october 2011

According to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 10.4

million Americans between the ages of 12 and 20 consume alcohol. Teens worldwide consume alcohol without realizing what the major consequences of one drink could be. Getting behind the wheel while drinking not only puts the driver’s life in danger, but also anyone else who is on the road. According to Learn-About-Alcoholism, 40 percent of fatal alcohol related car accidents involve teenagers. Alcoholism is a serious effect of drinking, especially when people start drinking at a young age. Studies have shown that when teenagers start drinking before the age of 21 they are more likely to become alcoholics. “The younger you start drinking the more likely you’ll suffer from a major incident,” health teacher Steve Best said. Becoming addicted to something at a young age may lead to other addictions. Although it may just start out as alcohol, it can lead to trying other of drugs. Underage drinking can also lead to legal issues. Driving under the influence can result in being arrested and the loss of one’s license. According to the Don’t Let Minors Drink website, teens can also spend up to 90 days in jail from drinking while underage and driving. Along with legal issues, underage drinking can lead to problems for teens at school. Getting caught drinking in or outside of school can sometimes lead to suspension or expulsion. As well as the immediate effects of underage drinking, there are also long term effects that can damage a person’s body. From drinking over a long period of time, alcohol can create stomach ulcers, liver failure, heart problems, and brain damage. “Alcohol effects your brain cells, which effects your concentration,” health teacher Christine Shelsta said. “It is also bad for your liver.” There is also the risk of alcohol poisoning. This is when someone drinks too much, and it starts shutting down body systems, which can lead to death. “Drinking one time can lead to the risk of overdosing,” Best said.

Teen Drinking Causes Many ProblemsAshley Seefeldt

news editor

A group of concerned swimming team parents worked this summer

to fundraise and make new renovations to the school pool. What started off as a small project by a few parents, blossomed into a full-out, massive scheme to drastically make improvements to Hartford Union High School’s pool. “Without these parents, none of this would be happening – zero,” HUHS swim parent and coach Pete Meinberg said. Initially, a group of parents got together to raise money through a bake sale to replace the flags that hang over the pool. After the flags were

School Pool Sees Major ImprovementsJoshua Serchen

feature editorpurchased and installed, the group was still not satisfied. A committee was created, and they set forward a fundraising goal of $36,250. Included in their wish list were six new starting blocks, new records board, and matching warm ups for the boys and girls HUHS swimming teams. According to Meinberg, the starting platforms were in desperate need of repair. The blocks dated back to the 1980’s, and were falling apart and could potentially be dangerous. Also, it was necessary to replace the scoreboard in order to keep up with technological advancements. The previous scoreboard only showed the winner and often resulted in an error when determining the results.

The new six readout scoreboard will be able to instantly show what times each competitor received and their respective places. “It will add to the excitement of close races, where the difference of fifth and sixth place matters,” Meinberg said. The parents and swimmers worked to accomplish this David versus Goliath feat. The group ended up raising over $40,000 by organizing fundraising events and soliciting contributions from local businesses. The swimmers worked hard for their improvements, earning them from brat fries, bake sales, and working as timers at a club swim meet. “I am so grateful for all the sponsors and people who worked on behalf of the swim program,”

junior Hannah Roraff said. “It shows when you have dedicated people that work together, we can accomplish a lot.” Businesses, organizations, and people that donated included: Signicast, First Bank Financial Centre, Lake Country Phoenix swim team, The Hartford Lions club, Hahn’s True Value, The Booster Club, and friends of the HUHS swimming program. Meinberg was ecstatic that the parents were willing to put in all the extra time to find alternative funding for the school-allotted budget, that could benefit the lacking program. “These parents are 100 times more committed to the betterment of this sport than any other parents I have seen in my career,” Meinberg said.

Girls Tennis Wins WLT Conference

805 Cedar Street Hartford, WI 53027 www.hartfordchronicle.comHartford Union High School

HartfordChronicleVolume V Issue I

For the first time in 34 years, the girls tennis team won the Wisconsin Little

Ten conference title after going through their season undefeated. The varsity girls tennis team made their way through the season with a record of 5-0 in the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference. With a record of 11 wins and 12 losses in dual matches so far in the season, the varsity team was one point behind the Oconomowoc tennis team in conference. Going into the match with Watertown, the team was more nervous than usual. “We knew it [conference title] was on the line,” junior Alaina Shcaefer said. “The depth of our team is a huge strength, our experience and the team chemistry are also benefits that have assisted us this season,” varsity coach Andy Andress said. The chemistry between the players makes it easier for the team to work together and learn from each other. “We are never at a disadvantage because we all work well with each other and there is a lot of talent,” junior Alaina Schaefer said.

Like all teams with strengths there comes weaknesses. “Overall, I think our biggest downfall will be that we often times need more focus at practices,” junior Hannah Kranz said. According to Andress the team also lacks in firepower which doesn’t help when trying to match the level of other top players. “Generally, we play smart tennis, but we are always trying to improve in that area to take advantage of our opponents weaknesses and our strengths,” Andress said. Another disadvantage to the team was the loss of a varsity player who graduated, along with another top player who decided not to participate this season. “While we’ve had no major injuries, we have had some players miss matches which has hurt us,” Andress said. The team has two goals for the rest of the season. One is to win the WLT for the first time since 1977, and to advance the whole team to sectionals, which will hopefully lead to players making it onto the state tournament. “My personal goal is for me and my partner Alaina this year,” Kranz said.

Ashley Seefeldtnews editor

Photo by Emily Clementthe girls Varsity tennis team won the title of conference champions for the first time in 34 years after winning against Watertown 7-0. “We expected to do well this year,” junior Hannah Kranz said.

Find out how Ewald Ford is helping HUHS raise money

see Page 4

HUHS students spend less time sleeping than the average teenager

see 3

The

Editor-in-Chief: Haley Walters News Editor: Ashley SeefeldtFeature Editor: Joshua SerchenEntertainment Editor: Matthew LeitnerOpinion Editor: Haley WaltersSports Editor: Dylan O’BrienPhotography Editor: Tram Tran

The Hartford Chronicle

The Hartford Chronicle is published nine times per year by the Hartford Chron-icle staff members of Hartford Union High School, 805 Cedar Street, Hartford, Wisconsin 53027. It is available for free to all students.

Editorial PolicyThe Hartford Chronicle is a forum for student expression and ideas. It is the editorial policy of the Hartford Chronicle to praise, challenge, and comment on the matters of the student body of Hartford Union High School. The opinions of the reporters, editors, advisor, or the administration are not necessarily those expressed in Letters to the Editor. Timely, well written Letters to the Editor must be signed by their author and can be turned in to Room 175, the library box, or a Hartford Chronicle staff member. We reserve the right to edit in terms of grammar, obscenity, length, and anything which does not conform to board policy.

Advisor: Jeff Carter

Reporters: Echo Borges, Emily Clem-ent, Zachary Emery, Kimberly John-son, Matthew Kahn, Natalie Kugler, Kayla Nieskes, Emily Schultz

Opinion

The new eighth hour resource period has brought freedoms not previously granted to

students, which some find as a great help for schoolwork and socializing. This year, students are able to enjoy the benefits of seeking help from their teachers, meeting with clubs, and getting homework done during the school day. There are some students who do not utilize eighth hour for homework and instead find it a time to socialize and wander the halls. These students need to be more responsible so eighth hour will not be revoked from the rest of the student body. They should also realize that administration is considering letting seniors leave early based on their citizenship grades. If one wants to enjoy this privilege, then they should be more conscientious of the citizenship grade average. Some students can be a distraction to those trying to get their work done. Students should only be able to have an open resource period if their behavior warrants it. For those who have behavioral issues, assigning them to a study hall may solve the problem. Another program started this year were the RRR tickets. For good behavior, students are awarded a ticket which can be entered to win a prize. “Good behavior” is left up for the teacher to determine. Some teachers award tickets just for being on time to class or for dressing appropriately. Although this is commendable behavior, some argue that it is not something that deserves an award. As the school year progresses, hopefully more changes will be made to resource period and other incentive programs throughout the school.

Staff Editorial: New School Year Brings New Freedoms

Eighteen-Year-Olds are Responsible Enough to Handle Alcohol

At 18, a person is considered a legal adult and is fully expected to

be responsible for their own choices, except when it comes to having a drink. The United States is one of six countries that have a legal drinking age that is as old or older than 20. A large majority of nations have lower drinking ages, or simply have no drinking age at all. 18 year olds are expected to work, choose careers, fight wars, and select lawmakers in government, all while being denied the privilege to drink.

This poses several questions, the first of which being why the drinking age is so high in the first place. Society is so intent on teaching 18 year olds responsibility, yet it begs the question of what lessons they could possibly learn in three years that will make them any more prepared to handle the effects and responsibilities of drinking that they have not already been prepared for, with the various informative programs (like Drug Abuse Resistance Education or DARE) and health classes that are required to be taken in high school. Underage drinking is often the subject of inflated statistics and unnecessary hype. According to an article on the Postdam University website on the subject, it is a commonly reported fact that the average person will have seen more than 100,000 beer commercials by the time they’re 18. The article continues to state that

in order for this to be true, a person would need to see more than 17 beer commercials per day. This is almost impossible given the amount of TV the average person watches and the fact that there are simply so many other commercials that are played more frequently than commercials for beer or other alcoholic beverages. Young adults have the potential to be very responsible, even when it comes to alcohol. Severe cases of underage drinking are actually on a decline. According to a second article on the Postdam website, the rate for underage drinking is at its lowest in nearly 36 years. Among students surveyed, the amount of high school seniors who had consumed alcohol over the past 30 days was down from 72 percent in 1980 to 43 percent in 2009; seniors who had consumed alcohol daily was down to almost two percent from six percent in the

same years; and seniors who had five or more drinks in the previous two weeks was down from 41 percent to 25 percent. The amount of 12 to 17 year olds who had consumed any alcohol in the previous weeks was down from 50 percent in 1979 to 17 percent in 2002, which was the most recent year that statistics were available from a government survey on underage alcohol and drug use. Of course, lowering the drinking age does not mean that problems with alcohol in society disappear entirely, but it does offer several benefits, including taking some of the mystique out of alcohol. By lowering the drinking age to 18, alcohol merely becomes something that comes in with all the other rights of adulthood, like graduating high school or voting. An extra three years of waiting will not make one any more prepared to handle the responsibility and problems that surround alcohol.

