Eagan IndependentVolume 6, Issue 1 Eagan High School | 4185 Braddock Trail | Eagan, MN 55123 October 12, 2010

Competition, celebration the heart of homecomingBy Matthew NovitzkiStaff Writer

Once again, Homecom-ing week has come and gone at Eagan High School. From movie night, the homecoming game, and the dance itself, it’s an exciting week for many at Eagan. A lot happened last week, but what is the week long school celebration all about?

The tradition of home-coming week in North America began by celebrating

a time where high school and college alumni return to visit home schools for a traditional football game and other activities.

119 years later the home-coming tradition is still very alive, but things change. This year’s homecoming theme was “We Are Eagan,” cel-ebrating the school as a whole and being a part of the high school community. Home-coming activities kicked off with coronation on Saturday, October 2nd. The event was

organized by Student Govern-ment. At the event, last year’s homecoming queen Kristen Busch crowned George Krall and Jadee White the new homecoming king and queen.

On Monday night, Eagan had its annual outdoor movie night. The movie “We Are Marshall” was shown. The event started at 7:00 p.m. and was a way for students to meet up and enjoy a good movie with friends.

Wednesday night, EHS

hosted one of its most com-petitive nights of the year: The Dodgeball Tournament. Students organize teams with friends and go all out for the occasion. “I love how every-body gets together, and there is such good competition, and everybody wants those brag-ging rights, not to mention all the cool jerseys.” says PIT leader Ben Sicoli.

Continued on page 2Photo by Michelle Metcalfe

Seniors George Krall and Jadee White were crowned at corona-tion on October 2.

Ten seniors earn national recognition, awardsBy Mayzong LeeNews Editor

As the National Merit Scholarship Program hosts its 56th annual scholarship program, six semi- finalist students were chosen based on their performance on the PSAT and NMSQT test along with ten commended stu-dents. The test is taken during the junior year of high school along side with approximate-ly 1.5 million other students from 22,000 different U.S. schools.

Victoria Anderson, Wil-liam Cox, Jessica Hasslinger, Lars Johnson, Bokil Lopez- Pineda, and Ryan Pham all qualified as semi-finalists by scoring within the top 1 percent of nationwide scores. If they move on to become finalists, they are eligible to receive more than 8,400 national merit scholarships that total to be more than $3.6 million.

To attain the desired score to be in the top 1 percent of PSAT scores, all six pre-pared throughout high school,

Johnson says, “I try to under-stand the [information] not just memorizing it and I was careful [during the test.]” Cox goes on to say, “I looked over the math and reviewed the concepts [because I feel that those are the hardest.]” Has-slinger adds, “I maintained my grades and took the ACT a lot which helped me [when taking the PSAT.]” Anderson agrees by saying, “I took the practice tests and studied the material.”

Eagan’s six semi-finalists will now have to submit ad-ditional information to further qualify them as a national merit finalist. By spring 2011, 90 percent of the semi- final-ists will be chosen and en-titled to getting scholarships given by businesses, colleges, universities, and the National Merit Scholarship Corpora-tion.

Along with the National Merit Award, there is the National Council of Teach-ers of English (NCTE) Award to honor exemplary student writing. Among the 16 seniors in Minnesota and 543 other

seniors throughout the nation, four of Eagan’s seniors were chosen to receive this award, the most of any high school in the state.

To receive this very competitive award Katie Feterl, Garrett Lukin, Kyra Stephenson, and Nicole Wagner submit-ted writing samples written during junior year, with the nomina-tion of their Advanced Placement Language teachers. Each nomi-nated student presents two essays of their own writing, one being a genre they’ve chosen, the other a 75-minute timed themed essay chosen by the Achieve-ment Awards Advisory Committee.

The papers are then judged by a panel of English teachers that are selected throughout the various home schools of the students. Each essay is based on the pre-sentation of their own idea, whether or not the idea was

their own, are the subject and audience clearly stated, and the usage of a creative lan-guage.

Being established in the 1957s, the National Achieve-ments writing program en-courages students to use their own voices in writing and

help the public recognize the best student writers. If this award is received the NCTE submits the achievement to the chosen college the recipi-ents. In addition students also obtain a certificate to attach to their college application.

Photo by Michelle MetcalfeLeft to right: Robson Garcia, Kota Naruse, Marta Guedes, Carlotta Mattiazzi, Eva Pasche and Neslihan Gueven

3 Continents, 6 CountriesBy Alanna ThelenStaff Writer

Many people living in the United States dream of traveling abroad to places

such as Europe, Asia, or South America. Some people who live in those countries, how-ever, dream

Continued on page 8

Cherry Orchard stages family comedy, drama

Photo by Michelle MetcalfeSeniors James Gage and Garrett Lukin

rehearse lines after school.

