The

HI-LINETiger

Friday, Oct. 3, 2014 Volume 55 Edition 3

Marcussen MagicWomen’s swim team hopes to defend home turf at weekend invite

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This fall, a CFHS Spanish teacher is preparing a trip with students to Spain in the sum-mer of 2015. It will be a 14-day trip where students will get to experience Spanish culture, tour beautiful cities and even house with a Spanish family.

Throughout the trip, stu-dents will be exploring the beautiful cities of Spain: Ma-drid, Toledo, Seville and Granada. Spanish teacher Grace Valdez said, “We hope to take Flamenco dancing les-sons while we are there. It will give the kids a taste of Span-ish culture. This trip will not only be a great experience with fellow classmates, but will increase their Spanish skills as well.”

For those who would like to register for the Spain trip, the registration deadline is Oct. 15. Those with questions can email Valdez.

STARBECK By Staff Writer Skylar

Trip to Spain in the works

Monica Jarchow Photos

Girls are under a lot of pressure these days, a group of CFHS girls are preparing to stand up to the negativity with a girls leadership group for young women to join to talk about their everyday pressures, what they have seen today, what they can do to help each other and how they can potentially stop the backward perspectives so-ciety is pushing.

The unrealistic images prevalent in pop culture can lead to anxiety, eating disorders, low self-esteem and suffering from sexual harassment. This girls lead-ership group tries to build girls self esteem and offer help for all girls with the problems they are dealing with.

Girls group steps up to fight

‘Miss’informationThey also go to the junior

high school and talk to the 7th and 8th grade girls about their self esteem, body image, personal perspective and how society portrays them.

Among the events and ac-tivities that the groups started last year is “No Makeup Day” where all day girls were asked to take part and not wear any makeup all day. They also cov-ered the windows last year to show that it’s what’s in the in-side that counts, not what’s on the outside.

“I think girls leadership is such a good idea because it gives girls in our school a chance to really step forward and make a difference with what they have to say,” senior Rebecca Lyman said.

She said that its hard for girls at this age, so having a

group of girls going through the same thing is beneficial.

Lyman said she loves going to the two junior highs in our area because working with the 9th grade girls doesn’t only benefit them but also benefits the group.

“This group is so spec-tacular,” she said. “I have met some of the most amazing women through this group, and it has made my high school experience so much better.”

For those who would like to join the girls leader-ship group, there is an ap-plication form on the CFHS website to fill out and turn in to the office.

ODOBASIC By Staff Writer Dino

Senior Matt Turcotte debates what to buy from dance team members at a dance team bake sale in the Tiger Den back in September.

The Tiger den offers a lot of deli-cious snacks and beverages along with a room next to the library for students to hang out or do some work. It opens at 7:30 a.m. and closes in the middle of 4th Hour.

So far there are a total of 12 stu-dents working there, with some help from teachers. This year there are a couple of new offerings that they have included in their menu, like the most popular choice, the iced coffee. “I love

the ice coffee,” junior student Cole Mur-phy said.

They have also added string cheese, and Edible Arrangements will be coming a couple of times a year to make smoothies. Just recently, they added mugs that make certain drinks $.25 cheaper.

“I think it’s a fantastic idea that they’re adding a cheaper way to buy coffee,” junior student Mitchell Bower said.

Tiger Den brews up treats

ODOBASIC By Staff Writer Dino

Skylar Starbeck Photo

In these photos from a past trip to Spain, Megan Pattee (at left and above), Deanna Ament and Shannon Mc-Clintock tour the sites at Ser-govia. Spanish teacher Grace Valdez is putting together the details for a return trip for students this upcoming summer.

Friday, Oct. 3, 2014 HI-LINETiger

The

OPINION2Our View

In these dark days for sports role models, Jeter stands spotless

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes at Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.cfschools.org. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Fridays to read during their fifth period classes.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hi-Line staff or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial is presented weekly in the editorial labeled Our View, and it is the view of the major-ity of the editors listed below.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to The Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Monday for publication in the following Friday edition. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Writers should include their contact information for verification.

Editor-in-Chief: Austin AndersonOnline Editor: Zuhayr AlamStaff Writers: Annebeth Ahrenholz, Kaela Avila, Kaleb Bengsten, Dino Odobasic and Sarah Stortz

Contact Us

We’re seeing a paradoxical sit-uation in the realm of recreational marijuana. There was a huge push in legalization, and now that it’s be-coming a reality, the naysayers are coming out of the woodwork.