Current Drinking Regulations Have Proven To Be Effective

While the legal drinking age has been a hot topic among teenagers

and politicians alike, there is scientific research proving that the current age of 21 is more effective than a lowered age. The same argument has been circulating over and over. One can serve his or her country at age 18. A student can smoke, which could be

considered more harmful, when they are 18. In other countries, such as Germany, the legal age for certain drinks is 16. Allowing the consumption of alcohol is not only dangerous for the consumer, but also for those around them. According to the latest figures released from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2008, 13,846 people died in alcohol related accidents in the United States. That equates to about one person killed every 38 minutes. In 1984, the 98 Congress of the United States passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, with bipartisan support. This law increased the national drinking age from 18 to 21. Since the law was signed into effect, the number

of alcoholic related vehicle deaths decreased from 24,762, to 13,846 lives that were lost in 2008. That’s a difference of about 44 percent. Because of the minimum drinking age, it can be assumed that about 11,000 lives were saved. Let’s keep in mind that car accidents also occur with passengers and non-intoxicated victims. The idea of a minimum age was created to protect the innocent travelers who often became victims of the reckless and irresponsible decisions of young adults. Drinking affects those around the abuser off the road as well. According to the Christian Science Monitor, alcohol consumption leads to injury of 500,000 college students, including 1,700 deaths. Those college students

are ages 18-22, in which a majority is covered under the minimum drinking age law. In addition to the injuries and deaths, 70,000 sexual assaults and 600,000 physical assaults occur from college students under the influence. This law is saving lives. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 25,000 lives have been saved, and it has decreased crashes overall by 16 percent. There are ages of initiation throughout everybody’s lives, whether it is waiting 16 years to be able to drive, or waiting 18 years to be able to get married. If students are the young adults they claim they are, waiting a couple more years shouldn’t be hard, and alcohol shouldn’t be a necessity for entertainment.

Kayla NieskesRepoRteR

Joshua SerchenfeatuRe editoR

October 2011 Opinion

Student Question:

Hartford Union HigH ScHool has finally listened to students’ qualms about

inadequate study halls and has re-structured the day’s schedule to fit one in; however, this change cannot be appreciated if students are not alert enough to utilize the study hall and stay awake during class. In the weeks before school, I can prepare myself for the rigor of my class schedule, the needed supplies, and the stress I will soon face. And yet it is still a shock to my system to drag myself out of bed to be to school by 7:15. Although I’ve been getting early for school for the past 12 years, I still find myself struggling to fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning. This leads to a chronically tired feeling, which I struggle to fight off throughout the day. Some students succumb to their fatigue and fall asleep during class, missing out on important lecture information and assignments. Study after study has shown that students perform better in the afternoon, not 7 a.m. I don’t understand why schools will take unhealthy foods out of a school’s vending machine as a result of a study about teenage obesity but not push back a school’s start time despite the evidence before them. The Mayo Clinic reports that teenagers only begin to feel tired around 11 p.m. In order to get the recommended eight to nine hours of sleep, a teenager would have to wake up at 7 to 8 a.m., which is impossible with school starting at 7:25. The excuse that starting earlier helps the sports teams is completely illogical. Sports should not dictate an entire school’s schedule. After all, the majority of students do not participate in a sport, so why should the rest of the students have to work around their schedule? I’m on the girls tennis team, and although getting home late from meets is an annoyance, it is possible to get homework done during resource period and at the match if I manage my time wisely. Tennis is a commitment that I have signed up for, and staying late at a meet comes with that commitment. If school started an hour later, a game might be pushed back an hour, but at least we would be alert and ready for the next day of classes.

Later Start Would Foster Student Learning

Junior Paige Schultz- I think the resource period is great for students who do their homework, but for people who don’t do daily work, it’s just a waste of time.

Junior Sam Bruskiewicz- I think its totally sweet because I get to do homework and talk to all my friends.

Freshman Will Krueser- It’s good to get work done.

Echo BorgesRepoRteR How do you like resource period?

Senior Brad Honer- It’s awesome, I love it!

Junior Garrett Doubleday- It gives us time to hang with friends and do homework, it’s awesome.

Haley WalterseditoR-in-chief

Sophomore Rachel Cammack - Its better than last year’s study hall. We get more time to do homework and any friends and teachers can help us.

Senior Scott Leader- We should have had resource three years ago. Open campus and use of cell phones would be nice.

Senior Ashley Cannon- Using phones and getting to go home would be better.

The city of hartford has slowly been adding stores around town but there

still isn’t much provided for teenagers or other residents of the city. While I do give Hartford credit for trying to expand, bringing in yet another auto store adds nothing for the residents of Hartford especially with two auto parts stores right across the street from each other, and two other auto stores in town. I also give credit to the city for bringing in a clothing store like Maurices; however, it seems unnecessary to have another haircutting salon in Hartford as well. Also in the new strip mall by Wal-Mart, there is going to be a Dollar Store. We’ve had two other dollar stores in Hartford in the past several years, neither of which have lasted. If Hartford were to bring in a store like Kohl’s, Shopko, or Target, maybe more people would be coming into Hartford instead of leaving it. It is not convenient, especially for a teenager, to have to drive to West Bend or Menomonee Falls for the nearest Kohl’s, Target, or Shopko. It would also be nice for our town to have a Noodles and Compony, Starbucks, or Panera Bread, instead of only offering fast food places and a few nice restaurants. Having options for casual dining to go to would benefit both teenagers and residents. I shouldn’t just focus on the negatives though. It is nice to have a place like Fearless Fashion to go shopping at. If you want ice cream, there are several different places to go. Also, having these businesses offers job opportunities for teens and other residents looking for a job. I do think teens should be happy with the things we have. I also think Hartford should try to bring in more of a variety of stores and restaurants.

News Column: Addition of Incoming Stores In Hartford Still LackingAshley Seefeldt

news editor

Hartford’s administration has increased the school’s number of early release

days from four to 14 this school year.

This change was primarily made in order to allow teachers more time to get together and work on planning their curriculum. “The more time the

Administration Increases the Number of Early Release Days

News

Emily Clementreporter

Hartford Union high school teamed up with Ewald’s Hartford Ford Dealership

to host the Drive One 4 UR School fundraising event. Taking place in the high school student parking lot, community members 18-years-and-older with a valid driver’s license were able to test-drive 15 new Ford models. The goal of the event was to get 300 test drives and raise $6,000 to purchase an HUHS Oriole mascot costume. Public Information & Marketing Coordinator at HUHS, LeaAnn Odekirk was first contacted by Ewald’s Hartford Ford Dealership’s General Manager, Danny Shutts, during the summer. “The idea of working with a local business in our community to help support our school was so exciting, and I immediately knew that this was a program we should try to run here.” Odekirk said. “Ford will give us $20 for every valid test drive, with a limit of one test

drive per household. We did have many people come and test drive multiple vehicles, I would guess 250-300 test drives.” Parents and students were wondering why the money is being used to buy a new mascot costume. “Ford Motor Company started this program as a way to benefit co-curricular programs in schools,” Odekirk said. “When we were brainstorming options for how we can use this money, we wanted to make sure that it would benefit all students – and not just a particular sport, club, or student. The mascot costume is a luxury that we have not been able to budget for in recent years, and we feel that it will increase school spirit, entertain our fans, and hopefully we’ll see an increase in attendance at our events.” Overall, the Drive One 4 UR School fundraiser was a success. “We were busy the entire day, and had a line for some of the vehicles. We received many positive comments from test drivers and from Ewald. I am so proud of this fundraiser and the turn out that we had. We had

Drive One 4 UR School Raises Funds For MascotNatalie Kugler

reporter

about a dozen vehicles, that ran almost non-stop for five hours. We have to wait about 6-8 weeks before we find out exactly how much money we raised. I am estimating around a $3,000 donation,” Odekirk said. This wasn’t the only success of the event. “Our Booster Club sold over $350 worth of concessions, and our Coaches Vs. Cancer Campaign sold almost $400 worth of t-shirts,” Odekirk said. “I am so proud of the parents, students, staff, and community members that showed up to support HUHS.”

The matter of the fundraiser taking place again next year is yet to be determined. “If Ewald is willing to work with us again in the future, I would love to run this event again,” Odekirk said. Tracey Gunderson of Ewald’s Customer Service said that if the Ford Motor Company would be willing to carry out the Drive One 4 UR School fundraiser again, Ewald’s would love to participate. “It’s a great way for our dealership to be involved in the community,” Gunderson said.

teachers have to prepare, the better they can connect with the students,” Director of Teaching and Learning Michelle Ring said.

Spanish teacher Carrie Palmer agrees with the administration’s decision to increase the number of half days. “What I like is it gives us more time to incorporate what we’re teaching into our curriculum,” Palmer said. “As teachers we are asked to do a lot of curriculum work, and it’s nice to have the

time off of school to do that.” When there is a half day of

school, teachers are expected to go to the Drama Lecture Hall, where they are split into groups based on their area of education. Together they collaborate and edit their curriculums.

Ring said that it benefits the teachers to have a large number of half days off rather than only a few full days. “More opportunities to work together will allow the staff to retain the [information] better,” Ring said.

Half days are also more valuable to the staff on Wednesdays rather than Fridays. “There are less sporting events on Wednesdays, and many of our teachers are coaches,” Ring said. “It gives them more time to focus if half-days are on Wednesdays.”

Sophomore Lucy Horst gives her opinion too. “I like the new half day schedule because it gives us more time for sports and socializing,” Horst said. “Full days off would be nice, but I do like the half days too.”

ParticiPants in the drive one 4 Ur school fUndraiser test drove brand new Ford vehicles provided by Ewaald’s Hartford Ford Dealership. Each test drive helped raise money for a new Oriole mascot costume. The goal of the event was to hold 300 test drives and raising $6,000.

Photo by Natalie Kugler

October 2011 News

Hartford Union HigH School’s Positive Behavior Interventions

and Supports team (PBIS) team has implemented a new behavioral system this year to enhance the school’s learning atmosphere.

PBIS is a research-based program with nationally recognized results. Its goals are to increase a positive sense of community in the learning atmosphere, cut down on classroom disruption, and ultimately get students and staff doing the right thing. “We want everyone to have a sense of belonging when they walk through the doors of the school,” PBIS coach Matt Ziebarth said.

Hartford’s new code of conduct is enforced by a few simple guidelines: students are expected to be responsible, respectful, and resourceful at all times. If a student fails to demonstrate these expectations, they are reminded again of HUHS’s rules, and then if they still fail to listen, a discipline referral is completed and sent to the Dean of Students to be taken care of appropriately.

Students are rewarded, however, for their positive behavior both in the classroom and hallways. RRR cards are handed out daily, and there is a drawing each week for various prizes, including passes to the front of the lunch line and parking spots in the student lot. “We want to reward students who are doing what’s expected and also those going out of their way to help one another,” Principal of Student Affairs Dan Dobner said.

“Positive thoughts create positive outcomes, so we want to focus on the positive behavior instead of the negative.”

According to Dobner, the new program will be constructive for the faculty as well as the students. “It will allow teachers to make better connections with their students,” Dobner said.

There are no numbers yet that show if the program is succeeding. However, Chemistry teacher Greg Zimmer gives his opinion. “I think the biggest thing is that the students know we’re watching,” Zimmer said. “It’s a very important thing.”

Junior Joelle Michalak also gives her opinion on the RRR cards “I think it’s kind of pointless,” Michalak said. “Lots of good students who do extra don’t get recognized because teachers hand out cards for random things instead.”