By Twie SouvannavongStaff Writer

This fall, the EHS the-ater department is present-ing Anton Chekhov’s 1904 The Cherry Orchard. This play is best described as a serious comical drama. It’s about Madame Ranevsaya, a landowner who ran away to Paris to escape her past. She then comes back to her cherry orchard in Russia, her home country. Once she returns, struggles in the family begin to arise. Their land is about to be auctioned off due to debt issues. Together, her and her brother must find a way to save the family’s cherry orchard. The question is if the ending will be jolly or a hor-

rid tragedy. English teacher Mr.

Melchior is directing the fall play. This will be the very first time The Cherry Orchard will be performed at Eagan High School. Melchior knew that he wanted to execute this play after seeing it in London, England. “I was very moved [and] I wanted to do this. Even though it’s more of a difficult play, I believe that the students here would be able to do it.” The cast is made up of eighteen talented students: seniors Lauren Stopfer, Elleni Paul-son, Dan Jimenez, Garrett Lukin, James Gage, Peter Dunifon, Arnesh Roy, Nick

Price and Hannah Hoffmann; juniors Madeline Gore, David Newhall, Maddie Sachs, Con-nor Swanson, Jan Patterson and Emma Randolph; and sophomores Ally Johnson, Justin Wirsbinski, Reid Em-mons and Liza Demyanov. Continued on page 2

Photo by Michelle MetcalfeTop (left to right): William Cox, Bokil Lopez- Pineda, Lars Johnson

Bottom (left to right): Jessica Hasslinger, Ryan Pham, Victoria Anderson

EdITOrIalEagan Independent | Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Staff*

Editor in Chief Joe Stelman

NewsMayzong Lee - Editor

FeaturesCameron VanDyke - EditorMatt NovitzkiPearce OlsonTwie SouvannavongAlanna Thelen

SportsMolly Martinez - Editor

Photography Michelle Metcalfe - EditorRachel Larson

AdviserSara Stensaas

*New 2010-2011 staff mem-bers start as of the Novem-ber issue. A full staff list will be posted from then on.

The Eagan Independent is a monthly publication produced by Eagan High School students from all grade levels in a cocurricular setting.

We are committed to provid-ing a limited open forum within the community of Eagan High School - one in which opinions, discussion and input are always wel-comed and encouraged.

Comments, questions, thoughts and ideas may be addressed to:

Eagan Independent4185 Braddock TrailEagan, MN 55123

or e-mailed to:eaganindependent@gmail.com

Letters to the editor must be signed by the author and be 500 words or less. Letters to the editor submitted that are more than 500 words may be edited by the staff. Letters may also require editing if they contain false or libelous statements.

Editorial policies and content decisions are made by the editorial board. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the writer and/or the Eagan In-dependent staff and are not necesssarily the opinons of the adviser, administration, students, faculty or Indepen-dent School District 196.

Editorial Policy

Election 2010: Messy politics make for tough voter decisionBy Joe StelmanEditor-in-Chief

With Election Day 2010 now less than thirty days away, the propaganda, attack ads and political campaigns are in full swing. More than ever, candidates are finding new and creative ways to deride opponents, some of which seem to be working. As the race tightens, we can feel these effects right here in Min-nesota, where the congres-sional and gubernatorial races are becoming more heated. In just the last few weeks, for example, I’ve been suffi-ciently bemused by the string of attacks between Republican incumbent Michele Bachmann and Democrat Tarryl Clark in Minnesota’s sixth congres-sional district race. I almost went hilariously cross-eyed over Independent candidate Tom Horner’s ad depicting a close-up of a man with a blue and red eye, each gazing to the extreme left and right, respectively, a message highly representative of partisan politics. Right as the heat of the

election began in the wake of August’s primaries, Demo-cratic candidate Mark Dayton called for a “cease-fire” of attack ads. Former Republi-can Senator Norm Coleman advocated for the same in 2008, but in both situations, little seems to have happened as a result, and both guberna-torial candidates Dayton and Emmer continue firing at each other across open fields. The point being that the perpetual tirade of attacks and backhanded politics will continue to be a major facet of the election until voters take to the polls November 2. For a few of us seniors, this election marks our first dab-ble into the voting process, and knowing the issues at the polls represents a major battle to stay ahead of the decision. Yet as is the nature of so many contested topics, most of these subjects have become so mired in political controversy that it’s hard to discern the real value of debate they can bring. Take the issue of taxes and the economy, for example – just one of the key topics