“Reefer Madness” is what that scare is called, and although we all know that is no longer true, the same fears hide in the underlining. “Reefer Madness” is a 1936-1939 American propaganda exploita-tion film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try marijuana, leading to a hit and run accident, manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape and descent into madness due to marijuana addiction. The film was directed by Louis Gas-nier and starred a cast composed of mostly unknown bit actors. It was produced by a church group named “Tell Your Children” ad-vocating teaching your children about the “dangers of cannabis use.”

But, the criminalization of weed is filled with questionable motives. The history of cannabis criminaliza-tion is chalk full of racism, fear, pro-tection of corporate profits, yellow journalism, incompetent legislators and greed. Marijuana hasn’t always been illegal; it’s a fairly new law. It was legal when President Ronald Reagan was a kid — ironic after the Just Say No campaign that his wife lead during his tenure.

During the course of marijuana criminalization, there was a man named Harry Anslinger. He was quite deplorable by today’s stan-dards, but held a major political role in the banning of weed. He was quite racist, and here are his comments for the support of crimi-nalization: “There are 100,000 to-tal marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Ne-groes, entertainers and any others. Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

Between Anslinger’s rumina-tions on the need to keep marijua-na away from minorities, especially the entertainers, were countless other fabrications about the health effects of pot. It was “more dan-gerous than heroin or cocaine” and “leads to pacifism and Com-

munist brainwashing,’’ he claimed. One of the funniest things he’s said is, “If you smoke a joint, you’re likely to kill your brother.”

There are the people who spend millions of dollars lobby-ing for keeping weed illegal. And it’s not for “the protection of the people.” It’s for securing profit. Po-lice Unions rely on federal drug war grants to finance their budgets. These unions fight for harder pun-ishment so that the revenue stays constant, and therefore have more money to lobby for harsher laws.

Private prisons are in on it too. Prisons are paid for the amount of people they have incarcerated, including drug abusers, which are a high majority of marijuana users and sellers.

As Republic Report’s Matt Stoller noted last year, Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit prison companies, revealed in a regulatory filing that continuing the drug war is part in parcel to their business strategy. Prison companies have spent mil-lions bankrolling pro-drug war politicians and have used secre-tive front groups, like the American Legislative Exchange Council, to pass harsh sentencing require-ments for drug crimes.

Another special interest group working to keep marijuana illegal is alcohol and beer companies. They fear the competition that le-gal marijuana might bring, so they contributed campaign contribu-tions to a committee that was set up to prevent marijuana from be-ing legalized.

Finally, big pharma. Like the in-dustries listed above, pharmaceu-tical interests would like to keep marijuana illegal so Americans do not have the option of medi-cal alternatives to their products. Howard Wooldridge, a retired police officer who now lobbies the government to relax marijuana prohibition laws, told Republic Report that next to police unions, the “second biggest opponent on Capitol Hill is big pharma” be-cause marijuana can replace “ev-erything from Advil to Vicodin and other expensive pills.”

Yellow journalism, or just plain media hype, has to take responsi-bility for the prohibition. The fear mongering and exaggeration of drug use, especially of marijuana, has brought many misconceptions to the plant.

Let’s clear up some misconcep-tions: Is marijuana a gateway drug? New research from the University of New Hampshire says no. Mari-juana is only a gateway to those under severe mental or social stress; most people who smoke pot do not move on to use harder drugs. Another, does pot make you crazy or cause mental illness? No. Easy as that, there has been no proof linking anything neuro-logically wrong to weed.

Weed causes lung cancer? No definitive proof, but a study by UCLA in 2006 pointed to no con-nections, as it has significantly less chemicals in it.

Is marijuana addictive? No, at least not physically. You can be-come psychologically addicted, just as you can become psycho-logically addicted to TV or a smart-phone.

Marijuana affects memory? Partially true, only short term memory, and only when high are those memories during the high compromised.

Pot is significantly better for you, not all healthy though, than the other things legal for use. Cig-arettes are known to be addictive and lead to lung cancer. People also die of alcohol poisoning, as there have been 37,000 deaths an-nually due to alcohol, not including accidental deaths. Health risks for alcohol are eight times higher than that of pot.

Marijuana should get legal-ized. If you don’t want to smoke it, don’t. But marijuana is a prof-itable business, and if legalized and taxed, it is estimated a total of $100 billion would be made per year. Colorado alone on the first day legal, the collective shops made over $1 million. That’s a lot for one day, one state.