Emily ClementRepoRteR

THe stUdent coUncil members are debating on introducing a new dance in between

homecoming and prom: a Sadie Hawkins winter formal, otherwise referred to as “snowcoming.” The main goal of student council members as of right now is to hold a “girls ask guys” winter formal dance, otherwise referred to as a Sadie Hawkins, turnabout, or “snowcoming” dance. “We have had a winter dance in the past, but it hasn’t been for some years now,” student council president Hanna Wienke said. “A lot of people have asked if we could bring back the winter formal.” Hartford students have said they are getting tired of only having prom and homecoming throughout the year. This complaint from students is the biggest factor in potentially adding a winter formal. “A lot of other schools have more dances than just homecoming and prom, so it would be awesome to have a winter formal,” junior Paige Remmel said. Such requests have led to the members of student council to debate the potential of having another dance during the school year. It has been several years since there has been this type of winter dance held at Hartford, according to student council advisor Sue Algiers. “I’ve been here since 2002,” Algiers said, “and we haven’t had one since then.” This has only caused students to be more interested in another big dance during the

school year, and requests for a winter formal are going up.

So far, the idea seems to be pretty popular among students. “A lot of people we have talked to like the idea,” Wienke said. “People wanted more dances and it’s a type that we don’t have here.”

The increasingly popular snowcoming would be somewhat like homecoming; there would be dress up days the week before the dance. However, there would be no parade involved, and the winter formal would be intended as a girls ask guys turnabout. Some students seemed a little nervous about such a change. For others, a winter formal dance would just be another opportunity to spend time with their friends and have a great time. “I’d be okay with it either way, as long as there’s another dance besides homecoming,” sophomore Melissa Hetzel said. The possibility for a winter formal dance is not yet a guarantee. A lot of work would have to go into it, and the time frame between fall and winter doesn’t give student council members a lot of time to plan. “It’d be some work, but it wouldn’t be as much work as homecoming,” sophomore and student council member Audra Boettge said.

Before a winter dance can be a guarantee, student council has to finish thinking about it. So far, there is little standing in the way of a winter dance. “There’s still a lot of thought going into it because it hasn’t been approved by administration yet,” Wienke said. “But so far there are no roadblocks.”

Student Council Introduces “Snowcoming” Dance

Emily SchultzRepoRteR

Students Receive Orange Slips as Part of New Behavioral SystemstUdent pUts an rrr slip into tHe prize bUcket. Hartford’s new beHavioral system focUses on being Respectful, Responsible and Resourceful. The PBIS system began with Two Feet in the Door

Photo by Emily Clement

October 2011 News

There are enough students enrolled in advanced Tech. Ed classes to participate

in a robotics competition called Bots IQ. According to team advisor and Tech. Ed teacher Joe Nied, the competition is basically a typical Battle Bots tournament. “We compete against other schools with 15 pound robots to destroy the other bot,” Nied said. “It used to be just Battle Bots, but there was a name change.” The Bots IQ team will be made available only for the members of the three classes, which are CAD Engineering

Battle Bots Invade HUHS


For the 2011-2012 school year, there will be two less associate principals than

there were in the past in an attempt to consolidate and streamline duties of the principals. Chad Ellefson, who last year was an associate principal is now the principal of teacher affairs. Ellefson is in charge of classroom observations, teacher evaluations, and complaints. “We changed this to our model to try

and provide more accountability to teachers,” Ellefson said. Ellefson was in charge of overseeing 25 teachers last year. This year he is in charge of 80 to 90 teachers and no longer deals with student discipline. “I still interact a lot with students, whether it be in the lunch room or the hallways,” Ellefson said. With all of these educators to keep track of, Ellefson has little time for student management. “Working with teachers is what I am most passionate about,” Ellefson said.

During the year, Ellefson will observe each teacher nine to 18 times, depending on if a teacher is probationary. This means that Ellefson typically performs eight to ten observations per day. Ellefson feels the work load is about the same as last year, but it can become stressful to supervise the entire staff. Dan Dobner is now the principal of student affairs, which means that he is in charge of “anything relating to student life.” He oversees two main areas: co-curriculars and student management. Dobner said that

his workload is busier, but fun. Dobner is not in charge of all of the student affairs, however. Jill Stover helps Dobner with co-curricular concerns and District Administrator Lisa Olson helps Dobner with student affairs. Dobner’s goal this year is the “complete implementation of PBIS [Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support].” The administration has begun a raffle program that rewards students for good behavior and new student expectations. “ To me, positive things create more positive things,” Dobner said. In

order to get all of these programs and expectations in place, the administrators had to meet throughout the summer to plan. Dobner said that this is the most changes that have been done within a year. Now that there are two less administrators, the district will not have to spend as much in salaries. However, it was not the school’s sole intention to save money; they wanted to “try something that hasn’t been done before and to be more efficient and effective with the work in front of us,” Dobner said.

HUHS Administration Downsized Haley Walters

editoR-in-chief

II, Advanced Machine Shop, and Metal Fabrication. This has caused problems in the past, including last year, when there were not enough CAD II students to fill class times, and the class was discontinued. Since Advanced Machine Shop was also unavailable for the same reasons, the Bots IQ team did not take off. “Metal Fabrication tried to build a bot but didn’t get far,” Nied said. The exclusive nature of Bots IQ does not always mean that other students and robotics members are excluded. Senior Alisha Roghan was on the team in her sophomore year, though not an official member because she was not enrolled in the higher level classes. “Last year we had

no team because CAD II wasn’t running. [The year previously] Mr. Nied had told me to come to the meeting and compete at Discovery World,” Roghan said. The team is advised by Nied, as well as fellow Tech. Ed teachers Corey McCauly, and Brad Dzikowski and is in essence a part of the advanced curriculum for the three classes involved. “It’s like that extra above and beyond for kids who are really good at what they’re doing and might get bored,” McCauly said. “We’re creating a team of certain kids with certain skills of designing.” The Bots IQ organization holds two competitions per year. The first tournament is held on the first Saturday in October, which

Nied said that the HUHS team will not participate in because they will not be prepared. The second tournament, the “state” tournament in a sense, will be in April. According to Nied, the team will hopefully be able to participate and do well in this event. The purpose of the competition is to test design skills and, in a very real sense, battle strategy. “You don’t know what you’re competing against,”

McCauly said. “You want the best of the best.” The team expects strong competition to come from schools such as Slinger, Germantown, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and Watertown. “We could do well,” Roghan said. “It depends on the design, and the students.” In previous years, the Bots IQ team has gone to the national competition at the Mall of America, where they placed tenth.

Metal Fabrication, which deals with the building and welding of metal, is one of the three classes involved with the building of the battle bot for Bots IQ. Students use laser technology to weld and design metal in the class, which will be a major factor in building the robot itself.

Photo by Kayla Nieskes

October 2011 News

The L-Team or Leadership Team is a group of administrators who

discuss certain policies and procedures regarding the stability of Hartford Union High School programs and the direction the school would like to take for the future.

Director of Teaching and Learning Michelle Ring oversees the L-Team. “The Leadership Team works to ensure that processes and procedures are in place to facilitate teaching and learning, as well as to maintain general operations of an academic department,” Ring said. Such procedures that they discuss include the courses that will be offered each successive year and also the summer school classes that will be available. The heads of all administrative departments are invited to these L-Team meetings which occur the second Tuesday of every month. This team of administrators commonly goes unnoticed but in fact they contribute many things that affect the school. They debate over things like: common state standards for the language arts and mathematics, Wisconsin course completion

Running the School Requires Leadership

Matthew Leitnerentertainment editor

Photo By Matthew LeitnermicheLLe ring coordinaTes The Leadership Team meeTing which occurs the second Tuesday of every month. The Leadership Team makes decisions regarding procedures and policies vital to the continuation of school.

For many years harTford Union High School has offered two separate

work programs, (an internship program, and a cooperation program for seniors) which allowed them to leave school early and work. The co-op is a state certified program for students to go out and work, but they have to meet certain state set standards. Some of the standards include communication, computation, interpersonal and leadership skills, financial procedures, information technology skills, and business managing skills. The internship is for students to go out and gain work experience. There are four different departments in the school that offer co-ops and internships. They are the agriculture department, the technology and engineering education, the family and consumer science department, and the business and information technology department. “Each department has different qualifications,” business teacher Jon Duhr said. In the course planning guide students can see classes offered to them, and listed in there is the co-ops and the internships. If student decides to sign up for these certain classes they do receive credit for it. Each co-op and internship has a different amount of credits available.

Seniors Able to Leave School for Work if Eligible

Ashley Seefeldtnews editor

“The amount of credits varies by department,” Duhr said. Students that are enrolled in any of these programs must be paid. They also must work 15 hours per week, otherwise it does not count as a credit. Students are also only allowed to miss two hours of class throughout the day, plus resource. “They could leave 6 and 7 hour, and be gone during resource, or they can work first and second hour and be at school the rest of the day,” Duhr said. Students can also only miss school if they don’t have any other class scheduled at that time. Some students leave school and work on a farm, some work in a restaurant, and others work in a day care. The school also allows a student to run the Birdhouse. Senior Hanna Wienke works in the Birdhouse and gets to go there during the seventh hour time and work there the rest of the day. “I like it a lot and really enjoy doing this,” Wienke said. Wienke had to take certain business classes to be eligible to work in the bird house. The disadvantage of working during school is losing out on two other classes that seniors could be enrolled in. The advantages are applying skills learned in classes to work, and getting work experience. “It’s also a great resume builder,” Duhr said. Depending on the college some students can even get college credit.

system, the best practices for instruction, and monitoring student achievement. As a brief description, the Leadership Team is run by the heads of the newly created departments, or department coordinators, and they collectively make decisions regarding procedures that the school enforces and functions. Science teacher Kevin Martin believes this to be an effective way of getting issues decided upon. Because only one person from each department attends the meeting “We [the department representatives] can bring up concerns for the department and then take important information back to the department,” Martin said. “Most of the material covered at Leadership Team meetings are not directly related to what a student would need to know or appreciate but

we are all talking about these things with the student’s best interest in mind. It is necessary to have this group, but I don’t think most other teachers even know exactly what goes into being part of the Leadership Team let alone the students.” However, none of the members of the L-Team participate to get appreciation or accolades from other teachers or students. They simply participate to better the quality of the school and their individual departments. In addition to setting up courses, budgets, schedules, and grading the L-Team provides all departments an opportunity to be involved with school decisions. “I enjoy staying in the know,” Martin said. It is an efficient way to give each department input into the decisions of the school.

Feature Page 9

With the start of a new school year a new school website design was introduced which is intended to communicate better with students and parents.LeaAnn Odekirk, the Public Information & Marketing Coordinator in the District Office since August 2010 works part time at Hartford Union High School and it’s her goal to improve district communication with the community.

According to Odekirk it’s important to have the latest information with an easy to use website that is appealing to the eye. “My goal is to keep our community informed,” Odekirk said. “And by having a current and attractive website, this will help!”

The old website was exactly four years old and beginning to look dated. Odekirk designed the new HUHS logo that now appears all over the school, on documents and on the new website. “I wanted our new logo, website, newsletters and other marketing materials to have a common feel,” Odekirk said.