of concern for candidates in this election. Democrats and Republicans from across the country have berated each other so tirelessly that true fiscal platforms seem to have gotten lost amid the crossfire. In Minnesota, we’ve seen the amusement of Bachmann’s “Meet Taxin’ Tarryl” ads, as well as one labeling the Democratic candidate as a “Big Spending, Big Taxing Job Killer.” In reality, both candi-dates have laid the ground-work for sound platforms on these issues. Both want to stabilize the economy and reduce unemployment. The problem is articulating these views in an approach that conveys real thought to vot-ers. The same dilemmas plague the race for governor. Where candidates Tom Em-mer and Mark Dayton could have been hashing it out over health care and educa-tion, they spent money and resources throwing attack ads back and forth. Dayton went for Emmer’s drunk driving incidents, while Emmer dug up information emphasizing

Dayton’s previous rank as one of the “worst U.S. Senators.” So whether or not Clark advocates taxes on beer and deep-fried bacon, this kind of oversimplification and derision of candidate stances only muddies the importance of issues for voters. Matters concerning the economy and stimulus money are issues that hit home for many Amer-icans, especially those relying on aid and Social Security like retirees and the unemployed. With such heavy concerns at hand, voters deserve candi-dates who are serious with their promises and platforms. The bottom line: we have to work harder to make our informed decision as election campaigns are driven less by substance and more by cut-throat propaganda.Whether you’re going to the polls for the first time this November or merely observ-ing from the sidelines, it’s time to start sifting through the issues, clearing the mud of misinformation one sweep at a time.

Homecoming from page 1 These activities all go on in the midst of spirit week. This year’s days were neon day, hats and shades day, dodgeball/sports day, charac-ter day, and school spirit day. On Friday October 8, stu-dents had not only the home-coming game against Prior Lake to look forward to, but also the pepfest. “The PIT is by far the biggest and loudest for that game and everyone is pumped up.” says Sicoli on the Homecoming Game.

“Our favorite part about Homecoming is getting ready all day long [before the dance] with friends and dressing up.” said seniors, Taylor Clouse and Katie Palluck. The rest of the weekconcluded with the Home-coming Dance on Saturday.

Orchard from page 1 This play closely mirrors

the life of the playwright, An-ton Chekhov. When Chekhov was just a teen his mother fell into property debt. A propri-etor offered to help his moth-er, but then secretly turned against her and purchased the land for himself. The play-wright even grew a cherry orchard of his own. Since he went through his own trials of stress, betrayal, and joy, inter-preting those feelings into his play was easy to do.

The Cherry Orchard is an excellent play that speaks to society’s moral character. The basic theme that the play con-veys is the ability of letting go of past actions like regret, sor-row, and heartbreak. It also displays the consequences of running away. If one can’t forget the past or runs away to escape, then they’re on a ride to unhappiness.

The Cherry Orchard will be playing on October 14th-16th at 7:30pm. Tickets on sale October 11.

Eagan Independent | Tuesday, October 12, 2010 3

Collect ‘em all: New (and returning) teachers to EHS team

Budget cutsPaper Cut one method to cut spendingBy Joe StelmanEditor-in-Chief

After last year’s trial of monitored student printing access, school administrators are now acting on the ability to limit the resource. As of this year, the school’s use of PaperCut print management software enforc-es printing restrictions at sixty sheets per trimester. With a cost of five cents per sheet, student accounts are levied with an original amount of three dollars. The quota came after evaluating two trimesters of gathered statistics for every student, which found the median range of student-printed material was only between two and four copies. Still, administrators found it reasonable to place a restric-tion, particularly after two district schools have already done so with the claim that their printing costs have been reduced. Others believe that PaperCut will also help adopt an environmentally-friendly attitude among staff and stu-dents. “Something about it feels like the environmentally friendly way to behave,” said Dr. Reikowski. Despite the relatively mar-ginal use of school printing for most students, the school had already accumulated $15,000 in paper costs before January 1 of this year. Admin-istrators hope the new limits will make everyone in the building – including teachers – more aware of these costs. Out of a school-wide

budget of $330,000, nearly two-thirds goes to each de-partment. As it stands, most school departments spend nearly their entire budget on copying and paper needs. Yet after a ten percent cut to all department budgets in the wake of last year’s financial cuts, the need to save is be-coming greater than ever. “I see teachers becoming far more conservative,” said Dr. Reikowski. “They’re get-ting smarter with how much they use.” Despite limited printer access, there are ways to circumvent the restriction for students, especially those who rely on paper. Members of the EHS Debate team, for exam-ple, can print from a separate account due to their heavy reliance on printed material for evidence. Though there is no paper limit for the debate account, head coach Chris McDonald still comments that it is “a bet-ter means of making us more aware of our resources.” When it comes to students, however, not all are content with the new policy. “It just limits student ability,” said Emily Dallager, senior. “We’re going to use a lot of paper anyway because we’re a big school, and all it does is make students worry about overrunning their ac-counts.” According to principal Reikowski, there is room to modify the three-dollar quota if it proves insufficient for students’ needs.