Weed would likely become our cash crop, and that money could go into schools, like Colorado did, or the debt or national budget or anything. It’s billions of dollars our country didn’t have previously.

Pot is not a scary drug, it’s cov-ered in myth and fear, with a nice coat of racism. There’s no point for it to be scheduled a Class 1 drug, grouped in with heroin. It’s time for reformation, and our nation is on the way to making a great change if we do legalize.

Legalized marijuana faces history of demonization

BENGSTON By Lead Opinion Writer Kaleb

When Derek Jeter was six years old, he walked into his parents’ bedroom and declared that he was going to be the shortstop for the New York Yankees.

Three thousand four hundred sixty-five hits, 14 All-star ap-pearances, five time silver sluggers, five gold gloves, a rookie of the year, a World Series MVP, five World Series champion-ships and 20 big league seasons later, Jeter has retired as not only the shortstop of the New York Yankees, but as arguably the greatest shortstop to ever play America’s pastime.

The Yankees are the most successful franchise in the his-tory of North America with 27 championships. Since their first championship in 1923, the Yankees have won, on average, a championship every four years. Since 2000, they have had the highest payroll in baseball every year but one. A poll by Next Impulse Sports concluded that the Yankees are the most hated baseball team on the face of the earth.

It would only be imaginable that the face of the most hated franchise in the world would also be disliked, but noth-ing could be farther from the truth. Bleacher Report ranked Jeter as the sixth most beloved player in the history of base-ball and his jersey is the highest selling baseball jersey of all time. He is the world’s most famous baseball player on the world’s most hated baseball team, and he deserves every bit of praise and credit he receives.

In the era of performance enhancing drugs, oversized contracts, egotistical players and avaricious owners, Jeter re-mained a hero. He was clean and humble all while remaining successful in a city that has chewed up and spit out athletes and celebrities of all kinds.

Jeter, a true role model, will always be one of the greatest baseball players the world has ever seen, on and off the field.

2

Friday, Oct. 3, 2014HI-LINETiger

The

FEATURE3

STORTZ By Staff Writer Sarah

The Lampost Theatre Co. has brought back swing dancing, an old style of dancing to jazz introduced in the ‘20s, to teach to anyone of any age who wishes to partake. An introduction lesson was taught last Saturday at 7:30 p.m. only for $1 by instructor, Ashley Garretson, followed by an open floor for dancing.

Swing dancing has been taught at the Lampost as early as about 2008, usually with a high attendance and has been enjoyed by several, especially by high school students.

“I think more teenagers should con-sider taking swing dancing lessons be-cause it is super fun and you can swing dance to any music high schools can listen to,” Garretson said, adding that what she likes the most about swing dancing is “It was one of the dances that were taught at UNI, and I loved the style of it.”

One student at the event who swing dances is junior Emily Bruss. “I decided to do it for my English project last year, and I really liked it, so I kept on do-

ing it,” Bruss said. “I think it’s exciting, sweaty and I love it. It’s good exercise, entertainment and it’s good for a cheap date.”

Another student who has recently taken up swing dancing is junior Emily Wikner. “It’s really fun, and it’s nice to know how to dance and actually know a set of moves,” she said. Wikner de-cided to learn swing moves because “[Bruss] was taking them, and I wanted to do it too because I was jealous.”

Bruss recommended it for other teens as well. “Chicks dig guys who can dance. It’s really something that’s not hard to do, so I think other students should do it as well.”

Lessons are held at the UNI Ball-room/Swing Club on Tuesdays from 6-7 p.m. and Thursdays from 8-9 p.m., so those looking for something new to do with their significant others or dates can try a different style of dance or just have a fun night out.

Those in the Cedar Valley should prepare themselves for a night of scares as the Heart of Darkness and Panic Park fi-nally open themselves back to the public this Friday, Oct. 3 till Nov. 1. With the Haunting be-ing a new fea-tured part of the Heart of Dark-ness and Zom-bie Laser Tag run by Hick’s Place over in Panic Park, old and new thrill seekers will have even more ex-periences this year to conquer.

While traversing the Heart of Darkness, patrons will be able to go through the house of the Haunting, recreating the terror of the possessed young girl Elly May. Echoing through the house will be the voice of a creepy man, warning of the dangers of Miss May, who has risen from the dead to seek vengeance on those who enter her home.