Library Media Specialist, Lora Cowell has had lots of experience with HTML and Dreamweaver, all website bases for Cowell to edit the Library Media page. “What I like with this new system is the fact that I can still use HTML within the modules to customize the look,” Cowell said. The boxes on the new system can be difficult to control. “There are ways to make them disappear,” Cowell said. “That’s still on my list of things to learn.”

Odekirk decided to make it easier on the staff to update the webpages by switching to Content Management System. CMS allows non-technical users to edit and manage the information on the website, while the system takes care of the technical side. Odekirk spent several months looking at other websites designs and logos to get a feel for HUHS’ new look. “I wanted the website to be reflective of our new logo, using a lighter and fresher orange, and having a more modern feel,” Odekirk said. All fonts and colors stay consistent between pages.

According to Cowell she updates the library media page daily and sometimes hourly. “The new system makes it much easier to mash up information when and where it’s needed,” Cowell said. Cowell can quickly build a new page for a specialized task using the CMS database search widgets, books from the catalog, and other “standard” information that’s stored elsewhere on our site (or the web). “This allows me to develop pages that give students a head-start in the research process,” Cowell said. The library media logo gives the same effect as the HUHS logo so students can feel the connection between the school site and the library site.

Junior Josh Wentz thinks the new website is organized and good looking. “It’s new,” Wentz said. “That’s for sure.” Wentz would choose the new website over the old one because of organization and the good vibe it gives off. “The old one was boring and dull,” Wentz said. The downfall to the new website according to Wentz is the layout.

“It can be confusing to find links,” Wentz said. Odekirk expects the information on the website to be timely and current, and updated on a regular basis. “We still have a few features that we are going to add to the website, including: a staff directory with photos, embedded

videos, slideshows, a mobile site and more,” Odekirk said. As well as information, pictures are updated frequently too. “I find myself walking around the building on a regular basis snapping pictures.” Odekirk said.Cowell thinks it’s important to have a website that has graphics, but information is important too. It’s important to have a website that is frequently being updated. “I get frustrated when a page is all show and no info.” Cowell

said.Junior Rachael Kroening has seen both the new and old website. “I like the new website better,” Kroening said. “It’s sophisticated, colorful and attracts my attention.” According to Kroening it took her forever to find the email.

“It’s confusing, but I actually like it better than the old one.”Odekirk really enjoys the new website. “I’ve received lots of positive feedback from it,” Odekirk said. According to Odekirk the CMS includes features like: a calendar manager, news manager, staff directory, multi-media

manager, and more. “It’s easy to update, and is attractive to the eye,” Odekirk said.

School Website Undergoes Rennovation For Upcoming School YearBy Echo Borges - Reporter

Homecoming 2011: A Midnight MasqueradeHartford Union High School is no longer providing the students with planners like they used to at the

beginning of each year, now students must buy planners for three dollars. With all the new budget cuts the administration decided not to provide all students with planners at the beginning of the year like they did in years past, instead they decided to order less planners and put them for sale in the school’s Bird House store. The planners are available for purchase every day for three dollars. “We looked at the must have’s and the nice to have’s and decided that planners were not must have’s,” Director of Teaching and Learning Michelle Ring said. The type of planners that were purchased this year is also different than in previous years. In previous years there was more room to write and the planners had a laminated cover, this year they just have a plastic sleeve over them. “It costs a lot less,” Ring said. The extra money from not purchasing as many planners this year is not going to one specific thing but it is going to help pay for instructional materials, such as books and additional resources for the classrooms. Without providing every student with planners, only the students who really need an planner or want an planner have to pay for it. Those who don’t want one and won’t use one don’t have to waste the money buying one, and the school doesn’t have to waste money providing them with one. “A lot of planners were left everywhere, and weren’t using them,” Ring said. “This allows the students who need them to buy one at a low rate.” As of registration in August over 100 planners were sold. “I had to go and buy my own, but I wanted one because it keeps me organized and helps me remember my homework,” junior Lawrence McCaigue said.

The school is no longer providing students with planners with like they have in previous years. The Birdhouse is selling planners for three dollars for students who want to purchase one.

Students No Longer Provided With School PlannersBy Ashley Seefeldt - News Editor

T he removal of the late bus is saving the district money but is also making transportation harder

for students who wish to be involved in co-curricular activities.

HUHS was actually one of the last schools to have a late bus in affect, and was the only school in the Wisconsin Little Ten to offer the service last year. State law requires bussing to and from school for students who live two or more miles away from campus, but there is no mention of a late bus requirement. Looking at statistics from last year, there were a very small number of kids that actually rode on the late bus. The west route only averaged about three kids a day, while the east route did a little better with about 12 to 15 kids.

This cut saves the district around $22,000 a year. Jerome Dudzik, Director of Business Services at HUHS, said this is “one piece of the puzzle that allowed us to balance the budget.” So far, there has been only one complaint received because of this decision.

The main group of people this cut affects is the students who live in areas outside of Hartford. This makes it more difficult for these people to join sports teams and clubs, because of the transportation involved. Sophomore Troy Kiel participated in track and soccer last year, and took the late bus nearly every day during the two seasons. This year, he was planning on taking a driver’s education class instead of playing soccer, but this program also requires a ride home almost every day of the week. “It’s going to prevent me from going out for sports and clubs,” Kiel said.

Freshman who had not experienced the late bus were disappointed to not be able to take advantage of the opportunity. Freshman Jonathan Higgins said, “I have to carpool, and the drive takes a while.” Higgins would have taken the late bus if it still existed, making it both easier on him and his parents. Some upperclassmen also believe this cut was a mistake for the school. Junior Matthew Mueller depended on the late bus to get home before he started driving this year. He feels that it is unfair for anyone who doesn’t drive. He admitted that without the late bus, he would not have been able to participate in co-curricular activities.

Late Bus is Cut from BudgetBy Matthew Kahn - Reporter

The Hartford Dance Team performed at the Pep Rally Friday, Sept. 30. This was the first year the Pep Rally was mandatory.

Feature Page 8

With the start of a new school year a new school website design was introduced which is intended to communicate better with students and parents.LeaAnn Odekirk, the Public Information & Marketing Coordinator in the District Office since August 2010 works part time at Hartford Union High School and it’s her goal to improve district communication with the community.

According to Odekirk it’s important to have the latest information with an easy to use website that is appealing to the eye. “My goal is to keep our community informed,” Odekirk said. “And by having a current and attractive website, this will help!”

The old website was exactly four years old and beginning to look dated. Odekirk designed the new HUHS logo that now appears all over the school, on documents and on the new website. “I wanted our new logo, website, newsletters and other marketing materials to have a common feel,” Odekirk said.

Library Media Specialist, Lora Cowell has had lots of experience with HTML and Dreamweaver, all website bases for Cowell to edit the Library Media page. “What I like with this new system is the fact that I can still use HTML within the modules to customize the look,” Cowell said. The boxes on the new system can be difficult to control. “There are ways to make them disappear,” Cowell said. “That’s still on my list of things to learn.”

Odekirk decided to make it easier on the staff to update the webpages by switching to Content Management System. CMS allows non-technical users to edit and manage the information on the website, while the system takes care of the technical side. Odekirk spent several months looking at other websites designs and logos to get a feel for HUHS’ new look. “I wanted the website to be reflective of our new logo, using a lighter and fresher orange, and having a more modern feel,” Odekirk said. All fonts and colors stay consistent between pages.

According to Cowell she updates the library media page daily and sometimes hourly. “The new system makes it much easier to mash up information when and where it’s needed,” Cowell said. Cowell can quickly build a new page for a specialized task using the CMS database search widgets, books from the catalog, and other “standard” information that’s stored elsewhere on our site (or the web). “This allows me to develop pages that give students a head-start in the research process,” Cowell said. The library media logo gives the same effect as the HUHS logo so students can feel the connection between the school site and the library site.

Junior Josh Wentz thinks the new website is organized and good looking. “It’s new,” Wentz said. “That’s for sure.” Wentz would choose the new website over the old one because of organization and the good vibe it gives off. “The old one was boring and dull,” Wentz said. The downfall to the new website according to Wentz is the layout.

“It can be confusing to find links,” Wentz said. Odekirk expects the information on the website to be timely and current, and updated on a regular basis. “We still have a few features that we are going to add to the website, including: a staff directory with photos, embedded

videos, slideshows, a mobile site and more,” Odekirk said. As well as information, pictures are updated frequently too. “I find myself walking around the building on a regular basis snapping pictures.” Odekirk said.Cowell thinks it’s important to have a website that has graphics, but information is important too. It’s important to have a website that is frequently being updated. “I get frustrated when a page is all show and no info.” Cowell

said.Junior Rachael Kroening has seen both the new and old website. “I like the new website better,” Kroening said. “It’s sophisticated, colorful and attracts my attention.” According to Kroening it took her forever to find the email.

“It’s confusing, but I actually like it better than the old one.”Odekirk really enjoys the new website. “I’ve received lots of positive feedback from it,” Odekirk said. According to Odekirk the CMS includes features like: a calendar manager, news manager, staff directory, multi-media

manager, and more. “It’s easy to update, and is attractive to the eye,” Odekirk said.

School Website Undergoes Rennovation For Upcoming School YearBy Echo Borges - Reporter

Homecoming 2011: A Midnight MasqueradeHartford Union High School is no longer providing the students with planners like they used to at the

beginning of each year, now students must buy planners for three dollars. With all the new budget cuts the administration decided not to provide all students with planners at the beginning of the year like they did in years past, instead they decided to order less planners and put them for sale in the school’s Bird House store. The planners are available for purchase every day for three dollars. “We looked at the must have’s and the nice to have’s and decided that planners were not must have’s,” Director of Teaching and Learning Michelle Ring said. The type of planners that were purchased this year is also different than in previous years. In previous years there was more room to write and the planners had a laminated cover, this year they just have a plastic sleeve over them. “It costs a lot less,” Ring said. The extra money from not purchasing as many planners this year is not going to one specific thing but it is going to help pay for instructional materials, such as books and additional resources for the classrooms. Without providing every student with planners, only the students who really need an planner or want an planner have to pay for it. Those who don’t want one and won’t use one don’t have to waste the money buying one, and the school doesn’t have to waste money providing them with one. “A lot of planners were left everywhere, and weren’t using them,” Ring said. “This allows the students who need them to buy one at a low rate.” As of registration in August over 100 planners were sold. “I had to go and buy my own, but I wanted one because it keeps me organized and helps me remember my homework,” junior Lawrence McCaigue said.

The school is no longer providing students with planners with like they have in previous years. The Birdhouse is selling planners for three dollars for students who want to purchase one.

Students No Longer Provided With School PlannersBy Ashley Seefeldt - News Editor

T he removal of the late bus is saving the district money but is also making transportation harder

for students who wish to be involved in co-curricular activities.

HUHS was actually one of the last schools to have a late bus in affect, and was the only school in the Wisconsin Little Ten to offer the service last year. State law requires bussing to and from school for students who live two or more miles away from campus, but there is no mention of a late bus requirement. Looking at statistics from last year, there were a very small number of kids that actually rode on the late bus. The west route only averaged about three kids a day, while the east route did a little better with about 12 to 15 kids.