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Hometown: Winona, MNFavorite Food : Chocolate

Favorite Sport: Baseball Pet Peeve: Having to repeat myself

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Hometown: Inver Grove Heights, MN

Favorite Sport: BaseballFavorite Band: The Band Perry

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Hometown: Wausau, WIFavorite Food: Ice Cream

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Hometown: Gordon, WIFavorite Food: Fettuccine Alfredo

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Hometown: Lakeville, MNFavorite Food: Schnitzel – a breaded veal cutlet – Ger-

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FEaTurESEagan Independent | Tuesday October 12, 2010

In the Clubs

New service group

By Joe StelmanEditor-in-Chief

A new student group called Student Outreach Services (SOS) organization has been initiated this year, seeking to provide help for students and families through a series of service projects.

SOS was student-initi-ated by sophomore Brenna Bloome, who first proposed the service project idea to world language teacher Linda Albertson.

“My family has a cancer history,” explained Bloome on her support for the club. “And we’ve been through hard times too.”

Albertson signed on to advise the group.

“There are people in our community that need basic services and we raise money to give to them,” said Albert-son.

“It’s important, because there are kids from Eagan with financial issues,” says group member Lily Newell.

The group’s first project was a volunteer Pancake Breakfast at Applebee’s res-taurant Saturday, October 9. The proceeds were donated to the ANGEL Foundation, which helps local families dealing with a parent’s cancer diagnosis, as well as Eagan High School’s Random Acts of Kindness fund. Managed by Dr. Polly Reikowski, prin-cipal, the Random Acts fund provides immediate financial aid to students through items like groceries, clothes, or school supplies.

“As an advisor for this group I get the joy of watch-ing students reaching out to help other students. The re-sponse to work at this break-fast has overwhelmed me and just reinforces for me what a wonderful, caring environ-ment we have here,” spoke Albertson.

The group does not hold regular meetings but if you were interested in joining and/or helping, please con-tact Albertson or Bloome.

NewTubeBy Seth LynchStaff Writer

Nikita (CW) Normally, I can get behind the rouge spy stories, however every spy movie depends on sympathy. There is a damaged but likable char-acter that the audience feels the need to care for. On paper Nikita looks like it should work; however the audience never connects mainly due to dialogue. Nikita has some of the worst dialogue I have ever heard. The opening scene con-sists of an internal monologue about how she wants to bring down the agency that stole her life. And just in case you didn’t catch that, don’t worry. They repeat the same speech about 4 times throughout the first episode. The lead antagonist is a disgruntled field agent whose job it is to kill Nikita. He only has one talent; he’s pretty good at smirking. Every time he is on screen he says his lines, smirks and walks out of the scene. Even the action of this show let me down. Whenever a good action scene comes along they ruin it with pointless dialogue, meaning-less quick cuts and over-dra-matic camera effects. Nikita is not only a show not worth watching, but something that you should ac-

tively avoid. If you feel in the mood for a good rouge spy show, I strongly suggest Burn Notice (on USA).

The Event (NBC) The Event follows seem-ingly random individuals that are somehow connected to one single event that will change all of humanity. The first episode focuses on three story lines: a disappearance of a girl on a Carnival Cruise, a plane highjacking and a CIA cover up. This show surprised me. I was able to sympathize with the characters and really started to care about them. I did feel like it was trying too hard to ride off of Lost’s coat tails with the multiple story lines, web of characters and a heavy shroud of mystery. I doubt that this will capture audiences like Lost did but it does look like it may be a fun ride. If you have the time and patience to follow The Event I say go for it, otherwise leave it alone. There are bet-ter things out there and you won’t be missing much.

Hawaii Five-O (CBS) Hawaii Five-O follows a special “no rules” police team as they hunt down Hawaii’s most dangerous criminals. Hawaii Five-O is a reboot of a classic 60’s TV series

and there are always small problems with updating old series, but they did a good job at it here. Leading the team is Steve, the ex-military “at all costs” sick-in-the-mud and his partner Danny, a local cop. Buddy cop shows center around the chemistry between the characters and this show has it. Daniel Dae Kim stars as Chin Ho, another member of the team. You may remember Daniel from Lost where he played Jin-Soo. The only real bit of criticism is that Daniel keeps referring to Hawaii as “the Island” which always kind of took me out of the show and back to Lost. But apart from that everything else was done and done well. With great on screen chemistry, well shot action scenes and a likable cast, I will personally be following Hawaii Five-O in the future.