Around Panic Park, Zombie Laser Tag is an exciting adven-ture for those who want to try their hands at surviving against zombies with a laser gun. Giving

laser tag a twist, Halloween lov-ers should give this one a try.

The Heart of Darkness is lo-cated on 5111 Osage Road in Waterloo, and prices ranging from $16 on Thursdays and Sun-days to $18 on Saturdays. Lucky

for the students, if they show their IDs while buying their tickets on any of the days but Saturdays, the price will be discounted by $2.

Panic Park is near the Ro-tary Reserve Building, off Union Road. The price for everyone is $13, and the additional activity of Zombie Laser Tag is another $5.

Known for being the larg-est and longest haunted house attraction in Iowa, the Heart of Darkness keeps the visitors on their toes with 10 horrifying themes scattered along a 30 min-ute walk of horror. Run by owners Kevin and Dolly Schults, the at-traction has been torn down and rebuilt for the last 14 years, the design has never exactly been the same as the last.

“Sometimes me and my con-

struction workers don’t want to work out there. The darkness en-gulfs the space five feet in front of you,” owner Kevin Schults said.

Located in a dark and deso-late forest, Panic Park has its share of horrors of the night. Tak-ing a tram ride first through an alien invasion located in Area 51, the patrons will find themselves in front of a Haunted House, creeping with all sorts of heart attacks.

The fun is not limited during operational hours. Behind the scenes gives a new kind of fun

for all those who volunteer for both scary attractions. Averag-ing about 30-40 volunteers for the Heart of Darkness and 20-30 at Panic Park, both are eager for any new ghosts and zombies to join along.

“Volunteering was super fun. You get to meet a lot of nice new people who are also volunteer-ing,” sophomore Nicole Thomp-son, a student who helps out at Panic Park, said. “I would love to go through the actual thing itself at least once this year just to see how it looks from the other point

It’s a Swing Thing Lampost Theatre continues with popular, affordable dates for mastering dance moves

Two UNI students joined many others at the swing dancing session on Saturday, Sept. 27 offered by the Lampost Theatre Co. More dates for learning these moves are posted on their website.

Sarah Stortz Photo

Fright NightLocal haunted houses open this weekend

of view and to see what really and truly scares people so I can make myself better when I go back to work.”

Whether walking inches away from the monsters of hell or be-ing the one behind the clown mask, the Heart of Darkness and Panic Park are a family and friend favorite to all those who enjoy horrors of all kinds.

For more information, feel free to check the Heart of Dark-ness and Panic Park websites.

These pictures from Heart of Darkness offer a small sample of the scares that can be shared at both that site and also Panic Park this weekend all through October.

AVILA By Staff Writer Kaela

Kaela Avila Photos

Friday, Oct. 3, 2014 HI-LINETiger

The

Sports4

ANDERSON By Editor-in-Chief Austin

Junior Emma Gerdes led her team to victory on Tues-day night over Dubuque Wahlert. She scored the final four points to clinch the first set win and has the Tigers rolling, winning eight of their last 10 heading down the stretch.

How is the team looking?The team has improved a

ton since the beginning of the season. We had a good tour-nament this past weekend and played well [Tuesday] night.

How have you taken a leadership role in your sec-ond varsity season?

I think just having a good attitude and encouraging the younger girls on the team because we are a very young team

How are you liking coach Johnson and how does he compare to coach Flahrety?

I really like him. He has a totally different coaching style, so that’s a big change, but I re-ally like him.

Are you thinking of play-ing any sports in college?

I am thinking of playing basketball, but I’m not 100 percent sure if I really want to or not. I’m still up in their air.

Emma Gerdes Volleyball

TigersActionin

Football Next up: @ Linn-Mar

Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.

Volleyball Next up: Urbandale Tourna-

ment Oct. 4 at 8 a.m.

Women’s CCNext up: MVC Super Meet

@ CR Prairie Oct. 9 4:30 p.m.

Men’s CC Next up: MVC Super Meet @

CR Prairie Oct. 9 at 4:30 p.m.

Women’s Swimming Next up: Marcussen Invite

Oct. 4 at 9 a.m.

Men’s GolfNext up: IHSAA District meet

Oct. 7 TBA

Ashley Brimacomb Photo

Dick Marcussen stares across the clear water of the pool at Holmes Junior High with his sky blue eyes. Right above the water, red banners hang, screaming of the leg-endary coach’s success in high school swimming. But Marcus-sen isn’t looking up at the ban-ners, rather down into the chlo-rine infused water as his face lights up while gloating of his swimmers’ improvements. He isn’t focused on his 347 dual meet wins or his better than 90 percent career winning per-centage. He is focused on how to relieve the day-to-day stress of his student athletes as they swim back and forth across their battlefield.