This cut saves the district around $22,000 a year. Jerome Dudzik, Director of Business Services at HUHS, said this is “one piece of the puzzle that allowed us to balance the budget.” So far, there has been only one complaint received because of this decision.

The main group of people this cut affects is the students who live in areas outside of Hartford. This makes it more difficult for these people to join sports teams and clubs, because of the transportation involved. Sophomore Troy Kiel participated in track and soccer last year, and took the late bus nearly every day during the two seasons. This year, he was planning on taking a driver’s education class instead of playing soccer, but this program also requires a ride home almost every day of the week. “It’s going to prevent me from going out for sports and clubs,” Kiel said.

Freshman who had not experienced the late bus were disappointed to not be able to take advantage of the opportunity. Freshman Jonathan Higgins said, “I have to carpool, and the drive takes a while.” Higgins would have taken the late bus if it still existed, making it both easier on him and his parents. Some upperclassmen also believe this cut was a mistake for the school. Junior Matthew Mueller depended on the late bus to get home before he started driving this year. He feels that it is unfair for anyone who doesn’t drive. He admitted that without the late bus, he would not have been able to participate in co-curricular activities.

Late Bus is Cut from BudgetBy Matthew Kahn - Reporter

The Hartford Dance Team performed at the Pep Rally Friday, Sept. 30. This was the first year the Pep Rally was mandatory.

October 2011 Feature

Vincent AlvarezAge: 17Jobs: Yard and home maintenance; Machine Shop maintenanceClubs and Years of Participation: National Honors Society (11, 12); Jazz Band (9, 10, 11, 12); Solo Ensemble Jazz Trio (9, 10); Jazz Combo (9, 10)Hobbies: Playing guitar, listening to music, hanging with friends, working on cars, reading, and thinking.Volunteer Work: Yard work for disabled persons and veterans, Terror on Rural Street Haunted House, Christmas Dinner at Meadowbrook ManorPlans for the Future: Attend UW-Oshkosh to pursue a degree in either sociology or psychology with a minor in political science.Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Living in Wisconsin, enjoying life and a successful career.

Jordan PeshekAge: 17Jobs: Waitress at The Flour Sack (Eagle River, WI)Clubs and Years of Participation: Varsity Cross Country (9,10,11,12); Varsity Track (9,10,11,12); Forensics (9,10,11,12); International Club (9,10,11,12); Math Club (9,10,11,12); H-Club (10,11,12); Environmental Club (11,12); FBLA/DECA (11,12) National Honors Society (11,12)Hobbies: Running (surprise, surprise!), enjoying the outdoors, water skiing on the Chain Skimmer Water Ski Show Team, flying kites, making cookie dough.Volunteer Work: Tutoring, Toys 4 Tots, food drives, caroling at the senior center, Richfield Thresheree, Hubertus House of Horror, National Honors Society Spaghetti dinners, youth mission trip.Plans for the Future: Attend UW-Madison, aspiring to become a magician, or else finding a suitable career dealing with biology, psychology, or neuroscience.Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Running marathons across the country, landing a great job that allows for traveling the world, and beginning a family of four.

Hartford’s Finest

Natalie KuglerRepoRteR

Hartford Union HigH School graduate of 2008, Jordan Radermacher, is now

studying at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, but he first studied as a pre-medical major for four years at UW-Whitewater.

Why did you choose UW-Whitewater? UW-W was a pretty easy choice. First of all it was close enough to home to be able to drive home whenever I wanted, and yet far enough away that I could be independent. UW-W was also the only school in Wisconsin that had a course plan that allowed me to get through my pre-med program in three years instead of four.

Were you involved in any clubs or organizations at Whitewater?I was part of Campus Crusade for Christ, which is a Christian organization where there is ample service opportunities and great people. I was also always involved with intramural sports. Ranging from bags tournaments, Frisbee golf, basketball, indoor

College CornerPhoto courtesy of jonsay.com

and outdoor ultimate Frisbee, softball, and football.

What were the dorms like at Whitewater?Dorms were awesome in Whitewater. Some are getting a little dated, but they are very well kept up. It’s the atmosphere that makes the experience good though. My RA’s always employed the “open door policy” which means that if you are just sitting watching TV leave your door open and people will stop by and talk for a while. Pretty soon everyone on the floor knows everyone else really well.

What was there to do on campus at Whitewater?Every weekend they play relatively new movies in movie theater on campus for a dollar, and they bring in big named comedians, bands, and motivational speakers pretty much once a week. Not to mention all of the intramurals, and dominant Division III sports. UW-W has one of the best division III football teams, and one of the best wheel chair basketball teams in the world.

What did you like most about

Whitewater?First and foremost I am a student, so being able to get my studies done as quickly as possible, and move on to Palmer was the best part of UW-W. The learning environment and the amazing facilities, such as the gyms and pool were great for me.

What did you like the least?Whitewater has a reputation of being a big party school, which I never got into, and it gets a little annoying when that’s all those people want to talk about. I just found a group of friends that I could hang out with instead, or I went and worked out on “thirsty Thursday” nights.

What was there to do on campus?Almost everything to do on campus has to do with chiropractic, but there is a decent rec center and a high school’s pool that we can use. There are professional fraternities that you can join and technique clubs, but again they all center around chiropractic. The first three trimesters here, students take a 31-credit load so there isn’t much free time to be had.

October 2011 Feature

With an unimpressive economy and increasing state and

federal budget quandaries, schools have to adapt to less and less funding and find new, creative ways to raise money. Included in the controversial Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, which was passed by the Republican controlled state legislature and signed into law by Governor Scott Walker on Mar. 11, were massive swipes at the public education system. In order

to balance Wisconsin’s budget, public school funding was cut by about $900 million over the next two years. According to the Department of Public Instruction, this means 410 out of Wisconsin’s 424 public school districts will have to work with less money in the 2011-2012 fiscal year than they did the previous year. Wisconsin leads the nation this year in public education cuts. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the National Center for Education Statistics, Wisconsin school districts will have $635 less per student than they had available

last year. Even though these cuts are a lot for schools to overcome, the Hartford Union High School school district and community has found alternative ways to raise additional funds and enhance the education and co-curriculars offered, while other schools have been forced to put different classes, programs, and clubs on the cutting block, and end them indefinitely. One prime example is when HUHS teamed up with the Ewald Ford Hartford dealership and held the Drive One 4 UR School fundraiser, where Ford Motor Company donated $20 for every

test drive on Sep. 17, up to $6,000. The money raised went to the purchase of a mascot costume, which the school couldn’t afford with state funding. Another instance of fundraising in the community occurred when a group of HUHS swim parents realized the insufficiencies of the school pool and wanted to do something about it. After soliciting local businesses and holding events, the group was able to raise over $40,000, well over their original goal of $36,250. They were able to purchase a new scoreboard, starting blocks, flags, record boards, and warm-ups.

The most impressive thing about this feat is that while businesses are struggling to stay afloat and hire employees, and unemployment is at record highs, businesses and individuals have found thousands of dollars that they’ve been sitting on and give back to the community. This new form of school funding will be crucial for the district in the future, and will dictate what sports, clubs, and amenities will be kept, added, or terminated. Stay strong through these tough times Hartford, and continue to set the example for the state.

Students at hartford union High School attended this year’s Homecoming, themed Midnight Masquerade, on Oct 1.

Students, staff, and parents cheered on the Orioles at the football game where they battled it out with West Bend West on September 30.

The next night students gathered at the high school to enjoy music presented by Party Hits Music from Eau Claire including DJ Flashy from Minneapolis. “We are trying to get the word out because our DJ is even better than last year, and he was more fun lights than last year,” Student Council President Hanna Wienke said. “It will be really pumped up and fun.”

Students showed their school spirit during the dress up days homecoming week. On Monday, students dared to dream

Students at hartford union High School are required to complete a history class

in order to graduate, although the state of Wisconsin doesn’t require it. According to the Department of Public Instruction, students are required to take up to three years of social studies and social sciences, in order to graduate. This must include instruction in both state and local government. HUHS requires that we take; civics or AP government, world cultures, as well as U.S. history as a minimum to graduate from Hartford. Students with Individualized education plans also known as I.E.P. may also be awarded a diploma even though they may not have completed those classes, as long as the district deems that the student has demonstrated a sufficient understanding in the subject according to section 5460 of Hartford Union High School Districts bylaws and policies. There is a required five semesters of Social Studies including one semester of a mandatory elective. HUHS offers all five branches of social studies according to U.S. History teacher Mathew Ziebarth. These five branches include; history, social and behavioral sciences, geography, political science, as well as economics. Teens find it hard to find the relevance in history according to Social Studies Department

Educational Institutions Seek Additional Sources of Revenue

Midnight Masquerade Reveals

Hartford Union High School Exceeds State Social Studies Requirements

Kimberly JohnsonRepoRteR

student CounCil members alexandra derenne, lloyd brown and Keith andereCK deCorate posters advertising for the homecoming dance, ticket prices, and dress up days.

Photo by Kimberly Johnson

Zachery EmeryRepoRteR


as they revealed their “Childhood Dreams”. On Tuesday, freshman dressed up as cowboys, sophomores as aliens, juniors as robots, seniors as gods, and the staff, of course, dressed up as villains. On Wednesday, it was a masquerade/ Mardi Gras theme for all students. On Thursday each class dressed up according to their assigned colors, and on Friday everyone dressed up in the school colors, orange and black. During the dance, the 2011 Homecoming Court was announced. Those on the Homecoming court included: Jordan Peschek, James Gaffney, Missy Schwalbach, Josh Hadjinian, Alessia Muzzarelli, Dean Knetzger, Andy Farrell, Alyssa Doerfert, Jake Worth, Megan Malinowski, Dillon Connor, Jade Koenigs, Jeremy Pearson, Isabella Christopherson, Austin Cordell, Danielle Rodamer, Jack Boysa, Sarah

Homecoming SpiritStuettgen, Dylan Weber, and Shelby Schneidervin. HUHS student council chose the theme Midnight Masquerade by having a meeting, or what they like to call a “councilstock” at someone’s house and voted on it. Even though student council creates the ideas, everything needs to be approved by the administration. Even though HUHS suffered 1.2 million in budget cuts for the 2010-2011 school year according to Jerry Dudzik, the Director of Business and Facility Services at HUHS, Wienke said that the budget cuts had no effect on Homecoming this year. Student Council raises their own money, by doing fundraisers like selling cookie dough and other food fundraisers like Mr. Z’s they are able to cover the costs. They also use all of the money from selling tickets to pay the DJ.