The Undercovers (NBC) J.J. Abrams is famous for re-imaging Star Trek and was the executive producer of both Fringe and Lost. His latest project is The Undercov-ers, which follows a married couple, Steven and Samantha Bloom, who are brought back into the CIA spy game. Now right off that bat let me just say that I enjoyed it as a show, but not as a J.J. Abrams show. One thing that he does well is

putting believable characters in unbelievable situations, The Undercovers in the polar op-posite of that. The characters are likable yes, but not believ-able. A prime example is Bill Hoyt, played by Ben Schwartz (Sarah Silverman Program, College Humor) a very funny comedian and actor. He is funny and likable, but he belongs in an episode of The Office. This show did noth-ing wrong, it had well shot action, likable characters and a good plot, but I just found it difficult to watch after seeing everything else J.J. Abrams has gotten behind. It is just a straightforward spy show. This show is like if Van Gogh drew a really nice stick figure.

The Walking Dead (AMC) This show follows a man who wakes up from a coma to find his town abandon. Beau-tiful landscape replaced with hundreds of dead bodies. And they’re hungry. If you’re a fan of zombies, this is your show. Based on a graphic novel, the walking dead looks like some-thing you don’t want to miss. Series Premiere October 31st.

Classic Saigon Restaurant

By Seth Lynch

M-Th: 11 AM to 9 PMF & S: 11 AM to 10 PM1272 Town Center DrivePrice range: $8-$13VietnameseTakeout/sit down

Classic Saigon is a Viet-namese restaurant in Town Center. Its variety includes 160 menu options. Excellent traditional dishes like Lomein and eggrolls, and for those more adventurous, the res-

taurant offers seven different squid dishes and very strong KimChi (a traditional dish made up of pickled cabbage). If you’re a vegetarian, they offer many good tofu dishes and mock duck (tofu that is cooked and seasoned like duck). If you can, I strongly suggest trying out one of their many soups. They are inexpensive, come in large portions and are very good. I have only been here once but already have a new favorite takeout place. I cannot recom-mend Classic Saigon highly enough.

&Movie

Dinner

The successes of summer cinemaBy Pearce OlsonStaff Writer

When school started, not only did the days of sleeping in and swimming for hours fade away, but so did our spec-tacular blockbuster season. This past summer was packed with a wide array of wonder-ful films, and last May I wrote a column previewing sum-mer movies. After seeing four of the five I previewed last spring, here is a recap to close the summer movie season.

1.Iron Man 2Prediction: “With Robert Downey and a great plot this movie is going to be sweet.”Review: Not as much fun as the first Iron Man. The plot seemed much less original and much more forced. It was still a pretty good sequel but was it worth the $10 movie ticket? I don’t think so. 2.5 O’s out of 4.

2.Robin HoodPrediction: “This could be Russell Crowe’s return to greatness, in what looks to be a very promising movie.”

Review: This movie just missed the mark. The visu-als were completely stunning and innovative at times, but the movie felt very hollow and lacked an engaging plot. It’s like having a great steak dinner with thick mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables. It’s a beautiful-looking steak, but when you cut into it it’s completely raw. This movie had potential but forgot about the basics of filmmaking. It turned out boring and un-eventful. 1.5 O’s out of 4.

3.Toy StoryPrediction: “With the origi-nal Toy Story voices return-ing like Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, this could be the final installment that would make the films an amazing trilogy.”Review: Even though I usu-ally don’t like trilogies, I have to say this was a very fun movie to watch. The plot was not as original as the first two, but the animation was gor-geous and the characters were fresh but still familiar. Overall this movie produced some good laughs and I walked out with a smile. 3.5 O’s out of 4.

Best new TV

4.InceptionPrediction: “This current sleeper flying under the big buzz radar could challenge Iron Man later on this sea-son.”Review: This is the movie I told all my friends was going to be the best movie of the summer. Thank goodness

I turned out to be right. If you’re reading this and you haven’t see this movie yet, stop what you’re doing and go rent it. It’s extremely in-ventive and original, and with Leonardo DiCaprio at the helm, Inception goes down as my favorite film of the sum-mer. 4 O’s out of 4.