Before he goes on uninter-rupted for over 11 minutes, a 12 second pause ensues as he ponders the question, “What do your swimmers mean to you?”

The aroma of coffee es-capes from his breath as he be-gins to answer with the passion, love and dedication he has had for his swimmers at Cedar Falls for the last 45 years. His humil-ity shows through as he calls his very own Marcussen Invi-tational, the “Tiger Invite” and when he stops briefly to ask a freshman swimmer how her head was feeling after she got hit by a soccer ball during PE.

“He’s been a real good role model. He’s good at pushing you to your limits and picking you up when you’re down, but when you get too high, knock-ing you back into your place,” senior Martee Grainger said. “He’s just a good guy. He’s fun-ny, has a good sense of humor and a good head on his shoul-ders, which is obvious through his accomplishments.”

Grainger said Marcussen is known for his little pep talks he gives right before a race. “It’s usually something that’s obvi-ous, like remember to kick your feet,” Grainger said in her best Marcussen impersonation. Coaches aren’t supposed to be behind the blocks, but seemingly every time Marcus-sen finds his way around that rule. “Marcussen does what he wants, Marcussen owns Iowa high school swimming,” Grainger said smiling.

The Marcussen Invitational takes place this Saturday. The

Waukesha South Blackshirts from Wisconsin, the only team to beat the Tigers in the regu-lar season since 2007, will be making their ninth straight ap-pearance at the event.

Now Marcussen reveals his biggest smile of the day. Not because the Blackshirts have beaten Marcussen at his own invitational eight straight years, but because Blaine Carlson, the coach of Waukesha South, was Marcussen’s former swim-mer.

Carlson was a team captain and holds four school records at the University of Wisconsin where he was a four-year var-sity member. In 1990 he was ranked a top 25 swimmer in the United States. As a coach, he has had similar success. His swimmers have ranked in the top 16 in the United States, had top 100 times of all time, qualify for Olympic trials and hold seven national records, including one they set just last year.

“I don’t think we’ve ever lost a [Marcussen] Invite un-til we invited them to come. They’ve got quite the swim club and high school program

up there. Being number one in the nation is pretty good,” Marcussen said.

Being that Waukesha South is the only team to beat Ce-dar Falls in an invite (a meet with more than two teams) the Tigers remain undefeated in dual meets (one on one) in Grainger’s and the rest of the class of 2015’s entire career.

“There’s a lot of pressure to be good, but we have such a deep team of awesome ath-letes, so having such a good team behind you takes a lot of pressure off,” Grainger said.

That pressure almost be-came too much for the Tigers as they were down 66 points at the Linn-Mar Invite after Linn-Mar’s divers finished first, sec-ond and third, and Cedar Falls finished sixth and eighth.

“Everybody was cheering for each other. Everybody did their jobs out there, and no-body let up,” Marcussen said. “When it’s coming down to the last 25 or the last 50 and that person is swimming next to you, you’ve got to learn how to change speeds, pick it up and reach down inside you and beat that person.”

Behind living legend,Swimmers dive in for Marcussen Invite

The Tigers started off their comeback with a big win in the medley relay, but things still weren’t going their way when the B medley team was dis-qualified and did not receive points. The depth of the Ti-gers fueled the comeback over Linn-Mar, preserving the Tigers undefeated careers.

Now 45 years after Marcus-sen, 78, started the CFHS swim program, he will go into the Iowa High School Athletic As-sociation’s hall of fame at the state meet on Nov. 8.

On the right wall of the Holmes Junior High pool, nine state championships, seven state runner ups and 24 MVC championships are all recog-nized with banners. The wall perpendicular to the banners is where the white board resides, the home of many drawings from Marcussen’s, who was a former CFHS art teacher. But right above the white board is the clock that is used to mea-sure the time. It ticks off the seconds of swim times, but it also might be ticking away the career of a coaching legend.

Madison McCann Photo

In a home meet thrashing of Iowa City West on Sept. 9, Haley Alexander and coach Dick Marcussen revel in the action. The Tigers face some top notch competition at home on Saturday, Oct. 4 at the Marcus-sen Invite.