Chair Tom Noennig. “History helps understand current events,” Noennig said, “Every adult in society needs understanding.” Noennig feels U.S. history is beneficial because it helps with the understanding of historical foundations and political systems. Noennig also feels that in order for students to maximize their understanding, the teacher needs to tie history in with current events which helps to show the practicality in that subject. Social studies teacher Paul Coffin feels that it helps with the understanding of classes by connecting what is learned in history with other classes such as finding history in civics class.. “Look at the way classes are offered; Ancient civilizations, American war and conflict, world cultures, law and order; even English has history,” said Coffin. History is instilled in different classes according to Ziebarth. “I think history is important, but I don’t feel a full year of history should be required,” Ziebarth said, “Maybe a semester of history then second semester [branch off into] your choice of history” Economics is also a very important class according to both Noennig and Ziebarth. They feel Economics should be a Mandatory course at Hartford. According to Noennig there is a possibility that there will be more required Social Studies classes in the future. Noennig also feels that Minorities and Prejudice is an important class for students to take. According to Paul Coffin most colleges are looking for a history course.

Entertainment

Even with the constant message of change and outside the box thinking,

Moneyball in no way changes the landscape for future sports movies. The film, based off ofMichael Lewis’ revolutionary book of the same name, is based around the 2002 Oakland Athletics and general manager Billy Beane’s conquest in changing the way baseball players are evaluated. This revolutionary thought by Beane is caused by the A’s failure to sign star players Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen due to other, much wealthier teams signing them at unthinkable rates. This leads to Beane and his highly educated assistant Peter Brand to tear down the establishment of Major League Baseball with unorthodox player evaluation tools, such as sabermetrics. Other than focusing on an entire team, Moneyball puts its main focus on the character of Beane, who is played by Brad Pitt. The film delves deepinto Beane, and his constant thought of fighting MajorLeague Baseball’s rigid system. It captures how Beane’s own personal experience as a player had created these thoughts, and how it motivated him to getting intotheupperofficesofbaseballmanagement. Pitt’s performance as Beane could range from above average at best to one of his best performances ever (aside from Twelve Monkeys and Fight Club). Looking at it in a negative light, one could say how his apparent lack of baseball knowledge seeped out through the film. Itwas almost as if once Pitt got the role, he was told to watch baseball for research, and that’s all he did. Pitt did show numerous flashesof greatness in his role, as he seemingly accurately portrayed a tortured former baseball star, as well as having his fair share of blow up moments. One thing to especially look for is the acting of Jonah

Despite Focus on Progressiveness Moneyball Still Stuck in the Past

Dylan O’Briensports editor

Hill, starring as Beane’s trusty assistant Peter Brand (the only non-real part of the film, asthe real life Paul DePodesta disliked his on-screen portrayal). For Hill’s first non-comedyperformance, it was not as bad as it could have been. Hill may have found his acting niche, as the socially awkward, yet incredibly successful left hand man. The only gripe about his performance, was that his character’s seeming lack of confidence made it thesmallest bit unrealistic when he was shown teaching the A’s players how to play in his new system of baseball. One problem with this film is its failure to connectcompletely with the book. Sure, it took the outline (new school versus old school) along with some specific points (players’abilities to get on base, weighting defensive positions), but it does not even come close to the kind of statistical analysis that was used by the Athletics. This movie could have been used as a launch pad for the sabermetric stats that are still seen as taboo in the eyes of fans and media. Instead, director Bennett Miller took it into the realm of so many sports movies before it. He absolutely hammered home the fact of Beane versus establishment, showing Beane’s conflicts withAthletics’ personnel, including the manager Art Howe, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Chocolate Sensation

Moneyball’s other major flaw is that it seems like thisfilm’s sole purpose is to glorifythe greatness that apparently is Beane. He is shown as a man who has all the answers, who seems to be smarter than his counterparts. He is built into someone who has figured out baseball, evenwith his teams only winning one playoff series in his 13 years as a general manager. Even during the film, acasual fan could sense Beane’s mistakes. During key emotional moment of the film,Beane triesto flex his power by tradingstarting first basemen CarlosPena for the sole purpose of giving Beane’s handpicked guy, Scott Hatteberg, a starting spot. The problem with this trade is that Pena became a star, earning a home run crown, an All-Star appearance, and a Gold Glove, while Hatteberg stays with Oakland for only four seasons, with his peak season being nothing close to Pena’s worst season with the Tampa Bay Rays. This move is somehow shown to greatness when Hatteberg comes through during a key moment of the regular season. Overall, the film is betterthan average, but worse than exceptional. Hard core baseball fans will show disgust at the lack of statistical depth, while hard core film fans will marvelin the fantastic shots that were accomplished within the minimal limits of a baseball park.

Brad Pitt’s adaPtation of the real life Billy Beane was almost sPot on. Even with Pitt’s perceived lack of baseball knowledge, he was able to pull off one of the most complex individuals in the game today.

Photo Courtesy of the World Wide Web

Matthew Leitnerentertainment editor

This scrumPtious dessert filled with Brownie, chocolate, caramel, and whip cream gives the world one more guilty pleasure to enjoy. People on a diet may want to stay away from this tasty treat. The

Hartford Union High School varsity soccer team has designated this dessert as the mainstay of every team dinner they have. They have aclevernicknamefor itaswell; insteadofChocolateSensation thesoccer team enjoys substituting the ‘n’ in sensation with an ‘x’ because that is how delicious it tastes.

Serves 102----9x13in.Chewyfudgebrowniemixes1----8 oz. cream cheese, softened1----7 oz. jar marshmallow cream2----8 oz. cool whip3----cups milk2 packages instant white chocolate pudding. 1 jar caramel topping

Preparation• Prepare brownie mix per package by breaking into large

pieces. • Beat cream cheese until creamy. Then beat in marshmallow

cream. Stir in one container of cool whip. Set mixture aside. (CreamCheeseMixture)

• Stir together milk and white chocolate pudding mix until thickened. Stir in remaining cool whip.

Layering• Crumble largebrowniepieces in even layer onbottomof

bowl or pan. Spread 1/3 of cream cheese mixture over. • Drizzle caramel. • Pour 1/3 pudding mixture. • Layer two more times ending with pudding layer on top.

ChillforatleasttwohoursbeforeenjoyingChocolateSensation.

the delicious dessert entitled chocolate sensation features a combination of brownies, cool whip, caramel, marshmal-low cream, and a rich cream cheese frosting. This guilty pleasure is a classic comfort food.

Photo by Matthew Leitner

In order to save money, hartford Union High School made cuts to the art department which

forced adjustments. This school year is as unique and challenging of a year as the art department has ever faced. The two teachers involved, Dawn Bloomer and Jessie Muhagen, are now assigned to seven classes a day. This only leaves one preparation period available to them, shortening their time to prepare and to grade assignments. This is mainly caused by this year’s decrease in art teachers.

Previously, the school employed two full-time teachers and one part-time teacher. There are now only two on staff to instruct every art course the school offers. Both teachers believe in strong art programs inside of schools. “Everything around has some sort of art design in it,” Bloomer said. Things such as the clothes you wear and house you live in all require some aspect of design.

It has been around 20 years since the department has had only two teachers. Bloomer has not taught the introductory art course, Art Fundamentals, in years and is

used to more advanced classes. She has been teaching at HUHS for 28 years and admits that this has been the most challenging year so far.

Muhagen, a first yearteacher at HUHS, also believes that teaching these larger classes may require a different approach then she is accustomed too. “It is important to get students out of that core-class mode,” said Muhagen. The art courses stimulate the use of the left-brain, which is unique in the fact that almost any other core class engages only the right-brain.

Students involved in the art department have experienced

these changes and are not thrilled about them. “You don’t get one-on-one time with the teacher, and there are more distractions,”

sophomore Jackie Nytes said. Many students dislike the bigger classrooms, but some have said that they did not care either way.

Art Department Suffers from Budget CutsMatthew Kahn

reporter

with the art dePartment only having two teachers, many classes are filled to capacity. Art teacher Jessie Muhagen’s Art Fundamentals class has 26 kids this year.

Photo by Matthew Kahn

October 2011 Entertainment

Film-Making Hollywood Causes Dejá VúMatthew Leitner

entertainment editor

Hollywood constantly makes hundreds of movies per year, year after year but

it has come to the point where screenwriters and directors are beginning to run out of original plots and storylines.

The Hollywood glitz and glam has infected the nation and spread to every household which contains a television. In this day and age this includes a vast majority of homes in the United States. Try to imagine how many movies and television shows have been made since the absolute beginning of movie

making. That large of a number could be hard to comprehend.

More movies being made increases the growing concern about the originality of movie plots. Out of the 50 top rated movies of this year on imbd.com 22 movies are either sequels or have similar plot structures as older movies.

As an audience, people need to be shown new and exciting things to be kept interested throughout the film. One example of this phenomenon includes a highly controversial film, Avatar. This film creates an eccentric new world that captures the imagination and takes the eyes on a mystical ride through Pandora, the indigenous planet.

The growing controversy surrounding this film lies in its originality of a plot structure. Although it is no sequel many people realized quickly that this film took after the 1995 Disney classic Pocahontas, the 1990 film Dances With Wolves, and also the 1992 movie Fern Gully. All films featured two different types of people, one foreign and one indigenous. The two peoples fight for land where one side will not give it up and the other wants to take it for valuable resources in the ground.

Eventually one man from the invaders meets a woman from the indigenous and they fall in love. Then comes the plot twist where the woman loses her trust

in the man and the two peoples split once more. Because of that split a huge battle takes place but eventually the two lovers get back together and everything is good once again. And finally, the invading people are forced to leave.

These similarly styled films can be described in one word, predictable. Avatar may be one of the best films as of late for it being aesthetically pleasing but the core concept that it was based around has been completely overused by the Hollywood crew. With this question coming to the forefront, the years of using new ideas in the entertainment industry may be quickly coming to an end.

According to imdb.com, over seven billion dollars was spent by people in 2011 by attending movies alone. That figure can quickly decline as more movies become less original.

A movie about robots who can morph their shape into cars and protect the human race from other robots just like them can be entertaining and exciting to watch for the first time. It was a new experience that the United States population was not accustomed to. But after a cartoon television series and multiple sequels, which were pretty much about the same thing, a talking robot running away from a slow motion explosion loses its charm.

The third annual milwaukee Film Festival was held from Sept. 22 to Oct. 2 across the

Greater Milwaukee area. The festival was presented by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and featured hundreds of filmmakers from all over the world, including Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. Films were shown in Marcus Cinemas and other smaller theaters throughout the Milwaukee area. For those not

familiar with Milwaukee rush hour traffic and road construction, the venues may be stressful to reach. On Sept. 23, the Ridge Theater in New Berlin hosted Make Believe, a documentary about child magicians. The film began at 7 p.m. and tickets could be purchased at the door for $10. Approximately 150 other moviegoers of all ages attended the film. The show began with a word from the director of operations, Mark Grahms. “It’s [the film festival] a great thing for the community, a great thing for the

arts, and a great thing for film making,” Grahms said. With that, the 88-minute documentary began. The film followed six child magicians as they prepared for a worldwide magic competition. The film captured the essence of each magician’s personality and background. By the time they all met for competition in Las Vegas, the audience knew how much each contestant wanted to win. For such a low budget film, it was surprising to see that the filmmakers traveled to Japan, South Africa, and across the United States to make the movie.