S.O.S. aims to provide immedi-ate help for stu-dents and families in need at Eagan

Illustration by Michelle Metcalfe

SpOrTSEagan Independent | Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Staff photoSophomore Sidney Speir

Athlete of the Month

Volleyball adjusts to new head coachBy Alanna Thelen Staff Writer

It’s been a seesaw season so far for the Eagan girls’ varsity volleyball team. The Wildcats began the year with a win against Stillwater at home, a loss to Woodbury on the road, and a win against White Bear Lake. They split four games and placed 4th in the Shakopee tournament in early September. The girls then split four regular season games, beating Park Cottage Grove on the road and Bloom-ington Kennedy at home, and losing away games to Lakeville South and Eastview. They finished out the month going 1-3 in the Apple Valley tournament and with a road win over Bloomington Ken-nedy and losses to Blooming-ton Jefferson and Burnsville at home. Thus far this season, their record is 4 wins and 5 losses. Coach Kissner, the Varsity volleyball coach says, “We’re improving but for me to be happy at the end of the year, we need to continue to improve.” The coach hopes to

work on consis-tency with the team. “Consis-tency in terms of knowing what it means to be prepared to play and compete at all opportuni-ties.” This year’s team is a mix of 4 seniors and 8 juniors and is lead by the cap-tain, KT Kvas. “Our captain, KT Kvas, is the strength of our team. We depend on her leadership and competitive drive to push our team,” states Coach Kiss-ner. This is Kissner’s first year as head coach at Eagan. He coached Wildcat JV volleyball for several years before taking over the head-coaching role. Knowing the players--and the players knowing the coach--has helped ease the transition. Coach Kissner is also

a science teacher at Eagan High School. He admits to using scientific principles in his coaching, “All the time.” Regarding the sport of vol-leyball, he says, “Everything you do is about physics,” and “Biology is the performance of the body. We approach it with good humor.” The Wildcats will finish out the season with 5 more

regular season games and an appearance in the Chaska tournament. “I believe we have the skill to perform at a very high level and that’s the driving force, the belief we can be good. Each day we try to improve that.” There’s enough time stop the seesaw ride with the Wildcats riding high and ready for post-sea-son play.

Soccer Wildcats claw their way to sectionsBy Molly MartinezSports Editor

The line up for the first week of fall proved trying for the Wildcats. Our mortal enemy, Eastview, handed us one of two losses last year. Towards the end of the game junior Justin Leong finally ended Eastview’s misery with a much needed goal ending the game 1-0. From Eastview we moved on to better and bigger things, like taking on the undefeated Prairie Seeds Academy. PSA scored early in the game cre-ating war between the Lycans and Wildcats. “We had to step up our game, we had a lot of boys out sick that day and we just had to work harder,” Coach Virgin recalls. The boys battled back with intensity, exchanging shots and flaunt-ing our tough defense. With minutes left in the game senior captain Gustavo Pleigo sank in a corner kick to end it all. PSA and Eagan called it a game after double overtime. After PSA, in a controver-sial game against Blooming-ton Jefferson, we suffered our first loss. We were down 3-1 Jefferson at half and looking miserable. Junior Tom Lee got us on the board. After half time Eagan began to find their pace and captains Gustavo and Ben Kasper both scored to even the divide. Unfortu-nately Eagan’s fight wasn’t enough to keep Jefferson, 8th

in State, from scoring and ending the game. Our ladies are dominating the scoreboard this year. The near perfect record, tarnished only from a smug of Wood-bury, was hard fought. “The season started out pretty good,” said senior captain Molly Sparks. “We had some trouble finishing, and it’s been low scoring. It’s going good now, we’ve found our groove, and we’ve got good team chemistry.” Senior captain Abi Rodstein agrees. Last year the wildcats finished 3rd in state, this year the goals are little more blunt: “Do well in Sections, get to state, play [well], and Win.” With Eagan toping the south suburban charts the team’s looking forward to sections this week.

By Mayzong LeeNews Editor

Running for both the cross country and track team, sophomore Sidney Speir has been chosen as the athlete of the month for October. Plac-ing as the number one runner at the Dakota Classic meet, 4th in the Stoughton invita-tional, and coming into 11th place at the Lakeview North invitational he still strives to become a better runner. Speir first started run-ning cross country in 5th grade along with soccer but he would later drop soccer to fully commit to just running. He had chosen cross country and track over other possible sports because Speir, “likes the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment after every race.” He also feels that, “both [sports] require team and individual [effort].” Furthermore Speir also says that in order to create the best athlete in anyone, training and a good workout create the greatest and though it may be hard and boring to just plainly work out “it really does create the best athlete.” Through cross country and track Speir wants to be able to gain more friendships, a good mental attitude, and receive many scholarships for college. His main motivation to perform well is to be like his mother who is an Olympi-an runner; in addition he also hopes that he can continue to run in college. And though Speir purely “just likes to run” he would also very much like the super power ability so that he can fly anywhere.

