exhibition sec-tion on the JV team, but this rarely hinders the team’s success as the JV team typically also ranks quite well in the suburban council.

As of right now, the varsity team’s first match is against Shenendehowa. As it is with

all athletics at Niskayuna, the Plainsmen are big rivals for the tennis team. With tryouts taking place this week, the coaches hope to find the best players possible to uphold the varsity tennis team’s standard of excellence.

As for the junior varsity team, coaches hope to uphold the same standard of ex-cellence, while developing well-rounded athletes who will be essential competi-tors once they reach the varsity level.

Of course, the tennis teams, as well as the rest of Niskayuna, will never forget the players they have lost. But as the town and the teams continue on, they also wish the tennis teams the best of luck as they begin their 2012 season.

Photo Credit / Suman PadhiSERVICE SERVING: Brendan Service and Erwin Lin prepare for a volley as Service serves. The two are going to play a key role in the teams suc-cess this year.