Make Believe was one of a handful of movies that had the filmmakers and cast present at the screening. After the documentary, the director J. Clay Tweed and three of the magicians featured in the film (Bill Koch, Krystyn Lambert, and Derek McKee) went to the front of the theater for a half-hour question and answer session, which most of the audience was interested enough to stay for. The audience asked questions about the filmmaking and the magician’s plans for the future. Afterwards, the magicians took to the lobby to perform magic tricks.

Haley Walterseditor-in-chief

Film Festival Attracts Moviegoers

Photo by Haley Walters

For most teenagers, success in school is a major goal and the success in achieving that

goal, according to many national and local studies, has been seen in correlation with what teens choose to participate in outside of school. The majority of teens could split their outside lives into the categories of academics, athletics, electronics, labor, recreation, and sleeping. While a lot of these activities could overlap, like doing homework on an electronic device or sleeping on the job, most teenagers’ lives

seem to be split evenly between these activities. Obviously, any sort of academic activity, which would include studying, homework, or an academically based club, would show a strong relation with academic success. On a national average, high school students have shown that they are making the effort of getting this study time in. In a study led by Cornell University professor Joseph Price it was shown that teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 are averaging almost three hours a day doing school work, as well as an additional 30 minutes strictly studying. In a Hartford Chronicle survey, 46 percent of students surveyed said they spent between

one and two hours on academic activities outside of school, while another 35 percent showed that they spent an increased amount of three to five hours on schoolwork. One student, Derrick Slinger, falls right with the class average, as he said, “I spend around two hours each night studying, depending on tests.” Hartford students have also showed participation in athletic activities, which have been proven to be related to school success. In the same HC survey, 42 percent of students said they spend between one and two hours of athletics outside of school. Another quarter of Hartford students stated they took part in three to five hours of sports.

Dylan O’Briensports editor

Hartford Students Similar to Rest of NationGraphs created by Dylan O’Brien

Sports Page14

The addition of several underclassmen to the boys cross country team helped

the Orioles claim ninth place out of 13 at Whitefish Bay on Sept. 15.

The top five runners finished the five kilometer course with times of 18:30 or faster, which helped many of them pass their personal records. “I would have to say this meet was the highlight of my season so far because the team did really well…Pretty much everyone had their best times of the year, and the weather was finally nice,” junior Davey Holzer said. Holzer beat his time from last meet by 32 seconds. “So far the boys have placed in the middle of the pack compared to the other teams in their conference,” Carter said.

Even though the season is only at its midpoint, the team talks about their accomplishments so far. “I feel we’ve improved our running, but more importantly we’ve grown stronger as a team,”

junior James Gaffney said. This meet, Gaffney beat his personal record of 18:32 by 26 seconds.

Carter said he is proud of the whole team, especially some of the underclassmen. Freshman Darius Brittan was Hartford’s fastest runner in their Menomonee Falls meet on Sept. 10, finishing with a time of 17:50. First year runner sophomore Josh Kruit finished first at West Bend West with a time of 18:22 on Aug. 27.

“I expect the team to work well together, to motivate and encourage each other, and to become the best team they can,” Carter said before their meet. “Realistically I want them to [end up] in the top half of the conference by the end of the season.”

Orioles Sprint into Ninth Place

Emily ClementRepoRteR

The hartford Union high School girls swim team started the season 1-0

in conference competition, defeating the Watertown High School Goslings on Sept. 22. The girls started off the beginning of their season with a less than average performance at the Wawautosa West Invititational. At the competition, the girls took seventh out of eight teams. “While our first start was discouraging, we knew we had potential,” junior Mariah Sjurson said. “If we put our minds to it and really focus, our team can accomplish great things.” On Sept. 10, the team stepped up their game at the Menomonee Falls Invite, improving to a fourth place finish, with a score of 228. This positive finish and improvement gave them an optimistic outlook on the season, and they took that with them to West Bend West when they won the conference relays by 16 points, with a total score of 174 points. After the teams win at their first conference meet in Watertown, the quickly moved to first place in the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference, with a 1-0 record. They are hoping that the results from these early meets portray the remainder, and reinforce Hartford’s dominance

Girls Swimming Hopes to Continue Winning Tradition


and winning traditions in the WLT Conference. “Improving from seventh place to consistently placing first place has really improved our confidence,” Sjurson said. “We are beginning to shape up as a very strong team.” The swimmers are all sharing Sjurson’s optimistic view, and are even aiming for a better season than last year. “As a team, I feel we will do better this year,” junior Hannah Roraff said. “We only lost one senior, and gained a bunch of experienced freshmen.” The biggest challenge for the team this season will be to not get ahead of themselves and assume every race is going to be as easy or difficult as the last. But even with the high expectations, the swimmers are taking the season at a meet by meet basis, and are remaining calm and collected for the remainder of the season. “I felt we did awesome winning conference champs for our fifth consecutive season last year, and we will dominate again,” Roraff said.

The girls swim team gets each other energized and prepared to compete by splashing and performing a chant before their meet at Watertown on Sept. 22. They ended up winning the meet, quickly moving them into first place in the Wisconsin Little Ten with a 1-0 record.

in the past 32 years, the world wide leader in sports, ESPN, has grown from a

small unknown cable channel to an empire of vast quantities of everything that is sports. The common logic would be that all sports fans would revere in everything and anything that is ESPN, as it is the gatekeeper of sports. That point probably would have been proven true ten, even five years ago. But now, in a world of complete skepticism, the all-powerful entity that is ESPN has come under fire from anyone ranging from the casual sports fans to other media outlets to former employees. The largest problem that has grown on fans over the last few years would be with their flagship program, SportsCenter. The highlight show that SportsCenter is supposed to be has evolved into some grotesque self-appreciating monster. The games that they show are not enough for these anchors, they need to add their own spin on each highlight. Anchors like Stu Scott feel that everything involving sports

World Wide Leader not Universally Lovedneeds a catchphrase, like “boo-yah” or “cool as the other side of the pillow” (which Scott stole from another sports personality). There are also anchors like John Saunders that have to add their unneeded/unwanted opinion to every story. There are even anchors similar to Chris Berman who actually think that they are bigger than the sports that they cover, saying in the book Those Guys Have All the Fun that his show, NFL Primetime “made the NFL what it is today.” Another problem that seems to rub fans the wrong way is the actual integrity of journalism that is ESPN is putting out on a daily basis. This includes blatant product placement in selective shows (specifically SportsNation, in which co-host Colin Cowherd claims he has never eaten Arby’s, which leads to him getting Arby’s on set which then leads to one of the top-five worst two minutes in the history of television). There is also ESPN’s manufacturing of controversies just to simply get a reaction from viewers, and in turn, bigger ratings. The recent factory-made feud between ESPN NFL analyst Tedy Bruschi and New England Patriots receiver Chad

Ochocinco is a good example of ESPN’s lack of respect for the journalistic profession. Basically, after the Patriots’ victory on the previous night’s Monday Night Football, Ochocinco Tweeted about the greatness of his quarterback Tom Brady, who had thrown for an astronomically high 517 yards. Almost immediately after this Tweet reached the internet, Bruschi, a former Patriot himself, said on Boston’s WEEI radio, “You’re not a fan, alright? You’re part of it. So get with the program because you’re obviously not getting it and you’re Tweeting it.” This was followed by more and more of the same destroying of Ochocinco from the mouth of Bruschi. And obviously, this was followed by a few days of actual people reporting on the fake fight between Bruschi and Ochocinco on every ESPN show imaginable. As the many grow in disfavor of the world wide leader, the question of competition always arises. Surely if ESPN had any sort of substantial competition their empire would begin to fall. The problem, for the most part, is that there has been no other sports network to come

remotely close to what ESPN is. Early on, Fox Sports Net tried to make competition, which ultimately failed, as FSN became mainly a regionally based network. Turner Sports also tried to compete with the world wide leader, but could not (or has not yet) accumulate the amount of major sports contracts to become a viable sports network for viewers. One network that has caught some peoples’ eyes is the (almost) former Versus network, and as of Jan. 1, 2012, NBC Sports Network. This relatively new network has quietly accumulated contracts for Major League Soccer, Pac-12 college football and basketball, as well as their already existing National Hockey League contract. NBC Sports is also releasing original sports programs Pro Football Talk, NFL Turning Point, College Football Talk, and CNBC: Sports Biz. They are also making the big decision of putting out their own highlight show in the same timeslot as ESPN’s SportsCenter. All of this, along with an impending contract to broadcast eight NFL regular season game could catapult NBC Sports in direct competition with the world wide leader.

Dylan O’BrienspoRts editoR

Photo By Emily Clement JUnior andy Johnston smiles in victory as he crosses the fin-ish line at the varsity cross country meet on Sept. 15. The boys came in ninth place out of 13, and many runners set PRs.

OrioleScoreboardfootball

standingsWisc. lUtheran 4-0WatertoWn 3-1beaver dam 2-2oconomoWoc 2-2slinger 2-2Wb east 2-2Hartford 1-3Wb West 0-4

Last 4 Games@ oconomoWoc l 20-3vs. Wisco l 24-14@ beaver dam W 24-14vs. slinger W 38-31

UpcominG Games9/30 vs. Wb West

10/7 @ WatertoWn

10/14 vs. Wb east

boys soccer

Last 4 Games@ Wb east W 4-0vs. men. falls l 2-0vs. tosa West W 2-1@ beaver dam W 2-1

UpcominG Games10/1 tbd, hUhs toUrney

10/4 vs. WatertoWn

tbd Wiaa sectionals

standingsHartford

slinger

beaver dam

oconomoWoc

WatertoWn 2-3-1Wisco

Wb West 1-4-1Wb east

5-1-05-1-04-2-04-2-0

2-4-0

0-6-0

Key performersrb aUstin cordell

50 car, 422 yds, 5 tds

rb armilles terry55 car, 344 yds, 2 tds

tyler tomashek7 GoaLs, 2 asts, 16 pts

d.J. bednar7 GoaLs, 1 ast, 15 pts

Key performers

October 2011 Sports

The OriOles bOys sOccer team is off to a 9-6 record despite losing four players this

season.The Hartford team lost to

Menomonee Falls on Sept. 23 0-2 but beat Wauwatosa West the following day 2-0. Hartford played at West Bend East with a win of 4-0.

Senior Tyler Tomashek and Junior Diedrich Bednar lead the team with goal scoring

with seven goals for the season. Senior Sean Sprtel has made four assists the season. Junior Goalie Colin Stocking has twenty saves for Hartford. Tomashek has the highest number of overall points at 16.

Coach Jack DeSelm has been coaching the Hartford soccer team for 17 seasons. “Every game is different,” DeSelm said. “We don’t change regardless of the ranks, and it’s worked.” According to DeSelm this season’s team has a desire to succeed with each other. “They have great ability to pull together,” DeSelm said.

According to DeSelm, his current team plays well. “There is no time in the season to get in sync,” DeSelm said. “Nine days after opening day you start competing, it’s a tough schedule.”

Attacking midfielder and junior, Diedrich Bednar, thinks the season is going well so far. “We are playing as an all-around team,” Bednar said.