Photo by Rachel LarsonJunior Kaila Potting pushes a set outside as senior Katie Willems gets ready to

Photos by Michelle Metcalfe and Rachel Larson

From top:Captain Gustavo Pleigo keeps the ball under control; a girls’ soccer player runs hard for the ball; Junior Tom Lee makes a forward pass; Senior Pearce Olson, Captain Eric Bailly, juniors Justin Leong and A.J. Albers charge a loose ball.

Eagan Independent | Tuesday, October 12, 20106

Exchange from page 1

of coming to the United States. And that’s just what six Eagan High School stu-dents did.

This year, Eagan High School has six students rep-resenting six countries and three continents.

Neslihan Gueven a 12th grader from Bremen, Ger-many. Living for an extended period of time and attending school in our country brought surprises, “I thought the school would be very strict, like dressing and the way you act and the way you talk.” She wanted to come and study in America to improve her Eng-lish skills, “I could have gone to Great Britain but wanted to go far away. I’ve always liked America because I like the culture and the people are more casual.”Robson Garcia is from Belo

Horizonte, Brazil, he wanted to come to the United States because he wanted to experi-ence the culture. “We always hear about the American culture back home in movies and in books,” he says. He ex-

plains that he was impressed by how clean and beautiful the streets are and the amount of trees and grass that Eagan has compared to back home, a city of 5.4 million people. Lacrosse and baseball games top his list of favorite things he has tried here in the U.S. As far as cultural differences go, in Brazil, people hug more often, something Robson misses. Kota Naruse, from To-

kyo, Japan, is an 11th grader. This is his first time to the United States, where he hopes to learn English for use in a future job. Something that came as a surprise to him at our school. “American high schools have no school uniform. Japanese schools have school uniforms. Long pants, long shirt. It’s very hot. I hate.” Kota has immersed himself in school activities with joining the cross-country team. He says that he does not miss his hometown of Tokyo much, mostly because, “Here is cold. Tokyo is so hot and so many people and cars and trains. Very noisy!” Marta Guedes is from

Lisbon, the capital of Portu-gal. She wanted to come to America because she was interested in learning a new culture and having a new experience. Some differences between Lisbon and Eagan emerge from the difference in size. “I live in a really big city,” Marta explains, “and we have a lot of public transpor-tation. Here we don’t. We don’t have little houses, we have buildings. We don’t have as many trees and we don’t have lakes.” She enjoys the “fun” classes that she gets to take at Eagan High School such as photography and foods, however, her favorites are marketing and mythology. “I love marketing because I really love Mr. Kovach and I like mythology because I love Mr. Waltman.” Eva Pasche is an 11th

grader from the Swiss town of Unterentfelden, located between Bern and Zurich. The neighboring town of Aarau, where she goes to school is a town of 10,000 people; a “big town in Switzerland. This is her first time to the United States. “You hear a lot

of things like it’s big, but it’s bigger than you ever really imagine. The people are very nice, really, really helpful. I didn’t expect that.” Some new things she’s tried in America have been Dairy Queen Bliz-zards, “I’m crazy about them. I could eat them all the time!” Pasche has also gone to Min-neapolis, a cabin, and trying out for volleyball. “My host family does a lot of things with me and it’s always a new experience and just very spe-cial.” She misses her friends and family back in Switzer-land, she has found it hard because, “No one knows you and you don’t know anyone.” She says that having a stu-dent ambassador was helpful with this transition. She has also observed that the lives of Americans are very busy. “People here have busy lives, they come to school, they do sports, they do homework, they’re in clubs, they’re very involved, they’re volunteer-ing, and it’s a lot. Me person-ally, I do something and I need some relax time. Here it’s a very busy life and it’s a new experience and I also ap-

preciate it.” Carlotta Mattiazzi has

traveled from Correggio, a town in the Bologna region in north-central Italy, to study here in Eagan. “I want to learn the language because I will use English in work,” Carlotta says about her reasons for wanting to study abroad in the United States. She explains that one thing that has been a difficult transi-tion is that with so many stu-dents in the same school, it is more difficult to make friends. A reason for that is because we’re “always running to class. We’re very slow in Italy.” Carlotta says that at her school in Correggio, instead of the students moving from class to class, the teachers do. She misses her family, her sister, and her friends. “Here it’s like starting a new life.” The students have been

here since this summer, and most will be staying until next summer. If you are interested hosting an exchange student in the future, contact the counseling office.

Girls tennis gets revenge on Rosemount By Mayzong Lee News Editor

When asked how the girls’ tennis team is perform-ing so far this year, Coach Nichols and senior captains Chelsea Eaton and Hilleary Reinhardt can agree and say, “very well.” The girls’ tennis team thus far has a record of 17-3. In order for the team to achieve and maintain a good record they practice every day when there is no scheduled game. Currently their big-gest victory this year accord-ing to captains Eaton and Reinhardt was the win against Eastview with the score

7-0. Eagan has never been able to beat them yet so as a result Coach Nichols threw a pizza and ice cream party on October 5th for the team as a celebration. However, Coach Nichols feels that the victory over Rosemount High School was the main triumph for the team because last year Rosemount beat Eagan at the state sections 4-3, but this year Eagan High School beat Rose-mount with the same score. Along with the many successes of this year, the girls’ tennis team’s main motivation to perform well is because of the last years dis-appointing lost to Rosemount that prevented Eagan from

Submitted photoCaptain Hilleary Reinhardt aces her follow through.

By Molly MartinezSports Editor

The race to State is off for Eagan Cross Country, cur-rently ranked 8th. The boys won their first tournament, the Dakota Classic. Sopho-more Sidney Speir ran his best race with the 2nd best time in Wildcat history. Varsity girls’ snagged 2nd with strong finishes from senior captain Michaela Banz, Danielle An-derson. First year cross coun-try runner Elizabeth Frick. Elizabeth Finished 2nd out of 9 schools in her first cross country race. “Everyone’s so supportive” she said when, asked about how she’s fitting in,” It feels like were family.”

Eagan made some changes this year, “Less is more” Mr. Graham states.

Cross Country stuns at Stoughton

a big overnight meet. Coach Graham was surprised to find that Stoughton is Wisconsin’s “It” meet. So it’s no surprise that Eagan Came out on top this year. Both varsity and junior varsity girls placed 1st

with all top 5 runners finish-ing within the top 25 runners. “We did awesome.” States coach Langenhahn.

The boys also finished strong, placing 6th among some of Wisconsins’ top 10

teams. “Chris Parr, John Schultz, and Nick Vecellio all ran very well, they really kept this team together [in Stough-ton],” Coach Graham gushes.

Eagan is just behind media favorites Burnsville and Rosemount in terms of performance. “This is such a team sport.” Coach Graham emphasizes, “We need good performances from [all] the runners to do well at a meet. Everyone ran great at Stough-ton.”

Due to consistently phe-nomenal performances from captains Chris Parr, Michaela Banz, and Sophomores Dan-ielle Anderson, Elizabeth Frick, and Sidney Speir. Eagan is in a position to do well in state. “We’re just out of posi-tion, but we have the capabili-ties to do very well”

performing at state. With the unacceptable loss everyone gained their own individual motivation to play their best at every match. Eaton says, “[because we were] so close last year just the idea of going to state [motivates us all.]”And with the win against Eden Prairie on Thursday September 30th they placed 10th in state. Last year Captain Re-inhardt led the team with the most games won at 286. Team work is a major contribution to how well Eagan is doing this year. “I love my team!” Exclaims Hilleary, “we get along well and we’ve all be-come friends. Which doesn’t

always happen.” Though both Eaton and Reinhardt are happy with the results of this year’s team they hope that they team can compete well in sections and move on to state. Sections took place on October 4th-5th. Last year Liza Zeleni-na and her sister Varvara both appeared at state where they played doubles. Both sisters topped Eagans’ Most career varsity wins. Liza was a most valuable player last year along with Danielle Donahue. Donahue has been playing varsity tennis since 7th grade. We’ll be looking for forward to solid state proformances this year.

Submitted photoThe girls’ and boys’ team ran in the Stoughton (WI) Invitational on Oct. 2. placing 1st and 6th overall, respectively. This is their 5th ap-pearance at the meet.

Cross country cut some developmental meets due to budget cuts and to train utilize their time to train harder. “We’ve ease up before bigger meets” Coach Gra-ham explains, “We do easier work outs of about 5 miles a day. That’s not a lot for our runners!” Their hard training has certainly paid off. Eagan finished 3rd at Apple Valley and 7th at Lakeville out of 22 teams. What are Coach Lan-genhahn’s goals for next sea-son? “I haven’t even thought of any! I’m trying to focus on this season, on Stoughton”

Eagan started going to Stoughton to get away from the Mega Metro meets. Coaches Langenhahn and Graham wanted to take a group of the top 20 boys and top 20 girls to Wisconsin for