Bednar and Stocking both believe the Slinger Owls are a big rival this season. According to DeSelm Tosa East is a rival as well. “Just believe in winning, against anyone.” DeSelm said.

One way DeSelm tries to make the team better is to get inside their minds. “If they can believe in themselves and be able to go on the field believing they will win,” DeSelm said. “That’s important.”

Hartford had lost to Slinger early in the season at home with a score of 0-1. That put them in second behind Slinger for the conference. They had remained there all season until recently Slinger lost to Oconomowoc, a team that Hartford defeated 1-0 in double overtime. With this turn of events Hartford now shares first place in the Wisconsin Little Ten

Conference with Slinger. Each team has one loss in conference.

The team practices using a variety of mini games against each other. “It then progresses into eight vs. eight,” DeSelm said. “We try and imitate what our opponent team will be like.” According to DeSelm regardless of who Hartford plays, they don’t change.

Bednar’s goal for the next game is to come out hard and to know in his hear that Hartford can win. “[We are going to] play our hearts out and hopefully beat our remaining opponents and take conference,” Bednar said.

Echo BorgesRepoRteR

seniOr andrew Farrell clears the ball Out OF the back tO relieve the pressure cOming FrOm wiscO, whO is 2-4-0 this seasOn while the OriOles are 5-1-0. hartFOrd cOntin-ued to win and the game ended 7-0 featuring a hat trick by senior Tyler Tomashek and a volley goal by senior Matthew Leitner.

Hartford and Slinger Coaches Tackle Cancer


Soccer TeamOn Their Way to Winning Conference

Photo by Echo Borges

Photo by Kayla NieskesFOr the week beFOre the Final slinger-hartFOrd game, students had the opportunity to purchase Coaches vs. Cancer t-shirts. The proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.

The recent slinger vs. Hartford football game on Sept. 23 was the hallmark

for a charity event called Coaches for Cancer. Hartford football coach Tom Noennig originally got the idea for the joint fundraiser when he heard that Slinger coach Kevin Wilkinson was diagnosed with a stage four colon cancer in April of 2008. According to Wilkinson, his original diagnosis was a ten to 15 percent chance of living two more years, and he has since outlived his diagnosis with treatments and surgery. “I’d

heard a lot about the organization and the idea made perfect sense,” Noennig said. “I’d actually been thinking about this but in the meantime, [Slinger] contacted me.” According to the website, Coaches versus Cancer started as a collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches, when the former head coach of the University of Missouri, a cancer survivor, asked his fans to donate a dollar for every three points his team scored during the season. According to Wilkinson, he came across the Coaches vs. Cancer cause by accident. “As my

cancer progressed, I found a need to want to give back and to leave something behind that might carry on for years,” Wilkinson said. “I called Cody Allen, the Wisconsin director of C. vs. C. at the American Cancer Society to get some more information. To be quite honest, they make it so easy, I did not look any further.” The two schools, for the weeks leading up to the game, and in particular the week of the big game, worked to sell t-shirts, donated by Ewald Kia, and the proceeds for which will go to the American Cancer Society. “That was a considerable donation there,” Noennig said. “We hope both schools sell out.”

The game was the focal point of the fundraiser. “I originally wanted to set up an event at Slinger,” Wilkinson said. “I thought we would have some pretty good success just working within our community. After the reality of scheduling and time lines started to set in, I looked at Slinger vs. Hartford.” The Slinger’s head football coach Bill Jackelin and Wilkinson then contacted Noennig, who began setting up the event. “We all felt that this would be a natural fit since the two schools are so close in the community, already share the Relay for Life event together and most importantly, we will continue to play each other year after year and could

rotate the event between venues,” said Wilkinson. The game also included a halftime event where, for the duration of 79 seconds , loose change was collected, which will be donated directly to the ACA. The time length was chosen because of a statistic that said that 79 people will be diagnosed with cancer per day. The fundraiser in total collected 1829 dollars, with 1198 dollars coming from Hartford and Slinger spectators. Wilkinson said that he had been surprised with the sheer amount of positive response from students and teachers from Hartford and Slinger districts, “This could be the largest Coaches vs. Cancer event in Wisconsin,” he said.

October 2011 Sports

After a four game losing streak to start the season, the Hartford Orioles

football team made a recovery with a win of 27-21 at Beaver Dam Sept. 16. The Orioles lost most of their senior starting line-up after last season and the result is many starting juniors and seniors that don’t have much experience and that is one of the key roles in playing at the varsity level. Another big difference is that the new team is physically smaller. “We’re improving every day,” head coach Tom Noennig said. “[It has been] a struggle, but we just need better plays.” This inexperience showed in the first two non-conference games. During the Homestead game, at halftime the team was down 21 and ending up losing with a score of 35-7,

Football Team Ends Four Game Skid

senior Jesse schoehnerr Jukes past defenders in their 24-14 loss against Wisconsin Lutheran. This was their fourth loss in a row to start the season.

Dance Team Gets New Coach

the last points being from the fourth quarter. Senior Lincoln Robbel scored the Orioles’ lone touchdown on a 38 yard run to prevent the Homestead shut out. The second game of the season was no better as the Orioles lost 42-0 against Germantown. By the second quarter ended, Germantown had already advanced 28 points. The Orioles came away with 32 passing yards while allowing Germantown 150 yards through the air.

The two games following were also losses. At he Wisconsin Lutheran game on Sept. 9, Wisco managed to place a touchdown in the first, second, and fourth quarters. “Being on varsity is a lot faster than JV but you have to adjust to it and after a while you get used to it,” said varsity player and junior Austin Johrendt. The comeback came Sept. 16 at Beaver Dam where the Orioles went up against junior

RJ Shelton, who returned after last season’s 18 rushing and two receiving touchdowns. Shelton was able to earn for 267 rushing yards but was outrun by Hartford senior Austin Cordell’s 311 yards. It was Cordell’s first game as running back; he was playing line back before. For that night’s game, Cordell was initially going to be a blocking back but he just went along with when he received the ball.

“I ran for a lot of yards and they kept giving me the ball so I kept running with it,” he said. At the conclusion of the game, he had a total of 28 carries. Cordell said, “It feels good to come out with a victory and give the team a boost and you expect to see me carrying the ball and playing [more] defense.” According to Cordell, each week it becomes more clear that the team is coming together more and more and it’s “great to see the progression.”

Tram Tranphotography editor

Emily Schultzreporter

after having two dance team coaches during last year, Energizers coach Sheila

Trost has taken over as the new HUHS dance instructor.

Trost was the captain of the Hartford dance team when she was in high school, and she studied dance in college. After graduating high school, she coached the high school team for one season and founded the Energizers Dance Team in 1991. She has been coaching dance ever since.

It was a quick decision for Trost to become the school’s new coach; the position was not offered to her until the late summer of 2011. “I didn’t take the position until mid-August,” she said. Trost took the place of former dance coaches Stephanie Steinert and Laura Welsing, both of whom were the dance coaches during the 2010-11 school year.

Even so, Trost is excited to be the new coach. “One of the reasons I was really interested in teaching dance at the high school was to bring back school spirit,” she said. “I also thought it was a good idea to build a

bridge between the high school dance team and the Energizers.” Trost hopes to see the Energizers Dance Team and the HUHS team become more familiar with each other.

Being the coach of both the Energizers and the Hartford dance team becomes hard to juggle at times. Trost says she is managing time well. “I’m a pretty disciplined person so I’m always very busy,” she said. “[Being the Hartford dance coach is] just one more task I have. I love coaching dance and the sense of accomplishment is awesome when the girls feel successful after working hard.” When the HUHS dance team practices and performs during the fall football season, Trost said the Energizers team is less stressful because they are not yet doing as many performances and competitions.

The Energizers season starts to get much more intense in November when football season is over. A lot of the Energizers competitions take place over the winter and the biggest event, the Worlds Dance Competition takes place in the spring.

Trost is impressed with this year’s dance team so far. “Our first performance was very well

received by the audience. I was very pleased with the response,” she said. “I am impressed with how [the team] adapted to my new expectations.”

The team members feel the same way about the outcomes, and most say they are impressed with Trost’s style of coaching. “She pushes us to work hard, and the outcome is always great,” said junior team member Britney Wetor.

Alexis Trost, team member and daughter of the new coach, gave her response to having her mom as the new instructor at Hartford. “You get to experience a lot of things that other families don’t get to experience,” she said. “It’s hard sometimes, but I love her.”

Coach Trost had the same response: “Coaching my own daughter is very rewarding, but also very challenging,” she said. “Sometimes people assume that she gets special treatment because she’s my daughter, but it’s just the opposite. She has to work just as hard as everyone else and my expectations are not different for her than for anyone else. When we are at practice, I am her coach and I expect her to be her best just like every other athlete I coach.”

sophomore audrey rudersdorf practices her form for the upcoming dance team performance at the football game.

Photo by Emily Schultz

Photo by Carmen Deback

the girls cross country team took sixth place at their Whitefish Bay meet on

Sept. 15, led by senior Jordan Peschek (11 place with a time of 16:03) and junior Amy Konkol (16 place with a time of 16:30) on their 4K, or two and a half mile run.

Other contributing members include sophomore Abigail Nieskes and Deanna Knetzger, senior Mallory Lueck, and sophomore Justine Bachmann. The Orioles started out at their

Girls Cross Country Runs off with Sixth PlaceKimberly Johnson

reporterfirst meet at West Bend West on August 27, placing 11 overall, once again lead by Peschek and Konkol. At their second meet hosted by Oconomowoc High School on Sept. 1 they jumped up to eighth place overall, and then sixth at Whitefish Bay.

Clearly happy with her team’s performance at Whitefish Bay, coach Jayne Francis said, “Everyone did really well at this last meet. We had girls drop minutes off their time, as girls that are inexperienced with cross country they are learning how to pace themselves.”

Even though being in a sporting event can be difficult, senior Jade Koenigs said. “I think we’ve always pushed ourselves in the beginning, even in races.” She even said that the younger groups show more determination to meet their goals, too. “I always try to give my 100 percent,” Koenigs said.

Francis’s goals for her team this season are to keep everyone healthy because there were a lot of injuries last season. She would also like to see everyone improve their time individually and as a team.

Some challenges that the team has had earlier in the season include injuries and earlier in the season, the hot weather. During one specific meet, it was 92 degrees out. According to Koenigs, the girls were about three minutes slower on average on their 4K run. Besides coach Francis’s satisfaction with her team’s performance on the 15, she is also proud of her team for is the leadership.“The leadership from the seniors has been outstanding. I think it makes a big difference for the younger girls,” Francis

said. “Our team this year is much larger, and we have larger incoming freshman and sophomore group.”

Despite the large numbers, some members like having a large group. “I love how much of a family it is. You become sisters with all of the girls,” she also says that she mainly joined cross country to keep in shape. Even though it is what Koenigs calls her main sport, she says that it’s the people that make it fun. Her final piece of advice was that “If you want to have a better school experience, join cross country.”

october 2011

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